Happy Birthday, Jared!!

You'd think I would be more on top of posting about birthdays when it is my own beloved we just celebrated, but alas. I am still fashionably very late. : /

I can't even begin to describe what emotions I felt as we celebrated Independence Day and Jared's birthday. I am so overcome with love and gratitude for this man. Thinking about our little girl's upcoming birth, Jared's mom and her anticipation of birth 27 years ago, wishing she could celebrate with us, complete awe that Jared is my husband and that this is actually my incredible life..... All these feelings and more. 




















Our birthday celebrations included:

• buttermilk pancake breakfast
• morning spent with our lovelies, Charles, Mara and Martha visiting from CA
• homemade (to die for) carrot cake and homemade vanilla ice cream shared with neighbors and friends. Recipe courtesy of my sister. Gracias, Marsh!!
• frugal dinner at home
• snuggles and movies
• birthday sign up all week
• bits of love from family over the phone

It was quite quiet and it made me think we are getting old. Maybe. Happy to be home and calm. Jared's laid back like that. 

Jared knows how I feel about him, but in case the rest of you don't, here are some of my birthday wishes:

Jared, thank you for being born and sharing the last four years of your incredible life with me! My life dreams have come true and they would not be so wonderful without you working and making my paradise a reality. Thank you for your work, your goals, your love, your humor, your sacrifice, your patience, your humility, your flexibility, your strength, your growth, your tenderness, and all the years of birthdays that I will get to celebrate you. I celebrate you everyday. You are the best part of everyday. I love you so much it aches. Thank you for choosing me. 

Happy Birthday, Karla!

Happy (late) birthday, dear sister-o-mine. I celebrate her birth and her life! Karla is such a powerful woman. She has strength and determination that has helped her get through life's bumpy road. Karla's growth this last year of life has astounded me. Karla, hats off to your amazing inner strength, patience with affliction, hope centered on Christ, openness to a better life, growing personal confidence, and love for your children and others. I admire your power and know that you know where your Power comes from. Here's to another year of learning, strength, faith, and increasing amounts of happiness. I love you. Sorry my love arrives late, but it arrives whole heartedly. :) Happy birthday, hermana mia. 

Utah vacation

The guy and I really enjoyed ourselves in Utah last month, visiting family and friends and partying at Liz's wedding. We took few pictures, and the ones we got were not great. I forgot my camera and only had my phone. 

Flying in the airplane was strangely a highlight for my little mister. He loves planes and loved the airport. The day we flew back, he actually was disappointed when we didn't head straight to the planes when I told him we were getting ready to go. I certainly felt the pressure from the baby inside pushing back against the baby on the outside, who sat on my lap on both flights. It worked, but wasn't my favorite. We spent wonderful time with his four cousins, two grandparents and aunts and uncle. We enjoyed grandma's pool, cousin Lily's birthday water party, exploring the new City Creek outdoor mall, welcoming visiting friends, and especially Liz and Kevin's amazing wedding. It was so beautiful, very Christ-centered, and I participated in my first flash mob dance at the reception! A.MAZ.ING. Hopefully I can get my hands on a video to share. It was a blast, but we are also so glad to be home and back with Daddy O. 

My quiet, observant son - off to the far right

My missionary daddy! I am so proud of my parents.

GORGEOUS bride!

the birthday girl

Fire station

The guy LOVES trucks, but especially trash trucks and fire trucks. We visited the fire station around the corner TWICE and he still loves it.

During the second visit he brought his own fire truck to we could compare. 

I adore the noise he makes when he talks about fire trucks. "Weee oooo weee oooo"

He didn't love the ambulance when I told him that people sit in there when they get hurt. He was very serious about the hurt people. 

Farmer Ondricek

The guy loves animals. We have visited a local farm twice in the last week; first just me and him, then with our new neighbors and friends. (We absolutely LOVE our new neighbors too! Friendly mom and dad, four sweet children for the guy to play with. They brought us homemade muffins last night and we love them. Neighbors don't get better then this family.)

Anyway, back to our farm adventure. It was a blast, especially with friends!

We must have scared the peacock. It was gorgeous, though.

He may have liked the tractors more than anything else.

Sorry this is so blurry, but it's the only one I got of the cow milking. I loved it so much more than the guy.

While I gawked over the milkings, he could not get over watching the tractors. 

(What the guy was looking at)

Did I mentioned he LOVED all the tractors?

 

Such stinking cute kids.

Last but not least, the pigs. They had babies a few months ago and just a week ago. Too cute to eat. Yet. We saw the pigs more than any other animal. The guy loves pigs.

Why does he love pigs so much? It has something to do with this eraser pig that he treasures and plays with almost every day. 

