A Dickens Christmas Letter

Welcome to the annual Dickens Christmas update! I hope this letter finds you and your family doing well this holiday season. In the interest of saving trees and time this year, I decided my blog would be the best place to share what is happening in our little part of the world.

Usually writing comes fairly easy to me, but I must admit I struggle with my Christmas letter. I find it extremely hard to neatly summarize a year's worth of life. In any given year we of course have our share of ups but also our share of downs. There is also a lot of chaos but also a lot of calm. How do I take all of that and sum it up into one neat little package? I haven't figured it out yet, but if anyone ever does, please let me in on the secret. In the meantime, I have decided to do the best I can.....

This year was that typical year I described - a huge helping of chaos with a side of calm. Jessie's schedule was extremely intense with his third year rotations starting our year off. He was working 80 to 100 hour (at least) weeks. The summer led him to an away rotation in Denver where he spent the month of July. The kids and I stayed in Dallas and pursued numerous traditional summer activities such as summer camps, swim lessons, and being lazy. Jessie can currently be found in almost any airport in the United States as he travels for interviews. Yes, that is correct, we are at the point some might call a "real" job. In a few short months, June 7th to be exact, Jessie will be a full-fledged M.D. We are very excited at finally reaching the goal we have been working towards for the past several years. I am extremely proud of Jessie for all his hard work and smartness.

After years of preparing for medical school and then actually attending medical school, where do we go from here? Our fate will be sealed on March 18th, 2010. This is the date that all fourth year medical students gather and open up their official letter informing them of where they have been selected to go. It is a match system, so we can request certain places but there are no guarantees. Jessie has interviews across the country: Dallas, Fort Worth, San Antonio, Lubbock, Temple, Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Austin, Wichita, Louisville, Lexington, Omaha, Columbus, Wichita, St. Louis, Winston-Salem, Knoxville, Roanoke, Spartenburg, Atlanta, Salt Lake City, Denver, Madison, Little Rock, Birmingham and some cities I have probably missed. If you have any personal information on these places, please send it my way. I would love to hear what it is like to live somewhere else. We have both grown up in Texas, so it is difficult for us to imagine living somewhere else. People ask me where we would like to end up. Part of us wants to stay here but part of us wants to experience something new. We have decided we will just put the decision in God's hands and enjoy the ride.

The interviews have brought a lot of headaches as far as travel nightmares for Jessie and just the sheer organization; however, one good thing has come out of them - a family vacation. It has been a couple of years since our last vacation, so we decided it was time for another one. Jessie had an interview in Salt Lake City before Thanksgiving, so the rest of us tagged along for some skiing. The kids loved skiing and they loved swimming in the heated pool even more. There's nothing like toting 100 pounds of luggage and two kids across the country to have them exclaim that "the pool is the best thing" about the vacation. Last time I checked we have pools here. Oh well, it is the experience and memories - right??

{Warning: Bragging Ahead...}

Ashley is in first grade this year. She loves school and continues to be amazing at reading and math. She also started piano lessons this year and has picked it up very quickly. I have really enjoyed listening to her play Christmas carols on our piano. It has always been my dream to have someone around here play carols for us on Christmas Eve and I think this year is "the year."

In an effort to remedy my lack of childhood athleticism, I enrolled Ashley in soccer this past Spring. This did not go very well. She did not like sweating on warm days and being cold on cooler days. Actually, I found that there was no perfect temperature for her, even if it was a beautiful 78 degrees outside. So, her soccer career quickly ended. Tennis proved to be a much better sport for her, as long as it was played on an indoor court (obviously for the climate control). Dance classes still top her list of favorites. This past year she did an adorable recital routine to "Spoonful of Sugar" from Mary Poppins. We were then fortunate enough to go see the Broadway production of Mary Poppins and Ashley was mesmerized. Finally, she loved learning to ride her bike (without training wheels) this year. After a lot of practice, she is now a great rider. I can't wait for Landen to learn how to ride his big bike, so we can start riding as a family. Ashley continues to be a super sweet, caring and helpful little girl. I feel blessed every day.

