April- A Picture Heavy Post

Brittany and her wild turkey. How cool is this? And who else on the planet can look this good in camo? 

Chance and I have been decorating room by room. We did a little in Savannah’s room. She’s tough because she doesn’t care what you do in her room. So, you can’t really figure out her style. We put up her karate medals and certificates and put up a couple shelves. She couldn’t care less

Then we did a hallway by Evelyn and Chance’s room. 

And added a few things to the entry way. We have a plan for Isaiah’s room. We’re going to do it Marvel Comics. Since that’s the “In thing” right now. He’s always been a fan. I don’t get the comic thing but with all the “Endgame” buzz, I thought I’d check it out. I watched IronMan and The Hulk yesterday. Surprisingly, both were pretty good. So, today I’m watching Iron Man 2 and maybe Captain America.

I’m loving Weight Watchers. It’s really easy for me and the one pound a week loss is enough motivation to keep going. I won a weekly drawing on WW facebook’s page. A box of apple cinnamon oatmeal. (That’s my team above.) These ladies are the. ones who weigh you every week-privately thank God- and run the free 30 minute meetings to keep you motivated for another week. The oatmeal is nothing fabulous but it smells amazing. 

A couple lunches. I call these garbage salads. Basically, it’s everything that is zero points put into a salad. Guilt free lunch.

So far, in 60 days I’ve lost 18.4 pounds (the point four matters!!) and have donated a couple pair of jeans to Goodwill and bought a size smaller underwear. (It’s the little things)

Mom and Savannah at IHOP

In the middle of April, we were supposed to go to Miami for a long weekend. I’ve had it planned for a year. Tickets purchased (and recently, paid off!) hotel/Airbnb booked and ready for us. We were going to fly out of Kansas City since it’s cheaper than Omaha. We get an hour away from Kansas City and get a text message from American Airlines that says our flight is cancelled. Cancelled....not rebooked but cancelled due to weather. Refunds will be issued if you call (shouldn’t that be automatic?)

I had eight unhappy travelers at that point. We went to Kansas City anyway and stayed at the “Great Wolfe Lodge” water park.

The three adults were’t so thrilled but the kids made the best of it and swam from sun-up to sun-down. By the way, if anyone tells you you should go to Great Wolfe Lodge, they’re not your friend. Delete them from your social media. No-one needs that friend. Great Wolfe Lodge is WAY over priced. We were in a bind since there’s nothing to do in Kansas City besides this place. But there’s my plug for the biggest waste of money in the midwest.

We spent day two at the outlet mall about 3 minutes from the water park. It was a nice day and everyone enjoyed shopping.

I got a couple new pairs of Converse. You know I love my Chucks

I’m still looking for the yellow pair but I’m pretty happy with the lavender and burgundy.

 

So, it was a good trip. I’m still miffed about not going to the beach, but we’ll get there.

This weekend, Evelyn, Savannah, and Daniel are in Waverly Iowa at a karate tournament. 

Savannah got two first place medals. Woot!!!

March loss

March was a life-changing month. It's not very often I see things in my life as "life-changing." I finally got tired of the way I look and did something about it. The straw that broke the camels back per se, was buying a skirt I liked in a size bigger than I've ever been in. Size 16 to be exact. That's way too big for my 5'3" body. The only program I've ever done was Weight Watchers. So, I signed up again. It didn't really click last time. (I learned in the weekly meeting that, like smoking, it takes more than one time through the program)

So far this month, with one week to go, I've lost a dress size and 10 pounds. I was pretty proud of this picture because it's Savannah's shirt I'm wearing.

 I know it's cliche' and everyone says it, but I feel amazing. I think just cutting out all the junk food and eating out has been huge. You know Weight Watchers works on points. I calculated my usual day. I used to eat 110-150 points a day. In weight watchers, I eat 23 a day. So, I gotta get creative to make those 23 points filling.

This week, I've added walking into my day. Nothing crazy. I walk fast for about 20 minutes twice a day and call it good. I also started my gym membership again but I've yet to go.

Other things:

Last month Trevor burned his eyes with chemicals at work. His eyes are better now. They hurt and were red for weeks. I was worried he really damaged them from the chemical burn but they're okay. He jokingly (I hope he’s joking) says he has bionic super sensitive eyes now 

Isaiah started karate this month. He's doing so well. I was kinda expecting him to goof off but he pays attention and works hard. I see him sticking with it

The girls are doing another tournament next month. It's in Waverly Iowa. I don't have to go this time because I did the one in Omaha. Evelyn's friend, Emeron is pre-testing for his black belt. 

