End of an Era

I have been going to Curves since May 30, 2008. I have done 1565 workouts there in the almost 6 years. I'm stronger and have more endurance.  It has been really good for me, both physically and emotionally.  I have gone by myself many times, but for the most part it's been a party! My mom (Beth Chambers), Dorine Adams and Billie Crew have joined me. It has been so nice to know they were waiting for me to pick them up, it's much easier to keep going when someone is depending on you.  We have exercised, visited, laughed, cried, visited, visited and just plain had a great time. 

Today was my last day at Curves because they are closing their doors on Monday, and I will be out of town on Monday. It has been really good for me and I will miss it a lot, I will also miss seeing all the people I have made friends with there. We are still deciding where we will go to exercise next week!

Mom working hard this morning.  Dorine is out of town, and Billie's hand is hurting so it was just Mom and I this morning.

My last Curves workout. 

Stairs

Randy and Courtney are in the process of buying a home in Blackfoot.  They were supposed to close on March 26th, but it got delayed another week.  Randy got word on Tuesday that there needed to  be some stairs with a hand rail put in by the sliding glass doors. If they wanted to close next week, the stairs needed to be installed on Wednesday. Randy had to work, but Blake didn't. They were just going to buy some from a manufactured home store, but Wednesday morning Blake got the idea to build some and make them big enough to fit their grill.  He planned to use the wood from our fence. He called my dad, and the two of them started the project.

First, they took apart the fence, and decided there was not enough usable wood, so made a trip to Lowes and got more wood. Then they built the frame.

Then they attached the hand rails and cut the planks for the platform and stairs.

Blake had to move the 4 wheelers to get to trailer, so he just plowed up the mess.

Randy Chambers showed up and helped Blake load the stairs onto the trailer. 

Made it to the house. They are buying the yellow one.

Randy and Blake carried it all the way around the house.

This is the door that needs the stairs.

Looks like it will fit pretty good.

They dug the dirt out of the way so it would be level, and put the braces in.

More prep work  so they can lay the platform boards on.

Now the platform and the stairs.  It turned out pretty nice!  It is going to be a nice little deck. They didn't secure the boards on yet, because there's still more work needed underneath them. But, it was good enough to take a picture, so Randy could send it to the loan officer.

These are the pictures he sent it.  It looks all finished! It must have worked because he got word that they should be able to close next Tuesday! Thanks Dad for all your hard work, and Randy Chambers for the heavy lifting help!

Tennis

Blake is playing on a mixed doubles tennis league again.  It's inside the Apple Athletic Tennis Club. These pictures are all of the same match, can you see a problem here? They started on one court, then about 2/3 of way through the match, they had to move to a different court.

Horse Trailer

Jared has become involved with some cattle with his cousins Becky and Chet. They needed a horse trailer to transport the cows when it's time to sell them.  Well, Blake found one for sale, so he just decided to buy it. Jared and Chet can use it, then Blake will have it when he needs to take junk to the dump, or any other number of reasons. It needed a few repairs, so they got those done on Saturday, March 22nd.

Trip to Frozen Erie

I got to take another trip to Erie to see Brian, Celia, Maden and Annie! I flew out of Idaho Falls on Friday, Feb. 28, 2014 at 6:30 am.  I flew to Salt Lake, then Dallas, then Detroit and finally made it to Erie at 9:15 pm.  Brian picked me up and we headed to their house. The car said it was 10 degrees.  Saturday, March 1st was Brian's birthday.  He had bought tickets for a car show in Cleveland. First we went to Eat'n Park for a buffet breakfast, then headed for Cleveland.  The car show was great, we all liked it. We stayed for quite awhile, then headed back toward Erie.  The plan was to stop at Red Lobster for a birthday dinner, but it was going to be an hour wait, so we went to a Chinese Buffet instead.

Here we are at Eat'n Park. It was a good buffet and so fun to be with these four!

Family photo in front of the new 2015 Ford F150. (The main reason for the car show)

Ford had set up a play area. Maden got too scared to go up the slide, but he would catch Celia. Celia and Annie went down.

Maden was so excited that there was a Ferris Wheel inside the building! He loved every minute of the ride.

There were some carnival mirrors that were really fun. I loved the one that made me look tall and skinny, but not sure I liked it making Maden look so grown up.

There was a lot of things to do besides seeing the cars.  Brian tried golfing and shooting a basketball.

Brian and Celia took a ride in a Jeep that went around this course. They thought it was really fun.

So fun to be with this cute little lady and see her cute personality.

When we got home, Brian opened his presents. Celia and the kids ordered him a whole case of his favorite popcorn.

I brought Maden all the state quarters except Alabama. We ordered him a map to put them in. This was our Sunday morning activity. He loved seeing the map get filled up. He loves all things about the states. His favorite game on the IPad is Stack the States.

Annie had watched Maden hit this balloon with the bat, and so she wanted to do it too. She had come down with a bad cough, so I stayed home from church with her. We took her to the Dr. on Monday morning, turned out she had croup. Poor baby. She was such a good girl even though she didn't feel well.

I took money for Maden and Annie for their suprprises. Maden got to count it every day, then on Friday we got to spend it. He loved the activity! He really loved the silver dollars that Billie had sent for them. He played and played with them.

Maden loves to play Wii Fit. He is pretty good with the balance games. He is so good about following the rules to get the privilege of playing the Wii. He would read a book to me so he could play.

Even though it was really cold, we ventured outside to get some fresh air. Both kids loved it! 

We went to library, it was Dr. Suess Day. The librarian was dressed like The Cat in the Hat. The hats were a little big for Annie. Maden loved the SmartBoard. I thought it was pretty awesome too.

Annie and I are just a rocking away at the library.

Maden and I built a "temple" with his big blocks, then he measured it, and figured out it was taller than him, then Annie helped him knock it down.

We went to Krispy Kreme even though the hot light was not on. We were going to just buy some donuts and take them home, but Annie would not leave without eating her donut there.  I think she knows everything!

We went outside again.  Celia let the kids slide down a little hill. Annie loved going down by herself.

Maden is doing some math problems to earn some time either watching  a video or playing the Wii.

When Annie woke up from her nap, Maden went and joined her in the crib.

We played a giant game of checkers, and Maden ate a giant strawberry.

We went to Sam's Club for a pretzel.

The many antics of Annie in Sam's Club.

Maden wasn't thrilled to get a hair cut, but he was good boy and sat really still. Having my IPad play the song Fifty Nifty States, and Primary songs helped a little.

Friday night we made it to Red Lobster for a late Birthday dinner.

All to soon, it was Saturday, March 8th and time for me to fly home. Annie was getting a little daddy time before we left.

We stopped at Chic-Fil-A on the way to the airport. The kids got to play a little bit. It was a great trip and I'm so thankful for the time I got to spend in Frozen Erie. Can't wait to go back.