Today is the last day of a long string of uninterrupted days with Brian and the kids. I really do love the beauty of seasons and patterns in this life. The two weeks the kids have off and the one week Brian gets off at this time of year is so special. So on the one hand I'm very sad to see our vacation time end, but on the other hand I'm a person who loves order and routine, so I'm looking forward to sending my people back out and myself having reign and rule over this house again. 

A few things I'm looking forward to this year:

- finishing up the remodel. It's been a long year of people in and out!

- running the Houston marathon in two weeks and the Austin in six. 

- cheering on William and Samuel in track. Margaret is sitting out this season. 

- reading through the Bible afresh. 

- finishing out the school year well. this is our last year to have an elementary student for a couple of years. that tugs at my heart a bit. as does the fact that Margaret will be a senior next year. please slow down!

I'm excited to see what the Lord has for us this year! Last year was nothing like we imagined it would be, and that's ok! 

2015.

1. What did you do in 2015 that you'd never done before? ran a sub-4 hour marathon, visited NYC, had plastic surgery, earned silver elite status with Marriott hotels, volunteered for disaster cleanup after the May floods.

 2. Did you keep your new years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I resolved to read through the Bible, which I did fairly well at. Probably didn't get through all of it though. I resolved to read 50 books. I think I read maybe 30. I resolved to run a marathon: check. I resolved to be more hospitable and host more people in our home. That got completely derailed because our house was torn up for most of the year or we were living in a hotel. I do plan to make some resolutions this year. Probably similar to last year's. 

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? no one very close. a few friends.

 4. Did anyone close to you die? no. we were blessed. 

5. What countries did you visit? none. 

6. What would you like to have in 2016 that you lacked in 2015? More time with my older kids. They're growing up so fast! 

7. What date from 2012 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? March 6, the day we noticed a leak in our kitchen. That was the beginning of #houseremodel2015 and all the adventures associated with that.

 8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Designing our house remodel and ordering all the pieces myself. Also getting my best time ever in a marathon. 

 
9. What was your biggest failure? not loving people enough. getting impatient and saying hurtful things to my children, husband. 

10. Did you suffer illness or injury? a UTI, which was horrible for a few days, but that was it. 

11. What was the best thing you bought? I could say all the new things for our house, but I'm gonna say my ipsy subscription. I love it!

 
12. Whose behavior merited celebration? brian. he is as patient as the day is long. the best lover, friend, dad, son, employee... 

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? terrorists 14. Where did most of your money go? food, house, church, cars, and the many screen repairs.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? My bff getting pregnant at 40! an answered prayer and dream come true. 

 16. What song will always remind you of 2015? Adele's Hello. She was in New York when we were there and margaret and I went to NBC studios to try to see her perform on the Today Show.

 
17. Compared to this time last year, are you: happier or sadder? happier. Olive is past the crawling stage and almost porty trained, and things like that do bring happiness. our house is almost completely remodeled, and though superficial, that, too, brings joy. I have much to be thankful for and each year I grow more content and comfortable with who God made me. I trust His sovereignty like never before. my times are in His hands.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of? voluntter to help others - that brings such joy to my heart. read to the little girls. read to myself. paint.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of? judge others' motives, mess wit my hair, over indulge, nag my children and husband.

20. How did you spend Christmas?
after spending a long weekend before Christmas with my mom and stepdad, we hosted Christmas Eve at our house, attended the Christmas Eve service at church, then had Christmas morning at home with the kids. We went to my dad's for a late Christmas Day lunch. A couple of days after Christmas we went down to my inlaws for a couple of days.

 21. How did you spend New Years?
I went to the doctor to get antibiotics, cleaned house, went to Ben and Gaia's wedding, then to a NYE party at my friend, Brittani's house.

22. What was your favorite tv program? probably Fixer Upper. I watched it quite a bit over the summer while we were in a hotel. I don't necessarily care for their style, I just love watching them interact. I also watched a lot of Flip or Flop. Tarek and Christina used to annoy the heck out of me, but then I kind of grew to love them. Oh, and Rehab Addict.

 
23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year? no. 

 24. What was the best book you read? Im reading A Tree Grows in Brroklyn again right now. One of my favorites.

25. What was your greatest musical discovery? hmmm. No one person or group stands out. I fell in love with Coldplay again. And listened to the Beetles a whole bunch thanks to my two oldest who a huge fans. 

 
26. What did you want and got? I guess a totally remodeled house, though I would be have said it was something I was wanting as it came totally unexpected. I've always wanted to see New York City, and I got my wish. That was fun! 

