Wrapping Things Up

Okay, I surrender. Time has gotten the best of me yet again up and I am literally an entire season behind. For those who know me IRL understand why. I will share some of our autumn, including the good, the bad, and the ugly...albeit in a nutshell version. Here goes...

So I returned to the same school for the third year and of course there were many changes to adjust to as seems to be the norm now. Just when we think we all have it down, new and additional expectations come down the pike. In addition, I have been taking online courses to complete the necessary credits for my teaching license renewal. Let's just say this not an area I recommend procrastinating in. I learned some valuable lessons about time management in recent months.

The kids started back to school with N in 4th grade and K in 2nd grade. While N has been thriving and feeling truly challenged for the first time in a long time due to a fantastic teacher, K has been struggling with her teachers. She is very bright and capable, but tends to daydream or find other things to do besidesher work. We're working with her on finding solutions to this.

First day of school (notice K's shorter hair!)

We celebrated N's 10th birthday at Big Al's with a mini bowling party. We invited Grandma J along for the fun. My parents took N to an Oregon Ducks game (as previously blogged) for his birthday gift as well. As if all that wasn't enough, I treated the kids to a movie. We saw Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole, which was had beautiful graphics by the way.

Scored a spare!

Bowling with the family

As October rolled around, Kevin went on his first hunting trip with some friends. He was gone for almost a week. Then we made an annual visit to the pumpkin patch/apple orchard at Oregon Heritage Farms. The weather was perfect and we enjoyed a festive day and stocked up on honeycrisps, my personal favorite. Money was a bit tight, so we opted for just one plump pumpkin. The kids cleaned it out and helped design the face so I could carve it out. Then for Halloween, K dressed up as a 'midnight princess' and N went as 'skullzor'...(the names on their costumes). I'm hoping for lighter colors next year after the dark ones that permeated this year's choices. We went trick-or-treating with a friend of N's and he really enjoyed that. Of course, we also had to check out the annual haunted house. K wanted to experience the full scare for the first time, so that was entertaining for her.

Picking out the perfect pumpkin

Scary!

One really nice development these past months has been the friendships the kids have made with neighbor kids. For so long there weren't too many children in our neighborhood, but now there are lots. Another first, the kids begged us to let them watch their first real scary movie, so we allowed them to watch Poltergeist. N did fine, but predictably K had a nightmare (which we warned her could happen ahead of time but she was determined). We did make sure they covered their eyes during the really scary parts, but K admitted to peeking once or twice. Lesson learned for her.


Thanksgiving was a quiet one this year. We were going to host my MIL at our house for once, but she eventually insisted on hosting instead. She is the consumate hostess and because I was swamped with work, I caved. She knocked herself out as usual with quite a delicious spread. We had leftovers for days afterwards.

Ready to give thanks and dig in




On another note, we experienced a family tragedy that is still unfolding. Many have asked, so I will share a little bit here. My SIL went missing in late October. After a couple weeks of searching and no answers, things took a turn for the worse. Sadly, my brother ended up getting arrested and charged. My extended family is battling through this as there have been many ripple effects from this ordeal. I am sad at the loss of my SIL and my heart aches for my brother. I cannot share any more details at this time, but our family is strong and I have faith that time will heal us all.



To wind down the year, I celebrated my birthday in December. I finally understand why birthdays begin to blur together over time and I've stopped looking forward to turning another year older. One too many gray hairs for my taste! 37...yeesh! Not quite over the hill yet, but certainly climbing. Didn't do much, although DH took me out to dinner. We also got into the holiday spirit by going to Loch Lolly's to cut our Christmas tree down. The kids look forward to this because they also get to see Santa and his reindeer. It's a very special treat for them. I was so busy with work stuff this year that I opted to keep decorations low-key. I only put out about half of the usual items since we'd be out of town over Christmas. The saddest part is that it was mid-December before I realized I'd forgotten to put up the advent calendar. Thankfully, the kids didn't mind much. It was defitely a sign that I was too preoccupied with other things.


The week before Christmas break began for the kids and I, we had brunch with Grandma J at her house for a belated birthday for me and an early Christmas for her. We then went to my parents for Christmas. It was especially sweet this year in light of all that had happened. On Christmas eve, we watched It's a Wonderful Life with my family. The next day, we enjoyed a yummy Christmas brunch and dinner and opened some gifts. On Sunday, several family members came over for a buffet style brunch that lasted well into the afternoon. I got to hold some of the newest additions to our family. I helped my mom babysit baby Jace (who is my grandnephew! Am I really old enough to have one of those?) DH and I went out on a double date with my nephew and his wife (in their early twenties) to see Tron: Legacy (awesome and so nostalgic). We drove back on Monday and stopped off at Government Camp to let the kids and dogs play in the snow for a bit.

Sitting with Santa in his sleigh

Opening stockings

Kids and the dogs

Me and a sweet bundle of joy called Jace

I loved being off for two weeks to relax and catch up on some things. We have some truly wonderful friends that we often spend time with on weekends and have created some fun traditions with them. To help kick off the holiday season, we made some crafts and decorated Christmas cookies. We also celebrated New Year's eve with our them with a turkey dinner. It's become an annual tradition that I think we all look forward to. The kids especially love getting to stay up til midnight. DH barely made it this year as he's been working an earlier schedule, so he was dragging by the time the ball dropped in Timesquare.






Well, that's our autumn and early winter (for the most part). 2010 started off fairly quiet, but the second half certainly picked up in more ways than one. So far the new year has been exciting already. Our beloved Ducks (my alma mater) played for the national championships against Auburn in one of the most spectacular games ever. I mean seriously...they were tied 19-19 until Auburn scored a field goal in the final seconds of the game for the win. I don't care to watch football, but I was riveted by that game.


Whew! Okay, tired of talking about 2010. Onto 2011...:)