98 Days & Baby Charlotte

Counting today, there are only 98 days until I turn 40. Aging has not been a big deal to me in the past. But this looming 40th birthday has been weighing on my mind lately. I feel like I should have things figured out a little better by now. I am still not really sure what I want to do when I grow up, and here I am middle-aged. But you know, those birthdays come, ready or not. So, I have some goals in mind for these next 14 weeks. I want to get in better shape. I gained at least 20 pounds this summer. Moving is stressful! I want to update our new home, that is still sporting 1978 decor. And I want to do this on a very limited budget. Moving is expensive! I want to figure out how to use the nice camera that I bought about five years ago, and take more pictures of my kids that are growing up way too fast. I have a few other goals in mind too. And I plan to blog about them all right here. So maybe when I turn 40, I can look back on the last 98 days and see that I do stuff beyond dishes and laundry.

When I took the time to calculate that there are 98 days until my birthday this morning, I thought that I should have counted them up two days ago. Then I could have set goals for a nice even 100 days. But I didn't. But I will update what the last couple of days have entailed. So I will have a history of the last 100 days of my 30s. Working on my family history and my personal history are on my to-do list as well.

I spent most of Wednesday, the 100th day, with my sister Kellie, her sweet new baby Charlotte, my cute little Audrey, and my mom. It was a good day. We did some shopping. My mom bought me some great smelling soap and some new earrings. She bought Audrey some paper dolls. We shared a yummy lunch. And my favorite part, we snuggled and cuddled this cute new baby. Wednesday evening, we all went to a Boy Scout Court of Honor. Landon conducted and he did a great job. He also received a few merit badges. He has great Scout Leaders.

Thursday, the 99th day, I went up to Weber State for a writing assessment. I applied to the Masters of Education Program there a while back. The next step was this writing assessment and then I'll have an interview with the Education Department in a few weeks. We'll see what happens. I hadn't written an essay in fourteen years. I was pretty nervous but thought that I did OK. Later that day, I took William to the doctor. His foot had been hurting him for a week. They took some x-rays and found that he has a fracture. So, he is in a boot for at least a few weeks. This is a bummer because he has really been enjoying soccer lately, both at recess and the community youth league. But that is how it goes sometimes. Hopefully he will be healed and ready to run again soon.

Today, the 98th day, was pretty relaxed. While the kids were at school, Audrey and I cleaned and ran to Ross. I had bought Landon a dress shirt at Ross last December when we were in town for Christmas. He didn't like it and I didn't have time to return it. So I left it with Kellie to return after we were gone. Well, everyone forgot about it and it just re-surfaced, still in the bag, a few weeks ago. I saw it at Kellie's on Wednesday and thought that I would try to return it now and see what happens. I was surprised and thrilled when they took it back with a receipt that showed it was purchased over nine months ago. Now I have some credit that I get to spend at Ross. Woohoo. I spent the afternoon hurrying to get Landon ready for a Scout Campout. Then the other kids and I went to the bank, picked Vince up from work, got ice-cream cones at Artic Circle, and played at a park in South Weber. We also drove on what I believe is the only toll road in the beautiful state of Utah. It is called Adams Avenue Parkway. It cost us a dollar. It was a nice little road.