Landen is now 3 and continues to be our little wild man. He never stops talking or moving. He loves anything with sports and begs Jessie to play football with him. We were able to sign him up for soccer this fall, which was a lot of fun. His soccer adventure went a little better than Ashley's. Each game Landen would score almost all of the goals for his team. Even his assistant coach (who was a former pro soccer player) told Landen he had "the gift." I thought he was referring to the gift Landen has of pushing my buttons but it turns out he has a "soccer gift." Honestly, I think his coach just had a soft spot for Landen because one day after practice Landen gave him a big hug and thanked him for teaching him soccer. That would be another one of Landen's "gifts" he can be quite the charmer when he wants to be. I think that will take him farther than a soccer gift, but Jessie is still anxiously waiting to see if the "football gift" is going to go anywhere.

Landen also has an amazing "gift" of asking questions. I get all sorts of challenging ones every day like, "What happens if your head freezes?" or "What happens if a fire station is on fire?" He is curious about everything and can never get enough knowledge. Building is still a great hobby of his and he is always helping Jessie with his household projects. Despite all his wildness, Landen is very sweet, helpful and makes us laugh every day.

As for myself, I have once again retired. It turns out there is plenty to do around here....imagine that! Going back to work was a great experience, but it made me appreciate being at home for now. I enjoy the extra time I am getting with Landen and being able to go have lunch with Ashley at school whenever I want. I did manage to complete all my requirements to renew my teaching certificate so I do still see myself teaching (or doing something) in these next couple of years. I just want to wait and see what happens with Jessie's interviews until I commit to anything.

That pretty much sums us up. The Cliffs notes version of the Dickens. Just like Cliffs notes don't live up to a book, my letter does not live up to our year. It feels like a lot is missing - those ups, those downs, the laughter, and of course the tears. It was all there, even if it was missing from the words of my letter. We had it all, so in that respect it was a good year. Now we are ready for our next adventure and are thrilled that each one of you are in our lives to share it with us. We hope you have a blessed holiday season and a wonderful 2010!!

P.S. If you have never visited my blog, feel free to catch up on what we have been doing these past couple of years. If you do read my blog, I hope you enjoy by semi-annual post. Hopefully, this will inspire me to post more often.

HELLO, HELlo, HEllo, Hello, hello........??

In case you are a little confused, my title is an attempt at an echo. I think it lost a little something in translation. The point I am trying to make is - Hello, is anyone out there??? My last post was in March and last I checked it was July. After such a long absence I don't know who would still be reading, but my counter still sends me daily reports of activity. Who are you people? I don't think I know anyone in Zimbabwe, but that is what the statistic report says. Whoever you are, thank you for still reading and standing by me and my skimpy blog posts. Now on to business.

There is too much to write after a long absence, so today I am choosing my favorite blog writing technique, random thoughts by bullet points.......

