2009 Year in Review

I can not believe that today is the last day of 2009. When I think of how 2008 was closing I knew that God had some major changes in store for us in the coming year. Again I can not help but feel as if there are more changes that God is preparing us for in 2010.
So, with that, here is a run down of the highlights and lowlights of 2009.

January--E & K both celebrated birthdays. E turned 8 and K turned 6.

February--Tia, B's sister who had lived with us for a few years, got married. Both kids were in the wedding. She met an awesome guy and I know that God has His hand on their marriage.

March--On the 15th, the children publicly accepted Jesus as their Savior through Baptism! The following week, B got a phone call offering him a position with a new job. We had 24 hours to decide if he would take the job--kinda funny when you think about it, since he had initially pursued this job in Oct. 2006.

April--A whirlwind month. B left on April 21st to go to a 6 month long (really 28 weeks) out-of-state, training for the new job. Before this, B had been working from home since E was 3 months old. So, to not be around him at all when we were so used to him being around was hard. The first few weeks were extremely hard. We had a few things that kept us busy, such as the kids sport activities.

May--B was able to come home for the weekend of Memorial Day. This weekend also happened to be K's dance recital and I was beyond thrilled that we would be together as a family for this short amount of time and that B would be able to see K's year of hard work!

June--I had decided back in late April that I would try to work at two Mother's Day Out programs in the summer to keep us busy, so this month is when it started. It was hard. Most of the month is a blur.

July--B and I were able to spend the July 4th weekend together. The kids stayed with some friends and I flew out on the 2nd. We had a great weekend together and went to the beach to see the fireworks show on the 4th. A few weeks after that B was able to come home to spend some time with the kids.

August--The kids and I took a mini vacation with Aunt J to Abilene. We needed the time away and it was so much fun.
K began her 4th year of dance. I started schooling the kids again. E is in 3rd grade, K is in 1st.

September--I left the kids with some friends and went on a trip to New England with J, my mom and my aunt. This trip had been in the works since 2008 and I was worried that I wouldn't be able to go when B accepted the new job. Thankfully one of my friends allowed the kids to stay with them until B was able to pick them up. This trip was a much needed respite from single mom duty.
B's company had the labor day weekend pre-arranged as a trip home, so when I got home from the airport B and the kids were at home waiting. We took B back to the airport on the 8th.
On Sept. 9th we received word that my dad's mom, my Grandma Louise, had passed away. I spent the next 24 hours trying to figure out where to send the kids as it was to expensive to take them up to New York for the funeral. E had a trip to D.C. already scheduled with my sister, so he spent an additional day at her house while my friend L offered to watch K for me. So, on Sept. 11th my sister J, my brother and I headed to New York to meet up with my parents who had already traveled there.
I really didn't know my grandmother that well. I can only remember a handful of times that we saw her.

October--B had one more pre-arranged trip home, and it fell on the 2nd weekend of October. On the 20th, I celebrated my 30th bday. I worked that evening at church ( I do childcare) and my friend who I work with had decorated the room for me and brought me a gift and some balloons. It was such a sweet and heartfelt gesture. B's birthday was on the 26th and it killed me not being able to be with him and celebrate.
I left that weekend though to go to GA for the last time to spend the weekend with B while the kids stayed with my mom. We headed up to Savannah and even had dinner at Paula Deen's The Lady and Son's restaurant.

November--My trip to GA lasted until the beginning of Nov. B graduated from training on Nov. 3rd and we began the trip home. The trip lasted about 17 hours of driving time. We picked the kids up from my parent's on the 4th, and I was relieved to have my family all back together.
B started his new job on the 6th, and we celebrated my 30th and B's homecoming with friends that weekend.
We also were able to celebrate the adoption of my friend S's baby girl. What a humbling experience.

December--This past month has gone by in a flash. We have slowly started to settle into a routine.

