Birthday Bash.

I had too much fun with friends and it was well worth it. We sang, laughed, danced, talked, and probably drank too much. I am so happy for everyone who came out and helped me celebrate my birthday.

My ladies and me... having too much fun. :)

Happy Birthday to me!

I had a pretty good outpouring of love and support from everyone today and I really appreciate it. Here's a look at some of the awesomeness I was gifted with by my lovely office mates.

And here is Granddad's Obituary:

Pre-Birthday.

Well, my Granddad's funeral is tomorrow... which is also my birthday. So I am trying to work that out. In the meantime, Stu decided since I am going to be working all day and then have class all night tomorrow night, that I could get my present tonight. Aaaaaand (drum roll, please)... he got exactly what I wanted!

A free-standing punching bag. It's been a long time since we used to fight, but it was such a good workout. Now that I am fully committed to working out each day, I was hoping for a more full-body workout. Boxing sounded like the perfect thing to mix it up. I am super stoked.

And look how tough I look! :) Thanks, lover boy! I love my present!

Li-Li-La

I had one of the busiest and most emotionally and physically exhausting days in a good while, so instead of a post, here is a picture of Lila. She's way better than telling about my day. :)

Full disclosure: This picture is 100% untouched. She's so freaking beautiful!

Great Granddad Ezzell.

So much for a new week. I got a call from my Dad last night that my granddad had stopped breathing and they had taken him to the hospital and had him breathing again.

This morning, I was trying to deal with the fact that it was my parents' anniversary. How do you handle a day that for the past... since I can remember, has been a day of celebrating my parents' marriage. We always made cards and baked cakes and hung up signs... Now my parents aren't together. They still aren't divorced, which makes it even weirder for someone like me who gets stuck on dates and counting, so it's still another year of "marriage," but if they aren't living as a married couple, how do you wrap your head around that date?

Then, around 10 AM, I was talking to my cousin Sarah via text when she got the call that granddad had passed. Now my day, which had already been awkward, had suddenly been given a violent shove from awkward to heartbreaking. It was a day all wrapped in feels.

He was such a good man. In my entire life I cannot remember a single time when he was angry or upset. He was just always there, taking in everything. His biggest joy in life was being surrounded by his family and just being part of them having a good time. He lived a solid and happy 92 years and I doubt there was a single thing on this planet that he would have had regrets about.

Still, it is sad and he will be sorely missed. You just can't lose good, wholesome, God-fearing people from this world without feeling the sting of it, even if it is after a long, loving life.

So here's to my granddad, William Thomas Ezzell, may you now rest in peace. I love you.

Here are my Dad, his Dad, Great Granddad, Kaden, and myself. 5 generations. I will forever be grateful for this vacation where Kaden got to meet Granddad.

Super Bowl Sunday.

After such a busy day yesterday, the plan today was to get caught up on everything that needed to be done for school and the house so that when Monday started the work/school week again, everything would be caught up and ready to go. That did not happen. Instead, I had a mild panic attack about how much we have going on and how every day it feels like the mildest of slip-ups could send everything crashing down and we won’t be able to regain a balance again. That was probably an overreaction, but that was exactly how it felt. There are so many things going on at exactly the same time these days and I feel like with so many deadlines and things needing our attention, something is bound to fall through the cracks eventually.

Anyway, so I had to edit my video presentation and post it to YouTube, write a grocery list and go shopping, make something for dinner, decide if we were doing snacks for the Super Bowl and if anyone was coming over, and somewhere fit in studying, working out, showering, and going to bed sometime before midnight. Because he has no time to do it during the week, Stu spent a lot of time at the nursing home where he is doing his work study, which means I am dealing with the kids alone while I try to get homework done. I assume they are used to him being there and that is why he can get ANYTHING done, because they are crawling on me, needing refills of drinks, needing to tell me a story, etc. the WHOLE time I am trying to work. Plus, I would WAY rather be tending to them and ignoring homework, which makes it even harder to concentrate, but alas, the project was due at midnight, so there was nothing I could do but push through it and get it done.

I finally did get to the store and made it home then made vegetarian crock pot lasagna, which might have been a good plan, except that I didn’t finish prepping it until 4:15, and it required two hours of cooking time on high. Then I am apparently unable to read properly and somehow set the dial to “low” by mistake. I fed the kids something else because they were STARVING by 4:30, so I figured Stu and I could just eat late. It wasn’t until 6:15 that I realized the error of my ways and by then, I was resigned to eating crunchy vegetables and soupy noodles (which, despite the accident were still super tasty). Stu waited to eat until they were properly cooked and then came back for seconds, so it wasn’t a complete fail meal after all.

We ended up still staying up way too late and not getting nearly as much studying done as I’d hoped, but what can you do? I went to bed with soaking wet hair because I was just too tired and worn out to worry about blow-drying it (Which, btw, kept me up more than if I'd just taken care of it because it got freezing and soaked my pillow... fail.). Here’s to a brand new week!

STEM and Birthday Festivities.

We had a big, fun day! We started out the day by going to the STEM exhibit at Boise State. It was basically a giant nerd convention that coincided with the science fair. They rounded up who’s who and what’s what in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math, and put them all together at BSU on the same day. I was a champ at being impressed with things I neither care about, nor could ever be so talented as to put together, so that hopefully my kids will become far superior to me at math and science and one day have an interest in them. I was certainly not so lucky, but I feel like it is my job as a parent to let my kids explore everything they may be interested, so they can form interests independent of my own.

BUT, I was pleasantly surprised and actually enjoyed myself along with my mini nerds (and I say that with the highest level of respect and admiration for bona fide nerds… I will never be so smart).

Here are some pics of the nerd convention STEM Exhibit.

Kaden's heat shield being tested out.

Playing with the fun Kinex (sp?) toys!

Writing his heat shield time by his name (21 seconds!)

The amazing robot that shot (and made!) hoops!

Magnifying glass fun for the whole family!

Kaden's artwork and the amazing transfer of images via sound waves.

Then it was time to go celebrate Ian’s birthday so after recording a stupid video presentation for my Research Methods class, we all headed out to Nampa and had a hilarious and fun time (as always) with the besties. It was a small get-together (my fave… so much less pressure to conform) and then we drove home in the INSANE fog, basically steering by braille on the roadway it was so thick.)

Here are some pics from Ian’s birthday:

Ian opening his present. :) (And Miss Salem eating her dinner!)

In 15 years, we won't find this nearly as cute! :)

Sneaky little thing. We are in BIG trouble!

Crackers time!

Besties having their dinner!