Good times..

The other morning there were three things that alerted me to the fact that we were back home:
1- Birds chirping! (oh, yeah, they fly south for the winter! DUH!)
2- Sirens (Joys of living in a big city)
3- I had slept clear through the night - no interruptions!

I am SOOOOOOO glad to be home. As fun as it was to be with family and see friends, I am so much less stressed out and more rested at home. I miss my family already, but am a little relieved we don't live closer than we do. It's nice to escape- Love you guys, but you know what I mean! The first two days we unpacked and YES it took us that long. We also had to clean out the van whick now has 4,000 miles on it, three cracks in the windshield and a scratch on the driver's side door... not so clean and shiny anymore :( Oh well.
Here are some more photos from our adventures up north.



My little Charlie.. a few minutes after this picture was taken, he started screaming! After a while I figured out why. He was cold! Yeah, obvious, right? Well not to him.. he couldn't remember ever being cold like that, so when that "sting" started in he freaked out!



My niece Abigail. I'm seriously intimidated by her and her cuteness!


This is the cover page of an album I made for Paper Posies.. a Year in Brief.. I'll put it and all the other stuff up in my scrapbook gallery asap. Look at how little and sweet Charlie was! :(

My little sister was in her high school musical "Pirates of Penzance." In all honesty it was the most amazingly good production I've ever seen, and these kids were in HIGH SCHOOL! I'd have been impressed if it had been a University production. I'm talking SERIOUS talent - people with bright CAREERS in drama and music! This is the guy she had to kiss - He was the "Pirate King."

Dillon is amazing on ice skates. He won't let anyone hold his hand or help him at all! He won't go inside for hot chocolate or to warm up! He's very dedicated. hehe

Here's little Joseph (who everyone thought looked a little like GI Joseph) and Mary who when it came time to give birth to her cabbage patch doll, very non-chalantly yanked it out of her shirt and tossed it into the blanket covered cardboard box. (if only!!!)

Charlie has a new trick. You ask him, "Hey Charlie, who's cute?" or "Who's smart?" or "Who's stinky?" and he'll quickly raise his had and say, "I AM!" Here he is doing this atop my "little" (6'4") brother's shoulders. And you can see that the boys are in their new Christmas Eve jammies.

Here's my other two brothers displaying their new warm hats and making me laugh (as usual)!

Christmas day we went sledding near where my dad lives. It was a gorgeous day - pretty warm too. For about two hours we went up and down this hill and surprisingly we all walked away INJURY FREE!! Seriously, though, it was super fun!



The day after Christmas James took Dillon skiing - FIRST TIME! He rocked the slopes and loved EVERY MINUTE of it - especially this giant hamburger!


Happy New Year everyone!! Love and HUGS and stay safe! And to all you who keep telling me how much you love my blog and look at it all the time - LEAVE ME A STINKIN' COMMENT! Really, though, just "hello its _____ " will make me smile for hours :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DILLON!!!

My little boy is FIVE!!!!!! I can't believe it! We're not celebrating really until the end of January when we'll have a BDAY party for both of the boys, but wow. I can't believe it was 5 years ago that I became a mother. What a crazy, scary, exciting day that was and the last 5 years... well I'm just so lucky to have such a sweet little guy.

We just got home last night so as soon as I get my camera unpacked and set up, I'll upload as many pics as this blog will let me!!! WATCH OUT!

Resolution

The final selection comittee met and we're going to Jacksonville. It's Jacksonville Florida or BUST for the Mathews family. All I can say is that I'm DONE crying. I'm going to resolve myself to find some excitement and enthusiasm in this situation. I'm still not happy about it- don't get me wrong, I just don't see any other option. So, this is me- EXCITED AND ENTHUSIASTIC!!!
If I could find my digital camera I'd post a pic of me doing my very best excited and enthusiastic face for you. Too bad. ;)

I'm sending you all my warmest and happiest holiday wishes and hope your Christmas is safe and happy! Thank you all for your prayers comments and concerns in our behalf. MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Looky what I can do!

I'm finally out of the technologically defect cave that I've been in the last few weeks! I'm at my Dad's house and using his ultrafast wireless connection on James' iBook. LOVE IT!! Here are some fun pics from our trip to Goblin Valley, an album I've been working on, and the photoshoot we had last week! Enjoy :o)




Thanks Steve and Rachel VonNiederhausern! Some of you will be seeing more of these in the Christmas card that is STILL not sent yet :( I'm working on it - Sorry if it's late!!




Charlie was cold - He pretty much just wanted to go home :)



Cool shot of my mom, sibs and I and "the goblins"



Dillon had the time of his life climbing and jumping, chasing his uncles and throwing rocks!