The other thing I did this month (look at me taking all the credit) is revamped my closet. We've hated it since we moved in. So, we gutted it, sanded the walls and painted it blue. I got these shelves and drawers at Home Depot and Chance put them together and installed them.

Now no more wasted space and I love walking into it because it's pretty and starts my day off happy.

It's been a good month for our family. We're really blessed we weren't in the flood zone when some of our friends were and it's devastating what they've lost.

January 96th

Everything I did today took twice as long as it should have. It was yet another snow day in Omaha. I swear winter is never going to end. We get dumped on, shovel out, and get dumped on again. It sounds like more snow is coming on Friday. 

Evelyn had a doctor appointment today that required more blood draws. The nurse couldn't get the vial to fill and Evey got woozy and almost passed out. So, that put the blood draw on hold until we could go get lunch at Amigos. I coasted to the gas station. (I hate pumping gas when it's cold out). I didn't get done with her 10am appointment until 12:30 and I had a 1:00 nail appointment.

While I'm getting my nails done, Trevor called and said he splashed a restaurant chemical in his eye and couldn't see and could I help him get to the emergency eye care place? He's driving as he's telling me this and before I could come up with a plan to help him, he hit a pothole and popped his tire.

So Daniel took him back to work. I picked him up tonight and we took his tire to Walmart where he bought it and waited TWO HOURS for them to mount the new tire on it's rim. Bonus...the tire only cost $30 because it was under waranty. 

So, not the best day but I got my nails done and I drew a couple pictures. Drawing is always the best part of my day.

I’m taking an online class on drawing ethnic girls. The one above is light skinned African and the one below is supposed to be Scandanavian. 

They look better in my sketch book than they do online. Tomorrow I have super fun errands like taking my mom to the social security office and helping Trevor fill out his insurance form for work.

Catching up 2

We went to a poetry contest hosted by my college professor/City Council member friend on Martin Luther King's birthday. Savannah's best friend Julia was a guest poet. She's not old enough to compete in this particular contest as she's in middle school and the contest was for high schoolers only. She had gotten invited by my professor (Franklin Thompson.) He had seen her win another contest for her poetry through the library. 

Savannah and Julia

Also, this winter, Evelyn and Savannah competed in the River City Martial Arts tournament. Both girls did really well. Right now I can't find any pictures of them during the tournament but I found pictures at lunch afterwards. Julia didn't compete this time but we're hoping to see her compete in the next tournament in April.

So, that catches me up for the most part.

Catching up 1

Evelyn and I went to Barcelona. So I thought I’d post some pictures before I lose them on my phone. The flight was very long and Evelyn got a little stressed out flying over water.

This is at Park Guell. You can see one of the towers in the background. The weather was beautiful the whole time at around 70 degrees. We got lost every single day and still don't understand some of the road signs we seen while we were there. Trying to understand and be understood was frustrating. They speak either Spanish (not mexican spanish but Spain spanish) or French. Neither language we understood very well. Aside from that, it was a lot of fun.

The main reason we went to Barcelona is to see Antonio Gaudi’s house and the buildings he constructed. 

The cathedral was amazing. We did a self guided tour with a prerecorded tour guide. Construction on the cathedral (Sagrada Familia) began in 1882 and it still isn't finished. Gaudi died in 1926 but left specific instructions on the completion of the cathedral.

So, we did some sight seeing stuff but I think the best part of Barcelona, and Evelyn will probably agree, is the food. Oh my gosh...the food! Even their Chinese food was amazing. They're big on pastries and pizza. They don't put tomatoe sauce and cheese on their pizza and the dough is different. I found a couple recipes online but haven't yet tried to make it myself.

We've had a super busy winter and I can not wait for spring. Hopefully things will settle down soon.

We were a week away from buying the house we were living in when our home inspection came back. Black mold from one end of the roof to the other and also black mold in the basement. That was irritating news right at Christmas time. I didn't want to buy our other house anyway because I didn't really like it, the neighborhood sucked, and I didn't like the ward we were assigned to at church. 

In an amazing stroke of luck or answer to prayer, we found an eight bedroom house in our price range. Daniel doesn't see it as an answer to prayer. He hates the house.

