A big week for us

Thank you all for the birthday wishes.  It sure made my day special to hear from each of you.  I started the day with hand delivered flowers and a decaf vanilla latte skinny from the little girl I watch and her mom.  I got to end it with some of my favorite people at the same place I've been eating my birthday dinner every year since my grandmother Halstead used to take me when I was a kid as a treat from my dad and a mint chocolate chip ice cream cake with white cake and icing (does my husband know me or what?!)

Even with all the fun, my birthday was not the highlight.  The big news of the week is that Brandon has landed his first job since he finished school!  It's actually with the same company, now Duke Energy.   He'll be transferring  to the Analytics Unit, working with the energy trading models and fuel optimization strategies.  Which basically means that he'll be spending his working hours creating spreadsheets, studying data, and telling people the best way they should go about spending their money.  If anyone knows Brandon very well, you know that he would probably love to do this even if they weren't paying him.  I am so thrilled for him!  The only downfall to this job is that it will require us to move to Charlotte. We honestly don't know much about the town, but what we do know about it we are very excited to have in our backyard.  Charlotte is also closer to my sister and brother, no farther from Brandon's family or my mom, and my dad is coming with us so the family is completely covered.  It's closer to the mountains, it's closer to the beaches we like, it's even closer to Disney World (Caroline made sure she pointed that out to me).  The only thing it's not closer to is our friends in the triangle.  We have met so many wonderful people during our time in the Raleigh area, especially just in the last couple years.  It will truly break my heart to wave goodbye to each of you and I pray that our paths will cross again.

Before I start getting tear drops on my keyboard I have some more great news from the week.  Brandon received a personal letter from the Dean of the Fuqua school of Business at Duke letting him know that he was one of the few in his class that was awarded the honor of Fuqua Scholar.  This is only awarded to the top 10% of his class based on academic performance.  They will be presenting him with a special award with special recognition at his graduation in May.

I have to admit for months years I have been worried about what the future held.  Many sleepless nights and nail biting days have almost consumed me.  It seemed like the difficulties were never going to end, and maybe they won't.  But this week I feel as though the Lord is looking me straight in the face and saying, "You see Stacey, I GOT THIS."  I'm so glad He does, because we would not have made it this far without Him.  For the first time, Brandon has finally admitted to me, yes, it was all worth it!

Ending the year on a high note

Happy 2013!  I don't know if I have ever been more excited to welcome a new year.  Last year was probably the most difficult year our family has ever been through.  We are looking forward to what this year has in store for us and hope that all the hard work from the last few years will finally pay off in the coming months.

Brandon finished his MBA program about a week and a half before Christmas.  Once he was done we had packed every moment with fun activities and visits that had been put on the back burner while Brandon's school schedule was filled.  We made a plan once school was over we would get up earlier in the morning so Brandon could get in his workout before work began and I would do my cleaning before the girls were awake so we could spend our entire evening relaxing together.  So far we have stuck with our plan, although Brandon is still finding it hard to just sit still for an hour or so in the evening.

Our first weekend free we traveled to Greensboro to see both sides of the family.  We drove through the lights at Tanglewood in a 15 passenger van the Herndons rented so we could all enjoy the lights together.  Trying to pack 4 kids into a car past their bedtimes without dinner is not something that I would recommend.  We will be prepared if we are brave enough to attempt a return visit before the kids are in college.  The next day we spent time exchanging gifts and ice skating in downtown Greensboro.  Caroline is fairly good on her inline skates so I figured she would be able to make it around the rink without falling.  However by the time I got Summer and my skates on and made it to the rink Caroline was already racing around like she had been doing it for years.  She is already requesting that what we do on our next date night together.

Christmas was so wonderful.  It was so nice that all 5 of us could enjoy every moment together.  We decorated cookies, went to a wonderful church service on Sunday and Monday, had a wonderful meal and stayed in our pajamas all day on Christmas day.  The girls loved their gifts and were completely entertained by what Santa brought them for a full 24 hours.

Two days after Christmas Brandon and I left for Las Vegas, just the two of us.  We had been saving this trip to celebrate our 10 year anniversary and also as a way to congratulate Brandon on finishing school.  We picked Vegas because we thought it would be a place to completely get away from children on our "adult" trip.  We were surprised to see how many kids were in Vegas, and how many of them were up way past our bedtime.  We did have a wonderful time.  We spent most of it enjoying wonderful meals and sightseeing.  We also saved one evening to see the Cirque du Soleil's Love show inspired by the Beatles.  It was certainly the highlight of our trip and highly recommended if you plan a visit.  We didn't walk away winners from the casino, however, we did see a $35K payout on one hand at our table that was very exciting.  We lost that round ourselves, but since we were only betting $10 it was more fun to see the excitement of the big win.

