Jeremy turns 12

Jeremy has been asking for a guitar for a few months now. Rob and I did lots of research before even thinking about letting him get one. So his birthday is Wednesday and today we gave him his card that had 4 guitar picks in it and a note that he could "pick" out a new guitar. So off we went to the guitar store and after much shopping he picked this red acoustic with electric option guitar. He has spent most of the day in his room trying things out. He starts lessons on Monday. He is definitely a strings man.

I get by with a little help from my friends.

I am up late tonight and have a lot on my mind. This may seem very personal but I have to write this down.

1st: 6 years ago I was devastated to hear my husband tell me that he was struggling with things in his life and he felt it necessary to stop going to church. I didn't understand why when you need God the most you turn your back on him. I struggled with this for years. It broke my heart but I remained strong in my faith. I knew God would not give me any thing I couldn't handle. Over the past 6 years I have been through more than any of you could know. I have suffered in silence out of respect for Rob. He continues to make choices that I don't agree with but he is still the man I fell in love with 18 years ago.

2ND: I am so very proud of my 15 year old. She is so smart and funny and beautiful. The day Emily was born I was overwhelmed with feelings of doubt that I could be a good mom. I am so glad that I was able to quit working while she was still a baby and watch her grow. She has always amazed us with her never ending desire to learn and figure things out. She has set a standard for herself to achieve great things in her education and tomorrow she will be recognized for some of those things. Just a year and a half ago we were handed a diagnosis that rocked our world. She has days when she asks "why me" and days when she wants to shout from the rooftop everything she knows about diabetes. I still have days when I wonder what she will become, who she will be in a few years, what type of wife and mother she will be. I know that no matter what she does, she will be great at it!

3rd: 10 years ago a beautiful, brown eyed little boy entered our lives and stole our hearts. Jeremy will turn 12 next week and I am still in awe of him. He has overcome many obstacles in his life and is determined to follow in his sisters footsteps by setting a high standard of learning for himself. We just found out today that he will be in the advanced math class next year. I think some of this comes from having some tests done and finding out that he is perfectly normal and just bored in class. So we will see how he handles this new challenge. On May 30Th he will receive the priesthood in our church and it makes me happy. We are so blessed to have men in our church who have been mentors and wonderful examples to Jeremy. I am excited to watch Jeremy grow and learn. He is so funny and keeps us laughing most days. I know that he will make a young lady very happy some day. I just wonder when he will be full and stop growing. As of right now he is 5'5" and shows no signs of stopping.

4Th: I think with getting a new bishop and Jeremy turning 12 and getting the priesthood I have noticed some changes at our house. We still have our moments of stress and frustration but we love to be together as a family. Most of my favorite memories are the ones spent with the three people who live under my roof. Rob's schedule has changed at work and it is allowing us to do more fun things together. He is now off on Friday's and Jeremy is having fun dragging him to scout camp outs that he has always missed in the past. Emily loves the attention and time her dad spends teaching her to drive. I love having him home and we get to have date night now. I have seen the stress level in our house go down and it gives me hope.

5Th: My life has not been as I would have thought when I was younger but I am glad to be where I am. I don't know what the future holds but I feel like it will be good things. Little by little I see changes in Rob and my prayers are that one day he will want to join us on Sunday. As my kids grow older and start showing their individuality I want them to know that I love them and only have their best interests at heart. I am truly blessed and I am happy.

I have many friends who will read this and totally understand where I am coming from and I will have others who will read this and wonder why I said any thing at all. I love you any how.

Mothers Day 2010

Me and the reason I celebrate Mother's Day. Sadly this is the last year that one of these darlings sings with the primary on Mother's day. I asked if he had been practicing the words of the song and he said yep, mother I love you.

We found this cool frame at Kohl's 1/2 off plus I had two coupons, 15% off and $5.00 off, so it was $4.00. I plan to put my favorite pics of our family vacations in there.

The kids also picked up my favorite purple viola's and planted them in my flower bed. They even match Stanley who will stay in my flower bed as long as the Red Wings are in the play offs.

The kids right after planting. We had to be quick because we have been getting so much rain today. I think Jeremy was mid-sentence when I snapped this picture.

