Reflection of ‘07

Wow what a year! Thanks for being around. some of you have stuck through since the beginning and some of you have happened across my site.

So much has happened so i thought i would reflect back on a few of them, the good and the bad..(in no particular order)

• I painted a steel hulled ship in the middle of January. I loved every minute of it!
• I held the frozen sewer pipe to a steel hulled ship, trying to defrost it so 50 people could have running water.
• i stomped my feet and told a bunch of maintenance men to tell me everything was going to be alright after the ship tried to sink itself, they did not know what to do with me, so they told me “everything is going to be alright” it was great.
• I realized being “served” by an officer of the court is not as dramatic as it is on TV.
• I realized I am a lot stronger than i thought i was the year before.
• I survived the my oldest leaving 3rd grade and moving on to the 4th grade
• I also survived the twins leaving 1st grade and both going to 2nd grade.
• I managed to enjoy the summer of camp, they are long hard days and could not be done with out a lot of help, thank you JNB.
• I survived hiking up Zealand Falls in a group of 9 people. 4 adults and 5 kids!
• One of the 9 people I had never meet, he showed that there are really nice people out there thank you J.
• The hiking trip also showed that I can do more than i thought (like taking a sh*t in the woods)
• I found being naked in the woods is very freeing
• I saw a friend and a co worker graduate with her masters! Good Job RR.
• My oldest turned 9 in April, he shares a birthday with a very good friend! i wont tell you how old he is…hehehe
• I gained a new job, while some how keeping my old one…hummm what happened there i am not sure.
• i managed to read out loud the first 4 1/2 book of Harry Potter to my boys! I will read them all out loud…
• I made new friends
• I found it is okay to trust others, i now know it now and i will do better letting people in…. i understand we are all in this together!
• I capsized a brand new boat in front of tons of people in a skirt!
• I watched a friend fall in love, and after over a year she still lights up like a Christmas tree when talking about him.
• I reconnected with old friends
• My twins turned 7! OMG where does the time go!!!
• I lost touch with other friends
• i realized i want cannot always get what i want.
• i got lost, but had my best friend on the phone telling me it was going to be all right and it was.
• some friendships have gotten stronger and will be stronger even through bumpy times, thank you for being so good to me even when i cannot say that.
• i got an in car navigation system so i never have to be on the phone lost, thanks mom and dad!
• I found out that family court is not as like Judge Amy
• I did not see Mrs. Palmer come out in town but did see her and Mr. Jennings coaching all the new townies!
• i cried so hard my eyes hurt
• i laughed so hard my stomach hurt
• i smiled so much my face hurt
• I finally cut my hair after two years! 5 inches! Yikes and I went back to my natural color…oh right you did not know that was not my natural color..hehehe
• I realized that some underwear has latex in the elastic bands, very bad for a person who is very sensitive to latex
• I have loved
• I have been loved
• I have laughed some more!

I am looking forward to 2008. I am hoping for a great year. I know there will be some great times and I KNOW some bad ones are to come. But i say, bring it on and give me your best shot!!

Happy New Year!!

The Perfect Heart (parable)

Okay so i have been looking all over for this parable. I truly believe in it, live by it, sometimes i find it hard. But I think we all need to remember our hearts may not be perfect they are beautiful. Love unconditionally.

 

The Perfect Heart (Parable)

One day a young man was standing in the middle of the town proclaiming that he had the most beautiful heart in the whole valley. A large crowd gathered and they all admired his heart for it was perfect. There was not a mark or a flaw in it. Yes, they all agreed it truly was the most beautiful heart they had ever seen. The young man was very proud and boasted more loudly about his beautiful heart.Suddenly, an old man appeared at the front of the crowd and said “Why your heart is not nearly as beautiful as mine.” The crowd and the young man looked at the old man’s heart. It was beating strongly, but full of scars, it had places where pieces had been removed and other pieces put in, but they didn’t fit quite right and there were several jagged edges. In fact, in some places there were deep gouges where whole pieces were missing.

The people stared – how can he say his heart is more beautiful, they thought? The young man looked at the old man’s heart and saw its state and laughed. “You must be joking,” he said. “Compare your heart with mine, mine is perfect and yours is a mess of scars and tears.”

