I swear time did not go this fast when I was pregnant with Alisabeth! I'm already at the 4 month mark! Our due date remains October 9th but I still think they're wrong somehow. This child is much bigger than Alisabeth was. (Or my body is more willing to pooch out, whatever the case).
I've already got a nice baby belly though it remains small enough to hide behind most of my work clothes. :)
We survived tax season (it was actually not bad at all, but that could have been because they were being gentle with me) and the very next day Jason started classes.
He's loving them. He's taking 3 upper level (300-400 level) computer classes and all of them are hands on. He's going to be building things and he's already created 5 virtual servers for one class. (For those who don't know a normal server is basically a computer which is set up to allow access and information to pass through it to other computers. A virtual server does the same thing, however it isn't a whole computer it's simply a portion of a computer set aside to fulfill that function thus one computer can have 200 virtual servers running on it at the same time). If that was too thick then just smile and nod at him like I do :)
Anyway the final project in the virtual server class is to hack into the teacher's server and to hack into another student's server (and to defend your own against attacks). Needless to say that is the project that has me excited. I love that kind of stuff.
Oh and as a disclaimer this is a network security class so they spend the entire semester learning to defend their computers and then the final puts that to the test for everyone in the class.
So far he's doing great. He's even provided help to several other students (one of which was his mentor in several lower level classes, so it's cool to see the roles reverse).
Alisabeth started preschool again and she's loving it. She was in Miss L's class and then she was moved to Mrs. Andrea's class. When it happened she told me it was because Jayden was in Mrs. Andrea's class and she wanted to be with Jayden but I didn't really think too much about it. Turns out that's pretty much how it happened. Mrs. Andrea could see that the two girls really loved to be together and to play together so she talked to management and had Alisabeth moved into her class. Alisabeth is really enjoying it. She doesn't appreciate the fact that they do "paperwork" all day long, but she's learning a lot and she loves to show us everything she's done so I think that's helped.
The cutest thing happened on Sunday too. Jason and I were both just not in the playing mood so we both sat down with books and invited her to sit with us and read too. She looked at her book for a few minutes but she didn't want to sound out the words so she gave up and then started bouncing around a little bit. We offered several suggestions for things she could do while we were reading and finally she gave up, sat down on a different chair and pulled out her children's bible and started flipping through looking at the pictures. She kept this up until our guests arrived about ten minutes later. I was quite impressed both with her decision and with the time she spent.
That's about the gist of our excitement.
I'm taking to studying for my next CPA exam in 6 days (this is a break) and gearing up for audit season to start. I'll be in-charge on two upcoming audits which should be a good learning experience (I have informally in-charged before, but this time it will be the real deal with full responsibility).
Oh and because I'm sitting on the technology committee for my work I was sent an Ipad. I'm supposed to use it to "change the way we work" yeesh! So far it's sitting across the room from me waiting for me to even flip it on for the first time. Supposedly I can get my CPA study materials on it but again. . . that would require time and effort. :( I guess I'll have to get around to it sooner or later. If you know of any business-related aps let me know. So far all I've seen that seems useful are research tools which I can get just as easily on my desktop. (No I'm not anti-technology, I'm just anti-spend-a-lot-of-money-on-excess-technology.)
As for Kryton (the baby who I've decided is a boy due to lack of sickness and larger size), he's doing well. I've felt a couple of flutters recently, but I'm not sure if they're baby or guts. Time will tell. He's already got me in the midnight bathroom break routine and I can now eat as much or less than my four year old at one sitting. I also can't handle excess sweets (mostly chocolate) and pre-prepared or greasy foods are a NO! The closest I can get is boxed pasta. Everything else has to be fresh ingredients. On the flip side my tolerance for onions, peppers and similar vegis has decreased to the point where I couldn't even eat five bites of my home-made quiche (which I had been craving for three days). All in all I'm a little frustrated with him. Who wants a healthy baby during the one time when eating anything you want is acceptable and even encouraged?? Seriously kid.
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Monday, March 12, 2012
Too excited...
So all in all this has been a busy month! I turned 30, found out I was pregnant, got shingles, got better. Jason broke a car, fixed our house, put in the new garage door opener with our tax refund and then we bought a new car to put in it.
Alisabeth learned math and reading. Yes that's right. My four year old can do math 1+1-9 and 9+9 with everything in between. She's not 100% yet, but she's amazing. Her reading (when she tries) is also incredibly impressive. She got flashcards from Nana and has been flying through them with ease. She does them while she's eating lunch or breakfast. She's amazing to watch.