I'm hoping 2013 will be one for the books.  We hope to get away on the weekends as much as possible.  We would love to make up for lost time with our friends and family and enjoy our kids.  Brandon hopes to put his new degree to good use, and I'm ready for some help around here.  Hope to see you all soon!

It takes a gingerbread village..

When I was little one of my favorite things to do during the holidays was make a gingerbread house.  Each December my Grandma Halstead would mail us a package.  It would include sausages and cheeses for my parents and 3 little gingerbread house kits for my sister, brother and me.  Sitting around the kitchen table trying to outdo the other's design and munching on candy we would have never of eaten otherwise is one of my best memories.  It has always been important to me to carry on those traditions with my girls.  But once I started buying more than one kit my little memory was turning into quite a holiday expense.

Last year we started a tradition of making our own houses from scratch and buying the candy we liked so we could continue as before.  Many of my friends have decided I am completely crazy for doing this, but if you have more than 2 kids I think you're crazy not to.  It's pretty simple so I thought I would share what I've learned.  Keep in mind you'll probably want to plan on this taking 2 days, especially if you're making more than 2 houses.  But the total cost of 4 houses was about $15, and we went crazy with the candy!

Step 1:  Make the dough

I used this recipe:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/gingerbread-cookies-101-recipe/index.html

I doubled the recipe and got 3 full sizes houses and 1 smaller version.  If you do double, make 2 batches, don't just add twice as much into your mixing bowl.  I learned the hard way that it will not fit even in a 6 quart Kitchenaid mixer.  If you do not have a stand mixer.  Mix the wet ingredients with a hand mixer and then incorporate the dry with a wooden spoon and then just knead in the rest.

Divide the dough evenly into the number of houses you wish to make.  Form into disks, wrap in plastic and let chill in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours.

Step 2: Cutting the dough and baking

While the dough is chilling you can decide the shape of your house.  I have always just done a normal rectangular house.  This year my dimensions were 4 X 4 X 6.  Just cut 1 template for the front and back, 1 for the sides, and 1 for each side of the roof.  That way you know that each will be exactly the same size.  Label the templates because after awhile the roof template will start looking a lot like the side template.

Sprinkle your counter with flour and roll out one disk at a time.  Roll out the dough to about 1/4 inch thick.  Lay the template on the dough and cut out your shapes with a sharp small knife.  Run a thin metal offset spatula under the cut out and then move it to a parchment paper lined baking sheet.  Once it is on there you can cut out the door(s) and windows.  This year we even added crushed lifesaver hard candies to melt inside the cut out windows.  You will probably have to gather the scraps and roll out the dough 2 -3 times in order to get all the pieces cut for one house.  Refrigerate the dough if it gets too warm or you won't be able to move it.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 9 minutes.  If your pieces were a little thicker it may take a little longer.  Once baked let them cool for a few minutes on the baking sheet.  While they are still warm put the template back on top to trim the edges to match exactly.  Let cool completely on a rack.

If you have any dough left over you can make any extras, like chimneys, doors or gingerbread people.  Once completely cool you can start building your house or place in a ziplock bag to build the next day.

Step 3:  Building your house

Once your gingerbread walls are completely cool you can begin building your house.  You can put the sides together with caramel or royal icing.  I prefer icing.  Mix together:

1 pound of powdered sugar
3 pasteurized egg whites
1 tsp of vanilla

If it seems too thick add more egg, and too thin more powdered sugar.  If you have piping tips, add about half the icing to a piping bag to pipe onto the edges, if you don't you can use a knife.

For the base you can use a cake board or I just cut out the side of a shipping box and wrap in foil.  Ice the bottom and all the sides together.  If you need to, use a can to hold up the side until they dry.  Just don't forget to remove the can before you put on the roof (happened last year!)  Once the 4 walls dry a bit you can add the roof.  Let the house dry completely before you decorate.

Step 4: Decorate your house

If you are still with me you are obviously very serious about making your own gingerbread house.  Good for you.  The fun is about to begin.  I like to take my girls to the store and have them pick out the candy they would like.  Just about anything goes.  If you plan to eat the candy off the house, chocolate and small candies do not work so well though.

Cover the area you want to decorate with the remainder of your royal icing.  Don't forget you can also decorate the board around the house.  Let the little ones at it, and count your blessings.

What a difference 2 years can make

On December 17th, 2012 Brandon's MBA classes will officially end.  In our home you will find countdown calendars everywhere.  Our entire family has been waiting for this day for so long.

This picture was taken of our family Christmas 2010.  This was 3 days before we learned that Brandon was accepted into the Duke MBA program.  I was hoping I could find another picture where I took the time to put on my makeup and was not in my pajamas or all the girls were actually looking at the camera.  After a lengthy search I have realized that we haven't had a chance to take a better family picture in the last 2 years.

