The Kuhn's Got Ran Over by Reindeer

I know its been awhile since we last posted, but Reindeer are the only excuse I could come up with. Let's just say that absolutely nothing has been going our way over the last couple months. We are just praying we get through this holiday in one piece. I won't even bother to fill you in on all the depression around here, but we are looking forward to a little reprieve. On a lighter note, Daniel's long awaited scooter finally arrived. Yeah!! That means no more driving Daniel to and from work anymore (Marin and I may just throw ourselves a little party!) I'll be sure to post a picture later with Daniel and his "hog."

Other than that, Marin is talking and singing up a storm. She also likes to point at everything and ask "What's that?" Most the time I think she's doing it to test me. She is however, officially a terrible two and Daniel and I are learning some new lessons in patience. Its a dang good thing she is as cute as she is.



Even on the hard days though, we still love her to pieces and are so grateful that she is happy and healthy.

I unfortunately will not be sending out Christmas cards this year, so don't feel like we forgot you! So I hope that this will suffice.

Happy Holidays!
Love, The Kuhn's

Happy Birthday Marin!

Trip to Monkey Joe's $ 5.00


Balloons $ 2.50


Happy Meal $ 3.00


Cake Mix $ 2.00


Play Tent from IKEA $ 7.00


Watching Marin open presents from grandparents $0



Knowing your 2 yr. old has no clue how cheap her parents are: PRICELESS!

Happy Birthday Marin! We can't believe you're a 2 yr. old! Daniel and I feel like you have always been with us and at the same time we're amazed that two years have flown by so fast. We love you so much Marin! We hope you had a great day.

Trip to the Zoo

The temperature finally dropped down to the 70's, so we decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather. We loaded up our neighbors and took a trip to the N.C. Zoo. It was a lot of fun. Besides the great fall weather we were able to see a ton of animals. The zoo is set up like a park reserve, which often means you don't see anything but bushes, rocks and trees. Fortunately the animals came out of hiding for their cameos. Marin was really excited about all the monkeys. She actually spent most of her time people watching, which is also great fun at the North Carolina Zoo. Other highlights included the ice cream cone after lunch and the carousel ride.


Ok- I guess she would have had just as much fun at the mall. But it was nice to get outside and get some fresh air. We had a great day!

Setting the Record Straight

It would be strange if someone that was way too young, but still a legal adult, came into the funeral home to prearrange his own funeral – twice. It would be even stranger if that person ended up needing a funeral directors services shortly there after due to the actions of a group of delinquent thugs. It would be even stranger still if the parents of the kid came to that same funeral director for funeral plans even when they had no idea that their son had already prearranged for the same thing. Could you imagine the funeral directors surprise if he made the connection from identifying the kid off of an obituary photo? Any reasonably sane individual would be nothing short of flabbergasted. When that reasonably sane individual made the connection, he would certainly pass the information on to the proper authorities.
Plot Twist-
How crazy would it be if our reasonably sane individual received a phone call from the kid that he had made the prearrangement with after the cremation had taken place? Suppose that he knew this because he positively recognized the voice and the young kid recognized his as well. Obviously our sane individual had made a rather large mistake when he thought that he had recognized this kid. He would probably no longer think of himself as being sane at all. In his defense, there were probably some extremely unique and distinctive characteristics (physical as well as behavioral) that would set both of these individuals apart from the average (very very extremely large) group. Our sane person would briefly even consider the identical twin theory, but not for long. The simple truth would be that he was flat out wrong.
Another Plot Twist-
How ridiculously crazy would it be if these two kids that our now questionably sane individual had mistaken for being the same person, actually turned out to know each other!!! The questionably sane individual would find this out because the remaining young kid would begin asking him questions about the body of his friend!
Our questionably sane individual would now have gone straight to insane and not passed “Go” or collected his $200. That would be absolute ridiculousness. There is no way that there could be that much coincidence. It’s simply way too bazaar. I guess that I’ll have to come up with another idea for my book because that one is way too unbelievable. I couldn’t sell it if I tried.
The good news is that our insane person would not be in any trouble and frankly would have nothing to do with much of anything at all regarding these most unfortunate kids.

I think that I need this.




If it's too difficult to see what exactly this is, check it out here.

