Happy New Year! The Rankins’ Family wishes you an exciting and joyous 2011!
I thought I’d try something new this year. Rather than send a Christmas greeting I thought it might be nice to catch you up on our lives. We don’t get to see you much and even though technology has helped friends and family to communicate from a-far, it still isn’t as good as a simple note; the old fashioned way.
Every January Derric and I sit down and make a goals list for the new-year. Some may call them New Year’s resolutions but we like to call them goals. We don’t always accomplish all of our goals but we do accomplish a few, and it feels good to look at our list at the end of the year to see what we’ve accomplished. To catch you up on our lives it may help if you knew which goals we accomplished this year.
Goal #1: Pay off our last credit card! And we did! On December 4th we paid off our last credit card and are now free from credit card debt! This is a huge deal for us and we are very excited to have finally reached this goal! Next step… pay off the car.
Goal #2: Andie set out to run a 5k in the Spring. I not only ran a 5K but also ran a Half Marathon and a 10K. The Half Marathon was of course a big challenge. I started my training thinking that I could never make it over 3 miles but eventually reached 13.1 miles and now a short run is 6 miles. It is amazing what you can achieve if you set your mind to it! I had a blast running the Nashville Women’s Half and my time was 2 hours and 30 minutes! If I had only, not had to stop to use the restroom my time could have been a few minutes faster! J
Goal#3: Derric set out to compete in a race or bike event. Derric did both of these things. He did the bike portion of a Triathlon Relay Race Team. And… drum roll please; he did the Clarksville Century Bike Ride. For those of you who don’t know, a Century ride is a 100-mile bike ride. He did wonderful and had a blast in the process. Caedmon and I drove out to support him at a few of his rest stops! We had fun cheering him on as he achieved this goal!
In addition to reaching a few of our goals, life happened. Derric had his tonsils removed in November. It is true what they say… it is a much worse recovery the older you are. I had my tonsils out at 21 and I would much rather give birth to 5 children before I would ever do that again (that is how painful it is). Ladies, we all know that when our husbands or significant others are sick they are big babies but Derric was a real champ during his recovery. I actually had to tell him to sit down and let me take care of him because he was up trying to take care of him self. Stubborn man.
I am raping up my last two semesters of graduate school. I will graduate in May with my Masters in Legal Studies, with an emphasis in intellectual property. Exciting, huh? It really is exciting! My graduation day is August 6th, 2010 but I will not be able to walk because I will be giving birth to our second child! Yes, you read it right, I am pregnant and due on August 6th! What a happy new year for the Rankins’ family! Caedmon will be 3 on March 31st so he is not old enough yet to really comprehend that I am pregnant. I told him a week ago that I had a baby in my tummy, and he smiled and repeated to me that I had a baby in my tummy. Later that week his Daddy was playing with him and put his stuffed Nemo under Caedmon’s shirt and Caedmon said, “Daddy, I’ve got a baby in my tummy.” Kids really do pick up on more than we give them credit for.
Caedmon has been a joy to parent this past year. Don’t get me wrong, it has been a challenge but it has been worth it! He may look like me but he has his Dad’s fun loving personality! A few months ago Caedmon and I were in Panera having breakfast together. We had finished our meal and were getting ready to leave. I took him with me to the fountain machine so I could give myself a re-fill. He was literally only 3 feet from me when all of a sudden I saw a big ball of white smoke blast through the restaurant and Caedmon was standing with a startled look on his face. He had set off the fire extinguisher located at his level on the wall. My first thought, was, oh my goodness, all of this smoke is going to end up in everyone’s food. I grabbed Caedmon and went to the manager to tell him what my son had done. The manager of course was only concerned with whether or not my son was okay. I explained to him that Caedmon had made a big mess with the fire extinguisher and asked if I could do anything to help. He told me no, that he would take care of it. So I got out of the restaurant as quick as I could before Caedmon got into another mess. When I got him to the car Caedmon said to me, “Mommy, I made a mess. I made a mess.” I couldn’t help myself, and just starting laughing. I guess that will teach Panera to put their fire extinguishers where toddlers can reach them.
Thank you for letting me share a little about our year. I hope your 2011 is a good one!
Love,
Derric, Andie, Caedmon, and baby Rankins
