Under Construction

Please forgive our blog redo, we never have enough time to finish what we start! I'm sure it will be the greatest thing you've ever seen when we are finally finished. (Yeah right!!!)

Oops

I was at TJMaxx with my four kids, which was probably a big oops to begin with. But it was just a quick trip to return something and check out the toys. I asked the boys to keep and eye on Lucy while I looked at the clothes "right here" next to the toys. Pretty soon Max said, "Where's Lucy?" Both of the boys were looking around and when they couldn't spot her right away I told Max to stay with Sam, Jack to go this way, and I would go that way. We couldn't find her, and I didn't even have time to get nervous when I heard overhead, "Could the mother of the young girl with the pink bow please come to customer service." Then of course, they repeated it, "Could the mother of the young girl with the pink bow please come to customer service." OOOPS! Even worse than me feeling guilty for losing my daughter was that I was somewhat proud that she was recognized by her BOW! How lame am I?

True Heros

We have always loved Conference weekend and even feel an excitement as it approaches. We love hearing from prophets and apostles and feeling their love and concern, we love the break from regular church meetings, and we love feeling apart of something great throughout the world. Once again, this past weekend we felt inspired and rejuvenated.

For the last six years, April Conference has brought a different excitement. Since Byron's Dad was called to the 2nd Quorum of the Seventy he has received his assignment for the upcoming year the Wednesday after conference. Each year we anxiously await word of what they will be doing when July rolls around. He served in SLC for a year, and they have been serving in Hong Kong for 5 years now and have loved it immensely. Byron and I had the amazing opportunity to go visit without kids in 2003, and then again with the boys for a month in 2005 while Byron did a medical rotation in a hospital there. It was wonderful to see his parents embracing life there and working hard to serve the Lord. They have been so far away from their now 27 grandkids, and even though the world is a smaller place with the incredible technology we enjoy, they have missed knowing them close at hand. There are so many other things they could be missing, but they don't focus on those things either. Never do they complain or wallow in pity. They have been wonderful examples to us and we have felt so blessed for their desire to serve.

This weekend was likely to bring big changes for them. It was looking like they would probably be leaving Hong Kong, and, getting released all together or reassigned back in the states (UT). Since a call to the second quorum is typically 5 years and he had already served 6, they were thinking it quite possible they would be settling back in AZ for some grandkid/golf time. Surprise, surprise: they received their assignment to serve in Salt Lake. They once again have aligned their will with God's and are ready to serve with a good attitude. They are amazing and we love them dearly!

Easter Festivities

We had a great week celebrating the Easter Season. The weekend before Easter we attended an Egg Scramble at Vet's Park, which was more like a free for all in the mud. Great fun for the kids, not so much fun for the inside of our van. Later in the week we colored eggs and had a ball seeing who could get theirs the darkest shade. Each day during the week we tried to talk about the Savior's week before the resurrection. It really made Sunday more meaningful, not to mention helping our week to be better too. The Saturday before Easter some ward friends were getting together to do an egg hunt for the kids. With the 5+ inches of snow we got the night before, it turned into a sledding/egg hunt outing. It was actually really fun because the snow made it easy to hide the eggs (you could just throw them on the ground and they would vanish) and it made it pleasingly difficult for even the big kids to find the eggs. The Easter Bunny has been so kind to agree to come to our house on Saturday before Easter Sunday. This has worked wonderfully for our family, allowing us to focus on candy and stuff on Saturday, and the Savior on Sunday. The Easter Bunny had a junior Bunny helper this year which I read on his blog was a super cool new thing for him and the junior Bunny (I am trying to be vague, but if you are thoroughly confused, please let me know!) The hunt for the candy was a riot this year with Lucy being the star of the show. She was a little shocked by all the candy around and that we were letting her eat whatever she wanted. She had her little fists full of candy, and the eggs that were not wrapped would immediately go into her mouth. I think she was afraid we would all of a sudden tell her she couldn't eat any more so she was going for as much as she could as quickly as she could. That day she learned to say "candy" and her new favorite word was "open". It was pretty funny.

