Keep the celebrations coming..........

Well we've had the 1st half of our Christmas and still have more to come. We spent last week in Duncan with my family at least for the most part. We all embarked on my parents home at some time Christmas Eve and the party started. We started with our newest tradition started just last year, dirty santa, Redelsperger style! One party purchases the gifts (with the funds donated by mom and dad, thanks you guys) and then we use the traditional number rules to swap and play. I did manage to come away with some stuff I liked but since I did shop for all the gifts, that wasn't too hard. Now rest assured I did choose an equal amt of male and female gifts lest you men worry about our guys ending up with girl stuff. Then it was off to bed for Santa to come and boy did he remember us. Those kids must have been really good this year. We adults were thrilled that the kiddos let us sleep in till 8:00 which was awesome since we had stayed up so late ourselves trying to see Santa!!! After stockings and Santa we opened our gifts to each other and I think everyone was thrilled. Probably the highlight of the exchange was the Wii which was our family gift. I think we've already just about gotten our money's worth out of it. What fun! I currently hold the tennis record while my sis is a champion bowler. The kids seem to be good at all of it.

Christmas day was a marathon of eating, Wii, naps, playin with the baby cousin (now 3 mo old), and just good old family fun. Mark and I packed our small bags to make a flying trip to Eureka Springs, Arkansas, the next day. We left early Friday morning and made the 6 hr drive in order to see Mark's brother get married. The wedding was Friday evening, followed by dinner and hanging out, followed by a short night there, and back in the car early Sat morning to drive back to Duncan. I have to give the credit to Mark for all the driving although I offered. He drove the whole way and let me sleep and read (neither that he is good at in the car). Thanks honey for a nice little break.

The rest of the weekend was a blur of more eating, church Sunday morning, and Mark's birthday. My sweet hubby turned 35 yrs old yesterday and we had a little cake and singing in his honor. The best part was his gift, which just happened to go along with our Wii. Now I've heard a lot of people talk about Guitar Hero, but little did I know how easy it is to become an addict. After much debate and shopping around my sis and I decided on the entire kit, guitars, drums, microphone, etc. We set up the whole band and boy did we have a blast. From the youngest to the oldest, everyone got a turn, and we even got some on video! I'll have to figure out how to post that one sometime. We came home late last night and have spent all day today trying to unpack and get ready for the 2nd half of our holiday, to be spent with Mark's family. Mark is working this week and I am working Tues/Thur so we have that to finish first.

Hope you all had a great Christmas. More to come when ours is done............

Pay attention or it will be gone before you know it.......

I have to remind myself of this several times a day as I feel like life is almost passing me by it's going so fast. We have been busy as usual, much like everyone else, but I have really tried to just enjoy the moments as they unfold. I really love the Christmas season and am one of "those people" who could listen to my Christmas music almost year round but certainly at least after Halloween. I love coming home to the mailbox each day in December to see what precious person has sent me a Christmas card (preferably a photo card) that day. I promptly open the promising cards and place them in a place of honor on our frig. I then make my way through the house making sure all our holiday decor is plugged in and lit up that I might enjoy every second of the display. I seem to find time to light my candles and turn on the music rather than the tv. I also love the "last" of each weekly obligation as we make our way toward the big day, the last AWANA, the last scout meeting, the last day of teaching my students, the last day of school, and tomorrow will be my last day of work before I leave for my parents. I love the tender appreciation that my children have for the fact that it's Baby Jesus birthday. Having recently celebrated their own birthdays, they seem to hold this distinction in high regard, even if they don't completely grasp the magnitude of what this means for us as sinners. I love the holiday services at church and the old carols along with the newer favorites. I love the lights on the houses and the squeals of joy that come from my precious Addi's mouth at even the simplest of displays. I love baking sweet treats and forcing them on my coworkers as we can't possibly eat everything that I seem to want to make. I love remembering the traditions of Christmas past and building new traditions with my own family. I can't wait to get the whole family together even though we always seems to pass some contagious illness around while we are there! I love blaring my Christmas music and having a marathon gift wrapping session topped off by decorating my freshly wrapped gifts with just the right ribbons and bows. Then I arrange the gifts under my tree just so and relish how very blessed I am to have such an abundance beyond what we need or deserve. I just love Christmas and I hope you are enjoying it as much as I am.

