Catching my Breath!

Well, it's been an interesting couple of weeks. Last week Mark had to be out of town and I had two events at my house (that I had to clean for :)). I really, really enjoy having things at my house, but I stress about getting it all clean. Maybe it's that I don't keep up the housecleaning enough, that when it's time to host something, I have to majorly clean! It all turned out okay. We had a super fun time having Loralee's baby shower. Isn't she beautiful?

Patti is a great photographer, so I gave her the camera and had her do her magic. Everything looked beautiful thanks to Katie who helped me set everything up!

Patti's orange rolls! So yummy!!

 And all our peeps! Love these girls!

Cami doing the fun game...

Opening presents...

Moving on to this week....Jayce had had a cough for a few days, but by Saturday it was really bad and he was running a fever. By Monday I decided it was bad enough to take him in to see Dr. Berent. Sure glad we did because it is pneumonia!! It has been a very long week of worry and sick bay. Every night I've slept on his floor for at least part of the night. And, he cries for an hour each day when he has to take Azithromycin because it tastes so bad (no matter how we try to fix it). I'm glad we only have one more day of that. Today he seems to have turned a corner, thankfully. I am looking forward to seeing this smiling face again!

We're looking so forward to the long weekend. Mark and I celebrating our anniversary Friday night, then house and yard work on Saturday. Then onto a wonderful Sunday, followed by Memorial Day! We're having a few families over for a barbeque! I love summertime barbeques!!

How Do I Love Thee...

Let me count the ways...

Tomorrow Mark and I will have been married for 26 years. 

Just a few of the things I love about him, he:

is my best friend

is great at assembling things

can fix anything

is psycho about killing rodents 

was right on in getting us through hard years

is always willing to listen, and compromise

is the computer expert in our house

was humble enough to have all our children

is a great pumpkin carver

keeps meticulous care of our cars

is very patient with me and all my weaknesses

loves our children

loves learning how to work his camera

works so hard to provide for our family

strives to be a righteous Priesthood holder, husband and father

will eat anything I cook without complaint

always bathed the children when they were young so I could have a break

ran a marathon with me even though he didn't want to

gives great counsel

loves Pennie because I do

always listens to me and knows sometimes I just need to talk

I feel like I really got the better end of this deal. Hands down.

I sure wish we were in Hawaii together like we were last year. But, alas, Mark is in China. We'll definitely celebrate when he gets home.

Derek Goes to the Senior Prom!!

Derek did not want to go to prom. He told me last December he didn't want to go. I told him that was fine with me...prom is expensive and overrated. But, now I'm so glad he went!! He was too shy to ask his date, but she was bold enough to ask him, and he said (and I quote), "Sure!" They each paid for their own prom ticket ($65 apiece) and the Walton's hosted the dinner before.

The Walton's really know how to throw a party. The girls all went over to the Walton's on Saturday morning to prepare all the dinner and the menus.

 The table was absolutely beautiful!

Derek and Whitney just arriving...

In the entryway

Cute, cute girls!!

Cute Sadie and Mikael!

Adding Bree and Taylor to the mix -

Cute shot!

 I think they were getting tired of smiling...

We left them in the hands of Butler Dave -

In spite of his hesitancy, I think Derek had a good time. Whitney is super sweet and it was good for him to have practice being a gentleman. I couldn't sleep until he got home this morning (around 2:30 a.m. because they went to someone's house afterward to play games) and I was so worried he wouldn't walk her to the door at the end of the evening...but he did. This morning, he said, "Of course, I know that, Mom." Maybe he knows more than I think he knows :).

Birthday Season!

This is our birthday time of year. We have Caitlin's on April 22, Dallin's on April 26, Mark's on May 1, and Derek's on May 9. And since adding Billy to our family, we have another one on May 23! We eat a lot of cake and have a lot of fun. Everyone gets to choose their birthday dinner and what kind of cake they want. It's always interesting how the choices vary. We've had everything from grilled salmon to pizza delivered...whatever the birthday boy or girl wants.

Mark loves to have a devil's food cake with what his mom calls "fluffy white frosting".  I think it is very old school...you make it with karo syrup and egg whites over a double boiler.

This is Derek's birthday...wouldn't be complete without help from Pennie on opening presents.

He's gonna need those white shirts very soon...

He wanted new t-shirts. This one is for the Lake Elsinore Storm...a minor league baseball team. They are part of the Padres system, so Derek would want to support them of course.

