Happy 19th Birthday Austin!

Wow it happened so quick. You are such a great kid. We love you sooo much and we are so happy you have chosen to go on a mission and we know you are going to be a great missionary. You are going to make a great husband and father someday.

Marriage

We have been married 25 years and we will celebrate our 26th in June. Funny how in the Ensign this month it talks about becoming an Influential Father. I am so blessed to have a husband that puts this into place. He is not perfect and neither am I. He shows appropriate affection He leads in having FHE and he brings us together for prayer even when the kids are very uncooperative and not so reverent during either. He gets up every Sunday even when he isn't feeling up to it or isn't feeling well , or we didn't get home until 3:00am. He does his home teaching every month, not because he wants to check it off his list but because he wants those families to know they are loved and cared about. Yes he yells at the kids when he gets frustrated and he can get intense when he is worried about our finances, or when the kids don't pitch in to help me more, because he worries about how much I have to do. He puts up with my constant correcting and nagging. My mood swings with PMS. Correcting his parenting skills. Wanting him to do my to do list instead of his. Asking him to go to the store late at night after I sent him earlier. He tells us all how much he loves us and he wants to spend time with me when ever he can. We have weathered tons of financial issues and still do, but we continue to get stronger during them and let Heavenly Father guide us. We live through the constant care and attention I have to give to my Mother. The times we can't go together to play or go to an event because I need to stay and take care of my mother. The arguments about who is right about something stupid . The endless nights of teenage rebellion and sleepless nights of worry. The 20 years of babies crying during the night and getting no sleep. Kids climbing into bed. One of us feeling unappreciated or both. Being overweight and never having a mean thing said to me by my Husband, but feeling so unattractive and yet feeling too exhausted to want to do anything about it. I feel like I am just rambling but my brother and sister-in-law just filed for divorce and I am soooo very sad for them and their children. I feel completely at a loss because I can't repair any of this. I love them both and know this is not what they planned to happen. I am so very sorry. I hope that I will be more diligent in feeding my own marriage relationship that I probably take for granted. I can change that.