A day in the life of us...

Hi All....My blog has moved to http://heidisimpson.blogspot.com/ Please come check us out there!

 

As it turns out the new blog home is way more user friendly. I havent quite figured out what to do with this blog so I think eventually I will go thru and save some posts and make sure I have all the pictures on here. Eventually, I will delete this blog but just a heads up that I have moved!

Thanks!

Today was the "Mother's Day Tea" at Shawn's school. They celebrate mothers day a little early because THERE ARE ONLY 2 MORE WEEKS OF SCHOOL LEFT!!!! That means in 2 weeks my son will be on his last summer break before being a KINDERGARTNER! Are you kidding me?

So, Shawn made me a few really nice gifts. One of them is this letter....

"April 30, 2009

I think my mother is 6 years old. She is a little bigger than me, and weighs 30 pounds. I think her eyes are green. Her hair is black. (Gotta love that my eyes are brown and I have brown hair and ya...totally dont weigh 30 lbs! Plus add 20 to the age! LOL!)

My Mom's favorite good is peas and she likes to drink water. My favorite thing she makes me is carrots. (Really?)

My Mom likes to play games with me. I like to do my schoolwork with her.

My Mom and Dad like to eat together at home. Tickles make my Mom laugh. She is funny when she likes to be a baby. She makes me happy when she tickles me. I make her happy when I play with her.

My Mom is prettiest when she fixes her hair. My favorite thing she wears is a green shirt.

My Mom is special because she is my Mommy. I love her THAT MUCH! (both arms outstretched)"

 

While this letter is full of inaccuracies I absolutely love it and will cherish it forever.

I have really decided to buckle down and get Steven using the potty. I know he has been ready for awhile and he does really really well with the pee issue. However, #2 is not a good thing. That kid refuses to sit on the toilet. I have bribed him with M&M's a few times, just to get him to see that the act of sitting on the toilet does not mean that he will be sucked in and flushed down in seconds. Im not sure he is convinced.
I have been off work the last few days. So, I decided to not waste the opportunity. I did exactly what I did with Shawn- naked days. Shawn was pretty easy...he had a few accidents but it really wasnt a big deal. The nighttime stuff we are still struggling with but- that is another blog all together. One that end with a promise to go to the beach and possibly Sea World if he will part with the pull-ups and be accident free, at night, for a length of time. A week? A month? At this point I would be thrilled with half of a night. ANYHOW- so, Steven has not had a single pee accident. Not one. He loves using the potty to pee. Poo however, not so much. I have now figured him out though. When he has to poop he goes and hides somewhere. You see, usually he is Shawn's shadow but when he has to poop now and he isnt wearing a diaper he goes and hides somewhere. I have two more days before I go back to work and while Im not 100% sure we will have a major success this weekend we will have made some movement in the right direction.

On another issue... The last few days of not working have given me alot of time to think. Being home with the boys- picking Shawn up from school- cooking dinner- the house has been cleaner- reading to them- snuggling them- playing games- all of it. I really miss it. I hate to admit it because I dont want to seem ungrateful for my job, but I completely and totally miss being home with them.

I love my paying job. I am so over the top thankful that God put me in this job so promptly to provide for our family and make sure we had insurance. Im working from home, doing something I am pretty good at, and I really like the people I work with. The company I work for is amazing and the benefits are awesome. Please, please, please dont misunderstand my sadness for ungratefulness. Its just that a year ago at this time if you were to tell me this is where I would be now I would have thought you were off your rocker. How did our family life flip so completely in such a blink of an eye? All it took was Scott coming home and saying, "I got laid off.", on that Halloween day and that was it. Now Im the stable paycheck, providing insurance for the family, and Scott is cooking dinner, finding temporary work most days of the week, and finding work has become a job in itself. But amazingly enough-through it all- God continues to provide for us every single day. For all of it I am SO thankful.

I guess what I am saying is that I do miss that chapter in my life. It was a wonderful chapter filled with sleepless nights, dirty diapers, and learning about myself as a person. Being a stay-at-home Mom was an amazing gift that I will always look back on fondly and just like most parts of parenting went by way too quickly. Im thankful for my past, my present, and my future. It may not have been what I had planned out in my head but Im glad to be living it.

