Sarah's blogging... WHAAA?!?!?!

Ok. Once again, I Failed. BUT, once again, here I am, trying again. I get points for that, right? So to Recap, I will just go month by month and give the highlights and maybe a couple of pictures to keep this interesting...

July

4th of July we barbecued with some friends and swam in their pool.

The next weekend we went to the beach near Corpus Christi with my parents, two brothers, and their families. Good. Times.

In her own little world.

Cousins are the best. ;)

Grandmas are the perfect place for a nap.

We also dressed up for free chicken on Cow Appreciation Day at Chick-Fil-A.

August

August was an interesting month for us. Eric interviewed for a job in Fort Worth. It is with the same company he works for now, but a step up. He got the job! The company was ready for us to come immediately, but we weren't really in a position to set up another household since we own two houses (yes, we still own our Mississippi house). The company said they could wait 60 days but after that the position would have to be filled. So we immediately put our house on the market! The month of August was spent constantly stressing over keeping the house immaculate and show ready. I was a bit of a basket case. My little brother, Caleb, also got engaged this month. We met his girlfriend on a quick weekend trip to Waco. She survived 6 of the 7 siblings all together AND sports were involved, so that was a good sign!

The lovebirds.

September

September continued more of the same as far as trying to sell the house. Eric and Jetson flew out to Utah for his little sister's wedding. Betsy and I stayed home and did girly things. While in Utah, Eric got Pneumonia. He was a poor sick guy the rest of the month. He is still getting over the last of it now. The end of September the kids and I drove to Waco to meet my mom to drive to Arkansas for my grandma's 80th birthday/my grandparents' 61st wedding anniversary celebration. Once again, time with my cousins was amazing and the Amazing Fall weather on the farm was a nice break from the Laredo heat! The kids LOVED seeing all the animals around the farm.

Excuse the hair. It was first thing in the morning and I hadn't fixed it yet. 

October 

Almost caught up! The beginning of October brought us back to Laredo. October 15th marked our 7th anniversary! Andrew and Johanna kept the kids so we could celebrate with shopping for my clothes for Caleb's wedding, Taco Bell, and a dollar movie. It has been a good 7 years! We also signed the paperwork to sell our house! Back in July we coordinated with my brother's who live here, Josh and Andrew, and Andrew's wife's brother who lives here and rented a beach house on South Padre Island the weekend after our anniversary. We had my parents come down as well. It. Was. A. Blast! The house was amazingly nice and we got it for an awesome deal since it was off-season and we split it 4 ways. 

Cousins on the balcony

This is how I do at the beach. I don't like the sand. I don't like the water.

Luckily, Eric loves the beach so he enjoys playing with the kids in the water.

Summer... Vacation???

Apparently I never posted this... So it is nearly 5 months old, but here it is nonetheless!
Shortly after my last post, I packed myself and the kids up and Eric drove us to my parents' for the weekend before he returned home and my mom and I ventured on a road trip with the kids, sans husbands to her family reunion in Rose Bud, AR. Haven't heard of it? That's a shame! It is a thriving metropolis that has quadrupled in size in my lifetime  from 100+ to 400+ (I'm not sure if they started counting cows or what...) and to officially solidify its place on the map it now has a Dollar General! (still no traffic light or fast food chain, but they take what they can get). I jest. Rose Bud is where my mom grew up, most of her family is still in the vicinity, and is the place of my happiest childhood memories. This trip did not disappoint.

We got there Monday evening after the 8 hour drive that only required 2 stops, one for lunch/gas/potty and the last one was just 20 miles from our destination and Betsy had to potty again. I was thoroughly impressed with my kids! I dropped my mom off at my grandparents and the kids and I went to my cousin Valerie's house where we would stay.
She's awesome, so she took off work Tuesday and hung out with us. Tuesday night she had over some of my other favorite long lost cousins Janeen, Mandy (and her mom), and Emily and we stayed up late playing games and having a gay ole time! Wednesday, my sister, Becky, had arrived at my grandma's so we spent the day over there with Betsy's cousins. All this time, Jetson is not too sure of his constantly changing surroundings and was pretty clingy/whiny. Thursday, Becky and I (with our kids) drove into Searcy for lunch and some sister time, then back in time for a pool/snow cone party at Uncle Gary's for all the kids. Betsy had a blast with all  her cousins! (After our visit to Arkansas in Nov, when I told her all the new kids she met were her cousins, she tends to think ALL kids her age are her cousins. So I've been working with her on the difference between "friends" and "cousins" so she spent the whole trip checking, "Mom, is she/he a friend or a cousin?" Poor little kid may never figure it out... ) Friday, I had scheduled a haircut for my mom, Amberly, and myself with the girl who cut my hair when I lived in Conway. She is my favorite EVER and is half the cost of a place in Laredo AND I don't have to worry about things getting lost in translation. So I got a MUCH OVERDO haircut and absolutely LOVE it! I'm sad I can't have access to April all the time!

