Celebrating Sam

We didn't have time to do anything for Sam's birthday on Saturday, so I asked the kids what they'd want for a treat and they requested a skookie.  

It almost made me want to cry to take a picture of them without Jake there too...

Ugh.  Happy birthday in heaven Sam!  You've got some awesome siblings.

 

14

 14 years ago, Sam was born!  He was so beautiful and perfect.  It's crazy to think of all the things that have happened in life since then.  Our family has changed so much.

Today was a busy day.  I thought of Sam all week and thought of him in the morning, but we didn't do anything super special for him.  I didn't even buy balloons.

We started out with football in the early morning.  Nate had to be at the field by 7:30.  So, I dropped him off and came home to get a few things done before going to watch him play.

The game started at 8:30 and we showed up to watch him play.  He plays receiver.  He got targeted 4 times but didn't get any balls thrown to him.  He was there, and open a lot so I hope one of these days, the QB will trust him and throw it his way.  

They lost the game, but put up a good fight.

We came home and cleaned the garage out a bit and the boys mowed the lawn.  Allie graced us with her presence and we all had a nice lunch.  Then, Allie had to go to work and Jason and I had to head to Morgan for his football game.

The day was gorgeous.  We listened to Harry Potter on the way and enjoyed the sunshine that wasn't bearing down too hot.

Jason's game was a bit sad.  He hurt his knee two weeks ago, and again in practice on Wednesday, so he was limping around quite a bit.  He had a huge game last week playing defensive tackle and offensive tackle too.  This week, he didn't play much at all.  Not sure if they were resting him with his knee, or what.  It was a pretty big loss too.

But when he was in, he stuck to his guy till the whistle was blown and he tried his best to get the tackles.  He was disappointed in himself though and sad for the loss.

Sad day for the littles.  

We drove home in the beautiful weather (with the top off the Bronco) and rushed to meet up with Mike at the USU game.  He and Nate were there and we were able to get Jason there in time to have a great time watching the Aggies play.  They smashed Idaho State (78-28) and the boys loved it.  They had fun with the after game light show and just had a good time with their dad.  

I came home to find that our cute neighbor had brought us cookies for Sam's birthday.  Always fun when others remember Sam too. :)

Allie came home with a flat tire on Sharla.  We filled it with air, but things were still looking funky, so I told her to take Jake's truck.  It needed some love after missing Jake for almost 2 weeks anyway.

Charlie missed me and snuggled in next to me whenever I sat down and wherever I went for the rest of the evening until Mike got home.  He loves me, but not as much as he loves Mike.  :)

We ended up with one of the most beautiful sunsets I've seen in a while.  Seems like a fitting end to the day that marks 14 years of loving the body God gave to my amazing son Sam.  I'm so glad to be his mom.  I'm so glad that he is in our lives and helps us all the time.  I'm so glad that I know that he lives.  I know that he still works to help our family stay strong.  He's with us when we need him.  I know that he's with Jake often, now that we aren't all under the same roof, and I'm so glad for that.  Life is so good and I'm so grateful to have had Sam in it.  Even if it was just for a little while here on Earth. 

SV vs Ridgeline

We have been going to the football games to watch Allie cheer.  We used to go for the half time show or for the beginning when Allie would dance with the Vistauns.  We'd even stay for part of the games if the boys wanted to come along for a bit, but we rarely stayed the whole game.  Tonight we stuck around till the bitter end.  It was such a great game!  The score was so close for most of it and then it came down to the last minutes and seconds of the game, but the Bobcats pulled out with a W and it was so fun to see the kids so excited.  Allie is fun to watch.  

These pictures will never do it justice, but she is such a beautiful girl!  I love to look out there and see her big bright smile.  She's got a beautiful smile and she does a cute little head shake with a twinkle in her eye when she sees a friend or if she makes a wrong move in a dance.  She's got such a happy disposition...she's a perfect cheerleader.  I know I'm her mom, so I am supposed to think the world of my kid, but I think even if I wasn't, I'd still think she was a beautiful girl out there because her inner beauty shines through.

Enough of that...

Last night, she got to perform a dance that she and Lily choreographed together.  They have been working on it for a few months and taught it to the other cheerleaders and got to perform at halftime.

Allie had a little miracle this week.  On Thursday, she was in practice and Lily almost got dropped as they were stunting.  She didn't want that to happen again, so on the next stunt, Allie stood in a different position so she could catch her, and she took a knee to the face.  She was on the ground and not quite sure what had happened.  She had a bloody lip and a tender face with the promise of some bruising.  As people stopped to help, she was completely out of it.  She tried to shake it off, but she found that she couldn't concentrate on the dance and that she couldn't even remember the routine that she herself had made up.  She sat out the rest of practice and was told that she had to go in to be seen by the trainer after school to rule out a concussion.  She called me and was really upset because she was sure that she had a concussion and they wouldn't let her dance in her halftime show the next day.  She told me all that happened and how she was feeling and I was pretty sure that she would probably have to sit it out too.  She asked me to pray for her and when we hung up, I was trying to decide if I should pray for her to be ok and cleared, or if I should pray that she would be able to perform it another time and that she would find peace in the decision to make her sit out.  It's so hard...I knew that if she had a concussion, the healthy thing would be to sit out, but I also knew how much it meant to her and I knew she'd be devastated if she had to miss.  So I just said a generic prayer, but as I baked (it was a baking day), and as people came to the door and chatted with me, it was almost weird how many of them asked how Allie was liking cheer...or mentioned that they loved watching her at the games, or asked if I'd be going to see her halftime show.  I'd tell them of the incident and they'd offer to pray.  So, she had lots of random people praying for her.

