Decade in review

I’ve been reading lately that the decade of 2000 has been one of the worst in U.S. history.  For me, however, it has been hands down the best decade of my life.  There were some hard times, but overall, WOW.

In 2000, my best friend and love, proposed.  We had a fantastic, fast engagement during which I moved to Abilene, TX and began teaching at my favorite position in Wylie (Abilene) ISD.  We were married at the end of the year and rung in 2001 on our honeymoon in Bali.

In 2001, I was given the opportunity to become a trainer for the statewide reading academy.  Brian and I took a great trip down to Austin for the training, and after training teachers for a summer, I started my Master’s program in Reading at HSU.  Our first year of married life was exciting and well worth the wait.

In 2002, I deepened some new friendships at Hardin-Simmons that are so dear to me still today.  Brian and I both continued working and taking classes toward our Master’s degrees.  We enjoyed some camping trips in and around Abilene.

In 2003, I graduated from my Master’s program and decided with my husband that it was time to leave Texas.  We moved to Alaska, Brian’s long time dream, and have not looked back.  We had an amazing month long trip/move stopping to see the Grand Canyon, Vegas, dear friends in Fresno (and some from Dallas that met us there), and taking a three day ferry ride past Canada to our new home in Fort Yukon.

In 2004, we experienced our first extreme temperatures in the Arctic Circle, watched Northern Lights dance over our heads as we walked to work in the early mornings.  We met and grew a friendship with some awesome folks who now live way too far from us.  We toured the state in our first summer in Alaska, driving the Denali Highway, visiting Seward, Anchorage and points between.

In 2005, we welcomed our first child, Jacob Liem.  What a joy.  What an experience.  What a way to deepen a marriage.  Wow.  I also put my teaching career on hold to become a stay-at-home mom.  Lots of work, but I’m having a great time still.

In 2006, we welcomed our second child, Tobias James.  Again, what a joy.  In addition to that, we moved from Fort Yukon, which was a hard move, but it brought us to some new opportunities and we experienced God’s hand using us in some really neat ways in Circle, AK.

In 2007, we welcomed Jamiee Danielle into our family.  We had a “baby free” summer and enjoyed seeing some more of the state with family!

In 2008, we welcomed our third child, Sarah Avery.  We had an incredibly scary experience with her, but were so lucky to see God’s hand as he guided surgeons and healed her completely.  She truly is a gift from our Father in heaven.  We also bought our first house in Fairbanks and joined a fantastic church.

In 2009, Brian took a job in Fairbanks, ending the weekend commutes, and we have enjoyed a great time being together as a family and being in love.  Also jumped into some great new friendships this year and I’m really excited about seeing them grow.

Thank you, 2000’s.  I will remember you fondly – even if the rest of the world does not.

Published in:  on December 31, 2009 at 1:52 am Leave a Comment
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Back posting

I googled myself tonight to see what was publicly available about myself.  One interesting thing that I found was my MySpace blog and Facebook notes popped up in a search.  I had forgotten that I kept the MySpace blog for a while, so tonight, I moved most of the posts from there to this website and backdated.

I wasn’t writing very much, but it was interesting to me to re-read stories that I wrote about Jacob before he was talking.  It’s already hard for me to remember him like that.  Several of the posts happened right about Sarah’s age today.  I wonder if she can do the things that he was doing then.  I’m sure my expectations were higher for Jacob since he was first and they are probably lower for Sarah since I’m just keeping my head above water on some days with three little ones.  I should test her out more!

Daily scoop of the kids:

Jacob decided he likes eggs today – but only hard boiled.  When he was one, I could get him to eat scrambled,but he never really liked them.  I am pretty sure that the only reason he likes them now is because he knows that some dinosaurs like to eat eggs and he wishes he were a dinosaur.

I was scolded tonight when Toby got into trouble.  I let a laugh slip when he disobeyed Brian in an incident involving pretzels. As Brian was discussing it with him, Toby was squirrely and smiling.  Brian said, “I don’t think what you did was funny,” to which Toby replied, “Mom did.”  Oops.

