One Request

The ever-elusive need for perfection is alive and well in this world. It seems to me that many of us are constantly striving to find the next best thing, the elite neighborhood, most luxurious car, and top end designer clothes. I experienced many times when people would where something the most of us would only consider around Halloween all because of the little tag the was affixed in the collar. The most absurd thing to me though is the way that people are striving to "fix" their bodies with plastic surgery and other means of human torture. I have often thought about this and what I would change if I had the chance. Most people want some doctor to suck the fat out or inject the botox in. They want the stomachs flatter, their lips puffier, their chest "perkier", and their face higher. I do not enjoy the doctor and would much rather live with my little problem areas then let a doctor go at me with those instruments that look more like they should be on an assembly line making cars instead of intricately laying in a surgery room. BUT..... I have decided that I would have one request. This is a request that I don't think any doctor could fulfill. It is something that I will have to talk to Heavenly Father about one day. I am certainly not claiming that He messed up on my body in any way but I just think that He could have added just one small thing that would make my life so much more convenient. I would like my hands to be absorbent. All you mothers out there.... Can you imagine the possibilities if your hands were even slightly sponge like. Wiping the ever flowing drool from a teething babies mouth (can you tell I am dealing with this right now), catching those little spills in the car when you are on your way somewhere and cannot figure out where that stack of McDonalds napkins went that you stashed in the glove compartment, giving the counter a quick wipe down as you are running out the door, and the list can go on and on. It is something that I just dream about. I understand there could be some hygiene issues that come along with this but it is something that I am willing to sit down and figure it out once I get to Heaven. Yup, I am happy with my body. I am happy with my hair color, my stretch-marked stomach, my front teeth that are just slightly different sizes due to my grinding at night (yes Jared, I am wearing my night guard) but oh what I wouldn't give to have a little bit of absorbency in my hands.

Just a quick update on our little garden. It is coming along great. Now if we could only get a little bit of sunshine so we could get them in the ground!

My Style

I have noticed lately in all of my "blog surfing" how many different reasons and purposes that people have for their blogs. There are the "event blogs", the "family reunion" blogs, the "my kids are cuter then your kids" blog, and the "I take pictures of those cute kids, so call me" blogs. You can advertise any sort of business you wish, show off how crafty you are ( or in my case, pitifully un-crafty), brag about luxurious vacations, or simply show a cute baby eating squash for the first time. I've seen blogs that help people mourn,celebrate, plan, and even reunite with loved ones they have been searching for. It is a world that I stand in amazement at as I see what new things everyone can come up with. As I immerse myself in this odd dimension of blog world I stop and think about what kind of purpose will my blog serve. My friend was over the other day and she showed me a hard bound book that she was able to create from all her blog entries and pictures from the last year. This had particular appeal to me because, as I stated before, I am terribly un-crafty and Jake has always wished I could dive into the scrapbook world and learn how to create elaborate pages of Tylie's first step and Mason's cute smiles. I have sort of resigned to the fact that I am never going to get into it so when I saw this book that she created on the computer it gave me hope. Hope that I could one day pull out a book and sit on the couch with Jake and laugh about all the funny things Tylie used to say and cry at all the milestones that I cherish and wish I could go back to. That is when it hit me. My blog is a journal. I do not want it to be a journal of day to day events and nothing more. Of course I want to be able to look back several years from now and remember how life was but more then anything else I want to remember how I feel at this time. I don't really care if I can see what I had for dinner or what store I went to but I want to remember particular experiences that I am having and lessons that I am learning. I want to remember how I felt when Mason giggled at me or when Tylie told me that I am the best mom in the world. I feel like I am having so many tender moments from my Father in Heaven and he speaks to me through my heart and I don't want to forget these things. I have already began working on turning my blog into a hard bound piece of history. I don't expect it to become a best seller or sell on ebay for hundreds of thousands one day. I can only hope that it will become a priceless possession to my children one day that no amount of money would be worth selling it for.

Sundee-These are for you. After spending some late nights painting, playing with cousins, and movies on grandma's floor- the remodel is almost complete. Jake's mom and dad have almost completely remodeled the first floor of their home and it looks great. I think that Tylie will be quite sad when it is all put back together because she enjoys these late night "parties" and that big empty room was the perfect room for any sort of activity she could think up.

Watching "Lion King" at midnight.


"Sleepover" with our favorite cousins. (We didn't really sleep over but that is what Tylie calls it whenever she gets her pajamas on anywhere but home.) Poor emma had a bad crash that scraped her face pretty bad but it is healing wonderful I hear with hopefully no permanent damage.


Preparing for paint


Tylie and Luke determined to get in everyone's way.


Blocking off the stairs to avoid spray-over from the paint.

Doctor Wasden

Today was such an exciting day for my family. My brother, Chad, has been in medical school for several years and he is finally about 1 month away from graduation. His next step is to do his residency and today we were able to go to a special breakfast given for all the med students to find out where the will be going for the next 3 years. It was all very nerve racking as we waited for that white envelope that held Chad's future. We had to listen to one of the Professors ramble on about how proud they should be of themselves, how much hard work it took to get to this moment, blah, blah, blah. All I could hear was the voice inside my head screaming "GIVE US THE DANG ENVELOPE ALREADY!!!" Finally the moment and we all crowded around with our cameras poised ready to take a picture of every emotion that would flit across Chad's anxious face.


