Half a year sum up.

It’s nearly July!  That means Stephen and Lisette are both a year older and Stephen and I celebrated our 7^th wedding anniversary.  That also means a lot occurred this month.  But I’ll give a summary of everything leading to this point…

January = a haze.  Honestly I don’t remember much about that month.  February: I (Lisl) began having a lot of pain in my hand (remember the story of spraining my finger back in August?) and it was causing pain in my left arm.  We battled with Lisette getting sick on and off again; her canines were cutting through all at once and it took over 2 months for them all to FINALLY poke through.  Franklin got an ear infection in March and he still talks about Daddy taking him to the doctor.

I had to finally address the issue with my arm and hand very seriously in March.  My visit to the Orthopedics office reunited me with a familiar face.  My very first roommates’ husband; Cole Bryce, who is now Dr. Cole Bryce!  

Dr. Bryce gave me a very painful, but happily accepted shot in the arm that helped with the pain while waiting 2 weeks for surgery on her sprained finger.  Surgery was quick and the anesthesia was just right.  Grandma April came for a few days to help and after she had to return to work our amazing ward jumped in to help me through the next month.  April felt long and slow and the constant wind didn’t/hasn’t helped.  Isn’t it March that’s supposed to be windy? 

Easter was very enjoyable and fun for the kids.  Our ward had a major egg hunt at the ball fields next to the Temple.  Then we had a huge (and very rewarding for the kids) hunt in our own backyard.  Earlier this Spring we decided to expand the fence for our back yard; so we more than doubled our yard from last year and had many places to put lots of candy-filled eggs.

May began with birthdays.  We tried our best to celebrate Stephen’s birthday as work had gotten busier for him.  We also took on a project for Lisette’s birthday which included building a back porch.  Stephen did just about all the work and the Elder’s came to help put the deck together.  I was very grateful since I’m not allowed to use my left hand as much.  

June has been crazy busy.  The heat came, and the wind still insisted on battling our mood.  The second weekend we went to Gilbert for a family gathering with the Randy Quinn clan.  Their youngest son, Trevor, was baptized.  Back in Christmas they had given us tickets to see Les Miserables that very same weekend.  So we left the kids still swimming in the pool (they were being watched, don’t worry) and went to see the most amazing show!  We’ve had Les Mis stuck (very happily) in our heads for weeks.

The next weekend was supposed to be Lisl’s 10 year high school reunion and the celebration of 7 years of marriage.  Alas, Stephen was on-call and because of many different factors coming to play, we decided not to go.  I was planning on seeing some old friends still, but a fire had been threatening the area.  

My parents’ neighborhood went on Pre-evacuation and just as we decided it was time to get out of the pool to pack, another fire began just west of us.  We were surrounded by smoke on 3 sides of us, with the helicopters and airplanes practically on top of us.  Officials were so busy with battling both fires that not a lot of communication was going on and we all felt the urge to evacuate immediately.  

So I never saw my friends, and as quickly as we could manage, we all got out of there; I took two of my mom’s cats to stay with us for a week.  My parents did go on mandatory evacuation 2 days later and a few days after that they were allowed to go back home.  

The following weekend (last weekend) my high school Show Band was having a reunion.  Coach (our director, we always called him Coach) had reached 40 years of directing Show Band.  So as many who could make it got together for reminiscing and putting together a concert.  I had no intention of playing, just singing.  I actually started crying when I found out I would get to sing I was so excited.  However, at the dinner on Friday night I was told that I should play and represent my years (I was a part of Show Band from fall of ’98 to spring of ’01) and ended up playing for both decades; the 90’s band and the 00’s band. 

It was so much fun and such a blast that I never wanted it to end.  Sorry to all my fellow Buena ’01 classmates that I ditched out on.  I hope you can forgive me and I hope to see you at our 20 year reunion and I truly hope it’ll be during something like Homecoming and nowhere near my anniversary.

p.s. Stephen and I didn’t get to celebrate much, so we are hoping to get a short vacation with just the two of us in the fall when Stephen isn’t so insanely busy.  And I’ll have to get back to you about how work is all going when it’s behind us and not at our throats.