2015 review

This post really brings nothing new, just a recap of the year.  I feel 2015 was one of the most challenging years for me filled with change.  Although I am very happy in life I had to overcome more then usual.  In January not only did I move locations for work but also a huge change to no longer have co-workers.

  I love not being the boss of others anymore, but it did take some getting use to working alone.  With David working at night I often found myself lonely after work.  Luckily my family was close by to visit with.  After a few months things seamed normal again.  My next challenge came when my parents moved away!  Believe it or not I am the only one of the 8 kids that has never lived more then a few minutes away from them! Once again I had to fill my evening activities with something else...Next came the hardest challenge for me.  I still struggle with it daily.  It is living with out Samantha.  We found out in July she had cancer and thought she had 6-12 months still.  It was only 6 weeks later she was gone.  I don't think anyone is ever ready to let go of a pet but Sam was a huge part of my life!  (I still haven't finished writing all the stories of her I wanted to share.)  Since I didn't have kids she was my baby.  I was probably way more attached to her then normal but we really had been through a lot together over 14 1/2 years!  I have had the hardest time adjusting to life without her still.

Shortly after she passed away the YMCA opened just a few blocks away from me.  I joined to do something after work besides sitting home alone and being sad.  I started going to yoga and although I'm not very good at it, it has helped me feel better.  I also had a client invite me to trivia night on Tuesday's.  I do like going there sometimes too.  This past month has brought challenges for me too.  We have been remodeling our house witch is looking great but added stress for sure.  Christmas just didn't seam the same with most of my family not being around.  I also had surgery this week for the first time ever.  I was really nervous about it ahead of time and am glad it is over!  I think I'm healing pretty well.  I know it seams like this year may have not been great but really there was lots of good things too.  I love my job, my only complaint is I have to much business for me to handle.  What a good problem to have.  I also got to go to Arizona to visit my relatives and enjoy the weather in February.  This summer David and I went to Wisconsin too where he got to see his family for the first time in a while and I got to meet them for the first time ever.  We took 2 weeks and drove there with Sam too.  It was a fun time.

  I also got to spend more time with my family over the summer then usual.  Isaac and Joshua's family were both here visiting for awhile.  It was nice getting to spend time with them.

  In December I got to attended Jarom and Paige's wedding in Spokane.  I  went to San Diego to see the Weostman's too.

 David and I have been making lots of upgrades to our home.  Thing are going good with that.  I am very fortunate to have a loving husband to take good care of me.  We are both happy and healthy and doing well overall. I'm looking forward to making vacation plans for next year and hoping to get a new puppy sometime in 2016.  I hope 2016 is the best year yet for everyone!

December fun

     As I already said December was filled with lots activities going on.  I wanted to post on how much fun it has been.  First I went to see Doranda's family, which I already posted about.  The next weekend David and I went to Malachi's to decorate sugar cookies.  I love sugar cookies but only make them once a year.  They are so much work!  Good thing Layne had already done the baking and we just got to decorate.

Later that week I helped my friend decorate for her birthday dance she has every year.

  I didn't go this year because we drove to Spokane to attend Jarom and Paige's wedding.  It was beautiful!  We could see all the hard work Tianna and others had put into it.  David loved the taco bar!  The flavors were amazing.

Christmas time weddings seam so hectic to fit into the already busy schedule, but I loved it because I was able to see a lot of my family at Christmas time I would not have seen otherwise.  I didn't have to ship presents for the kids either then.

It was a quick trip though.  I would have liked to visit longer but the snowy roads played a factor.  We drove over Saturday and back on Sunday.  The pass was closed both Friday and Monday so it worked out just right.  I had to work Monday too.

     David and I had a fairly quite Christmas this year.  We have still been busy working on the house remodel.  There's lots of little things to still do.  We decided to do stockings only.  On Christmas eve we stopped by Malachi's to bring the kids gifts then went to dinner at my favorite place, Marzano's. 

It's pretty small and you have to have reservations.  I called just a few days ahead of time and wasn't sure if we would be able to get in.  Luckily we did.  I ordered scallops for the first time ever.  Not only is the food delicious but it's also were we ate the night David proposed to me.  Then we looked at Christmas lights after.  We came home and had a fire and watched StarWars.

Not really a Christmas movie but David just bought the 6 dvd set so we can watch them all before we go see the new one since I haven't seen them all and it's been a little while since David has.  The next morning was Christmas!  We just slept in a bit then made some food to take to David's brothers house.  David made a huge prime rib!  It was expecive!  He said he does that instead of buying gifts since we don't need anything and neither does his family.  I made a peppermint/Oreo cheese cake and a cranberry fruit salad.  It all turned out well, but as usual there was more food then we could eat!.  David's nephew Nathan made these beautiful apple pie deserts.

After dinner we came home to watch another StarWars movie.  Today we are having his family over to watch the SeaHawk game!  They already made the playoffs but a win would still be nice.  Hopefully they will go to the Super Bowl again this year, but there are a lot of other teams doing great too.  I'd better start getting the taco's ready.  Tomorrow morning I will be getting surgery on my thyroid.  I'm a little nervous but I'm sure it will go fine.  Well that about wraps up the month for us.  Hope everyone else had a fun month too. 

