Throwback Thursday

In 2003, just after McKay was born, we sold our beautiful home in Atlanta and moved to Utah.  

Craig had plans to open his own insurance agency once we got to Cache Valley, but there was a transition period while he looked for office space, trained with Allstate, and took a series of licensing exams.  For almost 3 years, we lived in his parents' basement.  Even though my in-laws had a lovely, spacious home and generously shared it with us, I don't often look back on those "basement years" with fondness.  It was difficult for me to live in someone else's house with four little kids and most of our belongings in a storage shed.  I longed for the day when we could buy our own home and I wouldn't have to worry about toys left in the pathway of elderly people.  Eventually we did move into a perfect little house just a few blocks away from the grandparents, and family life returned to normal…for a little while.  

We have moved into and out of three houses since those basement years, and I still don't think about them without remembering a good share of challenges.  But today, when I came across these pictures, I was suddenly filled with so much gratitude for my in-laws, especially my father-in-law.

Craig's dad is an infinitely patient man who adores his grandchildren.  I had forgotten until today about those days when McKay would climb up the stairs to read the paper with Grandpa in the mornings...  

…and how Grandpa always invited McKay to help him fix things.

By far, McKay's favorite place to be was outside.  As soon as the snow melted, Craig's dad was out maintaining his beautiful yard.  And McKay was right there with him.  Every tool Grandpa used, McKay had a matching one.  Every job that needed to be done, McKay was the official helper.  If Grandpa was wearing his work hat, McKay would wear his.  Grandpa rarely made a move in those days without his small shadow right behind him.

And even though there were jobs to be done, and Grandpa was very busy, he always made time to not only include McKay in the work, but also to teach him and talk to him.  They stopped to look at birds and worms.  They talked about the kinds of flowers and trees they were caring for.  They carefully cleaned and put away all the tools they used.  And then they would sit on the deck and have a little lemonade after they were finished and admire all their hard work.  And always, Grandpa would rave about how much help McKay had been to him.   McKay learned from his Grandpa the joy of being outside, the pride that comes from a job that's done well, and the great talent of figuring things out.  At ten years old, McKay is a meticulous sorter and organizer.  He can take apart anything AND put it back together.  And he is eager to learn everything he possibly can.  I'm sure that is, in large part, due to those early years with a Grandpa who was a wonderful example.   

Even though those two and a half years were long for me, they were such a huge blessing.  Having grandparents around definitely eased the burden of keeping four children entertained.  They were our on call babysitters when we needed to escape, and our live-in advisors when we had late night questions about Craig's business and our plans for life.   Our kids were able to forge strong, lasting bonds with their grandparents in those two and a half years that would have taken them much longer had we lived in our own home.

So...ten years later, from a vastly different perspective, I am grateful for the places we've been, the roads we've traveled, the storms we've weathered, and especially for my kind and gracious in-laws for making so much of that possible.  Our lives have truly been blessed because of them.  

Throwback Thursday

This is one of my favorite pictures EVER of Craig's family.  It's is an outtake, but it's the one I have hanging in our family gallery because I think it's more genuine than the one where we all look posed and ready.  I love that it shows how effortless it is when we're together.  I love that Craig is laughing with his brothers.  I love that two of them are looking at their wives.  And I love that my friend, Shalon, who took this picture, captured this moment.  

I can totally remember everything about this day.  We were at the end of our month long trip to Utah in July 2011.  We had asked the people who own this property if we could take our family picture there, and we dragged the ENTIRE family and a photographer up there to do it.  It was a perfect summer day in Mendon...but really, everything after May is pretty much perfect there.  I remember how the air smelled, how the breeze felt, what the gorgeous Wellsville mountains looked like in the distance.  And while we took this picture, the kids were all standing around having their own happy cousin connections.  

I also happen to love that this picture was taken when I was at my happy weight.  That weight comes and goes for me.  But this picture proves that it isn't that far away, that it's very attainable, and that I'm happiest when I'm at that weight.  

Rabbit Season

When we moved from Utah to Texas in 2010, one of the things we the Scout Master most looked forward to was not having to do as much yard work.  We loved the farm life for a season, but after seven years, that season definitely came to an end for us.  The lot sizes here are significantly smaller than they are in Mendon, so we before we moved, we lightened our load, and returned the riding lawn mower to my father-in-law.  