Also this week we were asked to speak in church. So I kindly gave Jason the option of going first or last and he chose first, no big deal. Well after ten minutes he sits back down. 10 minutes. In total we had 50 to speak. We were each supposed to use about 20-25 minutes. I cursed him solidly; luckily I was using a really really cool talk on the power of prayer as the basis for what I was speaking on. The speaker broke down the Lord's prayer in the New Testament and talked about each portion of it and how we can apply it to our own prayers and I easily filled the remaining time with his and my own experiences of when I have felt the hand of God in my life as a response to prayers. The coolest part was near the end. I shared two experiences where in the moment my prayers and the results felt like "failures" especially on my mission when I felt like we should go to a particular place and we were rejected more brutally than at any other time. Yet as my companion and I walked down the road and prepared to knock on yet another potentially hate-filled door I felt a strong and undeniable impression to leave immediately, that we were in danger. So we did. And as we sat shaking and fearful in our vehicle I couldn't help but wonder at the time what I had done wrong. As I spoke and shared this experience the Lord opened my mind and I realized that in that moment I learned two things: When it really mattered I could hear the Lord's 'voice' in my mind, and two he was there guiding us because he knew I needed to understand what his warnings felt like. What felt like a failure in the moment was actually the first step in an amazing journey as I have come to understand the spirit's whispers in my mind and heart.
Another cool note: there was a woman who came to visit our congregation. She doesn't believe like we do, but she thanked me profoundly for my words and said that they really touched her. My message that God wants us to communicate directly with Him, that He hears, and answers EVERY prayer, though maybe not the way we expect Him to really hit her. . . and that's why I love to speak in church. :) Watching him work through me and get His message to His children is AWESOME!
Well, this was intended to be a quick note, now back to work! Thanks for reading!
Saturday, February 4, 2012
Gratitude in writing.
This week Alisabeth has approached both Jason and I to ask the same question in different ways:
"When am I getting the sister I asked for a long time ago?" and "When will my sister and two brothers be here?" Every time she asks my heart breaks, and then it aches.
No we never shared with her about the fact that we were trying to adopt, but that's not a possibility anymore anyway. We did share with her about the baby in mommy's tummy, and how Heavenly Father took it back for a little while, so I'm sure that's part of where this is coming from, but that doesn't make it any easier to hear.
And then I take a look at my life and I wonder how I can be so ungrateful! We have the most amazing job with a company that cares enough so that they come into my office at least once a week to make sure I don't feel overworked; a company who listened to me say "my family comes first" and never questioned me on it; a company who understands that I won't be working for them more than a few years (until Jason graduates and finds a job) and still treats me like everyone else when it comes to promotions and opportunities.
Really? How can I complain.
My husband is doing amazingly in school, he's putting all of his efforts into his classes even when he feels like they're kicking his butt. At the same time he's being a stay-at-home dad, our mechanic, our house fixer, the keeper of our home, our leader, an adoring husband and an active member at church (which requires quite a bit of time since he's a secretary). He's attentive and willing and patient and amazing and he stretches himself daily.
How can I complain?
I've also been blessed by a daughter who's the spitting image of me, has enough energy to outrun a racehorse, plays amazingly well by herself and with others (and even chooses activities because she thinks we will enjoy them). She's teaching herself to read with very little effort on our part.
The other day she came to Jason with a paper full of words she copied off of the cat litter box. Words like urine and scent and scoopable. She wanted to understand the meanings and sat enthralled at her father's feet while he tried to explain.
She also strives to say her "sh" and her "ch" correctly even though they used to all sound like "s." She is self-motivated, self-possessed, self-confident, and a delight (when I'm not exhausted just watching her spin circles around me).
Last week she even gained the ability to set her own bedtime (not at all normal for a four year old). She wouldn't go to sleep and it had become a game in which she would force herself to stay awake until eleven or later, popping into the room and giggling as we became enraged. So finally I pulled her into the room and said "How would you like to stay up as long as you want to?"
Huge eyes
"Go ahead and pick two toys and a couple of books. You can take them into your room and you can play there for as long as you want. When you're done put it all away and then come get us and we'll tuck you in."
Excitement and she was gone.
The first night she was up about another forty five minutes and then she came in and said she was done.
Sadly I didn't believe her, so I told her to go tuck herself in and we'd come in a minute. By the time we got there she was out. The second night she came and told us she was done at 9:30, the third night at 9. Last night she chose to go to sleep rather than play and then merrily sang to herself for another thirty minutes.
Needless to say, she's amazing. How can I complain?
Our life is nearly perfect. We have everything we need and so much more. We have friends that people would give their right arms for. We have family that would give their right arms for us. We have opportunities (like Jason's recent interview for an internship with the church in Salt Lake in their networking department). We have miracles daily, and the hand of God is so obviously in our life that I would never even try to deny or hide it.
There's no way I can complain.
Thanks everyone for making our lives perfect. I am so grateful for you and your touch in our eternity.
"When am I getting the sister I asked for a long time ago?" and "When will my sister and two brothers be here?" Every time she asks my heart breaks, and then it aches.
No we never shared with her about the fact that we were trying to adopt, but that's not a possibility anymore anyway. We did share with her about the baby in mommy's tummy, and how Heavenly Father took it back for a little while, so I'm sure that's part of where this is coming from, but that doesn't make it any easier to hear.
