home renovation

While I was visiting my parents in Utah, my dad shared a funny story with his ward about when he and my mom were first married.

When my mom met my dad she was an eighteen year old baby (I'm sure she was a mature eighteen year old baby, but she was a baby nonetheless).  After he swept her off her feet at Ricks College, he carried her to none other than the booming metropolis of Moses Lake, Washington (which was even less booming in those days, I'm sure, than it is now).  They lived on the farm land of Gene and Opal Merkley, and as a service to the couple, in return for getting to live on their land for free, my dad helped care for Gene's cattle that lived in a pasture next to my parents' house.  This farm was about a zillion miles from town, a reality magnified by the fact that my parents only had one car (a two-door Chevy Chevette with no air conditioning), which my dad drove to work every morning, leaving my mom car-less, surrounded by sage brush and dust, and I'm sure wondering what in the blue blazes she had gotten herself into (that's what I would have been thinking, anyway), while she tried to adjust to life on a farm, something she knew nothing about at the time. 

Anyway, back to my dad's story.  So apparently, one day in this early stage of their married life, my dad had a particularly rough day at work.  My mom must have spoken to him on the phone, because she knew this, so she decided to "surprise" my dad by feeding the cattle for him before he came home.  She had watched him do this before, many times, so she got up the gumption to just do it herself.

As my dad pulled up the driveway, he saw my mom attempting to feed the cattle from the tractor, dust flying everywhere, and a very upset bunch of cattle that he hoped weren't about to stampede.

My dad, completely perplexed, asked my mom, "Dear, what, exactly are you doing?" (I can totally hear him saying this, too.  I can picture his exact tone of voice.)

My mom's response was that she was, "Trying to feed these cattle!  And I noticed these bales were lighter, so I loaded them onto the tractor, because they were easier for me to lift, but now they won't eat it." (I can totally hear my mom saying this, too, because she probably sounded a lot like me when I am about to have a nervous breakdown about something.)

My dad (probably trying not to chuckle, I'm sure) informed my mom that, "Honey, they don't eat straw, they eat hay."  It was a silly mistake to make if you know anything about farm animals and what they eat, but my mom knew nothing about farm animals and what they eat, because she wasn't a farm girl.  So my dad said, "I'll tell you what, let's fix it and go feed them together."

The whole moral of the story, and the point my dad was trying to make when he shared this story, is that you should always remember the bale of straw.  Your spouse may do things that you don't understand at times, but you have to be patient with each other.  You can never rewind life.  Don't say things to the person you love most that you will one day regret, because you will likely one day wish you could go back and change your words and actions.


Today, Chad and I have been married for six years.

That rounds up to ten.

That is more than half of a decade.


My parents will celebrate their 31st wedding anniversary on August 7th.

That rounds down to thirty.

But that is more than a quarter of a century.     


I am so unbelievably thankful for my parents and the example they have set for me of a loving, committed marriage.


I am so thankful for Chad and the amazing husband he is to me, and the wonderful father he is to Kaden.  Without Chad I am like half of myself.  I seriously don't know how I was ever a person before we were married.  I know that sounds strange, but I just feel like he is the perfect complement to my personality.  He is laid back when I am up tight.  He is calm when I am frazzled.  I wouldn't want to share life with anyone else, not to mention the huge responsibility of parenthood!

I am so thankful for Chad's parents and the wonderful example they were to Chad growing up, because I know that is part of the reason I have such an amazing person to call mine.


A lot has changed for us in the last six years, but a lot has stayed the same.


Metaphorically speaking, I've pulled a lot of "bale of straw" moments over the last six years.


Thanks for still loving me, Chad, even though I still squeeze the toothpaste tube from the middle after six years of you asking me not to.  And thanks for putting the toilet seat down (most of the time) even though I haven't changed my toothpaste habits.  I'm working on it.

A Mom Who Forgot How Sweet it is to Watch Her Son Sleep in Her Arms 

Right now Kaden and I are in Utah spending some time with my family.  I am already eons behind in blogging, so I thought I would just jump ahead to the present, in hopes that I won't become too overwhelmed and never attempt to catch up later.  Hopefully I'll have a chance later to write about our spectacular adventure at the Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh with my friend Katy and her family, and the great fun we had with my Aunt MalaRee and her kids when they stayed with us just before we left.  In the meantime, on to Utah fun. 

So far Kaden has . . . 

Meet and teach the author of this article how to write. 

I know it's Kinston.

I know our paper shouldn't be held to the same standards as The New York Times.

But it pained me to read this.

I am still gritting my teeth.

Aside from the fact that it's just crappy writing in general, I am appalled by the errors I would expect from my former sophomore writing students. 

I know my blog is not a shining example of grammatical perfection.  I make errors.  I probably make multiple ones.  Some of you probably leave a reading of my blog gritting your own teeth.

But I don't write for the newspaper, dang it, and there should be standards.  Has the press no pride?

Reall, Mr. Hill?  Really?

As an aside, Corbin was a former student of mine, and I am thrilled to hear he's beating his battle with cancer. 

