2009: A Year in Review

Wow! Have we had a busy year! I'm sorry it's taken me so long to update, but I've been dragging my feet in the hope that I'll have some great news regarding our next adventure. I figure some of you are wondering what the heck is going on and are too afraid to ask...I was going to update first, but decided I can't wait to recap 2009! You'll have to read all about my fabulous kiddos if you want to know about our current status! Settle in-this is a long post!
I am so grateful for the blessings that are my 3 children. I'm going to start with Josh, and he gets extra pix since he'll be 1 in 9 days!! There's nothing like a series of pix to show you how quickly a year goes by...




















Josh Thomas: a year old on February 25. AKA: "Joshie Bear, Dobby, Gator and Peanut." "Joshie Bear" came naturally, but then was confirmed by Kay-she told me that's what her brother is called still to this day and it just stuck! "Dobby" (the house elf on Harry Potter movies)& "Peanut" are because he is tiny! One day, he was standing against the hearth in front of the fireplace with just a t-shirt and a diaper. The combination of his trim upper body in a t-shirt and his spindly little legs below made him look a box on sticks! Joe thought he was hilarious (as usual)when he compared him to Dobby and it pops up occasionally. "Gator" comes from INSTIGATOR-this youngest child of mine thrives on creating misery for Max. He finds nothing more delightful than Max when he's really, really mad! He is still fascinated by Bodie-anything that has previously been in Bodie's mouth is one of Josh's favorite treats-balls, bones, you name it...if it's Bodie's, Josh wants it! I've marveled at the differences in the boys-although I was a working mom for the first 2 1/2 years of Max's life, he is a mama's boy. Josh, on the other hand, will choose Joe 10 times out of 10, if given the choice between the 2 of us! So, I'm home 24/7, maybe he has gotten his fill of me?! Besides being tiny (he still hasn't broken 16 pounds), Josh has 2 bottom front teeth and 4 top front teeth and bites EVERYTHING, but his strange biting faves are noses and feet! If you let him get close enough to your face, he will lick your mouth (learned from Bodie), then bite your nose, all accompanied by squeals of laughter. Speaking of laughter, his brown eyes disappear when he laughs, just like Daddy's do and he also has Daddy's chin dimple (aka-butt chin!). A true product of a stay at home mom, he refuses to be put down and throws monstrous temper-tantrums whenever we have to put him down. We have an immense amount of noise in our house- ALL. DAY. LONG. I remember the days when I could talk on the phone...He took his first steps 2 months ago, and has perfected the toddler walk (waddles with arms out, bent at the elbow, hands spread wide, jazz hands for all you dancers). Within the last couple of days, he's learned to pick up his pace, and now walks more than he crawls, and is getting very quick. This walk is accompanied by CONSTANT babbling and he typically has something slung around his neck(simmer down all you moms-it's looped around the back of his neck, not wrapped around it). He's walking, he won't TOUCH baby food-in a nutshell, he's growing way too quickly, despite his size, and we can't believe it's been a year! He completes our family and brings us joy every day!
















