the empire is gone, mando

all that are left are mercenaries and warlords.

i have spoken.

birthday bobby

caleb is eight years old.

and he finally got his dream birthday.

his actual birthday was yesterday, but he celebrated on saturday by staying in his pajamas all day, building lego sets, playing video games, and eating all his favorite foods. destined to have a birthday over spring break for time and all eternity, he was so excited this year to NOT BE TRAVELING.

caleb loves the aforementioned legos, video games, and delicious food, as well as riding his bike, going to school, playing with his siblings, and pushing all the buttons (both the physical kind and the metaphorical ones, too). he's literal, punctual, dogged, and absolute. tender. confident. resourceful.

having long been satisfied with the "thumbs up" as his go-to method of communication (especially with adults), you're lucky if you've heard him engage in any kind of lengthy conversation, but around these parts dallin does enough talking for the both of them. kind of like a modern day moses and aaron, only they're mostly up to no good.

caleb can fill in a blank US map with all fifty states, their abbreviations and capitals, and remember any date you tell him--even ones he overhears in passing. but his spelling is atrocious cause he just can't be bothered with those pesky details. he dislikes reading, anything that subverts his independence, and pie. he absolutely loves to make his sisters tea every night and thinks his father hung the moon.

ever our enigma wrapped in a riddle, caleb recently did us a solid by agreeing to a deep dive on his brain for a clearer mapping of what makes this cool cat tick. turns out that caleb's superpower is he can process information as fast as is humanly possible. which might explain why he's so dang good at those video games.

happy, happy birthday, buddy! still not good enough to beat me at sonic, but you’ll get there.

love, mom

because He is the way

"I testify that the Savior’s Atonement lifts from us not only the burden of our sins but also the burden of our disappointments and sorrows, our heartaches and our despair. From the beginning, trust in such help was to give us both a reason and a way to improve, an incentive to lay down our burdens and take up our salvation. There can and will be plenty of difficulties in life. Nevertheless, the soul that comes unto Christ, who knows His voice and strives to do as He did, finds a strength, as the hymn says, “beyond [his] own.” The Savior reminds us that He has “graven [us] upon the palms of [His] hands.” Considering the incomprehensible cost of the Crucifixion and Atonement, I promise you He is not going to turn His back on us now. When He says to the poor in spirit, “Come unto me,” He means He knows the way out and He knows the way up. He knows it because He has walked it. He knows the way because He is the way."

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland 

but if not (in japan)

sixteen years ago, bryan and i looked deeply into each other's starry eyes and whispered: "you. yes, you are the one with whom i want to endure a global pandemic."

and the rest, as they say, is history.

we were supposed to be stepping off a plane in tokyo, japan today with our four totlets in tow, but instead, well, i'm sure you know what is instead. a disappointing change of plans for sure, but a comparatively mild hiccup in a devastating situation that has upended and hurt the lives of so many people. we united today with many in fasting and prayer for those (and they are not a few) whose suffering is great, that "the present pandemic may be controlled, caregivers protected, the economy strengthened, and life normalized."

****************

happy anniversary to my life's great partner: light to my soul, ease to my burdens, calm to my storm, peanut butter to my jelly.

"life sure can try to put love throught it, but we built this right, so nothing's ever gonna move it."

(fun bonus fact! maren morris celebrated her fourteenth birthday the same day bryan and i were married. she turns thirty today. happy birthday, maren!)