Father's Day

This picture is an oldie, but a goody. It was taken when Merrick was less than six months old and to me it represents foreshadowing of the great dad Jeremy would become.

Since it is Father's Day I just wanted to take a moment to express my love for all the wonderful fathers in my life.

First and foremost, I am grateful for Jeremy. I could not have asked for a better companion and partner. He is such a great dad and example. Sometimes I wish he would not teach Merrick boy things (like how to spit while playing baseball), but mostly he teaches him how to be respectful of me and how to become a great man one day.

I am grateful for my dad and Jeremy's dad. They are such examples of love, service and worthily holding the priesthood.

Lastly, I am thankful for all our grandfathers. Jeremy's grandpas are both still with us. One of my grandfathers has passed on and my grandpa Whyte is critically ill. All of these men, both those still with us and those who have passed on have taught us about faith, hard work, love and sacrifice.

I want to wish a Happy Father's Day to all the men in my life who have taught me, led me, and made me a better person.

The Straw

I sit here waiting for inspiration on what to write about this week and I am at a bit of a loss. Usually I try to keep the blog kind of light, not that I pretend bad things don't happen to us, but I do try to focus on the positive. But at the end of this week, I am struggling to focus on the positive. Everyday brought a new challenge or difficultly (and often more than one) and by the end of the week I was feeling like the camel, waiting for the straw. It wasn't just us either. I has been a really tough week for many people we love.

So now I struggle with what to say about the week. To pretend it was an okay week would be false, on the other hand, most of what happened is too close to my heart to talk about in this type of forum.

What I can say is this week I lost my job. My boss has been out of money for a long time and has just been limping along, paying me out of her pocket just to keep us going. This week she realized she can't even do that anymore. Luckily Jeremy has a summer job right now so we will be okay while I figure out what is next, but it was still a really big blow.

Like I said, the rest I won't talk about right now, but it has definitely driven us to our knees. If you are wondering what you can do to help, if you have any leads on a job I would gladly take them and other than that, we could always use prayers. I know I will be praying hard for a better week next week.

Our New Life

As I mentioned last week, this week Jeremy started summer school. Not only did he start classes, but he also increased his work hours to 35 hours per week. He leaves the house at 7:30 am and gets home sometime between 9:30 and 10 pm. This has made for some very longs days with many more long days to come.

Despite this crazy schedule, we have found a way to make some time to spend as a family. Our crazy days go as follows: Jeremy works until 3:30 and then studies until just before 5:30. Meanwhile I make dinner and pack it up to go and at 5:30 Merrick and I meet Jeremy at the school for dinner. We eat dinner and then take a walk through the forest to the school's baseball fields. We play a little baseball as a family until 7. After baseball we walk back to the car and get Merrick dressed in his pajamas. At 7:15 Merrick and I head home to make Merrick's 7:30 bedtime and Jeremy heads into school to make his 7:30 class.









When you see it written out it seems really crazy, but I just feel blessed that we are able to do it. Had Jeremy gone to a different school, had we lived farther from the school, or had Jeremy's work been farther from school, this would not be possible. When we were deciding which school Jeremy should go to, we felt prompted that if he went to Lewis and Clark, we would be able to spend the most time together as a family and I feel really grateful that despite the craziness, we have this precious time together.