After haircuts, the official reunion started and I got to see most of my mom's family. Out of 14 siblings, 10 were there, plus a lot of their offspring. We did do a count and as of present my grandparents have 70 grandchildren and 80 great grandchildren (of course there are a lot in the oven already, so that number increases pretty frequently!). I LOVE having such a big family! We have to hold it at the local high school cafeteria to accommodate us all. It was so good to see so many that it had been too long. The reunion lasted from Friday evening to Saturday evening and each night after everyone went their ways, a group would gather at Val's house and stay up WAY TOO LATE, WAY TOO many nights in a row. It was nonstop fun. We are a game playing family and Eric tends not to like to play games with me too often [he says he gets tired of losing ;)] so I got caught up on my game playing quota. Oh how I miss my family! We talked about it one night and really, we feel more like sisters than cousins. (After all they are all WAY closer in age to me than my actual sister.) We are extremely close.

Monday, the close cousins and I continued our little party up until I had to leave on Tuesday. I was ready to get back to some normalcy (more for Jetson than for me), but I did not want to leave all the fun.

I spent the rest of the week in Waco with my parents until Eric came up Friday night to spend the weekend up there. During the week there, Jetson finally became comfortable with his surroundings and took off walking EVERYWHERE. Sunday we drove home and it was so good to be back in my bed and have the kids back in theirs and have our whole family under one roof again! Time out of Laredo is nice, but I sure missed Eric! and single parenting is for the birds if you ask me!

Jetson is 1!!!! and sick...

Wednesday evening of last week, I noticed Jetson felt a little warm. I am a cold-natured person, so people are often warmer than me and I tend to think my kids may have a low-grade fever when others touch them and disagree, so I brushed it off as one of those times. When Eric got home that night, he was putting Jetson to bed and made the remark that he felt a little warm. I told him I had thought so to, but didn't know for sure.

Thursday morning when he woke up, he still felt warm and I couldn't find a thermometer, so I walked down to my brother's house to check his temperature. Using their borrowed thermometer, I found out he had a 101 point something. Not being terribly alarmed and just blaming it on teething, I went back home and put him down for a nap. Throughout the day I kept a check on his temperature and that night it reached 103.4. When Eric got home from work, we gave him a bath and some tylenol to help bring it down and then gave Jet a blessing, but were still basically blaming it on teething since there were no other symptoms of anything else (the thought of Roseola crossed my mind, since Betsy had it shortly after she turned 1, but the only way to diagnose it is to wait for the tell-tale rash to appear).

Poor sick little guy.

Friday morning he woke up with no fever, but by afternoon it was back up to 101. By evening, it was back up to 102.7 and I handed him off to Eric with instructions to watch it and keep giving him tylenol/motrin since I had a Girls Night Out planned. During the Girls Night Out, one mom shared a story of her son, who was sick, but she kept brushing it off thinking let it run it's course and he will get better, until the son asked to go the dr and the doctor had to admit him to the hospital.

Saturday morning (Jetson's Birthday) when Jet woke up with 102.5, I started thinking about the mom's story and wondering if I was being too nonchalant about this. So I called Eric at work and discussed it and he told me to call an urgent care clinic and see what they said/if we should bring him in. I called and the clinic told me I needed to take him to the E.R. This sent my emotions into a tailspin and I called Eric to come get us (we only have one car). I didn't think a trip to the E.R. was necessary (especially for our bank account), but still afraid after hearing the story the night before, we decided better safe than sorry. The E.R. looked at him and couldn't find anything wrong (since I had given him tylenol that morning, he didn't even have a temperature), except that one of his ears was a little red, so they wrote a prescription for an antibiotic and sent us home with instructions to keep him on the tylenol/motrin. Eric had to go back to work and I spent the afternoon trying to console Jet. When Eric got home at 5pm we tried to celebrate a little, but Jetson was just too sick and not up to it, so we decided to put it off a day.

entertainment while waiting in the E.R.

