CPE Done!

I just finished my CPE for the year. Nothing like waiting until the last day to get it done! I am looking forward to a good steak dinner at Keith's parents tonight. We bought them a bunch of meat for Christmas, so they are sharing it with us. :) They plan to come over to our house to ring in the new year after the kids are in bed.

December

December has been fairly eventful with all of the Christmas activities. On the morning of the 5th, we attended the Ward Christmas Party. They had a breakfast and some from the ward put on a skit of the 12 Days of Christmas. They were all things related to a ward. Reagan was one of the seven snot-nose sunbeams. They even had eight mothers milking. I thought it was pretty funny.

On my way to work on the 7th, I was rear ended by a big GMC truck while I was stopped at a light. The damage to the bumper wasn't too bad, but we did get a check for $492 from the insurance company to cover the costs of getting it fixed. We are just going to hold on to that money right now to help pad the checkbook for Christmas. I did have a sore neck and back for a few days, which wasn't much fun. The evening of the 11th, Keith, John, and I attended the Institute Choir and high school Christmas concert. It was fun! Taylor M. was quite entertaining.

On the 12th we attended a Christmas open house at the kids' daycare. Santa was there. John wouldn't sit on his lap, but did tell Santa that he wanted the Harry Potter 7 book. Reagan did sit on Santa's lap and told him that she wanted a princess dress. Keith handed Riley to Santa and Riley freaked out. I rescued him quickly though. :) I had to hold him for the picture with Santa. Riley wouldn't take his eyes off Santa though. He is very shy around strangers and stays very close to me until he feels more comfortable.

I had a work Christmas party on the 15th during lunch. We went bowling again. Let's just say that I either need to go bowling more than once a year or stick to Wii bowling. That night we met Keith's parents for dinner and went to Temple Square. We had a nice time and the weather was great (we didn't freeze to death). I had a company-wide Christmas party on the 18th during lunch. I sang in the choir again. We had a pretty good size group this year. I enjoyed it a lot.

The afternoon of the 19th Keith, John and I attended a concert at the university. It was really good. However, during the concert I realized that John had a fever and wasn't feeling very well. So afterwards we took him to the Dr. He had an ear infection. He is still very prone to them. One of my coworkers gave me some sugar cookie mix for Christmas, so on the 20th the kids and I made Christmas cookies in the shape of a Christmas tree, a gingerbread man, a flower and a teddy bear. We decorated them with white frosting and sprinkles. They were really good! I was quite relieved for the 21st to arrive so it would start getting lighter each day. I had felt down for the last month and thought that some more sunlight would help. Actually the 21st turned out to be a pretty good day! I am feeling better now.

We had a nice Christmas. Christmas Eve we attended a party at Keith's parents with two of Keith's siblings and their families. John finally coaxed us out of bed at about 7:30 Christmas morning. We opened up almost all of the gifts before Reagan and Riley got up. We woke them up at 8:30, since we were expecting Keith's parents and aunt at 9:00 for breakfast. Reagan said that she didn't want presents and wanted to stay in bed all day. She is a lot like me. I don't like getting up in the morning either. It always takes her a little while to get out of bed. Once she finally got her presents she was very happy to have them. John got legos, bionicles, bakugans, a Hot Wheels race track and the Harry Potter 7 book. Reagan got a pink stick unicorn, a pink My Little Pony, a set of 12 princess story books and a Tinker Bell outfit. She wears it as much as possible and even slept in it last night. Riley got a toy vacuum and a toy flip phone. He loves his vacuum and is very good at vacuuming. We just wish it really worked!

On the 26th we drove to my parents house. My nephew got married on the 5th, but hardly any of my family was able to attend, so we had a get together for them at my parent's house the evening of the 26th. One of Riley's favorite things to do is play on the stairs. I don't trust him yet to be on them by himself so he takes a lot of monitoring. While at my parent's house, he was standing on the landing at the bottom of the stairs which then steps down to a rock floor. He started falling backwards towards the rock floor. I ran to him, but when my foot touched the rock floor it slid forward sending me into the splits. I was able to break Riley's fall, but my ankle hit the edge of the rock floor. It hurt pretty bad! It has been pretty sore in a couple of places, but is getting better. I will be so glad when Riley is able to go up and down stairs on his own! We came back home on the 28th. We don't have any plans for New Years Eve. We will probably play some games and maybe watch a movie.

We all finished getting our flu vaccinations in December. Right now all the kids are getting over a cold, but other than that we are doing pretty well!

2009 Christmas Letter

I am posting our Christmas card letter since it gives a good history on what we have been up to this past year. Some of it may be a repeat of previous postings, but I think most of it is new.

Dear Family and Friends,

We feel grateful for all of the many blessings we've received this year, the greatest being the true "reason for the season"! Of course, we are also fortunate to have such wonderful family and friends who we love! :) Thank you all for being so caring and fun! As all of our years together have been, this year has also been an eventful one.