And then I take a look at my life and I wonder how I can be so ungrateful! We have the most amazing job with a company that cares enough so that they come into my office at least once a week to make sure I don't feel overworked; a company who listened to me say "my family comes first" and never questioned me on it; a company who understands that I won't be working for them more than a few years (until Jason graduates and finds a job) and still treats me like everyone else when it comes to promotions and opportunities.
Really? How can I complain.
My husband is doing amazingly in school, he's putting all of his efforts into his classes even when he feels like they're kicking his butt. At the same time he's being a stay-at-home dad, our mechanic, our house fixer, the keeper of our home, our leader, an adoring husband and an active member at church (which requires quite a bit of time since he's a secretary). He's attentive and willing and patient and amazing and he stretches himself daily.
How can I complain?
I've also been blessed by a daughter who's the spitting image of me, has enough energy to outrun a racehorse, plays amazingly well by herself and with others (and even chooses activities because she thinks we will enjoy them). She's teaching herself to read with very little effort on our part.
The other day she came to Jason with a paper full of words she copied off of the cat litter box. Words like urine and scent and scoopable. She wanted to understand the meanings and sat enthralled at her father's feet while he tried to explain.
She also strives to say her "sh" and her "ch" correctly even though they used to all sound like "s." She is self-motivated, self-possessed, self-confident, and a delight (when I'm not exhausted just watching her spin circles around me).
Last week she even gained the ability to set her own bedtime (not at all normal for a four year old). She wouldn't go to sleep and it had become a game in which she would force herself to stay awake until eleven or later, popping into the room and giggling as we became enraged. So finally I pulled her into the room and said "How would you like to stay up as long as you want to?"
Huge eyes
"Go ahead and pick two toys and a couple of books. You can take them into your room and you can play there for as long as you want. When you're done put it all away and then come get us and we'll tuck you in."
Excitement and she was gone.
The first night she was up about another forty five minutes and then she came in and said she was done.
Sadly I didn't believe her, so I told her to go tuck herself in and we'd come in a minute. By the time we got there she was out. The second night she came and told us she was done at 9:30, the third night at 9. Last night she chose to go to sleep rather than play and then merrily sang to herself for another thirty minutes.
Needless to say, she's amazing. How can I complain?
Our life is nearly perfect. We have everything we need and so much more. We have friends that people would give their right arms for. We have family that would give their right arms for us. We have opportunities (like Jason's recent interview for an internship with the church in Salt Lake in their networking department). We have miracles daily, and the hand of God is so obviously in our life that I would never even try to deny or hide it.
There's no way I can complain.
Thanks everyone for making our lives perfect. I am so grateful for you and your touch in our eternity.
Saturday, December 3, 2011
Guilt
So I started to write a post here, but realized it belonged on my
other blog: "Don't be offended." So I transferred it. Of course then I
felt guilty about not updating this one, so here I am!
Christmas is coming. . . yep that's about it. . .
Okay not really. Oh my heck; things have changed drastically!
Alisabeth at three and a half became the best helper, the best listener and the best little girl I've ever met in my life. No, not perfect, but dang awesome. Then suddenly she turned four and I think her "best" button ran out of batteries. Suddenly she's angry a lot and pushing all of the boundaries. She's started biting and hitting and especially spitting. It's been a crazy weird adjustment, but thanks to a lot of advice from many wise men and women we are slowly working through it. She now understands that she can make a choice to be angry or not and occasionally she'll stop mid-tantrum and decide she's not going to go that route (throws us for a loop every time).
On top of that we finally got all of our paperwork in for foster care here in Idaho and then got another surprise when we found out that two very special little girls in Arizona need a home. We're on the list for becoming possible adoptive parents. Our background checks are done; all we need to do now is wait on Idaho to come do a home inspection on Arizona's behalf and then we'll see what happens. . . I'm trying not to let myself get over excited in case something falls through, but seriously I've already got GUND bears for both of them and I'm already planning out the next year's finances with them in it. . . okay, gotta calm down.
In other news Jason is nearing the close of yet another semester. His last project in java is to create an ATM program which will allow transactions to however many bank accounts a user has. To get them started the teacher showed them how to create a microwave interface (to practice the interface and buttons and all of that stuff) I'm way excited to see the finished product. Between classes he's also found time to complete the re-drywalling of our basement so that we can move back down there soon. We have to have it done by Christmas :) And he's also working on the Amigo which decided to go out on us last week. That's been fun.
In my news I've added CPA exam prep to my list of activities for the next nine months. I could push it faster, but I'm trying to be realistic considering workload, family, and potential change in family dynamic soon. According to my scheduler I have to study 13 hours a week in order to review all of the material before my first exam mid-January. Can I do it? Hahahahahahahahahahahaa.
Life is good, great in fact. We're going to get a real Christmas tree this year (at my insistence), and we got a dryer handed to us by a lady at church who needed a new washer and decided to get a matching set instead. God has just poured blessings on our heads. No denying it. I hope you have a wonderful winter season too. (And if it's not going so well come on up and visit. We'd love to have you.)
