Merry Christmas 2016-----a year of scary!

Merry Christmas everybody!  I found myself with a few minutes here at the end of the day and I thought it might be a good time to compose and publish our annual Christmas “newsletter-turned-blog!”  When I started to look through the pictures from our events of the past year I found that they mostly all had one thing in common------they’re SCARY!  The year 2016 has been a SCARY year on so many levels.

WHY am I writing about our year as a scary one?  Well, it all started when I went out of town. (As my stories mostly do).  Last month I flew to Philadelphia for a week to attend our annual national convention.  While I was out of town, James and the boys thought they would surprise me by gutting and remodeling the main bathroom in our home.  After a week of travel I returned home exhausted to find this

If you speak with me very often you know that I’m noted for saying that I’m still married after all of these years in large part because I have my own bathroom in the house.  However, since they decided to “surprise me” by taking on a little DIY home project they had ALL moved into MY bathroom.  So, when I arrived home ready to unpack and take a shower, my sink looked like this...............

Um, so yea, as an additional piece to the "surprise" James directed the two teen age boys to DECORATE THE ENTIRE HOUSE FOR CHRISTMAS ON THEIR OWN while he worked to remodel the bathroom. Now when I left for my trip, the “autumn” decor was still up as my trip was the week before Thanksgiving.  I arrived home to find our dining room table looking like this:

Friends, until you’ve looked at your dining room table and spotted empty tubes of tooth paste next to ceramic pumpkins in-between fragile Christmas ornaments stuffed inside wicker turkeys standing on cans of athlete's foot spray with mouthwash slightly spilled onto all of it, you’ve not really seen SCARY in your house!! I could seriously spend all night writing about that singular example of scariness but then I wouldn’t be able to share all of the many other family events that were scary so I will leave you to yourselves to imagine how the rest of my home looked. 

I’ve decided to start last January and work my way through the year for to do otherwise would prove to be scary in that I’m likely to start talking about things that happened 10 years ago.  My memory is going FAST!!  After all, I will be 50 in June of next year.  I decided to get ready for that milestone 18 months in advance when some of you may remember me blogging about my “road to 50” campaign.  I’ve accomplished many good things in preparing for my big 5-0 though it's scary how far behind I am in blogging about it.  Maybe I’ll catch up by my actual birthday?!

  

One of the things I decided to do prior to turning 50 was to get BRACES!  (Yea, I’m serious) Later this year Adam got braces too which made him wearing braces at the same time as his 49 year old mother.  SCARY!!  

Adam played basketball during the first several months this year and I find it scary that he was so much taller than his teammates.  (Not to mention its MY kid of course who is shoving pizza into his face as his coach talks to them).  

While less scary, Alex played tennis and football and greatly enjoyed both. 

Speaking of football, Adam played as well this year and ended up with a concussion during his last game.  Needless to say-----VERY scary.  Maybe he couldn’t see because his glasses were so dark?! 

Everyone got another year older.  Alex turned 16 and got his driver’s license and a truck. 

  This year on their first day, Alex drove Adam to school!  SCARY!  I made them stand for a picture before they "took off mom!"

James and I attended a fundraiser at the Catholic Newman Center with some friends and had our picture taken with Elvis--Scary!!

Alex celebrated his 16th birthday by  riding  12 different roller coasters with scary names with his friend Casey at Cedar Point in Ohio.  SCARY!  

Adam turned 12 and celebrated by having a paintball party where they dressed up like this

Easter came and went and we invited my friends and their little children over to paint Easter eggs.

  

The next day it was scary that in the group photo my boys have grown SO MUCH over the years that they look out of place with other “little” kids.

We spent a week in Florida this year and celebrated 4 family birthdays while there---SCARY to try and keep track of all of that.  

While in Florida we spent some time at Universal Studios.  While there with James brother Jason we saw the Blues Brothers and were scared that the boys had no idea who they were.  (We have since rectified that little oversight)

We also found the platform to Hogwarts and took a train ride over there.  Its scary that place is REAL!  

This next picture from our time at universal is scary all by itself!  

Moving on into late spring and summer I found that my kids were murderers.  On hunting trips Alex killed a wild boar and Adam took a turkey’s life.  SCARY! 

In mid summer we celebrated the retirement of our department chair, Paula.  She had been teaching for 29 years.  I'm now the one in this picture who has been around the CMDS department the longest—25 years---SCARY!  

We also went up to Michigan for a family wedding this summer.  The scary part of this picture is that the girl in white was JUST BORN when James and I started dating.  Our first trip together was to Michigan to see her right after she was born.  SCARY!!  

The boys had fun hanging out with their cousins although its slightly scary that Alex is as tall as his adult cousin.  

Cousin Kendal trusted the boys enough to read at her wedding.  SCARY.  

We went to the lake a few times this summer with the kids and their friends and cousins.  It was SCARY to turn them loose in the van!

In the late summer we celebrated my dad’s 70^th birthday.  (Have I mentioned that this means I’m headed for 50 which is scary?!)

Alex is old enough to have a girlfriend which is scary.  He and Abby have been out having fun together this year.

When school started this year we found we had a junior in high school

                                                                      and a 7^th grader. 

This means next year we will have a high school graduate and an 8^th grade graduate.  That idea flies by scary and dives head first into TERRIFYING!!!!!

My friend Ilene trusted me enough this fall to serve as her baby’s Godmother.  Scary that I’ve never done that before.    

We continue to have THREE dogs that live INSIDE our house and run the place.  

