Dear Self

Okay, so I had to force Randy to let me write this, but because so much family will (hopefully) be reading this, he finally caved in. When Randy was a senior at Granville High School, he had to type up a letter to his future self that would get mailed to him in five years. Well, last week, Phyllis called to say that the letter had come in. Randy was confused at first but then remembered and couldn't wait to hear what he had wrote to himself as a high school senior. The following is exactly how he wrote it.

Dear Self,

This is Randy, which is actually you. You are Randy. Right now I am sitting in the computer lab on the last day of high school. Craig and Cody are behind me. Do you remember them? Probably not. Anyways, there are some things we need to go over. You should have a hot wife by now. An engagement to a hot woman would also be acceptable. If you don't have a hot wife or a fiance, you are a loser. You need to step it up. You should have also completed your first four years of college. You need to be starting your future career by now. Back here in high school things are finally over. These had to have been the four longest years of my life, our life. I am so glad high school is finally over. I couldn't wait to get out of Granville. College has probably been a lot of fun, but by now you should have been accepted into a new college. And hopefully you are still living near Nashville. If you have done all these things then keep up the good work. Nice talking with you.

Love,

yourself

Completed four years of college? Check.

Accepted into a new college? Check.

Remember Craig and Cody? Yeah.

Hot wife? I hope so.

Still living near Nashville? Close enough.

Reality

I've always thought January is one of the most boring months. It's not only after the big hype of the holidays, but it is bitterly cold....and unless there is snow, cold doesn't have too much of a purpose. Thankfully, I have already been granted a snow day. If I DID go in to teach that day, I probably would have crashed by 10 because I got (maybe) three hours of sleep since I was too excited about the possibility of a snow day. Pathetic? Yes.

The good part was that Randy was off, too...not due to snow, just his schedule, so we spent the entire day eating, being lazy, and then finally working out (and felt a little better about ourselves). But minus the snow day, the reality is that it is the start of a new semester, and a couple of things recently have reminded me why I never wanted to teach middle schoolers.

For starters, my elementary-school-teacher-friends talk about how many hugs they get in a day (not that I want hugs from big 8th grade boys) and how many "thank you's" they get. Thank you? Yeah, right. I don't think I have heard that once this year! In fact, I believe I say thank you to the students just so that I hear it!

Secondly, I got my first "insult" recently. In my classroom, I write "HARTMAN" on all the rulers in black sharpie in hopes that they will stay in the room. Well, just the other day a sweet, adorable sixth grade girl said, "Mrs. Hartman, I wanted you to know that someone has written on your ruler." There in big black letters was the word "SUCKS" after Hartman.

Hartman SUCKS.

No hugs or thank you's for me, just the nice message that I apparently suck as a teacher. Ugh.

Lastly, a sixth grader had on the same sweater that my mom got me from Macy's for Christmas. I'm already told I look young, but now matching 11 year-olds? Enough said.

I guess it's true that you have to take the good with the bad, and there is plenty of good to my job...so I suppose I can bear down and continue attempting to tame the middle school beasts. Meanwhile, I've told Randy that when our kids reach middle school, they're getting shipped off to boarding school!

2009 Highlights

Ok, so here are the Hartman Highlights of 2009. I always like doing things like this, because, as Randy puts it, I'm a "reflecter and planner" while he is an in-the-moment kind of guy. Here are my reflections...

(and another thing my husband stated was that I was going to forget something and hurt someone's feelings...I hope that isn't true, but please forgive me if it is)

In no particular order, here are the most memorable moments of 2009:

*Randy and I both turned 24 (not that monumental of a birthday)

*We bought our sectional for our living room, and sit on it daily

*Surprisingly, we had the same spring break, but don't really remember where we went..Nashville? Granville?

*Randy finished his FIRST YEAR of DENTAL SCHOOL

*Our nephew, Grayden, turned 1

*I read the entire Bible using the One Year Bible plan

*Randy did his first "lesson" at our house church

*We both learned Swahili worship songs

*Visited CANCUN in the summer

*I enjoyed my first summer off as a teacher

*(before that) I survived my first year of teaching! pheew

*I was a part of a dear friend, Sarah Kate's, wedding to an Australian mate

*We said goodbye to two good friends who moved to Knoxville

*CeLeBrAtEd our 1st Wedding Anniversary!

*Attended the annual lakehouse trip @ Parkers

*Gr'pa (on Randy's side) turned 80

*Attended Peggy (Randy's aunt) and Phil's wedding reception at JackAss Flats

*Attended Sandi (my aunt) and Jack's wedding in Nashville

*Our nephew, Luke, turned 1

*I was selected to be the Alumni Artist at my alma matter, FRA

*My Volvo got a new transmission

*Slumcat Jack turned 1

*Hartmans' 1st visit to Memphis

*We started to "go green" and recycle

*Thanksgiving in Nashville

*Christmas in Louisville

*Mamaw (on Randy's side) turned 80

*Randy went on his first hunting trip

*I had my first sickness as a teacher and was given my first antibiotic

*I gave my first final grade of a "C" in art

*Jodi and Matthew became temporary Northerners and moved to Cincinnati

*We continued to use the same box of garbage bags we got from Sams in our first month of marriage

*Although married to a "student dentist", neither of us had a single visit to the dentist

*We saved up 60+ Central cups...Randy claims we'll need them when we have kids?!?

