The Bridge...

In 2005 we had gone to Celebration Park to hang out one day... and I got this photo of My Strong Silent Mysterious Man and the Teenager. I just love it! I have it framed in my office, and it's one of my favorite photos of them.

We have had a thing for bridges, and have a bridge collection of photos from bridges when we were dating and traveling around the northwest... so to have my boys together on a bridge was cool for me. Plus the symbolism of bridges for our family is really special. And just the way Dad is leaning in as to teach his son or give him special council only a Dad could give... it just rocks my world... love it!!

So the week of graduation in 2010, we were able to go back to this bridge and I tried to capture the moment. What a difference 5 years makes. Yes, it is the same two guys.

Hard to believe, but so cool how they are growing up!

I love bridge pictures and I really love my boys!

Endureth to the End...

This morning my brother headed back to the airport to go home.

Shortly after he left I saw on the news a car hijacked at gun point and a big chase in Ontario... so glad they waited for all the excitement until after he was gone... phew! The teenager finished up a two day golf tournament... after the first day, he hadn't played well and ended up 13th out of 16 in his age group. But he came home happy he was having a good time regardless of his stinky score.

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He was telling us about one of the kids who had dropped out with a low score after the first day and wasn't coming back for day two... and we got to talk about the importance of not quitting and having good sportsmanship etc. I love those talks with him. Some of my favorite times.

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So he went back today, played well and finished up in 3rd place overall, a very happy golfer, it really made his day and gave him a boost of what can happen when you believe in yourself and never give up!

Enduring until the end...

Tonight we got together with our handcart family for Trek, to make a flag.
They got along great and we think it will be a really neat time for everyone.
They chose 2 Nephi 31:16
and wrote "Endureth to the End" on our banner, and included all their names.

We have allot of energy in our little family, so I am confident these youth will have no problem enduring until the end. It will be sweet know learn what the Lord would have each of us learn on this Trek.

I am getting excited now!

You should see the other guy....

Okay, not really!

These are just some of the consequences from playing football at break with your YOUNG co-workers in the gravel instead of the grass. (the other consequences can be found on his hands and up his right arm, and both knees and a shin).

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There should just be a rule that when you turn 50, you can't play contact sports with kids anymore. But since I am not his mother (I'm not his mother, I'm not his mother, I'm not his mother), I really tried not to give him anymore advice, or make rules that might help keep him safe!

My brother gave me some words to help me work through some of my issues of mothering my husband. Like "how's that working for you?" Leaving all the decisions up to him. He is a big boy!

So when he came to me last night asking me if I thought he should wash out some of the gravel (okay, YUK, EWWW, and this is making my tummy nauseous).... I just looked down and said "If you think that is best Hun" and then bit on my tongue, as he walked into the back to deal with his wounds.

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What I really wanted to say, was

"WHAT? You haven't cleaned it out yet... Um YES!!! And then I will go get the hydrogen peroxide... and you get why you shouldn't play with those young boys? Right? They are too rough and you should really play on the grass and not in the gravel. And if you get hurt and can't work, how is that helping us? Would it be worth it?? And I bet it is already infected, don't you know that infection near your brain is even more dangerous??"

etc. etc. and on and on and on... poor guy, I am a mess!

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But biting my tongue worked just fine.

He cleaned it up, and hobbled into work today pretty soar.

But he might need his mother to call him, to remind him he is 50 now!

(hint, hint)

It is so much harder than it looks to let them go and let them grow up.

Uncle Ralph comes to Idaho...

Uncle Ralph had a work trip to Ontario Oregon and flew into Boise Tuesday morning... so we got to spend the day with him.

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Not sure how much time we would have, I hadn't really planned anything, so we just figured it out as we went along.

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He had a rental car and travels with a GPS, so he drove right to our house. The dogs were as excited to see him as anyone was. And even though he doesn't mind dogs, he is adamant about NO LICKING!

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Sorry, I wrecked my dogs, when they were all puppies I had to have puppy kisses and I love the smell of puppy breath. So that is how we show our affection around here... they don't know how to turn it off for strangers.

He coped pretty well, and Taylor fell in love with him because he would play fetch!!

After the tour (it was his first time to my house) aka the "grubby tour" because the house was not clean; I had to just let that go and cherish that he was here with us. We made some hoagie sandwiches and watched a Netflix show he has the teenager hooked on now called "The IT Crowd". It is British humor and falls into that so stupid it's funny stuff, like "the office" type of show to me; so I spend allot of time rolling my eyes, but he and the teenager were laughing out loud.

