Christmas 2008

Well Christmas is over...whew. It has been freezing here in Montana, however it must have warmed up some because it is snowing. It has been snowing and it just keeps snowing... ugh. Esther, Michael, Ruth and Kennedy went outside for awhile this morning to play in the snow but have been inside ever since playing with all their wonderful Christmas gifts. Since 3 of the grand kids are girls my parents house looks like a giant pink princessy Dora play house. Last night they had a karaoke camping trip in the back bedroom. It was cook and kind of crazy. Michael has been busy with his slime and science kit doing experiments and stuff. He needs another boy to play with. Here are some pictures from Christmas Eve, yesterday at my parents and some from Matt's moms also.

Mom, Debra and Brittany Knitting...just cute

Esther and Bubbles playing on Christmas

Esther on Christmas Eve

Esther and Daddy opening presents from Santa

Playing with the pillow book from Aunt Rose

Well school is over and the Christmas season is upon us. I am happy with how the semester ended and am looking forward to getting my last semester out of the way. I have decided to apply for a post grad fellowship out east. Pray for guidance in that decision.

Matt, Esther, and I just spent a few days in Highlands Ranch with my Aunt Lucy and Uncle Dwight. We had a blast. We took the train down to 16th St. Mall, ate, shopped some and looked at lights. We also did some shopping at the Outlets at Castle Rock and just got to relax.

We are now in Montana at my parents looking forward to everybody coming down from Billings. We got here first so we grabbed the only available bedroom. I figured we drove the farthest and still got here first so I took it (he he he). We are going to Aunt Sally's tonight for our traditional Christmas Eve meal. I will post pictures some time this week.

I hope you all have a Merry Christmas.

Hello to all my wonderful friends and family

So it has definitely been more than a month since I last posted (sorry ha ha), I guess that is grad school for ya. A lot has happened since I spoke to you all last. Esther learned how to ride a bike (yaaaa) we gave her a bigger bike for a present after learning how to ride her tiny one, but she likes her little one and keeps riding it.







Esther turned 4 on the 9th of October. She was sick on her birthday and stayed home from school. I had my internship all day, then had class. I was a little bummed, but she spent the day with her daddy and then our neighbor, Christine, took her out to dinner. We had her birthday party on the 11th (Aunt Sally's birthday, Happy birthday). Per Esther's request it was a princess/superhero birthday. She invited 16 friends ( a lot I know, but last year nobody she invited could make it, so we wanted to be sure somebody showed up). We had 2 superheroes and about 12 or 13 princesses. It was a blast.



Matt's grandma Evangeline died in October as well. It was a sad time for all of us. Esther took it especially hard and being a little older understood and started asking about others that have died. She still cries periodically for her great grandma, and others including her great grandpa and grandma Barnes. We did have a chance to spend time with family and Esther had a good time with her cousins.






Esther also got her first hair cut:



I also got a little trim:



We spent Thanksgiving at Uncle Bob and Aunt Renae's. We had fun, ate too much, watched football and played games. We are looking forward to spending Christmas with our families in Montana. Please remember to pray for our troops in Afghanistan and Iraq who cannot be with their families this holiday season (especially Philip) and their families who are spending the holidays without them.

School is winding down and I am procrastinating more and more. I hope to finish one paper this weekend and then another one on Wednesday. My group and I are defending our research proposal on the 8th at 10 am so please pray for us.

My plans for the break include cleaning the apartment from top to bottom, throwing things out and packing the stuff that we want to keep but won't need. I am graduating in May and we are praying for guidance on our next steps so please keep us in your prayers.

That's all for now...any bets on how long it will take me to post again?

I think it is safe to say that my weekly blog posts have fallen by the waste side. Looking at my workload for classes this semester and everything else I will probably only post about once a month, hopefully twice. But who knows this blog may be my short escape from otherwise tedious or stressful work (nothing ever seems to fall in the middle).

