I Need YOUR Permission?

Tyler has finally informed me of the appropriate times that I can cry during his Leaving-On-A-Two-Year-Mission process. I was really awaiting this information because I think I scared him at Dirks farewell two Sundays ago. I was crying before Dirk even got up to speak and I continued through the whole thing. Mike mentioned this to Dirk and said, "I think she cried more than your mom did." I can't help it!

I am not crying because I don't want you to go. Or even that I won't be able to look into your face 3D like for two years. I'm not even crying because I don't think you will be safe.

I am crying because my job with you is really done. If you haven't learned what we've taught you by now, you'll probably have some hard lessons in front of you. Crying because of relief? Joy? Memories? The future? Probably all of them and a little more, but I am not crying because I don't want Tyler to go. I am so excited for Tyler to start out on his life. I can't wait to see what he's going to do with it and who he's going to bring into his life. There is more joy to be had, people.

As I said before, I have been given permission to cry, only once. I have been clearly informed that I can cry when I drop him off curbside at the MTC, but I am not allowed to cry AT ALL at his farewell when he speaks at church this Sunday.

My answer to that?

"Tyler," I said, "I am a well hydrated woman and the water will flow when it has to."

Tears of Joy - really.

Tyler's Open House Invites

So, Tyler is leaving on his mission in about 9 days. He'll be giving his farewell talk this Sunday and that night we are having an open house in his honor. It's a TIE and Ice Cream party. This kind of party is one where you bring a tie for Tyler's mission and (if you'd like) you can write some encouraging note on the back of it somewhere. G&G Jensen already sent him one since they are out of state at this time. It was so nice and it was green. Tyler was wanting a green tie. It's perfect!

Here are the invitations. Years ago, maybe even over a decade ago, I saw this fold (into a shirt) and knew I wanted it for this purpose. Recently one of my YW girls folded a napkin into this shirt and I was so excited that she knew how to do them. I'd only need to have her fold 50 or so of them. But then one day I saw Mykie trying her hand at the origami and she mastered it. She was my new paper folding queen. It took her a while, but she did get through all 48 of them and they turned out cute! We put a little tie on it along with an "Elder Nelson" badge and sent them off.

We are looking forward to Mike's Parents coming along with Camie and her family, Nate and Matt who is bringing Corbin. I think we are in for some late nights this weekend, but it will be nothing but fun! Fun before mama cries!

Blue and Gold

Our pack just had it's Blue and Gold banquet last Friday night. They did a really nice job. One of the things they did was challenge the boys and their father's to make a cake together. Well, I think it was just to decorate the cake as I made the cake and the frosting. They did a really great job and the cake fits Brigam's "tool" mentality. Check it out!!!!

Brigam was pretty proud of it. He was having a hard time letting anyone cut into the cake and since there were so many cakes, we got to bring most of it home. I just have to say dang, but I make good chocolate cake and frosting!

A Bad Hair Day

Poor Brigam.

His hair was really getting long. It was getting so bad that with his hair and those beautiful and long eyelashes that when I was going to the store, I almost thought twice about something pink in Brigams size. Really, he needed a hair cut.

Tyler all of a sudden thought he was Zohan (only the hair dresser part, not the other gross stuff) and wanted to cut hair. Jeremy was the first brave one. Tyler did an OK job and even put some "steps" into the side of his head. I'm not sure what the steps are for, but it looks 'super cool'.

To do the cut, he needed to toggle between the #2 attachment and the straight up hair trimmer. #2 for the cut and straight up for the steps. I really had to actually BEG Brigam to let Tyler cut his hair, even after he saw Jeremy's successful head of hair.

So Brigam sits down for his cut, Tyler puts on the #2 attachment and starts in on the sides of his head. He did a great job. He left the top uncut. Tyler thought it was so funny; he left a tough little mohawk on the top of his cute little head. Mike and I were laughing. Tyler made Brigam get up out of his chair to go take a look at his wonderful work. Meanwhile, Jeremy came back because one of the steps weren't quite strait, so Tyler readied the clippers and fixed the "step".

Brigam returned from his look in the mirror and sits down in the hair cutting chair to have Tyler finish the job. Tyler takes two swipes along the top of his head with the clippers and says, "Mom!" I walk into see this.....

Why it took two swipes for him to realize his mistake, I'll never know. Yes, that is a little tear coming down Briggy's face. What happened when Tyler finished fixing Jeremy's hair is that he forgot to put the attachment back on the clippers. Brigam's only choice was to have his head shaved pretty close to bald. He was not happy. I even told him I'd give him $10 (about what I would pay for a professional, not a Zohan knockoff, to do it). That made him feel a little better, but he was still so very sad.

All of his sorrow only lasted about 12 hours because when he came from school that next day, he was full of smiles. I said, "Did the kids say anything about your hair?" He said, "Some big ones did, but everyone was rubbing my head today, especially the girls."

