A thousand, million words

For Father's Day yesterday, my brother Jordan posted this picture of Pa Sheen on Facebook, capturing an act of service my dad had done on Jordan's car when he was on a work trip in Provo and stayed with Jordan's family.

That picture says a million words, doesn't it?  I love it and I sure love my dad and his wonderful example!

Father's Day 2015

Yesterday was a wonderful Father's Day!  The kids helped me make a nice breakfast for Jason--pancakes, eggs, sausage--and then he opened our cards which all had a superhero theme (Superman, Captain America, and Iron Man).  We picked out a Darth Vader one "from the dogs", too.  The kids also gave Jason a little coupon book that I hope he will use!

Then we went to church and had a nice day there.  The sacrament meeting talks were all about our relationship with Heavenly Father and were very good!  Brandon Jensen had just returned from serving a mission in the Salt Lake City North mission and had so many good stories about his time there.  Jason gave a wonderful lesson on the Last Supper and the Savior's example of service and love in Sunday School.  We were both pretty excited to have visitors there who had once lived in the Springfield, VA Rolling Valley ward!  They remembered some of the same people we knew--what a small, small world!  Jason and I were also invited to come into Primary and help with Sharing Time by telling about a time the Holy Ghost had helped us.  Our Washington DC adventure was Jason's story; I talked about getting help from the Holy Ghost to confirm that Jason Cushing was the man I should marry!  Of course I shed some tears and Jason told the kids, "Don't worry, she cries when she's happy and smiles when she's mad!"  HAHAHA!  It was a fun day at church, and the men in the ward got to go home with a bag of cookies, too.

That afternoon we had a family swim and then a really nice dinner.  Jason grilled steaks, and we had cinnamon cake for dessert.  Success!

It was great to talk to Grandpa Rod and Grandpa Rich that day, too.  Our family is blessed to have such good men and role models, who love us and support us!  We are very thankful for them!!!

31!

31!

That's how many miles I've intentionally walked so far this month.  Boy, when I wake up in the morning, exercise is the l-a-s-t thing I want to do, but I always feel fantastic when I finish.  It takes me about an hour to do 3 miles, because I'm slow AND I have to make potty stops for the dogs, etc, so it feels good to say I've put 10+ hours into my own physical health this month, too.

The interesting thing is that I feel sore and horrible until the 2-mile mark, and then that 3rd mile feels pretty good.  Of course the best part is stretching afterward!

Many thanks to my mom and dad who invited me to join them on their early-morning walks when I visited them in Texas!  As a general rule, I prefer to exercise alone and love that solitary time, but it was really enjoyable talking to my parents and trying to keep up with them, too!  

I like to listen to this song "Try" by Pink sometime during each walk.  The chorus line really speaks to me, especially when I see no change on the scale, ya know?

Where there is desire, there is gonna be a flame
Where there is a flame, someone's bound to get burned
But just because it burns, doesn't mean you're gonna die
You gotta get up and try, and try, and try
Gotta get up and try, and try, and try
You gotta get up and try, and try, and try


Happy Monday!

#prayersanswered

Jason was on the East Coast this week for work.  On Thursday night we were Face-timing on the phone, and Jason talked about his near-death experience that day, traveling between Maryland and D.C. and having to swerve into the shoulder to miss a head-on collision by about five feet, going 60 miles per hour.

The first thought that came into my head was the fact that we'd mentioned Jason in every. single. one. of. our. prayers. that day, asking God to watch over him while he was away and help him to know that we loved him and were thinking of him.  Morning prayer, lunch prayer, dinner prayer, etc.

Rhiannon smiled and said, "Hashtag prayers answered!"

We were very thankful that Jason was okay and safe, and grateful to know that Heavenly Father was mindful of our family!

Box of memories

I slept in until 7:00 am today and then felt like I needed to get up and be more productive than the previous day.  One thought I had was to go through our "Sunday box" in the game closet and clean it out.  The Belt family in our ward was on my mind--Theresa was scheduled to be induced today and have their second baby--and I thought I might find some things that their little girl, the new big sister, might like.

Wow, that box brought back some memories of Young Mother Verity, let me tell you!   I found a Bingo game I'd made for Rhiannon, little trinkets and papers from when I taught Wade's Sunbeam class, quiet toys for sacrament meeting, a little baggie of crayons, old Valentine's card ideas that we'd sent to grandparents, and some really funny camera pictures, obviously taken by 4 or 5-year-old Rhiannon because of the vantage point (belly shots, haha).

