Christmas 2025

 

At Auntie Joni's and Uncle Greg's

Last Christmas we were in sunny Loma Linda, California, celebrating with my sister (Joni), her husband (Greg), my parents, and Greg's parents. We had a lot of fun enjoying being outdoors, going to playgrounds, visiting a little amusement park with lots of rides for Abbie and a train for Rodney, and spending time with family! We stayed at my sister's place and we didn't know it would be the last time we'd stay there (foreshadowing!).

A reminder of some of the damage from the Bomb Cyclone of November last year

Over that Christmas visit in California I received my first call from our house insurance company to let us know how much money they could give us. Some of you may recall that in November of last year our neighbor's tree fell on our house, damaging two of our fences, our shed, our entire back deck, and smashing a corner of our master bedroom. We had moved all of our stuff to the guest bedroom. The insurance company sent someone out to take pictures of the damage and he told us that the damage was bad enough he thought that our house was uninhabitable. He documented and captured every bit of damage we could find. We hoped that would help our insurance work quickly with us and take the damage seriously. We already had a contractor who had done a patch job on the house to prevent water from coming through the roof and he was worried about the damage we couldn't see behind the drywall. It was clear that structural damage had happened to our home. The insurance lady who called me on the phone let me know that they were happily going to pay us $5,000 minus our deductible which came out to less than $2,500. I laughed at the time and told her to send out someone again to look at the damage because that clearly wasn't even enough to fix the back deck. When she responded, "Oh, was your deck damaged too?" I knew that the following months were going to be an uphill battle. Korben made a wise suggestion to document every single call I had with my insurance, which I did.

Watching the sunset at Salt Pond Beach

At the end of January we had a visit to Kauai, Hawaii. It was a great time to visit since January can be rather dreary in the PNW and not too touristy on Kauai either! My aunt and uncle live on Kauai and my parents and sister stayed with them at their place. The Rusek family of 4 and Korben's mom (Debbie, or GamGam) stayed in an AirBnb in Kapa'a within walking distance to the beach where we could see the sunrise and one morning I saw humpback whales spouting and jumping on the horizon! Travel plans with an almost 2 year old and a 4 year old definitely slow down the pace, but in Hawaii that's acceptable. We had plenty of beautiful beach days where Abbie could practice being more confident in the water and Rodney could play in the sand or take a beach nap. We also still were able to see Waimea Canyon, Hanapepe, Kilauea Lighthouse, and watched the surfers take advantage of an unusually rough Hanalei. Watching the turtles come into Poipu Beach in the evenings was also a lot of fun! We treated ourselves with white pineapple, ube mochi, and shave ice-- Hawaiian delicacies that are impossible to find on the mainland!

A bit chilly at Waimea!

All too soon we had to return to reality and when our plane landed in Seattle we were shocked to see snow on the ground! It wasn't much, just a dusting, but it was a good reminder that the sandy beaches were behind us now. February brought a couple decent snow days with just barely deep enough snow to try and sled down a neighborhood hill. Our back deck would have been a perfect place for the kids to attempt building a little snowman but it was still off limits due to the damage from last November's tree fall.

Just enough snow to get a little sledding in

By this time in February we had found a new contractor. We had no problems with our previous contractor but he let us know that his skillset as well as the fact that he was a small business didn't make him a great person to deal with insurance claims. He encouraged us to find another contractor and so we did. Our new contractors were a large company who dealt primarily with insurance claims. Their big selling point for me was that THEY would speak on the phone with my insurance. My blood pressure had been rising on the daily with every phone call where my insurance would run me around in circles. I immediately signed up with this construction company. The contractors started doing preliminary work quickly and built a wooden frame and a larger roof patch to replace the one from our previous contractor because the hole in our roof was getting bigger and bigger and the cracks in the walls were spreading. Abigail's bedroom is above our room so I was also grateful to have temporary support so I knew she wouldn't also come falling through our ceiling! Korben and I were still cozy in the guest bedroom, missing our master bedroom but also grateful we had a guest bedroom to move into!

Rodney assessing the hailstorm damage at my parents' place in Texas

In March we went down to Texas to visit my parents. The first night we arrived a terrible thunder and hailstorm started. The kids had already fallen asleep and seemed to be sleeping through all the booms while Korben and I were visiting with my parents in the kitchen. There was a loud crash and a cool draft from the living room. Hail was flying through the broken living room windows! In all my years of hailstorms in Texas I've never seen hail come sideways like that. Almost every house in their neighborhood had broken windows from that storm. Thankfully the kids stayed asleep while we picked up broken glass, pieces of window blinds, and melting balls of hail. Some old classroom posters were taped over the windows so I guess it was a good thing my mom was still hanging on to some of her old classroom items!

Two and full of personality!

We went to see my parents in part to celebrate Rodney's 2nd birthday. Korben's mom joined us, wisely arriving after the great hail storm. Rodney loves trains so we celebrated his birthday doing all things trains: riding an Amtrak train into Fort Worth, having a birthday cake with a train on it, visiting the train museum and a train-themed restaurant in Cleburne, Texas, a town proud of its train heritage. We visited with extended family in the area and some friends we've known over the years who were able to make it to his birthday party. It was a very fun trip and we didn't realize it would be the last time we'd stay at my parent's place in Cleburne (more foreshadowing!!).

Riding the Amtrak for Rodney's birthday!

I begrudgingly spent a good part of March and April on the phone with my insurance. My insurance adjuster told my contractors that she knew more about construction than they did and therefore didn't want to talk to them anymore. This meant I had to enter into the picture again and I was spending nearly every day during Rodney's naptime on the phone arguing. If I thought dealing with a two year old was exhausting, God was going to teach me that claims adjusters are 50 times more so! The adjuster, her manager, and the manager's manager were all talking to my insurance agent, telling her that I was not being truthful about the extensive damage to my house. At the advice of some friends who are also in the insurance business, I filed a report with the insurance commissioner, which led to one of the top managers at my insurance company chewing me out and swearing I wouldn't get a dime above $20,000, which was still a fraction of what we really needed to fix our home. Still, after that blow-up someone at the insurance company managed to find us about $10,000 more. We still weren't even halfway to what we needed and my insurance was continuing to give me the runaround. I had been asking for weeks to have a conference call between me, my contractors, and the insurance adjustors but they kept pushing it off. Korben and I had also been meeting with a lawyer to discuss options. I had barely mentioned to my insurance that we were lawyering up when suddenly they were able to find even more money for us AND arrange a meeting between my contractors, myself, and the adjusters.

