Catching up..

Here we are, all pretty and posed for our Christmas card pictures. Life here is going good, a little hectic as is the season, but we are enjoying it. Andrea has moved to Labor and Delivery full time, and loves learning all there is to know about birthin' babies (and there is A LOT!). Markel graduated from nursing school the 12th of December, and we are all breathing a sigh of relief that this part of the journey is over. He will continue in the fall toward his bachelor's degree in nursing. He is employed by our local hospital and will be working in the ICU after his internship is over in March. Both the boys are doing good in school and are glad to have some time off for Christmas break. We will be heading to Bella Vista on Christmas day to celebrate with family.

Life in General

Well, Halloween is behind us, which leads us to my favorite time of all. Thanksgiving and Christmas. I love this time of year and all the fun and family that go with it. 

We had a great Halloween weekend. Sam dressed up as a clone trooper from Star Wars because he loves all things Star Wars, and Jack was a boxer. They were very cute, and you will have to take my word on that because I did not take any pictures! We trick-or-treated with some good friends on Halloween night, then had a party at our house on the 1st. The boys had a blast with all the kids that showed up. We had lots of friends and family. We also celebrated Markel's aunt Sue's birthday. What fun!

The weeks ahead promise to be busy ones, but hopefully we will be able to post some new pics soon!

General Update

Well, it has been awhile since I have updated this blog, so I thought I better get to it before I forget what's going on!

Sam is doing really good in school, in fact he got all A's on his quarterly report card. He has tests every week in Math, Spelling, Language, and Reading. He loves checking books out in the library and so far his favorites are the Magic Treehouse series. He also loves to pick up biographies of some of his favorite athletes. He absorbs all the info that he reads and loves to share all the facts he has learned with anyone who will listen! His baseball team is headed into the final week of play. They have only won one game, but they have played their hearts out. Last week they played a double header and held the best team in their league to 10-9. We thought they might win, but it was a victory none the less!

Jack is still liking Kindergarten, though not as much in love with it as he was earlier. His school had some modular buildings on campus that they were using for classrooms and they burned in a fire a few weeks ago during the middle of the night. Classes were cancelled for 2 days and that really threw Jack off his rhythm. We are slowly regaining it however. From what he tells me, his favorite activity at school is recess where the boys and girls take turns chasing one another. Heaven help me when we get to the teenage years!

My job is going really well and I am getting ready to transfer to a new position in the coming months. I will be working in labor and delivery and I could not be more excited! The reason I became a nurse is to help women during such an amazing time in their lives! I will start training very soon, so pray that I can keep all this new info straight! There seems like so much to remember.

Markel is still plugging along in school. He graduates December 12, and we are all looking forward to that. He only has a few weeks left in clinicals. He is already hunting jobs at our hospital, and has some promising prospects. Pray that everything works out like we need it.

Cardinals Game

This weekend we went to see the St. Louis Cardinals play one of their last games of the season. We had lots of fun, ate too much junk, and enjoyed the win! We had really great seats, but didn't catch a foul ball much to Sam's dismay. We were lucky enough to see several homeruns, including a big one by Pujols. Jack didn't really like the fireworks they shoot, but overall we had a lot of fun.

Well, Sam finally lost BOTH of his front teeth! Too bad it isn't closer to Christmas! He pulled the first one out, and just a few days later the second one fell out on his pillow when he woke up. Needless to say the toothfairy has had quite a workout flying to our house in the last week!

Oh, no!

Tonight we had one of those little miss-haps that only a house with children could experience. You see, I have a neck wrap that is (or shall I say was) full of rice. It's one that you can microwave or freeze, depending on the type of stress relief you desire. Anywho, Jack was swinging it like a baseball bat and all of a sudden I hear him say "I am so sorry, I am so sorry, I am so sorry" at the same time I hear what sounds like a waterfall in the kitchen. The neck wrap had busted open and there was little, teeny tiny, brown rice EVERYWHERE! It was all over the kitchen, the living room, and even in the bedrooms! Poor Jack thought he was gonna get it, but it was all too funny to punish him for! I tried to take pictures, but you can't tell what it is, it just looks like a bunch of little brown bugs. Yuck!

Gosh, I sure could use that stress relief wrap right now!

First Day Pictures

First day pics that didn't come through with the original entry.