May 1st (Thursday) I got a call from Jason while I was at work. He held in his hand a letter from the Idaho State Board of Accountancy. In it was a letter stating that I had met all the requirements to be considered for, and had been accepted as a CPA in the state of Idaho. Elation, after years (literally years) of work, including going back to college for an auditing class, I have finally earned the certification I was seeking. So we rejoiced. We celebrated, Jason bought me candy and treats. We were delighted.
Friday May 2nd Jason received a call. Dell's Security team wanted him, was he still interested in a job? Which facility would he be most interested in, Chicago IL or Atlanta Georgia? What was the salary range he was looking for again? Oh, yeah, they could do that pretty easily.
So we rejoiced again, and I bought him flowers (cuz he likes that sort of thing).
Then panic set in as they gave him his start date and we realized the fun timing on all of this. I mean, it's all in God's hands, there's no ability to doubt that as I look at how it's all going down, but it's still crazy to try to keep up with His pace sometimes :)
If I had not gotten my CPA license during the April board meeting their next meeting would not have been until late June. Jason starts his job June 9th. I would have had to move to Atlanta and though the test is national, there's a certain amount of bureaucracy and hoops that have to be jumped through when switching states before receiving the CPA. They want to know why, they want to know all the details because they want to make sure you aren't just jumping ship to try to slip in under the radar when you don't actually belong.
The second fun part? I was due June 23rd. I swear that's the date I was given and I swear my midwife confirmed that date at least twice. I met with the doctor very soon after Jason received his offer. We had discussed and tentatively decided that I would have the baby in Idaho, wait a week or so, and then travel down to meet him with the kids. A total separation time of 3-4 weeks. My mother had agreed to come and be with me during the birth since Jason's six weeks of training wouldn't really allow him the ability to come and be with me. Then the doctor said "Well, looks like you're due July 1st."
"Wha?" That's almost a week and a half difference. That's really a cruel thing to do to a woman in her eighth month of pregnancy, but more important, that would add almost another 2 weeks to our separation. So we discussed it again and we've decided to do the unthinkable. I will be moving at 9 months (flying even - and yes, we've called the airlines, the airports and read articles online to understand the implications. According to flight attendants, doctors and a few individual experiences the danger generally comes in moving from low altitude to high altitude, but I'm going in the opposite direction, so the chances of going into labor are very low.)
My doctor's only warning (so far at least) - make sure you have a doctor and a game plan in place already just in case. Sage advice, and I followed it immediately. I have a doctor and selected my hospital and all that fun stuff. Cool part: I get to try a water birth! Atlanta Georgia is big enough to have all the necessary facilities. I'm excited about that part.
So in the course of 1 week our entire life changed. Jason's offer is more than we expected and plenty for us to thrive on without adding income from me working part-time. Although I may choose to open my bookkeeping business after a while, it will be purely to keep up my skills and pay for my continuing education rather than necessity to support our family. I can focus solely on the home and my family and our babies.
Jason's job is exactly in the field he was looking for, doing exactly the type of thing he wanted to do. It's similar to what he did in his internship, so he knows what he's getting into. He's thrilled and excited, especially because Dell is a well known company, and their security team is relatively new so he's getting in on the ground floor.
On the kid side, things couldn't be going better either. Although Alisabeth got a few yellow marks she's still scoring VERY well in her first grade classes (they do a warning system, green, yellow and then blue, but you can always pull it back up if the behavior is corrected in time).
We spoke with her teacher at the recent fundraiser they were having. I just wanted to thank her because Alisabeth has really been positive and happy about school, and I know it's because of her teacher's enthusiasm and efforts. Without prompting she teacher said "She's doing really well, I don't worry at all about her ability to continue into second grade."
That was a relief, I mean, her scores are plenty high, she's getting 100% on spelling, reading more than twice the requirements for her grade and has stopped writing her letters and numbers wrong for the most part, so I wasn't REALLY worried, but parents always worry, especially when we made the decision to move her forward into a higher grade.
Kryton, too, has been thriving. The boy speaks in half sentences already (I should probably look up the timing to see where he 'should' be at, but I haven't this time around. He loves the word nose for some reason and loves to point to his nose (and anyone else's). Aside from knowing and using the words please, thank you, and stop regularly and correctly, he now knows enough to give us one word descriptions for most of his favorite and regular things (candy, ice, drink, food, more. . . ) and he knows what he wants. If you try to give him something he doesn't want he'll shake his head to let you know you've got it wrong.
He does have quite a temper though. When he doesn't get what he wants he screeches and glares at you until he gets distracted by something else. Still, I can't help but adore him. He's so snugly and sweet most of the time, even when he's testing your boundaries.
Jason pointed to my belly and said "baby." So now Kryton will jump on me, and when I say "ow" or "be careful of baby" he caresses my belly and says "baby", then caresses his own belly and says "baby" It's adorable.
So amid the chaos we are beyond thrilled and excited for life right now. We still need to find a home in Atlanta (renting of course), but are working with a rental agent who seems VERY on the ball and has a couple of houses already lined up that fit our needs and wants. We also need to sell our home, but that too is flying at an unprecedented rate. Our home goes on the market Tuesday. We've got most everything already packed up. Jason will drive the moving truck with all our gear on the 3rd. I will stay for 2 more weeks to finish working and finish school for Alisabeth. This will ensure that I am insured when the baby comes under my old medical plan (since I've already paid the stupid deductible) and will give me time to wrap up my current projects. It will also give Jason a bit of time to get the house at least partially in order so that when I get there I can just go into labor and not worry about anything else :)
Here's another amazing 'coincidence' a new airline is coming to Idaho Falls airport (previously there were 2 airlines available here). They have a flight to Atlanta (1 layover), it's cheaper than flying out of Salt Lake, and their service to Atlanta doesn't start until June. The weekend we 'randomly' chose to move me just happens to be the weekend of the cheapest flights available. I'm getting myself and 2 children across the entire country for $400 and 6 hours of time. (Compare this with a 5 day car trip with kids.)
I have to say, for those who don't believe in God, or that His hand is directing each of our lives, I just don't see it. The evidence is too great for me. I KNOW He has been working behind the scenes to get Jason this exact job. (I didn't even tell you the miracle there. Jason didn't apply for this one. His friend from the internship, who already had a job, got approached by their recruiter and said 'not interested, but I know someone you should talk to').
I love the life He's given us so far, and my gratitude runneth over.
Saturday, May 17, 2014
Thursday, January 30, 2014
More than Half Way!
As my baby kicks me from inside I thought it might be a good idea to update this on my lunch hour (instead of studying my accounting book). :)
The Flannery Clan had a good week. Alisabeth is doing well, so far as I can tell, in her schoolwork. She comes home with a spelling list each week and we went through them all without issues. She's also had some homework that she and Jason have done. We did have our first casualty though, apparently she checked out a book and can't remember what she did with it so she has to pay for it before they'll let her check out another one. :( She was very upset or 'scared' as she says. She's 'scared' about everything that she's unsure about.
Kryton is doing well. His "STOP" is very clear. :) He loves to be tickled, so he comes and we have tickle fights at least once a night. The problem is that he bites whenever he gets riled up. He's better most of the time and gives raspberries now instead of biting, but he still takes a good chunk out of the flesh whenever he gets too excited to control himself. He continues his love of reading and is doing a little better in the mornings. (The kids wakes up between 4 and 5. . . needless to say there's no one to respond to him at that time, so after screaming for about ten minutes he goes back to sleep until it's the real time to get up. We've reduced his naps down to 1 and sometimes he doesn't even get that one, but he still gets up that early no matter what :( This morning at 5:30 I handed him a bowl of cereal, a bottle of milk and turned on Baby Einstein in the downstairs living room. Terrible, I know, but that's the way we roll sometimes.)
