Familiar Beauty

I am writing this blog from Garrett's parents' house where we have spent the Thanksgiving weekend. The environment we are in here is such a pleasant one. Especially today with the trees covered in snow, due to the first big snow of the winter last night. This house is such a peaceful place to be, with all the big windows, and beautiful décor. Bruce and Susan have done an excellent job at making their home an inviting place where family loves to gather. They are such gracious hosts, and make all who come here feel loved. Even though I've been feeling sick all weekend (typical side effects of pregnancy), I have still felt a great deal of joy.

Now, to explain the title of this posting, “familiar beauty”. About an hour ago, as I was sitting here on the computer, Solomon came upstairs and was standing on the landing staring out over the family room out the windows. He said, “Mommy, this is a very familiar place for me. I mean, looking out at the snowy trees and at the Christmas tree in the family room.” I pointed out to him that he has been at this house every Winter of his life to see the same beautiful scene out the window. For him, this is a familiar place, a safe place, as it is for me. I feel so blessed to have had several places of familiar beauty to find safety throughout my life. I think it is the “beauty of family” that creates places of “familiar beauty”.

To my Moffitt family all out in CA, and to the Andersons spread out near and far, Thank You! Thank for being such loving and supportive friends to us during good times and bad. We love you all from the bottom of our hearts. And to our baby Abraham, who we will miss holding in our arms this Christmas season, we know you are in good hands in Heaven above, and look forward to the day when we can be eternally united with you. Thank you for giving us increased motivation to follow our Savior Jesus Christ, so we can find our way back Home to the place of eternal “Familiar Beauty”.

Guitar Hero

Guitar Hero has taken over our household! These little boys have such a blast playing with their daddy. Our five year old is getting so skilled at it, I think he may soon be able to beat Garrett. They know which songs mommy doesn't like, so they avoid them when I am around. And, they know that they are not allowed to use any of the girl characters who are showing their bellies or shoulders. It has been a great opportunity to teach modesty.

I had vowed never to get one of these evil game systems, but so much for that. We found a great deal at a pawn shop and just "couldn't pass it up". Unfortunately that is the case with us with a lot of material possessions we aquire. I don't think we are overly concerned about impressing others with material possessions, we just love to have fun which includes having fun stuff to play with. Life is short, play hard, right? We also remember the importance of "praying hard" to balance us out.

Our Great Pyrenees Puppy

When you think of a puppy, you usually don't imagine a 34 inch tall, 90 pound creature. But, we have a new puppy that fits that description. Those of you who know us well, know that we tend to be somewhat impulsive at times... especially when it comes to making major life decisions such as buying a car or a house...or in this case, becoming dog owners.

As a real estate agent, I try to do whatever it takes to help my clients have a smooth transition from one home to another. In this case, I took that "customer service" attitude to the extreme. This family who's house I am trying to find a buyer for, is moving into a townhome in another Illinois city. They have two bassett hounds and one great pyrenees dog. The landlord said the Bassetts would be okay, but the big one couldn't live there with them.

That is where we come in. I met the dog on Sunday afternoon for the first time. I introduced him to Garrett and the boys on Sunday evening, and Monday at Noon she was moving in with us. Talk about a smooth adoption process. No paperwork, no fees, no home study. The owners provided us with a leash, a bag of food and a big cage that she sleeps in. These dogs can cost up to $600 as puppies (purebreds). They gave us to her for free. She is very mild mannered, and great with our boys.

Our little boys have replaced her Bassett hound buddies. She loves lots of attention, and doesn't mind them hugging her and laying on her. She kind of looks like a polar bear. She hardly ever barks, and doesn't jump up or lick. She does slobber a lot, and sheds. But we are willing to overlook those things since she is such a beautiful and kind creature. As a two year old puppy, she is the youngest in our family, but comes in third in the weight category. Her name happens to be Gabby, which is the same as my mother-in-law's little Maltese dog. So my boys are referring to them as big gabby and little gabby. We are really enjoying being new dog owners. And so far are having better luck with the dog than we did with fish. We've kept her alive for two whole days now. Hopefully, many more good days to come!

