happy (sick and injured) new year

Well, our year end week off was not all that we had hoped it would be. Between December 23 and January 1st, we had TWO days where everyone was healthy and/or mobile. Two. We had a great Monday off on the 23rd. Ben started with back issues on December 24. By the time he was turning the corner on the 27th, Sophie started puking and then a day of recovery where she still felt yucky. On the 29th I was puking. On the 30th, Ted was pale and had a yucky tummy. The 31st everyone was healthy. Today, January 1st, Ben slept the entire day. Tomorrow we go back to work and school. Christmas Break 2013 was a bit of a bust.

Because of the sickness running  it's course, we didn't make any plans for New Years. At the last minute, we decided to take the kids to Hibatchi for dinner. Hibatchi has been our bi-annual location of New Year's celebration with friends (not bi-annually intentionally. Just kind of happens that way). So we decided to get all dressed up and take the kids out. 

The boys drove around the block and then rang the doorbell to pick up their dates. They even brought us flowers.

 The kids LOVED it. It was such a treat for them.

When you make reservations at the last minute, you take whatever you can get. So, we ate dinner at 5:00 pm and we were home in our pajamas by 7pm. 5 hours until midnight proved to be quite awhile.

So we played some games.

Drank some sparkling grape juice.

Which made Sophie pucker and smack her lips quite a bit. Every time it was her turn to play she had her face in the cup.

We played Sorry Slider, Yahtzee, Sleeping Queens, Ticket to Ride & Spot It

Then we made the sun room into a home theater for the kids while Ben and I watched Duke almost upset Texas A&M.  It was a great game.

After the movie, Sophie hit a little rough patch. I may or may not have napped during the game.

But she rallied and made it till midnight. We toasted with our grape juice, kissed each other and Sophie was in bed and asleep at 12:03.

Ted proved to be the champ. And also commented about how all those people in Times Square were going to have a hard time driving home. 

It was a fun night as a family. I'm glad we did it that way. New Year's Day is the day Ben traditionally has two tv's and the projector hooked up to watch all manner of football games. We were going to share it with the Kozel's this year but, alas, he slept through the entire day. I'm sad for him. So, 2013 is in the books. Happy New Year!

instagram best of 2013

I love social media - twitter and instagram being my two favorites. This is a cool little video of the top 5 pics from each of our instagrams this year.  They make me smile. I like a good year in review.

Ben - BN2L

Laura - lauratuel

cafe cimino & 2013 highlights

The past two years Ben and I have gone away the weekend before Christmas. Most things that we end up making "tradition" start out accidentally. We decided that we were going to be purposeful and make it happen. It's a way to decompress together after the semester and be ready for Christmas. We are especially thankful we went before Christmas since our post-Christmas has been full of back injuries and stomach viruses. This year, we had a wedding in Buckhannon, WV on Saturday, so we decided to go south to Cafe Cimino in Sutton, WV. We've had several friends go there before so we decided to give it a try. We were not disappointed. We will go again. It would be a super fun place to go with friends.

Cafe Cimino is a bed and breakfast in Sutton - kind of an unlikely place. We've never stayed at a B&B before. The house is gorgeous, the food is unreal, the bar area is the cutest and the atmosphere is one of total relaxation. We have decided we are saving to go back. If you ever want to get someone a gift and you're not quite sure what to give them, a gift card to Cafe Cimino is a huge winner. It can be used for just a dinner or to stay overnight.

the main house

the dining room

our room - the annabella

Over dinner, Ben and I spent some time remembering the highlights of 2013:

• monday morning dates
• friday night family dinners
• sophie starting (and loving) kindergarten
• riding the bus to school (for them and for us)
• our whole summer
• the beach
• more time spent at the river than ever as a family
• leader placement night
• weddings: novak, shaw, moffit, williams, buda, bruck
• ben's trip to puerto rico
• cafe cimino
• dad re-doing our sunroom
• buying a new (to us) van that i LOVE
• being gifted a car
• 20th anniversary banquet of the Moutaineer Area
• beth moore simulcast
• starting YL at clay-battelle
• henry & isaac joining the family
• family that loved our kids at the river (pat, bill, karen, uncle jim, john, eugene)
• flag football
• src moving into our new building
• laura's src women's bible study
• big kick soccer camp
• meeting with college girl
• working for ben & scott
• ted & ben loving baseball together
• ted & ben appreciating sports games like madden together on xbox 
• swimming lessons for the kids
• ted playing basketball, baseball & flag football & all 3 with wyatt
• ben's road trip to colorado with heath & scott
• monday night bible study
• as a whole, a very healthy year
• the kozels and the underdonks living in morgantown
• new friendships
• grace
  
