The time has come for an update. It's actually way past due, I feel guilty every time one of my kids does something wonderful, or has a birthday etc. and I don't post something about it. I obviously don't feel that guilty or I would just post more. Anyway, I think the main reason I haven't been posting is because life has just been hard and not really that fun as of late. No one wants to read about that including my posterity someday so I just haven't posted anything and once you get out of practice you wonder how on earth you ever had time to keep up a blog. Maybe I am the only one with such thoughts, probably.
So, Jake turned 9 in November has been on the swim team and swam a mile without stopping, he's also been playing indoor soccer, and just built his first pine-wood derby car. I am telling ya, it looks pretty fast. I will let you know how it goes, the race is tomorrow night, I think he 's got a good chance of taking the whole derby.
Estee is my 3 year old who really thinks she is a princess. Not like oh, you are pretty as a princess, but she actually believes she is a princess. We asked her today what it takes to be a princess and she replied "you have to be pretty, you have to be smart, you have to like to clean (I love this one you better believe I will be using it later to get her to clean her room), you have to be nice, you have to be Abby's sister!" Sorry all of you who thought you had a chance of being a princess (in Estee's eyes at least) Abby only has one sister.
Andy is gone from early morning to late at night most weekdays and I kind of miss him. He is a joyful teenager, most days, and I wouldn't mind having him around more. He has been in early morning seminary all year. He rarely complains, but I have to tell you I cannot wait to move to Utah and this is one of the major reasons! Andy has been in some kind of sport all year at Pioneer, he is currently in Track and has been recruited to the pole vault team, he also runs sprints. He had a personal best at his track meet on Saturday and cleared 8 ft 6 inches. He was the highest jumper for a freshman and 9th overall with seniors and everything. Can you tell I am his mom??
Abby has recently developed an interest in Star Wars movies which has pleased her brothers very much. She said "these are so much better once you get the plot, I just thought they wanted to save the galaxy or something." Family movie time is much easier now, Estee loves Star Wars too. I am raising some kind of nerd girls, I know, I like nerds they get in less trouble. Abby has been swimming this winter, playing volleyball, playing basketball, playing cello at Hill Auditorium (which is the 3rd best auditorium in the USA--according to Abby's teacher, Mr Bailey), and playing lots of piano including competing in the SATD (no idea what that stands for) and being good enough to qualify for the next level. Can you tell I'm her mom??
Dan has been studying for boards. That pretty much sums up his last three months. I guess he's also been working. Same thing to me. He takes Oto boards this week. Hallelujah. I don't even care if he fails, lets just get it done already. Ok, I care if he fails. That means we will have to hear about it more. I sound like the most un-supportive wife in the world. It's all talk, I am really super supportive--just ask me, I will tell you. He has facial plastic boards in June. I have just about had it with all the test taking (16 years later). It's not like he goes to the hospital and an hour later comes home with the test all done. Oh, no we get to pay THOUSANDS of dollars for the privilege of taking the test. Oh, and did I mention it's a four-day three-night trip to another city, in our case Chicago and Washington DC, respectively. And guess who covers all the cost for hotel, flight, meals etc? Did I mention I am super supportive?
To vent my frustrations with Dan's money spending career path, I have taken to mile upon mile of running. I just finished my first half marathon and it felt pretty good to have accomplished that goal. Thanks to my friend Elizabeth for having the goal too, because it got me going along with her. She posted about it if you want more details.
http://elderfam.blogspot.com/2010/04/martian-half-marathon.html
Over the long, cold months of winter here in MI I was working hard getting my house ready to sell. Including painting (thanks so much to wonderful friends for helping me), packing up enough of our stuff to fill a storage unit and moving it all to the storage unit, throwing out or donating mounds and mounds of junk we have collected over the last six years, and countless other fix-it projects (thanks to Dan's parents for coming to help with fix-it projects!). Now, it's all done and we sold our house without a realtor! In less than 2 weeks on craigslist!!!! We are so happy to be done with it! Now we are renting it (for less than our mortgage payment!) until Dan is finished with his fellowship and the kids are out of school. We are all ready to enjoy our last couple months in Ann Arbor.
Looking back over the last year I can see that we have been so blessed even though it's been the hardest year. I can see that our Heavenly Father was with us every step of the way helping us get through it. I am so glad to have my four pretty close to perfect kids, my good, hard working husband, and a better perspective on what really matters in life. That was probably what Heavenly Father wanted me to learn from this year. I hope I am all done with that lesson.
The End.
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