I do realize it has been almost two months since I last posted here. If you follow me on Facebook, then you know that I HAVE been around and busy and enjoying my family!! I hope to get back to blogging regularly . . . starting today!

Yesterday, I was thinking about 2011, otherwise known as the year that flew by, and decided I’d do a super-quick recap just to record that SOMETHING(S) happened, even though I don’t have many digital layouts to show for it. It’s sad when I go back to my pictures to see what happened and there are 10 pictures for the entire month. And, they are dumb and blurry. UGH. Must remedy. Thank goodness for my blog, my purse calendar and Facebook to fill in the details!

January:

• We finally decorated Cole’s bedroom with “new” furniture, painted pieces, a lamp and a more grown up feel. We spent less than $25, and it finally feels like a big boy room. He even keeps it clean sometimes!
• Family Math night at Grant’s school. Always fun!
• Broke our microwave and had to pay through the nose for a new one that would fit the space. Grr. No more built-in microwaves!
• I opened up my Etsy shop on January 28th and sold 4 envelope sets in 3 days. I discovered that I should have done this sooner!

February:

• My mom visited my brother and his wife up in Tacoma, so we took a little trip up and spent some time with them. Had a blast!!
• I stood up and spoke at my church introducing Bible in 90 Days. We began reading at the end of the month (Feb 27).
• Mitch hunted quite a bit!
• We spent the day at a camp near the coast. Mitch worked on an Ornithology project while the boys played a lot of ping-pong and I read a book. It was actually quite relaxing, plus we enjoyed the beauty of the snow!
• We went to a Blazer game - box seats and catered dinner! I love that stuff!

March:

• My computer died at the end of February, so I HAD to buy a new (refurbished), gorgeous, sleek Powerbook Pro! LOVE it, still.
• Family Literacy Night at Grant’s school. We love it!
• Jog-a-thon at Grant’s school. This time I was actually dressed appropriately (in running clothes rather than jeans and Crocs)!
• Mitch’s Tillamook trip with GFU.
• Grant competed in that Awana games thing. I’m pretty sure they won. He thought it was fun!
• Sports Camp with our church during Spring Break. Grant did soccer and had fun! I stayed home with Cole.
• Mitch and I went to The Benson in Portland to celebrate our Anniversary (Nov 22) and his birthday (March 25). I bought a Groupon, which was awesome. This is the same hotel we stayed at on our wedding night! The room was gorgeous, too! We walked around downtown, ate at the food carts, then walked some more! The next day, we were heading out of town when we saw Manu Ginobli (basketball player for the Spurs, I think) buying coffee. Mitch jumped out and got a picture with him! People on Facebook thought they looked like brothers! I think they might be the same height and both have big noses. My man is MUCH more handsome, though.
• My parents came to visit. OH, how I wish they lived closer!! We love their visits!
• I sewed a bunch of little clutches. So cute!

April:

• We attended our church’s marriage seminar. For some reason, we love that kind of thing!
• Grant started his soccer games for the Spring Soccer league. Mitch stepped in as coach after the first couple of games when it became clear that he needed to! Mitch is such a great coach. Truly gifted! Grant keeps improving every new season, and he is definitely the best on the team. It is such a treat to watch him play (and score!).
• Grant ran in the Dragon Run again, and is unofficially the fastest 7 year old in Dallas. Unofficially.
• Mitch went to Malheur with the GFU class.
• I went to Women’s Retreat.

May:

• Grant had his walking field trip around Dallas.
• I took a cheese making class (and have made Feta cheese 2 times now!).
• We started the New Testament in our B90 challenge.
• Mitch went on Cole’s field trip to the Dairy.
• I flew to Texas, hopped in my parents’ car to caravan with my brother’s family and my sister’s family to Kansas. Watched my baby brother get married. Drove back to Texas and flew back to Oregon. It was a really fun time!
• Cole had his last day of school.
• We went on a hike to the Valley of the Giants.
• Finished B90!!

June:

• Grant had his last soccer game of the season.
• Grant had his last day of school.
• We took the boys to the Drive-In to see Kung Fu Panda 2. LOVED it! (Own it on BlueRay, now!)
• Celebrated Cole’s 5th birthday!
• Celebrated Father’s Day by getting up in front of my church to talk about my Dad. Major hit!
• Had Vacation Bible School at church. Always tons of fun! I got to be Grant’s teacher this time!
• The boys started Track and Field.
• Processed 40 lbs. of strawberries. Or, maybe it was 30 lbs. I don’t know. It was a lot!
• Celebrated MY birthday by going wine tasting with Mitch! It was such a lovely day!
• Took the boys to see Cars 2 at the Drive in with Mitch’s whole family (parents and brother’s fam). What a wonderful memory!
• VBS picnic, BBQ at Mitch’s supervisor’s house and Rotary Induction banquet happened Sunday, Monday, Tuesday. Yeah, we were busy!
• Mitch went rafting with some buddies and had a great time.

July:

• I enjoyed lots of garage sales this month!! In fact, there is still evidence of my garage sale addiction out in the garage!
• Celebrated 4th of July! We always have a good time with friends.
• We celebrated Grant’s 8th birthday with a slumber party. I was pretty nuts, but they had a lot of fun!
• Mitch and I started Bible in 90 Days again! We sure do love a challenge!
• We took the boys to the Library events at the park each week. A couple of times, the boys opted for crawdad fishing instead. We did a LOT of crawdad fishing in July and August.
• Had a couple of play-dates.
• The boys continued with track practice, and had a track meet in the middle of the month.
• Enjoyed a visit by my brother and his family.
• Mitch’s brother and his family left for Jordan (the whole other country) for 2 years.
• My parents and youngest sisters came for a visit. We did a lot of BBQs, lots of relaxing, and lots of laughing.
• The boys attended Hoop Camp. Cole got a ton of ribbons and is pretty sure he is an incredible basketball player. Grant is pretty sure he won’t be going in 2012. Apparently his personality is a lot like Mitch’s: He has to be the best, or he doesn’t want to do it. He does not enjoy basketball at this point in his life. SO sad for this mama!
• The boys got to go to the new water park at Evergreen Aviation with Grandpa, Great-Grandpa, Dad and the aunts. Mom, Grandma and I went shopping!
• Summerfest. OY! Always a good time. Always super busy and tiring for Mitch.