Christmas is coming. . . yep that's about it. . .
Okay not really. Oh my heck; things have changed drastically!
Alisabeth at three and a half became the best helper, the best listener and the best little girl I've ever met in my life. No, not perfect, but dang awesome. Then suddenly she turned four and I think her "best" button ran out of batteries. Suddenly she's angry a lot and pushing all of the boundaries. She's started biting and hitting and especially spitting. It's been a crazy weird adjustment, but thanks to a lot of advice from many wise men and women we are slowly working through it. She now understands that she can make a choice to be angry or not and occasionally she'll stop mid-tantrum and decide she's not going to go that route (throws us for a loop every time).
On top of that we finally got all of our paperwork in for foster care here in Idaho and then got another surprise when we found out that two very special little girls in Arizona need a home. We're on the list for becoming possible adoptive parents. Our background checks are done; all we need to do now is wait on Idaho to come do a home inspection on Arizona's behalf and then we'll see what happens. . . I'm trying not to let myself get over excited in case something falls through, but seriously I've already got GUND bears for both of them and I'm already planning out the next year's finances with them in it. . . okay, gotta calm down.
In other news Jason is nearing the close of yet another semester. His last project in java is to create an ATM program which will allow transactions to however many bank accounts a user has. To get them started the teacher showed them how to create a microwave interface (to practice the interface and buttons and all of that stuff) I'm way excited to see the finished product. Between classes he's also found time to complete the re-drywalling of our basement so that we can move back down there soon. We have to have it done by Christmas :) And he's also working on the Amigo which decided to go out on us last week. That's been fun.
In my news I've added CPA exam prep to my list of activities for the next nine months. I could push it faster, but I'm trying to be realistic considering workload, family, and potential change in family dynamic soon. According to my scheduler I have to study 13 hours a week in order to review all of the material before my first exam mid-January. Can I do it? Hahahahahahahahahahahaa.
Life is good, great in fact. We're going to get a real Christmas tree this year (at my insistence), and we got a dryer handed to us by a lady at church who needed a new washer and decided to get a matching set instead. God has just poured blessings on our heads. No denying it. I hope you have a wonderful winter season too. (And if it's not going so well come on up and visit. We'd love to have you.)
Sunday, October 23, 2011
How fun.
The tiny organism which once tried to kill me turned 4 on Friday. It was awesome. Two was hard, three was much harder, but three and half to four has been amazing. I love to watch her grow and learn and become a real human.
My husband makes fun of me when I say that, but it's true, she's beginning to understand the secondary meaning behind what people say, she's making connections between conversations and she listens to everything and responds. She grasps concepts and she makes mental leaps. She's actually fun to converse with, rather than just fun to listen to, or to watch. She can play games and understand rules. Strategy is still a little beyond her, but she does understand goals and can generally figure out how to achieve them. I love it.
This birthday part was even more special because she finally understands what it means. She knows what presents are, and she was excited for those, but she was even more excited for the chance to have friends come over, and to decorate and to help make the cake and the ice cream. She loved to try to blow up balloons and even got a few. She helped daddy hand the streamers and picked out all the prizes for the games. She picked the cake and the colors and she waited anxiously by the door as the time drew near. She played the little hostess as she introduced her preschool and her church friends to each other and besides one episode of tantrum which only lasted a few minutes she was actively involved in everything we did. It was awesome.
So of course I couldn't help myself and we spent way too much money on presents and decorations and activities and prizes, but hey, 4 only happens once, and it was totally worth every penny.
We ended up with pink, purple, white, and blue for the streamers and pink, purple and white for the balloons. They're still handing haphazardly around the living room and kitchen area and the balloons are still scattered around the room, though most of them were popped when we played "keep off the ground" outside on the grass :)
Her presents included a new dress-up set (including a skirt, a crown, earings, rings, shoes, and a purse) and a new umbrella (strangely her favorite thing in the world, and also a favorite of all of the other kids at the party) from Grandma and Grandpa Liddeke; a four foot long floor puzzle of African Safari type animals from Grandma and Grandpa Flannery (and cousins); snow shoes (which I have yet to purchase) from Nana and Grandpa; a new booster seat, a barbie movie, a Shel Silverstein book of poems, a winter coat, and a bouquet of flowers from mom and dad; a tinkerbell tiny kitchen, a Tangled purse and accessories, a Princess makeup set (fake, thank goodness), a doll with accessories to feed, cloth and care for her, another small doll set of some sort, and a cool pair of socks that had shiny sparklies sewed on to them. I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but that was quite enough. Her favorite part, of course, was the cards, for some reason getting cards with each gift was very precious to her this year. She opened each one lovingly. When she got the first one from Grandma and Grandpa Liddeke she actually cuddled it to her chest and said "Oooh, how precious."
