The Grass Will Grow Back

This week Maggie has opened my eyes to what our future holds with her. Destruction. I have been working on getting everything more organized in our tiny apartment, and when I was cleaning, she broke one of my favorite lamps. Shattered into a million tiny pieces. Sienna did something similar a couple of years ago and broke a lotus candle holder that Grant and I bought on our honeymoon. Luckily we had started taking a parenting class at church taught by the wonderful Brother Hales, and the Sunday before he had given us a story called The Grass Will Grow Back. 



The Grass Will Grow Back

When Mike was 2, he wanted a sandbox, and his father said: “There goes the yard. We’ll have kids over here day and night, and they’ll throw sand into the flower beds, and cats will make a mess in it, and it’ll kill the grass for sure.”

And Mike’s mother said, “The grass will grow back.”

When Mike was 5, he wanted a jungle gym set with swings that would take his breath away and bars to take him to the summit, and his father said: “Good grief, I’ve seen those things in back yards, and do you know what they look like? Mud holes in a pasture. Kids digging their gym shoes in the ground. It’ll kill the grass.”

And Mike’s mother said, “The grass will grow back."

Between breaths, when Daddy was blowing up the plastic swimming pool, he warned: “You know what they’re going to do to this place? They’re going to condemn it and use it for a missile site. I hope you know what you’re doing. They’ll track water everywhere and have a million water fights, and you won’t be able to take out the garbage without stepping in mud up to your neck. When we take this down, we’ll have the only brown lawn on the block.”

“The grass will grow back,” Mike’s mother said.

When Mike was 12, he volunteered his yard for a camp out. As they hoisted the tents and drove in the spikes, his father stood at the window and observed, “Why don’t I just put the grass seed out in cereal bowls for the birds and save myself the trouble of spreading it around? You know for a fact that those tents and all those big feet are going to trample down every single blade of grass, don’t you. Don’t bother to answer. I know what you’re going to say.

‘The grass will grow back.’”

The basketball hoop on the side of the garage attracted more crowds than the Olympics. And a small patch of lawn that started out with a barren spot the size of a garbage can lid soon drew to encompass the entire side yard.

Just when it looked as if the new seed might take root, the winter came and the sled runners beat it into ridges. Mike’s father shook his head and said, “I never asked for much in this life – only a patch of grass.”

And his wife smiled and said, "The grass will grow back.”

The lawn this fall was beautiful. It was green and alive and rolled out like a sponge carpet along the drive where gym shoes had trod … along the garage where bicycles used to fall … and around the flower beds where little boys used to dig with iced-tea spoons.

But Mike’s father never saw it. He anxiously looked beyond the yard and asked with a catch in his voice, “He will come back, won’t he?”

 
When Sienna broke the candlestick holder I gave her a hug and told her it was okay. Maggie was oblivious to how much I loved that lamp, but I'm okay, it's just a lamp. What's left from the pair of lamps, and candle holders now sit together on a bookcase, waiting for me to give them to the child that broke their other half. Today I woke up to find silly putty in my new rug and I just about lost it, but I decided to pull out the story, and read it again to remind me that the most important things in life aren't things.

Sad Lonely Blog

My poor blog. I think it has missed me. It gets visited often to blog stalk others, but the poor thing has been screaming for an update, so here goes,...

Grant got another promotion. YAY!!! He now works at the corporate office in Idaho Falls, and he L-O-V-E-S his job! So much so that we're considering not doing law school anymore. He's still going to take the LSAT, and he's still keeping up that GPA, but we love it here, so why would we leave such a love fest? I never thought Idaho would be our forever home, but I really can't see us leaving anytime soon.

 she thinks she's a model

 Such a ham!

Sienna spent 3 1/2 weeks in Texas!!! It was horrible for me, but lovely for her. She shopped, spent time with cousins, and partied hard. My parents had the time of her life with her there, I know this because my days were so dull without her! There are some parents that need breaks from kiddos, but I can truly say that I cherish each and every sweet drop of time with mine. They are so utterly perfect. A part of my heart was gone the whole time she was gone. I'm so glad she's back! Now I have an excuse to go get snow cones more often.;) I feel like she grew a foot while she was gone. She seems so much older and funnier. She got home and informed me that Disney Junior isn't cool anymore. I have my awesome 10 year old nephew to thank for that. It's taken a week, but she's back to watching her innocent cartoons in the mornings. She has been full of funny tid bits and stories, one of which happened before she left, but unraveled while she was gone.