• Last week I had something very lucky happen to me. I had the chance to see the spread of communicable disease in action. Over the period of three days, I witnessed a stomach bug be passed from one member of my family to the next. Yes, by the third day little A, little man and myself, all contracted the same super fun stomach virus. It was even more fun to be the only adult at home who could clean up the MANY lovely messes made from this bug. People, you can't buy excitement like this, so go on and be jealous.
• In the past two weeks Ashley has lost THREE teeth. She had previously lost two last summer, so we are on a total of five teeth. On this new batch, she pulled out two all by herself and lost the last one tonight while eating corn on the cob (you know, the old fashioned way to pull a tooth, or country way, whichever you prefer. We were in the country eating the cob, so I guess we will go with the country way). In the first incident the tooth fairy only had a 5 dollar bill on her and couldn't leave the house, so little A really raked it in for a 6 year old. After getting the hang of having a little money, she seems to be pulling these teeth out left and right.
• Why are golf carts so much fun? Personally, I love the feeling of wind in your hair and a little speed underneath you. We now have a cart in the family and it is just so much fun. J's parents bought one to drive around their ranch and I could ride in that thing all day. She let the kids drive it this weekend. Just a little scary when your babies ask to take you for a spin.
• Since the previously mentioned grandparents had the children for the night I had some girl time with my friend, Michelle. We went dancing. Now I know why I weighed a little less in college. Every weekend I would go dancing with friends and dance for hours. That is not the way it works anymore. My entire body was sore after a couple of hours and I mean sore. Of course we were dancing to an 80's cover band, hence we were not just dancing but DAAAANCING. It is still a little sad to me when a lady who looks to be my mom's age can dance circles around me on the floor. What happened to my 21 year old boogie down self? Oh yeah, I got lazy.
• Speaking of the big girls night out; just a little note to all of you who hope to get a pedi in Grapevine, TX. It is not going to happen past 4 pm. Apparently, it must be an understood law that all nail salons must close early there. A little disappointing, until I remembered how much you get stepped on when dancing. Good idea to put the pedi on hold.
• There are some great shows on right now. My DVR is overflowing and it feels so good. Some things I am watching (in case you want to be hip like me): So You Think You Can Dance (of course), Tori and Dean Home Sweet Hollywood, Denise Richards' reality show, 18 and Counting, NYC prep, Kathy Griffin's reality show, and Running in Heels (just discovered today on Style network, awesome show about interns at Marie Claire). Yep, it is all reality shows, I figure the regular season is for my quality, scripted shows and the summer is for my trashy, guilty pleasures.
• When did circus tickets get so expensive? I already knew this from going to to the circus with J before we had children. He paid over $100 for out tickets, which I thought was ridiculous at the time but did not even fathom how much two extra people would add on to that amount. I guess I am being a little biased. After all, if you would like to spend $15 per ticket you are more than welcome to sit in a section that I think might be close to the altitude that planes fly at. So, if nosebleeds and lower oxygen intake are not a problem, these would work great. And let's not even get into how much snacks and junky toys are going to cost me. Even with all of this, I am still super excited to go this week.
• Little man is afraid of lifeguards. Just a little something interesting I can file away for future reference. The whistle is what turned the friendly pool helper into an image of terror for the little guy. What is most interesting about this to me is the fact that Landen will blow a whistle in my ear all day long without flinching, but a lifeguard blows a whistle one time while we are at a pool and nightmares ensue. I am seeing a future horror movie from this.
• Speaking of pools - my children can swim now!! (Loud applause please). At the beginning of summer, Little A would scream when we washed her hair, now both kids are swimming under water like fish. I thought it would never happen, thank you , thank you swim lessons.
• Another huge accomplishment this summer - The kids are no longer afraid of dogs (another loud applause may commence). If you know my kids you know that their fear was more pure terror than a little fear, so this is HUGE. As Landen told my neighbor "We are no longer mad at dogs, just a little shy of them."
• And finally one more achievement......drumroll please......Little A is no longer afraid of costumed characters! We have waited for this day for so long. After many agonizing trips to events that involved these creatures we can now attend things breathing a little easier. It was just 6 years in the making, but we are finally past it, I think. Now I can plan our Disney trip with a peace of mind.

So, that is just a little snapshot of our summer. Did I leave you hanging for a little more info - like, "where is J?", "what did he decide to do?", "what camps have the kids been in", I know it is just too much. I guess you will just have to keep checking back and maybe I will have another post, or maybe not.

Happy Birthday My Sweet Little Man!

When do things start seeming real? Time is just passing so quickly for me. I sometimes feel as though I am just flying by my own life and merely waving in the distance. Little man turned 3 today and I am just in disbelief. Of course at many times, these past three years have felt like the longest years of my life, but I blinked and here we are.

Landen continues to have a larger than life personality. It is amazing how much he has grown this past year. My life has suddenly gotten so much easier because he is so much more independent. With that independence also comes that strong-willed personality he has had since he was a baby. The boy came out screaming and he will still let you know exactly what his feelings are at any time or place. He is also still extremely loving and sweet. He hugs and kisses on all of us all the time. Just the other day I hit my elbow on something and yelled "Ouch!" he ran over hugged me and asked "are you ok Mommy?" He had such a tone of empathy and sweetness it made me feel instantly ok. When our fish died a couple of weeks ago Ashley started crying and again he ran over to her. He started hugging on her and said, "It is ok Ashley, I am here for you." I am not making that up or embellishing the story. He really said exactly that. I couldn't believe it and my tears started rolling. Not over the silly fish, but over my little boy getting to be so big.

