Friday, December 18, 2009

Christmas Letter 2009

Dear Family & Friends,

What a year it has been! In case you haven't heard we had twin boys at the end of last year and well, they have kinda been our life ever since. So in the spirit of streamlining, which I have become very good at by the way, I've decided to write our Christmas Card bulleted list style! Easier for you to read and the real reason, easier for me to write. I'll make it up to you when I post our 2009 video. I decided to get ambitious this year and make a year end video because we have so much footage that I know we'll never watch in bits and pieces. This ended up to be more time consuming that I thought so it's still under construction. I'll post it everywhere when it's done, so check back here or friend me on facebook.

January
  • Celebrated the New Year with Darrell's parents and his mom was gracious enough to stay and take care of the boys while I went back to work.
  • Darrell's classes started back up at Portland State. Graduation is December 2010 which is when he will receive his Master Degree in International Management.
February
  • Darrell traveled to Dallas and earned his Project Management Professional Certification. He is now a PMP!
  • We had our first trama, surely not our last with these two bruisers. Dane's hemangioma birthmark had to be removed which was major surgery but he made it through with flying colors. Darrell and I were a little worse for wear.
March
  • Darrell's mom returned to Boise and my parents came to relieve her.
  • We ALL ran/walked Portland's Shamrock run in the rain!
  • Celebrated Paddy's (my dad) birthday on St. Patrick's day!
April
  • Ran/walked Portland's Race for the Roses.
  • Got pictures taken with the bunny!
  • D&D took swim lessons for the first time.
May
  • Babies started daycare.
  • Evan and Lauren came to visit us and finalize their wedding plans.
  • Both boys started teething!
  • Darrell attended the Wind Energy Conference in Chicago.
June
  • Devin and Dane went to Texas for the first time.
  • Darrell turned 31!
  • The boys spent 2 weeks in Boise with their Grandma and Papa Prochaksa
July
  • I celebrated Lara's bachelorette par-tay in Austin.
  • Evan and Lauren got married in Portland and we got to have Jennie and Mike as house guests!
August
  • Lara and Charlie tied the knot!
  • I celebrated my 27th birthday and awesome Julia threw me a surprise party that I knew nothing about.
September
  • Darrell and I celebrate 2 years of marriage in Tokeland, WA!
  • We started a business manufacturing gold prospecting equipment, Summit Mining & Equipment Inc. with Darrell's family.
  • Ran Pints to Pasta 10K in Portland.
October
  • The boys turned one?!!?
  • Celebrated Grammie's birthday a couple of days before.
  • The boys, my mom and I finished a corn maze for the first time. Darrell and Julia were experienced pros.
November
  • My Oregonian best friend, Julia, moved to Denver. She is off to bigger and better things, but we sure so miss her!!! A lot.
  • I left my job at the WCVA to pursue my Master Certificate in Interactive Marketing. Paddy and I are starting a consulting company and will begin taking orders very soon!
  • We traveled to Texas for a mighty good Aggie game against t.u.
December
  • We'll here we are. The year is coming to an end and what a good year it was. We will be spending the Christmas holiday with the Prochaskas in Boise and hope that everyone enjoys the Holidays. We feel so blessed for all your friendships, blessings, thoughts and prayers.
Merry Christmas All!

Love,
The Prochaskas
XOXO

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Messy-licious

For those of you who haven't heard, I quit my day job. And as a mater-of-fact today was my first day of online classes; I am pursuing a Master Certificate in Interactive Marketing through the University of San Francisco. Plan after that? Making the world my oyster.

This set-up works out perfectly on days like today, when D&D had to get their flu shots this am and could not return to daycare. They napped liked all-stars and I was able to get about half my classes knocked out for the week. We even got to take a short break for some lunch time fun.









On the menu: a hamburger helper concoction that I made Sunday night. It was Italian Supreme (or something like that) I added a box of mac and cheese and some frozen meat balls because I wanted a larger supply for leftovers, ect. The two different sets of noodles didn't cook even so Darrell and I thought it wasn't too good. Luckily Devin, Dane and Shelby thought otherwise!

How was everyone's T-givings? We spent 10 days in Tejas - got to hang with the fam, ate way too much (got my fill of queso, thank you very much: Taco Cabana, Escalantes, and Ruby Tequilas!), watched movies and some damn good football! Can I get a whoop? Maybe I can get some pics from the trip posted this week, since I'm a lady of leisure and all. Ohhhhh, I forgot to mention that we took the boys to the zoo for the first time, so posting pictures is now a must. I know you're dying to see! ;)