Sick Day & Sewing

This girl woke up sick(er) today.  I got a sub, she took a nap... and then, she found my machine.  

She has been wanting to help me sew, and has to push the pedal when I am sewing.  Today I got brave, and decided to just show her a few basics.  She picked right up on it and was sewing rag edges together for me.  She is my creative little bug... and determined girl.  She had put on EASY SEWING MACHINE on her Christmas list, but I think we can manage to share this one :)  Now I just need to find her some easy projects to sew.

Some Facebook love from my boy

When Brenden says "I'm going to post something on facebook and just wanted to give you a heads up", I tend to get a little bit nervous.  This is what I found when I got on to check it out.

I love this boy.

Just wanted to take the chance to thank the lady who brought me into this world for all that she's done for me. She lets me play my drum set in her basement, she makes delicious dinner and best of all, she's even prettier now than she was then.
‪#‎afro‬ ‪#‎mum‬ ‪#‎hawt‬

 — with Tonia Snow Fraser.

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  You, Morgan Oxborrow, Karalyn White, Steven Wade Oxborrow and 105 others like this.
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  Morgan Oxborrow Awe. This is cute.

  November 2 at 9:15pm · Unlike · 3
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  Michelle McPherson what a great son!

  November 2 at 9:55pm · Unlike · 1
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  Becky Thomas I just really love seeing Tonia supporting BYU.  Go Cougs!

  November 2 at 10:43pm · Edited · Unlike · 5
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  Shonna Wabel Snodgrass Love it!!!! Your hair was and still is AWESOME!!!! This is great and for the record, it's Union Cougars not BYU!!!! Right Tonia!

  November 3 at 4:14am · Unlike · 1
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  Tracy A Watkins How sweet! What a great boy. Tonia Snow Fraser. I agree. Love you sis.

  November 3 at 6:11am · Unlike · 1
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A little turkey... A lot of chaos...

Wow, what a crazy whirlwind, emotional all over the place weekend.  Friday morning was spent preparing what I could for our little family dinner.  Wade was not going to be here for the big event on Thanksgiving day, so we had to make our own version of it before he left.  It was cozy, fun and over too quickly.  Morgan and Greyson made it down, and Brenden's girlfriend Ashley joined us as well.

The chaos part of the weekend hadn't even gotten started yet.  Soon after dinner I had an emotional (again) interaction with my dad that left me in tears, and him hanging up on me on the phone.  Oh that he could ever get over the past choices of my life that apparently haunt him so much.

Saturday morning I had to get in a run while everyone got ready for family pictures at 9am.  I blow dried sweaty running hair for pictures and we headed out the door, hoping to beat the big storm that was blowing in.  We arrived at our location, but our photographer did not.  I texted and called her and her husband, and then checked my messages.  I had made plans with her for the following Saturday, not the Saturday that we were all sitting in the car ready for.  So I decided to come up with plan B.  I found a photographer already out taking pictures of another family, and asked her to take ours.  She did, until we got rained out... but the pictures so far are ones that I am in love with.  Lucky break on our part.  While all of this was happening, my brothers were back at the house putting in 2 basement windows and setting the shower base in the downstairs bathroom for me.  When we got back from pictures, they left for the BYU football game, and left me with 3 extra kiddos.  Needless to say, mentally I was a mess.  My house was a mess, I had noise everywhere and no personal space.  I was still anxious from my phone call the previous night as well.  By the time my brothers' returned, I was SO ready to get out of the house.  Clay and I ran to Costco to do some shopping, and some decompressing.   By Saturday night, everyone had gone their own way, including my kids (with the exception of Aspen).

Sunday morning was a mad dash to Tremonton for Wade's farewell.  After picking up Morgan and Greyson, we were hoping to make it to the church soon enough to not embarrass ourselves.  Thankfully, Kara had saved us a couple spots, and we snuck in seamlessly with five minutes to spare before the meeting began.  After hanging out at Ken and Julie's house for some soup, Morgan and I got our last selfies with Wade before taking off for home.  Hard to believe I'm losing my kiddo for 2 years.  Still not totally seeming real yet.

By Sunday night, I was beat.  It was 6 o'clock and I was ready for bed.  But wait... NO!  Bedtime was not to happen for awhile afterwards.  Connor Stewart, a student of mine from 2 years ago, needed some math help, so I stayed up to try to remember stuff long forgotten.  It's amazing how much you can remember once you pull up a few reminders on Google :)

All in all, it was a crazy, emotional, all over the place weekend... one which I am glad is over, but wouldn't have traded for the world.  I sure do love my kiddos!

A car, a torch, a death (for 2 years anyway)

I have 10 days.  10 days until half of my heart goes across the country and to Mexico then on to Honduras for 2 years.  10 days to get as much alternative Indie music as I possibly can added to playlists to survive on while he is gone.  10 days until a small melt-down ensues.  

10 days.

It hurts to think about not having him around.  We've been through hikes and concerts and sad times and great times together.  We have cooked together more than I can even count and had some great discussions. 

I love this boy.  My toe-headed 3 year old that once existed has turned into a 6'1" tall handsome young man.  I'm so proud of him and what he has done with his life thus far.  He has been working on his culinary arts certificate and will have it done early, before he leaves the day before Thanksgiving.  He graduated in May and had played tennis and ran cross country.  He has been loving, open minded and a good listener to my times of stress and anxiety.  He has been my source of off the radar music, and I'm not sure I'm able to pick up the slack while he is away... but I'll try.  His playlist might be endlessly long when he gets back, but I'll try to do his job while he is away doing his.

