Periodontics

It's been three years since my father passed away. He lived 91 years on this beautiful planet and though not here in body today, he is here in spirit often.

On our way driving home from his funeral three years ago I received a phone message from one of the sweetest voices ever. I hadn't heard it for a few years as we'd moved to a new city and I was busy raising the twigs and serving with Scout and Primary Leaders but I never forgot it. It was Jill, from my favorite Periodontal Office, asking if I might be willing to work for them again.

My first thought was "Thank you, Father, and thank you, Father."

I started the next week and can't express the gratitude I feel for this blessing. I'm grateful for amazing people who bless my life with their stories of struggles and joys!

My co-workers are filled to overflowing with wit, generosity, kindness, and genius. I adore them!
It was Whitney's birthday a few weeks ago and every time we'd start to talk about her she'd somehow get the limelight off her and change the subject. That's how they are.

Paul in Philippians 1:3 said it best..."I thank my God upon every remembrance of you."

Spirit of NUAMES...

The hallways were crowded with students and parents, some waiting in lines, others making their way to the next room at our first NUAMES High School parent teacher conferences when we heard this bubbly voice making it's way down the hall. It was too tiny to see above the crowd but the voice was coming closer and as it did we could tell people were being hugged by it. When it reached us it called our brand new, wet behind the ears, High Schooler by name and introduced itself to us. Deb Hefner, the Director of Business Operations for Northern Utah Academy for Math, Engineering & Science, entered our lives and hearts that afternoon, and we're the fortunate ones.

Later that year her dear husband would pass away. Our hearts ached for her and her beautiful daughter. At the next school dance, our oldest twig happened to see Ms. Hefner and asked her to swing dance. It was a dance to remember as all the students circled around this adored woman and cheered for her always celebrating the moment. These two had a standing agreement to dance together from that night on, including a dance at Ms. Hefner's daughter's wedding reception.

True to her huge heart and giving nature, Ms. Hefner and her daughter (who was in Armenia this night) gave the first "Jim Hefner Spirit of NUAMES" Awards and Scholarships this year to two students in honor of her late husband. How proud he must be of his girls!

How blessed we are to know Deb!

Swing dancing till the cows came home...

The nicest people you'll ever meet own this fabulous barn and allowed our youth group to come and dance the night away, all for the price of some good muscle power by the guys and their leaders a few weeks in advance. Sounds like it's still a gift of kindness on the part of the owners if you ask me - no slight intended to all those muscles.

The night of the dance, a very creative dance teacher in the neighborhood used the "chocolate, vanilla, strawberry game" to have the youth all switching dance partners and lining up in dance position pronto! Then it was time to swing dance. They were jump jivin' and jailhouse rockin' till the cows came home (actually the cows were already home, just outside the barn).

There were more dedicated leaders outside, cooking dutch oven cobbler while the kids were learning how to pretzel, spin, and dip. Thanks leaders!

What a blast to have enough youth to pull off an activity like this. Good times - thanks everyone!

Chicks...

We have chicks!

With two teenage boys in the house you say, "of course you have chicks," and though our boys do like girls, they're not that kind of chicks.

We have feather-covered chicks! Two of them.

The jabberwocky here finally flew the coop and a little pair of swallows moved in, feathered a nest in the birdhouse, and laid eggs.

We could tell when the eggs hatched because the cheeping chorus was a fortissimo and the parents were flying in and out every few minutes for days. They were stellar!

 

Then a new little face appeared...and spent the day looking out.

And before we knew it, she was gone. We saw her try to clear the fence with her new wings once - hit the fence - and slide down. Ouch! But it wasn't long and she was almost indistinguishable from all her neighbors. We never saw the second baby take off, but the parents appear to have laid more eggs...

Mothers Day and a senior...

Mothers Day...how I missed that beautiful little dark-haired, 

blue-eyed woman yesterday. 

I felt her near - thanks Mom.

I wonder what she thinks of this...

We have a senior. Ready or not, here it comes. 

He's jumping out of the nest.

There is definitely a feeling of sadness 

at not seeing that face every day, 

yet at the same time, it's more exciting than I'd ever imagined! 

He's such a fun, lighthearted guy with always a smile and hug to give, 

snazzy dance moves, fast to forgive, 

pretty tidy (that's comparatively speaking of course), 

and not enough fear of danger if you ask me. 

The world will be blessed by having him in it. 

I'll never forget a conversation we had one evening 

as he was beginning his early college experience. 

It had been a very long day for a 16-year-old with college classes 

from 9am till 9pm. 

He was still up way past 11pm and studying hard. 

I was worried that somehow we'd talked him in to this "early college" thing 

and that maybe he didn't know this was his choice. 

I asked him, "So do you know that lots of people, 

in fact most of us, go to college after high school? 

You don't have to do this. 

Do you know that?" 

He responded with a direct but gentle, "Of course I do. 

I want to do this. 

It's okay Mom, don't worry."

See what I mean!? No fear...

He was right. It all turned out okay. 

He's an amazing worker. 

Grandpa would be proud, so proud!

One of my friends mentioned that the bad thing 

about the Mr. and I having our kids so close together 

is they'll all leave home practically at once. 

We were beggars, not choosers, 

when it came to having children 

so there was nothing we could have done about

 "when" the twigs finally made their appearance, 

but it did bring me a new perspective.

That means, soon this awesome guy will be leaving the nest. 

