Happiness and calm... before the storm

These next few posts are beyond happy. Life was so good I could hardly express it without sounding totally corny. I should have known stuff was coming. It was time to learn some hard things.

Feb 19, 1987

"It's amazing how moving to a different house can change your outlook on life. Everything here works right. Everything here is so clean and smells good. (There's no mice here). I have this strange urge to plant flowers somewhere outside and watch them grow and then decorate with them. Kristen and Amy like being in the same room together. They talk and read and giggle together every night. Holly and April snuggle together on the top bunk in their room. Every night April "reads" books to Holly and pats her to sleep. They're so cute!

March 4, 1987 Mark took the afternoon off and he and I went to the movies and for an ice cream. Later he took all the kids over to the college for Kristen and Amy's Star performance and I went to Relief Society. How nice to have a husband who will do that. Now I'm home and I kiss those sweet girls asleep in their beds and I'm so happy...just to be alive, just be be Mark's wife and my girls mom.

Sunday March 15, 1987 How much happiness can person have? We spent the day together yesterday as a family doing Stars. The kids performed over at the college. Then we went for pizza. The kids were darling and they gave it their best. We came home and I had to go out again and chaperone a stake dance (My calling is Stake YW Secretary) Mark stayed home to be Dad and he helped Kristen prepare her talk. Today things were SO nice. Mark made breakfast while I dressed everybody. He put dinner in the pot and I made a salad. We were actually early and everybody was happy. Church went well. Our sweet (well trained:) ) children sat nicely, Kristen gave a good talk, the baby even went to the nursery with a smile. (I promise ya, this was all quite out of the ordinary, lest you think this was normal )

I needed to go to another ward's conference all afternoon and when I got home the house was still clean and the kids playing. Now I even have time to write in my journal, set some goals for this week, and dance with Holly awhile and love her. We don't let the kids have friends or cousins over on Sunday anymore and that's helped us as a family. They have time to talk to us and they learn to play with each other."