We Pulled It Off for the Second Year in a Row!

Happy 45th Birthday to the MAN OF MY DREAMS - and I mean that in every sense. From the moment I meant him, I was drawn to him and his positive spirit - and overwhelming love for the Lord that made me want to be a better person and draw closer to God as well. At the very least, I longed to be his friend, but in my heart, I dreamed of so much more - it took a while.... - but, eventually, my fairy tale ending occurred when we tied the know and made a lifetime of love and commitment official. John Riley, I am so proud of you and the husband, father, and friend you are - Happy 45th my love!

— with John Riley.

That's the tribute I paid John on Facebook.  I figured I'd start the post with that - as that's what the whole point of it is.  And, after our surprise last year, I was struggling with how to appropriately honor him this year.  The timing of his birthday is so hard for me.  I'm just depleted with "planning and doing" after the holidays, and usually weighing so much more than I want to be - so the idea of putting on one more social event that would involve a lot of people and eating delicious foods goes against my ambitions in the midst of January.  Enter Heather.  As she had a big roll in last year's gathering (and year's prior too) - she volunteered to see what she could put together for him.  Boy, did she pull it off.  She managed to find a day where her, Cully, Michael Chase, and the Whites could all get together which happened to land on the one day of his birthday week we were available.  (The day before his birthday).  I threw him off as best as I could.  We already had a dinner date scheduled at Red Robin with his mom on his Birthday - so when I suggested we celebrate his day with my parents (as well as Mikayla's birthday) on that Tuesday, he didn't blink an eye.  The only potential give-away was that the house was really clean when he came home.  Ooops....couldn't be avoided.  It was more important for me to have a clean house than to cover up a potential surprise by leaving it trashed when company would be coming later.  

The whole gang was already waiting for us when we got there - so perfect.  John was indeed surprised! 

Kenjon was the biggest surprise.  We knew he was done with his season and back on the west coast, but he'd been planning to go from Washington down to California that week.  Heather talked him into switching course... It had been since September since we'd seen him last.

 

The evening was full of stories and fun expressions and antics.

Because of Whitley's bedtime, the Whites parted ways after dinner.  The rest of us headed back to our house for some delicious carrot cake cupcakes that Heather made - and a little Wii Fit U for entertainment.

In order to calibrate the movement games, each person needs their own "Mii" to be created.  You can make it look like you by taking a picture with the hand-held console - some of the interpretations are eerily close and others are like "Is that really how people see me?"   Of course, the worst is the weigh in.  You can hide the actual weight from being shown on the screen, but it does publicly declare your BMI and show what range you are in (underweight, normal, overweight, obese).  Let's just say, I was so glad I'd already established my Mii ahead of time.  

One thing the Wii Fit does NOT do, though, is determine your muscle mass percentage (or body fat percentage).   So, with both Cully - who is short, but all muscle - and then, especially Kenjon - the BMI was not even remotely accurate to determine how fit they were.  If you can read when it says for Kenjon, it's hilarious.  He's listed as "Overweight" - and the game had the audacity to suggest that perhaps he should spend less time in his day "sitting" and try to be more active.  It recommended he lose like 20 pounds (or more) and wanted him to set a goal on how many weeks it would take to accomplish that.  Can you imagine him returning pre-season to the Carolina Panthers saying, "Hey Coach, I stopped lifting in order to lose the weight that Wii Fit told me I should lose...hope that's okay!"

So, the end result, both Cully and Kenjon's Mii characters inflated a bit after the BMI was established to look "portly".  With Kenjon's skin coloring as dark, and him in a stocking cap - his character reminded me of "Fat Albert" - we all got a big kick out of it!!!

Of course, the competition was HEATED - particularly between Michael, Heather, and Kenjon - somehow, Kenjon finds a way to beat Heather by just a point, percentage, or margin so tiny - I know it infuriates her!  (And, if he doesn't, he plays again until he does).

