Reflections from 2009 and Wishes for a New Year

(Pardon the brief "language" in the following sentence)

This morning a friend of mine mentioned that part of him would like to tell 2009 to go to hell, but that he grew too much as a person for it to be all bad. I echo that sentiment exactly.

2009 was a huge rollercoaster and I can't say that I'm entirely sad to see it go. But I am reminded of the saying "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger" and it is definitely true for us. I almost went into a detailed story about our year's tribulations, but instead decided to focus on each of individually and have some fun with it. Enjoy.


Nathan turned one at the very beginning of the year and it was a little hard for mommy. He is definitely no longer a baby, though we have yet to cease referring to him as "baby". He can carry on a conversation quite easily and we enjoy seeing what his new word or sentence he's going to learn each day. He is potty training, although it's not going quickly since he still has timing issues. We know he'll be faster than his brother though! Nathan is looking forward to entering preschool in the fall of 2010. He has already learned his ABCs and can count to 20. He also looks forward to learning to ride his new tricycle....as soon as his feet can touch the pedals.

Aiden began his 2nd year of preschool with a brand new teacher this fall, turning four years old soon after. He loves every bit of it! His communication (which concerned his former teacher) has improved drastically and he's growing into an adventurous little kid more and more every single day. He learned how to ride a bicycle over the summer and has become quite a train expert. He enjoys creating works of art (on both canvases and walls) and often hums classical music while doing so (I'm not kidding). In 2010, he will start his 3rd year of preschool, but will be in the same mixed age class that he's in this year. He also plans on attending some summer day camps that his school offers. Both boys look forward to having a backyard to play in and a bedroom that is not used for storage, hopefully early in the year.

John turned a grand ol' 27 this year. He is finishing his degree and looks forward to being done with OIT....so he can start his MBA. This is still being discussed with his wife. After losing his job in early 2009, he spent some quality daddy time with the boys over five months and was re-hired by his employer in August. He was accepted into an engineering internship program at U of O during the period of unemployment, but was rehired the same week, so he declined. He enjoys spending snuggle time with the family cats that he allowed his wife to talk him into in early January. In 2010, he looks forward to being a homeowner so that he can do as many "upgrades" as he pleases.

Carrie began the first real job that she'd had since being pregnant with Aiden (the paper route was not a real job - more like torture with a small paycheck) in January. After six weary months, she moved on to a better job and is still very much enjoying it. She discovered painting and crafts as a means to relieve stress and in early December, put together a Christmas bazaar for the church. She suffered a two week long asthma scare in October, which turned into what is believed to have been swine flu. October also brought the thrill of her life when she was able to see Mikhail Baryshnikov perform here in Portland. She sat in the 2nd row and cried from sheer joy. She turned 26 in November and thinks she's a little young to be on the verge of knee surgery, but when she trips over one of the cats and severely injures the same knee for the 10th time, can she really expect anything less? In 2010, she also looks forward to finally becoming a homeowner. John plans for her to head back to school as soon as he is done. She also plans on coordinating another bazaar for the church - with more help.

As we come to an end of 2009, we are still struggling with some things, but we have great hope that 2010 will bring us closure with these struggles. I don't know about John, but I am a very different person that I was this time last year. I honestly can't say that it's all good, but the journey to self improvement is staring me in the face. I just need to be willing to take it. It was an odd mix of personal damage and maturity that happened at the same time over the course of the year. Maybe that makes no sense to anyone but me. But hey, it's really all between me and God anyway.

No matter what 2009 brought you, we want to wish you all the best for 2010 and we hope that your Christmas season was filled with joy.

Happy New Year from the Minthornes!

My Child is Incredibly Strange

This isn't Christmas related and we do have pictures and stories to post, but I have some items from today that we need to remember.

Aiden is an interesting child and comes up with many odd things to say. Sometimes these things give us laughter, sometimes we worry about what on earth he's thinking. Today was no exception.

At dinner: "I want to eat a cat. But when you get the white hairs in your mouth, then I think it would be disgusting."

At bedtime as John began to sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star: "NO!! THAT SONG IS A LIE! ALL THE SONGS ARE LIES!!"

I've now decided the a four year old's mind is a scary place.

Merry Christmas!

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.

And the angel said unto them,
Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

And this shall be a sign unto you;

Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

And that's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.

Christmas Prep

This will mainly be a jumble of things, but I had to write something out or else I wasn't going to be able to focus on anything that needs to be done today.