Amendment

Just for the sake of avoiding any confusion, I am nowhere near directly involved in the ongoing investigation that I mentioned in the last post. It’s like I’m connected through three completely random means to one horrific event. So I’m something like three times removed, but three times connected as well. It’s strange, but nothing to worry about. The strangeness was the reason for my mental break on the day of the previous post.

I really don’t think that I clarified anything there. Sorry.

Today I'm going to commit myself

I kid you not, today is the day that I have finally lost my mind. I’ve been slammed busy with work for about the last month and a half. I still have a list of people that I need to call back from when they initially called to wish me a happy birthday… You know who you are and I’ll eventually get to it. I’ve not forgotten yet. Right now I have ten minutes of work left before I dash out the door, cram food down my throat and then kiss Marin good night as I slip out the door on my way to Cub Scouts. Them I’ll get home and fall into bed. Tomorrow will be my first day off since some time in September? Oct was supposed to be my day off, but I was called in to work because they got busy and needed me. Happy birthday to me! But I did technically get half of that day off. I’m not complaining about any of it, I’m just tired and would like nothing more than to sleep and read and play with Marin and Katie.
Now the reason that I’m going crazy more so today than any other day is because I just made a huge mistake on something that I was so positive about. I’m kind of cracked to now know that I made this mistake because I have no idea how it happened. I was positive!!! Also, there were facts to back me up on my initial mistake. I was so positive!!!
Next, the mistake that I made has a bazaar twist that actually serendipitously relates to exactly what my mistake was about in the first place.
I know that none of this makes any sense whatsoever, but I don’t think that I should be any more specific as this whole mess has to do with and ongoing police investigation that is concerning a brutal and violent act of crime that I somehow seem to have found myself connected to. Somebody please just give me a break.

Crazy Summer

Yes...its us. We're back to the blog world after a summer long break from our keyboard. Entering the summer season I thought that it was going to be pretty uneventful, but obviously I was wrong about that. Marin and I ended up spending about 3 weeks in Michigan, while Daniel worked long hours here in Durham. My sister Erin drove back to NC with Marin and I and spent a week here with us, before heading back to Michigan to get ready for school. We really enjoyed having her here. We worked in a day trip to the beach with her so that she could be properly introduced to the ocean. We had a great time and brought enough of the beach back with us to prove it.


After that I spent my days gearing up for the looming task of POTTY TRAINING. It was pretty much terrible, but Marin doesn't appear to be too emotionally scarred for life because of it (although I'm sure her therapist someday will have something to say about it :) I really shouldn't complain, Marin did great!

During potty training boot camp we found out that hand, foot and mouth disease was going around the ward. So guess who gets it... Yep! Marin ended up having blisters all over the inside of her mouth, and feet. Poor kid. She couldn't leave the house for 2 weeks and we all went a bit insane being indoors so long. I was a little upset about the whole thing. Before having kids I always told Daniel that I'd let our kids eat dirt and be germy so that they would be healthy adults. Well, I've changed my mind. I get kind of crazy when people bring sick kids to play group and to nursery. I've since calmed down and have realized that there are worse things to deal with out there than a fever and some blisters. Unfortunately though, we had to cancel a trip to Delaware to visit Daniel's sister (for the 4th time). Sorry Chris! Someday we'll make good on our plans.

So after all of our summer craziness we've been left flat broke (what's new) and exhausted. I guess what I'm really trying to say is that I have felt like life has been really hard lately. But leave it to the Lord to humble us when we'd like nothing better to do than complain about why life stinks. We've had a bunch of friends and family go through some really tough trials the last couple weeks and I have realized we have nothing to complain about. We're all healthy and we have a beautiful soon to be 2 yr. old, who makes us smile everyday. We also have a steady job and a roof over our head. So yes...I'll admit there are worse trials than potty training :)

