First and last days

First day of school - sept. 2013

 Last day of school- june 2014

First day of school- sept. 2013

 






Last day of school- june 2014

Its amazing to me how they still change SOOO much! Yes, this is expected the first few years of life, but Jadon is 7 and he still looks like he changed so much this school year!

And Avery's first picture cracks me up now, her backpack was practically swallowing her! She grew 3 inches during the school year, and I think its pretty obvious!

I love those two!

Summer Plans

Summer doesn't officially start for us until the 18th. Thanks to the snow days we had!
On one hand i'm totally ready for summer, ready for not making lunches anymore, ready for not getting up so dang early. On the other hand, Jadon behaves better at home when he's in school because he's kept busy all day, and while I always try to plan some summer activities for the kids, its never enough.
I also try to not over schedule us during the summer because i think that down time, free time, is good for all of us!

So our plans aren't incredibly exciting. Getting the yard put in, we always go to Enchanted Forest. I'm sure we'll go swimming at the pool (although we cant go to toddler time anymore, Jadon's too old.) Derek and I have been looking into more local places to go to. And our big event is our annual Sunriver trip at the end of summer. We all look forward to that all summer!
Derek and I will have our 11th anniversary as well! :) And something crazy- we've been together for 15 years this september!!!  :)

I've got both kids enrolled in soccer for the summer, we also have swimming lessons. And the humane society has a couple day camps so I signed Jadon up for one of those, and he's really excited about it! I'd also like to get Jadon involved in some volunteer work at the humane society. I think it would be good for him. Avery would LOVE it as well, but with her pet allergies, I don't know if it would be a good idea. She'll be heartbroken if she doesn't get to do it though.
And VBS of course for Jadon, (Avery gets to go next year.) One of the perks of being a bigger kid... you get to do more fun things than the little kids. I do feel bad for Avery though, she wants to do the things Jadon's doing but she's not "of age" yet.

On a different note, with as much watermelon as the kids and I have been eating.... i'm afraid we are going to turn into watermelons! Yummy!!!! :) Pretty soon the blueberries will be ready for picking, and I can't wait!!!

What??????!!!!!

I hate cleaning the bathrooms. I do it once a week (or try to....the kids bathroom sometimes more) but it seems like once a week is every day. Once a week happens so fast. And I hate cleaning them! Why? Because it takes too long. Because of getting everything set up. Because I have to wear gloves. Because I'm down on my hands and knees on the floor. The only good part about cleaning the bathrooms is the end when they are clean and I can breath a sigh of relief because I have a week of not having to deal with them anymore. But then it seems I blink and its time to clean them again. Ugh.

So last night I was trying to think of ways I could cut corners or shorten the time it takes me to clean them. I'm pretty anal about how they are done, because its the bathroom! Bathrooms are gross. We poop, we pee, we bath our dirty bodies, we brush our dirty teeth, we wash our dirty hands in them. So i'm a little anal about how things get cleaned in the bathroom. Don't want to risk any cross contamination, and want to make sure all the germs are wiped up properly.

So to clean both bathrooms from top to bottom, showers included, takes me well over an hour.
What. A. Pain.
Now you can understand why I want to figure out how to cut some corners. So I googled how to clean a bathroom quickly. And I found some pretty useless information. I also found a video on youtube.
It is wrong on so many levels! Its a 3 minute video, so please take the time to watch and be amazingly grossed out! HERE!

One persons comment to the video was that you can't clean a bathroom in less time it takes you to take a dump.
Not only does she use plain water to "clean" some things, she uses her bare hands in the (dirty) toilet to squeeze the toilet brush, then goes and without washing her hands she starts wiping the counter area. And what about all the crap she put in the shower??? And she didn't even clean the shower! So gross. Not to mention, that bathroom was already clean, there was nothing on the counter and nothing in shower to move first. No towels or bath mats. And what in the heck is a johnny mop?!? Whats wrong with a normal toilet scrub brush? After a week, my bathrooms, especially the kids, are much dirtier than that. Is that how motels clean their bathrooms???? That scares me, from now on when I'm at a motel i'm taking my own container of disinfecting wipes and i'll be using every single one to wipe the entire room.

Totally disgusting! Were you as grossed out as me?

In case you hadn't caught on, this video bothers me to no end, i'm disgusted and appalled by it and I hope you all do a better job of cleaning your bathrooms.... at least before I visit you! ;)

Medical bills, and yard work, and babies.... oh my!!

Yard work is slowly under way! Yesterday dad and mom came over with the tractor and chopped all the tall tall grass down for us. What a difference that alone made! The grass was so tall and now we can actually see the yard again and it feels big once again. We aren't sure exactly what our next step is going to be. We've had a lot of expenses this month with lots of medical bills between Derek and Jadon. (Did I mention that Jadon sprained his wrist a couple days before we went to Florida? We didn't want to have any problems in Florida if he had fractured it at all, so Derek took him to see the doctor and was x-rayed and everything. Just a little spraining was all thank goodness and by the time we went to Florida he didn't even need the ace bandage wrapped around it anymore.) So the medical bills are flowing in now from the boys. So it will be slow going for the yard, but that's ok, it will make it just that much more sweet with each step we get accomplished. :)

My little nephew is a week old already! Jenny emailed pictures out, and he is just so dang cute!  Annnnnnd i've got baby fever now..... ok i've had it for awhile but something about cuddling a little baby makes it much stronger. ;) The kids have also been talking about wanting another sibling.
We'll see.... convincing Derek is the first hurdle. ;)

Oops

Its been 2 months since I last blogged. In my defense, we've been busy. Come on, did you really think a family with a 4 and 7 year old would NOT be busy???
March ended with track and swimming lessons, school. And recovering from illness.
April was a busy month. We finally had Jadon's birthday party that we had to cancel for 3 weeks due to his pneumonia. Derek had another trip to Wisconsin for work, where he tried to die on us. (long story that I think most of you know already and i'm not going to explain again.)  As well as school, field trips, track and swimming, and preparing for our vacation to Florida!!
April 30th, we left for Florida for the kids first "real" vacation, first time on a plane for both of them as well. To say they were excited would be an understatement.
We spent until May 8th in Florida, enjoying the sunshine and warmth, the beach, LEGOLAND, sunset cruise, etc etc etc. But mostly we enjoyed the time we got to spend with my grandparents. Two of my favorite people in the world!
We returned from Florida, expecting to come home to a new baby boy relative (Derek's sister.) However, baby Harris decided to make his grand entrance into the world 10 days late. Today we got to meet the little guy, and he's totally adorable!

Other than all that, we've been working on designing our backyard and are getting excited to finally get some of it taken care of. We already decided its just too much money to get it all done this year, so we will be doing it in phases over the next few years.

Schools getting close to the end for the year, and I have mixed feelings about it. Jadon does much better when he's kept busy at school all day in that structure with all his friends. And Avery does better when Jadon's at school as well. As soon as Jadon is home, they both start acting out and getting into trouble.
Jadons school year is ending with several field trips, a trip to the pool with his class, field day, etc. We went to his school's carnival yesterday.
The kids have to go to school for an extra week at the end of the year thanks to the week off from snow we had in February.  I'm not looking forward to an extra week of making school lunches.... i'm about burned out on making lunches. There's only so many things you can pack that dont require heating: PBJ, PBH, meat and cheese sandwiches, and cheese and crackers. Thats about it.

So that is all I have time to update right now.

Pneumonia

Poor Jadon. He ended up having pneumonia! By Monday his fever was not down, he was just getting worse, and Monday he was complaining that his side was hurting really badly. We placed a call in to the pediatrician, but they took too long to call back so we just took him to the ER. 

We all know how Jadon is when it comes to doctors and hospitals. But he was SO brave! I'm so proud of him! He had to have an IV to help hydrate him and to get a strong dose of antibiotics. They had talked about keeping him in the hospital for a few days, but didn't think he was bad enough to need to stay. I think that was a good idea, I think he would have mentally healed faster at home than he would have at the hospital. Because at home he feels comfortable. He has his video games to distract him, and his own bed to sleep in. 

Its amazing the difference a full day of antibiotics made!!! By the end of yesterday, he was up and around some. Went to his room to play legos with Avery for a short time, and they played something mild in the living room also. He ate a good dinner, requested 2nds, but then couldn't finish the seconds. After not eating for 3 days, he visibly lost weight. At home he has been weighing about 51 lbs (before illness). At the hospital he was only 49. Now I know 2 pounds doesn't seem like much, but when you only weigh 51 lbs and youre tall and skinny, 2 pounds is quite obvious. His pants are just hanging on his little butt. 

His fever finally broke last night! And this morning it is still down, so as long as he keeps the fever away and continues to progress, I think he'll be able to go back to school friday. One day back and then another week off for spring break. Lots of time for recovery. 

And Avery, i'm so proud of her too. She has been such a good girl over the last 5 days, despite getting much less attention, and not getting to play with Jadon, and being cooped up in the house. She has not given us any grief. Even at the ER, she was an angel. Despite the fact that we didn't get any lunch that day. You'd think she'd be bored at the ER and cranky from not getting lunch, but she was so good. 

I'm very proud of both of my kids.  And i'm very thankful for the wonderful doctors and nurses at the ER who were so nice and helpful, and all our family and friends who were praying for him. Its really hard to see your child be so ill. 

