Summer is almost over!!!!

I cannot believe that it is almost back to school time!  I am soooo excited!  Don't get me wrong...I love my kids and doing things with them but it is hard to keep a 2, 5 and 14 year old happy! We go to the pool and zoo, go for bike rides, play at the park and numerous other things but I still hear the "Mom I am bored" 10 minutes after we get home!  The teen is the hardest....she sleeps most of the day away and then is mad when I tell her it is too late or hot to do anything.  I wish I could sleep the day away!

I am still going to school fulltime and will graduate the end of summer with my AA in Integrated Studies.  It isn't my goal but at least I will have a college degree!  I will still plug away at all my electives for my BA in Elementary Education and transfer to a four year college once I am ready to work on the meat and potatoes of my degree.  I am hoping to be ready to teach when my 2 year old is ready for school.  Hubby is only six classes away from his BA in Business then he can retire from the Air Force if he chooses.  We are excited about a life out of the military!  

The kids are growing by leaps and bounds.  This summer all three have taken swimming lessons and have enjoyed them.  Madison also takes gymnsatics and is going wonderfully.  She is about to moe up a level which she is so happy about.  Emily is a typical teen, playing with her hair and makeup and acting a fool over boys.  She drives me nuts but I am sure I did the same things at that age but don't tell her!  Zach is my little man.  He is such a MaMa's boy which I love.  He is talking all the time and getting into anything and everything.  

Lately I have been back to couponing and saving money.  We want to take a big trip to DisneyWorld next year and have been saving money.  It just seems every time we get money saved, something comes up where we have to spend it.  Just this morning I was getting ready to run my dishwasher and it would not turn on.  Oh well back to having Emily be my dishwasher I guess!  You know, when it rains it pours!  

All in all, life is very good....

    

Thank goodness....kids back to school

Last week was horendous.  No school for 4 days....yes 4 DAYS!!!  First was due to snow and ice, then the next excuse was too cold (I don't think -10 is that bad..lol) and the final excuse was to save natural gas due to the fact some counties HAD NONE!!!!  Thankfully we did not lose our heat but we did cut back to do our part.  Let's just say I am glad to have that week behind me!

This week is filled with appointments for both girls and the cat, plenty of MOMS group activities, an appointment to talk to the DA handling our case and getting my next observation done!  I did not expect to already be observing children with these being my first classes but it has been very educational.  I am enjoying this much more than algebra and chemistry!  

Tonight is the preview for the Financial Peace University at my church.  I have been reading but I think hearing and seeing the information will be much better for me and hopefully hubby will go with me instead of me telling him how much money he can spend!  

This weel is going to be a very busy week and I am sure it will fly by.  Hope you all have a good one!

Been a while...

And boy have we been busy!  The beginning of a new year is always busy in this house.  Emily celebrated her 14th birthday on the 2nd and today is our 16 yr anniversary!  Can't believe I have been married that long and have 3 kids!  Thought that would never happen! 

Well I did the big change...I am back to school full time to get my degree in Elementary Education.  This week started it all up and have been busy doing fingerprinting and background checks to go and observe classrooms.  I really feel this is a good fit for myself and my family.  I do love kids, especially young ones and thing I have alot to offer.  Let's hope these next 15 weeks don't wear me down but keep me motivated to my ultimate goal of being a kindergarten teacher! 

It looks like gymnastics is in our future as Maddie and Zach want to take lessons.  Lord knows they are rolling , jumping and bending themselves into pretzels at home!  We go saturday morning to try it out and see how we like it.  Fingers crossed we do!  Emily will be starting an after school program at the pool  next week that teaches them how to be junior lifeguards.  She loves swimming and hopefully she will have an interest in being a lifeguard since she will soon be a teen that can work!  What a perfect fit! 

Larry is back to refereeing volleyball every weekend.  He will be busy till May but it allows us to let the kids do some programs they love and pay down bills.  Our goal for this year is to pay off ALL credit cards, my student loan and take a good chunk out of the truck loan.  If all goes well we will only have the truck and house payments in 2012.  Wouldn't that be a blessing!!  We also plan on doing some upgrades in the house but nothing too pricey...just enough to make it a bit more sellable if we do get orders in the next year or so. 

I am also staying with cooking more and trying new things.  I am also joining a gym and really working on losing weight and getting healthier.  Some of the ladies in my MOMS group have joined the gym so I have others to keep me motivated!  I am also now on the board of my MOMS group as the Membership Vice President.  My hope is to make our group the best one it can be and triple our membership.  There was some drama and we lost some members but sometimes you need a shakeup to make things better, right?  I ran for board member for our property association but unfortunately did not get it.  I am still on committees and plan on making my neighborhood a better one!

Welcome 2011

A new year means new beginnings and we plan on making the most of this year!  Stay tuned for all of our ups and downs on our journey through 2011....

My plans for this year are to cook something new at least once a week, take more pictures of my children, lose weight and get healthy, do more in my community, be more active in my MOMS group, join the board of our homeowners association, work on my teaching degree, pay off our debt and be able to yell "We are debt free" in the next couple years, help my children grow closer to God as well as Larry and myself and just be happy and drama free!  I am sure there will be more but for now that is quite enough!  And one prayer request...that justice prevail for my daughter who has gone through alot this year. 

My plan for cooking something new starts right now.  I am making crockpot brown sugar chicken and hope the kids love it!  I made butternut squash soup with cinnamon a couple days ago and everyone liked it so it inspired me to expand my cooking skills! 

