Canyon Life

Yeah. It's February. Wow, mom was right when she said time goes by in a flash as you get older. I'm already planning my summer. It'll be a repeat of last year, God willing. Summer camps and missions. Maybe some trips to the beach if there's time. This blog is dumb. I don't know who reads it, besides my dad sometimes. That's ok. It's my husband who likes to come see the pictures when he's bored. Which is not often, since he's the busiest man in the world. I grabbed a bunch of pictures from the end of December til  now, all out of order, of course. 

January saw some milestones, my oldest son turned 18, and I turned 38. I can't even believe I just said that. James is 18! Holy moly. He's such a good kid. He's very obedient, good with his brothers, spends most of his time serving at church, and is so mature for his age. Not like I was at all. I have no idea why God was merciful and gave me an excellent son after the way I treated my parents in my teens. It's like night and day. James gave his life to the Lord two years ago and the way he lives is proof of that. I have to give most of the credit to my husband in how he was raised, even though Brett is not James' natural father, he has been there since James was 2, and has been an awesome dad to him. Where I am lax, Brett is strong in disciplining the boys. Which is most areas. Ha! That's ok, we have learned to balance each other out over the years, and will always continue to do so. Marriage is always a work in progress, isn't it?

Turning 38 is not such a milestone, so says my grandma. She said I can complain when I turn 88. I agree. I have never cared much about aging. But this year I did stop and think about maybe making some goals for myself in terms of work and my walk with God. I don't think it was necessarily my age that prompted my thoughts, but the fact that my kids are getting older and are not as dependent on me every second of the day. My free time can be more productive. I have some ideas and we will see if they come to fruition after summer.

This was date night with Brett for my birthday. He took me to the new Carthay Circle Restaurant at Disney's California Adventure. It was alright, we had duck, lamb and pasta. The decor and ambiance were beautiful. Brett is so picky about eating out, if you charge $30 a plate, it better be good. He agrees that Club 33 was about the best he's eaten in the Disney parks so far. I'd eat here again, but I don't think he would.

See? Picture's are so out of order. Brett eating duck at the Carthay Circle. They were really good. 

This is my cousin Mike and his wife Heather and their baby girl, Gia. Gia was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer a few weeks ago and is currently undergoing chemo at CHLA. Prayers for them would be most appreciated. She's responding well, but it's a long road to recovery.

 This was the Christmas picture we gave out to people. James, Tyler and Matthew. Photo credit goes to Brett. I told him to go find a fence in the neighborhood and take a good picture. He did it very well.

NYE in Arizona. Brett's mom recently relocated back there, so now we can go visit that disgustingly hot state sometimes. Seriously. It's like Hades. We lived there when we were first married for a few months. I thought I was going to melt. Everyone was telling me its tolerable, you swim everyday, you get used to it..... No you don't. The pools are always warm and everyone hides indoors for three months. We did travel up north to Prescott for the day, and that was snowy and beautiful. Reminded me of Reno. I would live there.

Last night my friend and I babysat another friends four kids. So fun. We gave the baby a bath, laughed hysterically at our fumbling because we hadn't done that in awhile, then laughed harder when the baby's older sister got mad for making her baby cry. She was seriously angry, so cute to see her protectiveness. 

Went to a Muse concert in Los Angeles last week with my childhood friend Julie. We meet up once a year and go to a concert. We went to Muse last year too. Julie and I went to junior high together and kept in touch over the years. Julie and I had a love affair with lame heavy metal music.  Her brother was always in a band and we always swooned over all his friends.  As a matter of fact, her brother went on to be sound engineer for Green Day. Now he travels all over the world as their photographer too. I still love big hair bands.

I can't have a blog post without my favorite girl Sharon. Love her with all my heart.

Muse for a second time in San Diego, on my birthday. Got real close to the stage, got beer spilled all over my shoes and came home deaf. Was sooooooooooooo great.

Got a new batch of pictures from our Jordan trip from a fellow who went with us, thought this one was cool. We were in the ancient ruins of Gerasa near the Syrian border.