A New Year, A New Home, A New Hope

Okay, so I have to clear things up a bit with my last couple of posts. Many of you have written or posted that you were worried about us. Please, don't be worried about us. Although, financially, things are tight, we are certainly not down and out. We have been blessed to be able to pay our bills, still put food on the table and we have an AWSOME place to live. We all love our home so much, that staying in it instead of going to movies or going out to eat, etc., really helped our morale! So don't be worried about us because we are doing fine. The only thing I really felt horrible about was not being able to send gifts, etc. for the holidays. I had made candy for everyone, but we ran out of money to ship them. Does this mean we starved for Christmas? No, we had plenty and what was so heart warming was how understanding our kids were. Okay, 'nuf said...no worries...

That being said, we had a wonderful holiday! The kids were excited with their gifts even though this is the first year we didn't by any electronics or games, etc. Santa brought so much candy that although we bought a ham for Christmas, we ended up not having Christmas dinner because everyone was so full! :o) We found it kind of funny! We bought our tree early this year, and because we did so, Christmas day was: 7:30 AM presents, 8:30 AM play time, 9:00 AM start taking ornaments off tree, 10:00 AM tree was out of the house.......and yes, it was because Alicia was scared of the fire hazard...felt good to get it out of the house!

December 26th is Stacey's birthday! He turned 35 this year and was awfully depressed about it too. But, to spite that, we had a great day! The kids and I stayed up late setting up Stacey's surprise. Again, it wasn't much, but he was surprised, which I've never been able to do before. We had gotten gift cards for Red Lobster from our friends for Christmas and it allowed us to go out to eat at a nice restaurant. It was very special! Stacey got a gift card to Gamestop as part of his surprise. And, as a treat to him, I let him bring the X-Box 360 down to the big T.V. and play his new game. He really seemed to enjoy his day, and that made us all fee pretty good!

A few days after Stacey's birthday, his parents arrived for a visit! It is ALWAYS great to see them...they really make you feel like everything is going to be okay. We had a second Christmas with them (minus the tree) and just had a great time hanging out. We even got Mom & Dad to play Guitar Hero on the Wii! :o) Too funny! We went out to Outback for dinner and then they took us to Costco as a gift for Christmas & Stacey's Birthday. It was amazing! I saved over $100 on my last grocery bill because they stocked us up with everything from toilet paper to meat to snacks for the kids...it was such a BIG help! Thanks again Mom & Dad!
Stacey's parents were able to stay through new years....so even though I know they have fallen asleep before midnight in the past, they stayed up and helped us celebrate! The kids were excited to get extra snuggle time too before they left.

So now it's a new year. I have a second interview at USAA on Monday and I'm very hopeful for this position (as an Auto Adjuster). It pays well and has fantastic benefits and even more fantastic advancement opportunities! Hope is in the air!

Emily is playing basketball this season. She made it on Varsity which is 12 of the better girls from the 7th and not so good from the 8th. They have a second varsity team for just 8th graders...yeah, I'm still confused on how it works. I got some video from her first game, but everytime I was rolling, the other team scored...we think it was because I was filming! :o) But, the Lady Falcons won their first game and Emily was very excited about that! I'll hopefully get the video up and running so you can see her....she is number 44 in the blue.

Spencer is doing pretty well in school. He only got in trouble once for "odd" behavior (he hid under his desk because he doesn't like public praise). He did come home with an F on his report card, but it was in spelling which is his best subject, so I have a conference to find out what's going on. I'm sure it was a miscommunication as it was his first term at the school. Socially, though, he's doing much better and he seems to like his teachers, which is a huge thing.

We put in an application for James Irwin Charter School for next year. They have a lottery in February, so we're hoping to get in. We aren't impressed with Carmel Middle School in meeting the needs of our kids. Emily needs to be in higher grades, and although she tested for TAG over a month ago, they are not able to give us the results. She was in 8th grade math in Germany and the lady here said she tested into 8th grade math and english but they never put her in those classes. I just feel like they are wasting her time. The music program is HORRIBLE, and Emily dropped out because it was holding her back. So, at the beginning of February, I'll be giving Emily saxophone and piano lessons so she'll be ready for whatever happens. With Spencer, I don't think Carmel will challenge him to his potential. The Charter school is VERY STRICT from what I hear, but they have excellent advancement programs, some college credit programs, an awesome music program and social/psychological programs that will help Spencer.

Well, that's about it for now. I'm sure we'll have a little more news next week about work...that will change everything here! Perhaps this year will bring a job for Alicia, a great school for Spencer & Emily and a promotion for Stacey....So greetings from Colorado Springs! If you're ever in the area, let us know! We'd love to have you!

HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM THE BLASINGAMES!