The Four Christmas Run-Down

Well, I think Christmas is over for us. *whew* It has been an interesting whirlwind this year!

On Tuesday, we had Christmas over at Joe's brother and his wife's house. Nora told me that her stomach hurt just before we went over, but I couldn't figure out what the problem was. She appeared normal. Shortly after we arrived (a 2-minute drive at the most), Nora threw up everywhere...including down my shirt. She continued to get sick several times over the night and was very clingy to me. I had high hopes that she would be feeling better in the morning.

Luckily, she seemed just fine on Christmas Eve morning. I had 6 pies to bake and make sure all the gifts were lined up for Christmas with my step-dad's family. I also needed to run through my solo of, "O Holy Night," a few more times to make sure I was sharp for that evening's service at our church. Around 3 pm, we went over to my step-grandparent's house and waited for the festivities to begin. My mom called Joe at the last minute to see if he could run to Salina to pick up a gift that was too large to fit in her car. They acted sneaky about it, so I suspected it was for me. After everyone arrived over at the Hoover's, Joe and I came back home to make sure Santa came to visit Nora. Joe worked today (Christmas Day), so we asked Santa to come a day early. When we walked in the house, I saw what Joe had to go into town for--dining room chairs! I'm so excited about them! I've had my dining room table for a couple of years now, but I didn't have matching chairs. After that excitement, we went back over to have dinner and open presents. I then left to go sing at church. Unfortunately, the computer in the sound booth was not working correctly and my DVD would not play in it over the speakers in the sanctuary. I ended up arranging for the pianist to play it for the congregation to sing instead. I didn't stay for the service. I was pretty disappointed since I'd worked hard to be ready for it. Oh well, maybe next year. After staying for a little while longer at my step-grandparent's house, we came home to give Nora the rest of her gifts. (And for me to give Joe his--he gave me mine earlier). We settled in for the night with Nora's favorite gift...a kitten...hiding out in the bathroom. I ended up bringing the kitten in bed with us. She stayed for the most part, but was traumatized this morning when she saw Buddy. He didn't do anything but stand there, but she is scared back into hiding again.

Today, Nora and I went out to my mom's house for one last Christmas. My brother, his fiancée, and their newborn daughter joined us. We had a good, relaxed time and just enjoyed hanging out with each other. I wish Joe could have been there, but he was on duty. Somebody has to save the world. :) Nora is down for a nap right now, but when she gets up, we'll head in to town to visit him at the fire station.

A new adventure begins for me tomorrow, but more on that later. For now, enjoy some of our pictures from Christmas 2008!

The Christmas Letter

To All of Our Friends and Family...and Random People on the Internet,

We hope this letter finds you happy and healthy! We didn't get a holiday letter out last year, so I hope you'll be able to put the pieces together if you have missed something.

In February, we moved to Minneapolis, KS. My mom and step-dad built a new house, so we moved into their old one. It originally was owned by my step-dad's grandparents, so it is neat to have it still "in the family." Upon moving here, we quickly became involved in the community. We started attending the United Methodist Church and have been warmly welcomed. I am a member of the hand bell choir and sing a lot of solos during services. Joe has given a fire-safety presentation, and Nora tends to entertain everyone during the services. Besides being active in church, Joe is particularly busy with things in town. He volunteers for the fire department here, works some part-time hours for our EMS, and is a member of the special rescue team for the county. We really love our new little town! Joe's brother and his wife moved to Minneapolis only a month after we did and my step-grandparents are here in town, as well. It is nice to have people just down the street that you know and love--especially when you are new in town.

In case you didn't already know, Joe was hired onto Salina Fire Department in May 2007. After 5+ years of going through the rigors of testing and interviewing for departments around the state, he persevered and made it! It has been wonderful for us. He loves his job and the schedule is fantastic. He works 24 hours on duty and then has 48 hours off. He's taken a few classes to further his career already and will be certified as an arson investigator next September. He is also in the beginning stages of the driver mentoring program at the department. Once he completes that, he'll be eligible to test for a driver's position. The test is only available after so many years of service. I think it will be another 3 years before he would be able to test, but he's very happy with his position of firefighter. When he finds time away from the emergency services, he enjoys spending time working on our house. Things have been at a stand-still for a little while, but he has almost completely redone the bathroom. He also repainted the outside of the house. The house is a fixer-upper, so we'll almost always be busy with projects. His biggest pride and joy is our little girl, Nora. It is so sweet to see the two of them together. She is a big daddy's girl and he is madly in love with her.

If you can believe it, Nora is 2 years old! She is our little joy, that's for sure. She is always making us laugh and surprising us with what she knows. She has a lot of friends through church and is also friends with our neighbor kids. Her best friend, though, is our Yellow Lab, Buddy. She gives him lots of hugs and kisses and likes to play around with him. He's a pretty good sport, although I think he'd rather nap most of the time. Nora loves to sing, dance, read, and play. She was a little slow on talking, but is really starting to catch up. We will have to watch what we say around her very soon. She'll be a little parrot in no time. My brother's fiancée just had a baby girl on December 4th, and Nora is thrilled to have a little baby around. She doesn't know just yet that she will have a friend and playmate soon. For now, she's content to hold and talk to the baby. So cute!

I stayed at home with Nora until she was 18 months old. Then, I decided to go back to work part-time as a substitute teacher. I only work at the schools here in town and on the days that Joe is off (no daycare worries for us!). I still stay pretty busy with those limitations. I really enjoy the variety of doing something different each day that I work. I sub for every class at every level, so it makes life interesting! Through subbing, I discovered that I have a strong desire to be a grade school teacher. (I majored in agricultural education in college). Because of that, I made the decision to return to school to earn my degree in elementary education. I'm only taking classes part-time over the internet, so it will be several years before I am ready to have my own classroom. The plan is to go back to work full-time after our child(ren) are in school. Until then, I will continue to sub.

We wish you nothing but the best in this holiday season! We hope that 2009 will be a prosperous year for you. Please feel free to check back to this website for frequent updates on our lives. We hope to hear from you soon!

Much Love,

Joe, Sylvia and Nora

A Very Proud Wife

I'm so very proud of Joe! He makes me proud all the time, but I am brimming with pride now. His last shift on duty, they were called out to two big house fires. He didn't get home until about 10:30 am because they were still cleaning up from the last fire they were on. He came home exhausted, but was a good daddy and took care of Nora while I went to sub for the afternoon. At 1:30 am, he was called out to a building on fire in our tiny town. (He volunteers for our town as well as working full-time as a firefighter for the next town over). The chief asked him what he thought they should do, so he told them--and they followed his instructions! The building was in a strip of buildings connected to each other. The businesses on either side of the building were unharmed, but the building that burned REALLY burned. All that is left is the brick facade. It is amazing to see. I'm planning on going down later to take some pictures of it.

Joe is my hero!

I'm an aunt!

Yesterday, my future sister-in-law gave birth to my very first niece. Her name is Kirri Jalaysia. She was born at 3:25 pm and was 19 1/2 inches long and 7lbs, 1 oz. I was able to hold her for a few minutes when she was less than an hour old! I think she looks just like my brother, but I haven't ever seen Prisca's baby pictures. Here are the pictures that were on the hospital's website.