April's Asparagus

Oy Vey...what a month. I don't know why, but in the past it seems like the month of April loves to send me stressful days. This year was no exception. Ugg. I earned the 'World's Worst Mother' award when Tilly slipped off our bed. Between 911 paramedics and a next-day pediatrician check, she, thankfully, was fine, but I felt so completely wretched. Uhhh. And
Rick and I had some freakish virus that started out with a sore throat, then knocked us on our pa-toodys like we had the flu and finished us off with syptoms of a head cold. The kids, gratefully, seemed to fair fine, however at the end of the month, Tilly had her 9 month check up and it revealed she had an ear infection (which explained the few days prior of fussiness). I also received word that a friend of ours from our ward in Taylorsville, Erin, had passed away. She was diagnosed with cancer while she was about two months pregnant. She passed away ten days after giving birth. I just cried. How do you say goodbye to your husband, two boys and a daughter you won't get to raise in this life all at the ripe old age of 30? I just cried. Heart-breaking. And hello, tax filing time. Blech. I always procrastinate getting all our paperwork together because I hate doing it. Well, I didn't get some documents in time and so we figured we would just re-file with an ammended return. Our accountant also made a mistake so this all needs to be redone (essentially tax season really isn't over for us) Dumb. I have been working on starting my own business and havn't said anything to you because its taken me a long time to get much accomplished...some due to draggin' my feet and some due to raisin' a family. But I received some final production patterns and they were not all what I was hoping for and also sizing has become a major issue. Crap. So, if you want to be a 'foot volunteer' (women only, sorry, dudes :) I could sure use your help as I try and figure out the best possible solution about sizing. And finally, we wind down this ever so lovely month with some neighbors who have a few 'ruffled feathers' over Cali's ''screaming" (literally) behavior when their second son comes near. (He wasn't nice afore time and she is having a hard time letting it go.)
I need a vacation, I need a message, I need some chocolate.

If I look closely, however, there are a few 'vegetables' among all of the weeds. Like Tilly's first tooth...and using it to try out her first cracker. The way she 'dances', swaying back and forth when she hears music. Her little babbling sounds, "OoooRaaah!". Her milestones of rolling over and getting up on ther knees. (she wants to crawl!) Just her scent and her smile. And thanks to Uncle Nate and Aunt Steph tuning us into Signing Time she has learned to sign the word 'milk'. It so amazing to watch her grow.


Cali loves Signing Time, too. She has picked up so many words. I would love for her to continue learning this as she would be considered bi-lingual. She also loves watching Curious George, Caillou and ol' faithful, Sesame Street. She welcomed a beautiful new baby boy cousin (and for us another beautiful nephew!), Benjamin Richard, April 27. She gets along so well, with her cousin, Abbi, (big sis to Benjamin) and so now there will be one more Younger to play with and have fun. It's been kind of a rough month for her, too, with the neighbor kid and at her last session of therapy. She was working on a particular excercise with the doctor and then with the assistant when she just looked over at me, then back at them and then ran over to me completely overwhelmed. I could feel it happening to her. I about lost it with tears for her as I enveloped her in my arms. She's four and it all get too much for her a times. I hope she doesn't have to worry with this much longer.


I could say the same for Rick...he would love to not worry about going to Dex ever again! LOL. He has been doing freelance work for the church, again, this month. He may be up for an official interview for employment there, so he is getting his portfolio ready. But for now we are thankful for the job he does have and how he takes care of us and how we always have food on the table...eating at home or sometimes out!

Eating at a fun restaurant is always a treat for me. Somehow the food taste so much better than if I were to try and duplicate it at home. I had a 'fancy' dinner date back in my single days with....uh....um.....okay, so I don't remember whom the guy was, but I had filet mignon with a side of asparagus. ;) Now, normally, I don't think that I would been open to trying and/or eating aspargus if my mom would have served it up on our family dinner table, but here I was having this really nice dinner and I guess I wanted to 'drink in' (as Anne of Green Gables would say) the full experience of this date, this restaurant and this food-so I ate the asparagus. I think I liked it. Maybe I pretended to like it. Or maybe I liked it because I was there having a great experience.

Isn't that what life is? A series of experiences? Some good, some bad, some down right gut wrenching. Saying goodbye to loved ones, yet saying hello to a miracle birth. But here we are choosing what to do with all these things. It's been quite a month. And no, I wouldn't have chosen some of them just for the experience of it all, but the Lord commanded us to be thankful in all things. And so I (and my family) move on to the month of May hoping that we will be thankful for what ever asparagus is served on our plates of life.