It's his day.

I know that publication of Chad wearing this shirt will inevitably cause me to be again accused of losing it on purpose. Or an even more sinister accusation; throwing it away. But! I am not afraid. I have truth on my side and when we reach the pearly gates of heaven I WILL BE VINDICATED. For the loss of the yellow shirt and for Bob's death. Truth will be relieved as to what happened and I will forgive all those (I am looking at you Chad Burton) who have falsely accused me all these years.



This post is not about my innocence though, which I am! It is about my lovely husband, who is another year older today. Thirty-seven years ago he came into this world. He did some stuff and then when he was twenty-two he met me and his life really began. At least that's how I see it.





Since it is his birthday I thought I would take this opportunity to say how swell he is. He is possibly the best man I know, at least personally (I added the personally part, because I do not want to overstate his general wonderfulness and therefore lose credibility as to the truthfulness of how actually wonderful he is.) Are we clear? Clear.





Sitting her trying to enumerate all the wonderful qualities Chad posses just isn't conveying the sincerity of what a beautiful person he is. I could go through point by point saying Chad is. . .funny, fun, smart, clever, kind, thoughtful, generous, hard-working, self-sacrificing, loving, caring, sensitive, and on and on and on. But, that just isn't enough. It doesn't exactly show how crazy I am about him and how great I think he is. How lucky I know I am.





Like most things that are good, Chad is complicated and layered with unique qualities. When taken in there entirety together they demonstrate his depth of character.



I love you more today baby than I could have ever imagined. Often I sit in admiration of your strength, courage and desire to do good. You inspire me to be better, to do better. I cannot envision a better companion to go through this life with. Weeks ago you told me that I was your sun, well, baby YOU ARE MINE.

It was 116 degrees on Saturday.

These photos do not really have anything do with the temperature on Saturday. I feel it is important though, to give the temperature's we have been experiencing lately proper position in this post. IT HAS BEEN HOT, the kind of hot where you feel like you are in a sauna with a fan blowing the heat from the coals at your face, neck, legs, ankles, and the folds of skin between your toes. That kind of hot.



Owen had a football game Saturday. I do not have a single photo of the event. Why? Because I was trying to survive. Literally. He had to be there at six am for his eight am game. Which lasted three bloody hours. At six am it was 102 degrees. By the time we left it was 116. I am not kidding. If I could give a single word for that experience it would be. . .alarming, bloodcurdling, dire, direful, fearful, fearsome, forbidding, formidable, frightening, gut-wrenching, hair-raising, heart-stopping, intimidating, redoubtable, scary, terrifying; abhorrent, deplorable, disagreeable, disgusting, distasteful, loathsome, nauseating, noisome, obnoxious, obscene, offensive, repugnant, repulsive, revolting, sickening; abominable, evil, foul, heinous, noxious, odious, unspeakable, vile; grotesque, ugly, unsightly.



One word just wasn't enough. I have run out of ways to complain about how hot and uncomfortable I am. I am even sick of hearing my own complaints. I had a headache that lasted until I woke up Sunday morning. To put it in Chad's words,



"This will be a trial."

School's in session

Lily is going to Emecec. It isn't a good school. And that is a generous statement. But! There is a bus! Hooray for the bus! Without the bus, I fear, life would be colorless. That may seem like an overstatement but if you knew how Lily felt about the bus, then you would know how appropriate that statement was. She goes three days a week for two and half hours. About half of that time is spent sitting against a chain link fence waiting for the teachers to get themselves all organized. Here is where I repeat to myself,



"If you have nothing nice to say, say nothing at all. If you have nothing nice to say, say nothing at all. If you have nothing nice to say, say nothing at all. If you have nothing nice to say, say nothing at all."







The boys are in Third and First grade at Las Sendas. They are both liking it and having fun with friends. Hopefully they will learn something this year, safe to say I am a bit concerned after helping Owen practice for his first spelling test. S A T, sat was the first word on his test. We all had a good laugh about it and Luke even passed Owen's entire third grade test.





But! They come home happy everyday and seem to be enjoying it. Owen is playing football (which to say he's enjoying it would be a rather large stretch) and going to an after school chess class. Luke is going to play soccer this fall and hasn't even gotten any notes home! A real feat for him, he tends to be a little bit of a chatter box, and I, HAVE NO IDEA WHERE HE GETS THAT FROM.



