I have a blog?!

What happened to my blog? To the space I loved so dearly. To sharing photos, adventures, musings, laughter, and a day in the life of our family? Who knows - but I want it back.

Mark this down as a re-start. The dawning of a new chapter . . . ok - just re-reading the same chapter you lost your place in when you set down the book.

Here's what you missed the past few months . . . (months? really? pathetic.)

Hannah had her piano recital. No offense to "Hot Cross Buns" but she has improved so much and continues to surprise me! If I was more talented and tech savvy, I'd be able to insert the video here. Obviously I'm not.

Gerry conducted his final memorial day service at Washelli cemetery with his SPU wind ensemble. He is officially retiring after over 40 years of teaching, coaching, and inspiring young musicians. It was a beautiful service and was a special opportunity to teach our kids the reason we celebrate and honor our veterans.

For fathers day, Travis wanted to head to Chateau San Michele, a local winery that has beautiful gardens, fish ponds, buildings, and of course, ducks.

It was a great day spent honoring a great Daddy.

Once again I had the opportunity to attend a Beth Moore conference. She is my favorite speaker, an true inspiration and a lot of fun. This time, I went with some of my favorite people including my sweet Lisa who is moving to Alabama. It was an incredible opportunity to spend one on one time with her before she had to leave. I will miss her smile on a daily basis!!

 We had almost front row seats!! Truly a perfect trip!

Six years ago I started on a journey that forever changed my life. In that span of time, I've spent more days in hospitals, more hours on nebulizers, and more medications than I can count. I should not be here. Or if I was here, I should be stuck on my couch hooked up to a breathing machine. INSTEAD, I have spent the last two years losing 93 pounds, staying out of hospitals, and July 3rd was the first day in the last six years that I have not taken steroids!!!! And now, three times a week I attend two hours of Zumba and a boot camp. God is so ridiculously good!!

The end of the school year, Haley's class went to the zoo . . . one of my favorite places!! And they have a baby lion cub!!

The girls had 2 months of horse lessons.

It was amazing how quickly they learned and was pretty incredible to watch them ride around and around the arena all by themselves!!

Hannah - the 3 pound preemie baby - turned 10!!! For her birthday, she wanted to get her ears pierced and have frozen yogurt at Menchies. And of course, we had to get the American Doll's ears pierced first.

We have been saving money in order to afford a trip to Disneyland so we've started cutting Daddy's hair. For some crazy reason, he let Haley do it this time.

Surprisingly, she did an incredible job!

And last but not least, our deck remodel is almost done!! When we moved in our beautiful new home, the back deck - or should I say a broken concrete slab with a broken hot tub taking up half the space - left a lot to be desired. We now have a big, beautiful trex deck which we have spent time on non-stop since it's been finished. We've eaten breakfast on it, bbq'd on it, read books in lawn chairs on it, and planted some beautiful flowers on it. We couldn't be more thankful.

  

Here's to the reviving of the blog!