a.rose

A while ago I posted some family pictures that Devin's dad helped us take.  I realized later that I didn't post my favorite one, I don't know why. I post it now, to let the record show that this one is my favorite.

Dear World - Have you ever been completely jealous of someone, and at the same time so totally not jealous of them at all? Have you ever made it through cutting the onions just fine, only to give in to the tears while chopping the carrots? The thing is, it was hard enough for me to give my sister to BYU when she went away to college.  It was harder still for me to "let her" get married and go off with her husband to have adventures. Now you, world, are trying to claim* her as well for even more adventures.  So listen up. That's my baby sister that is coming at you.  That's the little girl that taught me just about everything I know about being who I am.  She taught me to play, to fight, to laugh, to apologize.  We grew up and she taught me how to be married, and continues to teach me how to be a mom. She's two years younger than me, but she's always been years older than me.  Growing up it was always she who introduced me to the people who came...

When Devin's parents were in town, I took advantage and went off to the grocery store all by myself.  Sometimes it feels really sort of deliciously luxurious being alone in a grocery store, did you know that?  Oh, and but I had Heather with me. Because these days when I say I am alone, Heather is obviously a footnote to the definition of the word "alone". So there I was, wandering through the store all by myself with Heather by my side, taking my sweet time really trying to decide which pickles I wanted the very most.  Our grocery store gives free cookies and free slices of cheese to children.  We were looking through the cheeses, I think I was trying to find the pepperjack  because my plan was to make blt's for lunch, and hello pepperjack. As I was on the hunt, one of the cheese guys came over to us, and bent down to Heather's height.  "What kind of cheese do you like?" He asked her, preparing to get her whichever kind she wanted. "Green....

Does it get any better than trying to get a good family picture? It's just like every family emotion packed into one afternoon. I love it.

I finally figured out a way to explain it to Devin so that he would understand. Pretend you're getting ready to run a marathon, I told him.  You spend months planning and preparing to do this hard thing.  You anticipate what it will be like, what might happen, and you envision it going the way you want it to go.  You think about past marathons, what you did right, what you did wrong, the ways you want this time to be better.  You put months into this effort. Then race day comes.  You know your body, you can tell when something is wrong and instead of feeling a bit of excitement that the day is finally here, you feel a sick sort of anxiety because you know something is off but you don't know what. You show up at the race, and a group of race officials rush over to you.  They are clearly agitated and things seem a little frenzied.  They tell you that due to circumstances completely outside of your control, they are going to need you to lie down an...

"Mom, will you help me put my underwear on?" My mom cam around the corner of the hospital room, and stepped into the little bathroom where I had been struggling in vain to put my own underwear on.  I could neither lift my legs high enough, nor bend over far enough to get the job done.  This time there was no nurse around to help me do it, but my mom was. As we struggled together, I laughed a little and said, "Well, I guess it's been a while since you've done this for me."  Later that same day I wanted to take a shower.  I hobbled my way slowly to the bathroom, and my mom helped me begin the process.  I thought I could do the actual washing on my own.  Things were going pretty well, all things considered, until I tried to wash my hair.  It hurt too much to lift my arms up, stretching and pulling parts of my body that still did not want to be stretched and pulled. "Mom?  Will you wash my hair for me, please?" I laughed again, and made ...

We love it when people come to visit us.  In March, my sister, her three kids, and my mom came to visit us.  The day they arrived, my friend Lindsey was driving across the country and she stopped by with her husband and three kids.  The day my sister and mom left, another friend was driving across the country with her husband and their four kids. It was just a great time. Last week Devin's parents and younger brother came to visit, and the day they came my brother and mom were also driving across the country so they stopped for a visit. There are two lessons to be learned here: 1. My house is a great place to stop if you are driving across the country.  We have clean bathrooms and fresh snacks. Also lots of places to sleep if you should be hitting Nebraska at bedtime. 2. Please make sure to coordinate your trip with all of my other family and friends. I like to do these things all at once, you know.  Hazel just pooped right out on my mom.  I j...