more Pictures

Daddy and Isabelle at Joseph Smith's home in Palyra NY

 Patterson Farms October 2010

 Josh in Bucket August 2011

Steers and Sneaky Josh August 2011 

Rocky River Reservation

Squashy Joshy chachi

I was just thinking today about how fat Josh used to be.  This is him almost exactly a year ago!  So cute!  I love this little boy.  Here is a picture of another little boy I love.  I had fun playing with this picture in my editor.  He is holding my favorite little boy at the church's Kirtland site in the saw mill.  So Cute!!!

To a New Beginning

I am so excited for school to start and not because Abby is leaving.  I am excited for the new beginning.  I am excited for the new routine-ahhh blessed routine.  I am excited to enjoy new friendships and rekindle old friendships.  I am excited for a long and healing fall.  I am excited to have some reason to say that we can start over and bring out fresh crayons and fresh perspectives.  I am ready to let go of old weighty things and start floating.  

Abby's Kindergarten Graduation and Isabelle Growing Up

This week we passed two milestones.  Abby graduated from Kindergarten.  I have better pictures that I will post later-we mostly took video of her singing cute kindergarten songs.  She was so sweet.  It is a little weird that she had her ceremony a week before school ends.  I know.  I can't believe that she is so grown up!  I really love who she is becoming.  She is helpful and thoughtful. She is funny and the perfect 5 year old.

Isabelle is 7 months old.  This week she decided that she would be able to go all the way from laying flat to sitting up to standing up on her own.  This has lead to some disastrous, although not discouraging, falls.  Like off the bed.  She can crawl any and all pillow mountains without thought of what might be beyond them.  We are pulling out the crib this week to prevent further falling and give her a safe space to be.  She is eating macaroni and cheese and cookies with her little gums.  No teeth in sight yet!  At the rate she is going I wouldn't be surprised if she walks by 8 months.  : (  I really like this stage but she is already pushing off my lap like she could just walk away.

Josh.  Oh Josh.  He has had a CT scan of his little head to see if he needs any kind of surgery for sinus polyps or adenoids.  I am still debating about scheduling a sleep study although I think he would probably benefit from it.  He woke up 4 times last night.  Which makes cranky parents.  I am kind of waiting to have Abby finish up with school.

Our days are already filling up with bike rides and park days.  It is really nice to be outside so much. 

Race Day

We ran the Cleveland Rite Aid 5k again this year.  I ran the 5k with Courtney.  She kicked my butt.  She is a speedy devil.  I did not make my New Years Goal so I will try again later this year.  I still did better than last year though-  I averaged 9:20min/mile inspite of that all too common runner's ailment that causes you to have problems in the middle of a race and then again after the race.  Stories that are usually told to only other runners.  

Abby ran the kids race.  Josh made his first attempt.  They both got medals and 'presents' as they called them.   Abby actually ran, while Josh cried and had Adam carry him.  It was pretty cool because they held the race on the Brown's Stadium Field.  It was raining, or rather misting the whole time.  Just like always.  Sometimes I think that I must live in Washington.  

It was a great time and I am excited to run this race again.  And to race again.

The End is Near

A week ago I had the opportunity to watch a group of little kids while their parents went to their OCPM graduation ceremony.  It was different than previous graduations because I knew these people.  Almost everyone is leaving the state.  And most of them are doing it for good.  It is odd to view their drama, one that unfolds so publicly.  For several of them it was the last time that they would go to our church building.  Their families were there and they were able to share some of the memories made here.  Watching their end, and subsequent beginning, made me think of our own impending end and new beginning.

It also made me think of my last ending.  We left Texas nearly two years ago.  I remember that day, taking a picture that isn't even on this computer(we got this computer after we moved here in 2009), to document our last time living at my parents house.  We stood right outside the tree in the front yard.  My dad took the picture.  I still feel sad that I don't get to wander back to his office and ask him if we can go to lunch.  Or offer him some toast and eggs for breakfast.  Or tell him he has to eat vegetables at dinner time.

I remember marking the end of the street, which I had run literally hundreds of times on hot, humid Texas mornings.  I remember passing the grocery stores where I learned how to coupon.  I remember leaving Dallas, and then Texas.  And that was my end.  The border of Texas.  It was still hot, but not Texas hot.  And Texas was no longer home.

Home was somewhere new.  A place I didn't know yet.  A place without memories or family or friends.  When we got here we were so blessed to have half the ward come and move us in.  We nestled into our first house, our first house that we own.  And started making it our home.

And just two short years later I am looking forward and planning how we are going to move out.  I am already nervous to put it on the market and look around and making lists and checking things off of things that we need to do.  I guess when you know that you aren't going to be somewhere for a long time it is hard to really settle.  It's more like recovery time before you next sprint.  

Children

Last week the challenges piled up.  And I was weighed down.  My husband, in spite of his heavy and arduous load (it was the beginning of a grueling test week) came home just long enough for me to take a quick run.  I ran out, heavy and burdened.  As my focus shifted from every other role I was juggling to runner I was able to look up and see the beautiful sunset.  I was able to breathe in the comfortable air and the sweet smell of mowed lawns.  I thought about the ways I challenged myself and how I want to put in more miles.  I genuinely want to run more.

Then I began to think about children, because I am a mom.  And no matter what or where we are the hardest thing to do is to not think about your children.  The thought occurred to me that children are a lot like miles.  Some people can't imagine one.  Others are happy to have two.  Some like three.  It is comfortable and there are lots of other people who do three.  It's a nice stopping point, long enough for a race but short enough to eat before you head out.  There are still others who dream of six or ten or twenty six or fifty.  Some don't ever want to stop.

Some feel like each one is a gift from God and can cherish and enjoy each one as they are given.  Some physically can't have one even though it is all they have dreamed of.  Other's struggle with one or two.  Some are easy and some are hard.  Some make you mad when they don't go quite as you planned.  Some make you crazy with all of their ups and downs.  Some make you cry.  Some make you laugh.  Some make you suffer, but also make you feel like you grew in the end.  Really each one is different, unique in the way that you handle them and the way they make you feel.  Some are so bad that you swear you will never do it again.  Others are so good you swear you could keep going forever.

The way I saw it that evening was insightful.  I'm not really sure where I fit in the whole scheme of it all, but I do very much feel that miles and children are the same.