I spoke to the real estate agent yesterday. Not much is happening yet and he said to not really expect anything until the first week of January. I figured with the holidays, we wouldn't hear anything, so it was basically just a confirmation of what I was thinking. During our conversation, I came to the conclusion that he's more frustrated than we are. I'm just happy we have someone who is willing to put up with all of this for us. We've been more than pleased with the service they've provided. He's even stopping by this evening because he "has a little something" for us. He's been giving us gift cards to various places since August, so it will be interesting to see what he's bringing us that couldn't fit in the Christmas card he sent. John thinks it will be a fruit basket.

Now, I've had a bit of disappointment with not being in a house for Christmas this year and it's been affecting my Christmas spirit. I can see that the boys are very excited and I am looking forward to watching them open their presents, but I haven't found that overwhelming Christmas mood that has brought me so much joy in the past. In order to remedy this, I made the decision that we will load the boys up in the car after dinner this evening to go to Winter Wonderland at Portland International Raceway. We haven't gone on any Christmas light viewing adventures yet this year and I've always wanted to go to this event, so it seemed like a good time. Hopefully I can get some pictures, but we will be in a moving car and it's cold outside, so I doubt I'll have the windows down!

In good news, I can say that I have happily been finished Christmas shopping for over a week now. I still had to get diapers at Target two days ago and that wasn't the most fun experience, but I survived. :^) The presents aren't wrapped, but I have kept my Christmas tradition from high school in regards to wrapping: On Christmas Eve, I gather all the presents and wrapping items in the living room and I watch A Christmas Story as I wrap everything. It's definitely something I look forward to every year. It also keeps wrapped presents out from under the tree until after the kids are in bed the night before, so there's no temptation for them.
But before all the wrapping happens, I have to get this place clean, so that's what I will be doing today and part of tomorrow. I get a Christmas present tomorrow afternoon....a little trip to the salon while John watches the boys. Nothing beats a fresh hair cut for Christmas!

A Prayer by Nathan

Aiden requested to do the prayer for their lunchtime today and he prayed for the food and daddy to be safe at work, and even thanked God for Christmas. Then it was Nathan's turn...

Nathan - hands not really folded but more pressed directly up against his mouth: "God, where is Jesus? Amen."

They both did pretty well at ignoring the stifled laughter coming from behind mommy's hands.

House Update # One Million

I know it only feels like the millionth update, but it has been three months of waiting on just this one house.

After a full month of no word (our agent has been contacting us a few times a week to tell us that they haven't heard anything), we finally got a small update last night.

Apparently, the bank did some sort of computer update to help organize the massive amounts of short sales and foreclosures that they are dealing with. During this update, "our" house got lost. To be more specific, it was listed as being assigned to someone who it wasn't actually assigned to, so no one was working on it.
The bank has finally realized the mistake and is working on assigning it to the correct person and getting it fixed in their computer system. They say that this will take two business days. Since they supposedly only need one more signature, or so we were told six weeks ago, we're hoping it won't take too much longer once someone is actually working on it.

The listing agent praised our patience and hopes that we will hold out for the final decision. She also mentioned that through the real estate decline, this particular bank is getting much, much worse on how they are handling short sales. Not really what we want to hear, but we are still keeping the hope up that we are close to the end of this. We've waited three months, we can wait a little longer.

Some days I feel like I can't wait too much longer, but that's mostly due to the apartment. Yesterday, Aiden was being quite noisy and I told him that he needed to calm down because that was too much noise for the lady who lives downstairs. Aiden's response was, "Well, then we just need to move". While I'm in strong agreement with that statement, it's hard to explain to a four year old why I can't just fix the situation with a snap of my fingers. As much as I want to get out of here, I do have to admit that I was a little relieved that we weren't going to have to move right before Christmas.

Well, that all. Our agent is more than a little annoyed with the bank, but knowing something more makes me feel a little bit better. John and I think it seems promising that work will actually get done on the file now. And as always, you'll be updated when we are.

How Old is Jesus?

Aiden has been enjoying his Sunday School class with grandma very much and this has prompted many discussions about Jesus between Aiden and I. Today's was a little interesting...

Aiden began the discussion by making sure that I knew what Christmas was about.

Aiden: Mommy, Christmas means that it's Jesus' birthday.
Me: Yes, I know.
Aiden: But he can't open his presents yet because it's not Christmas.
Me: Oh, ok. So if it's Jesus' birthday, I wonder how old he is....
Aiden: He's 25.

