Christmas 2008

This year, Christmas was held at Mom's house in Laurens. CJ, the kids, and I went after I got off work on Christmas Eve. My sister, Jenny, along with her daughter, fiancee, and his children were also able to be there. And Derek even got the holiday off and was able to attend this "family function"!! We started out Christmas Eve with our annual tradition of chili and potato soup (it used to by oyster soup when Dad was alive! YUCK!!) with sandwiches and all the Christmas goodies. After the meal, we all sit around and pass out gifts to each other and take turns opening them. Zach's gift from us was an Xbox 360 and Brianna's gift was a Nintendo Wii. Both kids were extremely happy! After much eating and visiting, Jenny and Matt had to leave later that evening to get back home because Sydney was going to her dad's house on Christmas morning. After they left, we spent the next two hours trying to talk the kids into going to bed so Santa Claus could come!! I think we got everyone to bed and asleep by 12:30AM... hope Santa wasn't too mad!!!

I was actually the first one up on Christmas morning!! Not because of presents, but because I wanted to get a shower and get ready for church before everyone else started to awaken and fight for the bathroom!! I had just finished getting ready and had gone into the kitchen to start coffee and some breakfast when my Mom and Zach got up. And of course, Zach went in and woke Brianna up so they could see if Santa came or not! Santa learned a huge lesson many years ago when my sister and I were younger -- some children will wake up in the wee hours of morning and check for presents under the tree! Some certain children have even been known to take those presents and play with them before Mom and Dad even get up!! So now Santa always wraps the gifts he brings to our family members! This way they have to wait until Mom and Dad are up to start unwrapping and see what he brought them!! Well, after waking Brianna up, Zach and Brianna went and woke up the rest of the house so they could open their Santa presents. We have posted pics below!

After presents, we ate a quick breakfast and everyone got ready for the Christmas service. Going to church in Laurens is so different than in Sioux City... first being that in Laurens we can actually walk to church! Mom only lives two blocks away from it!! Secondly, the entire service was only about 35-40 minutes long! In Sioux City, a normal Sunday service lasts at least an hour and the Christmas Mass is even longer because of all the people attending and receiving Communion! The kids saw church in Laurens as a "plus"!! After church, we went home and started dinner -- pork tenderloin, mashed potatoes, homemade gravy, and corn. Not to mention all the sweets sitting around for dessert!! Uncle Bill, my Mom's brother, came down with his two daughters and spent Christmas Day with us... eating, visiting, eating, playing out in the snow, eating... well, you get the idea!! We dreaded the idea of the day ending, because we knew we had to head back home. CJ and I both had to work the following day... Now we are looking forward to next year!! Happy Holidays, everyone!!

O' Christmas Tree!

Just posting a pic of our Christmas tree! We took the picture in the dark so the lights would turn out better!! Beautiful!!

Washington Elementary Christmas Concert 2008

Brianna's school held their annual Christmas concert on December 9th, 2008. The 3rd grade class got to sing four songs and then come back out at the end of the concert to sing the "Grand Finale" with all the other grades! Brianna and her class sang the following songs:

"Making Music"

"The Pinata Song"

"Old Man Winter"

"Peppermint Twist"

Once all the grades had performed their songs, then all the students came into the auditorium to sing the final song. It was called "It Starts With Me". The concert was wonderful and very easy to enjoy! I just love going to these concerts! The kids are young enough that they don't care about how they look or sound -- they just belt those tunes out!! When they get older and you go to their concerts, there are some kids who don't sing at all... or they sing so low and soft that you can't even see their lips moving!! These elementary years are the best... such a joy to watch... too bad the time passes so quickly! Next thing I know, I will be attending their graduations!!

Christmas Baking 2008

Brianna and I finally took advantage of a cold Sunday afternoon and stayed inside and baked Christmas cut-out cookies! They are a lot of work... making the dough, rolling it out, cutting, baking, frosting and decorating, cleaning up the mess... but Brianna loves doing it so much that I make sure we do it every year! We also made fudge, peanut blossoms, and candy cane Oreos dipped in white almond bark. I posted a picture of the Christmas cut-out cookies. Aren't they just beautiful??!

Future Cousins

My sister, Jenny, is getting married this coming summer to a wonderful guy named Matt!! Matt will be bringing three children into this union, which will double the "cousin total" from three to six!! Yea!!! I thought I would get a jumpstart on the family pics with them now before they get too big and we can't get them all together!! The picture is as follows:
Back Row - Alyssa and Zach
Front Row - Lucas, Noah, Sydney, and Brianna...

