Merry Christmas to all of you!

Here is our Christmas card and letter for 2011.

Dear Family and Friends,

Merry Christmas! We hope this letter finds you enjoying the season and making memories with family and friends.

For us, this has been a big year. We've made big changes. We've carried out big plans. We've taken big vacations. (In our "bunch" there are six kids ranging from 8 years to 19 years old. So, when there are 7-10 people in your group at all times, nothing is ever small.)

Around the first of November, Joey and I made a life changing decision, one that was discussed and thoroughly thought out as to what would be best for us and the many young lives involved. We decided to merge my household into his. So, the entire month of November was spent rearragnging, reorganizing, replacing, redistributing, repainting and rethinking. His house became a six bedroom home overnight. (Well, not overnight, but in a hurry.) It's nice to be settled in a place where we can all enjoy being together all of the time.

After all of the craziness in November, we are truly enjoying December. It's been fun creating new traditions: the decorating, the shopping, the wrapping and the excitement, all under one roof. Most of the time we have a full house and those are the days and nights that we enjoy most.

The Earth may have just four seasons but our seasons included: karate, basketball, baseball/softball, summer vacation, football season and deer season. And seven months out of the year we celebrate birthdays. There 's always something to look forward to and events to plan.

Between the kids' sports, various activities, (and birthdays), we still managed to find time to get away with all of the kids. We set up camp twice. On Spring Break we spent a few nights in Glen Rose with friends. Here we enjoyed Big Rock Park across the street from our campsite, a one mile trek down the river and through the mud; Dinosaur Valley State Park where we thought we lost a kid and some truck keys in the river, took a four hour hike on the trails (only getting lost and for a very long time); and lost sleep the last night thanks to an all night long fiesta going on in another tent area. Our second camping trip was at Lake Whitney with just us and the five kids. We took the boat on this tip so we enjoyed time in the water - cliff jumping, swimming and a late night fishing trip. (We did lose a couple of kids on this trip when they thought their route back to camp was shorter. No worries, they eventually showed back up.) The late night fishing trip became even later when we realized that I had left the truck keys back in the tent and we couldn't load the boat on the trailer without them. All of the kids slept on the boat (except the one that got sick) while Joey made the long hike to camp and back. (Not sure what it is about kids, keys and camping.) Nevertheless, both trips were fun and broke me in to the "great outdoors" a little more. Our big "family" summer vacation was a trip to Panama City, Florida in a rental van. The bunch went coastal. It was a great time there spent with the kids and friends - on the beach, snorkeling, riding the waves, dodging the seaweed, multiple trips to the grocery store and souvenir shops, riding the go-carts and sending the boys crabbing with the kids at night. It was definitely an exciting and memorable trip from start to finish.

And then there were several mini-getaways that Joey and I enjoyed throughout the year. We made a day trip to Galveston, enjoying dessert on the beach. (It was a work trip for him, a road trip for me.) We spent a weekend going to San Angelo to pick up a boat and spent the night near the deer lease. We took a quick trip to San Antonio for a couple of days to unwind before the new school year started - walking along the Riverwalk, remembering the Alamo, taking a haunted tour through the wax museum and stopping in Gruene to enjoy the river and shops on our way home. Our big vacation was four days in Cozumel. We enjoyed the beauty, the beach, the buffets, the market shops, and touring the island in our rental jeep; the security guards coming in during the middle of the night and the rain - not so much. Our past year and a half together has been amazing and we have found complete happiness. We made the most of our time together and our time with the kids all year long.

As life is rolling along, we have definitely learned to go with the flow, take things one day at a time and to live each day to the fullest. We know that above everything else, time spent together is time well spent. May you find time together this Christmas season and all throughout the year. Make big plans and create big dreams with those you love most.

With love from our bunch to yours,

Joey and Stephanie

a date to remember

December 24th and 25th are typically the days celebrated with family. For all of my kids' lives -which began 14 years ago- we have celebrated traditionally. We'd open some gifts on Christmas Eve (mainly because I was as anxious to give as they were to receive) and Santa came Christmas morning and we finished opening the gifts under the tree.