While B was gone for those 28 weeks, I honestly felt that I needed to just survive. We would have arguments because he would say that I should be flourishing, but I felt like I was doing all I could to just survive.
I could not have possibly made it through the time that he was gone without my friends and family. There is a gentleman at church who constantly called asking if I needed help with anything and he helped me with the lawn work and other household things that would pop up and need replacing/fixing. My friends were there for me when I needed them most and listened to me when I needed to talk. And my family. The kids and I spent a lot of time with my family, especially my sister J and I cherish those moments.
Finally my God. I could not have survived without His love and grace. The first month or so that B was gone I had trouble sleeping. Any little noise would disturb me. I went to bed thinking of ways to protect my kids and myself and I woke up thinking of ways to protect my kids and myself.
Let me end this with my life verse:
2 Timothy 1:7 For God did not give me the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of sound mind.
God would place that verse on my heart and in my mind and I can clearly say I have felt His peace through all I have been through.

Gingerbread Houses

We went to a friends house for our annual Gingerbread House decorating day, and this is E & K's masterpiece for 2009. Unfortunately it collapsed on itself later in the evening. Could it be all of the candy piled on top that had something to do with it???

Another post about recipes

I am so proud of myself! I have been trying to make more new recipes since B has been home. I have made at least one or two each week. Some of the things I have made based on recipes I have recently found include potato soup, lazy cabbage rolls, sweet potato fries, and a ridiculous amount of cookies.
One of E's Awana leaders called Tuesday morning to ask if I could bring 3 dozen cookies for their party on Wednesday evening.
I knew that I wanted to bake some for K's class as well and then send any leftovers to work with B.
I also knew that I wanted to make cookies that I don't normally make.
My friend E sent me her recipe for Williams Sonoma peanut butter cookies, so I made a batch of those. I also made a batch of snickerdoodles, andes mint cookies and m&m cookies.
The least time consuming were the m&m cookies--I literally just made the batch up and put it in the oven. The other 3 batches of cookies had to be chilled in the fridge for as long as 2 hours!
When I was putting the last bit of cookies on the pan to bake, K came into the kitchen and was shocked at the counter full of cookies. She started counting them, and said there had to be at least 102 cookies on the counter. I think there were actually more like 150 cookies on the counter.
I did try one of each cookie, but the rest are out of the house!

One of my favorite sites

I have several websites that I go to on a daily basis. I am addicted to blogs! One site that I check at least twice daily, if not more, is foodgawker.com
It has a ton of different food dishes that are submitted by different bloggers daily. I love to browse through there and see if there is anything there that I would actually make. Clicking on the picture actually takes you to the blog where they usually give the recipe for that item.
So, on Wednesday I was searching through there and decided to try out two recipes there. One was apple spice cupcakes with cream cheese frosting(moderndomestic.com) and the other was roasted chickpeas (askgeorgie.com). While I don't care for chickpeas, I thought B would enjoy them. He takes a salad to work for lunch almost every day and I thought that the chickpeas would add a different dimension to the salad instead of the almonds or walnuts that he usually has in his salad.
Both of these recipes turned out well. I will definitely be making the apple spice cupcakes again. I am not sure if B loved the chickpeas but he did like them--though he has yet to have them on a salad. He tells me that he has just been picking them from the container.
I already have a few other recipes pulled up on foodgawker that I would like to make! I can't wait!

T minus 3 days

Wow! I can't believe Thanksgiving is in 3 days! Where has the time gone? I have almost everything needed to make apple pie. I am also bringing pumpkin pie and B is making some sweet potatoes. We will be heading over to my parent's house for the big feast. Can't wait to see everyone!

I surprised B with a spontaneous date night on Friday. The Blind Side was released Friday and I was anxious to watch it, so I dropped the kids off at a friend's house. We loved the movie and once it is released on dvd we will definitely let the kids watch it. After that, we hit up our favorite Mexican restaurant, Los Lupes. We love the food, but rarely go there. The dinner would have been perfect however Los Lupes has started having karaoke on Friday evenings and the guy in charge of it could not sing at all. It wouldn't have been that bad, but there were not many people who wanted to perform so this guy kept singing. Seriously, it was horrible!!!

On Saturday morning we were up early to witness the adoption of our friends, the T's, daughter. Saturday was National Adoption Day and there were many people at the court house adopting. It was such an awesome thing to witness our friends become the forever parents to baby V! We could not be any happier for them!!

