Christmas Eve

11 years ago, I had NO idea what was about to take place. The ring had been purchased, the parents had been asked, the proposal had been carefully thought out and planned. The secret had been beautifully kept...from me. Many of the people in my world knew all about what was going to take place on Christmas Eve 2001. I was just thinking about that night. It still makes me happy. This Christmas is a pretty close 2nd to that one. I have everything I could ever need or want. I have 4 beautiful healthy children and a husband who loves us. I have a personal relationship with and testimony of my Savior Jesus Christ. What more could a girl ask for? Merry Christmas.

Me and my shadow...who's afraid of his shadow.

So, a few weeks ago some friends were posting a video on facebook found on youtube. It was a prank on an elevator. An unsuspecting woman gets on the elevator and shortly after the elevator shakes and the lights shut off. While in the dark, the pranksters sneak a creepy little girl into the elevator from a hidden door. She looks like something from a horror movie. When the lights come back on the woman is terrified! You really should look it up if you haven't seen it. It's hilarious. HOWEVER, as Greg was watching it, Zane was peering over his shoulder. Zane has been beyond scared ever since. He wants to be in the same room as me (or an adult) at all times. He won't even go to the bathroom by himself. He will say, "Race me to the bathroom!...and STAY in there until I'm done!" We don't even have the heart to put him in his room for time out because he is genuinely frightened. He screams and you can just see the terror on his face. Bedtime is also a nightmare! He wants to sleep in our bed but he snores and literally moves ALL OVER THE PLACE. Every night it's a fight to get him to go to bed. Friday night (after the Connecticut Tragedy) I was assuring him that he was safe and that nothing was going to happen to him. But in the back of my mind I'm thinking, "How can I promise him that? I don't KNOW that nothing is going to happen to him. Someone COULD break in. And that someone COULD be flat out crazy and hurt or kill all of us." But I just continued to try and convince him that he would be alright. It makes me so sad to think that that's the kind of world my kids get to grow up in. A world where we literally DO live in fear. I just have to keep telling them (and myself) that there is plenty of good in the world still.