Thanks everyone for your comments, phone calls and most of all prayers regarding the disappointing match results. Though I am still sad and hoping for some unlikely resolution, I'm feeling a little better about things every day. James is going to call the headquarters tomorrow morning and discuss the situation with the head lady (that's her official title ;). I'm hoping for at very least, an apology.

HUGS!!

Results are in...

Ok- you know how I jokingly referred to "worse case scenarios"? As it turns out, the Navy had 35 applicants and only 19 spots for Pediatrics. James did NOT match and so they thought they'd stick him in one of their open Family medicine spots in, of all places, JACKSONVILLE FLORIDA!! (WHA????) Yeah, that's what we're thinking.

We've been pacing all morning and trying hard to figure out what to do about it because they can't just put him in Family Medicine - that's NOT WHAT HE WANTS TO BE!!! It's not their decision!! Sure, they have spots to fill, but after 9 years of schooling and all this hard work, James finally decided on Pediatrics only to be thrown for this loop???!!!!! I'm so firing mad right now and have cried some tears and said some terrible words, I should probably chill out a little.

So, we're making a big deal out of it and making phone calls and emails to try and investigate our options. Not that Jacksonville is a bad place, or anything, he just doesn't want to do Fam. Medicine. Sorry this entry wasn't very fun to read :( We could really use your prayers.

ETA: The person that makes the final decision is on vacation and will be back Monday. We won't know anything more until then. It seems likely that we'll have to take the spot in Florida as they informed us that the results have never been altered for anyone in the past... BUNK!!(#$%^^&&!@*)

Pins and Needles...

I'm seriously freaking out right now...

3 DAYS till we find out our fate. Three days and we'll know what a bunch of academic medical someone's have decided for us and our family. It's so wierd how this whole thing works.. It's like they play God or something! I'm trying so hard just to chill and not imagine "worse case scenarios."

In anticipation of PC difficulties, before we left to come up to Utah, I emailed myself the December banner I'd made.. SOOOOOOOO glad, b/c I haven't been able to get a single photo uploaded or anything. I like the new banner :) Whataya think? It's kind of like Digital scrapbooking which I'd really like to try someday.

Speaking of scrapbooking, our "Page a Day challenge" winner was announced yesterday - Renee Richins. A fellow Arizonan and great gal. I'm super excited b/c she will be joining the January Design Team!! I've always loved her stuff :)

Yesterday was a really fun day. My dad and I have a unique father/ daughter relationship and lately I've been afraid that it was in jeapordy. Yesterday we spent half the day just the two of us Christmas shopping and then out to dinner. It was so nice b/c we had some great conversation - candid and real and also funny. I was able to help him do about 80% of his shopping and I only spent $7.50! I am officially done with shopping for the boys! Two gifts each. One from Santa and one from Mom and Dad. NONE OF THEM REQUIRE BATTERIES OR MAKE HORRIBLY LOUD NOISES!! Mission accomplished. I have only one more gift to get James, one for my Dad, and one for James' parents and THAT'S IT!!!!!!!! YAY for me. (wink)

So, I'd just like to thank all my great friends and sweet family for all the LOVE that they've shown me. I had one of the best birthdays EVER just because I had so many people call and email and text me. It felt so great! I was able to spend some time alone with James (we saw that "deck the halls" movie - very haha) and that was good. So thank you so much everyone for thinking of me and for visiting my blog and giving me a chance to share my life. ( AAAWWWW ) :)

No pics yet... :(

What a time I've had trying to do this blogging thing with Dialup! Needless to say, I've yet to successfully sync my camera doc to my inlaw's ancient PC and upload my pics. Sorry people, but I'm thinking instead of bothering with it and asking more favors of people and all that, I'm just going to have to catch you all up when i get back to AZ. Boy will I ever be glad to see my computer!! ;)

The boys are having the time of their lives playing with cousins and in the snow. This morning we went for a nice walk/ run. Dillon rode a bicycle and Charlie rode in the stroller. It was cold, but not too cold and there were horses out in the pastures all around us. We watched them run and enjoy the morning sun. We stopped to give some treats (carrots) to several of them. Charlie LOVED petting them and cried all the way home when we were done! "Horsey - pet 'em!" James is still stuffy, but for the most part, we're all feeling much better. I'm getting into the holiday spirit and loving all the Christmas shopping, lights, etc. So, things are good!

Hope you all are well - be sure to check in next WEDNESDAY.. that's when we find out where we matched (if we did) and where we'll most likely be for the next 6 years!! LOVE AND HUGS AND HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!