A Big Birthday for Bowen

This past weekend was Bowen's 18th!!! birthday!  I can't believe he is 18.  The years are going by so quickly.  Bowen is an amazing young man.  He's smart, kind, funny, sensitive, loving, and a loyal friend.  I can't wait to see all the things he will accomplish.  

 

He started his birthday celebrations with a gaming and pizza party hosted by one of his friends.  We went for dinner to Red Lobster with Grandma, opened presents and had chocolate dessert. Then on his actual birthday the day started with eggs benedict and ended with his favorite meal - butter chicken.  

 

I hope you had a fantastic birthday and that this year will be one of the best!

Sign Dilemma

 So for Jason's birthday on January 18th I hung a little Happy Birthday sign in our family room.

It is now February 10th and it is still hanging there.

So now my question is - Bowen's birthday is on February 26th - do I take the sign down now and then hang it again in 16 days?

So if I decide to just keep it there until Bowen's birthday, do I take it down after that or leave it up for Ashton's birthday 27 days later?

If I keep it up until Ashton's birthday, then do I take it down, or leave it up until Cadence's birthday 14 days later?

Then lastly if I keep it up until Cadence's birthday do I take it down, or leave it up until Kenny's birth anniversary and Daisy's birthday 25 days later?

I think I'll just leave it up until birthday season is over in May.

Haha! What do you think?

Milestone Birthday

January 18th Jason turned 50!!

I wanted to plan something big but with time and budget constraints those plans will need to wait a bit.  The day of his birthday we had dinner together as a family and opened presents.  

He got a 1974 T-shirt, new ear buds and tickets to a National Geographic Live about the Wild Cats of India.

After I finished teaching for the evening we had birthday cake and then Jason and I went to the movie The Abyss at the cheap theatre.

This past Monday I took Jason to the show on Wild Cats at the Jack Singer Concert Hall.  It was actually really good.  Informational and the speaker was very engaging and entertaining.  The presenter Sandesh Kadur is a photographer for National Geographic. The pictures and videos he showed were amazing.

 

 

Happy Birthday Jason! I'm so lucky you are mine and hope this year is your best one yet.

Dinner and a Show

Well, I'm in just under the wire to do a blog post this week.

I had a great girl's afternoon with my cousin Sheri today.  As a Christmas gift I said I would treat her to dinner and theatre tickets.  So today we went for brunch and then to the show "Meteor Shower" at Theatre Calgary.

Brunch was good. I had eggs benedict. I love eggs benedict. It is definitely my go to breakfast out selection. Then we headed to the matinee showing.  It was fun to have time together to catch up and chat.  Doesn't really matter what we are doing Sheri and I always seem to have a good time. Every time we get together I always think why don't we do this more often, but then life is busy and we have a tough time finding time.  Definitely should make it more of a priority!

It was an insane and zany show written by the Wild and Crazy guy Steve Martin.  Not quite what I was expecting but I had a good time and enjoyed it.

Sheri had grabbed Crumbl cookies on the way so we enjoyed that treat afterwards.  I hadn't tried out the new store in Quarry Park yet.  Delicious!

Thanks Sheri for our fun afternoon. Til our next adventure.

The One Time I Caught Something

Saturday morning I was getting ready to attend a baptism and was curling my hair.  I had my hand above my head and some how lost grip on the curling iron and dropped it.  

I was worried about it landing in my lap and instinct kicked in.  For one of the first times in my life I caught it - unfortunately it was the hot barrel end.  I screamed and jumped up off the chair I was sitting on and dropped the curling iron, it briefly hit my left hand and as I jumped to the side it fell to the floor.

I ran to my bathroom and started running cool water onto my hand.  Burns are the worst.  It was so painful. I can't imagine the pain people who have severe burns experience.  I thought of Stephanie Nielsen, blogger and author who was burned in a plane crash with her husband.  Over 80% of her body was burned. The pain must have been excruciating.

I unfortunately had to skip the baptism as I kept water running on my hand while my family headed for the church.  After about 30 minutes it was still hurting so I kept it in a pitcher of water for another hour of so and then switched to my water bottle full of ice water which I held for the rest of the day.  Switching out the water and ice frequently.

This was how my hand looked before I finally wrapped it before heading to bed.  

I think the first aid efforts paid off as it has been feeling a lot better.  Big improvements just a couple days later.

Next time I drop something I'll just let it fall.

Graduation 2022

Time goes by so quickly.  Ashton graduated from JCS High School in May of 2022.  We are proud of Ashton for reaching this milestone.  High School was no easy feat with typical teenager struggles, and Covid and additional challenges that came along with it. 

Almost 700 graduates, school teachers, administrators and family and friends congregated for the ceremony at the University of Calgary Campus on May 24th, 2022.  It was exciting to be among such a large group.

It was so nice of family to come and join us for the celebrations.

Ashton with Grandma and Cousin Emry

Ashton with Grandma and Uncle Mitch

We ordered Ashton's favorite food and got an ice cream cake from Marble Slab.

Congratulations Graduate!  We think you are amazing and we look forward to seeing what things you will be able to accomplish and achieve in the future.