Max Joe: 4 yrs old in July. AKA: "Maxie", "Moxie Boy" (said with Jamaican accent), "Buddy" and "Boog Face". Max still whole-heartedly believes that his full name is Maxie Joe Bowich and still refers to himself in third person regularly. It's also what he was called at the wonderful daycare center that he attended until Josh was born. "Moxie Boy", however, is the ONLY good thing that came of the daycare that he went to for a short time before previously mentioned wonderful daycare. All the women who worked at the drop in center were Jamaican and would call "HEY MOXIE BOY!" when he came in for the day and it was kind of infectious! "Buddy" is Joe's attempt at befriending him (just kidding,honey). Because he is such a mama's boy, Joe has had to approach him from a different angle, and being buddies seemed like the best place to start! (Consequently, Max calls Josh "Bubby" when he isn't calling him "Baby Josh"). "Boog Face" unfortunately lingers from infancy, when Max was CONSTANTLY covered in boogers! Maxie has had an interesting time adapting to his little brother. He never asked us to take him back or anything like that, but has taken an active role in making Josh tougher than nails. Max started wrestling with Josh when Josh was about 8 months old, and now will walk past Josh as he wobbles and shove him to the ground. Here's the conversation that follows.
Joe: (with firmness) "MAX!"
Max: (with innocence) "What, Dad?"
Joe: "Don't push Josh! That's not nice, you hurt your brother!"
Max: (with innocence) "What, Dad?"
Joe: "Say sorry & give him a hug or you're going to timeout!"
Max: Stares at Joe, grinning, and pretends he heard nothing.
Goes to timeout for 3 minutes-
Now, Joe is such a creature of habit that he does things exactly the same every time. I never fully realized this until Joe went out to the garage while Max was in timeout. Joe always sets the microwave timer to signify the 3 minutes & then heads over to the naughty chair to talk to Max about why he was put in timeout. This particular day with Joe in the garage when the timer beeped, I got to hear the whole post-timeout conversation that usually takes place between Joe and Max come out of just Max!
Max: "Come here! What? Timeout cuz push Baby Josh. Say sowee. SOWEE! hug! go pway!
He then ran off, Joe came in and asked why he was out of timeout and I got to relay the whole conversation, laughing of course, while Joe was reminded of how incredibly anal he is! BTW, Joe is the only one that can do timeout this way because Max, unlike Josh, is a solid child. My dad, Max, would call him a "brick shit-house", so I avoid lifting him at all costs and if I have to, I sit down and gather him into my lap. I love that he still believes that I can fix anything with a kiss and he is obsessed with kissing me right back! He is still a very well-mannered demon child, saying "God Bwess You" after we sneeze (or burp) and even when he is screaming at the top of his lungs at us for his latest heart's desire, he is sure to tack a "RIGHT NOW. PWEEZ!" at the end! In addition to being "solid", his hair gets thicker and more coarse by the day and there's been no relaxing of Grandpa Clem's circle hair. (If you don't know what this is, refer to 2008:A Year in Review.) He has 2 small birthmarks-1 on the inside of his left wrist and 1 on the back of his right shoulder. His eyes are more hazel than green these days, much to my dismay, because that was the only thing he got from me. Those Borich genes seem to thoroughly dominate my Smith ones;) Max is all boy and loves every sport known to mankind. We are also starting to appreciate his OCD-like qualities because when a couple of Cornell girls that we LOVE (Hi Jess & Rachel) found out Max's desire to sort everything, they told us they were the same way as children. Since they are now soon-to-be Ivy League grads, we figure Max is only destined for greatness! He also continues to love his movies and quotes them when he doesn't feel like he has anything else to say...God forbid, we have 30 seconds of quiet in this house! He makes us laugh every day and we continue to marvel as he turns from toddler to child.