  Although it has been crazy and weird at times this year, we have this and so much more to be thankful for.

christmas 2013

Remember that Christmas Ben's back went out so bad? The worst it's ever been. And Sophie was puking? And we waited to see who else got sick? Oh wait . . . that's this year. 

Our Christmas works like this. We do our little family Christmas on Christmas Eve morning. We attend church on Christmas Eve. The past 3 years Ben has been the drummer in the worship team. Then we drive to New Martinsville to wake up at Ben's parents house Christmas morning. My parents come for brunch and then we go to my parents house in the afternoon. We've done it for years. I really love this tradition.

This post is obnoxiously long. I got started and didn't realize how long it was. 

Christmas Eve Morning: 

This was officially a "Princess Christmas" for Sophie. EVERYTHING she got was about princesses.

Princess Dolls

Elsa from Frozen. (LOVED that movie by the way!)

Tavon Austin Ram's Jersey

Playing with her dolls in her new princess nightgown.

 

Playing with some old and new cars. 

Sophie also got some new boots. Ted got the game "Ticket to Ride."

I got Ben a new Spyder jacket. I'm pretty proud of that gift, actually. I'm not a great gift giver. He got me a new bathrobe (that I've been asking for), a beautiful framed pic of our family from the beach, and my blog printed in a book! He did the 2012 year to see how it would turn out. It's awesome! I'd love to get each year printed individually to catch up and then print it at the end of each year to keep up. It's really cool to have it in print. A little to expensive to have one done for each kid and myself which would be my ultimate goal. Maybe it would be a good birthday gift for them each year. I'm sure they wouldn't appreciate it until much later. It's a thought. Seeing it in print definitely encouraged me to keep writing. This year has been the slowest by far. But I don't want to stop. 

About 10 minutes before we left to take Ben to Fairmont for rehearsal before the Christmas Eve services, he started having major muscle spasms in his back. I dropped him off. He could barely walk or stand. Amazingly he made it through drumming at both services, but Christmas Day and the day after were awful. He slept in the recliner at my in-laws (which was huge because I have no idea what he would've done if we were home). John gave him his cane from knee replacement surgery which at least helped Ben get up and down and move around without hanging on to someone. 

The evening of December 26th, I finally took Ben to a walk-in clinic in New Martinsville. We were there 3 hours. I watched the entire "Beezus and Ramona" movie in the 100 degree waiting room. The Dr working is pretty good with backs apparently, but wouldn't touch Ben's it was so bad. So he got a shot of pain killer and a shot of anti-inflamitory. He sent us home with a muscle relaxer and steroids. Combine all that (yikes) and it turned into a Christmas miracle when Ben slept in a bed last night and sat up this morning without much pain. Thank you, Jesus! Needless to say, all that wiped him out pretty good. And we'll be seeing a chiropractor in the very near future. 

Christmas Morning:

Ted's big gift this year from our parents is a Nintendo 3DS XL - which is exactly what he calls it.
He was one excited boy!

Sophie in her new princess robe (a robe was really the only thing she asked for this year) with her new princess fake nails (which lasted about 3 minutes.)

 Playing "Princess Trouble" with daddy from his spot in "The Beast" -
the name we affectionately call John's enormous recliner. I told you everything was princess.

Checking out the 3DS XL

 

Post gift wrapping nap

The "stocking tree" - pretty impressive. There's a lot of us.

Christmas Evening:

Sophie, her princess dolls & Aunt Sara

Charlie & Valerie made an amazing dinner. He smoked a ham and baked beans, 10 pounds of this enormous shrimp and potato casserole. The picture doesn't really do the size of these shrimp justice. Best Christmas dinner ever. Thanks Charlie & Val.

