Preschool Graduation

Ninja had a great time at preschool this past school year. He had so much fun making friends and learning.

Ninja with Miss Ellen. The entire year he called her "Miss Melon" and she thought it was so cute. She wouldn't let me correct him.

Miss Bridget and Ninja

Ninja and his best friend Wolfgang. Wolfie was also our neighbor and the boys would play together almost every day. Sadly, Wolfie and his family moved recently.

Ninja was less than thrilled to be a part of the graduation ceremonies. He would not go up when they called his name and refused to wear his hat that he had made.

Family Camping at the Beach

In mid-June, Antonio and I took the boys to the beach to camp for one night. I'm not a big camper, especially when it rains all night (I slept in the car), but we had a great time hanging out as a family.

Father/Son's campout - 2009

Antonio took the boys on the annual Father/Son campout with our stake. They boys had fun (even though Gambit got dirt thrown in his face) and Mrs. Mom had fun with the house to herself for a night.

Let's hear a collective..."Awwww"

Sleep is for the weak. I'm a proud weakling.

I'm a natural night owl. No matter how much sleep I got the night before, my body just goes wide awake at about 10pm. It would be great for me if I could sleep from 2am-10am. But, other demands keep on demanding that I arise at 7:30am. I don't function well for the first few hours. I'm groggy, sleepy, grumpy, and hungry, though I usually am so busy in the mornings taking care of everyone else or trying so hard not to fall asleep on my living room floor that I forget to eat breakfast. So here I am, at just after midnight, blogging away.

What I've also decided is that I am not a naturally happy person. Not to say that I'm a walking pessimist. On the contrary, I think I have a pretty good knack for being relatively optimistic. But I don't have that "happy" personality. The first person that comes to my mind is my sister-in-law Aunt Bee. She is just so happy. All the time. Maybe it's her silly little laugh that just transports you to the carefree days of childhood, or the way she embraces and enjoys life with all the wonderful and tragic things that are bound to happen. Whatever her secret is, I used to be super jealous. I always wanted to be like that instead of my reality of relying on a hefty dose of Prozac just to keep me from jumping out the window. (kidding, sort of) Then I finally chose to be okay that I'm not the bubbly, giggly girl. I'm quite satisfied with my life and what I have made of it. So instead of being happy, I'm happy just being content.

On another note, I had a wonderful and powerful experience in receiving some personal revelation recently. As I'm still processing the result of said experience, I'm not ready to blog about it yet. But I do want to say that I love Jesus! Love Him. And even though the things I am meant to do in my life might be scary, and even though I might not want to do them at all, I will because I love and trust Him. And that alone is enough to carry me through.

Chee-Kah-Go

Grandad (A. Meadows), Aunt Bee, me, Papa (R. O'dell), and Grandmom (J. Simmons).

His study desk in the library that will no longer be littered with papers, essays, and hundreds of law books.

I flew to Chicago last week to surprise my brother and come for his graduation from The Law School at the University of Chicago. I'm so proud of him and all the time and effort he put in to making this day a reality, and I would also like to brag that he graduated with honors. He has a job lined up in Portland with a firm called Holland and Knight. I'm so excited that he and his wife and two little boys will be living so close to us soon! Congratulations Uncle Gee! The long awaited day has finally come and gone and now you can begin real life!

Nephews

My nephews are so cute. I had so much fun visiting them and getting to play for 3 days! I can't wait until you boys are just a short drive away :)