McAlister 2009 Update
Once again, I sit down to write out Christmas letter and cannot believe that another year has passed!! January brought our first trip to San Antonio to hear Josh and 3 other CDA students at the All State Band competition. Josh had a great time in spite of his lips being numb for days from hours of tuba playing! Jacob also qualified to play in the Jr. High All Region competition in April. Jonathan continued to learn his euphonium and played a solo in front of an audience of over 100 at a Coram Deo event.
We lived, ate, and breathed basketball for several months with all three playing and then we moved into track season with Josh. The boys all celebrated their birthdays and we became the parents of 10, 13 and 15 year old boys!! We too got a year older…of which the boys remind us of often.
We had our annual trip to the ER in April with Jonathan breaking “numerous” bones in his ankle…including his growth plate! It was a Sunday night and Dean had just headed to the airport and the boys were outside on the trampoline. I later learned that the two older ones were trying to bounce Jonathan up high enough to touch the trees that are up above the net around the trampoline. Josh came in carrying Jonathan telling me that he was pretty sure he needed to go to the ER. I was working on my computer and told them I would be right over to look at his ankle. There have been so many trips to the ER that I just don’t get excited anymore when I hear screaming!! Sure enough…his ankle had a tennis ball size bump on it and we headed to the ER. I had Jacob come along so that he could tell the doctor EXACTLY what happenedJ They x-rayed his ankle and told me that because of the swelling that they could not tell if it was broken, but they could see that his fibula was bent. I thought, “Good! That surely has to be better than a break!” Dean’s text messages and voice mail were full by the time he landed! There is never a dull moment with three boys! We headed to the pediatric orthopedic specialist on Tuesday morning. The x-ray revealed multiple breaks to his ankle bones (they could not tell me the exact number) and that his growth plate was broken as well. The bend in his bone…had happened several weeks ago. I had NO idea how that had happened!! He was on crutches for a week and I was told to keep him still! He figured that he could swing himself on his crutches and take fewer steps in a matter of two days. Once the crutches were gone…there was no stopping him. He played football, basketball, and anything else he could get away with! His cast was filthy by the time he got it off and the nurse that x-rayed his ankle angrily told him he was VERY “lucky” that his ankle had healed properly. God is merciful to our very active third child! We also learned 4 months later that there was no damage to his growth plate.
Dean and I were able to get away for a few days together in May to go to the AstraZeneca Circle of Excellence in Phoenix while mom and dad watched the boys. The boys finished 4th, 7th and 9th grades and all our sports commitments in May! The Denton Bible missionaries from around the world come in once every year and a half and we had the privilege of hosting the welcome dinner at our home at end of May. It was the first time we have ever had over 100 people at our house! Thankfully, God blessed us with an unusually cool, “mosquito free” night so that many could visit outside. Dean and Jonathan also spent some father/son time in San Diego at Legoland. Jonathan would LOVE to build/design Lego’s for a living someday!!
Jonathan attended his first week of camp away from us at Pine Cove in June in Tyler, TX, with many of his friends from CDA. Josh, Jacob, and I headed to Chattanooga, TN. Josh spent a week at a Teen Leadership Boot Camp at Precept Ministries while Jacob and I did genealogy research in East TN near Claiborne and Grainger County. We learned many things about the Hamiltons, my dad’s mom’s side of the family. They were some of the very first settlers in that area. We found the Hamilton Cemetery near an area called Hamilton’s Crossing and drove through the beautiful countryside that they owned in the early 1800s. I think that I enjoyed our trip much more than Jacob didJ On our way home, we stopped in Memphis and enjoyed dinner at BB King’s House of Blues and went on a tour of the Gibson Guitar factory. Josh was in heaven!!! When we returned home….he/we purchased his first Gibson guitar!!! He is learning the joy and commitment of “one year/no interest”!
We spent Week 7 at Pine Cove Crier Creek Family Camp in Columbus, TX, for the 8th year in a row. We had a wonderful time making new friends and catching up with the families that we started with in 2002. We cannot say enough about Pine Cove! The counselors and staff are incredible, Godly role models and every year we are challenged individually and as a family to model Christ in all we do. Next year, we will miss our Fabulous Family Fellowship counselor, Cha Cha as she marries her sweetheart in June!
I headed to Indiana in August for the 102nd Smith Family Reunion and to collect more information on mom’s side of the family. I so enjoy all the genealogy research, and wish I had more time to spend on it. But, I know that the day will come too soon that our house will be quiet and I will have LOTS of time.
