February

So apparently another month has pretty much gone by?

I wouldn’t say it was the greatest month ever, but it definitely was not the worst month ever. It was just kind of a neutral month, I guess. February can be that way sometimes. I can’t believe I was born in February. It has to be one of the blah-est months of the year.

But it definitely had its bright moments, and I am here to share those with you. =) It’s a big, happy end of month post! I haven’t done one of these for a long time!

I actually took some pictures this month, so we’ll start out with those.

This picture was taken when I had a cold and spent all my time blowing my nose and eating coffee crisp bites. Cause when you are sick, you should eat sugar. Obviously.

Renee took that picture for me. That kid knows how to drive a hard bargain. She wouldn’t take the picture until I had agreed to post two pictures of her on here as well.

So here are the two pictures of Renee:

Neither of these pictures is actually accurate, due to the fact that she has grown up so much in the past few months! But on Saturday, I am planning on taking some pictures of her and one her friends, so I will possibly have some of those photos to share, and then you can see her awesome new glasses. I have a feeling that this little photo shoot is going to be full of giggles and inside jokes, cause Renee and Kerra are just that kind of friends. =)

I made soup. It was good. I also made meatloaf and potatoes one time. It was significantly less good than the soup. To be honest, it was bad. But the soup- it was good. One time, I had a dream, that someone was making soup, but wouldn’t let me help them make soup. And I just wanted to say that that was a mistake. Because now we know that I can make soup.

See this picture? I took it at 7:30 on a Saturday morning. Standing outside. In my socks and pjs. I woke up without an alarm, and I felt wide awake, and I opened my blind and the sky was kinda pretty and so I grabbed my camera and ran outside and stood in the cold taking pictures. And then I came back inside and was freezing cold so I jumped back into my bed to warm up but I fell asleep and slept for the next four hours. So apparently, I wasn’t as awake as I thought I was.

Me and Kenton’s conversation while driving to hockey:Me- “What a nice day.” Kenton- “I hear it was lovely at 7:30 this morning. Pretty as a picture, one might say.”
I think he was mocking me.

This one was taken once I was back in my room. I really don’t know why I randomly took these pictures. I was literally still half-sleep even though I felt awake. Like when I woke up later, I had completely forgotten about it until I found the pictures on my camera. Also, leaving a trampoline outside all winter is highly recommended.

Saturday morning at home with the siblings…. craziness. It is actually not at all unusual to see Kenton flinging Wendy around.

Sometimes, Kenton, when I’m telling you that she wants down, I mean it. =)

The hallway is a great place to hang out. I’ve done it a few times myself. And some days it is just fun to wear as much pink as you possibly can, huh, Wendy? =)

Trish- she can do wonderful things with play dough. She can make a turtle! She can even almost make a dog. But she’s better at turtles. =)

Me: “Wow! I really like how you made a snowman under your bridge.” Her: “It’s not a snowman under a bridge. It’s a snowman under a rainbow.” Duh, Jasmine.

 I love her. I love her when she’s sitting on my lap accidentally pouring juice over her shoulder all down the front of me as she tries to hand her cup to me. I love her when she randomly comes up to me and shoves her foot out to me because she needs her shoe tied. I love when she hands me her plate full of food and says “I don’t want this.” I love her.

I love him too. He doesn’t talk much. But he’s got a great smile. I make a fool of myself trying to get that smile in Sunday school.

What else do I love about this wonderful kid? I love when she literally crawls over all the other kids to get to my lap. I love that she is so snuggly, even though it makes it hard to turn the pages, and I keep poking her with the book. I love her even when when my legs fall asleep because I can’t move them.

Who has the awesomest hat? My sister Wendy. Uh huh.

Oh look! More of Kenton and Wendy. And I don’t think she actually wants down.

My rose. From Tory and God. Via Kenton. So special. =)

What is funny? Funny is wrapping people up in plastic wrap and watching them hop around and fall down. That is funny.

Youth retreat volleyball. I’m the one in the stripey sweater.

So every year at the youth retreat, Trish and I sneak out with our pillows and sleeping bags and have wonderfully good talks under the stairs. But this year, Trish wasn’t there to do that. So I found new stair buddies. They were good ones, too. =) We talked about our favourite foods. See, some of us like meat (like chicken. Or beef.) and some of us just lean more towards pasta. Yeah.

