Happy Birthday Dear Julia!

Julia's Birthday is March 9th. Scott has been in Boise this week so we celebrated on Sunday before he left. It turns out that was good in more ways than we thought! Here's our sweet 11 year old.


The pile of presents.


Sam and Julia

Emilee and Julia

Jed and Julia

Victoria and Julia

Julia loves to pick out what she wants for her cake. I just didn't have the patience for it this year so Julia was very lucky to have her dad willing to help. I'm sure it turned out better than if I had done it!!

For Julia's Birthday she took giant chocolate chip cookies to share with her class. She wore a new shirt one of her best friends had given her. She has another one of her best friends who's Birthday is the day before Julia's. Julia's friend had given them both shirts and the friend got one too so they all three wore matching shirts to school. Julia was so excited! Well, the day didn't turn out to be quite as good as she or I wanted...

I got a call from Victoria about 12:30 that she had just thrown up at school. She said that she felt fine so she wanted to go to seminary, but would I please pick her up right after that so she didn't have to ride the bus. I went to get her and she said she'd been throwing up during seminary as well. I got her home and settled. Then the phone rang and it was Julia calling and saying that she was sick so she wanted to come home. When I got to the school there was only about 20 minutes left of school so I got Emilee and Sam too. Julia hadn't been throwing up so I took her home and tucked her into bed. My kids' piano teacher was coming to teach Emilee and Victoria piano lessons. When she came I had her teach Emilee. Just at the end of Emilee's lesson Jed called from basketball practice and said that he'd been throwing up so could I come and get him.
I felt terrible that I had Diane in our house teaching a lesson. I should have sent her away when she came!

I decided that I probably shouldn't be going to mutual so I called one of my counselors and told her I was needed at home...remember that Scott is in Boise. We stayed home with Victoria and Jed throwing up all evening. I was really nervous to go to bed! I made everyone sleep with bath towels on their pillows so that if they threw up hopefully it would be less for me to clean up. I had visions of being up all night doing laundry and cleaning carpets and mattresses. I sent everyone to bed early and I went to bed with them. I was thinking that if I really slept until my alarm went off I'd get 9 hours of sleep. I was so happy to wake up at 5:30!! No one had gotten me up! I'd slept all night! I went around and checked and sure enough...all kids sleeping and no one had thrown up.

Victoria was up getting herself ready for the day. She and Jed both headed off to school after eating some toast. They wanted to go. I wanted to keep them both home. I'm not sure who they belong to because any time I was given the option of staying home I did! They must be their father's children. :) The man who got perfect attendance for all 4 years of high school. What a nerd!! It's amazing to me that they care that much about their schooling. Somehow I'm raising responsible children! Julia, Emilee, and Sam are home today. Emilee is complaining of a sick tummy and Sam who couldn't be out done is sure his tummy is sick too. Sam ate breakfast and is mad that he didn't get to pick what they were watching...I think he's feeling fine. Let's just hope it stays that way. Victoria, Jed, and Emilee have a piano adjudication today. I hope they're all feeling well enough to play!

This brings up memories of me throwing up at school in the middle of art on my 11th Birthday. I may have jinxed Julia! Julia was opening her Birthday present from Grandma Jensen and I wanted to take some pictures. She said, "Please not pictures when I'm feeling this terrible!" So I don't have pictures of her opening her beautiful aquamarine necklace. I'll take pictures when she's feeling better. Let's just hope today is less eventful than yesterday!

A busy life!

OK. I'm a terrible blogger! I said a month ago that I would post the "finish" pictures from Victoria's race and I'm just now doing it. This is why I never had a blog until I was stuck sitting on the couch recovering. Now, life is just as busy as normal! We keep plugging away, and I try to keep up with everything. I'm feeling pretty well for the most part. I just get frustrated because I can't run a hundred miles an hour like I want to.

Here are the pictures I promised:

Here's Victoria coming in to the finish.


Here she is with Auntie Berta after finishing.

She's saying, "It was so easy! I'm not even sweating!!"

All I can say is how impressed I am! Victoria trained so hard and did so well. For some reason she doesn't have an official time. All I know is that it was under an hour! She did an amazing job! Next year she wants to train for the half marathon. A special thank you to Aunt Karson who was Victoria's mentor and biggest encouragement. Karson has a wonderful gift of being able to motivate people. Next year I hope to see Victoria running with her Aunt!!