Friday, December 30, 2011

Many, Many Thanks!!!!

(Note: This post was started a week ago, but we got derailed by a virus/ear infection with Zoey (and me) that had us in the ER two days in a row, though we spent actual New Year's Eve at home. She is better now, so let the thanks begin.)

One more day left until the end of the 2011. I can't believe we are here, and I am so relieved. And tired.And our house is a gigantic mess.

Some stats from 2011:
Graduate Classes taken by Sarah - 3
Undergraduate Classes taken by Matthew - 10 (a few were Grad classes as well, didn't make it our lives easier for sure)
Degrees Earned - 1, BS in Mechanical Engineering
Geek Frats Joined - 1 (Tau Beta Pi - Engineering Honors)
Babies born - 1, our beautiful Zoey Rae
Cats lost - 1 (we will always miss you Fatty)
Fish still surviving despite being majorly ignored - 8 (all)
Brand new Bathrooms Completed - 0 (it's close though!)
Number of 3-year old birthday parties thrown - 1
     (Number of Groupons bought so that Merry Maids would scrub the kitchen and bathroom before party - 1)
Number of beds in Master Bedroom at height of occupancy - 3 (one queen, one toddler, and one co-sleeper)
People hosted for Thanksgiving dinner - 15
Wedding china/crystal broken during said dinner - 0 :)

I just wanted to take the time to say thanks to everyone who helped us through this year (and the previous years after Evan's birth during Matt's studying at UMBC).

Thanks to my all of my family who let me visit time and time again with the kids so we could give Matt time to study. Mom, Dad, Becca, Mark, Jessie, Lance, Lisa, Albert, Helen, Peggy, Joe, Tammy, Jo Jo, Cindy, Sean, Christian, Heather, Dave, Hunter, Haley, Paul, Tracy, Griffin and Katelyn.

A gigantic special thanks to Peggy for surviving in our house for almost 3 years, doing uncounted loads of laundry, making thousands of pitchers of tea, picking up the kids many times over, participating in potty training (bet you thought you were done with that, huh?) and most of all for helping to provide as stable as possible a household for our small children during the craziest year of our life.

To Zoey's aunts Jessie and Becca, who lovingly stayed up all night in the hospital with her the first three days of her life, so Matt could go home to stay with Evan. A labor of love, for sure. (I mean, she was pretty irresistible).

Thanks to all of my friends who let us visit too (many times w/ no notice) or visited us to help: Jennifer, Doug, Brynn, and Brayden; Christy; Heather and Greg; Jess, Jeff, Trent, Mya, and Ally; Maxine, Rick, Ryan and Avery; Jackie, Rob, Robert and Austin; Barbara, Dustin, and Nathan; Kim, John, Jacob and Ben; Nicki; Walt, Agnes, Michael and Catherine; Walter and Elizabeth; Becca and Dave (and Amelia!); LeeAnne; and Nori.

To Miss Valerie, for loving our children and watching over them at your home. It was one less thing on our minds, we know that they enjoy being with you and your family. We so appreciate it.

Thanks to Walter, for coming and helping Matt with one of his final Heat Transfer problems on a day where you should have been relaxing, having just completed your Master's Degree. We are so proud of you!

Thanks to our neighbors on our street for letting me take the kids on a walk and not return for hours. Mike and Cindy, Mike and Bonnie, and most of all the entire 'Stone House' family (as Evan calls it), for letting me bombard their house whenever I needed to. To Mary, Mark, Betty, Molly, Sophia and Ben, we are thankful to have you in our lives.

To my fellow workers at APL, again, our family would not have accomplished what we did without you allowing me to have a ridiculously flexible schedule, and at the same time letting me work on very cool projects that I can't wait for one's launch next year and the other's arrival at Pluto in 2015! Alice, Becca, Elliot, Annette, the NH Flight Team, the RBSP TC Team, and most of all Randy and Al, you guys are all amazing and supportive and really great people to work with.

Thanks to all of the Nordiques players, especially Walt and Terri, for keeping the team going in our absence.  I mean, who knew you could accomplish a win-less season without us? :) We really miss playing and are going to return as soon as we can!!!

I'm sure there are people we have forgotten, but you know who you are and I hope we do a well enough job expressing our thanks to you. Feel free to call me out for my brain lapses. :)

I can't wait to see what 2012 holds for us. (Less, I'm hoping, haha).

Love,

The Buciors
Matthew, Sarah, Evan and Zoey