Sad day

Well we should've been having a birthday party right now. Should've been playing games and eating cake right about now.
Jadon came home early from school yesterday because his right mouth was hurting and he just couldn't take it any longer. Poor guy, I know it was hurting because he was crying. He rarely cries when he hurts. I called the dentist and they were stumped because he didn't have any abscess, no teeth coming in, was not hit in the face, no canker sore, no fever, etc. So I made an appointment for monday in case his mouth was still hurting after the weekend and if its better I can cancel it.
By bedtime his ear was hurting him, and middle of the night he was having trouble sleeping because his ear was hurting. By morning the fever set in and he was no better and Derek took him to urgent care with what we thought for sure was an ear infection.
But, turns out it is some virus thats going around that involves the whole body. So he's got a cough, an ear ache, a fever, and has thrown up a few times (but has no stomach ache). Derek said the doctor had already seen several cases of the same thing today.  So he was sent home with a couple prescriptions to help with the ear pain and in case he has any nausea and told to stay home for a couple days and eat a clear liquid diet.

So, instead of eating the yummy minion cupcakes that I made for the occasion, he's sipping water and 7 up and eating popsicles. Instead of playing silly games, he's laying on the couch having a movie marathon. And that just stinks. Why? because it seems like he always gets the short end of  the stick. He's been sick at Christmas-time twice, sick when Aunt Jenny was in the hospital, and now sick for his birthday party that he's been looking forward to for weeks. And that makes his mom and dad very sad. :*(

So as far as rescheduling the party, the next two weekends are during spring break, so its likely that people wont be home. We could wait until the first weekend in April, but by then his birthday is almost a month gone. And today is beautiful! Its mid to upper 60's!

Can these illnesses just please stop already? I'm tried of it. This has been a horrible winter for sicknesses.

Sad, sad day. :(

Seven!

Tomorrow my baby boy will be 7 years old. I'm going to have a 7 year old. Wow!! He is now closer to being a teenager than a baby. That is both scary and bittersweet! Love that kid!

We are having a big birthday bash on Saturday. We've never had a "big" birthday party for him because our old house was too small. Last year he really wanted a big party but we'd just moved into our house. So this is the year! We finally have a house big enough to have more people over comfortably!
So the party theme is Despicable Me. I made all the kids minion goggles, and their favor bags will be decorated like minions. The cake will be cupcakes with twinky minions on them. As far as games, I couldn't find any games that were new and exciting, everything is the same old games, for example: pin the tail on the donkey, toss the little bean bags through the holes, scavenger hunts, etc. I spent hours researching games online. I finally came across Minute To Win It games. Doesn't fit the despicable me theme, but the games should be fun for 7 year old boys. Plus we only have 2 hours with them, so the games will have to be quick anyways!
Jadon's excited, and so am I! I'm excited to do this for him.

Busy busy busy

We've been a busy clan here. Every day of the week is filled with something!
Jadon has been doing basketball, and while he likes it, he has already lost interest (thanks a lot ADD.)  So he is trying out track and field next. Not sure if he'll like that either, but he needs to burn off energy, and i'd rather he tried lots of new things now so he can decide for himself later on what he likes and doesn't like.

Avery does tumbling and she loves it! I asked her if she wanted to do something else and she said no, just tumbling. So tumbling it is!

Almost 2 weeks ago we traded in my car and got a minivan! Yeah, laugh it up, I know the rep minivans have, but I LOVE it! Not only does it smell wonderful, like a new car, but it has heated seats, a backup camera, a moon roof and many many many more things. It drives like my old civic did, and its soooooo convenient. The deciding factor between a minivan and an SUV was the fact that the kids can get into the minivan by themselves easily, and it has a ton more space than an SUV. We were quite surprised at the amount of space. And, now I like driving again.... for now. ;)

We have a birthday coming up! My baby boy is going to turn SEVEN in a couple weeks!!! SEVEN!!! When and how did this happen so quickly!?!? What a big guy he is becoming! While he can be a handful sometimes, he makes me smile every day and I love him to pieces!
So since last year was a very mellow year for celebrating birthdays, we are having big parties this year! We are inviting all the boys in his class to come over.... which means I may be just a little out of my mind. If all the boys come, then there will be 18 seven year old boys in my house at one time!!! Lord help us!!!!!!!

Snow pix!

As I promised, here are some snow pictures. These were taken this morning. When we woke up this morning this is what we had. It snowed all day long and we now have well over a foot! Looking at these pictures makes me chuckle now because it seemed like a ton of snow at the time, but now we have SOOOOOOOO much. An additional 3-5 inches is forecast for tonight as well. I'm excited to wake up and see what we have!

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Avery LOVES eating the snow for whatever reason.

The little hill in our backyard makes a good hill for the kids to tube down.  Its short and easy for them to climb up. (However for the more exciting time we use the street hills!)

Backyard. Now the snow covers most of the bottom of the deck.

During the last snow storm in December, I made the cats some beds out of old pillowcases. Here's Gina staying warm.

 I've always loved the way the trees look when covered in snow.

Derek has been working from home the last 2 days but took alot of breaks today to do some tubing.

I'm not sure why these next 2 photos are not centered. I have them set to be centered but they are not following the rules....
Anywho, Earlier today I took a picture of the cars covered in snow, And again tonight I took a picture. Shows you how much snow we got today!

Absolutely crazy!!!! NEVER seen this much snow here in the Valley, and i've lived here my whole life! We've had a couple of years where theres been significant snowfall, but i've never seen anything like THIS!
Tomorrows forecast is for snow/rain mix and/or sleet/freezing rain, followed by all rain in the afternoon, followed by snow/rain mix during tomorrow night. So, today was potentially the last of the straight white stuff. I have thoroughly enjoyed it, as I know many others have too. Its so beautiful to watch and see. Thank you Lord for this rare occurrence!

More Snow Days!

This has been the best winter ever! I had wanted a good winter this year in our new house, and i'm sure gettin' it! No school yesterday or today because of it, and there's probably close to a foot of snow out there! Its BEAUTIFUL!!! It snowed pretty much non stop yesterday.
Yes, school was cancelled again, for thursday and friday. The kids are already having to go an extra 2 days at the end of the year from the last snow storm we had, and they had to make up a day in January as well, so i'm curious what the will do to make up these days.
During the last snow we had back in December, our cheap plastic sled broke, so luckily when I saw that snow was becoming a strong possibility in the forecast, I checked Target for their snow stuff. They had it all 50% off so I got a boogie board thing (that doesn't work, at least in this kind of snow its not), a kids inner tube, and a grownups inner tube.

I'll post some pictures once I get some good ones. :) Time to go get ready to play in the snow!

Not too bad~!

So I had 8 posts last month! Not too bad, considering I had 28 for the entire year last year!

Not much to report.... We had a 6 day weekend this week. Jadon only went to school on monday and then I kept him home on tues/wed due to a bad cough. Then thursday and friday there was no school.  We still had a busy week though.

We've been playing Wii Fit lately. Its old, but we stopped playing it for a long time and recently got it back out again. It surprises me that we actually work up a sweat doing it. Things like hula hooping, boxing, running and biking really get you warmed up. I wouldn't recommend Wii Fit as an exercise regime or for weight loss, but its kinda fun and gets you off the couch at least. Being winter, we are beginning to get restless and irritable being stuck indoors. Whenever its sunny, we try to bundle up and head outside. It always feels good getting fresh air at least.

Well i'm out of things to talk about.

Oh, as some of you already know, several years ago the contractor who built our house was wrongfully accused of racketeering. He pleaded not guilty, and the last 2 weeks he's been on trial. He started a blog to write about the trial: Randy Gray Trial  Please keep him and his family in your prayers as they find out the verdict this week. He is the father of 6 kids with a 7th on the way, a good christian family, and he is a good person.

How???

So many times when I click on a Pinterest link, it takes me to someones blog. OK, that's fine, nothing wrong with blogging. ;) However, you read the "About me" piece, and these women have full time jobs AND their own business, 20 kids, a blog they write in (with lots of pictures of their projects), volunteer positions, are the room mom for their children's classes, the coach of their kids sports team, AND have miraculously spotless houses, and seemingly endless amounts of time for everything else like entertain, going to the gym, baking and cooking amazing things, making their hair and makeup perfect everyday, making their kids hair perfect every day, day trips, weekend trips, weekly trips, etc, etc, etc. Oh, and they still have time to sit at the end of the day to catch up on their favorite reality shows, and then do their yoga before they go to bed, where they then get a full 8 hours of UNINTERRUPTED sleep, and then they wake up happy and peaceful at 5am, go for a run, and are ready to start the day all over again.  I'd like to know: HOW DO THEY DO THAT? Are they being honest in that they really do all of those things... daily? Do they really have 40 hour days, or so it seems? Or perhaps they keep their kids chained up all day while they do everything, then let the kids out for the last hour or so of the day. I just don't understand how people can do that? I barely have time to blog, although i've been trying REALLY hard this month in case you hadn't noticed. 

My house will not stay clean no matter how hard I try, its messed up within 5 minutes. My kids do not behave all the time. We have extracurricular activities that take up every single evening.