A few weeks ago I was talking to my Mother-In-Love about their new house. For those of you who dont know- they are building a house just outside of Wickenburg. They are doing the majoritiy of the labor themselves and it has taken longer than they originally hoped but it has been a labor of love. It is coming along nicely and they put a port-a-potty out there not too long ago to make it that much more comfortable when they are working out there. Probably the nicest port a potty you have ever seen being that it gets cleaned regularly and is only used by 2 people.
Their new house is located on a very desert landscape. Alot of dirt, cacti, palo verde trees, etc. They regularly see snakes and big nasty spiders that would make my 6 foot tall brother scream like a little girl. My Mother-in-love was telling me, in our conversation about how the house is coming along, about a recent event when she was using the port-a-potty. She was doing her business and went to get toilet paper. She slowly pulled on the roll and a spider the size of her hand scurried back up into the roll. Ya, alot of fun, right?
So this past Saturday we made the drive out to the new house to see how everything is going and then we were going to the annual "Desert Days" put on by the town to raise money for a library. We left a 7AM and I finished my 3rd cup of coffee on the way out there. By the time we hit the dirt road leading to their house my bladder was screaming at me. I was thankful there was the port-a-potty so I didnt have to find a place to squat. We pull in and the boys run to their Nana to give hugs. I wanted to give her a big hug too but nature was calling. I made a bee-line for the potty and as I closed the door remembered her story about the spider. Great. I do a quick sweep...no spiders, no snakes, ok Im good. I quickly do my business and S L O W L Y reach for toilet paper. Ahhh good nothing. But just as I tear the paper I hear a bird flying around. Now, the port-a-potty is right under a tree so no big deal- except I felt the breeze from the birds wings. I look up only to feel a BIRD ATTACKING MY HAIR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I run out of the por-a-potty with my pants around my knees and yell, "There is a freakin bird in there!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Scott comes over and opens the door - needless to say laughing it up- and we see the saddest little sparrow sitting on the seat looking at us like, "What the hell?!" It jumps on Scott's hand like some scene out of a dang Disney movie, and flys off.
It took me significantly longer to recover than it did for the bird.

Ok...I realize that I havent blogged since 2008. I realize that this is horrible and my family and friends who enjoy this blog are slightly irritated with me. Sorry. Been busy with the job, kids, and husband and when I have free time I chose making sure the kids have clean clothes and making sure they arent bathing in a tub with 2 inches thick of soap scum over blogging! Ok- I might be over exagerating there but you get the point.

When I started to think about how to start this blog I thought there wasnt much to write but I guess there is.....

Work is going well. I got the approval to work from home on 3/20/09 and all I am waiting for is the IT/IS people to get that all going. This is huge and so freaking exciting. I cant wait. I have been exceeding in productivity and plugging along- apparently doing a good job. Im very very thankful for my job and I am thankful that God pushed me right along to get it.

 

Work for Scott has been going well. He and his Dad have been able to find enough work to stay busy for the most part. The job itself can be kind of boring but he seems to really enjoy working with his Dad. We are still praying that God will put him with a great company when the time is right. It sure is hard to remember it is all on His timetable but it does give us comfort knowing that it is. Also, knowing that he has still provided for us through all of this.

Shawn is doing very very well. He is spelling and writing small words, riding his bike better, and becoming an amazing big brother. He is getting to be such a big boy and he is almost done with preschool. We have looked at some elementry schools as well as considered the kindergarten offered at his preschool- so we will see. We are kind of leaving that into God's hands also because we dont really like the schools around us and have decided to put our house on the market for that reason. Nothing is set in stone yet but it is in the works. We are feeling the pull to see what is out there and while this is a pretty rough time to sell our house- we want to at least see if it is possible.

Steven is doing great. He is losing some of that baby pudge and he delights in following his big brother everywhere. He has also been enjoying "school" and loves to be around other kids. He is a big snuggler and surprisingly can be quite a picky eater. He loves being outside and loves to get into little boy trouble!

I feel like I have grown alot spiritually and emotionally the last few months. I will probably get more into that in the next few blogs- which I promise to get better about writing. I will also get some new pictures up soon. Love ya all!