View of Vegas from way high up

Now for the story...This picture is a good representation of my life from February until June of this year. I had a very tough pregnancy, with extreme "hyper-emesis" so I was unable to keep down much food. In the first four months I lost 11 lbs. The doctor kept assuring me that the baby was getting all it needed even though I was really struggling to stay healthy. However, at 21 weeks I went in for a routine check-up and no heartbeat could be found. The ultrasound was confirmation that the baby's heart was no longer pumping. That was a very sad day for us. Four days later I was in a St. Louis hospital where I had to go through the delivery process, even though the outcome would not be that which I had looked forward to throughout the pregnancy. Another very sad day. However, I was thankful for the loving support of friends and family. My mom flew in to be of support to me, and Garrett's parents drove down from Bloomington to stay with our boys.

So, back to the picture. This was at the Stratosphere in Vegas. We had gone up to the observation area on the top, and Garrett went outside to check out the rides up there. With as nauseaus as I felt, there was no way I was going out there and looking down, let alone watching these crazy rides people were going on. So, I sat inside with my trusty "just in case" mug that I carried around always during the pregnancy. I am thankful to not have to deal with throwing up anymore, but I am sad not to have my third baby boy who was on his way to us.

It was determined that the umbilical chord only had two blood vessels going through it rather than the three that are typical, thus the baby was not getting enough nourishment. Also, the chord was wrapped around his leg two times, so it was assumed that there was either a blood clot or constricted blood flow. Regardless to say, things didn't go quite right in his development. This experience has made us ever more greatful for the two little miracles we already have in our family. We love our little boys!

The two things that bring me the most joy: my boys and my house

Catching up for lost time

This picture is taken in Las Vegas, obviously. I accompanied Garrett on a business trip for three days of fun without the kids. My sister Merrilyn drove over from Lancaster, CA to spend one night and day with me. It was lots of fun. You may notice in the picture that I was pregnant at that time. Unfortunately, the pregnancy is no longer, but that will be a story for another blog entry. For now, I'll just post this picture and count it as one step in the right direction for getting back into the blogging habit. Until next time...

Feb. 24th musings

Here we are, two weeks since my last blog, and not much has changed... that is except Obama has truly become the front runner on the democratic side of things. Huckabee is still plugging along, hoping Texas might re-ignite the flame of his candidacy. More power to him. He doesn't have much to lose in all this, perhaps he will even get picked as V.P.. I would personally not want to be on a losing ticket with McCain, but to each his own I guess. We saw how well John Edwards did trying to run for Pres. after his spot on the losing ticket in 2004. I've pretty much resigned myself to assuming that the Democrats are going to take back over in 2008. But, that leaves the path wide open for Republicans in 2012. I want to start concentrating now on looking at the make-up of the Sentate. I want to learn more about which senators will be up for re-election. Hopefully the republicans could become the majority again sometime soon.Enough musing for now. I'm off to get ready for church... a place where Jesus Christ is in charge, so we don't have to worry about so much chaos. Of course there tends to be a bit of disorder at times since "people" are running the local church, but overall we know we can count on the ONE ultimately in charge.

I'm back on the blog

I've decided to re-enter the blog-o-sphere, because I need a place to display my political opinions. In the past I have been highly involved with the Mitt Romney for President sites (Mymanmitt, coMITTed to Romney, article6blog, fivebrothers blog, etc.) But, considering that Mitt has now withdrawn from the race, I'd imaging those sites will soon disappear. Today I was really needing some closure to deal with my grief of losing my candidate, so I turned on www.townhall.com and listened to Mitt's CPAC speech in its entirety. There were tears streamind down my face by the end, and I am not typically a cryer, I have been accused of being a whiner, but not usually prone to tears. Mitt is a class act. Any money spent to support his campaign has not been wasted, it has been worth the millions of dollars that were spent by his campaign to get his message out there.

As for where I go from here... I'm not so sure. If Obama gets the nomination, a republican vote won't make a dime of difference in my state since he is from here. However, if we are fighting against Hillary in November, Illinois could be up for grabs, unless she chooses Obama as her running mate. As for John McCain, he has a ways to go to earn my trust. He could start by apologizing to Romney for misrepresenting his views on Iraq. I think Romney settled that score once and for all in his speech today. He made it very clear that finishing the job in this war is the most important thing. His actions are consistent with his words, considering he is withdrawing from the race because he believes it is the best thing for the country at this time of war. I can't say enough how much I admire Governor Romney.
I will write more later, but for now I will let my fingers rest. If anyone finds my message here, feel free to make comments, I would enjoy having some dialogue to help me work through my "grief". As Latter-day Saints, we have had a lot of grief to deal with in a very short period of time. Luckily, we know where to turn for strength. We stand no taller than when we kneel in prayer.