Examples, Opportunities, and Forever

It's been an interesting couple of weeks. Becky's Grandma, Orma Briscoe, passed away (her obituary) the day after our last post on June 27. An amazing woman who blessed the life of her children, grandchildren and everyone she met. As a grandson-in-law I first met her and her husband just shy of 9 years ago. When I met them they were already old and somewhat sickly and Sam, her husband, had been battling cancer for 6 years. He continued to fight his leukemia for 15 years until he passed away July 10, a short two weeks after his beloved wife.

Examples
Every time I saw them they were together. Sam always opened the door for her, helped her down the stairs, held her hand, and knew when to zip it when he disagreed with Orma. He respected her and loved her dearly. After his wife died the hospice workers thought it odd that Sam didn't appear to be too disturbed at the loss of his wife. When they asked him about it, he simply testified that he knew he was going to be with his wife forever and that gave him great comfort. In the two weeks between his wife's death and his own he never grew weary of sharing that message of the resurrection and eternal families. The same man that went on a mission with his wife after he had cancer was once again a missionary.
When he stood and said a final, tender farewell to his wife I felt privileged to see a righteous priesthood bearer and husband at that stage of life.

Becky's Grandpa Sam Briscoe after his wife's funeral.

Becky's Grandpa Sam Briscoe when we visited him on the 4th of July and a week before he passed away. Though he was increasingly frail and weak, he spent much of our visit talking to our kids. Here he was joking with Morgan about a puzzle toy that she was playing with.

Opportunities
Two short weeks after his beloved wife, Sam joined his eternal companion (his obituary). For Family Home Evening this last Monday the lesson was the Plan of Salvation and where Great Grandma and Grandpa are now. Thankfully, it wasn't the first time the kids had ever heard it and were able to teach us most of the lesson. The passing of Sam and Orma gave us an opportunity to remember our own divine nature and enjoy the unique perspective of seeing two righteous examples move to the next stage of their existence, together.

Cousins Sadie and Hannah playing piano at Grandmas

Forever
As a fitting tribute, their passing brought all of their children together for the first time in a long time and some of their 18 grandchildren and 29 great grandchildren. I couldn't help but feel how proud and pleased they both were with the legacy of families and forever that continues in their absence.

Poland, here we come

It's finally official... after many months of waiting and decisions made back and forth, and a gazillion changes in plans, we are finally committed to moving to POLAND!!

As I expected, they're ready for us to move NOW, but with the Sattlers coming to our house the end of of July for the family reunion, and Scentsy Convention the first week of August, we're looking at mid to late August. Whew. I don't even know where to begin.

Should be a fun adventure for our little family and I'll definitely keep you all posted. Guess I'd better teach myself some Polish via youtube!

Sadie hugs

Sadie is the best hugger and Daddy is always more than happy to get them...

Mr. Clean

Isaac is growing up. He is such a huge ball of emotions... so loving and sweet and mushy, freely giving hugs and kisses so often. He also is very quick to change, and can go from laughing to crying or incredibly mad, all in one instant. He's very high energy, and brings lots of laughs and fun to our family.

Here's a little taste of classic Isaac mischief. We were all cleaning the house and Isaac decided to secretly clean the toy room. I went up to put a toy away and saw a cute boy with a huge grin in the middle of a very tidy toy room. I asked if he did it all by himself, and he was so proud! He said he put it all away in the closet... this is what he then showed me...

Dave's scary procedure

Dave has had digestive problems for such a long time and finally got his colonoscopy and endoscopy yesterday. He was worried about the procedure (for one because he's not a fan of needles), yet very anxious to hear the verdict. The doctor was very surprised that they didn't find anything at all abnormal during the procedure. You never really want to hope that anything is wrong, but it sure would have been nice to get to the bottom of his issues (so punny).

It all looked good, so the doctor ordered some more tests to see if the problem lies in the small intestine. Dave was really funny waking up and kept asking me how long I had been there waiting for him. He must have been worried they wouldn't call me to pick him up! He seemed to be coming out of the anesthesia slowly, but Dave is always a pretty sleepy guy, and besides that, he always tells them to give him lots of drugs to completely knock him out. As I said, not a huge fan of medical procedures. :)

All seemed fine and he got up enough to get dressed so we could go home, then had to wait for the doctor to discharge him. I was going over his chart with the nurse and we both looked over to see Dave slumping over in the chair and looking quite pale. They laid him back in bed and immediately hooked him up to the IV and monitors again. His heart rate was 58 when he came in for the procedure, and it was now at 35. The nurse called for the head nurse and doctor to come, and they both did immediately. They gave him some drug to increase his heart rate, but that didn't work at all. His ears were purple and his lips were blue, along with his fingernails. Scary. They wanted to rush him to the ER to get an EKG to look at his heart. The doctor was even going to ride with us in the car to watch Dave. The colonoscopy was done at a medical center where they only do routine procedures, so they didn't have the heavy equipment. I don't think they see stuff like this every day because they were pretty worried.