Tiny creature, as mentioned in the opening line, is growing on schedule so far. Kicking up a storm inside my belly and overall enjoying life. I lent out my maternity clothes to a friend a while back and still haven't retrieved them, so he's been getting a little squished as my belly begins to expand beyond the normal size of my pants, but she puts up with it well. We find out the sex in 2 more weeks (on V-day), so that will be exciting.
Jason has continued to apply to new jobs. His Houston interviewers never called back so eventually he called them to see if they had made a decision, but apparently they went on a hiring freeze. :( His interview with Galusha's IT went well, we guess, but they're not in a hurry to make a decision, so in a few more weeks they'll weed the list of applicants down and decide who to call for a second round of interviews. . . I haven't heard anything on my end.
He also found plans online to make a cat tree (since our little vermin snatchers are staring to scratch everything) and built that this last week. It's rough because we only had remnants of carpet to use on it, but we'll look into prices and probably replace that sometime to make it look a bit nicer. He's considering building one more with a few modifications to see if he can sell them. They don't cost nearly as much as CostCo/Petsmart would have you believe :) And ours is heavy, which is important to me since my bruiser cats always seemed to knock it over if it isn't. He did a great job and got a new tool out of the deal, so he was happy.
As for me, we're starting to ramp up into the busy season and that is a mixed blessing :) I've been getting through my work, although there's a lot to keep track of. Gotta start making my lists again. It feels good to crank out the work though rather than just sit on my hands and try not to waste time. I did my taxes too, and was disappointed to note that we owed for the first time. It was at the state level, and I didn't take into account the fact that Jason's earnings were in UT rather than ID, so that's a bit of a shame, but I learned my lesson. :)
I don't think I ever mentioned it, but our office moved into a new building. They built it specifically for us, and this last week we had a community open house to celebrate. Jeeze there were a lot of people here. I had to make appearances, couldn't handle just staying out there the whole time, so I disappeared into my office and wrote my paper for my class intermittently throughout the night. It was awesome though, several of our clients from Blackfoot (about 45 minutes away) came to see us. In addition the CEO came over from Helena to be there for the ribbon cutting. We had awesome catering by another of our clients, and got to gloat about how awesome our new offices are. I saw about 1/3 of the clients I work on for audits, and a lot of others I have met within the business community.
In addition I decided to make the leap. My goal was to publish a book before my birthday. My mom agreed to help me edit my book and get it ready. We passed that sucker back and forth dozens of times. She made edits, I made changes, then she edited again and changed it back to the way I'd had it :) (okay that didn't happen often, but when it did it made me laugh). The end result was much closer to a romance (it started as action), but I liked it. Then a bit ago I made the leap and published it through Amazon's self publishing methods. They'll let anyone put anything up there, so it's not as though this is 'breaking into the industry' but for me it was just a goal and something I've always wanted to do. Staring at my kindle-edition book is very cool. Now I just need to convince her to retire so she can be my full-time editor :) There's two more in the published book's series, and I have an entire series (just finished writing book 5) of sci-fi that I really like. . . ah, dreams.
Life is good. I've forced myself into a schedule requiring me to be in bed earlier, and I'm liking the results. I feel less exhausted (for obvious reasons), and even though I'm not getting everything on my goal/schedule list done every night I feel like I'm regaining a little stability and control over myself. Could also be that the sickness is gone and I have a little of my energy back, whatever the reason, I'll take it. :)
Jason joined me in my goal, so we've both been going to bed earlier and it's so much easier to deal with a 4am Kryton than when I've only had 3 hours of sleep. Now when it takes me an hour to get to sleep it's not that big a deal.
That's us. Healthy again (everyone had something within the last two weeks), happy again, and moving forward with faith.
The Flannery Clan had a good week. Alisabeth is doing well, so far as I can tell, in her schoolwork. She comes home with a spelling list each week and we went through them all without issues. She's also had some homework that she and Jason have done. We did have our first casualty though, apparently she checked out a book and can't remember what she did with it so she has to pay for it before they'll let her check out another one. :( She was very upset or 'scared' as she says. She's 'scared' about everything that she's unsure about.
Kryton is doing well. His "STOP" is very clear. :) He loves to be tickled, so he comes and we have tickle fights at least once a night. The problem is that he bites whenever he gets riled up. He's better most of the time and gives raspberries now instead of biting, but he still takes a good chunk out of the flesh whenever he gets too excited to control himself. He continues his love of reading and is doing a little better in the mornings. (The kids wakes up between 4 and 5. . . needless to say there's no one to respond to him at that time, so after screaming for about ten minutes he goes back to sleep until it's the real time to get up. We've reduced his naps down to 1 and sometimes he doesn't even get that one, but he still gets up that early no matter what :( This morning at 5:30 I handed him a bowl of cereal, a bottle of milk and turned on Baby Einstein in the downstairs living room. Terrible, I know, but that's the way we roll sometimes.)
Tiny creature, as mentioned in the opening line, is growing on schedule so far. Kicking up a storm inside my belly and overall enjoying life. I lent out my maternity clothes to a friend a while back and still haven't retrieved them, so he's been getting a little squished as my belly begins to expand beyond the normal size of my pants, but she puts up with it well. We find out the sex in 2 more weeks (on V-day), so that will be exciting.
Jason has continued to apply to new jobs. His Houston interviewers never called back so eventually he called them to see if they had made a decision, but apparently they went on a hiring freeze. :( His interview with Galusha's IT went well, we guess, but they're not in a hurry to make a decision, so in a few more weeks they'll weed the list of applicants down and decide who to call for a second round of interviews. . . I haven't heard anything on my end.
He also found plans online to make a cat tree (since our little vermin snatchers are staring to scratch everything) and built that this last week. It's rough because we only had remnants of carpet to use on it, but we'll look into prices and probably replace that sometime to make it look a bit nicer. He's considering building one more with a few modifications to see if he can sell them. They don't cost nearly as much as CostCo/Petsmart would have you believe :) And ours is heavy, which is important to me since my bruiser cats always seemed to knock it over if it isn't. He did a great job and got a new tool out of the deal, so he was happy.
As for me, we're starting to ramp up into the busy season and that is a mixed blessing :) I've been getting through my work, although there's a lot to keep track of. Gotta start making my lists again. It feels good to crank out the work though rather than just sit on my hands and try not to waste time. I did my taxes too, and was disappointed to note that we owed for the first time. It was at the state level, and I didn't take into account the fact that Jason's earnings were in UT rather than ID, so that's a bit of a shame, but I learned my lesson. :)
I don't think I ever mentioned it, but our office moved into a new building. They built it specifically for us, and this last week we had a community open house to celebrate. Jeeze there were a lot of people here. I had to make appearances, couldn't handle just staying out there the whole time, so I disappeared into my office and wrote my paper for my class intermittently throughout the night. It was awesome though, several of our clients from Blackfoot (about 45 minutes away) came to see us. In addition the CEO came over from Helena to be there for the ribbon cutting. We had awesome catering by another of our clients, and got to gloat about how awesome our new offices are. I saw about 1/3 of the clients I work on for audits, and a lot of others I have met within the business community.
In addition I decided to make the leap. My goal was to publish a book before my birthday. My mom agreed to help me edit my book and get it ready. We passed that sucker back and forth dozens of times. She made edits, I made changes, then she edited again and changed it back to the way I'd had it :) (okay that didn't happen often, but when it did it made me laugh). The end result was much closer to a romance (it started as action), but I liked it. Then a bit ago I made the leap and published it through Amazon's self publishing methods. They'll let anyone put anything up there, so it's not as though this is 'breaking into the industry' but for me it was just a goal and something I've always wanted to do. Staring at my kindle-edition book is very cool. Now I just need to convince her to retire so she can be my full-time editor :) There's two more in the published book's series, and I have an entire series (just finished writing book 5) of sci-fi that I really like. . . ah, dreams.
