A Fresh Start

 Here are the highlights for January.
Bobby:
He attended his first training today to see if he can be on the ski patrol. He to attend 2 more trainings to see if he qualifies. He went snowmobiling once with his friend Josh Gerber. We sent his sister Heidi back home to Arkansas after a week long visit to clean out the storage shed. I should take a picture of all the crap he has tried to sneak in the house without me knowing. Maybe I will. ...... Bobby's team the Patroits won against the Colts to play in the superbowl tomorrow. Bobby found a girl to rent our party room to. So far it has worked out great, her name is Candice Brand and she works at Papa Johns. She says she will get us free pizza sometime.

Me:
The highlight of my month was going to Spanish Fork for a lake powell meeting. We got the dates we wanted and I'm stoked about it, if fact, I can't stop thinking about going there. That is however a few months away. In 10 weeks we are going on a cruise for our 20 yr. anniversary. We got out passports in the mail yesterday so we are ready to go. Work has been really busy thanks to Zulily, I like being busy. We stopped doing the paper route this month and it is a big relief, esp. cuz I got a ticket one day on my way back to a house with my own personal paper cuz they shorted me. Anyway, I was going 42 in a 25. Jakie said it wasn't my fault though cuz "the truck just goes down the hill fast." lol. I started my new calling of activity days with the 11 yrs olds. I suprisingly like it. We started the "Waechtler's weight loss challenge" in Dec. with the Groll's and the Barlows, I realized I have hormone/thyroid issues that are hindering me from losing weight....big bummer. The Groll's have won for both months we've been doing it. I have been taking a medicine and it has helped with my energy level, so much that I have cleaned and de-junked a lot. I have finished projects that have needed to be done for awhile like organizing the storage room. I took 10 big black garbage bags to D.I. We are trying to decide whether to stay here or move.....what to do, what to to.......Here is a downer......Denver lost in the play-offs so I have to cheer for Bobby's team in the superbowl!!!!

Trevor:
He started frisbee practice this month. His coach is requiring the team to workout 5 days a week. The good thing about it is that Bobby has started walking with him and it has given them time to bond. Trevor is working hard in school. Right now he has 3 a's and a B+ and a B. I'm confident he will raise both of those to an A before the tri is over. We decided to do date night with each kid and of course we started with him since he's the oldest. We took him to Kabuki because he loves food and we knew he would love it there. I was right, we all had a good time.

Abbey:
Abbey has also been playing frisbee 2 times a week. I think she loves it but is very tired afterwards. She also takes piano and does that once a week. The third week of Jan. she went the whole week without watching Netflix. She read a lot cuz she was really bored. The last week she went a whole week with using Instagram. She is always a big helper to me and does a lot around the house. She organi zed the whole play room and it looks a lot cleaner. With the money she earned from that she went to see "Into the Woods" with her friends. Abbey got all a's except for math.

Kyra:
She did the paper route for about 20 days this month. She did a really good job, never complaining once!! She is my social bug. She is always doing something with her friends. She went to the fun park, "Into the Woods", Alexander (twice), out to dinner with theGroll's. Her friends are: Megan Groll, Dillon Jardine, Hailey, Ilene and Katelyn. She went snowboarding with Dillon today and had good time. She goes to violin practice once a week. She also goes to play practice for Frostbite, a play she is going to be in. Her grades were good for last tri. She all a's but 1 B. Her goal is all a's for next tri.

Jakie:
He got a 4-wheeler for Christmas and he has riden it a lot..... I mean a lot..... like almost everyday. He has gotten so much stuff muddy!!! He has learned how to hook up the wagon to it and enjoys giving his friends rides in it. When he's not riding outside, he is busy fixing or remodeling stuff inside. He takes stuff apart, fixes it or modifies it. He seriously thinks leaves his legos, car parts, etc. etc. everywhere!! He is doing really well in school.....he's such a smartie. He is also doing well in scouts. He is really close to earning his wolf badge. He moves onto the Bears group in March. I can't believe my baby is going to be 9.

