Belated Holiday letter

January 1, 2008

Merry Christmas friends and family,

We’ve bee blessed to be together as a family for the whole year, which is as much a s a military family can hope for. Here’s a rundown on what we’re up to:

DJ is two years old and living up to it. He’s learning to converse and is getting really good at it. He is busy doing things all the time. He tries to be independent but tends to make large messes in the process. He is however an incredibly loveable child. He goes to people, smiles and plays with them. We’ve noticed that since we returned to the states, he especially likes to go to Asian women, as he used to be picked up and played with by Korean women on the Subway in Seoul. DJ also yells “Hockey!” every time he sees a sport of any kind on TV, which makes his father happy.

Michael is turning four in a couple weeks. It’s fun just to listen to him talk. He says the funniest things and is a gifted story teller. His prayers are also highlight reel material. He loves to dress up as Superman and play with action figures. His whole life is a fantasy being played out in real life. He also has a bit of a negative disposition in life, which we try not to talk about for fear of labeling the kid. He sometimes informs us that all hope is lost when things don’t go as planned.

Janina is the girliest girl that one could encounter in a house overrun with boys. She just turned five last week where she got a doll and clothes and makeup. She is in pre-K and loving every minute of it. She wears dresses to school because that’s what she likes. She’ll actually be going to a different school when school comes back in session. She was going to a school across town, but we put her on a waiting list to get into Kennedy Elementary, which is the same school Jonathan goes to. It should make life easier and save on gas. She’s excited to go to the new school so far, we’ll see how she is on the first day. She has grown a lot this year. She used to never talk to kids other than her siblings, and now she is further out of her shell.

Jonathan didn’t make the age cut off for Kindergarten in Oklahoma, so we put him in Kindergarten again and it’s made a lot of difference. He’s confident, happy, and excited every day to go to another day of school. He didn’t have the greatest experience last year in Korea and is doing much better this year. He’s learning to read, but his true strength is in mathematical skills. He’s hilarious as he is still enunciating every word and he uses adult language as a six year old. He is also by far our loudest child; his voice carries throughout the whole house, much to his parent’s dismay. He loves to wear suits to church, so we got him a new one for Christmas. He also got a remote control helicopter, after crashing it into the Christmas tree and removing parts of our ceiling, he now has if flying pretty well. All in all he’s a fun child to have.

Jenn has been keeping herself busy this year. She is involved in Jonathan’s classroom and the PTA. She has put in between 100-200 hours. She is really enjoying herself, meeting new friends and returning to the school environment. She hasn’t been as involved in a school since she last taught in 2000-2001. We are also expecting our fifth child in June, which is also keeping her busy, but not in the same way. Our kids are all dead set on this child being a girl, even though we’ve tried to convey the other half of the odds.

Derek applied for a commissioning program and was accepted in April. Our two year tour to Korea was cut a year short as we left Korea in late July. The program allows Derek to go to school for two years while earning a salary from the Army. We have to pay for tuition and books, but we get the salary, and benefits. So we’re being taken care of while Derek finishes a Master degree in Human Relations. We got to choose the school and we looked in California and Utah but couldn’t find a school that allowed us to finish the degree in two years. So we settled on the University of Oklahoma. On our way home from Korea we stopped in San Jose. The plan was to see San Francisco and tour, since my children have never seen the area where I grew up, but Grandma Curtis and Kendra were there teaching summer school and Derek’s best friends parents were there, so it turned into more of a visiting people vacation rather than a visiting places vacation. We did however see the Golden Gate Bridge. When he’s not doing homework Derek is watching the Sharks play. Yes, he’s a die hard San Jose Sharks fan

So now we’re in Norman, Oklahoma and loving it. Oklahoma doesn’t have the mountains that we’re used to, but the people are amongst the nicest that we’ve encountered and we’re keeping Oklahoma on our short list of places to retire to after the military. We’re enjoying the place the people and the football is growing on us, well at least Derek.

All in all it’s been a great year, have a Happy New Year as we look forward to another great year.

Our first Oklahoma ice storm

Ice storms, we have been told, are the Oklahoma version of winter. They are certainly beautiful, but make for really frightening driving conditions. They also disrupt school and church, which really disturbs our children. Ours today got us out of speaking in church, though they didn't decide to cancel church until after we were there, so we did get to take the sacrament. Derek and I were not at all broken-hearted, but our kids, who had also been asked to speak, were very disappointed. Oh, the innocence of childhood.... (We haven't told them that school might get canceled tomorrow, too.)

