Ummm...

Hi.  I am still here.  I am just uninteresting.  Or uninterested, you choose. 

Uploading my photos this summer turned out to be a much too complicated endeavor for me and, frankly, I was much happier spending my time in the sunshine than holed up in front of my screen. 

Eventually I may get around to it, but really, it's kinda late, don't ya think?

I am creeping up on the big 3-5 this week.  I am in many ways amazed to think that I have walked this earth for that long.  It feels like a heart beat in many ways, yet soooo much has happened in that time.

More amazing is my parent's celebrating their 36th anniversary on Tuesday.  Wow.  In the midst of all the changes and transition we are experiencing it gives me great inspiration to watch them tackle all of life's curve balls together and still be, well, together. 

I was thinking of this today.  All the things they've held on through.

Deaths (particularly of a child).

Financial stress.

Family stress.

Children aging.

Parents aging.

Broken lawn mowers.

Problematic septic fields.

Car "accidents".

Hopes and dreams not realized.

It doesn't end just because we get older and "grow up".

But, lest you think their life is miserable, there's a lot of good to brighten up the lows.

Marriages.

Grandkids.

Having work.

Missions.

All the kids home to visit.

A beautiful yard as a result of some really hard work together.

Good friends.

Oh, and all the above negativities just having a way of working out.

I see now the truth in Marjorie Hinckley's statement:

"Sometimes the pattern of life seems a little monotonous - and discouraging.  It is like climbing a mountain and, after reaching the top, getting knocked back down to the bottom to climb it again; but I guess the fun is in climbing and not in arriving.  I hope so!"

Maybe we spend a lot of  our lives uninterested.  Just surviving.  Waiting for the better times to come along.  When really they're right here with us.

Thanks Mom and Dad for helping me see that life is made up of all these things, big and little. 

36 years.  I hope my marriage is full of mountains by the time I get there.  It will make it all the more exciting to look back on, won't it?