Right, Poor Brigam. :)

What a compliment!

As you know I love my kickboxing class. When I participate in this calorie rear-kicker of a class, I tend to sweat. Not perspire or "glow", but a straight out drippy, wet, where's-a-towel kind of sweat.

My t-shirt sleeves help a little, but I hate it when I have sweat drip down my forehead into my eyeballs. The teachers of the class had a great idea to avoid this problem, but I was never brave enough to follow suit. I mean it looked so great on them, I just didn't think I could pull off the look myself, but Taunya A was brave enough and it looked great on her. It was a common "do-rag", but it looked great on her. It worked well for her. It did it's job as far as keeping most of the sweat out of eyeballs and that was a big selling factor. So I joined in the "do-rag" fun.

After I wore it the first day, I was driving home and who pulled up next to me, but my precious son, Tyler. He waved to me from his car and then gave me a double take. When we pulled into the driveway, he jumped out of my car and said, "What's up with this look?"

I tried to explain my reasoning for wearing the do-rag, but he was not seeing clearly the functionality of it.

But maybe he saw me more like this......

I mean I was just done with kickboxing and you KNOW what that does to me!

He said, "You look like a 30 year old single mother who is unemployed and just smoked her last cigarette."

How sweet! Can you believe that he could be so kind? I properly thanked him by saying, "You think I look 30? You are so sweet!"

I just wish everyone had a son as precious as Tyler!

Chloe

Here are some pictures of our new puppy, Chloe.

She is so fun. She loves to go for walks and run like crazy round the yard. Everyone in the family is so enthralled by her and for some reason, she makes everyone talk baby talk to her, even Mike. Weird.

New News about the Pitter Patter of Little Feet

So I started the blog entry that proceeds this one a while ago about the newest member of out family, Daisy. What a cute and furry little (and I do mean little) addition. My joy with Daisy was not lasting, however. A week into having Daisy, Mike got fed up with her lack of potty training and, without me knowing, took her back. Yes, you read that right, he took her back. This from my husband who over thinks things quite a bit and is definitely NOT spontaneous in any decision.

After my anger subsided, I tried everything to get her back. I left the rinky dink little animal rescue group over 8 messages, 3 emails, 3 calls by Mike (again messages because they wouldn't answer our phone calls) and even a personal visit to Prosser because they wouldn't talk to us. They even got over a dozen of letters of reference on behalf of our family. Their response was frustrating and short. 1 phone call and (eventually) two email messages that stated they felt the puppy (Daisy) needed to be in a "more stable home environment" (yeah, you read that right too) and would we want to adopt one of their dogs that were already potty trained?

Then last week they put her back up to be adopted by someone else. It really broke my heart. I really can't believe how attached I was to Daisy. It actually felt like a member of my family was taken from me.

It sounds silly, but I was so consumed by these feelings that it was a bit overwhelming. My brain would not shut off! I prayed day and night to either be rid of the feelings for her or for me to be able to have Daisy back. I did everything I could.

Before I knew that she'd be back up for adoption (I honestly thought they said no because they already gave her away to someone else not because they just didn't like me), we found another puppy. It was apparent throughout this ordeal that I needed a dog to love. Life for me is changing. I felt the need to have someone to nurture who would give me unconditional love.

Our new puppy's name is Chloe. She's darn cute as well, not as small as Daisy, but maybe a bit smarter than her in my opinion (especially in the potty training area). We picked her up on Tuesday the 2nd, but she STILL wasn't Daisy for me. I still longed for my first furry love. As I said before, it was consuming. I think part of it was that I could forgive Mike much easier if I could "fix" the situation that he had caused. I mean, he was really in the dog house with Mykie and me (pun fully intended). The other part was that I just love Daisy.

When I found out that Daisy was available, I struggled with having someone go adopt her for me, finding someone to take Chloe and feeling guilty about ditching Chloe. When Mike and I talked about it, he was fine with the idea. I asked him if I was a psycho because of my obsession with Daisy. He kindly told me no. During all this - consuming thoughts of Daisy - I was still praying to be released from those feelings.

By Thursday night, I had a phone call out to a girlfriend to plan to have her adopt Daisy and I had two calls out to see if other people wanted to add Chloe to their family.

But sometime on Friday afternoon, the answer to all my prayers came. I suddenly felt released from the all consuming feelings I had for Daisy. I could finally have contentment with just Chloe. Friday night was the first night in 2 weeks that I fell right to sleep without thinking about the Daisy situation once.

It seems silly, this whole situation over a dog, but even though I had to be patient for two weeks to get my answer after all I could do, my answer did come and I did recognize the relief.

I wish this situation would have never happened, but in looking back I could have probably stopped it if I could have swallowed some of my pride in dealing with Mike that fateful Saturday Daisy was returned. That doesn't excuse Mike's choices in the situation, but I could have not endured this if I would have acted differently.

Some lessons learned are more difficult than others.