Sunday, January 5, 2014

Out With The Old, In With The New


We are now on the one-to-four meeting block for church.
In the past it has been my least fave.
This year I am excited about it.

Time to sleep-in rest (for everyone but Billy-my-hero)
Time to study and pray
Time to reflect and plan
Time to record and journal (via blog for me)

Today, in anticipation of a busy January, I'm doing another jam-packed post covering the past jam-packed week.
So much to post, so little time.

Taylor and Lynnea came last Sunday, December 29th. Their 2nd Anniversary.
I can't believe the past two years have gone so fast.
They had spent the week prior with Lynnea's family, then the night before celebrating their anniversary in Denver. It is always the best when family comes to visit! Taylor got a new guitar for Christmas (such a super sweet story), so we convinced him to sing the song he learned per Lynnea's request (and sang at Rob and Sookie's wedding) for us. Seriously, so romantic.


We commemorated the day with a lovely meal of brisket and creamed carrots.

The next day Taylor came to visit me in the salon.

He won for the biggest pile of hair removed.


New Year's Eve was spent in a celebratory manner:

banners

party hats

lettuce wraps, fried rice, and soda pop

musical performances

a rousing game of Monopoly


 good friends




family


noise makers


a party crowd
(Lex, btw, had a hot date)

a lot o' cheesy finger foods from Costco

and some bubbling Martinelli's.
Buh-bye 2013.

2014 came in with a long work day for me,
a long day of puking for Lynnea,
and a long day of errands and car maintenance for Bill 
(and Tay, who went along purely for enjoyment - haha).
I think they might have squeezed in another long game or two of Monopoly.
 Mar hung out with her friends all day. I'm not sure what Lex and Shi did... I was working (wink).

January 2nd was moving day for the Billats.

A lot o' tears were shed.

 These cute girls have lived in the same culdesac for most of their lives.

A lot o' pictures were snapped.
(Shi had to work, so missed out on the photo ops)





A lot o' good-byes were spoken.


A lot o' hugs were given.



 And they were gone.

These girls stood around in the cold for another hour...
 ...sobbing.



Within an hour or two, the new started moving on in. Weird.

In our grief we played more Monopoly.


 Lynnea, feeling much better, was the biggest winner. I, my friends, was the biggest loser.


The following day (January 3) Bill and I took Lex to Idaho.
Her friend Katie came over at 5:30 in the morning to say good-bye.
Now there's a true friend.

Lex said good-bye to the pups,


then we headed on our long-but-beautiful 10-hour drive to Rexburg.



We unloaded her stuff, picked up the stuff she had stored at Uncle Russ', unloaded that stuff, then purchased more stuff. We also found time to stuff ourselves with pizza in between it all.



 Lex and Sydney like their new digs much better than their old ones.

I'm digging that healthy college diet (cough, cough).


We kissed Lex good-bye, then headed back to Russ' for a quick night's rest,

driving by this beautiful temple on our way out.

Early yesterday we made the 11-hour trek home. We were grateful that the weather was good until Fort Collins. The last part of the drive was treacherous and slow, but we eventually pulled into our garage after two days and 21+ hours of driving.

Bill, Mar, and our awesome neighbor Randy cleared the driveway and sidewalk, then Bill and Mar built a snowman. They named him Rocky.


It's been a crazy week.
Lots of hellos.
Lots of good-byes.
Lots of laughter.
Lots of tears.
An end of a year.
A new beginning.
Changes.
Routine.

Hello, 2014.
Be good to me.