Sunday, May 29, 2011

Memories, Dreams and some Happy Moments!



"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. 
Live the life you’ve imagined."
Henry David Thoreau 

Lots of thoughts running through my head and I haven't had a moment to "pen" them until now.  

Saturday April 30, 2011
I came home to the SWEETEST sight on Saturday afternoon. I had to work from 8-12 and after work I was going to help my niece who is struggling badly with morning sickness.  
My sweet sons Jade and Ethan 
 completely cleaned the house. Everything shined from the kitchen stove, to the dining room table. Nothing was out of place, each room was neat and tidy and I even opened up a kitchen drawer to find a lid for a bowl and all of the drawers were neatly organized as well. 
 I felt SO spoiled and most of all loved!!

Since it had been a long week, we decided to take the kids over to Jackson Hole, Wyoming to swim at the Recreation Center there, browse the shops and end our day eating fajitas at the Merry Piglets Cafe.
for last years adventure click (here)

 It was SO funny on our drive as Ethan commented,
"are we going to see the Double Rainbow sign?"
Last year when we were heading on our yearly backpacking trip, we were listening to the "Double Rainbow" song in the car and just as we were listening to it, we came across a street which was named "Double Rainbow" as well.  
It was such  a funny moment of synchronicity.
Even more funny was when we got home from our hike, Tracy and I were watering our garden and there was a "Double Rainbow" in the sky we got to enjoy as well.

 Tracy and I LOVE to go on drives
and talk about all aspects of life and we very much were looking forward to our 90 minutes of driving to Jackson.   

 Tracy and I could read books and websites every day about 
simple living and NEVER tire of it.  
It truly has become our passion.

We love to dream about being debt free and living in some kind of a cute, cozy house that is "Lagom". We love thinking about being able to truly LIVE life and pursue our dreams and do the things that make us happy all of the time...not just a weekend here or there.
 Someday all of our hard work will pay off and we can truly be heading to the mountains to climb, backpack and experience all that the mountains have to offer each and every week of our life! (here)

I love the following quote: 
"So our lives get frittered away by a social engagement here, a luncheon there, an evening of television here, or the habit of working evenings or weekends or both on projects that we don't have all that much interest in.  And the things we really want to do, in our heart of hearts, get put on the back burner".

SO happy to be on the downhill slope of just having a few more years left until we are completely debt free and then we will truly be able to LIVE the life we have imagined!

Until then, we will  LIVE, savor and enjoy each precious moment we have...
creating happy, memorable moments each day and week, because it truly is all of the "little moments", especially those with children that make life SO big!


Here are some HAPPY moments 
from our month of May 2011
ARTICHOKES!
We had a happy moment, when our neighbors dropped off a bag of three artichokes for us as their family doesn't like them.  How anyone could not like artichokes, I don't understand.
Artichokes are truly one of our family's favorite food!



Jade turns 17!
May 12, 2011 
Jade Marshall turned 17!
Lucky cologne, Mountain Smith duffle bag, 
treats, and a dinner 
of homemade egg rolls, fried rice and 
Oatmeal Fudge Bars were the highlights of the day!

Rain, Rain, Rain,
were what the majority of our days were filled with.
I was amazed at how much rain we had (flooding levels are high everywhere).
These gorgeous tulips blooming in my yard, were just beautiful and  brightened my every day as I drove up to our house.  It's amazing how such a simple thing like flowers, can instantly change a gloomy day into a HAPPY one!


COMMENCEMENT Dance 
2011
Jade and Karissa
decided to go to one more dance of the year together.  We found out about this 4 days before the dance, so we were scurrying around trying to find Jade something to wear.
He looked SO handsome in his black/grey vest, silver tie and freshly cut hair.
They had such a FUN time together!
These moments are priceless, especially considering the challenges that they both deal with each day of their lives. 

Happy moment of being able to find vacuum bags for my 21 year old vacuum cleaner. Tracy was able to order these off Amazon.com and surprise me!  
SO happy to have freshly vacuumed carpets and rugs.  
Vacuuming makes me HAPPY and happiness is being able to keep using my trusty, well-used vacuum cleaner!  
(it has had every repair possible and is so ugly, but I LOVE it!)


END OF SCHOOL year 2011 
Jade and Mrs. Packard...
 this amazing woman has helped Jade soar to wonderful heights this year. 
Her patience and love for him, has been amazing! 
What a blessing it is to have such wonderful people in my children's lives!

Jade has been blessed with SO many amazing friends! His friend Moriah graduated and is going to be going to Fashion/Art school in California.  This note she wrote Jade made me cry.

I love this woman! 
Ethan had Mrs. Robison for two years in a row at school!  

I'm SO sad for Ethan to move on...
I can honestly say she is the best teacher any of my sons has ever had!  
She has developed a sense of reading in her students that Ethan will actually squat on a chair and read for hours and some days we can't pull him away from his books to eat dinner.
Ethan has a great friend named ALEX that he is greatly going to miss over the summer!  
These two kids have SO much fun playing and interacting together! 

Summertime is bitter-sweet...
bitter as the kids don't get to see and play with their friends...
sweet as I get ALL afternoon to spend with my kids, playing, reading, working, laughing and creating memories!

Grateful for all of the LITTLE things 
in life that truly make life SO big...
Grateful for DREAMS to give direction to our lives
to guide us to be able to accomplish the things that we want most to do!

And I think to myself...
what a wonderful life I have!

3 comments:

Welcome to the Garden of Egan said...

It certainly looks like your life is so full and beautiful right now.

Jade is such a handsome young man.
It's not possible that you have a child that age. You hardly are older than that are you???

Can't believe school is out already.

Good for you for creating such memories for your kids.

I love that Ethan is a reader.

Hopefully you'll be able to catch a deep breath soon.

Hugs my friend!

CB said...

I have had such a busy few weeks I am WAYYyyyy behind on blog reading but I am glad to know others are just as busy.

Your May looks full and happy!

I really enjoyed all the pictures of Jade. He is such a handsome guy with a great smile! You can just tell from looking at him that he is happy!
17 already - it goes by way too fast doesn't it.
The dance pictures are soooo cute -they make a good looking couple :-D

I didn't know Jackson Hole was just 90 minutes from you. When we have gone there we have never gone over that pass (I always have heard it is horrible) but it sure sounds much shorter.

Hope this week is happy and maybe a little sunnier for you!! Have a good one my friend.

Connie said...

You're right about the end of school being bitter sweet. Isn't it wonderful to have such good teachers to help our children along their way? Love all the pictures of your busy, busy life.