2013

a year in review!

- since I have been a very sad blogger this past year, I will post some big highlights that happened in our family this past year!

Maggie turned 8 years old and was baptized. she is in grade 3, an although she did not get the teacher, or friends in her class that she originally wanted, things have worked out great, she loves her teacher, and has a new best friend in her class!

Big man Ben graduated High School,
worked his second year as a life guard at the out door pool, and got a pretty sweet tan. He also turned 18, and is technically an adult. hmm.

this summer we headed down to Kallispell and whitefish for a few days of fun- and we really enjoyed the fact that they have very few mosquitoes down there. they were crazy up here this summer! we also had a mud pit fight. weird, I know. I just stayed out and took pictures. and we ran the second annual burst of color run in Rosemary, Alberta. it was fun!

I turned 40 this year! One of my friends drew on my van windows, and I drove around a lot that day, doing some shopping, and only got one honk. sad. but it was a good day anyways. I also started school in the fall. that weird writing up there was some of my homework. I was in Closed Captioning and Court Reporting at NAIT, but the program turned out to be way more intense than I had planned on, and I either needed to devote more time to working on it, or quit, and well, there wasn't much more time to pull from, so I decided to drop out.  I also went and got laser eye surgery done. no more glasses for me! yay. and I continue to run my etsy shop- bluejeanmama. I still love to knit and crochet, and hope do devote more time to having a more successful shop this coming year.

my parents turned 70 this year, so my sisters and I threw them a little party!

sadie opened an etsy shop, that I hope to help her grow this coming year as well. 

Jed was a fox for halloween! how trendy. He turned 14 this year, and got his learners licence. yikes! My neice, Jessica, left on a mission in December. we are so excited for her and proud of her!

 Jack quit pizza hut- where he would come home smelling of grease, and got a job at the deli at a local grocery store. he was happy to not have to shower as soon as he got home from work. He tried to break the record for clothespins on your face. (just kidding, but what a weirdo). Jack and Sadie have the same birthday- Sadie turned 12- yay- young womans, and Jack turned 16, and got his drivers license the next week.

we got to go to one of my favorite places- Waterton National park, and took a crazy selfie for our christmas card picture this year.  all in all it was a good year, but the biggest thing to happen-

I finished a whole lip chap! yay! Happy New year - hopefully I will be a better blogger in 2014!

easy way out

I quit.
I am a quitter.
a dropout.
it was hard.
the actual school stuff, and the decision to quit.
I was struggling. a lot.
my grades were bad, but there was hope.
I was putting in the minimum practice time, and still having a hard time.
so it came down to deciding whether to buckle down, and put in more time,
or give it up.
so, we all know how that ended up.
and I struggled for a while thinking I had made a bad decision,
but now I feel good about it.
and am back in the throws of laundry and dirty bathrooms,
and being busy all day,
and at the end of the day not being able to remember what I actually did!
Hopefully now I can blog more! that would be fun!

hard

or alternative titles might be- why am I doing this? this is crazy! what have I gotten myself into? or other things like that- but let me go back to the beginning.
I did some post secondary schooling. Right out of high school. I went to college in the states. It was so much fun. I changed my major a few times. ended up getting a general associates degree! - which is really good for nothing.
then I wasted one more year at a bigger university in the states- my major- clothing and textiles, because I still didn't know what I wanted to be, and I had to major in something.
but then I got married, and never finished, but that was okay because I did not know what I wanted to be when I grew up.
I had kids.
I stayed home.
it was fun while it lasted.
Cory kept telling me to go back to school, but I still didn't know what I wanted to do with my life.
Then I talked to a young friend. She was taking court reporting. now that sounds neat! I should apply.
so I did.
and I got accepted.
and I started last week.
and holy cow, is it hard.
and stressfull.
and we have our first test tomorrow, and I think it won't be pretty.
this is my sweet steno machine.
see, not enough keys for all the letters, so we have to learn to combine some, and sometimes just one letter means a whole word. yikes. it is sure tough for my old brain to wrap around.

and this school year was the first one that I wasn't able to take kids to their first day of school, because I was at mine. That was hard. and now I have to commute to the city every day. - that's not too bad- and I did just get a book on cd to listen to, so it is actually enjoyable.

but I wonder why I messed with a good thing. being at home was a pretty sweet gig. but, if all works out like it should, I should have a pretty sweet job, that I can do part time, and from home- so I can be home for the fun stuff, and make some money for some more fun stuff- like trips, I hope!

so, yah, my first test is tomorrow. we had a practice run today, and it didn't go so well for me. but hopefully I will catch on, and love it!

work

All the boys have jobs this summer. It is good to see them working, earning money, and contributing to society- (and getting of the couch and not playing x-box all the live-long day!)

