There are things and then there are THINGS!

So, in the last month, there have been doings. Many, many doings. And goings on... (note: I wrote this June 6th or something and forgot to post it, sorry...a newer post will be coming along soon).

Todd came home from Texas on May 1st. We were so excited to have him back! We still are, actually....

In addition to his coming home, he brought with him some great news. He has landed an IMA (full time reservist) job at Hill AFB with the A-10 Depot (A-10 SPO) working to make sure that each and every A-10 in the entire Air Force fleet (that's about 390 jets folks!) are uniform in terms of their software, navigation, displays, GPS, etc, etc. This is a really big job and a great opportunity. He only has the job funded for the next 120 days (think early October) but it looks like days will be added and added as funds come available following this fiscal year until he's either a permanent military addition or a permanent civilian addition. How proud I am of him to know what his calling is in life, to feel so guided and blessed in what he does, and to be so committed and happy while he does it. If has been said, to follow your bliss...Todd does best when he follows his. I got to spend about an hour with four-star general Hoffman's (commander of Air Force Materiel Command) wife a few weeks ago talking about what things are "really" like for those of us in the lower levels of the Air Force. While I'm not sure she'll get to do much about any of it, I'm impressed at her willingness to listen and to do what she can. It is women who support their families and communities and who work hard to turn their "position" as the spouse of a leader into leaders in their own right who I admire. I know that if the world were full of such bravery, it would be a safer and cleaner place. Where do you get to own your leadership?

The boys are right smack in the middle of baseball season. Todd and I are coaching their teams with the much needed assistance of my Dad Bruce. Todd took on Jackson's t-ball team and has a great time yelling, "Run, no, that way! Now, stop!" and "Catch it, okay don't all jump on it! Now, throw it to first base. No, that way!" every Tuesday and Thursday.

I have to admit, Jackson is pretty bored with it. He's ready for coach pitch and is biding his time until next year. My dad and I have resumed our dream team coaching staff as we work to coach Jeffrey's 3rd grade machine pitch team. We have so much fun working on teaching these boys "the fundamentals" of America's Favorite Pasttime. Honestly, they don't really know much. There are a few boys who have obviously spent some time "having a catch" with Dad but, for the most part, they are babes in the woods. What we teach them will be long remembered and, heck, we're winning most of the time. So, I can't really think of a better way to spend this early summer. Jeffrey is loving baseball (now that he understands it and knows how to "be a hero"). Baseball ends in two weeks and we will have a VERY short break before football kicks off at the end of July. We're going to enjoy our weekday evenings and our weekends until then.

I got spoiled rotten on Mother's Day and feel so blessed to have such an appreciative husband and gaggle of children. The biggest presents were the boys...who've come in succession, 1999, 2003, and 2008. I am truly rich in love always. Todd's birthday was May 22nd and we video gamed, enjoyed the kids' field day at school, had breakfast and lunch out, and enjoyed X Men Origins: Wolverine, that evening. Todd always gets some awesome movie for his birthday. How cool is Hollywood to him?

Todd went to their first "Father - Son Campout" with the ward on May 13th at City of Rocks in Idaho. They had so much fun hanging out with all the awesome dads and kids (of all ages) of our ward. We live and worship with an awesome crew of people and I'm so grateful Todd and the boys feel at home with them and enjoy spending time with them. They created forever memories and I'm so grateful that Todd is a Dad who is not only willing but excited to create such experiences for his boys. The neighbors boys caught a passel of lizards and instilled them around the neighborhood when they got home. I hope they aren't too out of sorts in our garden. I hope they can stay away from the cats as they settle in...

We managed, shortly after my last post, to find a forever home for our foster dog Roxy. We now have "Louie" who is looking for a forever home. He's had a rough time of it. He's been a little abused and is afraid of the mischief he often finds himself in the middle of. He's happy to have other dog friends who respect him and a home full of people with love and soft hands...he'd be even happier in a home where he would be king of the hill. Louie struggles with seasonal allergies and is 10 years old. But he's a young 10 and loves to play fetch. If you can think of anyone who might want a good buddy...send them my way. Louie is a great dog and is ready for his home. We want to help as many dogs as we can, and we can only help one at a time...so the sooner we find Louie the perfect home, the sooner we can help another dog who is waiting to be out of the rescue kennel and into our warm environment.