“Yes,” said the old man, “Yours is perfect looking but I would never trade with you. You see, every scar represents a person to whom I have given my love – I tear out a piece of my heart and give it to them, and often they give me a piece of their heart which fits into the empty place in my heart, but because the pieces aren’t exact, I have some rough edges, which I cherish, because they remind me of the love we shared. Sometimes I have given pieces of my heart away, and the other person hasn’t returned a piece of his heart to me. These are the empty gouges — giving love is taking a chance.

Although these gouges are painful, they stay open, reminding me of the love I have for these people too, and I hope someday they may return and fill the space I have waiting. So now do you see what true beauty is?”

The young man stood silently with tears running down his cheeks. He walked up to the old man, reached into his perfect young and beautiful heart, and ripped a piece out. He offered it to the old man with trembling hands. The old man took his offering, placed it in his heart and then took a piece from his old scarred heart and placed it in the wound in the young man’s heart. It fit, but not perfectly, as there were some jagged edges. The young man looked at his heart, not perfect anymore but more beautiful than ever, since love from the old man’s heart flowed into his. They embraced and walked away side by side.

How sad it must be to go through life with a whole untouched heart.

photo friday

Watch Hill Lighthouse

Nathaniel showing me his treasure

Raymond on the beach

Jordan on top of the world!

So sometimes when you need to find your way to clear your head you go to a place that makes you feel good. I always end up back home where i grew up as a child. the smell of the salt air, the sounds of the crashing waves. Knowing the waves well, knowing when they will crash, that “whooosse” sounds it makes. counting the sets as they roll in on a stormy day. The salt in your hair, the sand squising through your toes and who cares how cold it is…it just feels good.
I love and respect the water, i just hope my boys will enjoy the place as much as i do.

Where is your Happy place?

Thank you cards

Phew! I have been swimming in wrapping paper, packaging from toys, and toys toys toys! Okay maybe i am still swimming in toys, robots, and star wars figures…but i am happy to be done. The boys are starting to settle down, all and all it was a great christmas. iwill try and post some xmas pictures soon.

Now I am sitting with the three boys writing thank you notes. We went to walmart today and they got to pick their own cards they would send…Now this may seem like a daunting task, but i have a plan. I always have a plan. My plans do not always work but at least i have a plan right?

One at a time they are sitting at the desk with me, writing one card at a time. once they write one, they leave and the next brother comes and writes one. Ahhh, i thought this was going to be torture! but alas! we are almost done! yeah!! In the end they each will have written 11 cards each! I am so proud! It has made me sit here and write mine as well!

I love getting mail. not bills of course but mail. it is a lost art. So many people, email or text message. We are losing so much history by sending email (can you tell i was a history major?), there are no hard copies nothing. it just gets deleted. Maybe this year i will write more letters. I remember one year vowing to write 365 letters. I did it! phew it was tough and not a lot of people wrote back but it was fun. It is like a present in the mail. I am not sure i could write another 365 but i think i will try to write more. anyone want to be on my mailing list?

Christmas Eve

Well it is christmas eve here at this house.  Santa has a full moon tonight to guide himself down the chimney.  Three boys are in bed.  The twins want to sleep together and Jordan sleeps on the top bunk.  Every christmas eve each child is allowed to open one present.  The three boys opened pokeman cards.  The excitment!  I cannot wait for the morning. 

Before bed everyone gets “the rules”.  1. noone is allowed up until the sun comes up. 2. noone is allowed to go downstairs without an adult. 3. noone can wake up their brother.  3. If you find yourself awake before your brothers feel around to see if Santa came and left your stocking at the end of  your bed, open and play with it… now if  only they could remember the rules at 5 am ….. lets hope so as it makes for a very long day!!!

Now before going to bed i always tell the boys a story, it actually came from a LLT story i told.  I tell them how all year long the animals wait for christmas, because on christmas eve Santa will give them a present but we have to help…the present is they all get to talk with one another but the only way they can do it is if all the children are alseep.  So if they lay in bed really still, and really quiet they might be able to trick the animals in thinking they are asleep and then they can hear what they are talking about.  AHHH i am not sure how many more times i can use this story for them to go to bed…

Now i wait for those little ones to fall sound asleep… i can assemble the toys from Santa and I can finally go to bed! 

Merry Christmas!

a gift

“If I had one gift that I could give you, my friend, it would be the ability to see yourself as others see you, because only then would you know how extremely special you are.” ~B.A. Billingsly~

 

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday!

