Wish us Luck

A year ago, our lives got thrown for a loop. Landon was dismissed from his Master's program in counseling for getting two C's and a B-. Ironically, he had the best grades he has ever had in his life, but they were not good enough for the graduate school. They let us reapply on a conditional basis, that he had to retake the classes he received the low grades in before continuing on with his program.

Getting that news was literally devastating to me. We had just been holding on for years until Landon finished school. He was one semester away, and now, we were being held up and slowed down. I didn't know if I could make it. While I still think it sucks and it was not the best news we have ever received, over the last year I have also come to appreciate some things about the lessons that we learned by going through this trial.

As I mentioned, we were just "holding on" until Landon finished school. Landon had kind of become a bear to live with because he was so stressed out with school. We also had no control on our finances. We were living off of student loans and didn't really know how to budget. Because of this set back we were forced to look closely at our finances, and have since changed our behaviors drastically. We have taken control of our finances and by so doing have taken control over many different aspects of our lives and have found peace.

A year ago, Landon reapplied for the program, was re-accepted and began retaking his classes. He had been doing one class at a time and we were still just putting our life on hold until he could finish school. This year, January again, did not bring with it the best of news in regards to Landon's schooling. We found out that Landon did not receive an acceptable grade in his class, and thus, had not complied to the conditions of his conditional re-acceptance. We sat and talked about it and prayed hard for a few days and decided that rather than fight it and again have to postpone our lives for his masters degree, we were going to cut our losses and move forward.

This decision was not an easy one to come to. It has taken a lot of humility to be so close to the goal and not reach it. At times it seems completely crazy to me that we decided to walk away from this degree, but we really feel like it is the right step for where we are in our lives. This is not a forever end to this ambition, he may one day choose to pick it back up and try again, but for now there are too many mental and physical roadblocks in the way. His quest for the masters degree would be futile without us making some changes in our lives. So, that is what we are doing.

Landon has worked for FedEx ground for almost 6 years now. It started as just a job to help us make our bills and then turned from a part-time package handler to a part-time manager with responsibilities and challenges that Landon really finds enjoyable. He is good at his job and enjoys the fast pace and problem-solving it requires. We have decided to pursue a career in transportation management. So, Landon has begun applying for full-time positions all over the country. We are hoping that we will be able to find something close to our families, but also understand that we might have to move outside of our comfort zone to find the job that will help us move forward.

We are excited about this new chapter in our lives. We are welcoming it with open arms, relieved to finally be moving forward and not keeping our lives in a stand-still waiting on school. Landon has been so much happier being out of school and loves feeling that he has more control over his destiny. Just like a year ago when we found out that our plans were not going to work the way we wanted them to, we are willing to accept whatever the Lord has planned for us. Having been through the last year and seeing all of the lessons we learned from that trial I am hoping that this change will bring with it many new lessons and ways for us to explore our lives and relationships. So, wish us luck as we go job hunting!

Maple Grove Hot Springs

The same day as Ellen's Piano Party we decided to go have a little fun with Annie and Jason. It was Connor's birthday, he would have been 10 years. (Wow, but that is a whole different post in and of itself.) One of our favorite spots to go to is Maple Grove Hot Springs. They are just outside of Grace, not very well known, and absolutely fabulous.

Annie and Jason had taken us there one time before, the Valentine's Day right before Shelly got sick and died. I was nervous to go because of that, but remember them being so much fun and my kids had loved it. So, we packed up our stuff and headed off. These hot pools are absolutely gorgeous, and best of all, there is usually not very many people there. They run right along the edge of the river and they have four different pools. We spent most of our time in their actual "swimming pool" one because of Annie being with child. Plus, this is where our kids wanted to play. The "swimming pool" is their coolest one but still feels a lot like a really, really warm bath. They keep fun noodles next to the pool for kids to play with and boy did our kids ever. They had a blast, and so did we.
Jaycee took this picture of her parents smooching on each other.

Levi is such a water dog. He loved every minute of being there and wanted to try to swim the whole time. He would wiggle and worm to get our of my arms. Little did her know that if I had let go he would sink straight to the bottom.

I had to add this picture in because I look better in it.

