B’s blog

I had my mom send me a copy of this disk of photos because I lost them during our trip. Thought I’d share some with everyone.

This photo was taken when we were in Minnesota visiting my parents. One afternoon my dad took us 5 out on my Uncle Rick’s boat fishing. The kids really thought it was fun to drive the boat and fish. Mommy was the winner of the day. Even Avery caught a fish, but it got loose right before getting to the boat. He does claim that he saw the fish before it bit the line though. I thought this photo was worth taking out again and sharing. When all else fails during my day, I have 3 reasons to be thankful for.

This was a family photo taken in Sioux Falls, SD when we spent a night there and day at the zoo with my parents. Here are the Sioux Falls behind us. At night they use lasers to change the color of the water. It’s so beautiful!

At the Sioux Falls zoo.

The first week of school went without a hitch. Jaelyn did well and liked it. She did tell me after the first day though that she needed to take a little break from school. I quickly explained the concept of perfect attendance and the importance of that and how she could receive an award if she worked hard at that. It convinced her for the time being. Still each day she asks if it’s the weekend yet so she can stay up later and watch cartoons. I think she likes it but just isn’t used to getting up early and going to be so early. Avery is doing great too. He hasn’t really had alot of homework this first week so all’s good. I’m sure next week that will pick up.

We had our Life Group garage sale today and made $375 for The Missions in Porter, TX (just north of Kingwood, just north of Humble) and then anything left was brought to HAAM (Humble Area Missions-not sure what that 2nd A stands for but it’s like Goodwill). This evening we are headed to our friends house for a pizza and game night with them. Rob and Kristi both work at Huffman High School. He’s the Vice Principle and she’s the Guidance Counselor. They have one son, Mason. Then Rebecca and her son Kaleb are coming too. Her husband was our group leader but he resigned to go back to seminary. He is gone this weekend until Tuesday. They will be moving the end of September to Waco, TX. That’s where her family is from so they are moving there so they can help her with the baby while Kevin is in school. We will miss them terribly. My kids loved having Rebecca as their school nurse and Sunday School teacher. Kaleb is 1 and Braden’s best little friend. He always asks us if he can goto Kaleb’s house. It’s sure cute how he articulates the leb in Kaleb.

Starting next week Tuesday, I’m going to be taking Olga’s place in the schedule at work as charge nurse. I’ll be working 4 days a week and only being in the charge role. This past week I did relief charge for our other charge nurse Stephanie as her grandfather died and her daughter has a baby. It was very stressful at work and I’m glad to have a few days off. I applied for the OBGYN day shift nurse opening at Kingwood last week too. Haven’t heard yet about an interview but when I spoke with Melida, one of the techs that transferred from our floor to the OBGYN floor, she said her manager told her they only have a night shift nurse job left. As far as the job openings posted in HR though, the day spot still was up for grabs. I guess time will tell. I don’t want to goto nights though. I think that would create a whole new array of problems because if anyone knows me, they know I LOVE to sleep!!

Well, off to the store and then to the party. More to come later.

Avery is officially a 2nd grader and Jaelyn a kindergartener

Avery’s now a “bike rider”

Jaelyn at her desk at Open House last Thursday

Our tradition growing up was to take first day of school photos on the front porch. So I now keep that tradition alive with my own kids. Avery rode his bike to school today but forgot his bike lock so we had to take it home with us so it wouldn’t get stolen. We walked Jaelyn into her classroom and she was super nervous! She wanted me to stay in the back of the room until they were about to start. I stayed about 10 minutes and then waved to her letting know I was leaving. She had an awesome day! Did crafts, sang songs, met new friends, went to the library, ate lunch in the lunchroom, all the fun stuff kindergarteners do, except take a nap (which she was glad!) They go from 8-1:50p. The older kids go from 8-3:20p. I think they let the kindergarteners out earlier because those parents don’t know how to obey the traffic plan. When we were leaving the parking lot, there were 2 moms outside of their cars yelling at each other over the traffic plan (one was going the wrong way and the other was telling her about it!) I thought it was going to actually come to punches. The lady in the wrong was torked off for getting called out on it.