Life is good. I've forced myself into a schedule requiring me to be in bed earlier, and I'm liking the results. I feel less exhausted (for obvious reasons), and even though I'm not getting everything on my goal/schedule list done every night I feel like I'm regaining a little stability and control over myself. Could also be that the sickness is gone and I have a little of my energy back, whatever the reason, I'll take it. :)
Jason joined me in my goal, so we've both been going to bed earlier and it's so much easier to deal with a 4am Kryton than when I've only had 3 hours of sleep. Now when it takes me an hour to get to sleep it's not that big a deal.
That's us. Healthy again (everyone had something within the last two weeks), happy again, and moving forward with faith.
Sunday, January 19, 2014
Tides of Change OR The Ides of March :O
So, what changes have the Flannery Clan had in the last however many months it's been since I last posted? PLENTY!
You know about the miracle pregnancy. Well, with a few more minor bumps in the sickness road, we're apparently over the hump and doing well. At my last appointment the heartbeat was strong, and I can feel the little parasite flipping and flopping occasionally. (Causes me strange heat flashes too, just like Kryton did).
The next member up? Kryton is doing well. He's chattering up a storm but we've got about five recognizeable words so far. (By five I mean those moments where he stops talking and is actively doing something routine and says it twice in a slightly slurred clear voice that all toddlers have when they're first learning to speak. I think I've heard thank you. I think I've heard heart (he loves to read and that's one of the shapes in his book). I think I've heard more. I know I've heard "uh-oh" (the old favorite), and "no" (aimed at the kitties mostly when they circle him at meal times like little sharks).
Did I mention he loves to read? This little dude will sit through a whole book (well, a whole kids book) and look at pictures and flip through pages. When we take a shower in the mornings that is our routine. I wash everyone down and then (when I was still feeling icky sicky) I would sit on my shower chair and hold him in my lap and read his shower book for a moment or two while I regained enough strength to dry us both off and keep going. It's a good thing he has a strong bladder cuz at that point it would take me a good twenty minutes to get enough strength to put a diaper on that kid. :)
He also solved the riddle of the stairs a few weeks back. Prior to that moment he would stand at the top (after climibing all the way up and then realizing no one was up there with him), and scream and scream until I came and carried him back down. Then one day he finally got bored with that I guess because he turned right around and scooted legs first down the stairs. Hasn't had a problem since. He loves the stairs now. :)
He also loves soft things. He got a new blanket for Christmas from Nana and when he's even slightly tired and can find it he will cuddle with it and lay all over it trying to soak up it's softness. He does the same thing to the kittens if they're not smart enough to run. We hear their squeels of discomfort as he literally lays on top of them and have to come running to the rescue. . . and yet they still haven't learned. Apparently we didn't pick the brightest in the bunch.
Next up is Alisabeth. Wow has she had some fun changes recently. Knowing that we were having a fifth, and wanting to pay this one off before it was born rather than a year later, we took a look at our finances and made some hard choices. One of those was to take her out of her private kindergarten and put her into public school. Since we were going to throw her through the loop anyway we decided to do it right. We contacted her new school and asked them to perform an assessment to move her up to the first grade starting in January. The process was a little stressful for me, I'll tell you. First they had to test her, and though I wasn't worried about her ability to do well on the tests, I was quite worried about her willingness to participate. She pendulums all the time from excitement at things to utter boredom and I knew she would do that during this testing process. I did what I could to gently remind her that this was a serious thing and she needed to focus, but let's be honest, she had two solid hours of testing three different times. Any six year old would be dying. She was valiant though.
At the end Jason and I met with a panel from the school including the psychologist who had performed the tests, the school councilor, and all three of the teachers involved (1 kinder and 2 first grade). We went over her scores which put her smack dab average with other first graders, and then discussed her emotional readiness for first grade. It helps that she was already attending all day school. After a very lengthy discussion everyone weighed in with the concerns being mostly theoretical and related to later on in her education career. Only one teacher worried that she might struggle now because of her energy. Then it was the principal's turn and she made a great suggestion that instantly relieved both my reservations and my concerns. She suggested that we make this a trial period for her. That Alisabeth finish out first grade and then we re-look at how she did and whether we still feel like she was progressing at the rate she needed to and filling in the holes in her education. If not she would repeat first grade, if so then she would continue in the new grade level. I loved that idea because I am confident that she CAN do it, but not so confident that she WILL. The emotional part was the part that worried me. So if she chooses not to push herself and excel, then we'll know within the next few months and we'll drop her back with her age group and call it good. She won't have lost anything, and we'll have gained something from the experience. We discussed how she would feel if she does have to be held back and to be honest I don't think she'd know or care really, unless it's pointed out to her by others of course, but no one in her class would even be aware so I don't really see an issue there. I'll keep you updated :)
So far her first day was "terrible." She "cried all day" and "didn't like her teacher."
We discussed why the other children were staring at her (because they were interested in her, she was new and they were excited to know about who she was).
The next day was "fun." She "loves her teacher" and "got in trouble." All within the same two sentences :)
By the end of the week she was excited at the work they were doing and what she was learning. Although I almost gagged when I saw her phonics worksheets :)
Next on the list is Jason Lee. That boy has also been though quite a transition. He finished up working for the LDS church (his second internship) in late December. They actually let him stop working a week early which meant he got to be home for Christmas and New Years, both of which he was scheduled to miss. We were delighted except when the paychecks didn't arrive :)
Now he's taken back his role as stay at home dad for a while. During the testing period for Alisabeth we kept her out of school until we could decide which class she would end up in (I thought one major change was enough), so he did homeschooling with her. Now he does at least one activity with her each day when she gets home from school in the afternoon. We also instituted a new punishment since nothing else is working, so when she's really struggling with whatever it is she gets to write twenty-five lines. It may sound a little mean, but both Jason and I went through it, so we know what it's like, and she absolutely hates it, so maybe it'll get the point across. Plus it's better than screaming, and it helps her handwriting skills. :)
He also applies for at least 4 jobs a week. We've branched out across the nation in search of work. Recently he's finally getting calls back. The two top runners right now are my own company, Galusha, Higgins, and Galusha, and a company in Houston TX. Jason has two major (and different) parts of CIT that he enjoys. One is the hands on network administration where he watches over and takes care of a network or company. The other is security analysis where he watches for external attacks and would eventually begin to learn to fight them and track them back to their source. He did the second one with the LDS church and really enjoyed it. That's what the Houston company does too, so he's excited about their call and the second interview he had last week. Galusha, on the other hand, is offering him the position of Network Administrator where he would be in charge of our entire firm's networks (software and hardware). He has that interview this coming Tuesday.
There are a few other fish on the line as well, but so far none seem really interested. . . he'll keep applying though, until he hears for sure from someone. :) Four months and counting to get that figured out or he gets to go apply at Lowes.
Which brings us to me. I think I already mentioned this in the last post, but just in case, I'll become a full-time stay at home mother in June or July or whenever this kid pops out. I gave my notice. Three is too expensive to keep in day-care, and it's just time. I'm done trying to fight my own internal conflicts of wanting to advance my career and knowing that doing so will require me to sacrifice even more of my time with my family than I already do. (in the short term at least). I also have a lot of dreams and goals that have been pushed to the back burner for quite a while that I'd like to start making a reality. Some of those will still be on the back burner since I'll have two kids under two to take care of, but there are other areas (such as living the very basic principles of my religion) that have slipped a lot in the last few years and this will reduce my available excuses. I have goals set for once I'm home and I have plans. We'll see how many make it to fruition :) I'm excited and terrified at the same time. The corporate world is much easier in a lot of ways. I only have to take crap while I'm there. Once I leave I can let it drop off my shoulders and worry about picking it back up the next day. As a stay-at-home mom I'll have to find better ways to manage that stress so that it doesn't get a chance to overwhelm. I'll have to learn what it means to be a full-time mom again. I did it once, and struggled a lot, but not with two, and that's the part that terrifies me. A needy baby, and a jealous toddler . . . I'll be fine though :)
Other changes for me, well things I haven't mentioned here at least, is that I sit on two boards now. I currently sit on them as a representative of my firm, but at least one of them has mentioned that they don't want to see me go regardless of whether I'm employed or not. It's nice to feel wanted. :)
I'm also starting up some water arobics classes for mothers-to-be that are put on by the hospital where I will be giving birth. They have yoga or water arobics for free to all mothers-to-be, but I didn't take advantage of it last time because I was too busy.
