Another year passed...

Where has the year 2010 gone? I swear most of it was spent trying to accomplish so many of our goals from last year that we missed a great deal of it. BUT...isn't that the reason you make goals?  We accomplished a lot too. I am so deeply happy for our family and so excited for the future.

Lets highlight what we have done in 2010.

1. The Buckeyes played in the Rose Bowl and WON!  It was a decent game.
2. Beckett turned 2
3. Haiti's earthquake and my decision not to go to Haiti in the spring.
4 I joined a running group and started training for my first 5k which I completed in May
5. Andrew hired a private trainer and started training for his first 5k which he completed in August.
6. My newphew, Sam, was born--and so dang cute!
7. I paid off my car which was my (our) last debt to pay off besides the house and we are paying that one off by paying extra on it each month. We are already two years above schedule!!
8. Andrew and I took our first alone vacation since Becektt was born. We went to Florida to see my dear friend, Michelle, get married. We stayed in a glorious, top notch, hotel, ate really good food, saw lots of friends, had lots of fun and even saw some of my family.
9. Tatum got braces...and we paid CASH!
10. Tatum started all day kindergarten. She loved it and I was a mess.
11. We finally visitied Disney for a week and had the time of our lives.
12. Tatum learend to ride a two wheel bike....yay!
13. We started going to a small group and loved it ....UNTIL..recently...long, still ongoing story.
14. Tatum turned 6 and gained an attitude...must be the magic number.
15. Andrew and I have decided to start trying for another baby--still no luck:(

AND THE BEST OF ALL??

16. BECKETT IS 99% POTTY TRAINED....We dont have to ask him...he just goes...he's had no accidents in two weeks. He only needs a diaper for naps and night time and I have been adivsed that this is completely normal!

So, along with this AMAZING year brings me to our goals for 2011.

I haven't a stinken clue...but here are some things that pop into my head.

1. Start living healthier lives. We have decided (it took us 7 very long months to decide) to join the YMCA. I am very excited to join and even though it wont be really convenient for Andrew, he still has his free gym membership through work, so we will still get the gym benefit...and he can go with us on the weekends. I will still have access on Thursday/Friday with the kids. I wish the Y wasn't so darn expensive and the lady I am having an issue with still goes so that might be a bit awkward...but I think I can do good at just working out and avoiding the issue at hand.

2. Get Tatum and Beckett in some programs to help them exercise as well. I think Tatum could use some guidance in this area and I feel like I am being a terrible role model for her health..so I have decided to try to enroll her in some other programs, and she'll still play soccer as normal.

3. Find another small group or go back to our "old" one. This decision still haunts me daily!

4. Get back to running. Santa Ebby allowed me some cash for another new pair of running shoes!! I got some new running socks from my sister for Christmas so all I need is some workout clothes and my new shoes. I am looking forward to it ...really!!! I also need to get my IPOD loaded up--which I can do on my new laptop!!!!!!

5. Get pregnant!!! I really desire a third child and we waited a little long to make the decision as Beckett will be three this year. That will be nearly 4 years between them. I am afraid if it doesn't happen soon, it may not happen at all. 5 years is a lot between kids...just ask my hubby!

6. Enjoy the year of blessings that will be bestowed upon us and praise our King for the blessings bestowed upon us currently. I am so happy to have my faith and a basic understanding of the Bible. Thanks to my "old" small group...I have learned so much --and met so many wonderful people!!!

My Review

Originally submitted at CSN Stores

Monkey Bread Success

By kebby from Columbus, OH on 12/31/2010

 

5out of 5

Good quality pan. I made my monkey bread recipe which is a very sticky recipe anyway and it came out perfectly. It also cleaned up very well. Couldn't ask for a better pan. Can't wait to make the recipe again!

(legalese)

My Review of Non-Stick Mini-Muffin Pan

Originally submitted at CSN Stores

Features:

• Mini muffin pan
• Non-stick
• Makes up to 24 muffins
• Each mold can hold one-fourth cup of batter
• Manufacturer provides a 5 year warranty
• Overall dimensions: 1.1" H x 13.8" W x 10.5" D

Non-Stick Mini-Muffin Pan

nice pan...

By kebby from Columbus OH on 12/31/2010

 

4out of 5

heavy duty pan
non-stick
my only con is that it sits very low..burned myself on the oven trying to put it in the oven..

(legalese)

Traditions

Traditions. As shared the year before, I love to post about Christmas traditions. Here a just a few of the ones we have.




1. Open one gift on Christmas Eve, after we get back from church--these of course will be Christmas Pajamas.  I don't know why I can't get these pictures to turn around. I am sure there is an editing function I can't figure out yet on this new PC.