Then today at church she was also part of a primary program, which was another memorable event. Last time the children sang in church she was hesitant until we praised her to the skies. This time she was a proud little peacock as she sat up there and waved at us every few seconds. What I really loved was that they sent each child home with a question and then made the program each child's testimony of God, Jesus, and the power of the scriptures. I'm not sure how all of the other parents did it, but we tried hard to simply ask her the question and not lead her to the answer we wanted to hear. It was quite difficult, but eventually she said that scriptures help her to know Jesus and to help her be happy. She also added that they taught her not to say the word stupid, but we edited that part out. (We've taught her that calling people or things stupid isn't nice). It was very cool to hear each child bear their small testimony. As always some were confident and comfortable, and the older ones spoke without hesitation or prompting, but even some of the smaller ones rattled off their lines with conviction.
Between each age group the whole fifty or so children stood and sand a song. Those too touched my heart. Each spoke of the worth of the children, or the amazing things that God had done for them. I thought to myself that if these children can just remember these words and take the true meaning to heart, they'll be set for life. To know that they are important and vital in God's eyes; to know that Jesus sacrificed himself so that they could live and repent and return to God; to know that the scriptures will lead them to make right choices. I really appreciated the whole program and all of the leaders who made it possible.
The rest of this month has been a blur. Jason is doing great in school, he's enjoying his classes and despite a hiccup last week he's going strong and learning a lot. He really enjoys what he's doing and it's fun to hear all about it when he comes home (although when I'm half asleep I don't always appreciate it like I should).
Work is also going well. We had our annual reviews a few weeks ago and they praised me to the stars. They went over my review (which I had filled out nearly four months ago) and marked me up in a lot of areas where I hadn't felt confident and then basically said "We have nothing to tell you, keep up what you're doing." It was nice to hear.
This last week was also our firm annual tax CPE, which is a firm-wide update and training held in Montana so Wednesday night after work my co-workers picked me up in Duboise (where I was out on an audit) and we drove to Montana and stayed there Thursday and Friday and then drove home Friday night. It was a lot of fun and I learned a lot (including the fact that I know almost nothing). The speaker for the two day conference was a Tax Lawyer out of Indiana. He shared a lot of stories about clients and experiences that he and others at his firm have had and brought up a lot of good tax law points and items to consider. The first day was a blast for me because the entire 8 hour session covered estates and trust, which are a favorite topic of mine, but the second day was a little harder for me because it was about S-Corps and Partnerships which I don't deal with enough to know. Despite that I was able to understand everything he was talking about, it was simply over my head as far as complexity was concerned.
In the evenings I wrote (re-wrote) the first 132 pages of my third book. It was fun. This book has been a lot harder to write because I have to continually reference the other two to make sure I'm using my facts and names correctly, and to verify that my timeline is accurate.
All in all we're loving life and thoroughly enjoying ourselves.
We also started the application process for foster care/adoption here in Idaho. Despite my initial desire to wait until Jason graduated I've found myself yearning more and more for a sister or brother for Alisabeth. When we were first married we told ourselves that we would leave all of this up in God's hands and let him decide what was best for our family. In the last few weeks we've had several experiences which have pushed us in this direction. It will be an interesting road. The program here in Idaho is extremely different from what we did in Arizona (for fiscal and governance policy at least) but we'll just have to wait and see. If you want to keep us in your prayers we'd appreciate it.
Winter approaches soon, and we haven't had an accident in nearly a year. . . will we break the pattern? We shall see.
My husband makes fun of me when I say that, but it's true, she's beginning to understand the secondary meaning behind what people say, she's making connections between conversations and she listens to everything and responds. She grasps concepts and she makes mental leaps. She's actually fun to converse with, rather than just fun to listen to, or to watch. She can play games and understand rules. Strategy is still a little beyond her, but she does understand goals and can generally figure out how to achieve them. I love it.
This birthday part was even more special because she finally understands what it means. She knows what presents are, and she was excited for those, but she was even more excited for the chance to have friends come over, and to decorate and to help make the cake and the ice cream. She loved to try to blow up balloons and even got a few. She helped daddy hand the streamers and picked out all the prizes for the games. She picked the cake and the colors and she waited anxiously by the door as the time drew near. She played the little hostess as she introduced her preschool and her church friends to each other and besides one episode of tantrum which only lasted a few minutes she was actively involved in everything we did. It was awesome.
So of course I couldn't help myself and we spent way too much money on presents and decorations and activities and prizes, but hey, 4 only happens once, and it was totally worth every penny.