So i'd like to know if these women are for real? Most of the moms I know do not have time for all those things. Their kids are not perfect angels. They have to take time out daily (multiple times daily) to discipline their kids and deal with unruliness. Their houses never stay clean. They don't have time or money to do all the things these "supermoms" do. Do the Supermom's kids never get sick??? Do THEY never get sick? (I say that now since i'm sitting here unable to breath with a pile of used kleenex next to me and a box of unused kleenex just waiting for me.) ;)

So in conclusion, I am no supermom, and I think the women who claim to be supermom's are all fakes. 

There. I'm done. 

practices

Jadon began basketball this week. He had 2 practices, and so far he really likes it. We also so a good improvement between the two practices!  Its his first time playing any "real" basketball, aside from our Little Tykes basketball hoop and ball at home. At his age, at his games, they will not be doing any stealing, fouls, or even keeping score. I'm looking forward to watching!

In this video, his coach was "blocking" him and he was supposed to move forward with the ball. Most of the other kids struggled with that a little, I was really shocked when Jadon did it so well.

Avery started a tumbling class through the parks and rec this week, and she had a lot of fun as well! 

this video is Avery doing a backwards sommersault... she is in the green polka dot shirt.

We've all had this darn cough thing that's going around. Pretty much its only a cough. Then yesterday Derek and I both came down with a head cold on top of the cough. I spent all night coughing so I feel pretty horrible today. I took a "nap" (an on and off doze) for an hour and a half and I am looking forward to going to bed tonight!

Thank you Grandmas!

Thank you to Grandmother, Grandma Debbie and Grandma Karla for all your Boxtops and Labels for Education! With the Boxtops that were turned in by all the students between Sept and early Dec, the school earned almost $600, and with the Labels for Education points earned will go towards playground equipment. Yay!
So thank you for your help and keep 'em coming! :)

Yard

Looking out at our backyard right now.... its a big huge mud pit. At least the french drain is working well! With all the rain we had over the last few days, we discovered 5 little.... springs.... or something, coming out of the side of the hill... not down the top of it, but literally out the side of it. That will have to be dealt with at some point. But the good thing is, its all draining into the french drain. My hubby did such a great job on that!
I feel overwhelmed by all the things that need to be done. If we get nothing else done this summer with the backyard, we at least need to get grass put in. Top priority.

I was just telling Derek that I laugh now at how we were overwhelmed with having to do our yard at our old house. That seems like a PIECE OF CAKE now compared to what we have now!

One things for sure.... I can't wait for spring to come, and summer, to dry out the yard so we can move forward and have a nice backyard to play in! Hurry up warmer weather! Hurry up sunshine!

Hey did you all know that the sun is setting later now? Its getting close to half an hour later than it was. Yes, i'm a weirdo and I keep track of that because I NEED to see that the days are getting longer and there's hope in the dead of this "favorite" season of mine! I'm dreaming of that sun!!

Life

Its my favorite time of year!! No its not. I hate this time of year. In fact, I'm without a doubt certain that January and February are my least favorite months of the year. I hate the weather, I hate the long days, I hate the additional pounds gained from December, I hate the illnesses, I hate that the kids are stuck inside most of the time and can't burn off extra energy.
November and December are at least filled with holiday gatherings and holiday events that help with the above. And March daylight savings starts so we get more daylight time, and Jadon's birthday is in March, as well as half of our extended family.
But i'm not here to complain and whine. Although its pretty easy to this time of year! ;)

The kids started swimming again tonight after a month off. We always take December off from all extracurricular activities because December is already a busy month without all the extras. We started on private lessons today though. Previously we'd just done normal group lessons, which we felt were not as productive. Why? Well, the classes are 30 minutes long, and with 6 kids in the class, they just weren't getting enough time with actual swimming. A good portion was always spent waiting for the teacher to work with other kids. However, the last 2 sessions we had the same teacher and we really like her, Jadon has actually showed some improvement with her, and she is really good with both the kids, and knowing when to push them. Which is exactly what Jadon needs, since he's very tentative in the water. If you push him too much, he freaks out and ends up back at square one again. So, she noticed that and slowly builds him up to do things. We lucked out and were able to get her for private lessons, so we are thrilled with that. And the kids had a LOT more actual swimming time with just the 2 of them. Not to mention, the pool was basically empty so they weren't distracted by all the other children in the pool around them. They both said they had more fun than in the normal class.

Jadon starts basketball next week. It will be his first time playing basketball. As always, he's a little tentative. For some reason, he got it in his head that he's going to be playing in a college-like coliseum with tons of people there. I explained to him that its not that way, I found YouTube videos of 1st graders playing basketball-practice and games and showed him those. But until he actually goes, his mind is set on how it will be, and there's usually no convincing him otherwise.
I'm excited for him to try this new adventure!

Avery starts a tumbling class next week also. I went to sign her up for gymnastics at the college like we do every winter, but the class was full. So we're doing a tumbling class through the parks and rec instead. Hopefully she'll participate this time!

I dont know if i mentioned that I was going to be going through ALL of our stuff this month and purging and organizing it all. Its been pretty fun.... you know me, I love organizing! I love decluttering too! So it feels good to go through all our stuff and get rid of whats collecting dust, and then organize whats left. Its also hard to get rid of things sometimes for sentimental reasons. However, I read an article that reminded me that its all just STUFF. And the more STUFF you save, the less value it actually has to you. So I try to keep that in mind when I'm going through things. The hardest things for me to get rid of are things that pertain to the kids when they were little. Their clothes, their toys, their artwork, etc. Its all so precious to me.
But regardless, our office is growing a large pile of  "Stuff" in it to give to Goodwill.
Another problem I have is thinking that I might some day use or have a need for things. Like clothes.... I have kept this little cropped cardigan thing for years. Have I worn it even one time? Nope. But I always thought that I might someday have something to wear it with, or have a use for it. Needless to say, those things are hard to get rid of too, just because i'm afraid i'm going to get rid of it, and then a week later find something I could have used it for.
Or keeping clothes that are too small for you, but you'll be able to wear again when you lose all that weight you gained. I'm not so bad at that anymore, but I used to be. Turns out when i'd finally lost all the weight and could fit into the clothes, I didn't like them anymore.  Also, if there's anything I learned from What Not To Wear, its that you dress the body you have NOW....not the body you hope to have someday.
So, i'm having a lot of fun getting organized and decluttered :)

I did pretty good controlling my portion sizes this week, most of the time. So changes are slowly happening there.... in my mind that is. I'm trying to retrain myself to that mindset that I don't need to eat so much, that food is not my best friend, and that I actually feel better when I don't stuff myself and eat slower. Eventually i'd like to start walking (outside) when both the kids are at school, but its going to have to stop raining and warm up a little for that.

Its already been almost a year since we moved into our new house! Its so hard to believe! I truly truly feel blessed here. Very rarely do I feel irritated with something about our house. Our old house I was always bent about something....... mostly not having enough storage space for anything. Here it feels like everything has a place, and we dont have 20 different storage shelves inside to hold things, or a pantry in our garage. Everyday I love my laundry room, and i'm so thankful to have it be inside now instead of in the garage, especially in the winter months! I'm so grateful to have a 4th bedroom that we can use as an office/sewing/craft room. I'm so grateful for our large living room where we can all sit and play games together, or where we can have company without everyone being crammed into the room. I'm grateful to only have 2 toilets instead of 3 to clean, even though once in awhile a 3rd toilet is sometimes needed (amazing how all 4 of us can have a need to use the bathroom at the same time!) ;)  I'm super super grateful for our huge backyard and i'm sooooooo looking forward to getting it to a usable state this spring and summer! And i'm very grateful for our neighbors. What are the odds that we'd end up with such amazing neighbors who are very tolerant of our kids and even seem to be quite fond of them.
As hard as it was to leave our old house and memories behind, God provided a new home for us in a big way. And what about the fact that Jadon's bff moved in just a few streets away? or that there's a little girl 2 houses away who is the same age as Avery, and also named Avery? Or that a house behind us lives a boy who is also a first grader where Jadon goes to school (different class though.) Or that the "older" kids in the neighborhood are super good with kids and are really good role models for Jadon and Avery. I could go on and on, but it was definitely not luck that brought us here. God had all this planned before we even knew it.

See, I told you my blog post wasn't going to be all whining and complaining ;)

Goals

What a year we just finished! The big highlights of our year were: moving into our new house, Derek and I celebrating our 10th wedding anniversary, Avery starting preschool and Jadon starting 1st grade (full day school.)
I hope you all enjoyed our picture year in review. I make those mostly for the kids because they love to look back at the pictures of themselves and what they did during the year. We go back and watch the past years occasionally, and its a great reminder of how blessed we are.

I hate new years resolutions. I think they are dumb, and no one ever keeps them. I quit setting new years resolutions a long time ago. However, I think its always good to have goals, and a fresh start. So I have plenty of goals for this year, including: lose 15 lbs before our big trip, get active again (because i've gotten lazy... thank you migraines), complete our backyard (or at least get the grass put in!), put down my ipod and instead spend that time with my kids, get back to my menu board and get back to my cleaning schedule, work on the kids manners, get rid of these migraines! etc. All of these are very doable, and if I get rid of the migraines it will make it 100% easier to do and stick with these goals. Before I get a migraine I usually get reeaaalllly tired. Its like my warning sign. And after the migraine is over, I feel very drained as well. And since I get several migraines a week, I feel tired and drained A LOT. Its hard to get anything accomplished feeling that way, not to mention having a pounding head.

