Happy Mother's Day!

A wealth of emotions run through my soul every year at this time. It is on Mother's Day when I think of my mother who died when I was 22 years old from cancer. My mind and heart dwells on the woman my dad remarried and who I now think of as mother, a friend, and in some ways my very soul mate.

I was so richly blessed to have the mother I did. It was her face I saw every morning when I woke up and it was her beautiful face I saw when I was tucked into bed at night. My mother brought joy, laughter, history, the love of music, and a thirst for continual knowledge. My mother installed in each of her children valuable characteristics we hold close to our hearts. I knew God lived because my mother knew God lived. I also knew when my mom knelt to pray God heard her morning, evening and silent prayers. Above all, I knew and my siblings knew, mom loved dad and dad loved mom!

After my mom died, another remarkable, feisty, humorous, compassionate and spiritual woman entered our lives named, Francine Smith Swanson Larsen. The world may label Fran as my stepmother, but I call her 'MOM' (or if you look at mom upside down it spells, 'WoW!)! This precious angel may not have rocked me to sleep at night, but she has wiped away my tears. She was with me when I married Lynn. One mother set my foot on a certain pathway and the other mother is making sure I stay on that straight and narrow path.

Before Fran and dad got married, our family size consisted of five. Our family doubled in size and blessings when mom brought with her four amazing daughters and one remarkable son. Our family unit is now eleven!!!! All nine of us know our mother believes in God and that she loves God. We also know that God hears our mother's morning, evening and silent prayers as she petitions her pleas to God. All nine of us know mom loved dad and that dad was completely enthralled and in love with mom!!!

I am so blessed on this eve before Mother's Day to ponder and to be blessed by two extraordinary women in my life who I call, 'MOM'! I walk(ed) and talk(ed) with angels on earth and I call them 'mom'! No angel in heaven could be as beautiful or exemplary as my mom(s).

I never had the chance to meet Lynn's mother. She died from cancer before Lynn and I were married. From the pictures I've seen and stories from my father-in-law, her children and friends, she too, was admired and loved by all who knew her. Lynn's mother was God-fearing. She had a voracious appetite and love for music, literature and gardens. Lynn's mother's proudest achievement was her five beautiful daughters and two handsome sons. My mother-in-law's daughters (my sisters-in-law) radiate their mother's image to me every day by their kind hearts and benevolent love towards their own families and to complete strangers. In my sisters-in-law, my brother-in-law, and in my husband's eyes and mannerisms, I see and love Lynn's mother!!!

To our mothers and to all the women in our lives who are mothers or will eventually be mothers and who holds destiny's future in their hands, Happy Mother's Day!

Juicy Tidbits ...

I have to start this entry by letting you know, MY MOM IS COMING FOR A VISIT! :o) My mom will be here for a very short window span, but I am so grateful for the time she is taking out of her busy and hectic schedule in Utah to visit with us. It is hard to share time with mom when there are nine of us clamoring for her undivided attention, plus my other siblings have more arsenals in their bag of tricks to keep my mom’s attention, they include ‘grandchildren’. My mom will be coming in on Wednesday, Oct 21st and heading back to Utah Sunday evening, Oct. 25th. So our time frame isn’t that long, but it will be jam packed with love, love, and then more love. I am fortunate though that one of my wonderful nieces and her family don’t live far from us in Aurora.

I received ‘good news’ this week. I had to take a few days off from work due to the flu and I was worried about my temporary work assignment with PDS Tech. Inc. When I came home from work on Monday, I found a message on the answering machine. Hartford Insurance wants to extend my contract for another 2 months. Ana (w/PDS) said that the professionals at Hartford like my attitude and my work ethics. YAHOO!!! That means I may be working with Hartford/PDS up until Thanksgiving, and who knows … it may be longer than that if Hartford wants to extend my contract even longer. We (my other temp colleagues and friends, Nadine and Anita) have started a gigantic, multi-tasking project. Anita, Nadine and I work so well together. We are over hauling the filing system. I didn’t think it would be so time consuming. But, there seems to be one small hurdle after another. I don’t mind it though. I love, absolutely love, working on a project where I can actually see some kind of progress. I am so glad Nadine and Anita started with me. Working as three, rather than one lonely temp, has been divine. We are the ‘Three Musketeers’ in all aspects when it comes to our job at Hartford.

We are still waiting to hear if Lynn’s contract with the Army Reserve will be renewed the first part of October (2009). Yep, the date is right around the corner! The Reserve Unit he’s with definitely wants to renew it and keep Lynn on, but the paperwork is being shuffled through the federal bureaucracy. Last year Lynn had to take a few personal days off because his contract didn’t get signed in time. – I’m glad that Hartford & PDS Techs don’t take that long to finalize things.

Lynn's sister's husband received a surprise job offer, and they are now moving to Southern Utah. Lynn's youngest sister, Pauline's, husband will be in Iraq for the year. He is in Kuwait now and is traveling today to Iraq. We have 2 nephews who are on missions for our church. One is in New York the other in South Africa. Both, JJ and David, love the areas they are in, they love the people with all their heart and enjoying new cultural experiences.

My sister, Lisa, is still going through chemo for breast cancer. Lisa is on a second type of chemo and it has actually made her more ill than the first concotion they gave her. My older sister, Linda, has had a few health problems crop up this year with multiple kidney stones that are in both kidneys. The medical teams are still trying to find an explanation for the kidney stones and a cure.

The rest of our families are doing well. We have a myriad of nieces and nephews that are in grade school, junior/senior high school, and college. All of our siblings are doing well, rattling around their houses, trying to keep up with their tykes and school kids, etc. .. living life to the fullest.

Next week we’re suppose to get our first ‘real’ taste of fall. Cool temps, wind, rain … I just LOVE FALL!!!:o)

-Shelly

Our Thoughts Turned to Our Dads ...

I heard a thought the other day from Charles Wadsworth, and I'm paraphrasing, "By the time a man or woman realizes their father was right, they usually have their own son or daughter who thinks they are wrong."


God bless the wonderful men in the world who are fathers, sons, grandfathers, uncles and fathers-to-be, who reach out to the children and youth of the world and makes each one feel safe and loved.



We want to pay tribute to my dad and to Lynn's dad. Both men have gone the way of the earth, and both fathers were stalwart, diligent, committed, brave, and fearless in defending the freedom of our country. They gave their entire essence and sacrificed all for their religion, their wives, their sons, and their daughters. Our fathers (& mothers) are why we are who we are. If we are half the example that they were to us, then our world is blessed and then our fathers objectives while on earth was a success.


We LOVE and MISS you Dad, and thank you!


Lynn & Shelly