Don't Give Up!

A good friend from work gave me this wonderful pattern from her crochet magazine. I was so excited to make this for my extremely independent daughter. I knew I was going to make a bunch of crochet food, so I figured, how hard would it be to make this menorah for Hanukkah? I was much too confident. It was much more difficult than I thought originally. I got the base done but it didn't seem to be working the way the pattern said it should. Plus I was doing it during my 15 minute breaks at work so Tzipi wouldn't see it. The candles were easy to make, but the branches were a bit more challenging. Then when it came to make the most important part, the horizontal bar that holds the whole thing together, the bar did not work at all. I tried it three different ways and it just looked horrible. So when my Mom came for a visit, I asked for her expertise and Voila! It's done. There was a point before my Mom came that I almost threw the whole thing in the trash. I was so frustrated. But seeing Tzipi so excited about her very own Menorah, I'm glad I got help and didn't quit.

Aviel

Eight years.....They've gone by so fast. It's been a long road but it's amazing to look back and see how much we've been through. The first thing I remember about Avi were his beautiful brown eyes. He has a wonderful smile and knows how to make me smile. We have so many things in common. On top of our shared ideals, we love to read and enjoy traveling and walking.
He has a very good eye for photography as well. He can always find the perfect lighting and background and can always seem to make even our grouchiest kid smile.

Before we had children, I had a feeling he would be a wonderful father. I was right. He isn't afraid to run around and play "tag" with kids. He is the pack leader for our son's Boy Scout troupe. He can entertain an entire room of rowdy boys with one quick word.

He is eternally patient with me and is always so very encouraging. No matter how tired I am or discouraged, he knows exactly what to say to help me feel better.

We take our marriage very seriously and it takes a lot of TLC to keep it going strong. We have a lot to learn but look forward to the years ahead because it only seems to get better with time.

He loves to take the kids to the park and play with our children. Our daughter could swing for hours at a time if we'd let her. Zippy loves her Daddy very much, but when I'm home, "Abba's fired". She is a big helper to daddy around the house.



Our son Zee is definitely a chip off the old block. Zee is so much like his Daddy that we hear it all the time when family gets together.

From the day we married, Avi's family has made me feel like I've always been a part of the family. There are monthly family meals and the cousins get to spend lots of time together. Family has always been very important to Avi and it's wonderful to be so close to family here in Texas. He had the opportunity a few years ago to get to know my family when we lived in Wyoming, and we hope to visit Wyoming again soon.
I love you Avi my dear.

Azariah

Nearly 7 years ago a beautiful, funny, intelligent boy was given placed in my tired arms. 9.5 lbs of pure love.
Azariah David is my first born son. He's been through quite a lot in 7 years. Many many surgeries and more than his fair share of time with doctors. He takes it all in stride and does his best not to make it more difficult than it already is on his parents.
We were blessed to have nearly 5 full years of time to ourselves as I was a stay-at-home mom for those five years. We spent our time at the library and at museums and every experience we had was an opportunity for learning.

Now that he's in first grade he doing such a good job learning all that his teachers throw at him. He is a very thoughtful boy that tries very to please those in charge. He is a perfectionist that hates making mistakes. He has very particular tastes and prefers to have his room just so. He has great adventures outside. Loves to take baths but is nervous about swimming. This summer he took the training wheels off of his bike. He's not truly confident without the training wheels, but we know he'll be back in the saddle Summer 2009.

He loves to sing and we are working on learning to play the piano.

He loves to make movies with his sister and loves to tell her what to do.

His favorite thing to do is to play video games and spend time playing on the computer with me.

He loves his whole entire family and loves to spend as much time with them as he can. Every day he surprises me with all he knows.

My most prized gift from God... my children.

Tzipporah

Three years old. I can not believe it. It feels like yesterday that I was going to the ob-gyn all the time and praying for a healthy baby. I was so excited to be having a little girl. When my doctor told me that we needed to go to the hospital and be induced because her cord was strangling her, I was so nervous. After having such a difficult labor with my son, I was willing to go through it again if it just meant that my daughter would be born healthy. Then after my hour labor I laughed and told the nurses to "give me another baby, that was easy"! I saw her blue little body and remember the doctor spanking her little tushy and hearing her lusty cry. I prayed Shema during the entire labor. When I held her and saw her beautiful face I knew everything would be fine.

