Family time.
I like these people. We had a truly wonderful Christmas. We spent a lot of time together, ate a lot, watched movies, and Em and I played some Scrabble. Marvel walked right over when it was time to take the picture. She knows where she belongs, front and center.
Many years ago my mother claims that her whiny children held her back from fully exploring Ellis Island. I think I was around ten or twelve. Last year on our trip to NYC my mom got her chance to go back and fully explore. Look at the excitement in this woman’s face! My momma was freezing cold, and she was ecstatic to be standing in front of Ellis Island.
In the 26 years my mom has been a mom, she has given up on many things she would have rather been doing. She is an adventurer by nature, and she likes to check out random and unusual things. Her three whiny kids weren’t always so cooperative. My mom has shown me the meaning of patience, kindness, and what it means to grow as a human being.
I love her. Happy Birthday lady.
I know that you can tell my looking at them that they are fabulous people. They are wonderfully kind. My mom, my sister, JMO and I made the journey to Pensacola recently. JMO had never met my grandparents and I was very excited to introduce them to my boy. Good news: they adored him.
This guy stopped at my house yesterday morning on his way to go see my grandparents. This guy has always been there and taught me how to be practical. He taught me to not spend money I don’t have. This guy taught me that an education or a certification or anything you can do to better your mind will somehow pay off. I love this guy.
Back in January my little brother came to San Antonio for a couple of days. When spending time with Michael, an adventure must be had. We attempted to go to a museum, that happened to be closed on Mondays, then we met my mom for lunch and headed on over to the the San Antonio Zoo. The zoo has had quite a few upgrades since I was last there. The weather was perfect and the crowds were non existent on a weekday. It was a fine day.
Holy Moly. What happened to 2009? I just breezed through the last year on my blog and tried to scoop out the highlights, I have that problem where everything is a highlight, narrowing down doesn’t work so well for me. Overall, it was a great year. JMO moved back from New York. I quit my job working in an office to work on my teaching certification and picked up quite a few interesting adventures. Here is the best of my year – in no particular order.
1. Great trip to NYC before JMO left.
2. My family went on a trip to NYC over Thanksgiving.
3. Sandra had Christian. I got a new godson!
4. Mike and I went on road trip from Orlando to San Antonio. He names it Southeast Shuffle. Great week. My brother is fascinating.
5. I quit. Wow. Still can’t believe it.
6. Vegas. 9 girls. Leah got salmonella.
7. I got a job in an elementary school.
8. I turned 25. JMO and friends threw me a surprise party. Awesome.
9. Did this list in September when I explained the best of being 24 years old.
10. Most importantly, I got to spend a lot of time with people I love. Mom, Dad, Mike, Emily, JMO, The Oswalt Family, ALL the Pickerts, Tranee’s family, Sandra’s family, Leah, Christine, Michelle, my students, Sylvia, Sarah, Lesley and youth group kiddos and many other lovely folks. I am truly blessed to have such fabulous people in my life. Cheesy as it is – PEOPLE ARE THE BEST OF 2009.