I don't say it enough...

Every day, Monday - Friday, I leave the house around 6am to head off to work for the day. Most days I walk through the door about 5pm and spend the better part of the evening sharing (sometimes complaining) with my sweetheart my day's experiences. There is typically one or two nights a month that I end up at a meeting and do not make it home until after 8pm.

When I am home I'm not always there...In May I was elected as the Presdient of the Utah Parents of Blind Children. I am humbled. My sweetheart has been nothing but supportive of this opportunity. There are some nights that I may spend time on the phone talking to other parents listening, comforting and trying to help them with difficult situations they may be in with their child's education.

There has been more than one occassion this year that I have been away from home for multiple days at a time. All that he asks of me is a simple postcard from where ever it is that I am going.

You may be asking yourself, "Why is she tell us this?". I want you to know what an AMAZING husband I have. Every day I come home from work I can pretty much count on the dishes and laundry being done and the house in order. During the summer he spent each day with our four boys making sure they didn't go without. All of this without complaint.

He takes the kids to their doctor appointments and anywhere else the need to be. Each time he tells me "don't worry, I will take care of it". There are even times that he will surprise me by showing up at my office.

Did I mention how AMAZING he is!!!

I know that I don't tell him nearly enough so this is me saying it loud and clear...

KD,

I appreciate all that you do for me and our family.

Thank you for taking care of us.

Meeting you and becoming your wife is the best thing that has ever happened to me. You make me truly happy.

I love you so very much.

Am I Old?

Tonight at dinner my sweet son asked me what I did when I was a little girl because there was no TV. How old does he think I am? I am going to be 41 years old this May. Is that old?

To my dear son, yes, mom watched TV when she was a little girl.

 

 

 

Stop, Look, and Listen

It has been an unusually busy week for me this past week. Along with work I attended a two day training. This was mind numbing, information overload training. It was a GREAT training. I am exhausted both physically and emotionally. This made me think today, I need to Stop, Look and Listen for a while.

STOP - Take 5 to 10 minutes or more to just stop and do NOTHING!

LOOK - Look around me and take in everything and everyone that I am blessed with.

LISTEN - Listen to the sounds in my life. My kids (even if they are fighting), my husband who is singing along with his iPod, my friends who advise me and guide me. These sounds bring me joy!

When was the last time that you took time to Stop, Look and Listen?

It's been a while

As you can see, it has been a while since I have updated my blog. I have been busy but I wouldn't say that I have been too busy to blog. I just haven't known what to post. At least I don't think I have anything to say that is that important.

Today I thought I would just update everyone on what the family has been up to.

In March Z had birthday number 9 and B had birthday number 4. April brought birthday number 8 for KT and September was number 6 for A. Man the boys are growing up so fast.

In July KD and I went to Dallas, TX for a week to attend the National Convention for the National Federation of the Blind. This was my first convention. I loved it. I learned so much about how I can help my boys receive a better education. It was very inspiring and uplifting.

One of the best things about going to Dallas was being able to see my friend and former college roommate C. It was so fun! Thank you C for being such a great host and being willing to take KD and I around Dallas.

In August Z and KD went to Baltimore, MD for the Junior Science Academy hosted by the National Federation of the Blind. Z learned how to build a simple machine. He played beeper ball (a form of baseball for the blind). Most of all, he had fun and made new friends from different parts of the US. What a great experience for him.

KD wrote about their experience as a guest blog author on http://slateandstylish.blogspot.com/2010/09/guest-author.html.

Z and KT started school on August 1st. Z is in 4th grade and KT is in 3rd. They are both doing very well.

A and B are at the Utah School for the Deaf and Blind once again this year. The school year started with a little glitch but not as bad as last year's issues. A is mainstreamed into morning Kindergarten and then is back at USDB for the afternoon.

B is enjoying preschool again this year. He definitely keeps them busy. Almost every day his behavior in the classroom is describe as "mischievous". Not sure what we are going to do with him.

KD and I are both doing well. We are enjoying watching the boys grow. KD is determined to learn Braille this year. We are both involved quite heavily with the Utah Affiliate of the National Federation of the Blind. We are doing all that we can to support the boys.

That's about it for now. I hope to be better at updating the blog.  Until the next time...

The Privilege of Friends

I have the privilege of knowing some pretty amazing people. People who inspire me. Today I had the opportunity to sit and chat with two of those amazing people. They are both single mothers. We were talking about the every day adventures of having children. As I sat and listened to how their days usually go, I realized how blessed I am to not only have a husband who helps so much with the chores around the house and keeping the boys in line, but also how lucky we are to have been blessed with four boys. Each of these wonderful ladies have one son. It's just the two of them together before work and school and then after work and school every day.

