Love is in the air!

As Jacob's mom I could not be happier. He has asked an amazing woman to marry him. I really do just love her. So many nights when she is over Jacob has to ask me to leave her alone. He says you guys need to get your own time when I'm at work. I'm not alone in my adoration of her, everyone loves her. They are going to be married some time soon. Here are some of their writings.

Jacob wrote on his facebook, "You never think things will settle down and actually work out. You think you have to keep trudging through life heading in a direction. Then God stops you and drops something on your lap and it just works." He also said, "
I am beyond stoked that I get to marry such a wonderful girl. She rocks!

She said in her blog, "So I'm engaged to that sweet guy I keep talking about. Woo hoo! Who woulda known. It's kinda funny that when Jacob and I met back in September we had a few people that were trying to set us up (my bro-in-law, our relief society pres) but we were both not interested. So we were strictly friends with no intentions of dating each other. And here we are.

I didn't know it could be this good - this much fun, this much compatibility, this much love. I love him completely. Honestly, I didn't know that a man could actually be so devoted, so entirely concerned with my well-being and happiness and that of my boys as well.

It's always humbling to see the hand of God reach out and put something in your life when it seems that things are at their worst. I worried that I wouldn't be able to love again or to trust anyone. I worried that my opportunity for a fullness of joy was lost when my marriage failed, that somehow his choices had forever robbed me of my happiness. But I am most certain that better days, even the best days ever, are ahead and that Jacob will be there to show me what it's really supposed to be like."

Rachel wrote this about the proposal....

So for the proposal - simple, sweet, perfect. My favorite thing to do with Jacob is anything spiritual. I always missed that with my ex because he wasn't at a place in his life where our goals and desires matched up. So I love to read scrips and pray with Jacob because that's when I feel closest to him. I know that two people who love each other and put the Lord first and each other second cannot fail. A spiritual man is a sexy man. :) :) Anyway, we had a personal, spiritual moment together, and afterward I was getting ready to leave. Then he got down on one knee and asked me to be his wife. Simple, sweet, perfect. No fire trucks involved, no helicopter ride over the beach with a proposal written out in coconuts, but perfect.

Latest News

Janea's soccer team lost today but she didn't. That is what makes a mom happy. She stayed positive even with a 10 to 0 score. Her team mates got mad at her for finding joy in the journey but I didn't. I'd say she won.

Tonight we went to Jacobs girlfriends house for her baby's 1st b-day. Rachel is such a cute mom. Her family is so nice. I felt like I had known them forever. She made the best strawberry cake ever. It was so fun to watch the little kids & to play with them. They are sooooo cute. It was also very fun to watch Jacob kid around with Rachels brother in law & his wife. Then of course watching the wrestling match of adults trying to get toys out of their boxes.

Mark changed out one of our florescent lights to LED. I didn't know but LED is the best. We had this florescent for only 1 year & it quite working. So now it will not need to be changed out for 50,000 hours. Yahoo!!!

I have been sick with a cold for a week. I don't usually get sick but when I do it lasts forever. I hope I'm better soon. At least I sound better. For a few days I sounded like a smoker. I was sooooo tired. I am not all better but on my way.

Jen's belly is just starting to show. She is sooo cute! They are going to be the best parents. They educate themselves on anything they do, so I know they will figure it all out very well. I am starting to stock pile shower gifts. They already got their bassinet, play yard, stroller & child car seat. FUN STUFF!!!

Elder JT Edgel is such a good missionary. So are his buddies. Its great to read their letters. We all watched them grow up & here they are now good, good boys!

A Good Funeral

I know that sound weird, huh. But Marks dad's funeral was a good one. Poppie as we call him was a stinker. He had a poor, hard life & it showed. My 1st encounter with him was scary. I ran out of gas & he came to help me but when he got there he started swearing and yelling at me about how stupid it was to run out of gas. I stood in the street crying. He was just a mean one. Towards the end of his life, about the last 10 years he started to realize that there was a better way. He did make changes but it was really hard for so many of us to accept it. At the funeral, Marks brother Merl, talked about his hard life in a way that softened our hearts toward "Eeyore"as we called him. It was a day of forgiving, understanding, unity & healing.

