Full Circle

It has been 5 years in the making but we have officially gone full circle once Brittany entered 'The Truck' again and pulled away. As if it wasn't bad enough, her face lit up with excitement when I ran outside to snap her photo. So happy.


Anywho, to bring everyone up to speed, last week we went to CALM and had a great ole time.


Then we had a great weekend with family and friends for Memorial Day - We even ressurected the Fun Island (AKA Death Island) in the pool at Grandpas. Only a few children got stuck underneath the giant floating raft. I am pretty sure some of the kids had near-death experiences; Savannah cried for a while. Good times.


Let's see...oh yes. My wonderful mother came over yesterday with a KITTEN! Or better known in the Ray circle as "The 'K' word". Everything was great until the kitten had to leave. I'm pretty sure it was like chopping Andi's arm off and giving it away.


I got her to finally calm down when I asked her if she wants to do something fun. This usually works for her because she knows that when daddy says those words...something awesome is about to happen.



The end.

It has begun...

I'm not sure what was worse for Brittany...
Me losing my job or her giving up blogging rights.

I guess now would be a good time to put my disclaimer.

'The up-coming posts were performed on a closed course with self-proclaimed, semi-professional stunt artists. Although we cannot say for certain about the children, no animals were hurt during the making of this blog. Please do not try this at home.'

Rolling with the Punches

I've have gone back and forth about whether or not to post about this, and finally decided that since I make my blogs into a book once a year I need to do it for the sake of my family journal keeping.
It has been a tough week for us, but as of today we feel very blessed and loved and are grateful to our wonderful friends and family. Thad lost his job Tuesday morning, which came as a complete shock. We knew the company was making cut backs in some areas, like taking trucks away from some employees, but as of the Man power meeting Friday morning there was no mention of impending layoffs. Tuesday morning however Thad found out that every district in the Company was told to lay off 5 engineers, and being at the end of the senority line meant Thad.
So of course the minute he got home Thad was sending out resumes and looking on line for jobs in the area, but being that most companies in the industry are in the same boat, I don't think he was feeling very positive about it. I however was. I kept saying he'd have a job very soon and that the severence the company gave him would then be like a bonus towards our "I need a bigger master bath" fund.
This is what I was praying and fasting for the next day. Our prayers were definitly answered but it seems the answer never comes exactly the way I had planned. I know I've been saying that over and over again for at least 6 years, but it still amazes me when it happens. My wonderful friend who has employed me off and on since I was 11 years old, as a baby-sitter, part time at her office during HS and full time during my college summers, called Wednesday morning. She told me I could come back to work for her full time as soon as I wanted.
So for the next few months as Thad continues to look for employment we will be switching roles. Thad get's to be Mr Mom, and as he keeps telling me with his obnoxious grin "There's a new sherriff in town!" He has also informed me that since we are switching places he is taking over the blog. You have all been warned.
It should be an interesting few months, a growing and changing time for us both I think. And being the slightly OCD control freak that I am, I can see I have a lot of gorwing to do in learning to let go.

milestones and mothers day.

Both kids have hit some fun milestones lately. Sammy's all physical, Andi's a little more mental.
Friday Sammy started doing this:


He doesn't actually move with it yet, but at least he's up and seems to like getting up there. He is surprisingly mobile these days though. Between his rolling, and the scooting backwards he moves all over the floor.
I realized last week as well, that he should be starting to sit up on his own now, but because of the wonderful invention that is the Bumbo chair he hasn't had to try. So I have retired the bumbo and brought out the high chair for meal times.

and in just a few short days he's doing this:


It really has been an exciting few days with Sam. Plus he is transitioning down to 2 naps a day, and yesterday one of those naps was 3 hrs long! it was very nice.
Andi had an eventful Mothers Day. The primary kids always do a musical number and being a sunbeam she was old enough to go up this year. However, her potty break came at the wrong time and she walked back in to the chapel just as the pianist began playing. So Andi came back and stood by me where I was sitting and sang as loud as she could along with the other kids. She didn't care at all that she wasn't standing by them, she was just excited they were singing songs she knew. And I was very impressed with how well she sang both songs.


She also gave her very first talk in Primary. She talked about baptism and it went really well if I do say so myself. She is definitely not a shy child and LOVED being allowed to talk into the microphone. When she was done you could tell she was very proud of herself. She marched back to her little seat with a big smile on her face. It was a fun mothers day at church. We spent the afternoon/evening at Thads parents house for a BBQ and family time. It was really nice.
We also managed to squeeze in a yard sale over the weekend and got rid of a bunch of stuff, including our old camera. Which also meant we got to go get a new camera! It's so much faster and lighter than our old one. I love it.

Finishing Touches

I have mentioned in the last few posts the finishing touches Thad has been putting in our yard. Like the water feature that now has plants and fish in it. And the bench swing I have been wanting to go next to it. We still have a few things to plant around the base of the water feature, And I have to make the awning for the swing, but here are the pictures as promised.

Feature in the dark

Andi on the swing. The feature is to the left of the swing.

6months going on Tank!

Sammy had his 6 month check up yesterday, He's such a beast, are you ready for this?! He weighed in at 20 lbs 2 oz, and that's without his shoes. He's 29 inches long and as you might guess is in the 90 - 95 % for both height and weight, and 95% for his giant Charlie brown head. I thought Andi was big, but comparing the stats, Sam is the size she was at 1 year! Little Dude is going to be a linebacker or something.


I had Andi in at the same time again for her allergies. Everytime we go to the Dr's and the nurse comes to call us back, Andi walks up to her and says " I have a snot nose." and whether we are actually there for her or not it's always true. Earlier this month they gave her an antibiotic to clear up her sinus infection and changed her allergy meds, which worked for a few weeks and then everything came right back. So now on top of her daily Zyrtec & Singulair she has to have a nasal spray, and an antibiotic again for 2 weeks. My poor drugged up kid. We are really crossing our fingers that the combination of the three daily meds will control her allergies, if not, they are talking about allergy shots. Yuk. I've realized that Andi is probably always going to have some chronic problem, and the minute we think we have it all fixed(like getting her tonsils& adnoids out & tubes) something else will pop up.


I am starting a little bit of work from home next week. It's kinda funny, becuase there are days when I can't seem to get dressed and out to the grocery store, when I really have absolutely no excuse and no reason for not getting going. But it seems I work better with a very full plate. When it's empty I do nothing. So knowing that I am going to have to be more on top of it to get this work done on a daily basis and keep up with the house and the groceries, and the cooking, and those kids, I have been on such a roll, my house is so clean! Being productive just makes me feel so much better.
Thad has been busy with the yard lately. He's been "perfecting" out little water feature. I love it. Again, I have no idea why I haven't taken pictures of it yet. I will make an effort to have pictures of our yard improvements in the next post.