 
27. What was your favorite film of this year? I didnt see a single one. brian tells me I'd like the new Star Wars movie even though I'm so not a sci-fi person.

 28. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? 40! Can't recall what I did during the day, but Brian and I went to dinner at the Oasis with Tasha and Marcel. and I dropped my new iPhone on the driveway when we got home. 😭
29. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? Talking with the Lord more. 

 
30. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2015? Cut off jeans and t shirts, lots of Anthropologie duds (found at the thrift store!), faded our Converse, cowboy boots, lots of jeans. I guess I'm pretty casual. 

 31. What kept you sane? exercise. 

 
32. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? not really sure. 

 33. What political issue stirred you the most? abortion. 

 
34. Who did you miss? having my neighbor, Lisa, move from across the street to a quarter mile up the street. I didn't realize how much I'd miss seeing her every day!

 
35. Who was the best new person you met? my new friends, Brittani and Irina from my neighborhood.

 36. Tell us some valuable life lessons you learned in 2015. Patience, my child. Be still and know that I am God.

Happy New Year!

Anniversary 2014

http://youtu.be/AfrsNl1EHOs

We survived the first week of the 2014-2015 school year. Once Margaret got all her classes straightened out she's decided this is going to be a fabulous year. She taking cross country again, soccer, pre-AP English, pre-AP chemistry, geometry, Spanish, painting II, and pre-AP world history. It's a challenging course load, but she seems committed to making it happen. She is thrilled to be back working out with her cross country friends. 

Samuel had some hiccups with his schedule and ended up in two art classes he had already taken instead of first year Spanish. Unable to switch, he's just making the best if it and enjoying having an easy class. Otherwise, he's taking pre-AP English, 8th grade math (pre algebra?), life science, US history, and of course the two art classes: art & theater arts. He also has two periods of athletics each day. He'll be playing 8th grade football this year. The Canyon Ridge Eagles have high hopes as they won district as 7th graders last year. Every afternoon he spends nearly two hours working out with his team. 

William is so excited to be at the middle school this year! He's taking pre-AP English, science, world history, PACE math, and art. He and Samuel have enjoyed walking to school together each morning this week. William's bike has been in the shop, and once it gets back to us, they'll ride together. William is also playing Pop Warner football for the Four Points Vipers. This is a first for him, and he's loving it. His team practices at the middle school right after Samuel's team finishes up. 

John is the only one at the elementary this year. He's had a bit of a rough week, but it usually takes a little time for him to adjust to something new. He'll probably fare much better next week. His big news is that he gets to be in a portable this year! :) Last spring John tested into the QUEST program for gifted learners, so he'll begin working with that group starting next week.

I have enjoyed my week at home with the little girls. Hazel talks my ear off and has a long list of task a for me to do. Olive has started doing new tricks, dragging herself across the room, moving (only backwards) in her walker, and feeding herself. She seems very curious and wants to try to grab everything she can. She jabbers and coos in her alto voice and Hazel often interprets what she says, "Olive said 'yes, sir!'." These girls are such a delight to spend my days with!

This week Hazel and I planted our little vegetable garden. We went to the library one day, thrifting, to see Brian at his office, and to the grocery store multiple times. We made Popsicle stick people, read so many books, cleaned house and folded mountains of laundry, ran and walked many miles with the double jogger, played at the park at sunset twice, painted and other crafty endeavors, and made cookies twice. 

Brian and I are training for an October marathon. We don't intend to train too much for it as we must want to finish it and not set any time goals. We are also signed up for the Austin. Marathon in February which we both hope to run well in. We've enjoyed getting out for many if our runs together. Last Sunday morning we did a ten miler before church. This weekend we have an eleven miler. 

Brian has been really busy at work. He was promoted to the supervisor of design over the architecture and engineering departments, though I'm not sure what his official title is. He hasn't been able to step into this role fully as he's still wrapping up that big Waller Creek Tunnel project downtown. 

I guess that's all for now. I have so many partially written blog posts that I've never posted over the year, so I'm just going to post this one without proofing it. If I wait too long it'll never get posted. 

Sunday morning, April 13, 2014

I'm going to try to get a few words down before I need to sart getting ready for church.

The last two weeks have been somewhat crazy. Samuel joined a basketball club team and Margaret wrapped up track season at the district finals. There was STAAR testing for three of the four kids, and projects due. Brian had some shake up at work with one if his valuable co-workers giving his two week notice, as well as two of the principals retiring. These two events opened unexpected opportunity for him to take on new leadership. Then there's the three of us girls who stay home. Life isn't what you'd call busy for us. Physically exhausting, maybe, but not necessarily busy. From 5 am. To 10 pm I'm feeding, changing diapers, bathing, singing to, reading to, pushing and pulling the two little ones. At the end of the day I fall into bed sore, but fulfilled. 

