It was such beautiful Sabbath day that we all walked to church. The kids took the wagon home at the end of church which had my flip flops. No biggie. I walked home barefoot because walking that far in heels bothers my arches. There's a story that's widely circulated about dropping a frog in boiling water and he'll jump right out. Put in a pan of cold water and slowly heat it up and you'll cook him. Well the same principle happened with my feet. I was loving having no shoes on and the feel of the road on my feet. It was only when I got to our neighborhood that I noticed they started to get a little hot so I simply walked faster. I now have a blister or two on the bottom of my feet. No running for me in the next couple of days while they heal. Ah summer is here and we all couldn't be a little excited, especially the momma. But you know that come August I'll be celebrating the beginning of school. For now though, I'll relish in no morning alarms and a slower pace.
I think I'm most excited that we are past the kindergarten phase. I rather detest that mid-day interruption although Tyler had his fair share this year of putting Alex on the bus. Kindergarten was a success.
My visiting teachers left me a fun bucket for summer survival. How cute is that.
Kiersten turned 17
and Erik is now legal to date and drive.
However, the deal is he has to have all his eagle scout paperwork turned in with an eagle court date before he can get his license. How bad does he want that driver's license? We'll see. He's been applying for jobs and has an interview tomorrow with Carl's Jr. He didn't really want a big party to celebrate just a few people over to play basketball.
Since Grandma was in town we celebrated three birthdays that included hers and Alex's graduation. Remember that Kangaroo Math competition Ash and Nate participated in back in March? Well, that's been long gone from my brain until I got an email informing us that Nate has won first in his age group in the state of Utah. Pretty impressive. His cousin Colin also took home some awards from the same test. So maybe it's back on the table. We'll see when next year rolls around.
Nate also got some awards from junior high for straight A's for the past two years. The funniest award of the night went to a student who achieved perfect attendance but wasn't in school that day to accept their award :)
These stellar missionaries, Elder Mahi and Elder Vizzini, are the real deal. We got to feed them last week and absolutely loved having them in our home. Prior to them coming I asked what they'd like for dinner. One said absolutely no lasagna and the other hadn't had it since being out. I went with our standby of roast, potatoes, carrots, homemade rolls. They were in heaven. My kids were in heaven. This week I pulled the lasagna card when we had family over after Erik's priest ordination. We also got a mini concert out of the deal (and unfortunately my camera decided to die halfway through -- so sad; for more of our Elders, visit Be Still My Soul or Music Fireside). Both are so talented musically. Elder Mahi plays about eight instruments: "the organ and piano are just for fun." Elder Vizzini plays the flute, piano, and sings just like David Archuleta.
I went to a seminary morningside where they were the speakers. Elder Vizzini sang first and then when he started to speak, from my vantage point in the back, I watched all the girls in the audience start to ooh and aah over his South African accent. And Elder Mahi had just been transferred in the day before and gave a wonderful spur-of-the-moment talk on the law of consecration. I was very impressed. Not an easy topic. The last set of missionaries we had in our home came from the Marshall Islands where my mom and dad were serving. My parents got to pick up these sweet girls and bring them to my house to spend the night before heading off to the MTC in Provo. What a humbling experience to have them here. They showed up late and I watched their eyes just try to take in everything. These are girls who grew up in modest grass huts. These are girls who do not know what running water is. Do not know how to flush a toilet. Do not know how to turn lights on and off. Who cook their food over an open fire. These are simple luxuries we take so much for granted.
I will admit I was a little embarrassed by our 6000 square foot home with all the bells and whistles. The next morning I woke up to find the light on in their bedroom. We asked them about the light, afraid they hadn't figured out how to turn it off. I guess one of them doesn't like being in the dark, away from home in strange beds. I hope she's adjusted, for her companion's sake. They were so kind. The next morning when they discovered it was my birthday, one of them quickly went to her suitcase and brought out a skirt thing (I'm sure there is a name for it) and gave it to me for a gift.
