What a FABULOUS Saturday!

You may ask why this particular Saturday was deserving of the title "fabulous"... especially when it was pretty much an ordinary Saturday... but after having not spent a full day with Megan and Garett for 3 weeks, my kids came home last night! There were lots of hugs & kisses and "I missed you sooo much" repeated over and over again. I especially loved hearing phrases such as "you are the best mom in the whole wide world" and "I'm so glad to be home." I am so glad that my children feel so comfortable and loved living with me. It was a hard 3 weeks for both of them to be gone to their dad's house. I had many phone calls from Megan, espcially at night when it's the hardest being away from home, telling me how much she wanted to come home. She is able to recognize that there is a spirit in my home that does not exist in her dad's. That is the spirit which brings us peace, comfort, joy, and happiness.

Something exciting happened today as well... Garett learned to ride a two-wheeler! He decided that today was the day to take the training wheels off and head for the hills. And sure enough he did... no sooner did the training wheels come off that he was off..down the sidewalk, just a pedaling and steering... it surely amazed me. I expected to be spending the afternoon holding on to the back of the seat and picking him up after falling... but I was surprisingly wrong. What a stud! I don't know how else to put it. And his comments to me were "mom.. aren't you so proud of me?" "I think I need a new bike now that I can ride a two-wheeler" But that will have to wait until his next birthday in April.

The day wound down with us all enjoying an oreo fudge shake and falling asleep on the couch while watching the news. Just an ordinary day with extrordinary experiences that I will never forget... good night :)

After A Week and A HalF...

I have not had any sodas, worked out six times, and cut out snacks & junk food... and I have lost a total of... drum roll... 5 pounds! Not quite the numbers they pull on "Biggest Loser." And I have to admit, I am a little disappointed in myself. I thought for sure it'd be somewhere around 10. Now that would have made me feel good and that giving up the things I love most was worth it. So I am frustrated, but I am not giving up. This just means I have to work harder. I still have another week and a half until my three week experiment is up.

On another note, it has been hard for me to not see my kids. I miss them so very much! I know I should be enjoying this time with them gone and the freedom I get along with it, but it's just not the same around here. It's too quiet. Maybe things would be different if I had a date every night of the week, but that's not happening either. Oh well, that's just life and that's why we're here to have trials and learn from them. So I will keep looking for the silver lining in all of my life experiences.

Healing Fields

On Saturday I took the kids to the Healing Field. This is an annual event to raise awareness of child abuse. There were 1400 American flags posted at the Veterans Memorial Park, each flag represented a child who has died at the hands of abuse. It was a very sobering event. There were bagpipers playing "Amazing Grace" as 41 flags were posted for the children who died in Utah over the past 3 years.

There were over 50 bikers from BACA (Bikers Against Child Abuse) who rode into the park. One of the bikers is my boss at work.

This event really put it into perspective for me about how real child abuse is and it happens way too much! There is no excuse for child abuse!