Since my last post, a LOT has happened in our lives. This
may be my longest blog yet… It’s been a tough year, but I’m finally able
to share a glimpse of what has been going on in our lives.
December was a great month! Since it was our first
Christmas in the new house, I had to go out and buy a few more decorations and
there is no other store better that Pier 1 for the cutest decorations. I
almost can’t wait for Christmas again this year just so can pull out those cute
little reindeer again! Our dear friend Penny was in town so we got to have
dinner with her and her husband and sweet kiddos along with our group of other
friends. We finally got to see Tamia which was great. We snapped a few pictures while she was with us for the weekend. December flew by and before I knew it, Christmas was here and we
finalizing our plans to get to Iowa to celebrate with family. Before
going, we had our Christmas celebration at home, on a school night, with the
fireplace going. It was a nice little celebration. My cousin was throwing
my aunt a surprise retirement party and it just happened to be a couple of days
before Christmas so we were able to join in on that. My Aunt Peg had worked at
the courthouse for 32 years! My kids babysat my cousin’s kids so the
adults were all able to go to the bar and have a few drinks with the family
after the celebration at the courthouse.
We had plenty of time to spend with family for Christmas
last year. We had our traditional Christmas Eve with the Melby side at my
Aunt Loretta/Uncle Russ’s house and as always, it was a great time. There is
never a dull moment when around this side of the family. It wouldn’t have
been a great evening without a game of Heads Up and Mom showing us her lap
dancing skills (I hope to go the rest of my life without ever having to see
this again…). Great people, food, conversation, games, laughter and just
an overall great time. Seeing the littlest boys in the family was icing
on the cake. These 3 boys are so dang cute and have so much energy.
Christmas morning was a typical morning for us being out of
town. The kids slept in, barely remembered “Santa” and then we headed to Teige
and Kathy’s house for the day. After a delicious meal, Teige and his
father-in-law took the kids and Jeff outside and they all shot guns. My kids
have never shot a gun before and Jeff hadn’t shot these types of guns so they
had an afternoon of fun doing that. It was loud and I was a bit freaked
out but they had a great time. That evening we had the Thompson Christmas
at my Grandpas house so we got to see the remainder of the family that evening.
Before heading home, we had to have an evening at the Ulvens
so the kids could hang out and the adults could catch up. Thanks to my
brother Talan for getting me sick, I wasn’t feeling the best so basically just
sat and stared at them while they ate and conversed. Our kids and their
kids get along so great, it’s doesn’t matter that a year or sometimes 2 years
go by without them seeing each other, they always pick up right where they left
off.
Besides seeing family, the best part of the trip was getting
to see my sweet high school friend Melissa, her husband, their kids, her parents
and her sisters and their families. It’s been years since I’ve seen all of
them. It was so great to catch up with all of them!
We spent New Years Eve with some of our very best friends
and since I can’t remember much of that night, it must have been a good one!!
2015 was a year I had thought about since the day I had my
first baby girl. It’s the year she’d turn 16!! What do we do, a big
party, a small party, a surprise party, rent a hall, go skating, have it at the
house….. Does she get a car, what kind of car, jeep, truck, little car, big
car, blue, purple, green, silver…?? When I would inquire about a party, she
simply said she wanted something small, maybe a few girls spending the night
and going to dinner or maybe taking a few girls to the beach for a couple of
days. She was adamant about not having a big party… We’d thrown
Jayden a few surprise parties and a few years ago she’d mentioned that she’d
loved to be surprised one day… hmmm, yessss… the decision was made to throw her
a surprise party!! With her actual birthday being in February, I knew
we’d have to do the party in January if we really wanted to pull off the
surprise. Since I couldn’t ask her who she wanted invited, this became
quite challenging. I have a pretty good grasp on her friends and knew
which friends I could trust with getting the invites out for me, I was just
hoping I didn’t leave someone out (which I did and I’m still very sorry for
that) or that one of her friends would accidentally say something at lunch or
whenever. Her favorite color is purple so I thought we’d request that
everyone must wear purple to get into the party. Since we invited 60 of
her friends, were having the party at our house with a DJ and photo booth, we
knew we wouldn’t be able to have kids at the party so we turned it into an
adult only (13 and up) party. Invites went out, cake was ordered,
logistics were ironed out and now it’s time for the big day. I’d made
arrangements with Mom for her to ask Kiarra to be spend the day/night with her
and then had all sorts of lies concocted to get them over to my house for the
actual party that evening. What I didn’t know is that Kiarra had seen a
calendar at her friend’s house the day she went to Moms that said “Kiarra’s
Surprise Party” for the next calendar day so each of the lies and goose chase
places I sent them on all day was causing Kiarra some anxiety. Each time she
and Mom went somewhere, she thought the surprise was happening at that time and
when it didn’t she was like “what the heck is going on”. The final goose
chase was telling them to come to our house and we’d all ride in the car
together in my suburban to go eat at Babins. She is thinking, “ok-ok, everyone
will be at Babins”…. Hahahahahahhaaaa, think again sweetheart…
Kiarra walked into our house and everyone screamed SURPRISE… I think she was
actually surprised. The party was a great success, everyone danced, took
a ton of pictures in the photo booth, ate a bunch of goodies and had a great
time. It was as perfect as I hoped it would be.