Sunday was a delight with no bishopric meeting in the morning (thank you kind Bishop!) so Byron was able to help get everyone ready and we all drove to church together. What an Easter treat for me! We had a yummy ham dinner with some friends, the Mitchells, and our next door neighbor, Flo. I was so glad we had been talking about the life of Christ throughout the week, because I had multiple "friends of other faiths" ask me if we celebrated Easter. I was able to tell them a little about our focus on the Savior and how grateful I am for the resurrection. And of course, back to real priorities, I had to get some shots of Lucy in her cute hand-me-down Easter dress (thanks, Emily!) and her snow queen coat direct from Gma and Gpa Garn in Hong Kong. I thought it was too funny with her out there in her spring dress checking out the snow. She did not want to come inside even though it was freezing. Good times, good times!

Real Priorities

Anyone close to me, or an acquaintance in the store, knows I am totally bugged by the fact that my ONLY daughter has no hair. She was so squeaky bald as a baby, she was "smooth as a seal"! All three of the boys had way more hair, in fact, right now, Sam at 3 months old has more hair than Lucy does at 18 months old. DUH! Well she is finally not bald, even though there isn't much there still. This picture represents a great day for me, however. It was the first time I pulled her little wispies into a ponytail on the top of her head. It was nearly impossible, but I somehow made it work. What fun, what fun!

Spring in Michigan

I was talking to my sister Amy on the phone last week. She lives in AZ, where it is nice and springy and the day we talked I believe it was around 80 degrees and sunny, of course. I started telling her how wonderful it was here, that it was warm and sunny and almost felt like spring was approaching. In fact it was almost 50 degrees! She said I was psycho, that she would die if it was in the 50's. I told her it felt so warm finally that Max and his friends were heading out to jump on the trampoline. Again, she thought we were crazy. I thought it would be a good laugh for everyone in warm places to get a glimpse of Max enjoying our version of spring, with proof of the lovely weather, so I took a picture of him, then of our computer. The true irony hit about 10 minutes later when I was no longer on the phone with my sister, but looked outside at the boys to find them with their shirts off! I opened the door and called out, "Hey, you crazy boys, get your shirts on!" The great Michigan response from Max, "But Mom, we're HOT!" You gotta love it! By the way, this is what it looks like today, here in "Springy" Michigan. You don't gotta love this! In fact, we really quite despise it!

Jack Of All Trades

We were trying to remember how long ago Jack began racing. We do not remember him racing in Milwaukee, but vividly remember him racing when we lived at Grandpa Harbaugh's house during Byron's intern year of residency, which would've made Jack 4 years old. So for the last 4 years any time Byron or I leave the house in the car, Jack wants to RACE. He waits until we are pulled out to the middle of the street, counts to three with his fingers, then takes off as fast as he can. Sometimes he races all the way down the street, but usually he goes just one house away, raises his arms in victory, then turns around and goes back inside the house. Jack is PASSIONATE about racing! He loves it and nothing deters him from doing it. So much so in fact, that we have had to make rules about racing over the years. Jack can no longer race before 7 am and cannot race after 8:30 pm. These rules have come after episodes like this where Jack could hear Byron leaving for the hospital at 10 pm or so and was devistated that we wouldn't let him race. He has also lost "racing privileges" at times for leaving the door wide open consecutive mornings, letting our beautiful Michigan winter into our home. As you can tell from the pictures, even the weather doesn't discourage this kid. He will plow through snow or carry an umbrella. He doesn't even care if other people are in the car, and some of you lucky people may have had the privilege of driving somewhere with us and racing this speed demon of ours. This all sounds pretty intense, but mostly it is just such a normal part of our day now that we don't even notice it as being unique. The other day when there was a ton of snow and I once again thought he was crazy for wanting to go out there and race, it occurred to me that I needed to capture this and write about it because it really defines Jack and makes up who he is. He is an ambitious, driven kid when he wants to be. The years seem to be racing by and I don't ever want to forget my boy happily racing along beside me! (Notice the pajamas and my boots, sweet combo!)