And there was some funny, odd conversations that happened around this house in February. There is nothing unusual about that. What’s unusual is that I wrote so many of them down. So here we go.

Random Conversations That Happened Around Our House: 

Me: “I want you to leave this room right now, Renee.” Renee: “See, that’s hard, because I’m running on a fake treadmill right now.”

Then there was the time that I  thought someone knocked on my bedroom door. I opened the door, and there was no one there, so I was like, “Did anyone knock on my door?” And Mom was like “No?” And I was like “Really? I thought I heard someone knock.” And Mom said, “I don’t think anyone did… but if you hear it again, just say ‘Lord, I’m listening.'” That made me laugh.

One time, I was going into my room just as Renee was leaving it. (Yeah… she is in my room frequently.) And so I said, “Renee, what were you doing in my room?” And apparently, she was in there waiting to scare me, but I just wasn’t coming, and she finally got sick of waiting. Ha. Sorry bout that. =)

There was one Sunday lunch when apparently all of us kids were in a crazy mood, and were talking and laughing, and Renee was finally like, “Mom, are we being annoying?” and Mom said, “You and him (Kenton) are…. and you (pointing at me)- you are borderline because you’re egging them on.” So yeah. I’m an egg-er on-er. At least I’m not annoying. Not like some people in this family. 😉

“Please pass the beer. Beef. I mean beef.” -Renee

Renee and Kenton comparing who is sicker: Renee says, “Have you been having migraines?” And Kenton’s like, “I’ve been having mild heart attacks actually.” Me: “Kenton is sicker than Renee.” And Kenton: “Yeah. If you have two mild heart attacks, they cancel eachother out. That’s how I know I’ve been having them. Because I feel perfectly fine.” Yup. Makes sense to me.

“I like pepper, okay?” -Nathaniel, explaining the peppery scrambled eggs.

Things That Happened in February: 

Jason was home! We all ate breakfast together. It was so nice. =)

We planned a youth retreat. We went to a youth retreat.

At work, the picture on the calendar for February was baby penguins. And Amber told me about a youtube video about penguins flying to a rainforest for the winter instead of struggling to survive the harsh conditions of the Arctic. There was much discussion on the accuracy of this, but after researching it, we concluded that it was just a spoof. Also, in Europe, people chase wheels of cheese down steep hills. They really do. It’s quite ridiculous.

We went tubing.

Trish had her wisdom teeth taken out.

Not a whole lot happened in February, to be honest. I’m really not a fan of February. I actually can’t think of any month that I love less. I still like February. It’s just that there is things that I absolutely love about all the other months, and February is just lacking that. I guess there is my birthday. But that’s not that exciting. If I was a Gilmore Girl, it would be. And actually, I have some friends who are pretty good at birthdays, so I do like my birthday.

I did learn some stuff though.

I learned about planning youth retreats. I almost wish I could do another one next year, because I would actually be a bit more qualified to do it.

And I learned that sometimes, even though I love how Psalms talks about God’s steadfast love so often, I will not be able to bring myself to pick up my Bible and read the words that I usually find so encouraging. Because sometimes, I just don’t want to have to try to believe that God loves me like that. It just seems too hard. And then I feel like the ultimate failure, because I’m failing at everything I try to do, and then I fail to believe in the one thing that is true and unconditional and has the power to make me better and stronger and more confident. But then I remember that verse I read that one time (from Psalms, of course) that said, “Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust, who does not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after a lie!” And I realize how very often I go astray after a lie and that I am technically proud, even when I am beating myself up, because when I refuse to believe truth, it’s like I’m telling God that I know better than He does. And I want to change that, but it’s so much harder than just allowing myself to feel what comes so automatically to me. And then I wonder if it’s normal to have trouble believing that, or if I am the only one who struggles with choosing the truth over my self talk. I think I know what my problem is. I think it’s laziness. This is a hard thing to explain.

I learned more about journalism. I learned from my mistakes. A humbling learning method, but most definitely an effective one.

So yeah… February was okay, but not great, and not particularly exciting. May March be more eventful. Easter is in March. I do love Easter. =)