Cadence's Special Day

To backtrack a bit today, Cadence turned 8 years old on April 7th 2022.  8 years old in our church is a special age as it is when you can choose to be baptized as a member of the church.  Cadence chose April 9th, 2022 as the day she would be baptized.  We held a lovely, intimate baptism at our church building here in Calgary and then had family and friends over for a luncheon at our home.

Cadence asked me to braid her hair so it would be easier to take care of after her baptism  It turned out so cute.

Cadence was baptized by her father, her brothers witnessed, her grandma and Uncle Jared gave talks and Cadence and I sang a duet. 

Cadence received many nice gifts, and a special gift from her dad - a beautiful music box that plays "You Are My Sunshine".

A special day for a special girl.  So proud of our little girl who is growing up way too fast.

New Year, New Goals

 Happy New Year!

I was at my mom's ward a couple weeks ago and my sister in law Amber gave an excellent talk on goal setting.  So I've decided since it's a new year that I would try and set some New Year Resolutions.  One suggestion Amber gave was to make realistic goals, and to not try and set to many goals for yourself.  So here goes, my 2024 goals.

1. DAILY STUDY

In my church we have a home/church study program and this year it is on the Book of Mormon.  I must admit I didn't do a very good job with my home study last year. So my first goal for this year is to study each morning for a minimum of 15 - 30 minutes.  I also want to do better with a once a week study as a family as well.

2. UPDATE MY BLOG

I don't keep a journal, and feel like I should be keeping a record of myself and my family. My second goal is to keep this blog more up to date.  I have a lot of backtracking to do.  I set the goal of blogging at least once a week, at least until I feel like I am caught up and then perhaps move to blogging once a month.

2.  INCREASE HEALTH AND CONTINUE TO LOSE WEIGHT

Now I've set this goal a lot!  But here is my plan.  Since June I've lost 50 pounds and I would like to lose at least another 50 this year. I've been tracking all my calories, and drinking at least 50 - 72 ounces of water a day. To these goals I'd like to add more exercise. I'm going to start by walking Daisy daily (once this recent cold snap is over).  

I looked for a picture of me to show where I started and honestly there are hardly any pictures of me over the past few years.  Here is one from Ashton's graduation (June 2022 - blog post to come in the near future), I'm probably at about my heaviest here.

 

And here is our family photo this Christmas 2023. A ways to go but I'm happy about the progress I have made.  Honestly the biggest thing for me is how much better I am feeling.  I have more energy, stamina, and mentally feel so much better as well.

So I think I'll start with these 3 goals and see how it goes.  I'll be back to report in a couple months on my progress.

Daisy, our Support Dog

Daisy has never been trained as a support dog but she sure comes by it honestly when it comes to Jason.  Jason had back surgery on February 17th.  He was supposed to be in the hospital for 2 - 3 days but instead they sent him home the following day.  The surgeon was very pleased with how the surgery went and felt Jason was strong enough to come home.  Recovery will be painful and slow but he is making good progress so far.

Daisy's favorite person in the whole world is Jason.  She eagerly awaits his arrival home every day and can barely contain her excitement when he finally arrives.  She whines for him to sit down so she can lavish him with kisses and cuddles.

Since Jason's surgery I think she can sense something is wrong and she barely leaves his side.  I don't know how she knows he is home (usually he leaves before she wakes up) but every morning she'll go out for her morning bathroom break and then run up the stairs and whimper at our bedroom door until I let her in to see Jason.  

Such a sweet support dog.

Love Day 2022

 For Valentine's Day this year we decided to have a quiet night at home.  Jason offered to cook me dinner.  It fell on a Monday night so after I took Cadence to her dance class and got her to bed we had a quiet dinner with just the two of us.  We may have had a few interruptions with kids begging a bite or two.

The dinner started with bacon wrapped scallops.  I love these so much.

Then a delicious main course of roasted potatoes, carrots with balsalmic vinegar and bacon wrapped steak.

Dessert was cheesecake with a strawberry coulis Jason had made.  I was so full already but I still ate every last bite.

It was very nice to spend some time together.  Love my Valentine.

Our Little Dancer

Our Cadence has been enjoying taking dance despite covid.  She's had times where she has had to have classes over zoom and some interesting, creative year end dance recitals.  I've been pleased with how her dance studio has handled the difficulties that come with covid restrictions.  She's been having a great time.

Cadence started a Primary Ballet Class in 2019.  Classes were in person until March 2020 when covid hit and classes moved to zoom.  

That dance year finished in June 2020.  Due to covid they recorded each classes final numbers outside behind the studio and gave each parent a CD to watch.  They had a backdrop for pictures and gave each dancer a rose.

In September 2020 she started a Jazz/Ballet Class.  Classes moved from in studio to online several times throughout the year.  Cadence preferred to be in person of course but she was a good sport about it and still had fun.  

Crazy Hair Day

Since we still couldn't have indoor recitals the year end recital was held outside at the High River Drive In Theatre.  The dancers were onstage with the image being displayed on the movie big screen.  The parents all parked and either watched from inside our vehicles or on lawn chairs beside our vehicles.  It was a great idea!  The only downside was it was about the hottest day of the year.  We sat outside in the shade for as long as we could.  After Cadence danced we had a picnic lunch from the back of the truck and then turned on the air conditioning and sat in the truck until all the dancers had finished.

It's been fun to watch her dance and improve.  Hope she has another great year of dance.