243–The End of 2010 (The Year in Review)

While Tyler and Daisy had a date tonight, David and I took Maddie on a little date.  We went to Chili’s for supper…

…and then to Walmart for groceries… we are outrageous fun!

2010 has been a good year.  It has been full of changes and new life experiences.  I wanted to go back and recap what life has brought us, so here’s my year in review:

January – Kale and Kayla had just moved to Texas and we were adjusting to missing them.  We had two snows in January and Tyler left to stay in Hot Springs for a month for work. I was feeling pretty lonely.

February – Tyler came home from Hot Springs, we were supposed to go to Houston for our first visit, but David’s cousin died and we delayed our trip.  Only two blog posts in the month.  I got to spend a little time cuddling my niece, Sophia…

March – Tyler moved out of the house to live with a friend.  This was a big adjustment for me and the source of a lot of worry and fret.  We made our first trip to Houston, but I didn’t blog about it until the next month.  I had an abscessed tooth and had to have a root canal. Fun times.

April – I finally blogged about our Houston trip – a month later.  We got Izzy on April 2.  Lots more changes in the Wallace house.

May – I started “Project 365” (a picture a day – a year in the life) on May 2.  I haven’t missed a day since I started. (Pat on the back)  May included posts about dog training classes, Blackberry breakdowns, Mother’s Day, the loss of my Uncle Bob, the end of “24” and “Jack Bauer”, buying Ms. Charlsie a recliner, and Memorial Day weekend.

June – Brought the loss of our 12 year old cat, Holly.  I started and finished a room makeover which we now call “the love room”.   Vacation Bible School took us to “Saddle Ridge Ranch”.  And Kale and Kayla (and Bosley) came home for the 4th of July.

July – We celebrated our 27th wedding anniversary while the Ks were here, Daisy and Maddie came into our lives (and Tyler got his dog, Daisy, too).  Other July happenings included finally getting my crown finished, trading my Blackberry for my first iPhone, my cousin lost her husband in a motorcycle accident, and I made arrangements to go to Houston for the Labor Day weekend.

 

August – I spent most of August counting down the days til we would get to go to Houston.  August also marked the Preacher’s 25th anniversary as our pastor.  We spent a lot of the month falling in love with Maddie-Moo!!

September – Tyler moved back in (this was a huge answer to prayer…oddly enough), Dave, Tyler and I went to Houston, Maddie celebrated her 3rd birthday, and another Awana year started.

October – Kale came home for a visit and so did several relatives, my parents celebrated 54 years of marriage, we saw MercyMe in concert.  I secured round-trip airfare to Texas (for February 2011) for $79.50 per ticket!  Maddie was the cutest Minnie Mouse ever!

November – Tyler gave me the sweetest gift ever and God answered years of prayer in a nano-second.  Other November highlights include Election Day, our first fire, Daisy (the dog) had surgery, Operation Christmas Child, my brother got married and I lost my Uncle Don in the same day, Kale and Kayla’s first anniversary, getting ready for Christmas, and, of course, Thanksgiving.

December – We celebrated Charlsie’s 92nd birthday, most of the month was about Christmas (preparations, functions and just plain fun), we spent the best Christmas ever in Texas and we had lots of family time.

We’re so blessed and God has been so good to us.  He is our source of strength, our provider, our comforter, our ever-present help in times of trouble. He has shown us in the past year how His hand is at work and how He cares about our needs and hears our prayers.  I am praying that we will work harder in 2011 to serve Him and to love others and take the time to reach out to those in need.

May you be blessed in 2011 with an overwhelming sense of God’s presence in your lives!

242–Girls Day

Someone got to spend the night with us last night.  That same someone woke up much earlier than I had bargained on.  Haha! 

She wanted toast for breakfast (well, that was her choice after asking for Fruit Rollups)…

We went in to my office for a little while this morning… and then it was time to go back home for a nap.  After a short nap and some lunch we texted Jodi and told her we were ready to go to the movies.  We were a little early, so we stopped to look around at the Salvation Army for a little while.  Maddie found some chairs that she thought we should check out.

Yep, you’d be right if you were wondering if I let her wear her slippers to town. Ha!! And don’t let Jodi’s outfit fool you… it was 60 degrees today, but since we FROZE PLUM TO DEATH at the theater the other day, she dressed up for the occasion.

After making a run through the store, we stopped for a surprise visit at Daisy’s office.  And then it was time for the movies.

Maddie already saw “Tangled” with her mom and Tyler, it was her first-ever movie at the theater, but I thought it would be fun to take her back.  (Kayla, you’ll be glad to hear that when I let her get some candy from the concession stand  she chose “Kayla candy” (Twizzlers). Have y’all priced candy and drinks at the movies lately??? Oh my stars!)

She looked so cute sportin’ her 3D glasses…

She sat so good through the whole thing… I loved every minute of it with her.  She said the cutest things out loud during the movie… especially at the end when the theater was quiet and Rapunzel’s parents see her for the first time after all those years… Maddie gasped, “Her Mom and Dad!!” The audience cracked up.

