merry christmas!

Dusty and I are married still. Barely, thanks to the guest room, marriage therapists, and lots of Tylenol PM.
Dusty still has a job. In this economy, who can complain? What the heck do you want, Perfection? He took about 118 trips to the Philippines this year, not sure why. Maybe refer to paragraph 2. Now if I can only talk him into taking Sela every time.

Kids are kids, I guess. They are still in school, which means we are not COMPLETE failures. Having kids, as you may know, is no picnic. All we can say is that if we have to take another runny-nosed-whining-never-say-thank-you kid to another friggin’ soccer game we are gonna put a fork in our eyes.

Daughter 1 is almost 11, her buck teeth have improved (all it takes is money… and more money). She has managed to meet all the first born standards so far, if you like those characteristics. We can’t think of much to say about her. Her teacher says she’s brilliant, aces all her tests, but we’re still waiting for her to remember to flush the toilet at home.
Daughter 2 is almost 9- halfway to 18 and out of the HO– USE! Being the second daughter smashes her right in the middle and she doesn’t receive much attention. Therefore she’s constantly fighting to be noticed by leaving what some would say are creative goodies all over the house for us. Sometimes we notice. Most times Dusty yells “Junk” and tosses it out.
Son 1 is 5. His athletic prowess includes falling asleep in front of the TV and 12 hours of Xbox per day at which I guess he’s decent. We managed to stifle our compliments; too much praise can be bad for one child.
Daughter 3 just turned 2 sometime in October. We forget which day. She keeps us busy with her dogged determination to destroy the house and dismantle its contents, EVERYDAY. I’ve always longed to go slowly insane, therefore I follow Daughter 3 around all day picking up again and again and again and…
The Pets in 2008 have become singular- Pet. The hens moved. The lizards died. The fish died. Pretty much everything we have taken in has died. We are down to only the original pet of this family- Dog #1. He is doing great, making sure that, should the kids let up at all, our house looks like the perpetual war-zone it’s meant to be. Actually, scratch that – the pet is not doing well. With his old age he has lost control of his bowels and taken on a limp. Dusty refuses to allow me to spend any more money on him and he will likely die any day.

Hopefully by now we’ve lost and disgusted those that aren’t truly friends and want to hear us brag because seriously, we are doing well. Amazingly well! We’re happily married… except when Dusty doesn’t listen. I’m sure no one else’s husband has this problem. We are absolutely healthy and content. I’m busy blogging, I have retired from indoor soccer and started Pilates, and I love using my creative energy whenever possible. Dusty is in his 12th year with the same company, they say he’s the best CEO they’ve had so far. He only really had five Philippines trips this year, one of which he took us. YEAH! It was absolutely and totally FUN! We love our extended family half way around the world in the Philippines. Between work and family Dusty keeps busy with Softball, going to the gym and betting on whatever he can to make things “more interesting.” The kids are at fun ages and keep us running. They are healthy, adorable and perfect in our eyes. * We must love soccer because we find ourselves signing up each kid each season. We continue to travel whenever we can and love taking our kids around the world.
Most of all, we enjoy having family and friends like you. Merry Christmas and best wishes for a smashing 2009! Yours, the Rhodes family

*BRAGGING ALERT on Children (read only if time allows): We are in awe and in love with the first born. She excels at everything except throwing a football. If anyone has any theatre, movie, TV or Broadway roles for a 10 year old brunette dancer, she could be the star. Bear’s latest greatest moment- Winning the outstanding dancer award for her age group at NYCDA- Houston, Texas. Our Moose overflows with creative talent and unselfishness. One night Dusty and I went to bed to find she had folded down our bed covers, laid out pj’s on the bed for us, placed our slippers by each side of our bed, filled little cups of water on our nightstands, set out our toothbrushes and toothpaste by the bathroom sink, and written/illustrated an entire series of book
s titled, “life of the super rat.” Books 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8…with complete stories waiting on our bed wrapped in ribbons for us to read. Gator continues to amaze us with his brilliant mind and soaring imagination. He can read like a 7 year old and put together Lego’s made for a 10 year old. He is dominant with the x-box 360 controller in which he sets goals to get killtaculars. Sparkles can melt anyone’s heart in a matter of seconds. She is taking dance class and learning a lot. She is set to dance the lead in Swan Lake later this month. That’s our little superstar! Actually, she’s appearing as “Fifth Dancer on the Left” in a stirring performance of “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.” She is stunning in her tutu.