Maaike 2011

Maaike has been getting a little camera-shy lately; I guess that's part of growing up.  Even as the goofy side of her leaves, though, there is a grace and beauty that takes my breath away at times.  Here is a flashback of Maaike in 2011:

She's a good sport to include her brother in most of what she does - Happy New Year!

When SHE controls the camera, she has no qualms about posing!  Maybe she'll be a photographer, or movie director!

After a busy final year of Middle School (with lots of choir performances and drama -- not related to the classes), we went to Utah and Idaho for a summer trip.  One of the first things we got to do was see a brand new cousin, Anders.  Born in China and visiting the States for only a short time, we were lucky to meet with him and his family (Paul & Cami Kartchner, Kaitlyn and Dixon) and have lunch at a restaurant before they flew away to China for another year. 

Other trip highlights: 

 ... learning to drive a boat.....  and a four-wheeler....

 ...watching Fourth of July fireworks in the rain (??)....

....playing in the mountains....

...celebrating a birthday in Idaho....

 ...and just being together.  It was a fabulous trip!

After that trip, we came home and had a friend birthday party for Maaike .... and two of her friends who had birthdays close together.  It was a luau theme, and the girls did a great job planning and decorating, and had lots of fun:

Now that's she's 14, Maaike gets to go to church dances.  She was soo excited about the first one, and honestly, it made me nervous for her to have such high expectations.  But she had a fantastic time, and was asked to dance a lot!  (Probably because she looked so pretty!)

(Well, it's ALMOST a  real smile!)

Her favorite birthday present

(that's she's wanted for just forever!):

Maaike also participated in a summer drama workshop, and that was a lot of fun for her.  

She was the Black Knight (top row, second from left),

and got to have a fake mustache: 

Near the end of the summer, we took a quick day trip to Corpus Christi (the North side this time).  We took one of Maaike's friends with us, and had a fun time.  Came home hot, tired, sandy.  Good times!

Last party of the summer was having Maaike's favorite cousin fly into town for a few days.  Maaike introduced Shay to her friends, and their favorite pastime; trying on formal dresses at the mall and taking pictures of themselves!  Silly girls!

But they also take silly pictures at home:

This might be their true personalities!

Then, high school.  Sigh......

She looks way too grown-up!

Look at this smile!  

She really lights up a room!

High school was (and is) and adjustment, but we have had lots of family fun along the way.  A recent trip to the zoo was a lot of fun for all of us:

And Christmas... she's always a good sport to sit on Santa's lap.  

"If you don't believe, you don't receive" at our house! ;-)

And one of our favorite traditions; the Nativity on Christmas Eve:

The Goudys have been blessed this year;

and one of our very best blessings has been our children.

Maaike has a particularly sweet, gentle spirit, 

and loves to help others.  We love her 

and are thankful for the good person she is!

My Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day....

In the last 24 hours, I wrecked a Lexus (not mine), broke a glass dish that was a wedding present (at least that was mine), lost my temper with my children and Dallas traffic, and have generally been miserable (and made everyone around me miserable too, I'm afraid!). If I was a drinker, I would be druuunnk!

Since I'm not, I thought I'd post a blog. I am hoping it will make me feel more grateful and happy and Christmas-y and less Grinch-y. So what better thing to post about than my sweet children? Here's a little bit of Boone this past year:

First, he became a Sunbeam in Primary. He really tried to be good (most days)!

This kid is going places!

Oh, he makes me laugh! Doesn't this look cozy?

Guess who LOVED the move "How to Tame Your Dragon"? Had to get this cute backpack!

 

Funny story: one Sunday, Boone was eating his lunch while I was getting ready for church. He came into my room and said, "I put the rest of my lunch in the fridge, 'cuz I'm done." What a big boy! So I complimented him, and hurried to get him out the door. And forgot about it. Until I came home. I opened the refrigerator, and on the top shelf was this:

 

Boone's leftover lunch - on tortilla chip!! Waste not, want not, I guess...

By the end of the year, he was so grown-up. While watching General Conference in October, he was intently focusing on his Primary pages, while his new buddy, Joey the (Mangy) Owl, stood on guard nearby.

 

Such a big boy!

I am feeling a bit better! At least until the insurance company calls......

They Grow Up Too Fast!

These pictures are from early 2009. We'd been in Texas just a few months and were living in a third floor apartment, trying to evict our terrible tenants so that we could sell our house in Utah. Jordan had started a new job, and it was a pretty stressful transition, wondering if things were going to work out for us or if we'd made a huge mistake. Those weren't our happiest days. But looking at these pictures reminds me that there are moments of bliss every day; and they usually involve my children! (The dog, not so much!) Readers, be warned; I am cleaning my computer files and finding lots of photos, so the next few posts will feel like Memory Lane! Fun for me - for you, ????