The boys' last day of school was May 29th this year. They are home now. We have to get out once in a while and enjoy summer. If only this rain would stop...

Now, those are all of the "things" that I mentioned at the beginning of my post, ...now for the THING that happened this past month...

Lily Mei Solomon was born on May 11th at 7:03 pm and weighed in at 7 pounds 9 ounces (same as our Logan) and 19 inches long. What a beautiful and delicate face she has with a head full of sweet black hair. Lily came into the world to such a happy pair of caregivers in her mom and dad, Jeff and Jen. Jeff and Jen are smitten and will forever be changed. It is so much fun to see them fall into this role that they are so prepared for. I know that they sometimes doubt whether they are up to the task, but they are great! I watch them and am so impressed at their wisdom, patience, and intuition. They make it look easy! Jen was such a trouper during delivery and Jeff was a great coach. We got to see her shortly after her birth and she just hollered and hollered as everyone fawned over her sweetness. Once I saw her fingers and toes I knew she just HAD to be a combination of these people. With Jen's delicately beautiful face and Jeff's long LONG fingers and toes...her parenthood is obvious. I try to see her once a week (at least) and to be there to spell when I can. Anytime I get around her is precious and I am so happy for Jeff and Jen, they truly deserve such a miracle.

We spent last weekend at Hill AFB's air show enjoying the Air Force, it's accomplishments, it's mission, and it's prowess and I know that Todd and I got to revisit our own "new to the Air Force" awe as we watched our boys goggle from underneath the wing of a C-5 as the dogfighter planes flew overhead. We had so much fun reacquainting ourselves with what we've known and loved for years and, can I just say, it's nice to be back in the fold. I'm sure we have many adventures ahead and I'll have to make sure we keep you posted. Have a great summer and stay tuned, I'm sure there will be adventures galore!

Much love to you all!

2009, What's New!?!

Happy New Year everyone!  I knew I wouldn't be blogging during the holidays.  Too much going on to take the time to sit and do it, along with everything else.  I don't even really have a lot of time today, but I thought I would squeeze in a quick note about our holidays, along with some new pics, so that I don't have this nagging at me.

The Monday before Christmas, we took our family's annual trip to Temple Square to see the lights.  What a beautiful adventure this always is.  The children really enjoy the festivity and they are also always keen to talk about the Savior's birth.  I am happy we have this tradition and that we are blessed to live so close to Church headquarters so that we can do it every year.  My camera didn't have a memory card in it so I wasn't able to get pictures for you all.  I guess that means we take some next year.  I really am such a dork.

Christmas was wonderful!  We had my parents, sister Denise and her family, and brother Jeff and his wife Jen for Christmas Eve dinner and we had a great time opening presents, eating Honeybaked ham, and reflecting on the year together.  There were some really funny moments of note.  Denise's boy Roman, who is 7 weeks older than Logan, is just getting good at walking.  Logan is getting good at cruising.  So, while Roman struggled to walk around, Logan struggled to use Roman as an object to cruise on.  Sort of a mobile cruising device, if you will.  Watching the two of them struggle to remain upright and balance each other was a lot like watching a couple of Navy guys on shore leave coming out of a bar at the end of the night.  "Hey!  Hold me up man!"  "I am holding you up, hold me up!"  It was pretty funny.  Very cute too.  I hope my little analogy doesn't turn into a reality for those two, they are close in age and I am afraid that they could end up being partners in crime down the road a few years.  Logan, of course, was fascinated with wrapping paper.  He spent most of his present unwrapping time playing with the wrapping...

After Denise's family went home to see what the Elves brought them in jammies, my mom and dad, Jeff, and Jen, and the rest of Me Hardys found Elf gifts in our beds!