Anyway, Christmas day and throughout the next week, we moved. I say it every time we move, but THIS IS THE LAST TIME. (fingers crossed.) Everyone has their own bedroom and the rooms are far away from each other so everyone has privacy and can have their music or TV's on without anyone else being bothered.

We had a sewer pipe break in the basement which destroyed the carpet in Savannah and Isaiah's room. So, we were relocated to midtown for two days while plumbers did clean up. We're still working on getting the carpet put back down but at least it smells good again. The cleanup people are lame and don't show up as often as they're supposed to. So, it's taking forever to get our house put back together.

Okay....gonna post this and do another post to catch up some more

Fall, Jamaica, School, and Deer

Right after the kids went back to school, Daniel and I left to celebrate our 22nd annversary in Jamaica at Couples

resorts. Not a bad place to spend a week fo sho

The days looked like this. Lots of sand and beaches and really good food

We'd get up in the morning and lay on the beach. I couldn't have picked a more relaxing kicked back place to be.

This photo was from a cruise we took around the island. The weather was a beautiful 72 degrees all the time. No humidity. Just perfect.

A sunset on one of our last nights. The sunrises and sunsets were different every day. Sometimes purple, sometimes blue...all were amazing.

I didn't do any of the watersports. I was quite content keeping to myself. Daniel did parasailing and took a "how to talk Jamaican" class. Saying goodbye to Jamaica was quite sad but we'll definitely return. 

We were looking at places for next year (once you do this, there's no more "stay-cations" in Omaha) and we just can't find anything that compares to the laid back Jamaica vibe. So, we'll probaby go back to the same resort.

Brittany came to Omaha to stay with the kids while we were gone. Jerek joined her on the last day to drive back to Idaho with her. I got this picture of her last week. Her and Jerek did a hunting trip. They both got animals. Look at the size of this thing. My goodness.

The school year has gone well so far. Savannah and Isaiah are in middle school and the older two are in high school.

Evelyn and Chance had their first high school dance. I couldn't get a decent picture of them because they were screwing around and Chance kept complaining the sun was in his eyes but they looked good.

Daniel and I went to the Terrance Crawford fight at the Qwest Center (or CHI Health Center I guess...name change) last weekend to celebrate his birthday. I think I was more excited to go than he was but we had a great time and our guy won in the last 20 seconds of the 12th round. 

Our whole household minus Chance has been sick for weeks. We have a gross upper respitory thing going. I basically get the kids out the door, spray the house with Lysol,  and go back to bed for a couple hours every day. Today is the first day in about three weeks where I actually feel semi-healthy. So, we're living in a Lysol cloud (as Ren calls it) until this nastiness passes.

Summer pictures

Savannah driving a speedboat in Alabama

Savannah went with her best friend Julia and her parents on an end-of-the-year road trip to Gulf Shores in Alabama. She got lots of sun, lots of seafood, and lots of time in the ocean.

Evelyn went to Washington DC and New York City with a bunch of kids from her 8th grade class. They did so much while she was there. They went to a broadway show (Aladin) , and all the usual touristy sites.

Chance and Evelyn also did "Trek" with church. Here's her trek "ma and pa" and the "family" she traveled with. 

You know how people sometimes dress up like civil war characters and reinact the american civil war? Well, it's like that but they dress like pioneers, group in families, and reinact some of the trek across the plains. 

Savannah went to North Carolina for the World Tang So Do championships. This photo makes me smile. This is Grand Master Strong. She got to meet him and you can tell by her face she's overjoyed. He's a good "idol" (for lack of a better word.) She did amazingly well in North Carolina. 

She placed first in weapons and third place in sparring and forms in her division. This is her current instructors and Madison, a girl in her class who also kicked butt at Worlds. 

Evelyn's 14th birthday was amazing. She went to Spaghetti Works with five friends, shopping in the old market, icecream at Ted and Wallys where she got a suprise visit from her cousin, Skieler, Then to the hotel where she swam and had a sleepover. I had the room next door where I partied it up like the wild woman I am. I watched "Diners, Dives, and Drive-ins," played cards on pogo, and oh yes....went to bed way late...It must've been 11. 

Evelyn and Savannah also went to "Girls Camp" which is the camp our young women at church go to every year. I'm thinking that is all, if I remember correctly. It was a packed summer. That's for sure.