Family Home Evening

 A lot of things lately have been making me think that I want to hold Family Home Evening. But it's just me and Ken, so we never really do. Yesterday during Sacrament Meeting, I realized that we have LOTS of people with whom to have Family Home Evening. Lots of little people who need to know what their Mom, Dad, Grandma, Grandpa believe. I remember one family home evening we had at my Grandma and Grandpa's house when I was a little girl. I want the grandkids to have memories like that, too. 

 So tonight we started building memories. Ah... this girl. 

 ...in her Grandpa's hat. 

 :) 

We sang "I am a Child of God" , had an opening prayer, then Ken talked a little bit about families and how we have a great big family and it will get bigger and bigger when Zack has kids, then when the grandkids grow up and have kids of their own. He said we have biological family and stepfamily and we all love each other and need to be there for each other. Then we all said something that we love about our family. I said " I was really scared when I married Grandpa that you guys wouldn't like me." And Zane said, "Not like you? You're awesome!" Alec said "In all the time I've known you, I've never heard you yell at anyone." Zack looked shocked at that one. lol. So glad I've been able to keep it in check around the grandkids. We continued around the room, and Zack said "I love my family because they accept me for who I am and love me no matter what". OK. Wow. I am SO glad he knows that because it's all that his Dad and I ever wanted for them. To know they were loved no matter what. Yay!!! Alec said he loves his family because they never act like they hate him, and Zane doesn't annoy him TOO much. 

We all colored pictures of a cute little family clip art I had found online this morning, and it turns out that Zack had used the exact same image for a project he did for a college assignment last week. 

We finished up the night with banana splits and I hope the Moms let them come back after we filled them up with sugar on a school night!!! 

Zane wanted to make sure we got a picture of his very professional looking banana split. 

This night was awesome. I want to do it again and again and again. 

9/11

These people are my whole world. 

It's September 11 and one of them is in New York.

So I got kind of emotional this morning. 

On a lot of levels for a lot of reasons. 

He's actually near Newtown, Connecticut today.. the site of the school shooting. So that's made me emotional, too. 

I wear red, white and blue on the 11th of September every year. My kids were still young when it happened, but it changed their lives forever. And my prayer is that nothing like that  EVER happens again.

And that he gets his Wednesday email sent soon cuz Mom is going a little crazy here today.

Was There Life Before Riken?

I love this little man more every time I see him.

He's pulling himself up against every piece of furniture in the house and he got his first shiner this past weekend when Grandma was watching him. Boo:( Broke my heart. 

 He's usually asleep when we do our late night Snow Creme run to Spring City, but he was bright eyed this time. Even signed the book:)

 Mom and Grandma went on a little shopping spree and got the baby all Under-Armored and Hurleyed for the Fall season. 

 We visited Mack and Ash at their new cute home in Toquerville. They spoiled us and we had a great time! 

 Mommy, food and Wreck-it-Ralph. What more could a man want?

 Aren't they perfect? They took us to Zion National Park and we had a great weekend! 

 The view from Mack and Ashli's back yard is phenomenal. 

Mommy got him his first Yankees hat. Flat brimmed like Daddy:)

725 days to go....

Saying goodbye to Ty was even harder than I thought it would be. We took him to the MTC 5 days ago and I haven't heard from him yet, so I'm kind of down. I hope he gets to write tomorrow. I'm proud of him. But I miss him so much. 

 The week leading up to his departure was emotional. Seeing all of his life spread out and ready to pack into two bags was rough.  

 We spent a lot of time together the week before he left. Bowling, barbecues, Disney movies, Yahtzee and Monopoly. It was so great. 

 We took the kids up to the Keebler house geocache the night before Ty left. We had a family testimony meeting up there after he got set apart. 

 He looked like a secret service agent the morning of our taking him to the MTC.

 One last stop at the Santaquin Maverik on our way to Provo. 

Three of my favorite men in the whole world! 

Zack has been asking for a picture of the 5 of us since Ty's high school graduation, so we finally did it for him. 

A Breath of Fresh Air

I don't know where I'd be without this girl. She keeps me sane. In 2011, she whisked me off to counseling, which she paid for. She has a way of seeing what I need before I even realize it. I read every book that she recommends to me. Among the list are The Love Dare, Crucial Conversations and The People Code (which I just ordered today).  I have watched her marriage blossom into a respectful partnership. They started out four years ago as two 19-year old kids and I wasn't sure they were ready for all this. 

