Twenty Years!

Yes, yes, I am still alive.  It's been awhile since I've posted but only because life is incredibly busy right now.  We are finally out of the cold/flu season which hit our family pretty hard this year.  I was trying to keep track of and finally gave up on knowing the number of times I saw our pediatrician, visited the late night urgent care or waited to pick up a prescription.  L.J. & I weren't spared from taking our turns with needing medical attention either this go round.  We did manage to do some fun things & make some memories in between all of the craziness but I could never justify spending the time blogging when I had piles of laundry to take care of or piles of mail to sort & pay bills and piles of dirty dishes to clean.  Not to mention get some sleep when possible so I could continue to be Super Mom for my kids.  I have the pictures saved and I do plan to take some time to go back and post about them since this is the only form of journaling I'm able to do right now.  Soon.....I hope.
There is one thing that has moved me enough to sit down long enough to open up the old blogger program and start a post.  Drum roll please......

Back in April 1989 L.J. began a full-time mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Spokane, Washington.  He served faithfully and then returned home in April 1991.  So this month marks his twentieth anniversary of being a return missionary (or RM as we commonly call them).

He's been home from his mission for  T W E N T Y   Y E A R S!!!

I can only say this because I'm several years younger than him but man he is old!!

Here are just a few more pictures that I've found from his mission days.  They are too cute not to share.

Here's a quick shout out to the Gossage Family who still keep in touch with us after all these years!  L.J. was able to meet them on his mission and help teach them the gospel.  Thanks to blogs, I've been able to get to know them too and have enjoyed getting to know their family.

Of course realizing this milestone made him stop to think about what he had accomplished in the last 20 years.  The main things and most important of course came to mind first.  Getting married, having a great family, being active in the church but something different came to my mind.  I am especially grateful knowing that he is a trustworthy man.   In every area of his work and his life, he is honest and people know that they can depend on him.  One example...

Immediately upon getting home from his mission he used what was left of his savings account to start a DJ business.  No one knew at the time (except him) that he'd be able to build that business into something that would not only support our family but give work to other friends & family members and then later sell for a large chunk of money.  For years I was known only as "L.J.'s wife" because so many people knew him as the awesome DJ from the church & school dances or proms or weddings.  Like all young couples we moved around a lot and his reputation usually preceded us.  It was always a good thing.

I remember sitting in an interview with a Bishopric member who was thanking L.J. for giving his kids such a fun place to go and easing his mind as a parent, knowing that the environment would be safe and positive.  L.J. loves all kinds of music and can easily keep up with lyrics and content, knowing what is appropriate for young ages and what is not.  Back in the day, you had to buy an entire CD to have a copy of any particular song.  Usually that was the only song worth having the CD for and the rest was garbage.  Even with owning hundreds of CD's, L.J. knew exactly what he could play and what he shouldn't.

This man had heard about something that had happened just a few weeks before.  There was always at least one kid who would come up and request songs that weren't appropriate for church dances.  No matter how many times L.J. would tell them,"No", they thought they could still get him to play it.  This one kid would not let it go and was insisting that because L.J. had the song, he should play it.  This kid said, "I can get that chaperone over there to come tell you to play the song.  He's my Bishop."  L.J. said, "I don't care if you think you can get President Hinckley to come tell me to play that song, I'm not going to."  That shocked the kid enough to finally leave us alone.  That story quickly spread and L.J. would always be known after that as the DJ the kids and the parents wanted.

He DJ'd for many, many years and I would regularly ask him when he would be ready to quit.  It wasn't as much fun for me, now home with the kids by myself.  I usually called myself a "Weekend Widow."  He would always say that he would be done before his own kids were old enough to be going to the dances.  He sold the business back in 2008 and has been happy with his decision to do so.  It was finally time to retire.

Now our oldest Ally is in Student Council at her school.  She came home from a dance very upset at the music that was played.  She knew her Dad could do a better job and still make it fun.  Since she helps with the planning, she immediatly went to work trying to convince him to DJ her next dance.  He was reluctant knowing he didn't have the music inventory anymore but thanks to technology and several downloads later, that wasn't a problem.  I helped her finally convince him by telling him that if she had to be there anyway, I'd rather he be picking out the music than someone else.

So here they are just before the Valentines Dance.  The one thing he always thought he'd never do but I'm so glad she wanted him to.

 

He may be considered old by some but he will always be a big kid at heart.  He's the cool Dad that loves to play video games and listen to music really loud.  More importantly he honors his Priesthood, makes sure that we are an eternal family and will always be known as someone you can trust!

He's our Superman!!!