Miss Magoo

Miss Magoo practicing her curtsy

In January Miss Magoo turned 8.  It was a very exciting day for her.  My parents came up for the weekend.  And my sister Lorna & her 2 daughters also came, which was a total surprise to Miss Magoo.  As part of her turning 8 she choose to be baptized.  It was a long awaited day for her.  She had been talking about being baptized ever since her brother was baptized 3 yrs ago!!
She decided to have to her dad baptize her.  We choose to have it on a different day as the stake baptism as I really wanted my parents to be able to be there, so it was just her.
And as much as I wanted her baptism to be special for her, I also wanted it to be short, sweet and no problems. I was slightly stressed as I realized that I had never been to a baptism where the parents weren't married, and I wasn't sure what to expect.  Well it went fabulous!  I think it was probably one of the quickest baptisms that I have been to.  My parent both spoke, Miss Magoo's grandma Lois sang, her dad baptized her, she was confirmed and it was over.  I was so relieved that everything went so smoothly.
But what I was the most pleased about was the feeling of peace that I came away with.  As I sat with my mom on my right and Miss Magoo on my left, I felt peace.  On the other side of Miss Magoo sat her dad, and I thought as it began that I would be emotional, but I wasn't.  I had asked my ex's wife to play the piano, and as I sat and watched her play and looked at my daughter and then at my ex I realized that all was as it should be.  None of ours lives are right now what I had thought they would be, but for me and my kids we are good. We are happy and are mostly adjusted to our new normal life.
In all it was a wonderful day, which is all any parent hopes for their child's special day to be.

New Family Pictures

For Thanksgiving the kids and I spent the weekend in Utah with part of my family.  It was a much needed break from school for all of us.  The kids had a great time playing with their cousins.  I got some time with my parents and my sisters.  And while we were there my very talented niece Maddie took some family pictures for us.  I haven't done Christmas cards in several years and really wanted to do ones this year.  I was absolutely thrilled with how they turned out.

Still Kickin'

Wow it has almost been a year since I last posted.  I would say that I felt guilty about it, but I kinda sorta don't. 
Life has it's way of moving along whether you want to move or not.  And my life this last year has been a whole lot of crazy. 

Let's see in the health department I've made so huge strides in some parts and little steps in others.  I took most of the summer off from actively trying to lose weight.  I more or less just maintained my weight, which I know was a huge accomplishment in itself, so that made me happy.  I picked back up where I had left off in August with another weight-lifting class at school.  And I added a little running to my program.  A friend told me about a running program called C25K, couch to 5k.  And I decided to try it.  I have never been a runner, in fact before I started the program I had never even run a full mile without a whole lot of walking in between the little bit of running.  So I was a little hesitant that I could finish the program, but I decided to try and see where it went.  I finished the program and for the first time in my life I ran not only 1 mile but 2 full miles.  I was thrilled, and so proud of myself for doing it.  I wish that I could say I love to run now, but I can't and I'm good with that.  I am still trying to keep up with the running and would like to slowly push my running time, currently 30 mins, to 45 or 50 minutes.  And then I would like to increase my speed.  I really do want to be able to run a 5k, just to say that I've done it.   In November I hit my 50 lb weight loss mark.  I actually hit it while in Utah for Thanksgiving, surprising even me! 

School wise, well that's had it's ups and downs too.  I finished Spring '11 with decent grades, not as great a GPA as I had hoped for, but I passed all my classes and was ready to move on.  I was a hard semester in that I really overloaded myself with classes.  Summer I took 3 classes and was again glad when it ended.  Fall'11 semester just about did me in.  I thought I was going to have a nervous breakdown, but I made it through.  I failed my first class ever (calculus) and that was really hard for me mentally and emotionally.  But I'm moving on and will retake calculus this summer all by itself so I can really focus on it.  At the very beginning of this semester (spring '12) I met with my academic counselor and we decided that if I pushed my graduation date from Dec'12 to May'13 it would be a better path for me.  That means that not only will I graduate with the 150 hours I need to sit for the CPA, I will also graduate with a minor in internal audit.

The kids are alive and well.  They too have kept me busy.  Miss Magoo turned 8 in January and was baptised.  It was a wonderful day and a post all it's own.  PJ turned 11 last week and has moved from being a cub scout to an 11-yr old scout.  He decided somewhat last minute that he wanted to earn his arrow of light award.  And after much scrambling. hard work, and tears on both our parts he finished the day before his 11th birthday.

So while that short clip doesn't even come close to describing out last year, there it is the shortened and very much condensed version of 2011.  My hope is to be more consistent with posting, more for myself to keep track of all the ups and downs of our life.