Christmas kindness…

We all like to belong to something. We like for people to know our names. I am sure you are a regular somewhere and perhaps the cashier knows your name, perhaps it is a bar and the bartender knows your name, like Cheers, where they call out your name when you walk in….it is just a nice feeling when someone cares enough to remember your name.

Why am I telling you this…well someone totally made my day. Her name is Lori, she works at the local grocery/restaurant food place here in town. Now it is a great place to go have lunch with everyone, as it has great variety! and it is cheap (important when you work for nonprofit)! Since i have been at work we go all the time to this place, we all wear name tags so we quickly learned each others names. You know it is a busy place at times but Lori always takes the time to say hey. Ask how we are doing, ask where we have been if we have not been there a while.. and so on. It is nice when she is there. I like the banter back and forth!

Today we go in for lunch, Lori is there! we exchange our usual, hows it going? ready for the holiday? Then she pulls these little penguin bells from under the counter. She said I made them for all the people that come through her line!

Awwwww….for me? Oh my goodness she is the best! It was one of those random things. It so made my day. I know she will see a lot of people in the day, but it really touched me she cared that much.

So I am going to “pass it on” i am going to pass a nice gesture on to someone that does not expect it and tell them thanks!

December Chaos

OMG! Christmas is coming and if you were at my house you would know it! Lets recap some of the events at the house…..

Normal morning…I throw clothes at kids they get dressed lay around and tell they are motivated to move. Feed them breakfast, usually quiet conversation, all is calm.

DECEMBER MORNING…Kids are up before I am, they are running around house, touching charlie brown chirstmas tree, turning on christmas lights, no one is getting dressed, kids are wrestling each other…clothes, papers, flying everywhere, everyone is fighting at breakfast, it is so loud. Tears break out, someones feelings have been hurt….Pushing kids out door, they want to run around, everything is out of control!! Chaos. i am just hoping we make the bus, i cannot wait to get to work.

Normal grocery shopping…three kids go, one child sits in the cart. one child carries the list, the last one will wander around helping pick food…. It takes about an hour to shop with a list. All is well. They wait at the cart when we are checking out even help with groceries.

DECEMBER SHOPPING….three kids go to the store. i lay down the law before going in. the rules…one kid in cart, two kids touching and wanting everything in the store. there is no focus! Pushing patient mother to edge as children are leaving the store because they are now tall enough to get the automatic doors to open…frazzled mother pushes cart and kids out of store just hoping to make it to the car.

Normal dinner….dinner is made, everyone comes to the table. we go around the table and talk about our days…everyone gets a turn, everyone does their best in listening…we enjoy dinner.

DECEMBER DINNERS….dinner is made, everyone comes to the table in tears as they have all been sent to a separate corner of the house as they were all wrestling with each other. Mother-tries to restore some sort of order, lets talk about our days..no one wants to listen. everyone is yelling over each other…chaos breaks out. kids leave table in tears as they all just need to go to bed….

Normal bedtime…kids are feed, read too, showered. Okay rule is you get 10 min of what ever time in bed then lights out at 730pm. Usually works…jordan reads in bed, twins chat quietly until the drift off to sleep…

DECEMBER BEDTIME…tears after dinner, read to yourself mother is just to tired from chasing you all day, showered, no 10 minutes of “whatever”time in bed as they have all been sent to bed early because they were so out of control. the twins are bouncing off the walls, playing with toys, wanting to sleep together, jordan reading…playing with toys in bed…….Chaos!

I cannot wait for this holiday to be over. the anticipation of the children, the fact that no one can go out and play as it is solid ice all over the place, the wrestling in the house, the charlie brown tree in the house that looks as if it might fall over, the laundry, the tears, and on and on and on….

I love going to work right now. it is a place that i can find some peace. i am not sure if it would be so bad if there were two parents here keeping order…who knows…

Calgon take me away!!!

A few more pics

Okay i cannot help it! I just love taking pictures! Here is another of the green! I love this one as well!!!

Now here is a picture of the three boys in front of their picture on the sign! Wow superstars! they are so cute!! This is one of the pictures that totally made my day. When i was walking through the visitor center and there are my three boys shinning! I was way to hard to get everyone to look at me. This is the best picture. Jordan was embarrassed i think by it all and the twins did not know what it was all about! Awesome!

 

I know it is rough having to go here to work everyday!  But hey someone has got to do it!

Photo essay of snow at work…

SO here are a few photos i like from this week. I hope you enjoy!