 The scary part is that they can't figure out whose bed is whose. 

They also don’t have the sense to keep their food dish out of the bed with them.

Earlier this school year, Adam was selected to be the student optimist of the month for the Kirksville Optimist Club chapter.  When we told him he said “dad, I didn’t know Hendlers could be optimistic”---scary!!

This fall James and I celebrated our 19^th wedding anniversary which means next year we will have been married 20 years.  SCARY!!!

Time keeps marching on and everyday I see more and more of James in each of the boys---SCARY.  

They are growing up SO FAST!!  IT IS SCARY!!!!!!

Scarier yet is that this is the family they were born into.................

Scary as life has been this year, I wouldn’t trade a minute of it.  We continue to hang in there everyday and find humor in all of the chaos.  It would be scary if we didn’t!  Merry Christmas from my scary but lovable  family to yours!  

Happy New Year everyone!  Today is January 11, 2016 and it's the first day of our Spring Semester here at Truman State.  It's also day one of my personal "Road to 50" Campaign.

This is an initiative I have been thinking about for months.  I knew that this month I would rotate off of the CFCC at ASHA.  I knew I would have some additional "time" on my hands and I am also very aware that in a mere 18 months I will be (gulp) 50 years old!!

 

 

Hey, I've done some pretty cool things in my first 50 years.  I graduated from high school and college (twice).  I landed my dream job, married a great guy and gave birth to two extremely awesome boys.  I have served as president of our National Professional State Association and have been privileged to be able to serve at the national level as well.  I'm not done there.  The ULTIMATE goal of my professional life is to serve as the ASHA president.  (But that's a blog for another time).

Speaking of participating at the national level professionally, that didn't just "happen."  Several years ago I was sitting in my friend Janet's office and I was griping to her that I kept trying to be selected for this or that at ASHA (our national professional association) and that I was routinely turned down for an appointment.  I remember telling her that I was planning on just giving up and I'll never forget what she said.  Her pitch got REALLY high (it did---ask her), and she said "MISSY, you CAN'T just QUIT!!  You NEVER QUIT on your goals.  I TOTALLY support you in this endeavor.  KEEP TRYING"  (So I did)  And then, over the next few years I began to watch her.  Janet ALWAYS has a goal.  Really-------ALWAYS.  This is a woman who has risen to be the dean of our school, has completed numerous marathons, triathlons and an Iron Man competition.  She was president of our local school board, has three children and is married to a successful dentist.  Her most recent goal??  To gain overall body strength.  She's serious about this too----she flexed for me last week when we had a girls' night out.

When I began to plan my Road to 50 Campaign (abbreviated RD250) I knew she was the first person I wanted to "highlight" in my online journey.  I asked her a few questions about goals since she was my inspiration for never giving up on my professional goals.  Here is what she said when asked:

What was your first real goal?

I always had goals growing up - athletic, academic, music goals. I've always been REALLY competitive. I remember having the goal of raising enough money to go on my class trip to Washington D.C. in 7th grade. The first "real" goal I remember though was to be President of my sorority. I remember pledging Gamma Phi Beta my freshman year at KU. I loved it and everything about it. I said when I pledged, I will be President of Gamma Phi my senior year and I was.

 Why do you think routinely setting new goals is important?

If you don't set goals, there's no way you will accomplish as much as you are capable of. I get "itchy" when I don't have a goal. More important than setting new goals is OWNING them. You have to articulate them OUT LOUD! The more people you tell you are going to do X, Y or Z, the more likely you are to do it.

 What are some common pitfalls to achieving ones goals?

You have to aim high, but be realistic and you can't be afraid of failure. There's no way you are going to accomplish all of your goals - we're human. You have to be able to accept failure and reframe it into something positive. The thing about a goal is you set it, you work toward it, and even if you don't achieve it, you've still accomplished something.  For example, you set a goal to run a marathon in under 4 hours. You train. Race day comes and you run the race and you finish in 4 hours and 2 minutes. You didn't accomplish your goal BUT you still ran a marathon in 4 hours and 2 minutes! If you didn't have the goal, you wouldn't have even the run the race.

 What is your advice on turning 50?

It's not how I view turning 50 it's how I view "finishing" 49. I will view 49 as another year I've lived, learned and loved. I will view 50 as the opportunity to do something I haven't yet done. I have sworn that I will never say in reference to my performance/progress on anything "not bad for 50" (or for any other year for that matter)! For example, when people ask me about my running or my competing in triathlons, or how I'm doing in my career, or just how I feel in general, I will NEVER say "not bad for 50". That's just not good enough.

 

Thanks so much Janet for being willing to be my first "guest" contributor in my RD250 campaign!

 

 

So, here's the deal.  In the next 18 months I will be writing about my own personal journey in rejuvenating my mind, body and spirit as I approach this milestone age.  My path will include visits (and blogs!) with a wellness coach, an orthodontist (say what??!!), a physical therapist, a personal trainer, my phone-a-friend dietician, my "stylist" and my friends in my bible study/book club as well as "the girls" that I routinely hang with. 

I have NO idea where this journey will take me.  I DO know that by age 50 I have a goal to be "different" in some healthy-like, well-rounded way.  We shall see.  At the end I plan to gather my entire family up and head off somewhere to celebrate.  Road-trip vacation somewhere fun--------Can't wait! 

Until next time I will say that my husband texted me today and told me I have 519 days left until I turn 50.  He wants a RD250 tee shirt.  I may have to make that one of my goals.  Stay tuned!