My kitties:
What!!?? who blogs about their pets? Me!! I got 2 kitties on black friday. I was only going to get 1 but I figured if I got 2 they could be buddies. Lucky (the black one) was sick when I got him. He has a very nasty cold. I was constantly washing his eyes and wiping his nose. I finally had to take him for something else (bum surgery....don't ask) and they gave me an antibiotic for his cold. He still sneezes sometimes but he is much much better. They are very cute, energetic and fun!!

February

Kyra was the student of the week and
we made this poster for her. Here are some
of Kyra's favorite things:
Food: Hawaiian tacos
sport: gymnastics
color: purple
She wants to become
a vet when she grows up cuz
she loves animals

The Doxey's came over to snowmobile with us. This
is a picture of Bobby and bubs going for a ride.

Jakie and his best friend Rion

Emily is so funny!! She's always
making me laugh

Bobby and Michael went up the mountains by
our house and look at that awesome view!

Feb. 11 Bobby and went skiing. We
were on a little trail and Bobby fell.
He looks comfy in the new fresh powder.

In Jakie's 1st grade class they celebrated 100 days of school. I think
I'm going to borrow the hat to count down 100 days until spring! lol

Bobby and I are very proud of Trevor. He has earned his life badge. Now he is onto
earning his eagle.

January 2013

This year is going to be different. To simplify, I'm going to post all the activities we were involved 

in only once a month. That way I should be able to keep up.

I love taking pictures of sunsets! In fact, 

could make a whole book of them but I won't! I'll just post them here.

Abbey and Kyra are our 2 kids who like to ski and snowboard. You can't see it from this picture but Abbey is wearing her new snowboard and boots and Kyra

is wearing her new coat!

Bobby and I like to take advantage of all of our 

kids being in school so we go skiing 

whenever we can. This is taken on the lift.

Matt and Alissa Groll invited us up to their cabin for the weekend. It was really fun and nice to get away from the kids. The ride in was dark and cold but the ride out was awesome!!

Sept. 2010-- The Utah State Fair

I finally did it! I went and worked at the fair with my BFF Zanette! I was so excited but also very nervous about leaving my kids. I made these two scrapbook pages so far of the pictures I loved. I met a new friend named Daren and he took a lot of these pictures. To give him credit, I will mention his name for the ones he took.

Daren took all of these pictures and I thought they were sooooo cool!

Here is a picture of the butter cows. Everything is made of pure butter!! Awesome!!

Here is the carnival-- no I didn't go on any rides-- even if I would have wanted to, Zanette would not have let me. She said that NO one should ride a ride put up in one day. I agreed with her.

There were many things I loved about the fair. The very best thing was getting to spend A LOT of time with my bff. I also loved people watching and believe me, the fair is an awesome place to do that. Daren took this photo

Joann, Ernie and Zanette on night shift

Grace, Joann, Donna and me-taken by Daren. Don't you love the red vests we had to wear?

Here is a list of other things I loved at the fair:

smelling the cotton candy

shopping at the booths

watching the rodeo and listening to the concerts

being in the summer sun all day and night

meeting so many cool people

the hymotist

getting all the free stuff from the vendors (Zanette and I really worked the system and got sooo much for free from food to sunglasses)

My family really suffered while I was gone so I don't know if I will go again year. I had to get 5 or more people to take care of my responsibilities. It didn't help that Kyra and Abbey got the throat flu while I was gone. We'll see when the time comes I guess.

Aug 2010-- The Cache County Fair

Abbey and Trevor were intrigued by the goats!!

Going to the Cache County Fair is a family tradition. Abbey, Trevor and Bobby were going to a Real Soccer game so they only stayed awhile but we did get to see all the animals. Every year my kids beg me to take home a bunny and I do admit they are very cute but we don't need a bunny!!

