Update...

Ok, so as I am doing this up date I am slightly annoyed! I tried to post the pictures in order and they posted backwards and then I tried to rearrange them and the dang thing won't let me. So without starting over completely, this is what I got! Grrr...

Oh well. Anyway, I am just giving you an update on the 5K I said I was doing. I finished! :) I actually did it in pretty good time. For me anyway, and we had a lot of fun doing it. In the group picture it is me, Brad Weathers, JoAnn Contos and Richard West. This was before we got to the sea of Santa's we ran in.

Brad and I actually crossed the finish line together! It was a huge rush! Now I can say I have run a race. I might actually say I might just do it again! :) Not bad for someone who never really liked to run!. Oh, I will have to go easy, because my legs are really bugging me. They were before the race, but now I can totally feel that they are NOT happy with me. SO I will take a few days off, before I get back at it. :) Happy Thanksgiving! Love you all!

Well, since....

Well since no one else is posting STILL....I guess it is my turn again!

Since there have been some changes in my families world I suppose I should update you all. Not that I am even sure anyone is even still reading this blog. Oh well I suppose, at least it is sort of a record right?

Anyway...

Not too much has changed with Chet and I. I did get to travel with him to Washington to pick up his new work van a couple of weeks ago. Aside from flying the trip was a blast although a bit rushed. Washington and Oregon were beautiful and rainy.

Chet is still working like crazy, but the tractor work is winding down now. Yay!!! I think after tomorrow he will be done for the season! We are hoping the snow will stay at bay at least till he can get the last two jobs he has done and out of the way. He was suppose to do them last Saturday, but it snowed an was cold enough it did not melt, so it was a no go!

I have once again put in for a manager position, but haven't heard anything. The district is once again making a bunch of changes so I am once again not sure what will be happening, but could use maybe an extra prayer in my behalf.

I have also signed up to run my very first race ever! I am a bit nervous but as I am running just to say that I did it! and not to win, it really shouldn't be too bad! I am running a 5K in Ogden the Saturday after Thanksgiving. It is called the Santa Run. I get a Santa suit to run in and they sort of have a party and turn all the Christmas village lights on and stuff after the race that night. I am running it with a friend of mine and some other people she knows. It should be a fun experience at to do this once anyway.

Ford finally found a job after looking ALL summer long. He didn't find it till after school was in full secession and he found it with the help of his sweet girlfriend Jessica. She is also encouraging him in school and getting ready to go on a mission. They spend as much time as their busy schedules will allow and I don't see much of them. They are cute together, but I hope they will take it really slow! This being his senior year, he is trying to play catch up for all the goofing and laziness in the past and it is proving to be more of a challenge than I think he expected. Keep him in your prayer if you would that if nothing else he will find it easier to stay on task and finish this.

Now for the biggest new of all! Most of which most of you probably already know.

Megan is officially engaged! They have set the date for May 4Th. The wedding will be in our back yard and we would love it if you all could be here for it! Her Fiancee is Justin Nelson, and he is a sweet boy! The more I get to know him the more I find about him that I like, and he is SO good to Megan. I think they are going to struggle a bit at first as they learn how to manage their money and time, but it will be a good time for them to do it together! Besides, isn't that what being newlyweds is all about?

They both work for Wal-mart currently (once again) and hope to be able to figure out what they want to be when they grow up.

Megan reminded me again today that she just doesn't want to grow up, because it is hard! I told her I know, but that it is worth it! :) Not sure she was convinced, but she will figure it out. Slowly, but surely, it will come.

Anyway, there you have the condensed version of how the world just keeps turning for me and mine!

Hope things are going well for each of you and I hope to hear from you all soon! Love Jana & fam!

Up and coming (rapidly)

Just a little reminder (in case you needed one) Christmas is rapidly approaching! AAAAARRRGGGHHH!!!! Tension breaker....had to be done! Anyway, with that out of the way, Truly there are only 10 weeks left till the celebration of the birth of our Savior. This year, I would really like to focus more on the reason we celebrate. Sounds easy right? Oh how I wish it were as easy as typing the words on the screen!

