January & most of February is gone....what happened?

Well January is gone...along with the kids who came over the holidays to visit. For 4 days before Christmas, we had Dale, Shalene, Rebekah & Leah come to visit. The girls are so funny & informative (if you have children, then you have few secrets...hehe). Dale updated us about school & looking for a job during school. We have a couple of poker acquaintances with CPA contacts that have offered to help him...more later about this. Dale is so happy to be home with his little family & the love between them is apparent. Shalene is running behind the girls trying to work to help support the family & workout to get & keep that buff body. Dale & Shalene joined Asheville Crossfit & could kick most of our butts. They look great & it seems to be a great outlet for them. Shalene also is performing with local artists & choirs. Rebekah loves her school & had been riding the bus but now is a car rider instead. She is reading well above her class in school & shows how smart she is all the time. Leah is too cute & funny, laid back unless she does not want to do something then the discussion is over. She is very smart & reminds Mark & I of Dale every time we get to spend time with her. She is her Dad's child & Rebekah is her Mom's child (very musical, her theatrical & very smart) Yes, I know, what about the dogs....Oscar & Echo continue to grow & love Asheville too. They have a huge fenced backyard & when they got lose someone found them & placed them back in the backyard. What a great neighbor...I think mine would call the dog catcher instead.
All the family was together on the Sunday after Christmas, in spite of Stacey's family & 1 dog driving 9-10 hours to get here, Dale's family & 2 dogs driving 3 hours home a night (our family has finally outgrown our house[ :-(} ] AND Dare having Evan just days before & during flu season. The twins are developing their own personality & love the new baby. Hudson is well Hudson. He cracks up us every time he comes over. He says the funniest things like when the girl scout cookies from Gretchen came. He said "give me some Girl Scout nookie". Evan is a beautiful & very good baby, however he is his Mommy's baby. He will tolerant small visits with other but he wants Dare most of the time. They are definitely in love with each other. They had new family photos that are too cute.
Stacey. Richard, Dallin, Parker, Gretchen & Charlie (their dog) arrived in time for Sunday dinner. After dinner, the children opened gifts, plus Mark & I got gifts although we asked for no gifts (they were great though). This year due to the economy - personal & global economy we decided for the 1st time we could not buy gifts for all 17 of us. The Hopfer family spent the week after Christmas with us & we went to museums & etc. Richard worked some seeing a couple of large customers based here. It was great to have company & Mark took 11 days off...left over vacation days (who can afford to go anywhere these days). Nashville is so far but one of my Christmas gifts was a ticket to Nashville to spend a week.
Dare & Ryan came by to drop Hudson, Owen & Elijiah to have dinner with us but fining the new baby Evan from flu viruses. She got talked into staying although Evan had to spend most of his time in the carrier & away from our germs (it worked as we did not make him sick). There staying helped make Christmas complete. Evan looks just like Hudson did as a baby (like Dare). 2 little Ryans & 2 little Dares - too cute.
The rest of January saw cold, rain & even snow & ice. But the weather was great when off I flew to Nashville for a week. The Hopfer family are busy & on the go always. During the week I got to see Gretchen practice her gymnastics, eat lunch with Parker, & talk with my Dallin. Nashville is obviously good for the Hopfers as they are blooming. A few accidents though... Parker broke off his 2 front teeth in a bike accident, then he fell into the creek across from their house & got a huge black eye with damage to his cheeck bone & a popped vessel in his eye (yeah it was as scary as it sounds, Gretchen fell off her bike & had HUGE scrapes & bruising on her face (see photos), fell of uneven parallel bars on her head that kept her out of practice the week before her state competition. She still cot 2nd place for all her class of Tennessee. Dallin had a couple of run ins with the bullys at his new middle school but is settling in well. Dallin is 11 yrs old almost 12 & that tells his story (haha) I think he is very well behaved for his age. They are all doing well in school. I did bring the usual rain with my visit, but Richard assured me that they needed the rain :)
Mark & I continue playing poker in our poker group (no money involved just bragging rights) Out of 90-100 we have moved into the top 10. Unfortunately, we finished 1st & 3rd one night & found it to be a lose, lose situation. With equal chips, those of us who talk to much (yeh, me) had given away secrets as to how I play & Mark used them against me. The next time we were 1st & 2nd, Mark tried to make up for the last disaster by throwing the game. I was playing it like I normally would & he called a hand that no sane person would call to "let" me win & beat me. I was furious since I went all in to try to just get out of that hand because either he did not believe I could beat him, or he was cheating, or he was I do not know what he was doing other than trying to show his love for me but poker is not the time to try to be nice. I can only play against people that play the game not try to help me win. Happily, I got over it & realize he was trying to be nice.
Mark's job he still loves everything but the money. In July, he is getting a Ford Flex from company with all expenses paid including for our personal use. Even I can drive it & they pay gas, oil changes, tires & etc, includes out of town trips. {They will be calling us the traveling Wyricks} Every 2 years we get a new car - we had 3 choices but if I do not pay for gas...I want comfort & 7 bucket seats.
I am happier now that after much personal research I take 1/2 of the medication that I did. I discovered I was taking meds for side effects caused by other meds, & taking meds that were not able to take with other meds I took, plus 2 meds had caused poisoning by taking them 8 times longer than recommended. I feel much better & save over $200 a month in co-pays. The insurance says over $2000 a month. I should have been a doctor -haha! No, it came from 5 doctors writing prescriptions without talking to each other.
February has been cold, rainy, snowy, icy but a good month. We received our IRS refund & bought Mark a new laptop so now we will be selling out net book. We discovered that the state tax refund is going to be late again, because they have no money. They are waiting to collect taxes before they refund taxes. Can I call my phone company & tell them I will pay them after I collect an expected refund? No, I did not think so. Only the government has that kind of nerve - to spend money that was not theirs to spend. We do not celebrate Valentines Day but love to see & hear about others celebration.
In all, this year is shaping up nicely & we hope to not find ourselves transferred somewhere else but in this economy we will go where they say. I look forward to repainting the house this year, moving up in poker chain, & seeing my family more. Check out the random photos.