This Is Early, But . . .

I bought my first car, a Toyota Tercel, about a year after I graduated from college. I brought it home from the used car lot and parked it on the street (After all, I didn't have a parking permit for my apartment complex - yet.) I woke the next morning and walked out to my car.


Realization struck: This was my very own car. I did not have to return it to anyone. I could keep it and use it and, of course, take care of it. The realization brought with it a feeling of great pride.


The next time I experienced that "wow / whoa" feeling was when I brought my daugter - my first child - home from the hospital. The hospital stay was very sheltered. We had no schedule to keep but our own. Nurses were available to counsel when problems occurred. The experience was real, but we were in an alterate reality.


We took her home in my "first" baby, the Toyota. I rode all the way home with my new baby in the back of the car. I just couldn't leave her alone in the car seat. I carried her gingerly down the stairs into our basement apartment and sat down on our couch. Jesse took a picture of us - I was crying.


As I held her in my arms, on our couch, in our apartment, the realization struck: She was mine!!! I could love her and take care of her and watch her grow. No one else could do it for me! This realization brought not only pride but fear as well. Could I take care of her without the nurses' help? Would I be a good mom? What had I gotten myself into?!


I now have eight years worth of loving her, taking care of her, and watching her grow into a beautiful, bright girl. In spite of me, she has a blooming testimony that Jesus loves her, that Heavenly Father will answer her prayers, that the scriptures are the word of God.

I have truly been blessed by her presence in my life. She reminds me that prayer works. She reminds me to think before I reprimand so that feelings aren't too hurt afterward. She amazes me with her sharp intellect, her quickness to learn and to remember. She reminds me that it is okay to admit I'm wrong
. . . sometimes.

She inspires me to be better!

Happy Birthday (on Thursday), Ju!

Love yer guts!

Happy-For-Jesse Day

Jesse turned 31 yesterday! (I can spill the beans on his age because I have more grey hairs than he does.) I decided to dedicate a blog post to him.

Why I Love My Engineer Husband
1. I have someone to keep organized. As an engineer, he loses all track of time. If he says one hour, I bargain on two. When he gives me an estimate of work on a project, I double it. When he loses his keys, I retrace his steps to help him find them. I calendar our activities, and let him know what days are open for things he needs to do. I am his Palm Pilot - this adds great meaning to my life. ;-)

2. He can fix things, and they work better afterwards! (For you to completely understand my joy for this special talent he has, I need to give you some background. My brothers liked to take things apart, but they never got them back together again. For the first several years we were married, I would hover around Jesse while he was fixing something and worry if he was doing it right. I finally learned to relax, that everything would be perfect when he finished. Jesse adds, "Sometimes.") Our dryer has stopped drying twice since we moved to Texas (it is over fifteen years old, after all) - he has saved us loads of money by fixing it himself. (We are also blessed to live within three miles of a Sears parts store.) One day a friend at playgroup said her dryer wasn't working, and she was going to have a handyman come look at it for her. I told her to cancel the handyman and sent Jesse to her home. He saved her money by discovering the problem, something very minor that would have cost tons of money in labor. He is amazing!

3. He keeps a cool head about him when all around is chaos. A few weeks ago, we woke up at 3:00 am to the smoke detector. Jesse disabled the loud offender while I thought I should at least look around for the problem. (Diane noticed that when the smoke detectors went off in the cabin at reunion, our first thought was to stop the noise that might wake the children, not to discover why they were sounding.) As I approached the stairs, I noticed that the AC unit was far too noisy. I shouted for Jesse and started running upstairs to the closet in which it is housed. The smell of burning started me in a panic, and I half expected flames to be shooting out of the metal box - like something you would see in a cartoon. Jesse stayed calm, shut everything off, including the circuit breakers to the unit, and we opened the windows to air out the house. We figured that the unit had been running to long (my fault - I tried to change the temperature and did it wrong), and the belts and drums were starting to smoke. The smoky air was being blown from a vent right onto a smoke detector downstairs, waking us up to a potentially dangerous situation. Gratefully, our AC unit can reset itself, so after a day of cooling down it was running properly again (which Jesse had found out last year by calling the AC guys about a similar problem - yes, my fault again).

4. He has to leave work at work. He might have to work an extra hour or three during a week, but I know our family is very blessed that he is home at the same time every night and has every other Friday off.

Jesse is amazing for other reasons, which many of you know and can add to, but I will keep it to his engineering side today. Love ya, babe!

Happy Birthday, David!!!

David turns six years old today. Some things haven't changed: he is still my fun-loving, class clown, and he loves to build, just like his Daddy. Yet, he has definitely grown, even in just the last few months: he is a big kindergartener, now, and he can ride his bike without training wheels super-fast! He is growing up, rising to the new occasions and responsibilities being presented to him. I love him and am glad he is my eldest son. Happy Birthday, Dave!!! (I'm done with the cheese now - let's party!)

The Two Year-Old That Wasn't

We celebrated Josh's third birthday on the 22nd. Because Easter was the next day, we celebrated his birthday with an Easter egg hunt with cousins. We had eaten a special dinner with his Granny Nona (Deb's mom) the night before and had cake (without candles) when we got home from the egg hunt.

In all honesty, I have thought Josh was three for several months. He has always been "large in stature." He plays right along with Julie and David, never more than a step or two behind them. More often than not, I have had to stop when I am getting frustrated with him, cool down, and remind myself that he is only two.

One day, just after the school year started, the man checking my receipt at Costco asked, "Hasn't school started?" implying that both boys should be in school, not with me. I replied that Dave had missed the birthday deadline and that Josh was only 2 1/2. He looked genuinely shocked! It is so cliche, but I would be rich if I had a dollar for every time someone asked me if Josh and Dave are twins. . . . Okay, with inflation, maybe not, but even our friends get the two boys confused at times.

Josh is such a sweetheart! My heart misses a beat when he sweetly comes to me and says, "Me need you," lifting his arms for me to pick him up. I am so glad this sweet New York baby came to our family!

David Turns Five

Hear ye; hear ye! David is now five years old. He is officially ready to start school next year. He can play with "big boy" toys: goodbye toy trains; hello ACTION FIGURES!

He partied hard with his friends on October 20th then partied hard with his family on the 24th. With his friends he played games, ate hot dogs, decorated cupcakes, and opened presents. With his family he biked by the Trinity River, ate pizza at Cici's Buffet, ate cake with green icing, and opened presents. His family gave him Tinker Toys and Lincoln Logs and Legos, so David has been building for the last two weeks. He builds cars, robots, drum beaters (with his dad), boats, and space ships. He is amazing!!!