So.

I have a new blog. You may be confused when you get there because it looks EXACTLY the same as this one. The reason for that is simple...I like my blog layout, but the address hasn't applied in awhile. So for those of you who still read this, you can find all my new posts (when they happen) at here.

This was a very busy, very interesting weekend. Without going into a lot of detail, my ex-husband told me that he had received some very crushing news regarding his academic career. As he laid it all out for me I had a brief moment of "oh, crap" followed by a flood of relief when I realized that his crushing news doesn't actually affect me. His crushing news affects him, and him alone. I do not take any pleasure in the fact that he has this problem to deal with, only in the fact that I don't have to deal with it. Now if you think that's petty, please keep in mind that it was his choice to divide our life paths, not mine. Don't get me wrong, I am absolutely thrilled with the way that my life has gone since we divorced, but I let that be his call.

Since that conversation I have thought about the different paths that we have each taken since we decided to divorce. I went back to school and will be graduating in less than a month with highest honors; I met and married a man who loves me for who I am; I have a beautiful home and have doubled the number of children I have to love; and to top it all off, I get to continue to be a stay at home mom after I graduate (which is what I want to do). I think that it's clear that I have been truly blessed.

I don't want to run my ex down so suffice it to say that his life has not taken a similar path. As I thought of all these things (including the ones about him I haven't shared) I kept having the chorus to a Garth Brooks song run through my mind...

She’s gonna make it
And he never will
He’s at the foot of the mountain
And she’s over that hill
He’s sinkin’ at sea
And her sails are filled
She’s gonna make it
And he never will

If you know this song, the lyrics to the verses don't apply, just the chorus. I don't wish bad things for my ex. In fact I wish that he would straighten out the multiple areas of his life that need straightening. But he has his agency and is choosing to exercise it in different ways than I have. There's really not any more to say than that.

Advice please...

Oh Wise People of the Internet, I need your help...

I am having an issue with one of my kids and lying. It's been going on for a while and it's driving me crazy. We have tried taking away video games, explaining that no one can trust anything that he says, and talking about it from a religious perspective, among other things. The things he lies about vary but none are of great consequence....which I think is what drives me nuts. It's not about self preservation and getting out of trouble, it seems to simply be laziness...it's easier to tell me that he did reading minutes and have me sign off on it than to actually do the reading. And this is a kid who loves to read!

So. What do I do? Any ideas are welcome...this is beyond getting old.

I will be graduating from Eastern Washington University on June 11, 2011. I will be walking in the ceremony wearing gold cords representing that I have earned the right to graduate Summa Cum Laude, which at EWU means I have a cumulative gpa of 3.9 - 4.0. I didn't think that I would feel like participating in the actual graduation ceremony, but I really want to. I have worked very hard to get to this point and I think for me, graduation is a fantastic way to close this chapter of my life. It represents a new beginning for me and for our family, and I am so excited for it to begin.

The kids have been through a lot the past couple of years and we will be playing hard this summer to make up for it. Lots of time outside, down by the river, at parks, the lake, and traveling to see friends and family. I am just shy of one month to go....I can hardly wait!

Winter quarter grades are out:

4.0
4.0
3.7

I'm pretty stinkin' proud of that 3.7....it was for a required course for my major that was fairly unrelated to Communications and dealt more with scientific theory. I really felt lost a great deal of the time, so I'll take it :)

One more quarter and I'll be a college graduate....I'm soooooo ready!

You know what's fun?

Arguing with someone who doesn't have a leg to stand on.



Metaphorically speaking, of course ;)

I dislike potty training

Aile is three. Three is the worst age for my kids. Two is a cake walk by comparison. She has started getting these really awful bacterial rashes on her bottom and legs that the doctor says is related to the fact that she still wears diapers. So she is now on the third round of anti-biotics...this one a much more powerful version. So today I have decided to do hardcore potty training. No pull ups, no diapers, just underpants.

How surprising that it is almost 1 pm and she has peed in every pair of underpants we bought for her...6 so far. We are on to borrowing Brooklyn's, and are down to the last two pair of "pants." The quotes are because they are pants in the sense that you wear them on the bottom half of your body, but we've worn shorts, skorts, and skirts as well.

