Goodbye 2010

• January - Lots of friend's birthday parties, Claire and Finn turned 15 months old, Claire got sick, chose name for our MOPS cookbook, we had an ant problem, saw my OB, got a haircut on the 28th.
• February - Weighed six pounds less than I do now (sob), had a huge snowstorm in Dallas, my Aunt Peg's third husband died (she is already passed away) and my sweet friend Diana's father died. Spoke with Realtor for first time.
• March - Have inside of house painted, attend Mommy Swap, have windows washed. Not a thrilling month for the Michies.
• April - Easter Egg Hunt, many open houses at which no one makes us an offer, Claire and Finn to 18 month checkup, put our house on the market, take pictures in bluebonnets.
• May - Pass the Notebook party for MOPS Steering Team, New York City for cousin Ross's wedding (most fun I'd had all year), niece Brittany graduates from Texas A&M, end of preschool for Duncan (and lots of crying for me).
• June - Duncan's 5th birthday, niece Kathleen graduates from high school, attend Mommy Swap, 12th wedding anniversary, vacation Bible school, visit Martha T. Reilly Elementary, lower price on house, lots of swimming, look at lots of houses. Dream about living in some of them.
• July - 4th of July parade, more swimming, big family vacation to Priest Lake in Idaho, did not attend many Zumba classes I had written down in my calendar, Duncan has his first country club experience with sweet friend.
• August - So.Hot. Lots of swimming and running from air conditioned car to air conditioned house. Lots of white space on my calendar so I don't think we did much else. Did get my iphone, which deserves recongnition because it has changed my life. MOPS cookbook kickoff party. My former boss died suddenly. 5 year checkup for Duncan. Kindergarten. Sadness. Lots of crying. Buy "new" minivan.
• September - MOPS starts back up for Fall. My brother and his girlfriend come to visit from Spokane. Westminster Youth Choir Reunion. Begin to sell MOPS cookbooks. Start to exercise regularly and begin Couch to 5K program. Also start to have regular Tuesday playdates. Turn 45. Buy good night cream. Iain goes to first PTA meeting and is sorely disappointed. Texas State Fair!
• October - Ziggy's birthday. Becky's birthday. Claire and Finn's birthday. Iain and Duncan have first Father-Son weekend trip to Georgia with Mobley and Wilson. Claire and Finn turn 2! Halloween. First teacher conference and report card for Duncan. Duncan to dentist. No cavities! Take house off the market. Sadness.
• November - Tour Dealey Elementary. MOPS Cookbooks shipped! Thanksgiving. Still doing Couch to 5K. My brother Doug gets married. Sister Becky to Hawaii.
• December - Iain still traveling alot. Still running. Last MOPS meeting of semester. Attend another Mommy Swap. Bake lots of cookies. Get hair cut. Family Christmas party. Turn in application to Dealey. Friend has brain surgery. Do not participate in Jingle Bell run because Duncan is sick but we cheer Daddy on! Christmas. Prepare for 2011. Will celebrate 2010 with great friends.

Love,

Christie

Late December Picnic!

We love you, Texas weather. Late December picnics on our new playset picnic table are tons of fun. Many more winter days like this one would really rock mommy's world.

Weekend Recap

My lack of being able to move my pictures around still hinders me. It is a challenge I am not afraid to rise to, however. But I digress. Friday was Duncan's class Christmas party...oh, excuse me...I mean holiday party. I went through the process to be able to walk in the front door of the school and down the hall to his classroom to pass out chips and sit in a tiny chair and listen to five and six year olds tell me about their worlds. And by process I mean I had to agree to a criminal background check. To go to my kid's party. But whatever. I did. And I went. Duncan was super happy to have me there and I was super happy to do it. He was proud for me to see where he sits (Table 2) and who he sits with (all girls) and all the art displayed around the room. And I really do like his teacher. So I passed out chips and then sat and talked to Duncan and his table mates about math, the politics of stealing crayons from other's crayon boxes, pop rocks, and all other matters kindergarten. It was really pretty fun and made both of us happy.

