That's MY boy!!!!

Christian won his first wrestling match tonight! Not only did he win, but he won by pinning his opponent!



Last night- getting out from underneath anyway you can- roll! (Christian is on the bottom)

A nearfall last night (Christian is on the top)

It is sooooo hard to watch some stranger push your son's face into the mat!

The meet last week. Christian on the left.

Christian decided last year (6th grade) to start wrestling. At our school wrestling is a big thing. For instance, last night our varsity team beat another team 72 to 0. We won EVERY match. A lot of these kids start wrestling in kindergarten. I warned Christian before he started, it will be rough, because he would have A LOT of catching up to do. I am sooooo proud of him. He did not win any matches last year and so far this year he had not won any. But he has endured and stuck with it and worked hard. And tonight it paid off!

Nothing new for a long time

I guess we are having a boring winter because I've taken no pictures and don't have much to write about. Highlights are as follows:

Nick- working, new Mahjong addict
Jill- working, still low carbing it
Christian- wrestling all the time
Bella- finally school isn't cancelled, she loves school
Zach- has a bad cold, but is comforted by his new shoes that light up
Abby- seasonal affective disorder- just wants to play ball
Eustace- hiding in whatever cardboard box he can find
Muffy Ann- hiding from Eustace
Myrtle and Squirtle- hibernating

Our house isn't exactly Grand Central Station right now and we are totally fine with that.

Progress in 2009

I think that we are taking baby steps towards our goals so far...

Yesterday each of the kid's had a frozen dinner which officially empties our house of processed foods. They finished the fruit snacks are gone, the juice is gone, everything boxed is gone- aside from Mac and Cheese (which I think is a staple of being a child and won't eliminate from the cupboard- although it tastes fine and is much healthier if you substitute chicken broth instead of margarine- that's a goal). So today I'll be googling recipes and trying to make an all encompassing grocery list to kick off healthful eating for children.

On Wednesday we received several checks in the mail- an overpayment refund from Nick's oral surgeon, a rebate from Mediacom for signing a 2 year contract, and an AFLAC payment from Nick's chin injury last year. Nick and I jokingly said we won the lottery- let me tell you that gets a 5 year old excited! We had to explain that we did not in fact win the lottery and why we would say that. I'm sure it was a big disappointment to her. In line with our debt free goal, we chose to be very responsible and pay our 6 month car insurance premium. That will eliminate that monthly payment for 6 months and in turn we'll put that money towards a credit card bill. What a boring influx of money, but it's all for the greater good, right?

Not in line with our debt free goal- Christian's computer monitor fizzled on Friday night. However we got on CraigsList and found someone local who was selling a never used monitor for $15. So, we escaped that crisis relatively unscathed. And for those of you who know Christian, you know what a crisis it was- for the love of a computer!

We have a busy week coming up. My work is starting using an electronic health record this week- which I've done at a previous job- it is not pretty. Christian has two wrestling meets and one tournament. Bella has dance class. To top it all off, it's my week to work on Saturday so it'll be an extra long week. At least Zach isn't in any kind of class yet... When it's all three of them I cannot even imagine the chaos of life. I'll enjoy this "quiet" while I have it. :o)

Wasted Weekend

What a bummer- I'm sick this weekend. One of the really annoying kinds of sick. I'm not like so sick I want to sleep all the time, but I'm sick enough I don't want to do anything. And I took a nap this afternoon, so now it's 3am and I'm wide awake, feeling awful.

This morning Nick and the little kids and I went to the mall and got some great deals at JC Penneys with a gift card we had received for Christmas. Bella got a new coat (regular price $79.99- our price was $23.99), Christian got some jeans (regular price $55.00- our price $18.99), and I got a long sweater/shirt set (regular price $110.00- we paid $20.00) so take those numbers, subtract our $15.00 coupon and we got a pretty sweet deal. And it was not a minute too soon. When we went to head for the car Bella's coat zipper completely broke and wouldn't zip up. She's very excited as she got a long coat (goes to about her knees) because that is what her teacher has, and her teacher is always warm- or at least that's Bella's take on it. We'll see.

Otherwise it's been a quiet day at home. One very cute thing that happened tonight was that Zach was pretend playing that he was a puppy. He was crawling around, "barking", and trying to be petted. He's our third child, but you forget how adorable all of those firsts are. It's like a brand new thing with each one. And of course his favorite part of his pretend play was that he was supposed to be getting his diaper changed and get his pajamas on but wouldn't come close enough to me that I could reach him. He'd crawl away, and pant, and bark. So like I do to our real dog, I whipped out the "you are a bad, bad dog" voice. He thought that was hilarious. So then he was panting, giggling, barking, and still not cooperating. He's lucky he's so dang cute...!

Resolutions

It's that day- the day we all get to set goals and hope that we can seriously attain them over the next year. And while most times, it only ends up being a good 3-4 month effort, I still think it's good to have things to strive for. My goals include some that are always reoccuring- and a few new.

1. Reduce our debt. My goal is to have 50% less debt on December 31,2009 than we do today. That would mean all things we desire are on hold. Nixing our dream of a Florida vacation in 2009 is probably the hardest dream to give up. But thinking of a day when we could take a vacation, pay cash, and not feel guilty about what we "should" have done with that money is very inspiring.

2. Improve the whole family's nutrition. While I have found much success with Atkin's in the previous few months, making two dinners a night has taken a toll on the kids' nutrition. I have admittedly been searching out "easy" dinners so that I don't spend the entire night in the kitchen. Included in this goal would be eliminating juice, regular soda, fruit snacks, boxed meals, and other convenience/processed foods from our standard supply of food. Also, coordinating dinner so that we all eat together every night.

3. Birthday cards. An old goal that is resurfacing for me. I want to get cards to all of my friends and family to let them know they are important to us, we are thinking of them, and wish them the very best. Everyone likes to get something in the mail- even more so if it is not a bill!

Well, the little kids are in a mid-day bubble bath now so I better use this precious time to get some house stuff done. Zach has been up since about 8am and the house looks like it hasn't been cleaned in months. Oh, 2 is such a fun age!

Happy New Year!