Gifts for Soldiers

One last thing we did this holiday season that I've never done before were cards and gifts to soldiers. Jake's teacher's son left for Iraq this fall. Her daughter is in high school and I believe her son is very young as well. Anyway, that inspired me and then we had a cub scout leader in the pack who had contact info for a unit (right word?) over there and so we 'adopted' two of the soldiers from that list as well. We bought snacks (beef jerky, nuts, hard candies) and other items like sunscreen, lotion, toothpaste, wipes, etc., the kids made cards and I wrote a letter to put in each of the gifts.

One of Jake's cards to a Soldier
(protecting & country are the mystery words :) )

We had to fill out customs forms at the post office and the shipping was pretty expensive, but while I was at the post office a young man came up and asked me if I had mailed the packages I sent to soldiers overseas. I told him I had and he shook my hand and told me he wanted to thank me. He said he was fortunate enough to be here this Christmas but that they LOVED getting packages like that when he was over there. It certainly made it even more worthwhile.

Sydney's Picture on Her Card

Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas holiday. The weekend before, Martin was feeling a little unwell so we took it easy to make sure we were all in top shape for the big day. It was also our first real chance for a couple of days without children or big obligations since the honeymoon. We missed a couple of parties we had wanted to attend, but it was great to just hang out and have some down time to relax.

Christmas Eve
Monday we hit the ground running again - Martin went back to work and I wrapped presents and made pumpkin muffins and broccoli cheese casserole to take for Christmas. He was able to come home early and help finish the wrapping. We got the kids back from Rob that afternoon. They had gotten a Wii for Christmas at his house and were very excited about that. Jake's big boast was beating Daddy at the boxing game. We went to my cousin Joan's house for dinner, then to Tarrytown UMC for Christmas Eve service and home to put out milk and muffins for Santa and some reindeer food (oatmeal and glitter - YUMMY!). I read Christmas stories to the kids while they fell asleep and then we stayed up for a little while wrapping a few more things and getting them ready. The kids had strict orders to stay upstairs until 6AM - a wise mandate from Martin after hearing about last year's 4:30AM start to Christmas morning.

Christmas Day
We awoke on Tuesday morning to the sound of shrieks and pounding feet coming down the stairs. Santa had come to our house. It turns out both our children miraculously escaped the naughty list and we had a new black and red Nintendo DS waiting for Jake and an American Girl bed and accessories for Sydney's AG doll. We opened stockings and presents, then we actually all took a nap (except Jake?) for awhile until Jake woke us up to go to Gran's for their third of four Christmas celebrations. We got to her house at 10, ate some breakfast - lots of yummy sugar cookies - opened stockings and then gifts, and played with some of our new toys. We left about 1:30 and headed to our friend Mona's house with sugar cookies and gifts to share with she and Rian. We surprised them and got to stay about an hour with them exchanging gifts and enjoying each other's company.

Then, we were off to San Antonio to visit with Martin's family. We missed a lot of them by coming late in the day, but got to see his Mom & Dad, Steven and Sarah, and then finally I met his brother Bob, Bob's wife Anna, and their children Robert, Carolina, and John Matthew. They missed the wedding and hadn't been at any of the family events we had attended, so I had never met them and the kids hadn't met each other. They are close in age - Caro is in kindergarten, Syd in first, Jake in second and Robert in third grade. The boys immediately bonded over Pokemon cards and Nintendo DS games - very cute. Little John was adorable and captured everyone's attention right away. He's ten months old and not even Martin had met him before. I'll come back and add a photo to this post once we pull them off the camera.

We got back from S.A. around 10 Christmas night. The kids had fallen asleep in the car finally. It was a great day!

Finally Writing Again - Recap of the Last Month+

Thanksgiving
Things have been pretty crazy around here lately; I'm sure for everyone else as well at this time of year. I knew the first few weeks after the honeymoon would be long ones. We got back from Jamaica on Sunday night, kids had school the next day and Tuesday and then were out for Thanksgiving. Wednesday we had some time with friends (Dawn, Zachary & Tyler and Kristi, Conor & Max) at the movies and then we went to San Antonio for Thanksgiving. We stayed the night at Martin's parent's house and went to Wimberley on Thursday for dinner with my aunts & uncles, cousins, Mom & brother.

The Move
The day after Thanksgiving started our moving weekend. We spent most of that weekend getting stuff from the house on Swearingen to Rio Vista, with a break to take the kids skating on Sunday. My cousin Joan, her husband Kevin & my Mom helped us out and that saved us a lot of time. We ended up having to strap the mattress to the top of the Sequoia - which was very classy :). At least it was dark when we drove into our neighborhood and took it down.

In the week after Thanksgiving, we were focused on getting the house on Swearingen ready to rent. In addition to the ongoing moving of 'stuff', we decided to spruce it up a bit by painting the porch and door and adding flower pots and flowers for curb appeal. Martin had a few nights where he went to his old house after the kids were in bed and worked into the wee hours painting and packing up the little things that remained.