But, Mikayla kicked everyone's butt when it comes to ski jumping - proving just how wise it was for the Olympics to bring Womens' Ski Jumping into the events this year.

What a great way to celebrate John... thank you SO MUCH Heather for making it all happen!

From Chaos to Order

There's been some "heaviness" on my heart lately.  Some of it will be a matter of processing and just letting God do His work over time.  But, some of it, has been able to "fixed" this week.

I'm definitely a person influenced by my surroundings, and let's face it - they've kind of been filled with chaos lately.  And, a lot of that is now a done deal.

Christmas Decor put away:  Check!

Some new items added to "warm up January":  Check!

Bills paid:  Check!

Laundry caught up: Check!  (Well, for this moment...you know that lasts only like five minutes)

Next year's Sunriver Vacation reserved:  Check!  (This was a big bummer when we realized last Sunday that our previous rented home was already reserved by someone else during our stay time.  Seriously!  Lost it by a couple of days.....and so began the search for a home to fit all of our many, many (increasing over the years) specific desires to accommodate our group perfectly.  I think we nailed it!)

So, things have kind of turned around for my attitude.  Thank you Lord.  The day it all changed happened after a particularly sad and restless night that involved tears.  And, then, I got a phone call from a friend who was also in tears, asking if my Seasonal Affective Disorder was worse than usual this year.  UH, YEAH!!!!  Sometimes, all it takes to improve is to realize how not alone you really are in how you feel.

Which, leads me back again to my Thursday Night Life Group.  Oh my, what a remarkable group of women that group is - I'm just so honored to be a part of them, to experience life with them, and to literally hold hands through the burdens and highlights this life here on Earth has to offer.   (Pictures taken with Christi's baby Elsie - first with Darcy and then Brayden)

And, of course, it's been a good time with Whitley - hitting the play areas at the mall where she always makes a new friend or two, learning how to color, working on her shopping skills (two thumbs up for her enthusiasm at Real Deals, two thumbs down for her displeasure at shopping at the Woodburn Outlets), , and just her general cuteness!

Finally, really trying to work on that "heavy" that has more to do with the scales than my heart.  (Which does affect the heart-burden too....definitely an attitude influencer...).  The walks have been good and frequent, but we've been socked in fog for the last five days that doesn't rise our temps above the mid-30's - and that makes for a very chilly Whitley, especially when she has a habit of taking her shoes and socks off mid-walk (much less immediately shedding any blankets). 

So, we got the new Wii U version of Wii Fit (a Christmas gift delayed because of its release date) and I'm excited to give it a full whirl today.  Whitley kind of impeded my full progress of exploring the "activities" yesterday!

The "Just Keep Swimming" mantra is working...getting more towards a successful crawl stroke every day!

"Just Keep Swimming"

I feel that should be my new motto for January... "Just keep swimming" - as in what Dory says to Marlin regarding pressing on in their journey to find his son, Nemo.

I think the fact that I'm getting my first blog post up on January 9th should be evidence enough that my "swim" has been looking much more like treading water than it has a Michael Phelp's breast stroke.  I'm staying above water, but just barely.

Last week was easy enough.  We returned from Sunriver problem-free, reunited with John on New Year's Eve and after a dinner at Red Robin, I finally got to see "Frozen" all the way through.  While I'm not sure I could rate it above "Tangled", it's right up there with my all-time favorites.  I'm way impressed with "Miss Veronica Mars" in her role as Anna - who knew she could sing?!  I could probably spin a whole blog post about that movie alone - the various themes threading through it and how they could apply to my life, but let's just get through the first 9 days of 2014, shall we?

Mikayla and Brayden stayed up until Midnight together:

Michele, Traig, and Ellie arrived the next day.  Michael and Nati were off on their second annual hunting adventure - and yes, the shot an elk that first evening.  So impressive!

