2019 Prediction Results

2019 was a pretty great year- let's see how my predictions from January 1st ended up!

I wasn't very creative last year, so I'm going to be more bold this year with my predictions:

1. Bronocs will have another losing season with a head coach who is perfectly incompetent. Seahawks will get a Wild Card spot again. Just about nailed this. But, I wouldn't call their head coach, Vic Fangio, completely incompetent. I think he needs more time, but will be OK. Seahawks missed getting the #3 seed by two inches on a last second play that was almost, but not quite, a touchdown- so wild card seed it is.

2. I'll be released from my church calling. While I still love Public Affairs, I have an inkling that my time might be coming. We will see. Yes. Though this wasn't a surprise, I was still heartbroken. But, I do have a lot less stress now.
3. 45 will resign or be indicted. I suppose indicted is not the same as impeached, but it is pretty close, isn't it?

4. Audra will choose not to do soccer but to do drama instead. I found out that once again her team has dissolved, so I'm thinking maybe she will choose a different activity other than soccer. She is still playing soccer, and doing drama. She tried out for the middle school musical and is VERY excited to participate starting next week!

5. Our church will announce home based seminary and the youth only meeting twice a month instead of every week. Why not? They are announcing all kinds of crazy things lately. Nope, but I'm still hoping!
6. We will be in another recession. Nope.

7. We will get a pet. The girls are really starting to wear on us in regards to a pet. Blah. Somehow we have still avoided this. It helps that Audra is allergic to a cat. Dog walking also helps.

8.Ben will get a promotion. He doesn't want one, or is looking for one, but there is suddenly a lot of dramatic changes happening at his work, and Ben is pretty brilliant so I have a feeling they will ask him to step up and he will be compelled to do so. No. Things are pretty crazy for him at work, and there are a lot of changes, but so far they have not asked him to go into management. Which is good. He has no desire to be in management and would be very unhappy.
9. Audra will finally get her own room while Claire and Camille start sharing. YES! And, everyone is happy with the arrangement. 

10. No flares for me! Fingers crossed, here is hoping. After lots of meds (and 2 years of HELL), I am finally in remission. There is no cure for Ulcerative Colitis, so the goal is to stay in remission as long as possible before another flare comes. Right now, I am feeling great. I predict I will feel great for the year. Here's hoping! No flares, the meds are still working. I am also seeing an acupuncturist who I think helps. I have days where my stomach is bothering me, and I did have a slight increase in my inflammation numbers, but they are back down now.

Happy New Years!

I honestly can't believe it is 2020. In 2000 I was still in college. 2010 I had a two year and a newborn. Now, I have a teenager. In 10 more years, my baby will be a senior in high school with my oldest graduated from college.

Wow. Time really does fly.

Today we went to the mall and the kids jumped on this cool trampoline thing. Then tonight we played games that we got for Christmas and ate lots of fun snacks, did a countdown at 8 PM and sent the kids to bed.

Life is good. We are so incredibly blessed.

Happy New Year everyone!!!!

Personal Progress

Last January, Audra started Young Women at church. This was a surprise, as we had thought she would need to wait until she turned 12 to join, but they changed the rules so that you start YW the year you turn 12 in January, not on your Birthday as earlier.

The Church also decided to discontinue Personal Progress at the end of this year. The YW leaders in our ward really wanted all the YW to finish their Personal Progress. For Audra, that meant doing 6 years worth of work in 1. When she was only 11.

I was not on board, and I pretty much told Audra, "Look, I want you to like church. This is a ton of work. If you want to do it, I will 100% support you, but I am not going to force you to do this. This needs to be your decision. I think it's too much, and you do not need to earn this."

It took her until about August, but that is when she really decided to get it done. She had already done several of the items, and she realized she could do it- even though it would be a lot of work.

And, it was.

But, she did it!

She completed something like 50 projects, with 8 of them being huge projects that required 10+ hours to do.

Here's some of her big projects:

-Cross-Stitch of a beehive
-Reading the Book of Mormon
-Organizing all of our fabric
-Reading about family history and then writing a fictional story related to it

She did dozens of other projects- like paying tithing, writing her testimony, giving FHE lessons on specific topics, and much, much more.

And, it was completely driven by her- that's the best part. She decided she wanted it, and she worked hard to get it- there was truly ZERO pressure from us, we insisted it be something that she wanted, not that we wanted to force her to do.

I am pretty darn proud of her! She really, truly is something special.

Claude Monet

As soon as I heard we were getting over 100 original Claude Monet paintings at the Denver Art Museum, I knew we had to attend! They are totally sold out by now, so I'm glad I bought my tickets early!

Today was the day. The weather was perfect, the girls were in excellent behavior, and the art exhibit was incredible. I just about cried I loved it so much. Monet is probably my favorite artist. Cliche I know, but there's a reason so many of us love his works.

The first few aren't Monet, just some great British artists before we entered the Monet exhibit.

Now for the good stuff!

This was Ben's favorite:

This was mine:

They had an audio tour which was great. They had kids versions as well that had stories about the pictures.

Then, obviously, this in not Monet- this is part of their "light" exhibit. Can you tell which Ben, Claire, and Camille are real?

It was an awesome day. It did, however, make it so we all want to go to Italy, France, and Norway ASAP.

Ice Skating

Last year the weather was way too cold to go ice-skating, but this year the weather was perfect. Camille fell constantly, but Audra and Claire each only fell once. I would say that all of us are improving in our ice-skating skills. It was a lot of fun, and of course the setting was simply gorgeous.

Preparation

The girls got snorkel gear for Christmas, so Camille went to check out the gear in preparation for our cruise coming up. She rocked it!

Christmas Morning

I am happy to report that the Magic of Christmas is still alive and well at The Marriott Household! Audra slept on the floor in Claire and Camille's room (I used to do the same with my sisters!), and they had a whole list of activities to do before they could wake us up at 7 AM.

Most of my pictures are blurry- the girls were running around in excitement so much it was very hard to capture their excitement. Nevertheless, here is our Christmas photo dump:

Ben got a Baby Yoda- it may be all of our favorite gift for this year! So cute!!!

 Everyone got snorkel gear in anticipation of our cruise!

Our annual Aebelskiver breakfast, in honor of my Dutch heritage. My Grandma High would make these every Christmas.

Here's the gifts I got from my girls (plus, Audra got me a candle as well). The pillow is from Camille. She made everyone close their eyes as I opened it, then she ran upstairs to cross out Grandma and write in Mom.

Claire and Camille made the apron. It comes complete with Claire quotes like, "Love is all you need" and "Your sweet voice echoes in my ear and when you're away I know you're near."

 Ben spent the most of the day putting together an indoor jungle gym that my parents gifted the girls. It was a bit of a pain, despite the box saying, "Assembles in seconds!" But, by the time the girls went to bed, it was finally put together.

Then in the evening we headed to grandma and grandpa's for dinner and cousin time!

Merry Christmas 2019!