December in Pictures

The boys got in on this batch of holly wreath cookies.

Hubby and I tried a batch earlier in the month, but I did have any red hot candies.

Dinner, yes.  But, do you see the salt n pepper shakers?  Hubby got them as a white elephant gift.  They aren't so to me - I love them!

Just a dusting.  December 17.  Later in the night when it was so bitterly cold, we got a visit from a dog from the neighborhood north of us.  I dried him off and petted him by the fire while we waited on his owner.

School is out for two weeks!!

My sister treated us to drinks and treats for my Aunt's birthday.

Life with Lucy and Cyrus.  He was pretty serious about his new bone.

A new spot for the tree.  We considered a taller tree for the living room to go with the high ceilings.  I just can't bear the thought of using a different tree.  We've had this since the year before M was born.

Waiting to leave IHOP.  I was sad that it wasn't decorated for Christmas this year.

Aunt and the boys in front of a random house.  At 10:30 on Christmas Eve the temperature was still in the 50s!

Selfie in front of the same house.

It was tricky to find a service on Christmas Eve that worked with M's work schedule.

We got EVERYONE in this Christmas Eve picture.

Hubby has almost perfected his cinnamon roll recipe.  My Dad used to make them Christmas morning.  He perfected his in the Air Force.  Hubby has been working on his at Church Camp!

She was snoring about 15 minutes into opening presents!!

Quick visit from Hubby's Mom.  This was just to see the plane - maybe a flight another time!
2017 is the year for me to fly again!?!

A Great Reminder or "Read This If You're Missing Someone"

This year felt Christmasy as soon as Thanksgiving was over.  Hubby put lights out front, we've been on track with baking, shopping, parties and such.

However, about a week ago, I told Hubby that the one thing I wanted for Christmas I couldn't have - I wanted a visit from Mom and Dad for Christmas.  My best remembered Christmases as an adult were the ones Mom and Dad (and then Dad after Mom was gone) came to visit.

I've dwelt on that this week even to the point of being quite a Grinch to my family.

So, yesterday I visited them. My sister and I took silk poinsettias to the cemetery for the vases on Mom and Dad's headstone.  We didn't linger there.  I've never felt it necessary since they aren't there.  I know others spend time at the graves of loved ones and that's fine.  Everyone grieves differently.

As I was posting our Christmas letter, I was rereading December blog posts of mine and I came across the one I wrote the Christmas after Dad died. It's called "A Different Christmas" (click link to read) and in it I wrote "Emmanuel, God is with me."  Boy am I thankful I wrote that because it's a good reminder to me today!  The post also has a link to something Emily Freeman wrote "For when everything is different".  Grief is always hard, but especially hard at holidays so I hope both these posts will be helpful to someone.

So, my parents won't be visiting this Christmas.  But, on the first Christmas, Jesus did more than visit. He came to be with us and He's never left!  Yet, at the same time, he left to prepare a place.  A place where because of the plan He set in motion several thousand years ago - Mom and Dad (and other loved ones) will be able to spend Christmas together again.

Merry Christmas 2016!

As I stop to ponder what to write for a Christmas letter, what comes to mind first is God's faithfulness.  Through every high and every low of the year, God is God.

2016 was a very full year - In February we got serious about finding a new home and put ours on the market.  It sold over Spring Break, we found just what we were looking for, and moved in mid-May.  We love our new home so much that it took no transition/adjustment time to be here!  We have great neighbors, know people from church and even have a friend from Scouts around the corner.  The boys' rooms are a bit smaller than before and I jokingly told them we were buying the house for the dogs (they have an amazing back yard!) since the boys will be gone soon!

So, Micah is in his Senior year.  This past summer he spent two weeks in Africa where he preached at a VBS, worked really hard painting and building a fence for a Christian school and assisted with wound care in villages.  He moved from working at Baskin Robbins to Chic-fil-a and continues volunteering at church all while starting college classes.  He has completed 17 hours.  Graduation Day is May 18 and Micah has officially enrolled at Oklahoma Wesleyan University.  He'll live on campus.

Levi is a sophomore at Rejoice.  He is amazingly disciplined and competed in a teen Body Building physique show at the beginning of August.  The meal prep stuck and he completely cooks for himself (and sometimes for us!) now.  Levi will be 16 next April so he has begun "parent taught" driver's ed.

Devon has been at Oklahoma Wesleyan for over seven years and I started year 6 for Owasso Public Schools this fall.  One thing we love to do together is travel. A couple of highlights were Buffalo/Niagara and Lavallette, New Jersey (the beach).  Another highlight for me was seeing The Oak Ridge Boys at the fair (I grew up loving them thanks to Mom!). Devon took an (almost) annual Colorado hiking trip with friends during Labor Day and ran three marathons in six weeks this fall (he got a personal record in one of them!).  I know this is much tamer, but sometimes I play Bunco (especially Bunco for Babies, the fundraiser for the Pregnancy Resource Center in Owasso) and go to Book Club.  In the spring I teach at Writer's Workshop or Literacy Fairs for OETA.