My little ragtime doll

So the fam packed up our little Civic and drove on up to Michigan for a few days recently. I spent about a week and then flew home and back to work. Katie and Marin have stayed behind and will be coming home in about another week. I've been home now for about five days and I'm totally finished with the batchelor thing. I miss them and want them to come home. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that Katie gets to spend time with her family and that they get to spend time with Katie and Marin, but I'm also very selfish. I miss my girls.
While we were in MI, Erin (KT's sister) took some great pictures and video clips. I've been thinking about those pictures all week. Wishing that I had them here with me so that it could feel like I still had the real thing. No luck, they are all still in MI. But then... When checking my gmail today I found that someone had commented on a video that was posted to my youtube account. It was a video that I didn't know was even on there. Aparently KT had posted it and Now I get to watch it. (Emoticon Smiley) You may also watch it, but this is mostly for my own pleasure as I cannot stop smiling and will certainly watch it from my work desk multiple times tomorrow.
And it seems to be funny enough that it's been commented on by some random youtube person. -I'm not sure how I feel about that. (Emoticon Pensive)
Enjoy.

Back Up and Running

IT WORKS AGAIN!!!

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Time to Boogie Woogie!

Please don't hate me as I make you both the object of some intense humor!
Enjoy.

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Just remember that I'm your favorite son in law ever.

What's Cookin'?!

Marin has recently decided that she needs to be involved in more of the cooking. I thought these pictures turned out so cute, I just had to post them. She wasn't so helpful with the cooking part, but does a great job helping clean up.




"YUM YUM"

Beach Trip

Daniel's whole family came down to North Carolina for a beach week in June. Daniel's mom came out a couple days before to spend some time with us before the masses arrived at the beach. Cheryl and Marin went to work on saving our trees in the front yard. They're saying that the drought here is only going to get worse. Fortunately for us I don't think our yard could get much worse. I'm not sure how helpful Marin was, but she certainly found a way to stay cool in all the heat.





We stayed in a fab beach house in Kill Devil Hills. It was great weather for the most part and we had fun spending time on the beach. Marin is definitely her father's child.



She is a total water baby.





She also had a lot of fun with Daniel's nieces and nephews. I know she was glad to have kids to play with instead of her boring mother.



It was nice visiting with the family and getting to see all the kids again. Daniel's sister Chris had a set of twins about a year ago that we were able to meet for the first time. All in all we were sad to leave the sun and sand, but had a great week. Thanks Cheryl and Bob!



(Please feel free to advert your eyes away from my flabby, pasty legs, but don't you think my suit is fabulous?!)

Back to blogging...

Yeah-its been awhile. Here is my meager attempt at redeeming myself. We went through some big changes in the Kuhn household during May. Since our 1 1/2 year-old is roughly the size of a 3 year-old we discovered that the baby gate had to come down, it was time for a booster seat instead of a highchair and we had to put those annoying doorknobs things on all our doors. Marin walked out the front door without my knowledge the other day, but luckily Daniel was outside to witness the escape. Unfortunately, she has now figured out how to open doors with the annoying doorknob things on them. Just last Sunday she organized THREE separate escape attempts from nursey by Houdini-ing the "child-proof" locks on the door.

Here are some pictures of Marin eating her first meal in the booster seat. She is thrilled to be in her big girl chair.

Misadventures in Shopping

What you're about to see may scare you. This is not for the faint of heart. I've been complaining for some time to Daniel that I have no clothes. I went about trying to prove it to him one night and the experience left us both shocked and disturbed. Here is the pile of clothes that no longer fit me or are worthy of allowing social services to take away my child based on my appearance. It was ugly folks.


This is what is left. So pathetic and sad. (P.S. Please nominate me for TLC's "What Not To Wear.")


I was forced to realize two things about myself. One- I hoard old clothes. Don't ask me why...I do such a good job decluttering the rest of my life, but can't seem to let go of ugly shirts from high school. Two- After Marin, my body has taken on a new shape all together. I swear my waist has dropped about 3 inches. I'm not sure why that happened.

Anyway, drastic steps needed to be taken. We hopped in the car on Daniel's day off and headed to the outlets 2 hours away. We thought we'd be smart and leave during Marin's nap time, thinking she'd sleep on the way down. Ha! Yeah right. She was grumpy by the time we got there, especially after getting lost trying to find the place. However, her spirits rose after she was freed from the car and able to walk around.

