Entering a new stage

Today is my 30th Birthday and I feel that I'm entering a new stage of life. Supposedly the 30s are better than the 20s. More mature I guess. Maybe it's the fact that I'm now officially getting older and so it's going to take a little more effort on my part to be able to act and perform like I did in my 20s. It will require me to be a little more focused and disciplined, which appears would result in a more productive happier life. I'm really not sure though... Any other ideas from those of you that are a little more advanced in years?

Hyrum is a terribly sweet little boy. While he was in Washington a few weeks ago he bought me a birthday present. He wrapped it as soon as he got home and it sat on the fridge for a couple weeks. First thing this morning he wanted me to open it. It's a CD of Celtic Music for stress relief. The description on the back reads: "Let go of your stressful day while these comforting, traditional Celtic melodies wash over you. Soothing harps, keyboards and guitars are joined by uillean pipes and whistles." He picked it out all by himself and I love it. Way to be Hyrum! This picture is of him holding the two presents he wrapped for Jon (DVDs Grease and Old Yellar, I doubt that one really was for me).

This is me with my big present that I really wanted, a piano. It's a Wurlitzer and it's 27 years old. Perfect. We're going to love this. And yes, Mom, I may learn to play better than I did during my 10 years of lessons as a kid. Jon also gave a kid carrier for the back of my bike, which I also really wanted so that I can take Lydia for bike rides. Lydia was SUPER excited when she saw it and can't wait for Jon to put it together. All in all, it was a great birthday!

My sweet little angels singing to me :)

The piano actually has a little bit of an interesting story. I've wanted one for a while but Jon has always said "not in this house, we don't have room." Then I decided I at least wanted a keyboard. That was top on my list for my birthday. Jon looked into different options like keyboards, digital pianos, and regular pianos. He narrowed down a few used pianos and set appointments for us to go see them today. We stopped at his parent's house to drop the kids off and pick up our tilt bed trailer so that we'd be able to load the piano. Well, that trailer has always had issues with the lights and today they were not working. It wasn't worth it to me to drive a trailer with no lights into, and back from, Boise. I suggested we just take the truck. Jon agreed but said we would only be able to buy a piano if we were able to load it in the truck. Meaning there'd have to be plenty of men to help.

At this point Jon was doubtful and I was a hair sad. I quickly changed my attitude and knew that a piano would be a spiritual blessing for our family and thanked the angels that would help us get a piano back to our home. The first house we showed up to was a lady with her parents, who were definitely too old to offer assistance. Her husband was out of town and so she had invited her parents over to not be alone when a stranger came to her home. My heart sunk a little thinking there would be no help. We liked the piano, but I mentioned we would only be able to buy if we were able to load it into our truck. She quickly replied that she had a piano dahle and she could call the Home Teachers for assistance. A smile came to my face and I knew it was meant to be.

This lady, 34 years old, had been given the piano from her parents when she was only six years old. It was literally heartbreaking for her to sell it. She shed several tears while we were there and we offered her more money than we originally wanted to pay for it because of the sentimental value it held for her. She actually had located the original receipt and paperwork from October 1982, which she sent with us. She didn't play it very often and so her husband had encouraged her to sell it and use the money towards graduate school. She was grateful it was going to a nice LDS home with children who would enjoy it. I believe I will remember her and have a more respectful attitude for this piano because I know how much it meant to it's previous owner.