Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Long Time No Read

I have to be honest with myself. I'm a frustrating person to get a hold of. I love my family. I love my friends. I’m interested in their lives and I care about what’s happening with them. Facebook and Blogger help make me feel connected with them even from such a great distance. I forget that they would feel the same way about my life. I’m not very good at keeping in touch, everyone knows this, and while the computer is no replacement for personal contact I’m not good at keeping up with it either. Sorry y’all. While I’m not going to take it to the other extreme and post about everything in my life I’m finally realizing how important it is to open the window into my life and welcome in those I love.

So, in the spirit of improvement welcome to a long awaited blog update! So much has happened! We are now a family of five. Whoa! I'm still not used to thinking of myself as a mother of three boys. When did that happen? Oh wait, that's probably what you're asking. Well, let's see...

We spent about a year in California. It's amazing we were able to stay there for so long, and there's no way we could have done it without a ton of help and support, but it finally came to a point when leaving was our best option. We met some great people, and even though we had a rather hard go of it there, it wasn't all bad. Logen was born, we were able to see Alexis and Micheal, we were able to see the ocean, visit the mall where 'Back To The Future' was filmed (that was a big one for Derek),we visited the zoo and Griffith Observatory, Ashlyn and Eric came to visit, my mom came to visit, Derek was able to spend time at Universal Studios and we were finally together again as a family after being separated from Derek. I think Derek discussed his side of things in more detail in a previous post.


We were able to stay with Derek's parents again until we could figure out a direction. It's so frustrating not knowing what's best to do for your family. Derek was applying for job after job with nothing materializing and still we had no direction. After almost two months Derek and I decided that coming to North Carolina would be the most promising move. Thankfully, my family was OK with that so we made the very long drive. I was terrified to make such a long trip with a toddler, an infant and a cat couped up together in a car for so long but amazingly enough the it went pretty smoothly. Don't get me wrong, it was a long, long trip, but it was OK and we made it to NC in time for Christmas and my brother Chris and his cute wife Kari's wedding!

The Whole Family!

Kari and Chris
Around New Year we found out that I was pregnant again. Unexpected. We were excited because we love our boys and we wanted another one, just not right then.  I had no idea how we were going to figure this out, but again with help and divine guidance everything has been possible (that's the most accurate word I could come up with). So, here we are. We've been here a little over a year. We're staying with my parents, who have been so supportive, and while we're not settled we are making the best of our situation. Derek's working with OfficeMax while completing a CompTIA Network Security Tech w/ Linux program (I just say computers) at Miller-Mott College here in town. He should finish up in July and we're really hoping this opens up a lot more opportunities for employment. That would be sweet! Ethan is in Pre-K and he loves every bit of it. He's learning so much too! Sometimes I'm amazed at how much he's grown since he started. Logen will be two in May, crazy! He's having a blast playing with Derek and I as much as possible, especially when Ethan's at school, and he's reached his get into everything possible while laughing maniacally then run away stage. And both boys adore their little brother Sammy. They love to make him laugh and he saves his biggest smiles for them. Sammy's six month old now and doing so well, he's playing, laughing, starting to try new food and sleeping through the night (Yes!). We were able to get bunk-beds so now all the boys are in the same room, and it's working, cue heavenly choir. It's crazy and crowded having us all in such a small space but we're getting along pretty well, and thankfully we seem to have as much time having fun as throwing tantrums, so it evens out.

Picture break!


Logen

Ethan

Sammy



Sammy at six months
Logen, Ethan and Sammy Christmas 2013

As for me, this has been the hardest few years of my life but I can still say that I am happy. That's amazing to me.I'm happy to be so close to family, I've found some new TV shows that I love, I'm baking up a gluten-free hurricane whenever possible (not all chocolate by the way), got a new hairstyle, tried Zumba and loved it and learned how to use Windows 8.  There are a lot of personal things that I'm trying to figure out and it's going to take me a while to do it. One of the biggest issues I need to conquer is my health. While not having anything physically bad to deal with I do need to get control of my weight. Thankfully, all of my boys are healthy and the pregnancies didn't have any complications but I was labeled high risk and developed gestational diabetes during Sammy's. I'm gluten intolerant and not nearly active enough. So, my main focus is getting down to a healthy weight, getting regular exercise and taking better care of myself in general. Bring it on! I do love being a mom and I think I'm getting the hang of it. I learn as much from 'Super Why' and 'Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood' as the boys do and I'm not ashamed to admit that I get a lot of parenting lessons from them. It makes me smile when Ethan and Logen sing the songs to themselves while they play. On a distantly related note, morning dance parties are always great fun too!

I can't forget Polly! We've had Polly since she was a little bitty kitten. Wow, that was almost seven years ago now. She's moved all around the country with us, and has had to adjust to new places, new animals and sharing our space with three little boys. She's been wonderful through it all, and while she can be grumpy she's really good with the boys. We're trying to adopt a stray cat as well so we'll see how she does with that. In the situation we're in I wouldn't normally think about adopting another cat but I saw this one and fell in love. I hope it all works out.

Whew, if you're still reading, Congratulations! You're done! You made it! That was a lot of exposition and I'm really out of practice so thanks for hanging in there. I'm going to make a sure effort to post more regularly so stop by again soon!

1 comment:

  1. So good to "hear" from you guys and know you're all doing well! Ben is doing Linux tech support right now at Novell, here in Provo. There are lots of IT jobs around utah valley and dlc valley... just saying.. ;) Congrats on #3! Our 3rd was a complete surprise too... we wanted to wait a little longer before the third one (our 2nd has a big personality.. lol), but Heavenly Father had other plans. 3 is crazy, right?? But awesome. :) Best of luck to you, Jessie Jo and D-Rock! My brother works in IT for a networking company in Lehi, and Ben is at Novell (currently). If you want us to keep an eye open for certain jobs, let me know!! :)

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