Family. Health. Hockey. Work. This is Life.

Hello again! Things have been so ridiculously busy! Good busy, but busy still.

The whole family was in town and together a couple of weeks ago. It was so much fun to see everyone and be able to spend a few days together! Ella and Maddy had a bit of a reaquaintence period initially, before Bobby and Debbie got here with their kids. They were so cute getting to re-know each other. See below:


Then Ella decided to play in the lego bag. You know, the plastic that always has the warning to watch around small children so that they don't suffocate. Don't worry, we were all right there and very aware of her ability to breath. :) Aren't these pictures fun?! She is such a fun girl!

Then Bobby and his family got here, and Maddy was so sweet, giving all of her newly arrived cousins welcome hugs! She absolutely adores Josh, and just got up on the couch next to him to snuggle and chill. I imagine her saying, "Hello my peeps," as she sits there waving:

The weather was absolutely amazing while everyone was here! Which for these parts changes not from one season to the next, but from one minute to the next. So it was great to have nice weather the whole weekend. Here we all are playing outside:

After we played in my parents' backyard for a while, the kids thought it would be a fun to go on over to the neighborhood park. It was fun! And we were all sore for a couple of days from the chasing and lifting--lifting the smallest children to the top of the slide where another adult was standing to take them and help them onto the slide, then running back to the end of the slide to catch them and bringing them back to hoist them again and again:

Here are some self taken shots with most of the littlest girls. I love them!!

We also went to the Zoo one day. Here are some pictures of some of the Zoo animals:

And here are pictures of us, the Zoo visitors:

We took a couple of family pictures over by the park to update with all of the family additions since our last family shots. Here we are serious and then silly:

Michael is playing on the college's hockey team, and last week I went with Danielle to his last home game. It was so much fun! I love hockey, with it's socialized violence! There were 2 pretty good fights, so it was a good game. :) Not related to those fights, there was a guy on Michael's team who had to be carried off the ice and taken away by ambulance. He ended up breaking his leg and ankle, if I recall correcty from what Michael said. That was sad! The game, though, was fun, and I loved being able to cheer loudly for Mikey!

We're still doing Biggest Loser Sturgill Style. Here is a meal I made recently that I'm just going to go ahead and say was DIVINE! It was salmon, asparagus, fresh strawberries, and (not so healthy) croissants. This is one of my absolute favorite meals! It is so tasty. And it was so colorful and aesthetically pleasing that I had to take a picture:

In congruence with the attempts at healthy eating seen above, I also went to a local running specialty store and was fitted for running shoes that are best fit for my running style and foot shape. It's very cool--they have you get on a treadmill in the store and run for a minute while cameras video your feet. You then get to see how your feet move while you run. I pronate slightly, meaning I turn in just a little bit. So I got shoes that have stability something-or-others on the outside to help balance it out. I LOVE these shoes! They seriously make such a huge difference in my whole entire running experience. Not only have I stopped getting shin splints (hallelujah!), but it's like my body is lighter because the shoes are so much lighter. And lighter is good when you're hoisting your body through the air over and over again (aka running/jogging). And even though I had an extremely traumatic experience at the gym last Saturday, I have picked myself and my pride back up and gone back this week. This is the point where in the past I have let myself be talked out of going back for long periods of time, and thus the need for Biggest Loser competitions. Here are the amazing shoes--I love them!

As noted previously about the strange weather here, this last week a weird storm moved in. The clouds were creepy! The sky looked like it was folding over on itself, and it felt like we were going to get sucked in with it. These are some pictures I took of the clouds at work, along with the amazing bluebonnets growing on our hill outside. They're so beautiful! (The bluebonnets, that is. The clouds are seriously mysteriously creepy, but cool because of the mysteriousness.)

And speaking of taking pictures at work, my department and I decided randomly to take pictures this afternoon right as most people were getting ready to leave. Here is a serious shot of the group, and then a fun one. I seriously love my job!! It is probably the coolest (and most emotional!) job ever. These are some of the people that help keep me sane:

And thus it is--Jenny's monthly update one again. :) I have GOT to get better at being more consistent in updating so that my posts don't end up going on forever and ever!

To sum it all up: Life is still good. :)