I took this opportunity to point out to Aiden that mommy is 26....so did that mean that mommy is older than Jesus? Well, Aiden decided that didn't sound right (thank goodness. I know I feel old sometimes, but that's pushing it!). Then he made the decision that Jesus is actually 30.

We left it there, although I'm sure as Christmas continues to creep upon us, these talks will get more and more frequent and I'll have to remember to write them all down. They are quite entertaining!

To Preschool or Not to Preschool?

Our little Nathan is growing up faster than I care to notice. Everyone we encounter who asks how old he is always looks surprised that he's not yet two. He can carry on a conversation for goodness sake! Sometimes it just seems silly.

A few days ago, he'd been fairly clumsy throughout the day and had gotten hurt multiple times. During dinner, John asked him if he'd had a hard day and Nathan frowned, replying, "Yes, a hard day". I laughed so hard! It sounded so funny coming from an almost 23-month old (4 more days). And this morning, he tripped and yelled out to me, "I broke my foot, mommy!!". More laughter from mommy... I don't usually laugh at my children's injuries or difficulties, but he makes things awfully hilarious.

Because he's acting older than he is, he's also been attempting to take part in Aiden's class whenever we're there after class has started or before it's over. The teacher doesn't mind and will invite him over to join them in circle time. It's pretty cute because I think he has a crush on her. He talks about Teacher Ally all the time, but acts super shy whenever she talks to him.
Ally and some of the other moms have voiced their opinions that he's very ready for preschool. I do have to agree, but for some reason it's harder to imagine sending him off to school than it was to send Aiden. Aiden has always been more independent than Nathan, so maybe I'm just going off the feeling that Nathan can't be without me like Aiden could.

He is definitely going to be signed up for the next school year. But last time I checked, there was one more opening in the little kids class that Aiden was in last year. As soon as he is 2 (mid-January), he can be signed up for the class. John thinks we should do it whereas I keep going back and forth. Obviously, if they've filled the remaining spot, our question has been answered for us. I'm not going to worry about it until Christmas break is over and school resumes on January 6th. At that point, if the spot hasn't been filled, I'll talk to the director and we'll do a test day (where Nathan and I get to go in and take part in the class for a while). If all goes well, we'll probably see about signing him up. He does get a discount because he's a sibling of a student already enrolled, so that's nice. But I sort of expect the spot to be filled, as January seems to bring some new students around and they are having an open house this coming Sunday. And if that's the case, we will be fine with waiting for the next school year. Nathan certainly isn't screaming that he's ready as much as Aiden was, so it wouldn't be a huge crisis or disappointment for us.

For now, I'll just enjoy the remainder of "baby time" that I have with him. At some point, I'll probably have to retire his nickname of "baby", but what's the rush?

Refried Beans

It's probably a little strange to do a post on refried beans, but there's some pride in this, so bear with me!

I had planned on doing tacos for dinner last night and John had mentioned that he'd really like some refried beans to go along with the taco meat. Well, we didn't have any and I didn't feel like going back outside to go to the store (it was in the 20s all day yesterday!), so I dug the can of pinto beans I'd bought for some unknown reason out of the pantry and decided to make my own refried beans. Yes, I did cheat a little by using canned, but I didn't have time to use dry beans. Once I can plan further ahead, I'll definitely make a big batch using dry beans.

I didn't know how to go about this, so I just made things up as I went along. To my surprise, my creation ended up looking and tasting like refried beans! So here's my "recipe" - I made sure to write it down for at least my own sake.

This is for about one can's worth of beans since that's what I did last night - you'll need to adjust it if you're using a 1 lb bag (3-4 can's worth, assuming 15 oz cans).

Heat 1/2 tablespoon olive oil in frying pan over medium heat.
Once heated, add 1/8 cup finely diced onion and cook until tender.
If wanted, chop up 1 tablespoon of jalapeno and add along with onion.
Add a dash of chili powder and a dash of oregano.
Add 1/8 teaspoon of garlic powder.
Add 1 can of pinto beans with liquid and mash to desired level (I left some whole beans in ours).
Stir over medium heat until desired refried bean consistency is reached.
If using canned beans, add no salt. If using dry beans, salt to taste.
Also, I had to let mine sit on the stove on very low heat to keep it warm until everything else was done and it didn't dry it out, so it possible to keep it warm that way without ruining it.

