point of view

Some of you may have thought J.M. graduated in 2005 when we left BYU and moved to California. That is not the case. J.M. left BYU with 3 online classes to finish before he could graduate. He procrastinated them for almost 4 more years. It took me promising him he could buy a wakeboard tower for our boat to get him to finally finish. Even with the tower in sight, it still took him another year to pull it all together. Though it was a lot of nagging, it paid off. J.M. finally did it! And I am proud of him. So I threw him a surprise graduation party and invited all of his friends and even his family. The biggest surprise was that his family decided to fly in last minute for the big surprise. The photos will show the amazement on his face. Priceless! Oh and J.M. did get his tower, just one week later.

Surprise #1: The party screams “Surprise! It’s about time J.M.!” Here is his face:

Friends yelling surprise!

Surprise #2: J.M. spots his dad, and his face is priceless. He has no idea why his dad would be at the party.

We had to dress him up in cap and gown. It made it official.

I am looking a bit thrashed considering I had my kidney stone episode just days before. I can’t believe I pulled it off! Thanks to the McKissick’s for being my sneaky partners in crime and keeping J.M. out of the house for 4 hours, and to everyone who contributed and came. It was a lot of fun and I know J.M. felt the love. Thanks friends and family!

Here is his coveted reward. Funny, I don’t remember anyone giving me a reward for graduating. Hmmm…..J.M. it is my birthday soon…..

Since becoming quite large during pregnancy, I have been known to wear J.M.’s sweats around the house. I did not know it would result in him wearing my clothes too. He did comment that my p.j.s were quite comfortable. Pretty funny.

This has been my life for about 2 months. Since February, Carter has had the stomach flu 3 times, and I have had it twice. Days after the last spat of the stomach flu, Carter woke up looking like a cherry tomato. Pictures will follow. I thought he had the measles or something and rushed him to the doctor. Luckily it was just hives. I guess he is extremely allergic to something. We have yet to find out what that is.

Last week I thought I was in pre-term labor, but to my relief and yet extreme discomfort I found out that I was passing a kidney stone. Having never passed a kidney stone before, I thought my extreme back pain and abdominal pain was due to labor. To say the least, mini-labor before the real labor is not my cup of tea.

I have also had 2 colds, resulting in an achy body and head-aches, and now this weekend Carter woke up with a temperature of 104.3! I was extremely worried as I watched my busy body son sit motionless and in a daze all day. So I rushed him to the hospital AGAIN to find out it is probably the flu. I think I have totaled between Carter and I (NOT COUNTING PRE-NATAL VISITS) 5 visits to the doctor in one month. With my pre-natal visits and ultra-sounds, that would be 7 times! Crazy! I am so SICK of being SICK!

This is 2 hours after we gave him benedryl. He looked a lot worse before this. J.M. didn’t want to take him out to eat even though he felt fine, for fear people would think he was contagious.

Still in good spirits despite his appearance!

BOY! Yes we found out that the next cutie will be a boy. I am enthusiastic about being a mother of two boys! However J.M. keeps telling me these horror stories about how he and his brother used to fight all the time. How they wrestled and beat each other up, but that it was ok cause now they really like each other. Well great, so they’ll like each other after they moved out of the house? I just hope that these 2 little boys will love each other and stick by each other always. That they will help each other stand up for what’s right. I hope Carter will be a good example and go on a mission and his brother will follow in his footsteps. I am hopeful for them to be powerful influences for good and that everyone will want to be around them because of that. I hope that the girls will flock to them, not because they are handsome, but because they are gentlemen who treat women with respect and value. Two boys is going to be amazing. I am ready for the challenge. I guess the question will be, can I keep up with them? Can I raise good, strong, and loving boys? I hope so, because I have been really feeling the responsibility as a mother to raise them up to be great missionaries and husbands to their wives. I always knew I’d have boys, so this was a real confirmation. It’s funny how you just know some things. Hurray for little boys!

