This year there has been a year of breaking records for snow fall. We saw over 44 inches of snow at one point in our yard. Here are some pictures to help you to see the snow from our perspective. 

There are days when I wonder what the challenges in my life are supposed to mean. Several years ago, before I started blogging and after we had moved to this area, my life was suddenly intertwined with the wildlife in our area, with our first encounter of wildlife invading our space: we came home from YW/YM/Cub Scouts to find a live skunk in our garage. After that, we have had encounters with foxes, coyotes, wild turkeys, squirrels, chipmunks, deer, rabbits, more skunks, fisher cats, moles, frogs and grass snakes. Today topped the list of freaky stuff! I climbed out of my car. Retrieved my dog to let him go outside and do his business, took two steps and was stopped cold by the critter you see above. Where is Howard when I need him? I took it upon myself to throw the recycle bin on top of the snake and then I totally freaked out. I called Howard, who laughed...which actually started me laughing. Who else would this happen to? No one on this street has had the run-ins with the original wildlife neighbors like I have. Now we are waiting from Wildlife Rescue to find out what to do with the snake....Oh, my life....

This picture proves that Winter is not far away.

Getting up at 5:30 to clear the driveway for the Seminary Students is a real test of how much I love the Seminary program. On Sunday night I could hear the sleet starting to fall. I asked Howard if he could hear the sleet outside. He told me that I was imagining things. I went to investigate and told him that it was sleeting. I then did a little groan, because our driveway is a killer to get up and down when it is icy. I told Howard that if he loved me as much as my father did, he would have the driveway cleared off before I was even out of the bed...he wasn't moved by the challenge...I cleaned the driveway.

I love the Autumn time of year. I do like snow, but I think the love of snow starts to wan with the advancing of the years, or the size of the driveway and the amount of snow that has fallen.

I am thankful for the seasons that the Lord has created for us. Each one of them is so varied...some of us get to experience them all, while others just get to hear about us talk about them. Braden won't experience snow for two years, and he says he misses it. Maybe that love will start to melt as soon as he comes home from his mission and has to shovel the snow again.

A darling, young, intelligent and beautiful friend, along with her charming, intelligent husband were just approved to be adoptive parents. You can see more about them here: https://itsaboutlove.org/ial/profiles/24950903/ourMessage.jsf. If any of you know anyone looking to put their baby up for adoption, Holly and Sam would be fantastic parents.

Can my life get any more C r A z Y?  
Maybe I should make it a statement: 
My life is C r A z Y.


I love to read other people's blogs. I love to peek at their facebook statuses. I made the comment on my facebook that other people seem to live such fascinating (and, I failed to mention, fulfilling) lives. My brother-in-law was sure that I was mistaken. That my friends led just as boring or maybe even more boring lives than mine. (Not sure how I was supposed to take that comment.) I reminded him that just because his friends weren't fascinating, didn't mean mine weren't. I truly feel like I have always been blessed with amazing people in my life. Anyway, after I pondered if I had a fascinating life, my life has once again proven to be at little interesting, if not just classical C r A z Y. Not sure if it fits the description of "fascinating" though.


Act 1: On Monday evening, Ben had to leave for play practice (he is the head tech guy). As he was walking out the door, something flew toward him and hit him in the chest. He shouted and then called, "MOM!!!" I went running to the door. He explained what had happened. He said, "I swear it was a bat or a bird. I was something bigger than a bug! After it hit me, it flew in the house! I know there is something in here!" We looked all around and couldn't discover anything, so after a small discussion, we decided it might have flown out after hitting him.


Act 2: Wednesday night. Mikaela has violin lessons in Wrentham. Ben was home, not feeling well and had fallen asleep. I had called Howard and told him his dinner was in the refrigerator, he needed to warm it up in order to eat it. He had stayed late at work, but arrived home just minutes before we did. The lights in the main level of the house were off, so when Howard walked in the front door, he turned the lights on. Just as he did so, he says something swooped over his head and seemed to fly up the stairs. He glanced up the stairs, didn't see anything, so proceeded to warm his dinner and sat down to eat.


Act 3: Mikaela and I return home from violin lessons. She proceeds to the living room to put down her school bag, violin, music binder and teenage girl paraphernalia. As she sits on the couch, a bird flies off of the couch over the top of her head and on to the stairs, to the upstairs of our house. We ended up chasing it through several rooms of the house. Shutting the doors, so that it would stay out of the other rooms. We had anticipated Ben helping us...that didn't happen. He laid in his bed, with his door open the whole time.