This time I've slowed way down. I told my bosses that I won't be working more than 40 during tax season, and while that fills me with guilt, I know it's necessary. I'm trying to hurry and get in the class I needed so that the state will grant me my CPA, trying to be a mom, trying to be pregnant, and trying to be more of a part of my community. That with a full load tax season isn't possible. Plus if Jason does get a job then I'll probably be a single parent for a while until tax season ends and Alisabeth finishes the school year before we move to join him wherever he may be, so we figured we'd plan ahead on that one too.
All in all, we're trying to get our lives in order as much as possible to be prepared for what we know/think is coming and though we can't ever be 100% we learn a little from every experience we've had in the past and use it to get a jump on the future if we can.
In the interim we've got a couple of really good friends and we continue to invite couples and families over for dinner as often as we can to get to know more. Every Friday and Saturday night we have game nights. Friday is D&D 4.0 with a REALLY fun couple who are a lot like us. Jason and the husband have a lot in common and every time we talk we find more and more. They've brought a few of their friends to join in so we often have some fairly rousing games and just enjoy living in a fantasy world where you can jump off cliffs and use your magic ring so you won't get hurt, or can take a chance and charge your carts into a known trap and if everyone dies it'll be okay because it's all paper and pencils anyway.
Then Saturday night we do something similar with a different couple who we've known most of our married lives. They are also great and the intelligent conversation and inane, often arcane and unnecessary, information that we share with each other keeps everyone entertained for hours. In between we find time to kill whatever evil creatures are trying to destroy the innocent and subvert our goals. Again we get to live in fantasy for a few hours and just release constraints to make up whatever comes to mind and go with it.
The relaxation I get from this is probably akin to yoga for others. :)
God has been incredibly good to us. He's surrounded us with a beautiful, loving community that almost makes me feel uncomfortable with the level of concern and caring they have for us personally. He's given us a home that couldn't be more perfect for us. Quirky, yet stable enough to depend upon. He's given us a congregation of people who care, and show that they care by being more than willing to step up and help when we need it (hopefully we're doing the same). He's given us schools, and experiences, and people that fill our lives with joy and learning. Although I dread the uncertainty of knowing where we'll be in six months, I can't complain about where we are, or where we've been. I also can't complain too loudly about what's coming because we know that His hand will lead us, and that wherever we end up, we'll be able to be a part of His Plan, which is really all that matters anyway.
Thanks for sharing a few moments. Hope it was worth your time.
Saturday, November 23, 2013
Miracle Baby
I would feel ungrateful if I didn't shout this out to the world, especially with our recent reminders about gratitude and how important it is to share our gratitude. So technically, this blog is dedicated to my Heavenly Father, but I figured it would be nice to share the news with my family and friends too. :)
First thing's first. Ever since having Kryton more than a year ago I've had complications. Continual bleeding, and lots of other things. I've been in and out of the doctor including having a minor surgery in May.
Now I need to preface this with 1 fact. My husband used his Priesthood to give me a blessing before the first surgery. In it I was told that the Lord was completely aware of me and that through everything I would go through I would see His hand and know that He was in control.
After the surgery we had a few more visits but I'd pretty much resigned myself to whatever my body decided to do, then I had the day of pain. I was out of the office working at a client. I had a little discomfort and went to the restroom where I proceeded to die. It was worse than a gall bladder attack. Worse than natural labor. Worse than going from a 1 to a 10 in 1 hr. I thought I was going to throw up, but I couldn't move to do it. I was sweating because of the intensity of the pain. When I finally could move again I just lay on the bathroom floor for about fifteen minutes. From there I moved cautiously to a couch just outside the bathroom and waited another ten minutes. From there I made it all the way back to my team and then lay on the ground behind our little area and out of sight for another fifteen minutes. My boss said I was as white as a sheet. She was really worried.
The next day I scheduled an appointment with the doctor. I was still tender but I'd had no other similar pain. Still, that's not something I was willing to ignore. So I went and they pushed around on my guts and wanted to just pass it off as a gastrointestinal thing. That wasn't enough for me. I kept insisting on more and the doctor finally authorized an ultrasound.
The ultrasound happened soon after and while in there the technician saw an abnormal amount of blood being pumped into one spot of my uterus. In addition there was a large section of abnormal coloring. It was obvious. Even I could see it. H
er concern, although very well hidden, was obvious as well. She took the measurements, did some excruciating things to try to make sure it wasn't connected to the ovary, and ordered a pregnancy test just in case it was a tubal pregnancy.
It wasn't.
So the doctor ran blood tests to verify that it wasn't cancerous and we scheduled a surgery to remove the unknown mass.
The surgery ended up getting pushed out a bit and didn't happen till about 6 weeks after that ultrasound appointment.
Now for the miracles.
I prepped myself for the surgery. I had people fasting and praying for me, I was a little worried because there was a decent chance that the doctor would have to take the ovary as well. Jason took time off work and together we dropped the kids off at preschool and then spent the day together until we needed to go in to the hospital.
We got in, got prepped, and then the nurse came over and started getting me all ready to get fluidized (prepping me for surgery). As she lifts my arm to put in the needle another nurse comes in the room. She glances toward me and then says, in a slightly harried voice, "I need to talk to you."
My nurse almost continued with the injection, but after a second she put the needle down and followed her co-worker from the room. They were gone for 20 minutes while Jason and I laughed.
When she came back she said that the doctor was on his way and needed to speak to me before we proceeded. We waited another 20 minutes, now getting just a little annoyed with the fact that things weren't moving forward. Then the doctor appeared with a strange grin. "We can't do the surgery today. You're pregnant."
"Wha?"
"Your pregnancy test came back positive, so we can't do the surgery."
"But you just took a pregnancy test at our last visit?"
"Yes, and it was negative."
Let me pause here and explain why this is a miracle: I mentioned complications. One of these complications is that my body was continually shedding the uterin lining. Pregnancy under those circumstances was thought nearly impossible. On top of that the 5 years between Kryton and Alisabeth suggested that we were going to have a tough time with kids in general. Let's add into this story the fact that Jason is gone for 1/2 the week every week, and I was too shocked to speak.
The doctor congratulated us, but also gave us the warning: The size of the mass that we had seen suggested there would be complications. It could continue to grow and wrap around the fallopian tube, it could damage the baby or hamper it's growth. There was no way to tell, but he was optimistic and said that if the baby survived to the second trimester he would be able to perform surgery at that time and remove it without endangering the baby too much.
We went home thrilled, terrified, excited, and unsure about the future. At the same time we were too excited to hide our news. We tried to share the good and the bad so a miscarriage wouldn't be unexpected, but we couldn't stop ourselves from sharing.
I scheduled an appointment for the next week, which got delayed for two weeks, and when we finally got in there I was anxious to look at the ultrasound. Had the mass grown? With a pregnancy I knew nutrients would be shunted to the uterus and that would only serve to feed it right? I had nightmares of seeing my tiny jelly bean next to a huge monster blob. So the ultrasound technician gets started (not remembering me and my situation). Finds that baby without too many problems and snaps a few pictures. Meanwhile I'm searching the image for the discolored mass. She checks out the right ovary and then the left, no issues.
