One Winter Day

It was a gray and dreary day...

and I chose to wear one of my warmest, coziest outfits, which happen to be gray too...

so I figured a little POP of COLOR would make me smile all day! 

And it did.   

What else did we do that day?  

We read the longest chapter in the Book of Mormon and put our marking pencils to good use marking references to the Savior...

Then Adam and I gave blood again.

  

I try to give at least every January in honor of Spence (and the gazillions of blood donations he received during his treatment for AML).   It was Adam's second time giving and he did better this time than his first.   I'm glad to have a blood donating partner now.  Glen lived in the UK for too long and is barred for life from giving blood, and Emma's iron tends to be too low.   Now that Adam is 16 (and I take daily iron pills now), I expect to do this more regularly again! 

Then we came home to an afternoon of cancelled activities and a beautiful snowstorm! 

I love Virginia snow days.   It's nice to have a break from the routine in these dog-days of winter! 

So, what did your winter day look like?  

Christmas 2018 for the Win

It's been a looooooooong time since I've written anything here.  I got excited about doing the monthly updates, then got a little overwhelmed with getting all the pictures from my phone to the computer.  I find it a little perplexing that there's still no reasonable iPhone  app for blogging from a phone.   Or at least being able to upload the pictures straight to a blogpost, then typing on the computer.

I guess at this point, it's probably just easier to start with where I'm at, so here goes....

It's been 3 years since we've been all together as a family for the holidays.   We tried to keep our expectations low, in case Cami and Garrett chose to spend the holidays with his family instead, but we were totally thrilled when they announced that they were coming here this year!    

It's been fun to spend time with them both and we've been totally enjoying this time we have with the girls all together again.   

We are also excited to have Spence home from Utah.  He doesn't love pictures being taken of him, so this one of all of us in our Christmas pajamas will have to do.   

Speaking of pajamas...they were pretty epic this year.   I love the "grumpy cougar" design and the kids declared them the "most comfy pjs yet", so I'm calling it a win! 

And I'm pretty sure we "won" for most obnoxious Christmas outfits ever at our ward Christmas party...

Our Sunday outfits were a little tamer...

AnnaLisa definitely won for awesome Christmas sweater ever....haha...her and her narwhals!  

Ellie won for making sure that everyone got one of her drawings in their Christmas stocking this year.   The drawings were awesome and I loved how thoughtful she was in choosing what she drew for each person.   In fact, I think I need to dedicate a whole blog post just to the drawings.   

Can I pull it together and blog twice in the same week again?   

Time will tell, time will tell...

Getting Back to It!

After Spencer's diagnosis with AML in 2012, Glen and I both packed on the pounds.  I think we both had some PTSD and probably some mild depression going on too.   Finally, about two years ago, I was at my heaviest weight yet and my blood pressure was high.  

The high blood pressure was a wake-up call to me that it was high time to get a handle on things, so we started exercising again and being more cognizant of what we ate.   It's been a slooooooowwwww process regaining our strength and getting back to it, but I feel like this summer I  finally hit my stride and  I'm about to the weight and fitness level I was before Spence got sick.    It was so exciting to fit into my old clothes again, that I decided it was time to buy some new clothes.   Here are some of the outfits I've got for myself over the last several months.   

And this is usually about how I feel when I'm about to get on the treadmill!   

But I broke my record today and am feeling quite proud of my six mile an hour average (especially since about 15 minutes of that was walking)!    

Right now I walk about 1/2 hour three days a week, walk/run for an hour twice a week, and try to get on a 5-7 mile long walk on Saturday. Next thing I want to do is sign up for a race.  Probably just a 5k or 10k and maybe eventually another half-marathon!   Race or not though, my main goal is to stick with it long term.    I still have some pounds I can lose, but my goal at this point isn't hitting a certain weight, it's about my long-term health and being fit.   

Go us! 

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Success!

June 8:   I am not much of a shopper, especially for clothes, so I've been somewhat dreading the whole  shopping for the mission experience with Cami.   I had the sound excuse at first, that I couldn't really do anything else until our trip to Europe was done, but, alas, that excuse is gone and it's time to get to business.

  Today we headed to Potomac Mills outlet mall and spent most of our time at Burlington Coat Factory.   She didn't find much, but did come home with this very cute outfit.

It's not a lot, but I will take whatever success we can find!  

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