We will be traveling this week so we had our family Christmas last night which didn't disappoint. The kids were excited and Mark and I were pleased with our selections as we seemed to have made some good choices. You fellow parents can relate that it's even better to watch your children open their treasures that you were able to provide than to open your own gifts. Now lest you misunderstand, I do love getting gifts, but gone are the days of true surprises as I seem to be difficult to buy for, according to my hubby. Strange to me as I seem to have no trouble finding things I want at the mall and my various fave stores but anyhoo, we always seem to make the agreement that we aren't going to buy for each other and then I always find a few things for him and I am left either shopping for and wrapping my own gifts or settling for the precious things from the Piedmont Elem Christmas store purchased with love and my money by my children!

Now I know you are all done with this monologue and ready for pics but I must quit playing and get down to business. You see I have approximately 4 more loads of laundry to do before I can pack the 5 of us to leave town for 5 days, a now past Christmas celebration to clean up from, a dirty kitchen from baking, 12 more hrs at work, and a checkbook to balance in the next 24 hrs. So you will just have to wait until I can get those pics downloaded. If I don't post again, as there is a good chance that will happen, at least between now and after Christmas, may you have a very MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Baby it's cold outside..................

Happy Birthday Garrett and Logan

On the candy tour

On the way to Branson

and a mermaid birthday!

Our sweet baby cousin!

It was a Go Pokes Birthday!

Well my friends, it has arrived, the bitter cold arctic air, and I can't say I am too fond of it. Now if I could just hibernate in my home around my fire in my jammies with a cup of hot tea, I could really get into this. But seeing as how I have to drag 3 sleepy children out of bed, layer them in 18 articles of clothing topped of by hats, coats, and hopefully 2 gloves a piece, get them to school, and then drag myself to the hospital and hike the 1/4 mi into the facility (b/c nurses do not get to park anywhere near the door) I could just as soon live without the 40mi/hr wind on top of the air temp in the teens. But I guess it is winter and all and not my 1st winter in OK so this doesn't come as a surprise, just a nuisance. Even worse is the threat of the ice storm and the effects it could have on travel and our electricity, not to mention that this is supposed to last all week. Now since the great weather forecasters have been warning us about this for approximately a week, we were out today in the balmy 65 degree weather stocking up on supplies like every other prepared Oklahoman. Mark and I were thinking that since we have enough wood to keep a fire going for a week, enough fuel for our Coleman stove to cook all winter, and more batteries than even our children could run down, maybe nothing will come of this!

So now that you have my thoughts on the weather, here are our latest undertakings. Most recently like this weekend we have been taking in some awesome Christmas programs. Our church hosted a Christmas contata last night complete with full orchestra and choir which was awesome. We even took Addi Grace who was enthralled with the instruments and danced her way through the performance. The boys enjoyed it as well and played their air drums right along with the percussionists. It really got me in the Christmas spirit. Today was church and the kiddos program was tonight. The boys spent the better part of the day at dress rehearsal. Addi napped and I worked on our Christmas cards which I hope to mail this week. So if you don't get one and you want one, you can email your address (http://www.tracistites@yahoo.com/) and I'll send you one. It may take me all week so just be patient. Like I said, I have to drag myself in to work the next 2 days and I may spend all my xtra time (like I ever have xtra time) thawing. Anyway, the children's program was entitled "It all happened in the country" and was a story about how these city kids got stranded in the country and learned to appreciate the simple things in life including the simplicity of the surroundings that our Savior was born into. It was cute as could be and the kids did an awesome job. I wish you could have seen my oldest son and his solo part. Now it wasn't a singing or speaking part, but rather a dancing part. There was a song called Jingle Rap and as you can imagine was meant to demonstrate the secular side of things as a demo of the city kids lifestyle. Well Logan was the breakdancer and he stole the show. We are so proud! No, really he did the part proud and it was stinkin funny! The best part is that I have the whole thing on video to hold over his head when he is 16 or sooner if need be. Garrett was in the choir for the production and also did a great job.

