Rumors

Yesterday was "one of those days." Today has also been "one of those days," but that's another post entirely.

Andrew spent Sunday morning throwing up so Rachel and I headed to church without him. Rachel was her usual busy-body self, but then she caught sight of Braiden, a little baby just a few weeks older than Rachel. The two of them combined spelled trouble.

I hadn't even noticed that they were sitting behind me. I was hurrying to find a seat before sacrament meeting started, almost late because Rachel and I had visited the primary of the branch that meets before us. I sat with Heather Buchanan because her little boy was sick at home with her husband. The Traceys had come in even later than Rachel and me.

Part way through the meeting, Heather put Maggie on the floor and after a while, Rachel decided that the floor was the cool place to be so she got down on the floor as well. Then she started trying to climb under the row of chairs that we were sitting on. You'll never guess who also was under the bench--Braiden.

They started trying to crawl down the length of the chairs, which would have disturbed plenty of church-goers, no doubt. So Camille grabbed Braiden and I grabbed Rachel and we pulled them out from under the chairs. The two of them spent the next ten minutes trying to get to each other. Rachel was standing on the bench looking backwards and he was right behind us, grabbing at Rachel's arms. They were pulling on each other and laughing and very disruptive.

Braiden eventually got taken out, which made Rachel rather upset (and she stayed grumpy for the rest of the block of meetings). I took her out and walked the hall, and then tried to nurse her, but she was just too grumpy so we walked the hall again. We missed most of testimony meeting.

On our way to Sunday School, a sweet elderly sister came up to me and said,

"So you're moving?"

I thought back to sacrament meeting. It's nearing the end of the semester (1 month and 21 days until graduation) and a lot of people who bore their testimonies mentioned that they would be moving. We live in a transient ward.

"Oh, that wasn't me," I said, thinking of the sister who had mentioned that she was moving, "We'll be around for a while yet."

"Well, when are you moving?"

"I don't know. We'll still be here through the summer at least, and then who knows?"

"Now, now," she consoled me, "These things happen. There's no need to deny it. You just have to take things in stride. We will miss you terribly, but I know you will do fine where ever you are. You're a very brave girl."

"Okay, thanks," I sputtered, "But we really aren't moving yet."

"You mean he hasn't told you?" she asked and then walked away muttering and tsk-ing under her breath.

I went into Sunday School one confused individual. That awkward conversation was pushed out of my mind the minute the lesson began though because I had to try to keep Rachel quiet.

After Sunday School we headed back to the chapel to pick up some things we had accidentally left behind and then went to the library to look for some items we need for the stake primary activity. I ran into Ryan Done.

"You got in!" he beamed, "Right on!"

I cocked my head and stared at him, "What do you mean?"

"Aren't you guys moving to Cairo?"

"Oh," I said, "You're the second person who's asked us if we were moving. How funny."

"I wasn't in sacrament meeting," Ryan explained, "But Kristi said that someone said something that made her think you guys were moving out there for sure...I don't know. I was at home with Rachel."

Apparently everyone is sick.

"Huh, well...we really won't know until April sometime, but I'll let you know when we find out."

Then I ran into Brother Ashby who launched into a long monologue about a guy he once knew who was from Egypt, ending with something about he'd try to find out if he was still alive and where he was living so that we could get in touch when we went to Egypt.

I finally made it past Brother Ashby and into the library. The librarian also had to ask me about the details of our move to Cairo. I told her there were no details because we simply didn't know if we had been accepted or not. We then sifted through piles and piles of pictures (that library needs to be organized!) making Rachel throughly bored. She started waving bye-bye at everyone who came in, while I explained that we weren't moving yet. When Rachel started pulling on my skirt and anxiously waving bye-bye at me, I knew we had been there long enough.

We went into Relief Society and spent most of our time standing at the back of the room, with Rachel making faces at Kim. We even had to leave early because Rachel simply would not be quiet. I fled into the hallway during Val's testimony and ran into Stacy Loertscher.

"You guys are moving to Cairo?! That's so exciting!" she broke into conversation. She had spent a few weeks traveling through Jordan, Israel/Palestine, and Egypt last summer.

"Well actually..." I explained the whole story and then asked, "Do you know why people keep asking me this? I know something was said in sacrament meeting but we missed most of it. Someone's been a little grumpy."

Stacey looked at Rachel who was squirming and whining in my arms, tears welling up in her eyes and her face red with effort.

"Apparently," she laughed, and then told me what was said. A lady we home teach mentioned that we would be moving to Cairo to further our education and was sad to lose us as home teachers.

So, to quell any growing rumors, I will tell you the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. We are still just waiting to hear back from AUC. They emailed us to let us know we wouldn't hear anything until after April 1st, which means that checking the mail has lost all appeal. We will definitely be letting everyone know when we do hear anything though. No worries.