Christmas Newsletter

Well, we're getting them out late once again this year, but I finally finished our Christmas newsletter. You can read it here.

Hopefully next year we'll get our act together and get it out earlier, but I think I say that every year.

ETA (1/16/08): I thought I posted this blog entry, but I guess I didn't. For those of you who haven't seen our newsletter yet, here's the link. :)

Say Cheese!

If you look at the Fall 2007 page (link updated) on Mara's site, you'll probably notice a lot of pictures of her in an "Official Present Opener" shirt. That's because she was being a little ham this evening. The day didn't start out that way, though.

This morning, we were trying to take her picture so I could create our Christmas card. She so did not want to cooperate. We put her in her Christmas dress, and she wanted to immediately take it off. She fought us the whole time, but we were able to finally get some pictures – just not the one I was looking for. We gave up and fed her lunch and put her down for her nap. When she woke up, she kept handing me the camera while saying, "Say cheese?" So, I ended up taking a ton of pictures of her that evening. I still didn't get the shot I was looking for to put on the Christmas card, but I got several others that were just great. It was at that time I decided to rethink the design of our Christmas card and just go one of the pictures that turned out fantastic.

What was hard to believe as I looked through all of those pictures is that Mara is now looking more and more like a little girl and no longer like a baby. I guess she really is growing up.

Vacation Time!

We just got back from our first vacation in over five years. We had been talking about it for a while now, and finally decided to take a trip to San Antonio. It was the first time Mara stayed in a hotel, and she did so well. Our hotel was in a great location – just on the other side of I-37 from downtown. That meant that we could walk to the Riverwalk no problem without paying to park. Plus, the hotel wasn't nearly as expensive as it would have been had we stayed on the Riverwalk.

Speaking of the Riverwalk, that's where we spent Friday evening after we checked into the hotel. Even though it was dark, we took the boat ride thanks to Mara's insistence. We then spent all day Saturday at Sea World. Mara loved feeding the dolphins and almost got to pet one but decided not to when it got close to her. She also really liked the Shamu show. She got several stuffed animals that represent the different ones we saw there and loves to make the go "splash."

Sunday morning, we visited the San Antonio Zoo and then went back to Sea World later that day to catch some shows we missed. We talked about doing something Monday morning before we left town, but we just ended up relaxing at our hotel before packing up the car.

Our feet were very sore and tired from all of the walking around we did, but it was a lot of fun to finally take a family vacation. In fact, we plan on going back next December and maybe another time before that.

I hope to upload pictures of our trip in the near future, but for now we should head off to bed.
When Mara goes to school in the morning, she'll be in her new class, the older 2s, and we want to make sure she is well rested when she gets there.

Promotion

I haven't told many people about it yet, but I have received a promotion at work. Effective October 1, I am going to be the manager of the Communications Department at Tyler Technologies – Plano (formerly The Software Group). My manager received a promotion herself and will now be working for the corporate communications and marketing team. I've already moved into an office since we had a new girl start last week and she needed my desk. It's going to be a big change from just being a technical writer/communications specialist to being a manager, but I'm looking forward to this new and exciting challenge.

Happy Anniversary!

Today would have been my parents' 50th anniversary. It's amazing that they were together that long. I wish my mom was around so we could have a huge celebration, but it just wasn't meant to happen. I still want to wish my parents a happy 50th anniversary. Their marriage is a great example to everyone who knows them.

What's in a name?

Recently, Mara and I were shopping at Target, and another woman heard me call Mara's name. She came up to me and verified that my daughter's name was Mara. She then told me that she had a daughter named Mara as well - spelled the same way and with the same middle name. She then asked if I had her in Plano and then Plano Presby to be more specific. Come to find out, we have the same doctor and her Mara was born less than six months after our Mara was born. It was a weird coincidence that after two plus years we just so happen to run into each other at a store.

One of the reasons we chose the name Mara was because it wasn't a common name but it wasn't unusual. It was kind of neat, though, to meet someone else who named their daughter the same name because that kind of proved that we picked a good name.

In Memory

It's been a while since I've updated this blog, but there's a good reason for that. On July 20, 2007, my mother died. She had been in and out of the hospital for the past five months starting with a staph infection back in February. We were given news on July 17 that she wouldn't be with us much longer because her breathing changed and she just wasn't getting the oxygen and other necessities her body required. After three whirlwind days, my dad called me at about 5:50 Friday morning to let me know that she passed away sometime between 5 and 5:45 while he was sleeping on the couch in her hospital room.

During my mom's last three days, we spent so many hours meeting with people from hospice, the church, and the funeral home as well as calling friends and family to let them know of her condition and deciding on final arrangements. I think my mom could sense a peace about the family when we finally knew what we were going to do, and that is when she decided it was time to leave us.

