Gratitude

From now on I am going to try and post at least a weekly gratitude post expressing my appreciation for all the things this life has to offer.

I shall start now. Today I am grateful for:

• The fact that I actually made it to the gym today and ran 3 miles
• Stephanie Nielson
• A loving husband who sticks with me because I hate Wal-Mart.
• Daily calls from my mother, no matter how long or short they are they make my day so much better
• My Granny's willingness to help me write her history for her posterity, don't worry Poppop, you're next.

Finding Strength

I don't have cable TV. The main purpose for our small TV is to watch the occasional movies that we find time for. I really want to watch TV today because a super hero in my ward, Stephanie Nielson (mother of 4 who survived, along with her husband, a fatal plane crash last August) will be on Oprah.

I have the once in a lifetime opportunity to Teach her second oldest Jane in my Primary class. Jane is so strong, she is just a wonderful person, and you can tell she was raised by a wonderful mother. Stephanie's days are hard, and she struggles doing things that I take for granted.

I could express for hours about how wonderful I think she is. However, I will say that I believe she is a hero- a Mother Warrior as Oprah's website described her. Every time I am having a bad day, or stressed out, I think of Stephanie. She enjoys the little things. I will enjoy the little things!

Ode to Fall!....Well, sort of!

I'm ticked at the fact that it is still over 80 degrees every day, and it's nearly October. What can a girl do to get some Fall around here? I miss the Fall back east. I was so surprised to go to several stores and find no Mums! When I asked the cashiers they gave me a look of near disgust and disbelief when I asked them If their store carried mums. Scoff. "Mums, what the heck are mums," replied one college freshman at Buy Low. "Oh forget it," I thought to my self as I politely thanked him for his time, told him I'll look elsewhere. and left the store.

Costco sold out of there mums in like 2 seconds, but not their pumpkin pie. You better believe I got me one of those ginormous pies of goodness. For me, pumpkin pie definitely equals fall.

I love the colors, the leaves, the chill in the air that I like to refer to as "hoodie weather," the pumpkins, everything! But, this does not mean I like Halloween. It's not my favorite, unlike everyone else I know.
(Bradley at the Natural Bridge Zoo in Virginia
during Fall,2007)

It's a poopy situation, but all is well in Zion!

Well, most of you know what happened, but we're gonna tell you anyway! August 7th was the fateful day. The day that will go down in history as the day the floods came up on 1455 Cherry Lane and ruined most of our possessions with backed up sewer from the city's man-hole. We received a call a few days later explaining that everything was ripped out of our house and we had to go claim what was ours, make a spread sheet of items lost in the flood, and then proceed to move back in all while getting ready for school, working, etc. This experience has consumed our lives for over a month, and I am sad to say that it will continue to do so until the city decides to mail our check!

We lost most of our furniture, pillows, some blankets, shoes, etc. Total damage: $3,1000. How much the city will supposedly reimburse: $2,800. The matching throw pillows we lost for our couch that was discontinued: priceless.

I know it's sounds rather trivial, but I was most upset about losing the throw pillows for our couch. They were beautifully designed, plush fabric pillows that coordinated with our home so well, and now they are gone. I've looked everywhere and found none like them. However, we, rather I, will get over it eventually. Brad just laughed at the fact that I was so distraught over throw pillows. Maybe some other female will understand!?

This process has been a great learning experience for the two of us. We have learned to be served. A wonderful lady in our ward, Sister Burkman, lovingly offered us her place to live while we were displaced for about 3 weeks. She cooked for us, let us do our laundry there, and expected nothing in return. We would continually thank her for all that she did, and then she would explain she was grateful we were in her home because we were a great example for her children. What? Brad and I good examples for someone's children? But the more I tried to see it, the more I realized she was right. We were able to open our hearts to her teenage boys and younger girls. They did look up to us, but we genuinely cared for them. Lesson #2: besides learning to humble ourselves and take service, we can too serve those who are serving us by answering their prayers for their children. We also learned life from a mother's perspective while we were living there. I realized how much my actions hurt my mother while I was growing up. For that, I learned to be a kinder, more gentle person.

Brad and I also learned to rely on Heavenly Father. This was a very tough experience, but we got through it with faith, prayer, scripture study, and temple attendance. These actions combined brought peace, joy, and comfort into our lives that continues to dwell with us. While we are now back in our house, and things still aren't perfect, there is still such joy in our home. I am so grateful to be on this Journey together with Brad. I couldn't imagine going through life, let along this experience with out him.

