I must say I have not gotten my beauty sleep in days! I have been watching Olympics since my grandparents bought their first television, which was, I think when I was ten years old. That is forty-two years of Olympics every other year so that would make it 21 years of watching the stuff. I only see three medals so far for Finland in these Olympic Games, but Finnish people excel more in the winter sports like hockey and ski jumping etc. It is so fun to "feel" the spirit of these athletes and recognize how many hours of HARD work they have done to get where they are. My little five # weights seem a bit lighter now and my exercise routine in the mornings has gotten new wind! I will never be an Olympian but I sure have gotten inspired by the honorable performances of all the athletes, not only the Americans but those from countries I didn't even know existed, or know how to pronounce. I will miss the Olympics once they are done, but it gives us London to look forward to in another four years. And don’t forget the winter Olympics in two years and watch the Finns win a few!
My father was a great athlete. He was a gymnast for the Finnish team. I used to have a couple of pictures of him in his gymnast uniform and if I can find them I will scan and post those. I believe that our heritage has given us something special to be proud of - my father a gymnast, my mother a writer, my grandfather an artist, my aunt a painter… Some days I wonder where all that talent went to, but as I look at you, kids, I realize you have it all and more. You all have great talents of art, music, athletics, inspiration and heart. And the latter is what matters the most in the scheme of things. Every athletic or artistic performance will not amount to much unless you have shared your heart and soul with it. The passion to do what we love is what makes our lives meaningful.
On the wall next to the front door I have a saying “If anything is worth doing, do it with all your heart”. I look at it every day as I leave the house. Unfortunately it gets forgotten at times when I have to do things I don’t like doing, but usually I get through my days with a good attitude and grateful heart because I don’t have to look very far to see how fortunate and blessed I am. As I come home through the same door, I glance at the little saying and smile thinking “I made it through another day. Thanks for the reminder!”
So the Olympics are going to be over in a few days but the memories and the inspiration will be on my mind for a long time. I am not a world class athlete and I will never be in the Olympics but I can be the best at whatever I am doing in the moment.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Monday, August 18, 2008
Our Whole Family
Hey, everyone! It's Jessie in Missouri. Things are going great here. The summer heat is not as intense as it was a couple of weeks ago, so Mika is happier at work. Luke is gearing up to go back to school on Wednesday. And I'm loving my new job more than either of my other two radio jobs. We now have eight birds, two dogs, two goats, one little tiger, one iguana, and one guinea pig. (And we're currently searching for a partridge and a pear tree to round out the clan.) We were also recently fostering two other dogs, a black Lab and a black, nine-month-old Great Dane. The Lab went back with its owner for now, and we placed the Great Dane after just a couple of days. I take care of the inside animals while Mika feeds the goats and dogs. Luke feeds the little tiger (with the help of one gentle reminder and one death stare). While the humidity literally puts a damper on things--100% humidity at 105 degrees feels like walking through Mother Nature's Suana--life is still grand in the Midwest.
I just got done reading Krista's post on single-motherhood on her blog. It nearly brought me to tears. As all of you know, I was a single mother from the time Luke was born. I was physically eighteen years old when I got pregnant, but I had the maturity level of a young adolescent. That led to a long series of selfish and often times hurtful decisions. I didn't mature into "something like an adult" until I was almost 24 years old. Motherhood finally kicked in. At that point, I took a couple of years doing some serious, full-throttle introspection. It paid off. A lovely boy moved in down the hall and, as The Fresh Prince of Bel-Aire would say, "my world got flipped, turned upside down."
You see, in all those years of making thousands of wrong decisions, I had managed to squeeze in one very, very good one. I was not going to introduce my son to a revolving door of men. Mika entered our lives at the ass-end of my two-year quest to... well, for lack of a better phrase, get a grip. So when the time came for me to tell Luke that his new fishing buddy was now my boyfriend, I panicked. There was almost a sense of betrayal creeping up my spine. It had always been just Luke and me. I quickly started to regret that one great decision. But Mika took me by the arm, marched me into my living room, and supported me while I launched a potential chaos nuke into my son's finally-stable world. And it could've easily gone that way had Mika not quickly followed up with his verbal understanding of his limited place in our lives at that time. It was a genius point to make in an effort to sooth the heart of a six-year-old boy, and I found myself astonished at and slightly jealous of Mika's insight into parenting. He didn't have to wait for fatherhood to kick in. It seemed to already be there. And here's the bitter-sweet icing on the top: Mika gave up his opportunity to ever have biological children of his own to be with us.
Three and a half years later I find myself re-reading this post and thinking, "Oh, Mylanta, I won the husband lottery." On August 24, 2007, Mika legally adopted Luke and gave Luke his last name. (The accidental alliteration of the name "Luke Nugent" would be serendipitous should he someday decide on a career in radio...) The anniversary of the adoption is this Sunday. I hope you all will take a moment and think of your brother through my eyes. He is a real-life superhero. He is the kind of man we want to walk into Krista's and Jorel's lives some day.
Also, take a moment and congratulate yourselves on contributing to the molding of the aforementioned superhero. You have all had a hand in our happiness. I hope this post will help you all understand just how grateful I am to you not only for giving me Mika, but for your acceptance of me as Mika's wife and for that of Luke as a grandson, as a nephew, and now as a cousin. No one could've possibly pre-designed a picture so perfect. I love you all very, very much.
I'm sorry for the long post. My emotions were able to overcome me with a late-night sneak-attack. Damn them! Well, at least it wasn't my other personality surfacing this time. That's always embarrassing...
Anyhoo, I love you guys!
