Life here

It is Easter Sunday and I haven't blogged in several months now. I could apologize and say I've been too busy or sick or something, but I won't because I haven't. What matters is that I'm blogging TODAY! Obviously these several months haven't gone by without changes in our family. I'll try to remember the highlights. First, this past weekend was super fun visiting my family. The Lunts came for a visit and Roman adores Travis, which was so cute to watch. They played well together. Allie and Kate kept Katherine and Olivia entertained and happy the whole time. Bryn kept up with all of them as well. Samuel and Scarlett didn't play much together but it was fun to see how much they've each grown. Today is my mom's birthday (Happy birthday mama! We're so glad you were born and that your my mother!). We surprised her with a party Friday night and thanks to the Oldbury's we danced the night away while feeding the mosquitoes. Hehe The little red bites on my arms and legs were so worth it. The food was great, the company was even better and a fun time was had by all. The Easter Bunny even came to bring treats to the kids while we were there- so nice of him.

Johnny started a new semester in college. He is currently taking his last class for this semester and has already completed 2 courses. I love the fast-pace of these online classes! He took a 5-week English class called Technical Writing and made an "A". He also took a 10-week Professional Nursing course and also made an "A". (Yay!) What did he learn? Well, in the writing class he learned a lot about "plain language"- important for professionals in any career. Actually, plain language has been enforced by the government so we can better understand legal agreements and other important things that we need to know (government stuff for example). Anyway, good to know and glad it only lasted 5 weeks. He spent less than a day per week to complete each week's worth of assignments, etc. I can't imagine what a 15-week course would've been like. Bor-ing. AND in his nursing class he learned that accepting money, gifts or having inappropriate relations with his patients was illegal and inappropriate, among other things, but it cracks me up that that was one week's topic. Professional Nursing is pretty much an easy class to help professional nurses behave professionally. There actually were some important things he learned. Like, did you know that a nurse that works in labor & delivery (for example) and is asked to "float" (go work in another department) to the cardiac unit (for instance) can either refuse to take a patient completely or take the patient but only after signing a paper that says she doesn't feel qualified to care for the patient and that it is dangerous for both her and the patient? This protects her (for the most part) from repercussions if the patient is injured or dies. I think I explained that right- anyway, you get the idea. Right now Johnny is taking Federal Government, which is an 8-week course. It's an interesting class and he thinks every voter should have to take it in order to vote. I don't know if that's constitutional. Hmmm.... Anyway, so far he's made all "A's" in all of his courses! He will take some classes over the summer and if all goes well, he will graduate next summer. Hooray!

Bryn and Samuel are growing so much! Bryn is 4 now and tells me I'm her best friend, at least once a day. She loves to watch movies while the kids are at school. Even though she is a little bitty thing, she has a lot of energy and personality. Samuel is 18 months now and is learning to talk. He says "Mommy!" a lot. Other words he can say, Daddy, car, Rio (his all-time favorite movie), shoes, please, thank you, hi, hey, mama, Gaga (as in Grandma, not the other one. Ugh, as if!), Papa, Bryn (comes out "Beeyn"), outside, cup, eat!, bath, Travis (I think), whoa, wow, bye... there may be more, but I can't think of them. He LOVES his burp rags and must have at least one if we leave the house or he's tired. He grabs the side of it and carefully adjusts it and brings it to his nose and puckers his little lips and snuggles. It is the cutest thing ever. I almost hope he never outgrows it, but I realize it would be disturbing to see him leaving for his mission and packing his burp rag in his carry-on. Haha! He still takes 2 naps a day, as long as we're at home. If we run errands or are gone to visit someone or something, he misses a nap and it's noticeable. Luckily when we are back to normal, he gets back on schedule. He goes down for a nap around 8:30-9:30 and sleeps the rest of the morning. Then he gets his second nap at 1:00. I usually have to wake him up to pick the kids up from school. By bedtime, he is ready to sleep again. I really appreciate his schedule! Bryn doesn't usually take a nap and can get pretty bored if she doesn't get to watch a movie. She is always excited for the kids to come home in the afternoons.

The kids are doing well in school. But they frequently tell me how much they don't like it. I think they like the teachers, for the most part, it's the other students they detest. Their school has too many students with behavior problems and the principal seems to be M.I.A. on the issue. I haven't talked to her personally, but Johnny and I have talked to the assistant principal. Those problems seem to be his responsibility and it's an overwhelming job. There are more students in that elementary than in any of the others in our town (I'm pretty sure- though there may be one with more). I've noticed that my kids are more mature for their age and the kids in their grades like to act up in class, which makes it difficult for them to pay attention (Katherine). But they are making good grades and we're proud of them for trying and being good examples. The teachers appreciate them too. Olivia and Ella are learning to read and Olivia is doing so well with spelling. She hasn't caught on to everything as quickly as other kids her age, but she is progressing well. Every night she has spelling words to practice and a book to read. Ella did have spelling words, but hasn't since before Spring Break I think. I read to her and ask her to read certain words. She does really well with it all. Katherine is looking forward to being in band next year, in middle school. Travis has been accepted to SFA's Charter School for 5th grade next year. We're excited for him, but not as much as he is for himself because he won't have to be at this school! I've applied for a transfer for Olivia and Ella to go to a better elementary school next year, but we won't know until August if they will be able to. Other than school, they are loving living here! They ride their Ripsticks in our driveway and play on the swingset they got for Christmas. If the weather's bad, they love watching movies, playing Legos/toys, building forts out of blankets and furniture (who didn't do that as a child?) and playing the Wii. It's been a dream to live here for the past year.

