2023 ~ January Recap

 

January 2023 ... New Year's Day, new calendars, SNOW ... basketball and the builder's convention. Biggest update ~  Keaton got a new job. Here's highlights:

• New Year's Day: After an uneventful New Year's Eve (no real plans, to bed early) we headed to Clay and Courtney's for the annual Pastry Wreath. The weather made the trip a bit scary!
• SNOW: Lots of snow to usher in the first day of the year! Enough that Zumba was cancelled the next day and a HUGE pile of snow was formed in front of the house. Lots of shoveling.
• BASKETBALL: Colton is busy with basketball (see the post on the BlackhamBall blog with all the current season info). Going early before school, practices after, team dinners on Thursday nights and of course games! Almost every Tuesday and Friday. While the WJ team is struggling (hasn't won a game in region play) Colton has been getting some good numbers and recognition. Jen has gone to every game, Gray and the bigger boys have hit several. Cooper has not attended in person, but goes over the clips (helps for the highlights) so he still sees the games and has gotten to know the team from home. 
• Fantasy Football: Cooper won (3rd place) in his fantasy football league. There is an entry fee, which goes towards the rewards. Coop won $200. Uncle Kolby AND UncleClay/Cousin Will were participating this year.
• New Job: Keaton had been wanting to expand his electrical knowledge to more that residential building. After looking to see who was hiring and going in for a few interviews, he's started a new job with K2 Electric. He turned in his Camsen company van (which frees up space in the driveway) and is back to driving his Corolla. Right now, the company put him on a residential build, which turned out to be a good thing, as it gave him a chance to shine right off the bat. Callahan will miss having Keaton at the same company.
• Continued Car Concerns: We had to take Colton's Charger in after it started "clicking" and then the Durango "check engine" light came on again and needed a repair. Told our mechanic "Thanks, but hope we do NOT see you again soon!" Luckily this was done early in the month when we still had Keaton's Corolla as an "extra" car. With the Camsen work van gone, and Keaton's Corolla in daily use, we rearranged things so that it could park in the third car garage (saving Keaton the early morning scrape in winter) ... it's a tight fit, and the Corolla is the smallest car.
• Builder's Convention: At the end of the month, Gray and a couple others from Symphony headed to Vegas for a few days for the International Builder's Convention. 
• Westra Sibling Dinner: Got almost all the Westra siblings and the folks out to Olive Garden in American Fork. Family and Food!
• Just Jen: Still making sourdough three times a week, still teaching Zumba ... had a session with the Achievement Day girls this month. Still playing some  PokemonGo ;) Not much blogging in January (a couple posts on the family blog) but an increased obsession with books. Updated her Goodreads, joined another tracking website (Storygraph) and joined a bookclub in the neighborhood, which meets monthly.

It's been a year since Jen went boom ... happily no ill effects from that fall. With the new year, deductibles and out of pocket medical bills have reset. Gray cut his finger pretty good prepping a meal ... perhaps should have had stitches, but it's healing. Keaton is finally feeling back to normal after his Carpal Tunnel surgery. Most everything else with the family is continuing to go on per usual.