Church Bazaar

I can now proudly say that I have successfully coordinated an entire church bazaar! After three months of planning and organization, Tigard Community Friends Church held it's 1st Annual Holiday Bazaar yesterday (Saturday). It was about as busy as to be expected for a first year bazaar in an interesting economic climate, but I know that things were sold and I got some positive feedback from some of the vendors.

The majority of the vendors were found on craigslist, but we did have some church people there with their own booths. We had a good mix of company reps (Avon, Pampered Chef, etc) and handcrafted items.

We did quite a bit of advertising, although we have a few more ideas for next year. We had some great rushes of people from time to time and most of the traffic was from people outside of our church family, which is fantastic!
I was speaking with one of the pastors and we discussed how there was a great feeling of community throughout the day. The vendors didn't know each other when the day started, but they all quickly introduced themselves to one another and people chatted continuously. Everyone was social and any customers who came through were happily greeted by smiling faces.

The hardest part of the whole thing was the physical labor required the night before and the day of. John and I spent most of Friday evening moving tables and chairs and marking off booth spaces. We didn't get home with the kids until midnight! Poor kiddos did a great job, but Nathan didn't sleep well that night. I couldn't my brain to quit working, so I didn't fall asleep until 1:30am. I then had to get up at 6am to get to the church before everyone else and get some extra work done that I hadn't had a chance to do the night before. Needless to say, I was running off of barely any steam all day Saturday, but the excitement and momentum of all the vendors kept me going (plus, I was treated to plenty of caffeine from my church family).

I do have to mention that Laura and Kevin had a booth and it was quite popular! Laura made these ADORABLE little Christmas ornaments (snowmen and penguins) and Kevin sold cards featuring his photography. Laura even got special orders for made-to-order snowmen! I'll have to take some pictures of the ones I bought and share them with you.

At the end of the day, we moved everything back to normal once everyone was gone and we left with many new ideas for next year. While it wasn't constantly busy, I felt like it was a success in bringing about community and fellowship and I'm excited to have finally found my place in the church. I knew I was meant to do something for the church for many years, but it wasn't until late September that this idea occurred to me.

It was completely exhausting, both mentally and physically and John was very understanding that I was too tired to think clearly by the time we got home yesterday. He made a celebration steak dinner while I collapsed on the couch for a while. I slept hard last night and woke up with everything hurting this morning, but it was worth it. Maybe next year I can get some more sleep the night before. Not to mention that I was strongly scolded by one of our ladies from Kenya for not asking for more help. Another note to make for next year, I suppose. :^)

Oh, Christmas Tree (and Happy Birthday to Me!)

On Sunday we made plans to go out to lunch for my birthday and then pick out a Christmas Tree. We ended up catching up on sleep instead of going to church, so our morning was fairly relaxing. When lunchtime came around, I wanted a place where I could order breakfast at any hour, so we headed to an IHOP. We all had breakfast for lunch and it was very good. John avoided telling any servers that it was my birthday (I really didn't want to be sung to in an IHOP), but at one point I was afraid that Aiden was going to let it slip - especially when the manager started walking around the restaurant asking if it was anyone's birthday! John joked that he could smell my fear of IHOP birthday singing.

After lunch, we went to our favorite U-Cut place (our third year!) to find our tree. It's $20 for any size tree, but we always get a little tree. Once we finally have a house, we'll get a big 6-7 footer and it will be a great deal. We found the perfect little tree (after I noticed the perfect big tree that would have come home with us if home were a house) and John cut it down. The guy who owns the place joked that if we were going to go for that size, he'd let us have two trees for $20.

After the tree cutting, we stopped at Target for some cake mix and Aiden picked out a birthday present for me (my presents that John had ordered were delayed, so I had nothing from them to open). He chose a bottle of bright pink/plum nailpolish, which I am happily wearing (as are they...on their toes!). When we had cake that evening, Aiden announced that we should "eat our cake and have it too". We laughed and wondered where in the world he'd picked that up. The boys had great fun singing Happy Birthday to me and helping me blow out the candles. I think the whole day was a bigger deal for them than it was for me. And I can't forget the mention how I woke up on my birthday....with two excited little boys bursting into our room and shouting "HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOMMY!!!" as they hopped on the bed to wake us up. It was the best way to wake up and that little moment holds a special place in my heart.

Here's some pictures from our tree hunting. Enjoy!

Looking for the perfect one...
Birthday me hugging the perfect big tree. I joked that right as John snapped the picture, a spider would land on my head and we'd have quite the birthday photo.

My boys with our perfect little tree.

Running after daddy and the tree....

Merry Christmas!