My Last Year in My Thirties

 I turned 39 this year. When we moved to Texas, I had just turned 30, so we've been here almost a decade. The time sure flies! I grew a lot as a person in my thirties. I'm getting older, and that will be hard as time goes on, but I don't think I would exchange it for the things I've learned. I know more about myself and about what I want. I know that I'm allowed to want things. I have some systems and habits in place that I use to manage my life and help me reach my goals. I have goals! And this year I reclaimed my own attention from phone distractions. It took several months for me to notice a difference, but now I really do. Turns out my brain works so much better when I'm not constantly driven to check my phone. This decade, I've also learned a lot about getting revelation, and my relationship with God has progressed. 

So as I approach 40, I can report that I like my life! There are still lots of challenging things about it, and life is always going to be that way. But I feel like I have more skills and more experience to face the challenges. I know how to take care through the challenges. And the gray hairs are coming in! Woohoo!

I got a special gift for my birthday this year. It was an ice storm, which in Texas means that everything is cancelled. Sunday and Monday we had home church and relaxed and snuggled together. And Monday I got to write and read and talk to my family. And Aaron bought me a cheesecake (on Saturday before the ice storm) from the cheesecake factory. I really enjoyed my day. I also registered for Storymakers, and I am SO excited to go this year. 

Home church!

My writing group is two years old, and we got a logo! Pretty fancy!

  

Utah Christmas Extravaganza

With my parents currently serving a mission at Church headquarters and Aaron's parents just north of that, we decided to make the pilgrimage to Utah this Christmas season. But nobody wants to travel with presents. So we left on Christmas afternoon. 

Christmas felt really hectic to me this year. I'm not sure why. I tried to be on the ball, getting presents ready before December. But doing so didn't lessen my stress. So on Christmas Day I sat in the airport, finally done with getting everything prepped and making everything magical, and I felt a little bit like a zombie. We waited at our terminal for about forty-five minutes, and I just stared into space for that whole time. My frazzled nerve endings needed to recover. Later in the week, my college-aged nephew said, "Christmas is finals week for moms." So true! I think I was caught up a little in the thick of thin things. It wasn't my favorite Christmas Eve/Day ever. But live and learn. 

Our friends the Lundgrens were sick, so we weren't able to do our Christmas Eve celebration with them:(But we still exchanged food! Christmas isn't Christmas anymore without Swedish meatball in addition to rice pudding.

In Utah we had a whirlwind of family activities. We spent one day with the Dennis family then the next day with the McCombs family, and so on. We had a family dinner with both, sat in a hot tub on top of a frigid mountain, went to church in Felicia's ward to hear her speak and had dinner at her house after, puttered one day at the Dennis house, watched the BYU bowl game, learned how to juggle (kids did anyway--thanks, Alan!), walked to DI, had lunch at the fancy SLC Harmon's, saw my parents work, met a senior missionary from Taiwan, went to a movie, went to the temple, and talked all about RS things with Aaron's mom who got set apart that weekend as president in her ward. 

And...these pictures are in reverse order. (And my camera doesn't take good pictures anymore. Something is wrong with the focus.) 

My parents' church building, right next door to the fancy Harmon's.

Brain-dead mama! Good thing I bought myself a Shiatsu neck massager for Christmas!

It was really nice to be with family over the holidays. We get a little lonely down here in Texas. It's a blessing to have such amazing family members to visit. And it's a good thing it was fast Sunday this week so our bodies could recover from the endless stream of sugar and fat that we shoved into them all week long. Yum. 

16 Years of Annie and Thanksgiving

 Our little Annie-girl turned 16 years old! Her birthday was on a Tuesday which is her busy day--piano lessons, voice lessons, teaching piano lessons, math class, and seminary. We were over-sugared from Halloween, and she was planning on having cake for her party later that weekend, so Annie just had some birthday ice cream. 

Also, breakfast in bed. 

I made a photo book for Annie with some baby photos we had recovered from a damaged external hard drive that we stupidly stored all of our pictures on with no back up. So there were some pictures in it she'd never seen before of her babyhood. And by a birthday miracle, the book arrived on time!

Here's an ode to Annie from the book:

"Happy birthday, dear Annie! We've loved you since before you were born! And here's proof that we've dressed you up in Halloween costumes since before you were born! Maybe that's why you love making costumes so much. You're welcome!

Getting you here to earth and raising you has been a team effort. We have loved being your parents. You have grown and changed and yet remained uniquely yourself through all the years.

We hope you enjoy this pictorial ode to your awesomeness. What would we do without you??

(We would eat fewer baked goods, step on fewer pins, have more available horizontal surfaces, and be very, VERY SAD!)"

And she went on a date! It was a stake date dance. We found a really pretty dress...and then I ironed a hole in the lace-like over-layer. Luckily, it was in the back, but I still felt bad/mad. Of course a hole in a dress could not keep Annie from looking tots adorbs! And she's so good at doing her own hair! Girl's got skills.