Rhiannon and Wade heard all the racket I was making and then spent almost an hour with me, sitting on the floor next to the closet, looking at pictures and items and smiling and laughing.  Here were some of our favorites:

Two thoughts kept running through my head:

1.  "Man, this feels like a MILLION years ago!"

and 

2.  "I am SOOO glad we have these pictures!"

In the words of Ferris Bueller, life moves pretty fast and if you don't stop and look around for a while, you could miss it.  AMEN!

Some things are infinitely more important

The NBA Finals have consumed me over the past few weeks. I started watching when the Warriors were playing the Rockets and got hooked!  It has been so much fun watching the games and rooting for Golden State!

Well, last night I learned that some things are infinitely more important than obsessing over 3-pointers.  After my institute class, a young man, Michael, stuck around, asking if I had a few minutes. He had spent 6+ hours that day talking about gospel topics with his best friend, what he called the best missionary experience of his life so far!  His friend, a member of the Lutheran church, had honest questions that Michael needed help with. A couple other friends from class joined in the conversation, along with our stake president who peeked in to see what we were up to, and we invited him to join us.

It was a very special experience for me, and as we closed up I realized I'd been sitting there with them for almost 45 minutes after class!

When I got home, Wade told me the NBA Finals were over and the Warriors won the last game against the Cavaliers, 105-97.

I was stunned. "Huh? I missed the whole game?  I thought it was later in the week!"  I still thought Wade was pulling my leg and told him to prove it to me online, haha!  Sure enough, he was right.

"Well," I said, "that's what I get for being a little too crazy about the games!  But I wouldn't have traded the last hour up at the church for anything!"

We said family prayer, Rhiannon went to bed, and then Wade and I stayed up late watching the ESPN highlights of the game, including the locker room celebration and the interviews. It was a lot of fun, and probably a lot easier on our family since I wasn't screaming and yelling and "WOO-HOOing" through the whole game!

A Monday morning at 7:21am

I had to smile at life in the Cushing home this summer morning.

As I type this, Rhiannon is pounding out some beautiful hymns ("Called to Serve" is going on right now--fast!)

Wade jumped on his bike at 7:00am to do his "pick up dog doo" job at the Collins' home.

Jason was up at 5:50am or so and off to work shortly after that.  He goes on business travel for the rest of the work week tomorrow--we will miss him!

The dogs are crashed out on the floor because they just finished a 3-mile walk with me.  It took an hour, but I did it!  (For my mental health, I don't know how much longer I can do these long walks with the dogs--Samson wants to stop and pee on e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g and Oscar wants to b-a-r-k at anything with 4 legs...!)

So much for sleeping in and being lazy!  I don't mind, though, because it is getting HOT here in Ridgecrest, highs up to 108 later this week, so getting things done in the morning when it's a tiny bit cooler is smart!!!

The year I was my mom's birthday present!

A couple months ago my dad called me and we had the following conversation:

Dad:  Do you know who your mom's best friend is?

Me:  I hope it's me!

Dad:  Well, I want to fly her best friend out to Texas for her 60th birthday.  Can we make this happen?

I'm so thankful that my parents flew me out--it was such a wonderful trip for me and I loved making memories with family and especially being there for my mom on her birthday!!!!

On Friday I drove down to Brant and Chris's home and left the van there.  I got to go with Chris to take Greyson to preschool, we had a yummy breakfast at Panera Bread, and then she took me to the Ontario airport (THANK YOU!!!)

From the DFW airport, Dad picked me up and we had a nice, long rush-hour drive home to visit and catch up.  That night we went to Dickey's Barbecue Pit for some tasty food, gabbed, and relaxed.

On Saturday my mom turned 60!!!!!!!!  I got up early and joined Mom and Dad for a 3-mile walk.  Mom made me smile when she'd said earlier that all she really wanted for her birthday was to not have to decide anything, haha!  We tried to make that happen for her that day.  We got ready for the "Donna's Birthday Tour!"  First we drove up to Plano to see where Dad works, then we went to Savannah to spend the afternoon with Tom, Lydia, Beck, and Hardy.  Their new home is beautiful and the lunch and pretty birthday cake was FANTASTIC!  Next stop on the tour was Fort Worth, where we spent time with Derrick Traci, Max, Maggie, and Moses and had dinner with them at Central Market. (We had dessert first--an ice cream cake at the Fort Worth Sheens' home--fun!) It was so great to see everyone!  