We had a little success in the first store, but our luck quickly changed as soon as we left that store. What a wash the day turned out to be. You'd think finding a few shirts would be a realistic expectation after visiting 30 different stores, but were we wrong. We did have one funny experience. We went into the Oshkosh store to see if they had any kids stuff on sale and while Daniel and I were making a quick game plan, Marin had sat down, stripped off both her shoes and socks, and was already trying on flip-flops. After Daniel and I composed ourselves we had to convince an 18 month old that she needed to leave her own shoes and socks on, and that we wouldn't be trying on EVERY pair of shoes in the store. I'm not sure where our girly girl came from, but she is GIRL through and through.


A short time later we took a trip to Dairy Queen in an attempt to lighten our collective spirits. Apparently, Marin really liked the ice cream.



Daniel did too. Unfortunately, a short while later, we found out that it didn't like him back. So while Daniel took the next hour and a half to deal with his own issues, Marin decided she had retained enough water to liberate all of NC from their drought and that it was time to let the flood gates go. I kid you not... she completely wet through 4 diapers in the span of 1 hour. I had never seen anything like it. Daniel is nowhere to be seen and I am 18 miles from the car. Marin and I started hoofing it. She screamed the entire way.

By the time we got to the car, Marin had not only soaked through her last diaper, but had now soaked my shirt as well. I hadn't been able to find any shirts all day, as previously mentioned, so I walked around for the last hour of our shopping trip in a pee shirt. All in all, we didn't get much accomplished but we all made it home in one piece. My closet situation...remains the same.

Visit from Pappy

Daniel's dad came for a visit last weekend. Unfortunately for him, he spent most of his visit helping Daniel fix our broken couch. Yes people..beware! When you come and visit us we put you to work! We sure appreciated all the help though! We did take a trip to Duke Gardens on Saturday afternoon. It was pretty hot out, so it was a bit of a short adventure, but we still had a good time.





Daniel's dad bought Marin a glow stick while he was here. This is a funny video of Marin, Daniel and the glow stick. Marin had a difficult time saying "pappy" so she called him "happy" instead. It was pretty cute. She had a great time playing with him over the weekend.

Marin's Room

My mom came for a visit at the beginning of April. We were so happy to have her here for a visit. We worked on several projects during her week stay, but I must say...our great accomplishment was Marin's room. I am so happy with the way it turned out. I know I know...Pottery Barn Kids is bound to be knocking on my door any day. I still have some little decoration projects I'm working on for the room, but I'm so pleased that everything came together so well. Now, if we can keep Marin from pulling the wood fence out of the wall, we'll be set.

Marin had a lot of fun playing with Glamma Harris all week. She was pretty confused when my mom left. She kept asking where grandma went and would look for her around every corner. They played a lot of hide and seek during the week. She would get a little sad when she realized glamma wasn't there to jump out and chase her.

Thanks for all your help mom! We wouldn't have been able to do any of this without you. My mom also made some fabulous kitchen curtains that I LOVE!

Here's something Awesome!

This was made by Katie's cousin. His name is Cole and he's an extremely funny kid. As exhibited in this clip. If you watch closely, you'll also catch a shot of Cole's actual mom - Peggy, not just a paid actress.

Enjoy.


Little Timmy and the Hippie from Benjamin on Vimeo.

Happy Easter!

I can't believe its Easter time again already. It doesn't seem all that long ago we were spending the holiday in a crusty motel alone, in a new place. We are lucky to have some wonderful people around us this year to celebrate with. Our friends the Rawlings were kind enough to invite us over for Easter dinner. Great food and great company. Marin enjoyed her easter basket...probably more than anything in it. She wore it around on her head for the most of the day. However, she is now the proud owner of a Blue's Clue's movie. She loves Blue!


We had a difficult time getting her to pose for the camera in her cute Easter dress so this is about all we got.



We hope you all had a wonderful Easter holiday!

Blog Challenged

In the words of Homer Simpson..."why must I fail at everything I do?" I've sat on my rear for about the last 3 hours trying to download new templates for our blog site. Obviously nothing I did worked and we're back to the same ole' same ole' we've been using. What on earth possessed me to think that I know enough about computers to do anything fancy is beyond me. I've lost three valuable hours of my life accomplishing absolutely nothing and I'm rather frustrated. So here it is...and here it will remain. Anyone is welcome to school in the world of blogging. I could certainly use some help.

