So how exactly do I sum up the last 9 months in one post?

By events and pictures I suppose:

July 2009: Aaron had frontal ethmoid sinus surgery, which kind of sucked up much of July as he could not swim or exert himself in pretty much any manner.

August 2009:

We took the kids on a cruise. Which they loved. It was fun, but the next one is going to be girls only. No husbands, no kids.

Here are some pictures:

September 2009:

School got under way, and with it my need to organize. I undertook the redo of an extra closet in the kids room:

No, as a matter of fact, it isn't still that neat and clean.

And then came the campaign on steroids, i.e., Aaron's fourth grade student council president election.

We made posters:

And we made t-shirts:

And Aaron made speeches. I tried to upload a video, but my wornout computer is giving me problems. Trust me when I tell you he rocked it.

And he was elected Student Council President

October, November, and December: Okay, truthfully, I don't remember. We had several holidays which were incredibly wonderful and gratifying, I'm sure. Aaron continued in his student council duties, including morning announcements, and slowly but surely becoming a fourth grade rockstar. Clayton really clicked with the reading finally, and continued to excel at math and art. Aaron started back with a new and really great piano teacher in October, after his moved at the end of June.

Oh, and duh, we remodeled our kitchen. I can't believe I almost forgot that.

We painted the walls and the cabinets, and installed new cabinet hardware:

We installed new marble tile countertops:

We installed a new sink and cool faucet:

Put in new bamboo flooring in the kitchen:

And the family room:

We also have piles of the flooring to put in the rest of the house, but haven't had the time to do that yet.

January and February largely revolved around the school spelling bee which Aaron won:

And the county bee, in which he was competing against 44 other students, in grades 4th through 8th. He made it through 9 rounds, before finally being eliminated. He was the 9th competitor left, and the youngest left competing. We are very, very proud of him. And very, very proud of Clayton for his constant encouragement.

The school and city were equally proud of him, and honored him this past Tuesday at the monthly city council meeting:

Mrs. G, the school principal, Aaron, and Mayor Greer


While Aaron has been spelling his heart out, Clayton has been drawing his out. He's been taking a weekly art class for the last few weeks and in that time has sculpted a horse, painted some cupcakes, and learned general drawing techniques. He is having a good time, and learning a great deal I think. He also just started his third soccer season.

We had an actual winter this winter, which doesn't always happen in North Texas, capped off by the largest snowfall in more than 100 years. It was beautiful while it lasted, but a huge mess once it melted:

As for the rest of us? Mike has been working and continuing to teach Sunday school in an amazing way. I have been working a lot, and being really stressed about several of my more difficult cases. I've also been campaigning for a very good friend who is running for judge. Ryan has recently moved in with us and is working while taking a hiatus from school. Christian is doing what Christian does, which as far as I can tell is go to school, play video games and paintball.

That's it. 9 months in a nutshell. It's been a ride.