As I missed the entire month of Nov, I shall cover that briefly. We were busy with birthday marathon as Logan and Addi's birthdays are back to back on the 14th and 15th and lest you think I exaggerate on the marathon part, Garrett's birthday is around the corner on the 16th of this month. So we had friend party, family party, actual day celebrations, etc. And then came Thanksgiving which found us in Branson, MO, with Mark's family. You see some years ago when Mark and I were engaged we went to Branson with his family for Thanksgiving and had so much fun that we have talked about it for the last 12 yrs. So over the summer we decided that we needed to go back so I made some reservations and we did just that. For those of you that don't know, Mark used to live there for 2 summers in college and work at Silver Dollar City. He still knows some people there and we were blessed to get free tickets. Mark worked in the candy shop there and the kids even got a private tour of the candy-making facility. Talk about feeling special, that was cool! We also went to the Dixie Stampede Christmas dinner show, Branson Landing, and of course, my mom-in-law and I breezed through the outlet mall. It was a great trip and a nice change from just a turkey dinner. Thanks to my inlaws we did manage to have our traditional turkey dinner even on the road. I had been ill the week of Thanksgiving and had a terrible sinus infection but I forged on and finally felt better, you guessed it, the day we came home! So in a nutshell that's what we've been up to. Sorry I don't have time for my details but I must get my sweet Addi to bed. I"ll try to post some pics of the above-mentioned fun. Keep warm and get your flu shot if you haven't already, it's not too late. I got mine last week! Just a last minute nurse suggestion!

Another week of memories...............

Well this might be a record, 2 blog posts within a week. I was downloading some pics and thought I might as well share a few. This week really hasn't been too eventful which is good I suppose. Monday was back to school and the usual routine, followed by Tues, Wed, Thur, and Oh finally Friday. This was the last week for me with my 1st group of OBU students so I am up to my eyeballs grading this weekend, or at least I need to be. On Friday some girlfriends from work and I made a trip to the Affair of the Heart. We had a blast just shopping, getting ideas, eating, etc. We made a full day of it and boy were we tired. I had stayed up late Thur evening getting the house ready for some sweet company. We had the priviledge of hosting my mom, my sister, and my new nephew. They came up for the Affair of the Heart as well and spent the night here last night. Today we ventured out to the mall and I ended up spending most of my time shopping for my sweet hubby. Those of you that really know my husband know that clothing is the last thing he wants to spend money on so the only clothes he has are those I buy for him. Well it has been 5 yrs since we purchased his last suit and for someone who has to wear a suit and tie to work, he was in need! They have recently changed his dress code at work to include sport coats. So today I found some great deals and he got a new suit, a sport coat, slacks, shirts, and ties. He is set :) Now if we can just get the suit altered we'll be sitting pretty for at least 5 more years.

This evening has been uneventful, just getting things organized around the house, paying bills, ran to the store for milk, etc. The kids are choosing a movie for family movie night and we are all gonna veg on the couch. Hope you all have a great rest of the weekend. Emjoy the pics!

Fall break...............or the lack thereof.......

Well it has come and gone, fall break that is! And let me tell you with what a vengeance it left and what a mess it left behind. We had the priviledge of spending our fall break this year camping with 3 other families from our church at a place called Marval Trout Camp in eastern OK. It is a beautiful campground located on a river close to Lake Tenkiller that just happens to have a great fall/Halloween lineup of activities and is very family friendly. We packed up the camper last week and headed out Thursday morning to spend 3 nights and arrived home around 6 pm tonight. Between that time and the few minutes ago when I sat down here at the computer, I was a whirlwind of cleanup activity.

