Crazy People in the Family

You know the line in The Lion King, "There's one in every family sire. Two in mine, actually”  The question IS do you know who it is in your family? Ever thought it might be you? Yeah, me neither, but we all know who they are! ;)

Something I’ve learned over the years is, every family has their trials, and their crazies. Ha and even sometimes we are the crazies, regardless, we press on. The ceremony goes on just like it does in the Lion King. The great news is that the Uncle Scars in our family don’t even have to be sacrificed for it to go on. In fact, we’ve come up with a little saying in our house to deal with ALL difficult people, it’s simple-“What can ya do… just gotta love them through it!”

Can you imagine how The Lion King would have ended it this had happened!! Ok, so maybe when you are dealing with an evil Hitler lion, you need to change your approach a little.

Showing Jack the "should-have-been-first-kiss" site

Juan has taught me the most about loving people through it. So many times I get heated over something silly or little that someone says or does and he’ quickly responds with, “they are probably hurting Jenn. What can we do, we gotta just love them through it.” And to be fair that is the approach we’ve taken when Jack gets upset, or frustrated. It does no good getting mad at him for him feeling and expressing that he is upset or hurt. We want him to know that we want to hear him, that we do hear him and love him. Yeah, there are times that we have to help him know that hitting someone while he’s upset hurts them and isn’t the best, but still… punishing him for expressing his pain in the only way he knows how to, isn’t effective. We redirect his anger and help him express. After all, if we aren’t willing to listen to him now, and help him now, he might give up talking to us later.

Mom and Jack

Someone, who’s been a wonderful example to me of listening to her children especially when they had things she didn’t want to hear, is my mom. I’ve watched my mom’s ability to listen carefully become fine-tuned over the last several years. As she has listened, through tantrums and unkind remarks, and hasn’t punished or hated for it, her kids really turn to her when they are in a jam. I think it’s all about judging less and really caring about the person and their feelings. I love that about her. 

Well this last week was a special one in our family. Mike, my 2^nd youngest brother got married. (Jack had my phone, so no pictures) It meant lots of family, lots of food and lots of catch up. Matt had been gone for 2 years on a mission, during which Chris and I both had little boys and Mike’s new wife is pregnant with their little girl. Shout out to Kara on looking gorgeous in her dress, pregnant and all! Stunning really. It was perfect.

Matt with us hanging at the beach

Thomas blew my mind with how good he is doing in life. This two liner sums up my feelings about that. I’ve always had a special spot for Thomas.  

You never know person from a single glance

You can’t know who they’ll become if you never give them a chance

I’ll have to get him to write his story sometime and post it

Us and Em

Anyway. It was a fun trip, regardless that my shopping side trip to H&M was foiled by a restaurant that decided to have the same name. It got me and Hans to the reception venue early. Pretty sure Jack developed a serious crush on Emma, he kept teasing her. I don’t know what to do with that boy sometimes. No shame, no fear of rejection. There is one confident boy. AND still he knows how to get Emma to chase after him. Play a little hard to get and tease her all the way. I’d say he’s a player, but I think he had it pretty bad for her. He kept smiling at her picture all the way home.