We ended up with pink, purple, white, and blue for the streamers and pink, purple and white for the balloons. They're still handing haphazardly around the living room and kitchen area and the balloons are still scattered around the room, though most of them were popped when we played "keep off the ground" outside on the grass :)
Her presents included a new dress-up set (including a skirt, a crown, earings, rings, shoes, and a purse) and a new umbrella (strangely her favorite thing in the world, and also a favorite of all of the other kids at the party) from Grandma and Grandpa Liddeke; a four foot long floor puzzle of African Safari type animals from Grandma and Grandpa Flannery (and cousins); snow shoes (which I have yet to purchase) from Nana and Grandpa; a new booster seat, a barbie movie, a Shel Silverstein book of poems, a winter coat, and a bouquet of flowers from mom and dad; a tinkerbell tiny kitchen, a Tangled purse and accessories, a Princess makeup set (fake, thank goodness), a doll with accessories to feed, cloth and care for her, another small doll set of some sort, and a cool pair of socks that had shiny sparklies sewed on to them. I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but that was quite enough. Her favorite part, of course, was the cards, for some reason getting cards with each gift was very precious to her this year. She opened each one lovingly. When she got the first one from Grandma and Grandpa Liddeke she actually cuddled it to her chest and said "Oooh, how precious."
Then today at church she was also part of a primary program, which was another memorable event. Last time the children sang in church she was hesitant until we praised her to the skies. This time she was a proud little peacock as she sat up there and waved at us every few seconds. What I really loved was that they sent each child home with a question and then made the program each child's testimony of God, Jesus, and the power of the scriptures. I'm not sure how all of the other parents did it, but we tried hard to simply ask her the question and not lead her to the answer we wanted to hear. It was quite difficult, but eventually she said that scriptures help her to know Jesus and to help her be happy. She also added that they taught her not to say the word stupid, but we edited that part out. (We've taught her that calling people or things stupid isn't nice). It was very cool to hear each child bear their small testimony. As always some were confident and comfortable, and the older ones spoke without hesitation or prompting, but even some of the smaller ones rattled off their lines with conviction.
Between each age group the whole fifty or so children stood and sand a song. Those too touched my heart. Each spoke of the worth of the children, or the amazing things that God had done for them. I thought to myself that if these children can just remember these words and take the true meaning to heart, they'll be set for life. To know that they are important and vital in God's eyes; to know that Jesus sacrificed himself so that they could live and repent and return to God; to know that the scriptures will lead them to make right choices. I really appreciated the whole program and all of the leaders who made it possible.
The rest of this month has been a blur. Jason is doing great in school, he's enjoying his classes and despite a hiccup last week he's going strong and learning a lot. He really enjoys what he's doing and it's fun to hear all about it when he comes home (although when I'm half asleep I don't always appreciate it like I should).
Work is also going well. We had our annual reviews a few weeks ago and they praised me to the stars. They went over my review (which I had filled out nearly four months ago) and marked me up in a lot of areas where I hadn't felt confident and then basically said "We have nothing to tell you, keep up what you're doing." It was nice to hear.
This last week was also our firm annual tax CPE, which is a firm-wide update and training held in Montana so Wednesday night after work my co-workers picked me up in Duboise (where I was out on an audit) and we drove to Montana and stayed there Thursday and Friday and then drove home Friday night. It was a lot of fun and I learned a lot (including the fact that I know almost nothing). The speaker for the two day conference was a Tax Lawyer out of Indiana. He shared a lot of stories about clients and experiences that he and others at his firm have had and brought up a lot of good tax law points and items to consider. The first day was a blast for me because the entire 8 hour session covered estates and trust, which are a favorite topic of mine, but the second day was a little harder for me because it was about S-Corps and Partnerships which I don't deal with enough to know. Despite that I was able to understand everything he was talking about, it was simply over my head as far as complexity was concerned.
In the evenings I wrote (re-wrote) the first 132 pages of my third book. It was fun. This book has been a lot harder to write because I have to continually reference the other two to make sure I'm using my facts and names correctly, and to verify that my timeline is accurate.
All in all we're loving life and thoroughly enjoying ourselves.
We also started the application process for foster care/adoption here in Idaho. Despite my initial desire to wait until Jason graduated I've found myself yearning more and more for a sister or brother for Alisabeth. When we were first married we told ourselves that we would leave all of this up in God's hands and let him decide what was best for our family. In the last few weeks we've had several experiences which have pushed us in this direction. It will be an interesting road. The program here in Idaho is extremely different from what we did in Arizona (for fiscal and governance policy at least) but we'll just have to wait and see. If you want to keep us in your prayers we'd appreciate it.
Winter approaches soon, and we haven't had an accident in nearly a year. . . will we break the pattern? We shall see.
Friday, August 26, 2011
A month in a moment. . .
Work, vacation, school and play. That's what we've done in the last month.Thanks for visiting!
In reality though the time has flown. Jason isn't in school yet for the next semester so he's been completing projects around the house. His major accomplishment is the riding lawn mower he picked up off craigslist for free. No, we don't need a riding lawnmower, but he's going to fix it up and then try to sell it. The people who gave it away were moving and didn't feel like doing to work themselves. We've got it pretty much diagnosed to the diaphragm in the carburetor. I know what but not where or how so don't ask me any more.
He also built steps for Alisabeth's playhouse (they're a little crooked, but get got all of the wood for free off craigslist and the nails too, so we'll fix it later.)