Poor guy tuckered out.

attempted celebration.

Sunday we went to church and his fever seemed to be gone. After church the kids napped and we got everything ready for a little party for Jet. My brother's family came down for cake and presents and Jetson tolerated it ok, but was still under the weather. After making a MESS with the cake, we gave him a quick bath and then had my brother give him his first haircut. Jetson's hair had been driving my brother crazy for weeks, but I insisted we wait for his birthday to cut it. So I finally let Josh have the clippers and hoped for the best! Even sick, Jetson was awesome and held completely still while Josh cut his hair! After the haircut we opened presents and everyone went home.

not really in the mood to party, but we did anyway.

messy boy. We couldn't get him to eat much that day, but cake he ate!

haircut

finished product.

Shortly after everyone was gone, I noticed a rash breaking out on Jetson's face... So we debated whether this was the Roseola manifesting itself or an allergic reaction to the antibiotic the hospital had put him on. I had already scheduled Jetson a doctor's appointment for Monday morning for his 1 year check up and immunizations, so we decided we would just wait and have the doctor look at it the next day.

This morning I called the doctor's office to let them know we wouldn't be getting immunizations, but needed to have a rash looked at. We get to the doctor and tell him the story of our weekend. He looked at the rash on Jetson's head and said it looked more like an allergic reaction than Roseola. He checked his ears and said they looked fine, but that his throat looked a little red and said he was going to switch the antibiotic to be safe. Then he checked his stomach and saw the rash there and said that did look like Roseola, so maybe that is what he has, so to keep giving him tylenol/motrin for pain and discomfort and give him benedryl for any itching (Jetson keeps rubbing his head like crazy). So after all this, ALL I know is I have a sick, irritable little baby, A LOT of medical bills coming my way, and a lot of medicine to give a little boy for "just in case" and I am exhausted! :(  BUT HAPPY BIRTHDAY JETSON!

taking steps

Memorial Day Weekend '12

A lot of people may not know, but I am a hugely patriotic person. Memorial Day, to some, is the kick off of Summer, a day to head out to the lake, grill some food, and party it up. Nothing wrong with these things, as long as they aren't THE FOCUS of this day. So before I tell you about the fun we had that weekend, I would like to thank all the servicemen and women for the sacrifice they make for the freedoms my family and I enjoy. Since it is MEMORIAL day and it more specifically focuses on remembering those who died fighting for these freedoms and they aren't here to thank anymore, I would also like to thank the families left behind for their sacrifice of a loved one. I am truly, deeply grateful for you and sorry for the loss and sorrow you must feel.

In honor of our country and the servicemen and women who defend it, all weekend my family wears red, white, and blue as a silent reminder to ourselves (and others if they happen to notice) of why we have the holiday. Here in Laredo, the holiday seems to be glazed over. The schools don't even recognize it and let the kids out. This really rubs me the wrong way, because let's face it, if you need to eliminate a holiday to get the right number of days, there are others that could go before this particular one that honors the ultimate sacrifice.
(steps off soapbox)


But now on to the fun stuff that we got to do as a family.

Saturday, Eric had to work, but after he got home we took the kids swimming for the first real time. (We took them once before, but the water was too cold, so I didn't get in and Eric just took turns putting the kids in.) The weather was beautiful and the water was bearable. Jetson floated in his little floaty pretty content and Betsy got to where she would swim in her floaty swimsuit from Eric to me without anyone touching her! I really think if we took the time this summer we could have her swimming by the end of it, but finding the time to go to the pool consistently with both of us there is a little tricky... we'll see.

Sunday after church, we grilled out with my brother's family and ate delicious food then took a family walk to the park. We hung out there until it was dark, letting the kids play and climb trees, then fed the ducks, then went back to Josh's house and watched a movie all together and ate some yummy snacks. It was a nice relaxing day!

Monday, Eric and I woke up earlier than would normally be desired on a holiday and drove up to San Antonio (really to a town just north) and met my parents and grandparents at a condo they had rented for the week. We went out to eat lunch with them and then just relaxed at the condo and let the kids rest. That evening we grilled out again and then took some pictures of the four generations that were there, before heading home. It was a short trip up, but was very low key and extremely enjoyable! That weekend was perfect in my book!

