Update

It's been a long time since I posted so I thought I would try and hit the highlights (or low lights depending on how you look at things). I got a new calling in church that has kept me so busy that everything else has fallen to the way side. I am the 1st counselor in the Primary. I love the kids but I have to admit this has been the most time consuming and challenging calling I've had. My responsibilities are the junior primary, baptisms and cub scouts. Yes, I said cub scouts!!! I thought I was done when Ethan turned 11 but there must be some more things I need to learn. Can you say round of applause :)
I had foot surgery on October 7th. I've been dealing with this issue for a little over a year. I've had major physical therapy, cortisone shots and shock wave therapy. All those treatments were extremely painful but did not fix my foot problem. So I finally gave in and had surgery. They removed a whole bunch of scar tissue, fixed a torn tendon and removed a bone spur. The actual day of the surgery was not bad because my foot was still numb. The next day was another story. I was non weight baring for the first 10 days. That was way more difficult than I could have imagined. My family was amazing through it all. John was great and would make a great nurse!!! I thought 4 weeks off of work would be great but let me tell you, when you can't move there is only so much bad daytime TV, sleeping and reading you can do. I'm excited to be back to work. The disappointing part is my foot still hurts!!!! My doctor keeps reassuring me that feet take several months to heal and that I need to be patient. So maybe that's what I'm suppose to learn from all of this, patience (and how much I really do appreciate my feet).
My cute niece, her husband and their 4 1/2 year old daughter moved in with us the first part of November. They were living near Seattle but have wanted to move back to Utah for several years. They finally got the opportunity and made it official. They are staying with us until they get settled and can find a place of their own. We are so excited to have them back in Utah. The funnest part is being around a 4 1/2 year old. She says the cutest things. The second night at our house she asked if John and I slept together. I explained that we were married like her mom and dad and yes we slept together. Her eyes got wide and she said "He's the dad". I told her yes and she said "But you have such long, dark, pretty hair and he's bald". I laughed so hard! The next night she knocked on my door. I told her I wasn't dressed and I would talk to her in the morning. The next thing I hear is her yelling down the stairs to everyone "The mom and Sophie are naked so they can't play anymore". She was looking at a picture of our family when the kids were pretty young. She was totally shocked we had a daughter (Amanda still lives with us). I told her that Amanda, the girl that lives with us, is our daughter. She said "But she's an adult". It's so cute how kids minds work.
Thanksgiving was a great day. We had dinner at my mom's. It seemed very peaceful and relaxed. Later that night we had dinner at our house for John's family. There was lots of good food and even better company.
Now it's December and I can't believe Christmas is less than 2 weeks away. Thora is coming to stay on the 20th and our family is very excited to have her at our house for Christmas. Jake is having his wisdom teeth out on the 20th as well. So the next few weeks will be busy but exciting. Hopefully I will have a Christmas update before Easter.