My mom's memorial service was held at First United Methodist Church of Richardson on Wednesday, July 25. It was a great service with the kids being kids and bringing a smile to everyone's face. Actually, one of the best things to come out of all of this is the bond between Mara and her cousin Lani. Those two are always asking to see each other (and they have gotten to play together at least 3-4 times a week recently). They've even talked to each other on the phone.

If you would like to read the obituary of a wonderful woman who loved her family and children in general, you can read it here. She is really going to be missed, but we know that she is in a much better place now and no longer has to worry about her health.

I miss you, Mother!

Mara's going to be a big sister?

Not quite. At least not yet anyway. But I did get your attention, didn't I? :)

I was beginning to wonder if I was going to be giving John an unexpected anniversary gift this week, though. For some reason, my cycle was longer than usual this month. Add on to that the pregnancy dreams I kept having and the way my body was acting, and I was beginning to wonder if we might be expecting a February baby. I even went so far as to buy a package of pregnancy tests and was debating on when I should test to see if I was. I was trying to decide if I should test on our actual anniversary or the day we were going to be celebrating it, but I ended up not needing to use those tests. One of these days I'll use them – whenever it happens is all up to God.

I think I know where my weird pregnancy dreams came from, though. Our good friends told us last week that they are pregnant and expecting their third child in February. Both Evelyn and I want to be pregnant at the same time again, but I would prefer to wait a couple months before we started trying. See, I was pregnant with Mara when Evelyn got pregnant with Kyann. The two girls ended up being born only 5 months apart, and it would be great if our next kids were that close in age. Hopefully we'll both get our wish.

As far as our anniversary (observed), we had a good day. We changed our mind on the movie – instead of Pirates, we saw Shrek the Third. It was a good movie and a good day overall. John and I get to spend so little time just the two of us, so it was nice to enjoy the day together.

Sick days & an anniversary

Mara's been sick the past two days with a stomach bug. She's starting to feel better, but it kind of comes and goes. John tried to go to the store with her, and as soon as they got there, Mara started saying, "Tummy hurt. Lay down." Needless to say, he turned the car around and went back home. It's nice that she can voice her thoughts now even though he could tell just by looking at her that she wasn't feeling well.

On a brighter note, today is our 9th wedding anniversary. It's hard to believe it's been that long, but at the same time it seems like we've been together forever. Next year with be the big 1-0 for us. That's almost 1/3 of our lives that we've been together.

Hopefully Mara will be well enough to go to school tomorrow. We are planning to celebrate our anniversary tomorrow since John has to go in to work as soon as I get home. If she is well enough, we are going to drop Mara off at school and then have breakfast at The Original Pancake House. (Yum!) We haven't eaten there in a couple of years since they're only open for breakfast and lunch and are crazy busy on weekends. After our breakfast/brunch, we are going to see a movie. We're leaning toward seeing the third Pirates again, but we might be swayed into seeing Spider-Man or Shrek or even the Fantastic Four. If Mara's still not feeling well, it will just be a family day. That would be nice too.

Moving up again

These past few weeks have really emphasized how much Mara is growing up, and today is no different. Today is the first day she's visiting the next class at school – the 2-year-old class. As long as visiting this week goes well (and there's no reason why it shouldn't), she will officially be in the class as of next Monday. And this time, she actually gets to move up at the same time as Logan. When John dropped her off today, she went in her new class and just started playing. No hanging on to him or whining when he left – just playing with cars with the boys.

Speaking of playing with the boys, it looks like we might have a tomboy on our hands – just like her mommy was. While she likes to play with dolls and her kitchen, she really likes to play with cars and trains. At least that means she'll be a well-rounded little girl.

I'm a big kid now...

For the past month or so, Mara would sit on the potty but not do anything. This past week, she started sitting on it for longer periods of time while looking through a couple of books. She would even toot periodly trying to do something. Tonight, though, she sat on the potty for a little bit and all of a sudden there was a tinkling noise. She finally peed in the potty! Now if she just keeps doing it and starts letting us know when she needs to go potty.

Ironically, we decided to pick up some big girl panties for her tonight. It looks like she might be wearing them sooner than we expected.

Big Girl Bed

Mara has been sleeping in her big girl bed (a full-size bed) for a month now, and she is doing great! Most mornings when she wakes up, she calls, "Mommy! Mommy! Daddy!" until one of us comes in to get her. This past weekend, though, she could tell that at least one of us was up both mornings, so she decided to get out of bed and walk into our room all by herself. This isn't an easy feat, though, as she had all of her security items (cloth, kitty, blanket and paci) all bundled up in her arms.