I'm really hopeful that it'll click soon. She certainly knows when she's wet. And she's gone on the toilet a few times, usually after starting to pee in her pants and realizing she's wet. I don't know if I really have this in me right now, but I feel kinda committed.

Pray for me.

Wherefore art thou, Spring?

Just like everywhere else in the greater northwest area, it snowed here last night. I'm not particularly thrilled about it. I really really really thought that we were on the verge of spring...the sun was starting to shine, the sky was blue, the geese were still heading south for the winter, but hey! What do geese know anyway? Turns out they know a blizzard is in the works. I drove home from school last night in a white out. Awesome. Zero visiblilty on a three lane expanse of pure whiteness...no lines in sight. High adventure people.

I awoke to glorious drifts in the driveway, on the car, against the back door etc. Double awesome. Because my husband is sitting on a boat in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico which means I get to do all the shoveling. By the by, did you know that shoveling snow is one of my all time favorite past times? Yeah, neither did I.

All school districts were cancelled as a result of our 8-12" of overnight snow, including Eastern. Which is surprising given that they hardly ever cancel classes. But I'll take it...so I got a snow day. We did venture out twice, once to go to the doctor for Aile, and a second time to pick up her prescriptions. Overall the roads are not as bad as they could have been. But it's COLD.

I want spring.

My husband is an extremely talented painter specializing in pop art. Check out his website here... He does custom orders too. If you're interested in finding out more, just let me know!

Ahem...

I GOT MARRIED!!!

He is my best friend and we are perfect for each other. We had a very short and sweet immediate family only wedding on the 22nd of January. This is a link to a preview of the wedding pics. We had a 30s gangster theme going on and I absolutely love that everyone ended dressing up. Fair warning, my dress isn't modest...try not to have a heart attack. I'm still active ;)

We are very very very happy! And to top it all off, he's home for a month instead the normal two weeks.

Also, we now are the proud parents of two dogs :)

Family Pics

So I lied...here they are. The first one is my favorite...

The Update

It's recently come to my attention that I haven't posted anything on here since before Thanksgiving. A lot of things have changed for us since then so I should probably fill you in...

I had my birthday and Christmas Eve on the same night this year....we celebrated Christmas on the 11th and had family pictures taken the same day. Joe is a HUGE Seahawks fan so we did a Seahawks theme for the pics and they turned out awesome. Also, I have to say it was the easiest picture taking experience ever which was amazing since we had 5 kids with us. I may eventually post some here, but not tonight.

And then one thing led to another and we got engaged on the 19th. Yay for us! We decided to get married in April. And then another thing let to something else and we decided that it was stupid to wait and so we're getting married January 22nd instead. Because Joe's gone until the 20th, the kids and I have moved in (although the moving of stuff is still taking place). Not to worry, I will go back to my parents for the two nights before we are actually married.

And then, because we are so awesome and fun, we are spending our wedding night at Triple Play. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Spokane-ish area it's an indoor water park and wave pool and all around fun place with a hotel stuck on just for somewhere to go when you've exhausted yourself with all the fun. But we have a room with a fireplace and big tub because, hey, it is our wedding night ;)

And winter quarter ended and my grades were 4.0 and 3.8 in case you cared, which you probably don't, but there it is anyway.

Consider yourselves updated :)

In which I'm grateful for stuff

Thanksgiving approaches...time to think about all the things I'm grateful for. So in no particular order, here's some of my list:

1. My family. This includes those related by blood, and those related by love. Joe and all the kids (both mine and his) fall in this category.
2. My extended family...parents, aunts and uncles, cousins, etc.
3. Good friends...so very hard to come by, but the very best ones don't let time or distance separate them. You can pick right back up where you left off like it hasn't been a year since you've seen each other, and you can tell each other anything without fear of judgment. All y'all know who you are.
4. Going to school... I absolutely love going to school and learning new things. I love all the people that I have had the opportunity to meet and get to know as a result of being in school. There are a whole lot of things that I have learned since I went back and they have changed my life for the better.
5. Being smart...I know that sounds boastful but let's just call it truthful for the sake of argument. My mind is one of the most precious possessions I have...and the contents of it are the only things I get to take with me into the next life, so I am very careful to protect it from any harm.
6. My parents...I know I already included them up there in family, but they let me and the kids live here for more than a year and a half so far, with no concrete end in sight. Not to mention all the free babysitting they do as a way to support my education, and sometimes my social life ;) They are awesome and deserve an individual shout out.
7. Food and shelter. Pretty basic things but not everyone gets to have them. I'm so grateful that I do.
8. The gospel...it's a pretty big category and if you can think of it as related then throw it in here, I'm grateful for it.
9. Love. It's incredible to be loved for who you really are. I feel like the most amazing me that I have ever been...I wouldn't trade it for anything.