I know not all years will be filled with so many "happy" moments, but it is nice to know that while you can include a trip to Cancun on a big list, you can also include something as silly as saving plastic cups...yet that is what most of my days are about...the little things!

Now, I hope a snow day (or more) is in my future for 2010! Happy New Year!

Randy and Lynsi's Christmas Vacation

This would be better pictured if I was tech-savvy and had a map of our travels to describe this Christmas vacation of ours, but here it goes:
As of Saturday morning after the night of my school's Christmas party (and after trying out our new toaster/egg poacher combo for breakfast) Randy and I set off for some much needed family time. First stop: Nashville (to do one of the Hartman Christmas traditions and spend time with the Tucker Christmas..well, dinner and gifts at least). Second stop: Louisville to see Randy's oldest brother, Dan, and his wife, Jenna, and our adorable nephew, Luke. Danny is a first year family practice resident so didn't have fun work hours around the holidays. Third stop: Dayton for Mamaw's 80th birthday. This was such a memorable time which I'll share more later. Fourth stop: Granville for time with D & P and amazingly enough, lots of snow! Fifth stop: Back to Nashville to pick up Jack, who enjoyed being with the other cats waaaaay too much and might start hating Randy and I. Finally, back to Memphis for New Years.

Our little Hartman family on Stocking Night...Jack's eyes got a crazy red-eye fix!

Catnip!

Although Christmas was a little unconventional this year with so much traveling and flip-flopping from one place to the next, we found that (this Christmas especially), it's not as much about what you do, but who you spend it with. We are lucky to have the ability to see both sides of the family almost every holiday even though we technically switch every other one to keep things even. The time in Nashville was short, but packed with lots of fun. We got to see Randy's uncle who lives in Colorado, his grandma, grandpa, and cousins, and then we got to spend time with my (immediate) family for dinner, talking about how in just a few days Jodi and Matthew would be Cincinnati-ians.

Family Boys: Grayden, Luke, Isaiah

Cousins Luke and Grayden

Daddy's Girls on Tucker Christmas

Starbucks with old friends

Gift swap with Lipscomb girls.

Louisville was bonding time. We miss seeing the Hartman brothers and sisters so much, and although Danny had to work more than he would have liked, we still got plenty of time to spend with them. And I made a quick bond with Little Luke and taught him how to stick out his tongue and funny stuff like that, which his mom told him was "only for Aunt Lynsi". We were there from Monday to Saturday, and Randy's parents got there Wednesday night and we went to Macaroni Grill and watched Love Actually. On Christmas day, we thought Danny had to work until 5:30, but a Christmas miracle happened and he got to come home at 9 am! Rob and Jen (Randy's older brother and his wife) and their cute, talkin' son, Grayden came on Christmas day and we opened presents before sharing a Christmas meal together.Saturday was Mamaw's 80th birthday. That's Randy's grandma, who is about as sweet and tough as they come. We were so happy to be part of her memorable day. Randy's grandpa (on his dad's side) also turned 80 this year, and it is so amazing how healthy, happy, and active they both still are. While in Louisville, we found out what to do for Mamaw's big day. We bought her 80 different colored (mostly pink) roses and tied a different memory/reason we love mamaw to each rose with ribbon. What was best, though, was the presentation of them. She did not know she would have all her grandsons together (cousins Curry and Ryan made it as well) and that alone was enough for her, so by the time we brought in the roses and the great grandsons with "mamaw's boys" t-shirts, the tears started flowing! It was beautiful. That evening we all went to dinner at the Chop House and celebrated 80 years of a wonderful life.

100 roses...80 for Mamaw.

Soaking it all in...reading all the memories and reasons we love her.

Mamaw's boys!

Granville was good relaxing time for just us and the folks. We got to visit with some great family friends, Brenda and Brian, and go to Easton (my most favorite mall ever, located in Columbus) to see Avatar in 3D. We wouldn't travel to Granville without eating at our three favorite Ohio spots: Donatos, Skyline, and Chipotle, and yes, we had them all! Best part? the SNOW!!! It always snows after I leave Granville, but we got it this time, and boy was it pretty. Randy and I enjoyed some time making snow angels, having a snowball fight, and sledding down a hill with a plastic baby pool! Oh, how I love snow!

First time I didn't bring snow clothes, it snowed!

The best pictures are not on the post, because my camera died. I will share if I get them soon, but the day after the first snow, there was MORE snow! This time we wanted to do it big, so Randy and I went to his friend, Matt's house, and just barged through like we were part of the family. After all waking up, Matt and his girlfriend, Lorrie, and Randy and I took boogie boards and went to a really good hill on a golf course. When Randy took the first run, he went so far he crashed head first into a bunch of cat tails surrounding a pond that, although looked frozen, probably would have been a disaster. We had so much fun, and sledded for far too long for my Tennessee bones, they just couldn't take all the cold (I almost passed out, how embarrassing!). The boys got creative and used the boogie boards as snowboards and had some major blowouts, and we had double decker races where we not only had to be the first ones down, but then had to get off and run to the finish line! The whole day was just about perfect. I asked for sledding, and boy did I get sledding.