I'm so grateful we can see these animals for free and see them often. I want his learning to be as hands-on as possible. 

genes and drives

It's Saturday morning. Jared wakes up late and hurries to get ready for class. He will be gone all day.

I scrambled to put on some clothes, use the bathroom, pack Jared a lunch, and put S in the car in his pajamas. We enjoy some apple and banana on the way to drop Jared off. I enjoy the drive time as a family. The joys I wouldn't get if Jared and I had separate cars....

After saying a pray with them in the car, kissing my sweet husband goodbye, and pulling out of the parking lot, I turned on the book I've been listening to.

I am listening to a book on CD, so my drives are still anticipated even when I am alone. The fictional book is called, Still Alice  and it's about a brilliant Harvard psychology professor who is diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's disease at age 50. While 'the guy' looks out the back window and chats to himself, I listen to Alice's thoughts and reactions after the diagnosis is confirmed with genetic testing. Mutated genes give her three children a 50% chance of getting the disease. She forgets recipes she's been making since childhood. She forgets to catch her plane to Chicago. She reintroduces herself to an acquiescence she met only moments before. When will she stop recognizing her children and husband? When will she start wandering the halls at night? When will she completely forget how to get home safely when she goes for her daily jog? These and so many more questions begin to haunt her and her family.

I look in the rear view mirror at my little boy. My only son, my first born. My flesh and blood. My genes. My husband's genes. With all our genetic beauties and failures. Jared's mom and grandma both died too young from cancer, and I have a great fear that Jared is predisposed to the disease as well. We have changed many lifestyle choices to make the odds more in our favor. We control what we can control. The guy locks eyes with mine. He is sucking his thumb, still waking up, and holding the corner of his blanket. His favorite blanket that grandma O made him. He adores this blanket.

My thoughts tune back to Alice. She plays with the idea of her children and husband one day letting something as insignificant and treatable as pneumonia taking her life to stop the mutual suffering. She thinks she would rather have been diagnosed with cancer.

It hits me. I miss Mom O. I miss her with an ache I can't push down. I begin to cry in the car somewhere along route 28 and weep for several minutes. My son deserves to know his grandma and I miss talking to my mother-in-law. There is so much she hasn't told me yet. So much yet to learn. But in this melancholy moment, I thank God that she was taken quickly and with her mind in tact. She suffered for less than a year and loved her family and friends til the very end. Even her funeral brought glory to God and comforting friendship to her family. There is always a silver lining. But I still miss her. I need to make a story book of her life adventures so my children will know of their amazing heritage. I will make that book for them. I must. Soon.

Snack Pack Service Project

 My calling at church right now is Relief Society Activities Coordinator. Unlike many other wards, this one does not have a committee. It is just me, the second counselor in the Relief Society, who supervises activities, and a food coordinator. Together with these two outstanding women, we organized a service project just one month after each us were new in our respective callings. My previous ward had done this service for our public school district, so in the interest of time and resources, we did the same thing in my new ward. 

We asked the ladies at church to volunteer (using SignUp Genius) to supply the non-perishable foods needed to make 100 "snack packs" for the kids in our county. Snack packs are bags filled with foods that could constitute meals for kids between lunch on Friday and breakfast on Monday. These snack packs are offered to kids who qualify for free and reduced lunch and who have no guarantee of meals at home on the weekend. The snack packs are certainly not gourmet. They have to be non-perishable and simple, so that kids can prepare and eat them even if they are home alone, as many are. Our goal of 100 was a lofty one, but the sisters at church really pulled through. We had extras in some categories and so we made the goal and then donated the rest to the school district anyway. Thank you ladies!!

What a beautiful sight!

The other service we provided was help the Youth Conference planner make up bouquets for the dance competition later this summer. We also enjoyed a chicken tortilla soup dinner and desserts together. Delish! With both activities and lovingly prepared foods, I think it was a great success! 

The following day, I received this email update and almost cried thinking of those students we are trying to help. I am going to look into it more and learn what else can be done to help them this summer.

"Hi gals,
[We] dropped off our snack packs at the District Office this morning. They were shocked and grateful about the number of items we collected. [Fiona], the homeless liaison, said that the packs would be very helpful this summer to 55 particular students. 55 students in the district are homeless and these will help feed them over the summer. A few students in this group of 55 homeless students have been accepted to colleges on scholarships where the colleges will provide their meals but through the summer they don't have much access to food.
The pile of packs was stacked on [Fiona]'s desk and different district employees were excitedly taking pictures. They asked for our contact information to followup with a thank you note."

What ideas do you have to help these students who go hungry over the weekend or summer?