Growing up with Little Guy and Emmy

Saturday, July 26, 2008

Pondering...

This past week, I've spent some time thinking about the passage of time. At the beginning of June, our family was in the same place it has been for the past ten years...just plugging along in Western Oregon. Now, near the end of July, our house is half-way packed up, the memories are off of the walls and inside boxes, and I'm trying to figure out what items I want to take the time to pack...transport...and then unpack again, and which ones can simply spend some time at Goodwill before another family takes them home. It's amazing to me how quickly life can change.

There used to be a commercial on the radio for a gas company. The final line of the ad was "Life happens between empty and full." It spoke about all that you can do with a tank of gas. It always bugged me...to me is seems like all that happened between empty and full was watching the dollars drain out of my checking account as I sat at the gas station. If that's life, I'd say "No, thank you!" But, oh, think of all that can happen between full and empty. Because that's really all we have...what we do between full and empty, start and finish, "You're attention, please" and "This is your final call." It's the every day things that count...how we choose to spend our time, what we choose to spend our time on, who we choose to spend our time with.

Bob has given notice at his current job. He started there just after we got married in 1998. He has thoroughly enjoyed the work, the co-workers and the firm. But, he's made the choice to move our family back "home." To be closer to so many family members, to be in a place where life just moves a little slower, where less time is spent on the freeway and more time is spent with the kids. We are sad to be leaving. We've made so many friends here. We'll think of them often, and we'll stay in touch. We'll come back to visit and we hope that we'll have lots of visitors, too. We'll miss our little meeting here, but look forward to getting to know those in our new meeting.

This week, time has meant many things to me. It meant trying to get as much done as quickly as possible. It meant planning a few fun things for the kids in between packing boxes. It meant making sure to stop, put the kids in my lap and spend some time studying. It meant spending time with some very important people before we leave. It meant trying to stop or cancel things here and get things started there. It meant making list after list in the hopes of not forgetting something. But, most of all, time meant trying my best to make each moment worthwhile for the good of our family.

What makes a great week...

Wondering how many more candles Mom can light before it sets off the fire alarm

Spending some time with another artist

The finished product

Telling Mom just how big a piece of cake I want

Looking at things from a different point of view

Trying to imagine how this 3 1/2 feet tall Thunderegg was formed and

marveling at the beauty within

Being thankful we'll never run into one of these!

Imagining what it would be like to come upon a nest of dinosaur eggs

and waiting...waiting...for whatever's inside to come out

Practicing a little team work

Spending some quality time with Mom...while she gets my hair ready for Bible Study

Hanging out with my best buddy Zack

Burning some rubber

Scooting along

Hanging out with Jordan

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Family Photos

We found a turtle stuck in the mud...Ryan was very excited.

While Emma was picking flowers, an airplane flew over.

Gotta love the personality!

I love how our photos turned out. We've always had them done inside at a studio. It was great to have them outside on a beautiful summer evening. Kyla was able to get some great candids of the kids. Here are a few...after Kyla took out the "bad" ones, we still had 155 on our CD! I'll be mailing them out to the family as soon as I can get to Costco to place the order.

Boise Botanical Gardens

After our family pictures on Friday night (they're coming up!), Dad and Bob took the kids back to Mom and Dad's house. Mom and I stayed at Max and Amanda's (they were out of town). We were at the bookstore that evening until almost 11 p.m. I had plans to sleep in the next morning...no kids, no immediate responsibilities. However, the 6:40 Southwest flight traveling over the house woke me up. I went out to their back patio (their backyard is a beautiful golf course) and enjoyed a very peaceful cup of tea. Mom and I headed downtown for the Farmer's Market. On the way, we stopped at a coffee place for breakfast...discovered that Jon had the same plan for his morning. We ended up having breakfast with him (what a nice surprise!) and then enjoyed the market. It's not as big as ours, but still impressive. Then, Mom and I went to the Botanical Gardens. I had never been there. Mom spent quite a bit of time at the gardens while she was getting her horticulture degree. It was like having my own personal tour guide. We had a great time...what a beautiful place. If you're in Boise, I'd definately recommend spending some time there. After the Gardens, we rana few errands and then went back to the house. It was so nice to spend that time with just Mom and I. I knew that the kids were well taken care of and could just relax and enjoy some quite time with Mom. Thanks, Mom!