I Have It All.

When my mom was my age she had a 20 year old daughter. 20 years later, my mom has a 40 year old daughter. Weird. My mom celebrated her 60th birthday last week. We threw a surprise party for her on Mother's day. Fun! Happy 60th mom!

I have asked Daniel on several occasions, "What if we'd met 10 years earlier? Do you think we would have had the same experience when we met?" He always gives me the same answer. "No". And I think it's because he knows what my next question will be. "If we had gotten married years earlier, do you think we would have been able to have more children?" And then he just looks at me with that look. I know, I know. It's not even worth thinking about. Even though he was so cute even then. I'd like to think I would have fallen just as hard. But with the experiences we had separately through the single years, we just wouldn't be the same people we are now. And I kinda like who we are.

So right now I'm 40 and I have an 11 year old, a 9 year old and a 7 year old.

And when I'm 60 I'll have.....
Doesn't matter. Right now I have Joy. Right now I have it all.

A Rave For A Fave.

I love to read. And I love books. This post is about one of my favorite children's books.

The Story Of Ferdinand. Written by Munro Leaf. And the amazing drawings are by Robert Lawson.
This is a book from my childhood. My mom read this to us. I loved it.
It's about Ferdinand the bull. He loves to just sit under a cork tree and smell the flowers. This is one of my favorite pages to read. "His mother saw that he was not lonesome, and because she was an understanding mother, even though she was a cow, she let him just sit there and be happy." I love the "even though she was a cow" part!

The other bulls wanted to go to Madrid to fight in the bull fights. But not Ferdinand. One day he went to sit under his cork tree when something happened. He sat on a bumble bee. "Well, if you were a bumble bee and a bull sat on you what would you do? You would sting him. And that is just what this bee did to Ferdinand!" Ouch! I love Ferdinand's eyes.

And you'll just have to get the book to see what happens to Ferdinand the Bull. It's such a great story. I promise you'll love it.

And so will your kids.

Wax Museum.

Have you ever been to a wax museum? No? Neither had I. Until today. I visited a superb showing of our nation's most influential people. Uncle Sam. Abraham Lincoln. Sacajawea. Thomas Jefferson. Martin Luther King Jr. Rosa Parks. Orville and Wilbur Wright. Dolly Madison. So many more. But the best figure I saw today was that of Sam Houston. Houston was a prominent figure in Congress and the Senate in the mid 1800's. He became the Governor of Texas and was always a great friend to the Cherokee Indians in Tennessee. But my favorite tidbit about Sam Houston is that he bore a striking resemblance to my very own Isaac!

He's not grumpy. They had to sit or stand very still. They were wax figures after all.

Sam and Ruthie have already begun planning who they will be in the 5th grade wax museum.

A Moment.

I still have snot.

Isaac smacked the back of his head on the fire place mantel tonight. It left a rather deep dent. To be sure his skull was okay, I took him in to get it checked. The doctor felt it and looked him over and said he'd order a CT scan if I wanted. He was sure it wasn't cracked, but would go with what the mom wants to do. I decided, with all the info he gave, that we would just watch him through the night and keep him home tomorrow and keep an eye on him. If he pukes, gets dizzy, loses strength in his arms or legs or anything of that nature, my orders are to get him right to the ER for a CT scan.

When we got home Isaac asked his dad for a priesthood blessing. Daniel and I talked about whether he needed a healing blessing or a blessing of comfort-a father's blessing. We talked to Isaac and decided on a father's blessing. I love it when my kids get blessings. I am comforted.

We got Isaac medicated, teeth brushed, prayers said and covers on. I went to clean up the kitchen. As the water ran and dishes were being scraped, I began to hear a very sweet sound. I turned off the water and listened. Daniel, Sam and Ruthie were singing together. I Am A Child Of God. I went down the hall and saw Sam holding the Hymn book with Daniel standing next to him and Ruthie still in bed. All sweetly singing. I teared up a bit.

And I am comforted.

The Snot!

It is a scientific fact that a gal with a snot filled head cannot blog.