The doctor wasn't certain that was completely necessary, and when Dave heard him talking about it, he started wiggling his feet around to make his heart rate go up so he wouldn't have to go to the ER! It worked to bring it up to an acceptable range so they let us go home, but made me take his pulse every 30 minutes and they called 3 times yesterday to make sure he was okay. He seemed fine, but I was so worried to let him go to sleep at night, because I wouldn't be taking his pulse all night. They called me once to check up on him again this morning, and then again this afternoon to schedule an appointment with a cardiologist.

So, the good news is that the colonoscopy and endoscopy looked great. The bad news... hopefully Dave doesn't ever have to be sedated again! Makes me realize just how lucky I am to have him in my life and I'd sure like to keep it that way.

Wicked!

I have always wanted to see the Broadway musical "Wicked" so when Dave heard it was coming to Boise, he got everyone at work to order tickets together so we got a great group rate and got to sit with our friends. We loved the show and had such a great date night. Mom, Dad, Elizabeth, Charity, and my cousin Kaite got tickets with us so we got to sit with them too. An incredible musical and a fun night to remember.

Morgan's dance recital

Morgan loves going to dance class, and LOVES the recitals in December and May. She loves the costumes, loves the makeup, loves the pictures... everything. She is about as girly as they come!
The theme was Disney this time and her class danced to "Woody's Roundup" dressed as Jessie the Cowgirl and "Cruella Deville" dressed as dalmations.

Dave is a cute dad and brought her flowers when she was done. Don't know if she's a born dancer or not, but she's definitely born to be in front of the camera... this one's definitely not camera shy!

The Sadie Girl -18 months!

October 26, 2009, little Sadie Lynn joined our fun family. Today was her first day in the Nursery at Church. I can't believe that she is already 18 months old! She is going through such a fun phase right now where she can't go anywhere without holding Mommy or Daddy's hand and has the absolute cutest smile.

So in celebration of her going to the Nursery here are some fun facts about Sadie;

1. Dancing Queen - She loves to dance. Turn on any kind of music with a backbone and she's grooving. She'll start moving her head and shoulders and start waving her hands in the air and jumping around. She may have acquired this from her brother Isaac who, will run away from the dinner table to get his groove on if any music is playing. I brought home the Bee Gee's best hits CD last week.

Wow.

2. Giddy - She's a goofball. She has the most

infectious smile and laugh.

She gets the most fun out of watching her brothers and sisters sing and jump to "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam". She'll just laugh and laugh and we love it so much we'll sing it a few times and spend all of FHE singing it. Not only does she love to laugh but she's quick to laugh.

One caveat - she's very reserved around people that she doesn't know. She give you quite the stare if she doesn't know you and it may take a while for new faces to get to see her laugh. Today after I left her in the Nursery I watched through the window for a bit, and the folks in the Nursery were trying to get her to play and stay happy since she had noticed that Daddy was gone. She knew they were up to something and wasn't impressed. I could just hear her saying, "Where's my Daddy? What did you do with him?". It was cute. I felt so horrible. Right then I also realized that I hadn't said goodbye and so I thought about going back in and just taking her with

me to class. We have too much fun to leave her in there.

3. She loves to be told she's pretty. - Combing her hair, putting on a pretty dress, shoes, or shopping for clothes she knows what she thinks is pretty and will carry it around everywhere.

4. She loves her sister - The two seem to really enjoy each others company. They've got a great system - Morgan plays Mom to Sadie and and Sadie lets Morgan carry her around and play fun games with her. Sadie isn't always happy to be taxi-d around but usually just lets her sister lug around to whatever the next event is.

And what's not to love when your sister is Super-Girl!

Rambling thoughts on marriage

So, this post is going to be a bit different than most, more of a spewing of raw thoughts. It seems like we have had more and more friends getting divorced lately, and our good friends are now going through it themselves. It's so weird to think that just a few months ago, we were all hanging out together, and they were a unit... we spoke to them jointly, and their lives were intertwined. His plans were her plans, her future, his. Now all of those 10 years together are done and she has the kids for a few nights a week, then he does. It's so sad and obviously very sobering to me, and I just can't get it out of my head. I wonder what lead up to it, or what was the final straw. What, if anything, could have been done to avoid it? I married Dave not only for a lifetime, but forever after, so he's not getting out that easily. All joking aside, every marriage has ups and downs, and times when you feel closer and further apart. I have been making a little list in my head of things I can do to bring us closer when we drift, as inevitably happens. I'm no expert, but here are a few things I've tried in the past and know work for me:

• Do small things for him like when we were dating (leave a note, surprise, gift, or fun text).
• Date night - go out or stay in and play games together (we love Skip-bo and the Wii).
  
