Holiday Travels

Today I am writing this blog sitting in the kitchen of a wonderful cabin in Ruidoso, New Mexico. As I sit here three deer have strolled by paying no attention to the two little boys causing such a ruckus. There is only about ten inches of snow here and yesterday it was 45 degrees, so basically conditions are great for everything except for skiing! It is a little depressing for Bill to be this close to a ski lift and not actually get to use it, but he is managing through. We are going to go tubing with the boys and the rest of the family this morning, then Mom, Grandma and I are going to hit the shops. We have found a tea room that looks just perfect! bill and Dad are hoping to keep the boys all day and the escape to the casinos tonight. This has been a great Christmas gift from my Grandma. I will post pictures soon!

*I almost forgot...last night Bill and I decided to run to the store and get the essentials for breakfast and a bottle of wine. We plugged our coordinates into our new GPS (#3 for us) and off we went. The cabin we are at is about at the middle of the mountain, but the roads leading to it were clear. Well, "Samantha" decided that the quickest way home from the IGA store was over the top of the mountain and to our cabin. What Samantha does not take into consideration is the fact that no one has traveled this road since it snowed ten inches! About two miles into this journey I realized we were not on a safe course. We were winding up these ICE covered roads in the dark. One turn proved to both of us that potentially sliding off the side of the mountain was all together possible. I tensed up and was on the verge of hyperventilating. He said as we stopped the car, "We might really be screwed!" That did not help my level of anxiety1 He was able to slide back down the hill and turn around without falling off the side of the cliff and then drive us back to the cabin. MY HERO! I turned Samantha off after using some choice words to describe my feelings for her!

The Week Before the Week Before Christmas

The stress has hit and the frenzies have started! Christmas is in the air and we can not avoid it any longer. I was feeling pretty good about my Christmas planning so far. I did most of my shopping the day after Thanksgiving, yes I am one of those crazy people. We did all of our decorating that weekend as well. So needless to say I was feeling pretty relaxed about the whole thing. That is until today! For some strange reason it hit me this afternoon that I needed to do this and that and get the house clean, and finish the laundry , and blah blah blah! I did not recognize the symptoms at first but I do now it is TWBTWB Frenzies (the week before the week before). For some reason the week before Christmas is ridiculously busy for me. I always thought it was because I was a teacher and usually held off to do a lot of shopping until I got out for break. Now I just think it is going to happen no matter what. So in anticipation for that week before Christmas I have the week before stress. HA! This week I will buy the stuff to bake the goodies, finish the wrapping process, and buy those last minute stocking stuffers that the boys just decided they could not live without. :) We are adding a few detours this week that were not planned in advance. The Wylie Pirates have made it to the State Football Finals and now we are going to Houston for the weekend. Not at all in the plans, but hey we would not miss it. It is also giving us an excuse to go see Chad and Samantha. So to all of you that suffer from the same frenzies as I do know that the cure is only 2 weeks away.

Slacker

It has been brought ot my attention that I am a bloggin' slacker! I think that is cyber talk for we miss you. (I will go with that!) The last few weeks have been a very trying time at work so I have been mentally exhausted when I get home. Anyone able to second that? I am sure it does not matter if you work in or out of the house you just have those days when you search for the sollice of a quiet room with fluffy pillows and not a child in sight. Unfortunately, not all of that is possible all the time. I am however blessed with great children and a wonderful husband that let me have my moments sometimes.
There have been some other things going on as well. As you might have read a few blogs back I was quite frustrated with the way things were, I took the direction of church to focus my blog on, but really there was more. Bill and I had come to a real fork in our marriage. Maybe fork is the wrong word... lets say a speed bump. Our lives had become so busy and "life focused" that we had neglected the US part of our marriage. We were great parents, good Sunday School teachers, good friends and family members, but not good spouses. So we decided to seek counseling. Marci Holloway was the therapist that we started going to a few months ago. The first meeting was brutal! I am not sure what I expected, but I was an emotional wreck when I left. We had discussed so many feelings out loud that my wounds were wide open and they hurt! I ended up taking the next day off just to reflect on what we had talked about and how I wanted to fix me so I could work on the US. She had a gentle way of putting things in a way that made me finally be honest with myself. Bill and I began reading a book together about improving ourselves first in order to create a great marriage. We have taken some huge steps in our relationship, but none as great as those we have taken over the last few months. That is the only reason I feel comfortable sharing this with everyone. We are never finished working on our marriage, but we have some wonderful tools now that we know how to use when needed. I am very proud of the emotional maturity we are working on building together. We have learned that marriage is a masterpiece in progress. As early as our relationship started we should have one heck of a picture when this is all said and done.
I love you Billy Lambert!