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Sunday, May 10, 2015

Letter - Chad's Birthday, Mother's Day

Sunday, May 10, 2015

Happy Mother’s Day!  I feel like I have the best mother, mother-in-law, and grandmothers in the world.  I am so thankful for them and their righteous examples.  I love my mother’s kind, quiet, easy going manner.  I love that she let us have a lot of freedom growing up and when we asked to do big projects or make things most of the time she said yes--although, I do remember hearing the phrase, “no, no a thousand times no!” a few times and I’ve used that phrase on my kids a time or two as well.  Lately I’ve been thinking I need to follow her example of saying yes to my kids more often and letting them have more freedom to grow and make things as they get older.  I love her love for others and that she doesn’t speak ill of anyone.  I love that she and my aunts got along so well so that their husbands’ ranch partnership worked.  If they didn’t along and if they spoke ill about each other I don’t think the ranch would have flourished as it did.  I love my mother-in-law Brenda’s life of service and willingness to help out.  She is a great mother and fun grandmother.  Her Grammy Days are so wonderful for me and my kids.  I love my Grandma Flake’s ability to make everyone feel like they were her favorite.  I remember her coming to stay with us and take care of us when my parents went on trips.  I loved going to visit her every Sunday night and the bond that created within my extended family.  I really grew to love my Aunts, Uncles and cousins.  I love my Grandma Skouson and wish I would have known her.  From the stories I’ve heard from my mom and my cousins she seemed fun and spunky.  

My Mother’s Day has been nice.  I slept in until about 8:00.  I didn’t have any extra Sunday meetings.  Bryant made French toast for breakfast.  Spencer and Bryant bought me some very soft slipper flip flops.  The girls made cards and Karalee made me a bracelet in activity days.  Chad bought me a nice camping chair that won’t cut off the circulation in my legs for our camping trip this summer.  (By the way, we’ve picked a date and location for our camping trip if anyone would like to join us for all or part of our stay.  We will be going to Bear Canyon Lake June 24-27th.)  I took a nap this afternoon after church while Chad and the kids made a nice ham dinner.  I sure love my family.  I’m so glad I get to be a wife and a mother.

Chad busy making a yummy dinner.
Me relaxing and reading to Tilly
Monday through Thursday Tilly had swim lessons.  She had lessons last year, but needed them again this year to remind herself that she could swim.  She’s doing great!!  She can swim across the whole pool and lift her head up to take a breath.  She jumps off the diving board and swims to the side.  She loves lessons and is excited she gets to go again this week. 





Tuesday morning when I got in my van to take kids to school and the battery was dead.  So Chad quickly helped me jump the van and after I dropped of the kids at school I went to AutoZone to have the battery tested.  It was bad so we had to buy a new one.  I also had to renew my Costco membership that day and pay for my Costco shopping trip so it was an expensive day. 

I’ve been deep cleaning my house this week.  I cleaned up Chad’s and my bedroom really well on Monday.  Wednesday I shampooed the family room carpet.  Thursday morning when they carpet was dry we decided to rearrange the furniture.  Doing that reminded me of my friend Chani and our first semester of college.  She would rearrange our furniture quite often.  It’s been fun to have it in a different place.  Thursday afternoon I washed the walls and some of the blinds in the family room and kitchen.  It looks MUCH better.  I have plans to do more deep cleaning this week.  I really need to wash more walls throughout the rest of house, go through our filing cabinet and get rid of LOTS of old stuff in there, shampoo the computer room carpet, and dust our big bookshelf and go through the books and get rid of some of them.   

Bryant chillin out, listening to music and singing along.

We got our first two zucchini from our garden this week!!
Tilly hiding out so no one will take the ipad away from her.

Thursday morning the girls and I played duck, duck goose with their dolls and stuffed animal friends.
Thursday night Spencer had a fun concert.  The men’s chorus he is a part of sang and danced to songs from Newsies.  Spencer even had a small solo.  The other choirs sang and danced to music from “Into the Woods”, “Les Miserables”, and “Mama Mia”.

Friday morning was Chad’s birthday.  We got to attend Bryant’s band concert that morning together.  We went to Firehouse subs for lunch together and then we went to dinner at Joe’s farmhouse grill together.  I was glad he could work from home that day and have more of a relaxed day.  That night he and Spencer went on a campout to the Peppersauce caves near Oracle with Spencer’s deacon’s quorum.  Bryant decided to campout in our backyard that night and Marlee and Karalee camped out in the family room.  I kept the doors unlocked and my window open so I could hear Bryant if anything happened.  I was kind of nervous to do that without Chad home, but everything worked out fine and I was able to get to sleep without being too scared.  I’m learning to be braver. 


Chad working from home on his birthday in his corner office.
Getting ready to go to lunch with Chad.
Chad sporting his new hat from his mom.
Bryant setting up his camp site in the back yard.
Yesterday Bryant had a basketball game at 8 am.  He scored 4 points.  His team did really well the first half of the game, but they got killed the second half and lost by 20 points.  Marlee went to her friend Stella’s birthday party yesterday afternoon.  Yesterday afternoon I finished reading the book Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand that I borrowed from my Mom.  It was a fascinating book about Louis Zamperini during World War II.  He was an Olympic runner, survived a plane crash, survived being lost at sea for 47 days, and survived being a prisoner of war to some VERY cruel Japanese guards. (I got sick to my stomach and almost threw up reading the chapters about his POW experiences.  It made me realize that Satan really does use his influence to tempt people reign to with blood and horror.)  Then it told of how he was able to get past PTSD from his horrible experiences by coming to Christ.  It was such a good book, except for the parts that made me want to throw up.  Last night Spencer had an end of the year school party at Mesquite Groves Aquatic center.  My friend Kristen was in charge of it and she invited me to come help chaperone with several of the other mothers.  There was a good turn out and Spencer seemed to enjoy himself.  I’m so thankful he has such good friends at school and in our neighborhood. 

Chad fixed my washer for me yesterday for a Mother's Day gift.  He's handsome, hardworking and handy.
The awesome book I finished.
My quote for today is about mothers: "May each of us remember this truth; 'one cannot forget mother and remember God. One cannot remember mother and forget God.' Why? Because these two sacred persons, God and mother, partners in creation, in love, in sacrifice, in service, are as one” (Thomas S. Monson, Pathways To Perfection: Discourses Of Thomas S. Monson).

Love,

Mindy

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