Jessie
I just got done reading Krista's post on single-motherhood on her blog. It nearly brought me to tears. As all of you know, I was a single mother from the time Luke was born. I was physically eighteen years old when I got pregnant, but I had the maturity level of a young adolescent. That led to a long series of selfish and often times hurtful decisions. I didn't mature into "something like an adult" until I was almost 24 years old. Motherhood finally kicked in. At that point, I took a couple of years doing some serious, full-throttle introspection. It paid off. A lovely boy moved in down the hall and, as The Fresh Prince of Bel-Aire would say, "my world got flipped, turned upside down."
You see, in all those years of making thousands of wrong decisions, I had managed to squeeze in one very, very good one. I was not going to introduce my son to a revolving door of men. Mika entered our lives at the ass-end of my two-year quest to... well, for lack of a better phrase, get a grip. So when the time came for me to tell Luke that his new fishing buddy was now my boyfriend, I panicked. There was almost a sense of betrayal creeping up my spine. It had always been just Luke and me. I quickly started to regret that one great decision. But Mika took me by the arm, marched me into my living room, and supported me while I launched a potential chaos nuke into my son's finally-stable world. And it could've easily gone that way had Mika not quickly followed up with his verbal understanding of his limited place in our lives at that time. It was a genius point to make in an effort to sooth the heart of a six-year-old boy, and I found myself astonished at and slightly jealous of Mika's insight into parenting. He didn't have to wait for fatherhood to kick in. It seemed to already be there. And here's the bitter-sweet icing on the top: Mika gave up his opportunity to ever have biological children of his own to be with us.
Three and a half years later I find myself re-reading this post and thinking, "Oh, Mylanta, I won the husband lottery." On August 24, 2007, Mika legally adopted Luke and gave Luke his last name. (The accidental alliteration of the name "Luke Nugent" would be serendipitous should he someday decide on a career in radio...) The anniversary of the adoption is this Sunday. I hope you all will take a moment and think of your brother through my eyes. He is a real-life superhero. He is the kind of man we want to walk into Krista's and Jorel's lives some day.
Also, take a moment and congratulate yourselves on contributing to the molding of the aforementioned superhero. You have all had a hand in our happiness. I hope this post will help you all understand just how grateful I am to you not only for giving me Mika, but for your acceptance of me as Mika's wife and for that of Luke as a grandson, as a nephew, and now as a cousin. No one could've possibly pre-designed a picture so perfect. I love you all very, very much.
I'm sorry for the long post. My emotions were able to overcome me with a late-night sneak-attack. Damn them! Well, at least it wasn't my other personality surfacing this time. That's always embarrassing...
Anyhoo, I love you guys!
Jessie
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Updates...
Well, we are about the 1 month mark until the family reunion! I know everyone has been busy and there has not been a whole lot of additional planning happening, but I thought I would touch base and let everyone know it is still a go. We are going to try and stick to the original itinerary, but if there's something else anyone is dying to do - we can throw it out there and see where it fits in. I think either way, we'll have a packed schedule and it will be like a real vacation! I hope everyone is ready to rock!
As for an update on the CA gang, we are doing well. Everyone is happy and healthy and tolerating the noise of remodeling our bathrooms. We completely finished the guest bathroom yesterday and it looks AMAZING!! I'm in love with it. Paul and I were like "We should sleep in here, its so nice!" Now we need to finish the master bath, and honestly - even though we have made it this far - its hard to get motivated to start another project. Its a lot of hard work. But I know it will be worth it when its all done. We figured since we are going to be here awhile (with the housing market the way it it) we might as well really make this place our own and enjoy it!
Business has slowed down over the past couple of weeks, but we are still finding things to keep us busy. It probably came at a pretty good time, so we can take a step back and analyze where we want to go from here. We are re-vamping the website and taking time to do things that should have been done awhile back, when we just didn't have the time! Jake is taking the opportunity to learn more about editing and website animation and even a little online marketing.
But it sure does get nerve-wracking. Of course, I automatically start to panic and ask Paul if I need to start looking for a new job (the LAST thing I want to do). But he has reassured me that this is part of running your own business. You have the highs and the lows. I can't run off and find a new job every time things slow down a little! So now we are focusing more on sales and getting some new customers to carry us through to the end of the year. We have set some high goals for next year so we will see how it goes!
That's it for us. Hope everyone else is doing well.
- PB & J (and J)
As for an update on the CA gang, we are doing well. Everyone is happy and healthy and tolerating the noise of remodeling our bathrooms. We completely finished the guest bathroom yesterday and it looks AMAZING!! I'm in love with it. Paul and I were like "We should sleep in here, its so nice!" Now we need to finish the master bath, and honestly - even though we have made it this far - its hard to get motivated to start another project. Its a lot of hard work. But I know it will be worth it when its all done. We figured since we are going to be here awhile (with the housing market the way it it) we might as well really make this place our own and enjoy it!
Business has slowed down over the past couple of weeks, but we are still finding things to keep us busy. It probably came at a pretty good time, so we can take a step back and analyze where we want to go from here. We are re-vamping the website and taking time to do things that should have been done awhile back, when we just didn't have the time! Jake is taking the opportunity to learn more about editing and website animation and even a little online marketing.But it sure does get nerve-wracking. Of course, I automatically start to panic and ask Paul if I need to start looking for a new job (the LAST thing I want to do). But he has reassured me that this is part of running your own business. You have the highs and the lows. I can't run off and find a new job every time things slow down a little! So now we are focusing more on sales and getting some new customers to carry us through to the end of the year. We have set some high goals for next year so we will see how it goes!
That's it for us. Hope everyone else is doing well.
- PB & J (and J)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