We got the kids a cheap little microphone for Christmas. I knew Avery would enjoy that, and she actually said that was her favorite gift! Anyways, she gets bashful about singing in it, so I was going about my business one day and she was in the living room singing and I happened to get a video of her really getting into it. She's singing a song from her favorite cartoon show Strawberry Shortcake's Berry Bitty Adventures....There's a character on the show named Cherry Jam who is a famous singer and so sometimes she sings on the show, so she's probably imitating Cherry Jam. Its amusing ;) Excuse the mess, it was the day after Christmas and anyone with kids will understand how much of a mess Christmas makes when you have kids!

This is the start of my 7th year blogging. I noticed that my blogging has been on a steady decline since the year I started. Every year i've blogged less and less. I can tell you exactly why! First year I had just one child..... correction, I had just one child who still NAPPED! Second year was mainly the same thing until October when Avery was born. The next year, I had a busy toddler and a demanding infant. The next year, busy preschooler and busy toddler. The same the next year. Then last year we were moving and good golly its hard to blog when the kids are trying to talk into one of my ears and i'm trying to think at the same time. Takes me over an hour to post anything at all with all the of the interruptions! And Jadon sits over my shoulder reading it out loud as i'm typing..... I finally just stopped trying to do it when the kids were up, and at night when they are sleeping i am not motivated to do it. I tried doing it on saturday mornings but like I said, distractions abound all over the place so it was taking me hours just to do 1 blog entry. On top of that, I have run out of things to talk about that might be of any interest to anyone, (other than griping about annoying irritating people in this world.)  So for those of you faithful who still read it, and are not bored to death with my ramblings about nothing, i'll try to be better this year, but I really can't make any guarantees! ;)

So Jadon is signed up for basketball, and starts that in a couple weeks, and Avery is signed up for a tumbling class and starts in a couple weeks as well. We had been trying to get them signed up for semi-private swim lessons, but our favorite instructor is not available when we are, so now i'm not sure what we will do. Because of other things going on during the week, we have limited options of when to do lessons, and the pool doesn't offer normal lessons during those times. 

So that's where we are!

Merry Christmas

Hope you all had a very merry Christmas! As always, we have so much to be thankful for!

Today is the aftermath of the chaos that having 3 Christmas' in less than 24 hours brings.... so the kids are busy with their new toys and mom and dad are overwhelmed by the giant mess that comes with opening new boxes of things, as well as the boxes and the wrapping paper, etc. Not to mention all the tiny toy pieces all over.
The day after Christmas for us is always spent at home, cleaning up, putting together new toys, and recovering! What a whirlwind of craziness it is!

Christmas and chores

Christmas is in a week and a half! Wow! And what a difference a year makes. Last year at this time we were in the rental and I had no Christmas spirit at all. None. This year I couldn't wait to get our tree, to decorate our house with lights, and I even got out some (not many, but some) decorations for inside the house.
Our tree is the biggest we have had ever, since our ceilings are 9' and vaulted, we are able to get a taller tree. So its a modest 8.5 feet, and narrow. Just because we have a large living room doesn't mean I wanted to have a fat tree take up half of the room.

Like much of the rest of the U.S., we were under snow for a week last week. It all began the Friday before last.... the snow began falling in the early morning, they cancelled school that Friday. We had a great time playing in the snow and sledding down our hills, but it was really really cold (one morning it was 4 degrees.) Since it didn't get above freezing for a week, we had snow for that long, and the only day of school the kids ended up with was this last Friday.  Unfortunately, the snow was too powdery to build snowmen or igloos or have snow ball fights.  It didn't even work well for sledding for the first day or two.  And unfortunately our sled broke halfway through the week.

Because of the snow, we were stuck home for many days. We lost precious time Christmas shopping. The kids also both missed their field trips to Storybook Land.

We've been really trying to emphasize being grateful this year with the kids. We have so much to be thankful for, and Jadon seems to miss that point. I know its nothing we've done, I know a lot of why he is the way he is is because of his mechanics. He can't control his outbursts, his fits of frustration. Its still embarrasing though when he does it because everyone always looks to the parents for their kid behaving that way.

During the summer, we had daily chores for the kids to do. Since school started, and the weeks are busy and we are home less, all the summer chores have been forgotten. They still do their chores that they've been doing for years now, but the bigger ones, like cleaning the bathroom, mopping the floors, vacuuming, etc. have been tossed out. Since there's less time during the school year, I recently revamped the daily chores list. And, in addition to the chores, they have character qualities they will need to follow too (respecting parents, being kind to siblings/friends, etc.) During the school year, their chores are minimal since we have extracurricular activities and homework in the evenings.

I saw my neurologist again a couple weeks ago. Since the meds I was on were not working, I have started a new one. I've only been on it at half dose for a couple days. I really hope this one works. I'm really tired of all this! :(

Snow!!

When we moved into our house, I had hoped that we would have a good snow this winter so we could play in our big yard and slide down the hill.
Well it happened!!  Snow!!! School was cancelled on friday, and we've had snow on the ground for 3 days now with no meltage. Its been super super cold, (this morning when I got up it was 4 degrees) so the snow cant melt. The roads are covered and i'm not even sure we will have school tomorrow.
Today we spent a couple hours outside playing on the hill with some of the neighbors. The kids had lots of fun, and the parents enjoyed it too. Avery slid face first into the front bumper of a parked truck on the side of the road, and she was pretty unhappy about that.
Friday when it was snowing and the kids were outside in the back playing in it, they discovered that a first grade boy from Jadon's school lives out our backyard. I thought that was great at first that Jadon had a next door neighbor friend. However, this boy is over here ALL the time now. We've had to send him home several times already. Makes me wonder, where are the parents that they would let their kid constantly come over?  Or are they okay with it because they want to get rid of him? Anyways, I predict we will be seeing a lot of this boy in the coming months.
Saturday Jadon had a birthday party to go to. We were stuck home since the roads are icy, so we walked to the party. It was a good 20 minute walk both ways. By the time we got home it was about time to leave again to go get him. Derek decided he was going to try driving the car up the hill so we wouldn't have to walk to get him again in the freezing temperature. He managed to get up both the hills, but coming back he couldn't make it back up one of the hills. On his second attempt he managed to make it up.
Then of course as soon as he got home he went outside to play with the "backyard boy" again.
And as I said, today we played on the hill. It was how I always imagined it.... all the neighbor kids sliding and playing in the snow. :)

The poor cats have been freezing. I made them 2 pillow beds out of some soft furry fabric and batting then put the pillows in cardboard boxes. Two of them have pretty much not left the boxes in the last 3 days. The 3rd cat, Bear, has been missing for several days... since before the snow even started. Not sure where he could be. Jadon said he saw Bear once when he was outside but Bear ran away. How true this is, I doubt it. Jadon likes to fabricate stories.

Hard to believe that Christmas is just a couple weeks away! And then after that we begin a new year, and the hardest part of the year for me (January-March) because at that point the winter seems to be never ending and I'm not distracted by holidays, and I feel like I will never see sunshine again! I love the snow, but I love and need my sunshine.... working in the yard..... smelling the freshly mowed lawns....etc.

Well there's my post for the month of December! ;) Hopefully i'm only kidding.

Old

The other day I got my 2014 calendar, and as I was going through it, writing in birthdays, I had the realization that everyone is getting so old! Every last one of us!  It made me sad. Writing "Avery's 5th birthday" on October 8th just about made me cry. How can she be turning 5 next year????????? She's still my little baby, there's no way she will be 5! :(

Its hard to believe its November already! I feel like the weeks are just flying by!
Lets see, last month we got our deck installed, and we love it! We also spent many sweat hours in the backyard installing a french drain before the rain sets in. We were so busy with the deck and yard that I never had a birthday gathering for Avery. Luckily she didn't seem to notice or care much. I'm a terrible mother! I did end up making birthday cupcakes for her so she could at least blow out a candle. She was wanting a #4 candle for months so I couldn't deny her of that.

Yesterday was a busy day! We spent the whole morning at Avery's preschool helping out for her Harvest Party. Then in the afternoon we went to Jadon's classroom to help out at his halloween party. We enjoyed both of course! Then before dinner we went to the village so the kids could trick-or-treat. We then grabbed dinner, went home and ate it, then went for some more trick-or-treating. Avery thoroughly enjoyed herself! Jadon liked it too, but Avery kept informing us that she was having so much fun. Avery was a kitty cat, and Jadon was an Army guy.

We've had a series of water issues around here last month also. First the water heater started leaking. That was fixed, then about 2 weeks later, I was cleaning the kids toilet, and noticed that it was rocking back and forth. So the guy came back out and fixed that. The same day that he fixed the toilet, later that day I discovered that the kitchen sink was leaking. So he will be coming back out next week to fix that. This is not surprising to us to have all these problems. We don't have the best luck. OH, and our washing machine.... yes, our brand new front loader..... had leaked now twice for no reason that we can find. Derek called customer service and they told us to do all these things. The leaks were so random though, that we just decided to get a tray to put under the washer to be safe rather than sorry.

