JOY IN OUR POSTERITY

So, today I turned 35 years old. After waking up and getting ready for meetings, McKena gives me a gift bag. "Here Dad!!! This is a present that I made for you." I sit down on the stairs to open this little gift bag. The picture contains the contents that were inside. Yes, I can see myself wearing the purple hat with the pink belt wrapped around my thigh (because it won't work as a belt) marching down the sidewalk with my plastic kazoo whistle, my toy blocks, my used check book, cell phone battery, IPod cord, and other miscellaneous items/garbage (see the garbage bags that she was using as tissue paper).

Both Pam and I began to giggle. As I thank her for the thoughtful gift, I cannot help to think about my family. Each child has their own personalities that really are a mixture of our past, present, and future posterity. Though McKena has one volume (Thanks Aunt Amanda :O) ), she also "re-gifts" like someone else we know ( Thanks, Aunt Carly :O).

I am grateful for a wonderful family who helps me learn, laugh, live, and to keep things in an eternal perspective... to have joy in my posterity.

terrible one's???

This is what happens when mom goes down stairs and puts in 1 load of laundry.

This is the silverware and some of a left over swiss roll.

This is what happened to my super yummy candle.
I thought this was suppose to happen at 2 not 1!!!
I FEAR what 2 will bring!!!

thursdays thoughts...

1. mckena refuses to eat spanish rice because she says it will make her "talk spanish" and we wont understand her:)
2. going to the midnight showing of New Moon tonight. i am sure i will be totally trashed on friday morning but i just cant help myself:)
3. Almost finished with my blog book. I just have a few more pages that are giving me "issues" :)
4. So excited for my friend Coree who's son is coming home from a 2 year mission tonight:)
5. cant wait for the thanksgiving feast! My plate will have mashed potatoes, roll, salad, and stuffing. Then before bed I will make a turkey sandwich:)
6. I haven't bought one christmas present. I have NEVER left it to this late before! I hope that I am not in trouble:)
7. SUPER excited for BLACK FRIDAY shopping!!! I spend hours pouring over the ads then get up in the middle of the night and meet my sisters in law. Shop, eat breakfast, then home to put up the tree!!!
8. Took mckena to the dentist yesterday. 4 cavities! WHAT THE???? The other kids go on Monday we will see how that goes. I bet you can guess what I am getting for Christmas. YUP a big fat BILL! :)

HaPpy ThUrSdAy!

vegas!

On the way back from our family trip to Disneyland, Josh dropped me off to my B.F.F. Jen's house!

Jen and Dave's son Josh was getting married and I went to help out for the weekend. It was so much fun to spend the weekend with Jen and her family. I miss living so close to her but are grateful that no matter where we live we are still the best of friends.

On Friday night we had the wedding dinner at Jen house and it was beautiful! Thanks to all for your donations of glass jars it turned out so PRETTY!

The dessert table.... PIE! Yummy!

On Saturday as we were getting ready for the wedding Dave put his pants on and OOPS floods!

Thank heavens for Aunt Martha! That's right, at the time we were suppose to leave for pictures she is fixing the pants. Don't worry she was super quick and we only left 5 minutes late:)

The wedding was beautiful and Josh and Awburn were so happy. This was my favorite photo from the night.

Not the best photo, but can you see the love in Jen's eyes? So sweet!

This is Jen and Connie (Dave's sister) we had so much fun together!

Is was a great weekend. Thanks Jen for letting me come. I had a great time:)

reunited!

this past weekend i had the wonderful opportunity to reunite with some friends from my youth.

These 2 amazing women were my very best friends for years growing up. jen, nicole and i were inseparable. we did everything together.

i looked forward to this lunch for days. it was wonderful to see what amazing individuals, moms, and wives they have become. i feel blessed to have these women back in my life. i remember not being the friend i should have and i regret that but welcome the opportunity to be a better friend to them now.

thanks jen and nicole for lunch. i cant wait for many more years of friendship!

love you both!

While visiting with a friend the other day she mentioned that her husband wasn't feeling well. He was having symptoms of cold sweats and nausea. Concerned I asked if he was OK to which she replied that she was sure he was fine and moved the conversation on to something different.

At that moment envied her.

Not a moment was spent worrying that maybe someone else might get it or worse get really sick.

I know that part of my anxiety with illness stems from Abbie's diagnosis and with all we endure when an illness comes our way. For instance when Abbie gets the stomach flu it doesn't just last a couple of days and she's fine. It is a week to 10 days solid of testing blood sugars every 2 hours 24 hours a day, testing urine for ketones every time she pottys, force feeding when your kids puking is always fun, the changing of insulin doses as her body recovers and then doing it again when she is better.

As a mom it is heart wrenching to hold your child while they cry because their fingers hurt or their tired of getting shots, or they don't understand why they have to have this disease.

I recognize that we have it so much better than other individuals. There are some amazing families out there that have it far worse than we do. And for that we honor them.

So last night as I was sitting in bed thinking of this conversation I thought will I ever get to the point that I don't worry so much? Well the answers is no. Not just about Abbie but with all our children. As parents we worry about our kids because we love them. We are not different than any other parents out there we just happen to have different things we worry about. So while I thought I envied this person for her ability to not worry I actually envied her ability to keep her worry in perspective. What I needed to learn from this experience is that

1. I need to get my anxiety over illness into perspective. (obviously)
2. Recognize that as parents we are sometimes required to do things that we would rather not but we do them anyway because that is what parents do.
3. realize that my job is to teach THEM ways to stay healthy.
4. and for the times when they don't feel so good. Just do the best that we can and told them tight so they know that we love them and that they are not alone.

thursday's thought FYI

fyi....

1. my baby is teething. not the little teeth but the big dogs so there for she has been hanging on my leg for 3 days now. i love her but don't love her hanging on my leg.
2. this summer i worked REALLY hard and lost 2o pounds. so when i went through my closet the other day i pulled out all my "big girl" clothes and put them in bags. they will be taken to DI ASAP. this is my commitment to not putting it back on:)
3. i am still suffering with a zit fest on my face. wearing a mask while everyone had the pig flu made me turn into a 12 yr old. the problem is that i am 100 not 12!
4. i am going to lunch on sat with some girl friends that i grew up with in young women's. we lost track of each other for a LONG time and have recently reconnected. i am so excited. i cant wait!
5. josh's final paper for school is due in 11 days. after that he has 2 more days in class then FINISHED! i cant believe that we made it! i have to think of something we can do to celebrate!
6. my grandpa passed away this week. he was 97 and it really was a good thing. we don't see that side of the family very often if ever so it was nice to see my cousins. my crazy aunt informed me at the viewing that she wants to start her family over again. shes 65! remember when i said she was crazy? yup that proves it! CRAZY! i did have a good laugh about it though.
7. josh has been using the all purpose cleaner as laundry softener. he thought that since it was the same type of bottle, i had just switched from downy to another brand. i didn't realize that he had been doing this until a few days ago when i saw him put it in the downy ball. i am so surprised that we didn't have a fire in our dryer. we laughed really hard and then rewashed the previous load. hey at least my man helps out with laundry i cant complain too loud!