The End of An Era

This last weekend we dropped off the last of the Barlow girls at BYU in Provo.  I now have NO girls (besides me) living in my house.  I am outnumbered 3 to 1.  For the past 22 years I've had a female "companion" in my home.  (Coincidentally, we dropped of daughter #3 ON daughter #1's 22nd birthday.)

Since Lynae left, the bathrooms are remarkably "tidy."  (Note I did not use the word "clean" but rather "tidy."  I suspect that although the bathrooms may be more "tidy," the cleanliness of said bathrooms will suffer.  Boys just don't clean as thoroughly as girls.) The bathroom countertops are relatively "tidy:"  free of flat irons, blowdryers, cotton balls, make up, Q-tips, bobby pins, and nail polish. Only an occasional toothbrush or comb clutters the bathroom countertops. The "pink" bedroom is neat and tidy, and eerily quiet, and the boys who now knock on my door are here to lift weights and hang out with my boys.  (In the past, it seemed that more often than not, male visitors to our home were in search of the Barlow girl(s), rather than the Barlow boy(s).)

If you know anything about me, you know I don't really like change.  In fact, the VERY first post I ever made on this blog was lamenting this fact.  My three girls are very close in age.  (Only 3 1/2 years between daughter #1 and daughter #3.)  So for many years, my life was filled with girls.  My oldest is a boy, and I had my first four children before my oldest (a boy) started school.  And prior to Dallin (my first) starting kindergarten, I was sure that I had the wildest, most rowdy girls around.  However, as soon as Dallin went to school, my daughters started to do calm "girl stuff" (like Barbies, dolls, coloring, dress up etc.)  while Dallin was at school.  Dallin had just been leading his sisters in his wild, sword-playing, action figure, wrestling, yelling, running, and jumping "boy"activities.  I love my boys.  Everyone needs a boy (or 2 or 3).  But I loved having three girls all in a row.  I loved dressing them alike and putting bows in their hair.  I loved watching them play pretend with each other and attending their dance recitals.  I loved shopping for prom dresses and watching them cheer and dance at the high school ball games.  So this last weekend marked the end of an era in our home: the end of an era of girls.  My girls continue to be the best of friends, having latenight "sleepovers," shopping together, and staying up late watching chic-flicks, eating junk food, and doing their nails.  However, more often than not, these activities are now done in apartments in Provo, not in my home.  The era of "all those girls" in our home has passed, and I am embarking on the last era of children in our home- an era  destined to be filled with football, basketball, and dirty clothes from camping trips; an era in which I go to high school football games to actually watch the GAME (not the cheerleaders and/or dancers), an era which I look forward to.  But I still look back on the era that has just ended with a bit of nostalgia.  So in honor of the close of this, the "girl era," in my life, here are some things that I have greatly enjoyed and will miss:

1-All things pink.  Pink is my favorite color, and to be honest, boys usually aren't that "into" pink.  (Although, Luke did wear a pink tie, which he found abandoned in Dallin's mission stuff, to church today-maybe to make me feel better about my lack of female companionship on our bench at church.)

Matching pink dresses-March 1996-Bryce and Becky's wedding.

2-Matching clothes.  Yep, I LOVED dressing my girls alike...maybe a little too much.  When they got old enough to protest, they did, but it was fun while it lasted....even matching swim suits.

Lynae's first birthday-January 1997

July 1999

3-Dolls, Barbies, Dress ups.  (Buying toys for little girls is just so much fun!)

March 1998-I love that Lynae has hairbows all over her teddy bear :)

January 2001

July 1997-Dressed up and playing with princesses and ponies

4- Hair bows,  nail polish, make-up.....

October 2008-Analise doing Kaylee's hair for homecoming-Kaylee was the freshman class princess.

January 2001-doing nails

Hair and make-up prep for Prom 2012 (an assembly line :) - Note the "cluttered" bathroom countertop.

5-Dance recitals

Creative Dance recital-January 2002

6-Semi-cooperative photo subjects.  My girls at least "try" (sometimes) to look nice in family (and other) pictures.  My boys....uh....not so much.

