Musings on a Tuesday night

5 years from now, Rhiannon will be 21 and Wade will be 18.

It takes my breath away to think about the change that is ahead, but it also motivates me to enjoy all of my time with them while they're home, all of it, the slow times, the fast times, the busy-busy and the "Hey, Mom, come play table tennis with me" times.   Trying to be less "helicopter parent" and more "cutter of apron strings" is a work in progress, too.  No matter what, I hope Rhiannon and Wade feel our love for them!

We've been playing a lot of table tennis the past week, thanks to Wade.  He brought it down when Rhiannon was gone on her college tour last week, and the game has stayed set up unless we're eating at that table, ha-ha!  5 minutes here, 5 minutes there, he gets all of us to play with him at one time or another.  It's fun!  The dogs are getting used to our playing, too and know not to touch that ping pong ball.

Speaking of college tours, Rhiannon had the time of her life on that trip!  She visited 8 campuses in 3 days, got by on little sleep, had a blast with her roommates (friends from school that she got to pick), and came back super energized to get high school DONE and move on to the next chapter of her life.  She loved the University of San Diego, a private Catholic university--the only drawback is its v-e-r-y steep tuition cost.  In the next 3 months she will take the ACT and SAT and an AP exam and sign up for senior-year classes and figure out her top 4-6 college picks and visit a few more campuses over Spring Break on our family trip and and and and....  It's not hard to understand how she can feel a little stressed out sometimes!  We are excited for her and proud!  Oh, and that drivers license is finally just around the corner.  She has one more instructor lesson and then just needs to take the drivers test!

Jason is gone to a stake meeting tonight and has a day trip for work down to Northridge tomorrow.  Work is unbelievably stressful and 0% fun for him lately, but, man, I am so grateful for all that he does to provide for our family.  And he is so good about giving time to the kids and me, too, whether it's a Valentine's date and gorgeous flowers for me or going out of town with Wade to shop for golf clubs or letting his daughter go with him to Bishop two hours away for a Sunday church trip to spend time with her and let her practice her driving on the highway.  He's the best!

In the middle of all my crazy--church stuff and college stuff and work stuff and home stuff....and feeling a little out of control with all of that--I found an unexpected stress reliever--listening to podcasts!  So far I really like Power of Moms and This American Life.  Podcasts are kinda like radio shows, but more like you're sitting down listening to a conversation among friends, without the commercials and I get to pick what I like to listen to.  I download "episodes" to my phone (and then usually delete after), and listen while I'm walking the dogs or cleaning or folding laundry.  I knew I was on to something the other day when I kept trying to find tasks to do because my podcast wasn't over yet (WHAT???  HOW DID THAT HAPPEN! ;) )  I love it!

The Cushings get a new front yard!

It's hard to believe that we've lived in this home for close to 8 years.  When I see pictures like this, a rush of memories come back to me.

Has it really been that long?  July 2009

I remember the sound of the water system, the fish and bullfrogs, and kids (ours and others!) climbing all over the rocks.  It was a lot of fun.

But it was also a lot of hard work (and expensive) to keep up.  

Fast forward to this year and the last two months.  During Christmas break Jason tried to take out the rock structure by our front door with an electric jackhammer.  In his words, he called it the "grossest miscalculation of his abilities" in his entire life.  I appreciated him giving it an effort, though!  That tower of rock and cement was built to last through the eternities!!!

Just for kicks, we got bids from two or three landscaping companies in town to get an idea of what it would take to remove it all and start fresh.  Yes, it was going to be very expensive, but also almost half of what we thought it was going to be!  So, we hired Bernie's Landscaping and they got to work.

Seriously got to work.  Bernie shared with us yesterday, as we were talking about this journey over the past few weeks, that they took out and hauled away ONE HUNDRED TONS of rock, concrete, and debris.  That is mind-boggling!  200,000 pounds!

February 2017

And we are very, very happy with the end result:

Now we have a beautiful circular driveway, artificial turf and flagpole, new plants, and a new sprinkler system.  Oh, and a new water heater, but that was a mostly separate issue.  The 42-yr-old water heater had to go.

We are so grateful to Bernie and his crew for their careful attention to detail and efficiency.  It was a HUGE job that we offered up to them, and they did amazing work!!

Worth every penny!!!