On Saturday, I got started baking. I had plans to go to a cookie exchange on Sunday and needed to make 8 dozen cookies. I decided on a salted caramel thumbprint, which actually turned out to be pretty easy. It took me all day, but I did get all 8 dozen of them made, with the help of my super husband going to the store for me only one time. A good friend came by for a short visit, and before we knew it it was bed time. After we got all the kids fed and in jammies, we took them to go look at Christmas lights in a neighborhood not too far away. Each street picks a different theme and everyone decorates (well, mostly everyone...I suppose if you don't decorate you are asked to move but I'm not sure.) There was a Peanuts street, a 12 Days of Christmas street, a Biblical/Religious street, etc...Oh, and a 12 Days of a Redneck Christmas street. See Monster Truck below. Anyway, it's a good spot because unlike some parts of Dallas I don't come home feeling completely overwhelmed at our lack of space and lack of Christmas lights. Got all the kids in bed pretty quickly. Instead of having time to finish my Christmas cards last night, though, I had to finish my cookies and was in bed by about 11:00. Saturday Night Live could not hold my interest. Oh, and the remote control to our TV broke, sending us into a tailspin and causing us to stumble around trying to figure out how anyone ever changed channels before remote controls....well, remote controls and DVR's.

This morning was church and I took the kids and Iain stayed home. Afterwards, came home and got everyone fed and the babies down for naps. Duncan had expressed interest in going with me to the cookie swap and since kids were welcome, I let him come with me. After about twenty minutes he was bored silly (as I had warned him he would be) so since it was only down the street I ran him home and went back to enjoy myself. I came home with 8 dozen cookies. Just what we need! I have already packed up a tin for our sweet neighbors across the street and am going to give away quite a few more, except the gingerbread men. Duncan has asked that I keep those. And I shall.

Friends

I have a new, but great, friend who is having brain surgery today. We initially grew to be friends over me asking for people to do the 30 Day Shred with me. She did it. I did not. But we became friends anyway! I see her at church on Sundays, and we email and FB message back and forth during the week. So, while we do not live in the same part of town, have not been friends for very long, and only see each other once a week I think we have become dear friends. Sometimes that happens and you just can't explain it.

So, today, she is having brain surgery. She's brave and strong but still...it's brain surgery. She should come through just fine and walk away 100% and I'd like any of you who happen to read this today, if you are a praying person, to say a little prayer for my new, wonderful friend.

~Christie

Weekend Recap

I am determined to get this up before Wednesday.

Friday was very awesome and very exciting. My MOPS group had arranged a Mother's Day Out for all of us, where we could drop off our kids for three hours, for $10 a kid. So, for $20 I got 2x3 hours of childcare. Cannot be beat. I got oldest dropped of at kindergarten then got a coffee, some cash and got the littles dropped off. I had planned my time pretty carefully, so as not to waste any precious, child-free minutes. I hit the shopping center right next to our church and scored some serious bargains at Stein Mart. I knew I needed a new 2011 planner, and knew the one I wanted so I drove up to Borders but they did not have it. Cursed the fact that I'd wasted precious time. Went back to the shopping center where I started and hit a gift shop (score!) and Tuesday Morning (disappointed) then called a great friend to meet me at Fuzzy Taco for lunch. Can I just go on and on about the beauty of the Big Salad? Man. That was good.

Time to go pick up my (hopefully) exhausted kids. And go home. For naps. Except we didn't...and when I say "we" I mean them. Oh, we had banter and hijinx from the bedroom but not a wink of sleep. I needed to pick up Duncan and drive him downtown to drop him off with my sister, who was taking him to the Polar Express at the IMAX theater in Fort Worth. Can I just say that one should not always depend on one's navigation system in one's car to get one to one's destination in the most expedient way? I will not go on and on about it but. Suckage.

I got Duncan dropped off and as soon as I did meltdown 1 and 2 started. Got them home, in the bath and in jammies as quickly as I could, at the cost of missing my Sunday School Christmas party. I was really looking forward to going, but since Iain was on his way back from LA and the babies would have been a big puddle of toddler shortly after dropping them off, I elected to stay home. I got on my own pajamas soon after I put them in theirs and waited for Hubs to get home.

Dang. I'm just on Friday?