10 days.

And when I lay down and go to sleep tonight, it will be 9 when I wake.I wonder... if I just don't sleep, does that keep it from happening?

Remember that when I packed your bag, I reached in and buckled up my heart... for you to go away with.  I love you Steven Wade.  Love you to the moon and back.

Begin Again...

I pulled out my blog books this past week, and started reading.  It was a fun read, a trip down memory lane, and a call to repentance.  So much has happened since I last posted that I feel that it is "lost" somewhere because it wasn't written down.  I've had a missionary come home and another ready to go out.  I've had a change in my job and school district, and I love so many parts of this change.  Our home life has changed, and Brenden is now living with Aspen and I at our same home in Lehi we've been in for ten years.  We lost two of our favorite animals this past year.  Toby had to be put down before last winter because of her arthritis and ability to walk.  Fred, our pekingese dog, had a cancer growth on her ear that got out of control and he had to be put down too.  This about broke poor Aspen's heart.  The week before we put Fred down, Aspen's dad brought home a boxer dog.  We named her Izzy, and she has been the best fit for us.  She runs with me every time I go (one time for an entire 10 miles), she plays with Aspen, and sleeps inside with us (when she gets lucky, she gets on the bed to sleep... but this usually means I don't get to sleep).

Anyway... lots of life changes.
Lots... and lots.
TONS, actually.

I'll be updating with changes as they come... and some of those that have already taken place.  I look forward to being able to print MORE books and be able to read them years down the road.

It's nice to be back.

My spring "break"

My kids were away for most of Spring Break (Moab with the grandparents), so I had time on my hands.  Hayden and I have a different version of what a break looks like.  His includes taking naps and watching a movie he's been wanting to see. 

This is what mine included this week:
Rake garden
Stair climber workout
Rake yard
Mow yard
Fertilize lawn
Plant spring flowers
Till garden (until my tiller rebelled)
Plant three rows of spring seeds
Treadmill class
Twelve miler with Arica
Walk Provo trail with Lawrence
Bathroom cleaned
Three doctor appointments
Grocery shopping
Edge lawn
Email parents/students about homework
Email Brenden (while running)
Birthday cards for April
Einsteins with Becky
Plan two weeks for school
Dig out perennials from vacant lot
Make math quiz
Haydens meeting
Spray round up on entire empty garden spot
Plant perennials
Fixed broken pipes in yard
Buy garden seeds
Go to wades tennis match
Had TV guy come to fix broken receiver
Spent two days (5+ hours) in the yard
Got text from Brendens mission president
A million other little errands

I missed the kids, but glad I got stuff done.
Bad part... I am having trouble walking today. So sore.

Basketball time again

Once again, it's that time of year when students brag about their skills, and teachers just pray they don't embarrass themselves. I've learned the hard way to keep my mouth shut when it comes to talking smack before the game. Usually when i talk a lot is when I play the worst.

This year I had ten points, a couple steals and a nice jammed finger... Which has now taken on a nice purple shade.

The best part of the game... Knowing that the minute it was over - spring break began!

Jr prom...BRHS

How is it that my (once upon a time) baby is now taller than I am, looking better than ever, and almost done with his junior year?

Scares me how fast life goes by.
I love this kid.
He is the calm to my crazy.

The morning drive

On the days when I get to take Aspen to school we definitely have our own little routine.
She starts the car, picks the radio station, and then we sing along to the radio all the way to Emily's.

12 very disjointed miles

What happens when Hayden has to work and I have Morgan's schedule to work around for my long run?
I make do... And improvise.
2.4 miles to Jocelyns house.
5 miles route with Jocelyn.
She drove me home so I could let Morgan go do what she had to do.

At this point I still had 4.5 miles to finish and Aspen to watch. So, I did what I could to make things not so boring for her.... I let her play at the park across the street and ran 22 laps around the park while she played.
22 laps.
22 LAPS!
I was dizzy by the end.

Running 12 miles earns me almost a full days worth of weight watchers points...25. I've been craving me some chicken pot pie from KFC. This lovely nugget cost me 21 points. Worth it, baby!

Caught

I have a habit of multitasking.
I have a habit of driving slightly too fast.
A combination of those 2 today made me not see the cop in front of the pack of cars as I passed going 75.
However, when he pulled me over he didn't ask me anything about my speed. He simply asked why I passed him and if I hadn't seen him.
Well duh.
If I had seen you I wouldn't have passed you.
I didn't say that of course.
Good thing too, because he let me off with a warning.

Some sister love

The best part about having nieces and nephews playing high school sports: Road games. More specifically... Road games in my neck of the woods.

I got to visit with my sister, see my two cute nieces and catch up.

There should be an instagram upload for blogs

Why is it that posting a picture on Instagram is so easy, but doing the same on my blog seems like such a task?  I hope there is a way to upload all of my Instagram into a blog book otherwise, I've done horrible with keeping up to date on my family's activities.

So my goal is to post on my blog each time I post on Instagram. Yeah, we'll see how long that lasts.

We took a little weekend getaway and Aspen found a firepit. This girl seriously cracks me up. If it isn't what she says it's just her cute little behaviors. 
I love this girl.