I don't know how many times I have whinned and complained about having a messy house or having to clean up after the boys. At least my boys can entertain themselves. When you are an only child in a single parent home, who do you play with?  Mom or dad, whichever the case may be. When they told me that they keep their homes clean by staying up until after 11:00pm to "straighten up" I was humbled immediately.

Bless you my friends. You are truly amazing in my eyes. I resolve to do less complaining and more playing with my boys. I resolve to stay up a little longer to make sure my house is in order.

Thank you for teaching me.

New Year's "Attributes"

For the record, I do not believe in making New Year's resolutions. Mostly because I can never keep them but also because I don't think you should have to "resolve" to start or stop something that you should or shouldn't have been doing all along.

With that being said, I am going to try to work hard this year on a few "attributes" that I would like to have. These came as a result of a lesson that I taught in church today.

1. Faith - specifically for me, Faith in my Savior.
2. Hope
3. Charity and Love
4. Virtue
5. Knowledge
6. Patience
7. Humility
8. Diligence
9. Obedience

Happy New Year!

What is most important...

Lately I have been feeling bad that I have not kept my blog up-to-date. I felt like my life hasn't been exciting enough to but anything down in black and white (or black and tan as the case may be).

This weekend my guilt and bad feelings are gone. My life is exciting. I have four wonderful little boys to play with, do homework with, take to basketball and put up Christmas decorations with. I have a husband who I can spend time with talking about whatever it is that we feel like talking about. We go to church meetings together, watch movies together, we play with the boys together.

So, although I enjoy the blogging and facebooking world, I have come to realize that my priorities are a little out of wack and that I have greater interestest elsewhere. For now, I will commit to blogging when the urge comes but until then, I will enjoy my life with my family.

For my posterity

This past weekend I had the opportunity to teach Sunday School at church. The lesson was on Family History work. Of course they say that the one who gains the most from the lesson taught is the teacher themselves. This was no different. Preparing and teaching this lesson made me realize how little I know about my parents and grandparents lives before I came around. It made me really stop to think about how important it is to keep a journal of some kind.

When I first started this blog I honestly had the intention of using it as my "electronic journal" and recording in it as much as possible about my days, my kids, my family. I have failed miserably at this task. Now that I think about it, I'm not sure those of you who are kind enough to read my dribble would want to hear about all of this.

This once again brought me back to keeping a handwritten journal for my posterity to read when I have moved on from this life.

When I was attending college I diligently wrote in a journal nightly detailing the days events. As I read back now, my life really wasn't any more exciting then as it is now. After college I wrote here and there but never really carried it on as I had done.

Thinking back, I wish I would have realized in my youth what I do now and kept a journal of my experiences. I don't remember very much at all. I wish I would have written down the details of my last birthday party at our home on Wilson Lane in Ogden before we moved to Washington State. Or the time I was buried alive from my neck down by our neighbor boy and my dad had to dig me out (I can still see his face and feel the end of the shovel as it barely touched my stomach).

This life goes by so fast. I realized this weekend that I need to take time for my children's and grandchildren's sake to write this stuff down. Help them to know me and who I am.

So, my commitment to myself is to write in my journal. It may not be every day but I am hoping for at least twice a week to share my thoughts, feelings and experience with my posterity.

If you don't currently keep a journal, will you join me?

One of my favorite hymns

I will never forget when I saw this performance of one of my favorite hymns. I have heard many versions and seen many performances of this hymn but this will always be my favorite performance.

Enjoy.

Balance

I attended a meeting this week where the topic was Balancing Stress in Your Life. One of the handouts given listed several suggestions for accomplishing balance in your life. One suggestion was "Don't fret about things you can not control". I leaned over to my friend sitting next to me and pointed out that suggestion letting her know that this was something that I needed to work on. She told me that it is liberating when you do. She said that she has recently been able to do this and it has made a difference in her life. Of course I had to ask how she did it.

I must admit, her response surprised me. She said that I needed to get in touch with my spirituality. She realized from reading a passage that if she continued to fret about things that were out of her control then that meant that she didn't trust that God could handle it.

Wow!!! I didn't know what to say. Here I am a 39 year old woman who was raised in a religious family and have tried to allow God to be a part of my life. I will admit, I haven't been very successful the past few years. The thought that I didn't trust that God could handle things never, ever crossed my mind. I get it though.

So with this blog I challenge myself and anyone else who is reading and would like to take the challenge. Don't fret about things that you can not control! Trust that the Lord will not give you more than you can handle. Trust that the Lord is going to help you along the way if you allow Him to do so. Trust that the Lord knows you.

Thank you to my dear friend for opening my eyes.

Happy To Be A Mom

I feel so blessed to have the opportunity to raise four beautiful little boys. Today however, my heart is bursting. It has been a typically Saturday in our home with the exception that I have had the house to my self for about 2 1/2 hours. As as organized some photos that were recently taken of the boys I can't help but feel grateful for each of them. I hope you don't mind but I have posted photos below.

