Christmas Card and Year End Review

I know I'm late and that's why I'm doing it like this. I really did have good intentions of getting out Christmas cards, and a few of you were lucky enough to actually get one, but the majority missed out since I was quite stressed about traveling and working. So I decided to scan the card I made with the intention of sending it to you, and I also attached the letter I sent out with the few I sent out. Happy belated Christmas! Thanks to everyone who sent us a card! This year I'll try to be better. Maybe that will be one of my New Year Resolutions...but that's going to have to be another post.

Dear Family and Friends,

It is time for my annual semi-impersonal-but-not-so-impersonal -as-email-or-my-blog mass mail year end Christmas review. Because I am such a riveting writer, it is what you’ve all been waiting for, I’m sure. It’s hard to believe it has only been 1 year since last Christmas, but I checked, and it has. I’ve been known to be a little windy so I’ll try to keep it to a page.

From January to April we were still living in UT. Matt was finishing up his last semester of school and I was still cooking for New Haven. Our favorite pastimes included playing World of Warcraft and TA-ing for a BYU yoga class. Oh how I miss yoga. *sob*

After receiving my brother and sister-in-law’s LDotFMotNY (Last Day of the First Month of the New Year) booklet, I noticed a web address on the back directing me to their blog. Whatever the heck a blog was. I decided to investigate. It was an absolutely wonderful invention. They would write stuff. I would read it and respond. I’d never had so much interaction with them, and I was very much enjoying myself with this newfound form of communication. After a couple of weeks of reading, I found myself really wanting to write. So I’ve been a member of the blogging community for most of the year. I really enjoy writing, though I’ve found it more difficult to get myself to do it since working an 8-5 job.

April was a very exciting month. Matt graduated from BYU with a degree in Computer Science. His and my parents came to see us for that, and two weeks later we found ourselves in McKinney, TX. He got a great job with Raytheon; I quit my job in UT. We packed up our meager belongings, and we moved.

In March we did a whirlwind house-hunting trip. We saw probably 30-40 houses in a 2 day period and had to decide on one the 3rd day which so happened to be the day we flew back to UT. We were lucky and found a nice little house that was reasonably priced, and we took it. We signed the papers to become a “homeowner”, and we moved into our house a day after arriving. The next couple of months we dropped money like we’d never done before. A fridge, washer and dryer, lawn mower, sprinklers and hoses, blinds, and all of the little miscellaneous items we didn’t realize were necessary to maintaining your very own house. It was fun to feel like we were on a never-ending shopping spree, but for misers like us, it was also a little unnerving. We’ve held out on a couple of high-end ticket items, making do with our D.I. furniture that even the furniture mover commented on as having “been around the block a time or two”.

The summer here proved to be SUPER HOT and very dry. I’m pretty sure that this was a record-breaking year for heat and lack of precipitation.We found our large yard a little hard to care for when we were limited to watering only 1 day a week within certain hours. We ended up surviving, though a couple patches of our backyard grass weren’t so fortunate. Heat aside, we like it here well enough. It’s a good little place.

My grandma Grider passed away just two weeks after moving, and I found myself in AZ with my family.What a great little family I have! I love when we all gather from the 4 corners of the earth (sometimes I feel like we’re the lost 10 tribes we’re so spread out!), and we get to revel in the company of people with whom we share history and genes. Though it was a sad time, it was also a very happy weekend spent with people I love.

At the end of June Matt was misdiagnosed as having kidney stones. After a 10-hour marathon of vomiting, an entire day of being drugged up in the urgent care, and an ambulance ride, he finally got into the hospital to find out that he really had appendicitis. He had a laproscopic surgery and got it taken care of before it ruptured.

I had a really hard time finding work here once I started looking. After a futile attempt at locating a job, some friends from church offered me a part time job with their small Carpet Cleaning business. It was nice for the time, but after a couple of months I decided I really needed to find something else with more hours and stability. I’m currently working for the county as temporary help for the tax season. I’m waiting to hear about a full time position with them as an HR assistant, and if that does’t work out I’m going to apply for a couple other positions within the tax office. I like the people who work there and it’s really nice to feel like I’m contributing to our savings while I can.

That brings me now to the subject of little ones scurrying underfoot. We have none of those yet. We've been trying for awhile and since we've obviously been unsuccessful, we went to the Dr. We found out after various tests that we have a 10% chance per year of getting pregnant on our own. There is one medical procedure we can try before In vitro that has a good chance of helping us. Luckily it’s covered by insurance so hopefully that’s all we’ll need to get us on our way to our dreamed for 10-kid family. (Just kidding, more like 3-5 kid family).

I hope you’re all well and that this year has been kind to you. If you ever feel so inclined to hear more frequent updates on us, feel free to stop by my blog. http://down-the-middle-with-sillymarie.blogspot.com

Love, Celia and Matt