The Birthday Blues

Where or where does the time go? Every parent seems to ask themselves this question from time to time as they watch their little ones grow up so fast; but, today we find ourselves asking this question in regards to our own life. Today, we find ourselves reflecting on the last thirty years--the years of Nicholas' life. Yep, today Nicholas Anthony Hoskins reached the milestone age of 30, though I don't think he's too excited to admit it. In fact, for the last year, he's been practically dreading it.

I think the dread began last year, shortly after his 29th birthday, on our annual trip to the dentist. For the first time in his entire life, this trip to the dentist revealed the impossible--a cavity. Actually, three cavities! And Nick mourned about them for a month straight. "It's starting." he told me. "My body is beginning to fall apart. It's all down hill from here. First a cavity, then pretty soon my blood pressure is going to shoot up and my heart will fail!"

"Oh please," I told him. "I got my first cavity when I was five!" My lack of sympathy didn't go over very well--he wouldn't speak to me for almost a week. I got another week of the silent treatment a few months later when I teased him about his "dental dramas" at a family get together. At the end of that week I decided I had better start taking this aging depression seriously. I sat him down for a talk about his worries. I convinced him that a cavity wasn't really that big of a deal, examined his hair line and reassured him that he wasn't losing any of his precious hair, and promised him we could go to the mall and pick up some special (and ridiculously expensive) cream to help reduce his sun spots and aging lines. (And that's no joke--he uses it everyday!)

After this conversation, things seemed to improve; however, as the big 3-0 drew closer, it became apparent that his "old age" was still troubling him. "Honey," I told him. "For the first five years of our married life all you did was dream of getting older. You used to go on and on about how you couldn't wait to get old, to get gray hair, etc. etc." (Maybe that was just because you were sick of being a poor student, but still.)

Nick's reply: Silence.

"Dear," I continued. "Just look at all that you have accomplished in your thirty years of life. You graduated from high school, served an honorable mission in Brisbane, Australia, graduated from the Marriott School of Business at Brigham Young University, graduated from Medical school at St. Louis University, got married and became the father of three beautiful children, and one on the way. You've traveled and toured, owned two homes, bought a brand new car! You sign your lovely MD with a Mont Blanc "writing instrument", mow your lawn with your fancy green John Deere riding lawn mower, and you're getting your very own snow mobile in a few months! What more could you ask for in your thirty short years of life?"

More silence. Then the thoughtful reply, "But, my twenties are gone forever." True, they are gone forever. What more could I say. I suppose going off about my twenties, and how I spent the last six years of them being either pregnant or breast-feeding, and what that does to my body, and how little he knows about having your body "fall apart", and how I can't wait to be thirty because it means I am done being pregnant and breast-feeding and can begin the great recovery process and reclaim some of my life again wouldn't help. So, I just pat him on the back and give him an empathetic sigh.

And so, today, as he awoke to the dreadful reality that his twenties really had gone forever, he didn't feel much like celebrating. The kids and I worked hard to cheer him up, and family and friends called periodically throughout the day to wish him the best. By evening, he seemed to have moved through all of his phases of grief and had finally settled on resolute acceptance of his dire circumstances. 30 years old. 30 years old.

From this worry-free little birthday boy:



To this "practically ancient" grown-up man:



Well Nick, we're excited for you, even if you're not. And we're proud of all that you have accomplished and become. Happy Birthday Nicholas! Happy 30th birthday!

For Time and All Eternity

On August 18, 2001, Nicholas and I arose early in the morning and made our separate ways to the historic jewel at the center of Salt Lake City, Utah--the Salt Lake Temple. We entered in separate doors, each accompanied by family and close friends. After dressing in special temple attire, we participated in a sacred veil ceremony, spent a few moments together in the beautiful Celestial Room of the temple, and then knelt across the temple alter promising to love one another for time and for all eternity. It was a sweet ceremony, one that was made more personal by a spiritually in tune sealer who spoke to our hearts and delivered answers to our heartfelt prayers. When the ceremonies inside the temple concluded, we re-emerged from the temple doors, this time hand in hand. The newness of marriage shone in our eyes, the brightness of love encircled us. Four little angels watched from above as their mother and father laughed, loved, and lived on that very special day. And the heavens recorded the union in the great Book of Life.

