J Lee 103

For those of you who don't know. . . . JLee103 is my brother's gamer tag. We call him this sometimes. Today is my little brother's birthday. Normally I don't write a whole lot about Jason, besides the odd mention here and there, but I thought that today I would write 10 things I love about him because if I were to ever die, I would want him to know these things.

1 - I love his sense of humor. My brother is always coming up with hilarious jokes and doing funny things. I always laugh when I am around him.

2- I love that he is obsessed with finding new ideas on ways to make money. I always love hearing about his latest venture and it is actually quite interesting to listen to.

3 - I love how much he is obsessed with his dog, Max.

4 - I love how well Jason treats his wife. I love watching him be tender with her and taking care of her. A lot of people don't know that Jason has a soft side because he likes to joke and tease and play around so much, but it's one of my favorite parts of Jason. He can really be a sweet guy.

5 - I love how Jason has taken a special interest in my daughter Caroline. I have had a lot of problems with Caroline because she has been so delayed in her speech and learning, but she always knows that no matter what, Uncle Jason thinks that she is special and he loves her. He calls her his Monster and she used to HATE it when he did that and now she loves it and uses it to her advantage. She also has the same sense of humor that Jason has.

6 - I love that Jason is so dedicated to the church. My brother is currently working with the Young Men in his ward and I know that he does a great job. I know that Jason loves the gospel and I know that he is doing a good job. I have no doubt that those Young Men love Jason because he is such a fun guy.

7 - I love how Jason can turn just about every event into a party. Just having him around makes the whole event more fun!

8 - I love how Jason still loves to play basketball and nintendo after all of these years. This is the Jason I knew growing up and I am so glad that he still does them. I remember going to numberless basketball games to watch him and his friend Jordan play and I remember fighting with him over who got to be Mario and who had to be Luigi in the Super Mario Brother's game.

9 - I love how much Jason does for his family. I know that he helps out my parents a lot. My dad used to tell me that if anyone in our family needs anything that we need to make sure that we drop whatever we are doing and help them out. I know that Jason has really taken that to heart and I know that he would (and has) do anything he can to help one of us out if we were to need it. It meant so much to me to have him and Suzanne come to the hospital after I had Robin so they could come be with me and come see her (right after they got married) and they have babysat for me a couple of times when I have had emergencies come up. Jason has even climbed up to my really high pitched rooftop to put Christmas lights up there for me. Man I love that guy!

10 - I love the relationship I have with my brother. The two of us have always gotten along really well. We don't always see eye to eye, but we really respect each other. Jason and I have never really fought. I can actually remember pretty much every fight we have had because if it does happen it is pretty traumatic for the both of us because for some reason if one of us says something mean to the other one it cuts pretty deep because we have such a deep respect for the other one. I love this relationship and I know that not everyone has this type of relationship and so I feel blessed to have Jason as my little brother.

So there you have it. 10 things I love about Jason. Jay I hope you have a Happy Birthday and I am so excited that you are going to be a DADDY soon!!!

Happy Birthday

Today is the birthday of two people who are both very important to me. The first one is my Cousin Michelle. This is a big birthday for her and I am so sad that I am not closer to her so that I can go and pick her up and we can skip Young Women's and listen to Green Day in my van while head banging and drinking Slurpee's. Happy Birthday Beautiful Cousin!!
It is also my Big Guy's birthday. He is now 32 and I LOVE teasing him about being so old because I am not 30 yet, but I won't be able to do that much longer as I will be 30 this May. I have always said that I have been so lucky to have such a wonderful husband. We got married really young and we hadn't known each other for very long, but I knew that he was THE ONE!!! Otto is my very best friend. He is the best father I have ever known and I have never complained about how much he helps around the house or how much time he spends with the family because it seems as though he is always here, helping out. The kids have started to dread when Otto gets home from work because they say that he makes them clean, but I have to say that I really appreciate it because even though my house is never quite spotless, it isn't quite a pig sty either. I love that he is an engineer and so he fits into my family quite well. He gets along very well with my grandparents and my cousins. My hubby rarely complains about things and if he could just be with the kids all day he would do that.
I love how much time Otto sacrifices to come and support me when I am singing or performing. He is tone deaf and has never really had an incredible love for music like I have, but he has always made a point of making sure that I am involved in anything that I would like to be involved in.
My Big Guy is a wonderful example to my daughters of how their husbands should be when they are old enough to get married. He treats me and the kids wonderfully.
I sure hope that my hubby has a wonderful birthday and that he knows how much we love him!!!!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY BIG GUY!!!

Conflicted

Recent posts by some of my friends in their blogs have made me think about things. It has made me think about my religion and my values and about whether or not I am someone who could stand up for what I believe in if I had to. I used to think that I would always be the type of person who would stand tall and proclaim what I believe to be true if I had to do it, but now I am not so sure.
Don't get me wrong, I am very strong in my beliefs and my values, however I am also someone who HATES to hurt other people's feelings and I am someone who likes to stand back from a situation and look at it from all sides before I decide how to declare my alliances. This recent topic has conflicted me because I believe one thing, however I have a good friend who lives differently from me and I love him and I would always want this person to be happy. I feel torn and conflicted and grateful that I don't HAVE to do anything about it at this time because it doesn't directly affect me.
I still don't know how I would react if I had been told what to do on this issue, but I am interested to see how it all pans out. It did surprise me when I couldn't just jump on the band wagon with this issue because of the love I have for this friend. It changes everything.

The Day After . .

