Random Acts Of Life

OK, so it's been much longer than I anticipated since the last time I "blogged". Funny, who ever thought "blog" would become part of our vocabulary. The word blog sounds like it could be used to describe so many other things (just use your imagination). Anyways, we have been busy with life. A couple weeks ago, while in Eugene, Carol found me in bed in a deep gaze. "What, are you like in deep thought, or something?" she said with a laugh. "Yes. As a matter of fact I am." I was contemplating our home and how we could make it a little larger by eliminating some of our "stuff." Well, two weeks later, we have sold our 6-piece bedroom set, our office desk, cabinet and chair, and our entertainment center. Ah, the beauty of Craig's List. We now have all four kids in one room and the office is officially a play room. And speaking of Craig's List, after searching several stores for a dresser that would be similar to the one we did keep, we headed to Craig's List and wouldn't you know it, we found an exact match for only $40 (we bought ours years ago at Fred Meyer). We were thrilled. However, "the Lord gave and the Lord taketh away." Just minutes before we were to leave to pick it up, the lady called to inform us that her son had sold it while she was at work. We were crushed. "I know that anything is possible with the Lord, but we're probably not going to find another exact match, again," I was heard saying to Carol. Whoa now, just minutes later Carol worked her Craig's List magic and found yet another exact match. After some haggling we got the price down to $75 and picked it up the next day. Wow, who is this Craig fellow, and why did he start making a list, anyways? Who knows, but sometimes I think his list would give Santa's a run for it's money. So, our house looks different than it did two weeks ago, and now we are constantly looking for things to sell. The more we get rid of, the more we have to play with and continue to change things around here. So we'll see where it takes us. But we definitely have the bug.

What else is new? The kids are back to school. Tyler is in second grade and Bailey started kindergarten. She even gets to ride the bus and goes to a special program at the high school, where she gets to work one-on-one with high school kids who are taking a class designed to prep them for a career in early education. She likes it so far. And Trevin, well Trevin still insists that he won't be going to pre-school when it starts up again, so things could get interesting there.

Now on to the quotes of the week (or two).

A Bird had pooped on our front door, and Bailey told me that there was something red on the front door. I told her it was bird poop, to which she replied, "Bird's can poop anything?" I laughed and she clarified: "You mean birds can poop any color?"

We were doing our family scripture reading the other day and read 1 Nephi 21:23: (And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers; they shall bow down to thee with their face towards the earth, and lick up the dust of thy feet; and thou shalt know that I am the Lord; for they shall not be ashamed that wait for me. ). I often ask the kids questions about what we have read, and give them the chance to earn a piece of candy if they answer correctly. Well, the Isaiah chapters aren't exactly friendly for coming up with kid questions. So after reading this verse, I said Trevin (3 yrs): "So what will they lick?" "Uh, a sucker." Good guess and much tastier, but not the right answer.

Last night at the dinner table, Bailey declared her love for water, to which Tyler replied with the time-honored, kid-tested best comeback of all time: "If you love it, then why don't you marry it." The exchange between them that followed was hilarious. We only wished we had it on tape. But this is the gist" B: "I can't marry water, it's like nothing." T: "I'll use magic to turn it into a fat guy." B: "I'm not gonna marry a fat a guy." It went on and on after that, but it was good to know that Bailey hopes to marry someone who takes care of himself. It reminded me of another dinner table exchange between me and Bailey. I was trying to get her to eat kidney beans, and I told her that even when she was older I would call her husband and tell him to make her eat her beans. She said, "Oh yeah, well I won't tell you our phone number." Bailey 1, Daddy 0.

Well, anyways, that is why I haven't had time for blogging lately. Hopefully, I will be a little more diligent. Thank you to all those who have taken the time to read this, and, leave a comment. They are fun to read. Oh, one other thing, as soon as we can get a new computer, I will start adding photos and videos to this thing, which will hopefully make it more interesting. Peace out.

