Family Update

Christmas is in 2 weeks and I have not bought 1 gift! It’s been a busy month since I last blogged and this is what’s been going on…
Kiarra had a great volleyball season with school. Her team was undefeated! She played with a good group of girls and had a great time. She is now in club volleyball and has her first tournament this weekend! I’ve already seen improvement and can’t wait to see her on the court tomorrow! She continues to get all A’s and B’s in school and is overall doing great.

Jayden has been a growing machine; I think he’s grown 2 inches since school started! He is playing basketball now and really likes it. He was crazy excited for his first practice, he couldn’t sleep the night before. According to his coach he is really good for his age considering he’s had no formal training or experience. I guess shooting hoops out front has paid off! Jayden is still on the straight A path so all is well in school. He is playing chess again this year too. Jayden has a lead part in the Christmas program at church and that is this weekend so we are really excited for him to be part of that. We love this church so much and are so thankful to be part of an amazing church family.

Taryn has been learning so much this year, she is practically reading. I am amazed at the level of education this “daycare” provides. She has by far exceeded our expectations and we are so proud of her. She had her winter dance recital last night and did a great job. She was so cute doing her little hip hop and ballet dances. After leaving the recital last night we were telling her how proud of her we are and how great of a job she did. I told her I recorded the dances and she immediately asked in a super excited voice “will you put them on you tube?” Kiarra and I cracked up! The things that come out of this girl’s mouth are hilarious.

Taryn also had a birthday in November. She is 5 now!!! F-I-V-E!!! What the heck, how did our sweet baby girl grow up so fast? We just had her birthday party this past weekend and she had a really great time. I was expecting 23 kids and ended up having 27 so she had plenty of friends to keep her busy. Jeff had a great time too – all of you who were there know what I’m talking about! He was a little sore on Sunday but said it was worth it!

We went out of town to Rockport, TX for Thanksgiving. We rented a house on the bay and it was a lot of fun. Jeff’s parents, Grandmother, brother and his wife, 2 cousins and the 6 of us were all in one house but there was plenty of room. We had a pool table and a ping pong table, a boat (that we didn’t use), fishing poles, and much more. The main attraction was the Just Dance 3 Wii game that everyone had a great time playing. Even Taryn got into the action with the older girls. Jayden spent a lot of time fishing and he caught his first fish (3 actually)! The sunsets were amazing and we got to capture a photo that I’ve wanted for years! Tamia was with us the entire week and it was great to have her with us again. We had a really nice Thanksgiving and are looking forward to destination Thanksgiving 2012.

Jeff is doing really well. He and his crew were number 1 again in his area and number 7 for the region which is really awesome. I’m really proud of him. His health is much better, thank God! Doctor said if his numbers continue to improve he’ll take him off some of the medications. Yay!
I’m doing well also. My new job is great and I’m so glad I took this opportunity. I’m working with some great people on a massive government mandated project so I will be keeping myself really busy while here at the office. I am working the 9/80 schedule again which is awesome. I need to get my Christmas shopping started (and finished) because we are COMING HOME for Christmas again! I’m so excited. The kids have been asking all year if we can go to Iowa for Christmas again but it’s so hard to travel this time of year because of Tamia but we’ve made arrangements and are super excited to have a white Christmas again (it better be white)! The kids cried when we told them. They really love to be there during the holidays. It’s going to be a short trip but as always it’ll be worth it.


We had new family pictures taken a few weeks back. They turned out pretty good. Christmas cards were mailed, all 245 of them. I swear I'm going to cut back or not send them next year, my hand about fell off from addressing all of them in one evening. I think I'll just put it on FB since the majority of people are on FB anyway. I'll post the new family pic in a few days.

Back to work...back to reality

Well peeps, my time as a stay at home wife/mom has come to an end. Monday was my first day back to work. It all happened so fast that I didn't get an opportunity to tell many people about this. I interviewed last week, received the offer last Wednesday and started this past Monday. It's been a great first week. I'm super excited to be working a 9/80 schedule again. For those who don't know what that is, you basically work 80 hours in 9 days instead of 10 and have every other Friday off. It's awesome!! I'm not sure if I'm more excited about that or the fact that I'm hiring Helga back to clean the house. It's great to be back at BP with a new group of professionals.
Let's back track a few weeks... Kiarra finished up her 7th grade volleyball season undefeated! She played with a great group of girls and I was happy for the drama free team she was on. She had a great coach and learned more about the sport. She starts club volleyball on Sunday and we are super excited about that. She is taking donations if anyone is interested :) Here are a few pics of her with a few volleyball friends. I took a few of her on the court with my camera but they didn't turn out too well. Taryn took all of these with my phone.

Jayden had tryouts for basketball last weekend. We'd already signed him up but he had to tryout to determine his level so the organization can place him in the right team. He is so ridiculously excited, he is driving me crazy. Practice doesn't start until after Thanksgiving and he is going crazy waiting! He's been practicing quite often and is improving daily.

Taryn is doing great in school and is learning so much. She comes home each day and teaches us new Spanish words she is learning and she is starting to read more and more! It is amazing to see her sound out the letters and read the words! She'll be 5 next week and I seriously can't believe it. It just doesn't seem possible that my baby girl will be 5 years old in a few days.

Trick-or-Treating was awesome this year. We didn't put any time or effort in costumes but we pulled it off...Jeff even got into the fun. We went to a friends house for the evening and the kids had so much fun. It was a great evening of fellowship, junk food and fun.

We are really looking forward to Thanksgiving this year. Now that the temps have cooled off a little, we can get into the fall spirit!!!

Happy Friday y'all!!!

It's super dark in here!!

The kids don't have school tomorrow so Jeff is preparing the house for all of us to play hide and seek in the dark. This is one of our most favorite things to do. Jayden has a friend over and Tamia is still with us so there are plenty of us to hide and seek and have a great time. Jeff is putting huge blankets over the big windows in the front of the house to block out the potential of any light coming in. It is going to be freakishly dark in here!!

Taryn is shooting a video tomorrow for a friend of ours and she is super excited. She thinks she is going to be a movie star. We keep telling her it's just a video and she insists on thinking she is going to be in a commercial on TV. She is hilarious.

Jayden got his report card this past week. All A's - YAY!! Kiarra's should be coming in the mail any day. Tamia is on a different schedule now so she won't get hers for a few weeks.

Kiarra played really good in volleyball this past week. She is gaining more confidence and going after the ball more. She has a few girls on her team that have played club ball for a few years and they are really really good so I think she is a little nervous that she'll mess up or something. We know she can kill that ball and only hope she will before the season is over. She serves really great and has been passing good as well.

