perks of this life

I find myself so often just thinking of the 'days ahead', our 'glorious future'. You know, the days when i can PAINT MY HOUSE, or not wonder where food enough for the week is going to come from, or not stress about finding sitters for our kids while P & I are in classes. Or staying up super late trying to study for a ridiculously extensive essay final. Or ...well, yeah. etc. (and yes, I know every stage has its struggles, etc, etc-)

I so often find myself looking ahead to the days of a 'real job' and moving on to the next step of life, that i struggle to see the perks of 'this life'.

Last night I realized a big one.

We attend a BYU married student ward (our church congregation), and we love it. Last week a gal in our ward called and asked if she and her husband could babysit for us Wednesday (last night), as they had a free night. Totally made my week. This awesome couple came over and thoroughly entertained our kids all evening while Patrick and I were able to catch a delicious dinner (thanks to Magleby's 1979 celebration) and a fabulous show (thanks to Timpview HS Band giving us movie tickets). We came home and the boys were sleeping peacefully. What fantastic sitters.

This made me recollect all the wonderful couples (and even singles) who have so readily watched our kids for us throughout the years. (wow. YEARS?? sick. I feel old. :P)

Never again will we live in an area full of childless, young couples who are happy to babysit weekends, weeknights, for free- b/c they can do it together, as a service to a friend, to get good karma for their future babysitting-needing days, or as practice for their future kiddos.

So here's a shout-out to all those who have watched our kids and given us a much needed break from the stresses of life. Here's to those who eagerly offer to watch our crazies and either call and insist or happily agree when we get up the courage to ask. Thank you for your kindness, your bravery, your amazing parenting skills. (seriously. you people put our kids to sleep better than we can.) Thank you for being Free! Not to mention better sitters than anyone we could pay. :)


Yes. This is something we will truly miss. You good people and the ample number of dates we are able to have because of you.

Thank you!!!

(I have a feeling we'll be preaching to our children the needed service of babysitting, esp. when they get to college. We'll tell them how their parents would not have survived school, and they may not have survived infant/toddlerhood with out nice, fellow-schooling babysitters. We may even threaten to not let them come home for Christmas unless they have sufficiently fulfilled their babysitting quotas for the semester. Who knows. But some how we will pass on the good of you people!)(and by we, I mean me. Patrick is clearly the nicer parent.) :)