Slumber Party at Grandpa's!!!

 One of our gifts to our kids for Christmas this year was to give them a kid-free night, so we had a slumber party for the grandkids on the Friday after Christmas. Riken is still too young to sleep over, but five of Ken's grandkids, aged 6 months to 9 years, were here. We had a blast! 3 year old Haiden made door hangers for himself, his sister and his cousins (with a little help:)

 We bought them all matching jammies and got them all to sit relatively still for a photo.

 The Dads warned us when they left not to leave both babies on the floor at the same time, as 9 month old Rylee would attack 6 month old Oaklee. I like this look.. Rylee's like "What? I wasn't bugging her."

 K, this one means a lot to me. Haiden has taken a long time to warm up to me. I've tried to respect him and give him his space, try to sit down and play with him or read to him if he seems like that's ok, but never like force him to give me a hug or anything. When I was holding Oaklee and Haiden came and climbed up on my lap, on his own, I had to have a photo. He's even smiling:) He usually looks away when I get the camera out, so this is huge.

 Andrea's kids are so full of life and personality. Zane got a new MP3 player for Christmas and has headphones in his hoodie. He was listenting to a random assortment of Michael Jackson, the Dixie Chicks and the one Eminem song that Ang allows him to listen to.

 Alec is more serious and analytical. He's setting up the Millionaire Monopoly game as soon as they arrived. He was the first of Ken's grandkids to really welcome me into his life, and he always has a hug for me when he sees me. If Ken happens to go over there without me or he goes to a soccer game or something when I have a college class, Alec is always bummed that I'm not there. He's a great kid.

Rylee is ready to walk, into everything, full of energy and not cuddly at all. So when I sang "la-la-la", the song that always lulled my own babies to sleep, I was in heaven when she fell asleep in my arms.

Having the kids sleep over was a wonderful experience for us. I'm sure I didn't do everything exactly the way the Moms would have wanted things done, but everyone had a good time. I got to bond with all five of the kids, and Ken was remarkably patient through the whole night and into the next morning. I think we'll do this on New Years Eve from now on, since we're just boring old people who don't want to go out to parties. We'll keep the grandkids so the parents can have fun on New Years and not worry about getting home to the babysitter. 

Riken

My beautiful daughter, Ashli, gave birth to this beautiful baby boy, Riken J Brown, on December 14, 2012 at 6:18 PM. He weighed 6 pounds and was 19 1/4 inches long and he is perfect.

He took his time getting here, though. On December 7, Ashli was dilated to a 3 and 50% effaced, so we were all sure she would have Riken that weekend. Here, she and Mack are waiting for an ultrasound to see if things were in order for Dr Bailey to induce her.

Alas, they were not. So Ashli and Mack went Christmas shopping and did tons of walking Friday night. And Saturday. And did everything that is supposed to induce labor. She bounced on an exercise ball for hours on end. And still went another week without moving beyond a 3.

Then finally, on Thursday, December 13, they decided to admit her to the hospital after her doctor's appointment. She told us not to run right over to Nephi, as it could be HOURS before she delivered him after they started Pitocin. Tyler was at my house when the call came from Ashli, and we managed to wait a whole hour before we headed to the hospital in Nephi, where we waited all day and all night. Zack certainly made it entertaining.

He told me the "You're not a monk" joke at 1:00 in the morning and went until 2:18 am. Official record at 78 minutes before I got mad and Tyler told him he better wrap it up.

Ken was a trooper. He had spent the day Thursday working near the Utah/Nevada border, and had his boss drop him off at the hospital in Nephi on their way back home to Sanpete county. At about 1:30 Friday morning, he was so exhausted, he finally just fell asleep on the floor. I drove him home at 4:00  so he could work that day, then I showered and took a nap before I headed back to Nephi.