Trevor spent most of the night on his Daddy's back. Landon would take him every where, even under the water. He was such a big boy and would love to proclaim to everyone when they came back up "I did it!"

Ellen made full use of the fun noodles. She figured out how to prop herself up on them and swam around every where. I think she enjoyed the freedom that it gave her. We just had to make sure that someone was close at hand in case she slipped, although she never really did get into any trouble.

Jaycee and Jason. Because of how dark is was and how cold the air was outside a lot of our shots are blurry looking from the steam off of the hot pools. I still love 'em though.

Sweet kisses from Jaycee to her Mama, Annie.

We had to have Annie show off her fantastically large belly for the camera. She was about 6 weeks from her due date at this point. When she told the Doctor she works with that she was going to the hot pools he told her to make sure she didn't "hard boil the baby." She was very careful to make sure her body temperature remained where it should. Ain't she a hottie!

I just don't think Jaycee is going to be able to catch Annie. :) It was a cute picture though.

Annie tried all night to get a cute picture of Trevor and I. This was about as close as we could get. Trevor was having way to much fun playing in the water to take time out to take a picture.

What a fun night!!!

A Piano Party

The last weekend of January Ellen had her Piano Party, or in other words, recital. Ella takes piano from my Aunt Jean who oh-so-conveniently lives in our neighborhood. Most of the kids that my Aunt teaches refuse to do a recital so instead she throws piano parties.

These parties are a ton of fun. She usually serves food and this time was no different. She made these yummy, yummy, yummy chicken turnovers with a sauce to put over it. I will definitely have to get the recipe and share. She also made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches that she had cut into the shape of music notes. She had juices for all of us and yummy platters. She went all out.

As if this wasn't enough, she also had treats for the kids to have as prizes for winning the games she had put together. They did a musical bingo as well as a candy bar game. She totally spoils
her piano students! After the games it came time to share their masterpieces. Ellen was last to play and got kind of bored listening to everyone else. Actually, "kind of" is being nice. She pretty much refused to stay in the room and listen. She wanted to play in my Aunt's Jungle Room (the play room). She insisted that she could hear the songs just fine from back there. When it was her turn she sad down and got ready to play without telling us what song she was playing. When I asked her to tell us what she was playing she turned around, and very snotty like informed me that she "didn't feel like saying it." Aunt Jean came to the rescue and announced for her. The piece was called "Good night Golden Moon" and it was a duet with my Aunt.

As I watched these two "girls" play I was filled with such love for my family. We started Ellen in piano a year ago at the age of 4. My aunt lovingly took her as a student even though most people would have turned her away. She knew we needed something to entertain Ellen until she could get to kindergarten. She has been so patient with Ellen and has helped her learn to love to play the piano. She offers treats to her while she plays to help her stay focused and listens to all of her crazy stories. She even sends her home with treat bags for not just Ellen, but her brothers as well. She has bought Ella's piano books and wouldn't accept payment from us for the first year because "we were just seeing if she likes it."

Jean married my Uncle Rick when I was about 10 and she has been the very best thing for him. She has come into our family and accepted each and everyone of us 100%. It was very touching to watch this wonderful woman play the piano with my baby girl, named after my Grandma and know how blessed I am to have the family I do.

After the kids played their songs, Jean had medals for each of them and a certificate. Ellen loved hers. She even took her medal with her for her next show-and-tell at school. We had so much fun and can't wait for the next piano party.

I had to throw in this cute picture of Levi listening to the songs. Isn't he a doll baby?

January 2011 Newsletter

Wow, it is 2011! That is a little crazy to think about because I don’t really know where 2010 went. I am happy to see 2011 come in and look forward to all the fun things that this new year will bring us.

January brought with it some big changes for our Levi man. We decided to move him out of his crib into a toddler bed. Levi is not a very good sleeper, to put it mildly. In fact, he has been my worst sleeper by far. At almost two years of age I am lucky if he will sleep all the way through the night. Yep, it has been a long two years. So, in the effort to try to help with get him to sleep at night and get me the most sleep we decided to upgrade so that I could snuggle with him in his bed. I wish I could report that it helped, but really it didn’t make much of a change. He loves being a big boy though and for some reason has decided that he likes sleeping on the floor just about as much as his bed. At least a couple nights a week we will find him fast asleep there. Hey, wherever he wants to sleep, I don’t care. Just as long as he sleeps.

