Memorial Day

Memorial Day is a day that is set aside to remember those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for freedom. I am thankful for all the men and women who gave their life serving our country. We truly do live in the land of the free because of the brave.

When I was young, Memorial Day always meant a trip to the cemetery where my grandpa Seipert was buried in a town about 30 miles from where I grew up. We would take flowers (always yellow gladiolas because that is what my grandma wanted him to have). I have always associated this day with remembering loved ones who are no longer with us. Today, I am thinking of a couple of people that I was blessed to know in my life that have passed away.

My grandma, Frances Seipert, was my dad's mother.
She was the only grandparent that I knew because my mom's parents and my grandpa Seipert had passed away before I was born. Grandma Fritz, as we called her, was a special lady. She and grandpa had 4 boys, and she would tell everyone that she met about her 4 boys. She was so proud of them. My grandpa died at the age of 52, and my grandma had to go to work to support herself. She worked at Woolworth's and JC Penney and had to be on her feet all day. Her life wasn't easy after grandpa died, but she didn't complain.
My grandma lived in California when I was little, so I only got to see her once or twice a year. When I was 14, she moved to Idaho to be near us and we became very close. My grandma was a funny lady. She would tell a joke and if you were sitting next to her, she would tap you on the leg to make sure you got the joke! She had beautiful long fingernails which she always painted herself, and she liked to go get her hair done. My grandma loved the San Francisco 49ers (especially Joe Montana), french fries, hard peppermint candy, and "just a little wine" with her dinner. She developed dementia in her later years and when she wanted to call my dad at work, she would just dial 911 because he was a police officer. Made sense to her! :) She lived over 30 years after my grandpa died, and she missed him every day. She always said that he was the only one for her. I know she is with him now.

Colin's brother Paul passed away 4 years ago.
Paul was older than Colin by 2 years, and he was born with Prader-Willi Syndrome. It is a mental and physical handicap. I first met Paul after Colin and I had been dating about a month and a half and he took me home to meet his family over Thanksgiving. I already loved Colin by this time, but I have to say I loved him a little more after seeing how sweet he was to his brother.
Colin's mom told me that Paul always wanted a sister- instead, he got Colin. So Paul was thrilled when I married into the family. He finally had a sister. One time I was there visiting and we were getting ready to go to breakfast. I was the last one to get ready and I heard Paul say that he was hungry and wanted to go eat. Colin's mom told him "Paul, you are going to have a sister now and sometimes they take longer to get ready." I didn't hear him complain anymore after that. Paul's smile could melt anyone's heart. Paul would never be able to drive, so after Colin got his driver's license, he would take Paul in the car and go for a drive, just the two of them. Paul would never be able to get married, but he was able to be a part of our wedding. Paul loved The Brady Bunch, The Beach Boys, and all birthdays and holidays (or any cause for a celebration), where good food was involved! He loved his doggie niece and nephew and they loved their uncle Paul. We love and miss our brother!

Sugarland, Darius Rucker, Danny Gokey and Jake Owen- OH MY!

On Friday night we saw Sugarland, Danny Gokey, and my boyfriend Jake Owen, at the Comcast Center in Mansfield, MA. In case you were wondering, Colin does know about my boyfriend Jake- I just don't think that Jake knows he's my boyfriend! haha Here are some photos from the concert.

Jake:



Sugarland & Danny Gokey



Saturday night was a bbq with friends and Sunday night we saw Darius Rucker (aka Hootie from Hootie and the Blowfish) in Lowell, MA. He put on an awesome show!



It was a jam packed weekend but it was lots of fun!

"Let It Go"

I went to stake conference a couple weeks ago and President Watson gave a talk where the theme was "let it go". One of the things he talked about was circumstances in our life beyond our control and how we need to not let those things stop us from progressing and if we were letting that happen, then we needed to "let it go". With Mother's day fast approaching, I felt like he was speaking directly to me. When you aren't able to have children, Mother's day can feel like the worst day of the year. I couldn't bring myself to go to church today and listen to all the talks about how wonderful motherhood is and have them hand out flowers or candy or whatever it was this year to all the women "18 and older" instead of "mothers", because I am the only one not in the mother category.

I was taught growing up in church that motherhood is a sacred calling and many lessons revolved around family and getting married and having children someday. Whenever you move to a new ward or whenever someone new moves into your ward, the first question you are asked is "how many children do you have?" When the answer is "none", there are a variety of different responses. Some people are understanding, but others look at you like you must somehow be unworthy. You feel like you don't fit in with other couples your age who are raising a family. I finally realized that I needed to "let it go". I need to let go of the failure and inadequacy that I feel over not being able to have children. It is something beyond my control. Life doesn't always turn out the way you thought it would, or go the way you think it should. I had an "aha" moment on the ride home that night when I realized that the people that mean the most to me in my life don't care that I am not a mother. They simply love me because I am their wife, or sister, or aunt or daughter or friend. They don't judge me, they just love me. I am thankful for those people.

So, while I am working on letting this go, I realize that it's going to take some time. Today I spent the day with my "babies".

Colin has always been so thoughtful to get me cards and a gift from the dogs every year. He use to say that he smuggled them into his jacket and took them into the store so the dogs could pick it out themselves. We took the dogs for a drive and a walk at a park. The walk turned into a nightmare when other people and dogs showed up. See our blog post from a day at the beach and you will understand why. :) Happy Mother's day to my mom and Colin's mom. We love you.