Sunday we recuperated from the all-day party and enjoyed going to church together.  My parents live in a fantastic, loving, and spiritually uplifting ward!!!  I appreciated them letting me watch a little NBA Finals game with them, too. 

Monday morning was another long walk and then Mom and I cleaned a LOT of window blinds.  It wasn't hard, just time-consuming.  That was fun to do and spend that time talking and sweating together. :)  Grandma Sue treated us to Chick Fil-A for lunch (yum!!!) and we watched the BBC Jane Eyre a bit, too (SO good!).  Then that night I joined Mom, Dad, and Grandma at their Empty Nesters' group's BBQ.  I was the youngin' there, but everyone was very nice.  We ended the evening with Bahama Buck's snow cones and sitting out on the back porch.

Every night we read scriptures together.  I loved that and also enjoyed peeking in on daily life at the Rich, Donna, and Grandma Sue home.  Grandma needs a lot of care and she is a lot slower than she used to be, but Mom and Dad do a great job with her.  Grandma's sense of humor is wonderful, too.  Those three make it work, and it did my heart good to see that!

I think the only reason I didn't bawl like a baby when I left on Tuesday was the fact that I'll see them again in just a few weeks at our Rich and Donna Sheen reunion up in Wisconsin/Chicago!!!  It was such an amazing visit, and I will be forever grateful to Mom and Dad for getting me out there!!!!!!  I'm also thankful to Jason, Rhiannon, and Wade who managed the house and the dogs just fine without me!!!!!  :)

Dad, Tom, Beck, and Grandma, out on the porch swing

Love this hard-working nurse and brother of mine!

I love this picture of Hardy with Grandma Sue and Dad

Opening up her book of "love letters" from family and friends.  I think Mom liked it!

Sunday Selfie before church!

Derrick, Traci, Maggie, and Max--these guys rock!!!

Mom, Grandma Sue, and Moses

Lydia, Tom, Hardy, and Beck--love these guys!  They are doing great!

My lovely taxi driver in California!  Love you, Chris--thank you!!!

My Texan taxi driver!  It was good to catch up and ride out the rush-hour traffic!

Getting ready to watch Castle 

A picture after our walk on my mom's 60th birthday!  Love this lady so much!!!!

I did learn a big lesson on the way home to Ridgecrest after Chris picked me up. Originally I'd planned to take Chris, Brant, and Greyson to lunch, but I was in such a rush to get back home that I took off early.  Well, 20 minutes up the road, I realized I'd left my suitcase behind in their van, hahaha!  I "paid the price" by having to drive up and down Cajon Pass (which I h-a-t-e) not once but 3 times.  Lesson learned--next time take advantage of opportunities to be with extended family and say thank you! ;)

A v-e-r-y special teacher

Here's a picture of Wade with his 5th grade teacher Mrs. Arwen Kyte.  We took her to lunch at the golf course behind the school for Teacher Appreciation week.  We love her!  She looked after Wade as if he was her own and made it a wonderful year for him!!!!!!!!!

Lunch with Mrs. Kyte was awesome! We talked about shtuff and ate some good food! -Swadey Boy

Rhiannon's 15th Birthday!!!

On May 30th our beautiful girl turned 15!  We love Rhiannon so much and hope that she felt that love on her birthday!

It was a pretty chill day spent at home.  Rhiannon had b-day balloons from me and Wade, plus cookies, gifts, texts, and Facebook wishes from friends and family.  Howard and Sandi joined us for dinner (pizza, of course), and we had an ice cream cake.

Rhiannon seemed okay with keeping it small because next month her BIG birthday present arrives:

HER FIRST-EVER CONCERT EXPERIENCE, to see IMAGINE DRAGONS in Ahaheim!

The concert is on July 20th, and Jason bought 4 tickets so that Rhiannon, Wade, her friend, JenAi, and I can go!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy 15th, Rhiannon!  

You are beautiful inside and out 

and we love you!

Wade's last month of elementary school--a big giant post!

Boy, oh boy, did Wade have a busy, amazing 5th grade year!  His best school year yet! It all came together in May.  

Buckle up, folks--this is a long post!

Wade joined me for one more Battle of the Books year.  We met nearly every Wednesday at lunchtime, and Wade was an important member of that team.  I thought he'd joined because his mom was one of the leaders and he didn't want to make me feel bad, but I learned after it was all over that he mostly liked having a list of books to work on instead of aimlessly wandering around the library trying to find something to read.  His favorite book was There's a Boy In the Girls' Bathroom, by Louis Sachar.  (Read it--it's good.)  

