I ran into a stranger as he passed by,
"Oh excuse me please" was my reply.
He said, "Please excuse me too;
I wasn't watching for you."

We were very polite, this stranger and I.
We went on our way and we said goodbye.
But at home a different story is told,
How we treat our loved ones, young and old.

Later that day, cooking the evening meal,
My son stood beside me very still.
When I turned, I nearly knocked him down.
"Move out of the way," I said with a frown.

He walked away, his little heart broken.
I didn't realize how harshly I'd spoken.
While I lay awake in bed,
God's still small voice came to me and said,
"While dealing with a stranger, common courtesy you use,
but the family you love, you seem to abuse.
Go and look on the kitchen floor,
You'll find some flowers there by the door.
Those are the flowers he brought for you.
He picked them himself: pink, yellow and blue.
He stood very quietly not to spoil the surprise,
you never saw the tears that filled his little eyes."

By this time, I felt very small,
And now my tears began to fall.
I quietly went and knelt by his bed;
"Wake up, little one, wake up," I said.

"Are these the flowers you picked for me?"
He smiled, "I found 'em, out by the tree.
I picked 'em because they're pretty like you.
I knew you'd like 'em, especially the blue."

I said, "Son, I'm very sorry for the way I acted today;
I shouldn't have yelled at you that way."
He said, "Oh, Mom, that's okay. I love you anyway."

I said, "Son, I love you too,
and I do like the flowers, especially the blue."

Are you aware that if we died tomorrow, the company that we are working for could easily replace us in a matter of days. But the family we left behind will feel the loss for the rest of their lives.

I received this in an email earlier today and it hits close to home doesn't it? I don't work anymore, buy still find that I lose my patience with Landon over the silliest things. Why do we do that? Is what we're doing so much more important than the few moments that our kids want from us? I forwarded this email to those that it already wasn't forwarded to by my Grams, so I know it's a repeat....but it's something to think about.

Mackenzee

did I mention how cute she is?????

Greta

This is the usual look you get from Greta. It combines sadness and anger all in one....she can even make this face when she is happy.....it's truly amazing..... :O)

brainiac

Yes...she reads already...... :O)

Talon's Birthday

for Talon's birthday I got him a wallet with $8 in it because he turned eight.


Happy Birthday!!!!

parade pics

Genea, Shelby and Landon


Jon, Austin and Talon

Here you are Holly!!! Greta wouldn't let me take her picture, but here's Alina Mae....isn't she adorable??? She even sucks her thumb....Almost as cute as mine....almost.


See???? Way cuter!!!

photos later

Okay...my server is making me angry. It keeps freezing up on me. So....the whole picture thing is just not working for me. Anyway....

It's been a few days...but it's been a busy week. The weekend was quite a whirlwind, with plenty of new pictures for my scrapbook....I just have to find some time to actually do that. Sigh. One day. I keep saying that.. I just need to force myself to find the time. The only problem is that I sit down to do it, but my brain is so fried from everything else that I have no creativity left in me for my photos. Argh!!!!

So, back to the weekend. Saturday morning started off with the Western Days parade here in town. It was soooo long. But the kids got a lot of candy...and unfortunately a lot of sunburn. Even poor Kenzee ended up with red cheeks where we were unable to get the sunscreen on. She has these little red patches under her eyes. After the parade we went to my brothers house for my nephews birthday. He turned 8 this last week. Which is a big deal. Eight means getting baptized...so we had his baptism Saturday night. Kudos to him!!! He's getting so big. He used to be so little...I remember when he was my nephew Riley's age (1 1/2). Sigh. I know...nostalgic...but I am getting older this month too. Not too excited about that, but we'll move on. Sunday we went to Paul for a friend's baby blessing. Their third little boy. We are so excited for them. And now...we're back to another week. Starting with baseball practice tonight, and then the first baseball game tomorrow morning, golf camp tomorrow night, and then we do it all over again on Thursday. How do mom's with multiple sports players do it? I already feel the stress just knowing how much running around I will be doing the next several weeks. Somehow I ended up being Landon's assistant coach for baseball too...so that's thrown in there as well.

Anyway.....it was a fun filled.....family filled weekend. And I'm exhausted. Although Kenzee did grace us with a full night's sleep. No waking up the whole night!!! It was miraculous...although she did end up waking up screaming from teething pain. Poor little girl. If it's not one thing it's another.