The Road Not Taken

I have an interesting job.  I have found myself working with the teachers who I have faced across the table at parent teacher conferences.  When I go to work, the teachers know who I am.  This is not due to anything I have done, It is because I have six kids who have gone through the school system here.  It is interesting to see the other side of things now.  I haven’t ever taught other than substitute teaching.  I only started that five years ago.  I quit it all when I started to have kids.  I made the decision long ago to put my life into my kids, I quit working and stayed home for twenty one years.  I left my career behind and didn’t think much about it again until I started working again.

My life and the lives of those whom I work with are very different.  I don’t have years of teaching under my belt.  I haven’t established a reputation in the community.  I am not well known for my fantastic programs or productions.  I am just a mom who subs.  Spending time with those whom have been teaching for twenty plus years has been very interesting.  Some of them have actually retired and then returned back to the work place.  Their two (they all had two) kids have long grown and moved on.  They are well known and well respected, and that is their life.  There is nothing wrong with that.  I could have done that, I could have been there.  I have learned since working with them, they are just ordinary people who put their time in. I could have done what they are doing.   I chose a different path.  I put my time in elsewhere.  

The lives of these teachers have been very fulfilling, I have respect for them and the time and effort they put in with my kids.  I chose a different path and that is something I have never regretted.  I don’t regret staying home and taking care of my six kids.  I don’t regret having six kids, they are my life, my pride, my joy.  I would have it no other way.  I made my choice long, I made my bed so to speak and never looked back, and that has  made all the difference.  

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

 

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as far that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

 

And both the morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

 

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

two roads diverged in a wood, and I--

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

Robert Frost

They’re Here!!

It all started in the early morning hours of Aug. 29th with a phone call from our daughter Kristine,  “Mom, my water just broke”.  She was due in October, we were having a baby.  A few hours later our first grandchild Brian Knight was born weighing in at just over 5 lbs. but he was healthy and we were thrilled.  He is beautiful, my husband and I were lucky enough to make a mad dash trip down to see him.

We had to leave and head home before he was able to leave the hospital.  Eight days later, on September 8th, we got another phone call in the early morning hours, this time from our second daughter Karlee, “Mom, my water just broke”.  We were having another baby!  Later that morning, we got a phone call from Kristine, “Knight was going home”!  It was turning out to be a fantastic day, my parents were in town visiting and to top it off it was my birthday!  We got the word at noon, William Clayton had arrived weighing 7 lbs 8 oz.  He was born on my birthday, and as a note of interest, I was also born on my grandfathers birthday and I was also the second grandchild. 

What a wonderful last few weeks we have had.  I have had many friends tell me that grandchildren are the best and I have found already that they are right!  I couldn’t be happier.  The boys and my girls are all doing great and John and I have started a new and ‘grand’ period of our lives.  I can’t wait to spoil them.

TREK!

Many of you may have heard of the infamous Mormon trek.  I had the opportunity to go on a trek this past week.  It was all I expected and more.  I began exercising 30 min. a day in January in anticipation of trek.  In case you are preparing you self for a similar opportunity, please be advised that 30 min a day riding an elliptical is not enough preparation.  This turned out to be a very intense experience for me.  I was prepared for the fact that walking 27 miles in three days wearing a long skirt, hat and long sleeved shirt pulling a handcart may not be all that fun.  What I was not prepared for, was the extreme spiritual experience that it would be.  This is like Mormon extreme, like those extreme sports you see on t.v., only spiritual rush instead of adrenaline rush.  Maybe the complete fatigue had something to do with it. 

My fifteen year old son and I went with a group of tough Wyomingites.  No silly rides or camping at the near camp for us.  No way,  we were going all the way, the whole 7 miles to Jackson camp ground.  None of that sissy stuff for us, especially not at what has been referred to as Wyoming’s temple.  The whole shebang  here.  The kids were great, the food was awesome.  Sleeping out under the stars on the hard ground not so much.

I learned several things on ‘trek’,  I am capable, with the help of my Heavenly Father, of walking farther and faster than I ever thought possible, or ever wanted to before, for that matter.

I have great respect, admiration and gratitude for my pioneer ancestors.  I also have great empathy for them.  I am sure walking that far pulling everything they owned with them sucked every bit as much for them as it did for me. 

I know that the only way they made it through was with the help of Heavenly Father.  It took great courage and faith to do what they did, and they didn’t have cars waiting for them at the visitors center.  There was no going back for them, nowhere to turn when disaster struck.  They suffered unimaginable things, yet through it all, their faith remained strong. 

I am very appreciative of the chance I got to go into Martins Cove, to cross the Sweetwater, and feel the great spirit that dwells there, it truly is hollowed ground.  I am also grateful that I will probably never have to do a trek with 250 youth again.  If I ever do visit Martin’s Cove again,  it will just be a quiet visit, not an extreme Mormon Trek!

