Mason's 1st Bike Ride

My mom got Mason his first bike for Christmas!! Well needless to say, he still needs to learn a lot of coordination in order to ride it. He sure looked cute on it, but he couldn't figure out how to push the peddles hard enough to make go, go, go. But again, he looked cute on it and loves it!!

Dinosaur Park

The weekend after Easter Mike, his friends and his family all went to the Sand Dunes which left Mason and I home alone. The reason we were left behind is probably pretty obvious for most who know me! I used to love the sand dunes, but for all the wrong reasons! I didn't go to ride, I went to drink and party!! Well since I don't do either of those anymore, we figure it's best that I don't go on those trips anymore. And as long as we can protect Mason from being around drinking because alcoholism is so prominant in the family, then we will keep him away from it until he is old enough to understand! I was not a good mom prior to getting sober. I mean, yes I did my motherly duties, but alcohol always took priority!! But not anymore! So it was very nice to spend some one on one time with Mason. These are the little things that I didn't do before...and it's the little things in life that matter the most! I LOVE MY LITTLE MAN!!

Easter 2010

Mason had a blast this Easter! We kept Easter a lot more simple than we have in the past. We figure that he doesn't need to be SPOILED every single holiday!! And he didn't even know the difference, he loved it anyways! We QUICKLY colored some eggs, which of course he loved doing. Then Easter morning he woke up to his baskets and all he could say was "mom, this is so amazing". Ha ha, his vocabulary is getting funnier by the day. Then after he got what the Easter bunny brought him, it was off to church. That day at church he got to learn about Jesus Christ, he came home and told me all about Jesus, the cross and then he went on to tell me how Jesus had thorns on his head with lots of blood everywhere....Um, I am positive his teachers at church didn't tell him that, but looks like the kid has got a good imagination and figured out what happens when there are thorns on your head!!

Marianne's 30th B-Day Dinner

Yummy food and great friends celebrating Marianne's 30th B-Day!! Love my GIRL'S!!

International Women's AA Conference

MY SPONSOR AND MY ROCK:

MY SPONSOR, HER SPONSOR AND HER SPONSOR'S SPONSOR - CONFUSING HUH??

EMERIL'S - IT WAS SO YUMMY:

TERESA AND I:

JUST ME:

DISNEYWORLD:

EPCOT:

NORWAY BECAUSE I'M NORWEGIAN:

CAN'T FORGET MICKEY:

LOOKING OUT MY HOTEL WINDOW:

On February 10th-14th, I had the pleasure of attending the International Women’s AA conference in Orlando, FL with my wonderful sponsor who is my ROCK and my personal confidant. It’s a conference for women only who are all Alcoholic’s!! What an amazing event. I was able to attend last year’s conference as well because it was held in Salt Lake City, which will probably NEVER happen again as next year the conference will be held in Alaska. BRRR!! But over 1,500 women attended this year’s conference in Orlando. We attended several panel meetings where they would have a topic and 3 women would speak on that topic. Then each night they had one main speaker. Each speaker was absolutely amazing! Their stories were heart wrenching, not only because what they each went through however because when I would listen to their stories, I knew that was me too. I am not ashamed anymore to say that I am an alcoholic because I am a sober alcoholic. Most people just don’t understand what an alcoholic is. Alcoholism is a disease and a deadly one. Deadly not only in the physical form however more deadly emotionally and mentally! The disease of alcoholism took ALMOST everything from me. It took my heart, my soul and my mind which have now been restored. I’m no longer shameful and full of guilt. I have self confidence that I never had before because alcohol robbed me of all self confidence and self worth. I am so blessed to be sober and even MORE blessed that I have a family who stood beside me 100% through my alcoholism and into sobriety. Mike and Mason didn’t deserve a mother and wife who is an alcoholic however now they have a sober Mom and wife. I am so lucky that Mike stuck beside me!! I have no clue how he put up with me through my drinking, he wanted me sober however he knew that I had to be ready. I will never forget the day that I made up my mind to go to rehab. The feelings I felt that day were HORRIFIC and I never want to feel that way again! The day that I walked into rehab, I was hopeless with NO feelings left. I had forgotten how to even cry. Now I get to feel again! I get to see things in a light that I’ve never seen them before. This has been a hard journey, a journey I will have to work on for the rest of my life. But today I can say “bring it on”. I can fight anything because of the program of Alcoholic’s Anonymous!!

Oh and YES WE GOT TO GO TO DISNEYWORLD!! However it was really hard to enjoy because needless to say Orlando was FREEZING! It was just as cold there as it was in Utah. Maybe even colder because of the humidity! But I tried to take in what I could at Disneyworld. We didn’t get to see all of it because we had limited time. We had to make it back for the BIG BIG speaker on Saturday night. Now that’s committed…I had to pay 140 bucks to go to Disneyworld and not even get to see it all because I knew I needed to be at the conference!!

Christmas 2009

The 3 grandkids: Mason n' Mamma:

Cheese:

Santa's Helper:

The in laws:

Mason n' Mamma:Come on and smile:

Mikey and me:

Our family of 3:

Wow, I can’t believe that Christmas has come and gone!! We had a wonderful holiday!! This year wasn’t much different from our Christmas’s in the past however it was a little different. It seems that this year we are closer as a family than we have ever been. This year has had its fair share of up’s and down’s. There were so many times that I just wanted to give up, but I didn’t. I just kept trucking along and trying to do the next right thing!! And we made it through all the up’s and down’s which has brought our little family of 3 closer together! I am so grateful for my family and really looking forward to a fresh new year!!

So on Christmas Eve we went to Mike’s aunts and uncle’s just like we do every year. It was the first year we didn’t stay until 1 in the morning. I guess we’re getting old because we had to retire early this year plus Mason is much of a night owl so we wanted to get him home and in bed so that Santa could come visit our house. Which indeed he did and Mason was spoiled. He was so excited to wake up to all his presents!! He was really excited opening about the first 2 and after that he was already tired of unwrapping things. He’d open one present and want the toy out of the box immediately instead of wanting to open another gift!! After we opened presents at our house we went to Mike’s mom’s where Mason was spoiled again. After Mike’s mom’s and some yummy breakfast we headed down to my mom’s. Again, Mason was spoiled. It was so nice to see my family! We only live 45 minutes away from each other, yet we barely get down there to see them anymore. After my mom’s it’s been a tradition to go to my brother’s for dinner, but this year we skipped his house and went to my adopted parents as I call them. By the time we got there, Mason didn’t even want to open his present from them! What child gets tired of opening presents?

Now it's off to the new year! YIPPEE!!

Christmas Parade

So we watched the Ogden Christmas Parade! It was nothing too exciting and it was absolutely freezing, so you can see that I was trying to dress like an eskimo!! Mason enjoyed about the first 5 minutes of it, then he has pretty much had enough, but it was fun to spend time as a family celebrating the Christmas season!!