Saturday evening we headed to my parent's house for the November birthday celebrations--my twin sisters, J & D; and J's son L. We had a delicious meal of manicotti, salad, bread and tiramisu. YUM!

And they're out!

I got my stitches taken out this morning! Yay! Sweet relief! They had been bothering me whenever I stretched my hand or curled my hand, so they needed to go. I had to take the kids with me, of course, and E was covering his ears. I think he thought I was going to scream! Ha. It did hurt a bit, but I am just so glad to have them gone.
The dr. said to keep the area dry and covered for the next few days as it is still healing. It looks ugly, but hopefully the scar won't be so noticeable.

This morning when I woke up, it was in the 40's but with the windchill it was about 38. Not cute. So, after the kids and I left the dr. office we headed to the grocery store and picked up a whole chicken. I came home, butchered it and it is now simmering away. Chicken and dumplings sounds delish on a day like today! I am so in the mood to bake as well. I have plenty of bread so I may whip up some bread pudding, but yesterday I saw an amazing looking white cake on a blog that I want to try as well. Doesn't this look so good: http://mangiodasola.blogspot.com/2009/11/white-cake-with-vanilla-buttercream.html
Yum!

2 1/2 Hours

That is how long the kids and I sat at Care Now this afternoon.
Just a little back story...
Tuesday evenings I work at church doing childcare. I was helping my friend cut construction paper for the AWANA craft the next evening. While doing that, I managed to cut my left index finger with the tip of the scissors. I saw it happen in slow motion, and it was not pretty!! I am not a fan of blood, but I called security on the walkie talkie and met them in one of the lobbies for the first aid kit. Thankfully, the security guard's wife was there, and she helped bandaged my finger up as good as possible with the limited supplies we had.
Normally E & K come with me on Tuesday evenings, but E decided he wanted to stay home with B so it was just K and me at church. I called B and told him to find an urgent care center since I thought it would be quicker and cheaper than going to the ER.
B met me there and took the kids home since by that time it was 8:45. Thankfully I was only at urgent care for an hour! They decided I needed stitches to close the wound and luckily I only needed 2 stitches. They also put me on an antibiotic to prevent infection.
As I was leaving, they told me to come back on Friday for them to check out the stitches and so they could make sure I was not getting an infection.
So, today after co-op, the kids and I head on over for the follow up visit. Now, I normally wouldn't bring the kids to a place like this, but because I didn't feel like sitting there on a Friday evening, I decided to take them. We got there at 11:36 a.m. and did not go back into a room until 1:15p.m. Then, the dr. didn't even come in the room for another 30 minutes. Seriously.
Thankfully they have movies playing to distract you from watching the clock. The kids and I finally got out of there at 1:51. The kids were beyond starving since they ate breakfast at 7am and hadn't had a snack. Honestly, I didn't even think it would take that long! There were only 3 other people ahead of us when we got there! Craziness!!!
Luckily there is a Taco Cabana in the shopping center we were at, so the kids empty stomachs were soon filled!
Now, I have not had stitches since the last day of school my senior year, when some dope threw a glass bottle down the top of the stairs and it shattered and then some glass ricocheted and cut my leg right above my left knee. And, I have never had stitches on my fingers/hands. I can not stress how thankful I am that this happened when B was home. If he was still away this would have been disastrous. He has been having to wash my hair for me and help me shower amongst other things. I am so ready to have full use back of my finger.
I am including a picture, but you can't see the stitches well. It is ridiculous that 2 tiny stitches have limited my normal living!

I had it all planned out

Since B now has to go in to work at an office I have found that I kinda miss him working from home. When he was away, I was fine with doing everything on my own, but now that he is back I am happy to have someone else to rely on.
This afternoon I had planned to do a few errands and to take the cat to the vet. I load the cat into her crate and then the kids and I hop into the car to make it to the vets office a few minutes early. I push the button on the garage remote and the garage door won't go down. Since our remote has 3 different buttons (and only 1 of them is to put the door up and down) I start hitting the other buttons. Clearly something is wrong, so I hop out of the car with the intentions of closing the garage and then exiting the front door. Well, no can do...The garage door won't go down!! It moves a little bit down and then all the way back up. So, here I sit, hoping that B gets home in time for me to take K to dance and to do a few errands that I need to do. Welcome back to reality!

