Merry Christmas! December
2012
If 2011 was our (finally!)
boring year, then 2012 was our trials year.
In early 2012, Seth was laid
off from his job at Michaels (bummer #1). They called him in one day and told
him that because of some restructuring, their budget no longer had room for
him. ! Within a couple months, though, friends of friends heard he was looking
for a job and he landed a position with Williamson-Dickie (the work wear
company). And after being there not even a year, he’s already received his
first promotion! He’s now the Director of Distribution Support and has nearly
50 people beneath him. The only downside to the job is that it’s in Fort Worth,
which changed his commute from about 15 to about 50 minutes (bummer #2)!
Because of Seth’s long
commute, we decided to change out his car. We sold his Envoy (which we both
loved and still miss—bummer #3) and bought a used Prius. He gets over 50 mpg,
though, so the monthly savings are exactly what we’d hoped for. Sena still drives
her 2012 Mazda 5 and LOVES it. Though she was recently in a fender bender
(bummer #4), so she had to go without it for a week.
As mentioned above, after
deciding that we were open to adding to our family again, we quickly found out
that we were pregnant, and our second son, Graham David, was born October 15,
2012 (4 days “late”). That makes the boys just 5 days short of exactly 2 years
apart! (Our Octobers are going to be busy!) We like to joke that their
closeness in age will either mean that they will be best of friends or best of
enemies… probably depending on the day! We’re thrilled to have two boys and
Austin loves “his baby.” He’s always kissing and hugging him as well as helping
put his pacifier in his mouth. Very sweet! The two bummers from this situation
were that it meant another 16+ weeks of morning sickness for Sena all while
keeping up with an active toddler and the birth, while ultimately fine, went in
such a way that required Sena receive two units of blood.
Last spring, Austin broke his
leg (bummer #7). He sat down funny and simply cracked his shinbone. It’s a quite
common break called a Toddler Fracture. He ended up having a full-leg cast for
4 weeks, but got it off right before the biennial Spofford Family Vacation (Hot
Springs this year) and before his second summer of swim lessons. The vacation
was a perfect blend of events and relaxation (we rented a house on a lake for
the 10 of us) and Austin loved swim lessons again this year. He’s in a one
day/week Mother’s Day Out program again this year, and comes home having
learned new things (and with craft projects) every week! He also attends the
children’s program of BSF with Sena on Wednesday mornings as well as the
nursery at church and loves dancing to their songs at home.
The biggest bummer of the
year, though, was probably Sena’s truck incident. She was backed into by a
truck (her body, while standing in a parking lot) and spent most of the
triple-digit, pregnant summer laid up on the couch because of a pulled chest
muscle which caused her all manner of pain (and which was not fully treatable
because of the pregnancy). It got so bad that she had to have friends and
family help care for Austin.
We finally got our fence and
retaining wall replaced (we had been saving now for a little over two years)
and our foundation fixed (which then meant we needed to fix some
plumbing—bummer #9), so in addition to being a year full of trials, it’s also
been an expensive one!
Seth spent a lot of time this
spring/summer enjoying his half-season Rangers tickets, taking different people
to the games and selling the tickets a few times when he wasn’t able to attend
(we were very sad when they lost so early in the playoffs). He still serves on
the Teaching Team in our Bible Community at church as well as the board for our
community pool. Sena still participates in a monthly book club, runs the
community’s website and email service, scrapbooks, blogs (anorthernbellesblog@blogspot.com),
and has recently joined a monthly supper club for women in her neighborhood. We
are also leaders of a couples small group that has proven to be a huge blessing
in our lives! We feel very connected to our community and despite the trials
(and expenses) of 2012 are thankful for all the blessings God has bestowed upon
us.
God Bless!
Seth, Sena, Austin, and
Graham
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