always + sometimes + never

I'm so sorry for my ridiculously long absence. It has been a long couple of weeks. But in honor of Friday randoms, I'm going to be a copy cat. I was really inspired (maybe that's too deep a word, but I love the idea) by this post I read this morning (a good week after she posted it). And I thought it would be a fun way to do randoms:

i always:
- check my email, facebook, and twitter before going to bed.
- eat the crusts of the sandwich first, and then the middle.
- have to finish my chapter before I put the book down.

i sometimes:
- get songs from Nolan's kids shows stuck in my head for DAYS at a time.
- cheat and drink more than my allotted 20 oz of Coke a day.
- make wishes on clock palindromes

i never:
- leave unopened emails in my inbox
- want to get up in the morning
- let a bottle of milk, soda, or salad dressing sit on the table lidless.

I am off to St. Louis for the weekend, to craft with my mommy friends and have a little down time. Ben and the boy are staying home for some man time. I'm so looking forward to it, but I'm going to miss my boys.

I'm sure I'll have plenty of pictures to share upon my return.

Faith

If there ever was a week to really make me look hard at what I believe. . . this has been it.
In the past week I have lost a dear friend, and gained a new nephew. I've considered my feelings on life and death very seriously. I've gone through stages of grief I didn't realize I had in me, based on my past experiences. I've experienced joy and love for a brand new person that is second only to holding my own son for the first time.

How is it possible?

How can a person feel such high highs and such low lows in such a short span of time? How can we, as mere mortals, wrap our brains and our hearts and our faith around all of this information at once? How is a person supposed to know how to react?

Should I be crying? Should I be laughing? Should I even be concerned about what's "appropriate" right now?

I must admit, I haven't known how to feel.

In the end, I've come to the following conclusion:

The Lord has a plan. It's not for me to know all of the details of how or why, but there IS a plan. All I can do is love and serve the people around me as much as my little human heart will allow, and trust that things will work out in the end.

It's all I can do.

He'll worry about the rest.

Miss You

Instead of randoms this Friday, I would instead like to say how much I'm going to miss my friend Trish, who we lost this week. . . well before her time.

I can still picture her running around like a mad woman at our wedding, keeping the salsa bowls full and the plates cleared from the tables. . . Picture her on stage in the many MANY shows we did together. . . picture her emptying 8 cans of Diet Coke and an entire bag of chocolate in one sitting, while eating a huge plate of broccoli for dinner. She was a wonderful and loyal friend.

But these are the times I'll miss the most. . .

Our pinochle games will never be the same.

She will be so very missed.

Latest Videos

Just a few of our favorite moments from the last few months. Nolan currently enjoys "playing Guitar Hero" with his dad, jumping off of the couch arms, and just generally being a nutty kid. He's slowly picking up words, too, so there is hope!



And his newest favorite pastime. . .

Baking!

No, it's probably not the best idea ever to let him play in the oven. I'm pretty certain he'll get over it quickly. . . and we watch VERY carefully if it's on. And how clever is that?

Building Words

Remember how I told you how Nolan LOVES Word World?

It's one of the few things he actually SAYS (besides Coke, chocolate, and cupcake) the second he hears the theme song . . .

WORD WORLD!!
(except it sounds more like WUH WUHL)

Tamera took a few cell phone pictures of him today, "building some words" with his letters. He has started sorting them by color before he builds. I guess we know he's not color blind!


And eating his alphabet soup:

4th of July

Did we do something fun for our holiday weekend?

Why yes, we did.

We spent time with my sister's family, making use of their beautiful new grass in their perfectly shady backyard and trying not to kill any of the children.

Did I take a single picture the whole weekend?

Why no. No I didn't.

I know, it's bizarre. I take pictures of EVERYTHING. But Nolan had a little cold, so between helping with dinner both nights and trying to keep the boy from A) wiping his nose on every available surface, B) stealing sippy cups or C) diving head first down the stairs. . . there just wasn't time! I didn't even get the camera out of the car.

And it's not that I don't love America. I do.

And I am SO grateful to live in this country, where we are free to celebrate as we wish.

Because, here's my dirty little secret.

I really don't like fireworks. At all. They scare the pants off me. And even on a good day, with plenty of distance, the darkness combined with the flashing of the fireworks just serves to give me a migraine.

And since my kid is young enough not to care. . . we skipped them.

And I don't feel badly about it.

Hope you can all forgive me.

A Good Cause

Ben and I are going to a really cool event tomorrow night, and I had to share. . .

It's the 30 Strangers exhibit, put on by the frightfully talented Justin Hackworth. During the month of April he took gorgeous photos of 30 different Mother/Daughter combos, all of which were strangers to him before hand.

Cooler than that (and seriously, that's already pretty cool) is that these ladies didn't pay him for his services. Rather than paying a sitting fee, they each made a donation to the Center for Women and Children in Crisis, in Provo. Seriously?! How generous is that? And what a fantastic cause. There are so many families out there, single moms finally escaping from abusive situations. . . which is NOT easy to do. And they can use all the help they can get. . .

SO, Thursday night is a big ol' party in downtown Provo (1 East Center Street - Suite 215) from 6-9pm. If you show up that night and donate to this truly worthy cause, Justin is going to take YOUR picture. If you donate $25, you can get a mother/daughter session of your own. If you donate $75, you can get a family session. People, that is an incredibly good deal.

We plan on donating and giving a couple of these sessions as gifts to some awesome women in OUR lives. I asked Justin, and he's OK with you doing that, so show up. . . donate (even if you don't want YOUR picture taken, SOMEONE you know does)

Look at this guy's work! Why would you NOT want him to take your picture?

Awwww