These are my Mom's parents and the only living grandparents of either Eric or I.

Another year has come and gone...

So, since I last posted I had my birthday! I am now OLDER than a quarter of a century... yikes! My mom came down to visit on my birthday and stayed the rest of the week. The evening of my birthday was a BYU folk dance festival here, but we decided we would sit this one out and offered to keep any of my nieces and nephews that were too young to appreciate it, so the rest of the family could enjoy the performance. Because we were babysitting and it was midweek, Eric decided we would celebrate my birthday 10 days later. Therefore, my birthday pretty much came and went as any other day. Later in the week, my siblings (read: sisters-in-law) got me a cheesecake (my FAVORITE dessert) and celebrated a little. That weekend was Mother's Day and Eric (being the thoughtful and awesome husband that he is) didn't want to mix the two holidays, so that weekend was specifically for Mother's Day. My mom left that Friday (after sewing all week for the grandkids here, check out the dress she made for Betsy!) and took Betsy with her for the week. Saturday, Eric made me breakfast in bed. Behold the awesomeness:


He's not exactly the most romantic/thoughtful guy, but he has his moments where he sure does shine!
We spent Saturday together running errands. After church Sunday, all the boys got together and grilled out. They even made the sides! It was a HUGE feast and was DELICIOUS!

The following week, was just Jet and I at home during the day. Now don't get me wrong, I LOVE AND ADORE my Betsy, but... One kid is SO MUCH easier than two! I was able to get in some quality relaxation and run errands with just my little man. It was nice. Plus anytime I would start to miss Betsy, I would call her on the phone and would immediately be told how she never wanted to come home and she was going to live with Grandma... The little snot. At least I know she is happy, but she could at least pretend, for my benefit, to miss me...

Friday night, Eric finally took me out to celebrate my birthday with dinner at Red Lobster (YUM!) and rented The Vow from Redbox. Josh and Am kept Jetson for us. It was so nice to get out! Have I mentioned how lucky and grateful I am to live close to my awesome family??? Because I am.

Betsy got home Sunday night at 9:30 and was talking 90 miles a minute about EVERYTHING she got to do with Grandma! They went to the zoo at least 3 times and shopping everyday (where she would receive goodies every time), played on the playground outside Grandma's door anytime she wanted, and got to go swimming/splash pad! By the time she was finished, I was pretty sure I wanted to go live with Grandma! ;)

So Monday to keep Betsy from going into a huge depression over being back home, I took her to one of her favorite places in the world... HEB. HEB is a magical place with all the food anybody could ever want... yep, it's a grocery store and Betsy LOVES it. Then after HEB I took her to the Library to pick out some books, then rented her a movie at the Redbox... Take THAT Grandma!

Life is now back to normal and All Is Well. :)

Here's some photos for fun:

I give up control for one week and this is how my mom let's her run around...

The dress my mom made Betsy

Finally snapped a picture of him standing up!

Such a happy boy!

Jetson - 11 months

Also this week, Jetson hit the big 11 months! I can't believe how fast my baby has grown and that is birthday is RIGHT around the corner! Since the blog as skimmed over most of his life, I thought I would take a moment and dedicate a post to my little man.

At 11 months he:

• crawls EVERYWHERE!
• pulls up on things
• has stood up in the middle of the room twice (lasted about 10-15 seconds each, haven't been able to get a picture to prove to his daddy...)
• eats pretty much anything we do
• is breaking from the bottle (he hasn't had one yet today, I plan to replace everything but his night bottle with the sippy cup, then cut out the last one at 1 year. He has not resisted in the least.)
• is generally happy (as long as you don't mess with his schedule)
• takes 2 naps a day
• sleeps on average 12 hours a night
• only has a paci when he's in his crib (or in public and gets fussy)
• wakes up and talks to himself for awhile
• prefers his daddy to his mommy (not fair, Eric has his "daddy's girl". He was supposed to be my "momma's boy".)
• prefers his mommy to strangers (THANK GOODNESS!)
• that said, he's pretty friendly to everyone
• hits his head A LOT!
• has 4 teeth (finally!)
• says very few words (he breaks out an audible word every now and then, but doesn't use them with regularity.)
• laughs at everything
• LOVES his sister

My little stud!

