daycare requires that we pay our weekly fee whether charlie attends or not.
so, after careful thought, bill and i decided it best for charlie (and me) if she attend a few days each week during my break from school. bear in mind that this is the first time in nearly eight months i have had the house to myself. in fact, this is the first time i've been really and truly alone in my own house. i had big plans for these few days - christmas shopping, deep cleaning, loads of laundry, scrapbooking...instead i have spent the majority of today in bed. and to be perfectly honest, i have no guilt about it whatsoever!
however, i did think that perhaps i should pen a real and true 'christmas letter' - much like the kind that come in the mail around this time of year. if you have followed this or the other blog, you are pretty well up to speed and may quit reading now. however, if you're like me and are merely curious as to what has transpired within the walls of our home, read on.
here goes.
dearest family and friends,
it is hard to believe that i am once again sitting down to pen our annual christmas letter! (they all start like this...that's because finding a proper opener for these is hard. i mean really - would it be appropriate to start off your annual christmas letter with "shit, it's been a helluva year for us!") 2008 flew by (although honestly, there were times when we thought it would never end) and lots of things have transpired in our little corner of the world (true story).
the last twelve months have been full of changes, blessings and lessons for us. (figuring out how to tell your story is never graceful...bear with me.) our year really took off in march of this year. after discovering ice damage in our master bedroom while bill was in denver, i finally convinced him it was time to put our little house on the market and set our sights on something new that required little maintenance. we put an offer in on, what is now our home and prayed for a quick sale on our little house.
about a week after putting our house on the market, on easter sunday, bill and i embarked on a road bound for minnesota for a baby shower. the weather was sketchy with a few flurries, but nothing that would typically concern iowa drivers like ourselves. however, just outside of waterloo, iowa, we hit a patch of what must have been black ice and were sent spiraling. my leg was broken in the accident and i spent a week in iowa city. needless to say, my maternity leave started earlier than anticipated (i have kicked this dead horse in several other blogs with my new leg...visit http://spontaneousblah.blogspot.com from about march on to catch up on this and other stories.) i continue to recover - i still limp from time to time as iowa winters are cold and wreak havoc on joints. i am doing well though and hope to start running again next month (let's be honest...there are FAR too many good things to eat and reasons not to exercise this month. january is just around the corner...) i am still teaching 8th grade special education and am enjoying my students very much this year. i feel like a first year teacher all over again after such a long absence, but am finding my gait (insert pun). i also picked up coursework again to finish my masters and hope to be done this time next year.
bill is doing very well and continue to work as a sales manager at the largest powersports dealership in town. while the economy, election and floods of '08 have had somewhat of an effect on business, people still continue to buy motorcylces and atvs making business steady for bill (including us...however, i won't complain...the plow and winch set we invested in for the four-wheeler has already paid for itself this winter!) he put his schoolwork on hold after the accident, but hopes to pick it back up in the future. after playing caretaker for me, moving guy for our house and daddy, he has earned some time off!
and then, of course, there's charlie jo. charlie made her debut may 2, and has been the center of all of our worlds since then. she was born healthy and happy and has stayed that way. she will be eight months old january 2 and doing all the fun things babies do at this stage including sitting up, rolling over, chatting up a storm and smiling from ear to ear. bill and i sit for hours just watching her and are not sure what we did before she came into our lives (honestly, i could go on and on about charlie - there aren't enough words to describe just how incredible her existence is and how her presence in our lives has been more of a blessing than we ever dreamed...but again, i would encourage you to go back and read previous posts on this site to really grasp just how much she is loved).
all in all, the year was a mile marker in our journey to be certain (losing steam here...).
i would close with this - a christmas wish of sorts:
during this time of running around, checking your lists (twice)...
baking
wrapping
parties
decorating
traveling
bustling
and all the other fa la la la la's...
i would implore you to
stop.
and make sure you hug your parents.
hold onto your child.
squeeze the hand of your sister or brother.
cling to your spouse or significant other.
because those moments, once they pass, are gone forever.
we get one shot at this thing called life.
christ was born so that we could have that.
so ponder these things in your heart.
just as mary pondered the moments after jesus' birth.
and treasure every bit of this holiday season.
all of our love.
happy christmas!
go well.
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