I moved in to my new house in January of 2007. Made that grown up decision to be a homeowner. The day after I moved in the ice storm hit. It was convienient because I had nothing to do but unpack my house. It was quite nice. It was so fun because all of my stuff had been in storage so it was like opening presents instead of boxes. I didn’t remember half the stuff I had. I highly recommend that way of moving over the traditional way. Because it typically is such a mundane job, but the excitement level really made it un-mundane.
So this year I got to experience an awesome trip. A friend of the family through my parent’s church was taking a trip to Nicaragua to set up medical tents in a small village to work for a week. I had the wonderful opportunity to join Dr. Anderson and his wonderful wife Linda on this trip. We had doctors, dentists, nurses and pharmacists all going. Linda and I set up the kids tents and worked with kids that week. It was so wonderful! I slept in a tent out in this soccer field and every night after being exhausted from the kids, the heat and dehydration I would curl up in my sleeping bag and read for about an hour and fall asleep to wake up with this pig snorting loudly trying to get in to my space. Luckily he didn’t make it, however some other creature did make his way in to my tent and me. A few days after returning home I became so sick and I went to the urgent care clinic where they sent me directly to the ER. It was my first and hopefully last time in an ambulance. That was a bit dramatic but the doctor said they’ll process me much faster if I go that way. So after they admitted me and did tests we found out I brought home a nice little parasite for a souviener. Oh joy. So I stayed a few nights in there until it had passed. The pain was awful and I found out the first night I had a morphine allergy. My blood pressure dropped so low because of it. At least they found that out when I was being monitored. Anyhow, it was another battle scar I could add to the collection. And no matter the pain and inconvienence I would have done it all over again to have that awesome week with the anderson’s in Nicaragua.
April 9th this year someone so special was born. Sweet Lily Grace graced us with her presence at 8:01pm. She entered this would without the drama that Sam entered it, thank goodness. She was 6lbs 11oz. and 19in long. I’ll be honest with you I didn’t think I would be able to love another kid as much as I loved Sam, but the minute I held that little girl I was proved wrong. I immediately loved her with all my heart! She is so precious. And let me tell you this girl has more personality in her little pinky that most kids have all together. I love this girl!
We took a family vacation that summer to San Diego. It was such a special trip because it had been planned around an event we will all remember. Jeff had worked out the details and we all had to work with him to help him surprise Amelia, who is impossible to surprise, with an amazingly romantic proposal. She was surprised! The hotel had set up a wonderful dinner on a private patio and he asked and she said yes and we all celebrated! It was a wondeful evening!
That fall my parents were in New York on business and I was on the phone with my dad and he was telling me about their meeting they were leaving for that day in Calgary. As always I expressed my wishes to be with him on one of his fun trips and he said, “Let me call you right back.” Well about 15 minutes later he and my mom call back and say be at the airport at 3pm, we just emailed your itinerary. I was shocked because I’m pretty sure as soon as I could say it I was asking my dad if I could go with him on trips, so probably 25 years of asking finally paid off. I left tulsa and met my parents on out connecting flights and we were in Canada. My dad had meeting all the next day so my mom and spent the day shopping and next day we drove to Edmonton and did some more shopping while my dad was in meetings. Then once he was done meeting we headed off to Banff National Park. Oh my… I was in heaven. This was God’s country. Seriously I’ve never seen anything so spectacular. (I know I’ve said this before…) We stayed at the Chateau Lake Louise and Fairmont in Banff… It’s like they built these castles in the middle of Canada. The hotels themselves were stunning and history of them was equally as interesting because of the Canadian railroad connection. It was truly a week to remember. When you are not an only child times like these are so special… Maybe that’s because I have middle child syndrome, but I’d bet Bevan and Amelia would say the same thing.
2007 was a fun year of three wonderful trips a new house and best of all a brand new niece!
Sweet Maria and me in Nicaragua
With my parents in Banff
Sweet Lily
President: George W. Bush
Vice President: Richard Cheney
Population: 300 million
Federal spending: $14,074 billion
Federal debt: $9,229 billion
Unemployment: 4.6%
No. 1 Song the week of February 12, 2007: Irreplaceable by Beyonce
Nobel Prize for Literature: Doris Lessing (U.K.)
Random Facts:
- Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina, experiences its first snowfall in 89 years.
- Romania and Bulgaria join the European Union, bringing the number of member nations to 27.
- Jerry Falwell dies. (I didn’t know this until right now.)
