The Wonderfulness of my life

These last few weeks have been very, very hectic. We have visited Mark and Liz and the kids in Wyoming, gone to Provo to see Addie and Goose, been to Seattle to see Ty, Dana and the Maxster, had Matt and Wendi over for dinner and on and on. It is kind of a blur to me.

In the middle of all that, we found out that Mark and Liz will be adding another family member, Goose asked Kristen to marry him and Meggie has announced she is excited to be able to get her driving permit when she turns 15 in March.

Life is so, so busy and for Margaret and I it almost always involves family. It is both the greatest blessing I can imagine and stressful at the same time. We want to be everywhere with each of you at the same time and that just can't happen. We are also finding it is very expensive to try and keep up with this crew.

I was lying in bed this morning thinking about all of this and realized what a great blessing each of you are in my life and that truly there is nothing that I could replace in my life with the relationships I have with each of you that would bring me even close to the joy I feel thinking about each of you and what you mean to me and our family collectively. We have a great bunch of people in our family, not only from a goodness type of perspective, but from a professional and family perspective and even a righteousness point of view. You are all good men and women, good moms and dads and hard working, honest and faithful to each other and others in your families. It is a blessing I can't even begin to express in words how I feel.

I don't know how much longer I will be on the earth, but I do know that the remainder of my days will be a constant reminder of how lucky I have been in mortality to be in such a group of people. Mom and I didn't start out thinking we would have x number of kids in our family. I never remember saying that after so many, that was it. You all just kind of happened and I truly think it was the plan from the beginning as I can't imagine our family without each one of you in it.

I also know that in many ways I am the odd man out as regards to kindness, goodness and many other wonderful attributes you all have, but maybe that was part of the plan also. You all have and continue to make me better in all areas of my life. Thank you for that. We all know that I'm the standing joke in the family and rightly so, but I will always be grateful that dispite all my warts you are there and I can trust you and rely on you if I need it. You all don't realize what a great influence for good you have been in my life. As every daughter has come into the family and the grandkids, each one adds another flower to my bouquet of life and enriches all of us even more. It is wonderful to have so many good people in my life.

Sorry for these pathetic musings but I am overwhelmed sometimes in thinking of how blessed I am.

I love you all,
Dad