2011: A Year in Review

Sometimes it can be overwhelming: how much God blesses me.  I'm married to my best friend, we have a beautiful son, we love our jobs and a T.J.Maxx was just built in Abilene.  Or I just discovered it.  Either way, it's spectacular.  You may not feel that last thing fits in with the others, but then again, you may not understand my love for discount shopping...

It's safe to say that, of all my years (1986-present), 2011 has taken the cake.  To be fair, since Koby and I started dating in 2007 every year after has been the best so far.  (I think that says a lot.)  I'm a firm believer in visual aids, so here's some proof that 2011 was pure heaven.

In January I painted the fox picture that would be my first subconscious indicator that the Blob would be a boy.  We celebrated Koby's birthday in Abilene with his whole family at Lytle Land and Cattle and we began the search for a new house.

House hunt successful!  During Super Bowl weekend in February, Koby and I took a leap of faith and made the move from Sweetwater to Colorado City.  I began to experience insatiable hunger.

Ah, March, you were a great month.  We found out that our little baby was a baby BOY while surrounded by family and friends at Knox's Gender Revelation party... it's probably one of my Top 5 memories of all time.

Koby and I departed on a Tennessee vacation (birthday present courtesy of Koby's thoughtful parents) the day after our party.  We really appreciated the FOLIAGE in Tennessee (it was green) ... actually it was just nice to see trees as well.  Definitely a place we want to revisit.

In April I noticed that I was becoming stupid, we unveiled KNOX as a name possibility, and I turned 25.  Oh, and I looked like this.

May brought the end of school and the next day my best friend Belinda got married.  It was special to be a part of her wedding day and I felt accomplished not to have keeled over in all my heftiness in the 90 degree heat.

My husband also scored his dream job in May.  Joy abounds!

In June I taught the 'Daring Drawings and Curious Colors' Art Camp at the Grace Museum for the second year.  It's one of my favorite summer-time activities.  I dare you not to laugh as you read about how one of my little campers felt on 'orange days'.  Ah, and I began to be very impatient to meet the Knox man (who was still unnamed) and Koby ever-so-happily said farewell to his temporary time in the oil field.

On July 10 Koby and I celebrated our one year anniversary.  I don't really have any good pictures of that because every time I'd set up the self timer on the camera and then try to 'run' away, my waddling would shake the house, thereby shaking the camera and messing up the picture.  We lived each day thinking "any day now" ... and Knox finally came one day before his estimated due date.  The 20th of July, 2011 changed our lives.

August meant back to school - Koby started his first year of teaching at the Elementary school as the P.E. teacher, working also as the 7th and 8th grade offensive coordinator for the football teams and as an assistant to the varsity football team.

In September, Koby and I found ourselves juggling infant-raising, careers and coaching.  We also visited Midland when Koby was in friends' Derek and Kim's wedding.

BUSY was the theme of October.  I traveled to Alabama to be in my high school friend Helen's 'dream wedding' status-worthy ceremony and suare, then Knox and I visited Abilene for ACU's homecoming celebrations and he met some of my DT sisters.  Koby and I also enjoyed festive dress-up days at our respective jobs.

Koby and I spent Thanksgiving in Throckmorton in November.  I think it's pretty cool that we can all get together to do things like take four generations pictures!

Aunt M (Melissa, who hates being called Aunt M) had some basketball games in Abilene the weekend following Thanksgiving.  Koby, Knox and I watched the games with Poppa Layne... I'm so glad Knox was there for some games during Melissa's last ever season of basketball!

In December, Knox turned 5 months old and somehow escaped the stomach virus that got Koby, his dad, our childcare provider, her husband, two of the kids at Knox's daycare, and me... thank goodness.  We traveled to Graham and Throckmorton for Christmas and since I'm too lazy to re-upload those pictures, you can make an easy click and see them a few posts ago.

Phew! Did we really cram that into 365 days?! This post took me surprisingly longer to put together than I'd anticipated but it was completely worth it - I got to relive the highest points of an incredible year. The Andrews' have big dreams, ideas and hopes for this upcoming year: I think it's going to be unprecedented in joy and love.