We took the kids to a local battle and then went to Bakersfield for the county one.  Out of over 500 kids, Wade was on one of the finalist teams, woo-hoo!  

This was a great experience--I will definitely miss it!!!!!

On the last week of school, the 5th grade had a "moving on" ceremony.  This was exciting in more ways than one--Wade received academic and physical excellence awards, and then he passed out on the risers in the middle of a song!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   That was pretty scary, but we got a lot of help from kind Richmond staff, and Wade was okay after a few minutes.  Jason jumped up to go help him behind the stage, and then I went back after some time had passed.  (I knew I'd be a basketcase and also that Jason could handle it.)  Wade wanted to go right home after that, but we knew people were very worried about him and wanted to see that he was okay!  Here he is afterward with friends and his wonderful teacher, Mrs. Kyte:

Wade with Carson

Cheyenne, Abby, Carson, Wade, and Nick

Wade's "second mom" Mrs. Kyte

Maricio was the first one to see Wade as he came outside and wanted to make sure he was okay!!

Wade's 4th grade teacher sent me some fun pictures she'd taken at the school assemblies thru the year, too:

Reading a million words

Doing a funny walk across the red carpet.  Wade was the first kid to make it to 7th grade Accelerated Math.  His friend Nick was the second and last to make it!

With his buddy and neighbor Nick getting ready to lead a flag ceremony.  Nick was student council president; Wade was vice-president.

An All-Boy student council, and they did a GREAT JOB!  Nick was pres, Wade was vp, Carson was secretary, and Tucker was treasurer.

Wade always led the school in the Pledge of Allegiance and the school pledge at each monthly Super Star assembly.  He was pretty happy after a couple months when the huge group was able to follow along with him at the same time.

There were so many other activities going on--basketball party, 5th grade swim party, BOB pizza party, middle school field trip, and many more.  We knew it had been a good year for Wade because he really didn't want it to end!!!!

No more elementary school for us--crazy weird to say that, but we know Wade is ready!

Spring Piano Recital!

This is what I posted on Facebook on May 9:

"We are in the middle of an absolutely CrAzY day and loving every minute of it. It's been a lot of fun...and I'm thankful it's not usually this busy. Rhiannon hiked 4 miles with her dad, Wade helped me with yard work, Rhiannon went to volleyball, Wade played basketball, both kids played in a piano recital, and in a few minutes Rhiannon will go to a church youth conference, and Wade and his Richmond basketball team will play in the championship bball game. Happy Saturday!"

So....this is the Piano Recital post!

Rhiannon and Wade both did a fantastic job at this piano recital!

This was also the big b-ball tournament day!  I had to get a picture of the basketball pianists!

Love this lady!  The mutual love and respect between the kids and their teacher Melanie McDonald is visible!

Mother-Son Pirate Party

Our ward's Primary put on an excellent mother/sons activity on May 1st.  The theme was pirates, and we had a good time dressing up a little bit for that!

The decorations and food were great (pirate ships! pizza!), and there were games set up throughout the building.  Swabbing the deck in the cultural hall, walking the plank, ring toss on hooks, "tattoos," and a giant ping pong ball fight--super fun!!!

I was happy to have that time with Wade, even though I spent most of it tagging along with him and his friends, haha! :)

The End of Freshman Year, and surviving Finals (barely)

Well, on May 28th, I, Rhiannon Cushing, barely finished my freshman year of high school. It's weird to say that, because at times it's hard to believe I actaully made it. Haha I make it sound terrible, but all in all I think I did alright. I finished 23rd of 371 people (not too shabby) and I hope to get even farther than that next year.

I have fantatsic friends. Seminary was a BLAST and even though waking up at 4:50 got tiring, I made it work. My teachers were great, it's a good way to start the morning, and I strengthened lots of friendships in church and strengthened my faith as well.

I made new friends of course, but my band of friends at lunch stuck together very well. There are about 10 or so of us and we've known each other since 6th grade. We all have good taste in music, love to play charades (and aren't embarrassed when people walking by stop walking just to stare at us) and share lots of things in common (i.e. all pretty smart, classes in common, and sense of humor)
I wouldn't say that we don't fight or anything because we debate about all kinds of stuff (sometimes too much, in my opinion) but we are usually very respectful of each other's opinions. I think that's a good way to be, and I hope next year we won't drift apart or anything.