I had a great morning.  I took Kaden to his first ever story time at the public library.  In reality, he is still too young to really love it, but it was a great way to get out of the house and do something kid-oriented for free.  He did dance along while all the kids sang the welcome songs and paid close attention to the enthralling reading of Who Sunk the Boat.  When craft time started we opted to audit the class, since Kaden was more interested in eating the paper plate that was supposed to become a jelly fish than actually making a jelly fish.  We got to stop at the fish tank on the way out and wave to all of our fishy friends, so all in all it was a pretty successful trip.

Then, when I got to my car I saw I had a missed call and a text message.  I instantly fell apart when I received the news that Eric Edge, a young man who is a member of our church, passed away unexpectedly.  He was 22.  Eric's sister is one of my good friends, and I have always liked Eric.  When we first lived in Kinston during Chad's summer internship and I didn't know very many people, Eric was always so nice to me.  He played softball with Chad that summer, and I believe he was getting ready to serve his mission at that time.  Eric is the kind of person who always had a big smile on his face.  He was so genuine and friendly.  My heart ached for his family upon receiving this terrible news.     

While Kaden napped, I planted the flowers we bought the night before and contemplated how fragile life really is.  How everything can change in an instant, and we have to be so careful to appreciate every moment we have with the ones we love. 

I received another text message while I was working in the yard.  This one to inform me that my nephew, Tanner James, had arrived safely, and that my sister, Meredith, was doing well.  It was so tender to think that while one beautiful life had drifted out of this world, another had drifted in to it. 

Other hard news, one piece about the health of a woman I care about very deeply, and another piece very personal, was received during the day.

I cried a lot on Tuesday.

Even though I cried, my heart was full of gratitude.  I am so thankful for the gospel of Jesus Christ.  I am thankful that I know this life is not the end.  I know families are forever, that the relationships we share here on Earth do not end with the grave.  I am thankful for the reality of a loving Heavenly Father who hears and answers our prayers, who loves us unconditionally and wants what is best for us.  I am thankful for my Savior, Jesus Christ, who through his sacrifice made it possible for us to return to our Heavenly Father some day.    The last couple of days have been hard, and a little bit scary, but I have felt so much peace and comfort when I need it most.  I know that when Heavenly Father closes a window, he opens a door.      

And then take me to an Indian Restaurant.

And then take me to the beach.

OK, Kaden.  Sounds like a plan.

On May 31st, Bruce and Joy invited us to go to the Kinston Indians' baseball game with them.  We had BBQ, hush puppies, fried chicken, and ice cream sandwiches before the game thanks to Edward Jones Investment Group.

Doesn't Kaden look thrilled to be there?

It was miserably hot outside, but once the sun started to go down it wasn't as bad.  There are a lot of reasons I love living in the south.  The summer heat isn't one of them.  Usually, we don't start in on the massive heat waves until July and August, but this year we started temperatures in the high 90s at the end of May.  Nice.  Thus, I chopped all of my hair off in a heat-induced fit of passion the next day.

We also celebrated Chad's birthday with his family early this year.  His birthday isn't until the 12th of June, but Chad's mom is flying to Denver to help his sister, Meredith, who is expecting her second baby.  We went to Dale's, a very yummy Indian restaurant in G-Vegas.  Kaden tried his first coconut korma, tandoori chicken, tikka masala, and basmati rice, and gladly accepted repeat bites of every dish offered to him.  After dinner, we drove back home and had slices of Joy's deliciously perfect homemade carrot cake.  So good.  Don't think Kaden didn't enjoy a lick or two of cream cheese icing along with the rest of us.


We took Kaden to the beach for a few hours on Saturday.  Chad had a golf tournament in the morning, and I worked on the yard while Kaden napped.  When Chad came home, and Kaden awoke from his snooze, we jumped in the car and headed for Atlantic Beach.  Lauren's mom is always so nice to let us use her beach cottage while we are there.  Kaden enjoyed his first "real" trip to the beach.  This time he could actually play in the water.

Do not let my glowing appearance frighten you.  Every tan has to start somewhere, mine just starts off much whiter than most people's.  Let us remember also, for a moment, that my poor skin saw little to no sunlight last summer, as I was hibernating in air-conditioned buildings due to a condition called pregnancy.  (I bet you feel guilty about judging my pasty complexion now, don't you?  Nothing like playing the pregnancy card to get yourself some pity.) 




Kaden started off the trip with a befuddled look of concern on his face, as he often does when we go to a new place.  He is a very observant child, and he just sort of quietly takes in new surroundings.  He warmed up a bit towards the end though, and I think he had a lot of fun.  He tried to ingest two seashells, but luckily Uncle Tyler and Aunt Lauren caught this before he choked to death.  He wasn't too interested in eating the sand.  Mostly he just held out his fingers and looked at me with an expression that seemed to be asking, "Why aren't you wiping this mess off of me?"  We didn't get to the beach until his afternoon nap time, so he did surprisingly well staying content with a missed nap--I guess that is the beauty of distraction.   

He passed out almost immediately on the car ride home, and slept for about an hour before he realized he was hungry and still had sand in his hair.  Then he wasn't too happy. 

I love the ocean so much, and I can't wait to go back for another, hopefully longer, visit!