"I'm going to have to press just a bit, I didn't get a good image on that one."
"That's alright, nothing you do can be as painful as what you did last time." I joke.
"What?"
"Last time, there was a mass and you wanted to see if it was connected to the ovary. . . "
Her eyes widen. "That was you? I remember that! I have a picture of it on my board to follow up. Did you get the surgery?"
"No, I'm pregnant so they couldn't do it."
She immediately shifts focus and begins searching for it. We searched everywhere spinning the camera in a 360 degree view. Got to see the baby a bit more, but no mass. Nothing. No discoloration, no additional blood flow except to my little grain of rice. The mass was completely gone.
Puzzled she shot a few pics of the same area, verifying it against the previous images, and then packed up and shook her head in amazement.
The doctor did the same. He says we'll check again in a few months just to make sure it's really gone.
Jason's co-workers said the baby got hungry. I'm okay with that.
If that were it, it would be miracle enough, but the Lord's hand is still working, and I have more to be amazed and grateful for.
I'm fairly certain it's a girl already. Why? Because of how sick I started to get. With Alisabeth I spent the first four months lying in my chair at work and just wishing I could die. With Kryton I was tired but that was the worst of it. Soon after the doctor's appointment I hit the six week mark for the baby and started to feel like crap. I had to eat every 2 hours or less. At first it was just 'had to eat.' that soon transitioned to "what can I eat?" Everything tasted disgusting or made me want to throw up. I could eat two or three bites and then wouldn't be able to get anything else down. On top of that I got a 24 hour stomach virus and nearly died. Even water wouldn't stay down.
Meanwhile remember that Jason is only here 3 days out of the week. Thank goodness we had some wonderful friends staying with us. They put Alisabeth to bed a few times because I was long gone and she was still bouncing around the house at 9 at night.
But they moved out last week.
So I came home, tried to make food for all of us. Managed to feed Kryton, but couldn't feed myself. Put everyone to bed and tried to eat again. In total I got down 4 small bites of food before I had to go lie down. As I lay there in the darkness wondering if I would survive the night (yes, I'm dramatic, but nausea, hunger and general feeling like crap does that to me). I started to pray. I begged for help. I asked that I might have the strength to endure and be able to eat and function normally. My children needed me, and I knew the baby wouldn't survive long. (I've already lost 10 lbs and it's only been two weeks).
I went to sleep soon after.
When I woke up at 6:30 to hear my son screaming I rolled out of bed awake. I got him up, we ate a small breakfast together and then Alisabeth woke up and we all started our morning routine. I went to work where I ate two meals and felt fine all day. I came home and made dinner without a problem. I woke up the next morning and repeated the pattern. Sickness completely gone. Completely. I am still tired, and I still need to eat at least once in 4 hours, but this is my fourth day and He's still blessing me.
I can't say I'm the most deserving. I need to improve myself, but I can say that Jason's blessing has repeated itself over and over throughout this experience. I have definitely seen His hand. I can feel His presence in everything that has happened. I don't exactly understand the reasons for all of it, but I can't shake the feeling that everything was intricately connected and necessary to bring this little grain of rice into our lives.
Each of our children has been a little miracle. Each has been a divine gift. This baby, however, has been the most blatant one so far. I hope that I can prove myself worthy of the abundance He has given us. To be surrounded by amazing family and friends; lavished with riches beyond my comprehension; protected at every turn; blessed with abundance and the charity of others; granted the opportunity to live in a free world where I can express my views (and let others express theirs and both be okay); a place where we are daily granted the peace to know that He is watching our future carefully; to have jobs that not only support, but give us freedom to enjoy the riches of the earth and our surroundings; to have Temples; to know of God. All of these blessings and more astound me. How can I be so lucky? How can I ever give back enough to show Him how much I appreciate it?
All I can do is pass it on. I try to. I try hard to show His hand to everyone around me; to give back. I hope my little grain of rice, and our other beautiful children will learn and know this as well. To God I give my thanks. To my family and friends I leave my testimony that He's working for you too. I know it's true. He'll prove it to you too, if you look for Him. This is my miracle.
First thing's first. Ever since having Kryton more than a year ago I've had complications. Continual bleeding, and lots of other things. I've been in and out of the doctor including having a minor surgery in May.
Now I need to preface this with 1 fact. My husband used his Priesthood to give me a blessing before the first surgery. In it I was told that the Lord was completely aware of me and that through everything I would go through I would see His hand and know that He was in control.
After the surgery we had a few more visits but I'd pretty much resigned myself to whatever my body decided to do, then I had the day of pain. I was out of the office working at a client. I had a little discomfort and went to the restroom where I proceeded to die. It was worse than a gall bladder attack. Worse than natural labor. Worse than going from a 1 to a 10 in 1 hr. I thought I was going to throw up, but I couldn't move to do it. I was sweating because of the intensity of the pain. When I finally could move again I just lay on the bathroom floor for about fifteen minutes. From there I moved cautiously to a couch just outside the bathroom and waited another ten minutes. From there I made it all the way back to my team and then lay on the ground behind our little area and out of sight for another fifteen minutes. My boss said I was as white as a sheet. She was really worried.
The next day I scheduled an appointment with the doctor. I was still tender but I'd had no other similar pain. Still, that's not something I was willing to ignore. So I went and they pushed around on my guts and wanted to just pass it off as a gastrointestinal thing. That wasn't enough for me. I kept insisting on more and the doctor finally authorized an ultrasound.
The ultrasound happened soon after and while in there the technician saw an abnormal amount of blood being pumped into one spot of my uterus. In addition there was a large section of abnormal coloring. It was obvious. Even I could see it. H
er concern, although very well hidden, was obvious as well. She took the measurements, did some excruciating things to try to make sure it wasn't connected to the ovary, and ordered a pregnancy test just in case it was a tubal pregnancy.
It wasn't.
So the doctor ran blood tests to verify that it wasn't cancerous and we scheduled a surgery to remove the unknown mass.
The surgery ended up getting pushed out a bit and didn't happen till about 6 weeks after that ultrasound appointment.
Now for the miracles.
I prepped myself for the surgery. I had people fasting and praying for me, I was a little worried because there was a decent chance that the doctor would have to take the ovary as well. Jason took time off work and together we dropped the kids off at preschool and then spent the day together until we needed to go in to the hospital.
We got in, got prepped, and then the nurse came over and started getting me all ready to get fluidized (prepping me for surgery). As she lifts my arm to put in the needle another nurse comes in the room. She glances toward me and then says, in a slightly harried voice, "I need to talk to you."
My nurse almost continued with the injection, but after a second she put the needle down and followed her co-worker from the room. They were gone for 20 minutes while Jason and I laughed.
When she came back she said that the doctor was on his way and needed to speak to me before we proceeded. We waited another 20 minutes, now getting just a little annoyed with the fact that things weren't moving forward. Then the doctor appeared with a strange grin. "We can't do the surgery today. You're pregnant."
"Wha?"
"Your pregnancy test came back positive, so we can't do the surgery."
"But you just took a pregnancy test at our last visit?"
"Yes, and it was negative."
Let me pause here and explain why this is a miracle: I mentioned complications. One of these complications is that my body was continually shedding the uterin lining. Pregnancy under those circumstances was thought nearly impossible. On top of that the 5 years between Kryton and Alisabeth suggested that we were going to have a tough time with kids in general. Let's add into this story the fact that Jason is gone for 1/2 the week every week, and I was too shocked to speak.
The doctor congratulated us, but also gave us the warning: The size of the mass that we had seen suggested there would be complications. It could continue to grow and wrap around the fallopian tube, it could damage the baby or hamper it's growth. There was no way to tell, but he was optimistic and said that if the baby survived to the second trimester he would be able to perform surgery at that time and remove it without endangering the baby too much.
