Wednesday, January 5, 2011

* So Long 2010

I will not go into much detail and whining about how I have not updated my blog for months - the only comfort is that others I know have not updated for longer times than myself. Strangely enough life goes on. I miss the updates because they are truly more for myself than anyone else, as I believe this next little story will illustrate.

I just finished reading the post from last year and was much entertained by some events. For those who are not going to flip back and read I will say that the day before I did 'So long 2009' it was college dinner and I made the college group put away Christmas. Off-handedly I remarked that the disorder of my stuff would be December 2010 Michelle's problem. I forgot that I had done that until I opened the boxes this year and it was my problem. Many things in order and some in random places. Opening the boxes was full of surprises. This year I took down the decorations a day before dinner so my stuff would be where it belonged. Lesson learned Michelle of January 2010, the Michelle of January 2011 was inspired to get back in the game a bit quicker!

Enough with that - on with the list of stuff for 2010, which naturally will be ten points long, because that is the only appropriate length.

  • Our house was on the market for a long time, by two different companies and eventually at a much reduced price and still did not sell. The market is completely a bummer and we subsequently took our house off the market in the fall. This has caused some introspection. We still wish to move. There are things I want to do that I can not accomplish in this subdivision. God will take care of it and we can be thankful that we were not in a position that we had to sell and lose tons of money.
  • My daughter started Kindergarten this year and is loving it. I can just now see some good learning habits and concepts take shape. Admittedly the first few months were all about the friends. But now she can read one vowel words and is getting reading for the step into two vowel rules. You can see the pride on her face when she reads. It is such a milestone.
  • My son continues to love school, but I believe his favorite part is the football card trading during snack. He can now sit through a football game and have an intelligent conversation about players and their positions and teams, with his dad of course, his mother does not care. Two days ago he informed me that it was Eli Manning's birthday. Who knew? Apparently they put that information on the back of the cards. So Eli Manning, wherever you are, we wished you a happy birthday.
  • My nieces spent three weeks at my house this summer, while my sister was recovering from surgery. That deserved its own post, but sadly fell into my slump of posting. We had a great time and we learned many things. For example, only my son could sleep in the same room as my youngest niece. He was the only one able to ignore her three year old chatter and fall asleep. The other girls would just talk back and things would ramp up from there.
  • This October I went on a ten day vacation with my mother to Italy. Another event that deserves its own post, with pictures, but has not quite come to fruition yet. It was a great blessing to have such extended time with my mom with no one else around to take her attention, which at this point is mostly grandkids. Because who looks at me anymore when my kids are in the room?
  • The kids got new furniture this year. My son got the typical young boy dream of bunk beds and my daughter finally got a big girl bed, since she has been in her toddler bed/crib bed since birth. That was a big event for us and a marker of their growth. We looked in nearly every store in town and through Craigslist, trying to meet everyone's requirements of style and budget. Exhausting.
  • This fall our Children's Ministry leader stepped down to take on the role of Preschool director. This allowed myself and another mom to step into that role. It has only been a few months but I am hopeful for 2011 to see how we can add our personal touches to this ministry.
  • Our college ministry continues to grow in so many ways. This year has been one in which they young adults themselves have taken on so much more leadership. It is great to be a part of their lives for so many years and to see God growing them. They now have Prime Ministers of Education and Social Planning as well as planning a return mission trip to Bayou LeBatre led by some of our newer members. God is rounding out the group and bringing in so many different opportunities.
  • Also this fall I began watching a little guy while his mom is at work, which has been tons of fun for all of us. He is thankfully an easy baby because we are quite mobile at times. It has been great to see how my children respond in taking care of him, especially how seriously my son works. Although the fact that he negotiated for part of my income in return for his work is another story. He is quite the money saver. He has nearly saved the cost of admission to Disney for a 4-7 days pass, because he intends to go for his tenth birthday, which leads to my final topic...
  • We went to Disney for my daughters fifth birthday. How did that not get a post?!?!?!? We managed to keep the trip a secret and it was awesome. While I thought my son would give it away. He himself was not completely sure what we were doing until he read Orlando at the check in desk. It helped that I packed at night and woke them at 4 in the morning to go to the airport. That will throw anyone off their game. My daughter was in heaven, especially her day at the Bibbity Boppity Boutique. This may inspire me to get a post up here all about that trip.

This experience has pretty much reminded more of what I have not done... Oh well. At least this list got done. :)

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