We all continued to wait for little Riken to arrive on Friday. Ashli's blood pressure had gone up to 156/95 on Thursday night, so they had to put her on mag and lower the Pitocin. She had a long, rough night Thursday and was so glad to get her epidural Friday afternoon. Once she hit an 8, she was at a 10 and delivering him within an hour. She started pushing at 6:00 and he was here at 6:18. Ken was the first one to hear him cry, and he waved us all over to hear him. It was the most beautiful sound in the world!

My sweet daughter sent Amanda Pay out to get me right after Riken was delivered, so I was there for this amazing moment. Riken was just mad at the world, crying and frustrated. And then the nurse told Mack that he could hold Riken's hand. As soon as Mack touched him, Riken immediately stopped crying. He knew exactly who Mack was, and he calmed down the second he felt his touch. It was a moment I will cherish forever.

 I got to see Mack hold his son for the very first time. Awesome:)

Then this. Ashli and Mack have been married for just over 3 years. She had a hard time getting pregnant. They were just about to start fertility drugs, had the prescription and everything, when she got pregnant a year ago. She miscarried at 9 weeks, and it was devastating for all of us. And then.... she became pregnant with little Riken. Her pregnancy was SO hard in the beginning. She was SO sick, throwing up all day every day, and lost 17 pounds. She's a tiny girl anyway, and she didn't have 17 pounds to lose. But she did everything she could to take care of herself and Riken, and had a great attitude through the whole thing. I think she ended up being less than 10 pounds above her pre-pregnancy weight at the time of delivery, and 6 of it was him. So after all that, the moment she had waited SO LONG for and been through so much to get, was finally here. I love the look on her face when she is finally about to hold her baby for the first time.

 
 
 

Everyone thinks Riken looks like his Uncle Tyler (holding the football). He holds his mouth just like his Mom's and has Uncle Zack's nose, though.

Zack and Tyler are SO excited to be uncles. They love this little guy so much. They spend every moment they can with him. He's a tremendous blessing in our family.

His Grandma adores him.

His Grandpa is proud.

 

And he's a tremendous blessing to our family. A wonderful Christmas present.

And even more amazing than we all imagined he would be.





Ouch

I'm sure I'll laugh about this someday. But not today.

We accepted a calling to teach Sunday School and today we gave our first lesson to the 16-18 year olds.

He introduced himself, then introduced me to the class, and called me by his EX-wife's name!!!!

Ugh. I've done it to him, too. Her name starts with a T, my name starts with a T. His name starts with a K, my ex's name starts with a K. So it happens. After 24 years of saying "This is my wife, ____," he said it one more time.

But it sucks. 

2nd Amendment

I have lots of liberal friends, (OK, probably less than a football team, but, you know, lots!)  and  I always try to think of them when I post things here or on facebook. My intent is not to offend anyone, but rather to express my own personal views.

Jared Loughner was sentenced to life in prison plus 140 years for the shooting of Congresswoman Gifford and his other victims. He is a disgusting, creepy character with a smirk on his face and he deserves the worst our system can possibly put him through for his reign of terror. Watching Gabby Gifford is heartbreaking and inspiring at the same time. Seeing the photos of his dead victims is powerful. The surviving  victims are pushing for stricter gun laws and I'm not sure that would have made a difference at all in this case, or in any of the other cases where crazy people open fire on innocent victims.

Jared Loughtner bought his gun "legally" although there is no doubt that he lied on the ATF form about his recreational drug use. Had he been unable to purchase a gun this way, do we really think he would not have obtained one in another way?  Anyone who is willing to murder a 9-year old girl is certainly willing to steal a weapon to do it. Honest people already jump through a lot of hoops in order to keep and bear arms. What more can we possibly ask of them? American citizens have a right to own guns if they so choose. I do not own guns. I think I'd rather take my chances than have to make the decision to fire on an intruder in the unlikely event that one would enter my apartment here in our small Utah community.

I haven't done my research. I don't know know what Mark Kelly is specifically asking for, and maybe it's reasonable, but I stand by my position that stricter laws DO NOT deter criminals from breaking the law. Those who wish to obtain guns will do so regardless of the laws prohibiting it.

