. . . But What I Did Instead

Tonight there were a million things I really should have done. Like the dishes. Or work at my THIRD job, our home office. Or actually come up with a plan for what to cook tomorrow for dinner. I should have finished folding laundry, mopped the kitchen floor, or just hung out with my sore husband who is recuperating from hernia surgery. But this is what I did instead.

I decided to practice my fast action photography skills, so I followed Brennan and Drew to the City Park to photograph them playing Ultimate Frisbee with a bunch of friends.

It was so much more fun than mopping, cleaning, cooking, paying bills, or any of those other things I SHOULD have been doing.

Brennan is just as wild an Ultimate Frisbee player as he is at doing anything else. That's him on the ground. When he was younger - like 5 or 6 years old - the bigger boys, i.e. Dalen, Ryan, Rory and Kyle, who were 15 or 16, used to send Brennan down a tubing hill they weren't sure was safe enough for them to ride. If Brennan made it to the bottom without killing himself, they would try it.

The evening wasn't a waste. I did learn something. I need a lot more practice shooting fast action photos with my telephoto lens. Too many of my pictures came out blurry, darn it. There were quite a few shots that I really wanted to find in focus.

Especially this one.

The Life of The Wife of a Falconer

I've mentioned this before but Dave is a lover of falcons. This is not one of the many things that, had we dated for longer than two weeks before becoming engaged, I would have known about him before we got married, because this love apparently was buried deep inside him somewhere and only manifested itself a few years ago. He is apprenticing to be a certified falconer - yes, you have to apprentice for that - but he spends more of his falconing time as a sick/injured falcon rehabilitation person. That time recently increased by leaps and bounds when a full page article was written in our local newspaper about Dave, his falconry efforts and the eagle he is currently rehabilitating. Now people he doesn't even know - and there aren't many in this small town of ours that fall into THAT catagory - stop him to talk about his falconry experiences.



For instance, today he was just getting back into his truck at a local service station when a stranger called out to him, "Hey Dave, how ya doin'?" Ever friendly, Dave called back, "Doin' fine, thanks." While thinking to himself, "Who the heck are you?" Then they guy says, "How's the eagle doin'?" "He doing good," Dave called back and then he got in his truck, came home and told me how weird the whole thing was. But things were about to get weirder.



This afternoon I answered a call from a frantic lady who needed to "get ahold of Dave Cozzens right now!" I found out where she was, called Dave on his cell phone - because Dave really appreciates the fact that I don't give his cell phone number out to just any frantic lady who calls him - and he went to find her. This lady had come here on vacation with her family in their motorhome all the way from New Mexico. A motorhome in which apparently a mother bird had built a nest, then layed and hatched three baby birds sometime earlier this spring. Then, while the mother bird was out finding food, the family climbed in their motorhome and left WITH THE BABIES!!! Imagine the mother bird's surprise when she came back to feed her three little baby birds. Now, I have the story Are You My Mother memorised. I can repeat it word for word I read it to my children so many times when they were young. But I never imagined I would ever LIVE the story.

When Dave showed up with these crying, hungry birds and told me what had happened, I said, "Well, you should have told them to turn right around and TAKE THEM BACK!" Instead we are feeding three hungry babies that are not falcons at all, but common House Finches. But they are babies and there's something deep inside a mother's heart that HAS to take care of a crying baby, animal or human. Such is the life of the wife of a falconer. . . .

I Must Have Misplaced About 24 Years

June 8th . . . June 8th . . . what is important about June 8th? Oh yeah, it's Kimbrey's Birthday!! Happy Birthday Kimbrey. So, in honor of the fact that Kimbrey has been with us on this earth for 24 years, here is the story of her life. - in about a 3.5 minute nutshell. Which, incidently, pretty well maxed out my technilogical abilities. BUT HERE IT IS!! So turn up the sound and enjoy - The Life of Kimbrey.

One End Brings A New Beginning

And this end with a new beginning is for Drew, the little graduate. Last Sunday was Seminary Graduation. Can I just say that I LOVE Seminary Graduation? I think we should just have seminary graduation and then stop graduating. These are some awesome kids Drew graduated with. By the way, can you tell which one is the teacher? And do you like the boy/girl segregation? We teach them that. The boy/girl ratio isn't bad, either. If you're a girl.

Here now is Drew with his cute Mom and Dad just minutes after he was ordained an Elder. We did have a picture in which Dave remembered to take off his glasses, but he was just holding them in his hand. Right there in the picture. And I looked better in this one, so I used it instead.

We resisted the urge to stop after seminary graduation and on Tuesday Drew dressed up in his cap and gown and headed off to join about 100 other kids dressed just like him . . .

. . . And then he graduated. And it wasn't even sad - probably because I was distracted by all the little boys running around at my feet. Thanks Aiden, Chase and Porter for saving me from shedding even one tear. By the way, that's Drew in the very first chair looking up longingly after his cap that he wasn't really sure was going to come down again where he could catch it. And he would have been too embarrased to have run after it.

Although he did practice hat catching earlier in the day. I sent Jill, Kimbrey and Michelle down to take pictures during dress rehersal and they convinced Drew and his buddies to throw their hats for a picture. But the boys didn't want their nice graduation caps to land in the mullberries you can see all over the sidewalk behind them, so right after they threw their hats, they tried to catch them.

Drew with his really great friends. These guys have been friends since they were in grade school together. They live within blocks of each other, in fact, Charlie, on the right there, is only five hours older than Drew. And he never lets him forget it. They call ME "Drew's Mom" No matter where we are, if they see me, it's "Hi Drew's Mom!"

They are a crazy bunch, these guys. All different religions, ideas, interests, and political opinions, and inside, where it counts, they are just really good guys. Not a jerky kid among them.

They have been such a blessing in Drew's life and we love them for it. Good luck y'all. And don't stop hangin' around this here place just because you're all graduated now, O.K?