Olive is nearly two months old. She now feels like family and not a stranger. Not gonna lie, she's a really fussy baby. Nothing puts me on edge faster than a crying baby, so I spend her waking hours trying to pacify her. She's not much of a smiler. We've only got a handful of grins out of her. Mostly she seems really concerned about what's going on in her tummy and does a lot of frowning. Even so, she's such a sweet thing and I just stare at her in wonder that God gave us another child, and this one just as unique and precious as the other five.

Yesterday we sold my old Ford Ranger. I've had it since 1996, longer than I've had Brian. My great grandmother promised all her kids a new car when they graduated high school. She didn't count homeschool as true schooling, and held off giving my sister and I cars until we were older (Thomas attended public high school, so he received his upon graduation.). I got mine for my 20th birthday. 

It'll be sad the day the new owner comes and drives it away. We're hoping to find Brian a good commuter car that will hold more kids, get good gas mileage, and last us awhile.

That's all the news for now. Have a blessed Holy Week! 

He is risen!

Olive's Birthday

Seems like we spent the whole month of February trying to get warm. It was ridiculously cold amd frozen with random mild days thrown in every now and then. Even so, I was determined to keep up with my exercise in hopes that it would encourage Olive to move on down the pipe (and keep me in shape as well). I walked 8 miles almost every day of February leading up to her birth. There were many days when I'd have contractions for several hours, but they'd never progress into anything painful. So I never called my doctor or went into the hospital. I'd had false labor with several of my babies and ended up spending evenings in the hopsital being monitored only to be sent home and be billed for an extra hospital stay. I was determined to avoid that this time around. We kept praying for a quick labor, and I prayed personally that I'd know when it was the real thing. Because I'd been induced four times, I only had one birth where I'd gone into labor naturally so I just wasnt sure what to expect. John was my natural baby. It was a very fast labor: I woke up around 2 am. feeling achy, we got to the hospital at 4:45, and he was born at 5:30. He was also the only one I'd not had an epidural with. 

I saw Dr. Love on Friday, February 14th. Everything looked good. He didn't check my cervix because he figured I knew if there was reason to. I didn't think I'd had any productive contractions, so he told me to come back the following Wednesday. Brian, Hazel, and I went to lunch, then I headed home to clean house and wait for the other kids it get home. That night Brian and I went out to Hill Country Pasta House not far from our neighborhood to celebrate Valentine's Day. We had the best time just taking our time and enjoying each other. We came back to Steiner and walked around, eventually dropping in at Tasha and Marcel's house to visit. I had contractions off and on all night, but again, nothing that seemed productive.

Brian's parents came Saturday evening and we all went out for Mexican food. I ate extra spicy food and had lots more contractions.

Margaret and Brian ran the Austin half marathon on Sunday morning. I went down there with them in the wee hours of the morning and got in lots of walking all around downtown, even a little but if running  trying to catch some pictures of them. 

Monday Hazel and I planted flowers in the front flower beds and cleaned up the back yard. We payed at the park and walked lots of miles. I was really feeling heavy and weary by the end if the day. 

Tuesday I cleaned the pantry from top to bottom, washed sheets, vacuumed, dusted, cleaned windows, and caught up on all the laundry. Could defintely be accused of nesting. By the end of the day I was give out and did frozen pizzas for dinner. I was too tired it stay up and watch the Olympics. I took a bath and headed on to bed. Brian came to bed and woke me up and we did our best to encourage this baby to come. ;)

I guess we were successful, because around 1:30 I woke upmwith a start. I had been dreaming I was having a pretty strong contraction, and lo and behold, I was! I lay there for awhile and waited for the next one. It came about ten minutes later. I got up and ate a banana, loaded the dishwasher, and timed contractions for about an hour. They came every ten to fifteen minutes, painful,  but never very close together. I knew these contrsctions were different from the ones I'd been having up to the that point. I climbed back in bed and tried to rest,  but eventually worried that if I waited too long it may get too late. I didn't want to get stuck out in Steiner Ranch during rush hour! I woke up Brian and told him the contractions were pretty painful and that I was pretty sure we should go on in to the hospital. He had packed his bag the night before and mine had been packed for a week or so, so there wasn't much to gather up. I called my mom and left a message on her phone that we were headed in, then called my neighbor, Lisa, and let her know we are leaving. 

