Fathers Day Celebration

Today was a day of two parts...half to celebrate Fathers and half to celebrate the Lakers winning the championship. (Actually just an excuse to put my kids in these purple sweater vests that I found at The Childrens Place for $2.99 each!)

It's tough to get six kids ready for church...tougher still to get six kids ready for church and then insist that a picture be taken before getting in the car. So, this is what we got. Not great...but not terrible.

Happy Fathers' Day to all those men who spend their time providing, presiding and protecting us. It's a tough job, but somebody's got to do it...we're glad you do it for us! We love you!

Along The Same Lines

Here's another thing my boys will always remember:

The way their dad screamed and jumped around like a little girl when the Lakers won game seven two minutes ago.

Seriously, priceless....

Remembering

I keep thinking that if I just wait long enough, I'll be able to post something new about what the kids are doing, or write a funny story about what one of the kids did, and I'll be able to just skip over the whole part where my Grandpa died last week and I drove myself and four children to Utah and back in four days. But the more I wait, trying to forget, the more I realize what I really need to do:

REMEMBER

My Uncle Kay spoke at my Grandpa's funeral. He spoke about remembering, and about how we needed to go home and record in our journals our thoughts and feelings; how we need to write about what happened, and share our feelings with our children and REMEMBER what we felt.

So, here's what I remember.

It's really sad and hard and just plain yucky to say goodbye to someone you love. It doesn't feel good. It doesn't matter that he was 83 years old and had lived a full and happy life, it's still just really sad.

I remember watching my mom and and her mother and sisters and brother gather together over the casket and say their final goodbyes to the body of their father and husband. I remember their strength in doing this. I remember that they KNOW the blessings of the temple are true. I remember that they KNOW they'll see him again.

I remember seeing the tears my little boys shed as they watched their great-grandpa being burried. I remember what an extrodinary man my grandfather was. How he always had a joke or a song, or a smile to share with his seven children, 39 grandchildren, and 45 great-grandchildren. I remember that he loved me. I remember that he knew the gospel was true. I remember that he honored his priesthood.

I remember my Grandma's impentetrable strength... Her smile for the man who handed her my Grandpa's navy flag, her words of comfort to everyone who had lost this wonderful man, when she was the one who lost the most - her companion for over sixty years. I remember that she is such a woman of faith...always composed, and always with a kind word or friendly smile for someone else, even when she must be at the depths of her own sorrow. I hope someday to be a woman like her...a woman of faith...who KNOWS she'll see her beloved again. I'm working on it, and I'm glad I have such a wonderful example to follow.



I remember saying goodbye to all my own brothers and sisters as the weekend came to a close. I was crying like a baby and making them hug me while they made fun of me....I was an emotional wreak, but I just didn't even care.


Remembering all this makes me cry, and (despite all evidence to the contrary the entire weekend) I hate to cry. It makes you look funny and your head hurt. But I hope that in remembering, I'll be able to learn, and grow, and teach my own children about the importance of remembering. I know that most of them are too young to really remember my grandpa, but I hope they'll remember how they felt at the funeral, how the Spirit touched their hearts and gave comforts to their little souls. That they'll be able to tether back to that feeling when things are hard in their own lives.

Today was the last day of school for all my children. They've been on edge a bit this last week, being impatient with one another and picking on eachother, looking for ways to be be unkind. I guess saying goodbye is hard to do...even if it's just for the summer and to teachers and friends that you'll see again in two and half months. Sometimes it can bring out the worst in you. But, if we do it right, saying goodbye and REMEMBERING can bring out the best in you... I was certainly a witness to that this weekend.

Okay, I'll end this super-long and super-sappy post with scripture...something I've never done on my blog before. This scripture is from the Book of Mormon, found in the book of Mosiah, as King Benjamin is addressing his people, and it goes like this:

And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness.

O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it.

The Purple & Gold

I grew up in Oregon in the late 80's and early 90's with four brothers who loved the Trailblazers. Part in parcel with their love for the Trailblazers came an intense hatred of the Los Angeles Lakers. I don't know what it was about those boys in the purple and gold, we just loved to hate them. My mother's family was from Los Angeles, however, so my aunts and uncles and grandma and grandpa were huge Laker fans. I remember one Christmas when my Aunt Jodie and Uncle Kelly sent us all a bunch of Laker paraphernalia as a gift/joke. I can still remember the shrieks and booing that my brothers let out as they ripped into their Laker socks. (or gloves,or shirts, or whatever else it was).

Fast forward twenty years. I'm married to a man who grew up as a Laker Fan, and his love has never softened or weakened toward that team. We even survived the whole incident with Kobe in Colorado, keeping our Laker fandom intact. I've always remained pretty much neutral towards either team, and really towards the sport as a whole. I've always just felt lucky that the sport my husband loves is basketball... a game is relatively short to watch on TV, compared to football, or baseball, or, heaven forbid, golf. Plus, he doesn't really like to play it anymore...watching seems to be enough for him these days.

But it's high Laker season around here these days...and it's been fun to watch my boys learn about the sport and start to turn into little fans. Sunday, my boys dressed for church in purple and gold (when appropriate), and after church we had a full blown Laker party.

Too bad they lost that game.

But then they won the next one.

So that was good.









My Grandpa Curly passed away on Monday. He was an awesome man and also a huge Laker Fan himself. So, there's a little part of me that wants the Lakers to win the whole thing just for him. I know that's not the reality of the situation, but in my mind, when they win, they'll be doing it for him. And I know he'd be happy to see all my little Laker fans cheering on his team.

Drop Everything

Leave the dishes in the sink...

And tear open the box....

When the UPS man brings the legos that you'd been waiting and saving your money for,you don't waste any time, you put them together immediately!


Or, sit by and wait impatiently while your sister puts them together for you...

Thank you Maggie!