Selfish

We just got back from Christmas break. It was a faith-building experience, and I mean that completely seriously. Oh how grateful I was for sleeping babies on that red-eye flight, the product of priesthood blessings given earlier that day. Four sick, tired, Calls. And we made it home.

Earlier in the week, though, I got to spend some wonderful time with our family. Emilee, Kiara, Amber, Jared, Wayne, Adrienne, Adam, Sam and all the kiddos. And something I cherish with each of these beautiful people is the thoughtful conversation that just seems to happen. In-laws, whatever. These people are my friends. They are my family. No strings attached.

I had the chance to put together a couple cute blogs and re-designs for Emilee, Kiara and Wayne while I was out there and not working on other projects. And it dug up some good thoughtful conversation on things I hadn't really given a lot of brain power to before. We were setting up Wayne's blog. He's currently fighting cancer right now and doing a heck of a good job of it. I designed a blog for him to tell his story. Because it needs to be told. And we were talking about linking it up to Facebook and why you would or would not do something like that. And Emilee said something that hit me:

"I'm a selfish blogger, so I don't link mine up. My blog is for me. I blog to record our story."

Wayne is blogging to tell his story and to hopefully connect with other people and get support and give support. When I was going through infertility, I wanted to connect with other people. I wanted to get our story out there and hopefully cure some of the ignorance that surrounds infertility. I wanted, needed support. I gained so much strength in that period of my life from sharing our story. And oh, I made some awesome friends.

But, my purpose has really changed. I have been compiling yearbooks for our family. I'm recording our family history. And I love it. The posts about what we did, our memories, etc. They mean the world to me. Our pictures. Our family. That's what I want. That's what I need to record.

So, I'm taking a leaf out of Emilee's book and getting selfish this year. (and hopefully for years to come.) My purpose to blog is to record our family history. And it won't be linked up anywhere anymore. I'm blogging for us. For my family. We are far, far away from our relatives. Grandparents and aunts and uncles and close friends want to know what we're up to. Blogging is the best way I know to update everyone and keep a record at the same time.

Because our life is beautiful. 

I will record it for us.

Garage Sale Score!

During the week I was in Flagstaff while Cam was driving all over the country, my dad watched the boys so my mom and I could hit a few garage sales. One boasted a bunch of baby toys so we went out with high hopes. That one turned out to be a bust. BUT, there were signs all over the neighborhood for other garage sales so away we went.

We pulled onto a pretty deserted road and after a quick pep talk to my mother about how if there is satan music, we are not getting out of the car [once upon a time, her and I stumbled into a bad craigslist situation with potentially stolen leather couches, satan music, and wannabe pro-wrestler salesmen...perhaps I should tell that story sometime...lol] we pulled into a storage complex. The "garage sale" was in a couple units on the front row. We drove by the unit, decided there were no toys and started to pull a U-ey. My mom had driven by the unit again on the way out and I made her back up. I couldn't tell if it was a camping chair or a stroller, but I jumped out to give it a better look. Folded up in the corner was a double umbrella stroller!

We bought it for $25 before we realized we couldn't get it to open. A half hour of working on it with my dad and we had ourselves a darn near perfect umbrella stroller for the boys. And so we went on a walk. And it rocked.

This is my ticket out of the house. It is so much easier to pick up and go when I don't have to haul the carseats and that massive stroller. And the boys get to hold hands if they want. Win-win. We have fully enjoyed it so far.

AND last major perk, we were pretty calculated as to what we could take on the flight for free and the ONLY other thing we could possibly bring was another stroller. Two babies, two strollers. Boom.