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

Coming Soon: 2009 Highlights

He's Stuck!

So, no one is going to think this is as funny as I did when Randy showed me what he did while I was sound asleep. Jack has found a hole in the kitchen (our friends Russ and Heather warned us about this a while ago) and he loves getting back behind the cabinets and dishwasher. When I unload the dishwasher, a paw will randomly pop out and tap my foot.

Well, this video captures Jack coming out of the hole...or at least trying to...he is alllllmooost too big for it, and after spending a week getting fattened up at the Tucker household over the holidays, he might seriously get stuck. Anybody know how to disassemble kitchen cabinets incase that happens?

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

Merry Christmas, everyone! A little early, I know, but I can tell you right now that I will be much too busy enjoying family time in the upcoming weeks to write anything on this blog. Thus, there will be a very long post after the holidays for those of you that can bear it.

This is Randy and I's 2nd Christmas in Memphis, and I got a few more decorations this year. It isn't quite a winter wonderland, but it gives the intended festive vibe. The story to go with decorations goes like this...

the apple doesn't fall far from the tree....(forgetfulness)

A week or so ago I talked Randy into doing decorations complete with music, baking, etc. which was a difficult feat considering he was deep in study mode. He agreed to go get the decorations out on the deck and came back with nothing...A call later, we realized I had left them in Nashville last year and INTENDED on getting them on Thanksgiving! oops. Luckily, my aunt was coming from Nashville to Memphis and brought them.

These are a few of my favorite things...about Christmas:

*Baking: I spent all day yesterday making toffee bars, mint brownies, and a brownie mocha trifle...mmmm. I also went to a Holiday Treats Exchange and have a box full of goodies for the whole week. The bad part? My clothes are tight....TOO tight!

*Family: I get to spend Christmas with so much family and I cannot wait to see them all! Randy and I are spending the most time with Danny, Jenna, and Luke in Louisville. I've also enjoyed time with my Memphis family and Church family. We decorated Christmas cookies with the Burundi girls last night which was the biggest mess I've ever seen, and then spent the night playing games and laughing..laughing..laughing.

*Cheese: Both in the ball form (I loooooove cheese balls) and in the cheesy Christmas way...aka the Singing Christmas Tree at Bellevue Baptist. It is equivalent to a Broadway performance in a megachurch. Ridiculous? Yes...but amazing.

*Shopping: Most got done on Black Friday and online, but I got to go shopping for my angel through school, a 1st grader in Memphis and loooooved it.

*Music: I've lately called Randy the Christmas Killer because he complains about the Christmas music in my car...

*Lights!

*Movies: Favorites are It's A Wonderful Life and Elf...also love Home Alone.

*Fire: We made our first fire the other night when we had friends over. I don't know who loved it more...Jack or me....probably Jack!

*Time Off!: Randy is already done (the worst is over) and I will be done after this week. Pheeww!

Jack in his ski vest. Sadly, I couldn't get much better shots of him because he hates it so much!

Believe!! And our lone ornament, which reads "The Hartmans 2008"...we will get a tree one day when we have a house and more room for our cat to roam and not try to climb it!

Christmas Card ribbon...some are old and some are new!

Candy cane centerpiece with snow-filled martini glasses! Yes, I am aware that I need a runner to complete it, but because I have a beast of a cat who pulls at all fabrics, this must do for now.

And last but not least, for those of you that have never seen It's A Wonderful Life, click on this link to watch the Tucker version...with me having the best line: "Look daddy...every time a bell rings, an angel gets its wings"...now how did my aunt Sandi know to put me as that character?!

http://sendables.jibjab.com/view/jrrW00sT9d3ktckj

It's Official!

Jodi and Matthew (my sister and brother-in-law) have big news....

They're moving! What did you think it'd be? :)

Yup, the Nashville lifers are moving up north to Cincinnati, Ohio due to Matthew's promotion at work. There are two things funny about this: the first is that everyone in my family gave me a hard time for marrying a "northerner" from Ohio, and now Jodi and Matthew are becoming Yankees. I guess Cincinnati is still kinda in the neutral zone, but still, now we are not the only ones with an Ohio connection.

The other funny thing is how soon they have to move...December 29th!

If I was living in Nashville right now I am sure I would be sad and upset that they were moving away, but I cannot wait to visit them in the nasty Cinci- Skyline chili, Chipotle, Reds games, Kings Island, the Beach, H&M, Ikea, and the best part is that Randy has family there too so we can have more reasons to visit both! I am not so sure that my mom and dad are quite as excited about the move as I am considering this will be the first time they won't have at least one daughter living in Nashville. Still, I am very happy for them and think it will be a great growing time for them to just be away (with Paris and Achilles of course) and focus on each other.

Although it will be hard for them to be away from friends and family (like it was for us a year and a half ago), I know that there is plenty of life just waiting in Ohio...and because they have such better shopping than we do, I know that Jodi will handle the move just fine!