this one's for you maren

i'm a slacker. i get overwhelmed with life and the first thing i drop is this blog. but it is nice having friends get on my case and thus such updates. here are a bunch of photos and i'll just add little captions of what we've been up to.

john hurt his eye at work with a work injury. he got 3 pieces of metal into his right eye that required 2 surgeries by 2 different specialists. they were successful and john still has vision in that eye. in fact, it's better than my eyesight without my glasses on, yet there are still 2 stitches in there so he has to take it easy. we find out on friday whether he goes back to work. it's been an adjustment having him home all day. at first he had to pretty much sit in the dark, only watching tv as no reading or writing was allowed. now he can have the curtains open and i don't feel like i'm in a dungeon. that part's been great. it has been nice feeling like i can go out and get groceries once i've got the younger 2 napping and leave mya at home with john. it's a little sense of liberation ;) 

i'm compiling a recipe book and i love recipe books with photos. i almost always will try a recipe out that has a photo with it over one that doesn't. so, i've been trying to take photos to attach. it hasn't been as fun as i thought it would, mostly because i have to have it all together by the beginning of september. with everything else going on i have to try really hard to make bigger meals that i need photos of, otherwise it's so much easier to run to subway or dave's drive in.

 mango salsa, yam cubes and strawberry rhurbarb crisp ;)

we've spent many afternoons going for walks around the temple grounds. i'm so glad edmonton has a temple too, as we sure love being able to look out our windows and see the temple.

 mya & i participated in the cardston kid's marathon. how it works is they walk or run all but the last mile of a marathon before the final day of the race. then, all the kids run/walk the last mile together and it was such a neat experience. she was SO proud of herself and so was I. if my little 4 year old can do that, then really anyone and everyone could do more to be active and healthy. she wore that metal and proudly held it for the rest of the day (and week). my friend patricia is the organizer of the event and it was really nice to see all her hard work come together.

eden and aaliyah will be good little friends. really i put this photo up so i could show off eden chubby legs - LOVE them ;)

we spent some time with my sister carla & her kids and my sister marci & her kids down at the cabin for a few days. we had lightning hit a power pole there and that caused a power outage resulting in the food in the fridge and deep freezer going rotten as it was weeks till it was discovered. kent cleaned it out & we had some big cleaning to do but once that was done we could relax and play. it was fun to do all the regular things like getting icecream, throwing rocks down at the lakefront and evening crafting and visiting. it was really nice to have cousins get to spend time together and create fun memories.

john's sisters came down to cardston for a visit and somehow i agreed to watch noelle's 4 kids for the day while she and her husband went hiking. the kids were really good but it was BUSY. we played hard and then the next day i slept hard ;) all the while, addison's now on her 3rd round of antibiotics for a sinus infection turned into asthma (inhalers and all) and now ear infections with the possibility of getting tubes done again. so needless to say addison was super cuddly with her aunt liz. she's got 6 weeks left till her baby is due.

we are moving in less than a month up to edmonton for john to go to school at NAIT. he is really excited and as much as i love it here, change is good. we will be in a 3 bedroom townhouse and super close to lots of amenities that have been so far away from us, being in a small southern alberta town. anyways, addison is screaming and so i should just post this and help her out.