I'm freaking out that Taryn is going to be 5 in a month!!! What the heck people! How is my baby girl almost 5 years old??!! Guess it's time to plan a party! Also time to plan for family pictures.... wonder what color/theme we'll go for this year. Suggestion are welcome!

Well the house is ready and the kids are asking me to get off the computer so we can play. Let the fun begin!!

6 weeks down...many more to go!

I have to start by apologizing to my family. I'm so sorry I've slacked and have not kept you all up-to-date with our lives!

Let's back track to the end of August. The kids started back to school on August 22nd. They just finished their first 6 weeks. Tamia in 8th, Kiarra in 7th, Jayden in 4th and Taryn in Kindergarten Prep at her daycare. Tamia was really nervous to go back since her Mom moved her again. She had to meet new friends, get used to a new school that has different hours and is on a completely different schedule than she is used to. She is also having to wear a uniform now and she isn't too happy about that. Kiarra was super excited to start back this fall. Due to my crazy health stuff, she didn't have the summer we thought she would so she was eager to be around her friends on a daily basis again. Jayden was pretty excited to get back as well but no one was as excited as Taryn. All summer she talked about and asked about going to school. If she wasn't asking it if was time for school to start, she was asking if her birthday was getting closer. She's been planning her party since her party last year!
Tamia and Kiarra are both playing volleyball and they both made the A Team!! Of course they are playing for different schools and will not play each other but we are really proud of them for their hard work and dedication to the game. So far Kiarra has played really well at her games (they are undefeated) and unfortunately we only got to see Tamia play this weekend at a tournament. I have a new respect for parents whose kids live far away.
Jayden is signed up for basketball this winter and he is super excited. He can't stand it that practice doesn't start until after Thanksgiving but he is working on his skills here at the house so he should be good and warmed up by the time they start.
Taryn is still in dance and she loves it. She can't wait for Monday mornings to see her dance teacher and practice with all her friends.
Jeff started his new job September 1st. He is still with AT&T but he moved from being a manager in Installation and Repair to U-Verse. He basically has the same job, just working for a different part of the company and so far he really likes it. He is working for someone that he has worked for in the past and she is a pretty cool manager so I'm sure that helped make the transition a smooth one. He is also closer to the house so that is always good. He had a bowling team set up for this season but a few people fell through so he had to give up the team. He was really bummed about that but this will allow him to watch the girls play volleyball so all is well.
As for me, well I'm just enjoying life. I always thought stay at home Wife/Moms had it sooo easy but I don't think that anymore. I'm almost never home, I'm either running here or there, getting groceries, cooking, cleaning up the kitchen from cooking, picking up/dropping off a kid so my days are just running, running, running!! I feel like I'm never home to get anything done around here. Of course that has nothing to do with meeting friends for coffee or lunch (or both) most days. You'd think the house would be spotless, laundry would be done and beds would be made... HA!!! I think I'm excited to go back to work just to hire my cleaning lady again. I know, that sounds ridiculous but cleaning is not fun for me. The kids are great about keeping their stuff picked up, we have taught them the responsibility of all that, but the deep cleaning is something I don't expect or want them to do so as soon as I have a job offer, my maid service might be the first number I dial! Speaking of work, I am slowly starting to look for a job again. If you know of anything in the Learning and Development field let me know.
We finally got some rain in Katy last week, thank God. Of course it wasn't enough but we'll take all we can get. This has been the hottest, most brutal summer I've experienced in the 13 years I've lived here and I hope to never experience this again. From the heat, to the drought, to the wild fires, it's been the craziest & scariest year...and I'm only referring to TX. This weekend was beautiful with temps in the 80's. We were able to play outside and really enjoy it. We spent hours at Mary Jo Peckham park with our church family this afternoon/evening and it was gorgeous out.
Well family and friends, that's all for tonight. I'm really going to make an effort to update at least every 2 weeks. I think I say that every post but I really mean it this time!

Love to all!!!

Family Vacation 2011

Last summer we decided to take a vacation this summer with my Mom, my brothers and their families. We talked about several places and different things but settled on going to Florida. This was our first “real” vacation as we normally go to Iowa to see my family, to New Orleans or Atlanta to see Jeff’s family or just go to the beach for a few days to chill. I was pretty excited about this trip. Tamia was the only one of our kids that had been to Disney. My niece who is 15 went last year but my nephews had not been either. I looked at the millions of things to do in the Orlando area but we knew we wanted to experience Disney as a family so after talking to several people who had been recently our week was pretty much planned out. My brother Teige and his family vacation with another family (the Gochenours) each year so they joined us as well. I have to admit I was quite nervous about vacationing with 6 teenagers. Teige and his crew rented a 15 passenger van and drove down from Iowa...a 24 hour drive! That makes our 15 hour drive seem like nothing! We checked into the resort on Saturday, got settled quickly and headed to dinner..all 17 of us! I quickly realized that these teenage girls are sweet as can be and this is going to be an awesome week. Taryn instantly fell in love with Brittany and Kaitlyn and started to call them her blonde “friends”. Kiarra and Tamia had another girl their age to hang with too. Jayden really enjoyed Brenna being there too. The two of them had a great time teasing, tickling and poking each other. They used their time waiting in lines wisely and it helped the time pass by.
We kicked off the vacation with a day at the beach. We rented surf boards and everyone had a really good time. We went to dinner at a Mexican restaurant that evening and it was such a disaster, I could write 4 pages on everything that went wrong…from having to ask for chips…to having to pay $2.50 for an additional basket of chips (they gave us 4 small baskets)…to the service being horrible and the food not all that great. We were glad to get out of there. The best thing was the mariachi band singing Lady Gaga songs and I don’t even like Lady Gaga!!
Monday we headed to Magic Kingdom. I couldn’t wait to see the look on Taryns face when she saw the castle for the first time. Her face lit up like fireworks in the sky. She wanted nothing to do with the tea cups but I did get her to ride the flying carpets with me. She did so great for only being 4 years old. I figured we’d need to carry her and have everyone take turns carrying her but she held up great…Mom and I on the other hand were not doing as well…I guess that is what we get for going against doctors orders and leaving town when they told us not too! We were going to take our kids back to the resort to chill each day for a few hours and head back for fireworks at night but my brother offered to keep the older ones there with them so we just took Taryn. Mom and I both needed to get off our feet and out of the heat for a while so it was a nice rest. We headed back to the park that evening to enjoy the electric parade and fireworks. The electric parade was awesome! We took a few family pictures in front of the castle and called it a night!
Tuesday, Teige and his crew headed to Bush Gardens while we stayed back to chill out, swim and shop. Makenzie hung with us all day which was great. Her Dad left that morning to go home so we took her in like our very own! I love that girl! It stormed off and on so I’m glad we didn’t go to one of the Disney parks this day. We found this awesome little pizzeria, Flippers, which we ended up going to again later in the week. We spend a few hours at the pool and as always the kids tried to wrestle Jeff down. At one time my Mom even got into it. It was hilarious…and for the record, they were not successful.
Wednesday we decided to go to Epcot. We got there an hour before the gates opened and had prime parking and didn’t have to wait in line for the first several things we did. Soarin was AWESOME!!! We did most of the attractions at Epcot, Test Track was a blast, Spaceship Earth was pretty cool, Tayn loved the Nemo and Friends one. Jeff had the older kids while Mom and I hung with Taryn to do the little kid things. We figured if it was ok for her to do, it was ok for us too. I was not a happy camper when I was told not to go on roller coasters or get in water but seeing her face light up with all the cool things in Disney made it all worth it! Epcot was where we got to see all the characters and take pictures with several of them. We didn’t do much of the World Showcase. I think Teige and his crew may have walked around that area but we opted to head out and go back to our place and cook up some good ol Macaroni and Cheese and hot dogs (thanks Makenzie for the great suggestion and saving us $100+).
Thursday was our longest day! We went to Hollywood Studios and were there from open to close! We got there and realized our dear friend Penny was there so we found her at the gates, got a big hug and had a quick chat. When the gates opened we bolted for Toy Story and I’m glad we did. The line was soon an 80-90 minute wait and the Fast Pass was backed up to late in the afternoon! From there we went to Narnia which was really cool at first and when we thought it was going to get better it was over. A little disappointed but we were not going to let that ruin our day. Jeff and I took our 3 older kids and Makenzie to Tower of Terror and Rocking Roller Coaster where we met up with Teige and his crew while Mom stayed with Taryn and took her to the Mermaid show and the Muppet show. I think we did everything there was to do at this place. We unintentionally met up with Penny and her family for the Lights, Motors, Action Extreme Stunt Show and I’m so glad we did. It was great to see her again and have time to catch up while waiting for the show to start. I’m so glad we didn’t miss this show, it was awesome. I am amazed at how great all of our kids held up. Even Taryn was still trucking along at 10pm. She cried getting off Tower of Terror, not because she was scared, but because she wanted to do it again but couldn’t because it was closed! We loved Rockin Roller Coaster (I even rode it…twice!) Fantasmic was phenomenal and I highly recommend anyone going to Disney spend a day here at Hollywood Studios and enjoy this laser show. The best part about getting there an hour before the park opens is that you get to park really close. No waiting for a tram or busses, we just walked to the car and headed right back to our place.