In December 2010 Caroline had just started her first year of elementary school.  She received  a violin for Christmas, and spent all her free time playing with her friends.  Summer was a sweet, yet shy little 1 year old.  She stayed home with me, still in diapers, and would crumble into a tiny pile of tears if you just gave her a stern look.  Bella was only a few months old.  I think she was sleeping through the night by this point, but not much beyond that.  Brandon and I were trying our best to manage work and home life. We thought we were prepared for one of us to go back to school.  We were nervous about what a MBA program would involve, but were so excited about what the future held for us.

If you have read my blog at all, you know that the last 2 years have not been easy for us.  Brandon has been swamped with school.  I have been up to my eyeballs in kid activities.  We have spent weekends and even weeks apart.  His classes have seem to fall on every one of the girls' birthdays, our anniversary, and countless soccer games.  But we have found a way to make it work and loved every minute that we could all be together as a family.

Today that little kindergartner of 2010 is a bright and talented little 7 year old.  She is loving 2nd grade.  She just finished her 3rd violin recital, played T-ball, tennis, soccer, and learned to swim.  Summer is halfway through her 2nd year of preschool, is such a good big sister, and still falls to pieces at the utter of the word no.  Bella is now a wild and crazy 2 year old.  She's running. and talking, and completely running the show.  It's hard to believe that in just 2 years my little babies have become wonderful little ladies.

With 1 month, 2 days and a few hours left of the MBA we have started to look beyond school, and are still excited about what the future holds. Whatever that may be!

Home alone

For over a week now Brandon has been on Duke campus for his final residency of his MBA.  These two weeks have been staring me in the face on the calendar for the last 2 years.  I knew this time would be a little bitter sweet.  Brandon would be gone for 2 weeks straight, day and night.  His residency falls on a time that is right when we have a ton to do around the house in preparing the yard for fall and putting up new autumn decorations.  Caroline is in her last weeks of preparing for her violin recital and smack dab in the middle of soccer season. It was also surrounding our baby, Bella's, birthday.  On the bright side when these 2 weeks are over Brandon never has to step foot on campus again until he is walking across the stage.  He will still have classes until December, but it can all be done from home from here on out.  Although his course load this term will be the heaviest he has had to endure, we are hoping with the time saved from when he used to be in class it won't make for such a tough schedule.

But until then, Brandon is there and I am here.  When we first looked at his schedule it looked so simple.  Some days classes didn't start until 11 o'clock.  Almost every day he was done before dinner time.  Maybe the 2 weeks of vacation time he had to waste to be there wouldn't be a complete loss and allow him some free time.  What they don't put on the schedule is everything the students are doing outside of class.  It's not unusual for Brandon's team to be up until 1 AM trying to finish a case study before class the next morning.   They work through lunch, and even on the one day he had no classes and was allowed to come home for Bella's birthday party he had to rush back that evening to get things ready for the next day.  To be fair Brandon did pick some of the most difficult electives of the term.  Some he could have chosen wouldn't have been nearly as difficult and could have allowed him a little golf time with some of his classmates.  What Brandon keeps reminding himself in the wee hours of the morning is he's not there for all the fun campus can allow.  He's there to learn all he can before this is over.  Every night when Brandon gets to Skype with the girls he is reminded of why he is working so hard.

I feel like I am holding up my end of the bargain as well.  I'm not exactly sitting at home popping Bon Bons and marking off the calendar each night.  I don't know how couples where one spouse is gone for long periods of time do it.  Every night I lay exhausted in bed but unable to sleep because I have a million things running through my head about how I am going to handle everything we have to do the next day by myself.  You haven't lived until you try to handle 3 little ones during a violin lesson or prepped for a party alone in between diaper changes and temper tantrums.  Although, knowing it will be the last time makes it so much easier to get through.

This time alone has really showed me the things Brandon does to help.  Even though his time is limited every little bit helps and adds up.  Having him back full time will feel like a permanent vacation.  Well, at least for a little while.....

The beginning of the end

Well, here we are.  We are about to enter the 6th and final term of the Duke MBA program.  I'm sure you are sick of hearing me talk about it.  Heck, I'm tired of talking about it, and I'm sure Brandon is tired of living it!  Am I glad we spent all this time and money for Brandon to get his masters in a new career field?  You may want to save that question for a time when Brandon has found a new job and we have paid our student loans.  Would we do it again?  I really don't know.

When we started this program we had so many different goals than we do now.  Our original plan was to open ourselves up to any job, any place in the world.  We were excited about the idea of living in a new area, meeting new people and changing our lifestyle.  The girls are all still pretty young and we thought it would be a great time to make a change.  Sure, we would be leaving our friends and family behind but we could manage on our own for awhile.