 After opening them to find a haul of awesome pajama wear, the boys bathed and showered and went off to bed and we stayed up a while playing Texas Hold 'Em and watching Jeff kick our butts.  Jeff and Jen stayed over Christmas Eve and we woke up early Christmas morning (the older boys were up at 5:00 am but we made them wait until 7:15 am) to fresh snow and Santa's haul!  Grandpa Bruce and Grandma Dorothy joined us for the festival of present opening and "passing out" because the gifts were so good.

They moved on to Denise's to witness her present festival around 9:30 am and we cooked a big breakfast and spent the rest of the day playing with new gifts, reorganizing old toys, cleaning up wrapping paper, and contemplating the Savior's birth.  

I love our family traditions because each Christmas Eve night we watch a short video on the Nativity and read the passages in Luke that describe the circumstances of Jesus' humble birth.  What a story!  To think that the greatest human being to ever live, and our personal Savior was born, like we are, to a woman, in a stable and slept in a manger of straw.  I'm sure it wasn't hay, hay is much too scratchy...unless it was grass hay, then maybe.  Anyway, somehow, for me to consider His birth in such a way causes me to feel hopeful that maybe I may be able to be more like Him.  Such a time of hope Christmas is.

After Crazy Christmas, we settled in for the 3 day preparation for Jeff's 9th birthday.  I can't believe my child is 9 years old.  He's super tall too.  He's up to my shoulders these days.  How in the heck did that happen?  Jeff lost the opportunity to have a big friend-invite birthday due to some behavior issues at home and school but we had lots of fun anyway.  Todd's parents (Nana and Papa, Lorna and Rick) came up to visit just for Jeff's birthday and what a great time we had!  After Jeff went scrambling around opening his multiple gifts (and "passed out" some more due to their fabulousness), we had a big breakfast at home and then went to Fat Cats for pizza, bowling, and arcade gaming.  Jeff went crazy.  I bowled the game of my life.

It was a good birthday for both of us.  Jackson is quite the bowler too...who knew?  Logan doesn't do so well.  Actually, he kind of sucks.  After a while we took off his bowling shoes and took the ball away and occupied him with other pursuits.  I'm kidding...Logan didn't bowl.  The afternoon of Jeff's birthday involved going to Barnes and Noble and picking out some new books (he reads at a 6th grade level) and going to dinner at Tepanyaki.  He loved it!  We had a great time.  My parents were there, Todd's parents were there, and there were the Me Hardys.  It was so much fun!  A more apt celebration for a special 9 year old boy was never had.  We love our Jeffrey and are so grateful for him.  I am sure, after his birthday celebration, there is no doubt of that.

We took another quick trip to see the Zoo Lights at Utah's Hogle Zoo on December 30th.  We went with Nana and Papa.  We all had a great time seeing the animals in fresh snow and marveling at the great job the zoo does making this event one we are definitely going to add to our yearly holiday traditions.  Rick and Lorna had recently been to San Diego Zoo and, if you've been you know that it is the BEST ZOO EVER, but I think Hogle Zoo impressed them with the Zoo Lights.  Way to go our little zoo!  In addition to this event, Logan got his first hair cut, and his first "being mobile" war wound.  You can see both here...our poor little carpet-rashed baby!  He's gonna be walking in days.  I am terrified!

New Year's Eve was spent at a party with our neighborhood plus at our dear friends' Brad and Stacey Jackson's home across the street.  We had so much fun eating grilled Bratwurst and Chicken and playing Texas Hold 'Em.  It was a lot of fun to ring in the New Year with neat friends and their abundant children.  At midnight, we set off some of Brad's impressive collection of illegal fireworks.  We brought 2009 in with a BANG!  It was funny to note that my horses are all completely conditioned to the fireworks now.  Living across the street from Brad has made the well-prepared for hunting, bombing, strafing, and general war use.  What a bonus!  I don't think any of them even opened an eye to see what the noise was about.