We went home thrilled, terrified, excited, and unsure about the future. At the same time we were too excited to hide our news. We tried to share the good and the bad so a miscarriage wouldn't be unexpected, but we couldn't stop ourselves from sharing.
I scheduled an appointment for the next week, which got delayed for two weeks, and when we finally got in there I was anxious to look at the ultrasound. Had the mass grown? With a pregnancy I knew nutrients would be shunted to the uterus and that would only serve to feed it right? I had nightmares of seeing my tiny jelly bean next to a huge monster blob. So the ultrasound technician gets started (not remembering me and my situation). Finds that baby without too many problems and snaps a few pictures. Meanwhile I'm searching the image for the discolored mass. She checks out the right ovary and then the left, no issues.
"I'm going to have to press just a bit, I didn't get a good image on that one."
"That's alright, nothing you do can be as painful as what you did last time." I joke.
"What?"
"Last time, there was a mass and you wanted to see if it was connected to the ovary. . . "
Her eyes widen. "That was you? I remember that! I have a picture of it on my board to follow up. Did you get the surgery?""No, I'm pregnant so they couldn't do it."
She immediately shifts focus and begins searching for it. We searched everywhere spinning the camera in a 360 degree view. Got to see the baby a bit more, but no mass. Nothing. No discoloration, no additional blood flow except to my little grain of rice. The mass was completely gone.
Puzzled she shot a few pics of the same area, verifying it against the previous images, and then packed up and shook her head in amazement.
The doctor did the same. He says we'll check again in a few months just to make sure it's really gone.
Jason's co-workers said the baby got hungry. I'm okay with that.
If that were it, it would be miracle enough, but the Lord's hand is still working, and I have more to be amazed and grateful for.
I'm fairly certain it's a girl already. Why? Because of how sick I started to get. With Alisabeth I spent the first four months lying in my chair at work and just wishing I could die. With Kryton I was tired but that was the worst of it. Soon after the doctor's appointment I hit the six week mark for the baby and started to feel like crap. I had to eat every 2 hours or less. At first it was just 'had to eat.' that soon transitioned to "what can I eat?" Everything tasted disgusting or made me want to throw up. I could eat two or three bites and then wouldn't be able to get anything else down. On top of that I got a 24 hour stomach virus and nearly died. Even water wouldn't stay down.
Meanwhile remember that Jason is only here 3 days out of the week. Thank goodness we had some wonderful friends staying with us. They put Alisabeth to bed a few times because I was long gone and she was still bouncing around the house at 9 at night.
But they moved out last week.
So I came home, tried to make food for all of us. Managed to feed Kryton, but couldn't feed myself. Put everyone to bed and tried to eat again. In total I got down 4 small bites of food before I had to go lie down. As I lay there in the darkness wondering if I would survive the night (yes, I'm dramatic, but nausea, hunger and general feeling like crap does that to me). I started to pray. I begged for help. I asked that I might have the strength to endure and be able to eat and function normally. My children needed me, and I knew the baby wouldn't survive long. (I've already lost 10 lbs and it's only been two weeks).
I went to sleep soon after.
When I woke up at 6:30 to hear my son screaming I rolled out of bed awake. I got him up, we ate a small breakfast together and then Alisabeth woke up and we all started our morning routine. I went to work where I ate two meals and felt fine all day. I came home and made dinner without a problem. I woke up the next morning and repeated the pattern. Sickness completely gone. Completely. I am still tired, and I still need to eat at least once in 4 hours, but this is my fourth day and He's still blessing me.
I can't say I'm the most deserving. I need to improve myself, but I can say that Jason's blessing has repeated itself over and over throughout this experience. I have definitely seen His hand. I can feel His presence in everything that has happened. I don't exactly understand the reasons for all of it, but I can't shake the feeling that everything was intricately connected and necessary to bring this little grain of rice into our lives.
Each of our children has been a little miracle. Each has been a divine gift. This baby, however, has been the most blatant one so far. I hope that I can prove myself worthy of the abundance He has given us. To be surrounded by amazing family and friends; lavished with riches beyond my comprehension; protected at every turn; blessed with abundance and the charity of others; granted the opportunity to live in a free world where I can express my views (and let others express theirs and both be okay); a place where we are daily granted the peace to know that He is watching our future carefully; to have jobs that not only support, but give us freedom to enjoy the riches of the earth and our surroundings; to have Temples; to know of God. All of these blessings and more astound me. How can I be so lucky? How can I ever give back enough to show Him how much I appreciate it?
All I can do is pass it on. I try to. I try hard to show His hand to everyone around me; to give back. I hope my little grain of rice, and our other beautiful children will learn and know this as well. To God I give my thanks. To my family and friends I leave my testimony that He's working for you too. I know it's true. He'll prove it to you too, if you look for Him. This is my miracle.
Friday, September 14, 2012
Update
I thought it best to get up early and update the world since it's been a while and the due date is approaching fast.
We'll start with Alisabeth - after a seven week break home with daddy she is back in preschool and excited as ever. Friends are still there, although most of them are in kindergarten (as I was informed by one yesterday morning). Still she has plenty to keep her entertained. They're working on shapes and colors as well as letters. The only real challenge is tracing her letters because Alisabeth doesn't like to trace them. She'd rather write words.
We tried to get the schools around here to test her into kindergarten because she's matured a lot this summer but they wouldn't even consider it. They say she has to be in kindergarten before they'll do any sort of placement tests. . . whatever, we're not worried, I just hope she doesn't lose the love of learning.
School with daddy focused a lot on math because that's the subject she was really interested in, so she can count by twos and threes and she can do multiples as well (up to three). She also learned counting by tens and by fives (although fives is still a bit of a struggle and she needs reminders occasionally). We're delighted that she's excelling so much. Now when we play Yahtzee together she'll add up her dice scores for us in her head and then proudly call them out. It's pretty darn amazing.
She's also so excited to be a big sister. To help count down we've been picking a present a week for the last 9 weeks. She gets one and then she chooses one for baby Kryton. So far he's received a puzzle he won't be able to do for many months, butt paste, and some squeaky toys and books that can be taken into the bath.Alisabeth, on the other hand, has gotten some sun catchers to paint, a sand art kit, puzzles, coloring books, a yo-yo, games and still has more to come. (We generally chose crafty items so that we're "forced" to do them with her, that way she gets her time with us and gets to do fun art projects).
Baby Kryton is doing well too. He's growing like a lump on a log, literally, and eating me out of house and home. He wants to be big. I can tell because in the last week or so my appetite has increased dramatically. So I'm trying to accommodate him and trying to select things that aren't going to make us both blow up :)
Also in the last two weeks I've begun retaining water. I can't get the swelling in my legs and feet to go down no matter what I've tried, but yesterday I received the advice to try lime or lemon water so that's my next step and we'll see how it works. For my sake I hope it does :)
Kryton is measuring perfectly so far, no changes to his due date. I've had tons of false contractions though so we'll see if he doesn't decide to come early.
Jason is ramping up the new semester with style. He surprised himself yesterday by being ahead in several of his classes and was able to just sit back and listen. In another he's already got a good group together and they've helped each other already on the first project the teacher assigned.
Also on the up and up he received an email from the college about internships opening up with the city of Rexburg (where he goes to school anyway). He applied by email. The manager emailed him and the rest of the applicants back, told them they had at least 3 positions and that they were going to do a giant orientation, meanwhile he wanted them to give answers to five short questions and send in their resumes.