Happy News...Sad News

Jen & Jared had their ultrasound today & found out that they are having a boy on or around June 2nd. We were all really thinking it would be a girl, not that we all cared but we all just thought it would be. Now that I think of it, I really thought Jared was going to be a girl...this was in the day before knowing from ultra sounds. I have had an itch to buy some darling boy clothes. Either way he is healthy & the couple is happy...so all is well.

Now as one is coming here to start his sojourn, one has just left. Marks dad passed away Monday, Jan 18th at around 7:30pm of a heart attack at age 92. He lived a good life & will be remembered. His funeral arrangements are Fri, Jan 22 at 10am is a veiwing...11am is the funeral service at the Viking chapel. Then the interment at 1pm at Davis Mortuary.

A Different Kind of Christmas!!!

With 3 of our children not here it was just different. Jared is our family activities chairman. This year he & his wife were in Texas with her parents & her sister. While I was happy for them, I was sad for me. The 3 living here are 14, 17 & 25 yrs old. They are happy, normal, social kids. That is a good thing but they didn't want to do the usual making cookies, tree decorating, caroling, gingerbread houses, playing games etc with mom. So I tried to adjust. It's what every mom goes through, I'm sure. It was just different. I so missed Jared & Jen.

The tree was decorated by 3 of Janea's guy friends. She was having friends over the night I put the boxes of ornaments by the tree. The boys drove up, the girls ran out the back door, the boys knocked, I opened the door & thanked the boys for coming over to decorate our tree, the boys willingingly did it, the girls calmed down, came in & helped them finish. Now I have to say, "it looked great". Not just because I didn't have to do it. They spaced them out really well & put my favorites, without knowing, up front.

I like to read Christmas stories by the light of the tree. The kids drink home made hot cocoa stirring them with candy canes. We have read "Charlies Blanket" every year & in it the mother buys 1 pkg of spagetti for their Christmas dinner. So this year I bought a pkg of spagetti & wrote on the wrapped pkg, "Remember to be thankful". It was the 1st gift we opened after a series of guesses as to what was inside. Janea guessed it, we opened it & put it up to remind us of our abundance & to keep in remembrance our greatest gift, Jesus Christ.

One year I took down our very dead tree on Christmas Adam. I was sure that the next day I would find a tree at 1/2 off. Ya very funny story.....now. At the time, not so much. So my kids call this "the year the Grinch stole our tree". My friend Debbie was staying with us for Christmas & she at least had the good sense to take the butcher paper & make a paper tree where the dead tree was & have the traumatized children decorate it with markers & crayons. So there taped to my ceiling was a very beautiful paper tree. No painful needles scratching us to our deaths. It was a very clean view. I liked it. The kids on the other hand were sure I had cracked. OK so everyone thought I had, everyone except me that is. I tried to salvage the situation by telling about when my mom was a child she never saw her tree until Christmas morning. So this year was going to be a family history year. I promised the kids that we would have a tree & it would be a Christmas surprise. So on Christmas eve Mark & I headed out to find our 1/2 off tree. Not! Nope not a tree was for sale...all the tree lots had already packed up & left. All the artificial were sold so I had to buy a pre-lit display tree that had a strand of lights on it that didn't work. I spray painted a bunch of pinecones white, I bought some white ornaments that were 1/2 off & hid them until late that night when everyone was asleep & then we set out to bring about the great "Christmas surprise". OK no one was impressed, not even me. No it's not called the "family history Christmas". It's called "the year mom cracked", or "the Grinch Christmas". So what does it have to do with this year? Well I found a book called, "The House without a Christmas Tree", by Gail Rock. I thought that would be a funny way to remember out "Grinch year". Thank goodness come Christmas morning when it was unwrapped the kids thought it was funny. Mark, Janea & I have read it & really liked it. We found out that it was a TV movie. She has other books that we are going to check out.