Mother's Day

The reasons I love being a mom...

Can you believe I don't have a picture of just Todd and me??!!  So I'm reserving this space and will rectify that the next time we are together!  Coming soon...a picture of the other reason why I love being a mom!

We didn't find time my last trip to Utah, so this one will have to do until later.  This is from when I visited Todd in DC, summer of 2010.

Annie

Emma wanted to try something different than dance lessons, so she was is a production of Annie.  She made quite a cute orphan.

Happy Birthday, Todd

Todd turned 37 today!!!  When I facetimed him to sing, I got a surprise bonus...Sophie was cuddling in bed with him, so I got to visit with her too.  Happy birthday, sweetheart.  I love you.

  Can you tell he is not a morning person?!

Happy Birthday, Claire

Claire had a long weekend of birthday celebrating...an outing to the nail salon with some friends...a Cinco de Mayo family party...and birthday pancakes, presents, dinner out, and cake on her actual birthday.  It was fun to facetime her to sing "Happy Birthday".  By the end of the weekend, she certainly felt 7.  Happy Birthday, Claire Bear.

Surf City Run, July 4, 2013

As I looked at my bucket list, I realized that all I needed to check off the race one was to ENTER a 5K.  It doesn't say anything about actually participating in the race!  Then I looked up my goals for this year...

Second, physical.  I am going to ENTER a 5K walk.  I know that I could walk 5K right now, but that's not the point.  I want to train, to get into better shape.  So, I'm going to train and be ready for the HB 4th of July race.

Again, it just says to ENTER!!!  And today I entered.  So I guess I could  check it off my list.  But that was not the intent of either my list or my goal.  I wanted to get into better shape.  So I've started training.  I started by just walking the 3 miles.  After a few days of that, I started running a little.  By a little, I mean a little.  I run for 45 seconds twice every mile.  And that is about to kill me.  I have always found Kathy to be amazing, but I have a new found respect for her...how in the world can she run for over 3 hours without stopping when I can barely do 45 seconds.  Well, I have 2 months to see if I can improve...and not die in the process!  Wish me luck.

Amy's birthday

I tried to "sneak" out to Amy's so I could decorate for her birthday, but as luck would have it, just as I was getting off the freeway, there they were, at the stop sign, on their way to school!  Wyatt kept saying, "look, there's grandma!"  I pretended not to see them, turned the wrong way, away from their house, and hoped that I hadn't seen caught.  I was...but that's OK.  Anyway, the dinning room got decorated and she had a great birthday.

















That evening, some friends came over for cake.  Happy birthday, sweetheart.

Monday's Memory--Todd's Mission Call

Yesterday, at Stake Conference, one talk was about how serving a mission changed lives.  That 19 year old boys left and 21 year old men returned.  It got me thinking about Todd's mission, from opening his call to him kissing the ground when he got home.
He did come home a changed person, still light-hearted and a fun loving guy, but also, a much stronger person...ready and able to stand up for those things he believed in.
Ever since the MTC "experience", I can't get through the song "Called to Serve" without shedding a few tears.  I always thought that it was because it was so hard for me to let him serve his mission...to be gone for 2 years.  But that was almost 20 years ago...and I still cry through that song.  I realized yesterday, that at first it was because of missing him for those 2 years, but now, it just reminds me of him...how much I love him...how proud I am of the man he had become.

This is the calendar we kept while he was on his mission.  A daily one, even a weekly one made it seem like he was gone for too long.  We made a monthly one, putting a sticker on it the first of every month.