I went to Joya to exercise every weekday until my trial ran out. I tried out lots of different classes and got into a rhythm: Strength Training on Monday, Vinyasa on Tuesday, Barre Wednesday, Pilates Thursday, and Strength Training (followed by Yin Yoga for dessert) on Friday. I tried a cycle class and hated it. Aereal yoga was fun, but only offered at dinnertime, and it was hard on my family with me being away then. I have limited myself to what's offered while the kids are at school, and it's been fun. I've been working hard and getting stronger! My trial period ended and now I'm trying to keep up the good work from home.
I made it to 50 days with my no snacks no sweets goal and was rewarded with a lunch date with Todd. I love that he pulled out of work to support me.
Hazel joined the beach volleyball team at school. This is its first year being offered at LHS. She hasn't had a game yet, but she's been loving the practices and coming home happy. She's also been killing it at the gym, consistently going multiple times a week.
Jack and I went to the high school Expo so we could explore all the class options and get a few ideas for what direction he might want to go with his electives. He was super interested in a medical occupations program that would allow him to intern in the medical field as an upperclassman. I love that we discovered something that lit him up
We had a rainy week after a pretty dry stretch. Our culdesac flooded, as it will do when it rains hard. The creek was full, so the water in front of our house didn't have anywhere to drain out to. The city called in workers to pump some of it out. That certainly doesn't happen every day!
Between Ginger's recent injury and the rain, he's been spending an inordinate amount of time indoors. He sleeps with Gemma nearly every night. I still try to send him out when I can, because I firmly believe cats are happier outdoors and bored inside the house, but he is pretty cute when he sleeps.
My game group had a Galentine's get together this month, which was the perfect opportunity for me to wear my pink heart leopard print onesie pajamas!
Gemma was lured into the creek. It's so different when it's full! She didn't last long, though, because the water was cold enough to turn her legs red.
We spent the holiday weekend up at the cabin. We drove up Friday evening and the Dix's joined us Saturday afternoon, so Todd and the kids fit in a ski sesh Saturday morning in all the freshy pow-pow. It was a great ski day! And the rest of the weekend was delightful with our buddies there. We played tons of games, went sledding, and did a lot of snowmobiling.
The only flaw in the weekend is that we couldn't find the keys to the van Sunday morning, so not only did we not make it to church, we spent hours scouring the cabin and the area outside looking for them. Hazel even went to all the shops to ask if anyone had found them and turned them in. We ended up having home church (everyone prepared a two minute message) and then Todd drove all the way to Livermore in the Dix's van to get our spare key. As the sun started to set, I rolled down the curtain in our room to insulate it, and the keys fell out of our canvas curtain roll. No idea how they got in there. And discovered too late to shave any time off Todd's drive. It was frustrating and completely mysterious, but we still had a good day overall.
Chrissy bought me a yoga DVD because she knows I love doing yoga up there but the internet usually isn't working, so it's been hard for me to find an audio podcast guide to follow ( I just love Yoga With Adriene on YouTube so much!). It was such a thoughtful gift, and she and I did a 45 minute video together.
While Todd was driving home, I took Chrissy and Gordon on a walk. It was meant to be short and sweet, but I kinda sorta got us lost a couple of times. A good half hour after we should have been back home, the kids drove past us on the snowmobiles and we tried to wave them down for a ride home, but they didn't realize we weren't just saying hey and zoomed past, leaving us in their dust.
Jack completed another year of Certificate of Merit on piano. His teacher Beth Tomlin said, "I have been so proud of him this year, preparing and playing beautifully a big Level 9 program." They had a piano recital at Beth's house so there was limited seating. My family sat on the stairs and Todd totally fell asleep. Hazel was afraid he would fall down, but she was spotting him.
Jack and Hazel both played for a solo and ensemble competition at Los Positas Community College. They played before judges who gave them feedback. They were both invited to play in a concert; Hazel turned them down because she chose to go to the boys' volleyball game with friends instead; Jack accompanied his classmate Maaz and they sounded beautiful.
After our Galentine's night, my friends were all bemoaning how we always wish we had more time together. We have grown so close that we always spend a ton of time gabbing and barely get in two games if we're lucky. Joleen and her husband Kelly chatted about it later that night and presented us with such a fun idea: what if we had a sleepover at Joleen's house? We were all so excited about it, and could not believe our luck when all six of us were available the last weekend of February - possibly the only weekend we all had free for the rest of the school year, and it was right around the corner!
So we all met up Friday night with bags in hand. Katie picked up Thai food for dinner. We ate and got caught up on what's been happening in everyone's life since the last time we were together, and then we got serious with the games. I think we played three games that night, plus we spent a good hour in the hot tub, and we watched a show before bed, too. While we were gaming, there was a knock on the door, but when we opened up, instead of finding someone on the porch, we saw that Joleen had been toilet papered! I was 100% confident it was someone from my house, and I was right! Turns out it was Hazel, Lucas, Noah, and Jared. So funny! They went easy on us and it was no big deal to clean up the next morning.
Karrie, Kirstan, and I went for a walk to marshland first thing in the morning while the rest of the crew was still sleeping. Then we had cinnamon rolls, fruit salad, and oatmeal for breakfast, and got right back to the games! We had time to play tons of fun, more complicated games that we usually can't handle on a Thursday night because we're too tired, including Camel Up and Katie's potion-making game.
There was so much laughing and screaming and Joleen kept almost peeing her pants. At one point, Kirstan got on the piano and Elaine was on the phone. The rest of us were whispering so the lady from the ward who called Elaine wouldn't hear us, and we got silly, and suddenly, Joleen, Katie, Karrie and I were doing interpretive dancing to Kirstan's piano music! We were leaping, twirling, spinning on the floor, swooshing our arms around, the works. It was seriously the highlight of the entire sleepover for me, feeling so liberated and safe to be so uninhibited in front of friends. It was amazing. I loved it so much!
We had lunch and played games and talked and laughed and hugged until almost dinnertime. We ended by putting together a puzzle of a picture of us! It was an amazing 24 hours that completely filled my cup. I felt so satisfied and happy and grateful. We talked about making it an annual tradition. I really hope we do! It was so good for me.