Mykah Brookelynn: 4th grade, will be TEN in the fall! AKA: "Angelpie" to Mom, "Princess" to Dad, and lately she requests "Princess Athlete" to accomodate her new found love of soccer. This past Saturday, she wore colored hair around her own to her soccer game and, if you remember from an earlier post, wore a skirt to play softball last spring! "Angelpie" has been her nickname from the day she was born. Mykah is becoming such a "tween" already! This has to be such a confusing time for her, caught in between a child and a teenager. We never know if she will be watching cartoons or Ghost Whisperer. She loves the shows on Disney Channel, but so wishes she were old enough to watch shows that are still above her grasp! She is still passionate about music, and loves to download songs onto her iPod, but her latest love is soccer! She played for the 1st time this fall and then got to play in an indoor league. She decided that she didn't want to play basketball this year, and is pretty sure that she won't cheer again. Nothing can interfere with soccer! It's been so fun to watch her transformation-she's starting to be more aggressive since there are always boys playing against her team and her fear is decreasing since this Saturday she got kicked in the face and survived! Max tests her every day and unfortunately can get so far under her skin that she breaks down, but Josh is the light of her life, except when he pulls her hair. She's soooo tender headed and doesn't let me fix it anymore except on rare occasions. Her responsibilities around the house are increasing and she tackles her new chores eagerly (for a while). I don't know how I would have done this last year without her help. She is a fantastic student, and has all As & a B. She's an avid reader and is loving all the books I saved from my childhood! Joe got to take her to the Valentine's Father/Daughter Dance for the 2nd year. They had so much fun and although Mykah tries to act like Joe embarrasses her, she lights up when she comes home and tells me all her friends told her (again) how lucky she is to have such a cool, fun dad! She couldn't even manage to hide her smile when she tried to say with disgust "OMG-Dad won the limbo contest AND showed everyone how to Electric Slide. He's such a dork! Then he was SINGING OUT LOUD when we were dancing to "Brown Eyed Girl", so I guess I'm his brown eyed girl from now on!" She has such a big heart and we are having so much fun watching her get to know herself and the kind of girl she wants to be. She showers us all with constant affection and we are continually blessed by her love.



Here's the Borich scoop-
Joe was released from Cornell on February 5th. He had interviews at Dartmouth (Hanover,NH) over 2 weeks ago and Montana State (Bozeman)1 week ago. We have already been dealt the painful, disappointing blow that he didn't get the Montana State job, and we are still reeling from the devastation that we feel. We truly believed that if we could see ourselves with the job that Joe really wants and deserves, that it would happen (think "The Secret"). It didn't happen. We felt like all of the pieces were lining up and even talked about the story that we'd be able to tell that led up to our finally being closer to home. It seemed so perfect, but then didn't happen. In fact, it didn't happen TWICE! Our first blow was when the flicker of hope that we clung for to get Joe the opportunity to return to Memphis was snuffed out. That began before Christmas and I adopted Joe's superstitious behavior and wore his Memphis sweatshirt from his QB days every day for 2 weeks. We also designated an angel ornament as our "Memphis angel", but I guess they were the wrong good luck charms. The series of events that seemed to fall into place for our benefit again were only benefits to others. We are still waiting to hear about the Dartmouth job, but Joe is grounded enough to know that if the head coach believed in him that he wouldn't still be looking around. So, we wait. It's not out of the question, but we are losing hope. We have sold our house, and even through some crummy bumps in that road, we won't have that hanging over our heads. We know this is a huge step and we are so grateful for that part of our burden that has been lifted.
So, today Joe accepted the Offensive Coordinator position at Tiffin University (Division 2)in Tiffin, Ohio. He will be leaving us day after tomorrow, but will go on to find us a place to rent and the other things necessary to move us forward in our journey. It will give Joe the much needed title to add to his resume and we will also be reunited with our friends from Idaho State, Mark & Stacey Rhea. I will definately have to return to work, so I will hold fast to the memories from the last year as a stay at home mom and always hold them dear. I didn't know how I would feel about that job, but I came to love it and even learned to bake (pretty well if I do say so myself!) along the way. We still believe that God is guiding our path, but we are shaken slightly. The 3 years we have spent in NY have been a tough road, and seems that there's not an end in sight, yet. We will prevail and be stronger because of it. Will you all remind me of that when I forget? We will prevail and be stronger because of it.
We are so grateful for the friends who have supported us emotionally along the way. Such a bummer that it takes a crisis or two to find out who your true friends are. Some that we thought would always be by our sides have disappeared, and some that we thought were drifting have resurfaced and made clear to us that they are never more than a phone call away and even though we don't talk as often as we could, we remain in each other's prayers always. I will try to keep an update here more often, especially since I haven't been answering my phone. Thanks to my friends who know that I just can't talk right now, and call to check on me anyway! I love you guys...
To our families, we don't get to be close for now, but someday! We know this has been hard on you, too. Thanks for all the love.