That's all. Back to math homework.



I have been a terrible blogger lately. I mean, I'm SUPER busy, but everybody is super busy, right? 

We had Ashli's baby shower a few weeks ago, and I think I already blogged about it, but I wanted to go there again. This picture kind of captures the whole emotional experience. He gets it. He's there. I'm so blessed.

 So.. the shower! Ashli and I started talking about her baby shower early this past summer. We said "Let's do it in October" and it seemed SO far away at the time! She wanted a baseball theme and she wanted the men to be there, too. So we tossed around ideas for that. As we talked, we realized that LOTS of people would want to be involved in throwing her this big bash to celebrate little Riken coming into this world. I was still kind of anti-Ashli's dad at that point, and she laid it out for me. She said "If people can't get along, they just need to stay away from the hospital when the baby is born." We were sitting in her backyard, and her meaning couldn't have been more clear. It was time for me to cowboy up and remember what was important. So we wrote out a list of who would want to be involved in Ashli's shower, and we decided that Mack's Mom and myself would do the food. We live the closest and it would be the most costly of the ventures, so the Moms should do that. We asked my sisters to put together some shower games, and asked Kurt's girlfriend, Tracy, to do the invitations and the decorations. She is like a scrapbook store in and of herself. She used to do segments on "Good Things Utah" for scrapbooking stuff, so she was the perfect choice for that. It was important to Ashli that everybody she loves was in the same place at the same time, so I sucked it up and decided to be nice to Kurt and Tracy and just do it for Ashli's sake. They wanted to do their own shower for  Kurt's side of the family, but it's not what Ash wanted, so we all just came together. It was definitely the most unusual shower planning of all time. Tracy would text me questions about colors and tables and stuff, and I texted her back, and it all just came together without any of us actually sitting down in the same room and planning anything. My sisters arrived the night before to help us decorate baseball cookies and binky baby cupcakes, and we all got to the "venue" (the Moroni City park:) several hours early to make sure everything was just the way Ashli wanted it. It was great. The men stayed for the whole thing, we had great food, and people visited with each other. Nobody had to sit in a circle to play games. My sisters just went to each table and passed out the stuff for games, and it was so casual and so comfortable. Exactly how Mack and Ashli like their lives to be. Surrounded by people they love.

And this happened. I NEVER thought it would. We all got together for a family photo, and it was great. We're crazy and dysfunctional and the divorce was ridiculously painful for me. But we're a family and Riken has made us all see what is really important. We can't wait for this baby to get here. He is just what we all need. 

I CANNOT WAIT!!!!!

Ya Gotta Have Heart

Remember when THIS happened? The best closer in the history of baseball injured his knee shagging fly balls before a game.   Yet somehow the Yankees made it to the ALCS without Mo.

 And now.. this. Is it stupid that I cried? Joe Girardi was literally about to carry Jeter off the field singlehandedly, and I got the feeling that it wasn't about "protecting the investment". It was about loving this guy. Jeter is a class act, on and off the field. And it's heartbreaking that his season ended this way. He injured his foot a while ago, yet kept playing because he loves October. He loves baseball. And that is what we are missing. This postseason has been fantastic. Teams just aren't giving up. Games are being tied in the 9th inning and won in the 12th, 13th or 14th innings. Guys are playing with heart again. Like the 1998 Yankees. Those guys were part of a team. Not in it for the endorsements or the big contracts. Just in it for love of the game.

Paul O'Neill (who threw out the first pitch today), Andy Pettitte, Mariano Rivera, Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada, Scott Brosius, Chuck Knoblauch, Tino Martinez, Bernie Williams. And of course Joe Torre and Don Zimmer.

 I thought we'd NEVER see that kind of heart again when we lost Joe Torre. I didn't like his replacement.