Annie has been blessed in her friends this year. Joining the evening seminary class helped a lot. It is very social there. The teachers usually let the kids chat and giggle for 10-15 minutes after class, and then they spend another five minutes turning off the lights and telling everybody that the Spirit goes to bed at 10:00. Annie doesn't have her license yet, so I wait in the parking lot and witness all of the teen hooligan-izing and shenanigan-ery. There is plenty. Also, flirting. Takes me back. Teenhood wasn't exactly the good old days for anybody, but it can't help but be a memorable time. Lots of learning and change and figuring out who you want to be. A raw and wriggling time of life. 

Annie also had a small birthday party. She wanted to plan it because that's half of the fun for her. They ate dinner outside by twinkle light and then made cards and then watched a movie and had a discussion. It was a great time. After everybody went home, Annie realized she never served the birthday cake she made. As her family, we graciously stepped in and supported her through this time of trouble. 

Thanksgiving was a little different for us this year because our Thanksgiving friends moved to Tennessee and abandoned us. (Alas! Alack!) But luckily we have some other friends, the Lundgrens, who we are also holiday pals with. We went to their house and had scrumptious food and delightful company. And of course lots of pie. We're very grateful for all of the friends who have been like family to us here in Texas! 

I succeeded in making pie crust this year! I found a recipe on Sally's Baking Addiction that really broke down the process. And I realized that I had been blending the fat too thoroughly into the flour. It was making my dough really thirsty and also non-stretchy. I followed her instructions very carefully and kept the ingredients and the bowl cold...and it worked! I feel like I can truly call myself a McCombs now. 

 The week of Thanksgiving was so relaxing. We had a break from everything, and I soaked in the restfulness. We did hit up the Giving Machine with some ward friends. It was in the lobby of a skating rink, so we also took a spin on the ice. I learned to skate backward! And all the women there were better than the men at skating, just sayin', and I think we're pretty much ready for our Olympic debuts.

The Giving Machine: it's genius! The vending machine concept is so satisfying, and it genuinely did bring me happiness to give to a good cause.

The weather turned cold after Thanksgiving. Charlie was shivering all the time, so we got him a sweater! He's loving it and life in general. He's a snuggle dog.

On to Christmas!

Fall Happenings...and Remembering the Ward Pinewood Derby

We finally got some relief from the Texas heat this week. That's usually how it goes. Halloween time is when we start to get believe that the sun won't always scorch our faces and that perhaps a sweater will be a possibility.

We weren't too exciting on the costume front this year. Scotty and Aaron did not dress up at all. I bought a festive Halloween tee, and Annie dressed up as a character from the Stormlight Archive that she and the middle-aged men recognized...once she told them who she was. 

But Annie also worked with her friend to make a Belle costume for said friend. They had a good time on that project.

Here is Annie killing it (but not killing anybody, unlike her namesake) as Shallan Devar:

And the Belle dress: 

Annie also carved/painted a HTTYD pumpkin. This is after a squirrel ate Toothless's face off. Annie patched it.

Aaron turned 44 this year! We love him. So grateful for the awesome crustiness/kindness combo that he offers our family. Also, he is an excellent listener. I love that about him. And he's super intelligent and super good-looking, just saying.

This year we got him a puzzle board with edges and drawers. Now hopefully the dog won't chew up our puzzle pieces that slip off the table. I also wrote Aaron a poem and gave it to him. 

From Pride and Prejudice: 

“I have been used to consider poetry as 'the food of love,'" said Darcy.

"Of a fine, stout, healthy love it may. Everything nourishes what is

strong already. But if it be only a slight, thin sort of inclination, I

am convinced that one good sonnet will starve it entirely away.”

Good thing we have a fine, stout, healthy love.

Our San Antonio temple has been closed for several months, but we were able to make it to the Houston temple with our friends the Lundgrens. I love the temple!

There's a new feature on Google Photos that cartoonifies your pictures. We played with it, and this one was my favorite:

What will they think of next??

The kids and I and two of our friends helped with a Special Olympics pickle ball tournament. It was super fun! The Texas Cowboys, a service/spirit organization from UT was also there. So every normal volunteer got paired with a Texas Cowboy. What could be more Texan than that?

At the end of August, our ward had a pinewood derby activity planned and hosted by the Elders Quorum. It was awesome, but I never blogged about it. Of course there was an open category where you could do any silly thing you wanted to get your car to win. Aaron and Scotty had the idea to attach a measuring tape to their car and stretch the measuring tape out over the finish line and thus win before the race had even started.

That idea morphed into taking the ruler out of the measuring tape and replacing it with string which they attached to their car (affectionately named "Blocky"). They then stretched the string to the finish line. When they race started, they released Blocky who was pulled down the track via the measuring tape mechanism. Hmm...that's a little difficult to explain. I'll attach the video. 

As you can see, we smashed the competition. But then things got a little interesting:

The wheels were demolished by the car's high speeds, and so it flew off the track. We were disqualified because we "didn't actually cross the finish line." Ah well! We all knew which car was the fastest. And Aaron and Scotty earned the "Judge's Favorite" award. It was a really fun night. Awesome ward activity. 

We had Blocky. Do you also see "Rocky"?