Happy Birthday to me!!!

I think I have had quite the adventures during my past 6 years.  Here is a list of what was going on in my life at the time of my birthdays since I turned 20.

·         I turned 20 in Oakland, Ca.  I had gone on a New-Years trip with two of my friends, Katie and Megan to San Francisco.  Had a girlfriend named Renée and was working at Estancia Hotel and Spa as a bus boy.

·         I celebrated my 21^st birthday on my mission.  I was serving in Hailybury, Ontario.  We went to a small town called Ville-Marie in Quebec and I bought a goofy hat.  That goofy hat kept me nice and warm.  This was the birthday that I realized my birthday was in the winter… when it snowed.  My girlfriend Renée was waiting for me back home while I served my mission.

·         My 22^nd birthday was also spent on my mission but this time I was serving in Woodstock, Ontario.  That winter it snowed hard, wet and heavy because I was right in the middle of the great lakes.  Renée had dumped me saying I needed to “focus on the work.”

·         When I turned 23 guess what...I was married to Renée!!! It looks like she waited after all.

·         I was working two jobs at 24, Deseret Book and Fed-Ex Ground as a package handler. 

·         When I turned 25 I had a 14 day old baby girl.

·         And now 26… Guess what… I have cancer. Crazy!!!

Well here I am now, January 3rd, turning 26.  I thought to myself about how crazy it is to have cancer and be going through chemo right now.  Who knows, it may be the cancer is all gone.  Anyways this cancer sure has thrown us for a loop.  One line from Robert Burns 1785 poem “To a Mouse” made famous by John Steinbeck, has been always in my mind. 

“The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men
Gang aft agley,”

I figured I would go look up the poem and see what the whole thing said.  Starting it off was a bit difficult because I didn’t understand the old English.  You figure all the scripture reading I have done cwuld have prepared me for this poem.  I guess the King James Version of the Bible is written in “Old English Lite”. 

I felt bad for this little mouse.  Robert Burns had just plowed through his house and winter was coming.  But you know what that mouse was able to do?  Build a new one.  There has been one recurring theme throughout my list of birthdays and it is a desire to be with Renée.  We met when I was 19 and slowly I fell in love with her.  It was instantaneous for her of course.  For the past 6 years I have had her in my life and was able to come out on top of many bad situations because of her.  This is one of them.  Our best-laid schemes had a plow dragged right through it and now here we are in a field running around like that little mouse before winter.  But again that mouse had it in his capability to dig a new home just like we have the capability to keep moving forward.  I know with Renée I can get through anything.  Thank you Renée.