I texted her to see how she was doing and she said her first two classes were a blur, but by lunch time, she was feeling much better.  I was happy to hear that.    

So, by the time she went in to see the trainer, she only had a slight headache and she wasn't confused or dizzy anymore.  She feels like it was a miraculous recovery and she was cleared to dance on Friday night.  So she was happy for that little tender mercy in her life.  

The boys came to watch her dance and we all thought she did great!

We stayed for the whole game, but made the mistake of staying in the bleachers until the end of the game.  We were stuck behind a bottleneck of students waiting to rush the field for the school song.  So we just stayed for that.

I don't know what one is Allie, but it's easy to find the cheerleaders in the circle!

The boys get in free if they wear their jerseys so they wear them proudly.

I loved my high school years, but it sure seems like I have more of a sense of community with Sky View than I ever did with Mountain View.  It's fun to hear the names over the loud speaker of kids that I've watch grow up.  It was a really fun night.  Perfect cool weather, a beautiful sunset, and a ride home in the Bronco with the top off so we could look at the stars.  Life is good. 

Basement Boys

It's been a little different to have Nathan downstairs.  When the boys were next door to each other, the fights and chaos were mostly upstairs and in the hallway.  When I say fights, I mean fights over stolen footballs (or anything really) where wrestling matches ensued.  

Lately, they've taken to having a wrestling match in the basement every night before bed.  

Tonight, I was in the kitchen when I heard Allie say "how touching".  

I came to the top of the stairs to see what she was talking about...

The boys were reading next to each other.

Note to Allie: if you're going to jump into a picture to be annoying, I'll post it.  :)

 

Fantasy Football Season

Tonight was the draft for the fantasy football team that the boys are on for YM.  Jason got lucky and got to join this year.  

 It was funny to hear them talk about each player.  They put a lot of thought into their teams and they are excited to see how they do.  There's already some smack talk.

Maybe it's time for me to learn a little about the sport?

Oh Deer

I planted my tomatoes in a new spot this year.  They love it!  I've got the biggest tomato plants that I've ever had before and they would probably be wonderful producers.  I wouldn't know though...

Every time the tomatoes get pink, these guys show up...

Charlie does his best to scare them off with his barks and huffing, hopping, growling moves...but he just doesn't get it done.  

It's so frustrating.  I get that they are hungry, but come on!  Why can't they eat all the other stuff around this joint? 

I have been planting tomatoes here at this house for 22 years.  I've never gotten more than 3 or 4 from all my efforts.  This year, my plants are loaded with green tomatoes and I probably won't see one of them.  It's rough.

Just had to vent a bit.  I'm planting the tomatoes there again next year, but I'm also going to make a fence of some sort. 
 

I don't know if there is any animal that makes me want to cuss so much as these dirty rotten pieces of crap.  Ugh.  Get out of my yard! (That's Charlie's "go" phrase.  If he hears that, he goes wild.  Doesn't matter where we are, he hears those words and he's off on a tirade :))

First Email For the Masses

 What a crazy first week. The plane ride was awful. It was 14 hours next to a smelly guy and a "plus sized woman". Then we got picked up by this hilarious Filipino. The way traffic works here is you cut people off or you don't move. Since I got here from last week it's been nothing but the gospel grind. It's been incredibly fun though. The humidity is no joke man. It's a once in a blue moon experience when it isn't raining. My district is way fun and my companion is a total stud. He looks like Chris Hemsworth, went on a foreign exchange trip in France, plays incredible classical piano, and is the chillest dude ever to exist. We were made zone leaders which is kinda cool but sucks cheeks when we have to organise district leaders. I've been getting better at basketball but I keep on getting sauced up by Elder Bigtas (it's pronounced big toss which is an awesome last name) The food is great most of the time but there are always bone fragments in everything. Which is probably training for the field.  Today we ate these crazy hot peppers for fun. I'm not sure what type they were but they were painful. I'll attach a video if I can. The spirit here is incredible and it makes all the effort worth it. It feels  like a prison sometimes with the white skies and rain 24/7. That would be the hardest thing for me here. I would kill to watch a orange sunset on the pyramids. The compound life here gets to you sometimes. I'm getting into the groove and I can't wait to get into the field. I'll probably do these once a week. If you guys wanna ad me on messenger its just my name and my profile pic its just me looking like a goober. Jake 

Jake's Face

It was brutal saying goodbye to my cute boy.  Brutal.  I came home and stayed busy, but I was wondering how he was doing.  We got a message through Facebook messenger on Tuesday saying that he had made it there.  He wrote his first letter and we couldn't help but feel a little better knowing that he had made it there safely and was getting adjusted to the time change.  

