yikes! December already!

What has happened? 

Who would've thought that after my last post in March (ahem... almost 9 months ago!) that my next post would be about two weeks before my daughter's wedding!  craziness!
I think some preparations are under control and some preparations are totally out of control!

To top it all off, within one week we will have her wedding, Christmas, and Nick's baptism!  Nick chose to wait a bit past his birthday so his big brother could baptize him.  During that week we'll also be meeting Emily's fiancee's family for the first time--he is from Australia and they're flying out. 

See, I was right:  craziness!!

my birthday

well, another birthday has passed... and I'm still trying to reply to all the facebook birthday messages!!   This is my 5th birthday since joining facebook and it is so fun to have friends old and new acknowledging the special day!   Really, it isn't such a big deal that they're wishing me a happy birthday, but just exciting because it gives them an excuse to jump in and say hi to a friend they possibly haven't "seen" for decades!!  gotta love facebook!   I do take each post on my wall as an acknowledgement of our friendship--even though they have access to a list of "friends'" birthdays, they still took the few minutes to say hi to me!

but my birthday itself was nice...  I took an extra day off work for the weekend and pretty much just took it easy.   I did get started on taxes and have a few tax tasks left to finish, but I'm not panicking about getting them done on time now!  Todd and I went out on my birthday evening with my parents babysitting the two little ones (so nice to have them nearby!!).  This week I'm meeting a friend for dinner that I've known for almost 40 years!   That may be one of the highlights of my "birthday month."  My true highlights, though, were probably the messages and chats with my kids away at college--so sweet!! 
See, just normal boring stuff...  I guess I'm sorta lucky that way...  normal boring stuff...

valentines' day

I was looking at facebook on my phone during my lunch yesterday and my friend Renee asked her friends to post their favorite love songs... well, right then one of the songs that reminds me of dating Todd came on the radio in my car and that's what I posted... Glory of Love by Peter Cetera...  then today I went to Rubio's for fish taco Tuesday lunch and what was on the radio?  yep, same song!!  summer of 1986... yep, 25 years ago!!

Tonight it's very clear

As we're both lying here
There's so many things I want to say
I will always love you
I would never leave you alone

Sometimes I just forget
Say things I might regret
It breaks my heart to see you crying
I don't wanna lose you
I could never make it alone

I am a man who will fight for your honor
I'll be the hero you're dreaming of
We'll live forever
Knowing together that we
Did it all for the glory of love

You'll keep me standing tall
You'll help me through it all
I'm always strong when you're beside me
I have always needed you
I could never make it alone

I am a man who will fight for your honor
I'll be the hero you've been dreaming of
We'll live forever
Knowing together that we
Did it all for the glory of love

Just like a knight in shining armor
From a long time ago
Just in time I will save the day
Take you to my castle far away

I am a man who will fight for your honor
I'll be the hero you're dreaming of
We're gonna live forever
Knowing together that we
Did it all for the glory of love

We'll live forever
Knowing together that we
Did it all for the glory of love

We did it all for love
We did it all for love
We did it all for love
We did it all for love

aunties

tonight we had dinner at my parents' home with my dad's two sisters, Jane and Nancy.  I love them!  It was fun hanging out and listening to some family history stories.  I'm glad my dad took some notes--they are all in their 70s now and some of the memories of their family members may go away soon.

the story I remember right now is Nancy talking about going on a walk with her grandfather (my great-great grandfather) when she was quite young--maybe four or five.  Alanson Norton (former registrar of the Univ of Utah) was blind and they got lost (Nancy being too young to really know where they were walking).  He told Nancy that if she saw anyone to stop them and ask where they were!

another story is about the three of them riding the train from Centerville to (SLC?) to a YMCA pool, going swimming, and then their dad (my granddad) picking them up and taking them home when he got off work.  Jane said they always took tuna fish sandwiches and devoured them on the way home because they were so hungry after swimming.

my favorite memory of tuna sandwiches is eating them whenever we went to La Jolla Shores.  I still expect to crunch on sand in my tuna sandwich =)

even though the kids got to bed a bit late tonight, I wish the evening had lasted longer...  what an amazing family.  I am so blessed.

my rebecca

yesterday after church, I was writing some long overdue thank you notes for Christmas gifts.   I had been given a box of new notecards which always gives me motivation!   So I'm writing, and along comes Rebecca.    She asks for two notecards and envelopes  (in boy colors).  Then asks for three more (in girl colors).  Yes, it was an assorted but coordinated box of cards.   Then she proceeded to write (all on her own in her own kindergarten made-up spelling) thank you notes for the birthday presents she had received--in September!!    She even drew her own rough  version of a piece of watermelon since she had a "watermelon" party =)

my only regret is that I didn't scan one of them to save that memory...

after family night, the two of us drove to the post office and she put each one in the slot one at a time... reading the name on the envelope and saying it out loud.   She loves her bestest friends... Annika, Lauren, Chloe, Tyler, and Bryce.

I love my family (and my sister, Rochelle, for making this)

Click here to view this video

grateful for a day off...

I'm up late enjoying everyone else being asleep.   And I have the day off tomorrow, so I'm not feeling as stressed as I usually do on Sunday evenings!

So speaking of the day off... I haven't really thought a lot about Martin Luther King, Jr. in years past.  I didn't study much about him in school and he was killed when I was too young to know what was going on.   In fact, when we first started honoring his life and his work when I was in college, I felt bad for Lincoln and Washington because (in most places) their individual days were combined into one Presidents' Day and ML King got his own day.   But I am so appreciateive of his work and his dream.  I was fortunate:  I grew up with parents and in an area supportive of integration.  My parents actually had me bused to a predominantly black school because they had an excellent educational program--this was in the early years of magnet schools in the early 1970s.   I'm grateful for the risk my parents took to provide this opportunity.  I'm grateful for the risks that Martin Luther King took to make this country a place in which I  had that opportunity.   I was able to grow up in an environment unheard of by even a generation or two before mine.   Thank you, Dr. King.