August:

• Cole went to VBS at EBC. Grant went on day 2. Not really his thing.
• We went camping at Trask River Campground (one of our favorites), however, apparently Mitch had walking pneumonia. Whoops! We still had a great time, even if we did pop the big air mattress and freeze.
• The boys attended soccer camp. LOVED it, of course!
• Mitch had his 20 year high school reunion, and it ended up being SO much fun!! The boys still talk about it!
• Grant went to Kid’s Camp, which was his first overnight camping experience without mom and dad. UGH. It still makes my heart hurt!! BUT, he did have an amazing time and is SO excited to go in 2012.
• I actually finished one of my garage sale projects: reupholstering two chairs.
• I was featured at The Daily Digi again! Always a good thing!
• We ate LOTS of smoothies since I discovered that I could fit a mason jar on my blender!! Good thing, because I also processed 80 lbs. of peaches!!

September:

• The boys started school! We like our boys’ teachers, which is always a good thing.
• I started teaching Bible at my son’s public school! It’s a time release thing that requires parent approval, and it actually happens OFF campus (next door), but it’s also amazing and incredibly rare. I feel honored to be teaching these kids about Jesus!
• Mitch and I met Angela from Frugal Living NW at the Micheal W. Smith/Amy Grant “Friends” concert up in Portland. Really fun!
• We went yurting with my brother and his wife. It rained the whole time, but we still had fun because we stayed in a yurt! HA! On the way home, we stopped by the Tillamook Cheese Factory (of course) for some cheese and ice cream, then we stopped at a salmon ladder to watch the salmon run upstream! It was CRAZY.
• Speaking of salmon - Mitch caught some on his annual fishing trip.
• My brother and his family hosted their youngest son’s birthday party at our house!
• We painted the house!

October: (this is where my blogging REALLY slacked off!)

• We finished B90 for the second time this year!
• We went to Vegas for a convention and took the boys. We decided that we don’t really like Vegas: too expensive, too dirty, no place to sit, etc. BUT, we actually did make some fun memories while there. We lost our oldest son, watched Don Henley (Eagles) in concert, got up close to Mater and Lightin’ McQueen, stayed at Caesar’s Palace and spent a lot of time at Paris. Watched the water show at the Bellagio a couple of times. WALKED a lot. Hung out by the gorgeous pool at Caesar’s (favorite day). Saw the lions at MGM, toured the M&M store (too expensive), ate escargot, and the boys enjoyed the first airplane ride that they remember! Okay, okay. Looking back, it was awfully fun!
• I processed 250lbs of apples (mostly applesauce, but some dried and some apple pie filling).
• I went to Women of Faith. It was a lot of fun! We saw Mandisa perform and Selah and Andy Williams, plus all the regular ladies.
• We picked up our giant pumpkin from my grandparent’s house and went to the pumpkin patch a couple of times. Grant got to go with Cole’s class, and Mitch went with Grant’s class.
• Mitch and I got to go to the Journey concert. EEEEK! I still can’t believe that one!! Let me say it again. We got to go to a Journey concert! Eeek! Read more about that here.
• The boys started soccer and I discovered that Cole is an amazing soccer player, just like his brother and his dad! My boys dominated.
• We went to movie night at Grant’s school.
• I volunteered at both boys’ Harvest Parties and we went to Harvest Town at church!

November:

• Mitch had his Fall Planning Conference.
• Grant had a TON of days off from school due to budget cuts. I went a little crazy.
• Mitch and I celebrated 14 years of marriage!
• We went to California for Thanksgiving with my older sister’s family and had such a wonderful time! I can’t wait to see them again this summer.

December:

• We went to movie night at Grant’s school.
• We had Mitch’s office retreat at the coast.
• The boys performed in the Christmas play at church. Cole was ADORABLE as a little lamb. He had two lines: “When I grow up, I’m gonna be a sacrifice! What about you, Baa Baa?” So cute!! Grant decided that he is too cool for Christmas plays. HA! Poor child had to wear one of those white choir shirt thingies that look terribly girly! PLUS, he didn’t bother to learn any of the songs, so he stood up there with his hair all tweaked out singing “Watermellon”. I cracked up!
• We had a visit from my little sister who is going to school in Oklahoma. It was such a treat to be able to spend some time with her! She helped us pick out our Christmas tree!
• We went up to my other sister’s house in Washington to spend time with more family! Grant decided that he is too cool to sit on Santa’s lap. Again. I crack up!
• We had a couple of Christmas parties: Bible, small group, Cole’s class.
• And then, school was out and we just relaxed!! We ended up going up to Mitch’s parents’ house and spent the night on Christmas Eve. We spent all day on Christmas Day at their house and left on Monday. It was really very relaxing!
• We went to a New Year’s Eve party at a friend’s house where we played games and talked with 3 other couples and TONS of kids. The kids were so excited that they got to stay up past midnight!

AND THAT was our 2011.

I’m sure I forgot some things, but WHEW, it’s nice to have that all summed up!

Now, I can move on to 2012!

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