Who could have known at the time that they were more "ready" than any of the parents with our combined 40 years of marriage experience? She is a tremendous example of maturity, dignity and grace in the face of opposition. Ashli is a breath of fresh air. 

Plus, she gave us Riken, so you know.... she's like everything to us.

 

I'm throwing this picture on because I found it on a missionary mom blog today and I love it. 

 

The Kindness of Others

I'm pretty emotional right now. Tyler leaves in three weeks for his mission. His farewell is this Sunday. As I was buying things for his first aid kit, I just kept thinking of all the little things that he might need something for. A headache. A stomachache. A papercut. A bee sting. Blisters on his feet. A sunburn. It's not the big things that scare me. It's picturing him all alone for the little irritants of daily life that he just walks into Mom's place and grabs Tylenol or a bandaid for. So I'm OK but not OK at the same time. I'm proud of him but I'm going to miss him so much.

 These two are my salvation.  They bring me Sip-It drinks at work, help out with all of the yardwork here at the apartments, hug me when I cry, and make every day just better. 

I've given a lot of people a lot of quilts over the years, but Kenna just gave me my first hand-made quilt since my FIRST wedding 24 years ago. I LOVE it!!! 

I've only worked at Snow College for about a month, so the ladies I work with don't know me all that well yet, and they don't know Tyler AT ALL, but on Monday, at different times throughout the day, every one of the ladies in my office (and the 18 year old girl!) asked me at separate times if I need help with food for Ty's luncheon on Sunday. Wow. I have never worked with people this thoughtful before. I am so blessed. 

Clean and Sober

I've gone 26 hours without facebook. I've quit other things before. Even addictive type things. But this I'm really proud of. I took the app off my iPhone and haven't logged in on any of the four computers I normally use for my social media addiction. I've done this before. Several times. I'm sure I'll end up putting a few pictures up again and slowly getting back on daily, but for now I think I just want to focus on spending a few last weeks with Ty and talking face to face with the people I love, and more importantly, the people who love me. I'll know who they are because it will take a little more effort to get in touch with me than it did when I was always a green dot on the facebook chat box. 

My BFF

Someone I love hurt me today. I'm sure she has her reasons that would probably make sense to me, but I was too busy looking through my tears to get a clear picture of the whole situation. I went to my husband's office to cry on his shoulder. He hugged me and let me cry, and then he wanted to fix it like husbands do. Everything he said made sense, but it was just too logical.  I called my daughter, but she had worked until 3:00 this morning and was asleep, so I sent a text to my BFF, Kyle. He's a 25 year old guy from India who was born with cerebral palsy. Aside from Ken and my kids, he is my best friend. I love him. Kyle did his job perfectly today. He told me I was right and she was wrong and he was in my corner just like he is supposed to be. Now, we all know that I am not 100% right and she is not 100% wrong, but your BFF is supposed to pretend like that is the case. And he did. That's why I love him. Thank you, Kyle. I feel better already:) 

For my single friends

Lots of my friends have found themselves alone lately. Single after being married for a long time to men they loved and wanted to spend their whole lives with, eternity with even. I hate watching them struggle and hurt. Because I so clearly remember every tear I shed and every night I laid alone in my little twin bed in my little apartment in Nephi, wishing I were home in my big bed with my husband whom I still loved even after everything. I have no idea why the Lord decided that after 7 months, I had struggled long enough. Why I get to be the lucky one who found Ken. I wasn't the skinniest or the prettiest or even the sweetest girl out on the market at the time, so why did he choose me? Why do I get to be so happy when so many of my single friends haven't found this happiness yet? 

 I think the answer has everything to do with my Heavenly Father and the prayers offered by SO many people who love me on my behalf. I could never have found Ken if he wasn't a man who loved his Heavenly Father and could see something in me that the rest of the world couldn't see. People throw the term "soul mates" around, but there's something to be said for a love that sees beyond everything else and into your soul. The soul of this man found the soul of this woman and everything else fell into place. I've never been loved like this. Not when I was 125 pounds or 20 years old or becoming a Mom three times. It's when I'm an older, heavier grandma that I get to have this. 

 And it's because I looked for a man who would give me this. Take me to the temple. Give me priesthood blessings when I need them. Ordain my son an Elder. It was important to me. It's not important to everyone. But it is to me. God knew that. And he sent me my soul mate in the form of the cable guy. I wish all of my single friends could find this. Pray, girls. Love your Heavenly Father. Love yourself. There ARE good men out there. And when you find yours, I hope you cherish him like I do mine. I am SO blessed!!! 