Don't Hate Me Because I Go to the Cool 80s Concerts

I waited awhile to post this, because if people knew I went to two awesome concerts in two weeks, they would start to expect more from me; they might think I have a super exciting life, when really, it's only moderately exciting with flashes of fabulousness. At least that's what I WANT you to think....! So this adventure started with a call from my Bon Jovi concert-pal Delicia, who was driving and heard on the radio that RICK SPRINGFIELD was coming to town for Liberty Fest, a small new celebration in a town called (of all things) Farmer's Branch (I don't know why, it just is), only 10 miles away or so. I immediately looked online, and confirmed that it was really happening, only a few days from then, and for the ridiculous price of $10! Well, we could pay $75 for "better" seats, but to get in was downright cheap. It was a done deal! We bought our tickets, and off we went........ Mallory (Delicia's daughter), me, Ashley (friend), and Delicia (look, she's doing the "rock hand!") Mallory gets another picture because she's so brave. How many teenagers do you know who would go to an 80s concert with their MOTHER and her friends? One, that's how many. Actually, Maaike planned to go, but accidentally agreed to babysit the same night. She was really disappointed, and so was I (and I was really worried, too, when I got a call that our substitute babysitter had locked himself and Boone outside..... but that's another post for another day). The opening opening act was from the School of Rock. These four kids were amazing! The youngest was 7, oldest 12, and they knew how to play! The drummer was the 7 year-old, and he was the best. His sister, 9 years-old, lead singer, played drums and keyboard, was also awesome, but he stole the show. They played ACDC, Led Zepellin, and I forget the rest... but they were really good. The opening act was the Spin Doctors, who I didn't know. They had one good song in the early 90s that I knew, but their stage time was mostly a good time for me to make phone calls to get the babysitter and Boone back int he house, check on Maaike, buy a Steak on a Stick, etc. Time well spent, and no offense to the Spin Drs. They were fine, but to enjoy a concert, you really have to know most of the songs. There were some big fans of theirs in the crowd, who loved them , and they were really energetic, but it wasn't for me. Sorry! During their time on-stage, though, I also soaked in the ambience. The weather was great -- warm, but not too hot, with a little breeze. It was a big, beautiful park area, with surprisingly few vendors -- a good and bad thing, both. There weren't many people there until the main act, so we got great seats (more about that later!), and there was a never-ending parade of interesting/weird/crazy people to watch! A guy with fake (?) dreadlocks; a woman with fake... well, over-augmented... um, yeah; a woman wearing a concert t-shirt from the Bon Jovi concert the week before (I went to talk to her; surprisingly, she didn't care that I had also been there), and assorted other characters. Good times.... We had our camp chairs and blankets about 50 feet from stage, which was a great location; and the people who paid big bucks actually had a worse view (and less comfortable chairs!) than we did, so we were ready to rock! FINALLY, the main event: Still REALLY handsome. Sigh. Delicia was in heaven -- if Bon Jovi was MY favorite concert act, RS had to be close to her favorite. I still don't understand the thing with the flowers. People would hand him beautiful bouquets, and he would shred them on his guitar. Is it just me, or is that weird? It looked pretty for a second or two, though..... After a while, being 50 feet away seemed too far for us rabid fans, so Delicia and I deserted Ashley and Mallory to watch our stuff while we went right up to the stage. We were probably 6 feet away from the edge, and I swear we got RS sweat on us (he was sweating a LOT!)!! But there was a drawback to our plan; when he sang "Human Touch" he went deep into the audience; about 50 feet in! He went right up to Ashley and Mallory, and they both touched him. I had been able to reach him on his way down the stage, and again on they way up, but Delicia is much less pushy than I am (obviously), and didn't get that "Human Touch"; the only one of our group to not get it (and the one who was most excited about the whole concert, I think!)! Not long before this concert (weeks, or so?), RS picked up a DUI. When he played "Don't Talk to Strangers", he did a big thing with a police officer and all the kids in the audience, that I am convinced was his community service assignment. Delicia thought he gave the kids a mixed message! Look how close we are! This officer semi-agreed to let any of us out of a speeding ticket if we mentioned Rick Springfield; I wonder if he would have let us out of a DUI? Rick invited all the kids up, then was surprised how many there were. He said "You guys gotta watch more TV!" Oh, if it had been in Utah.... He also was upstaged by some of the cute kids, and he knew it. "Jesse's Girl" was the highlight of the night! Someone put it on YouTube, and you an hear me and see my hand (at least I am claiming it's me...!). The crowd was going crazy -- he gave a GREAT show!!! During the Encore, Rick came out with glasses on (fine) and shirt off (not so fine). I looked up his Wikipedia page, and he is a few months OLDER THAN MY MOTHER (he'll be 62 this fall). This is too old to be shirtless, people. I have photographic evidence, but I didn't want to upset anyone... (I'll email you if you must see it). For everyone else, Delicia had a random stranger take our picture "with Rick", and you can just see his torso above our heads. It was a great night -- so much fun! Soooo glad we went! Afterwards, we brainstormed which other concerts we would love to see, and lo and behold, one of Delicia's other favorites will be in FORT WORTH in two weeks (wanna guess who it is?). We're going. I lied earlier; my life is pretty much ALL FABULOUS!!!