A view of the damaged beams in the roof above our bedroom

The long-awaited conference call was a total of two and a half hours long. Everyone was on their best behavior but my contractors were frustrated that my insurance's software and their software were giving such different costs and pricing. We had gone over pages of itemized costs for hours and things just (literally) weren't adding up. At the two hour mark one of the insurance adjusters mentioned that maybe he should check to see if our location was marked in their software. Low and behold, they had never put our location in their software (the default location must be set on the cheapest place in the U.S.!). Immediately the price jumped up about $20,000 higher and while we were still lower than what the contractors wanted, it was close enough to get the job done. No lawyering up needed after all! Unfortunately by the time this all took place and the checks arrived to complete the job, our contractors had entered their busy season and we had to wait until near the end of summer to get work started on the house. Still, I was celebrating NEVER having to talk on the phone with insurance EVER AGAIN!

A beautiful day at Stanley Park, Vancouver, B.C.

Spring is always an unknown in the PNW. You will either get an early summer or, more likely, a continuation of the winter rain, albeit a smidgen warmer. This year's spring was surprisingly sunny! We spent a lot of time outdoors, went to the State Fair, had an Easter Egg hunt with friends, and Abigail completed a bike class where she learned to ride a bike sans training wheels! The outdoor excursions were good salve for all of the insurance headaches I had been dealing with. For Mother's Day Korben installed glass doors on our fireplace, which is something I had been wanting for a while! Korben's birthday is in May so his mom (Gam Gam) came up to visit us and we took a trip to Vancouver, Canada, partially to make up for our failed trip to Canada last year when our passports were stolen before we even left town! This time we avoided theft. Vancouver was really beautiful, we visited the aquarium, Stanley Park, Burnaby Lake and the Village Museum, a goat farm, and a tractor museum. Our little trek to Canada was short and sweet, and was our only international travel we did this year.

Ballerina Abbie

June arrived and it had to have been the busiest June of my life! Abigail had a dance recital after completing a year of ballet and tap dance lessons and it was clear from the recital that she is a mini-teacher, directing her peers to pay attention and hit the right marks! She also completed her preschool which was located at the same place her dance lessons were. It is a really cool preschool that has academic learning alongside things like dance, tumbling, and piano lessons. For their end of the school year recital she played the piano and did dance and tumbling routines to Disney music all while wearing a cute Minnie Mouse outfit. She loved her teachers and her classmates, but she really wanted to go to school for MORE days and MORE hours rather than the 3 days a week and 3 hours in the morning she went to her dance preschool. So rather than enroll her for a second year there, we planned to enroll her at the school I formerly taught at as it has a 4 year old TK (transitional-Kindergarten) program. Abbie also had an art show in June to celebrate a year of art classes she completed (and she has really become quite the little artist!).

Abigail's Preschool Recital and Graduation

Once the school things were done in June, the rest of June was a much-looked-forward to trip to the Oregon Coast with a friend of mine, Karen, and her three kids. We agreed to meet up in Portland at the amazing Oregon Zoo (it was cool when I lived in Oregon, it has only gotten cooler!) before heading over to the coast. Korben came along for this trip, but he needed to work on the zoo day so we left him at a coffee shop and spent the day exploring the zoo with all the kids. The zoo had a train, which Rodney loved, and an adorable baby elephant! We had spent most of the day there and the zoo was going to be closing soon for the day. While we were in the Rainforest exhibit, Rodney eyed a small staircase that looked just his size, but the handrail was too tall for him to reach. As he stepped to go down the small staircase, he reached up to grab the rail but his fingers grasped at nothing instead, and he went down headfirst! Of course these were concrete steps and his head met up with a concrete edge. I had seen all of this happen and was helpless to get there in time, but scooped him up quickly after the fall, thinking he was going to have the worst goose egg of his life, which is saying a lot for Rodney. (Last year he spent most of the year wearing a helmet to prevent them! Guess we should have kept it on for longer...) When I picked him up that's when I noticed bright red spots on the floor, on my arms, and realized that he was bleeding.

Poor little guy

If you've ever been to the Oregon Zoo, you'll know it's on the side of a hill. The Rainforest exhibit is near the bottom of the hill, and not exactly close to the entrance of the zoo which is all the way at the top of the hill. I grabbed a handful of wipes and applied pressure to his head wound while he screamed and begged for me to let him walk-- because logically this made sense to his two year old brain-- while poor Karen had to round up her three kids plus my Abigail who was freaking out, convince her oldest to push her youngest in her stroller while she pushed my giant stroller wagon with a hysterical Abbie in it, but somehow she and the kids kept up with me the entire way. I figured if I saw an employee before I got to the entrance we could get some help but since it was nearly closing time all of the employees were up by the entrance! They quickly helped me out once I got up there, though, and Rodney became their first patient in their newly remodeled nurse's station. They bandaged his head up and offered to call an ambulance but since OHSU (a renowned hospital) was right next door I said I'd take him over myself. Karen offered to go pick up Korben and drop him off at the hospital.

A ride on the Oregon Scenic Railroad (after the hospital ordeal)

I had been holding myself together amazing well during this ordeal. But when I arrived to check in Rodney at the hospital they asked me all the check-in questions and I could not remember what my address was. "It's okay," the lady at the desk finally said. "We can get that information from you later!" When the doctor met us in triage he kindly and sympathetically asked what had happened and I finally broke down, making it difficult for me to even explain what had happened. Korben arrived to the hospital around this time and the staff asked him for our address, but Korben also completely drew a blank! Don't put us down as an emergency contact, apparently we are both useless. Abigail had been a bit hysterical at either seeing her brother bleeding profusely or not being the center of attention, so she calmed down when she saw her daddy had arrived. The only one who was cool as a cucumber the entire time at the hospital was Rodney-- even while getting 7 stitches! Stitches done, lollipops acquired, and we were on our way to the Oregon Coast!