Under Construction

Please be patient as our site is undergoing some construction. We're a little slow when it comes to computers, blogs, etc. And by "we" I mean I...Katie.

Day at the Museum

Marin and I went to the children's Life and Science Museum here in Durham last week. We meet some friends from the ward there and had a great time letting the kids loose to explore the different exhibits. It was a lot of fun.


They have a new exhibit just for babies and toddlers, so needless to say we spent most of our time there letting the kids play. Marin found a small staircase just her size that I don't think she ever left the whole time we were there.


If I would let her, she'd spend her whole day playing on stairs...but we're not quite proficient enough for that yet. The museum has a huge playground outside and a small section of farm animals as well. Marin doesn't get out much and thought every animal she saw was a dog...but it was still cute.


They also have an amazing butterfly house which was a lot of fun for the kids. This butterfly landed on my friend Tami's hand.


We later found out that the butterfly's name is the Red Mormon. Tami just happened to be wearing a red shirt and is in fact a Mormon. Coincidence?! After the butterfly house the kids, including their mom's had had their fill of museum fun. There was a lot left unexplored so we'll definitely have to venture back again soon.

ABC's and 123's UPDATE

I am rescinding all previous claims. This is why.




Look who’s reading ... a tot!

ABC's and 123's

I know that I'm being ridiculous, I live 90% of my life under that assumption, but I really do think that Marin is a smart little girl. I know that every parent says that about their child, especially their first, so I try so hard not to take myself seriously. Currently I'm stuck in that 10% of non-ridiculousness and loving the sure knowledge that Marin is in fact the smartest 16 month old to ever have graced this planet. I have many examples to support this certain knowledge, but I will only bore you with a few.

1. Just the other night, some good friends of ours were kind enough to watch Marin so that KT and I could slip away for a meeting without her. When we picked her up. The husband of the couple told me how smart she is and how much she really comprehends what is going on. And she really does. you can talk to her like a normal person and she really does seem to get it. It's bizarre. You may be saying, "so what? some guy told you that she was smart." Well, I don't think that he's just some guy. He's a really smart guy himself. He's here working at Duke Hospital as an anaesthetist. Maggie, you can tell Ron that he made my week. LOL.

2. I give you this video. It's not the best example of her skills, but she sure looks cute in it.



Sorry that she didn't get to D. I'm not sure why she quit. D is actually her favorite letter. We have a Sesame street CD that has a song about the letter D. that's how I know that it's her fave.
Did you note that she's not just repeating, she actually knows what comes next. Seriously, I don't think that most kids at 16 Mo. can do this.

3. She knows an extensive amount of anatomy. When asked, if she's not playing shy, she will point to:
hair
head, eyes, ears, nose, mouth, teeth, tongue, cheeks, and chin
neck
shoulders
back
belly
belly button
arms
elbows (she actually points to her wrists)
hands and fingers (she knows the difference)
legs
knees
feet and toes (also knows the difference)

4. She started at 13 months coming to us and patting her bottom while saying "inky" when she had taken a poop. Then when we acknowledged her, she would run over to the diaper bag and get a diaper and wipes and then bring them back to us.
She doesn't do this so much anymore. But sometimes we still get lucky.

These are just a few reason why I know that she's an uber genius. I'll now just sit back and wait for our call from MENSA.

Thank you, and you may now feel free to talk about how amazing it is that Marin is so smart when her father is such a moron.

Shrimp Fork

Apparently, shrimp forks solve all childhood eating problems. Mothers and future mothers...be advised!

The Problem: Marin would push away food before even trying it or would decide she needed her independence from parental feeding and wouldn't eat unless she could feed it to herself. I went on numerous silverware hunts to find something that would actually pick up food and was user friendly to children. The toddler metal forks and spoons, not only cost a ridiculous amount, they are also useless in holding food of any type. I found myself constantly trying to balance the food on them in order to get the food to her mouth.




The Solution: Shrimp forks and tea spoons. They have the same curvature and staying power as adult silverware and are small enough for Marin to manipulate. She will now eat just about everything, because of her new found independence. The extra bonus is that I can actually eat a few bits of my own dinner occasionally.

Strangely Familiar

Something about this and this reminds me of some old roommates that I once had.

What are your thoughts?