But back to her big girl bed. We decided to keep her walls yellow, so in February we set out to find bedding that went with the walls. We decided on a butterfly set from JCPenney. We had her bed set up with the new bedding for a couple of weeks before we came to the conclusion that she was feeling cramped in her crib and decided to move her March 17. She still goes to sleep out in the living room with us, although she has decided she wants to lay on the couch to go to sleep and not cuddle with us. I guess that's one step closer to us being able to just lay her down and have her go to sleep on her own. She looks so small when she is in her big girl bed, but she is surrounded by a ton of her stuffed animals. I still need to post some pictures of her sleeping in her big girl bed.

Speaking of posting pictures, I have put up pictures from her birthday party. You can find them here. Also, we picked up Mara's two year pictures last night. They turned out really cute, but we didn't get the shot I was looking for. She is having pictures taken at school today, so hopefully we'll get some good ones there. This is the same company that did an excellent job with the pictures last summer, so I'm really looking forward to seeing them.

I guess that's it for today. I know I have more words to put down, but they just aren't coming. Oh, well. Guess I'd better get back to work then.

Mara is 2!

Yesterday was Mara's second birthday. It's hard to believe we now have a big 2-year-old girl running around our house. Two years ago right now, she was just 26 hours old and we were starting the journey of parenthood.

We celebrated her birthday yesterday with a party for family and friends. We all had a fun time, and she loves all of the presents she received. We really appreciate everyone's generosity. We'll be posting pictures soon on her website.

Anyone there?

It's been a while since I've updated Mara's website or posted to this blog, but here I am today, and hopefully I'll get Mara's website updated sometime this week. It might not be completely up to date with pictures, but I'm slowly getting there.

It's hard to believe that our little girl is going to be 2 in just 10 days. We're doing a Little Einsteins theme for her party, but we have to be a little creative since they don't really have any Little Einsteins party decorations yet. I'm going to attempt to make a Rocket cake. We'll see how that goes...

Six Years Later (Part II)

A month ago, I posted about what happened to us in 2001. The story of that year didn’t end when we arrived back home February 3, though.

On the one-month anniversary of the plane crash (February 27 – six years ago tonight), John was in a wreck on his way home from work that totaled our Corsica and had us spending several hours in a hospital because we were afraid John might have broken his thumb. Luckily, everything was fine and he just had to wear a castlike splint for a week or so. By this time, though, even my manager was afraid to hear from me because each time I called, it was never good news.

A couple of months later we received more bad news. We ate out with my family to celebrate Mother’s Day (May 13). That evening as John and I were getting ready for bed, we received a call stating that my dad had been hit by a car while crossing the street and was being taken to the hospital. Again, God was watching over us and our families as he only sustained a broken leg and tailbone.

My dad was back in the hospital in June with what they thought was a "mini stroke." Then, in early August, my mom had to be taken to the hospital and treated for dehydration. In fact, everyone in my family got sick that week from either a stomach bug or food poisoning (we never figured out which it was since we had dinner together the previous weekend and then all got sick).

Our year finally started to look up when we were set to close on our first house September 10. September 10, 2001, as in the day before “September 11.” After everything we had been through that year, it was just something else to add to the list for that year. Thankfully we didn’t know anyone involved with that, but it changed our lives again – especially with John traveling all the time for his job.

I hope to never have to live through a period of time like that one year again, but I am thankful that God helped us get through it, and I know that we are stronger because of it.

Six Years Later

It’s hard to believe it’s been six years. Six years usually isn’t a big “anniversary,” but for some reason I’ve been thinking about this a lot this year. Maybe it’s because for the first time the days on the calendar have coincided with the way it was in 2001. Maybe it’s because we went to Stillwater just last weekend. Maybe it's because this will be the first time since 2001 that OSU plays a basketball game on January 27. It's probably all of the above.

It’s been six years since we were afraid to answer the phone because each call brought bad news.

The death of a great aunt.

A plane crash carrying former coworkers and friends.

The heart attack and subsequent death of a grandfather.

All within days of each other.

We lost my Aunt Jennie on Friday, January 26, 2001. We weren’t too surprised as she was going downhill and we knew we would lose her soon. It still hit me hard, and I knew we were going to attend her funeral in Kansas.

The next day, we found out my aunt's funeral was going to be Monday, so we made arrangements to be gone for a few days and packed to leave the next day. Of course we followed the OSU basketball game as well (the Cowboys lost at Colorado), but we didn’t pay any attention to the news that evening as we packed because we didn’t think there was anything we would need to know about.

On the way to Pittsburg, Kansas, the next day, my dad called to ask if I had read the paper. We had brought that day's Dallas Morning News with us, and I had flipped though it looking at the coupons, ads, and Sports section but not really reading it. He told me that the news up in Kansas that morning was talking about how one of the planes carrying players and support staff for the OSU basketball team went down over a field in Colorado, and there were no survivors. I immediately pulled the DMN from the back seat and saw that right there on the front page right at the fold was an article talking about the crash.