Beach time is the best time!

The rest of the Oregon trip was really nice (no more ER visits!) as we enjoyed the interesting scenery on the beaches, rode a scenic train, indulged ourselves at the Tillamook Cheese Factory, explored the Oregon Coast Aquarium, swam in the hot tub at the beach house, and saw the local wildlife. The weather was a little bipolar, but the kids had fun on the beach even on the cooler days too. The kids had a lot of fun playing together and I enjoyed spending time with Karen. Afterwards Karen's oldest sent Rodney a letter saying, "Rodney, I hope you stop falling on your cut." Because-- spoiler alert-- Rodney did his best for the rest of the year attempting and sometimes succeeding to bust open his scar.

Beach explorers!

Abigail has been asking to go camping since she was two, however when she was two I was either miserably pregnant or we had a newborn in the house. We weren't eager to go camping then, but now that Rodney is two we decided to do our very first camping trip with the kids. It was 4th of July weekend, so of course it was busy, but we found a nice place on Vashon Island, not too far from home in case we decided we needed to bail. The kids were ecstatic to sleep in a tent and use their sleeping bags, lanterns, and camping chairs. I was pretty nervous about how the night would go because one of our children has an aversion to sleep. If anything interesting around him is happening, he will not fall asleep. Rodney thought camping was VERY interesting and so he sang songs to himself and chattered away for hours, falling asleep around 11pm some nights! One night at probably 2am he woke up and yelled, "NO DINGING, MOMMY!" His favorite hobby is to boss me around, in particular he really likes to tell me to not sing, apparently even in his dreams! We took the kids on the actual 4th of July night to see their first firework show. Abigail could barely keep her eyes open, but she made it. Rodney had no problem staying awake late again and seemed a little shocked we were all staying up late. They were very impressed with the fireworks and Rodney fell asleep in the tent singing, "I love fireworks! I love fireworks!"

First family camping trip-- a success!

Later in July my parents drove all the way up to our home in their new RV! My parents retired this summer and my dad in particular has always loved the idea of having an RV. The kids LOVED Baba and Mumu's RV and Rodney decided the cuisine in their RV fridge was far superior to what we had in our home so he would often request "RV cheese" as the snack he absolutely needed to eat, despite the fact that the cheese sticks in our fridge were perfectly fine! My parents visited us for a week before we had to go on a prescheduled trip to Florida, but my parents would keep exploring Washington state in their RV and would be back for more grandkid visiting when we returned.

A beautiful day to see hot air balloons near our home!

On the 1st of August we went to Florida to see Korben's stepmom (MaRu) and we stayed in Korben's mom's condo near Daytona Beach. Korben's mom (Gam Gam) joined us for the visit, of course, and the kids enjoyed all the love you can get when you have two grandmas to dote on you! We swam in the pool every day and Abigail learned to be a much more independent swimmer during our short stay. Rodney fell in love with the sandy beach and could have spent his entire time running between the crashing waves and the warm sand. We visited the Daytona Beach Aquarium, a children's museum, and went to the largest and coolest splash park I've ever seen in my life. Rodney reopened his scar twice in Florida, both times on a playground, but it wasn't super bad so just a big bandaid on his head sufficed.

Feeding the stingrays with Gam Gam

Snuggles after swimming with MaRu

The trip ended too soon, but we knew there were grandparents waiting for the kids when we got back home. The summer was definitely spoiling the children with all these grandparent-visits! PNW summers are notoriously beautiful and sunny and the weather did not disappoint, though I'm sure my mom was still cold! We picked berries and visited gardens and tried to stay out of the way of the construction workers that were finally able to start working on our house repairs. It was honestly a good thing my parents purchased an RV because finding a place to have guests stay in our home this year was a challenge! My parents left our home before the construction was completed, but they had to get down to California to move into a new house with Joni and Greg! Earlier this year Joni and Greg had announced they were buying a larger and nicer house in their same town and before I could even congratulate them on it my mom announced that she and my dad were moving in with them! I thought it was a joke, but my dad confirmed it was in fact true! Their house has a little apartment attached on the side and they were going to be all together. It ended up being quite providential because soon after they arrived in California my mom complained to my sister about chest pains. My sister insisted she get checked out and it turns out my mom had a blockage in two arteries, one of them was over 90% blocked and was a main artery! She got help right away and I'm grateful for that.

Baba and Mumu enjoying a summer day at the gardens at Point Defiance

I taught for 5 years at a school that Abbie now attends, and for 3 of those years the principal of the school was Craig Mattson. When he left, he became the superintendent and so he was technically my boss every year I taught in Washington state at our little Christian school. Tragically we learned the news that Craig had passed away while vacationing in Mexico with his family. He was an amazing person to work for, and just an amazing human, period. His wife was one of my coworkers and she still works at the school, his daughters had both been students in my class when they were small and they are now young ladies. Craig would have loved to have seen Abigail walking down the halls of the building to her classroom. He was a bright light, a steady leader, down-to-earth while still having high ideals, and a kind and compassionate principal who was someone you would want in your corner. When we learned about his passing, Abigail was scheduled to have special music that Sabbath (Saturday) at our church. I was her pianist and I was a mess, but Abbie sang with a lot of joy and people were happy to hear her sing on what was a very dark and sad moment. Craig's memorial was later in the summer and I've never seen so many people attend a memorial. I pray we can all make positive differences in the same way that Craig lived his life.

Abbie on her first day!