Friday we chilled in the morning and went to Typhoon Lagoon in the afternoon. Teige and his peeps went to Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. Not only would Taryn, Mom and I not be able to do much at either place, we were all pretty tired from the day before (or the whole week) and Jeff was exhausted. He’d picked up quite a load with me trying to take it easy and not overdo it just to be there…Not to mention all of our feet were killing us. Makenzie hung with us again and we all had a great time at the water park. They swam with the sharks, rode the big slides and had a blast in the huge wave pool. It was a great way to wind down the vacation. All 16 of us met back up and went to dinner at Flippers Pizzeria. It was hard to believe that the week we spent a year planning was over and we’d be checking out the next morning.
All in all we had a really great time. I loved spending time with my brother and his wife and my nephews and niece and my new extended family the Gochenours. We are already talking about a joint vacation again next year… We’ll see…I don’t know if I can hang with them in the mountains!!!

Quotes from my kids when I asked them about the week…
Tamia – “Soarin was the best ride in Epcot. I had a lot of fun watching the electric parade at Magic Kingdom and really liked the Toy Story ride at Hollywood Studios”.
Kiarra – “My two favorite things in Disney were the Fantasmic light show at Hollywood Studios and Soarin at Epcot. I really loved the blue water beach and surfing was pretty cool too. Rockin Roller Coaster was a Rockin Roller Coaster”.
Jayden – “My two favorites were Tower of Terror and Rockin Roller Coaster. I also loved the light show the last night, it was so cool”.
Taryn - “Tower of Terror was my favorite thing, and watching movies and seeing the princesses and taking pictures with Minnie Mouse and swimming in the big pool”.
Trina – “Disney was amazing. Being there with my husband, children and family was truly a blessing”.
Jeff – “Enjoying Disney with my family was the best thing ever!!”

On a health note, I am recovering really well. My incision is almost entirely healed. My nurse said it will probably be completely closed in a few more days! YAY!!
Mom is headed back to work tomorrow. The majority of her vision is back (with her glasses of course) but the eye doctor yesterday said that something with her left eye is still not right and is not sure she will get complete vision back in that eye. Praying for complete healing is all we can do!

A little bit of this... a little bit of that.

So much has happened since my last post I don’t really know where to begin.
We obviously made it home from Alabama ok. We hated to leave Jeff but we had to get back for my stinking doctor’s appointment. We got home on a Tuesday and turned around and drove to New Orleans on Friday to spend the weekend with Jeff and his family for Father’s Day. My Mother-in-Law also had a surprise retirement party planned for my Father-in-Law that weekend so lots of family were there. We piddled around all day Saturday and plotted how the “girls” wanted to ride together (to get to the restaurant early) and the boys would ride together (and Jeff would stall them). It was a success!! Perry was so surprise he could hardly speak. We had a really nice dinner and his old friends, co-workers and sons shared some great stories. We wrapped up the night by going back to the house and hanging with the family. Sunday was Fathers Day but I had to have Tamia home by 6 pm so we had to get out of the house before noon. The kids gave Jeff the cards they made him and we took off. He soon headed back to Alabama with his best friend Brian.
Jayden’s b-day was just a few days after Fathers Day. With our crazy June schedule, we didn’t do anything big this year. He had a friend over and they played all day and we ate at his favorite places. I had surgery 2 days after his b-day so having a party the weekend after was out. My sweet little boy is now in double digits and I can’t remember when he grew as tall as my shoulders. He is such a great kid! This picture was taken at the hotel pool in Alabama. If you look close, it looks like he is sitting on the water. Perfect time for me to snap that shot!

