Friday, December 31, 2010

Ringing out!

Ringing out the old, and in the new. Calm new years eve tonight. Went to the movies with the littles, then came home to take the bigs to the stake New Years Eve dance. Bless Carter's heart, he didn't want to go. I took the pressure off of him and said it just didn't matter what he did, and then he chose to go! Good kids. We are blessed with really good kids!!

Cleaned up Christmas and the house is more bare. But it's nice to have things a little simpler. I love Christmas but there sure are lots of decorations. This year seemed so quick! The holiday season passed just as quickly as the year did. In a blur!!

Now let me brag for just a moment, I made the BEST broccoli soup I've ever tasted tonight!!! I'm not kidding you. I don't think I could duplicate it, but I am sure going to try. It was awesome! I don't usually brag on my cooking, but this needed some bragging. :) I want broccoli soup to be my new years goal. Try new things, make things pleasing, enjoy! It was the perfect meal to ring in the new year with!!

I think the biggest lesson I learned last year was to be grateful, always. I had tons of gratitude this past year and I truely feel blessed beyond measure. Focusing on that is where joy is at.

So now it's just ringing my hands wondering whether or not to try to set gaols or resolutions. Just wanting things to be calm and peaceful. Right about now I am hating stress and tension and the like. The blurring days will tell how 2011 will turn out. I hope I can accomplish something as they pass by!

Happy New Year everyone. I do hope that the year has something good to offer all of us.

New Year? What the....

Ya... true. It's gonna be a new year in a day or so. I can't believe it!

Scott and I took the kids down to Scandia tonight for the LDS youth new years party. We had a little party of our own and went out to Famous Dave's BBQ, which was super good and had really cute decor and atmosphere. Then we went to a movie that had so much motion in it that it made me sick to my stomach and I thought I was going to have to puke over the rail in front of me. Luckily we got out of there just in the nick of time! :) All is well now and even though it's way too late (cuz it's really tomorrow by 2 hours) we're all home safe and sound.

The new year is upon me and loading all of it's expectations right on top of my shoulders. Ahhhhhhh. Go away dang it! I'm not ready yet!! How am I going to get out of this one? I don't want a new year. Oh well, (heavy sigh).

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Relations

This picture looks small, I'll find another copy...

On Christmas night after eating a big Christmas meal I look around the room and everyone was on their ipods. I thought it was so funny, so I gathered them all and said we had to take a 4 generation picture of everyone on their ipods! So we did. I thought it was cute. A couple of days ago my friend called and said she was writing an article for an online news journal and could she use the picture. I said sure, I got a kick out of it, but it sure fit! Here's the article. copy and paste http://www.examiner.com/relationship-advice-in-los-angeles


Today my cousin and her family were driving though California and so we met them for lunch. We had the nicest visit. I love social media for the reason that it brings a vehicle for families to connect and reconnect! I haven't seen Marianne for oh, maybe , 23 years. What a wonderful thing to be able to spend some time with her and her family!!

Sunday, December 26, 2010

Family photos that Steph took for us. I didn't teach her how to use the camera, so there was not many that weren't blurry. It was hard to find a few. Oh well. I don't know why my camera isn't better. I have to learn how to use it better!!

There wasn't a picture that someone wasn't doing something silly. In this one Scott was giving Carter a swirley in his ear... Boys will be boys.


This was a good idea, kinda turned out.


Our kids have awesome smiles!! I liked this one.









December

December came and is now going just as I thought it would, very quickly! It is crazy how in a seemingly brief moment the year has past and we are starting all over! It takes me by surprise every time.

My December was different this year. We spent the month working a lot. We had moved our office to a new location the week before Thanksgiving and then the freeze hit! We knew it would. We hadn't hardly gotten a portion of the move completed before the rush. It made things much more difficult! Mine and Scott's office is still in disarray and in need of lots of hours of organization! It has me wondering if it will ever get done.

Our Work Christmas party was early in the month and thank heavens it was because as it were, only a few of our helpers and none of our crew chiefs were able to make it. The ward party was different this year. I was asked along with two other ladies to sing a beautiful song. There were a few other groups who did musical numbers. It was short and I guess sweet enough. I'm not really feeling the ward bonding lately. So I was indifferent about it all.

We decided the week before Christmas would be a good time to go to Arizona. So we spent a warmish week there, enjoying family, Stephanie's baby and being close enough to visit grandma several times. The baby, Savanna is quite a sweet calm little soul. She really is a joy. Baillie just loves her to death. I love that age of 11 when girls just want to love on babies. It is so sweet. And Savanna is a good one to love on! I truly haven't met a more loving baby in a long time. We spent time with Audry-Camille Sophia too. The kids met her for the first time and that was exciting. She is a cute little thing with lots of energy.

I was also so happy to be able to spend time with my grandma. She is now in a "home" and being taken care of fairly well by the people there. Her memory loss is very apparent now, it makes me sad and I feel a little lost. I just expect her to be sharp and quick. Sometimes she didn't even know who I was at first and I had to help her remember me. She is happy and she seems like she is the same, but after spending just a few moments with her it is easy to see she is not. She asks the same questions over again after only having asked it a few minutes earlier. And this happened the entire time we were there. She spoke of things that weren't there, like stairs in the house. And she spoke nonsense, like her "sons" being dead, when really only one is dead. I don't know how quickly this dementia will progress, but I hope it isn't too quick. Her body is healthy and I think she still has a few years to be around us.

Then home we came with only a day to spare before the jolly fat man was to come. Things were wrapped and taken care of before hand so there wasn't really a lot to be done. I bought some food and a couple of last minute things on Christmas eve and still had time to make sugar cookie dough and prepare for the day in front of us. It turned out really nice, our Christmas. Not too big, not too small and gratitude was shared. We are blessed with

So I sit here at the computer on my blog that has been left alone way too much this year and I wonder how the next year will go. I want to blog. My brain thinks in facebook status'. It's strange. I think it's because I feel like I have a lot to say. But I don't post those thoughts. They just eventually go away. If I were to blog them instead, or even just a portion of them I think I would learn something about myself. I'm gonna try. I've said this before. I didn't do it. I don't have a lot of confidence in myself, but it doesn't hurt to make the attempt.

I'm hoping for a peaceful end to the year 2010. Only one more week.