At the end of August Abigail started school-- the very same school I used to teach at before she was born. She was so excited to start school and she's still excited about going to school nearly every day of the week now and for a full day! In fact, when I pick her up from school she's often sad that she can't stay for after-care. The first time I let her stay for after-care and an after-school program I came a little early to pick her up, thinking that she hadn't seen her family in so long that maybe she'd be nervous or missing me. Instead she saw me come in the door and said, "DON'T TAKE ME HOME YET!" She'd sleep at the school if I let her, I think! She started school already knowing a couple other kids in her class and has made some other friends as well. Life is great when you're in TK and everything is exciting! The other day she told me, "Mommy, guess what! Did you know that you knew my music teacher before I was born?!" I laughed and told her that I did in fact know that, amazingly enough!

Look closely to see a man way at the top, getting ready to chop the top of the tree down!

September was a very exciting month for us because the contractors finished fixing our house! It took 10 months from the time we had to move out of our bedroom to the time our new bedroom was fixed. Our back deck, shed, and two fences were also redone, but of course we were most excited about moving back into our bedroom, sleeping in our own bed, and moving all of our things out of the guest bedroom. We were grateful to have a guest bedroom, but the bed was smaller, the guest bedroom was upstairs which is quite a bit hotter, especially in the summer, and Rodney was outgrowing the nursery room we had for him downstairs. I had plans to move him upstairs into what was the guest bedroom and changing the nursery downstairs into our new guest bedroom and office space. With family coming to visit us in October we had only a few weeks to shift the bedrooms around which also involved removing the old green carpet in the nursery and putting in new flooring, and painting over the cutest little Winnie-the-Pooh paintings we had done for the nursery. We also asked the neighbors who live behind our home if they would be willing to cut down their trees that grow along our fence line. These trees were much closer to our home than theirs. They were big pines that would drop branches longer than I am tall onto our roof and deck anytime there was a storm. After having one tree fall on our home, we didn't want to test fate again. Luckily they said they were willing to have them go and so we watched with fascination as a tree company came down, climbed all the way up to the tops of these insanely tall trees, and chopped them down, starting at the top and then going down. Our house now gets much more sunshine, which is a plus, and not nearly so many sticky tree sap and pine branches on our back deck!

Enjoying our back deck for the first time in months!

We finished the new guest room just in time for Baba and Mumu to come and visit, and it was good that we finished because they didn't have their RV with them this time! They came to visit for Abbie's birthday. Mumu went with Abbie and I to see Abbie's very first movie in the theater: Gabby's Dollhouse! (For those of you who aren't in the know, it's a movie based off of a television show about a girl who is obsessed with cats and she can shrink down to the size of a doll and play with all her toy cats in her dollhouse. It's a show that is tailor-made for our cat-obsessed girl, but Korben thinks the show is psychotic and offered to stay home with Baba and Rodney. But us ladies had fun at the theater!) We also visited Thommasson Farm nearby which has a lot of fun activities for the kids to do. Abbie decorated unicorn cupcakes and took them to school to celebrate her 5th birthday. Gam Gam flew in and then we were ready to head out for a week in Lake Chelan, a picturesque lake on the other side of the Cascades.

The Lake Chelan bunch! On our boat ride to Stehekin

The drive to get there was a bit complicated because there were so many wildfires, but it was a beautiful drive there despite the detours. We stopped in Leavenworth which is always recommended! In Lake Chelan we visited Stehekin, a town in Washington that is only accessible by boat. We visited Stehekin a couple years ago when Rodney was only a couple months old. Rodney appreciated the trip much more this time around! The weather was perfect that day. The rest of the trip was a mix of sometimes rainy weather and sometimes beautiful sunny weather. We took advantage of the sunny days by kayaking, visiting playgrounds, walking around the cute downtown of Lake Chelan, and visiting another lake nearby, Lake Alta. On the rainy days we spent inside at an indoor playground and let the kids play with Abigail's birthday toys. We celebrated her birthday while on this trip and Abigail was really insistent that she wanted to make her own cake. She decorated it with frosting and sprinkles and declared it a unicorn cake. Abbie turned 5 and she's such a big girl now!

Abbie decorating her cake!

My parents flew back home and Gam Gam stayed a little longer with us. The traffic around us had been awful for the past couple months. There were 3 bridges down around us and traffic was being funneled right through the highway near our neighborhood. It was taking 2-3 times longer to get Abigail to school than normal. It took half an hour to drive just a few miles into our own downtown! Our AWD Toyota Sienna is a terrible gas-guzzler and not a great commuter car. The extra driving was making me go insane and I had already been talking to Korben about adding a second vehicle. Korben and I have always had just one vehicle, but now with kids and conflicting schedules and bad traffic I was desperate for Korben to have his own vehicle so I could be one less person's chauffeur. With Gam Gam still visiting we could do some car shopping while she watched the kids for us. Korben did a bunch of research on electric cars and we settled on a used Hyundai Ioniq 5 and have really been enjoying it! It looked like a new car for a day or two but the kids quickly took care of what was once a clean interior. Oh, and naturally the bridges were fixed and traffic went right back to normal after all our company went home!

Our new-to-us Ioniq 5!

The rest of October was full of costume-wearing, candy-fueled childhood joys. Rodney was The Very Hungry Caterpillar and he was absolutely the cutest little thing you've ever seen! Abbie was sometimes Ghost Spider (the girl Spiderman, basically) or Elsa (from Frozen, of course) depending on her mood. She is the kind of kid who wishes every day was Halloween and nearly every day she tells me of a new costume idea she has for next year.

Elsa and The Very Hungry Caterpillar

All year long we have been involved in a church plant, which means we are helping start up a new church (same denomination, just a new location). November marked the grand opening of our new church. Where we had been very busy in the planning stages, now we are quite busy in doing all the church things: music, classes, audio/visual stuff... It's been a lot and it's been rewarding. Joining a new church plant was not something we had been seeking to do, especially because we have really loved our Puyallup church and the people there so much (and the new church plant was going to be an even farther drive than Puyallup). But after a lot of prayer and consideration we decided that God wanted us to get involved and we have really enjoyed getting to know new friends and seeing how a new church begins from the ground up.