I've gotten a lot done in my recipe binder, and I decided i'm going to have to do a separate one for desserts. Already several times the binder has come in handy, and I love it! Its so easy and convenient!

Well next time you hear from me will probably be in a month at the rate i'm going ;) Sorry, I run out of things to talk about and I don't have a lot of time to sit and type.

Howdy

Despite having the extra time on my hands on tuesday/thursday mornings, I still haven't found enough time to do the things I imagined i'd have time to do. First of all, up until last week, my physical therapy appts. were all on tues/thurs mornings when Avery's in school.
This was the first week of not having any appts.  And one of my 2 "free" days I went to Costco.

I've been trying to streamline ALL my recipes into one organized binder and have all my recipes be in plastic sleeves so if I spill on them, I can easily wipe them up. The reason i'm trying to do this is because since I meal plan for the month in advance, I am searching for many recipes to use. Sounds simple, but when you have recipes all over the place- pinterest, printouts, recipes cards, recipe books, on the computer, etc. its hard to find things quickly and easily. And then I forget where a particular recipe was located. This has made meal planning terribly difficult and irritating and not at all fun. I didn't even make a menu this month. SO, something HAS to be done about it! So i'm doing it similar to this one that I found on Pinterest. But this means i'm typing out a bunch of recipes. Yeah, its going to take awhile, but I know i'll be so much happier once i'm finished!

So back to PT. It helped my back a lot! I was worried because for most of the sessions it didn't seem to be getting much better, but once I started the strengthening exercises, it really started helping! I also have a book that my physical therapist recommended, and it is fantastic! It totally explains WHY my back hurts, and exactly how I can fix it. The only problem is it doesnt contain strengthening exercises, but for me that wasnt a problem since I went to physical therapy and learned them. BUT, it explains so much of why/how bad posture affects your back and even other parts of the body. If anyone wants to borrow the book you're more than welcome to.
I'm supposed to keep up with my therapy for another 2 months, then narrow it down to just a few exercises and stretches after that. I'll never be "cured" but now I know what the causes are and how to fix it if I start getting a backache.

So our deck is half done!!  Its big, and its great! I wish we could have enjoyed it this summer, but we will get to next summer for sure!!! Because our house faces west, we will have the morning sun on the deck, and the shade of the house on it in the evening.  I'm really excited!! The deck is possibly going to be done on monday.

This morning i'm getting my hair cut. I haven't had a cut since January! Hair has been a low priority, and I just throw it back in a holder most of the time.

Avery turned 4 on Tuesday!  I can't believe my baby girl is 4!! (Avery says "i'm a 4 year-older") How did this happen?? It crept up on me too fast, so I didn't get any party planned, but she still wants to have a party, so probably later in the month i'll get something together.
She is enjoying school, and she's always excited to show me her art projects after school. And I look forward to picking her up and spending the afternoons with her. But, after having a live in playmate (Jadon) for the last 4 years, she's a little lost on how to play by herself without him. So as soon as we eat she's begging me to play with her, and she mopes around until I do. I finally had to start telling her that if she didn't go and find something to play with on her own for a bit so I can get the kitchen cleaned up, then i'm not going to play with her. At which point she goes to her room and finds something to play with, but then still asks me every couple minutes if I'm ready to play yet.

Jadon is loving school still. You can tell he thinks he's a cool dude for getting to ride the bus. And i'm happy for him to get to ride. He had his jog-a-thon at school a couple weeks ago, and he ran 9 laps. And, his class ran the most laps out of all the school, so they get to have ice cream soon!
He's taking a lego class after school one day a week right now, and he's enjoying that.

Both kids are in swimming right now, both in level 3 together. Yes, Avery caught up pretty quickly. I've said it a billion times, but she's a fish. Poor Jadon is struggling after having a "traumatic" experience in swimming class a while back. So now he's afraid he's going to drown and starts panicking when they let go of him. Of course, when he panics he starts sinking. He did better at class this week though. He needs to get his confidence back up.

Well I cant think of what else is happening, so I better get ready for my hair appointment!

School days

Busy busy busy. I don't know why I always think that when school starts things will get less crazy?  But then again, I always think that summer will bring less chaos as well. Not so. I just need to accept that life will be crazy until the kids move out.

So about a month ago I hurt my back. I strained it so bad I could hardly walk. Luckily I had my annual physical with my doctor and I mentioned that my back was killing me and that I seem to get backaches A LOT. My doctor referred me to physical therapy. So twice a week i've been doing physical therapy. My back is very slowly getting better. And now I know how to deal with it better. However, my poor posture seems to be a major contribution to my back aches. I slouch when I stand, I slouch when I sit, and I don't always lift things properly. I'm ruining my back by doing all of those.

So school is going well for both kids. Jadon loves it still, and loves riding the bus. Sadly, last week they practiced their "drills"- fire drill, earthquake drill, and lockdown drill. It saddens me that they have to even HAVE a lockdown drill. Things have sure changed since we were in school.

Avery enjoys preschool, and during snack time, parents are selected each day to bring in snacks for the kids. It has to be healthy snacks, except on birthday days, people can bring in cupcakes or cookies or something like that. Well, Avery is not into "healthy" really. So twice now parents have brought in carrot sticks. The first day Avery refused to eat it. But the teacher told her she had to take a "polite bite" meaning she had to at least try it. Apparently she screamed about this, i'm not surprised, and it took her 20 minutes to take a teeny tiny bite. She also had to try a piece of turkey on another day. Avery does not eat meat, so again there was issues, but she did end up trying it. If only we could get her to try things around here, but we think its because she is in the room with a bunch of classmates and also because she's not quite comfortable enough with her teachers yet to blatantly tell them NO! like she does to us.
And in case anyone thinks we baby her when it comes to eating. I can assure you, we do not. She has missed many many many dinners and desserts because she refuses to eat or even try dinner. She skips probably on average 4-5 dinners a week. Our pediatrician told us last year at her appointment that after a few missed dinners, she'll get the hint. HA! Fat chance. She gets the point and she does not care. She's stubborn as can be. Little stinker!
She has another appointment coming up in a couple months so we'll see what her pediatrician says this time!

I painted Avery's bedroom this week, so now both kids' bedrooms are painted in colors they picked out. I love the color of Jadon's room, its a blue color. Avery wanted purple. Dark purple. So her room got painted a darker purple color. She loves it. Its not terrible, but its not my favorite. I had tried and tried to convince her to pick a lighter shade, but she desperately wanted the dark purple. So be it.

And so it begins again

Today was the first day of school for both the kids. Jadon's school was a frenzied crazy mess, as first days usually are. Poor kid though, we couldn't find his classroom. When we came last week to visit, the secretary showed us one of the wrong classrooms. So we found it right before the bell rang and we felt terrible leaving him like that. Queue me crying.
Then we dropped Avery off at preschool, and that was much less chaotic since there are only 14 kids, and we've been there before. I don't think she even knew or cared that we left, she was too busy playing with a Little People princess castle. But queue more crying for me anyways.

So now here I sit, its silent in the house, I can actually hear the fridge quietly humming. Its very strange, something I haven't experienced much of in 6.5 years. I feel oddly lost. Kindof like how I feel when I go shopping by myself, I feel more scattered and like i'm forgetting something.

Lunches will be totally strange and quiet for me and Avery, without Jadon here to jabber continuously.

I'm so excited to see him get off the bus this afternoon! He's been looking forward to riding the bus. I'm excited to hear all about his day.

Summer, swimming, house, & articles

I don't understand how this summer is going by so fast. Its depressing really. :(

Anyways, I've got a couple articles posted by friends on Facebook that I thought were good reads:

An article about accepting your post-baby body as something beautiful that grew a life in it! It will never be the same again, but it did a miraculous thing!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joy-gabriel/kate-middleton-and-the-mom-in-the-mirror_b_3672553.html?utm_hp_ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false

This is an article that follows a lady who takes pictures for Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep... an organization that sends photographers to hospitals following the loss of a baby, to take pictures of the baby. My friend who had the stillbirth last year did this, and the article has pictures of the family and baby, as well as thoughts and comments from them. Very touching.
http://www.pamplinmedia.com/lor/48-news/156045-a-gift-few-can-give

I think in my last post to the blog, I mentioned we were going to build a bookshelf and bed for Jadon.  "We" just finished and are in the process of getting it all painted. I say "we" because Derek decided that it was his project. ;) Being our/his first building project, it has its ups and downs. First off, the wood we bought was probably not the best wood for furniture, and most of the pieces were bowed. And there were issues when we tried to make the shelves movable. So we ended up doing staggered placed shelves instead. It ended up looking very nice though, regardless of the setbacks. And I think Derek had fun with his new tools- Kreg jig, circular saw, nail gun...
It was a good learning experience and I can't wait to see how the bed turns out! :)

Swimming lessons are going really well for the kids! Jadon finally passed level 2, and he has really taken to the water this year!  He's not a worrisome little guy who's tense and stiff in the water anymore. In level 3 he is learning how to do the freestyle swim on his own, both front and back. He has really taken off with lessons this summer, i'm so glad and proud of him! And he REALLY loves swimming now.
Avery is also doing really well in level 2. She is very young, so I expect her to be in level 2 for several sessions. She was pretty disappointed though when Jadon passed level 2 and she didn't.

