Yes, this Beautiful Bombshell of a woman is my mother and she is 60 today!
So what gift do you get your mom to really show her how much you love her? What gift really says "Thank you for being the best mom-you mean the world to me and I love you?" I asked myself this last week Thursday while I was working. Then it hit me!!! That night I got on the phone with my family members and started planning like crazy! I had 2 days to get this project together and it had to be perfect!
My conversations with my family went a little like this: "Guys!! I need photos of you and your kids from all ages in your life and theirs. Please email them to me before Saturday 12pm. Also, I need you to write mom a letter about why you love her and what it is you love about her. Say what you'd want to say to her. Just make sure I get it by Saturday!!!! Ok? Great! GO GO GO!!"
Lets just say my family pulled through! They were AWESOME. Although my deadlines for their part of the project were rigid, they did their fair share and then some! You guys are amazing! Happy birthday, Mom! I hope it was a good one and that you felt a lot of love from your family!
Below is a link to the Birthday present I made for her! 22 hours worth of work withing 35 hours and only 6 hours of sleep in 2 days....it was totally worth putting this together for her though.
Click the picture below to go to mom's birthday book.
So It's been close to a small eternity since I've blogged. I'm sure many of you haven't really notice and I'm sure it hasn't altered your universe by an means. The past two-or-so months have been a crazy, busy -blur in my opinion so time to blog has been non existent.
So I think this will be the briefest blog I'll write. And lets be honest, we don't have kids, animals or any missionaries to write or brag about. Our lives right now, although busy, are pretty average for the time being. Needless to say, it seems like everyone else's worlds are going 100 MPH! We love hearing the news about everyone's lives and wish we were there to celebrate it will you all!
So for some announcements and commentary on our lives for the past 2 months:
My Brother, Conryd and my sister-in-law, Aly, are PREGNANT! YAY! I'm so uber thrilled for them I could scream! They're going to have an adorable half Asian baby! Congrats you guys.
As of late I am now applying for citizenship! Woo hoo! No more harassment for me at the airports! I'm seriously sick to death of being frisked and thoroughly searched every time I walk into an airport! So hold thumbs for my family and I that get it please. I don't want to give away my SA citizenship but life will be a lot more convenient when I do. No more Alien ID numbers for me!
Tristin and I went to our first Rockies Baseball Game in August! I think that I can really call myself a TRUE African-American now that I've been to a Rockies Game! They may not have won, but it was awesome to be there and enjoy the music and energy of the stadium! My favorite part was definitely the individual music that played for 10 seconds before each Rockies player went up to bat! Tolowitsky's "theme music" was "Party in the USA" by Miley Cyrus. I busted up laughing every time he went up to bat because that music would play for him.
Tristin is enjoying school this year, he says it's challenging but very worth it. We found out that after his Masters Degree here at Naropa, he can continue to get his PhD at BYU! So in 2 years time Tristin and I might be back at BYU....just like old times. Haha. Man, are we going to feel old when we go back! (I'll be going back to finish my Bachelors Degree in Nutritional Sciences).
So....yeah, that's pretty much our life right now. You really haven't missed much and there really isn't a lot to tell. I'm not going to lie, our lives are extremely busy, me burning out with work and Tristin burning out with school, but there's really not much more going on in the world of the Colorado Roneys!
Still loving the married life, still loving each other, still loving our lives...What more is there, really?
What's to say about Cayman? It was just wonderful! No schedule, no obligations, no nothing. Just peace and rest and relaxation. And for once I actually have a tan. Amazing. The last time I was tan was probably 4 years ago.
Any way, the pictures speak for themselves. Sleep, wake up, eat, swim, read, swim, snorkel, eat, read, swim, sleep. Our days went a little something like that. Oddly, Cayman reminds me of South Africa and Durban. The plants and humidity are so familiar to me. I loved it! We all did!
So I'm going to try a new approach to this. I don't know how many family members read our blog but I'll put it out there anyway.
The Cayman trip is one week away (YAY!!!!). In the past I've put aside time to do massages for family members on the trip. This year I'm thinking I'm going to do between 6-8 massages during the time in Cayman.
If you'd like to get a massage, pop me an email and I can put you down for one. This time round I'm probably only going to do the massages on Monday and Wednesday. If you want longer than an hour massage I'd be more than happy to oblige. If the days don't work for you let me know as well and we can figure out something else. I'm just listing my ideals but I'm pretty flexible.
$70 for an hour and $100 for 1.5 hours.
Pop me an email at juaniqueroney(at)gmail(dot)com if you'd like to get a time in or you can call or text me. Kim has my number if you need it (I'm not posting it on here due to spammers).
Can you say Bliss? Oh, it definitely was bliss and SO much more! I forgot how much I loved Powell! I also forgot how much I love being with our family. This living-away-from-family thing is not all that it's hyped up to be!
Anywho, Powell was amazing! Sleep, eat, surf, eat, nap, eat, swim, eat, swim, play games, read...Yup, that sums up the entire week! Gotta love it!
