Christmas in January

Well, Micah and I had Christmas in November, December, and now January.  The Stucky family (Micah's mom's side) does a Christmas party every year.  This year it was snowed out and was delayed until January.  Micah and I, at the last minute, decided to drive up to Oklahoma for the party.  It has been a very long time since we have seen the extended Stucky family so it was a great (fast) trip.  During the car ride we were able to spend some quality time with Andy, Jackie, and Kate.  Kate will be 1 next weekend! I can't believe it has already been 1 year.  

Andy and Micah were able to spend some quality brother time playing air hockey (Micah didn't loose one game, sorry everyone).  Everyone did some Dirty Santa playing and we all did plenty of eating.  

Gizmo also had a blast playing with a young pup named Mace.  They played non-stop.  If only we had a  Mace around, Gizmo would never be bored.  He was so worn out that our cousin Hope was able to put his head on a pillow and give him a blanket and cuddle up next to him.  I don't think Gizmo even opened his eyes.  

Overall we had a great weekend.  Heres a slideshow to finish it up!

Getting it together

I feel as though it has taken me a whole week to get my house back in order...and as I say this I realize my house is still not in order.  I have finally cleaned the downstairs which is where we spend 99.9% of our time so I guess that counts as "in order".  This week I have started on some of the stuff for Saudi.  My main concern is Gizmo.  Thats right, my biggest concern about moving to the Middle East is how to get my dog there safely.  I love him way more than any person should probably love a dog but look how cute he is:

So the big debate now is whether or not I can get all the stuff for Gizmo done on my own or if we need to pay one of these expensive pet moving companies.  Right now I'm leaning towards pet movers.  

After getting started on Gizmo I decided to move on to our attic.  This started with sorting and organizing Christmas decorations.  I had three piles: Sea shipment, Storage, and Garage Sale.  It looks as though Micah and I are going to have a rather large garage sale in the near future.  Once I had the Christmas stuff done I bravely ventured into the attic.  I say bravely because I definitely thought several times about spiders and rats, luckily none were seen.  I opened boxes that haven't been opened in 3 years or more, sorted through them, labeled them, and put them on my packing list. Here is my progress so far:

Today was take a break from packing day and we were blessed to get to babysit our best friends little boy.  Gavin is at a very fun age where he is exploring and learning new things.  He was looking out our back door and really wanted to join Gizmo outside so we went out to play for a little bit.  He would chase after Gizmo and when Gizmo would run he would crack up laughing.  It was so cute! 

Gavin was also fascinated with going up and down the step off our deck.  I think he was more interested since I was telling him to be careful.  He wanted to prove to us that he could do it...just like a man ;)

We hope you all had a great weekend!

Christmas

I know the last post was about the new year and 2010 but it makes me sad to just skip past Christmas and I have so many pictures.

Micah and I had a great Christmas this year and it started at Thanksgiving.  Every year we alternate whose family we are going to be with during the actual Christmas holiday so we typically end up doing our Christmas celebration with one family during Thanksgiving week.  This year we spent Thanksgiving with the Sperlings in Oklahoma.  We had a fun relaxing week hanging out with family and playing with our niece Kate. I don't have pictures transferred yet but I will try to get some soon.

We spent the actual Christmas holiday in Houston with my family. The week before Mom had surgery, my parents closed on a house and moved into it the next day.  Needless to say, it was crazy busy, caotic, and very blessed. The results of Mom's surgery were great, my brothers family spent 10 days with us and my sisters family came after Christmas for a few days.  We did lots of eating, unpacking, moving, rearranging, game playing, movie watching (the new house has an 110" screen), and general goofing off.  Despite the bowl game results we had a very blessed Christmas.

2010

Happy 2010 everyone! I’m not really one for making New Years Resolutions so for now my only resolution is to write.  The New Year is definitely going to be a year of major changes in the Sperling household.  Sometime this year we will be making a big move across the pond to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.  Most of you reading this now are probably wondering why in the world would they move to Saudi Arabia? 

First and foremost I want to say that this decision did not come without prayer.  We feel very blessed that God has given us this great opportunity.  We both enjoy and seek after adventure and enjoy doing things out of the ordinary.  This is an amazing opportunity for Micah’s career.  He will be gaining experience that most people in his field only dream about.  I cannot wait to meet new people and see new places in the world.  I have already started making my list of places I want to see and it is very difficult to rank them in order of importance.  

So, to sum it up I guess you could say we are very excited.  As of now Micah is set to leave in April and I will follow him as soon as possible.  Until then we have a very long checklist to keep us busy.