Wyatt turns 8!

We have an eight year old in the house.  Wyatt's birthday fell on our third snow day this week (today).  Just like last year, he was unable to share birthday cupcakes with his class. Illness derailed Wyatt's plans to celebrate with his class last year.  By the time evening rolled around, the roads were great but not so good in the neighborhoods.  The family made their way to our house to celebrate this big day, and I think we have a happy boy on our hands.

We found chocolate made to look like rocks and decorated the cake ourselves.  We just had the bakery ice it in Wyatt's favorite color and trim it in a complimentary color.



Julia enjoyed holding Regan





The three kids who have a DS played games together after everyone left.



If I were going to write a Christmas letter this year....

Since starting the blog almost two years ago, I stopped our annual Christmas letter.  It just seemed redundant to blog about our lives and then sum it up in a tidy letter at the end of the year to send out to family and friends. This year is no different except that I am writing what would have been my 2010 Christmas letter here:

How can I describe 2010? I cannot say this has been a banner year. However, it has not been all bad.  While I normally try to make my Christmas letter newsy without any proud mama bragging, this year will be different on that front.  I will unashamedly brag on my beautiful and wonderful children.  This is the year in review.

Andy- After long desiring to do so, Andy started his novel this year.  His writing impresses me. (Why am I the one blogging?)While his writing has been interrupted by the demands of work (which included a trip to China this year), his service at church, and life in general.  He has a good start to what should be an amazing novel, and he hopes to complete it in 2011.

Tamara- My year has been one full of tough decisions, tough stuff and uncertainty. I picked up a second job. I only work there one day a week, and it is a fun place to work, but the hassle of being away from the family and an unknown commitment time and date from week to week make this less than fun.  My full-time job is in turmoil, and of course, I have continued to try and make home fun for the kids, but there are just a lot of stressors.

Zachary- (currently 15 years old in 9th grade) Zachary took fifth in state in wrestling this year which led us to a difficult decision.  His school has no wrestling team, and while we have never made a school decision about sports, his preparation to transition to high school left us pondering our choice. Zachary narrowed the field to two schools - my school and the school he has attended since kindergarten.  I was completely torn between the two and let him make the choice.  He finally decided to give up wrestling and stay put.  I can't say I miss the constant demands of wrestling on Zach and on the family, and he does not really miss it either.

Zach went on to make it into three varsity football games this fall as a freshman.  He enjoyed the season, and we are all grateful for the break we now have (well, except for our resident night owl who has to get up very early in the morning to get Zach to football conditioning every day- that would be Andy, and Zach is his father's son in this regard).

Savannah- (currently 12 years old, in 7th grade) Savannah was delighted and surprised to find two blue ribbons on the artwork she entered in the state fair this year.  We were all happy to see this affirmation of her talent.

Just this past Saturday, she took the ACT as she was invited to participate in the Duke TIP program.  We are anxious to see her score which will arrive in a few weeks.  Savannah loves puzzles and math, and it was her math score on a standardized test that won her this honor.

Savannah also continued to play field hockey this year.  We have learned of another team that we can consider in the spring to give her more experience in this sport she loves.

Wyatt - (currently 7 years old, until Friday, that is and in the 2nd grade)  He talked all year about his desire to play baseball, and he joined a team in the spring.  Wyatt needs some work on his skills, but he had very good coaches and enjoyed the season.
When the pool opened this summer, Wyatt spent his time practicing swimming across the pool to earn Andy's approval to jump off the diving board. Wow! Within a day of his first jump, Wyatt was hamming it up for the camera and jumping with style.
This fall he started Taekwondo, and we may just have found his niche with this sport.  We love to see his award-winning grin as we watch his class through the window.

Julia- (currently 6 years old and attending 1st grade)  Julia graduated from kindergarten on the same day that Zach graduated from 8th grade.  As part of her celebration, she recited the 23rd Psalm in its entirety.  We love our school.  When tuition skyrocketed for us, we felt certain that Julia would be joining Wyatt in the public school system.  However, through prayer and some things that spoke to us in sermons and teachings, we decided to keep her in the Christian school system.  This has come with big financial challenges, but we feel that she is in the right place.

