Re Do

I don't know if I am totally prepared to write this. I must agree with the Great Queen Della, being older there are so many things that you look back on and wonder if things are as they should be. I'll break this into a couple catagories. 1) Do Over, 2) Regret, (not plural by design, only going to list one, of hundreds), 3) What if's. So first; Do overs. Maybe I should have one pre marriage and one post marriage. In my younger days if there was one thing I could do over, and I don't say this lightly: I would have studied harder and been strickter in keeping all the mission rules. Or in shorter words, I would have liked to have been a better missionary. Also Long term I would have liked to have kept up my language skills, and developed more my reading and writing. I don't mean to say I feel any less about myself, I just think I may have missed out on some really special times. There were a couple companionships that were really unproductive. I feel I missed some lessons and opprtunities. (retitled: What If): again, should that be before marriage or after. 2 things here. When Della and I got married, I had a chance to get on full time at GM building cars in WI. I could have transferred to University in Wisconsin, but because I was so close to graduation, I didn't want to lose any credit transferring from ASU. So we ended up in Arizona and started our family, and graduated 2 years and 2 children later. I often wonder how things would be different if we would have stayed in Wisconsin. (I guess that is not really a regret, more like a what if... Regrets. Maybe I will add this later, I can't really think of any "regret" things. I have a few deep personal things, not really for on line sharing. but I look back on how my life has been blessed, and I feel regrets are just downer things that you can't do anything about, so as a wise man once said... 'accept the things you can not change, and wisdom to know the difference'. So having said that, I am really sorry I missed attending IN the temple the 2 weddings of my beloved children, Blake and Indira; and Liberty and Brandon. Wo, this all of a sudden got heavy and I will just sign off with that. You all should know that I love you, Conference was great this weekend. I loved the Lamb and Sheep Poem... I hope I haven't been a bad papa sheep! I don't believe I was... Be Good Bloggers. Pop.

Regrets, Re-Do's and Do-Overs

Pick a card, any card. As person with more years under my belt, I have a plethora of regrets to choose from. One of them which has needled me over the years concerns our foreign exchange student Yoko who lived with us in Tennessee. This was the year that Jane Westmoreland May decided she was going to be a foreign exchange student group leader and get all of these students placed in houses and we were going to be one of those houses. We chose one from Japan because Benet spoke Japanese and we got Yoko. Yoko was a spoilt "only" child coming from an affluent family whose parents were older. Because of this, she believed that we were not old enough or experienced enough to be parents. She was rude to us and disobeyed my instructions. I tried very hard to give her a good American experience with an American family. She told all of her friends at school that the only reason we had her was so that we could have a live-in babysitter, she was mean to my children and (horror of horrors) broke our stereo. Interestingly enough, all of the Japanese students that came over that year were little SNOTS and did not last with their families longer than 3 or 4 months. Yoko lasted 8 months with us before I finally broke and said she could no longer stay with us. I had always regretted not being more compassionate and better able to endure her in our home. But... I was really really glad when she left.

A PROMPT! ACKKK!

Ok so here it goes. I've been struggling with what to both write about and what to ask everyone else to write about. I had thought about doing a "what bands have had an effect on your life and why" but I just felt like it was an easy way out. So as I've been pondering I got to thinking, if I could redo one thing in my life what would it be. Even with such a potentially engaging prompt I'm struggling to think of something to write about. Not because I have nothing that I would want to take back and do again but because I have so many.

I suppose I have one but with a caveat. If I had redone this mistake I wouldn't have met the love of my life. I wouldn't have begun a life of true fulfillment with my better half.

With that said I shall begin. My second year at BYU I lived in an apartment off campus with three other guys that I didn't know. Living in the apartment was AWESOME. I felt so free and could do whatever I wanted whenever I wanted. Sadly that freedom went to my head. I slowly but surely missed more and more classes and eventually just stayed in my apartment all day. This led to isolation to the Nth degree. This isolation led to shame and that shame led me to avoid almost everyone.

Like I said at the beginning, it's not the fact that I in the end left BYU that I would redo, but what I would want to redo is to have left BYU under better terms. Having lived a better life, having done well in my studies. That is my biggest regret, that I left in disgrace.

Now that I have laid bare one of my faults I hope that you can see me more as a real person rather that what imagined construct you have of me. I love you all. Be fabulous and wonderful as always!

MOMMA DELLA!

MOMMA DELLA!

What would we do without you? You are kind and loving and fun to be with. One of my first memories of you was when you took Lib and I and Benet through your school. I had planned on trying to walk and without even asking you had a push chair for me. That's when I knew that you had a heart of gold. Thank you for being so caring and such a boon for Lib and I. May your year be filled with happiness and joy because you deserve it.

With Love,

Your Newest Son,

Brandon

MAMMA MIA MAMMA MIA MAMMA MIA LET ME GO!

Happy Birthday Mom!
We all love you dearly.



Thanks for putting up with us and all our silliness. And even including some silliness of your own. ;] These pirate pics were your idea, were they not?



Thanks for being so groovy. I always appreciated you looking out for us and 'loving us no matter what.' You are a great and wonderful mom. WE LOVE YOU!

LIBERRRRRRTY!!!

Is this Rugburn's Sister?? What was her name?? She is a doll isn't she? Making some sort of Health Service Announcement Video from the Way back Machine.

I love that she was so much fun to play with. She and Julia were so much fun together and such good friends. There were many of my friends with daughters who screamed at each other and fought like cats and dogs. For the most part, Liberty and Julia got along famously.
(I know this picture is sideways - please send me a message to tell me how to not do this in the future - they scanned in sideways, i fixed them, but they still uploaded sideways. grrrr.)
Liberty - I love you so much. You are a joy and a great example of excellence to me. Have a wonderful and a joyous birthday. kisses and love. Momm

Birthday Blake Wishes

This is a wonderful picture of Blake wearing the ... is it Mr. Potato Head glasses?? I don't know, but it makes me smile. The next picture of The Three Amigos, I am trying to turn sideways... *grunt*, *twist* groan - no dice.... it came out sideways and no matter how I try to twist it, it won't upload correctly. This is the boys sitting upside down on the couch.... just turn your head sideways like one of the Hyperbole and a Half blog kids.

The next is showing one of Blake's secret talents - the ability to blow up a latex glove and put it on his head. yeah - hahaha. I love it when he does that. Lastly - is Blake doing the Happy Dance because he graduated from High School and did not have to go to the First Day of School. That was a happy day for him.



LOVE YOU BLAKE!!! Have a happy Birthday.