Tuesday, December 27, 2011

December 27th- Christmas Recap

This Christmas has been a bit out of the ordinary for our family. Our Christmas vacation started off with both feet running. My youngest sons birthday party, my daughters Christmas dance performance and my ex husband coming to visit the kids all fell on the same day. That was day 1 of vacation. Day 2 brought another dance performance and kids spending more time reconnecting with their dad, and day 3 again more reconnecting time. Day 4 (Tuesday) brought the kids leaving with their dad at 3:30am to head to Idaho for Christmas. I was so excited for them to spend time with him and his family.

I had 5 whole days to myself. I was bored by the afternoon of day 1 LOL it was way too quiet! I wasn't sure what I was going to do with myself over those 5 days. However, the week before I had found out that we had lost a good high school friend and classmate. In a class with only 29 students this hits very hard. I decided that I needed to spend those 5 days reconnecting with friends and just visiting. Wednesday many of us made the 4-5 hour drive to attend Daves service. It really didn't seem real until we were all there together in the same room saying goodbye to one of the funniest people I have ever met. We all spent that afternoon crying, laughing and sharing great memories. We reconnected with each other over beer and pizza, something Dave would have loved.

The rest of the week was quiet and I had a lot of time to think, reflect and just be still. Something I never do. I had a movie night with a friend, dinner with former co-workers, sushi with a couple of other friends and got some craft projects finished. Christmas Ever I volunteered at church and attended a beautiful Christmas service. Sunday, Christmas Day, I went to the city and spent the day with my best friend and her family. I was able to see her beautiful new home and precious time with her that we don't often get with our busy schedules. Monday morning I was up early and making the drive to pick up the kids. They had such a fabulous time and had many stories to tell. We drove to my parents house and did Christmas with my family. My oldest son met us there, he had been at his dads all week having a blast jamming on his guitar and writing music, along with working for my parents and earning money.

Now we are back home. Its 7am and everyone is sleeping, except for me. My oldest son should be home in a couple of hours and we will do Christmas here at home. I am so very thankful and feel so very blessed this holiday season. Thankful for our many family and friends, the opportunities the kids got last week to be with family and experience new things. And for myself, the opportunity to reconnect with old friends and just be still for a few days.

We hope you all had a fabulous holiday weekend full of laughter, love and great memories!

Monday, December 19, 2011

December 19th-Long Update-

**sigh** I really never intended to stay away from this blog for so long. I have missed blogging, and being organized, and sleep.....the list could go on and on. I took a condensed A&P course Fall Quarter. Full A&P 1 and Full A&P 2 condensed into one quarter. If you are ever considering doing that....don't do it. The last couple of months have been extremely difficult. The amount of hours spent on school and studying has been overwhelming, BUT I am so glad that the class is done, I earned a solid grade in the class and can now move onto my very last pre requisite in winter quarter (along with a couple of other classes).

Now we are onto Christmas vacation. This year, ours is a bit different. The kids are going to be spending the first half of the vacation with their dad! He has been here all weekend spending time with them, reconnecting and celebrating our youngest sons birthday as well as getting to watch our youngest daughter dance. He and the kids will head out bright and early tomorrow morning for Idaho.

That leaves me with 6 days of no children!! This is the first time in 4 years I have gone more than 48 hours without the kids here. However, I am ready for a little break and so excited for the fun they are going to have!!

I am going to spend this time deep cleaning my house, finishing up some projects, visiting with friends I have not spent time with lately and just RELAXING. I am also focusing on getting back on track with meal planning, organization and budgeting as these have gone out the window lately.

The kids are all doing great and enjoying school. We have had performances for each of them this week for either music or dance and they have all done fabulously! I am one proud mama!!