Apparently Jason was one of the first to answer because almost immediately he got a reply from the man asking for more details. The manager, Kelvin, is from AZ (the Mesa area) and seemed really excited to hear about Jason's experiences. He went down Jason's resume asking specific questions about items he's listed including which teachers he had taken certain classes from and about his service with the food bank of the church. It was pretty neat. I also answered one of the questions for him, it said: "Tell me one thing about you that will help me to know you before I meet you." After several rather dull responses from Jason I gave him one and he used that instead (by dull I mean a 'boring' description of himself). I said "Please give my husband a job because he always needs a project and my house has been overhauled twice this summer."
Kelvin liked the comment, and even read it in front of the group when they did the mass orientation. Jason has an interview scheduled today at 4:30. We're excited to see if he can get the job because a) experience and b) he needs the internship for school and so far we had been struggling to find anything in the area.
So overall things are looking up for him, even though it means a little less time with him we're all really excited for the opportunity.
And I am going strong as well. Audit season (the pile-up of school district audits at least) is slowly winding down. I was in charge of three audits and I tried my best to keep on top of everything. As a result Judy said that I really helped reduce her stress level and she feels pretty good about where we are. The other in-charge, Ryan, and I have worked together a lot to understand and improve our auditing. We were able to cut out a little unnecessary work and tried to streamline everything else. In some instances it worked, in others it failed miserably but I think we've both learned an incredible amount and I know I'll be better next year.
I also saw one of the business managers at the store yesterday. Ryan was in charge of hers and she asked why I hadn't been there. I pointed to my oversized belly as my excuse but promised I would be part of the team next year. She seemed mollified but said she had missed me and wanted me to let her know when the baby arrived. It was nice to feel wanted :)
I've finished writing another book and it's been read and approved for story-line by a handful of friends. Now I just need one of my english major friends to actually finish the english editing and then I think I'm going to turn it in to a publisher again and see what happens. I could also self-publish it through Amazon, apparently, but I'm not that confident yet :)
And as for the CPA. . . yeah, well I still have the hardest one done, but I keep sliding right underneath the pass/fail line on the rest so I'm still studying and trying. I started a competition with Ryan so we're both going to try to be done with it by the end of tax season next year. We'll see how that goes. We're both at roughly the same level (study-wise) so it's doable, it's just a matter of finding the time to study.
We've been showered by friends and help and it's been wonderful. We've also been showered by blessings. Our garden is still growing, if the frost doesn't hit too soon, and our hens are finally laying eggs. The eggs are adorably tiny, but they're good. Only two a day so far, but we're thinking we might be missing the other two because for a little while we were getting three. . . so where the other two girls are laying I don't know, but I'm sure we'll find out sometimes soon. :(
Our home is wonderful, still. We're actually getting ready to replace the stairs. When the man originally came and gave us the estimate he said he was so backed up he wouldn't be able to come until late October, but now he's scheduled for the 28th of September so hold on a little longer Kryton :)
The replacement of the stairs is in response to two things, one we removed the carpet and noted that two or three steps were split. The splits are along the length, so they aren't going to cause too much of a problem yet but they sure cause a lot of squeaking, and they're likely to cause issues later. Secondly the steps are narrow and all of us have fallen down them at least once (Only once for me, more than that for the other two) plus a few guests have had issues, so we're going to widen the step base and shorten the height. This will push them out a few feet, but we have the room to spare so we may as well use it.
Jason's going to do the demolition with his friends to save money there and he's also going to purchase the supplies according to the guy's list because apparently he charges an extra fee if he has to do that himself (that part bothers me because it wasn't in the quote, but Jason already agreed so I can't argue with him). Besides I'm trying really hard not to argue with anyone because I know most of my irritation is probably due to hormones rather than rational issues :)
It should be a blast!
Well, you're as up to date as I can get you. Thanks!
We'll start with Alisabeth - after a seven week break home with daddy she is back in preschool and excited as ever. Friends are still there, although most of them are in kindergarten (as I was informed by one yesterday morning). Still she has plenty to keep her entertained. They're working on shapes and colors as well as letters. The only real challenge is tracing her letters because Alisabeth doesn't like to trace them. She'd rather write words.
We tried to get the schools around here to test her into kindergarten because she's matured a lot this summer but they wouldn't even consider it. They say she has to be in kindergarten before they'll do any sort of placement tests. . . whatever, we're not worried, I just hope she doesn't lose the love of learning.
School with daddy focused a lot on math because that's the subject she was really interested in, so she can count by twos and threes and she can do multiples as well (up to three). She also learned counting by tens and by fives (although fives is still a bit of a struggle and she needs reminders occasionally). We're delighted that she's excelling so much. Now when we play Yahtzee together she'll add up her dice scores for us in her head and then proudly call them out. It's pretty darn amazing.
She's also so excited to be a big sister. To help count down we've been picking a present a week for the last 9 weeks. She gets one and then she chooses one for baby Kryton. So far he's received a puzzle he won't be able to do for many months, butt paste, and some squeaky toys and books that can be taken into the bath.Alisabeth, on the other hand, has gotten some sun catchers to paint, a sand art kit, puzzles, coloring books, a yo-yo, games and still has more to come. (We generally chose crafty items so that we're "forced" to do them with her, that way she gets her time with us and gets to do fun art projects).
Baby Kryton is doing well too. He's growing like a lump on a log, literally, and eating me out of house and home. He wants to be big. I can tell because in the last week or so my appetite has increased dramatically. So I'm trying to accommodate him and trying to select things that aren't going to make us both blow up :)
Also in the last two weeks I've begun retaining water. I can't get the swelling in my legs and feet to go down no matter what I've tried, but yesterday I received the advice to try lime or lemon water so that's my next step and we'll see how it works. For my sake I hope it does :)
Kryton is measuring perfectly so far, no changes to his due date. I've had tons of false contractions though so we'll see if he doesn't decide to come early.
Jason is ramping up the new semester with style. He surprised himself yesterday by being ahead in several of his classes and was able to just sit back and listen. In another he's already got a good group together and they've helped each other already on the first project the teacher assigned.
Also on the up and up he received an email from the college about internships opening up with the city of Rexburg (where he goes to school anyway). He applied by email. The manager emailed him and the rest of the applicants back, told them they had at least 3 positions and that they were going to do a giant orientation, meanwhile he wanted them to give answers to five short questions and send in their resumes.
Apparently Jason was one of the first to answer because almost immediately he got a reply from the man asking for more details. The manager, Kelvin, is from AZ (the Mesa area) and seemed really excited to hear about Jason's experiences. He went down Jason's resume asking specific questions about items he's listed including which teachers he had taken certain classes from and about his service with the food bank of the church. It was pretty neat. I also answered one of the questions for him, it said: "Tell me one thing about you that will help me to know you before I meet you." After several rather dull responses from Jason I gave him one and he used that instead (by dull I mean a 'boring' description of himself). I said "Please give my husband a job because he always needs a project and my house has been overhauled twice this summer."
Kelvin liked the comment, and even read it in front of the group when they did the mass orientation. Jason has an interview scheduled today at 4:30. We're excited to see if he can get the job because a) experience and b) he needs the internship for school and so far we had been struggling to find anything in the area.
So overall things are looking up for him, even though it means a little less time with him we're all really excited for the opportunity.
And I am going strong as well. Audit season (the pile-up of school district audits at least) is slowly winding down. I was in charge of three audits and I tried my best to keep on top of everything. As a result Judy said that I really helped reduce her stress level and she feels pretty good about where we are. The other in-charge, Ryan, and I have worked together a lot to understand and improve our auditing. We were able to cut out a little unnecessary work and tried to streamline everything else. In some instances it worked, in others it failed miserably but I think we've both learned an incredible amount and I know I'll be better next year.