His latest accomplishment however is finding an old water leak in the basement that spread slowly through the walls. I, being the paranoid person that I am, decided to pull out the 4 bottom feet of the entire wall(s) which was effected just to make sure we've got it all. So he's torn apart our old bedroom and is cleaning it up and getting it ready and prepared for the time that we have the money saved to fix it. Because we're doing it all ourselves it isn't going to cost much at all, and as a bonus we're replacing the current insulation with a higher grade just cuz. Also there was no moisture barrier down there so we're going to put that in and we're still considering making some adjustments to the walls to include a better closet for that bedroom. . . I'll let you know what we decide.
As for me I've been auditting. School districts started and we're hitting them hard. The school district year end here is June 30 and because of requirements by the state they have to have an audit done and finalized with a good opinion before October if they want to get their money for the next year, but it takes at least a month for them to get everything from the previous year finalized and compiled for inspection, so we've got about a month and a half to perform comprehensive audits of 6 school districts with a team of all new people who have never auditted before (with the exception of Nick who went on a few as a helper last year). It's been a blast.
On the up side apparently I've been impressing my boss. Even though I have less experience than Nick I've been given a significantly larger portion of responsibility. . . I feel honored and sort of confused because I don't really think I do a lot more than him but my mom says to get over it so I'm trying to.
I also had some really exciting news in that I found out I was pregnant about two weeks ago. The down side is that I miscarried about four days later. I share this for two reasons, one it saves me from having to tell people in person which I really don't want to do, and because Jason and I both felt that this was God's way of telling us that pregnancy is possible (a fear we have had for more than a year) but that it's in his hands right now. We're okay with that.
As usual when I get stressed: I wrote a book. :)
I don't know if I ever mentioned it, but I did eventually turn in the first part of the other book I wrote to a publishing company. . . we'll see if they ever write back, but at least I did it.
Alisabeth has also been making strides. Because of school schedules she will start in preschool every day starting the second week of September. We're sad about this because I never wanted to put my kids in daycare like this, but it means that Jason will be able to focus and graduate by the summer of 2013 so we're just going to suck it up and do it. She's adjusted well to preschool and has a few good friends there so she no longer screams when we leave her. She also has one more week before she can take out her earrings and be able to wear different ones. She's excited. I adore that little girl.
That's us in a nutshell for the last month.
In reality though the time has flown. Jason isn't in school yet for the next semester so he's been completing projects around the house. His major accomplishment is the riding lawn mower he picked up off craigslist for free. No, we don't need a riding lawnmower, but he's going to fix it up and then try to sell it. The people who gave it away were moving and didn't feel like doing to work themselves. We've got it pretty much diagnosed to the diaphragm in the carburetor. I know what but not where or how so don't ask me any more.
He also built steps for Alisabeth's playhouse (they're a little crooked, but get got all of the wood for free off craigslist and the nails too, so we'll fix it later.)
His latest accomplishment however is finding an old water leak in the basement that spread slowly through the walls. I, being the paranoid person that I am, decided to pull out the 4 bottom feet of the entire wall(s) which was effected just to make sure we've got it all. So he's torn apart our old bedroom and is cleaning it up and getting it ready and prepared for the time that we have the money saved to fix it. Because we're doing it all ourselves it isn't going to cost much at all, and as a bonus we're replacing the current insulation with a higher grade just cuz. Also there was no moisture barrier down there so we're going to put that in and we're still considering making some adjustments to the walls to include a better closet for that bedroom. . . I'll let you know what we decide.
As for me I've been auditting. School districts started and we're hitting them hard. The school district year end here is June 30 and because of requirements by the state they have to have an audit done and finalized with a good opinion before October if they want to get their money for the next year, but it takes at least a month for them to get everything from the previous year finalized and compiled for inspection, so we've got about a month and a half to perform comprehensive audits of 6 school districts with a team of all new people who have never auditted before (with the exception of Nick who went on a few as a helper last year). It's been a blast.
On the up side apparently I've been impressing my boss. Even though I have less experience than Nick I've been given a significantly larger portion of responsibility. . . I feel honored and sort of confused because I don't really think I do a lot more than him but my mom says to get over it so I'm trying to.
I also had some really exciting news in that I found out I was pregnant about two weeks ago. The down side is that I miscarried about four days later. I share this for two reasons, one it saves me from having to tell people in person which I really don't want to do, and because Jason and I both felt that this was God's way of telling us that pregnancy is possible (a fear we have had for more than a year) but that it's in his hands right now. We're okay with that.
As usual when I get stressed: I wrote a book. :)
I don't know if I ever mentioned it, but I did eventually turn in the first part of the other book I wrote to a publishing company. . . we'll see if they ever write back, but at least I did it.
Alisabeth has also been making strides. Because of school schedules she will start in preschool every day starting the second week of September. We're sad about this because I never wanted to put my kids in daycare like this, but it means that Jason will be able to focus and graduate by the summer of 2013 so we're just going to suck it up and do it. She's adjusted well to preschool and has a few good friends there so she no longer screams when we leave her. She also has one more week before she can take out her earrings and be able to wear different ones. She's excited. I adore that little girl.