He also continues to be a clown and makes us laugh all the time. At school he is also quite the personality. He loves all of his friends and his teacher has told me that all the kids claim him as their "favorite" friend. Today for his birthday he told me that all of his friends gave him a birthday hug and he just beamed. Well, I could obviously go on and on about my baby boy, he is truly one of the loves of my life and I am so lucky to have him (wildness and all).

Last year in his special birthday post I listed his favorite things. As I read over the list I was a little shocked at how much he has stayed the same in some of his likes, but I thought it would be fun to do the list again. As my mommy memory disintegrates daily, I need these yearly reminders.

Favorite color: Last year he was a pink and purple man, he has moved on to green. I think J is very happy about this.

Favorite food: Nuggets and french fries. If a restaurant does not have these items he will loudly proclaim his displeasure. Luckily, he will eat the "all veggie" nuggets at home, so at least I can fool him into healthiness sometimes. He also loves oranges, hot dogs, muffins, cinnamon rolls, donuts and anything sweet. Eating is still not his strong point. He will literally go two or three days without eating anything.

Favorite Drink: Sadly, if he had a choice it would be Dr. Pepper. He may not look a thing like me, but he obviously inherited my fine taste in beverages.

Favorite toys: He loves trains, cars and trucks. Playing on the computer is also a big thing for him to do. He also loves drawing, doing play-doh, cutting paper, building with Legos and taking things apart.

Favorite parent: Last year it was Daddy, this year it is me. That's right ME! My brainwashing worked.

Favorite books: He has two books in particular that he loves, a train book and a fire truck book. I can't stand either one of them because it is just a bunch of pictures labeled and he insists on telling me each one. It is torture after reading it a thousand times (at least!)

Favorite movie/tv show: He watches tv this year, which is a big thing for him. The only thing he asks to watch is Caillou but he will watch most things that Ashley watches.

Favorite household chore: Ok, so he doesn't really have a favorite one, he likes them all. He is my neat freak, which is just fine with me. He hates things to be messy, out of place or dirty.

He is still about as "all-boy" as you can possibly ask for. He is really into sports right now and told me the other day that he wants to be a "sportsman" when he grows up. I asked what that is and he said "I would play football, soccer, baseball, golf, basketball and hockey every day all day."

Another Day

I really appreciate all of you that write and tell me you miss my silly stories. I do plan to get back into my blog as school starts slowing down. As many of you may know I will not be returning to preschool teaching after this school year. I have enjoyed teaching but found that having a job really interferes with my blogging time and that can not continue.

So, what brings me back to my good ol' blog today? First of all, I changed my background and was forced to look at my outdated post. I got tired of drooling at some other friends' cute blog backgrounds and finally changed mine. I also decided to return to my blog's original name of "BonBons and BooBoos." I grew tired of the other title (again!) and it won't fit our lives for much longer. J finishes his third year in just a couple of months. Hallelujah! l also figure my life is better reflected with a combo of sweet things and sour things these days, hence the reason for my original title, BonBons and BooBoos.

Right now we are on the sweet side of things around here. A little something sweet called Spring Break. Until this year I actually found Spring Break to be more on the sour side. In the past it meant an entire week without planned activities or school for the children, but this year I benefit from some time off too so, it is definitely sweet. The odd thing is, I have managed to fill up virtually every minute with some sort of something. Even with maintaining our hectic life, I am still enjoying not having to have little A at school by 7:30. Yes people you read that correctly, 7:30. If you think you have a hard time making it to preschool by 9, just wait.

In other news, little A has started soccer and most likely will be stopping soccer come the end of the season. I knew she probably wouldn't like it but I want her to try things. I never tried new things as a kid and really regret it now as an adult. Little A is lot like me as a child. "Diva" comes to mind. She told me the following after practice a couple of weeks ago:

(mind you the temperature outside was a mere 80 this night of practice)

Little A: "It was too hot out there, I was sweating. I hate sweating. I hate being too cold, I hate being too hot. I want to be just perfect and when I have to play soccer I don't feel perfect."