I usually end Christmas letters with a Scripture that has been meaningful for the year - this one is definitely it: Isaiah 58:10-11, If you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday.  And the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water whose waters do not fail. ESV

I have taken it to heart as I teach.  It seems that each year I have more and more children with greater and more varied needs. I continue to trust God's faithfulness in helping me here (and in all areas of my life and family) and trust He will meet you wherever you are prove faithful to you too.

Keep scrolling for pictures!

Merry Christmas!

Devon, Annette, Micah and Levi

Life With Lucy and Cyrus

Well, we've had a lot of life between the last post and this one.  I've been trying to figure out why I haven't been posting and it's gone something like this...new computer, redoing Dad's house, everyone being gone for summer, school starting again, working on fundraising garage sale for M's Africa mission trip.

However, it's Fall Break!!  The tail end, but still Fall Break and it's always the point of the school year that I feel like I've got my feet under me and somewhat have a handle on work.  Though leading up to break I was at school until 7 or 8 each night. I'd I prefer not to repeat that for several weeks if ever!

It's been a good break catching up..sleep, paperwork, things that have been waiting for my time, and cleaning out the closet that I just knew I'd get to over the summer!  Friday, I was able to go out with L.  I probably enjoyed it more than him, but at least he was willing to be seen in public with his Mom!  Saturday was a really nice Saturday-break or not.  I took L. to a mowing job, went to a couple of garage sales, got a free pumpkin shake, bought movie tickets and went to Braums for milk (it's the absolute best tasting and best price so worth going out of my way for).  We saw Woodlawn as a family and then after our crockpot and bread maker meal, we played Sequence.  Five day weekends are definitely the way to go!

M got up at before 4:30 am to go pack the trailer for Africa!

I'm not a bleu cheese fan, but it's awesome on these chips!

M and L went to the youth pumpkin carving and bonfire.  Africa's on M's mind, I guess.  I rescued this from under M's back tire.  Someone left it there for him!

The recipe calls it Round Steak Casserole, but it turns out to be a yummy stew!

For Hubby and M, Saturday meant fixing the fallout of Life with Lucy and Cyrus.  Whenever someone mows or weed eats nearby Cyrus gets a bit excited and feels he must herd them (somewhat like he herds the vacuum cleaner).  He grabs the top part of the chain link fence in his mouth and pulls and shakes until he twists large holes all across the top.

Last weekend while Hubby and L were in Denver, we thought Lucy was getting out of the yard through the holes.  Turns out no, she was just pushing hard on the back gate and going out there.  I made a quick trip to Walmart before church and bought a bike lock.  She eats through the bungee cords! Fun, hu?  I didn't get pictures of the holes- just the repair work.

He's not supposed to be in the recliners - ever!

Good practice for upcoming mission trip!

There's not much he can't do...

There you have it - Life with Lucy and Cyrus!

Christmas Letter 2014

2014 has been a year of change…

Devon has been working at Oklahoma Wesleyan University (our Alma Mater) for almost five and half years now.  In late summer he moved from the online program to be the director of a brand new program, the Masters of Arts in Apologetics and Theology.  Devon still enjoys running and flying.  He and I celebrated our 19^th wedding anniversary on a cruise this summer to Cozumel and a few other places.

I’m still teaching in Owasso.  This is actually my first year ever not to move a school, grade, or room!!  But, education is always changing!  Our state standards changed and at the beginning of the school year I had 27 first graders.  After a new teacher was hired, I am down to a more manageable 21.  Hmm…I’m trying to think if I do anything besides school…..I’m on the Alumni Board at OKWU and I volunteer in the church nursery.  Other than that, I try to keep things going for the boys and at home.

Speaking of boys – they are becoming more and more independent.  Micah got his driver’s permit.  He will be 16 next April.  He’s still enjoying his leadership activities at church and school.  He was accepted (by way of a lengthy application) to go to Truth and Peace this summer. Truth and Peace is a week’s worth of leadership training at Welch College in Nashville and then a week’s worth of serving at the Free Will Baptist Church’s National Convention in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Levi’s big change was school as he started eighth grade at Rejoice instead of Owasso.  He hasn’t been exactly pleased with the change, but we can see some positive outcomes from it.  Levi is a social guy and he’s made friends quickly.  He also played football for the first time and did well.  Since Rejoice is a small school, he played both offense and defense. This summer Levi was quite the entrepreneur and mowed several lawns in the neighborhood. 