Surgery was successful…or so I thought at the time (more about that later). I’ve spent 4 ½ years dealing with this band and I was SO glad to get it removed. I’m now able to eat without having to excuse myself from the table to vomit or resort to drinking liquids because food “gets stuck”. There were times I couldn’t eat normal food for days, sometimes weeks at a time. I’m so glad that journey is over. If anyone you know mentions getting the lap band, have them call me! I will be honest about when it was successful for me and when it was NOT! Just being able to eat before noon each day is a huge relief.
Jeff came home on July 1st – for good!! We were so excited for him to be home! July 1st is also the day we got Tamia for the month so it was a very exciting day for all of us. He was home and she got here just in time for us to pack up and head to Bastrop with our awesome friends where we spent the weekend remembering our dear friend John. June 30th marked the 6th month anniversary of him stepping into heaven. We laughed, we cried, we shared memories and we told stories but one of the best parts of the weekend was planting a tree in his memory. This was a weekend that I will never forget!
The 4th of July was just another day in our house this year. There was (and still is) a burn ban because we haven’t had rain in what seems like 6 months. My Sister-in-Law, Joy, called and asked if they could bring shrimp and grits over… YUMMO!!! The city of Katy did put on their fireworks show but we stayed and watched them from our front yard. The traffic was crazy!! All the stands were not selling fireworks and no one was popping them. It was the quietest 4th of July ever!!! It was kind of nice to sleep this year; typically people are up all night long popping them for a week before and after the 4th.
Kiarra came down with bronchitis so she was down for a few days. She is better now, Thank God. I don’t know what I would have done without her last week (more about that in a second)!
Jayden went to church camp last week, his first time at camp!! He was at the Cat Springs Retreat and had SO much fun. Actually, he had so much fun that he didn’t have a voice when he got home. He was there for 5 days and is already planning to go next year. The girls cared for Taryn all day while Jeff worked and while I was with Mom.
Mom came down with a crazy terrible migraine that ended up lasting 7 days. On day 2 of having it, she lost her vision and now everything is blurry and she see’s double. After an insane week of eye doctor visits, urgent care visit, ER visits, primary care doctor visit, back to ER (per doctors orders) and then being admitted to the hospital for 5 days, the Neurologist determined she had a stroke in the nerve in her eye. The migraine and loss of vision had nothing to do with each other. I spent the night with her in the hospital Monday and Tuesday but wasn’t feeling well Wednesday morning so I went home to rest. I thought I was just tired and needed some sleep because we all know that NO-ONE sleeps in the hospital. I tucked myself into my bed and within an hour was running a 103 temp. It got as high as 104.6 but didn’t go below 102 for the rest of the day. I called my surgeon because I knew something was wrong with one of my incisions and sure enough there was. I went to his office Thursday and he told me to head to the ER and he would meet me there to open me back up. Ridiculous! I thought that when I got the band removed I would NEVER have to see his face again. God had other plans for me. I quickly checked on Mom and made arrangements for the kids. Jeff left work early and took me to the ER (of course it’s not at the same hospital that Mom is in). It was a disaster from the minute we walked in the ER doors at 4:30 pm. After waiting in the waiting room for 3 hours we finally got called back. This hospital (that my doctor just happens to own) only has 1 room in their ER. To make a long….. frustrating….. story short, my doctor showed up after about another 2 hours (9:30 pm), opened me up (in that ER room) and removed over a cup of puss (sorry, gross – I know). He left the wound open, packed it and had me admitted to the hospital… This was after the brilliant ER doctor said to only give me an antibiotic and that they were not going to call Spiegel! I really had to insist they call him and had to convince them that he told me just a few hours before to go there. Spiegel had the nurse ask Jeff to leave during the procedure, probably because Jeff would have choked him for hurting me like he did. Talk about not having an area numb when they call “scalpel”… Which reminds me of another miss-hap. Spiegel is such an idiot that he cut his hand on the scalpel after he finished with me. Can you tell that I’m not a fan of this doctor…? They were pumping antibiotics in me and I started to have an allergic reaction to one of them and the nurse freaked out. After a large dose of Benadryl the symptoms stopped and they restarted the pump. I got to my room about 1:30 am and they pumped 8 different antibiotics into me until 2:30 pm when I was released. I guess staph infection is resistant to antibiotics so they give a variety of them to try and kill the infection… Thank God for Home Health Care and good insurance. Spiegel said I had a choice, I could stay in there for 2 weeks or I could go home and have a nurse come 3 times a day to change the packing… hmmm, that wasn’t a hard decision. My nurse is awesome! She convinced me not to cancel our Disney trip and told me as long as I don’t swim and/or ride roller coasters I’ll be fine! Wooo Hooo!
Mom was released from the hospital just a few hours after me so we were both home snuggled in our beds for the weekend!
Today was Tamia’s 13th birthday! She is such an amazing young lady. We celebrated last night since her Mom was coming to pick her up tonight to take her to dinner. We went to Olive Garden and then came home and she opened her presents. She is so thankful for everything. I am so blessed to have this beautiful (inside and out) daughter. She has a great heart and I hate it that she has to go home in 13 days.

Friday is the big day!!! We leave for Florida bright and early! My brothers and their families will be meeting us there and I can’t wait. Besides the 38 things on my to-do list, I'm ready to hit the road.

Summer already!!!

Hard to believe it's been 2 months since I've blogged. I've started to write many times and then thought to myself "nope, I may say something about Jeff being out of town"... Well friends and family, Jeff is out of town! There, I said it... it's now public to the World Wide Web... Oooooohhh!!!

As you know Jeff works for AT&T. With all the tornados and storms back in April/May, he was asked to take a crew of guys to TN to expedite phone/internet stuff. Jeff left the first week of May and was in Memphis for a few weeks. From there he went to Alabama and that's where he is now (actually we are all here...more about that later). Of course we talk on the phone everyday and we video chat several times a week but it’s not the same as seeing each other in person and hugging everyday! We’ve been very blessed and have got to see him a few times since he left. One afternoon he popped up at the house and nearly gave me a heart attack! I thought someone was breaking into the house! In was reading my bible and having much needed quiet time and Taryn was taking a nap. It was too early for Kiarra to get home from school so when I heard the garage door open, I just knew I was a goner. After freaking out for 5 seconds looking for my beating stick, I carefully covered her sweet body up hoping the burglar (or murderer as I was thinking at the time) wouldn't notice her sleeping! Once I saw Jeff, I was very relieved and of course excited. I hate surprises but this was a really good one! I’ll admit it, he got me good!! We plotted to surprise both kids and it worked! First we got Kiarra by having Jeff ring the door bell and her answer it and then when Jayden got home from school Jeff was standing right inside the door to welcome him. Let's say there wasn't a dry eye in the house for either surprise and the best part is that I got them both on video to remember forever. It was awesome!!! He was only home for the night but we didn’t care…we had him back for a night and that was way more than we were expecting! We also got to see him Memorial Day weekend. We have some pretty awesome friends and we spent the weekend at their house on Lake Livingston. We all had a blast zip-lining, tubing, jet skiing, and simply hanging out! Kiarra even learned how to drive…well a golf cart anyway! The weekend went by too quick and it was soon time to send Jeff off again. I hated that drive to the airport but I know he is doing a great thing in states that desperately need help.