The Fab Four

B finally came home from training, so we are a complete family again! YAY!
I was able to go for B's graduation. We spent the weekend prior to his graduation in Savannah. We were able to eat dinner at Paula Deen's The Lady and Sons on Saturday evening.
On Sunday, we headed back to where B has been 'stationed' for the past 6 months. We took a long walk on the beach and were able to see a gorgeous sunset! After graduation on Tuesday we started the 17hour drive home. While it was a beautiful drive, I would prefer not to have to sit in a car for such long periods of time for a while.
This weekend has been a weekend of partying. We started out with a bonfire at some friends house on Friday evening. This is our 3rd or 4th annual fall bonfire at their house, complete with a weenie roast and s'mores; and a hay ride. This is an event that we all look forward too.
Last night we had a party with friends to celebrate my 30th birthday and B's homecoming. I love having parties and getting to spend time with friends. We totally forgot to take any pictures of this. I made B his favorite--carrot cake, and I must say that it was great!
Tonight is our last party for the weekend, and it is for one of the kid's friends. We have been spending a lot of time lately with our group of friends, and I love it!!
B started his new job on Friday, but this week will give us a real taste for what his job will be like, with him leaving early in the morning and coming home in the late afternoon. Can't wait to see what God has in store for us!

Headed back to Normal

Friday afternoon, my friend L dropped off her 2 youngest kiddos. The baby is a crawler, and my house is no longer baby proof since my 'baby' will soon be 7. I rearranged a few things so as not to entice the baby. We spent the rest of Friday here at the house and I knew that for my sanity I would need to get the kids out of the house for much of Saturday.
The baby slept until 8:45 at which point, I woke him up cause his breakfast was cold. Plus, we needed to get on with our day. After lunch was prepared and everyone dressed, we loaded up in the car and went to a pumpkin patch. The kids had a blast. It was family fun day, and everything was free. There were quite a few games, a firetruck to explore, sand art to create and food everywhere. They were offering free sno-cones, cotton candy and popcorn and I spotted some lunch stuff as well. The kids opted for the cotton candy. Each kiddo, save the baby, picked out a pumpkin to take home with them as well.
Next on the agenda was the zoo. Due to traffic being diverted to a different highway, we had lost some time so we ate our lunch in the car.
We finally arrived at the zoo, and when I was driving up to show my pass (free parking for those with a zoo pass) a bee flew in my car! We were all freaking out. I opened all the windows and the darn thing would not leave! It flew by baby and K tried to get it off of him. She put a bag on baby to protect him, but inadvertently trapped the bee. Thankfully nobody got stung.
Once in the zoo, we moseyed our way along the paths. We only stayed at the zoo for a few hours, but that was long enough. We saw most everything they wanted to see. By that time it was almost 3 o'clock and baby had fallen asleep in the stroller. Plus there were bees everywhere which made our decision to leave that much easier!
I had a stop to make, and on our way out, the sales lady told me that my kids were so well behaved! Woohoo!! We got home at about 4:30 just to leave to do another errand shortly before 6. Afterwards I took the kids out to dinner and then home just in time for baths and bed!!! I had feared that Saturday would be my hardest day to keep them entertained but all went well!
Sunday we went to church and then came home after lunch for naps! L picked the kids up around 5'ish. What a fun weekend we had!
After they left, E, K and I left for another church family fun fest that I had heard about. They were able to play more games, jump in a few bounce houses and have a totally healthy dinner of nachos ;)

1979

30 years ago today, I was born. Well, technically, I was born at 10:17pm, so about 20 minutes ago I officially turned 30. WOW. As a teenager, I could never picture myself as a 30 yr old. I pictured myself getting married and having kids, but being 30??? Never entered my mind.
I have felt extremely blessed and loved today. My family and friends have certainly lavished me with love.
Two of my friends cooked for me today. L made me some awesome enchiladas and spanish rice, and E made me a wonderful lemon meringue pie.
Then tonight as I went to work at church, my friend K surprised me and decorated the room and brought balloons, a sweet card and a gift of chocolate.