Two Nieces and an Uncle

It is very hard to get my brother together with all the members of the family, especially since he lives in Ames and is always working when we have our "family functions". (At least that is what he tells us!!) I have lots and lots of pics of Derek with my son, Zach, because Derek was younger back then and still lived at home with Mom and Dad. It is a lot harder to get a picture of him with my daughter, Brianna, and my niece, Sydney. Recently, all of us were home for our grandmother's funeral, so I snapped a pic and wanted to post it on here... Hopefully we can get more family pictures like this one in the future!

Major Snowstorm...

We have been getting snow for the past month... an inch or two here, half an inch there... then last Tuesday, we got 5.3 inches! As if that wasn't bad enough, we got another 7.5 inches three days later!!! December 19th was my day off from work... had plans to go and finish my Christmas shopping, etc. This was also the kids' last day of school before starting Christmas break. Needless to say, the kids started their break a day early and I had to find another time to do my shopping! Zach and I spent the whole day taking turns scooping snow! Brianna also called herself "helping"... if you can call playing in it "helping"!! I posted a couple pics of Brianna "helping" with the snow! C'mon everyone, sing along!: "I'm dreaming of a Whiiiiiiite Christmas..."!!!

East vs. LeMars

The Black Raiders took on LeMars -- this was the last game until after the Christmas break. Zach was unable to play due to his sprained ankle. The Black Raiders won the game 57-39... CJ and I missed most of it because Brianna also had a game at the same time! Posts on Brianna's game are coming soon!...

East vs. South Sioux City

The Black Raiders took on the South Sioux Cardinals last night, winning this game in overtime... 57 - 54. Way to go, Black Raiders! Zach did suffer his first injury of the season, though, with a sprained ankle. He was running down the court in overtime, when he tripped and fell. However, he did manage to score 10 points in this game! Good job, Zach! Hope the ankle heals soon!

East vs. North

Zach's team played another local school... this time it was the North Stars. This game was on December 8th during a snow storm! I thought for sure it would have been cancelled, but they never called it off...


The Black Raiders took another loss with this game... 57-39. North got off to a strong start and we let them get too far ahead. The Black Raiders did manage to come close to catching up by coming within 6 points, but were not able to hang on to it. Zach scored 4 points during this game and their season record is now 1-2.

Arlene Hoben Boblit 1917-2008

My grandma passed away on Friday, December 5, 2008. Her funeral was Monday, December 8, 2008. Though she slowly faded away from us due to Alzheimers, she lived a long and full life, reaching 91 years of age this past October.

Seeing all my cousins at the funeral and reminiscing about the past was a wonderful journey to take. Most of the memories come from having Christmases at Grandpa and Grandma's house each year! There were so many of us crammed into that house!! I can remember sitting on the stairsteps leading up to the upstairs bedrooms, just to have somewhere to sit!!! And we always opened presents in order of age, from youngest to oldest... with Grandpa and Grandma being the last ones to open their gifts.

One present most of us girl cousins remember getting from Grandma were the lacey nightgowns!! Apparently Grandma bought all of us these nightgowns because they were such a good price... never mind that some of us might have been too young to wear something so "womanly"!! I don't think Grandma realized how "grown up" these nightgowns were! They were like these little tops with matching panties, however, on some of us they went down to our ankles!!! I don't know about the others, but I do know that my sister and I loved ours! We wore them all the time!!!

Aunt Sharon gave a wonderful eulogy at the funeral... I never knew that Grandma was valedictorian of her graduating class, or that she had been named "May Queen" for FFA her senior year. She also talked of her memories growing up... I think I can speak for most of the cousins when I say that my memories of Grandma are lime Kool-Aid and her white salad bowl with the red polka-dots!! Anyone else remember these??!!

Rest in peace, Grandma... and tell Grandpa and Dad "hello" for me...

Happy Birthday, Jenny!!

My sister, Jenny, celebrated her birthday on December 7th!! She probably wouldn't like it if I posted her age on here, but she is younger than me!!! Happy Birthday, Jen!! Hope you have many more happy ones!!! Love ya!!!

Happy 9th Birthday, Sydney!

My niece, Sydney, had her 9th birthday on December 6th!! She celebrated with a bowling party and having Brianna spend the night!! Happy Birthday Syd!! We love you!!!

East vs. West

Zach had his second basketball game of the season on December 4th. They played another local school, the West Wolverines. The Black Raiders won this game... 65 - 34 and Zach scored six points with three lay-ups. I wasn't able to see this game, since Brianna had basketball practice at the same time as the game. Way to go, Black Raiders!!