The week after Memorial Day was the kids last week of school. I had been waiting for this week for months. I couldn’t wait for school to be out this year. I don’t know if it was due to me being home and wanting to spend more time with them or the simple fact that I wouldn’t have to sign planners and check up on homework each night. Whatever it was, summer is here – Thank GOD!!! The kids finished out the year with near perfect report cards. Jayden had all A’s all year and Kiarra had A’s and one B. They both were commended on their TAKS tests and Jayden scored 100% on his math TAKS. We are very proud of them. Taryn had her spring dance recital in May as well. She was so cute and knew the entire routine. Kiarra sang in the school talent show the last day of school. She thought she would only be singing to the 7th graders since she was singing with someone in the 7th grade but the teacher liked their performance so much that she had them sing at all 3 (6th, 7th and 8th grade). They sang If I die young. She loved singing in front of people...and wants to be a singer... Guess it's time to get her a guitar and some singing lessons.

I do have to say I have much more respect for single Moms. I've always respected them but I definitely respect them more now that I've lived it for 7 weeks. At first it seemed to be the same routine and then it got a little crazy… especially on Wednesday nights when Kiarra had volleyball from 5:30 – 7 and youth group from 6:45 – 8. The other two kids had kids church from 6:30 – 8:30 and of course all these activities were in different locations! FUN FUN!!! Kiarra had a great year in volleyball. She has mastered the overhand serve and is ready for 7th grade ball! She had a great coach who worked really hard with them and of course her assistant coach wasn’t too shabby either (me)… LOL.

Now that school is out, the kids and I decided it would be fun to drive to Alabama for a few days and surprise Daddy. We were originally going to leave Wednesday but something else came up so we left early Thursday morning. This was the first time I’d taken a long road trip by myself with all the kids and knowing it was going to be about 11 hours I had to mentally prepare myself for 14 hours after potty breaks, gas and eating. I typically like to drive at night so the kids sleep but I knew that would be too risky being the only driver so we hit the road at 6:15 am and prayed we’d make it there before dark. We stopped once for a potty break and once to grab lunch and get gas. We arrived to the hotel around 4:30 pm (yea, that’s right - 10 hours) and as I was scheming with the front desk to get them in on the surprise, Jeff walked by! Come to find out, he pulled in the parking lot right behind us. We parked in the front and he parked in the back! It’s only a God thing that he didn’t see us. He was completely surprised and speechless! SUCCESS!!! We knew he had to work each day (including this weekend) but just being here in the room when he finishes each day and getting to see him face to face is something we all needed. While he is at work, we enjoy time by the pool and honestly just chilling and not having a schedule. Today after Jeff got off work we went to see some caves. I’m definitely not into that kind of stuff but it was way cool. We were 175 feet underground! If you are ever in Alabama, the Rickwood Caverns are a must see. I don’t think I’ve ever been in a cave and I know my kids haven’t been. It was really awesome.

Tuesday we’ll pack up to head home and I pray we have another quick safe trip. We’ll hate to say good-bye again but it will only be a few days before we get to see him again. He gets to come home Fathers Day weekend! I have a feeling this summer is going to fly by. After this week we’ll celebrate Jayden’s b-day then VBS and camp and vacation and more camp and more VBS! We LOVE summer!!

I know there are some important things I'm forgetting to write about.... Sorry! I'll post pictures as soon as I figure out how to get them off my iphone!

What a year this has already been!

