A Little Extra Thankful

This year, I am a little extra thankful.

Thankful that I am no longer in a wheelchair.

Thankful that my L.A. (left arm) is working and typing this post.

Thankful that I can pull my own hair back into a ponytail.

Thankful that I can get myself dressed.

Thankful that I am not in the hospital, looking at the world through a window.

Thankful that I am home. With my children.

Thankful for this team of five.

Thankful, and honored, to be their mama.

Thankful for their strength and courage and resilience and hard work.

Thankful for their devotion to their mama.

Thankful for their testimonies.

Thankful for the way they always surround me with love, just as they are in this picture.

Thankful that I can hold these babies.

Thankful that I am strong enough to watch them.

Thankful for their snuggles and kisses and giggles.

Thankful that I can pull them around the kitchen floor on a blanket.

Thankful that I can change their poopy diapers.

Thankful that I can feed them and wipe their tears.

Thankful to be their auntie.

Thankful to be a missionary mama.

20 days until this bubba of mine takes off on his new journey, his new classroom in life.

Thankful for his Priesthood.

Thankful for his worthiness.

Thankful for his example.

Thankful for his part and his role in our team of five.

Thankful that God entrusted him with me.

I am thankful for my role as a mother.

I am thankful for my role as an auntie.

I am thankful for my role on this Earth.

I am thankful that classrooms are repeatable.

I am thankful for my knowledge that God is real. I am thankful for my knowledge that His Son, Jesus Christ is my advocate, my Savior.

I am thankful for prayer. For peace. For comfort. For eyes to see and ears to hear.

I am thankful for my community, my village - which includes every single one of you.

Happy Thanksgiving.

A Harvest Dance

Kaydon went to his first high school dance.

It was the Harvest Dance at Layton High School. 

It was girls choice.

McKenna asked him to the dance.

He got to know McKenna on Trek.

She is the daughter of one of the members of the Stake Presidency.

It was an 80's rock music theme.

How cute is this boy????

I can't imagine our lives or our family without him...

Another tender mercy!

A Dance & A Trial

Kaydon went to his first school dance on Saturday.

Friday night, they had their "day date." 

I swear, dances are a crazy big even now a days!

These pictures are from Friday night.

As soon as I have dance pictures, I will post about them.

I can't wait!

He is so dang social all of a sudden.

This kid hated people a wee months ago!

Tonight, he will be answering a different girl to a different dance at a different school.

So fun!

 Thursday morning, Jackson took me to a our family doctor.

He's great.

I told him I had a crazy bad headache since Tuesday.

Also, my left eye was not functioning right.

He did some tests and found that my left side was very weak.

Jackson explained that this wasn't as scary as it seemed.

My left side is now constantly weaker than my right.

But the doctor was worried.

He sent us to McKay Dee for a CT scan.

I wanted to just jump off a ledge instead.

When I had my first conversion stroke, I was out of it.

I didn't know what was happening.

 I was more aware on Thursday and I was done and done.

The CT was smooth.

We were sent back to the doctor's office, where the nurse was waiting with a handful of shots.

I didn't even care.

She told me to bend over and drop my pants.

I didn't even flinch.

No brain bleeds.

Another small conversion, though.

I slept Thursday and Friday.

D "babysat" me on Saturday and Sunday.

I am back to work this morning - half days this week.

It's a new normal.

I am still not a patient patient.

You know?
I still believe I can do everything without a problem!

I can't.

Randy called last night and made sure I was aware of that. :)

I get it. I get it.

And, I'm on my feet and trying again today.

Dancin' Fool

Kaydon is a dancing fool, it appears.

He was asked by three different girls to the Harvest Dance (I think that's what it's called).

He said "Yes" to the one who "officially" asked him.

Last night, there was another doorbell ditch.

I heard it in my groggy sleep.

One of the girls that asked him to the Harvest Dance already asked him to the Christmas dance at Davis High School.

Get it, Girl!