These wonderful people who have nothing will give you everything they have without thinking twice. What a way of life. Things, stuff, possessions . . . none of that brings happiness. Living a life of goodness is the only way. So how do you repay such kindness? Well, you raid your food storage and bequeath the huge Costco-size Nutella you have sitting on your shelf. Now that is bliss and boy were they excited. I even got a Happy Birthday sung to me in Marshallese or whatever their language is.
One of them has been waiting a very long time to make it this far. So many hoops to jump through on the islands. They will both go back to Tonga or Fiji to complete their mission. Oh, I love missionaries and young people. They are some of my favorites. Good things summer rain fresh garden lettuce
I'm two months into my 40th year and my body is holding onto its weight, sprouting forth gray hairs, and birthing kidney stones. Not exactly how I imagined turning 40 to be. It's been four weeks since I endured the most painful three hours. It was worse than actual labor simply because I didn't know if it was ever going to end. I woke up feeling great, accepted a subbing job at the high school, and went to the early morning Seminary morningside. Towards the end I started getting a side ache and feeling nauseous. I was hoping I just needed to sit differently or stand. I ended up at the high school but lasted only 10 minutes before I had to call it quits. I was certain that going home to lie down would definitely help. Nothing helped. I couldn't relieve the pain no matter what position I was in. I self-diagnosed myself as I groaned and writhed on the floor. I was about 10 minutes away from being whisked away to the emergency room when either the Loritab I took finally kicked in or that stone made its way to my bladder. Whatever caused the pain to subside, I knew I didn't want to move from the floor and ended up napping a little. Later at my appointment with the PA, he confirmed that I most likely had a kidney stone. He prescribed more Loritab and I faithfully carry them with me. It scares me to think about being caught unawares again without them. However, my birthday itself was fantastic. It began a little early in February when I was sitting at my desk at the end of a subbing day, catching up on stuff. I noticed my sister's van drive up and wondered if there was a party happening that I was unaware of. It was a heist and I was the prize. I was whisked away on a girls-night-out party.
Mexican for dinner.
Dance party at Angie's.
Sleepover and breakfast.
DI shopping the next day. My mom and sisters and daughters are the best. They sure know how to make a girl feel loved.
Good things vegetable garden flowers in my pots crickets
In his address to the BYU graduating class this past April, Elder Clayton spoke of several connections that are of real value, starting with relationships with parents and grandparents and family. "We hope you will thank them, especially by the way you live," he said. "Your lifelong faithfulness and devotion to the Savior and His Restored Church will be the highest demonstration of gratitude that you can offer your [mother]." This mother's day I hope my mom knows how much I love her and appreciate her dedication to raising six pretty awesome people. She taught me to clean and to cook. She instilled in me her love of reading, especially the scriptures. Many mornings I would find her out by the fire reading and pondering. I love her spontaneity and love of travel. I hope she knows that the way I live my life in purity and faith is my gift to her.
I've found as I have more and more birthdays that things really don't have any significance in the quality of relationships. In a recent email, my mother-in-law Laura stated, "You know I don't want presents, but I love visits and phone calls." Isn't that true. If you really want depth to a relationship, you have to give of your time and attention. Visit once in awhile. Come out from behind the phone and make an actual call for no reason other than to just keep a healthy connection alive. Send that note in the mail. Retreat behind that phone and type a quick text. Relationships should be so easy to keep vibrate and thriving in this day of instant communication, but sometimes they get stifled because of the easiness of it all. I too don't really need material gifts. As a mom, the greatest gift I could ever hope to receive from my kids is found in this scripture 2 Nephi 31:20. 1. Pressing forward with a steadfastness in Christ. Faith may have its ups and downs but working on it is key to keeping it alive. Don't let your faith become stagnant or complacent.