Daniel's ABC's

Sorry folks. Here’s another one of those annoying list things. Enjoy.

A- Attached or single: Attached
B- Best Friend: Katie
C- Cake or Pie: I cannot choose. I will not choose! It’s a tie between chocolate dump cake with peanut butter icing or peach pie with whole milk pored over the top.
D- Day of Choice: My weeks don’t have any way to track a beginning or end, so I choose any non-work day as my day of choice.
E- Essential Item: I need Heroes to make more episodes and put them on DVD fast!
F- Favorite Color: Blue, without hesitation.
G- Gummi Bears or Worms: Bears, of the cinnamon variety and then covered in chocolate. The one thing that makes BYU tolerable
I- Indulgence(s): Oreo’s and milk, or a dark chocolate Snickers. Drool…
J- January or July: JULY! I love hot. I despise cold. The only reason for snow is sport, ever.
K-Kids: 1
L-Life is incomplete without: Katie and Marin
M- Marriage Date: August 18, 2004
N- Number of Siblings: 3
O- Oranges or Apples: Apples as long as they are crunchy.
P- Phobias or Fears: Heights freak me out. The crazy thing is that I dig being freaked out. I like the adrenaline. I enjoy anything that gets me to the edge of a very steep drop.
Q- Quote(s): "You must be a creator of circumstances, not a victim of circumstances” – President Robert E. Sorenson, San Francisco, California Mission President 1997-2000.
R- Reason To Smile: My little girls giggle.
S- Season: Summer. I love being outside in the sun. It even beats the smell of fall or the energy of spring.
T- Tag Six: I think that I’m the last person that I know to have been tagged and if I’m not, I don’t want to suffer that anyone else would have to feel obligated to fill this out.
U- Unknown Fact About Me: Mostly unknown… I hated pizza as a kid. I was a teenager before I learned to like it. The truth of it is that I hated anything with any red sauce. Spaghetti was the first thing with red sauce that I started liking. I still hate fresh tomatoes. I’m pretty sure that they are the reason for initially hating pizza.
V- Vegetarian or Oppressor of Animal: I think that I’m somewhere in between. We don’t eat a lot of red meat, mostly chicken and pork. Even then it’s still in moderation.
W- Worst Habit: “Yep” “uh huh” and “huh?” as opposed to “Yes” and “excuse me?” Also, I incessantly crack my knuckles. I lack the will power to stop.
X- X-Rays or Ultrasounds: X-Ray. As in X-Ray vision. I’m all about super powers. I am such a dork when it comes to comic book stuff. I so want to be Peter Petrelli when I grow up.
Y- Your Favorite Food: It changes often. Currently I love this Japanese chicken salad that Katie makes. I think that it’s my favorite for now.
Z: Zodiac: Libra

Just Thinking

To all those who think that I’m not the same person than I was only a few years ago, you are right. And I thank you for noticing. Katie and I are working very hard to build a home for ourselves that our children will be able to grow and thrive in. Most of all, we want them to feel safe in it. We want it to be a refuge from the world and all the ugliness that is out there. We don’t want to shelter our kids, but we instead we want to give them an example of what they can have if they work for it. This, by the way, has nothing to do with belongings. Frankly, we’ll probably never be able to afford to buy a new xbox, Nintendo, PSP, cell phone, car…. every time a new one comes out - we try to be responsible with our finances. On the contrary, we feel that happiness comes independent of having the latest… anything. I think that my family benefits far more when we can spend an hour at the park together than even three hours in the same room rotting in front of the TV.
I digress.
My point is this. Katie and I are in fact trying not to be the same people that we’ve always been. We believe that we can be better. We are constantly looking for ways to not only love one another, but to actually enjoy one another too. This sounds elementary, but it's kind of a new concept for me and can be a serious struggle. It really takes a lot of work. The hardest part is when you see others involved in mediocre relationships, for whatever reasons, and they seem to have given up the hope of changing for the better.
I had a friend in School that was a very good friend. We did just about everything together. We did so much together that it actually stopped me from doing other things with other people. Often was the case that my friend didn’t like those other people or those other people didn’t like my friend. I eventually realized that my “friend” was like this gigantic black hole in my life, slowly sucking me to their level of darkness. Maybe you never had one of those “friends” but we have all probably observed it at one time or another. The moral is that a true friend would/should want you to be the best you that you can be, not just the one that they’ve always known. When anyone begrudges you for wanting to reach new heights and be better people, they are surely not a true friend. I believe, for right or for wrong, that when ever this happens, you need to step beck at least a little bit from the person or persons that are fighting your attempts to better yourself. This can be so hard because you most likely feel an obligation to help your friend. In addition to the fact that your friend almost certainly is living in some state of denial with regards to their condition, they will certainly see your stepping back as a painful slap in the face of your relationship. They will also probably try to manipulate you with the blame of ruining the relationship. There is nothing that is easy about this situation at all. I think that I am a better person when I surround myself with people that actually cheer me on and wish me well. It is a dangerous place when you are surrounded with “friends” that want nothing more than the way that it always was. I want better. MY family deserves better. I have to safeguard them and keep them from the dangers of being torn down instead of built up. I have to teach them by example that they should never be in any relationship where good enough is good enough. It’s never true.
If you’ve read this letter in its entirety, you have made the list of good friends. Thanks for sitting through my brain vomit. Hope you enjoyed.