For me and my family that will mean a whole lot of down sizing as to what will be coming in, and going out as far as gifts are concerned! It will also mean a whole lot more of homemade type gifts for those whom are accept-ant of these type of gifts. ( we have some super freaks that we call friends, and if they don't know where it has been, they will just throw it away. Food wise) Anyway, since this has been in the front of my thought process these last few days, I was wondering if you wouldn't all share with me, ways that you might be able to thing of in which to either cut back with out becoming Scrooge, or things you would like to receive that would be less costly than one might think of.

Also could you share with me ways that you have found to celebrate the real reason for the season in your homes and with your families. I know that my family is in a totally different place than the rest of you, with Megan and Ford rarely being at home, and if they are home it is even more rarely at the same time. Still I would dearly love to make perhaps the last of the Christmases spent at home with Mom & Dad (ie. me and Chet) ones that they will remember with fondness and want to reflect on whenever they think of Christmas. If that is still possible. Any ideas would be much appreciated. I love you all. Miss you and hope we will all be in the same space again sooner than not! Sorry if my bringing up this fast approaching time of year triggers any unwanted stress for anyone, that was NOT my intentions!

Seth Godin

Seth Godin is a business guru. In a recent blog post he wrote,

"Would they miss you if you didn't show up? Would they miss your brand or your writing or your leadership?

If you work at the local fast food joint or the local library and you don't show up for work, do they consider shutting the place down? If you're on the team at the ER and you have a bad day, would someone die?

Everyone is capable of being missed. Most of us would be missed by our family if we secretly moved to Perth in the middle of the night. The question, then, is not whether or not you're capable of being missed. The question is whether you will choose to be missed by a wider circle of people.

It's a risk, of course. You have to extend yourself. You must make promises (and then keep them.) More pressure than it might be worth.

Except when it is."

Thanks for being people who would be missed. Hope your worlds are rotating well.
Love to all
:)

Oh My....

Oh My!!! SO I must admit honestly that I never thought at any point in my life, that our family would be at the cross roads that we are at right now!

My heart seems to be an open gaping wound with no healing in sight. What happened to the family eternal that I had imagined in my mind??? Where has that family gone??? I know that we have all headed off in different directions over the last several years but for the family that in my mind had it more together than most, we have sure been derailed!

Is this what comes from getting comfortable? Lax in our day to day efforts of trying to become better at being a family? I don't know, but for some reason it strikes me strongly that we have gotten very comfy in our positions in life. SOme with their responsibilities with kids getting to school and such, me with my kids trying to grow up as adults and make it in the real world...and Dad & Mom trying ti figure out how to hold it together as a married couple who has fallen out of love too many times to really be able to bandage this one...

Which ever scenario you are looking in at or our from, it seems to be the only one that matters! I wish so much that the only view that mattered was the one that we could se each morning as we take a gaze in the mirror. However, everyone in some way or another is affected by the gaze, that we seem to think is so casual. My heart hurts in way I never thought was possible! My belief in things that can and can not be accomplished is wavering... can there be a happy ever after? I am not sure if there can be...but I am for sure hoping that there might be and that those if us that remain will and are willing to fight for it, instead of giving in to the over powering desire to have everything go our way! I love you all! I miss my family! Hugs! and loves!

the art of avoidance

so. we are anxiously waiting for the keys to our very own new home. i have a million and one things i should be doing, but i am skillfully avoiding them all by posting to the family blog.
this has certainly been a summer of adventure for our little family. as i type our one year old boston terrier, Zoe, is snoring at my feet. she snores like a grizzly bear. we love her. she was abandoned and we got to adopt her. her history is a mystery, but she is funny and noisy and gentle; a good fit for our family. we think her future is bright.
i am so sad that i won't get to join some of you tomorrow at the park. i hope you all have a blast. hugs to everyone.
mom and dad -- you are amazing in every way. can't wait to see you next weekend.
we are almost home!!! come and visit soon!
love you family!

I know I am a day late, but Happy 4Th everyone! I love and miss you all, and hope you all are doing well! Things here are hoping as mostly usual, and time s for sure not standing still. Hope things for all of you are going well. Wish I had time and money to make it out to see all of you. Despite being poor like everyone else, things are going good, hope the same can said for all of you!