 And that feeling lasted for four years. Until last week. Girardi's Dad passed away on Saturday and over the next few days, in spite of this challenge in his own personal life, Girardi made the bold move of benching the $29 million a year superstar, Alex Rodriguez, who isn't hitting worth a crap and has a "me" mentality. Girardi earned my respect this past week.

 THIS guy.. .THIS guy! Raul Ibanez came out of nowhere. He wasn't even on a team during spring training, and now he's winning games for the New York Yankees in the postseason. And he's not being paid $29 million to do it. He has heart .

The winner of the 2012 World Series will be the team with the most HEART. I don't know if my team can do it. Plagued with injuries, facing challenges, it might not happen for us this time. But whatever happens, both national league and American league teams are giving us some quality baseball this postseason.

I LOVE this game!!! 

This isn't like the BEST picture of any of us, but I'm off to take a math test and I'm blogging to unwind and clear my head and all that mumbo jumbo, so I just found a picture that includes all of us. I may go find some awesome ones later. 

The point being... THIS is why I am alive. These people. Being a Mom is the GREATEST thing I've ever done. And it took me a long time to realize that nobody can ever take my place. I'm their Mom. Forever and always. And that is a beautiful thing. 

And now I get to be a grandma too. 

And now I'm crying.

Because I'm really happy. 

I love them. 

A lot.

 I grew up listening to the Osmonds. I was addicted to the Donny and Marie Show and used to watch it with my Dad every week. I'd always heard there were these two deaf brothers and thought how sad it was to have been born deaf into such a musical family.

Today was our Stake Conference here in Ephraim, Utah, and as we watched the Stake Choir sing "The Spirit of God Like a Fire is Burning" there was deaf  Brother Tom Osmond (top right in the photo) standing on the front row of the choir, hand-signing the lyrics to this beautiful hymn. It was a moment I will NEVER forget. I am SO glad he has a musical voice even though it's not audible. It was beautiful. 

Passion

I don't really believe in coincidences. So... a few events from today have me thinking. In the shower this morning, I got thinking that I'm really not passionate about politics like some of my friends are. These thoughts probably came from the September 11 posts on facebook yesterday. I mean, I lean to the right. But I'm not like 100% enamored of Mitt Romney and I don't 100% HATE Barack Obama. My three kids ALL have health insurance for the first time in decades and I have Obama to thank for that. So I'm just not passionately involved in politics. Some people think I SHOULD be. After all, this is my city, my county, my state, my nation. I should CARE who is leading us, right?

 

And I do. But not as much as I care about, say, the fact that Ashli is having Braxton Hicks contractions and leaking breast milk when she still has over two months until her baby is due. I'm passionate about the health of my daughter and her unborn child. I'm passionate about Race for the Cure, where my family gathers every year to honor our Mom who lost her battle with breast cancer in 1987. I'm passionate about FINALLY getting my college degree at the tender young age of 45.

 

This afternoon, I attended the first EVER "Common Hour" at Utah State University. I am a distance learner, where my classes are broadcast from the main campus in Logan to our campus here in Ephraim, so I saw the presentation live via broadcast. The speaker was Spencer West, a young man who had both of his legs amputated just below his pelvis when he was 5 years old due to a muscular disorder. He just climbed Mt Kilimanjaro (sp?) in June and he is a motivational speaker. (Granted, one who makes $5000 per appearance, but still....)  

Well, he talked today about finding what we are passionate about and then doing that for a living. You know, so I'm like "Hmm... maybe I'm supposed to be thinking about what I'm passionate about, since I've had this word in my head twice today." So I drove over to the little pioneer heritage park in Manti this afternoon, and ended up thinking that I need to try once again to write a novel. I gave up so easily when my first one was rejected.

 

On my way home from Manti, I called Ashli and she said she was on her way to Ephraim. We sat in my front room and talked for a couple hours, and we talked about some mutual acquaintances of ours, about whom Ashli said--and I quote-- "They just aren't PASSIONATE about anything."

What? OK. Three times in one day.

