Ramblings
It snowed in the mountains last night and throughout today! It is June 10th. I feel like it is the neverending winter!
We are off to Florida for a little vacation. I'm praying that the warm weather and rest will lift my spirits!
The lawsuit settlement came in and repairs have begun on the front porches and reroofing our townhomes. It will feel like a new house by the time they are finished :-)
Claire lost her two bottom baby teeth. She is only four, not even 4 1/2 years old... My do kids grow up quickly!
We have decided to run the Hood-to-Coast this year, Brian & I, on my dad's team. It was a lifetime ago (1999) when I last ran this race! Pre-teaching stint & pre-kids! Hope my body remembers how to do it and doesn't punish me for putting it through this race again... Actually, I'm excited and it is a fun, crazy race!
Elliot has decided to wake up in the middle of the night for hours at a time. I think he's trying to stop napping which is fine, but that doesn't explain why even without a nap he needs/wants to be awake at night! Consequently, we are all tired and a bit grumpy around here with good reason. Lack of sleep really puts a damper on the race training too...
I'm trying to decide whether or not to renew my teaching license. I'm trying to figure out if I really do want to have a regular teaching job again. I've subbed a few days at my old middle school in French this past school year. The pace is much slower than I remember from my private college-prep high school teaching gig days. My expectations were set high and if I taught at a public school (chances are likely) I'd have to adjust my goals... My kids are little still so I know I have a couple years to decide... Decisions to make for myself that affect my family.
My last post was full of typos... This post will probably be the same! It is hard to concentrate at times on little sleep and writing seems to be one of many things I'd like to do with my little free time of the day.
My OB recounted a story to me of a women he knew who described the difference between having two and three children. She said that with two there was sometimes free time for oneself. With three, the free time disappeared. I guess it depends on how much you value your free time and how much you value spending time raising your kids. It does make me wonder if I really want three...
I'm not sure how I manage to ever sit down sometimes... My lists are long for what I "should" accomplish around the house. I can't get it all done! Today my daughter and I cleaned our kitchen laminate floors and the tiled entryway together. That was a fun chore to do together as we imagined we were princesses skating on ice (our towels beneath our feet as we mopped up the Shaklee cleaner she had just sprayed everywhere). But afterwards, I needed to get out of the house for a walk. I took Elliot in the stroller and walked fast for 30 minutes. It felt great and the weather was refreshing and not as cold as it has been.
Now I'm sitting here sipping some tea trying to decide if my throat is sore enough to go see if I have that strep throat... Ugh! I don't want to half to take antibiotics so I've been pounding the C, Zinc, Nutriferon, Multi-vitamin and anything else I think might hold it off... We'll see how I feel tomorrow, but it does feel like it's pounding right now...so sad! But I'll have to have the doc check out my ankle too. I sprained it in the beginning of December and it's still sore. I've heard sprains take forever to heal so since I'm able to walk, climb stairs, etc and only experience pain when I jar it in some abnormal way.
Well, enough for now... Except I will say I've had fun planning for Claire's 4th birthday party. It's a Tinkerbell themed party and since she's so excited, it makes me more excited. It was the same for Christmas. She's finally caught on to the fun of these events so I get caught up too--we didn't really budget for our kids' birthday parties, but if we had, I know I would have definitely blew that budget category! Oh well... It'll be fun and I'm excited for her excitement.
Both kids slept long and hard last night and didn't wake up for over 10 hours! We can't wait 'til that happens regularly...
We had our first Christmas at home this year. Usually, we spend Christmas Eve night at my parents' house, then open presents there, eat a nice breakfast and go to Brian's mom's in the afternoon. This year is was all different. Since Brian's mom lives near us, she and his sister came to our house for breakfast, we then went to open presents at my parents' house and had dinner there. It was all different. The best different was being at our home when the kids woke up and wanted to know if Santa had eaten all the cookies. Claire who is almost 4 really got into it this year so that made it fun for all of us! Elliot who is just recently 2 loved it too! By the end of the day and after opening presents three times, it did get a bit exhausting for us all...
Today is our sixth anniversary and our kids are asleep in bed sick with colds and we're about to have hamburgers and French sparkling wine to celebrate! Too life, love and as much peace as is possible for us and for others as life transpires...
Happy New Year!
