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!

16th Birthday celebrations!

Rhiannon had a VERY HAPPY sixteenth birthday!  It was on Memorial Day this year and we had a ton of fun stretching it out for a few days, too.

Highlights:

--Bishop Washburn getting the whole ward to sing "Happy Birthday" to Rhiannon at the ward Memorial Day breakfast

--Swimming with friends

--an envelope F-U-L-L of notes, cards, and special letters from family and friends to commemorate her birthday.  Jason's letter made both me and Rhiannon cry.

--Cinnamon cake

--Friends "stealing her" to go get ice cream together in the evening.  She had no idea they were coming!

--Dating emergency kit funnies (pepper spray, anti-gas pills, etc)

--A tremendously successful birthday party with friends a few days later.  She had 12 guests and they swam, ate, laughed, and played games together.  Guests were Nathan, Tamara, Nik, Thomas, JenAi, Ethan, Jacob, Kevin, Brisa, Sydney, Izzy, and Emily.

--Thoughtful gifts

--Perfect first "group date" with Nik Duque, Wes Johnson, and Kalie Hedman (they went jeeping in Wes's car and got donuts afterwards).  She said it was a BLAST!!!

Here are pictures for proof!  Happy 16th to our lovely Rhiannon!  We love you!!!

  

  

  

  

  

A fantastic group of teenagers.  They're welcome over here any time!

Playing Werewolves of Miller's Hollow--probably the highlight of the night!  They were here til 10:30 or 11 playing that.

First Date fun!

"There is great purpose in our struggle in life."

Rhiannon was a bit grumpy this morning.

She has good reason to be.  

She gets fitted for orthotics at the ripe ol' age of 14 this afternoon.

She gets braces and a palate expander next week, just before her EFY Express outing in Lancaster, where there are bound to be lots of cute boys.

Her honors bio class is HARD, really, truly HARD.

There are ZERO vacation days in March.  It's a long, slow month.

One of her really sweet friends got in a crazy accident during PE on Friday during a capture-the-flag game and needed stitches.  The other girl involved in the accident is going to need some serious dental work done.

And on and on.

I was feeling a little helpless this morning, I'll admit.  I understood how she was feeling and knew it was normal, but I wanted to help move her gray cloud a little bit.  While she was at seminary, I printed out a bunch of great "happiness" quotes and scriptures and made a chain out of them, one for each day of the month.  

One of my favorites is this one from Elder Packer:

"Teach our members that if they have a good, miserable day once in a while, or several in a row, to stand steady and face them. Things will straighten out.  There is great purpose in our struggle in life."

We love Rhiannon so much!  She is a gem, a shining light, and she will be okay!