Michele’s Weblog

When I picked up Hank from school today, he wished me a Happy Chinese New Year.  They learned all about it today through some movies and special food.  He was not impressed with the food, but the masks caught his attention.  We celebrated with frozen yogurt after school.  (I was going to do that anyway)  They were each allowed two toppings and cherries don’t count as a topping in our household.  As we were weighing our yogurt, Hank saw something he wished he put one and I just threw caution to the wind and let him get three!

When we walked in the door he wanted to get out his Chop from Neil and Linda and make a card for a classmate from China.  Why stop there?  He went ahead and made cards for the whole class.

Wesley and I are just so crafty.  I had seen this Crayola project on Pinterest and we just had to try it.  All it took was a canvas and lots of crayons.  I bought everything at Hobby Lobby and then Wesley helped me sort and I glued them on in the order that he gave them to me!  From there, I got my blow dryer and in 3 minutes, we had a fun piece of art!

The final product is hanging in the hallway outside Hank’s room.  I am not into quotes on walls, but I made an exception for this one as I just love it!

Today it was back to normal again after a wonderful two-week break from school and our somewhat busy lifestyle.  I always struggle with getting back to that “normal”, but as a family we need structure.  We had gotten really off track and were getting stupid lazy around here!  I am not complaining though, but it felt good this afternoon to get Hank from a full day of school and get back to our routine.

We kicked off our winter break with Brett’s Christmas party at Cool River.  My mom came in early to watch the kids and we had a fun night out on the town with his office mates.  Saturday began the quest to find a dog for my mom and I already wrote about Macie in detail.  During Nan’s visit she bounced between Eric’s house and mine.  I used to not have the competition, but with Eric’s condo being so quiet and smack in the middle of everything,  his place is looking pretty good right about now.  I might like to stay there sometime soon.  Macie and Travis got along OK and a few times, we thought they might become best friends, but it really became a bit of a game to rotate them around each other without making anyone feel left out.

It was kinda a blur leading up to Christmas Eve around our house, but that just means we had lots of fun.  It was cold and rainy on Christmas Eve and we went to Bethany for the child centered service.  It was great and we saw lots of friends there.  After that, we had a drink or two with our neighbors and got meet their extended family.

Christmas morning we slept in until 9:30!  Eric spent the night with us and was afraid we might be one of those families that gets up at 6:30 to open presents.  HA!  We almost missed Christmas as we slept so late.

Before we went to church on Christmas Eve

Fun gift from our neighbors Wade and Malcolm!

Uncle Eric before he got his make up on

Don’t let this picture fool you.  It was not easy to get a picture of Travis and Macie sitting this close.  Although, they could be related based on their coloring.

In the afternoon, Neil, Linda, Aunt Pat, and Shannon came over.  Neil and Linda gave the boys something very special from their trip to China.  It was a special stamp (or chop) with the boy’s names on it in both English and Chinese.  The stamp was made from Jade and it is just beautiful.  Without even blinking Hank wanted to use it for all his thank you notes.

Today is the day!!  We are all giddy with excitement because my mom got a sweet dog today.  Her name is Macie and she is an adorable black/tan dachshund.

It has been a long four days…. filled with ups and downs, phone calls, internet searches, meet and greets, and finally dirt roads that lead us to Macie.  Let me back up.  My mom has been considering a dog for a while and recently decided that now is as good a time as any!  Nan also felt like Austin would be a good place to look for one.  We are a big city with lots of shelters and rescue agencies and Eric and I both live here.  We really are experts!  We kinda knew that this was the visit that we were going to start looking for a dog.  The main things that Nan wanted in a dog would be for them to be easy going, good company, love to take long walks, and be a manageable size.  Once we got to looking we had to add heart worm negative, cataract free, and non-barker.

We started looking on Saturday and after 3 places felt we found the perfect dog.  Her name was to be Maddie and she was a dachshund.  She was a 7 year old rescue and even as Hank so kindly pointed out that she was not going to live more than 7 more years, they both seemed to be a good fit.  When we went to pick her up the next day, there was an unfortunate mix up and Maddie was not meant to be.  We were all very disappointed, but learned a lot from that experience.  Hopefully, because my mom talked to many people at that shelter no other person will have to experience that!  From there Eric and my mom went out until 6:00 looking for another dog and missed two other dachshunds by only minutes.

The next day, I did some research and started looking into breeders.  Nan’s first choice was a sweet rescue, but once she realized that she was drawn to dachshunds I thought we should consider a breeder.  Regardless of how I feel about breeders anymore, those puppies have been born and need homes too.  Nan did not want to spend a small fortune on a dog, but through a friend we were able to find a breeder who was retiring one of her dogs.  Today we drove out to Luckenbach, Texas to meet some dogs.  We met 3 and Macie was the one that Nan liked the most.  After a little visit, it was clear to Nan that Macie was the best fit.

I can’t wait to hear about how this new friendship will grow.  It will be a while before she comes out of her shell.  A car ride with Wesley was a little taste of what is to come.  Then a meeting with Travis??  This sweet girl is going to love Nan’s home.

Friday night was our 3rd year to be a part of the live Nativity at Bethany.  It goes for three nights and each night there is a blessing of animals, but we leave Travis at home for obvious reasons.  He is still the apple of our eye, but because of his fear of strangers, we will just bless him at home instead.

