please go to http://sparksfamilyof7.blogspot.com/: 2010…Here..Today….

Well, here we are. 2010. I keep hearing people say, "Remember when we were coming into Y2K". Boy do I. Working for IBM we had all sorts of plans. We had a contingency plan for the contingency plan for the contingency plan. It about did me in. I remember not doing much on New Year's Eve because I had to be in the office at about 4am on the 1^st that year. And NOTHING happened. I think the most excitable thing that occurred was the fact that my manager at the time was insistent that everyone store water and cans of food up. He had already discussed with his neighbors how the "men" would need to bond together and go to work in shifts as the other stayed home to protect the women. Unfortunately, I think he forgot one major thing….a can opener! Needless to say he didn't have to execute his plan…and thankfully he didn't stay my manager much longer!

At any rate, it is amazing when you see 10 years fly by. If I recap my life in the past 10 years, it is full of dreams, hopes, fears, realities…and lots of children! I am thankful for each of those I mentioned. Because without them I couldn't appreciate what was around the bend!
The pic of just Fred and me is Christmas 2000. The next is self explanitory.

So, instead of looking back to last year....and instead of looking forward to this year…I am going to look at the now. I am going to live in the moment. So to start off, we have had 4 wonderful days of January 2010. So far we are having a successful year as a family!

Fred and I use to celebrate New Years with a few couple friends and their kids. Slowly our number of kids became such that we needed a bouncer for the party…one in...One out! My mother has some crazy social life so her watching the kids is out of the question as well…and a sitter on New Year's..Right! So, we decided to have an early dinner at our Uncle's! Uncle Julio that is! We got there around 5:30. The kids enjoyed getting ready and eating and talking about what they were thankful for in 2009 and what they look forward to in 2010. They also love watching the tortilla maker. Seriously, I think that poor guy probably thinks we don't get out much!

Anabelle of course made best friends with another little girl named Claire. She met her in the bathroom. She also invited her to be a part of her "Girl Club". I have no idea where she gets this stuff!

I believe Laurel said one of her profound thoughts at dinner that night.."Daddy, where is the New Year if we are having a party for it?" Oh I love that girl. And I love that fact that she is bound to be a rocket scientist with her level of common sense.

Savannah cracked herself up throughout dinner. She loves sitting up at the table instead of a highchair away from the table. Makes her feel like a big girl I guess!

About 10 minutes into dinner we got a call from my sweet friend Rachel. I truly love that girl and her family. Someone that knows EVERYTHING about me and loves me for who I am now….gotta love a friend like that. Her mother won tickets to the Cotton Bowl and wanted to see if we were interested in going? Hello! Did you say FREE? I have 5 kids..the only thing I ever get free is advice I don't usually need! What a great gift. And we were so thankful. I called my mom during dinner and she was insistent to watch the kids for us during the game!

We ran into a few friends/acquaintances from church at dinner. It is fun to see people out and in a different light. Fun to see new friends and old ones on a night that is so significant.

So we finished up dinner. Anabelle had recently asked me something that made me laugh so hard and came up again at dinner. She said, "Mommy, what does 'your hands full mean'?" I asked her why she asked that and she said, "People always say that to you!" At that point Chloe counted how many people said, "Wow, are they all yours? You sure have your hands full." And in about 10 minutes she counted 4 people! I explained to Anabelle that not everyone has 5 kids or 3 sisters and 1 brother. I also explained to her that not everyone has 4 siblings that are all 5.5 years apart. So when people see us it can be overwhelming. She then asked what overwhelming was…I wanted to say, "You." But I did not. I explained it to her in reference to when I ask her to pick up all the games she dumps out and she doesn't know where to begin.

So she responds with, "Mommy, if they say that you need to say it back!" I said, "You mean I look them in the eye and say, 'Well, you have your hands full!'" She said yes! I laughed. Could you imagine! That would actually sound funny. I had to explain to her that most people are not being rude, they are just surprised!

Anyway, we took our overwhelming family and got a finally family pic of 2009. It was nice, and we all fit well on the couch at our Uncle's!

We got home and had a good time celebrating! Fred, for the 2^nd year in a row, blew up balloons and put them on the loft. He hung them up there on a sheet. While he did that, the kids helped me make some brownies. They were good, but everyone knows the batter was better! We all ate it up! Since Chloe is allergic to eggs and we don't use them….I feel like it is ok to eat all that raw batter! YUMMY!

So, Fred set the timer on the microwave to count down. The kids TOTALLY thought it was time for the New Year to hit. So here we go…10, 9, 8,…wait is the popcorn burning! Just kidding!

