January 2011
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| On January 12th, we lost my Mom after a valiant but peaceful battle against Pancreatic Cancer. She was much too young to leave us at only 60 years old. She suffered so much in her last hours, and I felt completely abandoned by God. I think I spent the entire year in shock. |
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| On January 14th, Zach received his varsity letter for football. |
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| Just a week or two later, Wyatt tested successfully for his yellow belt in Tae Kwon Do. |
February 2011
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| February brought an annual tradition with the school's Father/Daughter dance, and our little glam girl insisted on having her hair done. We are grateful to have a hairdresser in the family. Thanks Aunt Tiffany for the updos! |
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Julia continued successfully in classical gymnastics. We loved watching her but decided in June when she was invited to move up to level 3 that our family could no longer afford this sport.
March 2011 |
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| In March, Andy and I spent a weekend away together for the first time since 2007. It was much needed and much too short. This was Andy's 2010 Christmas gift from me. |
April 2011
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| Over spring break we followed annual tradition and went to the Children's Museum with Tiffany, Tony, and their boys. |
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| We posed for a picture for Third Day. I have no idea if they actually used this one for their concerts or not. Of course Savannah made the sign. |
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| Our always sweet and almost always content Savannah became a teenager in April. |
May 2011
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| Wyatt tried another season of baseball and concluded that this is not his sport. |
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| In May Julia decided to have her ears pierced. |
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| Andy and I tag teamed a tent camping trip with the little people. We had a blast and were surprised when neither of them pursued scouts in the fall. |
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At the end of May as we were concluding a grueling and painful school year, my brother-in-law died unexpectedly. His funeral was the most heart-breaking experience of my life.
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June 2011
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| I changed schools and thus mascots as well. I spent 18 years at a school I loved and was devastated when circumstances beyond my control ripped the school apart. After much deliberation and prayer, I decided to leave, so in June I said my final goodbyes. |
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| Our always spunky and funny Julia turned 7 in June. Where did those years go? |
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| I played with our photographs to work on some wall art for our home. I still need frames for these, so they have not yet made it to the walls. |
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| Savannah decided that her ears needed a second hole. I made her think this one over for several days before allowing her to go through with it. She has no regrets. |
July 2011
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| In July we took our annual vacation with my side of the family. We had a great time even as we faced this first without Mom and Tony. |
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| Savannah started working diligently in July to produce enough art to sell her work at a bazaar in November. We wanted to do something for our grieving nephews and thought that sending them to Bible and Beach with our church in 2012 would be good for them. However, Andy and I aren't likely to be able to afford that for Zach and Savannah, so making it happen for Austin and Logan seems impossible. Zach and Savannah both sought fund-raising opportunities to make it happen. If for some reason, the kids don't go, Savannah plans to donate her earnings for another student, and that is the heart of my daughter. |
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| Wyatt initially did not want to attend church camp but was so glad he did. He loved it, can't wait to go back, and wants to be baptized there. He charmed all of the staff. "Charming" - I heard that word over and over again from the staff members who told me about his time at camp. The best part was that in that short time he was at camp, Wyatt memorized the entire section of scripture describing the full armor of God. Keep hiding those words in your heart, Buddy. |
August 2011
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| In August we splurged on a trip to an amusement park. Wyatt and Julia had never been to a nice park, so we are already saving to do this again in 2012. |
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| Savannah once again entered art in the state fair. |
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| We returned to school, field hockey and football. I started at my new school and quit my second job. I was surprised at the difference between two high schools in the same city, culture shock for sure. |
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| Zach enjoyed lots of varsity play. |
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| Savannah was most improved. |
September 2011
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| We celebrated the moon festival with Families with Children from China. |
October 2011
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In probably our most special time of the year, Julia was baptized. The change in our family was reflected in this event when no one on my side attended. In their defense, everyone had been out of town the day before, so they were all too tired for the early service. Our church family, however, did not miss this occasion and loved on us as they always do.
Julia did this as part of a baptism weekend at our church, and she just happened to be baptized one day before Zach turned 16. He expressed his happiness by stating that knowing his little sister would spend eternity in Heaven with him was a great birthday gift. Zach is crazy about her, and in spite of his nickname (Bonecrusher), he is mostly a teddy bear. |
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| Our firstborn turned 16! YIKES! |
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| I made my annual attempt to get good pictures of the kids since we cut school pictures out of the budget a few years back. |
November 2011
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| Wyatt and I do not have the same school schedule as the rest of the kids, so we visited a cave on one of our days off. Wyatt was all about the rock mining. |
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| Savannah sold several pieces of her art at the school Christmas bazaar. Pricing her work was incredibly hard. We wanted to be fair to Savannah as each piece takes hours, but we also wanted to be fair to the potential customers. We decided on $20, and Savannah had a successful day, but this experience once again demonstrates that fund raising is incredibly difficult for me. Therefore, another adoption is not on the radar, and a box of chocolate bars that Savannah was supposed to sell for AHG is still in her room. I've already written the check to cover the cost of that candy. OUCH! |
December 2011
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| In November, Julia's lifelong dream came true when she started cheerleading. This, however, meant that she could not play basketball, and as Andy has always coached her in basketball, his heart was slightly hurt. |
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| In December our always active but lovable Wyatt turned nine! |
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| We also got permission to share a secret that we have been holding since October. Regan is going to be a big sister! We anticipate the arrival around June 19th, and we should know if she will have a little sister or a little brother by the end of January. |
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| Shiloh really slowed down on her chewing, so we think our furniture is almost safe now (stuffed animals, however, are not safe). She is really sweet and wants to be a good girl. I came home from work one day, and Andy had forgotten to put Shiloh back in her crate when he left for work after lunch. Upon seeing me she appeared to be ready to greet me, but instead, she ran straight to her crate as if to say, "I know where I am supposed to be." Alarmed by her quick return to the crate, I started searching for damage, but there was none. She's not perfect, but she is pretty good. |
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| For Zach's 16th birthday, we helped him buy his letterman jacket. Unfortunately, it did not arrive until two months after his October birthday because the sporting goods store failed to order it with the rest of the team jackets (all four of them). |
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Zach finally got his permit and then traumatized me on our first outing. He is learning, slowly but surely. Of course he wants to drive all the time.
Aside from not having Mom here to share it, this may have been the best Christmas break I have ever had. Because of the nature of Andy's work, taking off for Christmas is out of the question, so my longtime dream of spending Christmas in Florida will remain just a dream, and I am okay with that. However, for the first time I can remember Andy got the week off after Christmas this year. I cannot express what that has meant for our break. We have had wonderful family time together. Everything has seemed so much more peaceful and easy than usual, and I just want to hang on to every second.
Looking Ahead |
I did not successfully complete any of my resolutions. We spent the entire year trying to recover from a lot of change, heartache, and stuff. We will celebrate the arrival of the new year with a victory celebration for Julia's baptism at our church. Everyone baptized in 2011 is invited to march to the altar and hear the sermon from the area where the choir usually sits. Julia is very excited about this, so I think we will be very low key and probably sleeping by the time midnight strikes on January 1, 2012.
Happy New Year!
