Here We Are...

I haven't posted any photos of us in a long time... I don't remember why. I had a request from a friend to see some photos, so this is for her, and anyone else who happens to see them!

Q competed in a youth triathlon. It was his first and we were all a bit nervous! He was a true champ and did really well.

All three kids have been taking tennis lessons lately... well, we're currently taking a break for the summer since we don't want our kids to turn into steamed broccoli - it's so hot!

This is actually from Christmas - just a random one stuck in the middle - I just love this picture because hugs are becoming rarer as they get older (unless you count trying to squeeze each other to death).

In April our kids ran in a 5K that went right through our neighborhood - so cool! They got to run right past our house!

Here's another random picture. This is to show that Q  is now 13, so he spends much of his time proving his coolness to the world. :)

This random picture is to show that Q thinks I'm a huge dork, now that he's 13.



We have not been taking as much advantage of the Florida beaches as we should, but we're committed to repenting of that this summer.

L competed with a gymnastics team for several months this last year. She really enjoyed it! Unfortunately, most of the meets were on Sunday, so we encouraged her to try tennis instead. Tennis is fun, too. :)

D was a spider in his school play. Each year, every grade at the elementary school gets to do their own play and every student is involved. They totally love it!

For Father's Day, L made a tie for R at her church youth  group, called Activity Days. It turned out very handsome!

Another handsome tie L made was this duct tape bow tie. R wore it to church one Sunday and received a lot of compliments, as you can imagine.

In a nutshell, our kids are nuts. Like all kids, right? I love it when they're being nuts... as long as they also have a smile on their faces... and they're not ruining furniture. Otherwise, nuts is good.

News Flash!

Just a quick update... we're not moving! This is about the time when we're expected to be moving to a new state, or house, or something. But, we decided to break from tradition, by staying put! So, if you were wondering if we might be thinking about moving, we're not! And now you know. :)

Also, we're all healthy and happy and haven't been eaten by alligators... yet. And, we have a cat now.

Scissors Done Me Wrong

I am suffering from the side effects of a bad haircut. While the majority of these are temporary (hair does grow out... eventually) they are real and emotionally scarring.

These side effects include:

-Loss of self-esteem

-Camera shyness

-Moodiness

-Increased hat-wearing

-Increased appetite

-Feelings of regret

-Spousal drowsiness (he's totally bored of hearing me complain about it)

There is little that can be done at this point, due to the expensive nature of my bad haircut... and the gutless nature of me. I know I should go back and complain, but I just can't. I can get another haircut, but as I mentioned I spent a lot on this haircut and I can't bring myself to shell out more dough for a potentially bad haircut. Really, ANY haircut is a potentially bad one.

So, for now I will have patience... and hats.

New Old Dogs

We just got some new old dogs. Dogs that are new to us, but old. I suppose it's like a new old car, but these dogs weren't detailed before we got them. A coworker of R's had too many dogs and they're gone most of the day... so these two poor, old pups needed more attention.

You must know we've never (ever) in our marriage said, "Let's have two dogs... two is better than one." It was more like, "One dog will be nice... someday... when we've recovered from our previous attempt at owning a crazy dog. Maybe a dog that is so small you can forget it's in the room and it could dig in the yard all day and still not make a dent. Like a tiny, weak, dog that doesn't know how to bark. That's the dog for us."

Well, to my surprise R suggested that we go check out these dogs and MAYBE bring ONE home. Yippee! We go and see these very cute, shed-monsters and I'm half happy, half wanting to cry. "Well..." we say to the kids, "should we take one of these dogs home for the weekend?" You know, to try it out. "Oh, no," says R's co-worker, "they're a pair... I was wanting to keep them together, they've aways been together." Pause, pause pause. "Okay," says R "we could try it out." *CONK* (that's the sound of my jaw hitting the floor... and the sound I imagine my big, giant tears of regret will make when they fall on the ground). But, I'm still half happy, too. I love dogs and my children have wanted a dog every day of their lives. Little, baby L would say, "Ga-ga, goo-goo, doggie." I swear (not really).

So we take them home and they go running around the house sniffing everything. Then they go in the back yard and bark at the squirrels. Then they come inside and lay down... and just stay that way for the rest of the day. Until we get their leashes out and they are SO excited to go on a walk! We walk them through our neighborhood feeling like dog-owners (yeah). Then we come home and they lay down... and stay that way for the rest of the day. So, we've kind of got a sweet deal going here.

We made it through the weekend and felt 110% sure that these dogs would be a good fit here! L said, "Let's see if the dogs want us?!" when we suggested that the dogs should live here permanently. How cute is that? Way.

So our new old dogs are named Kylie and Tyler (these are the names they've had for ten years, so I think they deserve to keep them). They are eleven or twelve years old, litter mates and best friends. It's seriously the sweetest thing on earth the way they look after one another and HATE to be apart. They were with the same kind, loving family for ten years and it shows in their behavior. Other than really wanting so badly to get ahold of a squirrel, they've shown themselves to be as gentle as can be. Even when I gave them a bath with cold hose water they just stood there, because I told them to. I hope they rub off on my kids.

I actually caught Kylie "winking" at the camera!

Tyler is giving me the paparazzi paw here. He just wants his privacy, but I just want to post pictures of him on the Internet.

Breaking Point

Today I told a baby spider to go to hell. I feel bad about that. This is out of my character for two reasons: I am a great respecter of babies - even creepy ones - and, I rarely admit to using that kind of language. I realized afterward that I had reached my breaking point.

It started when we first visited Gainesville and everyone kept encouraging us to go see some gators at Lake Alice. So, we did go to Lake Alice but we didn't see any alligators. The unseen threat is far more stressful than the lazing threat asleep at the edge of the water. I'm not "afraid" of gators, per se, but they do in fact kill from time to time. So, threat number one.

