Who's Doin' What...

I am sitting in my back yard, under the shade of my covered patio.  I can hear dozens of birds, chattering in the trees above me.  All of our rose bushes are in full bloom.  The yellow roses are the prettiest.   The chicken is B-B-Qin' and the pasta salad is chilling, dinner at 4:00.

And I am exuberantly happy.

I had an epiphany this week.  I was doing some research and it took me off on a tangent.  One article lead to another, which lead to another and 2 hours later, I had been enlightened on something that has bothered me for a very long time.  It was an answer to a prayer.  It was an answer to a problem.  And I got significant closure.   The only way I can explain it, is my Heavenly Father helped me.   I am so happy with the decisions it has and will help me to make.

Raleigh:  I love him.  That is all there is to it.  He makes me happy every single day.   I woke up this morning and I don't know why but a thought came into my head...  "what would your life be like if you'd never known him?"  And I burst into tears.  How completely sad.  I didn't even want to think or imagine my life without him.  He makes me SO much better.  SO much happier.

Brayden:  Is completely OVERWHELMED with his math class.  He has so much to do before the end of the year.  He goes over to Papa's house every night and they sit at the table and work on the assignments together.  I am proud of him that he is plugging away, even though it is so hard.  (I feel guilty that I have not only passed my math genes on to him, but that I CAN NOT help him AT ALL).
He literally cannot think of anything past May 8th.  That is when everything is due.  And I truly believe that if he can get through this, he can get through anything.  Bless his heart.  Pray for him.  He needs it.

Quincey:  My boss hired Quincey to be a helper to him.  She took two jobs from him this week.  And he pays her really well.  She surprised me.  She was very diligent to do a good job and he was very impressed.  Now she has a little cash in her pocket and the promise of plenty of work this summer.

Morgan:  Went and had a sport's physical this week.  She is trying out for the tennis team.  Of course, Morgan being Morgan.... she isn't trying out so that she can be on the team, she's trying out for future scholarship potential and to have extracurricular activities on her high school resume so that she'll have a better chance of getting into the college of her choice.

Allison:  Got to go to Nevada to her cousin's wedding.  It's so weird that she is old enough to be getting married.  I remember when she was a brand new baby.  But she had a nice time at the wedding and she looked really cute.  (I wish I had a picture.)

Ryker got a hair cut.  We bid the mullet a fond farewell and kept a lock of his hair in an envelope, for what purpose, I don't know.  But he's sylin' now.  

On to Peyton and Kaleigh....

Usually so well behaved.   Usually so positively self entertained.   Usually darling daughters. 

But....  yesterday I was taking a shower.  And I could hear them roaring with laughter just outside the bathroom door.  I listened to them with a smile on my face, wondering what was going on to make them so joyous.  It never dawned on me to get out and see if they were being naughty in any way, because they aren't like that.  So imagine my surprise when I opened the door and saw the clothes hamper turned upside down and Peyton standing on it, next to my shelf that holds my Willow Tree Doll collection...  and she had picked up every single one of them and had thrown them down forcefully to Kaleigh, who couldn't possibly ever be able to catch them....  and each and every one had landed with a thud on the floor and each and every one of the dolls was missing it's head.  

And neither of them thought this was a bad thing.  They didn't run and hide when I came out, they just stood there, proud of their new game, proud of their results.  They were both in shock when I began to react.  I was sick with sadness.  And I told them to go into the back yard for one hour so that I could calm down and wipe my tears.  I am not a materialistic person but it made me so sad.  I think it wasn't that they were broken that made me sad, but that they did that and thought that it was okay.  

Well,  the love of my life came home, Super Glue in hand and fixed them.  I knew he would.  And they are nearly back to like new condition because he's a perfectionist and he is very talented in the area of repairs.  And he gave them a very stern talking to.  The kind of "Dad Talks" you HATE as a kid.  And I wish I could say they got the message....  but they are too little to get it.  

Boo Hoo!!!  Kids make it so hard to have nice things.  I haven't had nice things for SO LONG!!!  And I have so long to go before I do.  Good thing it really doesn't matter that much to me.  But, dang it.  I would, at the very least, like the things I do have to be unbroken.