I also saw one of the business managers at the store yesterday. Ryan was in charge of hers and she asked why I hadn't been there. I pointed to my oversized belly as my excuse but promised I would be part of the team next year. She seemed mollified but said she had missed me and wanted me to let her know when the baby arrived. It was nice to feel wanted :)
I've finished writing another book and it's been read and approved for story-line by a handful of friends. Now I just need one of my english major friends to actually finish the english editing and then I think I'm going to turn it in to a publisher again and see what happens. I could also self-publish it through Amazon, apparently, but I'm not that confident yet :)
And as for the CPA. . . yeah, well I still have the hardest one done, but I keep sliding right underneath the pass/fail line on the rest so I'm still studying and trying. I started a competition with Ryan so we're both going to try to be done with it by the end of tax season next year. We'll see how that goes. We're both at roughly the same level (study-wise) so it's doable, it's just a matter of finding the time to study.
We've been showered by friends and help and it's been wonderful. We've also been showered by blessings. Our garden is still growing, if the frost doesn't hit too soon, and our hens are finally laying eggs. The eggs are adorably tiny, but they're good. Only two a day so far, but we're thinking we might be missing the other two because for a little while we were getting three. . . so where the other two girls are laying I don't know, but I'm sure we'll find out sometimes soon. :(
Our home is wonderful, still. We're actually getting ready to replace the stairs. When the man originally came and gave us the estimate he said he was so backed up he wouldn't be able to come until late October, but now he's scheduled for the 28th of September so hold on a little longer Kryton :)
The replacement of the stairs is in response to two things, one we removed the carpet and noted that two or three steps were split. The splits are along the length, so they aren't going to cause too much of a problem yet but they sure cause a lot of squeaking, and they're likely to cause issues later. Secondly the steps are narrow and all of us have fallen down them at least once (Only once for me, more than that for the other two) plus a few guests have had issues, so we're going to widen the step base and shorten the height. This will push them out a few feet, but we have the room to spare so we may as well use it.
Jason's going to do the demolition with his friends to save money there and he's also going to purchase the supplies according to the guy's list because apparently he charges an extra fee if he has to do that himself (that part bothers me because it wasn't in the quote, but Jason already agreed so I can't argue with him). Besides I'm trying really hard not to argue with anyone because I know most of my irritation is probably due to hormones rather than rational issues :)
It should be a blast!
Well, you're as up to date as I can get you. Thanks!
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Maturity
Audit season is ramping up. I figured if I didn't write now I wouldn't get another shot until the baby is born. :)
We've had a good couple of months. Jason is nearing the end of the semester. He's absolutely loving his computer classes and barely holding on with everything else. He studies his brains out, but apparently he's thinking on a different wavelength from the teachers because when he gets a paper back they keep telling him it wasn't what they asked for. (I read the prompt for one of them and actually helped him write the paper - did research & helped him build his thesis) he got a D on that one. Turns out he wasn't supposed to analyze the information in the articles he was supposed to analyze the writing style and support of the articles themselves. . . Yeah I didn't get that from the prompt.
Anyway, his computer classes are going great.
He also has an internship interview coming up but he recently had the impression not to take it if it's offered so basically this will just be good practice, and perhaps an opportunity later when the time is right. It's working for the LDS church headquarters in Salt Lake so every Thursday he would drive down and he would return Sunday night. I would then work Monday through Friday. . . and our son will be born in October. . . and it's audit season . . . and we do have a four year old already. . . we understood the prompting fairly quickly.
I finished writing my first attempt at a romance novel this week. I figured since all of my books have a love interest I may as well focus a little more on that and just give in to the fact that I like a good romance situation.
Alisabeth attended her first birthday party ever and dressed up like a princess and all of the little princesses sat and listened to a story from Rapunzel and then completed a few activities with her. Her comment, "Her hair doesn't glow anymore because she cut it." and "She's real." I am sooooooooooooooooo excited to take her to Disneyland in January.
She's such a big girl! Today we had an interesting talk. I gave her the ability to get a surprise if she went through her night routine without me having to say a word. She got distracted once but then did it all. When she came back upstairs she asked for her surprise so I went through the list: Brushed teeth? Yes, Showered? Yes, Washed hair? stare to the side and then look back at me, Yes.
It wasn't even completely wet.
"Alisabeth, please don't lie to me. Did you wash your hair?" "No" and she begins to cry and bury herself in my arms. I pulled her away gently.
"No, we need to talk about this" (it's been an increasing issue the last few weeks). "If you tell the truth you might get in trouble, but you might not. If you lie you will always get in trouble." Then we discussed the requirements of a shower and all that it entails. She happily (thinking we were done with the bad parts) asked about her surprise and I actually felt bad informing her that because she had lied she had lost that opportunity. She started to cry, but then she sucked it up and nodded and we went to bed/snuggle time.
I hope it sticks, but she's such a smart girl I think it will. It was cool though to have a conversation where she didn't immediately start whining and I wasn't yelling because she was whining. (Or her passive aggressive tendency to speak over top of someone when they're correcting her)
Kryton is doing well too. He rolls around, kicks and punches for most of the day but sleeps well though the night. He's an early riser like his daddy. He's definitely bigger, but my appointment on Friday measured him spot on where he should be.
That's our last two months in a nutshell.
We've had a good couple of months. Jason is nearing the end of the semester. He's absolutely loving his computer classes and barely holding on with everything else. He studies his brains out, but apparently he's thinking on a different wavelength from the teachers because when he gets a paper back they keep telling him it wasn't what they asked for. (I read the prompt for one of them and actually helped him write the paper - did research & helped him build his thesis) he got a D on that one. Turns out he wasn't supposed to analyze the information in the articles he was supposed to analyze the writing style and support of the articles themselves. . . Yeah I didn't get that from the prompt.
Anyway, his computer classes are going great.
He also has an internship interview coming up but he recently had the impression not to take it if it's offered so basically this will just be good practice, and perhaps an opportunity later when the time is right. It's working for the LDS church headquarters in Salt Lake so every Thursday he would drive down and he would return Sunday night. I would then work Monday through Friday. . . and our son will be born in October. . . and it's audit season . . . and we do have a four year old already. . . we understood the prompting fairly quickly.
I finished writing my first attempt at a romance novel this week. I figured since all of my books have a love interest I may as well focus a little more on that and just give in to the fact that I like a good romance situation.
Alisabeth attended her first birthday party ever and dressed up like a princess and all of the little princesses sat and listened to a story from Rapunzel and then completed a few activities with her. Her comment, "Her hair doesn't glow anymore because she cut it." and "She's real." I am sooooooooooooooooo excited to take her to Disneyland in January.
She's such a big girl! Today we had an interesting talk. I gave her the ability to get a surprise if she went through her night routine without me having to say a word. She got distracted once but then did it all. When she came back upstairs she asked for her surprise so I went through the list: Brushed teeth? Yes, Showered? Yes, Washed hair? stare to the side and then look back at me, Yes.
It wasn't even completely wet.
"Alisabeth, please don't lie to me. Did you wash your hair?" "No" and she begins to cry and bury herself in my arms. I pulled her away gently.
"No, we need to talk about this" (it's been an increasing issue the last few weeks). "If you tell the truth you might get in trouble, but you might not. If you lie you will always get in trouble." Then we discussed the requirements of a shower and all that it entails. She happily (thinking we were done with the bad parts) asked about her surprise and I actually felt bad informing her that because she had lied she had lost that opportunity. She started to cry, but then she sucked it up and nodded and we went to bed/snuggle time.
I hope it sticks, but she's such a smart girl I think it will. It was cool though to have a conversation where she didn't immediately start whining and I wasn't yelling because she was whining. (Or her passive aggressive tendency to speak over top of someone when they're correcting her)
Kryton is doing well too. He rolls around, kicks and punches for most of the day but sleeps well though the night. He's an early riser like his daddy. He's definitely bigger, but my appointment on Friday measured him spot on where he should be.
That's our last two months in a nutshell.
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Really? 4 months?!?!
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.
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.
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