As we moved into the New Year, our beloved University of Utah Utes beat Alabama (yes, ALABAMA!) 31-17 in the 2009 Sugar Bowl in New Orleans on January 2nd.  This means that they end their season 13-0, undefeated, and some of those games were against super tough teams.  We are so proud of our Utah Utes and await the verdict...will they get the #1 ranking they deserve, being as they are the ONLY undefeated team in the nation?  It's not likely, but it may, at least, cause the "powers that be" to reflect upon whether the current system for Championship College Football is working...I can only hope.  It was a great game and I love my Alma Mater!  One last note, Utah governor John Huntsman Jr. declared January 5th Utah Utes Day here in Utah.  How cool is that?  BYU doesn't have a day...  GO UTES!

Today, as I sit and relay the highlights of the last two weeks and our holiday and birthday celebrations, I have one last bit of not so good news.  Todd lost his Grandma Mary Lou Hardy this morning.  She has already been fighting off several different ailments over the past year and has been gradually deteriorating in her health.  It has been hard to watch such a strong, independent, and vibrant woman struggle with the ravages of time.  The day before Christmas Eve she suffered a fall when visiting Todd's aunt and had a serious head injury as a result.  Since she was in Salt Lake when she fell, we were able to see her regularly through out the holiday weeks as she struggled with her injuries and existing conditions.  Unfortunately, her health was poor enough and her injuries severe enough that she wasn't able to fight off a serious lung infection and ultimately passed with pneumonia.  We are so sad to see her go.  She will be greatly missed!  It is times like these that I am so grateful that we have the Gospel of Jesus Christ and that we know our families can be together forever.  I have no idea how people get through these times without that knowledge.  We will  be attending her funeral in Alamo, Nevada sometime within the next week.  I ask that you consider Todd and his family in your prayers and that you all remember to enjoy your loved ones while they are here for when they are gone, they will be missed!

Well, that's it!  I hope you are all having a wonderful New Year!  I hope you enjoyed Utah Utes Day and that you realize what a great team they are and that you just go ahead and join the fan club!  My New Year's Commitment this year is to get myself back in shape.  I am physically stressed with post-baby weight (and then some), too much worrying, and yummy (yet not so good) food.  I commit to get my body back to healthy and liveable and I challenge you to take on growth yourselves in this new opportunity 2009.   May you all be blessed with health and abundance this year!  Much love to you all!!

Here we go...

Well, I've been avoiding the whole "blog" thing for a while now.  I didn't want to "make the commitment".  However, I am starting to realize that with all that happens for us every single day, it is really the easiest way to update friends and family on our lives.  We are a busy bunch and have so much going on, I don't like to tell the same story over and over again and I worry that much is lost in translation by the 5th telling.  This way, like so many others out there, I can just tell people to go to our blog to get a full (and hopefully accurate) accounting of what we're up to.

So here we are, with the Holidays upon us.  After a busy football season for Todd and Jeff, we have had around 4 weeks of "down time" with regard to sports.  We don't really get any down time but taking daily practices and weekly games out of the mix made homework and family home evening a lot easier to attend to.  However, those times are over as wrestling season is upon us.  Jeffrey and Jackson are wrestling with the Roy High School Junior Wrestlers and practice two to three times per week and have weekly tournaments every Saturday morning. This goes on until December 6th.

It is amazing to me to see them wrestling.  With football, baseball/t-ball, and other team sports, I watch the team and hope my son gets the ball or has the sack so I can see him excell. With wrestling, I get to focus on my son as he works so hard to dominate his opponent.  Both Jeff and Jack are good wrestlers.  Those of you who have seen them perform athletically (whether formally through organized sports or informally in your yard on a sunny day) are not surprised to hear this.  This is the first year for both of them.  Jeff finds himself three, four, sometimes even five years behind the boys he is paired up with but he has yet to be pinned.  Jackson has less history to work against but he is young and still learning the rules.  Jeffrey has had more experience with applying rules in physical contest.  As I watch them both, I see two traits that stick out and are directly related to their success.  They are both incredibly strong and incredibly intense.  I don't think you could hold either of them down for three seconds just because that would mean an end to the match!  I told Todd Saturday afternoon that the hardest part about watching them is the intensity of the emotion.  Not just in my boys but in the boys they wrestle.  There is so much boiling going on in that tussle!  He explained (and I agree) that it is so good for them to learn to have such high and intense emotions in one moment and then to drop it all, shake hands, smile, and move on in the next.  I am excited we have made the decision to participate in this sport.  I am sure, as with all of our other adventures/experiments, it will be a wonderful ride.