It’s only April and I feel like we’ve experienced an entire year crammed into 3 months. By the first week in March, we’d attended 4 funerals. Talk about an eye opener and evaluation of our life. We know our precious uncle and dear friends are now with our Heavenly Father. It doesn’t take the pain of missing them away but it does help to know they are in the place I hope to be one day. After my Dad passed on, I began a new relationship with Christ and it continues to grow daily. I’m not perfect and I don’t try or claim to be. I’ve simply turned my life over to Him and I’m so excited for what He is doing in me. I’m committed to spending time with the Lord each morning, I continue to listen to fun worship music each day and spend my day/night living for Him. We found a new church and we love it. Those of you who know me from high school are probably thinking, “HA, yeah right! This is not the Trina (Trixie) I know.” Well my friends, people change – I sure have. I love to see my kids in the Word and see all of us grow closer to Him. I could go on and on but I’ll leave it at that for now. Update on Jeff – They still are not exactly sure why we had that scare but the Cardiologist has since found that he has high blood pressure. This may or may not have caused the AFib. He went through extensive stress tests, heart ultrasounds and many blood tests and has been to the doctor every 2 weeks since the AFib. His blood pressure is now regulated and he is feeling good. Let me be clear, besides the night we went to the ER, he wasn’t feeling bad. Of course there is no telling how long he’s had high blood pressure but he’s on the right meds now and that is all that matters. He is back in the gym doing cardio and working out (restricted weights per doctors orders). He celebrated his 10-year anniversary at AT&T towards the end of last year. He still enjoys his job and is working hard to learn all he can. He just took on 6 more guys so he now has 24 in his crew. Jayden had the chance to go to work with him on Saturday and played “boss” for day. They had a great day together. Well, today is my official last day on the payroll. I went to the office last Friday to turn in my laptop, credit cards, badge, etc and for a final transition. I was worried that I'd be upset and cry saying good-bye to some dear friends but I didn't. With my head held high, I was relieved to walk out of there! Don’t get me wrong, I don't have anything negative to say, my overall experience at BP was great. In fact, I thought I'd work there forever but God had other plans for me. I'm not sure what is in my future but I do have a few ideas up my sleeve! I’m praying about it and seeing where God leads me. For now, I’m staying home and really enjoying it. I have to admit that these past 11 weeks have been challenging as I went from working anywhere from 50-110 hours a week for 6 years to sleeping in and running errands! At first I was missing adult interaction but now I’m content with the quiet and calm of my life. No more drama – AMEN! I’m really looking forward to summer and spending time with the kids. Speaking of the kids…how about a little update on each of them. Tamia will be a teenager in a few months! WHOA! She is now taller than me and is wearing a 10.5 shoe. She continues to get good grades (or so she says since her Mom won’t give us copies of her report card). She was in track but since the coach didn’t let her run during a meet, her Mom had her quit saying her it was a waste of time… Umm, kinda hard to get better if you don’t practice, right?!?! Ugh - Whatever! Tamia loves to play volleyball so I’m enrolling her (and Kiarra) in a camp this summer to improve their skills. I think it will be something fun for them to do together. We are looking forward to July where she will be with us the whole month. Kiarra turned 12 in February. 12!! TWELVE!! Oh my goodness, I can hardly believe it. She is so beautiful inside and out. She is getting All A’s and B’s and we couldn’t be more proud of her. She is playing volleyball again and has improved a lot over the past few months. She loves our new church and got involved in the youth group the first week we attended. She won’t miss it and I love that about her. After her b-day, the makeup question came up; I think she is feeling the pressure from some of the other girls in Jr. High. I can’t believe how many 6th graders wear makeup! After taking the weekend to pray about it, she decided she wanted to wait another year. YES!! I’m soooo not a fan of young girls wearing makeup (except for playtime when they are 3). I don’t care if it’s a little blush, mascara and/or eye shadow or the whole face full of it, I think it’s inappropriate and I will do my best to hold my own on her waiting until 8th grade or high school. I’ll make an exception for special occasions…maybe. These girls already have to grow up so fast; there is no need for them to look older too! I’m not trying to judge here, just speaking my opinion! Jayden…. Oh where do I start with this kid? In February he got into a little trouble at school. We later realized that he was stressed out and acting out because he didn’t know how else to release the pain he was feeling in his heart. He was so sad about our dear friend John passing away, his great uncle Virgil passing away (Jayden was the only great nephew) and then stressed out about me loosing my job. That translated to him as us being poor, loosing our home and NEVER being able to go out to eat, do fun things, etc. He’s seen this with some friends of his from school and thought it would be the same for us. After a long weekend of talking and praying about it, he quickly went back to being that good boy that he is and I soon received a new praise report from his teacher! Whew! I do have to say that he was pretty clever with one of the things he did in school to a kid that was being mean to him. I hate to admit that I was a little proud of him for finally standing up for himself (of course I didn’t admit that to him). Let’s just say that the other kid, who punched Jayden in the eye the week before, ended up in the coat closet after he tried to trip Jayden on their way out of the classroom going to lunch. Jayden said the closet door was open so he just pushed him in there and shut the door! He almost lost his student council role because of this. He did learn his lesson and that is what matters. Besides that week worth of craziness, he continues to do great in school, all A’s. He’s been getting a lot of headaches again so I had his eyes checked and they have not changed. He still wears his glasses for reading and homework. And then there is Taryn! Since I’ve been home, I started keeping her home with me 2 days a week. She is in pre-school now and with the other tragedies earlier in the year, I didn’t want to shake up her world too much. Along with the family deaths and sadness in our home around that, she had to say good-bye to a teacher she loved (she quit to get married – how dare her!!), and had to welcome a new teacher. Well, this new teacher was something else. I guess she was used to teaching Jr. High kids and came in thinking she was running a military camp. Within days the director of the daycare was in the room monitoring and seeing what all the complaints were about. I hate complaining about teachers but this woman was something else. She had a whistle and would blow it at them when she wanted their attention! Taryn did not like her and would cry when it was time for her to go to daycare. This was not like her at all; she’s always loved her teachers and would connect with them right away. I knew I had to do something so I made my official complaint. Well, within a couple of days she was no longer employed there and Taryn’s teacher from a previous room was going to be the lead teacher. YAY! Miss Brittany saved the day! Taryn is happy again and when she is happy, everyone in our home is happy! She’ll start pre-k in the fall but I’m not sure what all they have left to teach her. She already knows so much! She and I are enjoying our days together, whether it be snuggling in bed until 10 watching cartoons or running the town shopping and having lunch, we are having a great time. All the kids have new friends! This sweet family moved into a house down the street from us and we couldn’t be happier with them! Get this…they have a 4-year-old daughter who is now Taryn’s BFF, 9 and 10-year-old boys who play great with Jayden, and an 11.5-year-old daughter that Kiarra first met at school and talked to on the bus. They all get along so good!! They also have a 16-year-old daughter who is so sweet and such a great role model for all the kids in the neighborhood. I’m so thankful to God for them moving here! I’m pretty stoked about our new friends and I’m looking forward to building many memories with them. I am totally going to contradict myself here but go with me. I love love love watching the kids grow up and am so grateful that God has allowed us to parent these awesome kids. The older girls are becoming beautiful young women and are very responsible. They are about to go through a babysitting class together and that will qualify them to baby-sit their siblings and other kids. They’ll learn CPR, what to do in an emergency, etc. Jayden is such a gentleman and he loves to read his bible! He is such a great kid! Taryn is just so dang cute and sweet. She, along with all kids, is such a sponge. Nothing gets past her. On the flip side of all this, I love them at the age they are at and want time to slow down! The girls no longer play with any toys and are content listening to music, drawing and watching movies. Jayden still loves his Lego’s and working in the yard. Taryn is happy doing a puzzle (or 5 at one time) and playing with play dough, babies, ponies or everything at once! They are all amazing. I love to look at their beautiful faces and praise God for waking us up each day to have another day on earth with them. So, I love them growing up and becoming responsible but I also love them being kids! Well, I’ve rambled enough for this fine Monday! I hope to get back on track with blogging every 2 weeks or at least once a month.

Talk about being scared....