We hit, 3, 2, 1 HAPPY NEW YEAR! With that we all screamed and jumped around! Then the balloons dropped. There was a mechanical problem but quickly fixed! The kids LAUGHED so hard as they tried to sit on the balloons and pop them!

The fun part was when mom or dad walked behind them and popped them while they sat on them! So much fun! Then we ran outside to do poppers. Not a lot of those this year…it was so cold! We ate our brownies and then had a WII bowling tournament. Corbin whipped all of us! Seriously that kid can bowl! We had a good time and got all the kids in bed by 9:30! Talk about a perfect New Years! Savannah had fun playing with us after the kids went to be and then off she went! We cleaned up and Fred lay down to watch some New York parties and fell asleep. I watched some shows in my bed and woke him up. He doesn't remember any of that!

So, New Years day I slept in like something fierce! I was SO TIRED! I think the Christmas "break" had finally hit me! Then we got up and played some with the kids and started hitting our chores for 2010! I got a lot done. The fact that the first day of the New Year I was able to steam clean my carpets made me the happiest person in the world! Sad, I know!

We packed up and went to my mom's for our first dinner of the New Year! You should surround yourself by wonderful people when bringing in a new year..so that is what we did! Gigi and Neal and baby Glenn were there as well. Mom made my favorite, because I am her favorite child, pork chops and gravy! YUMMY. Anabelle and I both ate a ton of food… Everyone else made a mild effort to be as amazing as us!

While we were there I had everyone draw pictures of what they were thankful for in 2009 and what they resolved to do in 2010. There were lots of Baby Glenn pics in 2009 and resolving to show love better, obedience, savings and better health! We are planning on displaying our pictures in our game room! I resolve to do thatJ

So after another WII tourney at moms we headed home and everyone crashed! I got up on the 2^nd and made 2010 pancakes. The kids loved them and Corbin ate about 7 of them!

Fred slept in a bit then got up and started putting his ORANGE on. We put the kids in their OSU colors and sent them off to Ninny's house for the day. We headed to the game. The ride was short…but quiet. It was so nice. A little break from the noise we live inJ Good noise, but noise all the same.
We discovered at Jerry World you get RIPPED off when parking. We found a spot that seemed reasonable… the rest went something like this.

2 Free tickets to the Cotton Bowl = $0

1 parking space far far away = $15

1 ride up to the stadium on a bike cab = $15

2 fools that forgot the tickets in the car after getting to the stadium = $20(that was for the ride back to the car!)

1 Bike cab guy that was super nice/off giving us a ride back = $0(he was so nice)

Watching our team loose without having to change a diaper or wipe a bottom = Priceless

So in all we had a good time.

We can say we have been to the new stadium and we saw the Kelley's, who we love. We also saw Mr. and Mrs. Beach(aka Don and Sue). So that was fun. Fred had a friend he grew up with from school days, we saw him and his wife as well, Corey and Cary.

So we got our little ones and headed home. We were short a kiddo because Chloe got to spend the night with her cousin. Talk about a treat. For all of usJ Except Amy and Brandon!

Got everyone home and in bed! The next morning seemed like a breeze to get everyone ready for church. Maybe I should have 1 more kid and then I will think 5 is a breeze…wait…I see where this is going…DUGGARS!

Anyway, church was great. The message was so needed…do you love Jesus more then you did yesterday? If you don't you probably love HIM a lot less then you did. Very thought provoking.

We got all the kids and headed home. I picked Chloe up from her spend the night and drug her to the store with me. I have never seen someone so tired! She said she didn't like grocery shopping. I explained to her I didn't either. But it was 1 of the 2 necessary evils in life…….

Groceries
Laundry!

I won't include 3, 4 or 5!

So we got home, and ate dinner. We got people to bed at a decent time and I cleaned house! Then today I had to head into the office. It wasn't all bad. I got a lot done. I called to make Savannah a 15 month appt, and they were able to see us at 4 because of a cancelation. How terrific..ya right!

We were there for an hour before the dr saw us. Chloe and I picked on him like something fierce… He took it in stride and dished it back. Chloe was board and was taking pics of her dr...then he got this one of her. I actually love it!! He also managed to delete all the pics she took!!!

Such a great patient Dr. Relationship. At any rate…for the most part our appt went well. He wants to see Savannah gaining more weight. She is NOT the obesity problem in America! I can tell you that!

So everything is ready to go back to school tomorrow. I wish we had another week off, but we don't. So off to bed I go. I am going to post pictures to this later. Oh..here is later..