Every Boy Wants a Truck

Gary has wanted a truck for years. When he was the scoutmaster (2nd time around) and had beat up our fairly new van several times on campouts, he decided that a truck was needed to do a better job in his calling (and to appease his whiney wife). He felt it was truly a righteous desire, but the answer came in a new calling--BYU bishopric. There was no way we were buying a truck for him to drive back and forth to Provo even more often. So he got a sedan instead. BORING.

Fast forward 7 years...Gary still wants a truck. The closest we have come is this past weekend-- the car dealer got us a loaner car (since they've had our van for over a week, but that's another post for another day) and it turns out to be a Chevy Silverado. Too bad he couldn't take it camping Friday night with the 11-yr-old scouts (rental car not on tour permit). But he did get to drive us up the canyon Sunday afternoon in it. So here's Gary in his (pretend) truck:
Someday honey, someday...

Thankful Thursday 3

While searching for images for this post, I came across a website selling pendants with various images stamped onto them. This particular one has one of the Chinese characters for gratitude. This is what the website says about this pendant and its character: "The bottom part of this character represents the feeling of being thankful from the bottom of your heart. This feeling is deep and profound but is not always spoken aloud. Let this character speak of your gratitude for all the blessings you have in life."

I like that--the feeling of being thankful from the bottom of your heart.

So on this Thankful Thursday, I am thankful for:

• my heart
• my parents
• my husband
• my kids
• my Savior

Another Belated Birthday Post

This one should have been posted 8 days ago on September 15:

Happy Birthday Gary! I could say so many things in honor of your birthday, but I'm afraid I'd leave stuff out. So I'll just say two things for now:

You're the best! I love you!

Happy Belated Birthday Aubrey!

OK, I'm the lame mom who didn't blog about Aubrey on his birthday. Hopefully, he'll forgive me and keep me around anyway. So, here is the post I should have put up 10 days ago:

Happy Birthday Bud! I can't believe you are already 19 years old and that you are doing all the things that 19-year-olds do. You are such an awesome guy and I miss having you around all the time. It's kind of weird, because (to be honest) I was pretty ready for you to be out on your own (as you were too), but now the house feels a little bit empty without you. I'm glad we can keep in touch through Facebook, texts, and the occasional visit home. I miss your funny jokes and witty responses (I hope your roommates are the recipients of these now!)

You've made me so proud of you and your accomplishments as you've grown up. Keep up the good work! You're about to enter yet another big phase of your life soon as you prepare to serve a mission. You will learn and grow so much more than you ever have thought possible. I'm so excited for you at this stage of life.

Thanks for putting up with me and my learning curve as a mom. I know that sometimes it's tough to be the oldest. You have survived well. I love you!

Out of My Comfort Zone

Carson had an assignment near the beginning of school to do something out of his comfort zone (CZ) and then write a paragraph about it for health class. As we talked about what he could do, I kept asking if he could just count his whole summer. He ended up jumping on my suggestion of letting his Dad take him driving (just a few days before he took the learner's permit test--shame on me). I got to thinking about it for myself--about how the whole Italy/Greece trip was pretty out of my CZ, how having a child in college has been a bit out of my CZ, how out of my CZ it's going to be to have a missionary son in the next while, you know, stuff like that. The point of Carson's assignment was to show the students that maybe it's not so bad to be a little uncomfortable, and that good things can come from trying to stretch yourself. And I realized that all the things I just mentioned (and others) were turning out good, even though they were/are hard.

So, what does this mean for me this fall? Well, I've already accepted a new VT assignment, I started walking regularly for exercise 3x a week, and I began volunteering at the local public library once a week for a couple of hours (dream job, but definitely out of my CZ). I'll give these things a try and let you know how it turns out!

Thankful Thursday 2

It's been a long week--who would think so much could get put into 7 days? We've had some frustrating moments, some scary moments, and some happy moments this past week. So here's my list on this Thankful Thursday:

• I'm thankful for faith and prayers offered on behalf of others
• I'm thankful for friends who are willing to help me out, who listen to me, and who care about me and my family
• I'm thankful for a good night's sleep
• I'm thankful for Aubrey, Carson, & Maren
  
• I'm thankful for health insurance

And an extra thought--I'm glad that there's chocolate in my house...