Logan is creeping along in all of his nine month glory.  The owner of 6 erupted teeth and many more to come, he is battling his first REAL cold this week.  The poor little guy!  He has a stuffy nose, a nasty cough, and a hoarse little voice.  He is a patient and sweet baby and is doing his best to stay chipper.  I am hoping we get through the experience without it turning into croup.  This poor child doesn't need anymore medical issues this year.  Logan is smaller than the other two boys were at this age.  He is less precocious with his large motor skills and, instead, has learned to focus on the finer points.  He is working on words.  Yes!  Words!  I hear him trying to say, "more", "Mama", "Dog", "Dad", and other words.  He is very dexterous with his hands and can do things that the other boys weren't yet doing at this age.  He isn't crawling yet but he doesn't really need to as his two older brothers, and his parents, are great at "fetch" and "rescue".  He will come along, as his brothers did, all too soon and then I will be blogging about my frustration with childproofing a mostly stone-tiled home.  He is so sweet and special and has been such a blessing to us all this year.  We are grateful for his spirit in our home.

Jeffrey is learning a lot in the third grade.  I know he is learning to write cursive letters but he won't show them to me because he says he isn't any good at it.  I will continue to bother him until he shows me.  He needs to learn that we aren't always good at everything the first time we try it.  Some of us have to practice new skills for a while before we are adept.  Jeff isn't use to the idea of that since he is good at most things right away.  Jeff reads at a 4th grade level, is so good at math, and is learning to be a good speller and a good student.  One thing he is struggling with this year is that he is finally having to work a little at being a good student, it won't just happen.  I am hoping that this past quarter's grades help him to realize that good grades aren't always just going to happen to him.  I think it is starting to penetrate into his understanding, I pray that it is.

Jackson is loving Kindergarten.  He is loving that he is learning to read and write and that he can come home and show me new things and get such an amazed reaction.  He is struggling with sitting still and with focussing on "hard" things for a long time but I am told (and remember from when Jeff was 5) that these are typical things for 5 year-old boys to struggle with.  Jackson smiles all through his wrestling matches and is such a happy and loving boy.  He exclaims his love and yells it to us in such a joyful way every day as he heads for the front doors of Hooper Elementary.  What would we do without Jackie?

Todd is working to get the start up company he is a part of off the ground.  So much of the work that goes into Phoenix Alloys is faith, hope, and trust.  In himself, his partners, and the Lord. He is doing a great job!  He works hard on the product and development of new and better ways to get it done, so that is part of every day but the rest of it is prayer.  He gets to go to Roosevelt, Utah once or twice and month and that is fun for him because he gets to see his grandmothers and reconnect with the Bastian/Elmer sides of his family.  I am proud of Todd, his steadfast faith and courage and his patience with me.  I have struggled to be patient and faithful and he is a great and gentle reminder.  We are growing stronger together than we ever have and we are grateful for that.

Our little farm is a daily joy and soap opera.  The horses, dogs, goats, cats, and house birds are all very tame in comparison to the chicken drama.  I never knew chickens had such drama!  I thought we would get them, get some farm fresh eggs, maybe sell a few to other people, and then eat them when they stop producing down the road but no, that is not the case.  Between the neighbor's dog, three roosters (all but one were supposed to be hens), and the innate drama that they are born with, every day is a new story.  This whole blog could easily turn into "The Chicken Letters".  I promise it won't.  It could though.

So, that was long but it was my first.  I promise, from now on, I will keep things short and simple.  I will update you weekly and let you know about the things (and feelings) that really matter.  I also hope that this brings you joy and that it brings us closer together.  I am happy to share my life and family with others mainly because, at this point, I am convinced that learning new things and experiencing major life lessons is what life is about.

I am grateful for my blessings and for all that I have.  I am grateful for my family and I am grateful for you, my friends.