The Best of My Life: January 2010

Sunday, January 31, 2010

Bye Bye January...one month closer to SPRING!!!

I don't especially like winter. I don't hate it because there are some great things about it, but about this time of the winter I start looking forward to Spring. What do I like about winter...New snow on the trees and how it still looks light outside even when it is dark. I like the smell of wood burning fireplaces. I like seeing my kids get excited for snowboarding. I used to love to ski...hope to again when I get rid of more of this fat...hope I don't break something, but I am going to do it again. I love Christmas. I love getting together with family. I love Greg making his shopping lists and making sure we don't forget anyone. He is so good at that. I love hot chocolate and oh yes, the christmas lights! We have our favorite places to go to see them. One year we took all the kids on a carriage ride after visiting Temple Square. The streets were packed with snow, and it was bright outside, even though it was dark...just the way I like it. We went to Memory Grove in the carriages, and it was spectacular. It was the perfect night for taking a carriage ride. I don't think any of us will ever forget that night.
What I don't like about winter, at least here in Salt Lake is the inversion. Salt Lake has about the worst air quality in the nation. I remember bringing Doris here when she was frail with lung cancer. She had lived in Port Angeles with cloudy skies, but clean fresh air. I felt like I was poisoning Doris a bit, and it was quite embarrassing to have such horrible air. The entire family is fighting upper respiratory infections right now. We'd all get better sooner if the air would clear out! I don't like dirty lawns, that have junk on them the wind blows around, but it is too cold to clean them up. I don't like the mud. I don't like freezing hands, nose or toes. I don't like huge heating bills!
I keep seeing geese and ducks flying along the river...NORTH, and sticking around like they may be nesting...and that means that spring is coming.
I like Spring because...well first of all winter is over! Also because of the new flowers, baby animals, new beginnings, clean starts, motivation to clean the house and longer daylight.

Friday, January 1, 2010

The End of Decade...Welcome 2010

It always feels weird to see a decade pass away. Ten years ago I still had little kids at home for Christmas, and Santa was anxiously anticipated by a few of them! Most of the boys still thought girls had fleas, and Lauren only knew how to smear lipstick from one end of her body to the other, no concept of making herself more attractive by applying it. Greg had his gadgets, but his phone just had voice mail and call waiting, nothing like the I-phone!I was still teaching preschool and volunteering at the elementary school. We could go to dinner as a family and order from the kids menus, and I drove a mini van. Time changes so many things. Cameron is married, Matt is engaged, and Taylor and Ryan definitely understand that girls don't have fleas, and for some hormonal and instinctive reason are drawn to beautiful young ladies! Lauren knows all about the Mac counter at Nordstrom and is quite the makeup artist. None of the kids believe in Santa, and in fact are beginning to understand that Christmas is much more than Santa....that being Santa is much more exciting than getting from Santa. I don't miss the mini-van, and I loved teaching preschool, but I am so thankful for my job in the PCMC NICU as an RN.

Here are some pictures from then and now...kind of fun for me. It seems like just a few days or maybe even a year or two ago,....but alas it has been ten!

This was then......