A Year In Review

January

A Good Month For....10 Years! Yes, on January 3 it was ten years of wedded bliss for us.

A Bad Month For....Vacations. We celebrated our anniversary in November with a trip to Cancun, so January left us sitting in the cold.


February

A Good Month For....Keeping Busy because as I look back at my calendar I can't remember anything that would make February stand out except for the fact that there is not one single day that wasn't filled to the brim with things to do; all good things, like swimming lessons, piano lessons, basketball, church activities and obligations, school things, family get-togethers, it goes on and on because it was truly an active month.

A Bad Month For....Reading a Book, because it was so busy, but then as I look back at the calendar I see that it was the read-a-thon at Jane's school so I'm sure there must have been reading in our home, but I'm not sure much of it was done by me.



March

A Good Month For.... Stolen Identities when my sister-in-law stole my name and bib number and posed as Carrie Athay so she could run the Moab half-marathon. The lengths people will go to for a run! I was a little surprised she didn't go so far as to bleach her hair, but she made up for it with the fabulous shorts she wore. Wow! I would only love to have the confidence and the legs to pull that off!

A Bad Month For....Perspective, as I look back and realize that wonderful trip to Moab was the last trip I would take with my dad.

April

A Good Month For....Perspective, when I realized that the reason we were at Primary Children's Hospital was not so bad in comparison with many others. Mitchell had a couple of seizures, so we had to have him tested with EEGs and EKGs and other tests and it all came out inconclusive, so for now that is good and we were able to get on with our month full of soccer and karate and piano and celebrating LUKE's second birthday! Yes, he made it to two and by this time he no longer slept in a crib because of nose dives onto the floor and he shared a room with his big brother because he will sort of sleep that way and he loves that everyone dotes on him.

A Bad Month For....Oprah. I had to cancel my trip with my gals because of Mitchell's tests and then what did Oprah do? She went and actually canceled on us! But it all worked out because I was able to be at home when my new dishwasher was installed...the third dishwasher in the two years we had lived in that home.


May

A Good Month For....Spending Time With My Family, my brothers and my sisters and my mom. It was good to be together for so many days, even though it was under the saddest of circumstances.

A Bad Month For....Understanding Mortality. My dad died unexpectedly on May 19 of a heart attack after he had ridden his bike to the gym and worked out. Thankfully, they tell us he wasn't aware of anything after he fell. I'm really glad I was able to have such a nice lunch with my sister Cindy and niece Caroline earlier in the day, but I will never forget the moment my mom told me the news, and I wonder if the ache in my heart will ever grow less or if you just get more used to it.

It was also a bad month for William to have a birthday because his birthday fell the day after the funeral in Colorado and internment service at the Air Force Academy. Before we left for Colorado, I told William that his present was going to be a new Garmin GPS for his car and we were going to take him on a camping excursion with his new toy. Needless to say, that didn't happen. Instead I told him to go choose his own GPS and we'd go camping in the summer, which we never did. In fact, the only person who really remembered William's birthday on his birthday was my wonderful sister-in-law Geri who is always mindful of others.



June

A Good Month For....Jane! My Jane turned 8! I can't believe she has grown so old and I was so proud of her that she made the decision to be baptized as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (although that didn't happen until the next month). It was quite a month for Jane. She received the Outstanding Student Award for Ms. Garber's 2nd Grade class. She had a great piano recital and was very relieved to be able to have the summer free of practicing. We vacationed in one of her favorite places, Vail, where the kids kayaked, rock climbed, hiked and lived it up. We celebrated her birthday in style with a "late-over" birthday where all her friends came for fun pillow decorating, pillow fights, pizza and treats, spa-style facials, yoga on the front lawn and, of course, late night movies. She started attending Activity Days. She had a great check-up at the Dentist which meant that she could get her ears pierced, which we did, but that ended badly two weeks later when one stud fell out and it was too traumatizing to get it back in so Jane's ears are no longer pierced. Oh well, she felt pretty special for most of the month.

A Bad Month For....T-ball; not that Mitchell didn't have a great time, he did, it was just too hot to have to be out on those baseball fields in that kind of weather. Who would ever guess that as I'm writing this from the cold Idaho tundra I would actually be complaining about heat! But Mitchell loved the game, nonetheless, and thinks he might have a future as a baseball player.



July

A Good Month For....Being Jane, Again. Really, I think she must have a great life! Jane was baptized on July 5th. And what a great day it was. I was afraid that she might be a little too tired to truly enjoy the day because we didn't get home from the Stadium of Fire and seeing Miley Cyrus in concert the night before until after 1 in the morning and then she had to be up and to the stake center for her baptism fairly early. Fairly early in my book was 9:30 in this case, but Jane assured me she had plenty of sleep and that actually 9:30 is pretty late in day. At any rate, William baptized and confirmed Jane, Jane's Aunt Cindy gave a talk on baptism and her friends from her Primary class sang a special musical number.