"ditto"

I was just getting on the computer finally to blog about going to visit my sister and family in San Diego when I noticed she just had! Figures....Anyway I guess I'll recap too.  After work on a Friday I flew down to see the family.  I got in late so the kids were already asleep.  In the morning Doranda told them to stay in there room and she was going to get a surprise.  It was me of 'course.  The kids seamed excited to see me! My favorite was that Scarlett told me she thought the surprise was going to be chocolate chips but I was a way better surprise then that!  We did mostly hang around the house and enjoyed the beach.  I walked it everyday looking for cool shells. (I got all my steps in) I found a few but nothing I decided to take home.  We also got a little wetter then planned.  Good thing it was in the 70's so I wasn't to cold after.

Tucker watching the sunset

the Donut Bar

 

Leon's mustache during church

I read the kids lots of stories and made candy Christmas countdown chains with them as well. (you can see them hanging in the back of Doranda's picture of the boys gingerbread house)  It was a quick trip because I had to get back to work Tuesday morning.  Unfortunately I got sick Tuesday morning and had to reschedule all 10 of my clients that day.  Penelope told me on the drive to the airport (sick and all) that she wished I could stay!  It was fun getting to go there. 

busier then ever!

No time to blog! I don't know how this happened but I feel busier then ever right now!  Work is booming!  I can't even get another color in until the middle of next month.  David and I are busy working on the house updates and this week at the Salon was our customer appreciation week.  I had to make treats (with no kitchen), signs, and organize the specials.  I'm also going to visit Doranda this weekend.  I'm working so much when I get back then going to Spokane for one night to see my oldest nephew aka Jarom, get married.  I'm trying to have my Christmas gifts ready by then so I don't have to ship many of them.  Sorry Isaac but Joslyn might be late.  I'll try my best to get it in time though.  Then I get back from the wedding work the next morning everyday until Christmas even Christmas Eve.  I'm even working the day after!  I really don't want to work this much but I have a hard time telling people I don't have time for them to look their best for the holidays. Then the Monday after Christmas I'm getting surgery so I'm really trying to get all my clients in before I'm off a little while.  I've never had anything before so I'm pretty scared about it but everything should be fine.  At first I thought I had to stay at the hospital but then they said I could do out patient and be home the same day.  I don't know when I'm going to get my cards written and the gifts wrapped or the laundry done but I'm working on it.

remodel

David and I decided since we are dog free right now it would be a good time to update the kitchen.  He has lived her 22 years and I think all the appliances are original.  Also I don't love some of the colors.  David has extra time off for the holiday so we started panning stuff out.  Funny that the things we ended up purchasing were not anything we had thought we were going to.  We decided we should put the wood in the dinning and living room to so I have been busy packing up some to moving furniture.  It seams like once you start one area you then decide others need done too.  Here are a few before pictures, I think you see most of it.

I will post some after when its done.  Here we have started we also took a few of the draw fronts off you can see in the first picture.

 We are going to do the work ourselves.  By that I mean mostly David!  I am lucky to have such a handy husband.

halloween fun

Just a quick post about taking Doranda's girls to the pumpkin patch.  I know Doranda already posted that they both went with their schools but I also took them one day.  The girls love getting to spend the night with me although they don't get to very often with everyone's busy schedules.  There was no school or work a few Monday's ago so Penelope and Scarlett got to spend the night with me.  In the morning we went to Spooner farm's. Here are some pictures of them going through the maze, and racing the ducks.

milking a pretend cow

David got to go with us to before he went to work.  Good thing because I don't know if we would have made it out of the maze with out him.
 I also went to watch a few of there soccer games, since I don't think I will get to see them for a little while.

Scarlett was closing her eyes on purpose

 

home projects

We have been busy working around the house on planning and getting some projects done.  One thing we desperately needed to do is get the motorhome out of the driveway and behind the fence.  Some neighborhoods have rules against that but we don't.  I just felt like it needed to be done.  We use to rent a storage place but they increased the fees and we like to keep power to it in the winter so nothing freezes and breaks.  I wanted to get this project done last year but we just had to much stuff and not enough time to get it all done.  First thing we needed to do was get rid of a boat or two. haha 

The only "before" picture I could find
 

We did sell David's older smaller Donzi to a client of mine.  The our neighbor's said we could park the motorhome behind their fence while we worked on it.  Next David bought a rototiller and started tilling up the grass. 

Then he took a day off work and him and his nephew worked all weekend on leveling, getting gravel adding wall blocks and stuff.

  I just went to work at the salon.  I think David's part is mostly done but we do have someone coming next week (weather permitting) to pour cement to widen the front for more parking, easy driving to the back yard, and adding more walking room on the other side of the driveway.  Hopefully next summer we can replace the fence and get a wider gate.  I think there's only a few inches on each side to get through.  Good thing David's a good driver.  I don't think I could ever make it through without hitting it.

Our next project is planned for Thanksgiving weekend and it's to get new wood flooring.  Then throughout December we will be working more on the kitchen.