I can still remember my third grade teacher, Mrs. Wendland telling me that I would never amount to anything because I couldn't keep quiet. Wow, she must have just thoroughly enjoyed having me!





And me? What will I do all day? That remains to be seen, but four weeks from today I'm sure I will have somebody to fill my time.

This sweater.

Lily was about fifteen months old when she first wore this sweater. It had a little vest that went with it. I loved it. I would put her in it and stare at her. Revel in her delightful babyness. Then something terrible happened. . .





She grew up. I've held onto this sweater because I just cannot imagine a world where I don't get to ever see it again. I knew it was happening, the growing up part that is, but until you take a moment and look back, it just doesn't seem to be happening.





Even now I am so grateful that Heavenly Father saw fit to bless us with Lily. She is incredibly loud and wild, but there isn't a day that goes by where I don't think, thank goodness for her. My daughter, my only daughter. Often Chad and I will catch ourselves looking at her, admiring something funny she is doing or just her general beauty. Yes, we're both impartial.





Her boundless energy infuses happiness into our home. Chad walks in the door each night and wherever she is she will let out a shriek.



"Daddy daddy! Piggy back ride piggy back ride piggy back ride!"



Chad will take off with her on his back racing around the house. Her feet are cradled in his hands and he lifts them up and down for added enjoyment of the piggy back ride. All this while she shrieks and squeals from the general thrill of the piggy back ride.





I hope the memory of these simple, enjoyable days stay as fresh in my mind as they are today.

I just hoped for the best

I swear, this boy just sometime melts my heart. Yesterday he had a doctors appointment that he wasn't looking forward to. Last time he went he had to do a bunch of labs and fainted after the blood draw. He was very worried that he would have to do it again and I wasn't sure exactly what we were going to have to do. So, I told him to try not to worry about it and we'll just have to see what it is.



Thankfully, it wasn't a big deal at all. On the way out of the office, Owen (face beaming) tells me,



"I just hoped for the best and the best is what happened!"



Owen, our first born boy, who is growing up entirely too fast (but not nearly fast enough in his estimation) is just such a good boy. He has faith and hope in situations where most children his age would fall apart. If I had to use one word to describe him it would probably be cheery. His cheery disposition is just such a pleasure to be around. My pride in him is compounded by the fact that he goes through hard things, experiences them and just carries on.

Rockaway beach; Part 4 of 4

Some brotherly affection.





Dancin





Feelin it





Oh yeah.















Sunday brought more adventures to our vacay. We headed up the coast a couple of miles to Canon Beach. We explored the shops, Owen spent some of his hard earned money on a shark necklace and Luke bought a poisonous stuffed snake. I ate myself sick with some amazing caramels, but it was worth it, wow, they were good!



We went exploring around Indian Beach, the boys went in the water some more and Luke even managed to make "friends" with the locals. Sure, it first involved him throwing some rocks at them, but in the end they were buddies. Luke and a group of twenty something guys, good ole friends. We thoroughly enjoyed our time at the coast and had fun seeing beloved cousins and aunt.

Rockaway beach; Part 3 of 4.

Singing the "Barbie song". . .thanks Linz!





Seeing how Grandma won the dance competition at school.





This is how we roast smores.





We roasted smores on the beach on Saturday night and Sunday night. On Saturday it was just me and my kids; grandma, VV, Lindsay and Maya went up to Canon beach and shopping.



Luke was the fire-master! He and I collected up all the firewood and he was my right hand man for getting it going. He felt about ten feet tall, being in charge and all. It was nice, sitting around a cozy fire, right on the beach with my children. We chatted and ate and enjoyed each others company.



On Sunday night everybody participated and it was really fun. Somehow we started singing random songs and my cousin Lindsay whipped out the Barbie song and forever impressed Lily. Lindsay indulged a little girl and sang it over and over again, including of course the voice inflections. Lily giggled, tried to sing along and sat in awe of the whole thing. This whole thing led into us singing other slightly inappropriate for children songs. We got to witness first hand grandma's dance moves too. Something that everyone should in their lifetime get to experience. All I'll say is it seems that her students have been teaching her some of the latest moves.



BTW, we now own the Barbie song and most of the members of our family have all the lyrics memorized.