And then this little bird will follow.

Another friend referred to this as "The Exodus". 

Yuck! 

"The Exodus" thought has filled me with dread...till the last few weeks...

when the feeling of so much excitement for my senior 

came rushing in the door with the graduation cap and tassel. 

Yahoo! 

I'm for sure not in any hurry, 

and will savor each day with these twigs, 

but at the same time...bring it on! 

There are great days to come! 

Spread your wings my little birds. 

xoxo mom

The weekend of hats!

The oldest twig had a weekend to remember and it all involved hats. 

The first hat was bright purple and had a tassel hanging from it with a big number 14. 

There aren't enough thanks we can give to all the people who contributed to this accomplishment. To teachers, counselors, administrators, staff, and those who make the early college scholarship possible... with much emotion and gusto we say, "Thank you!"

This twig is one hard-working dude. I still have trouble imagining that a 17-year-old boy can earn an Associates Degree before graduating High School. Congrats big guy! He wasn't alone either, as a whopping 55% of this High School graduating class earned their Associates Degrees. Amazing, absolutely amazing!

The second hat was a gem-encrusted shiny thing. 


He came home from Prom wearing it.

There's a king in the house. Rumor whispered that an awesome friend (Zach V.) may have had something to do with the nomination. Thanks dude - you rock!

I've been thinking what it means when a girl or boy is crowned Prom Royalty. I believe it means that:
The ones wearing the crowns have the very very best of friends: unselfish, kind, thoughtful, generous friends who see the best in others. Friends who make a difference in others' lives and never even know it.

“Friendship," said Christopher Robin, "is a very comforting thing to have.”
― A.A. Milne


We're crazy about these boys!

A huge shout out to the Hansons who, as the group plans were being made, seemed to get more and more to do. What amazing people, great photographer & cook, and how about that fabulous back yard! 

Just two nights later, the oldest twig was wearing a third hat. 

This one brought with it years of scouting memories: campfires, crazy deep-fried concoctions, night games, friends, blizzards, and service. 

For his High School Capstone Project, he earned his Venturing Trust Award and shared his beliefs and experiences in a presentation about scouting and its purpose of teaching boys to become honorable men.

The most important of these memories are of honorable, devoted men who have taught and shaped him. What a difference they've made! We send to all of you our heartfelt love and gratitude. We will strive to live each day to repay the debt.

Hide & Seek

Ah...still remembering the blast of a "Hide & Seek" game we had over spring break. Such fun!!

We agreed upon the boundaries, chose the first person to be the seeker (1,2,3 not it), then took off running and diving behind the most overhanging of large hoodoos we could find whilst listening to the count down: 50, 49,48...

The branches prefer to find a really great spot and stay put. The twigs prefer to migrate from place to place the whole round.

They both work. 

The boundaries changed as the afternoon wore on, getting smaller in dimension. Those who were found were recruited to join in seeking for the last person eluding detection.

At one point I could see out of the corner of my eye three men walking past me in the distance. I was face down, in a little dusty ditch, huddling as closely as possible to the near wall of the ditch in an attempt to be invisible to the "seekers" when I heard the men talking. One said, "Do you think she's okay?" to which another responded, "I think she's trying to get a good camera angle or something." I lifted a hand out of the dirt to wave them a friendly "Hello - now just keep moving along so you don't give me away."

Even more delightful to me was when I saw the same three men coming back from their wander out yonder. The Mr. was at that time laying in that same said ditch and they were all three looking at him.

It's a family thing...

(The view from the ditch.)

Soccer Sons

There's electricity in the air. It's soccer season and that makes our men happy! 

Time to fly!

 

 

 Time to run!

 Time to kick!

 Time to jump for the sky!

 And for sure it's time to thank their awesome Coach Toone!

Eating cinder blocks

I LOVE rock! 

I love to look at it...

...to hike on it and between it...

  ...to feel it under my hands...

...and even to my shame, I like (or liked) to eat it. Growing up, this was my backyard and when it rained that ordinary cinder block fence you can see by the trees smelled delicious, so delicious! I could not help myself. I'd breathe in that yummy smell and nibble away at the fence. I'm sure my teeth marks are still there. The wear marks certainly show on my front teeth. I've given up eating rock but boy howdy I still love it.

 

During our brief spring break we got to hike one of my favorite slot canyons, Little Wild Horse. It feeds my soul. Lucky for me, the Mr. likes rock too, though he never ate it.   :)

The twigs come along on our rock adventures. They don't crave it like we do but they love to climb it.

I wonder what the rock will be like in North Carolina where this twig will be spending his time loving and serving the people who live there, and the God that he and I love more than we love rock.  

 

Sinbad's Eyes

Spring Break was short with 3 different school schedules so we played hard in the time we had. A new hike for us was "Sinbad's Eyes" on the San Rafael Reef. 

The Mr. liked that he got to hike on slickrock. He loves that stuff!

The twigs liked that there was trail mix, though with this hike at the end of a very long day of hiking, they were less than excited. When it came down to it they decided to hang with the "can't get enough" parents. The littlest twig even raced Dad for the top - and won.

The hike ended at two caves that looked like eyes.

The north "eye/cave" had a window in the top of it. 

I liked the pictographs in the cave. Thinking of those who had lived there, in that shelter, gave me immense gratitude for running water and warm fluffy blankets.

The sun was setting as we headed down to the car. What a beautiful place - we love Southern Utah!