This is the tree in our back yard. I love looking at this tree in the spring. It reminds me of the song "Popcorn Popping"

Happy 15th Birthday Emily

On Friday April 23rd Emily had her state band competition in Dexter. My mom and sister drove all the way out there to attend it with us. We had decided during the day that we should just combine it with dinner and celebrate Emily's birthday which is on the 27th. Jan's fiance' Dan and his son's Logan and Danny met us at the restaurant too.

The wait staff noticed that we had presents and decided to take Emily to the front of the restaurant and have everyone sing to her. It was totally embarrassing but Emily smiled through it and didn't even get mad at her dad who had agreed to let them do this.

With her dignity gone she borrowed this hat from Logan and we headed for the car.

Emily is growing into a wonderful young woman and this year she asked for make-up, purses and shoes. These are the two purses her grammy bought her.

This is the purse aunt Jan and Dan bought her. They also bought the orange wallet and it had a gift card in it.

I got Emily these shoes and another pair that are zebra print. I also let her pick out some make-up and gave her a gift card to Claire's so she could pick out some earrings. I almost forgot I also picked up the last book in the Fablehaven series for her.

Look Mom No.....

BRACES!!! Emily waited for 18 months to get her braces off. I was very impressed on how well she did with them. She always brushed, flossed and wore those darn rubber bands with out complaint. This was a early birthday present.

This is in the car just before we went in the dentist. Can you see the excitement on her face?

OK, so getting your braces off hurts. This is just after the dentist took them off.

Beautiful, absolutely beautiful!

Rock On!

Ok, so the first picture was taken at home. This is the end of our road trip. Emily is giving her best Steven Tyler/Mick Jagger lips and I am just glad to be home with my leg up with ice on it. As Emily says "It's not a family trip until you fall." Translation= Once a year over the last 3 years I have taken a tumble and split my knee open so this get away was no different. So beg my pardon that these pictures are in reverse order I wasn't thinking clearly. Start at the bottom of this post and work your way up or just read them backwards:)

Z.Z. Tops car used in their videos.

A tribute to the Beatles, it's called Abby Road.

This one is covered with eyes cut out of magazines.

This one is purple and called Moondog.

This regular sized guitar is decorated with small pieces of Arizona Ice tea cans and Coke cans.

This one is covered in fur, faux I'm sure, the pink one had some kind of lights on it and the white one has music and words on it.

For some reason there are 4 cars suspended from the ceiling. This one is all glittery like a disco ball.

This is made out of rusted metal. At first glance I thought it was chocolate.

More over sized guitars. Remember to click on them to see all of their details.

All of these over sized guitars were decorated by various people in the community and are on display. I think they are great art work.

Once you enter the Hall of Fame you are quickly told that you can only take pictures of the exibits in the entry way. Then you have to check you camera. That's right NO PICTURES in the Hall of Fame. So this is a display in tribute to Michael Jackson.

The red fence is cool because it has flame cut outs. Click on the picture and you can see it better. The stadium in the back ground is where the Cleveland Indians play.

I took this picture on our way out when it wasn't raining. It is a really interesting building. The picture above this is the side view. I didn't realize that we would be right on Lake Erie.

This is the slippery stair that I wiped out on. Yes it was the first thing I did so all day I sucked it up and partied on in pain. My knee is swollen and I had to see security to get a big bandaid. I almost forgot to say that it was snowing when we arrived so the stairs were wet and I was soaked.

ROAD TRIP (for girls only)

So our family was supposed to go on a weekend trip to Kirtland/Cleveland Ohio. Well Jeremy got himself in a bit of trouble so Rob, aka super dad, stayed home with Jeremy so Emily and I could go. Our original plan was to go to Kirtland to see the historical church sites then go to Cleveland to see the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame then on to Akron for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Neither Emily or I wanted to go to the Pro Football Hall of Fame so we are taking an over-nighter and doing the other two.

On the turnpike we found Polly Pockets limo. This is Pepto pink.

This is Emily in front of the Kirtland Temple. No pictures are allowed inside so this is all we have from there.

The kind sisters who took us on our tour took this picture of me and Emily. We were so lucky to be the only ones on our tour and really felt the spirit of the Lord here. Emily is reading the D&C right now so it is cool to visit these places with her.

Just a warning, this next picture is of us goofing off in our room. We don't have a Long John Silvers by our house so when we go out of town we try to eat there. We had a real treat of extra greasy fries there (you could wring them out). At this point we were both pretty loopy so we took this silly picture. ARRRRRRRGH!