My class (2018) is one of the worst Burroughs High School has ever seen. Because of the fact that there are two kinds of people in my class--A and B kids that care about school and know it matters, and D and F kids who couldn't care less. I know that's super harsh but that's just how it is.

This made it so that two of the easiest classes I've ever had in my life, World Geography and Health, also became the hardest to get through. If I didn't have some of my super good friends in there with me, I don't know what I would have done. Mrs. Barnes was my Geography teacher and she was awesome but the people in my class were INSANE! Health was a different story because both the teacher and most of my classmates were absolutely horrid. UGH. Enough said. Finals in these classes were fine but I just about cried from happiness when both of them were done.

I really liked Cadet Band. It was super small (15 kids) but we got along pretty well and Symphonic Band is going to be great next year. My teacher, Mr. Austin is cool and I got to help him with 8th Grade Auditions this year. It was really fun and made me look forward to Band next year even more.

P.E. got interesting about a month before Christmas break. I had a few good friends in there, a good teacher named Mr. Pearce, but a drama-loving manipulator "friend." If that isn't the definition of bad times waiting to happen, I don't know what is. (Maybe Health for three more years? mhaha Just kidding) My good friends helped me, and when I started having my bunion foot problems Mr. Pearce was AWESOME, but I'm glad to be free of my "friend." This year was the first time that sarcastic-mean Rhiannon got her claws out--I once left PE shaking I was so mad. I confronted this person multiple times and they just wouldn't give up trying to snare me in their traps. I think if this person tries again next year I'm just going to straight up ignore them. Which is harsh, but I am DONE.

Then on to my Honors classes. They were mostly stressful, but the pluses were good people in the class, having lots of my friends with me, making new friends, learning more than I would in a normal class, and a weighted GPA. Whoop whoop.
Honors Bio was the most stressful out of the three. My teacher didn't update our grades too often, I took the hardest tests I've ever had in my life in it (I got my first D on a final, that was "tons of fun") and the first semester stuff just wasn't interesting to me. Not my favorite, and I'm glad to be done with it, but the people in there were awesome.
Honors Geometry was better. I liked my teacher Mr. Menard and there were lots of sophomores in my class that I liked getting to know. Pretty much everyone in that class I ended up knowing/being friends with. Some of the tests were stressful, sure, and I had lots of HW but it was fun being in the class.
Honors English was AMAZING. I loved my teacher Mrs. Wilson, and I'm really not bad at English. I didn't enjoy reading Huck Finn, but that was really it. I'm a good essay writer and that class wasn't hard at all.

I MADE IT. YES. hahaha All in all, I didn't do too bad. I would like to move up in my class rank, and it's going to be very different next year because I'm taking way harder classes, which will cut down on my free time and add lots of unneeded stress. Symphonic Band, Spanish 1, Honors Modern World History, Chemistry, Honors English, Honors Algebra 2, and PE. Wow that's going to be interesting.

Yay Freshman Year!!!!

Rhiannon recaps Youth Conference 2015

The cool kid named Rhiannon here. These are just a few pictures that represent just how AMAZING Youth Conference 2015 was. It was a complete blast and I thoroughly enjoyed myself (and I think everyone who went felt that way as well.)

So, Trek is coming up this summer. The theme for Youth Conference was our Mutual theme for this year--Embark. There were lots of pioneer style activities and games. We set up Family history accounts (I already had mine) and played some fun games including "sleeping bag race" where you had to wiggle to the end of the basketball court and back--beating everyone else while doing so. I was absolutely horrible at that. 

Then we had a laundry folding race as well and my team and I beat everyone. Woohoo!

We had a tasty dinner of potatoes, salad, and goldfish and ate on blankets in the gym. That was one of my favorite parts because it involved food and I had a blast with my peeps.  

Then everyone had brought a change of clothes for the BEST PART--the dance. We changed into our clothes and then had lots of time for group selfies  (see above) and just meeting everyone if we hadn't already. There was more than 50 people there, which is a ton for Ridgecrest!

It was so much fun that I don't know to describe it and give it justice. I had a fantastic time with my peeps (again, see pictures above) There were lots of pioneer group dances where everyone was in a circle and you switched partners every rotation. So I danced with everyone there!! There was tasty dessert, the music wasn't lame, no one was mean, and everyone I danced with including my circle of peeps was so awesome and great to be around. 

I took lots of excellent pictures and I can't wait for next year's Youth Conference.