Kid-Free Weekend
That next weekend was our first kid free weekend since the honeymoon. We had said on the honeymoon that we would celebrate my Birthday that weekend, but Martin wanted to do a service project for AustinONE and I ended up having to work on a big proposal for work that was due on Monday.

My Birthday Week
The first week of December was crazy. I don't think we sat down together once for dinner at home that week. On Monday, I took the kids to choose Salvation Army angels from the tree in the mall. On Tuesday, Martin had his volunteer shift at Helping Hand Home. Wednesday, we had a meeting for our Gateway (church) Singles leadership team. Thursday was my Birthday but unfortunately it was also Martin's company Christmas party. He ended up not getting home until after 6, so we didn't get our tree that night because we didn't have enough time before bed to get it up and decorated. It was a hard day for me because of memories of my Dad (more on that in another post), so in the end I asked Martin to take the kids to scouts (we had planned to skip it that night) - and I climbed in bed and watched Grey's Anatomy, which was relaxing and enjoyable.

Marathon Weekend
Friday Martin took the day off so we could spend some time together, shop for Christmas, and take a few pieces of furniture from his house to our friend Mona. We had plans for a play that night and that was a lot of fun but the day was kind of crazy busy and all of the running was catching up with us. It was feeling like we hadn't had any time for us or just to take a break - which was pretty true. Unfortunately our time to relax was still weeks away... The next day (Saturday), we did our monthly service project doing bike maintenance for the kids in foster care at the Helping Hand Home. Then we got the kids, loaded up the car, and drove to Dallas. We went to a celebration for Pam's (our sister-in-law's) job promotion and then we stayed the night at Andrew's (Martin's brother's) apartment. We were up and out bright and early because Martin ran the White Rock marathon that started at 8. The kids and I met some friends at about the 7 mile marker on the course. We intended to move with them through about 8 stops total on to the finish line. Instead, we lost not only our friends but also missed Martin at the 3rd stop. From what I can figure out, Martin passed through the stop minutes before we got there. My cell phone didn't work in Dallas and Martin's battery was dead and we didn't have a charger, so I had no way to get in touch with anyone or figure out where on the course he was. It was pretty frustrating. We waited over an hour at that 3rd stop and it was VERY cold. Our hands were numb and it rained on us a couple of times. I just kept telling the kids - at least you're not cold and running 26 miles. They were troopers. The lesson learned for me is that once you've missed your runner and waited until you are reasonably sure you missed them, there is NO WAY to have any real idea of where on the course they may be from there unless you have cell phones to touch base. We went from stop to stop, waited awhile, got back in the car and moved ahead on the course for the remainder of the morning but never saw Martin or our friends again until we met up with Martin at the apartment.

The finish line was a mess - we walked around for awhile and looked for Martin but it was very windy and by then we'd been out trying to find anyone we knew for about five hours. In the end, I took the kids back to Drew's apartment, hoping Martin would have walked back there and we'd find him. He wasn't there, so I went back out and looked for him and we finally caught back up at the apartment about 2:30 - roughly 7 hours after we started our adventure :).

Anyway, Martin did AWESOME in the first half of the race - hitting the half-way mark right at 2 hours for 13 miles. Because he hadn't had time to really train, he started cramping part-way through and the 2nd half was tougher, but he did great!

Another Hectic Week
The drive back to Austin was uneventful and we got home pretty much in time to get kids ready for school the next day and in bed. The 2nd week of December we got our tree up, celebrated Mom's Birthday with her, I got to meet my friend Katie for coffee one night and catch up (thanks to Martin for putting kids in bed!), had another Gateway Singles meeting to plan for the Christmas party, had a Brownie field trip to the nursing home to do crafts and sing carols, had our last cub scout den meeting of the year, finished our shopping for the Salvation Army kids and returned those gifts to the mall, and then Sydney went to a Birthday party on Friday. This was also the week that my big contract for work was signed by the client and official!! It should keep me busy 25 hours a week for the next six months and give me enough income that I could be set for the rest of the year. It will be a good opportunity to start doing some better planning than I've been able to do financially - paying off debt (car & home equity loans are paid off in 2008 - yeah!), and starting back with contributions to my retirement and the kids' college funds.

Our Adopted Christmas Family
This 2nd week of December we also heard about an opportunity to adopt a family for Christmas where we could shop for them and then deliver their gifts in person. It was just the opportunity I had been wanting for the kids to have a more hands-on experience with giving and helping those in need. The downside is that when we looked at the calendar, our only real chance to take the kids to deliver gifts was on the 17th (Monday), which meant our only chance to shop for the family was on our Friday date night. Nothing like date night at Wal-Mart :). We got home about 11:00 that night with everything we needed for them - two shirts, a pair of jeans, new socks & undies for each of the three boys, clothes for Mom and toys and gifts for everyone. We stayed up until about 3AM wrapping everything to have it ready for Monday. We had told Jake he needed to give up one of his game systems (he has just about every one they make, which is ridiculous) - and he gave the boys his GameCube with really no complaints at all. That was definitely a highlight of the whole experience because I think the kids really got it.