Well around our neighborhood there's lots going on! We have a new neighbor moving in this month, the man to the right of us is building his own house and while its going to take him a long time, but he finally is getting the frame up.  And friday they started digging for the last house in the culdesac. Hopefully the new people moving into the houses will be a good fit for the neighborhood. Right now we have such great neighbors.... totally unlike what we had at our last house! We hardly knew any of our neighbors at our old house. We had a water fight with the neighbors to our left one night. And the kids love playing with the neighbor girl up the street, who ironically is also a 3 year old named Avery. Yes, we are still very happy here! :)
Unfortunately, the backyard project is much more work than I think we were anticipating. So the backyard will not be completed this year. Hopefully next year. We ARE hoping to have the deck done this year though.

Summer summer summertime

Busy summer already round these parts!
Already i've sewed 2 grocery bags from this tutorial- http://www.sew4home.com/projects/storage-solutions/make-your-own-grocery-bags - love them by the way! So much better than those cheap ones the stores sell! Much more durable!
I also converted 2 pairs of Avery's old jeans that she outgrew in length but not waist into skirts following this tutorial- http://www.allaboutyou.com/craft/make-clothes/sew-girls-denim-skirt - They turned out so cute, and since she has such a small waist, I made them a bit longer than the tutorial suggested, that way we will have plenty of growing room, both in length and waist!
I also went through ALL of the kids schoolwork and artwork for the last 3 years.... said goodbye to alot.... kept some.... and the best part is I organized them into neat, tidy bins to use for all their schoolwork through 12th grade! I found this idea from this blog: http://iheartorganizing.blogspot.com/2010/11/school-paperwork-storage.html- I heart that blog! :)
I also just finished painting Jadon's bedroom!
I've got several more projects in the works, as well as tulle all over the loveseat waiting to be made into tutu's for Sunnypatch. Everytime I turn around I find something new I want to do!
We've only taken 1 trip to the pool to swim so far, which is less than I was hoping to do. This is the last year we can take advantage of "toddler time" at the pool because its for kids 6 and under.
We took a day trip to Wildlife Safari and we all rode the camel. They have an elephant car wash too that we really wanted to do, but sadly it was closed that day. I guess they wanted to give the elephants a break.
Today we got 7 lbs of fresh blueberries, and i'm pretty sure Jadon already at a lb. That kid LOVES blueberries! He couldnt wait to get home to eat them.
I have been off of that horrible Topamax for almost a week now! My fuzzy brain feels sooooo much better, and i'm not super tired constantly like I was when on the Topamax. Aside from headaches and migraines, I feel terrific being off of it!!!! I had no idea it was making me feel so crappy.
I have only been on my new medication, a calcium channel breaker for less than a week. I haven't had any side effects from it, but I'm still waiting to see if it helps my migraines. Just feeling better physically has my spirits lifted though!
Jadon's bed broke unfortunately, so we are planning on making him a new bed... not sure WHEN we will find the time to, but i'm super excited! I love a good project ;) We will follow this tutorial: http://ana-white.com/2011/04/plans/hailey-storage-bed-twin and since his bookshelf is garbage, I was planning to make him this: http://ana-white.com/2012/03/plans/4-cubby-bookshelf-or-nightstand (another website that I heart!)
It seems that the convertible crips are not as fantastic as we thought they would be. Avery's bed works great as a crib and toddler bed, but once we converted to a full size bed, it doesnt work so well. The headboard and footboard do not work. Its as if they added it as a full just as an afterthought without thinking it through. I love her bed though, so Derek found a way to hook the headboard up to the frame. Maybe if Jadon's bed is successful, we will make her a new one that will include her headboard and footboard.

Medical

So its been a year and a half on my preventive migraine meds, and although they give me a ton of relief from the migraines in that they reduce the intensity of my migraines, I still get about as many as I did before. So, my doctor referred me to the neurologist, who I saw earlier this week. 

The neurologist said everything with my migraines sounded totally normal and didn't feel a need to order any scans. She said only 1% of the time do things actually show up on MRI's anyhow, so unless there's a concern, its a waste of my money. She basically said I could do it for peace of mind if I wanted to though. But i'll pass. 

She said sometimes migraines just cycle themselves out eventually. They are often hereditary, but just because I have them does not necessarily mean my kids will. I hope that's the case! 

So since the preventive i'm on isn't working well, the plan is to wean off of that over the next 2 weeks (or more if needed.) At the same time, I am also starting on a new medication, a beta blocker. Hopefully that will work better. 

I'm most excited to get off of the other med since it made my brain so foggy. Topamax is known for making people feel mentally slow.  Its nicknamed "dope-amax." Of course, not everyone has this side effect, but unfortunately I did. I forget things all the time, can't remember conversations, can't remember calendar events, have a hard time finding words when talking.... its extremely irritating. I feel like an idiot.

Unfortunately, when some people start beta blockers they can feel tired and run down for a few weeks.  Greeaaaat! But I guess that's nothing new since migraines all the time make me feel a little tired and run down too. 

Annnnd, I apparently displaced my tailbone. Last summer it started hurting, I just thought it must be bruised or something, and never sought medical attention for it. But it never got better, and so last month when I saw my PCP, she ordered an X-ray, and according to the findings on the X-ray, my tailbone is displaced. Not sure when or how this happened, I do not recall falling on my butt or injuring it somehow around that time, so who knows. Anyways, i've been putting off going back to my PCP for further treatment because well for one, its time for my annual (yuck), and 2, at that time she wants to do an internal exam of the tailbone also......... if you know what I mean.  So i've been putting it off.  And I'm worried about how they fix a displaced tailbone! I hope they'd give me an epidural or something! Put me under so I can't feel anything! 

And where the heck did our sunshine go?????????????????????

Graduate

Jadon graduated from kindergarten yesterday. They didn't have a graduation ceremony, so I made him a graduation cap (thank you Pinterest) and a diploma (thank you again Pinterest) just so I could take a picture of him. :)
To him it was pretty much just a normal day. To mommy it was like the end of the world. Apparently motherhood has turned me into an emotional mess and I'm required to cry about everything pertaining to my kids.  So yes, when we picked him up from school.... I cried.

I had Jadon give his teacher a potted plant with a little note taped to a pencil poking out of the dirt that said "Thanks for helping me grow this year" (another shout out to Pinterest.) It was the least we could do for all she did. She was the perfect teacher for Jadon for kindergarten, and she even made each of the kids a personalized scrapbook of the year. I'm not talking a 3 page scrapbook either. This is like a 20 page scrapbook. She put time into these.

It seems like the year just started, and now its already over. In the end, Jadon did very well, thrived even. It was a rough start though... moving from our house, the only house he knew, and that he loved. Where he was able to ride the school bus home from school and that he LOVED. Into a dark, dingy, stinky, tiny, bug infested rental that we all hated. And then 4 months later moving again. We had plenty of problems, and I thought we were all going to implode. But, with consistency, Jadon's counseling, and moving from the rental, we have emerged from the darkness. Thank goodness. And now Jadon only has one more session of counseling. 

He thrived in school regardless of his situation at home. 

So anyways, now we have a few months home. He told me the other day he was excited to be home with me all day. I'm planning to try to keep us busy this summer with fun activities since last summer was a total flop being consumed by house stuff. 

We love our house here, and we have so much space to roam and be free. So do I still miss our old house? Yes and no. I don't miss not having any storage space. I now have soooooo much storage space. And you know how I love to be organized.  I don't miss our tiny yard. I don't miss obnoxious neighbors. I don't miss the train. I don't miss the small master bathroom, or the extra 1/2 bath to clean. I don't miss the carpet or the ugly vinyl floor. I SERIOUSLY don't miss the laundry in the garage. I don't miss climbing the stairs with full laundry baskets.

I do miss the memories. I really miss seeing Jadon get off the school bus; it stopped right in front of the house. That was a very special time for him, and I'm so glad he was able to do it at least for a month and a half until we moved. I miss seeing the kids ride their bikes and playing in the yard... even though they do those things here, I still have fond memories from the old house. I miss that we didn't have any bugs bothering us. I miss that my plants (indoor and outdoor) seemed to grow without any effort from me. 

Have I driven by the house yet since we moved out? No. And i'm not sure when I will. I know.... I'm just too darn sentimental!!

Kids

My little guy is almost done with kindergarten. I'm pretty sure he just started yesterday and here he is already   finished!  He started the year as a little guy, and now he seems so grown up. Its amazing how much he has grown up this year... both physically and socially. In fact, he just had his yearly well-child checkup a couple weeks ago, and in the last 3 years he grew 11 inches! No wonder his pants are always short, and no wonder I have to buy them big just so they are long enough, but then the waist is too big. 

Every day this year, I have walked him up to his school because he wasn't comfortable with me dropping him off like all the other kids in the school. There are a few other kindergartners who also have mom or dad walk them in. I occasionally would ask if he wanted me to drop him off, but he would always say no. A couple weeks ago, he just decided out of the blue that he wanted to be dropped off from now on, and so now, that is what we do. It was bitter-sweet for me. I didn't mind taking him up, it gave me a chance to see some of the other kids he goes to school with and other grown ups. And it made it feel like he was still little I guess ;). But, I know that it was a big step for him, since he can be so timid about certain situations.