Here is mom and Chad waiting to spring the second the begin to pass out the envelopes.



Mark was holding Mason so I could be sure to catch all the timeless shots. Leave it to me to start snapping pictures of my cute baby instead of the important events that were at hand.


He finally got the envelope! He is going to...... Las Vegas. He will be close to Brittany and Rick so he will have some family around.


Mom and Dad could not be more proud!

Tylie asked me tonight if she could go live by Chad and BooBoo and Rick so she can help Chad "fix people". She is really going to miss him,

TV appearance

Jake did a story about the economy and how many more people are buying chickens and growing their own gardens to become more self sufficient. He interviewed my mom for the article and it ran in Monday's paper. Channel 4 picked up on the story and contacted my mom this morning wanting to come out to her house and do a segment for the news today. They showed up at about 1:00 today and interviewed my mom and dad. They also got Tylie running around with the chickens so my beautiful darling will make her debut this afternoon. They will be on channel 4 at 5:00 and 6:00 tonight. Try to check it out. I don't know how quality the interview will be but I can guarantee it will be entertainment. If you are not able to catch it, they will have it on their website also. My mom will be so embarrassed that I posted this so make sure to drop her line and let her know how great she did!

Springs is here!!!

Spring is finally here and we have a nasty case of Spring fever that I am afraid that only sunshine, parks, picnics, and BBQ's can cure. On Saturday when we woke up and the sun was beaming outside our window we couldn't help ourselves but get out and enjoy it. Jake and I love Saturdays because it is the day that we get to spend together and just be us. It is with these feelings that I looked at my dirty dishes in the sink and messy counter tops and scoffed as I marched right out the door. I was determined not to be consumed by the fact that my house was not in perfect order and just enjoy the day with Jake and the kids. Below is some pictures of the medicine that we are on to cure our spring fever.

We bundled up Mason because I worried that it might still be a little chilly for him. Then I realized that he is just a chunky kid that he probably has more insulation than all of us. Look at those cheeks!

Jake showing Tylie how it is done. Notice the bag of sunflower seeds in his hand. I think he was enjoying being outside because he could eat his seeds without having to carry a "spit" cup with him. He truly is addicted!

Tylie about to go down the slide. Just look at her face- she couldn't be more thrilled to be outside.

BUBBLES!!! I have been saying no to bubbles for about 5 months now because it has been too cold. I finally was able to say yes!

And after all that, she wanted to help me make some treats for some friends that were coming over that night. She was helping me dip the strawberries and the next thing I knew, she just curled up and was asleep. I am not kidding when I say that she was asleep in less than a minute flat. That is one way I know that Tylie had a fun day.

Every needful thing...

Tylie and Jake planting the "starts" for our garden

The ever continuing project of food storage

Mason playing in his "tunnel" while the rest of us bustle around playing in dirt.

With this rocky economy Jake and I have tried to be as optimistic as possible but try to prepare ourselves for the worst. It is times like these that the Prophet's words really start to resonate and we begin to see the wisdom in their counsel. Jake and I have always had food storage but this year we have decided to step it up a little. My parents are going to plant a really large garden for all the family and anyone in the neighborhood that would like to join in so we decided to do a small garden of our own. It won't be near the size of my parents since we don't have over an acre of land like they do but we will do our best. We have done some studying and learned that some plants are good to start indoors and then move outdoors when it warms up. On tuesday Jake cleaned out my pantry of every plastic cup we owned, filled them with dirt, and planted our little seeds. We had to find the place in the house that gets the most sun which convenintly is my bedroom. Lovely! So for a few weeks by room has been turned into a mini greenhouse. Last year Jake did an experiment. He wanted to know how well watermelon seeds would grow if taken straight out of your average watermelon and spit into a cup. That is exactly what he did. He ate some watermelon, spit the seeds in a cup, covered them with dirt, and placed them in my kitchen window well to see what would happen. It worked like a charm and before we knew it we had full blown watermelon plants. We moved them up to my mom's garden and the flourished. Unfortunately, we planted them too late in the season and they never grew to full maturity but we had about 10 baby watermelons growing well before that nasty frost came in killed our hopes. I can only hope that our organized efforts will turn out as well as our scattered efforts last year. If it works as well as we are hoping, you all will probably have a zucchini and watermelon with your name on it waiting in our garden!

