A New Year

As we approach the midpoint of Jan 2010, I have succumbed to the need to catch up and carry on. My Blog is horribly out of date, and as I am a somewhat obsessive person I cannot bring myself to write about current events as they occur because I have not caught up with other events that I feel should be written in here somewhere. LOL. That I would skip events and come back to them is somewhat intolerable to my tiny brain. So, I have decided to take a short cut and accomplish a rapid-fire catch up blog. . .

Chris came home early in November and it was so nice to have him home. Thank goodness he had a great deployment and came home energized and excited, because I had a LONG deployment and could not have been happier that he was home. While he was gone, a couple of other job prospects fell through for various reasons. He has now turned down jobs because the job sounded like something that would make him want to pull his teeth out each day, and others for pay reasons. The funny thing is, despite the occasional frustration and deployments, he really loves his current job and the people he works with. The job he is in now was a gift from God shortly before we were married and each time we contemplate something different we end up back at square one with a renewed appreciation for the job God gave us. We are not sure what the future holds for him as far as occupation but are wide open. He continues to work towards his bachelor's degree in Security Management, and extended in the National Guard for about 1.5 more years -- He is enjoying his new unit and they actually appreciate what he brings to the table. God willing, he will retire middle of next year with 22 years of service.

Thanksgiving turned out to be a great time with family right here at home. Although we originally planned to go south to Mississippi things became "complicated", and we just simply didn't have the money to go. So, we gave the family the bad news and stayed home. It turned out to be such a fun relaxing holiday. We were so happy we made the decision to go nowhere. Russell got to spend the whole week at home with us. We went hiking a couple of times and even camped out one night despite the rain and cold. We also celebrated Caden's 4th Birthday together that week.

The first weekend of December I had the wonderful pleasure of flying to Florida to spend the weekend with one of my best friends. Mary and I used to fly gunships together. She has 3 daughters almost the exact same ages as Ezekiel, Caden, and Olivia. Chris stayed home and watch all the kids for me and I went by myself. I went down to run the Jingle Bell Run for arthritis with her. She runs it every year because her middle daughter, Emma (age 4), has severe arthritis. Also, Mary's birthday is 2 Nov while mine is 1 Nov. So, every year we celebrate our birthdays together, sometime around November. We always celebrate by going to The Melting Pot restaurant -- SO AWESOME. We had the best weekend and I came home with some much needed rest to a husband with a far greater appreciation of what it takes to take care of the kids by yourself. Don't get me wrong he has always appreciated that it takes work, but personal experience goes a long way towards genuine understanding.

Somewhere in the middle of all this, we had 2 feet of snow. It was awesome. The kids had so much fun watching it fall and playing in it and hiking through the woods, sledding. We still have snow on the ground from "Winter Storm 09".

Christmas was another really low key event for us this year. Back during the summer we announced to all our family that we would be spending this one at home. For once we wanted to sit at home and open gifts and enjoy the Christmas day at home with our kids. So, that is exactly what we did. Russell got a new dress watch and some books from Mommy and Daddy and a chess set from Zeke/ Ezekiel got his first hunting rifle (yes a real one) and some books from Mommy and Daddy and computer game from Russell/ Caden got a play castle, a scooter, books, and legos from Mommy and Daddy and dragons to go with his castle from his brothers/ Olivia got a new doll and doll stroller/playpen/swing from Mommy and Daddy and My Little Pony toys from her brother. Everyone had a great Christmas. We cleaned out old toys and brought in the new. It was awesome. Then, the next day we drove to Grandma's house for Christmas in Ohio with my family. We had a really good time with my brother's and their families and exchanged a few small gifts and then spent a few more days in Ohio enjoying family.

While we were in Ohio we celebrated Russell's birthday. Grandma was able to get a very nice lady from her church to babysit for Caden and Olivia so that we could take Russell out for his birthday. We went to a Really Awesome Japanese Hibatchi grill for dinner and then went to see Sherlock Holmes the new movie. I really didn't want to see the new Sherlock Holmes, but it turned out to be a pretty awesome movie, and we all had a great time celebrating Russell's 14th birthday. I don't know where the last year went because I swear it feels like he was just 12 yesterday.

We came home just before the new year and actually spent New Year's Eve at home with the kids. All three boys watched movies and played Wii and had a "sleep-over" in the spare room. At midnight they came into our room ( the only tv with a cable hook-up) and watched the ball drop and then went back to their playing. Olivia didn't make it past 1000. We tried to let her stay up late in hopes that she would sleep late since everyone else was staying up late. LOL she was still up at 0700 the next morning.

Chris left on the 3rd to go out to Arizona for the month of Jan for some training. Russell went back to school that evening and I had a migraine for the whole ride home from Fork Union. Chris got stuck in Atlanta that night but finally did make to Arizona just to find out that he had no spot in the class. The individual responsible for coordinating his spot in the class had done ZERO follow up or confirmation even though he passed to Chris and his supervisor that everything was good to go. So a not very happy Chris turned around and came all the way back two days later. It was turned out to be pretty good thing. Even though he is upset to miss out on the training we have enjoyed having him at home this month. He will be leaving on deployment again sometime in the spring. The departure date is not set yet. We just know it will be before 15 May.

We are getting geared up to go to Florida for a month from mid-Feb to mid-March. We are going to finish the improvements to the house, and put it on the market. With a lot of prayer, and God willing the house will sell this Spring. Although we love Florida and the opportunities that house has provided us, it will be nice to be out from under the burden of two homes.

Our goal for 2010 is DEBT FREE. We are prayerfully working towards paying off all our debt and hope to have nothing left but the mortgage on the house we reside in at the end of 2010.