Thoughts on the Day

Okay, I know I already posted today, but I need to decompress a little bit.  Just a couple of thoughts. We just got home from watching Brad get released from being a missionary.  (If you have no idea who Brad is, read post below!)  I don't know that I have ever had that experience.  It was actually kind of hard on me emotionally.  It wasn't anything really formal.  But that moment when the Stake President said that Brad was no longer a missionary and he could take off his name tag was weird.  Because it wasn't really a happy moment.  Now, don't get me wrong.  I am ecstatic that he is home.  But I realized how much a mission must mean to people who serve.  I don't know that I can ever fully understand that.  But it has to be really hard to devote everything you have to something for 2 years, and then all of the sudden, you are not that person anymore.  I felt sad that Brad can no longer do something that he loved so much, at least in a formal sense.  Just kind of weird.  But, selfishly, I'm still really glad that he's home! I am tired.  And I mean EX-HAUS-TED!  I absolutely love having all my family here.  (My brother Jeff and his family are here because my little sister is getting married on Saturday.)  But I am so tired.  And it's the last week of school.  And Jon is in Chicago at a conference, so I have the kids all by myself.  I must have had some sort of nervous breakdown in the car on the way home, because my kids are being really nice to me.    Example #1:  Emily is rallying all of the kids to make me breakfast in the morning.  They spent about 10 minutes in the car planning the menu.  (It's going to be toast and cereal because that's all they could figure out they could do!)  They decided that they will get up and make me breakfast so that I can sleep as long as I want.  Example #2:  Out of the blue, Robbie told me that he has heard of these beds from a place called Sleep Experts.  He told me that I should get one so that I could sleep better and not be so tired.  Of course, they are pretty expensive.  Robbie informed me they cost about $10,000.  So, that's probably not going to happen! Anyway, that's it.  I suppose it's pretty sad that I only had two thoughts today.  Oh well, I"ll take what I can get!