Top Nine Things I Learned In 2009

1. Running is excruciatingly hard, but equally fulfilling...I look forward to being further pained in 2010... Do I see a half marathon in my near future? hahahaha

2. Surgeons who know what they're doing are completely awesome and worth every penny they get paid. The Doaks have been blessed to know two fantastic surgeons in our lives and are equally blessed to have been on the receiving end of treatment from these angels!! Dr. Crouch and Dr. Roche rock!!

3. Camping is hard work, but s'mores make it all worthwhile.

4. Church doesn't have to be lame, narrow minded, uninviting and uncomfortable.

5. Marriage is hard work....laughing when the going gets tough isn't.

6. Raising a boy really IS different from raising a girl.

7. Being surrounded by the coolest, most caring, neighbors in the whole world makes my neighborhood cooler than yours....

8. Nick Jonas is really cute in person.

9. 1700 square feet is not enough space for all the love (and toys) that flows through the Doak abode...hahahaha!!

Christmas

Christmas 2009 was fantastic for the Doak kids...
the hits for the girls: American Girl dolls
Kit's Treehouse
Barbie camper
My Little Pony Spa
Easybake Oven

for Quinn:
Spiderman scooter
his very own Leapster
Matchbox racetrack (direct quote from Quinn-"This is the best toy me ever had.")
These couple of days following Christmas have found the kids playing, playing, and playing...It's such a joy to see the kids just being kids...Here are some pics taken over the past few days...enjoy!

Let It Snow!

Stella was so excited at the possibility of snow this past weekend...She ran outside Saturday night to try and catch a few flakes on her tounge....

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone:
For those who have faithfully kept up with my blog (thanks Tara and Amy)...you already know about this year in the life of the Doak Family 5...this is for everybody else : )
Our year has been kind of crazy (as usual) Here are some of the highlights (and inevitable low lights)

January---the year got off to a rough start as I was diagnosed with papillary thyroid cancer right after the holidays (Happy New Year...woo hoo!!), but I wasn't allowed to wallow in pity as I went off for a girls' weekend to the OBX with all my Royal Grant girls. I had a great time forgetting my problems and getting absolutely zero work done on my scrapbooks (which was the point of the trip)....Did discover that my new neighbor Rachel and I were going to be the best of friends. Came back from my relaxing weekend just in time to celebrate my niece's ONE YEAR birthday.

February---Everyone in the Doak family gets hit hard by some sort of stomach virus. At one point we were all laid up on the couch. We had never all been sick @ the same time. It was absolutely terrible. Days later I had surgery to remove my thyroid! What a crazy and stressful time for our family. Thankfully the surgery went well...even though I could barely speak for about 2.5 months!!!!!!!!

March--Life begins to get somewhat back to normal until our piano teacher Elizabeth convinces us to raise two chicks ( as in; LIVE chickens). I start my blog to document the process, to record various homeschool capers, to leave some sort of documented history in case I die from a recurrence of cancer, and to give scathing commentary on American Idol (this was our favorite...check out prior blog entries. They are hilarious)....A very reflective month ...

April--found us celebrating Easter, venturing outdoors more to the zoo and beach and yes, more American Idol chatter...Jay talks me into signing up for the CHKD 8K...So eight weeks following my surgery, I start running...

May---still running. I celebrate my 35th birthday. American Idol crowns Kris Allen this year's winner. We finish up first grade of the Doak family homeschool and go on a camping trip to Cape Hatteras to celebrate.....

June--CRAZY month for our family...Jay turns 36 and on his birthday we run the CHKD 8K. We are so proud our little team (consisting solely of me and Jason). We raised over $1600 for the hospital!!! We were so proud and thankful to be able to give back to the hospital that has given us so much!!!!! Stella celebrated her 7th birthday (wow!! how did THAT happen??) and we started going to Real Life!

July---lazy summer days...lots of time @ the beach and tons of summer reading!!! very relaxing!

August--Stella starts second grade and Ashlyn kindergarten!! I'm finding it increasingly difficult to juggle homeschooling two kids. Everyday presents a new adventure. We also made it to Washington DC, where because of her father's incredible hookups was able to meet Nick Jonas of the Jonas Brothers!!! What a great trip!!!!!