This year, that tradition had to change due to circumstances. I have the kids every other year on Christmas and Christmas Eve. Last year was my year, this year is their dad's year. In many ways, I tried to share last year so they could have time with their dad. This year, I am not getting much of that same respect in return. To avoid any personal grievances, I'll just say that I feel blessed to get them for two hours on Christmas day. That's better than what it could've been and more time than I was told a couple of weeks ago.

A couple of weekends ago I struggled with all of the texts being sent back and forth, realizing that there did not seem to be any chance of having my kids at all for Christmas. It was hard and it was emotional - for me, for the kids, for my family. After finally coming to terms with it and knowing that for my kids' sake and their happiness, I had to make the best of the time given. As a mom, it's my job to make it a Merry Christmas for them no matter when it's celebrated. Joey and I made plans to celebrate with them the weekend before Christmas. I told my mom, not only to try and convince her but to also convince myself, it's just a date. And, in all actuality we can celebrate it any date that we choose. With this inevitable circumstance comes flexibility and change- both of which tend to be my weakest qualities.

On December 19th my kids and I celebrated their Christmas with Joey, my parents, my brother and his wife at our house. We had pizza, snacks and coffee which made for a fun and spontaneous get together. Clayson, Trey and Ashlyn were more than satisfied to get these gifts that they'd been eyeing under the tree for weeks, a week early.

There's always such a joy that can be seen in the eyes of a child as they open each present. I saw that same joy on December 19th (instead of December 25th). I got to see the anxiousness and gratitude as they played with and enjoyed what they had been given. Christmas is a season. As a mom, it's very hard to stay strong when I know that this year will not be spent with my kids traditionally. But, I am thankful for December 19th and the joy it brought into our home. It was definitely a Merry Christmas.

Don't take things, traditions or people for granted. Times change. But, in the end, it's just a date- you choose when to celebrate the birth of Jesus and spend time with those you love most.

Merry Christmas to you all.

November

It has been a whirlwind of a month, there is no doubt about that.


We wrapped up Clayson and Matt's 8th grade football season and hunting season began. We celebrated Thanksgiving and Clayson's 14th birthday. I sold many household extras through Facebook and garage sales and started hitting up sales to buy Christmas presents.


The ENTIRE month was spent moving out of my house and merging into his. The combining of two households required rearranging, reorganizing, replacing, redistributing, repainting and rethinking. Kayla now shares her room with Ashlyn and the formal dining/office is now a room for Clayson and Trey. It became a six bedroom house for ten people overnight ... well, not overnight, but in a hurry. We decided to use most of my furniture since it is newer, so it was out with the old-in with the new. (Thank goodness that Joey is not picky because I am happy to continue using my teal bedding and bathroom decor that I loved so much. He is amazing. He has told me from the beginning to hang what I want to hang and put things where I want to put them because he wants me to feel like it's my home, too. Yes, he is truly amazing.) We've laid wooden floors in the living room, structured a corner for the fireplace and come up with many ideas for future projects. But, we have not lost sight of what is important - our precious kids or the time we spend with each other (away from the grind). With the Christmas season upon us, we will work on projects when we can but will keep our priorities focused and enjoy the most wonderful time of the year.


Looking back I can see what wonderful memories we made this month - things that I have always dreamed of having, memories I've always dreamed of sharing (togetherness ... we do almost everything together). Grocery shopping was so much fun, ending up with 16 pie crusts led to quality time in the kitchen and good desserts to share with others. Together, Joey and I learned how to bake apple pies (he did get overly creative with these), pecan pies and chocolate pies (with the cow-lick topping). All were tasty and the chocolate pie always hit the spot - morning, noon and night.




Thanksgiving was a great day spent with family and a weekend spent with friends at the deer lease. I have definitely counted my blessings this month. I am glad that the hard part is over and now it is on to creating the life I have dreamed of living.

my love that I will be forever thankful for

Seasons change, celebrations happen, moving takes place and love grows.

memories in pictures...

Joey's doe posing as a buck

girls of the deer woods

Joey and I with my brother, Jason, and his wife, Megan

on Thanksgiving day (before the mad rush to the deer lease)

my three littlest loves but biggest blessings

This should be part of my Christmas card. Such is life, right?!