Family Movie Time!

For Thanksgiving we flew down to Loma Linda to see Joni and Greg and my parents in their new house! We celebrated Christmas early since we won't see my side of the family during actual Christmastime. While we were there we visited Great Wolf Lodge and realized that Anaheim's version is a bit bigger than the one we have near us! Abbie was much braver than our last visit and had a lot of fun going down several water slides. Rodney got worn out and napped on Baba's lap. We celebrated my birthday while we were in California, naturally with lots of pumpkin pie, and since Zootopia 2 came out on my birthday we all went to go see the movie in theaters (which I did love, by the way). So Rodney also saw his very first movie in theaters this year! We had a nice Thanksgiving meal that included Greg's parents and we visited Christmas lights on a farm that had a train ride to see Santa. The weather was like perfect PNW summertime weather. We went to a farmer's market and ate delicious fruit. Rodney decided to stand up on a folding chair while we were there and... the result was a boy and a chair on the floor, lots of blood coming from his scar opening up (not all the way!) yet again, and helpful people giving us napkins and ice packs. Eventually the scar on his head will heal, assuming he can stop bonking it back open!

Santa Claus!

Christmas will find us in South Carolina visiting Korben's family. All the little cousins will be together and I'm sure it will be lots of fun! I have an aunt and uncle not too far away we plan to see as well as Korben's step-mom in Florida (MaRu) who will drive up to see us too! We are eager to get away from an especially soggy PNW December. There has been historic flooding in our area, but thankfully our neighborhood is up on a hill and we've stayed safe. Others haven't been as lucky in our town and I am thankful we aren't dealing with not having a home or dealing with home owner's insurance again.

Sometime we remember to take pictures of us instead of just the kids!

Korben has lately gotten into sketching. Every day he and Abbie sit down at the kitchen table and draw together. He still keeps tabs on chess and occasionally attempts to teach Abbie how to play. Because our house was under construction for most of the year he didn't really get much done in the way of woodworking projects, but he did build Abbie a loft bed for her room and she is thrilled about it! For Father's Day this year we got out the inflatable raft and the kayaks, which is something Korben was really excited to do with the kids. Korben is still working at Google and is able to work from home most days, which is really nice for family time. The kids sometimes wander in during his online video meetings. Rodney has a pile of light brown curls on top of his head and during one meeting Korben was in and Rodney walked in so that just the top of his head was visible, Korben's coworker said, "Oh, I didn't know you guys had a labradoodle!"

The family picture for 2025

I turned 39 this year and Abigail asked me if I was turning 100, so I'm feeling really old. I did fall for a fake website scam where I thought I was purchasing items and finding a really good deal. Then I got two speeding tickets this year two days apart-- I can't even remember the last time I have ever had a speeding ticket. I also bashed the front bumper of our new car into a curb. I will tell you none of those things made me feel like I WASN'T turning 100 this year. In other news, I'm still staying at home with the kids and enjoying it. Rodney had several doctor's appointments this year (besides, you know, the stitches) so having a flexible schedule has been great. With Abbie being in school it has been nice to have more one-on-one time with Rodney! He thinks he is my boss and tells me when I not allowed to sing, talk, eat, or go to the bathroom. I never seem to be allowed to do the things I need to do. But he's also become a very snuggly boy and he needs his mommy to give kisses to his boo-boos (of which there are plenty). So, I'm enjoying my time!

Always ready with a pose!

Abigail is just growing up more and more each day! She loves school, loves her teachers, loves art class, loves her church club, loves doing all the things all the time. Abbie has made a lot of progress in her swimming lessons this year and can swim somewhat independently now! She loves all things Disney princess, especially Frozen. She still is crazy about cats. She loved camping this year and she even went on a backpacking trip with Korben and some other dad friends and their kids from church. She did manage to get sick on that trip and Korben had to hike back hauling not just his backpack but also a little girl and her backpack. Despite the sniffly cold, Abbie LOVED the trip. She still adores her brother, and he adores her too. There is a house for rent on our street. Abbie told me she is going to buy that house so that when she's a grownup she can live close to us with her husband (who her husband is varies day-to-day) and her babies (she's declared she will only have girls).

They know how to squabble, but love each other too!

Rodney has grown so, so much this year. He transformed from a chill, go-with-the-flow baby to an extremely opinionated and demanding toddler! He is TWO, and very much so. He can recognize the letter "R" as the first letter of his name. The other day he said, "There's my name, Mommy!" I said, "Oh, yeah, I see the letter 'R' on that sign!" Immediately he said, "No, YOU DON'T! Only Rodney sees it!" Then Abigail immediately said, "I see it too, Rodney! The letter 'R'!" Rodney smiled and said, "Yeah, Abbie!" So, yeah, that's a pretty average family encounter with Rodney. Abbie can usually do no wrong while Mommy does everything wrong. Another time over the summer Abbie had learned a song at camp meeting (similar to VBS) that started off, "I am a priceless treasure..." It was a catchy song but if I ever started singing it Rodney would jump in and say, "NO! Mommy not priceless treasure! ABBIE priceless treasure!" He loves to be a goof and whenever I ask him who a cutie patootie is he used to answer, "Rodney is!" But now the little stinker says with glee, "Baba is!" The accomplishments of Rodney's this year include potty-training, sleeping in a big boy bed, and speaking in full sentences. He is quite the little songbird! He adores all forms of transportation, but holds an extra special spot in his heart for trains and school buses. He has a few toy school buses at home and anytime we drive around, if he sees a school bus he will say, "Hey! I have that!" Rodney did have to see quite a lot of specialists this year and we are thankful that he has been healthy and growing a lot-- still small for his peers-- but is getting big for kids who share his medical condition.

Rodney smiling with his sister at Stehekin

That wraps up the Rusek's 2025 year! We hope you can come out and visit us if you are far away, we have a guest room again and a home that doesn't have any holes in the roof from trees!

Monkeying around with the kids

We wish you a merry Christmas and a happy holiday season and hope that 2026 has wonderful things in store for you!