                                   WE LOVE THIS LITTLE GUY!!!

Fun Stuff This Week

This week has been full of fun stuff!
On Tuesday we went to the Library for the weekly story time. This week was the "Graduation" party. They don't do story time in the summers so this was the last one of the year. They made the kids "Graduation Caps" and certificates. Then called each child up to come get their certificate and a goody bag, which included a coupon for Sonic, a candy bar, and a book. Betsy was so excited! She still carries her certificate around telling me, "I got dis at da libary!" I also let Betsy get her very own library card with her picture on it. After we filled out the form and turned it in, the guy asked us to step over to have her picture taken. Betsy replied with, "Booyah!" I don't know where she gets this stuff... After the certificates were handed out they served lunch which included hot dogs, cheese puffs, wafers, oreos, and watermelon.

My little graduate!

Getting her certificate and goody bag

Wednesday is playgroup day. We have an awesome group of moms we meet with every week at one of the local parks (we change the location periodically to keep things interesting)(Fun fact: Laredo has over 95 parks!). Lately we have discovered the park and pool of an apartment complex a couple of moms live in. I don't have pictures of the playground, but it is 3 stories high... it is CRAZY! Betsy went down the slide from the tallest story on her own with no problem and I was amazed! The pool at the complex, well let's just say calling it a pool is an insult... it is AWESOME!

Even though it is Jetson friendly, he was NOT impressed... It doesn't help that playgoup is ALWAYS during his nap time...

Betsy LOVED it!

Most of the pool is only like 2 feet deep, but at the far end it goes to 4 feet.

Tell me that isn't cool... You can't.

Thursday I won a free Artisan Pizza from Domino's. So we ordered the the Bacon/Chicken one and threw on an order of Parmesan Bites for the kids. They were both pretty good. When I went to pick them up they threw on some cinnamon bread and dipping sauce for free!!! Woot Woot! So for $3.24 we got a medium pizza, parmesan bites w/ dipping sauce AND some cinnamon bread! AND I didn't have to cook AND clean up was a breeze. I was pleased!! :)

Hairy Business

See, I told you I would try to get better at this stuff. :)
Friday I kept my brother's two youngest kids all day so they could have a day out. Betsy was thrilled to have Londyn (4) over to play, but Jetson on the other hand wasn't so crazy about the other kid who came... Jaxin (1) is exactly one year older than Jetson and is HUGE into balls. He will throw a ball with you ALL DAY and has quite the arm. Unfortunately for Jetson, Jaxin is also pretty obsessed with him and tried "playing catch" with him all day... This resulted in many balls to the head for Jetson and a headache for both of us. :)
Friday night, I traded Jaxin for Andrew and Johanna's little girl Lauren (3) and the three amiga cousins had a sleepover! It was so cute!

Saturday morning we all met for a big breakfast at Josh's house and then all headed to a birthday party for a little boy from our playgroup. It was at a close by park and was full of all our friends and the kids had a blast! (On a downside, I wore white pants to a birthday party, and JUST as we were getting ready to go I sat down to help Betsy put her shoes on, and sure enough sat in dark blue icing... it was great). So after stopping back by the house to change clothes, we proceeded to run our errands for the day.
For awhile I've been talking to Eric about taking Betsy to get her hair cut. I've trimmed it a couple of times, but I REALLY have no idea what I am doing and am afraid to do too much. After the afternoon at the hot, sweaty park Betsy's curly hair was falling and looking quite mulletesque (yes, I made up a word.) So I finally talked Eric into just doing it that day. Which was perfect because he was off work and with us. I knew I would never take her by myself, because apart from not being crazy enough to take a child to her first haircut alone with a baby, I was pretty sure there would be some translation issues. So I got Eric to agree to go sit in the salon and take part, and it is a good thing I did... because that lady had no idea what I was talking about! So after her trying in broken English to repeat back to me what she thought I wanted, I finally got Eric to understand my signal to come get involved (I think he takes pleasure in watching me stumble through conversations). So then Eric tried to explain what I wanted, but his Spanish in hair terms is pretty limited, so we just crossed our fingers and hoped for the best.