January also brought us some challenges with Ellen. She returned to her dance class after the break just to run into problems. Her ballet teacher reported that she did not participate well in class and had started trying to distract the other girls in her class as well. She was basically asked to leave the class (it was done nicely, with a suggestion to try something different offered at the studio.) This got me thinking about her attention span and how she measured up to other kids. So, I started paying attention at church in primary and talked with her kindergarten teacher and we came to the conclusion that Ellen doesn’t focus well. She is smart as a whip, but will have to be reminded a lot to do the simplest of tasks. We are fairly certain that she has ADD, although she is still too young to diagnose. We are not doing anything really for it at this point because it is not getting in the way of her school, it is just something that we will have to keep an eye on. We did move her out of dance and put her in Kindermusik, and she is loving it.

The kids took a trip to the dentist this month and we were able to have all three checked out. This was Levi’s first trip to the dentist and he really enjoyed it, especially getting a new toothbrush. He let the dentist look at his teeth and didn’t really complain too much. Ellen was her usual good self. She let the dentist do his thing and happily watched Toy Story on their TV. Trevor was our biggest success. He has never let them do anything except check his mouth with a toothbrush. He submitted to Xrays this time as well as letting them clean his teeth with their equipment. He wasn’t all that happy about the whole thing, but I was proud as punch of him. We are also proud to report that there are no cavities!!

At the end of January, on Connor’s birthday to be exact, we decided to make a fun day of it and enjoy it rather than mope. Ellen had her Piano Party (her recital) that afternoon where my Aunt went all out. Jean had lots of games for the kids to play and fed us lunch with these very yummy chicken turnovers and sauce. Seriously, Yum! Then the kids were able to play their songs for us. Ellen did great playing her song although she informed me that she didn’t “feel like saying the name of my song” when I prompted her to do so.

After the piano party we loaded up the car and headed out to the cemetery to meet up with Annie and Jason. We released 10 balloons in honor of Connor’s 10th birthday and had Little Debbie’s cupcakes. Then we loaded back in the car and headed to Maple Grove Hot Springs. The kids loved playing in the hot pools. Their swimming pool is just like bath water and they have fun noodles for the kids to play with. They swam around hanging on to their noodles and came up with games. We sat in one of the other hot pools as well, but spent most of our night in the cooler ones letting the kids play. It was good company and a beautiful night, and very relaxing water. On our way back to Pocatello we stopped in Lava and got Thai food at the restaurant there which was also yummy! A very fun ending to the trip.

January brought our family one more thing. We found out that Landon had not passed his class from the fall semester with a high enough grade to allow him to continue on with his program. While this was a little bit of a blow (more to ego than anything), we really decided that maybe it was a good thing. We have been keeping our life on hold for a long time waiting for Landon to be done with school and while this is not quite the ending we had envisioned, we feel like we can finally move forward with our lives. He has a good job with FedEx and has received some invaluable training from them that we hope will be helping us to find a new job. He has been applying for jobs all over both with FedEx and with other companies and we are hoping to find something soon.

2011

So I have finally caught up with all of 2010 on our blog now. Go figure it is the middle of March, but hey, at least I did it. I have started working on our blog book for 2010 and wanted to reflect back on my first year of blogging. I started this thing not knowing if I would really like it or not but figuring it was worth a shot. It turns out I really love it! In fact, I have hated being this far behind for this long because I feel like I have missed out on so many of the little things that I would have loved to be blogging about, but because I am behind don't feel like I can.

Our book for 2010 is going to be something that I cherish forever. I think I have finally found a good way for me to journal my family's history. I love to scrapbook, but the more kids I have gotten the busier life has become and I just don't seem to find the time to get it done. Blogging has given me some of that same pleasure as scrap booking, but with a whole different layer added on to it. It has allowed me to share this journaling with others, as we live it. Usually you make a scrapbook and then no one ever looks at it but you. This blog has allowed me to let family and friends not living close into some of the littlest aspects of our life. I also love that I have been able to keep up on other blogging friends lives as well.

So, as we begin 2011 I hope to be able to keep up the posts a little better and to let you all get another little peek into our lives. Happy 2011 and blogging to you all!