September---We make it up to Shenandoah National Park for an end of the Summer camping trip and freeze our butts off in our new tent! Still a great trip...lots of hiking and smores!! We discover Ashlyn has begun to once again turn her eye in. A trip to her eye surgeon tells us another surgery may be in Ashlyn's future. Until then, she has a new prescription for glasses which are simply adorable on our little cutie! The girls participate in an end of the Summer piano recital. Ashlyn is adorable in her first performance!!! Stella is graceful and gorgeous as usual...

October---Quinn turns three. Ashlyn turns five. Jay and I turn nine : ) The kids celebrate Halloween as the statue of liberty (Stella), a cat (Ashlyn), and a chicken (Quinn). Our Church ceases to meet in GB High School as we move into our new building!!!!..The entire month is filled with celebration after celebration after celebration!

November---spent recovering from October...We have a wonderful (mashed potato-less) Thanksgiving.

December---We've already packed in a ton this month....Stella, Ashlyn, and Quinn all participated in their Christmas piano recital! (Quinn's first)...We have been busy getting ready for Christmas! Life is fantastic. Everyone is healthy, happy, and full of energy...This has been a year full of tears, laughter, new friendships, old friendships rekindled, struggles, triumphs, quiet moments, and joyous celebrations...We have been blessed to have God with us the entire way ...I can only imagine what next year will bring for us!!!
Merry Christmas to you and your family!!!! lots of love,

Baking Day

So the kids and I stayed in the kitchen most of the day to bake! Stella and Ashlyn are really becoming actual helpers....Quinn, not so much. Here are some pics of our day of baking enjoy...And for all of you who always complement me on my organizational skills, check out the pic of my messy kitchen

Christmas Piano Recital

Sunday was a busy day for the Doak kids (and their parents)...The kids had their piano recitals in the afternoon and later on their church Christmas program. All three kids did wonderfully at the recital! Quinn was adorable and anxious to play his one song he had been practicing. Ashlyn added a chord to Jingle Bells, which is a huge accomplishment for someone with such tiny hands! And Stella played all of her songs beautifully...It was a such a joy to watch all three excel and to see some of their friends perform as well. A great afternoon. I'm not even going to rave about our fantastic teacher, Elizabeth Kalman, because if I refer her to one more student she may just stop teaching my three : )

We headed back to church later in the evening to watch the girls perform in our church's Christmas program. Stella had a major case of stage fright, but once she got over it, she did wonderfully!!! Ashlyn was just too adorable...The highlight of the evening may have been Ashlyn praying with everyone right before the play started and asking Jesus to help her with her lines (she had one)....Stella nailed all of her lines and her solo was gorgeous!!

What a wonderful day! Here are some video clips of the piano recital Enjoy!

More Than Lumpy..i.e., I Told You Amy.......

In all the craziness of the holiday season I have forgotten to share a "funny" story about Thanksgiving. I will preface this story by saying I am a fairly decent cook...seriously. I really enjoy cooking and I'm pretty good @ most things I whip up. Some of you can vouch for me...By my "arch-nemesis" (as Jay calls this dish) is mashed potatoes. They kick my butt EVERYTIME...I think I made them really good ONCE...I don't know what it is. This is a fairly simple dish to most people. But I have screwed up mashed potatoes in every way possible. I've made mushy mashed potatoes, lumpy mashed potatoes, relatively flavorless mashed potatoes and the piece de resistance and the type that were made on Thanksgiving day: hard-as-brick-that-they almost-broke-my-Kitchen Aid-mixer-mashed-potatoes....Those of you who have prepared a Thanksgiving dinner know that things can get pretty hairy in that last hour of preparation. Everything seems to come together at once. Your attention gets diverted on pulling the turkey out, letting it rest for a bit, then the carving....throwing your casseroles into the oven, getting your rolls on the pan to immediately follow...worrying about how everything that needs to be hot will stay hot and all the cold stuff will stay cold....Hectic is an understatement when it comes to getting Thanksgiving dinner onto the table. Especially if you're working alone, as I was.....Excuses, excuses...I know....