2. Having a perfect brightness of hope. Hope is one of the greatest of all things. It brings peace and confidence and light to some very chaotic and dark times. It gives us light to see clearly. 3. Having a love of God. When we truly love God with our all, the inconsequential things in our life will find themselves at the bottom of the heap. And don't forget that with God all things are possible. Remember Gideon in our old testament reading? His army was reduced to 300 and they conquered. Trust God and you win every time. 4. And [a love] of all men. Be kind. Everyone is fighting a battle you know nothing about. Be generous. Give of your time and talents and money in helping others and it will come back to you tenfold. Be thoughtful in your service opportunities. Behind every great man and woman is his mother. Someone imagined the mothers of these well-known sons making the following comments: Mrs. Morse: “Sam, stop tapping your fingers on the table--it’s driving me crazy!” Mrs. Lindbergh: “Charles, can’t you do anything by yourself?” Mrs. Washington: “George never did have a head for money.” Mrs. Armstrong: “Neil has no more business taking flying lessons than the man on the moon.” (Reader’s Digest) Mothers do influence their sons and daughters! One of life’s greatest blessings is to have a godly mother. And, thus, one of the greatest gifts you can give your children is to be a godly mother. I'm soooooo grateful for my godly mother who taught me what it's all about to be godly myself. As Alex likes to tell me, "You are my best mom." Julie Seamons: You are my best mom.
Never did I ever think I would some day have a child go to prom. It was so far away. So out there. But it came . . . and went.
Kiersten was gorgeous. She was so dead set on finding an orange dress (her favorite color) but when she tried that blue one on, we both knew it was the one. It was a good fit and the color was beautiful. Several times throughout the week I had told Tyler that Friday night we were going to promenade. He couldn't quite figure out why we were going to prom. Small towns still do a dance involving the juniors. I did it at my prom. I know at some they invite the parents to do one dance afterwards with their child. I told Tyler to be happy he didn't have to do that. Prom was at the state capitol building in the rotunda. Everyone participating in the promenade got their name read as they descended down the staircase. Kind of magical and fairytalelike. But I was so nervous for Kiersten, knowing she was in heels on a very slippery marble floor. I just prayed she would make it down the stairs okay.
All this hoopla of asking and answering and finding a dress and corsages and dates and hairdos made me think back to my own prom.
My first date ever was to prom. Josh Gordon, a sophomore like me, and I would sit in Brother Norton's Old Testament seminary class and talk the entire hour. I wasn't a very good kid so not sure why I ended up with an A+.
He asked me a week before prom (which was 5 days after my 16th birthday) with 3 roses at the school office. That didn't give me much time to find a dress. I'm sure my mother about went crazy with such short notice.
I was excited to go even though the look on both our faces looks painful.
I remember buying the dress through a catalog which was a good thing because the next year I wore it again for my own junior prom. My date was Mike Larson, a boy in my ward.
I remember doing a progressive dinner and doing something afterwards at a friends house, but that's about all I remember. And maybe that's all I remember because I at least have this one photo.
Reminiscing is sure fun but man, I'd never want to go back to high school again. Although, a friend and I were talking this morning on our walk about living our lives over again but differently. I know if I ever had the chance to go back to high school, I would not be the same person that I was back then. I would be more self-confident, self-assured, more kind, and worry less about others opinions. I worry less about the trivial little romances that seemed to pop up and instead make more lasting friendships. And the permed hair! would definitely go. There is wisdom that comes with age. Good things photos walks journals
A link to how I started this blog and why the funny blog name.
"It is not … enough for us to be convinced of the gospel; we must act and think so that we are converted by it. In contrast to the institutions of the world, which teach us to know something, the gospel of Jesus Christ challenges us to become something. … Charity is something one becomes.” --Dallin H. Oaks, “The Challenge to Become,” Ensign, Nov. 2000, 32–34.
We become what we want to be by CONSISTENTLY being what we want to be each day. --Richard G. Scott, "The Transforming Power of Faith and Character," Ensign, Nov. 2010.
