Wednesday, April 30, 2014

The End of An Era(s)

Wow, what a weekend.  It was truly epic, in its own way, in a completely different way from the St. George type of epic I posted about last.  We hit some huge milestones that, frankly, didn't feel like they would EVER COME.  EVER.

First of all, and I have to try to do this without embarrassing my daughters, I hit the milestone of once and for all discontinuing the placing of pull-ups on my shopping list.  That is one grocery item I am so excited to cross off forevermore.  Sparing the details, nighttime dryness has not come as easily to my daughters as it does for most kids.  Bitty conquered it first and Bundle rode the wave, so to speak, and after going almost completely dry in her pull-up for a while, I thought it was time to rip off the bandaid.  She was nervous, so we picked out a prize and set a goal of seven dry nights.  Turns out that Bundle is very good at keeping track of the number of days passing by.  Every morning all week long as she awoke to dry undies (I guess I can't avoid getting into unpleasant parenting details here) she would let me know how many dry nights she had under her belt and how many more she had to go.  The best was Sunday morning, after her seventh night.  I woke early and tiptoed down the stairs and past my deeply snoozing daughters.  Not five minutes later I heard a loud crow of triumph, as if she had been awake for hours, "I DID IT!!!!"  So cute.  Here she is with her glowing smile and trophy "Ever After High" dolly she's been yearning for.  Her happiness can be matched only by my own.  I just never thought we would get out of those pull-ups.



And....speaking of the sudden appearance of Sunday-morning happiness....Troy got released from the bishopric today.  Talk about a happy smile.  That sounds bad - Troy had many many good experiences serving as the 1st counselor to our bishop for five years.  But it's just that it's been FIVE YEARS.  And it's been a lot of time and emotional effort.  I'm so grateful for the many dear friends Troy has come to know through this experience.  It just absolutely blows my mind to think that the night Troy was asked to fill this calling I was still pregnant with Bundle and now she is registered for kindergarten.  How can five years have actually passed?  Again, there were many times when I didn't think they actually would. But they did.  And Troy is so excited for next Sunday when he has no 7:00 a.m. meeting and can just go to church when the rest of us do.  Here's what he looks like now:

FREEDOM!!!!!


By the way, I do have to send out a great big THANK YOU to the many many friends and neighbors who helped me get through the past five years.  I sat in Sacrament Meeting by myself for those five years, I had a baby with me, I couldn't have done it without people who love me, my husband and my children enough to let my kids come sit with them or come sit with me themselves while I had a fussy Bundle or whatever.  I love my neighbors dearly.  A couple of weeks ago I snuck a snapshot before the meeting started of Bundle sitting on the lap of her favorite church buddy Adam.  He is the sweetest man and Bundle still prefers to spend church with him rather than me.  All my thanks.



2 comments:

Unknown said...

That is epic.
I am happy for you on all counts and can say that we are definitely a long way from the first milestone. I can't believe five years have passed since Troy was called!
I remember it. It is bittersweet to be released from that opportunity to serve so much.

Cullen said...

The "FREEDOM" pic was sooooo appropriate! I'm still chuckling now.

And now . . . .

And even now!