Snow: a form of precipitation that usually occurs three weeks prior to and the morning of your departure from your ski vacation. ~Author Unknown

Well time still flies and not so sure how to slow it down! Zoey had a birthday party/sleep over with one of her girlfriends last Saturday. She had a great time, but sounded like it was quite the houseful!. On the way home from picking her up however, my car broke again. I cannot wait until I get a new vehicle. It was a berring or something. Not fun.

Brandon and his clan got here on Sunday and headed stright up to Bozeman in case of bad weather. Chris worked pretty late so we left very early Monday morning. Yes, we let our kids spend some important family time and took them out of school. Not my idea, but I suppose I wasn't willing to stay home with them while everyone else was out boarding. We stayed at a cabin a few miles from the Bridger Bowl Ski Resort. Roads were windy, and the neighbor had wolves and other wild animals for photographic purposes. It was a nice log cabin though with an outdoor hot tub. We spent 3 and a half days of snowboarding and drove back on Thursday. The kids learned so fast. They both can beat me down the mountian with no problem. Zoey skiied and I think that her ice skating enhanced her abilities!! Isaac snowboarded and we had to teach him not to stop with his butt, however, buy the time we left he was doing great. When we got back we took everyone out for fried pickles with peanutbutter--YUM.

Well the pics didn't really load the way I had thought, but hey--they are there!:)

The next few days have been a slow go and getting back to real life. Working on the kid's homework and doing laundry.

Anyone can catch your eye, but it takes someone special to catch your heart. ~Author Unknown

Good times this past weekend. Friday we stayed home and just relaxed. Popcorn and movies on TV. Saturday we all slept in and vegged all morning. We finished our taxes and finished the day with a knitting party, pizza and some wine. The kids played great and Brianna had sleepover with Zoey (our house). Sunday we made it to church. I was impressed that even with an extra kid, I made it at the same time I usually do! After Sunday school I helped the kids work on Valentine's for their class. They each picked out Alvin and the Chipmunks cards with airhead candy. We went to the Gillette Wild hockey game. They lost, but were fun to watch. They played three games this past weekend which will keep me busy this week. I do enjoy Sunday night TV. I have gotten hooked on Once Upon a Time and Desperate Housewives.

Today I decided to have my first ever chiropractic adjustment. I decided to do this, not because I have pain, but because the business I went to also works with the hockey team. I need someone to refer to and can't do that if I have no idea what they do. Plus I did recently have some pretty crazy neck pain. Apparently I should have seen a chiro sooner (like after either of the car accidents where I broke the windshield with my head) as I was hard to adjust. I feel good and plan to go back, but holy scary! The techniques he used (while I don't find them overly aggressive) still pushed the wind out me and made my joints make all kinds of noises. Something I think you would have to get used to. I have considered many times to take Zoey. We will see how that turns out.

Ike has his Valentine's concert tonight. He is so funny. He said that his favorite song was Rock and Roll Valentine. However, my son isn't exactly the type to let go. While the rest of the boys rocked out with air guitar he just had his arms crossed. He's just too cute!

This month is filled with lots of fun stuff! So stay tuned for more updates

An optimist stays up until midnight to see the new year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves. ~Bill Vaughan

I haven't blogged in a long time and that was kind of on purpose. By the time December hits things get pretty crazy and I was super grouchy all month. I started off the month with a teenager hitting my car. No one was in my car at the time. It was parked, but it totaled out the car. I got the money for the car and will hopefully soon be buying another vehicle that better fits my massage table and can better fit in kids for carpooling.

We hit a baby shower and four birthday parties. One of which was for Zoey. My baby is growing up way too fast. We had her party at the Rec Center Swimming Pool this year and the kids had a blast.

Work has been super busy which of course is a good thing. Scheduling clients about a month out to make sure they get in. Work has been busy for Chris as well, he even worked 5 days a week for a while before the holidays hit.