With a little prodding and a lot of hinting, J.M. figured it out. Although I told him he was off the hook, he stepped up to the plate and took me out on the town for our 5th anniversary. Our first stop was dinner at The Cliffhouse in San Francisco. It was exactly what I wanted—a romantic restaurant with a view. Nice! But my favorite destination was our second one—a chocolate cafe on the trendy Fillmore Street in San Fran. We sipped perfectly brewed hot chocolate while devouring decadent brownie truffles. Mmmm….. Why does chocolate speak to a woman’s heart? I don’t know, but it worked for me. After our date we exchanged letters. When was the last time you wrote your hubby a love letter? Well it was a nice touch to end the evening. Who would have known that J.M. really was good at writing from the heart. Thanks J.M., this anniversary date topped the charts. I will be excited for what you come up with next year….hint hint.

MyHeritage: Family tree - Genealogy - Celebrity - Collage - Morph

Who will the next one look like? A J.M. look-a-like, or like me? We’ll see….

In Provo years, I got married fairly old. Having gone to BYU for four and a half years without finding “the one” put me into a category of “been there, done that.” By the time I met J.M. I had FULLY experienced the BYU single life. Several times before, I had been swept off my feet with gifts, flowers, and romantic dates. However, many of those relationships ended poorly. I realized that after the sugar coating of romance was over, I was left with someone that was not compatible.

J.M. was different. There were never roses at my doorstep, or frivolous gifts and definitely never any pricey romantic dates. But I fell for him. Why? J.M. was about being there for me, and loving me. Not constantly sending me flowers or taking me on expensive dates. So I guess you could say that I fell in love with him because he was REAL.

However, now I am in a REAL bind because I am waiting for those flowers to show up and a nice romantic date to come my way. I guess I am still, after all of these years, chasing that romantic fantasy. And well, J.M. just doesn’t have a clue. How can I ask for romance now when I knew this wasn’t his thing?

The first time I asked for a romantic date was just after we were married. Excited about my surprise date, I made sure I dressed up really nice and was looking my best, certain I would soon be dining in a quaint and beautiful restaurant with a view. Well the fantasy quickly was shattered as I noticed J.M. loading sleeping bags and a tent into our truck. Yeah, J.M. thought it would be romantic to go camping in the middle of October. FREEZING….to say the least. Let’s just say, I wasn’t overly thrilled. But I can say my poor husband was at least trying to think of me. He knew I loved to camp and thought I would be thrilled with the idea. I probably would have if he hadn’t called it a romantic date.

So here we are approaching our fifth anniversary and I am again asking for my husband to sweep me off my feet. Unsure again what I want, he keeps asking me the question…”what is romantic?” I fear I am not seeing the whole picture. What is romance?

Upon the recent death of President Hinckley, I came across a quote that he said that put me into my place. He states,

“In my judgment, the real essence of happiness in marriage lies not so much in romance as in an anxious concern for the comfort and well-being of one’s companion.”
-President Gordon B. Hinckley

I realized that I should be totally satisfied with the abundance of loving things J.M. does for me. J.M. is always going out of his way to make my life easier. He truly does have an “anxious concern for the comfort and well-being” of me. And I guess that is REAL romance.

So maybe for now he is off the hook. However, I have no problem throwing out hints that I love tulips and quaint restaurants with a view….wink…wink.

Is anyone else cold? This week I am getting glimpses to my life lived in Utah. From my house it is a 2 mile walk to Mount Diablo, and currently it is SNOWING there. It is very rare that it snows on Mount Diablo, but they say it might continue snowing for 10 days. That may give you an idea as to how cold it must be here in so called “Sunny California.” Though where I live (a few miles away) we are not receiving any snow, we might as well be! I am freezing! I have been wearing a large sweatshirt and double socks around the house all day today and I still feel cold. I can only imagine what my friends in Utah or my brother in Idaho are thinking. I am sure they are mocking me right now.

Snowy Mount Diablo

Today we told Carter to go and get his church shoes so we could leave for church. Instead, he came out wearing my high-heals. We were astonished that he could actually walk in them too. Pretty funny.