The boys started 5th, 8th and 10th grade in August. We cannot believe that the time has passed so fast. I found myself being quite emotional as we dropped Josh off to take his PACT and PSAT tests…Josh thought I was crazy. Josh will be headed to college in 2 short years!!!
We challenged Josh this summer to pray for guidance about what God wants him to be spending his time and talents on. He chose to pursue his greatest passion of playing his guitar. He has been playing with the praise and worship team on Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights for the youth at church. He’s loving it!! Although, you would not know it from his facial expressions….a look that he tells me is a “bass guitarist” lookJ He also began taking Jazz guitar lessons on his new Gibson. We recently learned that Josh qualified for the All State Band again and we will be heading back to San Antonio in January. Josh is plowing through 10th grade and is currently taking driver’s education in anticipation of getting his license when he turns 16 in February. Thankfully, I know that Jacob will keep him straight on all the driving “rules” once he starts toting him aroundJ He is still a Sooner at heart and hopes to become one in 2012!
Jacob is plowing through 8th grade as well and pursuing his clarinet faithfully. He will be trying out for All-State Band as a 9th grader next year and plans to re-qualify for All-Region this year. He enjoyed going with Dean in October to see his Texas Tech Red Raiders lose to the Texas A&M Aggies… a very sad and humbling event! They are also headed to the Alamo Bowl on January 2nd to watch them trample Michigan State! Wreck’em Tech!
Jonathan is enjoying 5th grade, but would much rather be playing sportsJ He is the only one playing sports right now. He played flag football (I am still holding out on tackle football) in the fall and now we have moved into basketball. Practice once a week and a game on Saturday are much more manageable than the 7 days a week commitment we had when they all 3 played basketball! Jonathan is still pulling for the USC Trojans and says that is where he will attend college. It is really just picking a team that upsets his brothers! He also loves turtles. We have 4 desert box turtles and he spent the summer harvesting the baby red-ear sliders from the neighborhood pond. Thankfully, we only ended up with 3!!
I officially resigned from all my responsibilities at the boy’s school in August. It was very hard at first, but I am enjoying being back in a Bible study, working on repainting the inside of our house, scrapbooking, and genealogy research. We turned the game room upstairs into a study area for the boys and a space for all my scrapbooking and genealogy stuff. We all love our new work and study areas. Speaking of genealogy research, thanks to Ancestry.com I found a branch of the Roberts family in Ardmore, OK that we did not even know existed! It has been wonderful to get to know them.
Dean is in his 22nd year with AstraZeneca and continues as a Senior Director in the Managed Markets group. Last week, he was able to attend an AstraZeneca meeting at the corporate headquarters in London. We were all excited for him to have this opportunity! Maybe next time we can go with himJ
Without a doubt, the highlight of our year was having the awesome privilege of leading a children’s camp in Mombasa, Kenya with a group of 19 others from our church. I have attached the summary of our trip for you to read if we missed you. It was an amazing trip and we will never be the same because of it! You can view our pictures on Facebook or at this link http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=40535&id=1527216118&l=8b77406283. This was our fourth mission trip, but this one has profoundly caused us to examine our lives and where we spend our time. We came back with a radically different perspective on life.
We thank our Heavenly Father for carrying us through another year and blessing us beyond our comprehension. Far, far too many times we fail to stop and thank Him and praise Him for that. It is so easy to believe in God in America. We have so much. God is usually called on when there is a trial or tragedy in our lives. In comparison to all the “stuff” that we have in America, those we met in Kenya have so little. But, they have FAR more!!! In many ways, they ONLY have God to provide for their every need. They do not have the ability to purchase their every want and desire, as we do in America. That is their gain! Far too many times, work, emails, Facebook, Xbox 360, iTunes, sports, scrapbooking, and genealogy research takes our eyes off Him and entangles us in ourselves and our abilities. Our sole purpose on this planet is to serve and worship Him and Him alone! Oh how we have messed up the perfect plan that God had for His creation. We are daily in awe of His incomprehensible, unfathomable love and mercy as He patiently waits for one more person to choose to follow Him. Oh how we pray that the precious gift of Jesus Christ will profoundly impact your life and the things that you invest your time in this coming year. God sent His Son so that the barrier between God and man would be ended. All that is required is accepting the free gift of eternal life provided by Jesus Christ's death on the cross.
Merry Christmas!!
Dean, Phyllis, Josh, Jacob and Jonathan
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