Isaac loved his basketball season. It was short, interesting to watch and he was fun to watch!! Not sure what his next venture will be. I heard the rec has indoor soccer so we might look into that. Zoey is fueling her love for hockey. She adores the boys that are her coaches and works hard and does well. We go to practice twice a week and usually try to watch the boys play when they are at home. We had such a break though at the last practice (I super hope it holds). She is very sensitive so when we put her gear on it takes a long time to make sure it feels right and often there are tears. However, at the last practice she says "Mom, I am just going to leave the gear. It doesn't feel good, but it always feels fine when I am on the ice. I don't know why."

So when I wasn't busy running here and there I worked on finishing and sending in my continuing education for my athletic training which had to be done by the end of December. We did make it to Minnesota for Christmas and spent a lot of time driving. But the weather was good and I was glad to spend Christmas with family. Thank you to all who put up with a stressed out Jara! I spent the rest of Christmas break home with my kids, updating and cleaning my office and unwinding. I am starting to catch up on everything, fall back into a good routine. Who knows if I am lucky I might even start posting all those pictures I keep talking about.

Love one another and you will be happy. It's as simple and as difficult as that. ~Michael Leunig

I know I have not blogged in quite a while. We have been staying busy with all kinds of stuff like basketball, hockey, work and repeat.

Zoey had her first "in house tournament" which basically means that they scrimmage the whole time versus working only on skills. We get done and get in the car and she says "that's not a tournament mom." "So what would make it a tournament?" "If we play like the purple team or the pink team." You can't hide much from her. A couple of weeks ago there wass some chatter about getting her ears pierced. Chris wanted to know why we have been putting it off for so long, so the next day I took her in. She picked out purple earings. Got both ears done at the same time and didn't even scream! No ear infection so far. She loves them.

We just had parent teacher conferences. While I do have two very distinctly different kids that challege their teachers differently--they are both learning and moving on up. Zoey of course challenges her teachers much more often than Isaac, but we are working on it.

Haven't seen much of the husband lately. He works long hours and I am not home much in the evening with hockey and work. It is the middle of hunting season so he really isn't sleeping much either. Last weekend he got up at 5am to go hunting with Shayne in the mountains got back at midnight. The next day got up at 4am to go hunting with Jason and didn't get back till late and then back to work on Sunday. Of course this week he has training in Denver so he will leave tomorrow, get back Wednesday and then back down to Casper for a meeting--possibly followed by more hunting. However, somehow he did manage to squeeze in some time for pictures in Rapid--he is a good man!!!!

Now on to holidays, family stuff and birthdays. We don't slow down much here for anything! Wouldn't have it any other way:)

And just a quick heads up--School pictures turned out great this year. I'll send them out later.

Boys are beyond the range of anyone's sure understanding, at least when they are between the ages of 18 months and 90 years. ~James Thurber

Our days are finally finding more routine, which is very comforting to me. It has been great to see the kids try new things and enjoy them. We have many late nights with Zoey playing hockey on Mondays and Thursdays and I moved my evening clients to Tuesdays. She is so elated with this hockey. Ike plays basketball on Saturdays with this Saturday being the first game day.

Last weekend was eventful to say the least as my oldest child and youngest baby boy turned 9!! He has been telling everyone he is 9 weeks before his birthday, cuz it was close enough. He opted for a sleep over and apparently I just kept filling out invites without fully realizing that he invited 7 of his closest friends. That is a lot of 9 year olds in my house at one time! We decided to have the sleepover on Saturday the 15th and I really don't think that Isaac could have packed any more activity into that day if he had tried! He got up early and went duck hunting with Chris and our friend Justin. He came home, changed his clothes and went to basketball practice. When he got home it was time to turn 9. I spent my time cleaning the house, ordering pizza and picking up his m&m DQ cake and working the last rugby game of the season. Just barely making it home in time for the party. We had a pinata, played some games and watched movies. The kids were picked up by 10am the next day. While my kids did not do much, but play with new toys they also did not take a nap either. We ate at the Rootbeer place (A&W) and that was all Ike could handle for the weekend--he was sleeping before 7pm! He hit some new milestones this year. We are in the process of ditching the booster (which gets put back in the car when we have extra kids to take to school) and of course he did not order off the kids menu either when we went out to eat. Of course with all this excitement I totally forgot to make his birthday cupcakes for school on Monday so I was baking (not early, but late) at 8am before school and between clients frosted and brought them in. I felt terrible about forgetting, however, when he came home he told me how good they were. Apparently, better than the ones I made for him last year.