We left our chickens, our barn cats, our apple trees and our one acre lot in Utah and planned on living a less rural life in Allen.  

But even a 1/4 acre lot requires some maintenance, and in the blazing 100+ degree summers, no one looked forward to mowing the lawn.  The tiny task of mowing our little postage stamp of  a yard in our rental home became a monumental chore.  So when we moved across the street the following summer to a beautifully manicured yard that came with a lawn service, we were overjoyed.  (Well, ok it didn't actually come with the lawn service, but the guy who had mowed for the previous owners knocked on our door the day we moved in and asked if we would like him to continue.  We enthusiastically said, "YES!")  The following week we purged everything that looked like a yard tool out of our garage.  

Our lawn guy's name is Beto, but his business is called Rabbit's Lawn Service, so the kids and I have come to affectionately refer to him as "Rabbit."  And he is the nicest guy on the planet.  He takes so much time to carefully mow, edge, and blow away all the grass every two weeks.  He waves when he sees us.  He stops the blower when one of the kids walks out the front door...which is every five minutes in the summer.  We always look forward to seeing Rabbit's white truck parked in front of our house because it means that a beautiful yard is in our near future.  

We haven't seen that white truck in the neighborhood since about November when winter officially started and all the grass died.  And then one day last week, there was the white truck, parked in front of our neighbor's house.  Hallelujah!  It was time for Rabbit to come back.   The Scout Master ran across the street and practically hugged our long lost lawn friend.  I overheard a conversation about mulch, tree trimming and new sod in an unfortunate spot right by the front door.  And then on Monday, Rabbit was at our house bright and early, truck overflowing with yard things, ready to make our house look like spring instead of winter.  It took him ALL DAY and part of the next day, but the result was totally worth it!  

Our house is officially ready for spring.  Beautified, trimmed and mowed.

And here's why I love that Rabbit so much.  These little white rocks were in the dirt behind a bush near the front door.  McKay picked them up months ago on his way home from school and attempted to let them live INSIDE the house.  When I didn't think that was the best plan, he must have opened the door and tossed them outside.  And they've stayed there all winter.  But on Monday when Rabbit asked me to come outside and look at his work, I noticed that those little white rocks were still there, carefully picked up out of the old dirt, set aside while the mulching happened, and placed back in the exact same little haphazard clump they have been in since November.  That's why we love Rabbit.  He's just careful and kind and attentive to the little details.  

I'm so grateful that spring brings back all the beautiful things about this place, and that Rabbit comes with it.

Throwback Thursday

While I was happily snuggled in my nest on the couch the other day with the heater cranked up to 75 degrees, I thought about January in Utah.  We don't have quite as many pictures of that month as we do of all the others, probably because I have an aversion to cold weather and the snow fun almost always happened without this family photographer.  But I did manage to find a few moments from past snow days.  

We had a permanent snowman in our yard from the time the first snow fell until sometime in May.

Mack was always my biggest snow fan.  I could NOT get him inside, even when his little cheeks and fingers were beyond frozen.

People planned such great snow activities for us in Utah.  We weren't exactly equipped to play in the snow, but everyone was happy to teach the girls the finer arts of sledding.  I'm pretty sure there's a smile under all that snow covered hair.

This is quite possibly the only picture of Flowering Buttercup in the snow.  She didn't love it either.

That is pure joy on Mack's little face.  See, even when he was tiny he loved that stuff.

This was Mack's second favorite thing to do in the snow.  Whenever I could hear the snow blower, I knew he would be right behind it.  Back and forth, back and forth for as long as it took to clear a path.

There is not one day that I long for snow around here.  I love that Dallas days are almost always sunny and that if we do get snow, it never piles up for very long.  But there is nothing more beautiful than waking up to trees that have been flocked with tiny icicles the night before.  I rarely actually walked out into the snow, and for sure never played in it, but I LOVED looking at all the snow covered things from inside my warm house.  :)

I'm grateful for all the happy, snowy memories that my kids have.  I'm grateful that they have an appreciation for this stuff that I never quite acquired.  And I'm so grateful for the opportunity to experience warmer climates now.

