Who's a Blogger?

If you haven't noticed....I've uh, been...absent.  Let's just play a little catch up.  My last post was in October...let's see.  Cameron has tendonitis in his shoulder so he couldn't play basketball this year, I cried but eventually got over it.  Christian finished his first semester of college, woohoo! And then came home for a long winter break, I also had a lot of vacation time stored up so I took it all and was home for half or more of December, another woohoo!  I put together the music portion of our church's Christmas Eve service, a lot of stinkin' work but it was "quite nice".  I went to prison in November!  It was a blast!  I sing in the band for our church's Celebrate Recovery program on Monday nights, they asked us to do a couple concerts at Algoa Correctional Center in Jefferson City.  It was a really neat experience, very humbling.  Our keyboard player couldn't go so I got the privilege to play keys and sing, another fun experience for everyone, lol.  My mom, sister, and niece, Amber, came over on Christmas Eve and we played games and watched a home movie "Christmas - 2000"; my boys were 4 and 6, my niece, Amber was 7; they were so adorable.  My mom got the boys Twister for Christmas that year and we all played, yes, we played twister - grown ups with 4, 6, and 7 year olds, lol. We laughed our heads off. 

We also watched some other home movies and Cameron recorded one on his phone.
Let's set the scene...Cameron is 3 years old, Christian is 5 years old.  We just came from a family reunion where Christian got stung by a bee on his thumb.

On a somber note, our dog Rylee became ill and we had to have her put to sleep a few days after Christmas.  It was a lot harder on all of us than I thought it would be, I cried at least once or twice a day for the first several days.  It just isn't the same around the house without her.  But life goes on...God is good and I have so much to be thankful for, He has grown me in remarkable ways the past few months.  He is worthy to be praised!

Christmas Card 2013

I almost forgot!  The annual Hoagland Christmas Card!  This year was tough, we had some really good...or, er...strange ideas but they just didn't pan out or we couldn't get it together in time.  This is our "last minute" award winning (in our eyes) Christmas Card photo.

Look closely....the boys have antlers...

Teenager Makeover

Things have changed around our house now that Christian has gone off to college.  Cameron inherited his room, it's bigger...it's only fair.  Christian does come home once in a while which we appreciate.

The biggest changes have been in Cameron, he is no longer the little brother at school, he is doing his own things, for example:

1. He is the yearbook editor - this is weird because he has never done anything like this before.  He takes pictures at ballgames, he said he just finished the cover of the yearbook, etc.
2. He is taking voice lessons - I am really ecstatic about this one, yes I set them up but he went and actually likes it, he is in Show Choir even though a lot of other boys are not.  He sings around the house, he made All-District Choir.  Cool.
3. He currently has all As in his classes - these are hard classes too, he has been a good student but all As?  Whoa, so proud.
4. He signed up to take the ACT - granted I had to do some of the work but he pestered me about getting it done on time.

Among other things, he's been pretty responsible, he's done some "man" jobs around the house, and the most admirable...See You At the Pole was last Wednesday, he took it upon himself to go by the office before school and have them announce it for 7:45, he went to his All-State Choir practice and when it was announced went out to the flag pole and prayed with the students and faculty that joined him.  This is what makes a mama proud, what really matters.

Losing a toe is ruff

For the past several months our miniature schnauzer, Rylee's toe nail has been growing in weird ways.  I really wish I had taken a picture of it, it was quite remarkable.  It was about ten times bigger than the rest of her little toe nails...comparable to my pinky in width and length.  Our dog groomer had been trimming it but said we should think about having our vet remove the nail.  We took Rylee to the vet and his exact words were "Wow, it looks like elephantitis of the toe"...I know, a picture! (insert it here).  He told us he would have to remove the toe as well and that we could pick her up the next day. 

She seemed to adapt pretty well, at first...a week after the surgery she started gnawing on her foot a lot, licking it or whatever but it still seems to be doing okay.  I asked the vet if she would need a "cone of shame" but he said no, he didn't like those.  The most impressive thing about this whole ordeal is that my awesome vet only charged us $45.  That really is amazing.  I read about all kinds of weird dog toe removal procedures online, hundreds of dollars spent, antibiotics, pain medicines, a positive attitude because your pet will sense your distress, LOL, these are dogs....

 

And this whole thing was worth it because now we'll get to see a bizarre footprint in the snow this winter.

ValleyPalooza!

Missouri Valley College hosted "valleypalooza" a family weekend in which we were invited to partake.  It was MVC's first home football game and families were fed a nice dinner beforehand and entertained by the dueling pianos...I think that was really their name, they were..um...interesting...and loud.  Regardless, we had a good time and watched a good football game, I love football.

So stinkin' cute.