April

The month of April is almost over and I'm left wondering where it went? I am happy to report that Duke won the national championship! WooHoo!! It was a happy day at our house! It was way too close of a game though and it went down to the wire. My phone rang right after the game ended and I assumed it was my brother so I answered it singing "We are the Champions". It turns out it was my Uncle Garry who was calling to congratulate me on the win. He knows I use to watch the games with my dad, so he tries to call whenever they are in a big game. There was this huge pause and then he just started laughing (probably at my awful singing!) Pretty funny! Congratulations to my Dukies! Going for a repeat next year!



We went to see the Celtics play the Cavaliers earlier in the month. I got the tickets last October for Colin's birthday. The Celtics were up by 20, and then the Cavs came back to tie the game but the Celtics were able to pull out the win in the last minute.



Our new windows are in (well most of them anyway-there are still 2 that we are waiting to have come in). They discovered one window was broken when they were putting them on the truck, and the other had some damage on the frame so they are replacing that. Hopefully in the next week or two, they will be all finished. No more drafts from single pane 40 year old windows and we are loving it!

Death by March Madness!

I love college basketball and look forward to the NCAA tourney every year. If you were to come over to my house during those 3 weeks and Duke was playing, you would know how the game was going by how much I was yelling at my tv. This year there has been a lot of yelling...I'm fairly certain they can hear me telling them what they need to do through the tv to win the game! :)

I have been a Duke basketball fan for about 18 years. People ask how I became a Duke fan. They want to know if I went to Duke (don't I wish- I wasn't smart enough to get in and couldn't have afforded it if I were!) Growing up in northern Idaho, there weren't really any good college basketball teams to follow. Gonzaga has proven to be a respectable team in the northwest the last few years, but that wasn't always the case. Duke games were shown on national tv a lot and that is how I became a fan.

I take a lot of flack for my love of the Dukies. They are the team people love to hate because they have had great success- they are kind of like the Yankees of college basketball. They have now made it to the Final 4 of this years tournament and they have had some close games in getting there...ones that have made my blood pressure rise a bit. Colin makes fun of me because I love to watch the games when Duke is blowing the other team out and leading by 20, but the close games that other people like to watch drive me crazy! I have been known to yell "they're killing me!" during a close game. I have been fortunate enough to see Duke play in person a couple of times. Once in Portland with my dad in 2001- one of the years they won the NCAA title. I also got to meet Coach K's wife at that game, which was a highlight for me! I saw her in the lobby and said "dad, that's Mrs. K!", she heard me and came over and introduced herself to us. Last year Colin and I saw them play (and lose) in the tournament when they played in Boston in the sweet 16 against Villanova. Not one of my better nights. Colin says things go smoother at our house when Duke wins. :) When we moved to NH 5 years ago, we drove up from Florida and when we drove through North Carolina we made sure to stop in Durham and see the Duke campus and the outside of Cameron Indoor Stadium. One day I hope to actually get to go inside there and watch a game.

This years tournament will be all over in less than a week. Monday night they will crown a new NCAA college basketball champion. Of course, I hope that team is Duke. If you think you hear a crazy lady yelling all the way from New Hampshire this weekend during the games, it's probably not your imagination! :) GO DUKE!!

A relaxing day at the beach.?..Not so much...

We only live a little over an hour from York Beach in Maine. When the weather is nice, it has become one of our favorite places to go. We had some gorgeous weather a couple weekends ago and decided to take the dogs and go walking on the beach. Now, we don't usually take the dogs with us for a couple of reasons. One of the reasons is because they don't really like other dogs. Wally barks at everyone and everything- as you will see in the videos, and Skittles is scared of her own shadow and starts yelping whenever she sees a dog that is bigger than she is. I know this about my dogs, but every time we go to the beach without them, I feel like a bad mom because I left them at home. I see all these other dogs that are well behaved and love to play on the beach, while my dogs are at home in their kennel. I guess you would call it mommy guilt. Anyway, I gave into the guilt and the results are the videos below.

Here we are only a couple of blocks from the house and already regretting our decision to bring them.


The ocean is in sight, and so are all the people..cue Wally dog.


Once we are finally on the beach, they aren't too bad..


After a long day at the beach, this is what I went upstairs to that night.



I've said it before, but I'll say it again- it's rough to be a dog in the Battersby house!

Happy Anniversary to Us!

Today is our 7 year wedding anniversary. It seems hard to believe that 7 years have passed already. I remember our wedding like it was yesterday. All of our favorite people were there, and it was the happiest day of my life. Through the years we have seen the good-adding little Skittles to our family (the dog, not the candy!), and buying our first house. We have survived the bad- the death of my dad six months after we were married, and Colin's brother Paul in 2006. We have "weathered" 4 Florida hurricanes, a New Hampshire ice storm that knocked out our power for 8 days, and most recently, a New Hampshire wind storm. Through it all, we have been able to count on each other, lean on each other, and grow stronger together. Colin makes me laugh every day and fills my life with such joy. I am thankful every day for him.

Colin surprised me at work and had flowers delivered for our anniversary. Aren't they beautiful?


Tonight it is dinner out to celebrate. Our gift to each other this year is new windows for the house! Happy Anniversary Sweetie! I love you!