Again it has been a long time since my last post. I am tired and I caught the little cold my kids picked up from somewhere.We have had a lot of change in the past few months. I realized today that at the time of my last post, I was probably pregnant. While on my trip to Chicago, I had many separate conversations about whether or not to have three children or two. Little did I know the decision had already been made. We found out a couple weeks after my homecoming and were both pleasantly surprised. Brian was very happy immediately and I'll admit it took me a couple hours to come around....Unfortunately, it seemed like just as soon as we'd adjusted to having three kids, I started the miscarriage process. Yes, it was and still is a process. It seems as though for the past three weeks my body has been trying to return from the pregnant to non-pregnant state. What I believe is that my body really wants to be pregnant! It's hard to explain, but my pregnancy hormone (hCG) is still in my blood. My doctor feared ectopic or molar at first and still hasn't ruled out molar, but I have weekly blood tests until my hCG level is at zero. That's the physical side of things.The emotional side of things has been tougher! Why us? We were successful twice so of course we/I didn't think a miscarriage could/would happen to us.... Did I do something to cause this? Why did God take this baby to heaven? I've told so many people I was pregnant and now I have to tell them otherwise...this brings tears to their eyes as well as mine. And in addition, I hear immediately about how they too (most of the time) have also experienced a miscarriage at some point. The tears well-up in their eyes in an instant as if it just happened again for them as I share my story. A miscarriage at any stage is emotionally painful. I wonder if God wanted me to be granted the gift of empathy for women with similar experiences and that is one reason this baby got to see heaven before us.?.What has been very healing is my daughter's ability at 3 1/2 years old to accept that "sometimes babies get too sick to come out so God takes them to heaven." That is what we told her shortly after we learned I was miscarrying. She had been so excited and curious about the baby since the day we told her asking daily questions about whether the baby was getting bigger. We wanted to tell her what was happening right away. What a blessing our children have been to Brian and I during this ordeal. They bring us such joy during a trying time. Thank you for them, O God! Help us all to heal and grieve and share our feelings with others! Amen.
Where to begin? I read through my old posts. I remember making an effort to write about Claire's actions thinking that some day maybe she'll read it. Well, poor Elliot won't have anything to read about his life between age 1 and 2! I plan to write to him in a journal like I've been doing for Claire since her 2nd birthday.Both my children have entered new phases lately! Claire at almost 3 1/2 has entered the "why?" phase and Elliot now readily uses "i don't want to" and "no"! Yikes! My days are long if we don't have enough activities to distract :-)
I am going to Chicago for the Jewels by Park Lane convention this Thursday through Sunday. It's my first trip away from my kids and I think I'm ready. At first I had a little guilt about leaving, but as the day approaches, I'm now planning on using this time to refresh, relax and reflect! I'm thankful for my husband who encouraged me to go and is so good with our kids!
Two kids have been challenging.... Oh, how different my life was with only one child... However, more things have complicated our life than a second child... I know we are so blessed to have two healthy children who make us smile and exhaust us and enrich our lives in more ways than we're aware! Unfortunately, at this point in our life it's easy to focus on the hardships... I know "this too shall pass" and many of the situations I will list have definite ending dates, though some do not. We are transitioning and need patience...something I know I always need more of!
Since Elliot was born, our town house development started suing the original builders, we bought a second car before we knew about the law suit or knew that our hoa fees would increase from $90/month to $200/month!!! Money we don't have! I started a new job with Jewels by Park Lane that has been more fun than Shaklee and also more profitable....However, any new business has its own set of expenses that it's hard to account for so how much of a profit is hard to know... Brian's job has become more challenging, but in a good way, but can take more energy and time too. My mom-in-law moved to the westside last week so that's a big change for us and we're still figuring out what that will mean........
Okay, before I say any more, it's time to quit this entry and rest my fingers and mind. Hope to write more later and report on my convention trip! I love planes and flying and I know it'll bring back memories of my many trips to France! Good night.
Today Elliot is 16 months old! He is a talker, a charmer and loves to be picked up by anyone he thinks looks nice. He's almost running sometimes too which is fun to watch. He loves playing "ring around the rosie..." with Claire and me. It is fun to see how excited he gets to play with Claire. He is such a cute boy with his beautiful blue eyes and a smile that permeates his entire body.
Claire is potty training so well right now. We have ventured out into stores too and she has gone in the toilets there. Oh, how proud she is, when she has success! How proud we are too! I know we have a ways to go, but she is doing a great job. Another thing she's been working on is getting dressed by herself. Some kids I know change clothes several times a day without a problem, but Claire is just finding this to be a challenge she's ready to take on... Hooray, for little successes.
As for Brian, he's busy with a software change over at the city and as project manager for this multi-million dollar project, he has a lot to organize. It's a challenge, though, and he does love a challenge!
My Jewels by Park Lane is growing like crazy! I have five parties between April 23rd and May 4th! I am excited to have a group of three women under me who are fabulous and having fun doing the business too. Wow!
Our house still only has one room painted... We are taking a break all the while know we'd love to get it done... Patience is a virtue. There is a time for everything...
Well, it is late and I should sleep while my children are sleeping!
Pray for us that we'll be able to meet our challenges with patience and joy... Amen
It is Friday and what a week it has been! On Monday, Claire decided to use her potty chair and has successfully done so every night this week!!! Hooray!!! That's in addition to being sick so I'm so proud and impressed! We'll deal with other times of the day and going "#2" later. For now we'll take what we can get!Congratulations, Shannon & Steve, on the birth of your son! I keep checking in to see how soon you'll post on your blog post-birth :-)We've started painting our house inside too. It's a great color and it will really change the feel of our home! A new home for less money :-)We visited the French-American School on Tuesday. It was awesome, but it's soooo spendy. If we can save enough, we want to send Claire & Elliot there for kindergarten-5th grade... We'll see how disciplined we can be.
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