Friday night/Saturday morning was a scary time for the Dailey’s. Jeff got home from work and took a bath which was nothing unusual. I had dinner ready and was dishing it up when he got out of the tub. He told me he didn’t want anything to eat because he wasn’t feeling well and that he was nauseous. He didn’t look well and since he wasn’t eating I knew it was something serious. The kids and I ate our chili and Jeff sat at the table with us. He walked away a few times thinking he may get sick but never did. He kept saying “I just don’t feel right”. After dinner he went to lay down while Jayden and I cleaned up quick and then I went to pick up Kiarra from volleyball. During the time I was gone, he asked Jayden if he would know what to do if he was told to call 911. Jayden told me this when I walked in the door (I was only gone 15 minutes) and that was the start of our scary evening. I immediately went into check on Jeff and he didn’t look right. He said his heart was racing and that he just didn’t feel right. I grabbed my laptop and got on WebMD (which can be scary in itself) to look up symptoms of heart problems, heart attack, heart palpitations, etc. I started asking him a series of questions, “do you have pain in your arm, do you have pain in your chest, is your back hurting, are you short of breath”… the answer to all these questions was NO. We tried to check his pulse but couldn’t…it would beat…..beat…..beat-beat-beat-beat-beat… I knew something was wrong but stayed as calm as possible. Everything I read said “don’t wait 5 minutes, call 911 immediately. Don’t drive yourself to the hospital or have a spouse drive you, call 911”. We contemplated calling 911 but didn’t want to scare the kids and since we live so close to the hospital we knew I could get him to the hospital in 4 minutes and it would take an ambulance 10-15 minutes just to get here. I had Kiarra take the kids upstairs to watch a movie and told her what was going on and asked her not to tell the other kids.
We got to the hospital and the waiting room was packed, there were 20-30 people waiting and I knew it was going to be a long night. We checked in, sat down and before starting a conversation they called him into the triage room. This is when the craziness started! They did an EKG in the triage room, along with checking his blood pressure and all the other normal stuff. They called to the back and said they had a serious AFib and needed to bump someone. I now know that AFib is Atrial Fibrillation but Friday evening it only meant something very serious because I could hear the seriousness in their voices. His heart rate at that moment was 150 beats per minute and his blood pressure was 176/93. Normal heart rate is 50-100 so looking at the lower of that, his heart was beating 3 times what it should be. From the triage room he went into another holding room where the action began. They started putting more stickers all over his chest, checking blood pressure every 2 minutes and nurses were hustling around. Another nurse knocked on the door opened it and said to our nurse “we have a heart patient here that is about to die so you need to finish up in here so we can get things moving”…. our nurse said, “yes, I know I have him right here”! That is when I realized this was serious and that is when I got scared. The doctor busted through the door a minute later, practically causing me to have heart failure, and started asking Jeff a round of questions. He told him that his heart was beating faster that someone running a marathon! They put in an IV, took blood (8 tubes to be exact), brought in an x-ray machine to take a chest x-ray and were monitoring his heart constantly. This all happened within 5 minutes of walking into the ER! Things were moving so fast, it was like being in an episode of Grey’s Anatomy. Jeff was in pretty good spirit, still feeling “not right” but feeling ok if that makes any sense. A room in the ER opened up and he was transferred to a room. At this point, his heart rate was anywhere from 140 – 190 beats per minute! It was scary! To sum it up, instead of it beating once a second, it was beating 3 times a second or more! Our nurse was panicking and that wasn’t helping any. I tried to ask her a question and she about bit my head off and said “I CAN’T ANSWER YOU RIGHT NOW I HAVE TO GET HIS HEART RATE DOWN”!! Would have been nice if she had the medication at that time to get it down but she was only doing some paperwork type stuff in the computer. The doctor ordered some meds to slow down his heart it’s just that the ER was so busy that things were taking longer than normal. We were there an hour before the meds finally came but the nurse was in our room the whole time monitoring his heart and the doctor popped in a few times when it was in the 170’s-180’s to make sure he was feeling ok, breathing ok and not short of breath. Everyone that came in would ask him if he was having chest pain, arm pain, short of breath, etc. The nurse gave him the meds and went to get another pill and next thing we know her shift has ended and we have another nurse. Our new nurse was much more calm and collective and tried tracking down the lost pill. It took 2 hours to get a new pill from the pharmacy. To say the ER was busy is a complete understatement. At this time they started re-routing ambulances to other hospitals because the ICU was full and the ER was full. People were waiting 3-4 hours to be seen and to top it off, they were a nurse short! The first round of meds got his heart rate down to the 130’s - 150’s but they needed it to be lower that 120. A rate of 120 is considered too high but that was low compared to the 190 an hour earlier. They wouldn’t let him get out of the bed and you know what it’s like to lay on a 2 inch sponge mattress! His biggest complaint was that his butt hurt from sitting in that bed.
They did another EKG (I think this was number 3 or 4) and the each time they did one, the results were better. The doctor informed us that his blood work came back clean and there were no signs of blood clots or heart disease. Within 30 minutes of the first round of meds, the second round of meds were ordered but it took 2 hours for Jeff to get them. The doctor had come in 2-3 times asking if he’d received the second round of meds yet and was pissed off that they hadn’t given them to him yet. It was just really busy. There was a kid next to us screaming his head off, an old man on the other side of us that had just suffered a stroke, someone down the hall that sounded like they were having a baby – it was crazy busy! Our new nurse was no longer our nurse but now the charge nurse and we now have another new nurse who was the best yet. She took real good care of us, and I do me ‘us’! She went and got Jeff a comfy chair that reclined to get him out of the bed, offered us warm blankets and let me lay on the not so comfy ER bed (which was much better than the chair I had been sitting in)…she is also the one that found the missing pill and gave him the second round of meds. Jeff’s heart rate slowly started to come down and the doctor decided to admit him to the ICU. But, the ICU was still full so he had to stay in an ER room…He is now an ICU patient in the ER…weird, but whatever! The only good news about this was that they brought him a hospital bed and I got to upgrade to the comfy chair. AMEN! Once they got him in the bed and situated, he was able to sleep and his heart rate dropped to a normal rate 70’s – 80’s. I say sleep but that doesn’t really happen in the hospital, let alone the ER. They still had to come in every few minutes to cut off the monitor because it was beeping REALLY LOUD every time his heart rate went up or down to much too fast (which happened the entire night). Around 8 am they told us he’d be moving to a room upstairs. Since things had calmed down I thought I’d ask the nurse a few questions, one of which she gave me an answer that took my breath away. My question to her “what would have happened if we wouldn’t have come here and he wouldn’t have been treated” her response, “his heart would have given out, it simply can’t keep up with working so hard and it would have just stopped working”. WOW, talk about a surreal moment. She went on to tell me that he wouldn’t have had a heart attack, he would have eventually gotten short of breath and his heart would have stopped! This is the reason they kept asking him if he was short of breath! What would we do without this wonderful medical treatment! Thank GOD!
They prepared him to move to the 5th floor and by 9:00 he was wheeled into room 519. He no more than got to his new room and the nurses were under pressure from the Cardiologist to get him hooked up to the monitors. It was round 2 of craziness to get him hooked up. Our dear friend Chris showed up because I managed to make a quick phone call to Lynette. The nurse did another EKG and the Cardiologist came in to talk to him. He asked a million questions and wanted to know every detail that happened Friday night and over the past 10 years (this had happened to Jeff 10 years ago). He was great! By this time I had talked to the kids and told them what was going on and that Daddy was in the hospital but was ok. I asked Mom to bring them over so they could see Daddy and see that he was ok. Mom and the kids left and Jeff’s brother Cory came by. The ultrasound lady came in and did an ultrasound of his heart right there in the room. This was amazing! To see the organ that pumps all the blood to your body was breath taking. Technology is amazing! An hour or so later the on call doctor came in to see him and decided he would discharge him since his heart rate had been down to a normal rate for 7 hours or so. A little weird that he went from the ICU to being discharged in a matter of 3 hours. By 12:30 pm (Saturday) we were walking out the door to the car with a few prescriptions in hand. All in all the doctors said he needs to loose 20 pounds, stop lifting so much weight, and stop using the nasal spray that he has been using for several months for his allergies. He’ll follow up with the Cardiologist next week, and our regular family doctor soon after. He is back to normal now and feeling great!