 

I had FRONT row seats to a concert tonight. Seriously. One day my husband loaned ten bucks to a guy at Maverik to buy cigarettes. The guy is a DJ for a country radio station, and he never forgot that favor, so he gave me and Ken FRONT ROW seats to see Lonestar tonight. They are this band who have been together for 20 years singing songs about their wives and kids and stuff in life that they're passionate about. Great concert. Great seats. Great way to end my day of thinking that I'm about to embark on some kind of journey to find my life's passion. Think Stephenie Meyer. Think that British lady who wrote Harry Potter. What was her name? How quickly we forget. Think Ben Affleck and what's his name. Matt Damon. Who were watching the Oscars in a crummy bachelor one year and nominated the next.

Baby blanket:)

We are SO busy since school started up again!!! I thought I'd have lots of spare time to make baby blankets, keep my house immaculately clean, work out every day and so forth since I quit working at Maverik, but I'm busy all the time. I did manage to get one baby blanket ready, though. 

Yankees baseball one is next on my list.

 

And We're Back

 We went to the temple for a session on Thursday, August 9, 2012.

Here we are at home before we left for Manti.

 Almost there...

 Ah:)

 Yeah, we've waited a long time for this.

Tonight we had Rylee's baby blessing at Andrea's house. Zane ran inside to tell me there was a rainbow. I like to think it means my Mom was there:)

 Rylee Ann and Grandpa Ken before her blessing.

Isn't she beautiful? 

Sam Guillory

I started following Sam Guillory's blog today.

You can find it here:

http://strongsam.blogspot.com

I met the Guillorys when they moved to Nephi in about 1996 or so. I was managing an apartment complex and they moved in for a short time while their home was being built.

I met Bob first, the Dad. He came to sign papers and get keys and all that.

He was this military man with an intimidating aura and he told me he didn't like Mormons.

So I was immediately terrified of him.

I didn't find out until over a year later that he was totally kidding with me, and they were an active LDS family. He just had that twisted sense of humor.

Sam was the youngest child then, and we called her Sammi Jo. She hated it. So Kurt continued to call her that for years.

Jill, the Mom, is an avid runner, and I remember her first race. It was the Ute Stampede "Fun Run" about 10 years ago. I thought it was SO awesome that she did it. She's run every day since, I'm sure. She used to be in the high school gym running the indoor track every morning when I lived in Nephi. I didn't even TRY to keep up with her. One day, when Ashli was going through a particularly tough time in her life, Jill slowed it down to run a lap with me and talk about Ash.

Sam played in a softball tournament over here in Ephraim a few weeks ago, so I got to see Jill when I was working at Maverik. I saw her later at Wal-Mart and started to introduce her to my new husband, Ken, but she is 40-something, and apologized profusely that she had to get to the bathroom and couldn't chat. lol. She hunted us down after her visit to the little girls' room and introduced herself to Ken.

These are great people, just an amazing family. It doesn't seem fair that they're going through this, but if anyone can handle it, it's them.



The Atonement

We watched this video in Sunday School yesterday.

It was only about the fourth Sunday since I decided to return to church with my whole heart, no matter how long the process took for me to return to full fellowship.

I'm not even sure there was a MOMENT I decided that I really wanted to go back to the  temple and be the ME I'd always been "before".

It's been a process over the past few weeks. My nephew getting ready to leave for his mission tomorrow. My son talking about going on his mission next year. My friends telling me that it's the right thing to do. My heart telling me that I really want to go inside the building every time I drive by the Manti temple. My visiting teacher bringing me something with a butterfly on it every couple of weeks or so. My 70 year old home teacher and his 16 year old companion who haven't missed a month of visiting even when we were kind of rude to them and told them we didn't have time one night.

Mostly it's probably just because I believe it. Train up a child in the way he should go and all that. I've been taught this gospel since I was a tiny little girl, and it's a part of me. I took a detour for a while there. Blamed God for things that were really just a matter of other people's free agency. Used my own free agency to circle around and check out the side trails. But I'm back.