That's us in a nutshell for the last month.
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Getting Settled
My beautiful princess got her first major haircut this week. . . she hated it.
We were looking at the magazines while we waited and she chose the most outlandish and ugly haircuts as her favorite. One thing they had in common: long hair.
I felt bad, but it will grow out. :)
That being said she's super excited about the prospect of wearing bows and barrettes now, so I think she'll be fine.
We're settling nicely into our home. I realized the other day (thanks to Jason) that I haven't posted anything on here for quite a while, so I figured I'd better make up for my lack with pictures and interesting things :)
So firstly Alisabeth: She's finally situated enough to be okay with pre-school. She still cries on her bad mornings, but on the rest she goes right in and joins the other kids!! They're making a farm this week. Tuesday she came home with a farmer and a pig and they walked around the preschool with goat masks on that they had painted and colored and pretended to be goats.
She's amazing.
She's really into climbing now, thus the picture above. She also climbs to the very top of her playset in the backyard which is at least as tall as our roof. She climbs pretty much anything that holds her weight for a moment. At the mall she wants to climb to the top of the tree, but luckily they designed it so that there's no place to get enough of a grip to do that. . . thankfully.
She's excitedly anticipating our upcoming trip to Colorado and recently enjoyed a visit from her cousins and her best friend Paige from Boise. All in all she's having a marvelous time.
Jason is wrapping up his first semester back in school and doing a great job. He'll be re-taking statistics another semester, but it's not from lack of trying. He's impressed me with his renewed determination to accomplish his goal.
He's also made a few good friends and study partners at school, so that's been nice for him. One more week and then he'll be done with this semester. Oh, and in case you haven't already seen his class project:
http://jatflannery.net/individual/template/indv-home-page.php
In his personal life he's having a blast with his new garage. He's established everything where it belongs and always has some project or other going on. I don't mind at all because the projects are generally housekeeping items.
While the Raybons were here to visit he forced Brian to help him install a nightlight into the livingroom and together they attempted to hook up the water line on the fridge (unfortunately there was a leak and too many broken parts, so that didn't happen).
He's also installed a light at the bottom of the stairs, put in a vent from the heating into Alisabeth's room for when winter comes, torn our a wall where we found mold and replaced the entire thing including mudding and taping all within the same day. Outside he's helped get the lawn into shape and spray for bugs (of which we have millions), get the watering under control and set and drilled through a door lock when the bathroom was accidentally locked with no one inside (there were two doors in our house that had actually key locks on them. The bathroom was one. It now has the door handle from the downstairs pantry on it.)
I'm sure there are a bunch of other things that he's accomplished thus far, but they're too many to count.
Oh! and he also dug up about 1/2 of the weeds which we have ignored since moving in.
I forgot to mention another of Alisabeth's accomplishments: She found a rose! It was in one of those sections of weeds that I had been ignoring. Suddenly there was a beautiful pink flower right in the middle. She plucked it, as usually, and brought it to me and suddenly I realized I have not one but two rose bushes hidden over there. So I spent about two hours digging them out. It probably wouldn't have taken so long if we hadn't had a spider incident earlier in the day and the literally dozens of spiders in that patch didn't make me a little nervous.
Me: Work is going well. Our only other experienced auditor quit and finishes up his two weeks on Friday. That leaves the two partners with Nick and I who don't really have a ton of understanding/experience. It's going to be fun as we move into the heavy part of audit season. Galusha has been attempting to hire one or two experienced auditors, however everyone with experience who applied wasn't actually interested in the job, they were just fishing. Instead we'll have another unexperienced person starting Monday. This is going to be fun. On the plus side I've received an excessive amount of praise at work in the last month or so. :)
Personally I finished my book, waited months for people to get back to me on edits, they never did, so I chose two new friends (well a friend and my mother) and they finally got enough back to me for me to finish up the first 10,000 words which is the required amount to send in a manuscript to a publisher. So off it went yesterday. Now I'll wait six months to see if they even notice it.
I've already got the second book mostly written (just trying to figure out the best spot to end it in) and the third (and final) book started with a pretty good understanding of where it's going. It's way exciting. . . wouldn't it be nice if we got enough money to finally start the college fund for Bitsy?!?!?
And finally our home: It is doing well. It seems to be settling well and has definitely helped us out. The plants are growing and so are the insects.
Seen below are all the cool things that are growing right now.
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| Butternut Squash - planted by Alisabeth. There were twice as many starts in this spot, but I cut them down. . . |
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| Carrots. . . yes they need to be thinned No I can't bring myself to do it. |
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| Peas. . .only one blossom so far. |
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| Zucchini. . . One little orange blossom just starting. . . so exciting. |
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| Our apple tree. . . this is after thinning. . . jeeze! |
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