So all that was good. But I was looking forward to seeing his face through a video call.  He texted on Sunday as we were eating dinner that he would be able to call the next day at about that same time.  We were so excited.  

So, I looked forward to it all day.

It was Labor day so we were home.  The boys didn't have football.  It's also my dad's birthday, so we looked at some pictures of him, talked about him, and then we went out to lunch together as a family.  There was a bit of a wait for a table, so we walked through a store while we waited for a table to open up.  I was with the boys, but they found squeaky dog toys and were honking them all over the place.  I have found that if I don't want to be embarrassed by them, I just walk away and pretend I don't know them.  It wasn't too much after that when I got a call from Mike.  I was in line waiting to buy a shirt for Mike and he was somewhere else in the store.  He was laughing through the phone line and told me to check out the boys.  They were walking toward me in matching bright yellow coats.  They were walking like gangsters and it was hilarious.  They cracked the whole line up.

                               

These two are a good time for sure.

We had a good dinner and came home to work on the rooms a bit more.  We've been switching out bedrooms and getting things adjusted at home.  I painted the front door a navy blue and it's inspiring us to do all sorts of projects.  The house is really feeling old and banged up, now that we've lived here for over 20 years. 

Anyway, the time finally came where we could get on with Jake.  He called and we combined the call so we could all be on at the same time.  

I had been praying that the first look would be a happy one.  I wanted to open up that screen and see that Jake was happy and doing well.  I was worried if I could handle a sad Jake.  It would be just too hard to see him not succeeding and doing well.  So, it was a huge relief to see a smiling boy on the other end of the screen.   

                                                             

                                                             

We talked about all kinds of things.  He told us about his district and the guys he lives with.  He took us on a walk through the MTC so we could see where he keeps his stuff.  He has a top bunk and said he's already given his companions a show with his night time sleep talking.  

He walked outside and showed us the spire of the temple and as he sat there, we watched him get hotter and hotter.  You can tell that it's humid.

A spider snuck up on him and he showed us that too.  Heebie jeebies for sure.

Allie was on a date swing dancing so she chimed in for a few minutes and we watched her dance a little with her date.  Technology is just amazing.

We talked to him until we really didn't know what else to say.  We said goodbye and agreed to talk a little later when Allie was home.  So, we called him back a little later and heard a few more stories with Allie on the line.  

It was just so good to hear his happy voice and see his smiling face.  He's doing ok and it's such a relief.  Can't wait to see how things go in a week.  I can see how p-days become favorites for everyone.

Summer Storm

We had a crazy rain storm today.  It's hard to show in pictures, but it rained buckets.  Then it started to hail.  We went out to the porch to check it out and Nate decided he wanted to go for a bike ride in it.  Jason joined him and it wasn't long before they were both soaked to the bone.

They rode down to the end of the neighborhood and said there was a river flowing through the street.  It didn't last more than 10 minutes and that's a good thing because our house might have flooded.  It was coming down like crazy and I pictured window wells filling up, but they didn't. 

It's always fun to have storms like that.

 

Tender Mercy

 We've been a bit sad this week, but for the most part, we're doing ok.  But today was fast and testimony meeting at church and the first person to walk up and bear testimony was a visitor.  He was from California and he and his wife were visiting Chris and Carol Johnson who have been missionaries this last year in LA.  He started out by thanking us (as their ward family) for letting his ward have them for the last little while.  He talked about how hard they worked and how great they were to have around.  So, that was all cool to hear about people that I love and respect.  Then, he talked about the other reason he came to Utah, and that was to visit his Utah mom.  He's from the Philippines and was converted and a couple that was there serving a mission took him under their wing and loved him.  When he was old enough to go on a mission and wanted to go, the Utah mom paid for his mission.  He went on to talk about how his life was blessed by having the Gospel in it and how grateful he was for his Utah mom.  

I sat there and bawled.  I thought of how sad I was to see Jake walk away for 2 years, but how one day, he might meet a kid like this and teach him and help him find his way to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and change his life forever.  Who am I to want to keep him here instead of sending him out the door to do that?  So, I got up and bore testimony of that and talked about how grateful I was to know that the things I am making a sacrifice for are true, and worth it.

We got to talk with Brother Jun and Sister Arlene (no one knows how to pronounce their full names so they shorten them to that) after church.  They talked about how much the Filipino people love missionaries and how much Jake will love it.  They talked of how much the church has grown.  There are going to be 6 temples there.  When he was wanting to go through the temple, the saints had to travel to Tokyo and no one could afford it.  So, now this is easier for them and much more possible to do.  

I love that Jake gets to be there to watch the growth and bring happiness to their lives.  It's all a good thing.  Even if I will still miss my boy daily.