For those of you not on the trip and those who have never had the luxury, or those of you who have forgotten what it's like to camp/clean up after a family of five, let me just set the stage a little for you. First of all I should tell you that of the 4 families on the trip, the breakdown included 4 moms, 4 dads, 8 boys, and 3 girls, and a dog! As I said the campground was beautiful but was the great outdoors, fully equipped with dirt, rocks, water, leaves, and misc nature for the children to bathe themselves in from the moment they stepped outside in the morning until we laid them to slumber each night. Add to that an amazing buffett of continuous food, snacks, Halloween candy, caramel apples, smores, pop, etc and you can imagine what their clothing looked like by the end of the day, not to mention the wonderful smell of campfire smoke which has now penetrated not only our clothing but anything that accompanied us on this journey. In fact the smell was so potent that while unloading in our driveway this evening my hubby thought someone was grilling out until I told him it was just the smell coming from our camper!! In addition to the setting and the menu, we packed in a slew of activities also geared to the tune of the messier you were the more fun you were having, ie: pumpkin carving, did I mention caramel apple making, smore making, mini golf, endless bike/scooter riding/ramping, trick or treating, crafts, and on and on. It was a children's paradise and the adults had fun too :)

So as you get a mental picture you might also imagine what the cleanup looked like in our driveway this evening. We pulled in and after a quick bathroom break and a drink we proceeded with the cleanup attack! I went into the camper and proceeded to toss out until it was clean as a whistle. The boys proceeded to transport all the stuff from the driveway into our back hallway, completely blocking any traffic flow through that area and then they were off to tell all their neighbor friends of their recent adventures. This left good ol' mom to sort through the rubble which has consumed my last few hrs. To top it all off, I came home with a severe sinus/allergy attack which has left me miserable. But all in all, what a tremendous success and oh how I wish we were still there. The weather was absolutely amazing and perfect for fall camping. The setting was beautiful and the friendship bountiful. The children played together delightfully with very little disagreement. A good time was had by all, at least I think:)

The rest of our October has been busy, busy just keeping up with the fall semester now well underway. I believe the 1st 9 wks are complete and we have parent-teacher conferences coming up soon. I will finish with my 1st group of OBU nursing students this week and start another next week. Tomorrow starts another full week of activities that promises to consume my every free minute. We had so much fun camping that Mark and I were hoping to get in another fall camping trip before winterizing our camper but as I look at our upcoming schedule I wonder where we can make it happen. Before we know it the holidays will be upon us along with lots of birthdays in our family. We will celebrate 4 birthdays in the next 2 mo in addition to everything on the calendar.

I hope this finds you well and having a blessed fall yourselves!

Love you,
Traci

A lot going on..................

Logan and his friends in Cubscouts in Founder's Day Parade
Awwwwwww Mom!
Awesome seats!

Me attempting a pic with them not cooperating
Me taking their pic without them knowing it
Too cool Logan

1st day of school (they fixed their own hair)
Garrett's favorite food (pic taken for school project)
Auntie KK, Logan, and Garrett at Zio's

Well I'll just warn you this may be a longish post as I have some catching up to do and I'm feelin a little wordy. It's amazing I have any words left as I spent the whole day talking. I took on a new challenge in my life and today was my 1st day to put it into practice. My alma mater, Oklahoma Baptist University, called me a few weeks ago about the possibility of me being an adjunct clinical faculty for their nursing students needing a pediatric clinical experience. I had this same offer 3 yrs ago but was quite pregnant and not really in a position to take on that responsibility. This year however seemed like a great time for something new and exciting so I said yes! Well I shouldn't have been surprised when they asked me for my resume and official application but I must admit I haven't even thought about my resume in about 8 yrs. I begged my poor husband to help me as he is the one current in these endeavors and we sat down to a long Saturday afternoon at the computer. At first all I could seem to come up with were my achievements as a mother as that's what I've worked on for the past 8 yrs but eventually with the help of my college memorabilia box, I remembered I was once quite accomplished in my field. Anyhoo, we pulled together a respectable resume, list of references, and completed the application which required my statement of faith (easy) and my philosophy on higher education (not so easy)!! It wasn't too anxiety producing as I really already had the job. After all they pursued me but of course I wanted it to look good. So adjunct clinical instructor I now am and our first day was today. WOW, how I've forgotten how much I used to not know. My students are 1st semester nursing students so they are green as it gets. I have always loved to teach so this is a good fit for me. I had a good time but boy am I tired. I have 8 students in my group and I oriented them to 3 different clinical areas so we were busy.

