Abundant Recompense Copy

Thanks to Beck and Ben, the star-crossed lovers, my folks came out to visit this month. It was a wonderful, busy, fun-filled couple of days. We shopped for everything - and I mean everything - Beck might possibly need for her wedding, threw a bridal shower, ate yummy food on their dime, and just hung out as a family, which isn't something we get to do often. It was Bryn's first time meeting Gramps and they got along swimmingly. They also charmed Addison with a lifetime supply of m&ms (which the final video below clearly shows he has no need for) and playtime outside and up in the loft. Gramps carried a longtime tradition into decade number four and proved to the world that he's still got it by "flipping" Addison several times with no injuries to either of them. We loved having you guys! Come again soon!

Yeah, you know the ones. Late morning: Beautiful off-white pea coat meets 2-year-old who sat in the neighbor's soggy garden plot and really isn't ready to go inside. Pre-lunch: Almost-empty jar of peanut butter Post-lunch: pbj

I went to sacrament meeting by myself today, since Michelle was home with a couple sick kids. I chose a rather prominent seat, third row from the front and dead center of the chapel. During the sacrament, I dropped my pen through the crack between the seat and the back of the bench. Not having Addison around to crawl under there and pick it up, I leaned forward and reached back under the bench to grab it. It was farther back there than I thought, and I had to extend a little further than I expected. A little further than my center of gravity allows for, it turns out. Next thing I know I'm falling nose-first into the carpet, then lying on my side, half curled up, arm extended, cheek impressed in the floor. I'm only lying there for a nanosecond before jumping back up and sitting in my seat. As I turned beat-red, hoping no one noticed, I see the first counselor in the bishopric hiding a grin, and the youth speakers practically crying with stifled laughter. With any luck, I've ...

Well, Valentine's Day is fast approaching, and for those of you who are scrambling to come up with something special for your sweetheart, here are three extremely fun, reasonably priced, and of course, HOT date ideas that Nate and I have tried out recently. 1. Bowling - When's the last time you went? Your first date maybe? This one is pretty much no-fail fun. We went to a little podunk bowling alley on a Friday night that had about 3 other people there total, including the worker. The music was so loud that to communicate we had to stand an inch away from each other and scream at the top of our lungs. Nate kicked my fanny at it. Twice. And we felt young and wild and free again. 2. Racquetball - We live right down the street from our town's Rec center and it has racquetball courts you can reserve for $3 an hour. Nate and I spent far too few Saturday mornings at BYU playing racquetball. He still takes pity on me, just like he did when we were dating. And I still lose miserabl...

Generally speaking I am not lunchtime's biggest fan. I never really know what to make first of all, and we usually end up having the same old thing over and over again. It's always high-stress, because at the beginning of it, Addison is weepy and whiny because he's hungry, Bryn is yelling at me to shovel in the rice cereal, and my tummy is consuming itself. So I try to answer all three calls at once, which is usually effective but also extremely messy. And it's the end of a long morning, Mommy's patience is running out, and everyone is ready for nap time. All that aside, today was actually a semi-decent lunch experience. Setup was a nightmare because the kitchen floor was freshly mopped and I was trying very hard to not ruin it, make three lunches, and keep my big helper in the other room. But somehow we got through that mess. Addison said the prayer and was about 30% reverent, which is impressive. And he actually fed himself, which is a miracle. In the meantime, Br...