I know my time with him being a loveable little child is limited now, and soon he will be a cool boy.... too cool for his family.  In the last week when we've been walking places, a few times he's grabbed my hand to hold for a few seconds, and I treasure that.

Avery, my little fish as I have been calling her. She started swimming lessons a couple weeks ago. It was her first lessons in the pool in classes without me.  No longer in a "waterbabies" or "waterkids" class, but now in a youth swimming lesson, so I now sit on the sidelines watching. With the selling of the house and all the moving, we took quite a long break from swimming lessons.... like 9 months.  So I was afraid Avery would have forgotten everything she'd learned from her waterkids class. Um, no. She is even better in fact. And she LOVES having more freedom in the pool. She started in level 1, the lowest level in youth swimming, and they "test" the kids periodically throughout the session to see where they are at. She didn't even finish the 5 week session before she passed level 1, however she will finish out the session with the level 1 group. She is SO comfortable in the water, its crazy. 

Last weekend we went to a 1st birthday party/"birth"day party. Yes, a 2 in 1 kindof thing. Only it was not a typical birthday party. It was a heavenly birthday party. It was 1 year ago that my friend from high school lost her baby boy. He was overdue and was stillborn. His mommy wanted to have a first birthday party anyways. To add to this, they had another baby 3 weeks earlier, a baby girl. So it was a very special party for 2 reasons- to meet the new baby, and to remember the baby boy who was born sleeping into the arms of Jesus a year ago. My friend lives in Portland so I rarely see her and she wanted her friends and family in our area to be able to meet the new baby. The party was held at Sunnypatch, and it was really nice catching up with friends. The kids also had a blast because the other kids there were all around their ages.  We ended up staying until 10:30pm, and all the kids had tons of candy and Avery came home SUPER cranky. SUPER CRANKY. But at least they slept in the next morning!

Friday we went to Jadon's school carnival.  What fun!  In the weeks before the carnival, each class had a theme and everyone was encouraged to donate to their classes theme basket for the silent auction. There was a chocolate basket, a summer fun basket, a family/game night basket (Jadon's class), and I cant remember the rest.  We bid on Jadon's class basket $45 and won! So, for $45, we got I think 5 movies, only 1 of which we already have; 4 boxes of popcorn, several different games (including the one we bought for the basket), some flash cards, some glow necklaces, some popcorn bags for putting popcorn into. And a storage bin that it all came in :) I may have forgotten something else. 

The bookfair was also going on at the school, so each kid got a book, and we also bought a book for Jadon's teacher for her classroom. 

Jadon left a little bummed. He was expecting carnival rides. lol! He also left bummed because I think it hit home that he would not be returning to that school next year. While we were at the carnival he had met several teachers at the school, and they were all sooo nice, and said that maybe they would be able to get to know him next year, and he would have to tell them he would not be back next year. 

Our nice weather finally came back yesterday after nothing but cold and rain for weeks. And now we have to let our backyard dry out again before we can finish it. Oregon weather is never cooperative.

Happy Mothers Day!

My wonderful hubby is making me coffee cake for breakfast as I type, the kids are watching Disney Jr., so I thought i'd update the blog with some pictures!

My handsome little man! I think this one was on our trip to Washington

So a few weeks ago, the kids were being my "doctors" when I was getting over the last bit of a cold.... Jadon drew my diagnosis, and this is what it was.  A cough.

Deer in the backyard. We have a family of 4 that frequents the backyard often. 

Jadon's Spring school picture. I told him to smile big like he did in his Fall picture, but he apparently forgot that. There were only 2 other kids from his class that got Spring pictures. He's looking awfully grown up though! My goodness!

My pretty little angel.

Typically when she gets out of bed every morning, she comes out of her room with a bunch of things...usually her doll stroller and a baby inside, a purse or bag, flip flops or slippers, or wearing something like jewelry. The binky adds just the right touch! ;) 

Part of the back of the house.  For some reason its not letting me upload another picture, so that's just part of it. But we are planning to put a large deck on the back of the house.  

 In trying to get our office/craft room organized, I was desperately searching for some way to creatively organize all my ribbon spools to make things convenient for me, and yet not take up a bunch of space! Id looked everywhere online, and all I was finding were things that were not convenient.  Those large ribbon spool holders are not convenient because you have to take all the spools off to get to the one you need, then put them all back on again. We had this large heavy duty cardboard tube that was left some construction of the house after move-in, and my clever hubby asked if I could use it in any way for the ribbon. **LIGHT BULB** So I cut pieces off and sliced them in half, then covered them with fabric and mod podge, and the end result was pretty much just what I was looking for. This freed up an entire storage bin, and space in the closet! 

Another picture of my pretty little angel.

The cat, passed out on the back porch in the morning sun.  The cats absolutely LOVE it here, I cant say it enough. They really do.

Look at the butterflies out here!!!  They are massive and totally colorful! ;)

At school the other day, Jadon made the yellow butterfly in this picture, and I thought it was the cutest thing, and so that day the kids and I made 2 more to hang on the patio door. Arent they adorable?

We are constantly blown away by Jadon's reading abilities... I know i've mentioned it 20 times already, but its truly amazing.  Here's a sample of what he reads... with ease, I might add!  We don't ever have to help him out with words. His reading group is still the only group out of 4 to have started on 1st grade reading. They started that back in January.  The other groups are still working on kindergarten stuff.  Last week, his group had to go and help out one of the other groups with reading. And he has informed us that he likes his reading homework. We will have to keep working with him for sure this summer! 

In other news around here, since its been almost a month again since I last posted....... time flies when you're having fun in your new house! :)

We've been blessed with some super super nice weather for the last month! 70's and 80's... sunshine.... totally gorgeous!  Which was just what we needed to dry out our backyard so they could come dig up the trees, blackberry bushes, and level out all the dirt so we could start getting our backyard turned into a backyard!  So yesterday they came an did just that! Unfortunately, the piles of dirt that they had made from the construction were just too big and were not dried out enough to be able to finish the job, so they will have to come back in a month to finish. But now, our backyard is free of all trees, bushes, and is level, and after looking at piles of dirt and basically field and scrawny trees for the last few months, its pretty weird seeing it all gone and leveled! And it really shows how ginormous our yard is now! Even the guy who ran the bulldozer said it was a really nice yard.  So, we are pretty stinkin' excited to get things goin'! Our plans are to get a nice deck on the back of the house, have a nice garden somewhere, perhaps a couple fruit trees, and a basketball hoop, a shed, and a swingset.  All in good time.

A couple months ago, we debated whether to keep Jadon in karate or not because after you've been in karate for awhile, they require you to buy a Gi (a karate uniform) plus biyearly insurance since it can be a dangerous sport... not so much at Jadon's age though. We thought this was ridiculous. After researching though, I found that this seemed typical of most karate classes. He has really improved in his balance and coordination is slowly improving. Also he's building strength and getting exercise. So, we decided to keep him in, at least for a bit longer. Kindof like laying a foundation for him an any future sports he might want to do, since this is helping his balance and coordination. 

And every 2 months they do testing, and if they've earned enough stripes on their belt, and their sensei thinks they are ready, they are invited to test to see if they can move up to the next belt color.  The belt colors are really weird at his age, its not just white, yellow, orange, blah blah.

So Last month Jadon was invited to test, so we went and he had to test. Parents are not allowed to be there during testing, but Jadon and 2 of the kids in his class tested together and they all passed!  Jadon and one boy moved up to a white belt with a yellow stripe down the center, and the other boy moved up to a while belt with an orange stripe. So now, a little more is expected of him, which is a good thing. 

Avery started swimming lessons again, and shes now in level 1, so I am not in the water with her anymore... shes a big girl now! She's a fish...or a mermaid. She looooves the water.  She's always been good at swimming, and apparently almost a year away from lessons didn't mess her up much. She needs a little more challenge than level 1 has to offer I think, so we think she'll be moving to level 2 really fast. 

Jadon will be joining her in lessons after school is done.  By then they may both be in level 2 together. Poor Jadon and his tentative nature.... maybe if he and Avery are in the same group he'll feel more challenged to push himself.

HOWEVER, she's fully potty trained now.... with pee that is.  Poop is a disaster. For some reason she thinks there's a toilet monster!  And so when we asked what the toilet monster is, she said its her poop! So how are we supposed to teach her that her poop is not a monster when its in the toilet???  She's only scared of it when she's sitting on the toilet. She said that when she's 6 like Jadon she'll try pooping on the potty. Oy.

So I'm going to see a neurologist next month for my migraines and headaches. The preventive medication i'm on just isn't cutting it, so my PCP referred me on. Hopefully they change medication or something. I'm not liking this stuff that i'm on. It makes me tired, ALOT, and makes me feel very mentally slow. My short term memory is shot. 

So I think that's about it for now. 

Well we've been here in our new house almost 2 months now! We're finally getting settled in....some pictures hung on the walls, almost all the boxes are emptied, or at least have been addressed in some manor.  The majority of the mess in the garage now is from large items that we no longer need that we brought with us from the old house- our old washer/dryer, microwave stand, and things of that nature.