A Weekend of Christmas Parties (Three!)
Saturday of that weekend we did a service project during the day, helping with a Christmas party for the families at the Booker T. Washington housing project in East Austin. We always really enjoy working with the kids there. Martin & I mostly helped out in the area where they got to choose a gift for their Mom and/or Dad and wrap it for them. Saturday night, we went to a party hosted by our friend Kathleen. On Sunday, we skipped church because we hadn't had a chance to relax in forever. From 4PM until about midnight we were off to the Gateway Christmas party. We mostly took drink tickets and served wine but had a little bit of time to visit with friends. It was good to see everyone and good to have that party finished and successful. We volunteer with a GREAT group of people at church and some have become close friends, which is a bonus.

Serving at the Gateway Christmas Party

Taking Gifts to Adopted Family & Finally, Some Time to Relax
This week has been easier; we mostly hung out at night and let the kids play with friends. They had less homework than normal and the weather has been beautiful so it's been a great week to be outside. Monday night was the exception, when we took the gifts to our adopted family. That was quite an experience for all of us. The Mom was very grateful. Her husband is in jail and she has three little boys ages 3, 6 & 8. She recently moved to Austin from Plano with $5 in her pocket and a tank of gas. She got a job the first day here at McDonald's and has been trying to get back on her feet. She said she had thought Christmas was going to be just another day for them because she couldn't buy them things but now she was able to give them a Christmas. While we talked to her with the help of a translator, the kids listened some and played with her kids some. My Mom went with us, which was great because she and I have done a service project on Dec. 17th, the anniversary of my Dad's death, every year since 2004 when he died.

Rob got the kids Thursday evening and will have them until Monday afternoon, so I feel like I'm finally catching up on things. The house is still a mess and kind of making me crazy. It always seems 'full' at Christmas time with the tree and gifts, stocking, decorations, etc. This year the dining room is also pretty much full of boxes from the house on Swearingen which adds to the feeling of chaos and clutter but is just life right now and a little thing in the grand scheme. We are getting Christmas cards out and finishing our shopping and wrapping this weekend. We have one final party to go to tonight at my friend Tina's house but the rest of the weekend is unplanned. Martin runs the 50K trail run in Bandera two weeks from today, so he has started trying to run every day and is doing well.

Sorry for the long post covering over a month!! I will try hard to write more regularly instead of publishing a novel all at once.

Courtney's Birthday

Courtney had a birthday this past week!! It was a lot of fun. The plan was to put our tree out and decorate but that didn't go quite as we anticipated. Let's ask the family how it went...

Martin: Jake, what did you think of your mom's birthday? Did you she get lots of cool gifts?

Jake: Not really. Martin brought home some great poison ivy for her. So, she's itching all the time now.

M: Um, okay, that's great Jake. We'll move on....

M: Sydney, what do you think? Was mom's birthday something to remember?

Sydney: What, mom had a birthday? Have you seem my DS?

M: Okay, well thank you Sydney for that outstanding recap. So as you might have gathered it was a busy week here at the house and the day went by with little hoop-la but we did have some great chocolate volcano dessert thingys with some ice cream a couple of days later and we went to see Santaland Diaries that Friday which is very funny and highly recommended (Courtney and I went to see this on our first official date).

Court's mom's birthday is on the 11th so we stopped by there yesterday and had some more celebrating. We decorated her tree which is a tradition that I was able to be involved with. She has so many ornaments and all of them (okay, most of them) have a story to go with them. And every year since they have started making them, Jeff, Courtney's brother, gets his mom a State Ornament commemorating our Capitol Building. She has them all since 97 or was it 96. I'll let you guys look it up.

As for our tree, we did eventually get it up on Monday. It was truly the only day this week that we would have the time. It's still lacks a few ornaments but it is a lovely tree and our first tree as a new family.

Austin in Hot Water

Lots has been going on over the past couple of days but I just haven't been able to find time to put a posting in place. I'm still moving from my old house to the new. We didn't plan on dragging it out, it sort of just happened that way. We're rolling with it.

After many trips Courts and I did finish painting the door. It looks pretty good compared to the dull brown/tan and blue that was there before. On our next trip there I'll take a shot of it cause I know that if you're reading this your are totally on edge about it.

So back to Austin Texas Ortiz. Yesterday he ate Jake's DS. It's a portable video game that you can insert cartridges into (made by nintendo). Jake was hating Austin yesterday. The incident came a day after I joked with Jake about feeding it to Austin if he didn't get his homework done. And of course Jake remembered that I said it. He has a mind like a steel trap. He remembers everything so watch what you say around him.

Evidence: Exhibit 1-A

So it seems that Rob, Jake's dad, purchased insurance when he got it which may even cover dog drool. Hmm. I really need to look into something like that for everything else in the house that Austin has tried to carry off in his mouth. Maybe that lizard fella has a special plan for that.

So Austin is kinda in the doghouse right now. I hesitate to post a picture of the damaged electronics. It might just cause the pain to linger. :)

Moving Picture

I'm mostly moved out of my old house but there are a few things left so I thought I would take this opportunity to show a moment captured with my cell phone camera. It's a little grainy but still cute.

Kiddos all packed up