Sarah is a little menace under the Christmas Tree.  I have now re-wrapped four presents that she has unwrapped. AARGGHH!  She also insists of sticking her hands in the toilet daily and then slurping the water off of them.  Such a little lady…

And finally, Jamiee had mid-terms all week and finished the first semester of her junior year today.  She’s been out since after school and is seeing a late movie.  I hope she’s behaving!

Published in:  on December 18, 2009 at 11:14 pm Comments (3)

Anticipation

I love Christmas.  I love every bit of it.  Shopping, wrapping, decorating, lights, music, warm fuzzy feelings, the Advent.  It’s all great.

So, today was the day after Thanksgiving, and in my eager anticipation for the season to begin, my morning declaration to Brian was that I either needed to start decorating or buy something.  He did not want to decorate, so I got to go shopping.  Yipee!

I didn’t go crazy.  In fact, I didn’t buy much, but I did make a trip to our friendly Fred Meyer and picked up Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaur and a cute plaid Christmas dress for Sarah.  Made me feel much better.

I am still feeling the need to start decorating.  I wonder how long Brian’ll make me hold off…

Published in:  on November 27, 2009 at 10:56 pm Comments (4)
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Things that bug me

Wet/snowy shoes on the carpet.

Food left in bowls and on plates on the counter.

My kitchen radio station changed.

Obnoxious kids whose parents don’t realize they are obnoxious.

Repetitive jazz music.

Texting while speaking face to face with another person.

 

 

 

Published in:  on November 11, 2009 at 8:30 pm Comments (1)

Just say no?

As I was sitting here reading Brian’s blog today, I watched my next door neighbor walk into his special spot – his pot smoking spot.

My sister and I have laughed about how much Nancy Reagan’s Just Say No campaign and the warning that you could DIE the first time you tried drugs impacted us as teens.  Neither of us have ever tried them.  Until I moved up to Alaska, I still had it in my head that if you did drugs you were a “druggie,” and your life was headed for disaster.  Now, that is probably true in most cases, but I do recognize that marijuana is surprisingly accepted and used recreationally – especially up here where full legalization of marijuana hits the ballots every few years.

We have not been big television watchers, but have enjoyed Netflix over the past few years.  We have enjoyed several of the HBO series, but after seeing all that we wanted to see, we were looking for something new.  I read briefly about Weeds and thought that it sounded interesting.  I watched a season or two, but have since stopped.  It was just way too morally corrupt – but somehow the Sopranos passed my bar… hmmm… I digress.  So anyway, it has had me thinking about marijuana.

I visited the parent of one of my daughter’s friends recently and saw tacked on the wall their medical marijuana license.  I was pretty surprised.  When I asked my daughter if she knew about she said that she did and that the parent smokes in a special room in the house.  Wow.

And then there’s my neighbor.  It was mid-winter last year when I walked out and smelled it for the first time.  I couldn’t figure out where it was coming from, but smelled it on several occasions.  There is a rental house near ours with college students in it, so I just assumed that it was coming from there.  But then my daughter was outside one day and found him lighting up on his back porch.  Since then, it’s become a regular occurrence.  During the summer, he sat outside in a screen room, now he goes into a shed.  He even mentioned to me that he drinks less because he smokes more, which he thinks is healthier.  I don’t know if that’s true, but it’s interesting to me that he can speak so freely about it without knowing my thoughts on the issue.

So, you may be wondering, what is my point here?  Why am I writing this?  I’m not sure.  Just thinking about it.

Published in:  on November 5, 2009 at 4:14 pm Comments (4)
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Moving on

I wrote a post in November about Jacob and his love of whales.  With his infatuation going on for over a year at that point, I wondered when it would end.  Well, it looks like the day has come.

Yesterday, while pretending to be an Oviraptor all day, Jacob told one of my friends that he used to love whales, but now he only loves dinosaurs.  I realize that he is growing up and that his interests will change over time, but it made me so sad to hear him say that.

While talking to another friend this week, she mentioned that she would give anything to spend a day with her twins when they were two.  She said that that period of her life is such a blur now.  I have been thinking about that ever since we talked.  There are days that I am fully engaged and LOVE being a full time mom.  There are other days that I just want to get back in bed and start over.  I do treasure them though and I hope that these memories never fade.