I have blogged about Grant's interesting way of feeding Mags on Saturday mornings. Throwing fruit loops on the floor and letting her vacuum them up with her mouth. Well it was last month on a Sunday morning that we were all getting dressed and Mags was fussy. I asked Grant what she had eaten, since he feeds the kids, and I dress them on Sundays. He replied,"Bread and water." He was serious. BREAD AND WATER!!! What the is he thinking??? I responded, "YOU HAVE TO FEED THE CHILDREN!!! THEY ARE NOT IN PRISON!!!! WITH A SPOON OR FORK SITTING AT THE TABLE LIKE HUMANS!!!!" Seriously, is that to much to ask? I might have raised my voice a little because Sienna said, "Mommy don't be mean to daddy!" That day at church she told her teacher that we fight a lot. Awesome. The teacher went to the Bishop. Double awesome. Luckily the bishop knows us well, and thought nothing of it. I think this is pay back from when I was little and told everyone that my parents were getting divorced because I thought it was cool that one of my friends got two of everything. Oh well, it's funny. She's our little peace maker. Honestly I now don't raise my voice in fear that I'll get called into the bishop's office. It's funny because she told me two days ago that she's glad that I don't ever yell at her. Why couldn't she tell her Primary teachers that?!

 Howdy

 Her buddy Scout.

 The way to her heart is still through her stomach.

Mags is developing oh so sweetly. She's so smart. We can ask her to go get something or throw something away and she understands and does it! She nods if she wants something and shakes her head when she's not pleased with us. I swear I heard her first sentence the other day. It was probably a fluke, but I gave her a bowl of green beans with a fork and she was patiently trying to poke them onto the fork and I heard her say, "I got it." I turned around to see a green bean on her fork, and I looked at her and asked if she just said I got it. She replied, "Yep." It was probably a coincidence, but it is looking like she's going to be like big sister. Sienna surprised me at 10 months when I sneezed in the car and she said bless you. Mags is a lot more quiet and reserved than Sienna is, but she is a feisty one. Now that Sienna is back, she thinks that she's the boss. If Sienna is requiring to much of my attention, she quietly walks over and slaps her. No bueno. Silent assassin strikes again. We are working on it, and she knows that she is doing something wrong, but with that baby face, she also knows she can get away with it. She has recently discovered that shoes mean go, so she brings me shoes all day long until we go some where. It's so cute. If she catches me putting on make up she immediately goes and sits by the door and awaits her next big adventure. She gets seriously disappointed when I'm just putting it on because Daddy's coming home. It's short lived though, because the second Grant walks in she's all smiles. The girl loves her daddy.

I've been good. As most of you know we had another miscarriage last month. That's two within five months. It sucks. I know it sounds shallow, but because they were both a little later on, I gained a fair amount of weight with both and I'm so self conscience about it. I have all this baby weight and no baby to show for it. When I have healthy babies it's super easy for me to lose the baby weight, but with miscarriage it takes my body a couple of months to realize that I'm not pregnant anymore. I still have a lot of symptoms, and I can take a pregnancy test and it's positive.  I just can't wait until I'm back to my normal size. I can't fit into all my normal clothes, so it doesn't help that I feel out of style too. I know, it's shallow. I just want to find out what's causing these miscarriages, and have the rest of our children!

As hard as all this has been, I'm constantly reminded of how blessed I am. My children are, as I said before perfect. My husband will sit there while I gripe at him about feeding the kids, and not say a cross word back. I love him so much. I have the true gospel in my life. Grant has a wonderful job that he loves and provides for us. I get to work as a stay at home mom in a bad economy. I have wonderful friends that will surprise visit me just when I need it most. We have wonderful parents, grandparents, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, and so on. I feel so blessed to be living my life.  You know you have it pretty good when horrible things happen, and you're still happy beyond measure. Yes I'm sad at times, and I have those days where I stay in pajamas and watch movies and TV all day long, but for the most part I know this is a wonderful life.

They love each other.