Dear Mom,

Happy Mother’s Day! I am forever grateful for your influence in my life, not to mention giving me life in the first place. How blessed I am to be your daughter!

I love how you look in this photo from your last visit here when we were facetiming with Baby Austin. (Hummer’s expression is a little alarming, however. :o)

This is the first part of your Mother’s Day gift this year. I’m glad that you enjoyed receiving my journal every week last year by email but I really miss my handwritten one. And so I thought maybe this year if I gave you a blog post for every week—especially one with pictures—then maybe you would enjoy that, too.

So that is my plan. It may sometimes be late or very simple, but hopefully I will write to you every week on average here.

So, how has your special day been? Hopefully I’ll get to talk to you later on, when you’re home from church.

We have had a most excellent week here in Arkansas.

Monday our realtors came over and ‘splained the contract to us. We feel super blessed to have received such a good offer so soon after listing the house. As long as everything goes through with the inspection and appraisal. . . . Also, Rosebud discovered a great new use for Mardi Gras beads – voila, infant carrier! :0)

 

The catmint, spirea, and irises are all in bloom. The irises are hand-me-downs. The ones on the far left are from the Hendersons, who planted them with the other flowers when Benjamin died. The rest are from our sweet neighbor Thelma. I wish we could take them all with us. . . .

 

 

We loved having Exacto home with us for a couple of mornings this week. He even gave Rosebud an impromptu horn lesson, during which they worked on So This Is Love. :o)

 

And since it is Mother’s Day and my sweet DC is making dinner, I shall attempt to share a video as well. . . .

 

When my friend Laurie and the realtor were helping me stage the house for showing, Laurie prescribed Euro pillows for our bed. The realtor enthusiastically seconded that, and I knew that I could never be happy until I had them. I would feel like our bed was hopelessly underdressed. haha

 

 

And so, here is our bed fully clothed! It has taken us some time to get used to the fact that they take up roughly HALF of the bed’s surface area and also to moving ALL THOSE PILLOWS every morning and every night, but ya know, I think I like them. (Do you and Dad have Euro pillows on your Rush Grush bed? :o)

 

 

It was the highlight of the week. Just kidding, actually the highlight of this week was Exacto passing his Eagle Board of Review! YIPPEE!

 

Super proud of this boy. I wish so much that you could be here for his Court of Honor! He has worked so hard and done many grownup things that he never would have done without Scouting. I am glad for your wonderful example of supporting the program – I have such fond memories of your den leader years. :o)

 

And here we have a lovely photo of the boys burning 9 years’ worth of our taxes and bank statements that I realized are completely unnecessary to move to Colorado. Way more fun than a shredder! Especially later when we pulled out the giant marshmallows. Note Ruby licking Fluffy’s feet – she is quite maternal sometimes (meaning in a canine way – I don’t usually lick my puppies’ feet). 

 

Rosebud is growing so fast. Just this week I came to terms with the fact that she can no longer wear size 3T. She is so smart and funny and beautiful and I know you agree and are just as biased as I am. :o)

 

 

Other notable events this week: DC took his finals and our internet was out for two days. Unfortunately that coincided, at least for his Anatomy & Physiology final. He went to the public library to take it there, and their internet was down. He ended up taking it at our neighbor’s house!

My week was spent largely on the dadgum garage and all its accumulated stuff from 9 years. I can’t post a picture because it’s still not done. (Wish I had done a before and after. . . )

And last night, I watched DC perform with the symphony as a professional player for the last time. The ASO did a wonderful pops program with Cirque de la Symphonie. We invited our beloved friends the Nielsens to come with us. It was so fun! They have been like our family here – we’ve even done Christmas Eve together and Sunday dinners. We are really going to miss them!

 

 

Maybe I can add some photos of the symphony after Kelly Hicks put them on facebook. . .

And today has been a lovely Mother’s Day for me. The Sweet Ones brought me an amazing breakfast in bed.

See, those Euro pillows come in mighty handy!

Three of us spoke in Sacrament Meeting, and the other three of us sang with the Primary (Fluffy’s last time, Rosebud’s first :o). We visited Benjamin’s grave after church.

I hope that you have had a wonderful day, too. I miss you so much and can’t wait to see you in just a week and a half!

Love from your daughter,

Michelle