What a year!

I missed this post last week, much like I missed a million in the last month. Anywho..we just had our YEAR anniversary with Toby being gone. What a year it has been. I remember that day and not knowing how I would do on my own. Scared that I would not meet new friends in El Paso and be alone for a whole year.

I loved the house we were in on post and loved the location where it was at, even though the neighborhood was kindof ghetto. I remember thinking that this was our year as a family to really do what we said we were going to do. We set goals as a family the night before Toby left and I just pulled them out to make sure we have completed all of them.

Toby did great in school and has completed all the credits plus 15 more than he had planned on. He has surpassed his PT goal and got promoted 4 months earlier than we had expected.
I set out to lose 30 pounds and have lost 60. I am striving for 20 more by April. I remember thinking 30 pounds was all I was overweight. OK, maybe the doctor was right on me being obese but I am so glad I just kept going. I can run 5 miles at a time. I have not tried to go any farther except for intervals because the boredom factor gets me everytime. I set my goal at running 2 miles and here I am. I started last year by doing 0 real pushups and now can do 18. I can do 80 situps in 2 minutes, which makes me excited. I have also finished 20 credits for school and finished my associates. I have lacked in the missionary department especially being home with at my moms, but hope that I am making headway in my cooking?!

As far as the kids, we potty trained Carmen this year. She gained momentum on her shoe fettish (which is not good) and is working on how much she can put in her many purses everyday. She loved school for some of the year and loved dance and gymnastics also. Cyrus and Courtney did some sports and learned first hand from helping me what is required to take care of a house. Cyrus I am particularly proud of because he has some obstacles ahead of him. We have been finding help for a condition he had and all year have been working on it. This last month he finally beat it ( i hope) and now we can work to maintain it. It really was a difficult time for him and I am so proud of him.

Cera learned to crawl and walk this year and is now learning new words daily. She is just like Carmen and is a girly girl. Loves to get her nails painted and hair done up cute. She loves shoes and loves that Carmen loves shoes so she has a bunch to play with. We are pretending to be working on potty training.. it really is as much a parent thing as it is the child.. if I just made the effort she would be potty trained right now.

Courtney has made some great friends that she is wishing she didn't have to say good bye too, but it has been good to have a place to go and just have fun.

All in all this year has been pretty successful and I am proud of us as a family for making it through with little complaining.