One Fine Morning...

This Friday our little girl turns one year old! To show my enthusiasm I will now add some more exclamation marks: !!!!! I'll be dedicating my blog this week to the honor of the blessed birth and wonderful life of Lillian Grace. Get excited.

I woke up this morning giggling. I turned to Trent whose face was about 2 inches away and whose eyes had just blinked open. "Hi," I said groggily. "Hi," he said back. I started giggling. I was giggling because I had just woken up from the funniest dream. I dreamed that I was walking through the streets of downtown Provo in my wedding dress. The sweet strains of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir filled the air. I listened carefully to hear what they were singing. It was an original tune (original to my dream, that is), that went something like, "Proooovooooo, I looooove you. Provo, I loooooove you. I looove Proooovoooooo." There was full blown harmony and the singing of the song in parts. It was touching, tender, lovely, moving, everything a hit song should be.  Then, in my dream,  I walked into Albertson's in my wedding dress. And all of my former students were there. And then I remembered that I had married some other guy from high school, not T...

I had a long conversation with one of my dearest friends last week. A conversation during which she asked hard questions and we both tried to come up with answers. Questions like: Why is this particular trial happening to me right now? How do I endure this, and how do I endure it well? Does the difficulty I'm experiencing mean I did something wrong? Questions for the ages. Questions good people have tried for centuries to answer (some of my favorites include this , and this , and recently this inspired me, too). Questions, quite simply, that I can't figure out unless I view them through the lense of my faith. My faith tells me that there is, above all things, a grand design to my life. A plan. A purpose. Part of that purpose is to learn, to grow, to experience the bitter not only that I might more fully understand the sweet but also, quite simply, that I might experience life. My faith also teaches me that there is One who is perfectly empathetic. One who, having overcome ...

Our backyard has been the site for more drama this summer than anything you could see on the Discovery Channel or National Geographic. I've watched it all take place from the viewpoint of my sunroom...you know, the place with the grand mauve blinds? (I'm now proceeding on the dim theory that if I mention the mauve blinds enough, Trent may take pity some day and just throw me 500 bucks. It could happen, people. It could). It began with Anne, our backyard neighbor. Our backyards are connected by Anne's lilac bushes and her forsythia. I'm still not convinced Anne really lives in her house, since there are never any lights on at night. It's possible, however, that she goes to bed at 6:30 and doesn't believe in electricity. Anyway, for a long time, we didn't think Anne liked us, because we'd shout out "hello" to her and she'd never respond. Turns out, she's just hard of hearing, because Trent finally caught her attention last spring and she...

This is what our flight home felt like: Delayed. Long. Delayed. Long. And Lillian? The polite term, I believe, is "curious" or "busy" It's nice to be home But I miss Utah already.

...I greet you. We woke early this morning, still on Eastern time. Early enough to explore Grandma's house with Lillian (so many cool toys), and early enough for Trent to finish the paper work on our friends' adoption of beautiful baby Olivia (the reason that we are here). We awoke to find that a perfect summer day had dawned in the valley, in the comforting shadow of the Provo Temple and Mount Timpanogos. There was only one thing for us to do: And so we ran. We ran past the temple and down Timpview drive to the tennis courts of the high school. I paused and stared, sweat trickling down my face and my heart warmed with a million and one memories. If I could have hugged that school, I would have. Trent is recovering from a hurt knee, so he finally runs as slow as me. Our breath and our pace matched one another as we made our way home. Provo. Home of Magleby's and Day's Thriftway; Home of Steffani and Wendy and Paul and Scott & Amy and Michael and more; Where delight...

Today I... ...picked some hydrangeas from my flower garden. They now fill my house with their happiness. ...picked up our lap top from our friend who fixed it. It's no longer infected with a virus. Thank you, Jeff. ...saved about a million dollars clipping coupons and shopping sales. Well, maybe not a million, but pretty darn close. Who knew couponing could be so thrilling? Do you think I jest? Believe you me, I jest not. ...rocked my sweet darling baby to sleep...at 1:00 a.m., at 5:00 a.m. at 10:00 a.m., and again at 4:00 p.m. I'll do it again at 8 tonight. I reckon I've rocked a lot of miles in that rocking chair of ours. ....did some other stuff, like laundry and cleaning and blogging and thinking and praying and driving and reading and writing sassy emails to my husband and stuff. ...and in the middle of it all I couldn't help but think... What a beautiful, blessed, happy life I lead.