Wharton Year in Review

I have been wanting to do a year in review but life has not slowed down around here so that I could. We started this year with a hospital run for Emily. No, not her diabetes but a second degree burn on two fingers from trying to rush dinner to go see a movie. Stupid potato's! This has got to be one of the coldest winters in Michigan's history and I don't like it! Let's move on to the review.

January 2008, cold and boring. We did celebrate my niece Erin's 16th birthday. It was super fun at her surprise party.

February 2008, cold and boring. We didn't go on vacation during winter break like we usually do but Emily and I did attend Mall Mania. It is a girl scout event where we sleep over in a closed mall and have tons of fun with about 3oo other girl scouts. Some stores stay open so we can shop at 2 in the morning. Being the ever awesome leader I let my girls eat ice cream for breakfast.

March 2008, still cold and the fun starts.

Emily and Jeremy moved up in rank in karate. Emily now has her green belt with 3 stripes. Only 3 ranks to go until she earns her black belt. To achieve this level she had to break two one inch boards consecutively, one with her hand and one with her foot. Jeremy earned his purple with one stripe.
This is us in Wisconsin. We decided for the first time ever to leave home for Easter. We were hoping to ski with the fresh foot of snow but the runs had been closed and we were left to our own devices. We went to the nearest Wal-Mart to buy sleds but they didn't have any. Rob came up with the idea of using construction grade trash bags. So this is Emily and Jeremy trash bagging down the hill next to our cabin. We laughed our heads off! Later we found a cool indoor water park and spent the next two days hanging out there.




April 2008, a little warmer. Emily started running track at school and according to her she froze her yatchees off. She had a good record running the 70m and 100m dashes. She also did the shot put and tried the high jump but gave it up because she thought she would break her head. Emily also turned 13 this year. Oh My Heck! I have a teenager!!!







May 2008, a little bit warmer. Emily marched in the Memorial Day parade. Memorial day fell on Jeremy's birthday so we say the parade was for him. Jeremy turned 10 this year and grew 3 inches. He is quickly gaining on Emily. Emily left the next day for her class trip to Chicago. It was freakin' awesome!




This is the cake I made for the kids duel birthday party. This is before I added the "torn out pages" of the book. I think it was a cool cake. One of my more creative works of cake. Yes, that is Yoda and Darth Vader on Jeremy's half.

June 2008, Yeah! warm weather. The kids got out of school and we headed to Gordonsville, Virginia. We visited Monticello, historic Williamsburg and Mountpelier. The place we stayed at had a stable so the kids and Rob went riding every morning so I could sleep in.



July 2008, perfect days. July is my birthday month. 2009 will see me turning 40. Yikes! Jeremy went to cub scout day camp. I went one day with him. It was fun sharing that time with him. Emily and I, with our girl scout troop went to Michigan's Adventure. It is an amusement park/water park in Muskegon. We stayed over night in a hotel and giggled until 3:00 a.m.



August 2008, more perfect days. Emily went to her second year of church girls camp. It was at a new camp this year and the girls stayed in bunk houses instead of tents. Fun was had by all. We ended the summer by going on a family picnic and playing frisbee, we went to see one last Tigers game and we spent labor day helping aunt Jan move into her new condo. Emily was feeling crummy by then and I was very worried about her. She slept on Jan's balcony in the 90 degree weather fully clothed and under a blanket. Finally I knew something was not right and took her to the doctor's the next morning.



Well, this is where our blog starts so you can catch up with the rest of our fun from the beginning. We have had some ups and downs this year but nothing we couldn't handle. We feel truely blessed to have our friends and family close and that UPS signed a five year contract without touching our health benefits or wages. Here's to a rockin' awesome 2009!