Christmas "Hardy Party" 2013.  Note the girls look great, but the boys...well... Kent is doing bunny ears (which I fail to find the humor in, but which he continues to think is hilarious), Dallin is M.I.A. (although he WAS at the party), and Trent and Luke have assumed the "unamused Zombie stares."

7-Prom/Homecoming/School Royalty:  It's just fun to be a "princess."

Analise-Homecoming Royalty 2007

Kaylee-Prom 2012

Lynae- Prom 2012

8-Cheerleaders/Dancers

Prophetic-All three go to BYU!

Lynae-middle school cheer. 2010

Kaylee-high school varsity dance team. 2011

Analise-high school varsity cheer. 2008

9-Three little girls in one room-cute "girlie" bedding and late night "girlie" giggles.

May 2001-bottom double bunk-laying "sideways." 

10-Watching my girls be best friends.

April 1997-Analise and Kaylee reading to Lynae.

April 2014-The last time all the girls were together before Kaylee left for her mission to Mexico.

Farewell to the "girl era"....

This is what met me when I walked in the door from dropping off the last of my female offspring at BYU:

Trent had just returned from a 400 mile bike ride from Provo to Logandale with his scouting group; and Luke had just returned from a backpacking hike down the Grand Canyon.....Yep, it's definitely the end of an era.

OH YEAH!  BRING ON THE ERA OF THE BOYS!!

80

Today is my dad's birthday.  He would have been 80.  He died on November 1, 2013 at the age of 79.  I have not blogged much since his death.  Life has been too busy.  I've felt guilty for not blogging about many significant events that have transpired, but as I stated when I started this blog, this blog is not about documenting my life (I have weekly journal entries which do that), but more about me being able to "yak" about things. 

I miss my dad daily.  His funeral program hangs on my fridge.  I can't bring myself to take it down.  His smiling face, just the way I remember him, greets me each time I retrieve the milk or an egg.  Sometimes on the way home from school, I drive by the cemetery.  His grave is conveniently located just east of the road that runs right through the middle of the cemetery, so I can drive by, view his headstone, and say "hi," without getting out of the car :).  I remember little things about my dad:  how his hands were so big.  (I still don't think I've met anyone with hands as big as his.)  His fingers were "thick,"  and I remember as a little girl playing with his hands during church; his hands that had been scrubbed clean from brick mortar, but still were stained dark gray in the callused creases of his fingers.  I remember the shape of his fingernails, and knowing that his hands were the biggest, strongest hands ever and would always take care of me.... and they did. Those hands fed me and changed my diapers.  (My dad was GREAT with babies and kids, and used to brag, "Diapers don't bother me.  I can change a diaper with one hand while eating chocolate pudding with the other.") Those hands gripped the steering wheel while he drove all around town in the middle of the night, checking up on me or following the bus home from late night away ball games.  (This was pre-cellphone days; the only way to check on me, was to go find me.) Those hands built the house that I grew up in and the house that I now live in. 

My dad didn't spend much time "visiting" with me.  When I called from college, he would check to make sure I was fine and then mom would spend the rest of the expensive, long-distance phone call  time visiting.  However, I ALWAYS knew that my dad loved me and was watching over me.  He now watches over me from heaven.  And I have never been so sure of anything as I am of that.  I know that just as he quietly checked on me and watched over me on earth, he continues to live and do the same from heaven.  So today I want to wish him a happy 80th.  I am so glad that he's my dad!


Dad's 37th birthday-June 8, 1971 (On Grandma Hardy's back porch):  Kay 4, Bryce 2.

Dad's 39th birthday-June 8, 1973: Kay 6, Bryce 4, Rex 2.  (Jill will be arriving in a month on July 7, 1973)  Note how Kay is trying to help blow out candles.....and we wonder where Analise gets it?? :) --You'll have to ask Analise about that one :)

Some of Dad's posterity at his grave-Memorial Day 2014

In honor of his birthday, I posted the talks from his funeral that I currently have on family search.  (Talks by Kay and Bryce and the eulogy by David.)

https://familysearch.org/tree/#view=ancestor&person=KWH3-5L6&spouse=KWH3-5LX&section=memories