Ruelene

I don't remember exactly when Ruelene came into my life, but I know it was in my early teen years. I became friends with a sweet girl named Anna and even though I don't remember the first time I went to her house, I remember feeling loved when I was there.

Anna's family was tall. Anna and her sister had their mother's dark eyes and thick dark brown hair. Whenever I was in their home, I could feel the love in the air like a warmth that radiates from a crackling fire in the fireplace. Sure, there was teasing: Anna had five brothers after all, but I never felt contention, even when I was there all weekend. Ruelene used to make the most amazing taco salad in the biggest bowl I had ever seen in my life!

There was a program at school that focused on helping kids whose parents had not gone to college. I joined this group and Ruelene happened to be the counselor over it. She had an office at the high school and I used to stop in to see her. Whether I was visiting her because I was sad or happy, she always had a warm hug for me. Her voice was soothing and gentle. She shed tears with me over my sorrows and she laughed when I was excited about something. I still remember the sound of her laugh twenty years later.

She was diagnosed with leukemia not long before I graduated from a two-year college. The last time I saw her, she still sat tall and smiled happily as she told me about the hope she had. She was going to have a bone marrow transplant and believed it would save her life. Sadly, she only lived another two years but she never gave up her trust in God. She was only 54. Her daughters both got married and became mothers without their own mother to join in their joy on this earth.

Yet we know she rejoiced in Heaven, and it only seems fitting that she would give one of those warm hugs to each grandchild before their spirits were sent to her children's homes.

I will never forget the impact Ruelene had on my young and troubled growing heart. She will always stand tall among the great women in my life.

We are eternal. I can't wait to embrace Ruelene once again. I will thank her for what she taught me and we will stand side by side and survey the ripple effect her kindness had on the world.

Quoting the Cute: Page Twenty

Ten-year-old daughter: "What? Is falling against the law now?"

My seven-year-old daughter said a silent prayer over her lunch at school and her teacher told her, "I love that you are so sweet."

Five-year-old son at the grocery store: "Mom, I have five words for you: Mine wegs are tie-yerd!"

Three-year-old son watching fireworks: "That scared me out of my crap!"

When we took my oldest daughter to the zoo for the first time (I think she was four) she told me that her favorite animals at the zoo were the "scrumpions" and the fish with no eyes. I was surprised and amused.

We asked our kids if they were excited to go to the mountains to gather firewood. Our seven-year-old daughter said, "Yes! I can't wait to find turkeys and bears and snakes!"

One day my five-year-old stuck his head in the door of the bathroom and said, "Mom, we're all counting on you." Then he stuck his head in again two or three seconds later and said, "I mean, we're all waiting for you."

My husband was talking to me one night at dinner and said that now that our youngest is potty-trained, he wishes we could freeze them. Of course, this was confusing to my three-year-old so when I tried to explain he burst into tears, "But I don't want to stay a little boy forever!!!" Luckily I was able to calm him quickly, reassuring him that we have no power to stop time...and the fact we are getting old too fast proves it.

My ten-year-old daughter is really starting to use her sense of humor. The other day, I told her to get the lid for the butter and put it in the fridge. So she got the lid and put the lid in the fridge. I told her she wasn't funny, but I couldn't keep from laughing.

When my seven-year-old was a toddler, she used to call hummingbirds "honeybirds." She flutters with her hands when she is happy, and has done this since she was tiny. Because of these things, I call her Honeybird.

I asked my five-year-old son what he likes most about school and he told me he likes everything about school, but he likes recess the best. I hope this never changes!

My three-year-old son says "mont-sir" for "monster" and draws them like this:

Someone tell me how to freeze time!

If a Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

One late summer day, we took our four children into the mountains to gather firewood. We hadn't gathered firewood as a family in many years, so I planned to take the camera and take a few pictures. But because I planned to take it, I forgot it.

This reminds me of the first time I went to the zoo. I was an adult and I had never been to the zoo. My husband took me there before we had kids and I was so excited. But I forgot the camera. I still remember the "click" sound my husband made with his pretend camera as we walked around the park...

So as my children and I sat on a long, smooth log for a lunch break of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, I noticed we were sitting tallest to shortest and wished I had my camera. I thought about how I wanted to remember that day, the way all of the children (ages three to ten) helped to carry firewood to the truck. And how cute my three-year-old boy looked bouncing on a young tree that had been bent to the ground by a fallen tree. I wanted to remember how excited we all were to see wild turkeys for the first time, and recall the simple joy of seeing a deer or a butterfly.

And then the thought came to me that I could write about it. I asked myself, "If a picture is worth a thousand words, does that mean a thousand words is worth a picture?" 

I want to remember how my husband and I agreed that baby cows are so cute and how strange that is since grown-up cows are not cute at all. I want to remember how my five-year-old son tried to convince his siblings that if we didn't lean away from the side of the vehicle closest to the drop-off over the side of the mountain road, then we would surely tumble over the edge. I want to remember how good it felt when  my husband and I worked as partners, without words, to remove the dead trees while the sound of the chain saw rang in our ears. The air was fresh except for those few whiffs of skunk, the day was cool enough to be able to work in our long sleeves without wilting, and the happy chatter of our kids was worth the hour-long drive to the gathering spot. As we bounced around in the truck on the rock-covered road, we started learning the words to "Away in a Manger" even though it is only August.

I couldn't help but feel an overwhelming gratitude for the chance to have a family and to share this world with such amazing little people. It was a good day. One for the photo albums!

Quoting the Cute: Page Nineteen

I haven't written for so long. I've been busy, but I do miss writing and sharing. The thing I am most sad about is that I haven't written very many "Quoting the Cute" posts! I will never get back all those funnies that have now been forgotten...

My three-year-old son went through a phase before he turned three where he was adding a "y" to the end of many of his words: booky, socky, cuppy, bean-baggy, hot-doggy.

My five-year-old son says "hice cream" instead of "ice cream," which is very endearing to me since that was what my dad called it when I was a kid (he had a sort of kid talk he'd use to get us excited about things).

My seven-year-old daughter has tattled on her five-year-old brother saying, "Mom, he said the S word!" I was actually relieved when I learned that the S word is stupid.

My ten-year-old daughter says smart things that I can never remember to write down. I do want to remember a cute thing she said a couple of years ago: "Mom, what are fox tails and why do I need to watch out for them? What will they do to me?"

My three-year-old usually omits the S sound if it comes at the beginning of a word, making cute phrases like, "I'm all ticky," or "I wan go whimming!"

My five-year-old told me one morning about a dream he had. In the dream he was running from something while trying to find me. I loved it when he said, "And I was running for mine wife (life)..."

My husband told my seven-year-old her first "grosser-than-gross" joke and this is what happened: "What's grosser than gross?" She thinks for a moment, "Hmmm...grossest!"

A few months ago, my ten-year-old was talking to her dad while he was concentrating on something else. "Dad?  Dad?  Dad? Dad?" etc. until he answered. By then she had forgotten what she was going to say so she then said, "Nevermind." Her three-year-old little brother heard the whole thing and must have been fascinated by the exchange because he did the same thing on purpose for a couple of weeks after that.

When my three-year-old was still two, he would respond with a sweet sing-songy "too!" whenever we told him we loved him. Later, he would say "Too, Dad" in his response to his dad's "I love yous." Now he says the full sentence and I can't believe how fast the time is going...