Our backyard should be started in a couple weeks when it starts drying out more, and let me tell you, we cant WAIT for that! Right now, the gigantic pile of mud out our large back windows is really unattractive, and the water that pools around it is an attractant to the kids.... so, they've come in from outside covered in mud, and i do mean covered- from head to toe, dripping wet, with mud. 

I don't think we'll be able to get a garden started in time this year, but next year, look out!  We're having a beautiful garden with lots of good veggies, and tons of strawberry bushes and blueberries since the kids eat them like they are candy!  We've talked about a fruit tree or two.... we've got plenty of room for it now! Perhaps this year we'll be able to prep for next years garden ;)

We really love it here though.  We see lots of wildlife, as I may have already mentioned?  Lots of bluebirds, which I researched and they are Western Scrub Jays. A family of 4 deer have been wandering around the area in the evenings, and in fact last night I was doing dishes and I looked up and out the backdoor and one of the deer is about 10 feet from the backdoor!  

And so Kira, one of our cats, spends most of her time on our small 3x3 temporary deck out the back door. Since she's getting old, all she does is sleep out there all day, I think 2 moves in 4 months really stressed her out, and she's pretty high strung so I think this last move did her in, so now she just sleeps almost all the time on the back porch. So we've been feeding her on the back porch. So one night I was sitting on the couch, kids were in bed, Derek was in the office working. And I heard a commotion on the porch so I looked back, and I saw Kira, but all I could really see was her tail, and it was HUGE, so obviously something freaked her out. So I went to the door to inspect.

Sitting there staring her down was a big old raccoon!!!!! Now, I know those things are really cute, but that they are mean as can be! So I'm banging on the door trying to get it to go away and it just sits there, and i'm banging on the door trying to get Kira to go away so she doesnt get attacked, but she just sits there! It eventually it jumped down but just stood by the deck, so at that point I opened the door enough to stick my arm out and try to motion it away and hiss at it and yell at Kira to go away some more. Of course, both just sit there.  Finally the thing turns its back in defeat and wanders off, but it kept looking back at me. Kira was pretty jumpy the rest of the evening.

And now we don't feed the cats after dark unless we have to.

Other wildlife, someone across the field from us has a peacock that is often wandering around the backyard. Thats amusing as neither cats nor bird seem to really notice each other or care that the others are there.

Jadon had his 6th birthday, and when we were in the rental he'd talked about having a party in our new house.  We didn't think we'd be here in time though.  We were!  But since i'd been sick that first week, and Derek was tied up with his big work project for those first 2 weeks, we never had a chance to plan anything. So we had a late one a few weeks ago, and he was super excited :) 

Not last weekend but the weekend before, we made a trip up to Washington for 4 days. Derek's grandpa passed away, so we were going up for the celebration of life service. The kids did surprisingly well!  Considering we don't take that many overnight trips.  They had a hard time settling down to go to sleep the first night.  It didnt help that Avery took a huge nap on the way up, and that they sat immobile all day in the car so they didn't get to burn any energy off.  And it was on this trip that we learned of Derek's love of hotel toast! ;)

So i'm FINALLY getting around to getting my monthly menu back up!  I plan to start back in May, and i'm really excited, I found some new recipes on Pinterest that i'm excited to try.  We've been stuck in this horrible horrible rut since we moved out of our old house and away from the menu, and i'm so sick of food, and its no wonder Jadon always wants to eat out now!  It was hard at the rental because I had no space to cook, so I made easy things that cooked fast... a lot of boxed items. As a result, I've put on a couple pounds. It doesnt help that i've had to miss a lot of my exercise classes due to illness, moving, and Derek being busy with work and unable to be home in time. 

So i'm excited to finally be getting back into the swing of things and get back on track! 

3 weeks already!

Its hard to believe its been 3 weeks already since we moved! Every day I wake up i'm still so thankful for this house and can't believe its ours!
Everyone is so happy here!  We love everything about it here. Even the birds in the backyard are mostly bluebirds, which are so much prettier than sparrows! Even the cats are thrilled to be here! And not because of the birds, but because of all the space they have to roam.
We occasionally have a female peacock roaming around in our backyard, and lots of deer pass through. And its so quiet here! And the air is fresh and doesn't smell!

We are very slowly getting settled. Its been slow going but its happening.  Boxes are finally almost gone from  inside the house... can't say the same for the garage, but slowly that is being chipped away as well.
So we haven't taken any pictures of the house yet since its been a mess, but I thought i'd take you on a mental tour.

So i'll start with the master. So I did not realize just how badly the rental reeked. I'm guessing we eventually started to adjust to the stink since we lived in it all the time. But after moving, we can smell it. Just walking into our master closet, the smell of the rental settled into all our clothes, shoes, blankets, coats, etc. It smells terrible in our closet!  So, I ended up washing every piece of clothing that we own that could be washed, every blanket, every sheet, every coat.... i haven't done shoes yet, but that's next.  Its been a very long process.  I also bought a reed diffuser to put on the shelf in the closet, hoping to get rid of that smell!!!
As far as the master bedroom, its become the dumping ground for all of our wall hangings and decorative objects that came out of boxes, as well as extra blankets and things that i'm still trying to find homes for in the house. Its pretty disorganized.

The master bathroom is looking nice though.  The drawers were full of my hair and body products though, and it was bugging me because some of them couldn't stand up because they were too tall.  My little sister pinned this on Pinterest: http://www.kevinandamanda.com/whatsnew/house-and-home/organize-overflowing-bathroom-beauty-products-with-crown-molding-shelves.html And i thought it was a really nice idea, and surprisingly it doesn't look cluttered! I immediately loved the idea and went and bought those shelves (very cheap $6 each at Walmart) and created my own wall.  Of course, mine doesn't look nearly as pretty as that girls does... hers looks like a beauty salon of products, but mine serves its purpose!

My laundry room, I am LOOOOOVING!  LOVE having indoor laundry!  My laundry gets done much quicker, I don't dread doing it nearly as much!  And I love my new washer/dryer... they sing to me when they are done. :)  I love having a utility sink also, and its came in handy several times already when Avery's pooped her underwear.  The stuff that wouldn't come off in the toilet sprayed off easily in the utility sink.  Unfortunately, the very first load of laundry that I did in my new washer, I washed one of her turds unknowingly. She'd pooped her pants, and apparently a turd got in her pants too that I didn't see when I threw in the washer, so when I pulled the first load out after it was finished, I thought it smelled a little less than fresh, and a couple turdlets fell out and I picked one up wondering what it was.  I smelled it.  Really!?!?!  I washed a turd on the very first load!? Luckily my new washer has a "sanitize" wash, which I think just uses super hot water and washes for longer. But, since it was not clothes that I could wash in hot, I ended up washing the load twice in cold just to make myself happy.  Then the next load I did the sanitize option!

Office/craft room, is slowly coming together.  I finally got my sewing/craft table that I got for christmas put together.  The room is still disorganized and very messy, but its not a high priority.  It functions fine, so we can organize it after more important things are done.

Kids rooms haven't changed much... a couple things added to the walls.... a little rearranging.  That's about it.  Oh, and the kids already managed to rip the curtain rod in Avery's room out of the wall. Clearly the drywall anchors that came with the rod were garbage.

Kitchen and living area is finally looking normal!  Derek is slowly getting the cabinet pulls on the cabinets in the kitchen, but its slow going. When he's done with the kitchen, he'll still have to do both bathrooms, and laundry room. And yesterday our TV mount finally came, so he got the TV on the wall.
My kitchen still has empty cupboards, :) although yesterday I did a little rearranging while dinner was cooking. Canned goods were in a very terrible awkward spot where I couldn't find anything I needed, so they got moved, and I think now they will be much easier to find things, however I had to use up a cupboard that was once empty. :( Sad times, I like being able to brag that I have empty cupboards since i've always had a shortage of cupboards and had to store things in extra cabinets all over the house/garage.

I love how much space we have!  Currently, i'm sitting on the couch, the kids are on the floor in front of me with the bins of legos out, playing legos.  I've got 4 baskets of laundry sitting on the floor near them, with laundry waiting to be washed, the vacuum is out, several boxes are sitting out, a puzzle is in the middle of the floor, and 2 small ottomans, and a new tree/plant and it still doesn't feel overwhelming or messy. In the rental the entire living room would have been taken up, and even at our old house, the living room would have been quite full, and overwhelming.
The other day the kids were running around and through the house chasing each other, and Derek and I were smiling at each other that it was nice that they had room to run now.

Jadon's attitude has improved since moving, and its amazing to me that the rental house had such a hugely negative impact on all of us. I remember while we were there feeling like I whined and complained about it all the time, and then I started to feel like maybe I was just being dramatic.  Then when moving day came (finally!) and I heard everyone's comments about the rental house, how bad it smelled, how small it was, how gross it was... it made me feel better that I wasn't being overly dramatic about the place. :)
I wouldn't say that living in the rental makes me more grateful for our house now because I am grateful for this house no matter where we had lived before. I was grateful for our last house.  However, i'm so extremely thankful that we didn't have to live in the rental for longer than 4 months!!! I'm grateful to our lender who pushed for a quicker closing date to save us money, and i'm grateful for our builder who had no problem taking on that challenge!

And because I haven't had a chance to thank you all yet, THANK YOU so much to our families for helping us move in!