She's on it like a bonnet!

This kid really is enjoying high school so far and it's so fun to see his brothers razzing him!

A Dance, Some Obedience & Sacrifices

What a great weekend we had.

On Saturday morning, Kaydon enlisted his two younger brothers - Colton and Ja'Mari - to answer the girl who, in the most darling way, asked him to the Harvest dance.

The tricky part was that this darling girl lives at the end of a very long cul-de-sac. So, I had to park on the outside of the cul-de-sac and the two boys had to be sneaky. Apparently I was laughing so hard that the boys could hear me clear down at the end of the street. 

It was hysterical.

Neither of them was wearing shoes.

Kaydon instructed them to set it all up just perfectly.

They ran to the side of the house, and were hiding, as the next door neighbor came home and wondered what they were doing.

Ja'Mari kept creeping by the big garage door to peak to see if they had picked it up off of the porch.

Once they had, these two charms booked it down the cul-de-sac and into the warmth of the car.

I about wet myself laughing.

Saturday afternoon, we headed down to Nana and Pops' house.

Nana and I watched the Women's Conference.

Our Prophet is just so sincere.

I loved most when he looked at the girls, young women, mature women - all of the women - and simply said, "I love you."

I felt that and I needed that.

President Nelson asked all females in the Church to take a 10 day break from social media. 

My business is marketed only through social media.

I thought about his words all night and into Sunday.

I talked to D about it, who is not a member of our faith.

I talked to T about it.

I talked to Jackson about it.

Jackson feels that running a business is different than surfing social media for hours a day.

I agree with him.

However, I continued to feel strongly that I would be blessed if I followed our Prophet.

And so this morning, I did a FB Live.

I explained that I would be taking a 10 day break from social media.

I explained that this is scary and worrisome for me because my business relies on social media.

However, I feel that the sacrifice will bring blessings.

I will be scheduling FB posts on my group page for the next 10 days.

And then, I will not log into FB or Instagram.

I don't have any other social media.

I will continue to blog, and to share my perspectives, challenges, lessons learned and blessings with you over the next several day. I know that there will be at least one of each of those.

I pray that my business will not fail, but will increase due to my obedience.

I pray that I will learn those things I am meant to learn.

I will be Live again next Wednesday.

Dances, OT & Skin Care... Oh My!

Tuesday night was quite the night.

I stopped at the grocery store to get bananas.

Because I wanted to.

Then I went home.

I made dinner.

Because I wanted to.

I made cookies (OT).

While I was recovering from the stroke at home, I had to continue with therapy all day, everyday.

The guys at work would get so excited about OT days.

It meant they got homemade cookies.

It was easy for them to be supportive because what grown men does not love cookies?!

Last night it was oatmeal and butterscotch.

It's still therapy to me.

It's more mental and emotional than physical, though.

I love it.

It puts me back into the moment.

It calms my soul.

Plus, I eat a LOT of cookie batter.

Like, A LOT.

Because I want to.

Kaydon got asked to the Harvest Dance.

This is not the first person to ask him to the dance, however she is the first person to do it the "official" way.

Adorable.

I am, however, very glad that I did not have to dig through the guts to find the letters that spelled her name.

Pumpkin guts make me dry heave.

So do loose teeth.

And boys clearing their throats.

And quite a few things that come out of my boys' mouths, too.

I also prepped for a skin care class last night.

I earned a trunk.

I love it.

It's perfect.

It fits all of my make up.

I used to have to take two huge bags and at least three baskets to every single makeover and skin care class.

Now, I have my trunk and one bag.

I only have to take the basket when it's a large group and it's a skin care class.

I was so stoked when I had it all loaded up!

And, I am so thankful for all of the kind words that have been shared with me the last couple of days.

Sometimes we get into funks, don't we?!

We cry. We yearn for more. We count our blessings. We choose to be kinder to ourselves and others.

And then we carry on.

I am so grateful for the greatest of all time (GOAT) village. 

Like ever!