We dropped the kids off this morning and then took Braden out to breakfast at IHOP and then to Wally World to get a new bike. He was spoiled!! He still can’t peddle but it’s so cute to see him on that little Huffy! Also, I had to include this photo of my coppertone butt baby! It’s too cute to not share.

I heard this conversation the other morning between the two AM DJs at KSBJ on my way to work that sparked something with me. Do we view life stages as an ending or a beginning? Are we like the father who gives his daughter away at her wedding who is in mourning over losing his daughter or one that is rejoicing because another stage of his little girl’s life is about to begin? Did you know that a seed needs to die alone in the ground in order to blossom into something great? Are you an ender or a beginner? I tend to be both. Take for instance Jaelyn starting school Monday. I’m sad about it because it is the end of an era with her at home with me everyday, all day. But I’m excited as she starts gaining independence and becomes her own person. I was sad when Braden stopped needing me so much, mostly because I was in mourning for that baby stage. But I’m excited to see what life has in store for me for the next stage in my life. When someone dies, of course we mourn but without our faith that there is a heaven, we’d never see that new beginning there as another stage of life. Eternal life at that! So I ask you today, are you an ender or a beginner? Are you going to be in mourning for the rest of your life because one stage has ended? Or are you going to embrace this new stage and begin living again!

Sometimes I feel like no one reads this except Erik but then I realized that I’m not just creating a blog for others but a journal for my kids. I’m seriously considering putting an end to blogging and going straight to journaling on a word doc. It’s more private and since no one reads this anyways, it’s not like anyone is going to miss this. I’m gonna make my kids a book from my entries so that they know what it was like growing up here in Texas. I haven’t shared this blog with anyone from Texas actually. Only from my friends and family in Iowa. At first it was because I got sick of writing the same things over and over but now I miss those emails. It actually was pretty sad that out of the 77 emails I had this week, I’d say only 4 were actual emails and not stupid forwarded jokes.

Well, I made it through the fast, barely, but I did it. I actually understand the physical effects that addiction has! I swear I had increased anxiety when I thought about the computer. My heart raced. I had to call people on the phone and I watched more TV than I wanted too. By Sunday night I was completely bored out of my head. Erik and I finally turned off the tv and had a heart to heart about our life here in Texas, what our future goals were, where we were hoping to see ourselves in 10 years. Blah, Blah, Blah! I loved talking to him about it but it took almost a week before him and I communicated like that because I was still in email mode. (I usually just email him when I want to talk about something important because he’s usually at work.) I walked around the computer room several times a day and if Erik hadn’t shut it down completely I would have “fell off the wagon”. I realized that this is one of my addictions, most likely one of my worst too. I wait for people from back home to email me. How pathetic! I wait for someone to comment on my blog just so I know I’m not just doing this for nothing. Thanks Shayla for commenting! For the record, you were the only one this whole week! This week I did a little more around the house but only because I had nervous energy to deal with. I wasn’t a peace at all when I was at home, especially during certain times of the day. Erik was a trooper and kept the computer shut down pretty much the entire week too. One thing I am debating is making a new house rule for myself of only checking emails certain times of the day. Like for 15 minutes only in the morning or only on days I work so it frees up my days off. I’m still debating that with myself. We are so preoccupied with electronics; cell phones, tv’s, dvd’s, computers that we forget the important things in our lives…like how fast our children are growing up right in front of us. This was hard but it was a learning experience. I learned that I’m living partly in the past and not in the present. I realized I’m wasting hours of my time waiting for others to assure me that I am not forgotten instead of making new friends and memories in the here and now. I’m not allowing myself to grow. I’m not allowing myself to move forward. My life is going too fast for me to watch from the sidelines.

I challenge everyone to give up something just for a day that keeps you from getting the most out of your life.