Jane also was able to go to a week long art camp at the University of Utah, the class was called "From Monet to Picasso" and the kids had the chance to go into the galleries everyday to view the special exhibit and sketch the art, then they would head to the classroom to learn new styles and techniques and produce various works of art that they exhibited on the last day of class. Like I said, it was a good month to be Jane.

A Bad Month For....Feeding Fish when William and I went snorkeling in the Florida Keys and for whatever reason (I have my theories, like I had influenza in July or really if I'm honest, it could just be that I can't handle being in the ocean, but I don't want that to be the reason because I really want to go on a cruise) I threw up, while in the water, four times. So I guess the fish were fairly happy, but I was pretty miserable. But we saw some great things, like an absolutely enormous ray and the Christ of the Deep and some beautiful fish and then I can't remember many others because I was trying desperately to stay away from everyone....

But the rest of our trip to the Keys was really great, except our last day when my initial plans had changed a bit and William and I didn't communicate very well and we really don't need to remember anything else except it was a great trip!




August

A Good Month For....This and That: My niece Kelly and nephew David returned from their missions, soccer began....again, Jane started the 3rd grade and Mitchell prepared to start Kindergarten.


A Bad Month For....Feeling Old because on August 31st my nephew and his wife had a baby, which makes me a Great Aunt. And my sister-in-law loves the Twilight book series so for her birthday we made "Edward" and "Jacob" cupcakes, gave her a vampire safety kit and stayed up well past midnight so we could go get the new Stephanie Meyer release "Breaking Dawn." And, I knew I was getting quite old when my teeth started falling apart and I had to have my first cavity in over twenty years filled.


September

A Good Month For....Being 5! Mitchell started kindergarten in Mrs. LaBelle's class and he loved it! That could partly have to do with the fact that Mrs. LaBelle loved Mitchell, or because almost all of his buddies had started school the year before or because he just loves to be busy and learn and he really is really a perfectionist so doing well in school really suits him.

A Bad Month For....Receiving Revelation. As I was sitting in Sacrament Meeting one day I was struck by a song we were singing where we are admonished to obey the Lord's will so I thought "OK, what am I missing in Primary?" because I was the Primary President at the time and, of course, all revelation must have to do with that, right? Wrong. A couple of days later William came home and told me that he had been mulling something over for a while and he wasn't sure how I would respond, but what would I think of going with him to Idaho Falls to check out the city while he interviewed for a position as in-house council for a corporation, Melaleuca. I knew right then that Lord was trying to prepare me for this and I also knew, without a doubt, he would get the job. I didn't really want to move to Idaho. But I also knew it was an answer to prayer because William was miserable in a law firm and we were miserable with the hours he was putting in.




October

A Good Month For....Shocking the Neighbors when we put a for sale sign up outside our home. I think there was speculation that I might have kicked out my bum of a husband who was never home and we probably should have run with that and had a fight on the lawn and thrown his clothes out a window, but we didn't. And I think we've convinced them all we're still hanging together as a family.

A Bad Month For....Updating the Fence. Really, I should have finished staining the fence when I did the deck in the spring, but I didn't. And then I should have finished it sometime during the long days of summer, but I didn't. Instead I spent two very frantic weeks trying to make the fence look presentable to hopefully help the sale of our house (which as of this writing has yet to happen). And thanks to my friend Brenda telling me that Shabby Chic is not a good look for a fence, I didn't do bad a job. Also, thanks to Brenda, I thought my heart was going to break everyday because she reminded me I was moving some distance away from our Utopian neighborhood to the quite unknown. And speaking of updating, I think I could use some updating because this was the month I turned 35, quite an un-momentous birthday, it just means you're kind of middle aged. Blah! So I guess it was a good thing we had a quick trip to Yellowstone, Luke could feed the ducks outside everyday, and we had a great Halloween to overshadow things a bit.


November

A Good Month For....OPRAH!!! We finally made it! I went to Chicago with my good friends Megan Jones, Lindsey Samahon and Stephanie Ainsworth and what a time we had! I think I will owe my mom for years to come for watching the kids so I could go on this trip. The girls and I shopped, and ate, and talked, and walked, and went to OPRAH and blushed and laughed because of the subject matter and the mature content rating. How about that? Four Mormon gals sitting in the third row front and center while Oprah talks about a mature subject! Quite an experience and we had tons of fun!

A Bad Month For....Staying in Idaho. We went to Utah three times during the month, I went to Chicago, and we all went to Vancouver, WA for a fabulous Thanksgiving with the Athay clan and a great birthday celebration for Mitchell (though that technically fell on the 1st of December, but we celebrated a couple days early). It had been far too long since a trip to Vancouver and we were so happy to be there. Our trip was filled with lots of family, lots of fun and a little strep throat. The kids are ready to go back next month.



December

A Bad Month For....Staying Warm because the weather in Idaho has turned into winter and the temperatures were sub zero and dropping. It is cold here in the tundra.

A Good Month For....Feeling the Love of Our Savior. Christmas was wonderful. It was good to be with family and to think about Christ and His love for us. This certainly has been a year to reflect on. One filled with many things I will never forget. How grateful I am for my family and for our Savior's tender love and watchful care.

Happy New Year.