November: filled with so many things to be thankful for...

change

People change. Times change. Things change. Sometimes change is for the better, sometimes change is hard, sometimes change is inevitable. Sometimes change is temporary and sometimes it's permanent.

A year and a half ago, Joey changed my life. I tried to resist the change - not quite ready to put my heart on the line after certain circumstances. But his irresistable sense of humor, his amazing personality and his ability to get along so well with me and my family, well, I had a change of heart. Sometimes, change is inevitable.

It's been a great 18 months together falling in love and creating so many fun memories with just the two of us and with all of the kids. We've enjoyed vacations, weekend getaways, sporting events, hunting seasons, holidays and family get togethers. Most of our time is spent together, very little is spent apart.

For the past couple of months, my kids and I have been staying at Joey's house. When I buy groceries, that's where I unload them. When I do laundry, that's where I put the clothes up. My house became nothing more than a run in - run out location. It wasn't where we wanted to stay. After some deep discussions with each other and talking to the kids and considering this to be a permanent change, we decided that it'd be best for all of us to move into his house. My house went on the market Monday. This change is good.

I loved my (new) house but if "home is where the heart is", it was never a home. I look forward to being able to function as a family/ team and a future filled with hope. This change is what we needed. I am so thankful and blessed for all of the positive changes that will come out of this and all of the positive changes that have taken place in my life over the past year and a half.

Yes, sometimes change is for the better.

As My World Turns

Many blog ideas have come and gone over the past month. There was going to be the blog about summer's end - how great it was - and how we shouldn't cry because it's over but smile because it happened. That could have led to the blog about going back to work and the kids back to school - Clayson in 8th grade, Trey in 6th grade, Ashlyn in 3rd grade and me starting my 11th year of 5th grade. And there's always the blogs about life in general. Those "life in general" ideas/ blogs are quickly squashed when I remind myself that this is a blog and not a soap opera script. (I save the tidbits for my facebook status updates and most of the time you get the gist through those without me having to make an outline and write paragraphs about it.)

Some days my life does feel a little soap opera-ish. There's drama, but not too much and not with anyone you wouldn't expect it from. Most days I still feel like things are fiction and too good to be true. That makes me all the more thankful for my kids, Joey and his kids. It's a big circle of life - often referred to as the Brady Bunch. And since we have only one life to live, I am living my life exactly the way that I want to since I have been blessed with this second chance at happiness. Commercial breaks come when there is work out of town or trips to the deer lease. And I've heard it said that real love stories don't have endings so I am content with hoping that this soap opera life never ends.

Things are moving along at the perfect pace. We stay extremely busy between all of the kids, Matt and Clayson playing football and our jobs. Some months fly by and we wonder if we have even blinked.


I spend a lot of time in deep thought but I try not to let my young and restless mind get too carried away. I have to remember that each day is a gift from God, that's why it's called the present.

hittin' the road

*better late than never, a blog that just needed to be recorded for memory purposes...

I mentioned to Joey a couple of weeks ago that I wanted to try and go on one more "get away" trip before going back to work. I didn't have any idea when or where, I just knew I wanted to get outta town. Another beach would have been perfect but I was game for anything. One day I walked out into the backyard where he was working and asked him about his Monday/Tuesday schedule for the next week. With not much going on and jobs that could wait until Wednesday, I pursued my plans. A quick trip to San Antonio. He kind of turned his lip up at the thought because he said it was kind of far but I quickly pointed out that it is no farther than the deer lease. He said I had him there. I researched, enlisted advice from Facebook friends and found an affordable place to stay on the Riverwalk. Booked the Indigo and sealed the deal.

Monday was business as usual for Joey. I ran errands, ran to my house, filled the car up and waited for him to get home. My goal was to leave between 3:00 and 5:00, we left at 5:00 on the dot. Our first stop was dinner, Whatburger. Then it was smooth sailing. One of the many things that I love about him is that there is never a moment that we aren't talking, laughing, punching each other or singing along with the radio. We played the "ABC game", which I won, and "name that tune" where he had to guess the song and the artist from songs on my iPod. It was funny. We stopped for a fountain drink and snacks about halfway there and completed our journey 5 hours later.