From the Mouth of Babes

Hello again all you in blog land. One thing I would like to do with this is, is to share some of the moments of our lives with you all, including the smiles and laughs our kids bring us on a regular basis. We would love to hear the same from you. On Friday, August 29, we went to Honeyman Beach with Grandpa, Grandma and Monica. The sand boarding was fun and the weather was great. Even Caden loved going down the hill. Anyways, as we were getting set to leave, a car alarm went off. Trevin said: “That train, Mom?” Carol was busy with Caden and didn’t answer, so he continued to ask, probably 3 or 4 more times. Bailey finally replied, a little impatiently: “No Trevin, that wasn’t a train!” To which Trevin calmly replied: “I not tah-ing (talking) to you. …That train, Mom?” It was quite funny.

On that same trip, as we were heading there that morning, Tyler asked: “Mom, is the air conditioner on?” It was, so he asked if she could turn it off cuz he was cold. Carol pushed the button, and Tyler immediately said: “Ah, that’s better!.”

A couple days later Trevin was up in the room where we were staying, with us and said (in Trevin-speak): “Dad I want to play board game…with everyone. Except for Grandma, Monica and Grandpa.” I restated his request to which he replied: “Just with everyone in our family, (pause) except Caden.” “Not Caden?” I replied. “No everyone in our family, except Caden.”

A couple weekends ago we had a family reunion for Carol’s side of the family and while Trevin was playing on the playground, I was ready to do something else. He said: “I want to climb this one more time.” I said: “Wellllll…” And he responded: “Well Nuh-ing (nothing), I want to do this again.”

Just some of those funny little moments our kids bring us, as we’re sure yours do, too. So please share them with us.

Blessings Unseen, But Not Unnoticed

Well, this is my first blog (on the computer anyways), and of course it is inspired by my children. They are great kids -- not perfect -- but great. Tyler, Bailey, Trevin and Caden teach me new things every day. Mostly, each night that I see them sleeping, they remind me of the many mistakes I make each day, and of the many things I need to work on. Tonight, I had the opportunity to put them to bed. As is custom I sit with them until Trevin goes to sleep. He has become spoiled with that, but that's how it is. Anyways, I laid next to him gently rubbing his forehead until he was asleep. Usually, after that I'm outta there right away (got things to do for myself), but tonight I decided to give equal treatment to older brother and sister. In no time at all, I had Tyler asleep, too, then Bailey a few minutes after that. As I lay there, I am always inclined to look back on my day and consider my mistakes with them, as well as the good moments of the day -- and those four are responsible for many. After they were all asleep, I headed to Caden's room where Mom was having no luck getting him to sleep, which is unusual. Anyways, I took him in my arms and rocked with him, and he was out about a minute later. I then took some time to just look at him as we rocked. As I did that, I thought about these past several years in which we have struggled with employment. It has been hard and it has been frustrating. Sure we have questioned the Lord and at times even murmured (yes even that). But when you really start to think about it, we have nothing to murmur about. We have never gone without anything we need, and we have been blessed many times over with things we want, but don't necessarily need. Sure, we would like to have a nicer, bigger home, car, "toys" and many other things. However, that isn't what life is about. I look at others I know who have more than we do, or nicer things than we do, or really good jobs, or any of a number of other things that we don't have, but I would never trade with them. Everyone has problems, including many with their children. But one thing I can always be grateful for is our children. No, they are no perfect and they may not be the "best" kids in the world. But, oh are they wonderful. They do so many things well and so many things right. I cannot count the times we have been complimented for our children, and how many more times they have been complimented themselves. So, although we lack a lot of "things" that others have, there is no way we would ever consider ourselves unblessed. And of course there are many other things, which I could list, and which would go on and on; but really they are our greatest blessing and will continue to be, even when things finally turn around for us in the old employment department. Our blessings may not be counted in "things" but there are many that go unseen to the eye that are known by our hearts and our spirits.