I had contractions all the way in to Austin, roughly every ten minutes. It was a little sad realizing this was the last time we'd do this, make this trip to the hospital in the wee hours of the morning. A funny detail I think I'll always remember is that Willie Nelson's "Reasons to Quit" was playing on the radio when we were in the car, which seemed appropriate for our last birth.

We went straight up to Labor and Delivery and I checked in. The nurse looked at me skeptically when I said I was in labor, I guess because I wasn't writhing or anything. She asked if I was scheduled to come in that morning, and I said, no, but that this was my sixth baby and I was pretty sure it was time. She said they'd put me in a room and observe me awhile. I was given room 315, the first room when you walk into LDR. The gave me an IV for fluids and antibiotics because I'd tested positive for GBS. Brian laid down and napped for awhile. At one point i felt the need to use the restroom.when I stood up I felt a pop and was pretty surevmy water broke. After a little while Brian's mom arrived and the three of us visited between my contractions. The nurse checked my cervix early on and I was dilated 3-4 cm. 

My contractions got progressively more painful and long, but I was able to joke and carry on conversation between them since they still were about 7 minutes apart. I texted my mom instructions regarding the kids and getting them off to school. The nurse came and checked me again and I was still dilated 3-4 cm. Frustrating! It felt like so much work for nothing! The nurse came in and asked me about pain management and whether I'd be wanting an epidural. At this point I was hurtin pretty bad, but ad no idea how long it would last, so I was somewhat vague in my answer.  The nurse said Dr. Love would be making the rounds about 7 am., and he could check to see if my water had actually broken and if not, could break it then. We all assumed I'd be hanging out awhile before Olive arrived. Suddenly things seemed to kick into high gear around 7 am. My contractions got really long and one on top of the other. I was thirsty, and hot, and cold, and light headed! I told the nurse I was going to throw up. Wait, no, I wanted ice! She and Brian were running around tryingt to accommodate me. Then my mom texted needing instructions on how to work the coffee grinder, so I struggled through a contraction while texting her. The nurse came back and wanted to check my cervix again, which was really not what I wanted to happen at this point since I was having one contraction on top of the other. Suddenly I'd gone from 3-4 cm to being dilated 8 cm (in less than 20 minutes!)! As soon as she was done I felt something like a bowling ball needing to get out of my body ASAP. I told Brian she was coming out right then. I knew I couldn't stop her! The nurse hollered for back up, gave me oxygen (i guess i looked like i was going to pass out, or maybe my blood pressure had a significant drop) and somehow Dr. Love ran in just in time to put his arms in his scrubs and catch Olive. I don't really remember pushing, she just pretty much shot out on her own! I just kind of lay there with my eyes closed for the longest time making sure I was still alive. I tore pretty bad and was bleeding quite a bit, so Dr. Love spent the next ten minutes poking my with needles and sewing me back up. Oh my goodness! Needles down in the nether region are unbelievably painful! But then I was handed this perfect, beautiful baby, and nothing else mattered. She was here! She was and is beautiful! She looks so different from Hazel and so much like William and Margaret, and yet she has her own look. What an amazing gift she is to our family, the gift we didn't know we wanted or needed. 

It was so neat to see how God specifically answered our prayers in helping me know when I was in labor and giving me a quick, safe labor. 

Sunday morning here. The beginning of a new week, and I'm looking forward to some normalcy. The kids were out of school Monday through wednesday because of teacher training. I can't recall all we did, but one of the days we went into Austin and hit the library, P.Terry's, and Old Navy. There was a delayed start of school on Thursday because of icy road conditions, and then Friday school was canceled all together. I'll be honest, that many days with three red blooded, hot headed males in one house is too many. It was a good reminder why we don't homeschool, if I needed one. We took Margaret in to spend the weekend helping the Koplins, the family she often babysits for. On the way home I got milk shakes for everyone, which made me a hero.

We watched the opening ceremonies of the Olympics Friday night. At first I was then only one interested in watching, but eventually others joined me. Yesterday (Saturday) was a work day around here, and Brian had all the boys busy helping him change bulbs, hang blinds, replace door stops, and patch holes. It was a lazy day for me in that I just pretty much did what I wanted to, which was take a bubble bath, read, refashion a sweat shirt, and walk 8 miles. I didn't do all 8 at once, but divided it between two walks. I was hoping it would convince Olive to move down lower, but no. 

Last night we grilled burgers and i did homemade buns and oven oven fries, both Yukon and sweet. I never buy buns anymore unless we're having company because homemade are just so much better.  I use the "40 Minute Burger Buns" recipe floating around the web.

Seems like the days are moving by so slowly. I'm ready for these next two weeks no hurry up and go by so I can have Olive in my arms instead of my tummy!