No Boys Allowed...

My Strong Silent Mysterious Man left this morning for Portland on business. I am not conditioned for this at all, he never has to go on trips for work. So even though I have known about it for months, I was pretty much in denial until we had to say goodbye this morning.

I was choking back the tears as I got my hugs and kisses. He asked if I was crying because I was going to miss him, or because I was going to be stuck with the teenager all by myself?

We joke about how much the kid makes us pull our hair out, and what a rotten high maintenance child he is... but the truth is, he is a good kid. He is fun to be around. Most of the time he has positive output, and good energy. He makes me laugh. He sings and dances around the house. He makes funny faces and weird annoying, but funny sounds. And honestly our lives would truely be lost without him.

So I am really looking forward to some time alone with him tonight. We will have a special dinner together.
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Then he will abandon me on Friday when he goes off camping with the scouts for their annual Klondike (camping in the snow). I am still in denial about this one too... as it is always so much easier to send him off when his Dad is up there with him to watch over and keep him safe. This time, he will go it on his own and I have to have all the faith I can muster. I have had to turn off the news because of the many missing hikers, snow shoers, and skiers that have been lost these past 2 weeks. Turned off to the point that I totally missed ground hog day! What? I don't know how that got by me?

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This all leads up to me being... Home Alone! I haven't always handled these moments alone well, then I learned the power of painting rooms, but now that just seems exhausting, I think I will enjoy some bubble bath time and sleeping in and snuggling with the pooches, catching up on the house cleaning, and maybe finding a new book to read!

And most of all NO boys to mess up the kitchen and leave dirty socks on the floor.

This weekend I will cherish...

Please feed the bears/missionaries…

One of my most favorite things is feeding the missionaries.

(I want a sign that says Please Feed the Missionaries, to put out when they come over!)

It's just great to have them in our home, and feel of the spirit they bring with them. It is a great example to have around my teenager!

And because they come from all over, from all different parts of the world, in all walks, shapes and sizes, it's just neat to get to know them and have personal time with them.

The missionaries serving in our ward now, are from Atlanta and Canada (so we talked about everything from boiled peanuts to hockey).

Even though it was their personal day, they still had an appointment after dinner so we didn't get any extra time with them to play games :( These missionaries just keep getting busier and busier... not much extra time off, I guess the Lords work must go on. They are so wonderful to be so diligent at it! I am grateful for the missionaries and the way in which they live their lives to be worthy, and to follow the inspirations from the Lord. I cherished the time that we did have with them, and sent them on their way.

I am so mad I didn't think to get pictures, the missionary from Canada is 6'8", so Jacob wants to be that tall when he grows up now (it's always good to have a goal huh!)

I did remember to get them to sign our guest book.

(last signatures in it were September 08... I am so forgetful... and it's right by the door!!!!)

And the pups were exhausted when they left... I love all the the half mast sleepy eyes, they just crack me up!

SPT ~ I love it when you...

SPT ~ I love it when you...

(my own self portrait photo to be posted later... found this one, I really like it, but misses the whole point of self portraits)

(here is my own photo, not as young and cute without the age spots like the one I found on the internet, but it's our hands!)

To my strong silent mysterious man:

I love it when you hold my hand!

(The exclamation point, because I really love it!!)

Working in the greasy dirty world of mechanics you were always conscious of the long lasting effects of the grease that would permeate every ridge print on your hands.

When the teenager was really small, he loved bath time, it was such a fun experience to play in the bathwater with him and get him out and towel him off. Such precious moments, I recognized them as such even way back then. Of all the wonderful things you did with him when he was little, you would never do bath time with him... one day I tried to force you in there. You explained that because your hands would leave greasy little black fingerprints (no matter how many times you cleaned them... it was embedded) on his pure clean little body, you wouldn't, you just couldn't. I admired that you wanted to, but you respected his precious clean perfect skin, and didn't want it to be dirty. What symbolism that holds for me today.

Now that you don't work in the deep greasy mechanics of your job. Your hands have slowly been rid of the black in the grooves. You have begun to hold my hand more and more.

I love it!

I love your touch.

I love how thoughtful you are when you hold my hand.

I love it when you reach for my hand.

I love it that you want to.

I love how secure and safe it makes me feel.

love all that it says without saying a word.

I love to feel your strength in your hands.

I love to feel the energy in your hands.

When you hold my hand I feel happy inside.

♫ "I wanna hold your hand" ♫