You know that perfect family?

You know that perfect family?

The one that doesn't have a drug addict in it?

That family that doesn't have any pregnant teenagers?

The one that has never been featured on an episode of Intervention?

The one that has never had a crises of faith?

The one that has never argued?

The one that knows how to tip properly at restaurants?

That family that has no divorces to speak of?


No lying?

No cheating?

No children born out of wedlock?


The one that has never had any member serve jail time?

The family that has never had any member in rehab?

The one that always dresses modestly?

The family that is RIDICULOUSLY photogenic?

The one that doesn't have any runaways?

The one that has never had the police bring their children home in the middle of the night?

The family whose children always behave politely?


No secrets?

No mental breakdowns?

No vices?


The one whose dog doesn't bark in the middle of the night?

That family that never speaks ill of others?

The one that never eats junk food?

The one that doesn't watch R-rated movies?

The one with children on missions in Brazil, Russia, AND Texas?

The one that watches all 4 sessions of General Conference and goes to Priesthood and the Relief Society meeting?

That one family with all brilliant minds?

The one that is made up of all wonderful musicians?

The one that drives super nice, clean cars?

The one that hasn't had to adopt because they are perfectly fertile?

The family that never has sweat stains?

The one with not a single zit between the lot of them?

The one with children at Harvard and Yale and Pepperdine?

The one with the all-state lacrosse star and the Decathlete with awards?

The family that serves others ALL THE TIME?

The one with all the girls with the Tiffany's necklaces?




That family that has never felt like a failure?






...yeah, me neither....

The Perfect vs My Perfect

I was sitting somewhere last night and a thought struck me. It was a thought about the perfect and my perfect. Because those aren't the same.

Some years ago I had my perfect. It wasn't perfect for anyone else...I'm pretty sure most people wouldn't have been as happy with what what going on in my life (I mean hello? Who wants this?) but it was my version of perfect. I was so happy.

Fast forward a year or two and I had the perfect. It was picturesque. Doing above average in school, taking summer classes and working. Killing it in lacrosse. Return missionary boyfriend who I read conference talks with every week. Wonderful friends. Going to wedding showers and baby showers for those friends. It wasn't bad. I enjoyed myself and I was mostly happy with my life and friends and whatnot. But it wasn't my perfect. I thought it was what I wanted out of life and in some ways it was...but in the most important ways it was just the perfect and not my perfect.

My point is that the perfect, the ideal is not and could never be my perfect, my ideal. Mine is usually a much more difficult road than the perfect. 

And that is why I am strong.

Fostering Dogs - Mo the Chocolate Lab Mix

This beautiful, sweet thing's name is Mo. I'll explain why we changed it from Sunshine to Mo in a minute. She is a sweet heart. Mowgli, Mo, whatever you want to call her she is so sweet.

She is a year old, chocolate lab mix (greyhound? Look at the long face:)

As you can see in that last picture ALL OF HER RIBS, you might guess, the poor thing was starved. Probably abused too judging by her temperament and skiddish-ness. But she still LOVES humans. She's incredible.

We got her in August and we still have her. :) YAY! But for any of you in the Salt Lake area, she is up for adoption! Check out the Humane Society of Utah's dog adoption page and she is there. And Blue :(

**Update: Mo has a potential new owner we will meet on saturday**

Anyways, back to Mo. She came to us as starved, scraggly, Sunshine but that wouldn't do. While she is a ray of sunshine it just wasn't her name. We tried to be clever and come up with 'thin' or 'skinny' or 'bone' in another language since she was SO SKINNY. None of those sounded too good either. Lindsay had started calling her Mo on the ride back from the HSU just because it was what she thought of when she saw the dog. After a couple hours of debating and voting and not choosing a name Lindsay said let's just call her Mo. It fits and she will always need mo' food. So Mo it is. 

She is a great dog. So obedient and calm. She crosses her front paws when she lays down which just SLAYS me it is so adorable. 

And she inspired us to build a killer doghouse:

More on that later.

We love Mo so much. Even if she ends up with this potential family she will always be ours. 

Love you Mowgli. <3

William Carlos Williams

I want to write poetry like William Carlos Williams does:

The Red Wheelbarrow:

so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens.

It will mean things and people will be baffled **shoutout to my 8th graders** by what it is.