The Blog Life

I finally finished Standing for Something by Gordon B. Hinckley and I loved it! I love President Hinckely's personality and sweet sense of humor and this book made me miss him! I really enjoyed this quote by Jenkins Floyd Jones:
There seems to be a superstition among many thousands of our young who hold hands and smooch in the drive-ins that marriage is a cottage surrounded by perpetual hollyhocks to which a perpetually young and handsome husband comes home to a perpetually young and ravishing wife. When the hollyhocks wither and boredom and bills appear, the divorce courts are jammed...Anyone who imagines that bliss is normal is going to waste a lot of time running around and shouting that he has been robbed...Life is like an old-time rail journey-delays, sidetracks, smoke, dush, cinders and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed. The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride. (italics added).

My favorite part of that quote is that marriage/life is "interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed." It is SO true! That is why we tend to focus on those vistas when we blog/scrapbook, etc. But, those "cinders and jolts" are definitely what make up the day to day and we should remember that they are just as, if not more, important for our growth. I especially relate with parenting. In fact, this afternoon I was "blogstalking" as Carter was throwing a HUGE fit because I changed the channel when Humpty Dumpty was on and by the time I got it back, it was over and then, at the same time, Claire started to bang her head on the floor (just so she would have something to cry about, I think) and I really wanted to push the mute button on my children or go lock myself in the bathroom for a while. Instead I pulled myself of the blogosphere and tried to difuse the situation. But then, there are those moments that your heart really feels like it might just explode with joy. And those are the moments that get you through. Another great quote on that matter was shared at my friend Michelle's wedding by her sister Lisa: "Some days your mother and me loved each other. Other days we had to work at it. You never see the hard days in a photo album... but those are the ones that get you from one happy snapshot to the next." (from the movie "Just Married").

Here is a video of us trying to get ready for church one morning, Danny happened to be home because we were heading to a missionary "non-homecoming." I usually get this pleasure all to myself:



This is a picture of Carter on his first day of preschool. He was so excited and, as you can see, he bites his bottom lip when he is excited and it shows in the picture. He loves preschool and is doing very well. Today I drove past their playground on the way out and he was playing at the water table, I slowed to say "I love you Carter" out the window and he shouted back, with exuberance, "I love you too." Thank goodness for these moments along the train ride of life!

Carter in front of the Pooh Bear flag, Carter's class symbol