Well, it seems to have been almost a year since my last post.
Obviously a lot has happened since then, so I really have to fight the urge to
feel overwhelmed, shut the computer and just go take a bath, once again
procrastinating my typing. But, I may as well start somewhere. And although
there will be a short recap, my plan is to be much more diligent in continuous,
detailed posts. I really do love to go back and read these entries to remember
significant moments and day to day trials & triumphs!
Let's see, Christmas last year was great!
We spent the day at home with our family. And actually the plan to spend
holidays at home started on Thanksgiving. Previously we would rotate between
being at my parents or Michael's parents each year. In 2013 there were
scheduling conflicts with Michael's family, so last minute we decided to stay home
for Thanksgiving and cook the meal ourselves. It was perfect. The kids were 5,3
and 1 and it's time to make memories and traditions in our own home. I made
cinnamon rolls for breakfast, Michael cleaned the turkey (under Jake's close
supervision), we could plan the meal around Lexi's naptime, and the kids got to
have orange pop at the meal (super rare treat), so they thought it was awesome!
I prepared my mom that this would be an ongoing tradition for us and she was
very supportive. She just asked if it would be ok to invite themselves over to
our place then, to which I said, SURE! So, that's the plan for this year...a
houseful of family, food & fun! Moving on to Christmas, last year we hosted
the annual Christmas Eve party, my parents & Grandma Rang stayed the night
and spent Christmas morning with us. The kids love that, and frankly, I do too
:) Then we spent the rest of the day relaxing at home, watching movies &
playing with toys. Perfect.
In February I was contacted by Kelly
Wettstein again to help him out in his new partnership at Precision Dental.
Their office manager was going on maternity leave and they needed someone to
keep up with collections & take on that role from home. I agreed, and the
plan was to do this for 3 months. I average about 15-20 hours per week from
home, while still maintaining all of my family responsibilities. I have
determined that although I love the ability to work from home, it's actually easier to work at the office. If I was at
the office, it would mean someone else was watching the kiddos and I could work
uninterrupted, whereas at home, I'm scrounging to find time to work during naps
and after bedtime. But again, it's a great setup and I really appreciate not
HAVING to put them in daycare. So, that was supposed to end in May, but when
the office manager came back, some clean up projects were needed, so I stayed
another month to help with that. I took July off, then was approached by Dr.
Goates to come, back to work 5 hours a week from home to stay on top of
collections...indefinitely. I agreed, and that's what I'm still currently up
to.
In the spring 2013, my friend Chanda &
I partnered up to start "All Sass'd Up". We began making chunky bead
necklaces for little girls primarily. Our daughters were the inspiration for
this, we had to buy the beads in bulk from China, there seemed to be a lot of
interest in them & to begin with we used our Facebook business page to host
Ready To Ship sales and auctions, which were pretty successful. After only a
couple of months though, Facebook changed some things which made it much more
difficult to use. So, we also would take our products to events, festivals,
boutiques, etc, and those were kind of a hit or miss regarding their success. I
don't seem to have the time for both dental work and necklace making, so I
didn't get much made in the spring 2014. Our last big event was June 2014,
otherwise my participation has greatly diminished. Chanda pretty much handles
the business on her own now, and has been for quite some time. I still have a lot
of supplies & enjoy making them here and them for Lexi, so I suppose that
will be the plan from here on out.
Jake finished kindergarten, and it was a
very successful year for him! He's a type A personality like me, so he's
responsible, he likes to learn, he tries hard as a perfectionist and he loves
the positive feedback for a job well done from both his teacher and us. He
seems to make friends pretty easily and he's quite the ladies’ man at school!
There were several situations that were brought to my attention throughout the
year about girls that liked him, wanted to marry him, sent love notes home with
him, wanted to have play dates with him, etc. There were a few he liked too :)
Izabella was the first name I remember him mentioning when school started as a
new friend. By the end of the year, Aubrey was the girl who wanted to marry him,
she sent a love note home, he asked me to make a bracelet for her, and then
there was some exchange scene on the playground that humorously caught the
attention of all the teachers!