To our dear friends and family…I’d like to apologize to you for not calling when we went to and were in the ER. It was crazy and there were nurses and doctors around constantly and I honestly didn’t have a minute to even think about calling. I was really scared and just watching the heart monitor every second. Once things finally settled down, it was after midnight and I didn’t want to bother and/or worry you.

I’m free…. well almost

There comes a time in life, when you walk away from all the drama and people who create it. You surround yourself with people who make you laugh, forget the bad, and focus on the good. So---love the people who treat you right and pray for the ones who don’t. Life is too short to be anything but happy. Falling down is part of LIFE…getting back up is LIVING!

Yesterday, my life changed. Although I was expecting a change and knew something was coming down the pipes, it didn’t go down the way I planned or thought it would…and that is ok – good in fact! I’m not in control, God is and I’m grateful for my blessings. I (along with many others) was pulled into a conference room and notified that the re-positioning efforts within our group do not include me in the plan. I’ve been laid off! Well, I’m officially still employed and will be for a couple months but I’m sitting at home – not working! This is called garden leave. I still have my laptop and my phone but I basically get paid in full to forward an email here or there to my boss, answer a question here or there and sit here and look for another job. I get to be a full time Stay at Home Wife/Mom for a few months with the benefit of my full salary! Does it get any better than this? On April 3rd, my employment will officially be terminated and I’ll receive my severance. I’m going to be blessed with 5 additional months of full pay! 5 months!!! I feel so blessed.
This is what is going through my head as I write this morning… No more…
Office drama – AMEN
Being bullied – Double AMEN
Running late and getting “the look” - AMEN
Being dumped on and overwhelmed with work - AMEN
60-100 hour work weeks + the Mom duties – Triple AMEN
Getting permission to take time off to take my kids to the doctor - AMEN
Confusion and dealing with corporate politics – AMEN

Of course some of these will be short lived as I plan to work again but for now I’m going to sit here and enjoy my time with my family.

Yesterday was tough. It was hard to see really good hard working people get walked off the trade floor. In this industry, you don’t get to pack your things and leave quietly. We’re notified and immediately walked out of the building. It was hard for me to wrap my head around not taking this personal. Although I’d cleaned my personal files off my computer Monday evening and cleaned off my desk yesterday morning before I got called into the conference room, I was still in shock. My heart aches for my team. A few of them are my dear friends and they now have to pick up the slack. At some point within the next few weeks, or maybe today, I’ll get to the point and think “it’s not my problem” but for now, it upsets me that they are stuck doing my job….or their job…or whoever’s job.

My friend, Penny Franklin, said it best in her blog entry this morning. Everything in her life has changed but GOD REMAINS! I am in no way going through the changes she's had to endure in the past 20 days but one thing stands true – God is in control here and He is constant. God remains!! Thanks Pen for this post. This is exactly what I needed to read first thing this morning.

I'm actually doing ok. There were tears yesterday but today I feel like a new person. I'm ready for this new chapter!

End of 2010

I post this tonight with a heavy heart. As always, I write the blog and have to read and re-read it several times before I actually post it. With our holiday travels and not having internet at Grandpa’s house in Iowa it was postponed. I planned to post it soon after our return on Thursday but the blog and the information in it didn’t matter after we got the call about our dear friend John Franklin and the hunting accident that took his life. My heart goes out to my sweet friend Penny and their 2 precious kids Jordan and JP. John was the Godliest and most faithful man I ever met. My husband referred to him as “the Bible on tap”. He could & would willingly help you through any situation and would talk for hours about the word of God. If we had a question about anything pertaining to the Bible, Church or Christianity in general, John was our go to guy. He was a wealth of knowledge. John, Penny and the kids spent a few days with us a couple months back and I will never forget that weekend. Since their move to New Orleans in 2009 we had the opportunity to visit their church Journey Christian (where John was the lead pastor) on several occasions. It was amazing to see his dream of becoming a lead pastor come true. I will always remember John for “The Way” and for being the positive influence he was to all (specifically men and husbands). RIP John Franklin. We’ll miss you!









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I can hardly believe this will be my last post in 2010. I’m on vacation until January 4th – that is 17 days off!!! Praise God!
Taryn had a dance recital before the holidays and she did great. During her spring recital, she was so scared she wouldn’t come out from behind the curtain. She didn’t have fear this time; she did all her moves and looked adorable.

Kiarra had her winter choir concert as well as singing at Dickens on the Strand. I’m still in denial that she is in Jr. High.
Poor Jayden, he’s not involved in sports or activities yet. Booo!
I finally started my shopping the Tuesday prior to Christmas. We heard there may be bad weather in Iowa and I didn’t want to chance not getting the Santa presents since we told the kids he would find us there. Shopping that day was brutal but it had to be done. We left Wednesday afternoon for Iowa (for the 3rd time this year) and I’m so glad we did. The drive up was one of the fastest we’ve done in a non-emergent situation. Talan and I drove it once in 12 hours and during the time of Dads accident we drove up in about 13 hours. This trip took us 15 and we didn’t speed or drive crazy, we just simply didn’t have any bad weather or traffic.

It snowed and it was perfect. We spent Christmas Eve with the Melby side (which is always a blast) and Christmas Day and the day after with my Moms side of the family (which is also a lot of fun). Tamia was with us the first few days of being there but she had to be home by noon the day after Christmas so we had her on the first flight out Sunday morning. My cousin Ang invited us down one afternoon so the kids could play and go sledding. They all get along so great and had a blast. We even left the older girls to babysit so the adults could go out to dinner. It was great to have adult time with Ang, Chris, Kari and Luis. My aunt Marcia took care of us as always ensuring there was always enough food to eat, drinks to drink and games to play. Even though she had just had surgery on her had, she didn’t let the slow her down. Ryan had Kennedy down one afternoon and it was so cute to see her and Taryn play together.
We couldn’t leave without Jeff getting his steak! We had a great dinner at AK’s in Ute. My Brother Teige, Sister Kathy, Nephew Logan, Aunt Loretta, Uncle Russ and Cousins Andrea, Lucas, Brent and Kelly were able to join us along with Moms Sisters and my Cousin Rozz and her kids. We had a great time. I love my family so much! There are times I wish I lived closer and then I’m there and am glad I’m in the city away from the small town gossipy madness. I literally walked into a gas station and over hear the ladies talking smack about the person who just left who I happen know! Ridiculous J I do regret not getting a chance to get together with friends while there. Sorry friends!!! We ended up cutting the trip short because of freezing rain that was supposedly coming that way. I’m not sure it ever showed up. I thought it would be easier to get together with everyone with Christmas falling on the weekend but it was actually more difficult. Maybe next year…

Last pics of 2009.