A Musing Mother 6

It's been a long time since I posted and so much has happened. I want to write a separate post to say all the big things that have happened since my last post. Like Samantha graduated from high school. Alyssa returned from her mission. Both girls started college. Alyssa got engaged last night. So, yeah. I have a lot to catch up on. Obviously. And I will. I really will. Last night I went out to dinner with very old friends. These are ladies that I grew up with. Some I've known since I was as young as 6 years old. Others moved into the area later in my life but were just as important to my formative years. These were the girls that I went to church with, was awkward with, grew up with, and had important events with. These are the girls I should have known the best. What I discovered is that we were all in our own little worlds and never really knew one another. I consider my childhood to be normal. I am the third child of five. My mother stayed home and my dad worked hard. We liv...

Hope of America tonight at BYU. That's my boy in the yellow shirt. On the left. Sixth row down. Four over. Cute, isn't he? No segue but why don't more people have (my) sense of humor? Party of one, looking for a seat. They were all "saved." Meaning, saved for phantom people plus a buffer zone seat. No one wants to sit by a stranger, apparently. I found a seat on the edge and predictably, it was  saved. "Fine. Just know that you are missing out on a wonderful friendship and a lifelong Christmas cards!" The statement was met with slack jaw expressions. I continued on. On my way back up, someone kindly revealed she had a buffer seat and moved over. My potential friends waved me over. As I climbed over their legs I asked if they are ever nervous about sitting by strangers at these events. They nodded their heads. I continued, "I'm never worried. I'm always much stranger than the strangers." They nodded their heads again. They wouldn't g...

We took the whole family to the Open House. Special guest was Sister Alyssa Taylor. Thanks, Sister Taylor!

The other day I found myself reading an allegory written by a popular singing artist in my religious community, responding to why she is no longer selling her songs in stores. She used the idea of how a young mother loved building sandcastles. She is contacted by a company who wants her to build sandcastles for them. She then has to come up with a business plan, pitch it, negotiate salary, etc., etc. It is so much work. But she really does love sandcastles. Then she had an idea. She discovered that she could build sandcastles in her own backyard and spend more time with her children. Companies may not hire her to build sandcastles as much and she might not make as much money, but she was happy. She got the sandcastles and she got the time with her children. It's a nearly perfect allegory for me. But not quite. I loved blogging, expressing myself, being honest about how things are in the life of me, finding ways to amuse myself, all the while building an essay inside my head. It was...

Snippets of the letter I wrote to my missionary daughter and what's been going on in my life this week: Today we had stake conference. I don't know if you knew that Ty D. is going to Dominican Republic. He got called upon to give his testimony today. We went to the stake center for the meeting and sat in the overflow but halfway through we moved to high council room because Jaxon declared that he has a bony butt and the hard chairs were too much to tolerate. Hard to argue with that kind of logic. So you know S. S., Jaxon's best friend? I really looked at his mom the other day and realized she'd lost weight. I asked her about it and she told me that she completely changed her way of eating and exercising and she has more energy than she has ever had and she isn't suffering from allergies for the first time since she started having her own garden. I don't know if I told you this, but I went to the doctor a couple of weeks ago and demanded that he figure out why I...

I'm sitting at Dr. Watson's new office. It's kind of retro. Jacob should be getting his braces off next time. Cross your fingers. Samantha had prom #1 on Saturday. She looked beautiful.  Her date was really nice. Her next date is with a guy who seems to be a little in love with her. He keeps texting her all the time. I think she's getting annoyed.  Since she had no big sister, her mother did her hair and make up. Reminded me of our dance days and all that hair and makeup back then. Although it felt more appropriate to put makeup on a 17 year old than a 5 year old.  Dad threw his back out. He's been in great pain and to the chiropractor a few times. Naturally, I did a much better job rubbing out all the knots in his back. He slept really good last night.  Jaxon caught a ladybug he is so excited about it. Then the excitement factor ramped up when it started laying eggs. He's been studying all about ladybugs the past few days.  Conversations with Jaxon: I asked if ...

So we left on Monday morning to go to St. George. We got to Darrin's house at about 3:30. I ordered pizza and we watched The Giver. Just so I don't repeat this, after The Giver on Monday night, it was Lord of the Rings. I swear that movie never ends. It goes on. And on. And on. And on. No, I did not watch it but it was on for the rest of the trip when we were at the house and it wasn't on repeat. It just goes on  FOR.EV.ER . All over a stupid little ring? I mean, really. It had no diamonds in it. It may not even have been real gold. After many, many, MANY hours, Frodo stands over the fiery volcanic crap and holds the ring. Will he drop it in and destroy it? He really should because, as I already mentioned, it was probably cheap aluminum. Also, he was always warned to never put the ring on because then the dark horses or whatever would find him or something. I highly doubt it. I think it was discouraged because his finger would have turned green and then everybody would have...