Korben, Lori, Abigail, and Rodney

(and the neglected pets: Anyong, Kepler, and Grapefruit)

Christmas Letter 2024

Enjoying the Seattle Christmas Market this December

Merry Christmas, friends and family! 2024 was a whirlwind for the Rusek household. We started the year off on a cruise and we ended the year on a cruise. I'm not sure we know how that happened, but I blame my travel agent sister for our increase in cruises and fun! Last Christmas we were at my sister's home in California celebrating Rodney's first Christmas. This year we will be in the same place enjoying some California sunshine.

Escape room near Joni & Greg's last Christmas

Before we went on a cruise in January we managed to squeeze in Rodney's baby dedication at our church. Rodney is our little miracle baby and we are grateful for a supportive and prayerful church family. Abbie had a first in January: her first haircut! I took her to a special kid's haircutting place rather than attempt cutting her hair myself to ensure her first haircut looked very cute!

Our first family cruise left out of Galveston which isn't far from where Korben and I used to live. We went out a week early to see friends and family in the area before hopping on a Royal Caribbean cruise to Roatan, Honduras, and a couple ports in Mexico. My parents came, my aunt and uncle as well, Korben's mom, and my sister (the travel agent, Joni!) and we had a great time. Royal Caribbean is very kid-friendly. We had a balcony view of the inside of the ship right where the carousel was (yes- a carousel!), which Abbie made sure to ride multiple times each day. It had an ice skating rink where Abbie tried out ice skating with all her family members who have much better balance than I do! Rodney had just learned the bum-shuffle as his preferred means of getting around and he enjoyed scooting all around different areas of the cruise ship. Our main dining area was three stories high and we were always seated on the top floor. Rodney sat in his high chair near the balcony with a view to the floors below and chucked a butter knife over the balcony. Luckily it fell onto a ledge on our floor and didn't stab an unsuspecting victim two floors below! On days off of the ship we were able to snuggle sloths, get robbed by monkeys, have parrots perch on us, do some snorkeling, and swim with manatees and dolphins. It was quite an amazing adventure and we weren't ready for it to end!

The carousel on the cruise with Gam Gam

We celebrated Rodney's first birthday in Texas with my side of the family and Korben's mom came as well. There is a city park not far from my parent's home where we invited family and friends to join us. Rodney wore a little astronaut outfit and had an outer-space themed cake to celebrate his first trip around the sun! We arrived a little early to set up for the party and Abbie ran off to play on the playground. Right when the party was supposed to begin, Abigail was screaming and crying because she had slipped on some playground equipment and gashed her forehead open! Korben and his mom took Abbie to urgent care while the rest of us ate pizza and salad and tried delaying the cake as long as possible. Abigail returned just in time for cake, her head bandaged up and no stitches! I asked Korben to go over and take some pictures of the playground equipment Abigail had cut her head on. Nothing about it looked out of the ordinary- she must have just fallen strangely. About half an hour after Korben took the photos, a police officer came up to Korben and said Korben matched the description of a shady man taking pictures of kids on a playground! Korben, slightly panicked and slightly amused, quickly took out his phone and told the officer he could look at all the photos he took and explained the situation. The officer, seeing our three year old with a bandaged head, and glancing at the pictures of Korben's phone, decided that Korben wasn't a creepy pervert and let us enjoy the rest of the birthday party!

It's also worth noting that Rodney very wisely took his first steps on his first birthday, right in front of three of his grandparents who were thrilled for him! Rodney was less than thrilled about it and decided he would go back to bum-shuffling for another month.

Spring cherry blossoms at University of Washington

In May we had decided that for Korben's birthday we would go up to Victoria, Canada and have a nice long weekend there. Korben's mom and my sister, Joni, and her husband, Greg, flew to Seattle to join us on our ferry ride over to Victoria. We packed up the car, just barely fitting all of us inside, and had a soft-top cover for the extra suitcases. The mall in our town has a little food truck inside that we really love so we decided we'd stop there for supper before heading on the two hour drive to the ferry terminal. While we were inside eating, our van was targeted by thieves who broke a passenger window and grabbed five backpacks out of our van. One of the backpacks had Korben's, Rodney's, Abigail's and my passports in it. Another bag had Korben's mom's passport in it. Abigail's cute little backpack was stolen and all it had inside was her tablet. Korben's laptop and tablet were stolen and his mom had two tablets stolen. Abigail was unconsolable when she saw the smashed window and we explained to her what happened. Thankfully, and I mean, really, truly with all the thankfulness I can muster, Meow Meow (her favorite kitty stuffed animal) was not in her backpack-- the stuffed animal was left right in the car to witness it all happen, although it's rendered speechless from it all. Joni and Greg didn't have anything stolen, but they weren't planning on going to Canada without us so we all pivoted our plans.

Korben's birthday is right around Memorial Day weekend which means everything was completely booked up. Luckily everyone had planned on staying for a few days longer than Memorial Day Weekend so we spent a calm weekend at out home and then after the weekend we stayed for a couple nights at the fun indoor waterpark, Great Wolf Lodge (even got a discount thanks to travel agent Joni!), and had a blast. Abigail is very fixated on going to Canada since we didn't get to go but I'm a little concerned that she thinks that Canada is another Great Wolf Lodge. Korben's mom was understandably stressed about her stolen passport because she was supposed to go to Europe in a few weeks, but thankfully Seattle is one of the few places in the country where you can get same-day passport service if you have plans to go on a trip soon so we were able to get her a new passport right away. Our family took much longer to get passports replaced, but we eventually did. The cops called Korben a couple weeks ago to tell him that they found his laptop in a a stolen vehicle. Nothing else that was stolen has been recovered despite the fact that we could actually track Korben's mom's tablet for a long time. The cops couldn't do anything about it.

This shave ice in Florida with MaRu was the BEST!