Aside from today being my birthday, it is also the 2 week mark of when B will graduate! 14 more days!! I will fly out to be with him in 10 days and then drive home with him after the graduation ceremony. I can not believe how fast the days are going now! In the beginning, time just sort of dragged on, and now time is just flying by!

Tonight the kids and I went to a friends house for dinner. She made us some yummy spaghetti, salad and garlic bread. After dinner we walked to a pumpkin patch nearby. I *LOVE* pumpkin patches! The kids ran around like wild hooligans, and I had to threaten them a couple of times just to get a few cheesy pictures. We finally told them that it was time to pick their pumpkins so we could go back to the house and paint them.
K chose this huge pumpkin, but had to settle for a medium sized one that would actually fit in the stroller for our walk back to the house. E chose 2 mini pumpkins plus this awesome one that looks like a mushroom. On a whim I picked up a smallish one.
So, after our short trek back to the house, the kids get to painting. I decided to paint my pumpkin when the kids were about halfway through.
K's pumpkin has on a party hat (where the stem used to be is where she painted it) and then some dots around the back of it. E said his pumpkins were dripping blood or something--and I get the bad mom of the year reward for not taking a better picture of his pumpkins-he ran off before I could snap some of him with them. My pumpkin just has polka dots all over it. My friend had an awesome round brush and it seemed like a fun but easy idea.
Tomorrow we will set them on the front porch for all to see!

3 weeks

3 weeks from today B will be graduating from training. I am hoping to fly out there on the 30th and then after attending his graduation, he and I will begin the journey home.
B was able to come home for a visit this past weekend. He flew in Thursday evening and the kids and I dropped him back off at the airport this morning. The weather was rainy and grey while he was here, but that didn't stop us from having fun!
We went to a fall festival that a city nearby hosts every year and had a great time. B actually ran in to an old co-worker there. We had also planned to go to a pumpkin patch while he was here, but the weather was too cold, so we just played around the house and took the kids to Chuck E Cheese.

Fergi

I hope that I spelled Ferg's name right. My brother, T, is going on a year long work expedition and asked us to watch his cat while he is away. So, we now have a new member of the family until T comes back. We picked Ferg up Friday evening. She is slowly getting used to her new place. Friday night B and I left her in our bathroom with everything she needed. Saturday night she woke B up with her meowing, so he moved her to another room in the house. Last night we put her in the garage-we are trying to get her used to the cat door that we have--we installed that cat door years ago when we had a cat. The kids, E & K, are so excited about having a cat! We have to remind them not to chase Ferg around since she is still kind of skiddish! I forgot how much I love having a cat around! Ferg reminds me so much of Jaba, the cat my brother brought home my senior year of high school!

4 Weeks!

4 weeks from today B will be graduating from his training! He gets to come home this weekend for a visit and I can hardly wait!!! 4 weeks!!!!!

Baking Season is Among Us

Yesterday, my friend L and I hung out and decided to welcome fall by having a baking day! I bought a ton of apples last week at Sprouts since they were only $.49/lb. I also had some leftover frozen pumpkin from last years baking extravaganza. So, yesterday she and I were in the kitchen all stinkin' day long!
We made pumpkin bread, pumpkin/chocolate chip muffins, pumpkin/chocolate chip cookies, pumpkin pie, apple pie, apple cobbler (with a pie crust instead of biscuit topping) and some chicken tortilla soup.
I played it smart and started the day off making the soup, since I knew that after baking all day the last thing we would want to do would be make dinner for our family. The weather has been rather fall like--overcast and cool, so I knew it would be the perfect day to make the first batch of soup for the fall/winter season!
The kids and I got home after 4 yesterday afternoon and my body was worn out! I stood in the kitchen from 9:30 until we left at 4 yesterday, with a few sitting breaks in between. I came home thanking God that I had decided to make the soup early as I wanted to plop down on the couch and just sleep the night away.