 Ben is a lifeguard- his second summer at the same outdoor pool. He has a pretty sweet tan.

 Jack works in the deli of a local grocery store. He likes that he doesn't come home smelling greasy- (his first job was at the Pizza Hut, and he would come home smelling gross!)

and Jed is a paper boy. it is only once a week, and I do half the route with him- but it gets him a bit of money, ( and the weather has been pretty nice)- we will see if he keeps doing it come winter and tons of snow. not so fun.

When I was a high schooler, I got to take over my older sister's job when she moved on. It was in a doctors office doing some filing and changing the paper on the beds between patients. It was a pretty sweet gig. Then after that my summer jobs between school years were all gotten from my older sisters, or through my Dad's work. It's all in who you know. (at least that's how it worked for me!)

did you have any sweet jobs in your past?  do tell!

a burst of color

 

before:

and after-

 

 

 we were able to run again in the second annual burst of color run, in Rosemary, Alberta. It was a lot of fun. you might notice someone new in our group- I had originally signed up for our whole family to do the run, but Ben was unable to get work off, so our nephew/cousin Tyler replaced Ben, and ran in his place. it was so fun, and not as hot out this year, which was fantastic!

after the actual run, you usually have a bit of color - mostly on your shirt, but after all the runners are in, there is a big color fight with the remaining color, and that is the funnest part of all. this is Maggie after the color fight. so fun. hopefully we can make it again next year!

a little summer vacation

 we headed south to Montana.

we shopped a bit.

saw some beautiful sights (while driving on a scary  narrow road with rocks close enough to touch out the window on one side, and sheer cliffs on the other. yikes!)

we got to ride the alpine slide in Whitefish. they don't let you go down this close together, Sadie was just very cautious (slow), Maggie was a bit faster, and Cory was fast enough to catch up to both of them at the bottom of the slide!

and we dipped our toes in freezing cold waterfalls coming from melted snow high up on the mountain tops.- it was so very hot the few days that we were there, I don't know how there was still snow around!

well...

It has been a while. a long while. a lot has happened since I last blogged. like...

Ben graduated high school. yay!

the girls and I hit a town wide garage sale, and were led to an amazing sale- with a cute barn we had to take a picture by! (we got piles of stuff for about $6! fun sale!)

while my mom and I were out in my garage setting up for our own garage sale, the kids came home from school saying there was a tornado watch, and the high school kids were let out early. meanwhile my mom and I were just working away in the garage, oblivious to the crazy weather. But when the kids did get home, they were running back and forth from the house to the garage, not really afraid of tornadoes, so I guess it wasn't so bad after all?!

lately

 I guess it has been quite a while. I have lots to share. things happen, and I think- I should blog that, but then that would mean sitting down, getting the pictures from one device to another and stuff like that. I am on instagram now, and man, that is the easy way to share what is up lately- so if you are on there, and follow me, you know all this stuff, but if not, well, here it is.

I was knitting a pair of socks. it was going well, until I got to the heel, then it was not well. I think I need to start with a more basic pattern. but I will knit a pair of socks. someday!

 Thrift shopping with Jack. I thought it worked out quite well how he was holding the record up to his face. he didn't even plan that! ha ha.

 car shopping. just kidding. we were just all out on our way home from the dentist and stopped at the car place to see if they could fix our radio, and while they fixed it we checked out the nice new cars. 

 so much snow around here. all the snow from the back half of the driveway goes to the back yard, so we had quite a pile, then it got dug out into a nice cave, and last weekend Cory and the girls slept in it. I guess they were toasty warm out there- but I was also toasty warm in my nice soft bed!

 funny Maggie- almost every morning when I go to wake her up one foot is hanging out of the blankets! too cute.

there was a one direction pop up store at West Edmonton Mall, so cory and Jack stopped by there, and bought posters for the girls. this poster for Sadie is huge-o-mungeous. that is a double bed there, and it is longer than the bed! Oh that I had a poster of the new kids on the block when I was her age! ha. 

around here lately

 snow is not in shortage in this area of the world. 

is that a good thing? not too sure.

 the girls took full advantage of the snow and head to the hill just down the street as often as they can. 

although that might not happen so much, due to this last sled we have coming home broken last time they went. might have to invest in a couple more sleds. 

ps. aren't those snowpants of Sadies rad? thrift store. $7. now you know!

 Dropping off Jack at his new place of employment. (I tried to get a picture of him going inside, but he was too fast. or my camera was too slow. or maybe a bit of both. he comes home smelling greasy. yuck.) and yes, my windsheild is that dirty. someday I aim to have windshield wipers that do the job they are supposed to do, and well. lofty goals, I know!

photo circa chrismas morning 2012. cozy kids. 

now, back to life. back to reality.

laundry needs done, and man, my bathrooms could use a scrubbing.