A Tribute

Throughout the years (centuries, actually) there have been many jokes and tales told about the acrimonious relationships between mother-in-laws and their son-in-laws. The mothers feel that their daughters are worthy of much better spouses, and the husbands feel like their mother-in-laws interfere too much in their lives and try to run things.
I want to go on record to say that I think my son-in-law is as close to being as perfect for my daughter as I think you can get in this lifetime. He always seems to be cheerful, and although I have seen him get upset, I have never seen him really lose his temper. (I'm sure he must - even Jesus lost his temper and drove the money-lenders out of the temple!)
He has always treated me with respect and has never given any indication that he thinks I'm interfering too much in their life. He has a wonderful sense of humor, and the ability to laugh at himself. He takes an interest in my hobbies (especially my creative writing) and actually acts like he's glad to see me when I visit.
So thank you Tyler, for making my daughter so happy, and giving me three and a half adorable grandchildren (although your wife did play a small part in that). May your life be long and harmonious (with four kids?) and may the Lord bless you and your family throughout eternity. Oh - and happy birthday!
(I tried to put a picture of Tyler here - but my computer is not cooperating. However, if you've never seen him - he's really good-looking!)

Toenails

Have you ever thought how peculiar fingernails and toenails are? It is obvious when you cut them off that they aren't alive, but they keep growing anyway. Fingernails seem to grow amazingly fast. I like to keep mine very short, and every time I turn around, I need to pare them down again.

Toenails are a different matter. They are much thicker (at least mine are) and grow much more slowly. I had always wondered (in a back-of-the-mind kind of way) just how fast toenails grow.

Exactly a year ago I was down in Utah helping my daughter and son-in-law celebrate their birthdays (they are 5 days apart). For fun, Maleen and I went and got pedicures. As part of the process, they painted my toenails a deep blue (my choice) and even drew little white flowers on the big toes. They were amazingly pretty, and it took forever for the little sequins they glued on to finally fall off.

Throughout the year I have watched as the bottom line of the blue moved up my toenail. Gradually the paint wore off of all of the toes, except for my left big one, which still has three little blue dots on it. If I was to cut my toenails down to the quick (NOT a good idea), those three little blue dots would disappear.

I can't speak for the littler toenails, but at least for the big one, I can confidently say it takes them about a year to grow from the bottom to the top. And there is a piece of trivia that you probably never expected to know - and didn't even think about in the first place!

I did it!

I work graveyard shift, Tuesday through Saturday. I come home Sunday morning pretty tired, and not really looking forward to going to church. In fact, last year there were many Sundays that I didn't go to church at all, a lot of Sundays where I only stayed for Sacrament meeting, and only a handful of Sundays where I stayed for all three meetings. Needless to say, my conscious has been pricking me about this.

I have really been worried about this year because our church time has changed from 9am - noon and is now 11 am - 2 pm. How on earth was I supposed to handle this? My first thought was when I got home about 6am I could go straight to bed and get a few hours sleep. Well, that idea went out the window last night because I had to work 3 1/2 hours of overtime and didn't get home until about 9am.

Hmm - well, my choices were:
A. Do not go to church, but go to bed. Get up in the late afternoon, have dinner and do Family Home Evening.
B. Go to church just for the Sacrament meeting. Come home and straight to bed, and get up in the early evening, have dinner and do Family Home Evening (although it would be awfully late for Tim who has school tomorrow).
C. Go to church for all three meetings. Come home and have Family Home Evening. Go to bed right after dinner.

I decided against A, but I wasn't sure whether B or C was going to win out - but I DID stay for all three meetings, and felt good about it. Not only that, but as soon as I got home I put together the lesson for Family Home Evening (my turn), and we will be starting in just a couple of minutes. I have to admit that I'm still not sure what we're going for dinner (leftovers?), but I am very proud of myself for actually starting off the new year on such a positive note.

You are allowed to cheer (in moderation), to which I will modestly bow!