2. Bake cookies and leave them out for Santa --no milk this year. Santa got jipped.

3. Watch Rudolf and Frosty (then when they are older...who knows) on Christmas Eve


4. We had been going out to eat on Christmas Eve, but it was busy and EXPENSIVE, so we opted to stay home this year. This year? Good ole fashioned sandwiches and chips. Yeah...I'm so ordinary.

5. Get picture taken with Santa.  ( I don't have this scanned in yet--but it did happen).


6. Eat Overnight Orange French Toast for Christmas Breakfast



7. Make a birthday cake for Jesus (this is Tatum's suggestion 2009--after hearing it on the radio). Still didn't happen..Andrew brought it up again yesterday. Maybe 2011 will be the year.



8. Get the kids an ornament that either shows the year (1,2,3..etc) or that shows their interest. (I have a hard time finding the year after 5--in which case, I will choose the later for Tatum). --I tend to do this after Christmas as I hate paying $10-15 dollars for an ornament. I hopefully will be able to find something for each of them.



9. Operation Christmas Child donations with Tatum. Check....complete with boo boo creme and Hello Kitty band aids, as per Tatum, a child cannot go through life without those two items. .


On another note, we took the kids to Pickerington to see lights this year. The place is an entire street that puts their lights on display with coordinated music. I loved it. It is on until New Years.  If you get a chance, please check it out. picktownlights.com.

•23 homes all synchronized and animated to Christmas music


•93.9 FM - Listen to the Lights on your car stereo.

•Collecting non-perishable food items for the Mid Ohio Food Bank

•Show runs 7 days a week thru New Year's from 5pm - Midnight.

Christmas 2010

What a great Christmas! I hope all of you have had the same.

We managed to figure in all of our Christmas traditions this year. I always want to add more..but we'll just keep the ones we have for the time being.

Andrew and I took the kids to Christmas Eve service at church this year. Beckett was too old for the nursery so he went to service with us. It was nice having all of us there. He did okay during service. It was family oriented so there were Christmas carols, the children's worship team and the dancers of New Life. Pastor Steve then asked all the kids to go up to the stage to listen to a story. Beckett and Tatum stayed up there and were very well behaved.

He read the "The Tale of Three Trees"  by Angela Hunt. It is about three trees that grow up to be Jesus' manger, boat, and cross. It was very cute and I hope to be adding this to our list of books shortly. The kids enjoyed it. Pastor went on to read about Jesus from the bible for a short 10 minute sermon. We ended the evening with singing "Silent Night" by candlelight. The kids are too young to understand that meaning but it is one of my favorite things.



We came home and had sandwiches or dinner and watched Christmas shows on TV. Santa dropped off one present each for the kids (PJ's) and we managed to get the kids down at a reasonable time. Andrew so graciously watched "Eclipse" with me that night cuddled on the couch under a blanked. Afterwards, we "santa'd" up the place and prepared to be woken early!

Christmas morning we were awoken by Beckett first at 730. Much "later" than we anticipated. We had him wake Tatum and off our morning started. I had my grandma's overnight orange french toast in the fridge and took that out to warm while the kids began opening up gifts. Santa left all his gifts unwrapped this year. The kids kinda liked it.  I believe Tatum's favorite gift might be a toss up between Polly Pocket roller coaster world and her "fake" American Girl doll. Beckett is by far, Tatum's Polly Pocket roller coaster. All kidding aside, the kids had a great Christmas.

Andrew surprised me with a new top speed laptop equipped for me to add Photoshop and with all the bells and whistles so I can upload and edit pictures upstairs in the warmth. I was so overwhelmed. All I could do was cry---for awhile. As a rule, since we've started our family, we decided against buying gifts, but every year there seems to be something for me from Santa. I wanted to surprise Andrew this year and get him something but Santa won out! I did get one of those cool Soda Stream outfits for Andrew for his office (or home--whatever) so hopefully he will enjoy it.

We have Christmas with my parents tomorrow and with his family on Monday. It will be so nice to have everyone together. Andrew's sister is coming into town and it is usually about once a year we get to see them. I will post those pics when I get them.

I hope your Christmas was as fulfilling as ours. I am glad that the hype is all over and we can concentrate on going back to being "normal". Whatever that is.

High School Drama

Do you remember those drama filled days of high school with all the "he said, she said" bull crap? Ack, I have entered into my adult high school drama. The last two weeks have been filled with it and I am curious as to how I allowed this to happen.

If it isn't one thing it is another. And to top it off, I am right smack, knee deep in all this ****! I am at a loss. I feel heartbroken, hurt, attacked, displaced and separated. On top of that, I may have done some hurting, but I honestly, all honestly, did it out of the out most compassion and caring. That is why it has taken me so long to write this post. Because I needed time to cool down, let the situation cool down and just think and pray on it.

