Facing Forward

On Tuesday we dropped this sweet boy off at the airport to wing his way to Utah and the Missionary Training Center. It was awfully bittersweet. 

It's tough to know who had the hardest time holding it together. Evidently Mom had a breakdown in Publix a few days later, so it might be her. On the other hand, Madeline told me today it was "too soon" for her to write him a letter. 

I have chosen to deal with things in my own way. Namely, sending letters and packages that will make him laugh. 

In the meantime we will soldier on, trying to have a good time without him. After we left the airport we headed up to Little Talbot Island to drown our sorrows in the ocean. 

 

It pretty much worked. Until later that night when I realized I couldn't even text Jed and proceeded to have the ugliest of ugly cries. 

There should be no question that Jed is loved. 

SEE YOU IN 2015, ELDER SEAMAN!!

Life With Little Boys and Teenage Girls

So many similarities:

Bathrooms in disarray

Drama, drama, drama

Lots of loud laughter

I'm pretty much loving it. Life is never boring!

It's the First Day of June and iTunes Won't Stop Playing Christmas Music

...so there's that.

Look at my attractive family! That's from the reunion on May 18th. It's most likely the last time we will all be together for two years. *cries* *sighs* And yes, this is the year Madeline and Isabella are pretty much as tall as me. From now on the have to stand behind me! *cries again*

School is out and it's been fabulous. The girls are getting paid to help me nanny and honestly, we are loving it. It's not all flowers and sunshine (potty training toddlers are the WORST) but when the bebeh smiles at us or the big boys make us laugh it's pretty awesome. So far we've done two weeks of swim lessons, picked strawberries at the strawberry patch, chased the chickens and then there's this:

Yes, it's as awesome as it looks. It's the perfect size everything we need: entertaining energetic boys and cooling off while teens and adults work on their tans. I spent an hour and a half lounging in the thing yesterday, reading a book. Don't be jealous. ;)

Equally as awesome is that my office/craft space/teen hangout is finally getting electrified! We bought one of those wooden outbuilding shed-type things last summer. It's 12x16 with two loft areas for storage. Dad and Jaws wired it up on Memorial Day and installed an AC unit. Dad is coming back in a week or so to run power to it, and then Jaws will insulate it and we will be IN BUSINESS. I'm ridiculously excited.

Jed leaves this month, but the less we say about that the better.

On the other hand, life all around is pretty swell so I won't complain. I feel like after a few years of stagnation that things are finally moving forward, and in a positive direction no less! I sleep easier at night and have very little trouble getting up in the morning and have to take less of my anxiety medication. I'm generally happier, and I think it shows.