Merritt Memories

I know there are many answers to this question. The possibilities are endless. There are many events in life, where at the end of it, you have that I can do anything feeling, especially in being a parent! Last night I was woken up by faint cries and moans. They were coming from Kate's room. I walked in there and she said, "Mom, my belly hurts." We have been suffering from a mild case of the flu due to my lack of preparedness and I forgot to have all kids get their flu shots. "Here we go, " I thought. I ran and got her a "puke bucket," a.k.a any Tupperware bowl. I gave it to her and let her know it was there. I settled back into bed and fell asleep. A half hour later I heard her little body wrenching and heaving. Poor thing! This continued for about three hours. She kept rotating between the toilet and her bucket. The last time she groaned, "Mom, I don't like this." I felt bad for her. She has never been sick like that. Throwing up and ...

Rebecca Anne always makes us laugh! Out of all of our children she is the craziest! I dedicate this post to her because I want to be able to remember the funny things that seem to pop out of her mouth that make me chuckle. 1. "I promise never to do it ever again!" 2. "Oh, I'm sorry, Mom." 3. "We girls have to stick together!" 4. "You are so beautiful." 5. "Don't smell me!" 6. "Don't look out my window. Look out your own window!" 7. "Take it easy, Ace. Take it easy." (She says this as she approaches him, like he's a wild animal. He's just a tad nervous around her) 8. "Pinkie promise?" 9. "Oh, nothing." 10. "B-E-C-C-A"

Dust and I are celebrating out 12t h wedding anniversary! Time flies by so fast but when I asked, "Has it felt like an eternity?" He jokingly said, "Yes." We went for a stroll down memory lane. For dinner we went to J alisco , it's a Mexican restaurant . It is the first place we ate together, over 13 yrs ago! We both agreed it is not as good as it used to be, but it was fun to think back of our dating years, well I guess 9 mo. We went downtown and went to The Off Broadway Theatre. We frequented that place a lot! we loved Quick Wits (now Laughing Stock). It is an improv production. It still amazes me that they are able to think of things right off the top of their heads. I thought they did really well, Dust was a little bummed because his favorite actor was not there. It was still fun! We rode the Trax and boy was that an adventure. There was a homeless lady on there and she was just full of information! In case you didn't know tall people learn to grab ...

So, I promised you a glance of the REAL family pictures. I know that in photos we usually choose the one where everybody is at their best. We rarely want to expose ourselves of anything less than perfect. Well, I'm a fan of reality. I'm not embarrassed to let you know of our little fumbles in life. Nobody likes the "perfect" people anyway. They always seem to depress us who do not fare so well. While I won't be sending these pictures out with the Christmas cards, they will sit on my dresser... FRAMED! It will be my little reminder to not take life so seriously. Life is too short to sweat the small stuff! My joy today comes from knowing my family isn't perfect and we don't claim to be. We know that we were put in families to help each other to be better. Some days we're better at it than others, the important thing is we just keep trying! Dustin having a battle with the root he tripped over. Needless to say the root won! Aaron is the only one worrying ...

I was woken early this morning by the sounds of little pitter patters on our window. I thought, "Oh it's raining. This is going to be a bad day. I can just feel it." And it wasn't just because I had aches and pains from the weather change,- gees I'm old- I wasn't looking forward to another day with the kids indoors. I fell back asleep and woke up again because of the same noise. I was hoping that it would only last the early morning hours and move on, but it hadn't. Since I was awake, I decided to getup. I looked out the window and guess what I saw? SNOW! Yucky, b lucky , mucky snow! I was instantly depressed. "You better wake the kids early," I thought. I was going to be one of those prepared mothers. This was my first time having the privilege of driving my kids to their far, far away school. I thought I should probably leave about 10 minutes early to allow time for the weather. The school was a normal 10-15 minute drive so that should be pl...

We are counseled to pray each morning and night as a family. This is something I can say we are ALMOST perfect in. We are faithful in following this counsel. My joy today came from this daily event. We start of by singing Let Us Gather in a Circle . This helps set the mood( whoever knew there was such a thing, but with children I feel it needs some help setting). We hold hands and Dustin calls on someone to pray. We USUALLY have the prayer, give kisses, I love yous, and then it is of to bed. Tonight, it went something like this. We sang our song, held hands, and Becca started laughing. Her laughter was quite contagious. Soon all were laughing. Just as we composed ourselves, she would do it again, I would say it took a good five minutes to get around to praying. Most parents might get frustrated, but we just chose to laugh right along with them. It made me happy that we were able to let go of the formality and just enjoy our kids.