Soccer Boys

If it is meant to be...

This past week I had the opportunity to apply for a new position at work. This application was at the reluctant encouragement from my Manager. I submitted this application with the attitude of "if it is meant to be, it will be". I really enjoy my current position and the Manager that I have. This was the difficult decision that I mentioned in my previous post.

As it turns out, at this time they have chosen not to fill the position that I applied for. I have to admit, I am kind of happy about that. Not that I wouldn't have appreciated the opportunity, I'm glad to be staying where I am, for now.

At A Crossroads...

I've never really thought about using the expression "at a crossroads in my life" until this week. I came face to face with a opportunity that was presented to me by someone I admire and respect. I spent the better part of five days going back and forth weighing the pros and cons trying to decide whether or not I should take advantage of this opportunity.

Today I did it. Regardless of whether it works out or not I am so grateful that I made this decision to pursue it.

Thank you to my friends and family who have encouraged me along the way. I appreciate, more than you know, your words of kindness.

I'll keep you posted...

Mrs. Proctor

"Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country."

Does this phrase sound familiar? If you took any kind of typing class in school it should. I heard this phrase in a radio commercial on my way home from work today. It immediately brought back memories of Mrs. Kathy Proctor. She was my Business teacher in High School.

I spent the majority of my three years of high school in Mrs. Proctor's class typing on electric typewriters, taking dictation in shorthand and working on some of the first computers in the school. Most students didn't care for Mrs. Proctor. She was considered "harsh" to put it politely. Mrs. Proctor was all about work. I liked her. She was my favorite teacher. I wanted to be like her. I even thought at one time in my life that I wanted to teach business to High School students. I came to my senses though and realized that I just don't have the patience for it.

I can honestly say, I think I have some of her work ethic. I love what I do for a living and I owe a lot of that to Mrs. Proctor.

So as I sat "air typing" at every stop light tonight and as I sit here typing this blog, I must say "Thank You" Mrs. Proctor.

Z & A's First Concert

Wish I knew what was going through his head...

He doesn't get his moves from him momma.

Pictures

Mommy's favorite (Trace Adkins)

Daddy helping A get a better look

Toby Keith

Z's turn for a better look

It was fun but it was a very long night for two little boys.

New Image...

This past weekend I decided to highlight my hair. I used to do it all of the time but have not had the time or money for the past several years. I finally decided that I needed a change. So, I added to the color of my hair and, as you can tell, I also added to the look of this blog.

I'm not sure if I am done playing around, with the blog that is.

I hope you enjoy it.

Friends

A Friend
by Sir Shotgun

A friend is the one who tells you the truth
regardless of the cost,
A friend will help you find the thing's
you'd given up as lost

A friend will never put you down
or make you feel alone,
He'll smile and try to comfort you
'cause together you have grown

A friend is the one who picks you up
when you've fallen on the ground,
A friend is the one whose voice at night
is a welcome, warming sound

So when you think you're on your own
and wish you had a helping hand,
Remember, a friend is the one who,
when you cry, will always understand

Because the world is full of people
who will laughingly pretend,
But, when it's said and done
you're lucky if you've got a friend ...

I'm not a fan...

Yesterday the kids and I watched a video of them when they were younger. Can I just say, I don't know that I am a fan of this growing older thing. As my mom always says, they older I get, the older she gets. It's not that I'm opposed to getting older, I just miss the cute things that the kids used to say. Now all I hear is back talk and fighting. I'm not a fan!

Why do they grow up so fast? I'M DEFINITELY NOT A FAN!!!

THANK YOU

For the past several days I have been rolling around in my head what thoughts I wanted to share on my blog. My goal, when I started blogging, was to post something weekly. Now, I will settle for monthly.

My thought today is to say "Thank You". I have spent some time this evening reading different blogs written by friends, acquaintances and those who I only know through blogging. These blogs have made me laugh out loud, ponder deeply, and shed tears that I didn't really know I needed to shed until that moment came.

To each of you I say "Thank you for...

filling my life with joy and peace

helping me to grow as a person

teaching me

showing me the wonderful opportunities this life can give

helping me become a better wife and mother

helping me find patience

helping me see how blessed I am

and

helping me become closer to my Heavenly Father

THANK YOU!!

Hurry Home

I really don't like it when my husband is gone for more than a couple of days. It has been four nights since he left and I don't think I have slept more than 4-5 hours each night. At the rate that I am going, when he does finally come home, I will have had a total of 32-35 hours of sleep in 7 nights.

With that said, this is a fair warning and an apology, in advance, to all those who I will come in contact with until the day he arrives home. I probably won't be the most pleasant person.

Hurry home sweetie!