Picture day today. Don't know how that will turn out. But tonight is veg night and I can't wait!

I say, if your knees aren't green by the end of the day, you ought to seriously re-examine your life. ~Bill Watterson, Calvin & Hobbes

This weekend has been just as busy as any other, but keeping me on my toes none the less.

I attended my first Ring Wars Mixed Martial Arts fight on Friday and totally lived through the whole thing as I was nervous to go. I took Zoey to watch hockey. It was the Gillette Wild Junior National Teams Opening game. Ike came too and we all had a great time.

I don't know that anything is ready to slow down yet. This weekend also included Zoey's soccer game, Isaac's last football game of the season and rugby (but that was cancelled due to communication conflict). Tuesday marks the end of the fall season with Zoey's last soccer game at 5:30 and Isaac's football banquet at 6. He then promptly starts basketball on Saturday and Zoey with Hockey the following Monday. However, each of these sports has set days and I think that will be easier to work with than the random times for soccer and football.

I took the kids in last week to get their glasses adjusted and the lady cracked Zoey's frames. She ordered new ones and they came in wrong. Zoey looks cute in these pink glasses with black letters on the side, but she wants her old ones back.

Chris went hunting. I don't much like when he is gone, but they had a good time in Pinedale. Weather was good, but everything would have been better if they had a shot a getting an elk. Maybe next year.

So just for good measure it has been in the upper 80's-low 90's the last couple of days. So nice really, just strange. But our tomatoes have not ripened yet so I am hoping this blast of heat will help.

If the light in your life has changed to yellow, I recommend you floor it. It's safer than the alternative. ~Jeb Dickerson, www.howtomatter.com

Well we found one weekend to camp this summer. We went to Cook Lake with LeaAnn and her boys. Just swim, fish, run repeat. I did try to get in some biking and hiking, but the kids complained the whole time cuz they wanted to swim and fish more. It rained the first night we were there giving us an early bedtime. Probably not such a bad thing.

The following week my Mom came to visit for a few days. She was able to take in a soccer game and some football practice while she was here. The rest of the Labor Day Weekend we spent with friends, and even worked. Monday I spent the whole day with my kids and no plans. They slept in, played video games and it was so nice out that we took the camera to Camplex Park, took pictures, played and made a scrapbook.

We have been into school for two weeks now and the kids really like their teachers this year. I have already signed them up for sports next season. Ike wants to try basketball this year. It should be good as they only play on Saturdays and one day a week is good for me:) Zoey is going to try hockey for the first time. With the Junior USA Hockey now in Gillette she should be in good hands. They have to do a certain amount of community service for the team so they will be teaching learn to skate and working with Zoey's hockey team. Isaac has also found some school events he wants to participate in so I will be dropping him off early three days a week.

Thursdays bring long days for me, I worked till 10pm. I worked at the rec center on Friday and ended the day with a fish fry at our friends house. We had a great time and even had some s'mores. Of course this year I was introduced (by teenagers) the art of roasting starburst. Its not bad, but you don't want to over heat them cuz then they get kinda drippy. Saturday I coached Zoey's soccer game. We didn't do so good. Its pretty much all or nothing with the girls. They are either all on defense or offence, but never quite spread out or on our side of the field. But we will work on it. After that I went to Isaac's football game. He played special teams. Our record isn't great, but I think we have one win on our side. After that I spent the rest of the morning/afternoon at the USA Power Lifting competition. I just helped out with paperwork for this event, but it was awesome to see what these people could do. There was a lady there competing because she was over 50 and it was on her bucket list to compete. I always find it inspiring to see people who just want to get it done and have no excuses. Kinda like the MS bikeathon. Those people ride 80 miles the first day and 70 the second and while the ride is beautiful the weather in August tends to be really hot and windy. I think--oh that's tough! but if MS doesn't down them down, then I should be able to do anything!