Julia now does gymnastics at level 2.  This keeps us running but truly appears to be her gift. She also continues to make us laugh daily, and she loves glitz and glam.  She really comes up with some doozies when left to dress herself.

As a family we enjoyed one of our best vacations ever on St. George Island in Florida.  We try to get away annually and leave behind the phones and constant interruptions to enjoy time together as a family.  The gulf oil spill threatened our trip, but as it did not reach the shore in St. George, we had a beautiful and peaceful place to hang out in group of 17 people this summer.  We laughed our way through a couple of games of Quelf...definitely a side-splitter.

We then welcomed our new niece Regan in September. 

The hardest experience of our year and one that Andy refers to as "the most horrific" he has experienced has been my mom's battle with pancreatic cancer.  We all know that pancreatic cancer is the deadliest of cancers, and if we didn't already know that, I certainly had a few people who felt strongly the need to tell me that along with every gruesome and painful detail of what they have seen people with it experience.  We have had the hope of surgery (the only known cure for pancreatic cancer) dashed by the reality that it could not be done.  That has been the nature of cancer, hope followed by despair and then hope again in a vicious wrenching cycle. Mom has fought this cancer valiantly and with peace.  She continues the fight as we all continue to hope and pray that God will grant us a miracle, and the doctors will declare that she is in remission and ultimately declare her cured of this awful beast. 

I close my letter with some of my favorite pictures from the year.

made in China

spunky and beautiful



the artist at work



honest Abe in Washington DC on his 8th grade trip



our one year old pooch Shiloh who loves the water



Mary treasured up these things and pondered them in her heart. Luke 2:19

Immanuel - God is with us.

Merry Christmas to all!

Dividing and Conquering

This one, lone, picture is the only one to represent a night divided.  Tonight all four of our children performed in Christmas programs at three different locations.  Zach and Savannah played in a band concert. Wyatt sang with the second graders at the Christmas concert and bazaar held at his school.  (Ironically, he returned home excited about acquiring new rocks...seriously, they had rock mining as part of the bazaar.  Bazaar, or I should say bizarre indeed!)  Julia sang and played the glockenspiel with the first graders at her school.  What were we to do?  We literally did a coin toss to see which of the younger children would have me at the concert.  Wyatt won, and Julia burst into tears, so he graciously told her that I could go with her.  Andy enjoyed Wyatt's concert, and my sister Tessa enjoyed the concert of the older two kids.  Andy and I went equipped with cameras and camcorders.  Our videos look as good as it gets when people walk in front of you while you tape, but the pictures- not so good.  Julia's class looks like a bunch of scary monsters because of the red eye.  Fixing it made it worse.  Wyatt's pictures did not save on the memory card.

I have to admit that when the third grade class at Julia's school recited Luke 2:1-20, I immediately prayed that Wyatt will be there for third grade. It is precious to hear the words that are now hidden in the hearts of these young children.  Having both Wyatt and Julia performing in the same program would also be a nice adjustment for this family.

And so the Christmas programs are complete.  We still have some parties on the schedule and a birthday to celebrate next Friday, but this week held the bulk of joyful, but stressful events.  On Tuesday, I attended a women's event with Tessa and Mom.  Nicole Johnson is a treat.  If you have not heard her,  check out her YouTube videos.
Tomorrow, I am attending two parties which is why I am awake now, long past my bedtime, awaiting the moment when the pecan pie I baked will be cool enough to make it to the fridge.

Visiting Santa

Zach, Wyatt, Julia and I braved the mall tonight to visit Santa. I think this meets my quota as I believe that a mall visit to Santa occurred exactly one time for Zach and Savannah.  If I can find that historic picture, I will post it here. 

Wyatt asked for Bey Blades and a DSi.  Julia told Santa that she was unsure of what she wanted.

Daddy Daughter Date Night

Our American Heritage Girls troop held their annual Father/Daughter night tonight.  For the first time in our eight year history with the troop, this event arrived during the Christmas season.  Typically, the Mother/Daughter tea gets the Christmas booking.  Andy and the girls enjoyed their time together.  Julia arrived at home anxious to share every detail of the evening from the crafts they did to the movie they watched (Sweetpea Beauty - Veggie Tales). I just love it when kids have such a great time that they want to share every detail.  Savannah liked last year's event better.  She said last year was just fun while this year they concentrated on earning a badge.

