Still My Dad :)

If any of you have met my dad, you know that one of his favorite past times is to tease anybody and everybody in range. He delights in giving someone a hard time, particularly his children. In fact, whenever one of my friends called during my teenage years (this was in the days before cell phones! and, yes, I am showing my age in saying that, but it wasn't all that long ago), after calling me to answer the phone, my dad always used to tell the caller, "you'll have to wait a sec so she can get off the couch from cuddling with her boyfriend." If I could insert a rolling eye emoticon here, I totally would. Now, I think such comments are funny, but as a boyfriendless teenager, I was mortified.

These funny little snippets didn't just come to me--they pretty much came to all my siblings. Teasing is an inherent part of my father and how he shows his love for his children. (Yes, I know that last line was quite mushy, but just bear with me.) I thought I was never going to live it down when my dad, in reference to my final time with my boyfriend my freshman year of college, told my roommates, "We know how it was--we were young and frisky once."

And yesterday I discovered that even though I am an adult now, my dad still likes to tease me. Should I really be surprised? I think not. :)

We were riding the elevator down to the parking garage and ended up with a group of four other people. It was a little unexpected because the doors had closed even though the elevator hadn't started moving yet. When I pushed the button, the elevator door popped up, but the doors started closing before we could get in. I'd stuck out my hand to stop the door from closing, even though it didn't work, but the people inside had pushed the button to open the door.

We get into the elevator and are riding down when my dad turns to the people inside and quips, "You have to be careful with Tammy because she struggles with doors. Just ask her about how she got stuck on TRAX."

I wasn't offended in the least by this comment. I just laughed and realized I may be older now, but my dad is still very much my dad.

Today's the Big Day

Man, I have been so terrible recently about writing in my blog! I apologize for that. It's been a crazy last couple of weeks and when I do have time, I tend to fill it with other things. In any case, I'm probably going to do a couple of entries right now so brace yourselves!

So after what has seemed so long at times and so short at others, the big day has finally arrived. And I'm guessing mostly everybody in my family is pretty excited to see it. What is this big day that I'm prattling on about, you might wonder. Well, I'm actually referring to the day of my brother's wedding! (Yes, I realize that from the way I've written this it almost sounds like it was my big day, but such is not the case.)

I just told my brother that he's down to about three more hours of being single. He seemed less than impressed. He might've even been texting his fiancee at the time I said it. Oh well! In just a few hours he will be heading to the Salt Lake Temple to be sealed for time and all eternity. Here is a couple pictures of the happy couple.

I am excited for my brother because I know how important this is to him. And let me be one of the first to welcome his soon-to-be wife, we'll call her A, into the family. Welcome to life as a Walquist! It's a wonderful way to live, but just be prepared to often be running late, to be surrounded by and involved with family but to always feel loved. We welcome you and wish both of you only the greatest of happiness!

A Nice and Stormy Day

Okay, I must be honest: my preferred weather involves sunshine, nice temperatures and beautiful blue skies. (Just in case you're wondering, no I was NOT born in California.) This is a large part of the reason why I love summer so much.

But there are times when I enjoy an overcast day, such as today. I was more than a little delighted when I looked out the window this morning to see that the light appeared to be subdued, or, in other words, that it was overcast. And I was even happier when I opened my blinds and discovered such was exactly the case.

I like the nice weather as much as anybody but sometimes I long for cloudy days too. The weather has been pretty hot and clear for the last couple of weeks so perhaps this is part of the reason I am still so pleased to see a change. Or perhaps it could have something to do with a gloomy mood that set in yesterday that hasn't quite left yet. Sometimes it's bad if the weather matches one's mood, but in this case I think it's a good thing. Perhaps the rain (well, I have only seen a few sprinkles right now but that could still change) will act as a cleansing agent and help me feel better. I DO love the smell of rain. So clean, so fresh.

When I was in high school I had an interesting realization that I'd like to share here. It came in response to a day like this, only in that case, I wasn't happy to see an overcast day. I was sad because I wished it could be sunshiny forever. And then I realized that sometimes we need the cloudy days in order to appreciate the sunny ones.

If every day was beautiful, blue and cloud free, we would cease to appreciate it (as I have found myself doing lately) because we take it for granted. When the weather changes and we lose those warm, clear days, we gain a greater appreciation for all types of weather, from sunny to rainy, clear to foggy, warm to *sigh* snowy. Life is like this too: when we go through the hard times, it may not be easy and may try us to our core, but it will also help push us out of our comfort zone and grow. Forced growth isn't always fun, but it's often necessary.

Here's to a cloudy day, complete with a thunderstorm, and the realizations it brought to pass.