When summer arrived we flew to Florida to visit Korben's stepmom and show off the grandkids. It was really nice to see her for a few days before we headed off to Branson, MO for a Dickerson Family Reunion (my side of the family). Branson was really great, Abigail LOVED the alpine slide near where we stayed and somewhere in the air there you can probably still hear an echo of her screaming, "FASTER, FASTER!" While in Branson, Korben and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary! It was really great to see family and cousins and see the next generation of kids meet each other. Next time we meet up I'm hoping for a different souvenir to take home, though. Over half of our group caught norovirus and Rodney threw up all over me on the long flight back to Seattle!

The Dickerson Clan

My parents came out to visit us during an amazing PNW summer, but after only a couple days my dad needed to have emergency eye surgery. Since you can't fly on an airplane for weeks after getting eye surgery and they live too far away to drive back, they reluctantly decided to fly back home to get the surgery instead of getting surgery here in Washington. It was for the best and my dad ended up not being able to fly for a couple months, so we decided we would fly out in August to visit them in Texas which is probably the worst month to visit Texas, but it was a fun trip nevertheless. While there we went to a fast food place and my mom commented to me that it was a good thing I was driving because she had no idea how to get around. (I was driving her car in her own town, but if you know my mom this statement isn't surprising in the least bit). Abigail, in the back seat, was shocked at Mumu's statement. "Mumu, do you even know your stuff?!" she asked earnestly. Well, Mumu, Abbie's on to you!

A beautiful PNW day with my parents!

Korben's sister Ann and her family came out to visit us in September which was a nice treat! Her kids and our kids really enjoyed playing together and seeing some of the beautiful sites in Washington State. Korben's other sister, Sonja, also came out in September and we were thrilled to meet her husband and her new baby!

A summer hike with Mt. Rainier in the backdrop

In October, Abigail celebrated her birthday at a park nearby with a friend of hers who is 10 days older than she is. They celebrated turning 4 and Abigail's one request for her birthday was that she could have an Octonauts cake and that she could dress as Kwazii. If you don't know anything about Octonauts or who Kwazii is, just ask Abigail, she can fill you in. Once we got to the park she caught a peek of her Octonauts cake and absolutely refused to play on the playground-- she was completely mesmerized by her cake. Kwazii is an orange cat in Octonauts who happens to be a pirate. Nobody sells a costume of an orange cat who is also a pirate. So she was dressed from head to toe in orange long underwear with an orange beanie cap on her head and a pirate eye patch on her eye. She also dressed like that for Halloween. Most people assumed she was a Jack-o-lantern! Rodney, for Halloween, was an orange shark because Kwazii, the orange pirate cat, happens to drive a submarine that looks like an orange shark. Absolutely nobody made this connection, nor did they immediately think Rodney was a shark since he was orange. So Rodney also got called a pumpkin, but he didn't mind. Rodney's teeth grew in the front and the back with gaps in the middle and he was definitely sporting a Jack-o-lantern smile so he was a cute little pumpkin that day. Halloween was also the first day he said, "Thank you!" when the last house we stopped at handed him some candy. Except it sounded like, "Doot doo!"

Abigail's mesmerizing Octonauts birthday cake

For Thanksgiving we went to Pennsylvania to be with Korben's family. A few days before we flew out we had a "bomb cyclone" that sent winds charging through the area we live. A fir tree in our neighbor's yard fell down on our house. Korben and I had just gotten the kids to bed despite the power being out and were relaxing in our bedroom when, "BOOM!"-- the loudest sound came above our heads. I freaked out and took off running through our completely dark house. Korben followed right behind me. We both knew a tree had fallen on our house but I was concerned it had fallen on Abigail's room because her room is on the second floor. But Abigail was sleeping peacefully, she didn't hear a thing. When we came back to our bedroom, we could see that a corner of the ceiling's drywall had fallen down, there were cracks in the wall, and one of the windows had popped out! The tree had fallen, mostly in our backyard, but one section of tree trunk had a direct hit on the corner of the master bedroom. It thankfully didn't hit Abigail's room because the upstairs sits back a little from the downstairs.

This picture was taken from our backyard just days before the tree fell down on the corner of the shed, the back porch, and the far corner or our master bedroom

The days leading up to us traveling to Pennsylvania were a blur. A contractor that we have been working with because we are planning on remodeling our kitchen drove from a couple hours away to temporarily fix our roof and keep rain water from pouring in. Friends from church came over to help chop up the tree in our backyard and clear it out. The tree smashed a corner of our shed and completely demolished our entire back porch. The tree was so tall that it even managed to hit the neighbor's garage who live on the other side of us! We put up temporary fencing to keep the dogs in our yard since the tree crashed through two different sections of fence. We probably would have had to cancel our Thanksgiving travel plans if not for the good Samaritans who came to help us get our house and yard secure!

A view from the other side of our backyard. It's just tree everywhere!

On our flight to Pennsylvania, wouldn't you know it, Rodney threw up on me simply because he gagged on a piece of fruit. I passed Rodney over to Korben so that I could clean up the vomit all over me, but Rodney wasn't done throwing up so he threw up all over Korben, like a LOT! We had already changed Rodney into his spare set of clothes because of a diaper blow-out situation an hour before so Rodney had to travel the rest of the way in just a diaper. When we landed we had to haul all our luggage into a family bathroom at the airport and change, much to Abigail's frustration as she had stayed vomit-free the entire trip. I had brought along exactly one coat which I had been wearing when Rodney vomited so I had to buy a new sweater in the airport. But we eventually made it out of the airport and to Korben's sister's home.

A view of the master bedroom from the outside all smashed up.

I celebrated my birthday there- Korben's family generously watched the kids for us so that Korben and I could go out and enjoy a meal just the two of us! And Thanksgiving was really nice. We did a turkey trot 5k that morning and Abigail walked and ran the entirety of it. Korben got 2nd place for his age group in the race. It was a lot of fun watching the cousins play together during the week of Thanksgiving. We also visited Gettysburg and even though our children went screeching and squawking through the museum so that our educational learning was limited, it was still a very fascinating place to see and visit.

Gettysburg!