• Remember what attracted me to him when we were dating and make a new list of now.
• Look for at least one way to serve him every day, whether it's a little thing or a big thing.
• Think of the challenges he's facing and pray for him.
  
• Re-live the memories of those dating days when I couldn't wait to see him every day and the fun things we did together and all of the random places we went in Provo.
• Write a list of all of his good traits and qualities, then try to add to it each day that week.
• Make questions for him to answer - anything from what he'd buy if he had an extra $1,000 to things that make him happy or sad, to goals... anything. The more talking, the better.
  
• Might be a bit morbid, but this one is the most powerful for me: imagine he's terminally ill or even already gone, and imagine how much I'd miss him. I think of all of the little things he does or is, and how it would leave such a huge hole in my life without him. It helps me hang on to the time we do have together now, and helps keep dumb little things in perspective.

Anyway, like I said, it's a bit random, but it has been on my mind a lot. There is nothing more satisfying and rewarding than a close, healthy relationship with your spouse. I am so glad I married Dave and love the life we are making together. I hope I use this post again as reference when I forget that, and hope you can use it when you need it too. Here's to happily ever after!

Fun on Uncle Steve's Farm

We stopped off at Uncle Steve's house in Shoshone on our way home from Elizabeth's graduation and decided to stay the night Saturday... then stay Sunday... then even stayed Monday! It's so nice having a flexible schedule (thanks for subbing in the Primary for me, Mom!) and the kids really loved having so much time with their cousins and loved exploring the farm.
Caleb is quite the awesome helper and really likes to help Sadie. She loved the swing in the tree and kept grunting for him to put her in or push her. Then she'd decide to go explore a little before grunting to get back in the swing!
She thought it was great she could see the mini goats in the pen, but wasn't quite so sure about it when they came to lick her fingers.Morgan and Isaac are quite the pair. They went on all kinds of adventures together, looking at the cows and roaming free. They thought it was hilarious Uncle Steve keeps goldfish in the cows' watering trough to eat the algae.
Isaac and Morgan looking at the "poopy cows" as Isaac calls them. They were brave, but not that brave! Those cows are big.Steve got some baby goats that were too small to keep outside, so they were in the garage. Isaac thought that was pretty cool. The pink is spray paint to mark them at the auction.
Uncle Steven had a calf and a few miniature goats in his front yard. Laura is quite the animal-lover too and really enjoys feeding the calf; look at that happy face. She showed us the ropes...
...then handed me the bottle! Esther and Sadie obviously weren't very interested in trying that; they both ran away when I offered them a turn!
Aunt Laura made a fun picnic lunch for us on the lawn. It wasn't exactly summer picnic weather, but we sure had fun. The kids thought it was great that she put in all kinds of things we don't usually get for lunch: Sun Chips, cookies, Capri Sun, peeps (an orange and a sandwich in there too, but those weren't exactly eaten first). She even put it in their own lunch bags, so they thought that was pretty cool.

Morgan is turning into quite the outdoors girl and spent lots of time outside to "explore the wild" on her own (yep, that's what she said!). She loves that Uncle Steven's house has a forest, a fire pit, a tire swing, and tons of animals.

What a fun trip to the Brady farm! Thanks, guys!

I made it!

Eeeek! I just made STAR DIRECTOR with Scentsy! It feels like it has been a long time coming, but is really quite amazing, given the amount of time I could put into it, but hold back so I can be a good mommy. I really enjoy Scentsy, but am so glad I get to stay home full time with my little kiddies... they grow so quickly and I know this time is short and precious. What a great life! Only one more promotion to the very top!

Fun With Chopsticks

Ben and Elise sent us fun chopsticks from Japan, so we decided to go to Panda Express to try them out! The kids thought it was pretty awesome... Isaac adopted more of the "stab and eat" method, as you can see.

We decided to go to lunch together because it was Dave's last day before he went to Europe for a few weeks with work. Panda Express was actually where we had our first date, so it's always a fun place for us. Good times. Thanks, Uncle Ben and Aunt Elise!!

Here goes!

Okay, okay, I know I have been slow in jumping on the blogging bandwagon, but I have finally taken the plunge. Perhaps it's the promise of finally achieving my journal-writing goal for our family, or the pending move to Poland and wanting to make sure you all don't forget us... either way, here we are!