She is also not very aggressive, and some of these girls have obviously had professional training at pushing other kids around. Bottom line, soccer is not the sport for her. We will continue to stick with dance and piano both of which she loves.

Little man continues to charm and frustrate me on a minute by minute basis. He is really excited to be starting soccer himself come this summer. He will also be turning three next week. No more toddlers around here, which makes me a little sad but a whole lot more happy. I do best with the preschool to 4th grade age. I am already dreading that post-fourth grade period.

As for me and the hubby, we are moving right along. J decided he did not have enough of the two months of surgery he just finished, so did another month of surgery elective. We are hoping this gives him a better perspective on picking a specialty in two weeks. Surgery is a brutal schedule. He wakes up every day around 4:30 am to be at the hospital and ready to round with his residents by 6:00 am. Most nights he gets home around 7:30 to 8 pm. That makes for about a 14 hour "normal day." This does not include his call nights, which vary from each specific surgery specialty. For awhile he took call every third night. That means every other day he would continue to wake up at 4:30 am and then work straight through until about 3 pm the NEXT day. He would then come home, sleep and then be up again at 4:30 am the next day. He also has to work on weekends. Weekends are a little better because he can usually be done by early afternoon, unless he has call which means a full day and a night of a weekend. Basically, you work non-stop with little to no sleep ever. I have no idea how he is functioning.

A lot of people have asked me what he wants to do and what the process looks like from here. I am still a little unsure on all those details. What I do know for sure is he has to pick his specialty now because he has to do an away rotation in his chosen specialty. This gives him a better competitive edge when applying to residency programs. This means he will move away to another city for about a month. Just another one of those fun hurdles in this crazy process. The good news is, he really only has several more real months of school left. Most of fourth year is spent doing electives and interviewing for residencies. That means a lot more time off and a lot less school stress. In

I wish I had a more cohesive post but with my sporadic updates it is hard to do anything else but update. Hopefully, my posts will start coming closer to together. To end on a high note, here are some pictures to enjoy....

My little leprechaun in her green today!

She doesn't like playing soccer but she likes her cute jersey. The name of her team is Rock Stars which I find to be much better than some other team names. Not to name any of them but Hamsters do come to mind.

Her second year to attend the Daddy Daughter Dance. Daddy and Daughter both had the best time.

This post seems to include a lot of stuff about little A but not much about little man. Don't worry he will get his special time next week on his big day. I did want to point out something he is really good at. When J was cleaning out his car a couple of weeks ago little man insisted he vacuum the entire car by himself and he did a good job leaving nothing untouched.

While Landen vacuumed J's car, little A made us some lunch. All on her own doing with absolutely no asking or assistance from me. Notice the half piece of top bread missing. Each person's lunch had this missing. She must be aware of some new trend. These kids are really turning out to be useful.

Progress Report

In case you hadn't noticed, it has been 3 months and 1 day since my last post. I guess I forgot to inform everyone that my blog would be taking a "quarterly" approach to updates. I am sure everyone can be in agreement that the holiday season was a beating, so that is my excuse for November and December. As for January, I don't have a really good excuse but I am currently in the process of renewing my state teaching certificate and need to earn 150 hours of continuing education before my birthday this year. This is something I should have been doing for the past 5 years, but I thought I would just go ahead and cram it in within a few months. So, you can find me doing online courses almost every night. Even though my posts are sporadic, I can be assured that at least my mom is still reading, so I will keep it going.

The next question that begs to be asked is "what has brought you out of hiding?" Simple. A teacher conference. It is hard to imagine that I am attending these things as a parent, but I am on my second "real" conference with Ashley. In these conferences they present a portfolio of all her work and things she has been doing these past few months. Just a few snapshots of a lot of work. I figure if that is good enough for our schools, then that will work for my blog as well. (It also helps that little man was home sick today and I had time to catch up on things). I can just give a few glimpses of our past few months and then we will be caught up. No need for those awkward "let's get reacquainted" games or conversations, just a straight forward replay, a progress report if you will.....