He's Counting the Days... me, not so much

 Tyler is SO busy, we haven't even had time to get photos taken of him for his farewell announcements, the newspaper and so forth. So today when I had him home for about 15 minutes,  I had him throw on a shirt and tie and snap a couple shots. 

 I am going to miss this guy SO much!!! 

 He had a fun shopping spree with Ashli, Mack and Riken in St. George yesterday and is just about done buying everything he needs for his mission. He leaves in 5 weeks, and I am SO not ready. He's been working in Cedar City all summer, so I only see him on Sundays for a few hours. I guess it's probably good.. baby steps to the 104 weeks where I won't even see him on Sundays (except for the two May Sundays where we get to Skype. Yay!!!!) 

This one is my favorite. His new Nike shorts for P-day are super comfy and look smashing with his new tie. 

My Dad's Birthday

I really was super busy yesterday, but my little sister planned a barbecue for my Dad's 70th birthday, and I knew I had to be there. I asked Abby to close for me at work, got Ken to handle checking in the Manti pageant guests here at the apartments, and took my buddy Kyle to Grantsville for Dad's birthday. I was glad I went. It's not very often that my Dad is with all his kids at the same time, so it was a good night:) 

Steppin

I'm not a very good Stepmom. I want to be. I try to be. But I don't even know HOW to be.  I always saw myself as more of a Susan Sarandon than a Julia Roberts in the whole Stepmom scenario. The kids are all adults and 75%  of them are female, so it's like... really, really hard to keep them all happy, while still keeping my husband happy, my own kids happy, and myself happy.  Ken and I spend a LOT of time with my kids and not as much with his kids. Which of course I document on facebook. Every breath Riken takes gets a full facebook album posted by Grandma. Yup, that's a problem when your husband has 11 OTHER grandchildren as well. There's no vicious motive here or anything. Ken's daughters spend a lot more time with their Mom than they do with their Dad, and I think the same is true of my kids, me and Kurt. Families just naturally gravitate toward moms and grandmas, and if dads and grandpas are married to someone else, it takes a lot more effort to carve out time together. So, take a breath. Learn a lesson. And try to do better. Oh, yeah, and when you can't make EVERYONE happy, probably focus on making sure the husband is happy, yes? That's the key relationship here, after all.

Paula Deen

I'm not necessarily the biggest Paula Deen fan but come on, who is the bad guy here? The one who held up the bank or the one who made disparaging comments about the CRIMINAL? Pretty sure I'd have some choice words for a guy who held a gun to my head, be he black, white or yellow. She has not made racist comments on air as part of her job. Yeah, I've seen her apology. It's probably insincere. She's a Southern woman, set in her ways, wealthy and arrogant, and I imagine she uses the word in her home. But I certainly don't think it warrants this kind of action. This woman makes millions of dollars for a whole lot of people and I hope she continues on her own and continues making millions that she can spend on whatever the heck she wants to without having to answer to anyone for her personal life. 

Temple with Tyler

 Tyler received his endowment in the Manti temple today. He had some great support from people who love him. 

 His best friend Kelton was his escort. Kelt leaves on the 19th for his mission in Oregon, so it was awesome that they got to share this experience before he goes. 

 McKenna and Tami had the exact same color on when they arrived. SO CUTE!! 

 Tami is always so supportive of everything my kids do. She drove a long way this morning to be there for Ty. Love her:)

 My boys and their dad

 Us:)

I'm blessed with two amazing sons. I love these guys beyond words. 

Tuesday

This was not a good day. I cried a lot. But then I read this 

http://www.thislittlemiggy.com/

and saw Miss Lamp coloring pictures on her door holding the marker between her toes and thought 

"OK, I can do this." Someone always has it worse, right? 

And maybe tomorrow will be better. 

And Saturday Tyler goes through the temple for the first time so that will be a day like no other in the history of days. Ever. I can do this. Right? 

Best gift ever

Tyler seriously just gave me the BEST gift ever! I recently started jogging again in the mornings, and Tyler programmed one of our old iPods with songs he likes so I can listen to 954 of his favorite tunes while he's on his mission. I already find myself smiling when songs come on that remind me of when he was a little boy.   I think every boy who moves away from home should do something like this for his Momma. LOVE it:) Plus it keeps me motivated to get up and jog when I really don't feel like it otherwise. This is a good thing:) 

Riken

 He officially moved to St George on Thursday. 

I finally put away the walker, bouncer, tub, stroller, playpen, etc. last night. 

I'm super happy for Ashli and Mack and think they will have a FABULOUS life in sunny St. George, but, dang, I miss having Riken in my home every day.