The past two weeks

The blog has been quiet lately.

I've been busy.

I'm not sure why its so busy, I thought this was usually the slow season.

I anxiously hoping life slows down before it speeds up again.

I wish I've been busy with something blog worthy but really it's been more of the same. 

Run a child here and there

Basketball practice and games

Have people over for dinner or sometimes I just hope I find time to make dinner.

Luke went camping with the scouts..

The high was 10 degrees and the low was 5 degrees. Crazy scouts.

He was less then thrilled to be going, mainly because it was cold and it was the end of a very long week for him which always makes it harder to be motivated.

He went, believe it or not stayed warm and thankfully had a great time.

Mike and I got to get kind of dressed up and go on a fun date with the people from his company

Mike picked Luke up from the campout, he changed in the car and headed to his basketball game.

In the car he was beside himself with a sock problem. 

Apparently when mom folded the laundry she didn't perfectly match the socks so he had a sock that said Hanes on the toe an another sock that had a line on the toe.

His socks did not match. How STRESSFUL!

He wasn't on his A game at the basketball game, and of course that was because of his sock issues.

So when laundry day rolled around mom made sure Luke folded his own socks.

Problem solved.

I'm glad I can end this post with a random of act of kindness story.

I have a dear friend that I lived by in CA and was a huge support to me when my mom had cancer.
At one point in my moms treatments the only thing that sounded good to her and the only thing she could really keep down were these certain kind of wheat muffins that she makes.

Judy and I renamed them chemo muffins.

Judy is now fighting her own battle with cancer.

When she was first diagnosed she pulled out her chemo muffin recipe.

Chemo has been super hard for her.

I wish I was there to help her.

I think of her and pray for her often.

Since I can't be there, I borrowed my other good friend Dora who doesn't live far from Judy.

She made some chemo muffins and delivered them to Judy.
The muffins had a note attached that read 

To Judy

love Allison and her mom

The muffins were well received.

Judy cried.

Dora cried

I cried.

Good friends are hard to come by.

I'm so glad I have them both.

Thank you Dora

I'm always thinking of you Judy.

I love you both.

 First win of the season celebration

Fun in the snow

 

 Yesterday we had a beautiful snow storm.

Light and fluffy huge snowflakes.

Some of the young women were over and decided an impromptu play in the snow photo shoot was a good idea.

I'm so glad they did. We had a blast and I love how some of the pictures turned out.

Visitor

Izzy has come to visit.

Izzy used to live in the area while she was going to school, while she was attending school her program here was cancelled so she decided to serve a mission instead.

She has spent the last eighteen months in Cambodia Vietnamese speaking.

After an amazing 18 month experience she is back but will not be living here anymore, she is here to visit old friends and to report her mission.

She is here for two weeks but only stayed a week with us.

During the week while she was staying with us, we were busy!

While she was here we

visited and went for breakfast in Boston

picked somebody else up from the airport

visited 14 people

had 15 people over for dinner throughout the week

spent a rainy day in Maine

Don't you love the Christmas tree? I love Maine.

and hiked Mt Watchusett

The trail was incredibly icy. We hiked most of the way up and down the mountain on the side of the trail. It's amazing we didn't slip!



It was a beautiful view at the top. You could see clear to Boston.

It was a busy but awesome week.

It was so good to have Izzy come and visit.

Moving

 

Last week it was so cold.

 I mean don't get out from under your warm covers unless you're going to sit in front of a fire and drink hot chocolate and under any circumstances don't go outside cold.

Sadly that's not how we got to spend our time.

We got a phone call letting us know about a family that was moving in from ARIZONA of all places. 

Poor them. Welcome to winter.

We gathered a few extra young men and went to help them unload.

I think it was one of the coldest things I've ever done.

9 degrees

20 mile an hour winds

wind chill 20-30 below.

Boston Strong Puzzle

 

The boys have been getting burned out on puzzles. 

We haven't done one for quite awhile because there has been no desire.

At Christmas time I saw this Boston Strong puzzle. I loved it and knew we had to have it! 

I wrapped the puzzle up and attached a tag on the puzzle that read

"You may only open this if you promise to start it over the holiday break!"

They laughed and figured it was a puzzle so they weren't going to open it but their curiosity got the better of them.

Putting this puzzle together reminded me of one reason why I love them.

I think we talked, laughed and spent more quality time together in the several hours it took us to put this together then most of Christmas break.

We had so much fun!

So much fun, that the puzzle was finished the boys immediately opened the 3000 piece puzzle that some dear friends gave us for Christmas.

Oh my.   That one might take awhile.

This Boston puzzle is one of my favorites.

A photographer asked for shoe donations from the runners that ran in the marathon last year.

With the shoes, he took the below photo. 

It's a pretty famous picture around Boston.

I love everything about this puzzle.
I love that we were at the marathon last year which makes this puzzle have a little more meaning.
I think it might be glued, framed and hung on the wall.

Birthday gift

Several weeks before Ben's birthday he and I had a talk about what men in his life had been influential for him.

Later I emailed all of those men, some family some just very good friends, and asked them to write Ben a letter for his 16th birthday.

I asked them to share their testimony and to give him advice about what they had learned when they were at his point in life aka dating, mission, graduating, college, becoming an adult, marriage etc. What helped them? What did they learn? What advice can they pass down to him that could help him as he starts to face these milestones in his life.

I was humbled to hear from so many of them about how seriously they took this. A lot of pondering and prayer went into these letters.

When we gave Ben the gift. I was so surprised and touched by his reaction. As he started to flip through the pages I explained to him what it was and how these men had put so much effort into these letters. By the time he made it to the end of the book tears were streaming down Ben's face. I haven't ever seen him so touched by something.

Later I asked him his thoughts about the gift and he said "I know I'm loved and I don't feel neglected but at the same time it really meant a lot to see that all of those guys took so much time and thought out of their lives just for me. It really means a lot."

I was thankful that the gift meant so much to him and more thankful that he has such great examples in his life that he looks up to and loves so very much.

Happy Birthday

My baby is 16.

He has a deep voice, a hairy face, big feet and a continuously growing pants size. 

I think it's safe to say that he's not a baby anymore.

But it's also safe to say that he is the best kid ever.

I tell Ben he's my favorite Ben in the entire world just about every day, and it's true.

He's mild tempered

fun loving

thoughtful

helpful

always happy to help

generous

happy

a great brother

good looking

he has a strong desire to do what's right

kind

willing to serve

loving

has a strong testimony

willing to listen

a hard worker

and a good friend.

I love that he loves his family. The other day he had a chance to go out with his friends but he chose to stay home and watch the big football bowl game with his dad. I love that his family time has always been important to him.

I'm thankful that he's part of our family.

I'm thankful for the relationship that we've always shared.

It's a special relationship and something that I have always valued.

I have loved every day of the past 16 years.

I love being his mom.

Thank you Ben for who you are and for who you are becoming.

We love you so much.

Happy Birthday!