The semester started on the 26th. So far I cannot judge how the classes are going to be. I am praying that they are more engaging than some of the classes I endured last year and hopefully I can leave the grad school experience with other thoughts other than a waste of my time. My internship is going great. I love it. So if nothing else, at least I have this experience to take with me.

My internship is at the substance abuse program on campus. I work with some amazing people who are very good at what they do. I have enjoyed meeting the students we work with and learning new techniques for working with this population. I am hoping to be at least a CAC I (certified addictions counselor) before I leave there, but that depends a lot on the reciprocity between Colorado and Montana. Although, we may not move back to Montana there is that chance and I don't want to spend time completing the classes if they won't transfer.

Esther started "pre-kindergarten". We switched her pre-schools and to prevent the months of endless questions as to why we did this (I have already been told that I "ruin [her] life" and "just don't understand" about various other things) we told her she was moving from pre-school to pre-kindergarten. She is quit to correct anybody who calls her new school pre-school or heaven forbid daycare. She loves it. She gets to ride the bus to gymnastics once a week. This was an answer to my prayers, since she has been wanting to do gymnastics since watching the olympics and I don't have time to take her.

Matt is starting a new job on Monday through custodial at CSU. It is less money, but offers insurance and benefits so well worth it. We were also right on the line before where we made too much money for any assistance, so hopefully now we can get something, as least while I am in school and paying for childcare (which as a grad student could be homeless and eating out of a dumpster and the state still would not help with). Working on campus will be more convenient and save us money on gas so this is an answer to prayers.

Matt and I have a good friend with a severe corn allergy. She has started a blog of her own where she talks about her reactions and experiences she gathers as she educates and interacts with people about this life changing allergy. On this blog she references Esther in some pretty funny (true) stories. So for those of you who are looking to educate yourselves on this allergy and read some funny stories about my wonderful daughter you can read it at http://www.cornallergic.blogspot.com.

Philip called me last night. I almost ignored the call because I did not recognize the number, but felt that internal nudge to just answer it. I did not recognize his voice at first and asked a couple times who it was before I figured it out. As a sister I felt really bad, but just happy to hear from him. He sounded tired but reported doing okay. Please keep in him your prayers.

We are starting a series call the Truth Project on church on Wednesday night. I am excited as it looks like a really good series. I will keep you all updated on how it is going for me.

My Adventures This Summer

So I will have to say that my summer was pretty good. It didn't help that I did not have to work and got to stay home with my daughter everyday. Debra and her kids left on Monday a week ago, so needless to say, my house has been pretty quiet. We had an exciting time while Debra was here. Where visited the farm at Lee Martinez Park, The Aquarium, Eliches and the Denver Zoo. My cousins came from Colorado Springs for dinner, which was fun, considering I had not seen them for several years. I decided that there were way to many cool pictures to upload so I made a slide show. I hope you all enjoy it.

I started my internship this past Monday. It has been an interesting information filled week. We have Crow Fair next week and then school starts. I will try to post again after Crow Fair. Realistically it is not working for me to post every week, or sometimes even every other week, but I will at least on a monthly basis.

Hi all. It has definitely been a busy couple of weeks. Ruth and Michael have been staying with us, and let me tell you that having 3 kids around is truly interesting. It is especially fun trying to keep track of all 3 of them, like where they are playing in the courtyard or whose house they are at.

The kids have been busy at summer camp 3 days a week. We went to the Children's Museum last weekend and today they went to a slip and slide party in the courtyard. I bought a small pool that we have been filling up everyday so they could swim and attempt to stay cool. They don't appreciate the warm weather like I do.

Debra is coming on Wednesday and we have some fun things planned so stay tuned for pictures and the exciting details on my next blog. My cousin from Colorado Springs and his wife are coming up for a barbecue on Wednesday evening. I haven't seen them for several years, so I am excited about that.

My little brother left for Afghanistan on the 11th. I keep telling myself that this is what he joined the army for and he wants to be there, but it is still hard. Please keep not only him but his entire unit, as well as the rest of our troops in your prayers.

Sorry there are no pictures this time, but there will be next time.