They are ready to head out.  What a contrast my daughters are from Savannah's fair complexion and  Julia's dark complexion to the clothes they chose to wear. They could go dressy or casual. As you can see, Julia chose dressy, and Savannah chose casual while Andy tried to stick to the middle.

 The crafts included personal prayer lists on bookmarks and thank you cards for their church teachers and leaders.

 They also crafted these doll ornaments.  They had the option of buying the ornament or donating it.  All proceeds go to the worthy cause of stopping child trafficking.  Savannah's doll came home with them, and Julia donated hers.  Andy forgot about this part of the night and did not carry enough cash to buy both.  This, however, is not a problem as Julia has never actually played with a doll in her life and is not one bit sentimental about anything. 

Andy had me laughing about the dolls.  He told me I should have seen the looks on the dads' faces when it was announced that they would be making dolls.  They went on to tell the dads about the cards and bookmarks, but they had already lost the dads with the announcement about the dolls.

I still have some pictures from November that I need to post, and I want to end this post with prayers for my mom.  She is going through a lot of stuff tomorrow (see her Facebook post from Friday below), and she is dreading it.
 Finally got home from the infusion center a little before 8 and I am totally wiped out. Going Monday for thoracentesis and paracentesis. My lower extremities are so edematous I can hardly raise them, so some Lasix for a couple of days to see if that helps. Even though this sounds negative, I actually feel pretty well and I thank God for every day I have (even the bad ones). 

You see why I have to steal her post.  I only speak English, not medical.

A Hard Road to Christmas Break

We face two more weeks of school, programs, obligations etc. before we are on Christmas break, and while I feel at peace, this year the road to Christmas break is a painful one.

We returned from our Thanksgiving travels to learn that two students from the school where I work lost their lives in an accident over the holiday weekend.  Monday was hard.  Twenty grief counselors arrived to support our students and staff, and they set up shop in the library.  Tensions were high, and as the families worked together to find a place to hold a joint visitation and funeral, students and staff gathered pictures, offered support, started fund raising to offset medical and funeral costs for the families and started plans for a memorial service to be held at school on the Friday we leave for Christmas break.  Tough stuff!  An outside counselor told our staff that our students handled their grief with maturity.  That comment saddened me because I think handling grief with maturity comes from experience, so that speaks volumes of the legacy lived by our kids.

An edgy staff now faces an audit team on our return to school next week. I have written before about the challenges of public education, and the public has bought into a measure of a school done simply on a test score, a test that every student takes regardless of their true academic ability.  Our district has a huge population of homeless students and students living in poverty.  It amazes me that we are being told that teachers use this as an excuse for poor performance.  Andy, himself, asked how many of the "homeless" students are actually sleeping on the couches of relatives.  Really?  Does this not matter?  Our family went through two eight day power outages in one year.  You bet that impacted education in this household!  A family in crisis does not exactly have school high on the list of to dos.

In our last week before we leave, we will celebrate our principal's retirement.  It is no secret that she is leaving because the community that has been built in this school will be disrupted and ruptured because we have been labeled a school in crisis.  It is ironic that this label comes even though we have increased the number of students going to college and passing advanced placement exams while our free and reduced lunch population has nearly doubled.  We will finish that week with a service to honor the lives of two of our students. 

Christmas shopping is just not high on my list right now.

Let it Snow

We continued the tradition started last year and celebrated our first snow today with gifts for the kids.  A very excited Wyatt came to me this morning and announced that we had snow on the ground.  He wanted to sleep in the living room last night when he heard the prediction of snow so that he could see it.  I reminded him that his room has a window.  Julia joined him shortly afterward, and their excitement and anticipation of everyone waking so that they could open the gifts seemed so Christmas morningish.  I think Wyatt was less than thrilled that once again the gift was warm pajamas.  He did, however, love building a snowman with a little help from Andy tonight.

 After much ado about what to do with decorating the mantle.  I think we have success with live greenery.  I love it!