At all.

I'm almost desnottified.

I have much to catch up on.

Soon...

I'm So Crafty!

So Robert's craft store is leaving all of Northern Utah. As a result they are getting rid of stuff. My goal for a little while was to get all of Isaac's Cub Scout awards into something that he can keep and gaze at occasionally. So I thought of a shadow box. Fun!

So I went into Robert's hoping to get a good deal on a shadow box for Isaac and ended up with 2 shadow boxes, 1 for Isaac and 1 for when Sam turns 11. And got a great deal! 2 for 1. I just finished with Isaac's box. Sam's will need to wait a couple of years.
It has all his Cub awards...Bobcat, Wolf, Bear, Arrow Points, Webelos, Compass points, 3 years of Day Camp patches and my mother's pins, including my Arrow of Light pin. That badge is on his Boy Scout uniform. Oh, and his Conservation patch. I also put his name and years in Cub Scouts.
Yay me!

I Gotta Question For Ya.

I bought the shelves at Roberts for 40% off. I love it. The point of the shelves is that you can put stuff on top aaannd put pictures in the spaces under the stuff. So let's look at what we've got.
Do they look okay like this? Daniel just says "I thought they looked fine" when I said we need to print pictures for it.

Oh. This is the Proclamation that I LOOVE that is now on my wall!! Just thought you might wanna know.

So tell me. Can I leave them like this? Or do I need to put pictures in and complete the whole this is a shelf that can hold stuff aaannd have 4 pictures under the stuff? Tell me!

Oh. And I picked choice G from the plethora of choices of what to do with the Ds I had. I liked it best, too! Oh, and we watch Nickelodeon. So there.

A Special Day, Something Glad, Something Sad.

This is a catch up kinda post. It was supposed to have been posted yesterday. But yesterday is gone. But today is here. And I have a few minutes. So here it is...

A special day. On April 30, 1999, I married him. We celebrated by going to dinner Friday night. Then got up at 5 am Saturday and got the 6:30 am session in the Bountiful temple. Where we were sealed. We went and sat on the couch in the Celestial room where we sat while we waited to be married. We came home, cleaned, did some yard catching up and experienced some sadness and then went to a special needs mutual play on Saturday night as a family.
Daniel, all I need is the air that I breathe and to love you!
Something Glad. As an anniversary gift I asked that my shelves be put up. So here is the finished family room wall. Finally. And just like Daniel, it was worth the wait!

Last week Daniel took a day off the finish the goat fence. That way all the goat poop could be kept to the back pasture instead of the grass. He also got the white fence all put back together.

Something Sad. And just in time! Just in time for what? Just in time for Uncle Lewis to take the goats back. Actually cousin Michael came and took the goats back to Lewis. Cass went so he can breed her. We hope to get her back soon.

I sent the kiddos out with the camera to take as many pictures as they wanted of the goats. Sam came in to show me this one titled "The Missing Organ" referring to the empty space in Oreo's side. Funny guy.

Some More Glad. Way back last month Sam got his Wolf badge at pack meeting. This is all he'd give us!

Isaac needed to come back to one more pack meeting to receive his Arrow of Light. 4 boys got it that night. The Arrow of Light is the Cub Scout honor that matches the Eagle Scout in Boy Scouts. We're pretty proud of him.

Friday was Sam's Business Day at school. He named his store the Zeeky Store and sold cookies and capri suns. He was a great business man and sold almost all of his goods.

And how can we not point out the great beauty of the family. Fashion plate is a better description. I told all the kids to dress nicely to go to the play (which was hilariously fun!) and this is the outfit she came up with.

So now we wait for the call to come back and get Cass and have a new due date for a baby goat. Until then...goodbye Vegeta, Oreo, Blackjack, and for the moment, Cassidy!

We'll miss you.

We begin our 13th year together today. I wish we were leaving for Hawaii tomorrow, just like we did 12 years ago. But I hear good weather is here for this week. So I'll take it. We may be goat-less, but we are joyful, child-ful and full of hope and love and energy.