2010 remembrances

Jan: Cody celebrated 13!!! I'm too young to be the mom of a teenager!!! We celebrate by letting him invite 2 friends (Andrew T, and ?) to a day at Mr. Biggs - a fun place with bowling, cars, mini golf, mech warriors, and laser tag, and arcades. They pretty much went back and forth between Mech Warriors and Laser Tag. Feb: celebrated 16 years of marriage to my sweetheart! Jay and I participated in a kid's play at "his" church called "Knight camp" He did great! I stumbled and fudged on my lines. March: Bill turned the big 4-0!! Jay and I participated in "The Light," an Easter program done at a neighborhood church were Jay participates in a children's choir. This year, they him to be a shepherd at the birth of Christ. He was SO thrilled because last year that part was played by a teenager! He's only 9!! They asked me to be stage manager - I was floored! It was a huge stretching time as I trusted God to teach me to speak with grace and kindness. April: Happy Easter! We were exhausted from "The Light," so we stayed home and slept in for Easter Sunday (hanging head in shame... but it's the honest truth!) Then we went to Mom's house for Easter dinner. May: Jay started TaeKwonDo at the Y! Happy birthday to me!! I turned 38. On my birthday, Jay had yet another children's choir program with a "stomp" theme, AND Mom G (Omi to my kids) left for a missions trip to Afghanistan.... I learned again to trust God with those I love most! She had an awesome experience - but that's her story to tell. June: The 1st weekend, I hike up Barr Trail to Barr Camp with a friend and her hubby. We spent the night and came back down the next day. My friend and I are "training" to hike all the way up Pike's Peak sometime during the summer. I spent a lot of time hunting down light weight, sugar free, corn free hydration drinks and food for the trip. corn makes me congested (not good when you're already short on oxygen!), and the sugar makes me sleepy and makes my joints ache! Barr Camp provide dinner and breakfast, but both contain corn, so... quinoa with fruit for breakfast and some very expensive dried meals for dinner! My car died... had to replace the engine! So much for trying to get out of debt! We'll keep working on it. We did a lot of walking this month! (no car for 3 weeks!) Well, it started off as biking, but one bike developed a flat, and another wore out the bearing casing, so .... we walked! Cody got a "job" at the library manning the computer to check kids into the summer reading program (that's a mile from home), and Jay had TKD about 1/2 mile from the Library (walked there), and then walked home after working out for an hour (another mile!). I discovered that it was nicer to walk in super hot weather, then to climb into a car that had been sitting out in the sun all day. To go just a mile wasn't far enough to cool the car off with A/C. Also was the beginning of the hottest summer we've had since moving to Colorado 11 yrs ago! Many days this month predicted to be 90 degrees.... fortunately, it didn't feel too hot. July: 90 degree days contiune! Only now they FEEL like 90's!! Still training for the Peak! the Y starts a "Lazyman Triathlon" where you complete the equivolent of a triathon in 6 weeks. I did it twice! spent many hours on the bike! yuck! I don't like exercise bikes!! Each Triathon has 115 miles on bike, 26 miles running, and 3 miles swimming (these numbers are rounded up) My friend and I hike the Peak at the end of the month!! We decided since we already hiked up to Barr Trail once, we'll take the cog railroad to a stopping off place 1.5 miles from the camp, hike there and spend the night. Then the next day do the top half of the mountain, and spend a second night at Barr Camp. The last day we'll hike down to the trailhead of Barr Trail in Manitou Springs. We Made it!!! Aug: School starts. This is Cody's last year in Jr. High!!! Gotta start thinking about what we'll do for High School! Sept: I think this was about the time Jay took his 1st belt test in TKD and earned a yellow belt. We decided to go ahead and pay to have him become a ATA member, so now he gets a magazine a few times a year, has a uniform, gets the belts and certificates as he tests, and can compete in competitions. I don't know when that will happen though! That scares me! Oct: Jay turns 10! We celebrated by letting him have his 1st sleep-over. he had 3 friends (Kaleb, Joshua, and Zeb) over night. He decided on a TaeKwonDo theme. I made the kids "bong-mong-ye" sticks (padded fighting sticks) out of dowels and pipe insalation. I duct taped the handles with black tape so they are all black and silver. They bobbed for ninja rubber duckies with ninja figurines taped to the bottoms, then made t-shirts that Jay designed that had 2 martial artist fighting with the words "TaeKwonDo for Jesus" and a verse reference to the verse about "fight the good fight" -I did the iron-on transfer before the party, and the signed each other's shirts during the party. Jay chose pizza for his meal and they watched the new "Karate Kid" movie. They went to bed at a reasonable hour of about 10:00. Nov: Thanksgiving at mom's house. Dec: Jay had a Christmas program with his children's choir. The theme was "Operation Christmas Child" - I got to interpret it for the deaf! Jay tested for his 2nd belt and graduated to an orange belt in TKD! We did Christmas eve services again (very nice - peaceful! a celebration!) followed by dinner at Texas T-Bone - always a nice experience. On the way home, we crossed paths with 3 deer walking down the street - I've NEVER seen deer in our neighborhood in the 11.5 yrs we've lived here!! We speculated on all the possibilities - the sleigh broke down and they were walking to the auto parts store, or they got tired of pulling the sleigh so they stopped off at 7-11 and were walking back, etc. Made for a fun ending to the evening! Christmas day we went to mom's house. A great and peaceful experience. Mom was upset about not being able to get presents this year, and gave out coupons. WE LOVE THEM! She was "inspired" in her choices of "gifts"!