On that plane was Will Hancock, who was one of my bosses and mentors when I work for the OSU Athletics Media Relations department the three previous years. One of the last emails I received from Will was from the previous November. I was toying around with going to the OSU game at the University of North Texas on November 28, 2000. It didn’t work out since John was out of town that Tuesday and Will wasn’t even sure if he would make it to the game since his wife was due with their first baby around that time. Needless to say, I wouldn’t talk to him again.

Also onboard were Bill Teegins, a sportscaster from OKC, and Kendall Durphey, who was the engineer for the radio broadcasts, and I had spent a lot of time with both of them while I was at OSU. There were 10 people total on that plane, including two players, three trainers/managers, and two pilots. Most of them I had worked with or at least talked to. All of them weren’t coming home from that game January 27, 2001.

Tuesday morning, the day after Aunt Jennie’s funeral, we decided to head out to Stillwater. Plans were still in the works for a memorial service for the plane crash victims, but I knew I wanted to be there no matter what. We hadn’t even been out of Stillwater nine months, and I thought it would be best to just go be with the other people with the Media Relations department. John had talked to his grandfather Monday night to make arrangements to stay with John's grandparents while we were in Stillwater. On our way out of Pittsburg, we received a phone call from John’s mother. His grandfather – the one he had just talked to the night before – had suffered a heart attack that morning and died.

We hadn’t even left Pittsburg yet, and our world was turned upside down again. Now we didn’t even know where we were going to be staying that night.

The rest of the week was a numbing blur of tears, family, friends, and condolences. Wednesday, January 31, we went to the OSU memorial and sat with the Media Relations staff. It was a nice ceremony, and being there helped a lot. All of John's family came to town that week, and we attended John’s grandpa’s funeral Friday, February 2.

Even though Will’s funeral wasn’t until the next Monday, we ended up coming home Saturday because I didn’t think I could take anymore. I was ready to be home.

We still can’t explain it six years later, but for some reason both of us had taken plenty of clothes as well as our birds on what was originally supposed to be a two- or three-day trip that turned into a seven-day one. I guess God was watching over us as we packed.

Snow!

No, not here in Texas, but up in Oklahoma. Despite forecasted snow of 6-9 inches, we made the trek up to Stillwater this weekend to see John's grandma. Oklahoma had been having winter weather all week, so we got to see plenty of snow. It was the first time Mara had been able to see real snow and not just the ice we get down here.

Sadly, the falling snow quickly turned to freezing rain most of the day Saturday, so no half-foot of snow as forecasted. But, what they had received earlier in the week was still around Sunday, so Mara got to run around in it some. She enjoyed that little bit so much that I think she would have a ball in 6-9 inches of the powdery good stuff.

While we were up in Stillwater, we ate at Eskimo Joe's and drove around the OSU campus some. I always feel so old when I go up there now. It's hard to believe that it's been almost seven years since we moved away. Plus, so much has changed with all of the construction that has been going on around campus, and I'm not just talking about the changes to the football stadium. (I'll probably always call it Lewis Field and not the name it goes by now.) The dorms are all different – espeically after they tore down the set of high-rises where John used to live and built suite-style dorms in it place. It's neat that we're able to go back and visit every once in a while, though.

Go Pokes!

We just finished watching one of the best college basketball games. OSU took on Texas in Gallagher-Iba, and after three overtimes, the Cowboys pulled off a two-point victory. Luckily, we didn't wake Mara up when Mario Boggan made the game-winning shot. It was a well-played game from beginning to end and definitely worth watching all the way through (all two and a half plus hours worth of it). There were many highlights from it, and it's already being dubbed an "instant classic" by TV analysts.

Watching games on TV – especially ones like this – makes me miss our college days. It's hard to believe that it's nearing 7 years since the last time I attended a game in Gallagher-Iba after attending almost all of the Cowboys' home games as well as the conference tournaments for six years. Maybe one of these days we'll finally get to see a game in the new Gallagher-Iba.

Movin' on up!

We finally received a notice yesterday that Mara's moving up to the older toddler class at school. This is the class that is geared for kids who are 18 to 24 months old, and Mara will be 2 in March. Oh well. Better late than never, I guess. At least she'll be with her friends Grace and Logan again. She spent some time in that room yesterday, and was a completely different child last night. Instead of being whiny and clingy in the evenings like she was previously, she was very happy and wanted to play all evening. It's amazing the friendships they develop at such a young age. We think this move will be really good for her even if she will be leaving Ms. Gail, who has been her primary caregiver since she started there at 10 weeks old.

She doesn't officially move until the 22nd, but she will be "visiting" next week.

Welcome to our blog

Well, we've now jumped into the wide world of blogging. I thought about starting this to post our Christmas newsletter but never got around to doing so. As for what we'll post here, I have no idea – probably updates on our family and pictures. Hope you'll come back to visit us from time to time, and be sure to leave a comment. :)