I wonder what he is wishing for...no burns? Goofy kid.

Derek is now the big 1-8. He could sign himself out of school. He can vote. He will pay income tax. He is legal. Good thing he is such a great kid! And one year from now, he'll be leaving on his mission. Oh my. How did the time go so fast? It was just yesterday he was little...

Love that kid!

sweet moments

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Love this face!!

Don't you??

Thanks, Mark, for being such a good photographer :).

I Am a Lucky Mom!!

Mother's Day can be really hard for some women. For some, it can be a reminder of unfulfilled hopes.  Many years ago on Mother's Day, I had to take a crying baby out of sacrament meeting, and one of my friends in the ward who had teenagers (who were making painful choices in their lives) was out in the foyer crying.  She said she hated Mother's Day and is always glad when it's over.  I guess, during some trying years, I've had similar feelings. But I am very grateful that my children have brought me "joy as exceeding as was my pain" (Alma 36:20). Still, I am mindful that some women have not been able to have children, or their children have brought them sorrow, or their sadness may relate to their own mothers.

I tell my kids all the time how lucky I am. Maybe all moms feel like this, but I have tingly moments almost every day. Yes, those moments are intermingled with frustration and worry, and I wish some things were different, but I feel lucky nonetheless. I realize it's all been good learning.

On Friday I attended Jayce's Mother's Day program at school. I'm telling you, this sweet program is mom payment...it's just so wonderful!

After the singing program, we went back into the classroom to have treats.

Mother's Day really started for me on Saturday when I got to run on the beach. Allison Chen and I ran a five mile out and back run from Torrey Pines to the Del Mar racetrack. It is my new favorite thing to do. At low tide, the sand is hard packed, flat and easy to run on. My knees don't hurt afterward either. And I never am more grateful to live in such a beautiful place than when I'm running early in the morning on the beach. (Not to be confused with the experience of taking the kids to the beach in the summer with a million other people there :).)

After the beach run, I came home and cleaned bathrooms and vacuumed. Whew. It's not like it was exciting while I was cleaning, it wasn't. But it sure feels nice to have it clean. You know? Then, we decided to use up our last two Disneyland passes by having Mark take Jayce up there for the afternoon and evening. It was super crowded because Disneyland was closing at 5:00 due to the world premiere of the new Pirates movie. They still had fun, though! They spent most of the day at California Adventure.

So, we were left at home. Derek went up to Vista for his baseball game, Cody had homework, and I went to get a pedicure and out to eat with Sandi. Way fun!! In the evening I really wanted to watch a movie because I rarely do anymore. Cody didn't want to watch my movie because he had a bang-em-up-shoot-em-up one he wanted to watch with Derek. So, it was Pride and Prejudice upstairs by myself. I enjoyed it, even though I've watched it 20 times or so, but who's counting?

On Sunday, Mark was up, on the job, fixing breakfast. I decided to come down and help because he needed to get to church by 10:00. The boys got up and Derek cooked the pancakes. Church was wonderful, we had some great speakers. And after church, I took a little nap while Mark and the boys fixed salmon, pasta, green beans, salad and strawberry shortcake! I felt very spoiled! Caitlin's card came in the form of a sweet blogpost (click here if you want to read it :)) . And Jayce made some special things:

My favorite:

 "My Mom is special because she lets me watch really scary movies." 

(I'm especially glad he shared this with his teacher.)

According to Jayce, I'm 43 years old (it's okay if he makes me younger),

I like to rest,

I have blue eyes,

my birthday is August 6th,

I was born in California,

my favorite food is corn (or cow),

I help him sleep in his bed,

I'm best at cleaning.

I never heard from Dallin, I don't know where he is and I haven't heard from him in a while. Sigh.

I'll end with my beautiful Mother's Day flowers. Earlier in our marriage I told Mark not to bother with flowers because they seemed so impractical (I don't know why I ever said that, because I've never been super practical.) But, I really just love fresh flowers. We have a lot more growing in our yard now and I love them. I periodically just get some because they're beautiful. Mark would have gotten them, but we chose for him to spend the day with Jayce rather than getting stuff for me. And I was fine with that.

At the end of the long Sunday for him, he said the sweetest thing. He said, "I really wish I could've done more for you today. I wish I could give you a Mother's Day week. One day doesn't seem like enough." Yes, I am a lucky mom, indeed.