We’ve been blessed this year with wonderful family times, new friends (and seeing longtime ones), and fun times traveling.  There have been down times too, but we keep pressing on and relying on God in all times.  Perhaps our biggest family change was losing our dog of almost ten years, Jazzy.  We’ve found our family misses having a dog in the family so even as I write this we are in process of adopting again. It’s like having a baby in the house again!

Whether you’re local or someplace else, if you’re ever nearby, please let us know – we’d treasure the opportunity to get together. We hope you have a wonderful Christmas season and a Happy New Year!

Devon, Annette, Micah and Levi

Hebrews 13:8 (The Message) For Jesus doesn’t change – yesterday, today, tomorrow, he’s always totally himself.

We camped in June with Devon's brothers and fams - the boy in the flag shirt is my nephew.

I'm calling the spot in the park where we took the pictures Jazzy's Ridge.

I had trouble choosing pictures to put with this letter because most of the pictures are already in my blog or on facebook (or both) already.  Please take the time to click on the other months to see highlights from the year if you'd like.

Fun in San Antonio

My family traveled infrequently when I was a little girl.  Perhaps that is why I enjoy it so much now.  Hubby and the boys had been to Sea World twice, but this year we decided that would be our Christmas destination and Aunt's Christmas present.

I must say, even getting to and into Sea World is much less stressful with teens than when they are three and five.  However, it's also not quite as magical. (Don't get me wrong, I still like traveling to the same spot - we've been to the Outer Banks three times now.)  The boys weren't as cooperative to pose for pictures and there wasn't anything they were seeing for the first time.  Mom to the rescue!

We had rushed to the aquarium part so we could see the sharks before that part of the park closed.  The manna rays were near the beginning and I made a silly face and told M. that it was my impersonation of the ray.  He snapped a picture with his phone.  Ah ha!  A connection point.  As we went through he got me on camera doing a piranha, fish, and shark.  I'm not sure where L. was when we were doing all this.  He was probably hiding, hoping no one would notice that I was his Mom.

Later M. begged to post a picture.  I don't think so!!! After much pleading, I finally agreed to the piranha. What do you think?

This Could Really Be Three Different Posts

If you have come to my blog looking for our Christmas letter, please click on the picture in the sidebar just to the left!

We have had a crazy three weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas...

L got sick within an hour of returning from Albuquerque (think 10 hour car trip).  I am so thankful it wasn't in the car this time! M was only sick once in the wee hours of Monday morning and managed to drag him himself to school for 3rd-7th hours. The rest of the week was somewhat normal.

On Tuesday of the next week, Hubby decided he would have his wisdom teeth taken out the next day (the next opportunity would be while family was visiting and it really needed to be done since they were starting to cause some problems.)  Tomorrow?  Well, we're normally not that spontaneous, but ok.  Thursday, M had a doctor's appt. and Aunt came to the rescue because Hubby was still quite dizzy from anesthesia so she drove.  Before the three of them returned it started icing so what would have normally taken them 20 minutes to get home turned into two hours.  And we were out of school Friday. And Monday. And Tuesday.

Hubby's parents arrived Wednesday (did I mention Hubby went on a business trip Tuesday - Thursday of this week?) and his brother and fam arrived Thursday.  Brother graduated Saturday morning and we had Christmas Saturday night.

From Hubby's Trip

Brother with mortarboard, Hubby in other regalia - he sat with faculty

Everybody was gone by Monday and Tuesday Hubby started saying he didn't feel so well. (Thank goodness I had already planned to have a sub for Wednesday morning for M's other dr's appt.).  Back up just a sec - in the midst of these three weeks I had my second official observation at school and evaluation.  I also had terrible shipping woes (a friend said I should blog it) - I ordered my grandmother's present and right when I hit "submit" I realized that I hadn't put her address in.  I called right away (and waited a long time to actually talk to someone) and got that fixed.  Phew!! While all our family was visiting I got a box delivered.  I guess I didn't make that same discovery when ordering my sister-in-law's present!!  And I had been so excited to get free shipping!!!  Too bad it was free shipping to me and we still had to get it to Colorado!!!!!!!

The nice people who have our last name and live around the corner with the same house number and street number (I kid you not - everything is the same except we live on "Place" and they live on "Avenue".  Well, our first names are different, but I guess Fed Ex doesn't take that into account) called us to let us know they had our box from Omaha Steaks.  I'm sure they were returning the favor for me delivering their box of fruit to them two years ago.

Hubby's brother (not the one who was just here, but the one CO) called to say his box from his Mom had arrived and all our presents were in it.  "Our" box with his family's presents in it is scheduled to arrive today.  See I'm not the only one in the family who does this kind of thing.