This year I signed up Wesley for the first time.  We thought he was ready to be a Shepard this year.  I signed up the 7:20 show and we were dressed and ready to go by the 7:00 show.  The Children’s Pastor said we go jump in the 7:00 show since we were dressed.  Hank gave me a look, like “can I go?”  He was off and Wesley just froze in place.  I asked Wesley why he did not want to go with Hank and he was too nervous.  He said he would only go if I dressed up too.  Next thing I know, I am in an Angel costume with wings and a halo too!

Overall, they did great.  Wesley was behind at a few points during the show, but no one noticed.  I am not sure that any Shepard’s had light up shoes when Jesus was born….

Goldie really is so funny!  That Elf surprises us every morning by being in a new place.  So far we have found him on the top of our Tree, Hank’s room reading books, in Wesley’s room hiding in his tree, and now in a jar by the front door!  Our Elf loves Christmas!!!

The other night the boys were playing with Nerf guns in Hank’s room and I heard crying.  Not the kind that I need to stop what I am doing and run, but the kind where I know someone is coming to find me.  It was Hank and they knocked over Goldie.  We had to have an intervention and get him back up again WITHOUT touching him.  He got hit by a passing bullet and was face down when I got to the crime scene.  I had to explain that Santa did not give us this Elf to make us stressed out and that accidents happen.  I have noticed Goldie is getting higher and higher when we find him each morning.

We know that Hank is close to finding out the truth about Santa, but they are having so much fun with this little guy.  Hank asked me if he was just a doll the other morning and sometimes I just want to sit him down and tell him everything.  He questions some things and believes so strongly about the rest.  I am going to just ride this year out and see what happens.  I know I have more time with Wesley though.

No news is good news for the Martin boys!  We were told we would get a call if we did not pass our belt test.  We waited all weekend and were happy when the got the email saying that everyone that did not pass had been contacted.

There was a ceremony for all belt levels last Thursday night and went really well.  Both boys felt such pride in their new belts.

Our letters to Santa have been mailed, but this year we asked Santa if an Elf could come live with us for the month of December?  I told the kids that every wish can’t be granted and we will just have to wait and see what happens.  Hopefully, that might explain why some of our friends have an Elf and some don’t.  Now if we could only figure out why the Tooth Fairy brings everyone different amounts of money we would be golden!

While we were at dinner last night a box showed up on our front porch.  We all raced back in to open the box and learn about our new family member!  When we opened the box, Wesley was disappointed because he was not a real elf.  After reading the book, we learned that he is magic.  We were told to give him a name and we are never to touch him.  If we touch him….he will lose his magic powers.  Every night he flies back to the North Pole to tell Santa about our behavior.  How else will he know?  Each night when he comes back he is in a different place and we have to find him.

Naming him was hard, but we finally came up with Goldie.  Wesley wanted Buddy and Hank wanted Texas.  Hank even threw out United States and that is when I thought it was bed time.  There were tears and everyone was getting upset.  We went to bed with no name, but this morning we agreed on Goldie.

This morning when we woke up, they boys knew they needed to find our Elf.  Brett and I were dead to the world and we heard the boys talking about needing to find him.  That is also when they named him Goldie.  Together they ripped open drawers and looked under things, but they could not find him!  He was sitting on the mantle the whole time!  Finally, the boys found him and ran up to tell us about it.  Two great things happened this morning.  The boys worked as a team and got along beautifully and we got an extra 45 minutes in bed!  I wonder where he will be tomorrow?

The boys have been doing Tae Kwan Do since the beginning of the school year.  It was something that we started for Hank.  We are still trying to find what he is passionate about and he was really asking for Karate.  Yes, I know that we are doing TKD, but aren’t they close enough?  This studio came with great reviews from friends and that is why we picked it.  If I am going to be there twice a week already, why not throw Wesley in too?  No really, he wanted it too.

So far so good.  Normally by this time we would have lost interest, but we seem to see be into this activity.  I hope so, because around every corner, they are asking for more money!

Tonight they tested for their yellow belts.  We have been wearing the same, non washable, WHITE belts for 16 weeks now.  You can test every eight if you have met the requirements, but we had to miss the last test for my high school reunion.  The requirements are based on a certain number of classes and stripes given on their belts.  To test for the yellow belt, we had to attend 10 classes (in 8 weeks) and have 4 stripes on our belts.

Talk about nerve-racking!  We will not know until next week if they passed, but my gut feeling is that they passed.  I will keep you posted!

This year when Lori asked what Judy wanted for her 70th Birthday, she said she wanted all of her family to be together.  With a little bit of planning, we were able to have everyone meet here for one special day/night.  Austin is the central location for Melissa, Houston, and Boerne and so we hosted the party!

I have never had that many people in our home at once, but the weather was beyond perfect and we were able to spill out onto the deck and it was a success.  We had sandwiches for lunch, Rudy’s for dinner, and hired out the cake.  I would have loved to have cooked for everyone, but with a burn ban in effect it was better to bring in dinner.  At least that is what I told myself.

We hung out and played in the yard, watched some football, and just caught up.  Some of us were meeting Pasco Jr. and Saxon Rowe for the first time.  We also tried to take a group picture.  We made sure to put our white on right before the picture was taken and got some good photos.  The best group shot happened to be right before the silly one and Uncle Don did not get the message, but that might be Par for the Course.  You can’t have that many people and expect that each and everyone will look perfect.  We got close.