The Thurber Gang

The decision to become private will wait for a while. For now, we are hoping that many will see our family's blog and hopefully our fate can be changed. Through unforeseen circumstances, we are looking at a probable deportation within the next month. We are now trying to do all that we can to repair the dismal situation that we are facing. I've been quietly reminded all week that through God, anything is possible. Although it may be a long shot, I am hoping that with His help, one of you may know someone or something that can help us. We hope that the more people who know about our situation, it could fall into the laps of someone who has the power to do something. Please forward to anyone you would like to. In any event, we would be grateful for your prayers. Here are the details: Our H1B visa expired in December 2009, while we were waiting for our Labor Certification (which allows us to apply for our Green Card) to be processed. We have been working diligently on this f

Madison and Lillian both "aged up" this month in swimming. Madison is now competing in 11-12 age group, and Lillian in 9-10. That means that they are now the youngest of their age group. They had a meet the weekend of their birthday and were both quite concerned about how they would fair. . . we decided to take all pressure off of trying to place in any event, and made the goal just dropping time from their personal best. I promised to make them a rice krispie treat medal for every event that they dropped time. Lillian dropped time in 5 of her 6 events, and even got two *real* medals in there!! One for her 200 medley relay, and one for her 50 backstroke. She was GREAT! Madison dropped time in 7 of her 9 events and earned herself some real medals as well - I think that taking that stress off made the weekend so much more fun, and easier to swim! So proud of our girlies. . .

20 fantastic guests. . . 5 Thurbers. . . make-your-own pizzas, painting nails, cake and ice cream, The Princess Diaries movie with air popped popcorn and copious amounts of treats. . . super, super *F*U*N*!!

I'm going private at the end of the month. . . at that time, I will be sending out invitations to those of you who are bored enough to want to continue reading my drivel. . . please leave a comment with your email address if you'd like an invitation.

My friend called me today - she was reading my blog and noticed my frustrations on blogging out of chronological order. WELL! There's a way to change the date on your posts! So - here's what you do if you were anywhere as frustrated as me. . . When you are in the 'compose post' window, you'll see at the bottom (*above* the 'publish post' button) a link that says "Post Options". Click that and a menu will appear below it. On the right hand side of that box, there's a spot that allows you to enter ANY date and time!! *SO*, if you have something you want to post, and it happened in 2006, you can do everything else for that entry as you normally would, but before you click 'publish post', you would change the date to Jan 4th, 2006. (Or whatever. . .) This is going to be super great for me since I would love to someday have a book made from my posts. . . Now things won't have to be all jumbled, AND, if I just don't have time to

We had a fun, exciting and crazy-filled year in 2009 . We had big success with our garden, we did more home improvements; projects are always on the go with this house! We were able to go to Florida for Easter and Atlanta for Canadian Thanksgiving. Hil took the girls on a fun-filled trip to Pittsburgh. Our house was blessed with visits from family and friends. Madison had a fantastic swimming year in 2009 - going to States twice - Short Course States was in Grand Rapids, MI in March - Milo, Hilary, Madison, Lillian stayed in a hotel there and were met by Nana, Tristin and Emily, cheering on our 'Madiswim'. Long Course States were closer to home in Ypsilanti, MI in August, immediately followed by a whirlwind excursion for just Hilary and Madison to Grand Forks, North Dakota for the Zone Championships. Madison also had a great year in school and dance. She's begun babysitting and takes it very seriously! Madison is a fantastic big sister and a wonderful person.