All the girls and their boots - including Sophie!

 Brandi, Sara, Laura, Sophie, Graeson, Carlyn, Valerie & Janet

Cousins:

Jay, Jeremy, Charlie & Sara

Belinda, Brandi & Me

My parents grandkids:

Graeson, Trey & Carlyn

Ted & Sophie

(Note that Ted wore his pj's all day. Sophie wore her robe as a coat that day but thankfully it was a little too warm to wear all day. Although I'm pretty sure she would have.) 

Yoga with Aunt Sara

Uncle Todd helped out with the airplane

Cards

Post Christmas naps

After our eventful evening at the Urgent Care, we went back to Ben's parents for some Bunco with all the family, my parents and Courtney's parents.

Heather, Isaac, Henry & Courtney

 The fun bunco table

2 more tables in the kitchen.

Showing Uncle Andy the 3DS

Ben, Ted & Isaac

Ben & Henry

Ted & Sophie

Henry & Isaac

(this is from Thanksgiving but I'm running behind - aren't they the cutest?)

Sophie woke up puking around 4am this morning. She was sharing a bed with Ted and I cleaned up puke all morning. We're waiting to see who gets it next. We drove Route 7 in between bouts of puking. She's such a trooper. So, there you have it. Christmas 2013. We're really hoping Ben and Sophie really turn the corner tomorrow and we can enjoy the rest of our Christmas break.

Biggest highlight of this Christmas: Ben and I each have 4 siblings. And each of our families had everyone together for at least a small chunk of time. It was really, really good!

everyone is getting old

 Sophie (5) lost her first tooth yesterday.

We had to buy Ted (8) new shoes last week because he's outgrown his shoes from the beginning of the school year. We are close to having the same size feet. 

And Ben (38) commented through the entire "Holiday Program" today at school that he can no longer see without his glasses - which he doesn't wear much.

Everyone except for me (no age mention necessary). No signs of getting old here. Unless you count my ability to fall asleep in 30 seconds flat anywhere I decide to sit or lay down after 8pm. But who's counting?

how can that be?

We have been in Morgantown 3.5 years. That equals 7 semesters of school. At the end of every semester, Ben and I look at each other and whole heartedly agree that "this semester has been the hardest yet." I'm not sure how we can keep saying that, but we do. There hasn't been one even remotely the same as another. It's all been very different kinds of hard - financial, rebuilding ministry, poor choices by people we love, health issues, growing pains of ministry, death, hurting loved ones and a host of other things.  I would say the Fall of 2011 and Spring of 2013 were two real doozies. This semester was right up there with it. We are ready for Christmas break, a break in semesters and some change for the coming spring.

These are the things I've missed writing about this Fall:

20 Years of Mountaineer Area Young Life: In October we celebrated 20 years of Young Life in the Mountaineer Area at our annual banquet. Former staff and alumni attended the banquet and we did a video of alumni, too. It was such a blessing to be part of.

past kids, committee & staff

Mountaineer Area Young Life Staff

Stacy & Matt Santen, Amanda & Jay Teodoro

Molly & John Aderholt, Laura & Ben Tuel

New Job: For a little over a year I have been the office administrator at South Ridge Church. In October and November, I transitioned out of that position into a brand new role. I'm not sure that we really ever decided regarding an official title, but I'm helping people get plugged into serving around the church and also doing outreach projects for the community. It's a bit of a transition as in it's a brand new position. In all my past jobs, I've followed in sometimes footsteps. I'm figuring out what this is going to look like and what I need to do. I'm looking for two more larger service projects to the community - one in the Winter and one in the Spring. I will continue to do Big Kick Soccer Camp in the Summer and Party in the Park in the Fall. With this new job I have gone down to working 3 days a week at the church. I like that.