The funny thing about the last 20 months is while Brandon was in school and we were making all these plans life still happened.  Since May 2011 the girls have had school functions, birthday parties, violin recitals and soccer practices.  We've all been sick or hurt and we needed help getting through all of it.  Our parents and siblings have loved and watched our kids when we couldn't.  Our friends have stopped their own lives at the drop of a hat to come help us by cooking a dinner or to stay with the girls so we could run to the ER for the second time in a week.  We are so thankful that we have so many wonderful people in our lives.  No fancy new job is going to replace our network here.  I'm not saying that we are going to stay in our exact same house or even in the Triangle, but we'll be staying close.

We have both been feeling this way for some time.  We have always known that work came secondary for our family and we have always planned to avoid higher paid positions that require more time away from our home.  We didn't know how much we would be willing to sacrifice until recently.  I believe the precipice came this week.  We had just returned from a great family trip with our family to the mountains.  We had spent 3 days in my in-law's mountain house having a wonderful time.  I watched my in-laws loving my children at the same level as I do.  We did crazy fun things, we talked about what was going on in our lives, and we could just be completely ourselves.  We came back so refreshed and ready to tackle the week.

I know Brandon's MBA will open a lot of doors for him, but we've learned that a lot of them we won't be willing to walk through.  In the coming months we hope to find a wonderful company that shares the same feelings about family as we do, and we are willing to take our time to find it.  In the meantime we are looking forward to spending a lot of time catching up with all of you!

Midyear Update

I haven't had much time for blogging lately.  The last few weeks (and months) have flown by in a flash.  I guess the title of my blog is holding true!  I wish we had more time to spend with our friends and family and catch up.  Hopefully soon, but in the meantime here is an update since my last post.

Brandon:  Has been so hard at work.  He is about to begin the 5th term of a 6 term MBA program.  This term is only 1 month long and will be over before we know it so we are truly finally reaching the end and there's a small light at the end of our very long tunnel.  Since his GATE (Global Academic Travel Experience) trip to China was cancelled he had the last 2 weeks off from school.  It was so nice to have him home to spend some much needed time with the girls and help me around the house.  I think we are all a little spoiled now and it will be hard to let him go back to his normal routine.

Caroline:  had her first week of 2nd grade last week.  She seems to love her new teacher and is so excited to tell me what she has learned everyday when she gets home.  She only has 14 kids in her class this year which is unheard of for public schools.  One of the reasons I love track 2!  We took this last month off of violin lessons, but she has learned 3 new songs during the break.  She is starting to play real songs and surprises me with her great ability after only 1.5 years of playing.  I'm starting to learn to read music in helping her practice each day so it's a learning experience for me as well.  She turns 7 next week so we are having 4 little girls and all our family come with us to a Durham Bulls game this weekend immediately followed by Caroline's first sleepover.  The countdown to Friday has already begun!

Summer:  Went to her first year of VBS last week.  She was a little shy and had a little trouble settling in each evening, but I could tell she had a ball.  She is very disappointed that she can't go again this week.  She'll begin preschool in the 3 year old class in about a month and can't wait.  In the meantime she is keeping me on my toes with dress up and wanting to learn to ride her scooter and bike as much as possible.

Bella:  Is changing daily.  I could write a daily blog just telling you all the things she does each day.  She is loving the summertime.  She has no fear of water or heights and tests my blood pressure everyday by trying new maneuvers in both.  She loves to point to or bring me things all the time to test her newly learned words.  Last weekend while the big girls were at VBS together she was home with Brandon and me all alone.  I think she would have loved being an only child, walking in the middle, holding both of our hands and getting our undivided attention.  Luckily, she was the youngest and won't have the deal with a younger one taking anymore of her time away!

Me:  I'm probably the most boring of the family.  I feel like I just try to keep up with the rest of them.  I have kind-of reached my July weigh goal that I set at the beginning of the year.  The number on the scale is what I had hoped for but the physical results are not.  I'm guessing I need to go a little bit farther than I had hoped for the results I'm looking for.  I hope to find a crossfit program once Brandon slows down with school.  I have done a few of those type workouts using the Bob Harper website and I really enjoy it.

I'll leave you with a few pictures from our trip to Carowinds over the weekend.  When we left in the morning to drive to Charlotte Caroline had no idea what that place was.  Each morning this week she has told me that she wished today was the day that she was going.

Caroline and Summer on the little roller coaster.  Caroline rode it 3 times (with her hands high in the air each time).  Summer rode it twice, but cried at the end of both rides.

Caroline and Summer riding the Snoopy airplane.  Summer could have done this the entire time and been happy.

The highlight of my trip!  Summer, Caroline, even Bella got to drive their own cars.

 Brandon and Summer riding the pirate ships, Caroline is in the boat behind them.  Caroline loved it, Summer, not so much.....

The girls in Snoopy's doghouse.

Me, Bella, and Caroline while Caroline drove the car around the park.

Brandon with Summer, Caroline and Snoopy