J

***Today is my sister's birthday. Happy 31st J!!
J and I shared a room for 19 yrs. Can you imagine?!?! We have always gotten along well; however, we have had our share of fights--and who wouldn't, sharing such a small space! I remember my parents put a divider in our room to separate our beds/side of the room from each other. Well, guess whose side the closet was on?? Here's a hint...Not mine! Thankfully the divider didn't last long.
She has a great sense of humor, and once she starts laughing she often times cannot finish what she was saying cause she is laughing so hard! She once covered the toilet with saran wrap after watching it be done on the movie Little Monsters. Now, she didn't know who would fall prey to this prank but it was me! I thought my sister, D, had done this, so I, being the vengeful person I am, took D's toothbrush and poked a hole into the pee laden saran wrap. I don't remember when I found out that J had actually set that up, but D didn't find out until recently that I used her toothbrush. Looking back on it, I am not sure why I didn't think of J in the first place as it was so something she would do.
I think of all the great times that J and I have shared and I am so thankful that she is my sister. Recently the kids and I were at J's house and I was just overcome with sadness that K will never have a sister to share all the things that J and I have shared together.
Happy Birthday J. I love you!

***The first pic is one of J and my joint bday parties. The 2nd pic is one of us I just threw in for fun.

Productive Morning

Whew! I bought 10 lbs of ground beef yesterday and decided that I wanted to cook it up into different dishes so that I could have some on-hand meals.
This morning I made chili, mexican casserole, 2 batches of meatballs and I have some chorizo marinating in the fridge!
Now I need to figure out what I am going to make with all the apples that I bought yesterday, too. Apple pie, apple crisp, apple cake??? In the words of my grandma, "What to do, What to do???"

5 Weeks!

I can't believe there are only 5 weeks left until B is done with his training!
The time since B has been in training has not flown by, but it also has not gone to terribly slow. Once he begins the job we will be on to another adjustment in our lives. Prior to April, B has worked from home since E was 3 months old, so for over 8 years! Now he has been in training for 23 weeks and then will be working a normal (out of the house) job with who knows what kind of hours...Pray for us as we get ready to start another chapter in our lives!

What is that?!?!

B has been in training since April, thereby leaving me with all household duties.
Now, before I took over the lawn work (well, the mowing) I had mowed the lawn maybe 1/2 a dozen times in my life. Not that I am spoiled or anything, I have just taken care of the inside of the house.
No biggie, I think, I can easily take care of the lawn.
Well, about a month after B reported for duty, my neighbor comes over. She tells me that within the last week she had seen 2 snakes around-1 in her house and 1 in her backyard. Yeah, not exactly what I want to hear. So, that, in addition to some skunk issues that we used to have, put me on guard.
Every time I have mowed the lawn I have kinda held my breath hoping and praying not to come in contact with any creatures that should not be in my yard.
About 6 weeks ago I was mowing the back yard and spotted a snake! EEK!!! I screamed and then hurried away from the area-it was scared too and quickly slithered it's way into my neighbors yard. About two weeks later I am mowing the front yard, and lo and behold there is a snake skin that has been shed near our ginkgo tree.
Tonight, I go outside to finish mowing the back yard. I had mowed the front yard and side yard Saturday evening, but it was getting dark so I decided to wait until a different time to mow the rest of the back, since that is where I originally ran into a snake...
Can you see where this is going?
I go to open the back gate and what do I see but a snake!
I ran to get the kids--thinking they might like to see this--and tell them to come quick cause there is a snake. They hustle and we discover the snake is dead. E, being the only guy around, is in charge of moving the snake. Who knows how long it has been dead, but there were plenty of ants enjoying it. Now, I can't help to wonder if I hit it with the mower on Saturday evening when I was out mowing in the dusk. AGH!!! I have the major heebie jeebies now!

We'll See

I have never done a blog before, so we will see how this goes!
I guess I will explain the name of our blog.
B and I always tell the kids "I love you to the moon and back."
E and K will respond with all different ways they love us: I love you...as big as Six Flags; I love you...to heaven and back. I love you from the sun all the way to Pluto, etc...
And then the bickering starts about who loves us more...