Because I Had Children

Vance age 4 I remember sending off my oldest to kindergarten and knowing that his world was about to be bigger than the four walls surrounding our home.  It was with a terrific amount of strength and faith that I sent him out in to the world, so to speak.  I knew that from here on out, my opinion wouldn’t always be the one he counted on, that the world was about to have its part in helping me raise my boy.   I have wondered and worried every new year as I sent him off on a new phase, if I taught him enough to be able to weather the storms of life with a sound knowledge of why he is here on this earth and what he needs to do to be successful in his journeys.  Every single one of my kids gets the same worries as they start a new school year or in his case, a new phase in his life. About every August I shed more than a few tears as I send my children off on their next new adventure; middle school, high school, college, full time employment, etc. At the end of every ...

I want to keep this short because I really, really, really want you to click on the link I'll put at the bottom of this.  This topic has been on my mind lately but I couldn't put into words what I wanted to say.  The post on this blog says it perfectly. My thoughts on this subject started when one of my kids came home from school a few years ago and was complaining about his teacher and his behavior toward the entire class.  The teacher said something along the lines of, "I don't get paid enough to babysit you."  My child was so upset at how angry the teacher was because he really did like him.  Since I believe in changing myself first before asking someone else to change, we discussed ways he could try and be a better student, be a leader in the class when they started getting out of hand, verbally thanking the teacher for things more often, etc. but nothing seemed to be making a difference over the next few days. Later that week, I stopped by the school just...

A week later and still coughing... It is hard to believe it has been 10 years since "that" day.  I can remember it clearly in my mind, especially recalling all those images from the news as we were glued to the television for days and weeks.  But, in light of that situation and the tragedy that it was, I have some good memories of that day. We woke up that morning very early so we could all do our traditional birthday party in bed for Marly, who was turning 7 that day.  We sang the Happy Birthday song, we opened presents, then everyone got dressed and came down for ice cream and donuts.  After morning scriptures and family prayer, I sent everyone off to school.  It started off as a wonderful day. Shortly after, someone called me and told me to turn on the television to the news.  I could hardly believe what I saw.  I made a quick call to Ben who had just arrived at his office.  They turned on the big screen at work and just watched.  I ...

It has been a rough 3 weeks as I try to recuperate from my bout of pneumonia.  I'm still not done healing and I can't seem to kick this nagging cough.  You would think 12 days of antibiotics would heal me pretty effectively, but I was told to give it a good 6 weeks to be back to "normal."  Hmmm, who has time for this?   Anyway, in the meantime, I have been trying to rest and that means I have slept a lot.  So, no recent blog posts.  I hope to rectify that starting today, and that is the importance of continuing your education or becoming a life-learner. You don't have to go sign up for classes at the local college, but if you have a desire to get a degree and it is a good time for you to pursue that then by all means DO IT!!  I'm in my last semester at ASU and I have senior-itis really bad.  So bad that I may have lost my desire to wear those special tassels with my gown at graduation that says I had a super great GPA.  Yes, it is down ...