We were somewhat landlocked for the early part of the year, but in March we visited Keith's grandma (91 years old) so she could meet Riley. We spend Memorial Day weekend with Jo's family visiting cemeteries.

In June we had John and Reagan's allergies tested. We learned that John is allergic to just about everything, including dairy, which could explain a great number of health issues he had in his early years. Regardless of the findings, he still insists on consuming all forms of dairy because he loves it so. Reagan wasn't allergic to anything, which was a relief. It might have been that she was too young. We were unable to get Riley tested, but we are very aware of his infant milk intolerance or "allergy". Hopefully, he'll soon outgrow it. Also in June, Keith and Jo took a much needed vacation in Las Vegas. We took in everything that was "G" rated, including the Shark Reef Aquarium, the Tournament of Kings Dinner Show and the Donnie and Marie Show. We also got to have a nice lunch with Jo's brother and his girlfriend at the Rainforest Cafe. It was a lot of fun!

Keith had LASIK surgery on his eyes in early July. It was expensive, but worth every penny. He loves being able to see without glasses and doesn't miss all of the times when he would misplace them! Later that month, we helped put on the Youth Conference for our ward by serving on the Youth Conference Committee. We had a game show, dinner, fireside, picture treasure hunt, boat regatta and testimony meeting. The kids were rambunctious, but the Spirit was strong! It was a great experience!

John was baptized on August 1st. It was a terrific day and we appreciated all who were able to share it with us. For his birthday, he spent a week with his grandparents. He always has a great time and looks forward to it every year. Also in August, we attended Jo's extended family reunion near where her grandma grew up. We really enjoyed seeing the sights of her childhood.

Labor Day weekend brought another family reunion with Jo's family, which was held at her aunt's lodge. We toured a local history museum, visited family history sites and did some hiking. Also in September, Jo spent her birthday with her sister and two of her nieces at her aunt's house. They did some more hiking and had a fantastic time!

Keith has had a busy semester. He is currently serving as the program chair with one faculty member on sabbatical for the year and another one recently let go due to cutbacks. The remaining few have had to absorb the excess work. It has been stressful with the state shortfalls in revenue in the face of increasing enrollment. Keith no longer teaches any extra classes except for an online course due to cutbacks. It's nice to have him around every evening and to have him free in the summer, but we do miss the extra income. Keith has really appreciated the elliptical machine we purchased this year and uses it to work out all of his stress and to prepare for the occasional run.

Jo is enjoying her job. Fortunately, her organization operates independently and is not reliant on state funds and seems to be doing well with the federal contracts that they receive. Jo has also restarted a workout regime this year on the elliptical machine. She enjoys watching her favorite show while staying in shape!

John (8) is now in cub scouts and he thoroughly enjoys every aspect of it. He earned his Bobcat badge in a week and is well on his way to earning his Wolf badge. We have always known of John's musical talent. With the purchase of Keith's parents' piano, John was able to begin taking lessons from Jo. He's a quick study. John is also an avid reader and just finished the third Harry Potter book. Reagan (3) practices her mommy skills on her dolls, her little brother and anyone else she thinks needs them. We just love her sweetness. Riley's (14 mos.) favorite place is on Jo's hip, although he is walking everywhere now. He talks a lot, like all of our kids, and even knows some words too! :)

We miss you all dearly and truly wish each of you a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Love,

Keith, Jo, John, Reagan and Riley

Stupid Is As Stupid Does

If I thought the things that I did in my last post were crazy, I have since topped them all. On the evening of November 24th, I did something pretty stupid. I was trying to do something good, but apparently didn't think through it very well. I set two gallons of bleach on the top step of the stairs. My next stupid move sent one of the gallons tumbling down the stairs. Everything was fine until it landed at the bottom. It broke open at the lid and sprayed the entire office with bleach! Keith and I quickly worked to clean up the puddle of bleach on the carpet. It amazingly doesn't look too bad, although there is a lighter colored circle where the bottle landed. We didn't think to clean the bottoms steps, so there are some bleach spots there. The worst part was the pictures that were splashed. I have a scrap book desk in the office with pictures on them. I cried when I saw that they were ruined. They were professional pictures. At least we have other hard and/or digital copies of all the pictures. I think you can safely say that the office has been sanitized. I would put this pretty close to the category of when I tried to back out of the garage before the door was open, which I did earlier this year. We still have not replaced the door. Hopefully it doesn't look too bad (I think it probably does though).

If this wasn't bad enough, earlier in the day, I realized that I had lost my small flash drive. I had kept it in my purse in a place where it could easily fall out. The Wednesday prior I had looked at it and thought that I needed to move it. However, I failed to act on that prompting. I have checked all the places that I had been during the previous week, but have been unable to find it. I am hoping that it has been destroyed or is never found as I had some very personal information on it.