It seems as though I always write a post the day after a big event. Maybe this is because I am so busy during the day OF the big event that I don't get time to actually write.
I LOVE Halloween! I know that it is a day of scary things, however it is still one of my favorite holidays. Maybe it's because it's a day where you can pretend to be anything that you want. Maybe it's a day where you get bagfuls of free candy. I don't know what it is, but I love it!
It's interesting to me that now that I am all grown up I actually find that I love Halloween more than I did when I was a kid. I love helping my kiddies choose out costumes and try to create a "theme" for our family. I love doing a costume photo shoot in the beginning of October so that we can have fun pictures for Christmas time. I love doing my girlies make-up and hair really special so that it looks great on Halloween. I love volunteering in the girls classrooms at their school so I can spend as much time with them on this fun day as possible. I love handing out candy at my door so that I can see all of the neighbor kids' costumes and say "hi" to my friends. I love to sit with my kids and go through their candy and watch how excited they get when they see their favorites. I love taking my kiddies to my parent's house and then visiting their next door neighbor every year. She gets so excited when she sees them and she always saves them a special treat. I love going to my mom's house and drinking apple cider and showing her my kids' costumes.
It's just so much fun right now with my kids at the ages that they are at to be able to celebrate holidays. This year the weather was INCREDIBLE! It was 16 degrees and so the kids only had to wear sweaters when they were trick or treating. It brought back so many memories of when I lived in Dallas and I didn't have to wear any coats when I was trick or treating. I have NEVER had this kind of weather in Canada on Halloween. Because it was so nice, Dustin had a lot of fun and he lead the way for the others to go trick or treating. When we were at my parent's house he just kept on opening candies and eating them. He loved it!! I have a feeling that today he will spend the entire day eating candy. That's okay with me. I love making my kids eat all of their candy on November 1st because then it gets it all out of my house!!!
So now it's time to start looking forward to the next big celebration in my house. . . . Otto's birthday! It just happens to be on the same day as my cousin's birthday which is on Tuesday! So I have a feeling I will be creating another post at that time!!!
I hope you all had a Happy Halloween!!!

Surprise!!!

Have I ever mentioned that I LOVE having daughters??? I know I may not say that when they are teenagers, but right now I LOVE having daughters!!! Yesterday I surprised my two big girls by taking them out for dinner and then to High School Musical 3! It was so much fun!!!!
I have always loved musicals and so I love the High School Musicals that Disney has put out. But it was just so much fun to be sitting in the theatre with my two girlies and dancing in our seats and loving the movie together! I am also a big fan of HSM and Hannah Montana because I know that my girls can watch those things and they are clean! Disney has always done a great job with producing clean programs for the kids to watch and so I have no problems that my girls are huge fans of HSM and Hannah Montana!
I think that Disney definitely did a great job with this movie and I can't wait until I can get it for my girlies on DVD!!!
Thanks for the great surprise Disney!!!

Na na na na. Na na na na. Hey Hey Hey. . . GOODBYE!!!

Yep, I have now bid adieu to 20 of my least favorite pounds. The good news is that I don't miss them one bit. Now I am trying to find a few more pounds who want to get lost. I think that I will look in my butt region. . . I know I have plenty to spare over there!

Music

I have written before about how I believe that there is a very special power in music. I believe that it has the power to influence people for good and even for bad. I believe that music has the ability to help people feel closer to the Saviour and to heal the soul. This was reiterated to me this past Sunday.
This past weekend was really busy for me. I had a lot of things to do on Friday and Saturday and even on Sunday. By the time Sunday afternoon rolled around I was exhausted! After church we had choir, and like I wrote last week I love going to choir now that I have Abby to go with me. In fact, we started a trend and now there are 3 other little girls that come out to choir. It was so much fun to see these little girls getting excited about music. Abby is the only one who is singing the alto part, but now she isn't the only child in choir. We even have almost all of our youth in our choir too. I was very happy to see this because I know that music helped me stay out of trouble when I was a teenager. I remember my cousin Michelle coming over and we would get out all of the music that I could sight read and we would sing church songs on a Friday night. I remember my Grandma Lee would be babysitting my family when my parents were out of town and she would come and stand in the room and start crying because she said that she was so lucky because her friend's grandchildren were out drinking and partying on Friday nights and her grandchildren were singing church songs. I didn't realize it at the time, but music really did save me from doing a lot of things.
Later in the afternoon on Sunday I was able to listen as Abby practised the cello. This is only the second year that she has been taking lessons and she is going to be taking an exam in June. I am so proud of her. As I listened to the beautiful deep sounds coming from her cello I felt calm and relaxed. The incredible music that she was able to produce from her instrument just melted all of the tension right out of my body. If I could convince her to do it I would just have her play the cello all day, every day.
Because I had spent so much time away from my family this past weekend I was hesitant to go to the rehearsal for Handel's Messiah. This is something that I sing in every year and this year I was going to not sing in it. Otto told me that I should just go and do it because I really enjoy it and so I did. The feelings of peace and happiness just flooded over me as I sang about the Saviour's life. I felt rested and loved and happy. I always love a good vocal challenge which is why I sing the soprano part in Messiah, and it was fun getting my voice back into shape in order to be able to sing those runs. I didn't try out for a solo this year and so I am able to just go and enjoy myself and have fun singing the music.
So you see, music is a very powerful force in my life. I have always tried to help my children to love music because I know how much it has helped me get through trials and enjoy the happy moment's. Music can uplift me and it can give me energy like no caffeinated drink can!!! I am truly grateful for the wonderful blessing that I have been given to be able to have music in my life.