It seems harder and harder to get anything down in writing for a quick Holiday note. For those of you that like a little update and have made your way to find our Holiday Greetings we say Hello!
Update: Many of you know our Christmas surprise gone wrong. I am so good at keeping surprises, I even kept it from myself and mixed up the dates we were leaving with my work day I had switched to have off. When I went to check in for our flight on the 20th for the 21st, sure enough I couldn't because our flight had already taken off earlier that day. Luckily I had not told the kids the surprise, especially when the #Suncountry Airlines agent spouted off the cost for the only seats left on the plane. First class was an additional $1000 per seat on top of what we had already paid. I only booked the tickets on December 5th, when I found reasonable tickets for the week leading up to the holiday instead of the week after the holiday. There was so much going on that weekend that I booked, I really never sat down to put it in my calendar and my Sundays at the hospital are typically a little slower and I can sometimes catch up on emails and personal schedules but that just didn't seem to work out in my favor either weekend. Luckily, Sun Country found us seats a few days later out of Portland a few hours drive and we only had to pay the tax for the change fee and it helps that they are so good to their military members and we didn't have to foot the bill for luggage too. So our already short trip just got shortened even more. Anyway we are on our way and excited to spend the Holidays with family.
In our whirlwind of our crazy little life, 2016 brought a lot of fun, Last Christmas we were lucky to have Jared's family visit us for Christmas, despite our tiny house it was such a blessing to have them all here and to get to use all my fine decorations and do the traditions that we often miss when we are away, waking up in our own house for Santa was a nice treat too.
In February we took the kids on their first trip to Disney World. We combined it with our Annual Franchise ownership meeting and Becky's parents were able to watch the kids while we were in meetings. It sounded like a great combo vacation except after our first night at Disney Jared and Brody became really sick with the Respiratory flu. Maycen and I were sick but held out until a few days later and we all ended up at Disney's urgent care on Tamiflu with unused Disney days. It was a fun trip but I think we are in for a redo in a few years. This cartoon made me laugh about our trip. We both had had the flu shot but the kids did not however they said it didn't cover the flu's that hit last season very well anyway
Maycen is going to be seven this December 30th. She is in the first grade and doing great. She is still into Soccer, wants to do Gymnastics and dance again but we have been spacing the kids activities out a bit more this year. She had a big change at the beginning of the year as she cut her long hair and donated it to a children's hair donation program. We both loved not fighting over hair tangles.
Brody is 4 years and doing well in preschool. He is really into legos and building cars. He did soccer this year but I am not sure its his favorite thing to play so well see what comes of that this next season.
Chopper as many of you know has not been in the best health. He had surgery in Novemeber on a soft tissue tumor that was 12 inches long. His pathology was pretty tricky with lots of other cells but came back as a grade 3 Sarcoma so probaby the worst one you could get. He is doing so much better post surgery and has better movement of his leg now, however the original tumor is growing at his ankle and they did not remove that one which has gone from a quarter side nodule to a golf ball size now. We are just giving him lots of love and hoping he gets to stay symtom free as long as possible.
Jared and I are still working hard, we have the franchise which is requiring long hours and lots of new challenges that keeps Jared on his toes and me his sounding board. We did some great fundraisers this year for St. Jude and really appreciate everyone that supported us and donated Money or time to help us. We also were lucjy enough to meet Seahawk's player Richard Sherman one of the best players in the NFL and he signed a ball for us to raffle off for St, Jude! Go Hawks!
Other exciting news for Advantaclean is that the company will be featured on the upcoming January 11th episode of Undercover Boss. We were orginally slated for the season finally but it got moved to this winter for better viewership. So watch for us on January 11th 8/7c on CBS.
Becky is still working at the Hospital, it was my 10th year being in one spot. I am really ready to move on to something less hectic. Inpatient nurses have crazy schedules and are in constant motion on long 12-14 hour day shifts, I just can't give up the 10 shifts a month deal for the pay and honestly on days where I know I am helping a family get though their toughest moments I can't imagine doing anything else or sitting at a desk job. it makes missing my family or a soccer game or a plane :0 make so much more sense!
Alright my short Holiday greeting turned into a long Journal Blog. But anyway these silly holiday letters are really for me to look back and see and refect on our little family. For those of you that popped into read our note, thank you for taking the time to see what is up with us this past 2016.
We wish each of you a Merry Christmas and a Healthy and Happy New Year!
Love from the Toppenberg's,
Becky Jared, Maycen, Brody and Chopper too!