Which reminds me- we've lived here for a year now! Even though we haven't done much to change it, we've made this house our home and feel so blessed to be here. Johnny and I discuss our life frequently and how much things have changed. We've been together for 13 years now and have been so blessed with so much. Any problems we have had, any hardships we've faced, have all been worth it. I know we have more to come, but today I feel capable and that my faith is stronger. I know from experience that the Lord answers our prayers and that we can have faith in the midst of trials, that we are not alone and that the trials are for our good. If I hadn't experienced postpartum depression, for instance, I wouldn't be able to relate to so many people or have the testimony I have; we probably wouldn't live here, and I may not appreciate and love that precious little boy as much as I do. Some trials are harder than others, but when things get better we find out how strong we really are. Remember Hurricane Rita? (Katrina too, but Rita affected me more.) I was talking to one of my sisters the other night and she was saying how she has lived her whole life trying to not be sentimental. When Hurricane Rita hit, she knew it was going to be a bad storm and thought that her house would be wiped out. She was prepared for that and had accepted it. She decided beforehand to be okay if she lost her house. Fortunately, her house still stands. I don't think she even lost a shingle. Unfortunately for her, she didn't even lose any trees (she thinks there are too many on their property). But her faith in that trial was a strength to me. I was pregnant with Ella at that time and lived down the street from her. Our families evacuated to the same place and I lost it. At first I thought it was no biggie, hurricanes had come before and cause little damage. I was certain that after Katrina, the Lord would not repeat such a catastrophe in such a short amount of time and so close to the same location. After reports that the storm had strengthened and was headed to our county, I couldn't stop crying. I had everything that was valuable to me with me, but to lose my routine and not know what would happen next was unbearable. We did lose our house- it had enough damage to make it unlivable, so we had to find another place to rent, along with everyone else in the area. The stress of that time caused my body to develop gestational diabetes. That was another difficult thing to experience, but I'm grateful for what I learned from it. Anyway, babbling. I'm not sure why I went off on this, but I guess it's what is on my mind. Recently I told Johnny that I was nervous because we had been blessed so much and everything was going so well that I was afraid something really bad was coming or that things would be taken away. He assured me that wasn't the way the Lord worked. He doesn't bless us with things so he can take them away. (By things I don't mean only material possessions.) So far nothing big or bad has happened, but I'm trying to stay humble and show gratitude so if it does, it won't be because I caused it, if that's even possible.

With that said, I'll share a little about what I've been up to lately. I haven't been working out all the time like I wanted, but health has been on my mind alot, as usual. One week I was feeling irritable and tired and just not well. As I was getting ready for bed and was about to pray, I felt an impression that I needed to get off sugar and that that was my answer. It was a Friday night and Johnny was working the next day. I shared with him my thoughts and came up with a plan to buy a cookbook the next day that would help our family be healthier. I found Jillian Michael's Master Your Metabolism at Sam's Club. I grabbed it and began studying that night. I also bought the cookbook that goes along with it and a couple of other books about eating clean and avoiding sugar. It was very fascinating to me and I felt that I was following the prompting. It's been a couple of months now and I'm surprised I have been able to follow so much of what is in the book. To be honest, I haven't double-checked any research or experimented too much, I've just followed what seems to be common sense. I've always tried to buy healthy foods for my family, but some things seemed too expensive. Now I realize, I could buy a big bag of animal crackers for $2 for a snack, and some sweetened cereal for those mornings I can't cook\, for $5, OR I could buy some steel cut oats, apples and agave nectar that will last a long time and be way more satisfying. (Seriously my new favorite way to eat oatmeal- Steel Cut Oats, toasted pecans, cinnamon, maple syrup and diced apples, softened- heaven!) I think my family will agree, healthy food makes you feel better! That and a good night's sleep can really change the mood in the house. So I've been buying lots of produce and I've been making homemade bread since the beginning of March. Since we've been eating a lot of food that are seemingly new to us, the recipes anyway, the kids will announce "Do over!" as they eat. Sometimes they don't say it, and it takes the fun out of cooking. But when they do, it's so rewarding! I've been making things that I didn't think I could and I feel like a real, fake chef. Haha! I mean, I'm not going to try out for the Next Food Network Star or anything, but I can say that I'm getting better and better at following recipes! ;)