It's been a while. I don't think I've looked at my own blog since my last post, and I hadn't realized it had been so long. Time flies! I hadn't felt the desire to post, but lately I've been thinking about our little family blog. I decided (I think) I'd like to come back to it and be more regular with my posts, but I realized, I'm going to do it more for me, than for readers. Sorry readers... if any of you are out there. Some of my future posts might be boring to you. And my grammar won't be perfect. I apologize in advance. If it's on my blog it's important to me or interesting to me or just something I want to write about, and since this is my blog, I'LL DO WHAT I WANT. :) Consider this your disclaimer.
So, first of all, do I try to catch up or just pick up right here. I'll do a semi-quick overview I guess.
Halloween 2012 was mostly low key. Austin dressed up as superman. He was adorable. Parker was (last second) Jimmer Fredette. I was not dressed up. It's not really my thing. We drove around SLC like crazy. We visited Gram and Papa, then the Matheson's, then Grandma Hilton, then Grandma Talbot (bonus, Aunt Sandra was there too!). We won't ever do a Halloween that way again (too busy to stop and enjoy it much), but it was fun to show Austin off to grandparents. It worked out because I wouldn't let Austin eat any candy anyway. Plus he was too young to really get the concept of trick-or-treating. Next year we'll do the traditional stuff.
We spent Thanksgiving at my Grandparents house in Idaho. It was miserable. I take that back, it was fantastic but I don't ever want to spend a Thanksgiving that way again! We got to spend time with my dear, wonderful family (my mom's side) and contemplate the many blessings we have in our lives everyday. The miserable part came when the septic system backed up in the basement, so the house full of people (30-ish I would guess) had no drains, no toilet, no shower for a couple days, including Thanksgiving. (Can you imagine cooking a Thanksgiving dinner and doing the dishes when you have to catch all the water you use in a basin and literally throw it outside every time it gets full!? My Aunts are superstars.) We had to drive to the church nearby to use the facilities there. And to top it all off, everyone (seriously, at least 75% if not more) of the people there ended up with some terrible stomach bug. I apologize to my family members I kept up all night. I won't go into detail. I'm so glad the plumbing issues were fixed before the majority of us got sick, and my poor baby and Parker didn't seem to get it too bad.
I am grateful for my good health.
I am grateful for plumbing.
I am grateful for people who are willing to do dirty jobs (like climbing into a septic tank!)
I am grateful for a family that is so positive, service oriented, and willing to do hard things.
Parker and I celebrated our 4th anniversary. I can't remember what we did. When I was planning my wedding I was determined to not let our anniversary get forgotten/smushed into Christmas celebrations, but it kind of does. :( It's my own fault for choosing to get married on December 20th (sorry again, Mom) and not making it more of a priority to celebrate in a big way. I know we did something, I just can't remember what it was without thinking too hard.
Christmas was super fun, of course. We woke up super early, got ready for the day, and had to skip opening gifts because we had places to go and things to do. We went to breakfast at Gram and Papa's, skyped with Bobby (who's on a mission in Vina del Mar, Chile) opened gifts with Gram, Papa and Nancy, went to brunch at Jana and Jon's for the Matheson morning celebration, over to James and Cindy's for a visit with their family, Grandma Hilton, and Rose and Marshall, back over to Gram and Papa's (I think...? things are getting jumbled in my brain) for visiting with all the Aunts and Uncles there, then over to Bob and Carol Matheson's for more food and family, opened presents there with Mat, Debbie, and Taylor, then headed back home where we finally opened our gifts... around 10:00 pm. Poor Austin was exhausted, but so happy to have so many people to play with throughout the day. He loved playing in all the wrapping paper too. Parker disregarded the budget we had set (as usual... you think I'd learn) and bought me a new laptop which I kind of hated at first (it has window's 8, so it took some time getting used to). I did a special 12 days of Christmas thing where I gave Parker little gifts to count down to Christmas. It was fun, and I think he enjoyed it. It helped me remember the true meaning of Christmas and reminded me that giving is so much more fun than receiving. Oh, and we put up Christmas lights for the first time (not on Christmas day, several weeks before. :) Although they were a giant pain and I had to restring them on our balcony 3 times, they were magical.
We rang in the new year with a staycation in Sandy. We hung out with Mat, Debbie and Taylor at the Matheson's house for a week and just had a low-key, relaxing, fun time together. We ate good food, played games, watched movies, slept in and stayed up late and just took it easy. That's my kind of vacation... at least after a busy Christmas season. :) (Just a side note- I must document the awesomeness of my husband. He frequently gets up with Austin and lets me sleep in. I guess he knows I need at least 8 (or 10...) hours to function.)
Parker has been extra busy this school year (winter semester 2012) because it was his last semester before graduation! Hallelujah! Parker had 21 credits to finish up his major, and was participating on BYU's National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) team and went to the Dominican Republic for 10 days. Heavy sigh.... I'm exhausted just typing that out. Like I said, he was busy. The NAHB team worked hard all through Christmas break (although I'm remembering now that he took the evening of our anniversary off so we could go to dinner...) and pulled a few all-nighters. They presented in Las Vegas the third week of January, and took 3rd place in the nation! Go BYU! We were glad when that was over. The trip to the Dominican Republic was a great experience for Parker. The group he went with (7 people total, I believe) were all from the construction management program and went to tour construction sites there as well as teach at the university there. Parker also got to go scuba diving a few times. He had a good time.
While Parker was in the D R, Austin and I went to Medford. We flew there, and Austin did quite well. He was tired and quite the handful in the airport. He decided several times to just sit or lie down on the floor as we walked to our gate. And he loves to see the screen on any electronic device, so he would get quite friendly with people on their laptops or phones to check out what they were doing. Once we got on the plane he settled down and finally fell asleep after take off and woke up just before we landed. We had a WONDERFUL time in Medford visiting family and especially loved seeing little Ella. She's a doll! I've got such a great family. Love them.
I opened and closed an Etsy shop within about a month. I love to decorate sugar cookies, and thought an online shop would be a fun venture... but it wasn't. It was just too much stress for me at this point of our lives, so I closed it. I still love to make cookies, especially for friends and family, so let me know if you have something you'd like me to create for you! Seriously! Maybe someday I'll open it again, but no plans for that now.
Instead of my Etsy shop, I went back to school. I wish I was kidding! I can't even go a year without being in school I guess. It's really not that bad. I like learning, but that constant nagging weight of knowing you could/should be working on homework is back, and I'm not a fan. I started an online education program to be a medical documentation specialist (medical billing, coding and transcription). It's something that I hope to finish in the next couple months and ideally start working from home shortly after... we'll see. I'm just over halfway done now, and it's pretty interesting, but somewhat time consuming.
Last but not least, Parker will start his new job TOMORROW! He's working at CBRE ( in corporate real estate) working on the retail team. His first assignment is to go to a golf tournament and meet people/network and eventually sell retail space (I think...? Please tell me I'm not the only wife who is a little fuzzy on what it is their husband actually does at work). If you know Parker you know all those things are right up his alley! I know he'll do great, but he's also working on getting his real estate license. He's finished the course and has to pass the test, and again, if you know Parker you know tests are so NOT his thing. Pray for him to pass!
There's so much more to document... but I think this post is plenty long. I'll break it up a bit. Maybe if I get really ambitious I'll post pictures to go with this post. But, honestly, probably not. Just being realistic.
PS. Parker graduated from BYU, but I thought that was recent enough to deserve a post all its own. I didn't forget that major life event. :)
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