Speed Dating

Jeremy and I are enjoying this stage in our family right now. One of the best parts is that the kids are old enough for us to leave for chunks of time while we go out and party hearty. Ironically, just as we are reaching this coveted stage, the kids are also old enough that they have multiple activities pulling us in different directions, making date nights difficult to arrange. But we shall persevere and overcome!

To celebrate Valentine's last night, we decided to just get some take out to eat when the kids were in bed. But the complications of this plan became apparent when we outlined the evening's activities. Aiden had to be at basketball practice from 6-7. Marissa had dance from 6:45-7:45. In between all this there was homework and practicing to enforce. It was also bath night. And then bedtime is usually staggered from about 8 until after 10 most days. Take out wasn't sounding like such a great idea after all.

Did I already mention that we shall overcome? I applied my thinking cap and realized that if we got one of Aiden's teammates to bring him home from practice, Jeremy and I could go together to drop Marissa off at dance and then head to one of our town's fine dining establishments for a meal.

Herein lies another kink in our not-so-well-laid plans. Our town has almost no options for a decent meal. We have an assortment of fast food, which would work for our time constraints, but the food snob in me asserted itself against Burger King, et. al., for Valentine's. That left about 2 other choices. We stopped at one, saw the waiting line, and knew that wouldn't work. That's when we remembered another little restaurant down the way: a BBQ joint called Sean's. Plumb out of feasible alternatives and running out of time, we skipped on over. I ordered a beef brisket sandwich on Texas toast with a side of sweet potato fries and sampled the Black and Blue [blueberries and blackberries] BBQ sauce. Jeremy tried the triple threat, a combination sandwich with pulled pork, ham, and bacon. He got steak fries on the side but kept stealing mine. May I say that I am completely won over? I have been thinking about that sandwich ever since. Even now, I think I'm drooling just a little. And to top it off, the timing was perfect. We licked our fingers and arrived back at the dance studio with a few minutes to spare.

It may not have been leisure or well thought out or highly romantic, but Jeremy and I made it a delightful and delicious Valentine's speed date. The very best part, I must add, was the company. Happy Valentine's day to my friend and true love!

True Love

We took our family to tithing settlement on Sunday and were engaged in some small talk with the bishop. He asked each of the kids what is his or her favorite thing to do. Then he asked Marissa what is my favorite thing to do. She thought briefly and said, "Smooch my dad." Well, after passing through various stages of embarrassment -- a) turn several shades of red; b) giggle uncontrollably; c) karate chop the progression of any further conversation; d) flee at the soonest possible moment -- I came to a conclusion.

I am in possession of a rare treasure.

While the setting was vastly inappropriate for such a declaration, I feel so, so, SO grateful that our children see and recognize love in our home. I'm glad they know that Jeremy and I love each other. I count my blessings to have married a funny and charming and respectful and forgiving and loving man who shows our kids how a woman should be treated. The fact that I like to smooch him is just an added bonus.

Gratitude

Last Sunday, I was struck with a migraine right about time to fix dinner. I crashed, leaving Jeremy to fend for himself and the rest of the gang. He resorted to the emergency stash of frozen cardboard pizza. It was Aiden's turn to say the blessing on the food. How's this for sincerity?

"We're thankful for this food that Dad . . .

. . . put into the oven."

On the subject of food, I submit we should also be grateful for a free enterprise system of feeding our faces. During our garden's heyday this summer, we had an abundance of zucchini which I tried to use in diverse and sneaky ways. Jeremy will readily admit that he likes zucchini a grand total of once every summer, but I was undeterred. One day I chopped it up and hid it inside a calzone. The kids scarfed it down, so I reveled in my success until Jeremy made a comment about our Communist dinner. Ha! I guess that makes me the czar.

Mother's Day Math

I'm pretty sure I've discovered the formula for a great mother's day. It goes something like this:

1 really, truly amazing husband
+
[loving kid]^4
+
2 perfectly cooked slabs of baby back ribs
+
1 peaceful afternoon nap
+
[1 video chat] x [the whole Bogardus family, including Elder Spencer who had dinner at Bethany's house . . . when does that ever happen?]
=

Ideal!

