The Big Three-Five!

Monday I celebrated my 35th birthday. I have to say the best part was saying "good-bye" to my 34th year.

I know I didn't post much of anything last year and there was a reason for that. It was a craptastic year for me, personally. I felt like I never had anything worth saying, so best to keep quiet.

But surviving my bad-posture induced tailbone pain and Shingles and frequent ocular migraines, I'm ready to shed the old and bring on the new.

I've done some things to really take care of myself - I walk every weekday morning with my neighbor, Ashley. I joined Weight-Watchers to lose the 20 lbs that just crept up on me. I cleaned out my closet and my bathroom and my jewelry, only keeping that which fits in the space I have. I'm now inspired to move on to my scrapbooking stuff.

Last year was also kind of an up-in-the-air year. Eric applied for various teaching positions across the country and waiting to see, and then realizing that none panned out was kind of hard for me. We have the same situation this year (first application went out last week), but I guess I feel that because I've been through it once, it won't be so bad the second time around. Also I'm working a little each week to get the house ready for a sale, should that become necessary. So I have things I can control.

The kids are doing great. They turned 5 in July and if you haven't seen the pictures go to: http://picasaweb.google.com/RikkrP and browse through the various photo albums. We decided to keep them in pre-K this year. A 4/5 class at the preschool they've attended the past 2 years. They love it there and are settling into their new classroom. The difference this year is that they are attending full-time (8-5) every day (M-F).

Eric is teaching at ND again this year. He is teaching one section of Foundations and then a 200 level course that he came up with. He's excited about that. He continues to be very involved in soccer. This is his second year as the Director of Coaching at our local club Echo. He has more staff support this year, so he hopes to be out at the field fewer nights each week.

This summer was a busy one in terms of travel. It was also full of new stuff. We had some remodeling done in our house (moving a door to a bedroom). The kids now technically each have their own rooms. But they also have 2 beds in each room and frequently sleep in what was their old room and is now Jordan's room.

We bought a new car (a Prius!) which is getting approximately 48 mpg - which with the current gas prices has been nice. We had to say goodbye to the Bravada (SUV) but it was stalling and not starting quite a bit, so we were happy to let it go.

We (with the help of my mom) repainted all the rooms upstairs except the kitchen and then had carpet installed in all three bedrooms. We had wood laminate flooring laid in the main rooms (living room, dining room, foyer).

In June my dad left after having spent the spring living with us. My mom came out for a week or so to work with ND and help paint the kids rooms, etc.

In July we went to Albuquerque for a week over the kids' birthday.

In early August the kids and I went to Washington/Oregon for my Gramma Jane's 90th birthday celebration.

In late August we all went to Boise/Adrien to celebrate my brother-in-law (Dave)'s marriage to Jamie.

Last weekend for Labor Day Eric's parents flew out and spent 5 days with us.

I think we are just the four of us for a while now. I'm out of vacation, so we won't be travelling again until next year.

Am thinking of getting the kids involved in swim lessons (should really research that!)

We hope you are all doing well and I hope to do a better job of keeping you all updated.

Love to hear from you!

Rikka (and Aron, Jordan and Eric).