February was a whirlwind. My boss was unexpectedly let go
and since we were in the middle of a system implementation, this became a
little tricky. Mom and Kiarra both had birthdays that month so we enjoyed
celebrating them but soon after their birthdays, everything changed and it
became a very emotional month. My best friends Mom/my Moms best friend
was diagnosed with brain cancer. She lived with my Mom and we’d become pretty
close in the past couple of years. My kids loved her and she loved them.
It was no secret that Jeff was her favorite though! It’s a month
I’ll never ever forget. My friend comes into town to take her Mom to her home
with her for what we thought would be a short period of time. She knew something
wasn’t right, and that week everything changed. A trip to the ER, which led to
cat scans, other tests and a hospital transfer to a bigger more experienced
one, turned into brain cancer, brain surgery, and a life changing, heart
breaking emotional rollercoaster. It’s so hard seeing someone you’ve known your
whole life go through the motions of taking care of their mother knowing there
is no cure for this type of cancer. They were all so brave and so strong
through it all. We made it over to see her several times and I’m so
grateful for those days. Seeing my Mom hurt so deeply for her best friend
tore my heart to shreds and seeing my best friend care for her Mom on a daily
basis knowing the outcome wasn’t going to be good was just something I couldn’t
digest. I am in awe of her strength through it and will forever be grateful to
her and her family for opening their home to Mom and I to visit any chance we
could get.
Kiarra’s club volleyball team had a rough start but they
ended up having a good season. She played with some great girls and since that
was her last year to play club it was bitter sweet. We had several out of town tournaments so I got some good one-2-one time with my girl. If I could convince her one
thing over the next 3 months, it would be to play club again this season and
again her senior year next year. She is pretty adamant about not playing again
after this school season. I love watching her on the court. I don’t
know how she makes some of the plays that she makes but she does and I’m so
proud of her for putting her all into something she loves.
Jaydens school basketball team had a great season.
Jayden is a beast on the court. I love watching him play, especially when he
gets mad. Whew, he gets mad and TURNS.IT.UP. I love it. He
also had a great season in track. He did the high jump, triple jump, 800
m, 4x400 m and the 4x100m. He placed in most meets but broke the 7th
grade boy’s school record in the 800 m as well as won district champ for the
800 m. Jayden has had a good year. He was also inducted into the
National Junior Honor Society along with 300 other kids from his school.
Several of his art pieces were displayed at the KISD Administrative building
which was pretty cool. His art teacher expressed how disappointed she was when
he told her that he wouldn’t be taking art in 8th grade. Once
school basketball season ended, it was on to AAU. Jayden played with a fun
bunch of kids again this year. They had a few really good games, but there is
one I will hopefully remember the rest of my life – triple overtime and Jayden
hit a 3 pointer at the buzzer to put us into the 3rd overtime of
that game. It was awesome. He also had the opportunity to play in the
Blacktop battle this year. This is an outdoor tournament sponsored by the
Houston Rockets. He and his boys won the age bracket they were in.
