I woke up this morning and I started thinking about the people in my life. I couldn’t help but think about the ones who cried with me, the ones who cheered with me, the ones who prayed for me, the ones who are my examples, the ones who are the biggest part of my life. I started wondering what my life would be without ‘these ones’. I stopped. I stopped because without ‘these ones’ I would be a completely different person, I would not have accomplished what I have, I would not have made it through the hard times, I would not be as happy, I would not have the testimony I do, I would not me. So I write to ‘these ones;’
To Dad: Who has always been my best listener, my best advice giver and my biggest example.
To Mom: Who has unfailingly been my best friend for almost 21 years.
To Johnny: Who has shown me how to live life the right way.
To Gary: Who has always been there when I needed someone most.
To Nate: Who has always recognized my biggest needs and then quietly given it to me.
To Scotty: Who has always built me up.
To Landon: Who has truly become a combination of all of the above. Who has been my greatest blessing. Who has become the biggest, best part of my life. Who makes me feel like the most important person in the world. Who loves me unfailingly. Who, I know, I can rely on for the rest of forever.
To ‘these ones,’ thank you for making me the person I am today. I will never know how my life would be without each & everyone of you, but I know it would not be as good. Thank you. I hope one day I can give you what you have so graciously given me. I love you all.
In Landon’s last post he talked about our URL. I thought that I would now add to why this is our name. I wish that I could come up with a creative way to show how Landon and Otterpops are similar but, alas… I can’t. To be honest Landon and Otterpops have absolutely nothing in common. Here are the reasons why;
Lets be honest here, Landon does not have much color to his skin. On the other hand Otterpops—as most know—can be an assortment of colors
You can get a lot of ‘juice’ out of an Otterpop as long as you try. In contrast the only way you can get ‘juice’ (aka information) out of Landon is if you ask someone that really knows him. Rarely do you hear Landon talk about himself
Otterpop’s and Landon’s figure are not similar. And thank goodness for that.
The biggest difference between Otterpops and Landon is that Otterpops shrivel and die in the sun and Landon shrivels and dies in the cold.
To understand the URL you have to understand a little bit more about Landon. Landon is simple.
He doesn’t need much to make him happy
There are only 2 ways to go; towards Christ or towards Satan.
The Scriptures always have the answer.
Be happy—why not?
You decide your attitude.
Smile
Life is meant to be fun.
Everything is always going to be ok.
These are things that I have been taught my whole life. What amazes me is Landon truly believes all of these things. Landon has a simple faith. Yes he loves learning the deep doctrine in the gospel but, every answer comes back to faith, repentance, baptism, gift of the Holy Ghost, and endurance. His simplicity amazes me. I learn from it every single day.
In my opinion our URL shows Landon’s simplicity. It is his way of simply saying, “Give me an Otterpop, some love and—of course—the gospel and I’m happy.”
Seeing as how Becca in her last post was not able to explain the url of our
blog -otterpopsandlove- I will take it upon myself to do just that. Let it be known, however, that this may be the first time I have ever finished anything Becca has begun. Rarely, if ever, does she let a project go uncompleted. She is a finisher, a closer. Dare I say she is the Mariano Rivera of the family (how’s that for a Yankees shout out for all you Edwards out there?).
I am a fan of spontaneity. The name in question is a result of just that. When asked what we should name the blog, it was the first thing out of my mouth. Upon further pondering, however, there are several parallels between love and otter-pops worth noting:
1) I love both things. I love otter-pops and I love love. I love being in love. And I love my wifedearly.
2) Both otter-pops and love have provided needed comfort at different times of my life. During the Arizona summers otter-pops were my main (and sometimes only) source of hydration. As we now near another Utah winter (something that makes me cold just mentioning) I will rely on Rebecca to keep me warm. But more than the physical comfort she can provide with her hugs, she has covered me in a blanket of love, affection and service that will require an eternity to adequately express my gratitude for. She is my everything. I love her.
3) The third parallel is that both Rebecca and otter-pops are skinny, but that isn’t nearly as sentimental.
Hopefully that clears up any questions anyone may have. If you have never had an otter-pop I highly recommend it. But buy the big box from Costco, 500 count. That’ll last you at least a week.
Yes we are doing it. We are following the norm. Doing what all married couples do—starting a Blog. I am not one to normally follow the norm in fact sometimes I purposely don’t do things because I don’t want to be considered a norm follower. For example, I don’t have a facebook, I have never read Harry Potter, Krispy Kreme Doughnuts are not the stuff and I have yet to see all of High School Musical. I guess I must admit up front, I have always wanted to be a norm rebel.
With that said, I start my first post.
Landon and I have been married for over a month now. 1 month and 8 days to be exact. Last night we realized something. We both love to write. Let me just put it perspective for you.
Just last night;
1.I wrote in our shared journal, “The Lord’s hand in our life today”
2.I then went to my daily journal. Her name is Brooklee. (Yes I name all my journals. They all start with ‘B’)
3.I then finished with writing in my scripture journal.
Meanwhile….
4.Landon was first writing in his prayer Journal
5.He then wrote in our shared Journal
6.He then finished with his daily Journal
Landon mentioned how our kids are going to have so many choices to read from. I then followed with, “Our poor kids.”
I put this because I feel like I am excusing myself from following the norm by sincerely admitting that I love to write. So really I am a norm rebel doing something I love. I cannot and will not be a norm follower.
I started this post wanting to explain our url; otterpopsandlove.blogspot.com. I ended up talking about my longing desire to be a norm rebel. I guess sometimes you plan on things going one way and they end up a completely different way. Oh well. Til next time, The End.