But on to more intersting happenings. School is well underway and just when I thought we had weathered the storms of back to school and were sitting pretty with great teachers and children who were thriving under their instruction we get the letter. Logan came home from school today with news that he was getting a new teacher and a letter informing us in no certain terms that is was true. Well as any normal parent would react, we were shocked and frustrated and to be honest angry. You see, Logan's teacher is leaving to be the new librarian/media specialist and when we are reasonable we can be happy for her. However our frustration stems from the fact that this position has been knowingly vacant since prior to the start of school so why was this decision not made then. It seems to me that is would have made more sense to start the school year with a librarian in place and a teacher who would stay with the kids, rather than getting them all used to a great teacher only to out of the blue say, Oh yeah, today you are getting a new teacher! Now you are saying, Traci you need to be reasonable, I am sure there is some good explanantion for all this but I am telling you as a mother I don't want to be reasonable!! This is my child and we were happy with the way things were. So if there is so better explanation that what came home in that letter I'd sure like to hear it!!!! Moving on.....................

Garrett is good. We are working diligently to teach him his letters and sounds b/c when we attended kindergarten orientation a few weeks ago his teach informed us that thanks to a new curriculum they have adopted this year, they will be teaching 2 levels above what has previously been the primary school level. This means in no uncertain terms that they should come into kindergarten knowing their letters and sounds. Well long story short we are already behind. It was so easy with Logan as he is our studious child. Garrett on the other hand is carefree and not really interested in letters and sounds. Despite that we are making progress and we hope someday he will read :)

Addi Grace is status quo, hoping to get that girl in dance soon. She is very into ballerinas right now and loves to dance. Should be a natural! We are enjoying our days just us girls while the boys are at school. Our favorite thing to do is of course shop so we may have to find another past time as this is getting expensive fast. She can be a good little helper when she wants to be. Why just yesterday she was cleaning the toilet with her bubba's toothbrush (don't tell him, I changed it without him knowing).

Happy Birthday to me! Another year has come and gone for me as of last Friday. It was pretty much just another day as birthdays seem to be at this age. We did go out as a family Friday evening to Bricktown and got to take my baby sis with us. We had a lovely dinner at Zio's out on the patio as the weather was delightful. We then spent the evening riding the boats on the canal and visiting all the exciting places like the land run statues, Bass Pro, etc, etc. The kids had fun so I did too! I did get a great little treat the following day though. Some of our awesome friends gave Mark and I 2 tickets to the 1st home game for OSU. Now I have never been to an OSU game so we jumped at the chance. Mark's parents came and stayed with the kiddos so we left around noon and made a day of it. The game was at 6:00 pm so it was really late before we got home but a great game and we won, the best part! We were on the 3rd row from the field so we could practically feel the sweat! It was amazing to see it all in person and be so close to the action.

So as you can see things around here are crazy busy but running smoothly. I am up to full doses of my medicine which still makes me feel crummy at times but nothing incapacitating so for that I am truly grateful. As this whole process started one of my biggest fears was that I would feel bad to the point that I wouldn't be able to keep up my regular duties. That certainly hasn't been the case so I hope it only gets better from here. When I get tired I get bone tired and I ache all over which is definitely a common side effect but I haven't let it stop me. Ironically when I ache the most some mornings the more I get around and do the quicker I feel better. Imagine that!

As usual I will now attempt to download some pictures so we'll see how that goes.

Here are the promised pics..............