Makenzie and Talan came down for a visit in May. It’s always
a fun time when they are in town. She celebrated her 19th birthday
with us which was fun. Although they were only here a couple of days, we
packed in as much as togetherness as we could in those days. Movies, games,
1000 piece puzzles, mini golf, Mexican food and lots of laughs… lots and lots
of laughs that may or may not have included helium.
School was coming to an end and Kiarra was getting anxious
to get her license. What is the point of having a license if you don’t
have a car, right? After all, I’ve been planning to buy her a car for 16
years! Jeff and I didn’t exactly see eye to eye on the car situation so I
had a bit of persuading to do….it didn’t take much before he was on board too.
My brother had been telling me cars that would be good for her and I’d been
looking on and off for several months to try and find a good deal. We
finally settled on a 2014 Chevy Cruze, it’s cute and fits her well. She
loves it and has taken good care of it. Soon after getting her the car,
she got her license and is a legal driver! YAY.
The kids wrapped up the 2014-15 school year the first week
of June. They all had really good report cards which always makes this
Mama happy. Kiarra was excited to get a job, Jayden was excited to sleep,
play basketball and hang out with his friends and Taryn was excited to sleep in
and watch tv. This summer was the first summer ever that they basically
didn’t have rules. I didn’t make them read for an hour each day or write me a
story with 4-5 random words where they had to use their brain to come up with
some silly story. They went to the pool a lot, went roller skating, out to
lunch with their friends, to the mall and all that good stuff. Jayden and
Taryn spent a week at Great Adventure camp. This was Jaydens 5th
year to go and Taryns 1st year. They both had a blast and
returned home with no voice and completely exhausted. Kiarra attended a
volleyball camp, worked and hung out with friends. Her first summer with
a little freedom now that she has a car.
In July, we decided to take a mini vacation and go to San
Antonio for a couple of days. We stayed at a great hotel (what is it
about kids LOVING hotels??), went to Six Flags, Sea World and then hit up
downtown and went to Ripley’s Believe It or Not. Can’t go to San Antonio
without stopping to see family. It was with sad hearts that we had to say
goodbye to our dear friend for the last time on this earth. She passed on the
following weekend. RIP sweet lady! Mom and I were able to make the trip
to Iowa for her memorial service. It was an absolutely beautiful service. The
sermon was perfect, the music was touching and friends and family came together
to pay respects to a wonderful woman who had the sweetest heart and best laugh
in the world.
August was here before we knew it and that means VOLLEYBALL.
Kiarra is playing on the JV team again this year and couldn’t be happier.
There are a lot of talented girls this year and they’ve had a great start to
the season. Of course August also means back to school so boooooo to
that! Jayden is playing football again this year so he’s been practicing
daily after school and awaiting the first game of the season. School started two
weeks ago and so far they are all happy with their schedules and
teachers. They all seem to be happy with their teachers. Kiarra is attending 2 schools this year, she’s
taking a criminal justice program in addition to her regular classes at her
high school. Jayden has a full load with
regular classes in addition to Algebra to get a jump on a high school
credit. Taryn really likes her teachers
but has a couple of bad boys in her class.
They get in trouble a lot and she just doesn’t understand why they can’t
follow the rules (don’t we all). She is enjoying
that she gets to switch class rooms this year and doesn’t have to be stuck in
the same classroom each day. Hoping for
an uneventful 2015-16 school year.
Jeffs
job is still great. He works from home several days a week so that has been
nice.
My job
is so-so. Lots of changes this year with
a new director and dealing with some really crazy personalities,
micro-managing, inappropriate comments, etc.
I can’t go into detail but if you have a great boss, PLEASE be grateful
for that. Tell them they are
awesome. Thank them for being awesome. I’ve had some great bosses and looking back I
took that for granted. I didn’t know someone could be so horrible until
experiencing the things I’ve experienced this year. Thankfully, he was
terminated a week ago. I’m looking
forward to the future, whatever it may be…
Well,
that is all for now. Hope you enjoyed
the book! J
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