Michele and I set up a table in the living room and merrily decorated our "over-the-top" calendar planners with stickers and rub ons.  This decorated planner is kind of a trade-mark in both of our lives - dating as far back as high school.  Yes, a little obsessive, but it helps to organize my head and keeps me looking forward.  As we organized, we began watching the "Twilight" saga all the way through.  (Thank you Black Friday at Target for that $16 4-disk set...).  It was cozy, and kept me happily hibernating from reality.

Friday brought much the same.  Before any fun began, though, we needed to get Mikayla's ear checked out.  It was very painful for her and we suspected "Swimmer's Ear" as all of us who had been in the tub in Sunriver all suffered from some degree of skin rash from being in it.  Apparently, Swimmer's Ear often goes along with that.  Sure enough, that was the case, and a course of ear drop antibiotics were prescribed.  Following that, we went to see "Frozen" again (it gets better every time) for Ellie's benefit and had the Whites over that evening.  Good times.

Saturday was a little more of a stretch.  We had our first tournament for Mikayla's Webfoot volleyball.  We arrived around 7:15am and left at 5:15pm - so it was a very long day.  We were all pleased with how the team played, and especially with the coach who is very interactive with them and constantly providing feedback (which was not the case last year).  However, what was similar to last year was that their first game was their best game, and after narrowly losing that, they lost momentum.  Mikayla's ear started feeling lousy, the day just seemed to drag - and we all just wanted to be home.

Sunday brought the final day of rest for the family before reality would once again set in.  We took full advantage of it (along with the indulging before the diet kicks in...) ;)

So - that leads to this week.  And, yes, it's been a reality check.  It's been a "check-your-attitude-at-the-door", "other-people-have-it-worse-than-this", "but-really-why-does-it-have-to-be-this-hard" kind of week.

That could apply to:

- Exercising again - the elliptical and walking are not as easy as they once were
- The scales (did I expect anything different?  My gosh, on New Year's Eve I felt like the Pillsbury Dough Boy in a warming oven...just expanding everywhere!)
- Our finances - in the last three months, we've netted half of what we normally do.  That doesn't really cut it at bill paying time - especially with Christmas and a vacation thrown in.
- School.  Just even getting up for the kids has been hard, much less reflecting on the work that wasn't all turned in before Christmas ("Brayden, you big-time dropped the ball on that one") or just what Mikayla's math book is asking her to do.  I'm really not a fan.
- Health.  While I've been relatively free of headaches, John is still struggling with vertigo - and most likely, the medication for his Hypothyroidism isn't yet at the right dosage.  He's (thankfully) been able to work through it, but it's an added burden.  We also discovered Brayden has an extra bone plate on his chest.  That was on Tuesday and let me tell you, it almost sunk me.  Yeah, kind of lost my rhythm in the treading water at that point.  It's actually a condition called "Pectus carinatum" and is a totally benign scenario where the sternum sticks out a bit on one side.  You'd never notice if he was flexing his muscles and not trying to show you...but, I did notice on that evening, and kind of freaked.  An extra bone mass where it doesn't belong is a little alarming to discover on your child.  Thankfully, "Google Images" led me to the final conclusion, and once I found it, the Whites and Mom and Dad stepped up with their insight to give me assurances that it is NOT a problem.  (In fact, Dad has the same thing - and no one has ever commented on it - ever...).  The crazy thing, though, was that I had just ordered a book about ADHD in teens on his behalf and was already in the process of berating myself for coming down on Brayden in so many areas that were entirely by-products of this disorder.  And, then, something else....really?!

So, that's enough of a list to run with.  I'm thankful for Whitley being around that's preventing from just wallowing up in bed each day trying to escape.  But, I will say, on the flip side, Whitley keeps forward progress (at least in the physical arena) going at a snail's pace.  I'm not sure why, but she isn't a fan of quietly sitting with her toys while I race around the house to clean up or organize.  She's kind of "interactive" (as she's screaming at me to pick her up at this very moment!).  Consequently, the house is still "living in December" in terms of decor.  That will be Sunday.  I'm just grateful we got the tree down.

In conclusion - I am abundantly grateful for God's little ways of reminding me that He will not fail and there is light around the corner!