We can’t forget Hannah Bemiller in all that though! She lives
across the street and in February 2012 they started becoming good friends. She
was the recipient of the first valentine he ever gave a girl…besides me. J They’re
little BFFs to this day and have quite the brotherly/sisterly relationship. For
the most part they get along great and will play imaginatively for hours, but sometimes
they are just at each other’s throats! They each tend to be possessive of the
other. And although Jake loves to play with her, he definitely does not want to
play with her AND other girls – he seems to be afraid of being outnumbered by
girls! Like they’ll force him to play barbies or something! Lol Our whole
family loves Hannah, and really both of our families have become really close
over the last year. Her mom, Cathy, is my best girlfriend and we see each other
almost daily. Her sister, Alyssa, is our go-to babysitter and likes to go
hiking and running with Michael. About a week ago, Cathy decided to move Alyssa
to California to live with her biological dad, and we are really heartbroken
about it. We would have gladly let her live with us, but I suppose that was not
meant to be. We miss her.
I feel so behind and badly about not updating Lexi’s progress more
often. Today she is a beautiful, spunky, sensitive, candy-loving sweetheart!
She is an excellent sleeper & loves books & songs before bed. “You are
my sunshine” seriously has some magical powers with her – as a favorite, it is
immediately calming to her when she’s upset too. She typically wakes up happy
after 11-12 hours of sleep at night, and takes a 2-3 hour nap in the
afternoons. She loves the show, “Little Einsteins” and also the movie, “Cinderella”
or “Cindy ella” as she calls it. J She is a girly girl to a T. She loves the
big bead necklaces I make for her & wears one every day. And lately, the
fluffier, frillier or blingier, the better for her wardrobe! She LOVES shoes –
both hers and anyone else’s who have been left around to try on. And she loves
it when I paint her toes pink. J She likes her baby dolls, but her
favorite snuggly is her pink baby puppy. She tries to tag along with her
brothers and from day one has called Levi, “Guy”. I love that. Levi & she
have a love/hate relationship, and it’s not uncommon to hear her yell at him, “NO,
Guy!”, “STOP, Guy!”, “GO, Guy!” with a scowl on her face. And he teases her on
purpose. And on other occasions they play great together and share hugs, act
all cute, and melt my heart. Just recently he’s started cleaning her up after
meals and letting her out of her chair without being asked, which seriously
just looks so sweet and caring that it really makes me proud of him! Her relationship with Jake is different. He is
usually her playmate and her protector. If HE gets upset with her, she slumps
to the ground, covers her face, whimpers, pouts, quivers her lip in the most
pitiful way, and begins to cry. He’s hurt her feelings. That is also her
typical response if Michael or I look sideways at her. VERY sensitive. J And man,
this girl loves her sweets! She got into the Halloween candy today and opened
and began to eat at least 30 suckers! She is a constant thief of anything sweet
left on the counter, table or pantry if the door is left open. She loves jelly
sandwiches, yogurt & fruit. She’s not a big fan of meat, and I’m pretty
sure she has a peanut allergy like Levi L, so we’re just avoiding it until I have
her tested at a specialist. But about a month ago, she took a sip of a smoothie
that had peanut butter in it and within a few minutes her face started to swell
up likes Levi’s did at his first exposure.
Michael
started working from home in August on Tuesdays and Thursdays. That really has
been so nice! Last year I traded kindergarten pickup weeks with Courtney Davis.
This year Cathy & I trade weeks for taking the kids to and from school.
When it’s my week, it’s so nice to not have to wake up Lexi from her nap to go
pick the kids up. Levi started preschool
this year, and he’s doing great! Although, he was recently chastised for his
excessive use of glue. Haha He traces and spells his name well, can count to 20
pretty consistently, knows all shapes and colors, and I’m told he’s very QUIET
in class! Gotta say that’s pretty atypical compared to his behavior at home,
but I think it’s because he’s being challenged and is ready to learn! He has
all this energy at home and I would love to see him channel some of that toward
a constructive sport, but he’s just not interested yet. We tried soccer last
fall, but that didn’t go well. Just not interested. Jake, on the other hand,
started flag football last week and really likes it! First game was a blowout,
24-0, but his team was noticeably better by the second week and they won 19-1.
Jake even caught a pass to run in for a touchdown, caught another pass to run
for a first down and pulled someone’s flag. He had a great game! He’s excited
to practice with Michael whenever he’s available J Last year he played soccer in the fall, winter and spring, and
then he was on swim team this summer. Swim team was great exercise for him, but
he only got to swim at one meet due to our traveling schedule on summer break.
He did really well for his one and only meet though – took 2nd in
every stroke in his heats! And luckily Papa even got to come and watch!
