Thursday, December 29, 2011

A Little Catch Up

I'm so bad at this. Every time I finally update, I tell myself I'm going to keep up with it but then everyday life knocks me down and I lose track of the blog. So, in an effort to get up to speed and try my very best to keep it updated, I'm going to give a quick rundown of the events since the last blog.

Our life has drastically changed since my last blog in March. On April 15th, online poker was shut down to the U.S. Trevor made his living playing online poker, so it was a huge blow to our lives. Trevor had to start going to the casino everyday to play. I'm sure some people might think "big deal! most people do have to go to work everyday" but our family life was built around the two of us being home together with our kids. It's all we ever knew. So to then completely change it was hard for both of us as well as our kids. Ava has gotten much better about him leaving everyday even though she still asks why he's leaving sometimes.

Not all of the change has been negative though. Trevor really enjoys playing live poker and he's happy with it and it has generally gone well for him. For the first time, we spent the entire length of the World Series (6 weeks) in Las Vegas. It was the longest we had ever stayed away from home and my mom was less than thrilled that we decided to stay that long. It was a difficult trip because it wasn't planned and finding nice places to stay that aren't hotels is next to impossible. We bounced around from hotels to friends places and bad efficiencies with the two kids in tow. A few times, I moved the kids and all of our stuff to the next place alone because Trevor was in a tournament. We also had to change rental cars several times throughout our stay. When we're in Vegas, I have no one to rely on to help me out with the kids if I need it so I have to cart them around in the 100 degree heat. I spend most days in the house or hotel - wherever we happen to be at the time - with the girls and that's it. Previously, everyone played online so there were always people in the house with me and the girls and Trevor was always there unless he was playing a tournament. This series however, everyone went to the casinos to play and Trevor played a lot more tournaments than he ever has in the past. It was an interesting experience to be out there for so long and it wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be but it came with it bumps and bruises - figuratively and literally (Cameron was a bit of a daredevil) - but we made it through and Trevor decided he wanted to stay for the entire length of the series any time we are able to in the future.

We haven't been traveling as much as we used to because Trevor plays at Parx everyday and he can't just pack up the computer and sit down in any place and play. We can only go places that have casinos close by if we wanted to go anywhere. We did manage to take a weekend trip to Tampa to see Jay and Ken and go to the Bucs/Saints game and we also planned a family trip to Tennessee to the Gaylord Opryland Resort in the beginning of December. We went last year during Christmas and we loved it so much we decided we want to go back every year for their Christmas display. This year, it just so happened that they had a Dreamwork's package so the girls got to meet Shrek, Fiona, Puss in Boots, and Gingy (from Shrek obv) Alex, King Julien, and the penguins from Madagascar, and Po from Kung Fu Panda. They both absolutely loved the entire trip and we got out eat at our favorite breakfast place, the Pancake Pantry.

When we got home, we finished getting the house ready for Christmas. We got a huge Christmas tree that fell on my head when I tried to put lights on it - that was a blast. Eventually, my father in law got the tree to stand with the help of a wooden board, new tree stand, and lots of strong fishing line. It worked out though because most of my family that came over thought it was fake. I had to put over 1000 lights on it but it really was a beautiful tree. The girls loved opening their gifts and they got excited over everything they received. When I was younger, I loved opening presents. I didn't care if you gave me a bunch of junk from the dollar store, as long as I had wrapping paper to rip open. Now, I couldn't care less if I ever received another gift, as long as I get to watch my girls rip open their gifts and watch the smiles that come over their faces - there really is nothing better than seeing them happy.

So, while life is certainly different, we're making it work. We're looking forward to what 2012 has to offer because it has to be better than this year has been. Trevor and I have a lot that we're working on and I'm hoping to be able to really work hard on all of the projects I have going on. It's pretty difficult to get anything done with my two little monkeys running around all day and Trevor being at the casino but I've been working hard to get everything organized so I can finally get my projects together and make them run in the new year. Part of my plan is to keep this blog updated often! I know I've said that a lot, but it's almost the new year which means new beginnings so I'm going to do my best. My next update will be in 2012 so Happy New Year everyone! I hope 2012 brings great things to everyone!