There and back again, a reunion tale

We had a great reunion, fantastic.   It was my parents 5oth anniversary this year and so we had a celebration in conjunction with our reunion.  It was short but action packed.  I loved seeing all of my great family and spending time with them.  Most of us packed up our goodies and headed home Sunday.  We only made it about 150 miles then disaster struck.  My car, which isn’t really that old, and which has had it’s oil changed every 3,000 miles, decided to spin a bearing.  We were traveling with my daughter and son in law, so we split up and sent the ones who needed to get back to work home with Alex and we useless ones back to Rexburg.  My dad headed out to tow us in and the odyssey began.  Monday morning my dad and brother tore into my car.  One of them was on vacation and the other one actually took off work to help my Dad.  One week later, the job was done, the car started and we headed home.   I will be forever grateful to come from a wonderful family where my parent taught us to work.  Where a head of homeland security, a geologist and a few more actually had the gumption and know how to tear into a modern car with all of their computer systems and be able to get it all put back together again.  I am grateful for a family where there is enough compassion to actually care enough to help one another. Last year my daughter and son-in-laws clutch went out after our reunion in Washington.  My brother who lives there stayed up all night fixing it for them.  This week proved to be not just stressful, but enjoyable also.  I was able to spend time with family that I don’t see very often.  My brother and Dad were able to spend time together also.  I feel that through all of it, this was a great experience.  Mom and Dad have been married for fifty years, and they have created a great legacy.  I just hope to be pass it forward.  I hope my children will look out for each other also.  I guess that is the goal.   

Summertime!

The last day of school has come and gone. I worked so much the last month, I awaited this last day with great anticipation. Remember as a kid, the sense of freedom you felt walking home on the last day, with your ‘your child has successfully completed’ letter. I do, that is what I felt this last day of school. I was so burned out and ‘done’ I couldn’t wait until it was over. I went to my daughters awards assembly on the last day, which was really enjoyable.

One tradition we started at our house is that we build a bonfire one the last day of school and burn all of the homework. We roast hotdogs and have smores. This serves two purposes, it is a cleansing process for us all, and it gets rid of all of the crap they drag home. We sort it out and keep the good stuff and burn the rest. I wish I would have had the chance to go through my school bag and burn some stuff. Summertime is the best, the freedom, the heat, the swimming, the traveling. I am glad it is here. I am ready, I know my kids are ready, and my yard and my car. We have started off with a bang, we went to the pool the day after school got out, and we are heading on our first trip soon. Yeah! for summer.

Family

What is it about family?  My family is preparing for another family reunion in a couple of weeks.  This is going to be a special one because we are celebrating my parents 50th anniversary.  We are all congregating in their town and having a party.  What started out as two fifty years ago has swollen to forty something with great grandchildren on the way.   

I wonder if they had any idea what they were starting.  I know that when my husband and I were married 27 years ago, we didn’t. 

I love my family, I love being with them and spending time with them.  We talk on the phone with each other constantly and look forward to being together.  My hope is that someday my children will enjoy spending time together as much as me and my siblings do. 

I don’t know what it is about family, but it is amazing to me how you can see someone once a year and pick up like you spent every day with them.  I guess growing up together and having some of the same trials and triumphs together create bonds that never break. 

I know  that the sacrifice and traveling that we have done to be with our families has paid off for my children.  Their aunts and uncles have been great examples to them, they have set the bar high and my kids know what the expectations are.  My brothers have spent time with my sons that I know has helped them on their journey to manhood.  My sisters have done the same for my girls.  A great extended family is a wonderful thing.    I have also been lucky enough to have awesome in laws.  Grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins make the best support system.  Thank goodness Heavenly Father gave us families. 

Changes

As some of you may have read in a past blog, we recently purchased new furniture for our family room.  It is fairly nice stuff, leather with recliners in both the love seat and the couch.  It is actually a bit rediculous to go down there and all the recliners are at attention.  This actually doesn’t happen very often, because we forget they are there.  Our family room for years has been kind of a kids den, with crappy couches, gaming systems and T.V.s.  We adults kept our distance, it was neither a necessary or pleasant experience to go down there.  I would only go down there out of dire urgency, like to find shoes, sox and dishes.  Times have changed.  We now have ‘normal’ couches down there, with only the wobbly entertainment center to remind us of yesterday.  This is all very stressful for me.  I can’t get my head around it. 

You may think this is strange, but for me it is not.  I am a creature of habit.  I have to put my car keys exactly in the same place or I will never find them again.  I don’t think about them.  I haven’t thought about the family room for a long long time.  I forget it is down there.  I was sitting at school during a particularly difficult day of subbing first grade, (I do not recommend this), and I thought, wow it would be nice to go home and sit on my new couch.  I have had to invent things to do down there.  I have to imagine myself sitting down there reading a book, and then thinking, yes, that would work.  I start to stress about the whole thing.  “What am I going to do with that room now that is not a pit?” and things like that.  Don’t despair for me though, I think I am getting the hang of it.  I find that when iI do get stressed, all I have to do is go downstairs and sit on the couch, swing out the recliner, and get comfortable.  I am finding that sitting down there in that soft leather comfort can be enough.  At times I go down there and do nothing at all.  i could really get used to this.