Ambitions

Now, I like goals.  I like ideas. 

But I am very, very bad at completing things.  I'm not even about to try and resolve to be better about that.  But in the spirit of skirting around that entire character flaw and naively heading into a new year of possibility, here's some things I'd like to focus on this year.

Holiday Outtakes

This holiday season wasn't just a generous time of gift-giving - it was equally as generous with fabulously terrible snapshots.  Inspired by my friend Sarah's recent sharing of her own unfortunate digital discoveries, I'd like to make your holidays a little merrier as well.  Isn't the picture above just as sweet as a sugar plum?

Think again.

Even though he has no idea what's going on, I still take Knox's facial expression as commentary on the proceedings.

If all else in life fails, at least I'll always know my mom thinks I'm funny.  And it's not because she's a lush.

Unsuccessfully trying to slink out of the picture.

There are plenty more where this came from.

 

As I realized Koby was sabotaging every picture, I squeezed him as hard as I could and grunted something like "Stop it, you idiot," thereby ruining this picture.

It's lucky we live in a digital age - I shudder to think of paying for rolls of developed film to find Koby winking at the camera in every shot.  Our marriage may not have survived the eighties.

A beautiful ten-point ... aunt.

Koby farted.

Product of Koby not wanting to get up to get a better angle and me not wanting to scooch across the floor.  Christmas laziness produces album un-worthy photos.  Unless you're making an Outtake Album, of course.

Product of me not wanting to stand up to capture Koby opening his big present.  Result is a picture of his big butt.  Merry Christmas and Happy New Rear.

First Noel

Three Christmases down, one still to go... Koby, Knox and I celebrated Christmas this year in Graham, Throckmorton, and then in Colorado City.  And I should say that we were lucky to do so - Koby and I caught a stomach bug a few days before... the most positive thing I can say about it is that we both jump-started some New Year's weight loss resolutions.  Thankfully, Koby's parents live close enough that they were able to come rescue Knox from what came to feel like our quarantined house.  Enough about that... the Austin Christmas is still TBD due to Koby's coaching schedule.  I'm still trying to make room in the house for the haul we already have.  Which is a problem I absolutely love.  I unabashedly love presents - presents for me, presents for others.  All presents.  PRESENTS!!!! 

What a great time we had with family this year!

122 Teenagers and Me

On some days, it's hard to be a high school teacher.

There's a few reasons for this.

The first reason is the one that comes from my frustrations, my inadequacies, the 'bad Christie' side of my brain.  And the reason is this:  it's really, really hard to be the most mature person in the room all day, every day.  Especially when one's 'co-workers' are hormonal, foul-mouthed, and tired teenagers.  (It doesn't help that by nature I am three of those four things as well.)  Some days it's really hard to stick up for the student the others are bad-mouthing, because everything they might say is true.  Some days it's really hard not to point out the correlation between their awful behavior and their insecurities.  Some days it's easier to take my frustrations out on them, like they do to me.  Some days it's challenging not to reciprocate the sarcasm.  (And some days I fail.)  It's hard to be a high school teacher on those days.

But the second is that I love hormonal, foul-mouthed, and tired people.  And the fact that the ones I work with every day are teenagers makes it hard to show that love.  When bad news just bursts out of their mouths because they need to tell someone, I can't hug them like I would my own baby when he was crying.  When they tell me they've never gotten anything they really wanted for Christmas, I can't buy them an Xbox, a car, or more time with their parents.  Some class periods I cannot give enough attention to all the kids who so desperately need and want it from me and I feel like a person being pulled from all sides.  When I see them hurting, some days I wish I was teaching kindergarten, not high school, and then I could hug them and hold them and wipe their tears.  It's hard to be a high school teacher on those days. 