Last but not least, dealing with the city has taught us patience. We have made several phone calls with no returns. Emails were written to the adjuster and we heard no response. Then, one day this week, he decided to get back up with us and give us the final number for how much money we were going to get back. We were grateful that our stuff didn't depreciate too much, considering most of the stuff was only 3 months old!

Do we want to go through this again, NO! But did we learn a ton and grow a ton and come out of this experience better people, YES!

Maryland, my Maryland!!!!

So, I last left you loyal readers (all 4 of you give or take) with the declaration that I was leaving Utah a week and half early to go back to MD with my amazing wife. Wow, has a lot happened since then. This post will be about our vacation, and the next will be about the fun that was awaiting us on our return.

My vacation was amazing in MD. I was still able to work from home for my one job doing web programming, and I was also worked for dad at a very lucrative wage :) I was rather happy about that. While Leslie was finishing her volunteering at PRMC and working at Fishers, I was working either from my computer or from my parents living room, helping my wonderful mother declutter her office and storage unit, aka the Bermuda Triangle. Life was wonderful.

One of the first places i went to eat in MD was the Old Mill Crab house. Can life get any better? All you can eat shrimp, fried chicken, corn on the cob, clam strips, hush puppies and Maryland blue crabs. Wow. Happy birthday to me!

We took a trip to NY with Leslie's parents and her aunt Jeannie. Again, absolutely wonderful. We arrived in NY at the perfect time, got tickets to a show (Mamma Mia!) right before the heavens opened and rain came flooding down. While in the show it stopped raining, making a perfect day to walk around and enjoy NY. The next day we went on a Water Taxi, where they drive you around the Hudson and you see the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, the Brooklyn Bridge and get to take a ton of pictures from the boat. Then we enjoyed a nice lunch in Little Italy, and even walked through Chinatown. then it was back to the car, and a long drive home from an action-packed 2 days in New York City.

Another highlight of my vacation was my first time surf fishing at Assateague Island. Unfortunately, the surf was too rough for any bites, so we didn't catch anything, but it was way fun. Especially the KFC :)

Towards the end of my sojourn in MD we received a phone call from Barbara Morgan, Leslie's professor she assists and neighbor. (Side note; as I write this me and Leslie finish our small bag of popcorn and I hit a record. only 4 kernals were unpopped and none of the other ones were burnt. go me!) This phone call was not exactly the birthday greeting I was hoping for. We learned that our apartment was flooded with 2 inches of backed up sewage from the manhole in the street. We couldn't wait to get back to Utah. cue the next post....

Distance might make the heart grow fonder...but I CAN'T TAKE IT!!!

As many of your know, my dearest Leslie is away from me. She is enjoying Maryland and having the time of her life learning about Diabetes and education people about how to live with it. She is selling more popcorn on the boardwalk than I will eat in my whole life, and she just loves it. Well...almost loves it. How can you really truly love life when someone as awesome as myself is 2000 miles away?

After much deliberation (nice word, huh?) and thought, I have decided to journey home early. I will more than likely be traveling home on Monday July 20th, exactly two weeks before originally planned. Luckily, both my jobs are very flexible and one of them will even allow me to work from MD.

This has been in my mind for a few weeks now. When we originally bought the tickets, I was staying behind because work required me to do so, however, I quit Brick Oven, and my employers are much more flexible than Brick Oven.

I am fully looking forward to seeing my amazing wife again, and also our families. 4 weeks apart is long enough for me, and I'm pretty sure that we are not planning this long of an absence again. If this happens again, please shoot me.

Absence Makes the Heart Grow Founder

While I was having an amazing time in Seattle with the Gottula's, Brad sent me a text that expressed how much he loved and missed me. He also said, "I truly believe absence makes the heart grow founder." My initial thought was, awwwe, how cute! But, then I thought, was he just feed up with me and needed a break to appreciate me more? No, that wasn't the case....well, not for him anyway! Just Kidding! Those 4 days that we were apart were were just practice for a long absence from him while I'm in MD this summer.

Coming home from Seattle and realizing that I only had 11 precious days left before the trip really made me thing how much I am going to miss him. Bad breath and all!! I asked him if he was going to cry at the airport, because I know I am! He said he probably would because he's a big softy. :-)

So, I guess the point of this post is to let the family know that it is really going to suck ( I couldn't think of a more appropriate word to describe how I feel) being away from each other. We love one another so much, and Seattle proved that 4 days was no walk in the park. Help us! Encourage us, take care of my Bradley while I'm gone, and hopefully we'll survive!