2009 Recap~
Last year, the new year started with a trip to Montana where I got to see little Miss Cassidy Jane, my new niece! YAY! A niece - I always wanted one of those because I remember having such fun being a niece myself :-) People had to fight me for the chance to get to hold that little dolly! She was so alert - I loved her instantly!
I came back home and went on a Little House on the Prairie streak as Doug would call it -- I bought a sewing machine, learned to sew, and while my first few projects came to dead-ends, I later was able to sew my first quilt! Forget those "Sewing for Dummies" patterns I bought - I'm not quite up to the level of Dummy!
For Valentine's Day I was with my little Valentines again in Montana. I had fun skiing and also spending an evening at Dave and Debby Williams' cabin with a bunch of other people around my age. Very fun :-) At the end of February I went to Phoenix and Tucson to get some sunshine, to see a couple friends, and to go to Spring Training. It was wonderful, as I figured it would be :-) One huge highlight was seeing Randy Johnson pitch, as I've always had this strange crush on him. I got to watch him warm up, from a vantage point right above the bullpen. They have their player number on their shoes and mitt and hat - I found that kind of cute.
In March I went to a very fun 3rd birthday party for my little friend Hannah. It was very pink and girly, with a princess theme and princess cupcakes :-). Mom was with me during this time doing physical therapy so she got to go there too. Hannah's little baby sister Emma sure liked Mom, much to her mommy's relief! I also took a class down at Yakima Arboretum taught by a couple old ladies in their 80's, both named Fran! They sure knew their stuff so I learned about pruning roses and got to practice first there on the Arboretum roses and then at home with my own. They had rose pruners approved by the Arthritis Foundation and sure enough, those things were a cinch to use! :-)
In April, Mom, Dad, Velva and I drove to Montana (do you notice a theme here?) to see the kids once again, and towards the end of the month I started scuba classes, a forgotten dream of mine from 7 years ago! They were held in the basement of a store downtown -- quite an appropriate location don't you think?!
This spring was quite full of yardwork and one of those major events was in Mid-May, having my brother and the boys come over to help me dig a 'dry well.' The boys thought I was about the coolest person ever because I had an excavator!! Oh boy! I rented a mini one and thought this would be great, my brother could help me and it would be a snap. Well, what I hadn't bargained for was the fact he'd be sitting in the excavator, pushing buttons and levers while I dug up and moved sod!!! Uff da! The boys sat inside the house with Grandma and cracked up laughing watching me try to dig holes with the shovel! You'd think they'd never seen anything so funny in their whole lives!! So much for help! haha
The end of the month I went with Mom and Velva to Birch Bay for a few days and Velva and I went up to Canada for an Il Divo concert. That was pretty fun and it was nice to walk along the unusually warm water. Of course we got massages and lived it up!
In June I went to Montana for Carson's 3rd birthday and I believe I went hiking with my brother during that trip.
July was a busy month, with a trip to Puyallup and taking Dad to a Mariners game, then flying to North Dakota for the big Evanson family reunion. That was pretty fun to see everyone and meet people again that I hadn't really gotten to know at our last reunion a couple years ago.
Aug/Sept/Oct flew by and before I knew it, it was November - what a lovely month! I spent my birthday in Bellevue with Jessica at a Scrapbooking convention and doing some shopping, then I went down to Mom and Dad's where I got to play with Cassidy until the rest of her family came home from Seattle. It sure is a houseful when we all get together! I was there with them for 2 days and then Velva and I flew off to Hawaii for 9 days, to Kauai. It marked the 25th anniversary of my first trip to Hawaii! It also marked the beginning of a new me, a year of health. More on that later in another blog entry. Hawaii was lovely despite the daily rain. I got to go scuba diving in Sheraton Caverns, which was on my to-do list! I came home and worked for a while and then headed up to Montana for the start of December. While in Montana, Bowdrie turned 5 and Cassidy turned 1! Their party was at the Whitefish Wave, the athletic club there, and I got to take Cassidy in the pool for her very first time! She thought it was ok until she got water in her face - then she hollered!
Now the year is winding down - I had a wonderful Christmas supper here with friends from work and we played board games and laughed a lot. I"m sure that burned off calories!
This afternoon at noon Montana time, my last niece arrived, Chantry (middle name still to be determined), weighing 6 lbs and a couple ounces, over 19 inches long, with lots of dark hair :) I can't wait to meet her next month!
I'll end the year in Puyallup with Velva and Lucy (the dog). Though I haven't been able to see some of you nearly as much as I would like, I'm still very glad for you and glad to hear how things are going for you. I'm so proud of my friends and so lucky to have them! I miss you all!
Happy 2010 - may it be full and happy and bring lots of wonderful memories a year from now!
Janell