Ketchup

April 02, 2015

I know, I know ...

I've fallen off the Daily Blog Train.

Again!

Last time I wrote it was nearly our daughter Papaya's 16th birthday. Our son, Elder Meehan, was about 4 months away from the completion of his church service mission. And non of our teenagers could drive solo.

Wow have things changed!

--Papaya had a great 16th bday, passed her drivers exam, and is now driving.

--Elder Meehan now has a departure date from his mission. We will see him before July 1 (after 2 years of not seeing him!).

--Bam turns 18 this month and passed her permit exam (She wasn't super hip on driving earlier--which was great by us. LOL).

--Jr. passed his permit exam and will be driving by November.

--Zu and Lu are still loving school (minus grammar), playing a lot of volleyball, and starting to do things without their mom and dad (Ahhhhhh! They are growing up!).

--Dave and I are good overall. We decided March 1 we needed to eat a lot healthier, so he I created a ~~goal~~ competition to get us excited about it--and here it is April 2 and we are still going strong (very few carbs, lean protein, and as little sugar as possible). Yay us! (Just a side note: Since the last time I'd played Survivor I seriously let my health and fitness go. I gained weight--around 30lbs--felt yucky, and super stressed all the time. I'm so grateful to be getting out of that/this rut.)

--My BFF Janae (who has Lou Gehrig's/ALS) went skiing! It is awesome (see pics below).

--And on the kinda crummy side:

I forgot to give the university my availability for teaching summer school ... so it looks like I'll be taking a very LONG summer vacation this year. I've had 4--count them 4--interactions with our local police this month. And did I mention I'm eating very little sugar? I know these are minor in the scheme of things, but WOW, COULD I USE A CADBERRY EGG RIGHT NOW!

Happy Easter weekend to you and your family!

Harriet is missing Elder Meehan
(they spent a lot of time together before his mission and we definitely notice a difference in her personality since he's been on his mission).

Bam reminds me to take Harriet with us whenever possible--because that is something that cheers her up.
It's pretty hilarious (PS: Bam is a passenger, not driving.)

Our family said goodbye to one of the most amazing leaders we have had at church. He's career military and off to South Korea. We will miss him.

We wore blue ribbons to support Rare Diseases week. (In honor of a friend's bambino.)

Bam with her denim ribbon.

My favorite piñata ever: miniature.

Papaya's bday.

Janae's day of skiing (middle).

Janae and her beautiful family.

Bam and Dave at the play Mama Mia.

Janae skiing with the adaptive ski-instructor.

Greenish bread for St. Paddy's Day.

A great Relief Society activity last month.

We still don't know what it is/was. One day while I was at work I asked Dave to put in a dinner I had premade.
He wrote me about 5 minutes into the prep and said, "what did you leave in the oven?"
Best part: No idea. My brain is so full of info, I have no idea. But I do know it is done!

Not-St.Paddy's-Bread.

Bam after she passed her permit test.

Jr. after he passed his permit test. (PS: I was at the DMV 3 times in 5 days with Papaya, Bam and Jr. Pray for our insurance to have a discount of some sort.)