Back to Hubby not feeling well.  Wednesday afternoon, he tested positive for flu.  He did not go out of the house from then until this morning for church.  Even then, we quickly made our way to the balcony so not to expose people to any lurking flu germs.  M was in the Christmas choir so I'm glad he felt like being there.

The whole reason I actually started a new blog post was this picture.

I took it before I talked to the good friend who suggested I write about the shipping hilarity.  We had a bit of an ice storm this weekend.  Just bit - no power outages (for us) and no slick roads - just beautiful crystals on elevated surfaces.  I was amazed when I saw that the ice formed on these leaves blown to the side instead of dripping down.

Amazing.  We got a Christmas letter from a friend who said their year had been one of contentment.  My heart was so warmed to hear that because this friend has been through some difficult years.  The craziness of my three weeks pales in comparison to her (and many of your) difficulties.  My heart was also "checked" - this craziness was definitely only ordinary life.  Am I content in the craziness of ordinary life?

Amazing? Content?  I think I'm on to something for a Word for 2013.  And this verse....normally I see people quote it during difficult times, but I think it is applicable always. Even in the ordinary.  I think our Amazing God does this and as it is happening, we can have great contentment.

Zephaniah 3:17

New King James Version (NKJV)

¹⁷ The Lord your God in your midst,
The Mighty One, will save;
He will rejoice over you with gladness,
He will quiet you with His love,
He will rejoice over you with singing.”

Christmas Letter 2013

From my desk I can see the snow has tapered to light flurries.  With a snow day from school, it seemed like the perfect time to write a Christmas letter.

Last year I did a month by month photo recap, this year, you get a family member recap...

Hubby - Hubby completed two marathons this year and will start training in January for a half-triathlon.  (L. shares Hubby's love of running and has done cross country this year along with some 5ks.)  Hubby was promoted in his job from a director to a "dean".  He also continues to keep busy with the boys and has started a remodel project at my Dad's house.  Our whole family fell more in love with our new niece this year, but ultimately she's the apple of Uncle Debbie's eye.

A (me) - I was able to enjoy a couple of weekend trips at the beginning of summer with my bestie and with my sister (Aunt).  It was actually one of the best summers that I can recall - mostly because of cooler temps and normal everyday stuff.  While I didn't make a job transition this year (I was very thankful that our new principal extended my temporary contract.), I moved from second to first grade.  I work with a team of veteran teachers who take wonderful care of me and I absolutely love my class!  I am amazed at how much first graders can do and understand.  As there is so much controversy surrounding education standards right now, I just do my best to love and teach each individual student.

M - M. started playing tennis in the spring.  Even though he switched schools (local public to a private Christian school), he will be able to keep playing.  He continues to be interested in leadership - in his church youth group and at school.  He is the freshman class vice-president and attended the district and state Student Council conventions.  I just can't believe he will be making college plans in a few short years!

L - I mentioned L's running love and cross country earlier.  In the spring he raised a large amount of money (this year was his turn - M. has done it in the past) for Relay for Life (thank you friends and family).  I don't think he ran at the Relay event, but had fun for the evening with Aunt and then flew by himself the next morning to join the rest of us for our niece/cousin's dedication.  L. also continues to be involved in Scouts- he loves camping and is about to earn his next rank.  Currently, he is on Senior Patrol as the Chaplain.

We were so blessed to spend time with far away family so many times this year. We made our annual Hockey trip to Dallas in February, family has come to visit (and will be again soon!), we vacationed with family in July in Virginia and the Outer Banks, the boys spent time with their grandparents before school started, we camped in Colorado, saw more fam in OKC, and just spent Thanksgiving in Albuquerque. We are also blessed to see Aunt often. She even picks the boys up at school every Wednesday and takes them out. L's new love is Starbucks!

That's about it for the Smith family.  I'd love to hear what your family has been up to this year - please use my blog or FB to exchange a greeting.

We hope you and your family have a wonderful Christmas and New Year!

This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son 

into the world that we might live through Him.  I John 4:9

Reindeer Pictures

This past week at school, I read The Wild Christmas Reindeer by Jan Brett.  If you haven't made it a part of your Christmas reading for your children, you should.  It's a wonderful story with a sweet message about being gentle instead of bossy.  We used it to analyze the main character, Teeka; found common and proper nouns in the text;  did a logic exercise to line up the reindeer; and made an art project of a reindeer head.  I told my class I'd show them my reindeer pictures so here is my way to easily do that.  When I was uploading the pictures, I realized that I must have been enamored by the reindeer because I had a lot pictures of them!  We were in a national forest in Ketchikan and while the boys were ziplining through the trees, the girls took a little forest tour.  This animal spot also had a bald eagle and owl.  The last picture in this set has info. on reindeer.  Merry Christmas and Happy Reading!