New Year's Eve 2011 I'm sitting alone in an empty house with a severe cold while every other person on the planet is ushering in 2012.  The neighbor's sub-woofer is shaking the house and for a moment I think it is fireworks.  I try to compete with the noise by turning up my Fernando Ortega station on Pandora, but it only adds an antagonistic bass line. It's probably a good thing that I didn't go anywhere tonight. Forced to be still.  I don't know why it's so hard to do when I always find Read More

Dear Friends and Family, I decided it was time to do a year-in-review-Christmas-letter and, as to not possibily leave anyone out, post it here on the world wide internet we have all grown so much to love. Where to begin? 2011 began and we found ourselves in a land that had become strangely familiar:  LIMBO.  Colby had filled out applications, sent resumes, driven the whole family north to check out a possibility, and was now simply waiting for full-time work. We moved from free house to free Read More

I've really gotten out of the habit of blogging lately.  I guess whatever creative energy is left after homeschooling (and that is VERY LITTLE) has been spent on documenting "Gracie's Story."  I'm hoping sometime in the next few years to finish that project.  In the meantime, I have definitely come to admire people (like my husband) who have to WRITE sermons or articles or anything on a consistent basis.  With their income depending on it.  Writing this story is so hard.  Whenever I sit down to Read More

Our family got passes to the gym this last week.  This will be a WIN, WIN, WIN for everyone as I'll be getting a break from the kids during the day, they'll be getting a break from me, and Colby and I can have exercise dates on the treadmill and then in the hot tub.  Today I decided to go to a group fitness class to break up the routine and do something other than the treadmill. The only class available at 10:30 was called FUNCTIONAL BODIES, so I decided to give it a try.  I mean, I could Read More

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I guess we timed it just right. Prince William County Fair had a booth for Jason Yi's Tae Kwon Do Studio and I just happened to spin the wheel to get a free birthday party!  Haley loved the  Tae Kwon Do and board breaking class (not to mention cutting the cake with a real samurai sword) and I enjoyed not having to do a single thing except supplying a cake.   What a great deal!  Thanks, Jason Yi, for making this year's birthday party so easy! Read More

Many times, after I have recounted the story of our last 3 years, the person listening will say a variation of the following:  "...If I were you, I would be in a corner banging my head against the wall by now."  Usually I laugh and wave a hand and say back, "Naw...it hasn't been that bad." Ummm....It just got that bad. What a day it was. I had been longing...and I mean LONGING... to drive west towards the mountains and see the gentle wave of color that had begun to creep towards Virginia's Read More

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