My sister calls at this point with a teary Duncan, at the IMAX theater saying he wants to come home. I talk him off the ledge, tell my sister to feed him and for them to call me back. Did not hear back so I assumed he snapped out of it and continued to try to relax. Iain got home at about 8:30 and I am sure I was a vision in my flannel, lying on the heating pad.

My sister emailed me later to tell me that Duncan was fine, in case you are wondering. Large steam trains on movie screens and Whataburger can cure a host of ills and fears.

On Saturday, Iain got up and went to go play raquetball with his Dad and I stayed home with the babies and kind of piddled and got ready. We had a family get together that afternoon, and headed up north of Dallas as soon as Claire and Finn woke up from naps. Duncan met us there with my mom and sister. When we arrived, he was having fun with distant cousins his own age so I was grateful for that. We did sufficient family visiting, then drove home in time to get Claire and Finn to bed and Duncan shortly afterwards. Blur.

On Sunday, the kids all had a Birthday Party for Jesus at church (which Iain was helping with) so after a rocky start we all made it to church by 9:30. I was so grateful that we had nothing to do after church! We put up some Christmas lights outside and just stayed home. Iain went to meet a friend from B-school later for drinks, but by then I was already in my flannels looking hopefully towards bedtime.

And **poof**...it's gone.

~Christie

Weekend Recap

Wow, that one went amazing fast. As a side note, why am I doing this at 6:30 A.M. in the dark (except for the lights from the Christmas tree) without having had my coffee? Your guess is as good as mine.

So, I shall start with Thursday night because this was kind of a three day weekend for me. Although, I suppose there is an argument to be made it was a five day weekend because Iain left on Wednesday and when that happens time just seems to go all wonky and I never know what day it is anyway. But Thursday night seems a good kicking off spot. We had our MOPS Steering Christmas party that night, so I got myself a baby sitter and kicked up my heels (except I wore cute embellished flats...and I know they are called that because I read about it on someone else's blog). Hostess did the most perfect job! Lots of cocktails, candles, china, crystal, food, and good friends.
On Friday morning, I had our MOPS Christmas Tea...it was the last meeting of the semester and our genius speaker coordinator had the whole idea. It was really fun and festive and a good time was had by all the moms, I think. I could try to talk about how important MOPS is to me but I would get all blubbery and sad right now and it's just too early. But it was gorgeous!

Okay, back to weekend. Friday night, Iain got home...no parties!

On Saturday, he got started finishing putting together the playset that my fabulous cousin so generously gave us. His dad, a/k/a Pawpaw came over to help, and also took Duncan to McDonald's and played with all the kids in the leaves, and was a great, huge help overall. His dad has been spending more time with us and the kids and I must say it's been great. They are all quite attached to him and I can see why. He's very tall, with a Scottish accent, a shock of white hair...quite a fabulous grandpa. We thought he'd be Granda but he's ended up being Pawpaw because that's all Claire can say and it's stuck, I think.

On Saturday night I went to a Mommy Swap with some friends and came away with some treasures. They are always so fun, goodies aside. The social aspect is the big draw for me, that and getting rid of so many things that just take up space in my house! We were in a friend's parents' beautiful home, laughed alot and donated alot of great stuff to Good Will. Oh, and I got Iain a practically brand new raquet for raquet ball and a Dora backpack for Claire. And a brand new karate outfit for Duncan. And there was pizza. And wine. It was so fun!

On Sunday...well, it was really the highlight of the whole weekend. I packed up the twins and dropped them off at church then Duncan and I drove over to our church's water stop at the White Rock Marathon. My great friend was running and we went to cheer her on. It was amazing! While we waited for her to zoom past us, we saw some amazing runners, cheered, rang cow bells, handed out cups of water and Gatorade and hopefully shone the light of Christ in the process. My friend has reached a level of celebrity with Duncan, so it was hard to wait but he did a great job and when she did run past us, was so kind and generous and thoughtful enough to slow down enough to give him a fast hug and a smile. It made his day!

By Sunday night we were all spent, but it was a good weekend! Why do I always take until Wednesday to get these weekend recaps done?

Christie

Advent, Day 2

We rocked the playground at the Y today with some shiny pink Disney Princess cowboy boots.

Droopy diapers didn't slow us down either.

And sometimes, it's best just to march along...

and enjoy the day!

Chillin'