I have decided to check out of our small group. There, I said it. It is out in the open for everyone that lives no where even near me or knows me to hear/see.  When we first started attending churches we kept seeing all these "small groups" advertised. I kept thanking this is what I need to help me get my foot in the door--meet some people in the church, get better acquainted with them, study the bible and help ME UNDERSTAND it. What I wasn't prepared for was the out most outpouring of peoples lives. I am truly blessed that these people entrusted me to every aspect of their lives--and I have met some truly wonderful people. I even began to open up, which truth of truths, is a miracle in itself because I am one of those people that takes on the world and lets it fester and fester until I can't breath or take it anymore. I even once got the balls to talk to a person that was hurting me --that I let jealousy get the best of me on--and I talked to her about it. And you know what? It helped. I got over that a little and moved on.

Out of no where, and quite hurriedly, our group multiplied (split), and we went one way and everyone else went the other. Now, I cannot speak for the others, but my move was a little more complex. I felt a little rushed and felt out of obligatory notions that I needed to go to this other group. After all, we were friends, and we enjoyed their company. We prayed with them, helped them through things , broke bread and asked for forgiveness--everything that I needed in a group...except... it wasn't. I needed more support, more backbone and more help. I couldn't fit in this group...I was like the square peg in the round hole.  I still was sitting on "why did our group split"? I missed my friends, I missed my confidants and mostly, I missed the comradery we all had. We did things as a group, our kids became friends, we had play dates and lunches, and parties. I cannot for the life of me figure out why we divided.

I have read that small groups can split for a variety or reasons...but the main reason they split? It comes from the church. It is said that small groups should multiply to provide continual spiritual growth. Small groups that stay together get classified as passive and listless. They want us to add new members for this reason. It all sounds good right? Until it happens. I thought my small group was ideal. We had passion, and laughter and concern and spiritual growth. Example? Me! I now feel displaced and discarded. I feel hurt and sad, and what hurts me most? Is that I am now separated from the person that I love the most, my husband. He still attends this group and while he supports my decision to remain home until I can figure something out, he still goes. We started our journey together and now we have parted. The dividing of groups, has divided us.

Some of you might wonder if I have decided to go back to my "old" group. While I would love to, this puts our family and those families in some awkward positions. I would not want to burden those friends. They have offered me a place at their table, even if it is only temporary. I just don't know what do to.

But in all honesty, I must admit that the reason I am quitting my small group is that there is conflict. There is internal, all consuming, down right judgemental conflict. Its like high school all over again, the he said, she said, rumor mill, back stabbing, cut throat days of high school. I like to avoid conflict. It is my first priority, but if that doesn't work, my first instinct is to then to to compromising, or maybe thinking that I am reading too much into it. But I was smart this time, I seeked out pastoral leadership and tons of prayer to help me make my decision. And mostly, I included some of the most Godly women I know to help me make my decision. Thanks mom and girls...you know who you are!

I tired very incrementally, very caring and very lovingly to broach the subject , and when that didn't work, I tried again, and again. And without going to much into detail, I had my fill and well...I spat it out...all my feelings and concerns. I was called judgemental and harsh and uncaring and without another word, that relationship was all but over. I left the door open and it was closed...right then and there. I decided the next day, that things needed to cool down and I texted to say that I would be taking a step back and needed to be unpersonalized from this. I need to be an outsider in this situation...I knew too much and it was no longer affecting me...it was now affecting my family. I had to differentiate between the actual issues at hand and the emotions that brought with them. It certainly was all black and white to me but to them, there was a lot of GRAY! Of course, every day since then, I have gone back and thought, should I apologize, should I back down? And of course, my very smart mother and friend and spiritual helper told me not to backpedal. It was not about ME. It was about my leader and the decisions they were making. It was about how I choose my path to help them and how that didn't work. It was about the spiritual leading that wasn't happening.

I have continued to pray and even felt the hand of God on this one. I have made every peace with my decision to step out of this group for the time being. I took my stand and now I am sticking with it. I have made it very clear to the people that need to know that while the details are not needed for them, they need to know that I handled it prayerfully and with purity and forthrightness. All in all, in the end, I gave it to God, wholly and transparently. I believe He gave me my steps and my path on this. I followed to best of my ability. I believe that I have done my best to honor Him with those decisions.

Saving with CSN

Oh CSN, how I love the! Have you ever shopped with them? They make everything so easy. They have over 200 stores that allow you to do all your shopping in once place! The customer service is top rate and they have everything, from kitchen sinks, to sling backpacks. Everything you need to make your home complete.

I have ordered a few things from CSN and plan to do much more shopping. Tis the season for shopping online! If you have more Christmas shopping to be done, don't forget to make your one stop shop at CSN Stores.  You wont regret it!

Don't forget your Christmas decorations! You can buy them here!

Best wishes for a new week!

Ebbeskotte Outdoor Family Portraits

See the rest of them here! They are so good!
Thanks Emilee. Now the hard part is..how the heck do we choose? This is gonna be hard!