Tribute

I just completely ripped this poem off of my good friends blog. I don't think that she will mind since she ripped it off of some email that she got. We have no idea who the writer Anna is but the poem is lovely.



Prophetic Passing
I imagine he's running to Marjorie now,
Yes, running, not waving his cane.
I see him embracing his father and mother
While they keep repeating his name.

I see him now meeting his forebears,
Brother Brigham and Joseph are there.
Sweet reunion of prophets, united by service
That only such noble men share.

I see him embraced by the Savior
While Father says, 'Good and well done.
So faithful in stalwart endurance,
I welcome My noble, most excellent son.'

I then hear the ripples of laughter
As he says the reception's just fine,
But he hopes that he'll get an assignment or two
Since there's no need to waste any time.

I can hear his clear voice in the stillness
At the close of this sweet Sabbath day,
Have faith and move forward - there's work to be done.
President Hinckley would want it that way.

Anna M. Molgard January 27, 2008


I would have ended it by saying:
I can hear his clear voice in the stillness
At the close of this sweet Sabbath day,
Have faith and move forward - there's work to be done.
Please drive safe as you leave on your way.

Try Walking a Mile in my Shoes

Resurrection

No, we are not dead. But I understand that you may think that by how often I've been posting lately. Truthfully, there is no excuse that anyone who checks this blog will accept, so I'm not even going to try. Instead I'll just give you all a nice little update and maybe a few pictures as well.

Thanksgiving was a lot of fun. Katie, Marin and I packed up the car and drove off to Michigan to spend the blessed turkey day with family there. It was so nice. I found it relaxing. Frankly, relaxing and holidays are not two things that I'm used to having go together. But this was really pleasant. One of the highlights was the trip that we took to the Henry Ford Museum.
This Museum is so cool. It's a really eclectic collection of just about anything that can be related to industry. But so much more! The exhibits seem to be a diverse collection of historical artifacts and industry that sometimes takes a back seat. Speaking of taking a back seat. One of the highlights was the actual bus that Mrs. Rosa Parks refused to take a back seat in. We also saw the limo that JFK was shot in, the limo that Reagan was shot in and the Rocking chair from Ford's Theatre that Lincoln was shot in. If it at any point in history could have been referred to as transportation, ie. planes, trains, cars, wagons, carriages, buses, campers, Oscar Meyer Weiner Mobiles etc... you could find it at this museum and you would most likely find many versions of them throughout the years. I so recommend a visit.




Christmas was also a lot of fun. We didn't go anywhere. We just enjoyed making some of our own family traditions this year. I think that Katie missed being home, I on the other hand found myself for the first time in a really long time getting into the Christmas spirit. I don't tend to get too excited about much, but this was just fun. It also seemed to be relaxing. I enjoyed every bit of hanging out with my two favorite girls.
Marin got her first baby doll. She loves it. We named her Annie because it's easy for Marin to say. Now Marin gets to run around giving hugs to Annie and taking care of her. Also she fits very nicely into the shopping cart that Marin got for her birthday back in Oct.
Life is good.