Ashley

Since the teacher conference inspired my blog I figure it is the best way to start my recap. As many of you recall, Little A had a rough start to school. She is now perfectly fine and even conquered her Spirit Rally phobia. The best news came in her academic area. I have known for quite some time that Ashley is an amazing reader. The girl can read my MIL's real estate contracts for crying out loud. I also am quite biased in thinking she is brilliant but of course I am her mom. Now I have some hard facts to back it up. They give all these tests to the kids these days and in her tests she scored at the 3rd grade level in BOTH reading and math. Yes, she is still in kindergarten. The teacher told me she had never seen any kindergartener in all her teaching career (20 plus years of teaching mind you) with scores like Ashley in both areas and who could read like her. They want me to apply for the gifted program next year, which is something they rarely do for kids this age in our school district. Yes, I am shamelessly bragging. Is it probably in bad taste? Maybe, but I figure parents brag about their kids' athletic accomplishments all the time why can't I brag about something that my daughter is good at? So there. I am bragging. I am proud and I don't mind saying it. Now we are just patiently waiting for her to conquer her fear of dressed up characters and we should be good.

Landen

Little man is definitely no longer a baby, he is all little boy. He is fully potty trained now, which is awesome. I finally feel like we are at a good point and I am loving it. He is also very chatty. He does not stop talking and even talks in his sleep. He loves sports and asks me on a daily basis if he is old enough to play football. School is also going well. He loves to tell me all about all his favorite friends and teachers every day. I am also happy to report that he will finally watch tv. While some parents would find this highly inappropriate, I have no shame in jumping for joy. Landen has never watched tv, even for a few seconds. I am not advocating 24 hour tv watching, but there are certain times of the day, like dinner making, when tv is a necessity. With his new attention span, I can now cook dinner without a crazy man underneath me. Hallelujah. His favorite shows are a little odd, Caillou, Berenstain Bears and Wiggles. With the exception of Wiggles, this is probably not your typical 2 year old boy's line up, but he tends to just attach himself to whatever his big sister does.

Jessie

Jessie's eye is stable. He will have to be on his blood thinners for life, but hopefully that will prevent any future clots. The rare condition he has causes clots at any given time and with no warning. The clots could occur anywhere in his body, so we are hopeful the medicine will prevent this from happening. Of course his dreams of being a professional athlete will have to be put on the back burner but he can live through Landen's sports aspirations.

As for school, he is in his surgery rotation right now. This means incredibly hard hours but we are all hanging in there. He has been in emergency surgery and trauma for the past month and now will be in vascular for the next month. The stories he has are pretty incredible and I am still in awe of how he does it. It is getting closer to the time he has to decide on a specialty. This is a difficult decision but I know everything will work out just like the rest of the process has. I can't believe he is almost done with his third year and will be starting fourth year in just a few months.

Me

I am still teaching but have decided to not return in the fall. With everything that has happened it has been a stressful year and I am ready to just take a step back and get things in order. As J starts interviewing for residencies I also want to be available to travel to potential new cities. I actually do like my job, but I am also really looking forward to being done in a few months.

Christmas

We had a great Christmas. It was filled with lots of parties and events. Ashley and I enjoyed going to two adorable events, the Sugar Plum Fairy Tea and the theater production of Madeline's Christmas. J took the little man down to the trains at Northpark one day too. Both kids were excited about anything Christmas this year so it was neat for us to share our special traditions with them. We also had a lot of fun with all the family that came through. We had the Lubbock brothers out in waves and we spend many nights playing our favorite domino game with grandma and gradpa. The best part was all the family time we had. J had three weeks off and the kids and I had two weeks off.

I think that pretty much catches us up. It is amazing how much things change and how much they stay the same in a few months. The kids are growing too quickly, time is passing too quickly and I am just trying to catch my breath and slow things down. With school, J's crazy schedule, piano lessons, dance and soccer starting this week I am thinking that is not going to happen. Stay tuned.....