Betsy sat absolutely, perfectly still and was AWESOME. I really didn't know what to expect since the only nap she had gotten that day was in the car between stores and when she chooses to be, she can be quite a pill. So I was thrilled at how well she did! (She also saw a girl walking around with an ice cream cone on our way in and finagled a deal with her daddy for an ice cream if she was good. I'm not sure how much this deal played into the behavior). While the results weren't exactly what I was hoping for, they were MUCH better than what we started with, so I am pleased.

The first is how it looked before if it was fixed, but it inevitably always ended up like the second (a frizzy mullet). The bottom one is the after: MUCH better and no more possibility of a mullet! 

On the way home, we grabbed the promised ice cream and then decided to top the day off with running through the sprinkler.

I. LOVE. WEEKENDS. LIKE. THIS.

Let's recap:

So... yeah. I stink at this blogging thing... But I have good news! I should be getting better! The last time I posted was to write about the awesome addition of Jetson to the family and well, life has been a whirlwind ever since! I forgot how much energy a newborn takes, but now that he's almost one (yikes!) I am getting life back under control... hopefully. Also to help we finally got a desktop. I always hated using the laptop because it felt like such a hassle to have to pull it out and set it up every time I wanted to use it. So now that I have a stationary, ready-to-use, designated space for a computer, I want to be a little more diligent about the whole blog thing.
So almost a year in recap:
July: Extremely exhausted, hot, hot blur... I am sitting here trying to think of anything from July and I cannot.... That's one month of my life I'll never get back.
August: Baby blessing/family visit! 1 year mark in Laredo!
      In August we blessed baby Jetson and my parents and grandparents (on my mom's side) and Eric's parents and sister came down to visit. My parents have been down to visit many times, but it was the first time Eric's parents or my grandparents had been down. Unfortunately for them, August is a TERRIBLE time to visit Laredo. We had a record breaking Summer and it was hot! With Eric's family we did the San Antonio zoo and Alamo, and of course the big Laredo attraction... the Rio Grande. I'm pretty sure they were amazed that the river marking the border of the US/Mexico is in our neighborhood. August marked one year for us in Laredo! That is the LONGEST Eric and I have lived anywhere in our marriage, and I've got to say: It's kinda nice being stationary!
September: I'm drawing a blank.
October: Eric and I celebrated 6 years of marriage, though at the moment I can't remember how... I was still in an exhausted state. Jetson is not the sleeper that his sister was/is. That took some getting used to.
November: Trip to see family
        My parents moved from Mississippi to Waco, TX (they just couldn't stand being away from me ;) ). So after they traveled down here for some training for my dad and to rent their apartment, they talked me and the kids into traveling with them to get their stuff. So for two weeks the kids and I traveled with them and got to see most of the family we left behind in the South. It was fun to see everyone again, but I was definitely glad to get home and be with my better half again! While I was gone he surprised me and refinished some old furniture for me! He's the best! We spent Thanksgiving at my parents' new apartment, which is about 1/3 the size of their house. Thankfully, the whole family didn't try to make it. It was just us and my little brother.
December: Holidays!
      We celebrated Christmas by meeting ALL of my family (that's 37 people for those trying to count) in New Braunfels, TX. We rented out some condos so there was plenty of space for everyone and hit up Six Flags before most everyone came back to Laredo to visit. It is always interesting fun when the Brown clan gets together...
January: a much needed uneventful month after the Holidays (I even verified this by checking my timeline on Facebook... nothing!)
February: Celebrated Eric's last year as a 20 something... other than that (and all the birthday parties of Betsy's cousins that live down here) it was another low key month (thankfully).
March: My little girl turned 3! Spring Break
      I can't believe it! When we moved down here she was a barely talking, toddling toddler; now she is a preschooler who amazes (and amuses) me with what comes out of her mouth! I LOVE that little girl! She is my constant companion and helper-extraordinaire! She is a little comedian and loves making others laugh. She also dotes on her baby brother and thinks he's pretty amazing! We (the kids and I) also went up to visit my parents for a week while my sister from MS was down visiting too! We hit Six Flags twice during the trip and Betsy is in LOVE! She is a thrill seeker! and I got to spend some quality time with my mom and sister, which is always fun. We girls have to stick together in this family!
April: Ta-Da! We made it! April has again been a pretty low key month, which is great after busy March.

I realize this was EXTREMELY long and if you made it this far, I thank you for taking the time out of your day to see how we've been doing! Life is good for us right now. Stressful, busy, and far from perfect but we are blessed beyond measure!