heart wrenching lesson

Living up to my true "blog stalker" style, I was checking all my regular blogs yesterday when my friend at work started to talk to me about a particular blog she had found. She told me it was heart breaking but that I should check it out. I typed in the address not really ready for the emotional spiral I was about to slide down. "Heart breaking", as my friend so simply put it, did not even begin to describe it. The blog is written by a mom who lost her little girl in May last year from choking on a piece of an apple. Her little girl was a month away from turning two and they were just getting out of church one Sunday when it happened. I found myself going all the way back to when Lucy died and reliving the whole experience with her. It is the saddest thing I have ever read and before I knew it I had tears streaming down my face praying that her next entry would be a better day and she could feel joy again. She is such an eloquent writer and I could just feel her grief pouring out of the computer as she described trying to accept what happened and learn to cling to her Savior and the knowledge that she will see her again. It got so emotional for me as I was reading about when she told Lucy goodbye for the last time that I had to remind myself to breathe and then I had to turn it off for awhile to get a grip on myself. I found myself imagining having to kiss Tylie or Mason one last time and knowing I would never get to wrap them in my earthly arms again. The meer thought of it makes my heart stop. I couldn't forget about her all day and I kept thinking that if I am feeling this way by simply reading what she wrote, somebody that has never met her in my life, how must she feel everyday trying to move on? I couldn't sleep last night because I realized that this is my greatest fear. I have stupid fears of heights, dogs, and drowning but none of that compares to the fear that I have of losing Jake or one of my kids. It is something that I don't know if I could ever recover from. I understand that we are only given the trials that we can handle and that is probably why I haven't been given that trial but it really rocks me to the core when I see someone having to live out my worst nightmare. The only thing I can get out of this experience is to be grateful. I look around and get really frustrated with the economy and the way the world is but in the end none of that matters because I have my family and no bank or creditor can ever take that away from me. Last night after I put Tylie to bed I snuggled down to read my book before I turned in for the night. About 20 minutes later, tylie was standing in my doorway asking me if she could sleep in my bed until daddy got home. Normally this would make me grumble a little bit and I would chase her back to bed but last night was different. As I looked into her sweet face I realized that someone in Park City would give their entire world if they could have their little girl beg to sleep in their bed. She would cling to every word that spilled out of Lucy's mouth and scoop her up as fast as she could get to her. It made me very grateful and humble. I am going to do better. I am not going to let this crazy world get to me. I am going to look around at what I have a little more often, and I am going to be grateful.

The web address for this blog is http://www.jacksonparkcity.blogspot.com/. I am warning you ahead of time before you go there. It is tough to read but once you start you won't be able to stop. Let me know what you think if any of you dare to go there.

Hilarious

I know, 2 posts in 2 days! I am really out doing myself. Well, you know me, I am either hot or cold. I get on a kick and then I completely break from it for a long time. Anyway, Jake was lying on our bed the other night reading the newspaper as I was playing with Mason and Tylie was jumping on the bed not paying attention to anything particular. As Jake laid down one section and picked up another, Tylie grabbed the one he had just been looking at and ripped it open again. "Look Dad," she exclaimed, "it's 'Omabama'!!!" What???? Jake looked at me with eyes as big as grapefruits in complete disbelief. I asked her to show me and sure enough she brought me the paper and there was a small picture of Obama talking to Hilary. Now I am like any other parent and like to think that my child is some kind of Einstein child but I never imagined that she knew who Obama was. Jake and I try to keep up with the world and we often watch Fox News at night but I guess we watched it more then we realized. I asked Tylie who 'Omabama' was and she simply said " he is on TV". OH!! Of course. "What does he do?" I asked her. "He talks a lot." Well, even at three years old, she has politicians all figured out!

The Blog Stalker

Tylie turned three in February!

I have something to confess, I am a blog stalker. I have had a hard time accepting this fact because it can be quite embarassing but you know what they say, acceptance is the key. So here I am accepting it, admitting it, and moving on. I tried to fight it off but with the way the economy has been lately, I do not have a lot of loans going on at work right now so I find myself with a lot of downtime and a computer in front of my face. I will start out with some of my family and friends to see what they are up to. Then I find myself looking at their friends and will often find someone I know and click on their blog. The next thing I know, I have strayed so far that I don't even know the people that I am looking at and I am just scrolling randomly down the screen looking at cute kids riding their bikes for the first time or pictures of ultra sounds for babies that are on the way. I know, I am weird. I don't know why I do this. It is probably the same reason that I love reality TV, I am fascinated with people ( and yes I am aware that reality TV is not 100% reality- Jake has drilled that into me). Anyway, so I figure that if I am going to look at others blogs, I should probably give other people something to look at. I just want to share some quick thoughts for those blogs that I enjoy to read. Erica, your kids get cuter by the day. I truly think that Jordan and Dylan should be models for Calvin Kline when they grow up. They are just gorgeus- not to mention hilarious. Val, your babies bedroom is turning out beautifully. I am truly impressed! I had not idea you were so talented. I wish you were around to help me with Mason's room. He is 5 months old and I still haven't figured out what I want to do with his room yet. Melanie- congrats on the baby. That is so exciting! I am sure that you will be able to handle four without a hitch. And last, Kari- it has been too long and me and Jake need to get down there. We will soon. I can't believe how much Ethan and Garrison have changed since I saw them around Christmas. Ethan really is not a little boy anymore. And good luck with Garrison, he sounds like a mini Brady. I hope that everyone is well out there. I feel so close to all of you as I read your blogs but it is weird that I never talk to you. Well..... until next time.... I will follow you all close and try to maintain my new found identity as a blog stalker!