Looking Back Over Our Past Year
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The future rolls in and the past is washed away. (II Corinthians 5:17). So…. as you could tell from the last post, our 2011 was quite a busy, fun and crazy year! So, looking back… this is what all went on, starting from most recently, to the beginning of the year!
DECEMBER Christmas – the year of geeky tech and video games! Ashton got his own tablet device, a Motorola Xoom. Holden got a lot of video games, both from us and from his grandparents/great-grandparents. 🙂
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First 4.5 weeks at Ashton’s new school – and he’s doing great!
CBI trip – Ashton went on his very first CBI trip … without me having to attend and was SUCCESSFUL!
13th wedding anniversary (12/10/98) – Yep, David and I have been married for 13 years. Hard to believe! Sometimes it seems like yesterday that we were married, and others… it seems like, forever 😉 Thankfully, it’s usually the former rather than the latter. 🙂
NOVEMBER
Thanksgiving – What more could you be thankful for? Time with family, good food and lots of laughs and fabulous conversations!
Gonnawannarunagin 5k & 1/2mi Fun Run – Holden ran his first 5K and finished with a time of 40:47. David ran his first 5K in 23yrs and ran it in 42:40. Ashton ran the 1/2mi. fun run and finished with a time of 6:27 (pretty impressive!)
Ashton started at a new school – After a difficult 6th grade last year (w/ 2 suspensions) and a very rough start to his 7th grade (w/ 2 more suspensions), we made the decision to move him to a new school! He LOVES it!!!
Awesome report card! – Holden had 3 As, 1 B and all Ss on his report card – WTG Dude!
OCTOBER
Halloween – Holden dressed as a Dragon Ninja. Lots of candy and he got to go out with his friend Connor’s family
First roller coaster ride – Holden went to Busch Gardens for the first time with his cousin and rode his first roller coaster ride – The Mach Tower. He LOVED it!
Ashton makes dinner – Ashton made a pizza for dinner, mostly by himself other than the oven part! YAY! independence rocks!
SEPTEMBER
IEP madness/hell starts/continues… and Ashton receives 2 suspensions within 3 weeks. One in September, the 2nd in October.
Soccer Season and wrestling season starts – First year we let Holden participate in 2 sports in the same season since 1st grade. He did a pretty good job AND he kept his grades up! YAY!
First Day of School – First day of 4th grade and of 7th grade. Where has the time gone?!?!
AUGUST
Hurricane Irene – the boys’ 2nd major hurricane… the first one was back in 2003 when Isabel came through shortly after we moved down here. They weathered it well (no pun intended)
David’s & Jenn’s birthdays – David’s last year in his 30s as he turned 39. My last year in my early 30s! Next year I’ll be solidly in my mid-30s! Waaaah! Guess what Mother Nature gave us? A bona fide EARTHQUAKE! Wild!!
Surfers Healing VA Beach – Ashton got to do Surfers Healing for the 2nd year in a row. He got to see Kalani from last year, and met Izzy (co-founder of Surfers Healing) and got to surf with Tim. What a blast and Grandma, Grandaddy, Uncle Kevin and Chelsea got to see him surf!
British Challenger Soccer Camp – Holden participated in his first soccer camp, and what a blast! While the weather was pretty excruciating, he learned a lot of good skills and learned that British Folks are some pretty cool people!
JULY
Toby Keith @ Eagle Fest – I won tickets to the Toby Keith concert from Eagle 97! I was ecstatic! I took my friend, Cathie Quimby and while Toby’s portion started late (due to a sudden onset of bad weather) it was a BLAST!
Trip to Chowan River – Holden rode the intertube by himself for the first time! He did great, even though he got dumped once! he handled it like a champ! 🙂 Ashton had a blast riding the jetski and just in general, riding on the boat 🙂
Summer School – Ashton went to summer school for the first time in 3 or 4 years. Did FANTASTIC! Such a wonderful experience for him…
Ken Chertow wrestling camp – Holden attended wrestling camp for the 2nd year in a row. He liked it but the days are really long (9am-9pm). But he learned a lot and made new friends. 🙂
Happy Birthday America – We had a great 4th of July dinner out at my inlaws! 🙂 Fun with grandparents and cousins… can’t ask for more! 🙂
JUNE
Mini Surf Camp – Ashton attended a mini surf camp held by Guardian Angels and Team Hoyt of VA Beach. He had a blast and what a way to kick off the summer after a horrid school year! 🙂
Last Day of school – Holden ended up with quite a few certificates and Ashton got the “Best Friend” award for his class for being friendly.
MAY
Happy Mother’s Day – Had a wonderful day. Love being with my hubby and boys. 🙂 Went to Chick-Fil-A’s Mother/Son date night!
Yay! Brand New TV time! – David walled off a portion of the space above our fireplace and we put in a big 60″ wide-screen HDTV!
APRIL
Happy Easter! – Another holiday with family and easter fun! The kids loved their baskets! 🙂
Happy Birthday Ashton and Holden – Yep, Ashton turned 12 and Holden turned 9.
Ashton’s 2nd suspension – we won’t go into the details. But suffice it to say that I wasn’t happy, AT all. Ugh.
MARCH
Operation Smile Final Mile – Holden ran his very first official race. He finished with a time of 8:30. Not bad for a first race. He would go on to run Fun Run mile at his school’s field day in 7:15!
End of wrestling season – Holden finishes up his 2nd full year of wrestling. He now needs a new pin board for all of his medals!! 🙂
FEBRUARY
New laptop for me! – I got a new MacBook Pro! Loving it! So much better than a Windows based laptop and no longer have problems with it crashing, locking up (although don’t ask about earlier tonight, 12/31)
Extreme Makeover build in VA Beach – Holden, Lorey (David’s cousin) and I attended the Extreme March to make a difference. We got to see a few of the stars from the show, see the house from the outside and make a difference by donating canned goods. What a blast!
JANUARY
Ashton’s VERY FIRST ER trip – We got quite a scare in late January when all of a sudden Ashton’s speech went from easy to understand to slurred and unintelligible. He deteriorated and ended up with a fever. Diagnosis (after 7hrs in the ER) was a basilar migraine. We think he was at the start of a sinus infection as well which didn’t help. Luckily he was fine after a few days but wow, SCARY!
HAPPY NEW YEAR 2011 – We had no idea what to expect. Some things happened that we weren’t expecting and other things happened that we did. Good, bad and everything in between.
LET’S BRING IN 2012 and have the best year ever!!!!
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From a non-verbal, severely autistic two-year-old little boy to a happy-go-lucky, social, verbal and friend to everyone fifteen-year-old teenager. Add in the little brother who struggles with ADHD and we've got some craziness going on! The journey has been well-worth the ups and downs and the heartbreaks are all worth it when I see my sons overcome the "impossible" and defy all odds. I couldn't be more proud. Buckle up and enjoy the ride!