Brianna Has Another Seizure

Brianna had a seizure last Monday night, December 1st. This is almost two years to the day from her first seizure. Her first seizure happened on December 6, 2006 -- she had just gone to bed and hadn't been sleeping for more than 20 minutes when she woke up and came running out to me in the kitchen before she started to seize. Scariest night of my life!! Later, she told me that she was scared because it felt like something was crawling all over her legs and she wanted to tell me. We took her to the hospital that night and they drew blood, took a urine sample, did a CAT scan... and found nothing wrong. She hadn't been sick or running a fever, either. We saw her pediatrician the next morning and she ordered and MRI and and EEG. The MRI was normal, but the EEG came back as "abnormal" so she scheduled an appointment for us with a pediatric nuerologist specialist at Children's Hospital in Omaha. We have been seeing him every six months since. He didn't want to put Brianna on medication because so many people will have one seizure and never have another one. We had another EEG done after one year, and those results came back normal. Now a year later, she has another seizure...

This second seizure also happened at bedtime. We had just come home from Zach's basketball game and she had a little snack and went to bed. It wasn't more than 15-20 minutes and CJ heard her crying, so he went to check on her. He found her seizing in her bed. This seizure didn't last as long as the first one, but was scary just the same! We didn't go to the hospital this time, but did call the pediatrician in the morning. She called the specialist in Omaha and another EEG was scheduled. The results came back as "abnormal" and since this is a second seizure, the specialist decided to put her on medicine. He has not labeled her with anything specific, only calling it a "seizure disorder" right now, but our pediatrician has told us that most likely she has "benign epilepsy"... benign in this case meaning that she should grow out of it when she gets older. So we are keeping our fingers crossed. In the meantime, we have her on the medicine for our own peace of mind. We will keep you updated on her prognosis.

Zach's First Basketball Game

Zach had his first basketball game on December 1st. They played Hull-Western Christian -- a very good ball team. Zach's team, the Black Raiders, ended up losing this game... 45-35. Zach scored three points for his team (with a 3-point shot!). I am also posting a picture of Zach's freshman basketball team below:

Thanksgiving 2008

Sorry it has been a while since I have updated the blog... we have been a little busy, as you will see from all the posts!!

Thanksgiving was held at Mom's house this year, as it is just about every year. CJ, the kids and I were going, but my sister and her family were going to Matt's parent's. My brother, Derek, made it home this year! Mom also invited some of her siblings and their families, bringing the total number of guests for Thanksgiving guests for dinner to 13. I made two pumpkin pies and a cherry pie (Derek doesn't like pumpkin!) to take there.

CJ, the kids, and I left home on Wednesday night after work to drive to Laurens. Derek had to work in Ames that night and wouldn't be getting to Laurens until after midnight. CJ and I decided to go uptown and check out the "bar scene" -- see who was home for Thanksgiving and all that. We were still up there when Derek got into town, so he met us up at the bar close to 1AM. We had a few drinks and closed the bar down... then proceeded to go back to Mom's. Since Derek had just got home, he was far from ready to quit and go to bed! So we stayed up the whole morning drinking and talking in Mom's kitchen!! Mom got up to put the turkey in and we were still there! Hadn't even been to bed yet!!

At this point, I decided to lay down for an hour or two, so I could get up and help Mom in the kitchen. I maybe slept for an hour then got back up and got dressed and ready for Thanksgiving. When I went out to the kitchen, I had a headache, so I took some Advil and had some toast and tea. From here on out, I just felt worse as the morning went on!!! By the time some of the relatives were arriving (11AM!) I was doing everything I could to keep from getting sick!! Derek finally laid down shortly after 10AM, only to be woken up when the relatives started arriving. Everyone was having a good time at my expense (even Derek!)... making fun of me for feeling sick!! When we sat down to eat dinner, I just had a little bit of food... my aunt told me all I needed was some mashed potatoes with gravy and I would start feeling better. Not sure about this advice, but I did manage to get some of the potatoes down. Derek had a plate heaping full of food, but after a few bites, he was unable to eat! Miraculously, I did start to feel better and was able to have some salad and pie by the time the meal was finishing up!

I did help with dishes since I wasn't able to help make dinner, and I owe my Aunt Barb for "bailing me out" and helping Mom in the kitchen when she got there!! And I was able to enjoy all the food from dinner... that evening before we left for home!!

Needless to say, this Thanksgiving was quite memorable... just not quite the memory I wanted!!!