I hope everyone had a great holiday and wish you all a Happy New Year! 

SNOW!!!

Yeah we are getting our 1st snow of the season and hopefully not the last!  It is so pretty outside but a big change from the 61 degrees we were yesterday. 

Maddie is enjoying the Polar Express at pre school today and I am sure will be so excited with all this snow!  Emily forgot her coat this morning since she thought it would be just as warm today as it was yesterday...I may be a nice Mom and meet her at the bus stop so she doesn't freeze on her way home.  Zach is loving having Mommy all to himslef since I am doen with classes for now and have all this free time.  I got my flu shot today and vaccine for whooping cough.  Man does my arm hurt! 

Sharing some of our snow pics....enjoy! 

Let the fun begin!

I really love this time of the year.  The kids are trying very hard to be good and learning about the true meaning of Christmas.  We have decided to adopt a Senior and a family this year to make the holidays brighter for them.  As a matter of fact, I need to wrap the gift for our Senior tonight and drop it off tomorrow.  I sure hope she loves her new pink robe and pj's.

I am excited for this next term to start.  I have decided to still work towards my Phlebotomy certificate but also work towards a teacher's aide degree.  I would like to be a kindergarten teacher...that is such a fun age to work with...when they aren't your kids!  Now I have to get past this farn algebra final...ugh!

Here are some pics of our tree, our outdoor decor and 2 of my 3 kiddos....enjoy! 

It's that time of year...balloon fiesta!!!

We love this time of year...the weather is cooling off and you just want to get out and spend time with the kiddos!  We are planning on going on a couple special trips this week since Larry is off.  When the weather is cooler it makes it alot nicer to go sightseeing which New Mexico has lots to offer.   

Here in New Mexico it is also Balloon Fiesta time.  For a few more days we have over 400 hot air balloons taking off every morning for such a beautiful show.  Fortunately where we live we can see some of them from our home which absolutely excites Madison.  Tomorrow we will be going to the mass ascension for the special shapes...it will be an early morning but so worth it.  The kids love it as do the adults.  At Madison's preschool they had a couple hot air balloons for the kiddos to see.  All three kiddos enjoyed seeing one of the balloons take off and the other they could closely examine.  We are blessed that every year we get great hot air balloon pilots who want to share their love of ballooning with kids and adults alike.  Many prayers going out to the families of the balloonists that are still missing....such a tragic and sad story. 

With halloween just around the corner we have started panicking on what the kids will be this year and Maddie is very distressed that we have not decorated yet!  She is on her Dad daily to put up decorations so she can show off her house.  She is so proud of what we do.  Maddie wants to be Jessie from Toy Story but I have not been able to find a costume for her.  I wanted to do the Alice in Wonderland theme since I have the Queen of Hearts costume but she shot that down.  Emily has not yet decided if it is cool to still go out...teens are such drama! 

Speaking of Emily she has been officially diagnosed with severe ADHD and ODD oppositional defiance disorder.  We are still working on finding just the right meds for her and she is still going to therapy.  She is doing better in school but is still giving us grief at home.  We are making progress but very slowly.  Zach is growing in laps and bounds and is walking and climbing all over the place and is always talking, much to my dismay!  He has just as much to say as his two sisters which is ALOT!!  Maddie is enjoying preschool so much and is doing very well.  She is just such a sweet loving girl who just loves her family.  

School is not going great for me.  Algebra and chemistry are two very hard subjects, much harder than I realized.  I am doing ok just wish I could understand it better!  Only 9 more weeks to go! 

Sharing some pics of the family...may God bless you and yours....

Don't you love the curve balls life throws at ya?

God won’t give you more than you can bear …

It does not imply that God won’t let you be stressed beyond what you can bear.

Or challenged beyond your ability.

Or pushed beyond your threshold.

In reality, God gives you more than you can bear all the time. On purpose.

...It’s only when you can’t bear the load that the strength of Christ kicks in…

and He becomes everything you need and more.

 

When things happen in life that just throw you for a loop, I always remembered my Mom telling me that God never gives you more than you can handle.  I always just prayed hard and hoped God heard me.  I never really questioned my faith and what God had planned for me but what has happened to my family I can't just think this.  I have asked so many times why me, why her, why us?  I am so mad and hurt that this could happen to us and God allowed it. 

I know God is here with me and is carrying us through this ordeal but it doesn't make the hurt I feel go away or feel lessened.  I am hoping as things play out and fall into place, I start feeling better and our family can heal.  We still are going to church and have not lost our faith...it is just being tested and I can assure you the devil is testing us in a very evil way. 

On a happier note, both girls have started school and are absolutely having a great time.  Emily is on the volleyball team and is just thrilled.  I am hoping this will be a great school year for her.  Maddie is loving going to preschool and riding the bus.  It brings tears to my eyes to watch how my two girls have grown into the loving people they are.  Zachary is enjoying being the only one home and getting all the attention.  He is growing into such a little man.  I can say God has blessed me with three remarkable children that we love to pieces. 

I am now done with school for this term and will be starting again in a week or so.  I know I passed both classes but have not seen my grades yet...I am curious what they are!!!  I am transferring to a new school and have a new career in sight.  I am also getting more involved with a charity that helps kids and also wanting to get more involved with children's charities in our area.  You have to give to receive and I plan on living that way and showing my kids how great it makes you feel.

Please keep my family in your prayers....we need all that we can get at this time.  Hope everyone has a blessed weekend....