Halloween Town

Our town seems to be lighting up with the thrill of Halloween and I am loving it.  A few years back some business owners started the tradition of “Halloween Town” and every year it just seems to grow and grow.  The kids love it, and well this parent does too.  Each store decorated and in Halloween style!

Luke comes home in a week.  Finally we have his flight plans and now the real countdown begins.  Four months should have flown by, but they just seemed to drag and drag, especially the last month and a half.  After Jenny and I’s visit to see Luke in Missouri it has just taken forever to get him home.  He already has great plans for his future and it seems to me as a mom that there is nothing better than watching your child take charge of his own life.

In November we are going to California with some friends of ours.  That’s right while it is cold and cloudy in good old Utah we will be basking on the lazy beach eating our Thanksgiving Dinner.  There would have been a time not so many years ago when this would have almost seemed  like sac-relig to me, but when Clint came up to Jason and said that he wanted to go somewhere with a beach for Thanksgiving I think that I jumped on the band wagon so quickly that no one else had time to say anything. 

Who cares that someone else will be making the turkey this year?  Not me.  No messy clean up and I will be watching my kids playing with their siblings and some of their best friends in the California sun.  Could it be better?  Not that I can think of.

The family got together last night at my father and step-mom’s house.  They are preparing to leave for a mission to the Philippines in a little over two weeks.  My Aunt Kathy and Uncle Scott came over to visit them from California one last time before they leave.  It was so nice seeing all of the cousins together and being able to share our little ones with Kathy and Scott, though I am certain that the noise of all of us had to have felt crazy to them never having had children of their own.  They took it all in stride though and made our children feel very loved and completely welcome.  I can only imagine if those siblings of mine that live out of state had been there with their families just how crazy the scene would have been.  Man I miss them!

Jason called yesterday at lunch as he always does and asked “what’s up?”  My reply as usual was, “nothing.”  Then I went on to tell him that nothing beyond normal usually is.  Laundry, washing floors, cleaning toilets, washing dishes, etc. etc. etc.  But the crazy thing is that as typical and boring as my life may seem I love it more than I can even begin to try to express.  I have the most typically boring and the most perfectly amazing life ever.  I wouldn’t change it for anything and as I watch my kids get older and know that someday little grandkids will be added into the mix I can’t wait!  Then I will have the most typical boringly wonderful grandmotherly life possible.

Jason and my little Suzy, (who is twelve today and not really so “little” anymore), both have their birthdays today.  Twelve years with a sweet little girl that is so determined and sometimes so bullheaded but beautiful and smart and talented and silly has been absolutely amazing.  Next Sunday she gets to come to Young Women’s with me!  This Sunday is General Conference so she will have to wait a week.  There is a tradition in our Young Women’s started by my second counselor that just got released and now carried on by my new counselor and her advisors that they pull the new Beehive girl out of primary a week early in front of everyone and bring her into the Beehive’s class.  It was so neat to see the response on my daughter as she got home from church this week and told me all about it.  How amazing is it that God put me into Young Women’s right now when I can have three of my four girls with me.  I will forever be grateful for that gift.  Jenny and I at times don’t always see eye to eye and although I think that she worried about me being in with her, it has softened our relationship and made it easier for us to communicate.  The chemistry there still isn't perfect and I am sure I still drive her absolutely bonkers, but we like each other a lot more and laugh together all of the time.  Thank you Heavenly Father.

Jason… now he and I have been together more than we have been apart and I cannot imagine life without him.  When I think of eternity together I don’t know how to adequately thank my Father for the perfection that is my life.  Jason calls me a million times a day because he misses me.  He comes home and worries about me and my comforts long before his own.  He works harder than any man ever should because he wants what is best for me and our kids, and he looks at me every moment of every second like I am some super model and he can’t believe that I am his.  He makes my pretty normal life and sometimes trying one a thing out of a fairy tale.  Can you really have that kind of a happily ever after that fairy tales are made of?  I do, waking up every morning next to him.

Well time to get back to my wonderfully typical life.  I’ve got two birthday parties to get ready for this evening and a house to get spotless so my boy can come home to something beautiful.  Today should be wonderful!!  I hope yours is too!