And just BTW, the house boats name was "Livin the Dream." So no, I didn't just put that phrase there on the picture to sound cute :P
We had so much fun in Utah this past weekend! need I say more? Yes, I worked (but still enjoyed myself) while Tristin went boating but, nevertheless, being in Utah again makes me so happy. On the 3rd we went to Janenes birthday Braai and afterwards watched the fireworks at Tristin's uncles house.
The 4th of July seemed like it was going to be a cold day but by noon we had our sweaters off and lay out in the sun and played Banana Grams. My mother made us a HUGE brunch that I wish I had taken a picture of. I didn't realize how much I missed her and Aly's cooking! You guys rock in the kitchen!
My mother absolutely spoiled me by taking me shopping and getting my toes painted. I refused at first but she's sometimes very persuasive. I told her that just spending time with her was enough.She got her way in the end. I love you Mom! You're amazing!
So Happy Birthday Janene and Happy Birthday America! I hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July celebration with your families and loved ones!
You think you have bad luck? Read the rest of this blog post to realize how lucky you are! 2 weeks ago water started dripping out of our ceiling on the 1st floor of our apartment. In our bedroom there was a damp spot on the carpet that kept getting worse and worse. We emailed the landlady immediately with pictures and descriptions of what was going on. The next day some guy came out to inspect the leak (this was about 2 weeks ago!!) He said he found nothing but will report to his superiors and get back to us shortly. One week later we hadn't heard ANYTHING from anyone...and the dripping got worse making the ceiling drape heavy with saturation. Friday afternoon we noticed the dripping had gotten A lOT worse. Mind you this was a sudden turn of dripping events. We took video and stressed the concern to our land lady as well as the HOA that this was a very serious problem and something had to be done SOON! This is what we saw Friday:
Saturday came around and the bottom floor looked like the ceiling was going to explode. I felt like I had woken up to a swamp. the wet patch on our floor in our room had gotten considerably worse and I was getting a little bit livid with the inaction of others not doing anything to fix this problem. But I'm not plumber or contractor so I was powerless. We had planned to go on a hike that morning so we set off to do just that.
Around 10:20am we got back from our hike. I ate some food, made some phone calls, rested on the couch and started to look up recipes for fried rice when I heard an alarm sound.
"Sounds like one of our neighbors alarms is going off again," I had remarked to Tristin. About a minute after than Tristin and I heard something like buckets of water falling in the next room over. We went to see what it was.
Gallons and gallons of water was pouring from the ceiling all over the living room! We ran up stairs to where the source of the now-loud alarm was sounding. The sight we saw was something I'll never forget. Niagra Falls was being spewed from out our bedroom wall and across the room! Everything was getting ruined with the never ending flood of water. Confused and in shock I asked myself, "What is the most expensive thing in this room and is partially salvagable?", grabbed our TV and ran to the next room over. I then went back to try and comprehend what I was watching. Still the water was spewing from our wall like CRAZY and pouring out of the window like a waterfall. I grabbed our already drenched laptops, realizing they were probably done for and left everything else behind to flood.
Tristin and I exited the building to see dozens of people outside of our apartment. The neighbors hurridly asked if we were ok and told us they had already called 911. We then joined the crowd and watched as our apartment overflowed. Uselessly we stared, with the rest of the neighborhood, and watched our entire 3.5 years worth of possesions get utterly destroyed.
The fire department came in about 10 minutes and switched off all the water. HOA people kept talking to me and telling me who they were and what to do. Endless people kept asking me who I was and what happened. I felt as though my brain was swimming in a tidalwave of emotions and questions.
Thank heaven for Sona! She was our saving grace. I called her and asked if we could stay with her family for a while. After 5 minutes of talking to her she called me back to tell me she had called several people that were coming to our aid to help.
About an hour later we had probably 15 people with 4-6 cars (I don't remember specifics at that point. I was still in shock) help carry all our stuff into cars and lug it all to our now-place-of-refuge. It was the miracle of the day for me. We had moved out 90% of all our possessions in a matter of 3 hours!
this is the apartment after the fire department had left.
By the time we had gotten to Sona's house (we were the last people to leave the apartment), almost everything was unpacked and put in a temporary storage spot. I wanted to cry but was mentally in a state of numbness. I was so grateful for what everyone had done! There were neatly folded clothes and shoes in a closet, a bed and some of our salvaged pictures in our room that we are now staying in. It felt like a minature refuge from the storm we had just experienced.
The rest of the evening was a little bit hazy but we lived through it. I'll probably go more in detail but at some other time.
So that's the news of our apartment. thanks everyone for your thoughts and prayers. Throughout this aweful experience we have seen the tender mercies of Heavenly Father. We are truly blessed. Things could have been a lot worse. Next to the computer I'm using is a sign that says, "If it doesn't matter ETERNALLY, does it really matter?" what an appropriate question for the past 24 hours. One day we will look back on this and say, "Hey, remember the time our apartment and belonging got completely destroyed?".
God is good, He is loving and I know that without his help things could have been a lot worse for us! I'm grateful to have seen his hand in all of this. From the angels that were there to help us move, to the angels that are supporting us morally and emotionally. We are thankful for all our friends who helped us through this experience. Words cannot express our gratitude for you!
Thank you a thousand times! My heart is overflowing in gratitude!
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