And once I made that decision in my own heart, it was like that's all God was waiting for.

Yesterday after we watched the video in Sunday School, the Bishop (who has seemed remarkably humble and kind lately, btw) came and asked us to meet with him right after the block of meetings yesterday. We had an emotional meeting with him, his couselors and Ernie, the executive secretary. At the end of that meeting, he asked us to return at 5:00 for temple recommend interviews. I cried. Ken cried. It was pretty amazing. And now I hold a recommend in my hand for the first time in over a year. Even though I have two tattoos and even though I made some other interesting choices along the way. I wanted to go to the temple the minute it opened this morning, but of course, Ken had to work. I have to work tonight. I have to work tomorrow night. But Thursday... Thursday we'll be there. Together. I never thought I'd see this day again, going to do a temple session with the man I love.

And Sunday we get to take the sacrament, answer questions in class, speak or say prayers or bear our testimonies, or... .wait.. or be nursery and cub scout leaders!!!???? What were we thinking? lol. I'm truly happy. I feel as if the weight of the world has been lifted from my shoulders and I'm back where I knew I wanted to be all along.

Where to eat dinner?

IF I eat here tonight, does that mean I hate gay people? 

I submit that it does not. 

  I have lots of friends in non-traditional families who are making it work for them and I adore them all. 

I Googled the exact quote which sparked this whole controversy and found this: 

Dan Cathy appeared in The Baptist Press on July 16 and he weighed in with his views on family. “We are very much supportive of the family — the biblical definition of the family unit,” Cathy said. “We are a family-owned business, a family-led business, and we are married to our first wives. We give God thanks for that.”

Yeah, that's pretty much the most conservative thing I've read in a while and I understand why my gay friends would be offended by it. Hey, I was divorced and I could be offended by it, too. But I'm not. He is one man, one man who isn't very media savvy. Give the guy a break. The guys in the White House (conservatives included!) have people spin stuff for them. If they're inclined to say stupid stuff, someone fixes it before it hits the national media. Let's not bankrupt an entire company over it. And, while I'm at it, my $5 probably won't save them from bankruptcy either, so maybe I'll just leave it at this and simply eat whatever sounds good. Now, THERE'S a novel idea. 

Help!!!

PLEASE help me. 

I have been making a huge effort over the last year or so to be less judgmental and to accept that people have faults and flaws and hope that they will do the same for me. 

Tonight, however, I find myself judging an athlete who has a history of  "recreational" drug use and a DUI conviction. I should be thrilled and proud that an American has achieved such great success as an athlete, but all I can think is that I wish the glory were going to someone else. 

I feel the same way about baseball players-many of them my beloved Yankees- who have been a part of the steroid scandals. I just don't get all gaga about their records.

It seems, well, not EARNED. 

 I guess I hold certain people to a ridiculously high standard. I expect them to be better than the rest of us. The DUI thing, though. I expect that of the rest of us, too. No drinking and driving. Period. End of story. I expect that of everyone I know. 

Not just the famous athletes. 

I used to LOVE to watch the Olympics with my Mom when I was a little girl. 

Now it seems less pure somehow, less real. More staged. None of the gymnasts even shed a tear while our flag was raised. Only one of them even attempted to sing the Star Spangled Banner. 

I'm just feeling a little bummed that I'm not more excited about the success of my fellow Americans tonight. 

Grrr. 

I miss the good old days. 

Never use the cheap stuff

Spend $2 extra. 

It's worth it. 

Just sayin

Flagstaff

 We should be here

 Going to see them later

 But we only got as far as this

 When this happened to my tire

 And this happened to my car

 So we had to go here

 And this was our vacation

 I bought these for Lola because she seemed so sad

 And she felt a little better when we got her home

You can hardly even tell she's hurt

And after a visit from the insurance adjuster and a few thousand dollars she should be as good as new.

Me, on the other hand....I'm sad about our messed up little getaway.