For the record, Jeremy will never again be allowed to plead incapability when it comes to cooking. His ribs proved otherwise. Thanks to Brendan and Chris for sharing the recipe.

One more mother's day math problem for you to puzzle over. Aiden told me he thinks Zeke will live to be 15 and 14 quarters. The funny thing about that is he thinks of quarters in terms of money. I'm not quite sure how you translate that into time, so I'm curious to know how that will work.

Are We Really There?

The last month or so has provided me with several moments to reflect and pause in wonder that my life has progressed to its current point. It started with my little Caleb turning 12. Actually, he has never been little. Nine pounds at birth, and growing like a weed ever since -- he had his 12-year-old checkup yesterday and measured 5 feet 5 inches [97th percentile] and 112 pounds [75th percentile]. Yikes! Somehow, when I see him every day, his transformation from this . . .

. . . to this . . .

. . . seems like not such a big deal. But, really, when did it become possible for me to be the mother of a 12-year-old? Such a strange feeling. However, if I must be there already, I feel so privileged to be the mother of this 12-year-old. Caleb is a treasure. He is kind, conscientious, and tries to live with integrity. He has some fears, but he is working hard to be more responsible, to set goals and reach them, and to improve his talents. He has a strong moral compass and faith in God. One of the significant milestones of this birthday was that Caleb received the Aaronic Priesthood. Caleb is one who feels things deeply and has for some time recognized how the Holy Ghost communicates with him, and Jeremy ordaining him to the Priesthood was a tender moment for all of us.

Caleb had a friend party, which I should probably document, especially because I forgot to pull out the camera. Shame on me. The boys came over and ate dinner. We decided to do sloppy joes since pizza is way overdone at parties. Then Jeremy took them to the bowling alley. They played a game of bowling and still had a ton of time to "kill," so they played some laser tag. I'm not sure who had more fun, the boys or Jeremy. Afterward, they came back to our house, had root beer floats, and played the Wii for awhile until they were ready to end.

One more note. . . You might not be able to tell from the picture, but Caleb requested a Wii remote cake this year. I tried to convince him that he's old enough now to just get a regular cake, but he wanted one last hurrah. [We'll see if it's really the last. I'm kind of a sucker.] It didn't turn out fantastic, but you could tell what it was meant to be.

--- --- --- --- --- --- ---

I had another awe - some reflection when I realized I have celebrated Jeremy's birthday with him for 15 years now. Yep, we have now been together for THAT long. This is us way back then posing in front of the BY Academy [since restored and repurposed as the Provo City Library].

I thought back to how we celebrated his birthday 15 years ago and remembered we went to The Roof restaurant at the top of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. He requested this as his gift from his parents. I wish I could remember what I gave him. Probably not much of anything, since I was a poor student. After dinner, we wandered around Temple Square and had a conversation that brought us a little closer to making the decision to get married. We actually got engaged just about a month later. And look where we are now. I count my blessings every day that I have Jeremy as a companion and friend. He is my best gift.

The Best Advice Ever

We celebrated New Year's Eve with some friends and played a game [I can't recall the name] where the players were posed random questions. Each person wrote down their response, after which the "It" player had to guess what response belonged to which player. The question I drew:

"What is the best advice you have ever received?"

The responses were then gathered and read. One of them resulted in puzzled looks all around:

"Go and find your feather."

But I knew exactly who wrote that one down. The very best part was when Jeremy tried to explain his answer with a demonstration, complete with sign language. I giggled for days.

Background: BYU has a group of Native American/Latin American/Polynesian dancers and singers. When Jeremy was little, his family participated in a foster program and hosted a Native American girl for a while. As part of their participation, they were invited to watch this group perform. Apparently it left quite an impression on him. Here's a link if you really want more background.