Act 4: Well...the bird decided that Ben's room was the room to inhabit. It flew in and took perch on a hanger in his "junk closet."




 

Now we know where the bird is, we are provided with the dilemma of how do we catch the bird? Ben had a lacrosse stick laying on the floor of his closet. I thought that because it had a net, it would do well to scoop the bird and then we could let the bird out of the house. That was not the case. The bird realized the lacrosse net has large holes running down the side of the cup...it hopped right through. One smart bird, one not so smart mom. We continued to try to figure out a way that we could capture the bird, without killing it in the process. The bird flew out of this closet, into the next closet...yes, you guessed it, the one with all the clothes. Unfortunately, we didn't get a picture of me, searching through all of Ben's shirts to locate the bird.


Act 5: The bird flies out of the closet and lands on Ben's BYU pennant.

He just sits there. Howard goes downstairs, gets a container and traps the bird in the container, then carries it downstairs and outside. 

Final act/Curtain call? The bird is so traumatized after being in our home for two days, it just sits there and doesn't move. We leave it there, hoping that it will be okay. As of this morning, it seems to have been fine...it isn't in the front yard anymore. 

The interesting thing is, that I get up early to teach Seminary every morning and not once during the whole process, or throughout the day Wednesday did I ever see or hear the bird. 


Therefore I think that the statement is probably the best way to put a title on my life: My life is C r A z Y.

I haven't posted anything for the longest time. There are multiple reasons, and plenty of excuses, none of which people really want to hear.


School has started. Ben is a Senior in high school. Mikaela is in her 7th year of schooling. She has one year left at this middle school, then one year at the 8th grade middle school. Then she will be in high school. It is hard to believe that twelve years ago this week, I started driving to and from Milford, three times a day, for three months, with an four children, the youngest being 11 months old,  just to drop them off and pick them up from school (all the children started at different times and one was in Kindergarten, which was half-day). What a life that was. I was so glad to be done with the commuting and finally move into our home. Life has brought all the good things. Two high school graduates. One college graduate. One missionary. Two approaching life with eyes wide open.

Our changing family. Two different trips to New York this year to accommodate the family. Braden went with us in May, Siovhan went with us in June.

Our recent trip to New Hampshire brought smiles and a little bit of a manly, "King of the Hill" challenge. Hmmm...can you tell which male prevailed?

Our life is full of projects. I am trying to finish all the partial projects as well as have other things that are falling apart around the house fixed. It takes up a lot more time than I thought was possible. Speaking of fixing things, Howard broke his collar bone last year on Thanksgiving Day. It hasn't healed at all and he was scheduled for surgery this week. After the surgeon looked at the x-ray, he told Howard that he didn't think that Howard was a good candidate for the surgery. Howard's bones haven't healed at all and his Primary Care Physician even called the break, "Gross." We are waiting to consult with another Osteopathic Surgeon this week. I wonder if he will refer to the break as, "Gross." It will be interesting to see if this doctor will think that the graft will take and that the bone can be healed. The last doctor said the odds were 3% in Howard's favor...not odds to gamble with!

Braden is doing really well in Nicaragua. He has been on his mission for 5 months, but only in Nicaragua for 4 months. He was a fast learner of the Spanish language and was able to complete his MTC training in 3 weeks. He loves serving the Lord and says that he can't believe that the time is going by as quickly as it is.

Siovhan is still living and working in Oregon. She loves Oregon...but not so much the work. You can see her blog here: Siovhan. She is a funny girl and I miss her more than I ever thought was possible.

So many things happening in such a short amount of time. In our Young Women Presidency meeting the other day, the topic of virtuous women came up and wrapped around to discussing finding joy in our journey. Sometimes the joy feels like it is buried under four feet of heavy snow and won't come out until something warms the air and it all melts away. What do you do to find joy in your journey?

The children are out of school. Siovhan will be home for a very short trip. My neice will be coming for a few weeks. Ben will be leaving for about a month. Then we have Pioneer Trek, High Adventure and Girl's Camp all intertwined with the other activities. When the children were younger I used to dream of long summers where we would just sleep in until we wanted to get up, do yard work together, go to the local pool (maybe the beach even), lay around the house and read books, basically just relax and enjoy the summer. It's has never happened that way. Some dreams are just that, dreams.

We're still waiting to hear anything from Nicaragua. As soon as we do, I will let you all know. Here are a few pictures of Braden's MTC days.