So in the craziness that is the "final hour" I neglected to look @ the clock when I turned my potatoes on to cook. I had a brief moment in my dinner preparation when the turkey was resting, the casseroles were heating up, and I had nothing to do. I glanced over @ my pot of potatoes boiling away on the stove. I panicked...they had certainly been on the stove too long. I poked a fork into one (apparently the ONLY cooked one) and it was soft. I yanked the pot off the stove, drained the potatoes and tossed them into my mixer. Added a little milk, butter, and switched that bad boy on. At that moment, my parents arrived...The kids start jumping up and down, the dog is barking...I'm not even noticing that my mixer is literally lifting itself off the counter in an attempt to mash these bricks...I mean, potatoes.....It quiets down and I glance over @ the mixer which has caught my attention because it is about to fall off my counter....I notice the potatoes are a "bit" hard. Any normal person would take those potatoes out of the mixer and toss them back into the pot to continue cooking, right? What do I do? I add more milk...that's right...I add more milk...Certainly enough milk will create a consistency that one may be able to describe as mashed....right? OK...WRONG....My poor mixer was able to scrape some cooked parts away from the mostly RAW potatoes...I had a gluey mess...Time for confession. I threw everything else on the table, but a smile on my face, walked into my living room and told my family that we would not be having mashed potatoes with our Thanksgiving meal....chirp, chirp, chirp...My Dad asked what happened and I told him they were not Thanksgiving worthy (or ANY meal-worthy)...He told me he liked lumpy mashed potatoes (was that passive aggressive???). But I knew there was no way that I was putting those things on my table...And so that's the story of our mashed potato-less Thanksgiving...I think I may have started a new family tradition.....Happy holidays, ya'll.....



before.......and after...................

So, the decorations are up, the first round of baking is complete, a couple of service projects are under our belts, and a few Christmas parties have been attended.....and it's not even halfway through December!!! It's just crazy how busy we have been in these first few days of this month!!!! This week things have slowed down a bit, but the weekend promises to be event-filled. The kids have their Christmas piano recital Sunday afternoon and the girls are in our church's Christmas play on Sunday evening....Here are some pics of our holiday events thus far enjoy!!!

Carpe Diem

Life has been moving at a very rapid pace these days and in an effort to attempt to live in the moment, I have neglected my dear blog in favor of well...life. Sometimes all you can do is get through a day. Sometimes there's not enough time to reflect on what you did the day, week, or month before. But, I have noticed something happening lately, or rather, not happening...I've NOT been living in the moment, I've NOT been reflecting, I've just been, well...surviving. Life can get crazy with a husband, three kids, pets, responsibilities. I've been so wrapped up in accomplishing goals, getting from one day to the next, that I haven't really been appreciating what I have and THUS, the blog entry, for some much needed reflection time.

I remember almost exactly one year ago going to my doctor for my annual check-up and him telling me there was a lump on my thyroid. I remember coming home and knowing instinctively that it was not good. I didn't find out until the new year that I had thyroid cancer, but I remember making a decision following my check-up...I decided to not...for lack of better term, "sweat the small stuff." Life is too fleeting, important , meaningful, and yes, brief, to stress out over things I can't control. I remember writing in my journal that my life was on "the cusp" of something. I wasn't sure if it was greatness, or something dreadful. I found out shortly after writing that journal entry that it was actually both.

A cancer diagnosis affects the way you view life, but it also affects the way you live it. Silly, trivial things don't matter. They actually, quite suddenly, cease to exist. Arguing over where to spend the holidays and with whom doesn't even make the radar when you decide to grab onto life. Issues that used to cause hours of debate, grief, stress; suddenly become non-issues...Taking pictures, getting down on the floor and playing with my kids, baking Christmas cookies, laughing these are things that are important. And in this past year, of being diagnosed with, and getting rid of cancer I have lost site of that intense feeling I had when I was on the "cusp" of finding out about my cancer. It sucks to say it, but I have fallen back into my regular routine of staying busy, staying stressed.

Everyone @ some point in their lives needs to be confronted with the "real" possibility of death. It will change you. But what no one tells you is it's not a permanent change. That change, that spark, that fighting spirit doesn't burn intensely without some work, some thought, and some effort. God may give you a glimpse of what your life NEEDS to be, but it's up to you grab onto that feeling of importance and go with it. To wake up every morning and make a decision that this time here is going to mean something. So, in the spirit of purpose I have recommitted my self to not letting the tiny things get me down. The holidays are here and I am here to enjoy them. To enjoy my crazy, dysfunctional, dramatic, and loving family. To enjoy the quiet moments @ the end of long days. To take a breath in the midst of a whirlwind of activity and to smile at the complexity and intensity of life.....Life is good...........Happy holidays everyone.....