Thankful Thursday

I was thinking yesterday about posting a few random things I am thankful for, but then I had an awesome idea--Each Thursday from now until Thanksgiving (and maybe beyond) I will write about at least 5 things I am thankful for (notice the alliteration: thankful, thursday, thanksgiving--aren't I clever?) It's probably been done before by someone else, but I've never done it, so it will be new to me. Sometimes it might just be a list, other times I might elaborate. Another goal for me to work on.

So today on my first Thankful Thursday I am thankful for:

• a shower that is bigger than 2.5 x 2 feet with water pressure and warm water
• a kind, honest mechanic
• an awesome, awesome, awesome Scouting & Young Men's program in our ward (and all of it's leaders through the years)
• good friends and neighbors
• my husband who works so hard for our family and makes it possible for me to be a stay-at-home mom

chirp. . .chirp. . .chirp. . .

Why do smoke alarms only chirp (not go off, just chirp) between 2 and 5 am?

A Coke a Day. . .

It's my vice--Coca-Cola. I love it. I can't go a day without it. Don't make me go a day without it! And it's got to be the real stuff, no store brand, no diet, just Classic Coca-Cola. Fountain Coke is the best, but bottles will also do. Squeeze a little fresh lime juice in and it's even better. Ahhh, tasty, tasty Coke. One a day is all I need...Hey, I haven't had one yet today--I'd better go open one up!

Friendship

Today in Relief Society (the women's meeting at church) we were lucky enough to have a lesson on friendship. And the coolest part is that the lesson was in our manual (Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith, pp. 459-467). How awesome is it that our leaders feel that friendship is such an important part of our life that there should be a lesson about it?!

At one point during the lesson, the teacher asked the class, "What is a true friend?" Some of the suggestions given were: someone who's honest, someone who is a good listener, someone who helps you feel good about yourself, someone who helps you out in difficult times, and someone you can laugh and cry with. Although I didn't comment at the time, I've been thinking about this question ever since. The biggest one I came up with that wasn't already mentioned is someone who accepts you for who you are. I'm so lucky to have friends that accept me as I am. That doesn't mean that they haven't encouraged me to change for the better (because they have), or that they haven't been frustrated by me or my actions (because I'm really sure they have), but they still accept me and love me.

The next point of the lesson was to take all the things we had talked about and apply them to ourselves so as to be better friends. Ah, there's the challenge. So for the next few months, that is my personal goal--to be the kind of friend I would want to have myself.

Since this post is about friendship, I can't end it without giving a huge thanks to all my friends who love me, encourage me, put up with me, and let me be their friend. You guys are the greatest!

Crazy for Crosswords

OK, maybe not crazy, but I do look forward to doing the crossword in the newspaper each day. It was one of the things I really missed in Italy & Greece this summer. My family thinks I'm crazy because I like to do them in pen. Pencil just doesn't cut it for me with crosswords. If I get one wrong, I just write over it. Sometimes it gets a little messy, but it's what I do.

I especially like Mondays & Tuesdays when I can do two. Why two? Because I can solve the New York Times Crossword puzzles on Mondays & Tuesdays, and on a rare occasion, Wednesday. Because they get progressively harder each day, Monday is the easiest, Tuesday a bit harder, and so on. Saturday's are the most difficult with Sunday reverting to the difficulty level of about Thursday, but it's much bigger. The puzzle I solve everyday is the Sheffer Crossword. It too seems to get a bit harder each day, but I can usually figure it out (sometimes with help from Gary or the Internet). I figure it's my little brain exercise to keep the grey cells from deteriorating too much.

So why am I blogging about this today? Because yesterday was Monday, and I couldn't finish either crossword puzzle!! What? Am I losing my touch? No, apparently not. It must have been a fluke, because I did today's just fine. Whew!