Then we decided to go for a drive, maybe to see the strong silent mysterious man at work... but ended up on the other end of town to pick up some headphones at Target. We found some Tye die clothes and tried to get pics to send to Panda.... but they had kind of dull yucky colors and we lost the photos on his blackberry, so this is the only one.

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I don't mind the gray and white, but maybe with a bright pink or grey and yellow would be pretty to mix up the color combos. They just didn't have bright colors, they were all muted and very dull. Long arms are great to document everyone and the store sign into one shot :)

Next stop, Sonic!! Ralph had never been, they don't have them in Seattle yet.

Of course he was enjoying his treat until he sucked up chopped up, very bitter cherry pits that had somehow gotten into his drink.
It's usually the strong silent mysterious man that ends up with the strange things in his food that have to be sent back... I guess Ralph was in that seat since Jim was at work.

But Sonic was good about bringing him a new one and trying to make it right.

As we were driving home, I got a call and my strong silent mysterious man called to give me heads up that he got a little scuffed up playing football at break with his crew. I said out loud "you know how I feel about you playing football with a bunch of 21 year old boys?"

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When I hung up, Ralph asked me about that comment.

We had a very good brotherly talk and he reminded me that I am NOT Jim's mother!!

Yep, he does have his own mother and what a heavy cross that was for me to carry, "put it down"!!

I think I really needed to hear that, I am a worrier, and I do have very strong motherly instincts that kick in and I am often very heavy with burden worrying about other people in ways that I really don't need to!

And my teenager doesn't need the same mother he did when he was learning to walk.

I promise to try and do better!

Somehow I knew that, but just couldn't let it go... it's much easier said than done. Hearing it from my brother made me realize I was missing out on allot because I was so busy being my husbands mother, I didn't have time to be his wife and eternal companion.

It's hard, but I promise to try!!

We had shredded pork corn shell tacos for dinner and I tried to send him off with a Little Debbie Oatmeal cookie... we used to LOVE those when we were kids. My Grandma always had them at her house when we would come visit in the 3rd cupboard inside one of those yellow tupperwear round stackables... they other two had M&M's and those chocolate wafer cookies that you can eat in layers or peanut brittle if my big brother was with us. Much to my surprise he said he "gave them up a long time ago". What? I didn't push it, and I totally get trigger food! But really walking away from the little deb's?

I couldn't even ask about Krispy Kreme donuts after that.

Darn, I forgot to remember to have him sign our guest book... I hope I get to see him before he goes home Thursday morning.

I love my brother so much, it was so fun to have him all to ourselves for the day!

The Penny...

"In God We Trust"

If I trust in God, the name of God is Holy... even on a coin. Whenever we find a coin, we see that inscription. It is written on every single United States Coin, but we don't seem to notice it!

God drops a message right in front of me telling me to Trust Him. Who am I to pass it by?

When we see a coin, pick it up... stop and pray; see if our trust IS in God at that moment?

It is God's way of starting a conversation with us, pick it up and acknowledge a response back to Him to let Him know you DO Trust in Him, if only in that moment!

God is patient, Cherish the penny, He has made them plentiful for each of us.

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Someone sent me an email with this "message", I just loved it.

I do believe God speaks to us and starts conversations with us in quiet ways.

Just yesterday I purposely stepped over a penny and didn't pick it up because it was tails up... even though I am not necessarily a superstitious person.
I am not sure if I will look at a penny on the ground the same way.

Happy Anniversary...

June 14th we celebrated our 18th Anniversary.

We are feeling very busy and kind of run down lately... so date nights are falling off of our plate a little. It was nice to have a special occasion to be together and go out to dinner ALONE. We shared a meal... which has become a really good thing for us to do and we are starting to find more and more foods that we both like.

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I at least have my strong silent mysterious man trained really well on getting a self portrait to remember the special times. He reminded me this time :)

AND he took 3 just to make sure we got a good one!!

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That is gift enough for me... he hasn't always been sentimental about things like I am, so this is HUGE!! He is wonderful and awesome and I am so happy he is strong and silent and patient enough to put up with me all these years, I am sure I have been way more high maintenance than he bargained for in the beginning.

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I tried to talk the boys into watching our wedding video... but they screamed and yelled and begged and dug in their feet, like I was offering up some kind of cruel and torturous punishment. So I guess I will save that for another time. I suppose girls look back at those things differently than the boys do, I thought it would be fun to reflect.... hmmm maybe not. It's all good, I remember it like it was yesterday anyway!