Then a couple of months ago, before we moved, I saw an article that said armadillos can carry a leprosy virus. Well, there are lots of armadillos in Gainesville (mostly they are dead on the roadside from what I've seen). Leprosy from armadillos, threat number two.

On the way to Gainesville we stayed in several hotels. While I used to thoroughly enjoy hotel stays I now only partly enjoy them because I've read/heard several sources that say bed bugs are sometimes in hotel rooms and you can easily transport them to your home after staying in a hotel. So, once we actually moved into our home I was on the lookout for stowaway bed bugs now living in our home. I saw lots of bugs, fortunately none of them were the "bed" variety, but it was still on my mind. Threat number three (in case you've lost count - 'cuz I know I'm rambling here).

Then the bug guy gave me a big lecture on termites ("not if, but when" blah, blah, blah), the moving van driver told me he saw a four foot snake next to my yard, the neighbor girl confirmed the snake threat and added that she had personally seen two coral snakes ("red next to yellow, kill a fellow" blah, blah, blah), our friend's son got a chigger in his arm and a wolf spider - a really big one - crawled out of my garbage bin while I was throwing stuff away, jumped off the bin and onto the garage floor. He crawled away out of sight which wouldn't be a really big deal except that I was bare foot. That's threat four, five... anyway, you get the point.

It's not that Florida has more threatening elements than any other place I've lived, it's just the initial discovery of all the threatening elements that can bring a new resident to his or her breaking point. I'm usually pretty good about spiders - in fact, I like to catch them and show them to my kids just so I can get "cool mom" points - but I feel like the spiders are just being too aggressive here. There are boundaries that should be respected! Live and let live... just live on the OUTSIDE of my space. Okay? Not so hard.

So, I'd like a offer an official apology to the baby spider I condemned to a fiery death earlier. I should have just squished it with my big toe like I usually do.

Understatement

It's been a while since I last posted.

We've moved to Gainesville, FL. Gee, another move? Bet you didn't see that coming! Well, it's the last for a LOOOOOONG time - like many years, possibly even decades. Trust me. The good thing about that is that we LOVE it here! Gainesville is totally our kind of town. You should visit. You can stay in our guest bedroom. We'll chase the gators away before you arrive.

This is our new home. It's on an 1 1/2 acres and has lots of trees, of course. It's an older house, but that's okay because it gives us something to complain about. We're bored of complaining about how hot and humid it is, so we're just complaining about expensive house repairs full time.

This is our dining room. Carpet (it's clean, at least... for now), fancy chandelier and flowery wallpaper. If you are like my daughter, L, you'll be mad at me when I rip this all out. This light fixture makes her "feel like we're rich." Hmmm, it's hard to be the crusher of a little girl's fantasy.

To prove that we do in fact live in Florida, I'm posting this picture of an alligator (or "gators" as we call them here - not to be confused with "The Gators" which represents all that is strong and true here in Gainesville - oops, I mean the world). R took this picture in our backyard. Just kidding - it was the neighbor's backyard. No, please don't believe that because then you won't visit.... or you'll be here too much depending on what you call an ideal vacation.

In closing, I will pledge to blog more often. I will also pledge to remove wallpaper and replace old, fancy light fixtures asap. Sorry, Miss L.

Five Steps for Success

Today is Fast Sunday, always a mixture of joy and pain. :)

I love hearing the testimonies of other people. I find it amazing how often my prayers are answered by others' testimonies. Today was no exception.

A woman in my ward shared that when she sets aside her own "logic" and puts her trust in the Lord, the results are always better than she anticipated. This was exactly what I needed to hear today. So many times, I pray for an answer and receive communication from the Holy Spirit... then I talk myself into a confused mess because I couldn't just trust the answer I was given.

Here are my new five steps for success:

1. Pray
2. Receive an answer
3. Do
4. Get blessings
5. Repeat

Life is...

In Tucson, trying to stay cool (I think that's why I picked such a "cool" background here)! Life is hard, life is good, life is... a gift. I am, at times, an ungrateful recipient of my Heavenly Father's gift, so I will just take this opportunity to say, "Thank you, Heavenly Father."


A poem, by Carol Lynn Pearson-

Perspective from Mortality
My life is patterned as the palm
Of a rain-washed leaf, calm,
Cut and full.
But
I view my life from underneath,
Which - like the patterned leaf -
Is fuzzed and dull.

Transcending Ordinary Methods

One of my very favorite books is "A Rational Theology" by John D. Widtsoe. Last night, R and I had an awesome conversation about the many mind-blowing principles that make the gospel of Jesus Christ so... well, there just aren't really adequate words to describe that. Perhaps, I should just say that when a person feels the truth, it is unlike any other feeling this earth offers.

This is just one of the many amazing teachings Elder Widtsoe offers in his book:

"By the holy spirit, which fills every person, man may obtain information from the Lord. By its means come the messages which transcend the ordinary methods of acquiring knowledge. By it man may readily communicate with God, or God with him."

Wow.

What Do I Hold?

John 14:27 - Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.


Russel M. Nelson (of the Quorom of the Twelve) remarks about this scripture, "His peace is not necessarily political; His peace is personal. But that spirit of inner peace is driven away by contention."

We live in a world so contentious, that media companies make serious profits by pitting two opposing sides against one another and we eat it up. As experts "debate" the issues of the day, we allow contention into our lives.

I believe it's our responsibility to stay informed about what's happening in the world and be involved. Can we do this without participating in contentious argument... the kind that doesn't actually solve problems or work towards solutions? Do we have to listen to "our" side bash the "other" side? Can we have inner peace while feeling politically contentious?


Proverbs 11:12 - He that is void of wisdom despiseth his neighbour: but a man of understanding holdeth his peace.