She was an easy baby given the fact that I had post partum depression so badly. I'm surprised I survived those awful weeks. I would look at her face and feel miles away from her. I was desperate to snap out of it. When I finally had the strength to be honest to face my mental illness, the medicine helped quickly. I felt like my old self. When I woke up from the nightmare I finally had the chance to embrace my baby and work on building a relationship with my new growing family. Big brother Azariah was a huge help. Considering he was only 4, he wanted so much to learn everything he could about his new sister.
I love being a mother and watching them grow up. I have a very difficult time with the whole sibling thing, but being an only child I work hard to give them special "alone" time with me. She struggles with her temper. She doesn't bottle like Zee and I do. She's very expressive and lets her needs be known as soon as she has them. I love her love of books and her ability to learn quickly. She loves to get dressed up and play with Mommy's make up. She's my rough and tumble princess and I love her dearly. I'll write about my son later this week. Stay Tuned...

December's Visit

My parents came for a visit this weekend. We had a pleasant time. It's been about 6 months since I've seen them. My kids had a blast (of course). My cat had a blast teasing my Mom's dog Chorney.

It's great not living so far from family anymore.

Next year Mom and Dad are getting chickens for their farm. They built the most beautiful chicken coop. We'll have to go down to their house so the kids can play with real live chickens.

They have a bunch of goats that the kids love to feed. Mom grew a wonderful veggie garden and she had a great first harvest. I'm sure this next year will be better than ever. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine my parents would have land with animals and grow their own food, but I'm glad they do.
They won't be able to travel up north as much to visit, so we'll have to go visit them. Over the plains and through the mesquite, to Grandma's house we go!

Our favorite family member

I never thought I'd ever have another pet after I moved away from home. But here it is 8 years
later and we have this amazing cat. Her name is Dust Bunny. She started out a tiny puff ball and grew into this intelligent mouser/roach cop, that loves to cuddle and will tolerate my rowdy children. She has organized a cat club in our tiny neighborhood. They police the block and alert their families of strangers and dogs. This week someone left a decapitated mouse carcass on my front step. Gross as it was, I felt good that the neighborhood Mousers were doing their jobs.

I mentioned earlier that Bunny tolerates my children. More than that, I think she actually enjoys their naughtiness. She can dish it right back to them. Smack, growl, bite... OUCH! Eema!!! But she will chase them around the house and my son and daughter actually fight over the responsibility of feeding and watering her.

She is such a good cat that she stopped using the catbox. For most people that would be terrible. She prefers the great outdoors as her latrine. Unfortunately we can't take the chance of her freezing to death in the frigid winter weather we're having in North Texas; so we have to force her to live a more domesticated lifestyle and act like a normal house cat.

She started her life as a feral kitten in my parent's pecan orchard, but you wouldn't have known it the day she came to visit our house. It was love at first sight. We love her so much.

My husband enjoys cuddling with her. We worry about her when she gets into mischief and work hard to keep her entertained.

We are definitely CAT people. Meow...

Toastmasters

My favorite thing to do in my spare time, is plan my next speech for Toastmasters. I am Vice President of Education for my local Toastmasters club. It is the most wonderful thing I've ever done for myself. I get to meet the most interesting people, learn new communication and leadership skills and have opportunities to compete in district competitions.

I've accomplished my first 10 speeches which resulted in my Competent Communicator Certification. I am now working on my Competent Leadership Certification concurrent with my Advanced Communicator Certification.

This week we learn of the new officer's election results for the 2009 term. I ran as Vice President of Education and hope to learn that I will be serving this same position January to June this coming new year. I've created a tracking system for our members as well as assign duties for each meeting. I am also planning a Table Topics competition with the current VP of Membership.

You may wonder why Toastmasters would be interesting. Public speaking=fun? Are you sadistic? Are you crazy? We'll leave that for a future speech. Women are natural speakers, but to speak well and in front of people you may not know, now that is a skill to have. The people that join Toastmasters are dedicated to self-improvement, professionalism, and tend to be very open minded individuals. We have a strong belief in right and wrong, but are able to listen to opposing views.

From my fellow Toastmasters, I have learned about Aruba, how to install a kitchen dispose-all, zero tolerance, what it's like to ride a motorcycle in Amarillo, the wonders of grandchildren, and many more things.

If you would like to attend a Toastmaster meeting, I can make that happen.