The past few months have been the kind during which I felt a disconnect between what I knew was true (I am grateful for my job) and what I felt was true (but I am going to lose my mind if I have to go to first period for one more day).  Thank God (seriously, I'm thanking God here - I've been in prayer about this) I have finished the school days for the past few weeks with an attitude of satisfaction.  I can really feel my whole attitude has changed - my joy has been restored here.

Hopefully my incredibly honest post has not offended you, and if you have children in school, I'm sure your teachers are never thinking these things about your child.

Christmas Card Reject

I'd include Koby's and my rejected photos, but they fall on the 'unfortunate' side of rejected, rather than adorable.

Stolen Identity

Okay, I'll accept it: pregnancy and childbirth changes a woman.

I always promised myself I'd never be one of those moms; you know, the puffy-haired blonde ones with dark brown roots three inches long and bad haircuts, wearing mom jeans complete with the mommy-pooch of the stomach, looking harried and harassed with dark under-eye circles and a hoarse voice.

I told myself this, but I am realizing that these (we?) women venture out in public looking so for a reason.  It has come to my attention that pregnancy/motherhood has indeed taken its toll on my physique and appearance, and what's more, it is startlingly obvious to others.  I know this namely because of the interactions happening during times when it is required that I present my driver's license for identification purposes.

Here is my driver's license.  (Yes, I added a gratuitous inch to my height when I was 16 and filling out the paperwork.)  I look tan and happy because I've just returned from my Jamaican honeymoon.  I've been told it's a good picture.  So, gathering what I know about this picture (it's good), I can venture to say that I no longer look like this (good) because people literally do not believe that it is me.

When I was coming home from Helen's wedding in October, the man at the airline gate looked at my picture, then at my face, then at my picture (rinse, lather, repeat) for an uncomfortably long time before asking me for additional identification.  I promised him that it was me, but he didn't seem convinced.  I became a little panicky: it seemed like this could rapidly become a situation like one out of a 'stolen identity' movie and in those moments I saw myself battling police, FBI agents, and Russian spies, "I AM Christie Andrews!!"

Granted, I did look like this:

 Eventually, he believed me and I began what would be a much-delayed trip back to Texas.  Since that day, similar situations have occurred.  Today, in Walmart, I was trying to buy a bottle of wine in the self-checkout line when the lady came to check my I.D.  The same dance ensued: she glanced at my photo, took a long, hard look at me, and then, frowning slightly, looked back at my picture.  Repeat, repeat, repeat.  What?!

I mean, alright, I'm a little bit pale.  Night after night of interrupted sleep hasn't done wonders for my skin and I've got a few pounds to lose... and a trip to the hairdresser could be in order, but I AM Christie Andrews!!  Of course, it may have been harder to tell because I wasn't exactly smiling at the law-abiding WalMart employee. 

This is probably a more accurate depiction.  Maybe in some small way I should take it as a compliment?  Maybe parenthood has, in actuality, made me look like a 20 year old, still young and desperate enough to use a fake ID in WalMart to procure a three dollar bottle of merlot...  In any case, I'm willing to keep this new identity, occupational hazards notwithstanding.



 In other news, Christmastime is in full swing in the Andrews home.  In between chores today I'm wrapping gifts (not one of my talents, but I enjoy it all the same.  I like to think my juvenile skills inject some childlike wonder back into the holidays) and watching Love Actually on repeat.  And hanging Knox's new stocking!

Turns out it's not edible.

I haven't forgotten about my practice of simplicity - through some struggles with frustration, impatience, and self-doubt (see paragraphs on mommy jeans above) I'm learning to depend on God's daily provision.  Don't pray to be changed without expecting the opportunities. 

Simplicity has so much to do with joy - the kind that isn't situational.  A focus on this discipline fit so well within the month of giving thanks, and it was additionally enriched by the book One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp, a present from my mother-in-law.  Simplicity and thanksgiving walk hand-in-hand: I'd highly recommend this book, even if you believe you don't have a single speck of beauty in your life.  Or maybe especially then.

Right now I'm thankful for the 16 pound baby sleeping on my left arm and in my lap, though he's making it very difficult to type.  'Til next time...