We made it to our hotel about 10:00. We got to our room and decided it was a good time to walk the river and go visit the Alamo. We enjoyed the walk hand in hand. We crossed a bridge, crossed some streets and made it to the Alamo and the wax museum. He wanted to go in the Haunted House and even upgraded our tickets to the "intense" tour. Oh my goodness. I loved these as a kid but not so much as a grown up. We got "scared" and then rode a Tomb Raider ride, complete waste of money. From this we walked over to the Alamo and attempted a couple of nighttime photos. It was late so we headed back to the hotel along a pretty shady route, one where a boy was selling pizza from the back of his bicycle for just $5.00.

We got up in time for breakfast at the hotel, checked out and headed away with no plans in mind. We went back to the Alamo but did not want to pay $10 for parking just to take a clear picture. So, we decided to head back and find things to do along the way. We passed the Alamodome and remembered that the Cowboys were at training camp so we went and got cash for parking only to find out that practice wasn't for three more hours. So much for that. We drove on and stopped in New Braunfels/ Gruene. I fell in love with Gruene and can't wait to go back there. We took a foot dip in the Guadalupe River, enjoyed it's coolness for a minute and then went to do a little shopping. It was fun to just look around but too hot to want to buy anything to carry around. From Gruene we went to eat at CenterPoint Station in San Marcos, one of my favorite places to eat. It's like a fried food heaven. I drove from here and took us to the much talked about Czech Bakery. I had to find out what the hype was about - we went straight from fried food heaven to sweet stuff heaven. Because I was so overwhelmed with the choices and he was too lazy to get out of the car (haha!), we ended up with a dozen cookies. They were good for the next three days.

We got home Tuesday night, which was one week from starting back to school. This trip was a great ending to the perfect summer. I am so blessed to have someone who can keep up with my randomness and my whims. I think he is who I have been waiting on all my life.

upside down & inside out

I've started this blog three times. Evidently I have a lot of ideas and can't stay on track. I should have created an outline to keep my thoughts organized. ADHD readers will have no trouble following, structured readers may be a bit bothered. Sorry about it!

It's hard to believe that we are in the final stretch of summer 2011. Time flies when you are having fun... true statement.

Now, my thoughts ...

School:
Just 10 more days before inservice, 12 days until meet the teacher, 16 days until the first day of school. I have been working in my room and attending recent trainings in order to get back into the teacher/ work mode. I'm almost ready. It's not ever that I am not looking forward to the teaching part of it - I love that. It's just hard to give up late nights, sleeping late, swimming with friends, vacationing, fun times with the kids, afternoons at the lake and lots of time with the boy. All of these combined have made for a perfect summer.

Kids:
It's been an eventful summer with the kids. We've gone camping, to the beach, to the lake, to the movies and made the most of our time together. They've grown and matured over the past two months: Clayson can drive, Trey can mow and Ashlyn can straighten her own hair. We have not spent a lot of time at my house but it didn't matter where we were as long as we were together.
(side note: sometimes I feel "guilty" writing happy things about my life when my kids are gone. Of course, I miss them and would choose to have them with me all of the time but I can't. When they aren't with me they are with their dad. I can say a lot of things about him but I will always give him credit for being a wonderful dad. He gets his time with them and I get mine. When they are with him, I live the life that I have come to know. They need their dad just as much as they need me. And it's soap boxes like this that make me realize that I worry/ care too much about what others might think or how they may judge me as a mom. On with the blog...) I have had a fun-filled summer with Clayson, Trey and Ashlyn. We have also enjoyed some great times with Matt and Kayla. If there is power in numbers, when we are all together - we've got the power.

The boy:
Joey and I have enjoyed making some new memories for the second summer in a row. We've been to Mexico, Florida, San Angelo, Lake Whitney and I still hope to squeeze in one last summer retreat before time becomes limited between work and sports. We have spent all but seven days together this summer. The best thing about this is that we have so much fun together, we are completely comfortable with each other, never get tired of each other and continue to keep it real, simple and fun. It's been our relationship "motto" for the past 15 months and has worked well. I am thankful everyday for the happiness that he has brought into my life. This happiness carries over into all areas and it shows.

Done. Maybe it wasn't as bad or as random as it could've been.