Choose Your Hard

This is my Trisa choosing the hard of climbing through her fear.
She made it to the top and I am very proud of her.
(Belaying her father was apparently equally scary and she did that too!)

The other day I woke up with the words "choose your hard" running through my mind.  This is not as random as it may seem as one of the tools from the "My Story Matters" class uses these words to describe what to do when you run into a problem, or start feeling stuck while trying to create the vision you have for how you want to live.  Naturally, in my vision for  my life I want to be healthy.  This is not something I can always choose, but I CAN choose to take care of this body I have.  This being said, I have been struggling to want to exercise.  To me, that just sounds like work that might end up being painful and exhausting for a while.

When I woke up with the words "choose your hard" in my head, I immediately was able to apply this to exercise.  I can either choose the hard that would come from not strengthening my body through exercise, or I can choose the hard of getting stronger through exercise.  The first choice would likely lead to me having even more restricted abilities to do things, and would cause me to be injured even easier than I am now.  The second will cause me discomfort.  Just doing normal activities like sitting is not always comfortable!  Thankfully, it will also see me getting stronger, having more energy (in the long run), and keeping or expanding my current capabilities.

No matter what has me feeling stuck, it is good to remember that I can choose the hard of staying stuck, or I can choose the hard of making the little steps that will eventually see me unstuck.  Today I chose to start exercising again.  I might find myself stuck in not want to again, but I am hoping to remember to choose the hard that will find me taking care of myself the best I can!

Visiting Michigan

Emily and Grandma
She loved staring at me and smiling.  I loved it!

Kayli and I got to go visit Tia, Mike, Brigham and Emily at the end of August.  SO FUN!!  Tia and Mike are awesome at hosting.  What's not to like about waking up to the smell of bacon!  And having yummy food cooked for you, and fun activities planned for you, plus getting to hang out with fabulous people no matter what (which was the best thing of all)!  Brigham and Emily are SO super cute and it was so fun to see them.  Mike's parents hosted us one day.  We swam in their pool until the storm came and then we went in and had great food and great company.  Mike's parent's are always super great to spend time with too.  They are great hosts.

Kayli with Brigham.  He was a huge fan of having Kayli in the car or truck with him!

It's good to have some awesome noise canceling type headphones when you are
driving your fancy car!

Brigham playing Jenga with Kayli

Blue ice cream for Brigham!

Emily can't wear all of the bows!

Brigham is trying to taste the rain!

Mike, Tia (holding Emily) and Kayli

Brigham and Kayli

Brigham and Mike

Kayli, Mike, Brigham, Tia (holding Emily)

Emily and Brigham

Tia and Emily.  So sweet!

Brigham

Brigham and Kayli (Brigham absolutely adores Kayli)

Emily!  So svelte:-)  
She is such a smiley little girl.

I really miss Tia and Mike and my sweet Brigham and Emily.  It was so fun to see them and now we are counting down until close to Christmas when we hope to see them at the Blue house again!

My Baby is an Adult

Dan turned 18 last week!  My "baby" is an adult and that is a little hard to wrap my head around.  Dan is great but things have changed since he was little!  He used to love to have his picture taken.  It was almost impossible to take one without him being in a dramatic pose!  Now I'm lucky if I get one that isn't of his back or with his hands covering his face.  This one is from this year, but not from his birthday.

Sadly, This is the most recent picture I have of Dan.

I had to put at least one picture of my little Dan!

There are things that are the same about Dan and yet still different.  Dan has always been incredibly creative!  Years ago he liked to occasionally be Police Officer Dan.  We got him a police outfit and he had a voice he used when in character saying "police officer Dan here!"  He was always creating stories where he was some character or another and we could hear him making explosion noises in the other room as he moved around acting them out.  He was "twirly", hardly ever sitting or standing still even while we talked to him.

He is still creative but he is creative on the computer, or ipad, or drawing tablet.  He still creates characters and stories but he does it online with his friends.  He has done some animating that is clever and entertaining.  He has learned a lot about drawing, animating, and games and is quite good at talking about things that go over my head because I don't know all of the vocabulary that goes along with his interests.  

One of the things that hasn't changed about Dan is that he is a good, kind person who is really good at loving his Mom.  We have done a lot together over the years and I am thankful for his encouraging words and hugs.  I enjoy our trips to the library, and our snack runs, and finding places to walk around for a change of scenery.  Happy birthday to my baby turned adult.  I love him!