Today, we honor that day, and the eight years that have now passed. Life is different now. Love is deeper. Commitment stronger. And our gratitude for eternal marriage greater.

Cheers to happy marriages!! (And to being young and beautiful!)

Vivian Tobler Graff

December 28th, 1911-August 17th, 2009

Vivian Tobler Graff, ("Great-Grandma Graff) age 97, passed away on August 17th, 2009. She was born on December 28, 1911 to Ernest and Cecilia Tobler. She grew up in Santa Clara, Utah and was an active member of the Church all her life. She married Elgin Graff and together they had seven children. Her posterity at the time of her death also included 39 grandchildren, 87 great- grandchildren, and 13 great-great grandchildren. She was a remarkable woman of great faith and love for the Lord.

Some things I remember about my Great-Grandma Graff:

*Visiting her and Grandpa when I was a little girl.
*Swinging on the tire swing by her home
*picking grapes and apricots in their huge backyard garden.
*stories about my Dad catching crawdads in the creek behind her house
*pink mints
*Her love for genealogy which was beautifully displayed in a huge family picture tree on her living room wall.
*Her faith in Heavenly Father
*Five generation photos with Madison, Spencer, and EmmaLee

It's a...

Like Father, Like Son

With any move, there seems to come a rearranging of home furnishings and inevitably a host of new purchases as one gets settled in. In addition to making some of these types of purchases as we have decorated our new home, Nick and I have also set aside enough extra money over the last few years to make a few extra special purchases in this move. While I am usually the spender and Nick is the saver, for a brief moment in time, our roles have reversed. I have yet to find my extra special item--a beautiful black piano. Nick, however, had his "house warming present" on special order before we even arrived in Rochester. Since his parents were generous enough to buy him a new Weber grill for a graduation gift, Nick's splurge purchase for the new house was his very first piece of farm equipment--a John Deere riding lawn mower. And of course, if Daddy needed one, then Spencer needed one too! Aren't my two boys cute on their little tractors!!



You can just see the pride dripping off of Nicholas as little Spencer drives his lawn mower behind his dad while they mow the lawn. And a single day doesn't pass without Spencer asking if it's time to mow the lawn again yet. Since our half-acre can be mowed in a little over a half an hour, I guess I can't complain if the boys go out and mow it everyday!!

A Little Piece of Heaven

Well, our blog wouldn't be complete if I put up a post about the new house without paying tribute to our fabulous new back yard. To be honest, the yard was one of the big selling points of this home, and it has become more so each and every day. With an average summer temperature of 78 degrees, our yard is our very best friend. The kids love to play outside, eat outside...do everything outside. And Nick and I love to sit and gaze into the farmer's fields. The view is breath-taking, and makes us feel like we live in the middle of no-where farm country. This home has taught me again, as did our St. Louis home, to never under-estimate the value of a great yard when buying a home. I know I never will. But who's thinking about buying another home right now? Not us! Even though our time here will be a short three years, we're content to savor our little piece of heaven while we can.

Home Sweet Home

I know, I know. This post is about two months overdue, kind of like all of the posts that follow it, but my blogging philosophy is still better late than never, so take it when you can get it.

So...

After driving halfway across this country (Pennsylvania to Minnesota to Oklahoma to Utah) and spending a total of six weeks visiting friends and family from all walks of life, the time finally came to pack up the car one last time, say good-bye to loved ones, and set off for our new home in Rochester, Minnesota. The two-day drive seemed extra long with our three children and six weeks worth of luggage stuffed into our new car, but nevertheless, late in the evening on June 18th we finally pulled into what is now home sweet home. (We'll mail out a change of address someday!) Our real estate agent arrived about an hour before us, unlocked the front door, and left an assortment of welcoming gifts including fresh flowers, some very nice gift cards, and fresh muffins for our first breakfast in our new residence. Needless to say, from the time we walked through the front door, we felt right at home. Actually, Nick and I lingered for a moment looking around the yard, and Madison and Spencer beat us through the front door. Consequently, they were already laughing and running around the big front room by the time Nick and I made it into the house. This further solidified the feelings we had that this was the right place for us to be.

