Bloggin' Ain't My Thing!

Okay, in case you haven't already guessed it, blogging just isn't my thing. I like to think I enjoy blogging, but it comes right down to time which I have very little of. It's been almost four months since I have last blogged. Let's see if I can recap some events since our snowstorm:

CHRISTMAS: We had a wonderful Christmas, celebrating the birth of Jesus and enjoying the wonderment of Santa Claus. Madeline was a huge fan of Santa this year, and we had a blast being Santa's helpers. Although Christmas was harder this year, the snow seemed to make it a little easier to make it through without my dad. We stayed at my mom's for several days in case Christmas Eve celebrations were canceled (which they weren't) and stayed a few days extra to enjoy the snow, keep her company, and continue with Christmas festivities! Elizabeth really enjoyed eating wrapping paper, and Madeline has decided that Santa thinks she is super special because of the gifts he brought.

A week after Christmas my brother & his family came into town, we had Christmas all over again, and enjoyed a fun New Year's celebration.

ELIZABETH WALKS: It didn't take long after Christmas for Elizabeth to figure out how to walk. She walks, runs, dances, spins around, you name it. She's got it down. So, at 7 months old we had a walker on our hands. At first, I won't lie, I was seriously disappointed. She's my last baby and I wanted her to be a baby for a little longer, but as soon as I started discovering the perks to walking (two free hands again!) I decided it wasn't so bad. Plus, it's adorable watching her move around with her little bottom pushed out. I have cute kids, what can I say? :-)

MOM WENT TO MEXICO: I admit it. I am a baby. I need my mommy around. She left me for three months and it was hard for me to not have her around. I buried myself in my kids and work...okay, that's melodramatic, but I did miss her! It was busy taking care of her mail and house, but we managed to throw a few parties at her house to help the time go faster (Starr's bday, Bunco Bash!)

BUNCO: A group of moms got together and decided to go to the World Bunco Association World Championships. Did you even know something like that existed? We didn't either, but once we found out it was in Vegas we were hooked! We raised the money to attend (with the help of an awesome sponsor). We held a huge Bunco Bash party at my moms house (it's okay...she gave us permission!) and had a really awesome weekend garage sale, plus a mother-daughter bunco party at Chrystal's house. In total, we raised almost $2000 for five us to go to Vegas and we were meeting two more friends once we got there.

The trip was awesome...I think a great mom vacation for all of us. We played around the first day and a half in Vegas doing the tourist-y thing, and played a mean game of Bunco Saturday afternoon. I won to go on to the semi finals and two other friends got wild cards. We were thrilled! We spent the evening/night celebrating at dinner and a dueling piano bar. Boy, we had fun!

The final day we spent at the Bunco Championships, and, boy, were we hot! Chrystal & I ended up making it to the final 12. Close enough we could smell the prize money. It was an absolute blast and a perfect excuse to go to Vegas every year!

STARR's JOB: After almost 6 months on the picket line, Starr's union decided to call it quits. Unfortunately, Oak Harbor lost so much business during the strike that all employees weren't guaranteed their jobs back...Starr was laid off. Even though we knew that was probably the case, it was still a hard pill to swallow and Starr is now spending time job hunting while trying not to think about unemployment. He does receive a weekly check, but it's not much. Praise the Lord it's something. Sooner or later something perfect will fall into his life, and in the meantime he is applying for about every job under the sun. He has had two interviews, but didn't get the job. The first there were a total of 470 qualified applicants! At least we know he is marketable and something will come up.

DENVER: Well, to help Starr search for a job I decided to take the kids to Denver on my way to Houston. It sounds funny,but it worked out perfectly. Jason & Melissa watched the girls, I went to an corporate annual meeting, and Starr got to spend the time hitting the pavement. The girls had a great time (maybe more than J&M) and I was relieved knowing that everyone was safe and Starr was able to look for a job. Plus, I got to see my brother & his family! It was a win-win. I was nervous about flying with both girls on my own, but both did amazing jobs and I would do it again in a heartbeat!! I was gone for over a week and flew five airlines in less than four days. I was relieved when my travel was over and I could be home for awhile!

Okay, so that's a quick update on our lives in the past four months. I have tons and tons of photos (you all know me!), but no time to load them right now. I will do that later tonight or sometime this week...if I remember. And I will try my hardest not to wait until this summer to post again.