I hope you are somewhere warm and happy this Thursday...or snowy and happy!

Throwback Thursday

The teenagers in my house have been telling me for awhile now that I'm such a nerd to have a Flashback Tuesday post.  ("They're supposed to start with the same letter, Mommy!")  Apparently it's Throwback Thursday on Instagram.  (#tbt)  So, I am replacing my Flashback Tuesday posts with a new, improved and more socially acceptable Throwback Thursday post.

In 1997, we flew to Mendon to spend Christmas with the Scout Master's family.  It was the first time I had ever seen snow.  I think if you wait until you're 27 years old to experience snow, you don't love it as much.  I have never really learned to love that stuff.

We weren't very prepared for snow on that trip. I had no idea that fleece wouldn't keep us warm and dry.  We had fun playing in it for a little while, though, and then we hurried back inside to drink hot chocolate and sit by the fire.

Shortly after Christmas, Flowering Buttercup started running a really high fever.  She was so lethargic and wouldn't eat anything.  We waited it out for a couple of days and then finally when we couldn't even get her to drink anything, we took her to the hospital.  She had pneumonia!  So we celebrated New Year's Eve in Logan Regional hospital with our 16 month old baby hooked up to an IV.  She was so pitiful.

A week later, after spending three days in the hospital, she felt so much better and was back to her happy, hungry self.  It was a memorable Christmas for all of us!  

Flashback Tuesday

I hope you don't mind if I get a little lost in Cache Valley memories for the rest of this week.  Even though I'm so glad to be home, I'm having a hard time getting back into life here in Dallas after having such a great week in Utah.  

While the Scout Master and I were driving around on Thanksgiving morning, we stopped at Utah State University.  It's such a gorgeous campus that I found myself hoping that at least one of my kids would want to go to college there.  

When my kids were little and first starting school, we enrolled them at Edith Bowen Laboratory School at USU because we had heard such great things about it.  It was a bit of a sacrifice to drive them so far away each day, especially when June was only in half day Kindergarten, but it was so worth it.  We carpooled with a couple of other families and the Scout Master worked in North Logan, so that lightened the load a bit.  

This was the walkway from the carpool parking lot to the school.  Once, I made about 48 cupcakes with cute little skeletons on them for two of the girls' class Halloween parties.  At the time, Mack was little and still required a stroller, and because I didn't have any help, I tried to push his stroller while balancing two full sheet pans loaded with cupcakes on the top of it.  There's a slight incline down that sidewalk and a tiny little lift where two of the concrete sections don't quite meet.  The stroller hit that bump and both pans went flying.  I couldn't even hope to save any of the cupcakes because they landed face down on the sidewalk.  That happened early in our Edith Bowen experience, and I could never quite look at that sidewalk the same way again.  Nor did I attempt to be supermom after that. 

There was a tangible energy about that school that was unmistakable when you walked through the doors.  Every time I volunteered in those classrooms, I considered reactivating my teaching certificate and going back to work. The teachers were adventurous and passionate about teaching.  They all had Master's degrees or PhD's in education and they genuinely loved the kids and their jobs.   Those teachers laid the groundwork for my girls to love school and to seek after learning and I am so grateful that we all had the opportunity to experience that.

Flowering Buttercup - 5th grade graduation

Spell Girl - 4th grade

June's 1st and 2nd grade class

...and an occasional trip to Aggie Ice Cream made the distance from Mendon to USU much more bearable, too. 

I am so grateful for teachers who love what they do.  I'm grateful for memories that linger.  And I'm grateful for opportunities that are even better in hindsight than they were when we were right in the middle of them.  

Cache Valley

On Thanksgiving morning, the Scout Master and I took advantage of a kid-free morning (all the girls were in SLC having sleepovers with cousins and Mack was busy helping Grandpa.)  We took the car and my camera and decided to capture some of the things we love most about Cache Valley.  I would never have admitted this when we lived there, but holy cow! there really is no place as beautiful as this valley.  

I'm so grateful to have been able to spend an incredible, gorgeous, non-snowy Thanksgiving week in this amazing place.