After the movie was over, we took Mads back to her Mom’s work so they could go visit a friend before coming back to the house.

It was a fun day with a couple of fun girls!!

241–Card Fun

I spent a quiet day at home today.  Just me and the dogs.  Izzy has barely left my side since we’ve been back from Texas.

This evening, Daisy and Maddie came over.  Tyler was in the mood for a little “Pitch”, so he had me text Jodi and Gary to see if they wanted to come over for a game (or two).

They did… the teams were: Tyler and White Cloud vs. JoJo and me.  (Although Tyler called us the “hags”!)  As you can see… we beat them like a drum.

We had lots of fun… and tomorrow, I’ll be keeping Maddie for the day while Daisy works.  We MAY have a little date planned.

240– Boring!

Jodi and I went to see “How Do You Know” at the movies this afternoon.  I have to say it was a complete “sleeper”.  We thought it looked cute on the previews, but it was s.o.  s.l.o.w. and just not very good. (By the way, we didn’t know it was Rated R (language) until we paid for the tickets… I don’t normally do R movies… and this is just another reason why. Ha!)

When I was in the lobby, I saw this poster for an upcoming Mathew McConaughey movie.  Now, that may be good??

239 - Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig

We got up and got ready early this morning, even though the hardest thing in the world for me is saying goodbye to the Ks.  So hard.

This was my final photo before we left.  (Love them!!)

Maddie was SO good traveling to and from Texas.  That's a long time for a three year old to be in a vehicle.  I could envision at least one melt-down on the road, but that NEVER happened.  She was SO good!!  On the way to Houston, she would say, "Mrs. Jacquie? I wanna go see Kale and Kayla!" and then on the way home, she was saying, "Mrs. Jacquie? I wanna go home!"  Precious.

JoJo and White Cloud were so sweet to go pick up our dogs from the kennel and take them to our house so we could have them home with us tonight.  Thanks, Jodi and Gary!! (They even left our porch light on for us!)

Someone was happy to be home!

I can't even describe in words how much this weekend meant to me.  I am so grateful that we all got to be together for Christmas.  I hadn't seen Kayla in almost 4 months (and Kale in 3 months)!  We had so much fun... one of my favorite moments was when we were driving together in the car and an old song came on ("I Want To Know What Love Is") and when it came to the chorus we ALL just started singing (loud) together.  It was so funny!  I love my family so much!!

Thank you, Lord, for a safe trip and some special, sweet moments with my family! I also want to thank those of you who told me they would pray for our safe travel... that meant SO much to me!!

238–Lazy Sunday

We’ve had a lazy day today… although, Kayla had to go to work for a few hours.

While she worked, we laid around…

Played…

And just spent some quality time together…

Tonight, it was Chuy’s for supper and it was YUM!

I’m dreading the trip and leaving my kids tomorrow, but we’ll be ready to get home and see our four-legged kids.

237–Christmas 2010

236–Christmas Eve 2010

It’s SO hard to believe today is Christmas Eve.  2010 has just flown by.  So much has happened this year… I can’t really wrap my mind around all the changes.  But, for today, I just want to think about the moment at hand.  The day I’ve had enjoying every minute with my family… all together… all my chicks in the nest.  This is truly my happy place.

Since we all stayed up until about 2:30 this morning, you’d think we would have slept in.  Nope.  Kale and Tyler had a 9:00 AM tee time.  Dave is a morning person anyway, so we were all pretty much up early. (DID I FORGET TO MENTION THAT DAVE GOT TO COME??)  This was what we were doing first thing this morning (pre-showers. lovely):

While the boys golfed, David hung with us girls.  We actually just stayed at the house and before the boys got home, Maddie went down for a long nap. A few others got a little nap in later in the day, too.

(Poor Tyler, since he’s sleeping on the couch this trip, he doesn’t get much privacy. Ha!)

Maddie got to open one present (from Tyler) today.  It was the doll that I found for her little matching dress…

We had the best time playing with it this afternoon.  Just ask Kayla.  (I don’t think she knew I could be so completely goofy.)

Mads and her baby doll tonight…

We spent tonight in the house.  Kayla, Daisy and Maddie made cookies for Santa while I played “Pitch” with David and my two favorite boys on earth. (We had planned on … and actually did… go to the Christmas Eve service at their church, but just before we left a big rain/lightning storm came and it’s a LONG walk from the church parking lot to the church.  So we ended up back at the house.)

Cookie preparations…

Then there was a little gingerbread house work to be done…

… and then when Mads went to bed us adults played “Apples to Apples”.  What a fun day with the people I love the most on this earth.  I am so blessed and have so much to be thankful for. 

Well, I’m off to bed, because Santa can’t eat these cookies until everyone is snug in their beds.

Merry  Christmas to all… and to all a good night!

235–HOUSTON!

After packing as tight as we could…

And seeing this for a lot of miles…

We made it. And I’m in my happy place once again!!!