After the other kids left, I let Kyra and Jakie ride some rides. It is definitely not my most favorite part of the fair, in fact we usually don't let them ride but I did this time since they didn't get to go to the soccer game.I think they had fun cuz they didn't want to stop but the money ran out eventually!!

Aug 2010-- who is more nervous?? ME

I can't believe it- my baby is starting middle school ( he would be mad if he heard me call him that)!!! How did he grow up so fast. I was really nervous for it all to start but I'm glad they let us come early to check everything out. I helped Trevor figure out his combination and find all his classes. He also got his picture taken that day. After it was all done I was less nervous. Because Trevor was in Discovery he got this huge special locker. The other 6 graders had these skinny half lockers so he lucked out.

Look at that determination!!

Aug 2010- Our new RV

Here is one picture of the inside of our new RV

Here it is!! It is a 1973 Eldorado--isn't it pretty!!

My uncle lives in Cheyenne, Wyoming and he had an RV that he was just going to give us. The only catch is that we had to drive his car (my aunt had it) there and drive the RV back. It was a 6-7 hour drive depending how much you stop. We decided to take a Saturday and drive there and back in one day. We left the kids at my moms house and set off. We actually had a really enjoyable trip there but the trip home was the most scary experience of my life so far. My uncle said he had gone through the whole RV so it should have driven fine. We also brought back with us a jet boat and 2- 3 wheeler's. We had a full load for sure. The RV seemed to drive good at first. About an hour out of Cheyenne is when all the trouble started. I was practicing driving because I was going to drive the RV by myself to Park City the next weekend for a soccer tournament so I thought this long drive would be a good chance for me to practice. We made it to Laramie and stopped at a rest stop. When we tried to leave the RV wouldn't start. Bobby thought it was just the battery so he adjusted them and off we went again. We made it quite this far until we had to pull over to change gas tanks. The RV died again in the middle of NOWHERE- seriously NOWHERE. The only cars passing us were truckers and I knew they wouldn't stop to give us a jump. Poor Bobby had to stand out there and flag someone down. Finally, a young guy in a jeep stopped. You could tell he felt sorry for us and he jumped us. At this point Bobby still felt it was the battery cables. The next part of the journey seemed to take forever. By this time we have figured out that it was the alternator that was bad. We figured this out because we had no power. It was starting to get dark and we had NO lights. NONE!! We called a checker auto parts in Rock Springs to see if they had what we needed and see if they would stay open late if we got there late. We were 1 exit away from our destination before we got pulled over, on a hill no less. We left the RV running cuz we figured it would not start again. The policeman was kind of a jerk. He was going to take Bobby to jail and impound the RV because we had no bill of sales, which means both the boat and RV could have been stolen. SERIOUSLY dude the RV isn't even running- who would steal it. We also had no registration or proof of insurance. He gave us a $400 ticket so we weren't very happy. My mom called right at this time very worried about us but I didn't answer the phone or tell her what was happening. When we got back on the road, the RV died right in the middle of the on ramp and the policeman had to jump us, which he told us was against the law also. Anyway, we coasted down this hill and died at the stop light. A teenager gave us a jump and we made it to checker. They were close to closing but they were very, very nice!! One of the guys stayed there and helped us until the alternator was installed and we were on our way. We stopped at Walmart to get some red tape to fix on the red lights on the back, we did not want to get pulled over again. We were both saying some fervent prayers at this point. We still had a long way to go to get back to SL and we needed to hurry and get there to get our kids. We made it home about 2 am in the morning and just stayed in SL for the night. When we went back to Logan we took EVERY single back road Bobby knew to avoid the police. We saw about 6 different ones that day too!! Here are some pictures of the gem ($400+ gem)!!

This is the Lincoln monument we saw on the way there!!

It needs a little work inside, but it is really good shape for it's age!!

P.S. One reason it took me so long to write about getting the RV was that is really was so scary. We had good times with it after that though so in the long run it was worth it!! AND, we got out of the ticket because you have 2 weeks to get a vehicle legal after you buy it before they can impound it or ticket you!!