I feel like I barely have time to breathe these days, let alone blog so I admit it's been awhile. Pictured above is our latest development. Josh hit his face on the corner of a chair in our basement on Sunday afternoon and ended up giving himself a black eye. Then today he scraped his face at scouts, and then tonight he fell off my chair at the studio and his face smacked the floor. This poor kid! I gave him a big hug after he got hurt at my work and then he said "Mom, I just keep getting hurt!" Then I asked where he hurt and he said "ALL OVER!"
Here is our 2011 Christmas newsletter. I'm not mailing anything out this year, so you all get to view it electronically. Hey, I'm saving the trees! (and I don't have the money for cards and postage, or the time to get it all out.)
Ben got his Wolf merit badge today at his scout pack meeting, so he is now working on his Bear. I'm really proud of him and how driven he is. He is a very responsible kid and so trustworthy. He's a great big brother, too!
My good friend, Susi, gave us the top bed to their bunk beds when they moved 1 1/2 years ago because she said they didn't need it anymore. Then last week when she heard we were trying to create an office in the house for Jake's new job she said we could have the other bed so we could put the bunk bed together and Josh and Ben could share a room. The kids were really excited about the bunk bed. After nearly SIX hours of taking beds apart, transporting them, finding out we were missing a part, going to the store to get a makeshift part, then getting them put together, the kids could finally sleep in them... and they were SO excited. Susi is the BEST! We love her so much. Now Josh's old room upstairs is officially Jake's office and Josh moved into Ben's room. I bought Josh some white 9" letters from Michaels that spell "J-O-S-H" and I put them on his wall today. (Ben has them already up in his room and Emma has some in her room.) Josh was SO excited to see his name on the wall and then he said "Mom, now Ben and I can share a room FOREVER!" (Good thing Ben didn't hear him say that! ;) )
Emma participated in a cheer clinic put on by the cheerleaders at South Davis Junior High. Emma went to 5 practices and then performed during halftime at a basketball game last week. She had so much fun dancing with her friends Eliza, Jaycie, and Hannah.
Jake is in Dallas, Texas this week, training for his new job. He's going to be an independent contractor for an oil and gas title firm. He is excited about it. He really enjoys title work and did quite a bit of it at his old firm. The job is flexible. He will be working from home and setting his own hours. And the best part is it pays the bills! We've been struggling to make ends meet the past two years and finally we will be able to get our feet under us again. We feel really blessed.
My friend, Polly and I invited all the women in our ward to come down to Provo and see my sister, Whitney's comedy show at BYU. We ended up having 14 people come and we ate together at the Cougareat and then watched the 7pm show at the Joseph Smith Building on BYU's campus. We had a blast!
After we were done and were driving up Center Street in Provo to go home, our friend Elle pointed at the Madison bar and told us her husband was working there. (He has his own lighting business and does the lights for fairs, dances, and bars.) We asked if she wanted to stop and see him and she did, so we pulled into the parking lot and walked into the bar... all 6 of us Mormon ladies. We definitely didn't feel like we belonged in there, but we did enjoy the music. We all decided to stick around through one song and so we all busted out our "high school" moves and had a great time pretending us old mamas still had "it".
I'm busy carpooling, volunteering in Ben's class every week, going to Relief Society meetings every week, working Monday through Thursday, taking kids to dance, basketball, helping plan our ward's Christmas party that is this Saturday, working out 4-5 days/week, helping my friend get through some tough times, keeping the fridge stocked, budget balanced, just wrapped all our Christmas presents, helping the kids with homework, went through the kids old clothes and toys, sold old toys on eBay and KSL, and more. The good news is, I sleep really well at night. I'm out as soon as my head hits the pillow. :) Which reminds me... my pillow is calling. Better catch some zzz's. Until next time...