Michael

Tag

So, someone (Kelly Ann) has tagged me. I now have to think of interesting facts about myself (very easy, as my life is so fascinating) and find someone else to tag (much more difficult, as it appears that most of my blogging cousins have been tagged). Here goes:

The rules of the game should be posted at the beginning of each post. Each player lists 6 facts/habits about themselves or something like that. At the end of the post each player then tags someone else and leaves them a comment, letting them know they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

1. Before the age of 21 I had never been on an airplane and had only traveled to Idaho, the edge of Colorado and the edge of Wyoming. I really hadn't seen much of Utah, either. Since the age of 21 I have lived in Switzerland and Austria (as a missionary), California, Arizona, South Korea and Oklahoma. I have visited Nevada, South Carolina, Florida and Mexico. That's what being a military wife will do for you. My military kids have all been on airplanes before they were 2, except Nina. She was a few months past 2 on her first flight. All of them have lived in a foreign country and 3 states. This is especially impressive for our 2-year-old.
   
2. I taught school for three years in Southern California (Fontana). I loved it! I taught 2nd grade for two years and a 2/3 combo my 3rd year. My kids are still reaping the benefits, since I own all kinds of educational toys and dozens and dozens of kid's books.
   
3. I am four and a half years older than my husband. People are generally surprised. Before I had kids everyone thought he looked older. My children have aged me, so now people just assume we are about the same age.
4. I love word games (crosswords, word finds, cryptograms, etc.) and sudoku. I can wile away hours on them if I'm not careful, especially since I find them much more enjoyable than laundry, vacuuming, mopping, cleaning toilets, etc.
5. I hate cooking. Luckily I married a man who would rather cook than starve, so we do eat meals at our house. (I'd usually rather snack enough to survive. Derek does not consider this sufficient...)
6. I started this several days ago, but got caught up in Thanksgiving and decorating for Christmas. This also required that we organize our garage (there are disadvantages to moving often -- stuff never fits the same from house to house), which has made us all (at least Derek and me) very happy. Just so you all know, we are mostly ready for Christmas, which also makes me happy.
   

Now, I have decided to tag Rhonda, as I can see that she hasn't yet been got.

David Jeffrey "DJ"

Upstaging Lil (and her hair fire)

You know, it really is true that being busy makes time go by faster. I never expected, as such a very transient parent, to find myself highly involved in PTA. I also never expected to find a PTA with 50 members at a school with 500 students (being run by about 10 of those 50 members). While getting involved has been big, I must admit I love it. I have missed school, so it's great to be part of one again. I love that the teachers know who I am and the kids recognize me and shout hello when they see me. I'm having a great time. It has kept me from blogging, though.

I've been meaning to come on for a couple of weeks now to tell of an incident at our house. Oklahoma has kind of weird weather. One day it will be a beautiful 70 degrees and the next it's barely 50. On one of those cool days Derek decided to light a fire in our fireplace. We have a gas starter, but no key, so he turned it on with pliers and proceeded to try to light it. He couldn't get a flame anywhere, but I was certain that I could smell gas. At that point we did something far less than smart and held a match in front of the starter. There we found gas. We had a flame shooting up. Scary, but it got worse. Suddenly we had flames coming out from behind the brick facade on the walls on both sides, as well as inside the fireplace. We got the gas shut off and the flames went out within a few seconds, but I'm paranoid, so we called the police station. They sent the fire department over. After running several checks they found no hot spots and no gas leaks, but they recommended that we not use the fireplace (surprise, surprise) until it is sealed.

Our kids thought it was some kind of fabulous entertainment, though. They were enchanted by the flames (we had to keep reminding them to stay back) and thrilled to have a firetruck outside the house and real firefighters inside. In fact, Jon suggested that he'd like to have them return, but Derek and I told him we'd prefer they didn't ever have occasion to. Interestingly, this all happened shortly after both of our school kids had visits from the firefighters (the very same ones who visited us), so we'd been talking about what to do in case of a fire in our house. Obviously, something didn't get through quite right, so I guess we'll have to keep talking.

Sick Weekend

Derek's Mom and Dad came to see us this weekend. The kids were so excited! (So were Derek and I.) On the way home from his drama class, Jon told me, with barely contained exhilaration, "When I get home, I get to see my grandmother!" He was all smiles when they were sitting in the living room. DJ took to them instantly. This is the first time he's seen Grandpa since before we left for Korea. Michael took a few minutes to warm up, since he had been asleep when they arrived. Unfortunately Nina was sick this weekend, so she wasn't herself. The rest of us were sick, too, so we figure Grandma and Grandpa should go home and get sick in a few days. We are very sorry about that and hope that they stay healthy. We are so glad they came and had a great time, despite our illness.