We flew back home for almost a week- enough time for me to get a scheduled colonoscopy done! They gave me pictures when it was over (and I'm healthy!) but I've decided not to include them in the Christmas letter. And then off we headed to Florida for a cruise with Gam Gam, MaRu, Grandpa Bill, and Aunt Joni and Uncle Greg! This group was great for trivia games-- we won 3!-- but the prize was always a bottle of white wine which nobody in our group drinks! We went to the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and the last stop was supposed to be MSC's private island in the Bahamas but the weather was going to be bad so the captain changed it to St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands and WOW, I would definitely go back there! The cruising experience is nice with kids because you can still travel, see just a little bit of a place you've not been to before, and everything you need, especially with small children, is available to you. There is also an entire staff to clean your room twice a day, cook and clean your dishes, watch your kids if you like, and entertain you. It's the kind of spoiling experience you want your young children to experience so that they know-- this is as good as it gets-- it's all downhill from here!

MaRu poses with Korben and the kids at the Dominican Republic with Mt Isabel in the back

We had a lot of other short visits with friends on weekends. We went to Walla Walla in the spring to see several friends there, we also did a Walla Walla University alumni weekend at Rosario Beach with friends at the beginning of fall which was really beautiful. We drove up to the Everett Children's Museum north of Seattle a couple times which is by far the cutest Children's Museum I've seen in the state. And I had a weekend visiting a friend with our kids in Coeur d'Alene while Korben had a boy's trip in a town nearby. And we are looking forward to spending Christmas with my family in California this year.

On a trip to see friends in the Houston area we stopped by the church in College Station where we met!

Korben has continued to work for Google. He goes into the office twice in a week and we really enjoy the fact that most of the time he can work from home. He hasn't had as much time for woodworking hobbies now that there are two little kids running around our house, but he plays online chess from time to time and does his math problems in textbooks "for fun!" He is an incredible husband and dad to our kiddos, but he did make a huge mistake this year. Rodney was in the bathtub and Korben mentioned, "You know what's interesting? Rodney has never pooped in the bathtub!" And just like that, Korben tempted fate and Rodney decided to put an end to that interesting statistic just seconds after hearing him say it.

I've continued to be a stay-at-home mom which has no pay, but I enjoy being home with my kids! It's exhausting feeling like I'm their entertainment 24/7 but the kids do often entertain themselves. I steal kisses from them as many times as I can and now sometimes when Rodney picks up his trains and plays with them, he makes the trains kiss which makes Korben look accusingly at me. But what else are you supposed to do when you are home with your kids all day? Clean? Cook? Korben wishes! I will steal as many kisses from them as I can.

Abigail has been becoming such a big girl this year. After she took a summer dance day camp she told me, "Mommy, you need to get this girl in dance!" She does a dance preschool once a week for a few hours and she desperately wants to go more often so she will probably do that starting in January. They also teach music so Abigail can now play Hot Cross Buns on the piano. She has also sang Jesus Loves Me in church and she will sing Away in a Manger for the church's Christmas concert. She's a brave and daring girl who loves the rides at the fair! She has taken bike classes through the Park and Rec center and has ridden a little bit on a pedal bike! She also really enjoys art class and she has started to sign her artwork with her signature: AbB. Because, as she explains, "My name is Ab and then B!" We also took her to her first concert, a Danny Go! concert which she absolutely loved. She was a little afraid to turn 4 this year because she said she really enjoyed being 3, but she has since decided that 4 is fun too. She declares almost every day as "the best day ever!" Abbie's favorite thing is to be a big sister and she is a fantastic big sister. She is Rodney's biggest cheerleader and she is excited that Rodney can play and communicate with her more and more. Does she sometimes attempt fratricide? Yes. But by and large she is a big sister who eagerly shares her food and toys, and showers little Rodney with lots of love every day.

Rodney, who turned 1 in March, has really started to show his personality and it has been so much fun to watch. He has shy and coy little smiles he will sometimes give to a lucky person. He has transformed from a very bald baby to a curly-topped toddler. Anything Big Sis does is absolutely hilarious to him, even if it endangers his life. He's very much into trains, planes, cars, tractors, and boats. He was absolutely thrilled when we were on a cruise this December and said, "Boat! Boat!" any time he remembered we were on a boat. He loves to do things independently and doesn't need me to entertain him all the time, but if I leave him unattended for a minute I might find him proudly standing on top of our kitchen stove! He's recently learned how to run which he puts to good use anytime I ask him if he needs a diaper change. During this year where he was learning to be more mobile he was also falling over and hitting his head, so he wore a soft foam helmet on his head to soften the blows. For a while the bumps on his head were so frequent that Abigail even drew a family portrait where she drew a large goose egg on Rodney's head! Rodney has also been able to communicate more and more this year. My favorite thing to hear him say is, "I uhv oo!" But I think his favorite thing to say is, "ABBIE!"

Rodney, in his helmet, looks a little like Toad from SuperMario Bros!

In more serious news with Rodney this year, he has had countless doctor's appointments for a few issues. He had an MRI on his brain to analyze his brain cyst, but so far it all looks just fine. Our biggest concern was that he wasn't gaining any weight. He was already hovering around the 5th percentile on the growth chart and eventually he just slipped off the growth chart entirely. We just found out that he has a genetic mutation that accounts for his lack of growth and most of the other health issues he's had. We will meet with a lot more specialists in the coming year to see how serious it all is, but for now it's not looking too severe (and we are unlikely to send him off to Professor X's School for Gifted Youngsters). We are grateful to have an answer and to be able to move forward and grateful that Rodney is a happy little toddler boy!

It's now nearly 2025 and I'm still signing dates as 2023 so I'm really not ready for it to be 2025, but here we are. We pray that you all have a wonderful holiday season and that 2025 is kind to you! 

Merry Christmas! 

Lori, Korben, Abigail, and Rodney (and our fur-babies: Kepler, Grapefruit, and Anyong)

Enjoying the Zoo Lights with Gam Gam this December