Young Life Role: I'm also working part time for Scott Berg (our YL WV State Director) and helping Ben do a lot of admin stuff. I mostly do this on Monday afternoons, Fridays during the day and several nights after the kids go to bed and Ben is out with committee meetings, Clay-Battelle YL or other things. I really love being able to help them so much. Sometimes, like around camp trips, it gets a little crazy but this is by far one of my favorite things to do. I have also taken on a much bigger role in spending time with our girl leaders. I meet with three girls on a bi-weekly basis and others as the want/need to. I really, really love these new YL roles in my life. After about 6 years of not leading and not beings super involved, it has been great to find my niche again.

Fall Weekend: We had a great Fall Weekend the weekend before Thanksgiving. It was a lot of work. We had 90 kids from the Mountaineer Area and 450 kids total from all over the state of WV. Fall Weekend trended on Twitter with this newsclip. Here's the recap video Rusty put together. WV has some pretty amazing staff. I'm proud of them and honored to work with them. Ben ended up speaking for the weekend because our original speaker got sick at the last minute. JB took over music for Ben. Scott and Brad doubled their role as kid leader and head leader. I was the other head leader and did most of the leg work in getting the weekend put together.

Mountaineer Area Young Life Leaders

Loss: In the early Fall, we lost a Clay-Battelle High School friend. She died in a car accident on the way home from Club. We are starting a new ministry in a very small, rural school. It was one of our hardest losses ever. Thankfully, we know she met Jesus at Young Life camp about 3 months before. 

Thursday Morning Bible Study: I started a women's bible study at South Ridge. I love it! Although it's another thing in my schedule, it's not a lot of extra work and I value the women and the time we spend together. We did "Makeover: Revitalizing the Many Roles You Fill" by Jen Hatmaker. It was a very appropriate study for this time in my life. It's one of her very first studies and I really liked it a lot. This semester was a bit of a trial run - I believe we'll keep going.

Monday Night Bible Study: Every other Monday night, I've been getting together with some friends in Morgantown. I love these women. Since I've gone back to work, both my kids are in school and I don't go to church with them, I don't see them much. But we spend a couple of hours together every other Monday night. Sometimes we do a bible study. Sometimes we talk for 2 hours. It is for sure a highlight of most weeks.

Growing Pains: We've experienced some growing pains in ministry this year. We have lots of leaders and lots of first years coming around. Everybody doesn't know each other anymore. Teams are bigger. It allows for new distractions and changes in how we lead. It's all a learning and growing process, but these growing pains have taken up a significant amount of time this year. 

Laundry: This may not be so much a highlight as much as it is a constant battle. I always have clean laundry. It's just rarely folded and put away. It's one of those things I just can't seem to get a handle on. We have recently taken to dumping hampers of clean laundry on the floor in the living room to dig through for things to wear that day. I'm not really proud of it. It just is what it is.

Amazon Prime: Amazon Prime is my new secret weapon for skit shopping. Those things like goggles and squirt guns that you need out of season and can't be found around town - amazon. The glow sticks you need for each club to have a rave club - amazon. Two day free shipping - amazing!  I will do 90% of my Christmas shopping online this year and I will spend so much LESS. I have a list. I'll buy what's on the list. I won't impulse buy anything else.

Homework Parent: I am a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad homework parent. My background is teaching. It's shameful, really.

Hurting Loved Ones: This fall has been particularly tough for so many people we love so much. Cancer has been a life changer this fall for four women we know and love. Unemployment. Late in pregnancy miscarriages. Death of a child. A couple of things too personal to write here. Sometimes my prayer time on the drive to work is absolutely overwhelming.

Date Mondays/Family Dinner Night Fridays: These are the two things that have kept me sane this semester. Ben and I decided when school started that Monday mornings would be ours. We both take the morning off and no two Mondays look the same. We always end our morning off with lunch out somewhere. I love it. It's been really good for us and we're figuring out how to best use that time and what it looks like. Sort of accidentally, we started having Friday night dinners as a family. By the time Friday rolls around we're all shot. Our Saturdays have been spent traveling or doing the parking lot and leadership takes up a large chunk of Ben's Sundays. So Friday night is our family time. Since everyone can be civil in public places, we usually go out to dinner and then come home and play games. What happened accidentally has now become something we're hanging on to.

So, there you have it. Our semester in review.