Published in:  on March 5, 2009 at 10:19 pm Comments (4)
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30 posts in 30 days!

I Did It!

I am surprised at myself. I would not have put money down on myself since I am not very good at keeping any kind of journal. Hopefully this experience will put me on the right path to blogging regularly. I usually feel like I don’t have anything worth putting pen to paper for, and I think some of my posts actually confirmed that, but for the most part, there are many little tidbits during the week that would be interesting to look back at later.

Thank you to those of you who have been faithful readers during these thirty days. Since Brian threw out the challenge, I also spent the last thirty days reading many other blogs daily. I’m surprised at how much time it took, but it was really worth it. I feel like I’ve been instantly reconnected with many of my close friends and family members. I hope you all continue to blog as well.

Published in:  on November 30, 2008 at 8:00 am Comments (5)
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Family photo

We took our annual family photo today. We did it up at the church this year in front of their Christmas tree. We were going to do it on the staircase, but the tree was set up in the foyer and made for a nice background. Last year, I thought it would be a good idea to do it outside since the snow was so pretty. I did not take into consideration though that it was right around zero if not just below and we were all freezing!

This year, we managed to get a photo with no one crying and pretty much everyone smiling! That’s a rare treat with two toddlers and a baby!

Last year as we were going through all of our friends’ and family’s photos, we noticed that there were a large number of photos of just kids. We were a little disappointed because while all the kids were adorable, we wanted to see the people that we have known and loved for a long time. We talked about how it’s often easier to get the kids dressed up and that most of us are reluctant to take a photo of ourselves since it would reveal that we are getting older and wider wiser.

I thought about that this year as I was getting ready. I would much rather not be in the photo since I am getting older, getting white hair, and have definitely gotten a little “wiser” this year. It’s part of me though, and in the end, I know I can’t hide all that. I hope you feel the same too and we get to see YOU in your holiday photos!

Published in:  on November 29, 2008 at 3:19 pm Comments (4)
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Thankful

I’m thankful for my husband, Brian. There are so many things that I am thankful for about him, but one is that he does always take care of us. He does things differently than I would do them, and I question him like mad, but when it comes down to it, he takes care of us.

I’m thankful for my children. They bring laughter and joy into each day. They have occasionally brought tears, but I know that sometimes pain is part of what makes us grow closer.

I’m thankful for my parents. They raised me well and encouraged me to treasure family and time together.

I’m thankful for my siblings. They are people who I know will always be there to support and encourage me.

I’m thankful for my friends. I have REALLY good ones.

Most importantly, I’m thankful for my God and my Savior. We had a trying time this fall, and without Him I am not sure how we would have made it through it as well as we did.

Happy Thanksgiving. We have so much to be thankful for.

Published in:  on November 27, 2008 at 8:54 pm Leave a Comment
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Scrabble

Brian has always been a Scrabble fan. When we started dating, I had an old board that was in my parents house when I was growing up. It was not even a Parker Bros. game – it was a Selchow & Righter board. I think we played once on that board and he was frustrated the whole time because it did not have a plastic grid to hold the pieces in place. After that, we started playing on a travel edition that he had (with the grid). For one of my birthdays, when we were playing a lot, he bought me an anniversary edition with the grid. I took it up to school a couple of times and my students loved it, so I bought a regular board to use with my students in case a letter was lost. Then, just before we got married, I found another travel set. I’m not sure why I bought it since we had Brian’s, but that put us at five Scrabbles in the house. That last travel set is favorite because we keep paper from a hotel from our honeymoon inside to score on. Every time I open the set, I am flooded with good memories.

I was not very good when we first started. I would struggle to come up with four letter words, but after years of playing, we are well matched and have a lot of fun together when we do play. He tells me that I’m a terrible winner. We often talk about playing, but it seems like we rarely do now. When we are at home together, we have tried to play board games that Jamiee enjoys – we invested in Clue, Monopoly, Uno, and Sequence. Since she hasn’t really gotten into Scrabble, we kind of stopped playing. On the rare night, when Jamiee is out, we tend not to play board games.

I miss it. It’d be fun to play right now.

Published in:  on November 25, 2008 at 11:10 pm Comments (3)
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