Since our arrival date was a Thursday, and the elders quorum weren't going to be moving our things over from the storage unit until Saturday, we set up camp in the master bedroom with some borrowed air mattresses and bedding. The kids loved our family sleep-over, and even more so they loved the wide open space to run around while mom and dad began the painting. And paint we did. Nick started in the entryway, and worked his way through the living room and kitchen neutralizing the beautiful, but not functional burnt orange color that filled the house. We chose a soft sandy color for the entryway to compliment the country feel of the home, and then stuck with a very pleasant off-white for the rest of the upstairs living room and kitchen. The rest, except of course, for the cranberry accent wall.

Oh, the cranberry accent wall!! We decided that since we had a living room downstairs that would serve as our main living room/play area, that we would go for a more formal living room upstairs. We sold our country-style living room decor from our home in St. Louis before we moved, and invested in a few more modern pieces to adorn this room. Our color scheme of black, off-white (or whipped cream as I call it) and cranberry was also considerably more modern. As a result, I begged Nick to let us go a little crazy and paint one living room wall cranberry. He reluctantly agreed, not knowing beforehand what a painting nightmare it was going to be. And that is no exaggeration. For anyone who has ever used any shade of red paint, you well know that it is incredibly unforgiving, even for the most perfectionist painter. So, in a nutshell, the red wall that we started Saturday morning and were supposed to finish by Saturday afternoon when the elders quorum came, actually got finished almost two weeks later. The single wall required four gallons of paint and primer, and almost sent Nicholas over the edge!! Finally I told him that he could only do one more coat and then he HAD to be done. Fortunately he was sufficiently satisfied with the last coat and agreed to move onto painting EmmaLee's room.

Oh, EmmaLee's room!! Yep, it was another one of those painting disasters. Only this time, it wasn't red paint that was difficult. Actually, it wasn't the painting at all that was such a head-ache. The room was a lovely shade of blue, but of course, had to go pink. Again I begged Nick to be a little bit crazy and requested pink and white candy stripes. I didn't know that taping for stripes would take a full week of evenings when I made the request, but after another two weeks of painting, taping, waiting for paint to dry, and painting again, the second painting masterpiece in our house was finally finished.

Here are a few shots of the completed rooms.





With the completion of EmmaLee's room, and some minor touching up in the master bedroom and upstairs bathroom, the painting in the upstairs was finally complete. What was supposed to take us only a weekend, turned into a month of painting. Therefore, we decided to take a break from painting for a while and paint Madison and Spencer's rooms downstairs at a later date. "Break" at our house is all relative though. You see, part of the reason that we bought this particular home was the fact that all that needed to be done to the house was painting. The house is new enough that the inspection was flawless. The yard landscaping was already complete. Etc, Etc. Nicholas and I, however, just can't seem to let well enough alone. Therefore, after trying for a few days to enforce a "no shoes" in the house and "no food or drink out of the kitchen" rule, we discovered just how much we had under-appreciated having all hardwood floors in our St. Louis home. So, although carpet is nice for the bedrooms, and even the play room, we decided it wasn't nice for our high traffic formal living room--and out it came! The kids loved pulling out the staples and rolling up the padding. It was a typical Hoskins family adventure! And so was replacing the carpet with wood floors--another three-day project that lasted a month. But in our opinion, the best spent month ever. We love the change from carpet to wood!!

Here are some shots of the flooring project from beginning to end.

Before shots of the carpet.







The family pulling out the carpet.







Putting in the wood floors.



The new wood floors.







And so, after painting, putting in new floors, and some intermittent shelf-building in the garage and food storage room, we now can really call this house home sweet home. (And we clearly have made a case for our blogging delays!)