So there you go...just 9 short things. There are a lot of individual things that I'm grateful for, but most of them fall into those categories.

My kids will be gone for Thanksgiving, and Joe's on the boat so I get to catch up on all my schoolwork and sewing projects for Christmas while they're gone. Christmas for us this year will fall on December 11th, so we have just 18 days left in the countdown. This is shaping up to be the best Christmas ever, I'm so very excited for it ;)

The Halloween Post

We had Halloween...carved the pumpkins, dressed up and did trick or treating, the whole nine yards. But it was also football Sunday so we had that fun going on as well. Joe's house is near the Centennial Trail along the Spokane River and since it was gorgeous out we had an after-Seahawks game and pretrick-or-treating walk to throw rocks in the river. Joe's two cousins were in town too so we got a couple of good pics. So for those of you who haven't met him (and that's everybody lol) or seen him on Facebook, here's Joe:

We're freakin' adorable together ;)

My kids are always the ones making the weird faces and poses lol

Altogether we had a butterfly, Dorothy, Elvis, Darth Vader, a storm trooper, Mia Wallace (Pulp Fiction), and Allan (The Hangover). We had tons of fun!

Joe sent me flowers today...just because. I've never, ever had flowers delivered before. It's awesome ;) Between the flowers and the whole relationship status change on Facebook that he initiated I'm beginning to think he might like me... I'm unbelievably happy :)

It's a whole new me ;)

Two very important things to note about the following pics: The first is an outfit that I bought when I was 18...I kept it because a) it's awesome and b) I was wearing it when I met Ryan. It's still awesome lol. The second is me in my wedding dress, all zipped up.


Now why are these important things to note? Because these pics were taken YESTERDAY!!! Woohoo! I have a new body and it's pretty close to the one I had when I was 19 and 20. I'm sorta stoked ;)

hopefully quickly

Over the last three weeks Joe and I have seen each other everyday. Many a time the kids were with us too (mine and his). All of the kids get along like gangbusters, which makes them want to spend as much time together as possible. Caden and Lincoln now have 3 and 2 sleepovers, respectively, under their belts. And my children who have never ever ever in their lives listened to men as authority figures have learned to listen to Joe. I swear, he just has this way about him.

It's been the best three weeks :)

However, today we took Joe back to the airport. He's been called back to work on a boat in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico with three hurricanes going on in the area. I'm a little less than thrilled.

We're all going to miss him. Can't wait for the next month or so to pass...

It's a nice feeling, I could get used to it ;)

I've started running. I'm up to 3.5 miles a day, which is the most I've ever run in my entire life. This post is not really about that. I'm sure the 5 of you reading this also read the weight loss blog and are therefore already familiar with my running ways. This post is about something that happened on the treadmill today.

A little backstory for ya....I'm slowly dating a guy that lives in Spokane but works on a boat in the Gulf of Mexico. So he's currently on the boat. Most of the time when he's in port we can text back and forth and we do, but when they have to actually go do a job out in the middle of nowhere then we lose touch. For some reason there are no cell signals out in the middle of the water...pshaw! poor planning on the cell phone companies part.

Anyway, he's back in port today, and we were texting whilst I was running on the treadmill. Very hard to do, I don't really recommend it. He knows I've been working at it and asked me how it was going. I told him I was gaining muscle and losing fat. His response?

"Sweet...getting hotter...if that's possible"

Now, it's hot in the Gulf of Mexico, and really muggy where he is. He tells me about the weather down there almost everyday, and I haven't talked to him in a couple of days. Also, for the entire time I was with my ex I had to fish for every compliment I ever got. Really kind of negates any compliment you do get. And after 12+ years of fishing I felt the need to clarify..."The weather?" I asked him.

"No, you silly" was the response I got.

I'm sure that all of you with super loving and supportive husbands will look at that and go "So?" But I'm telling you, that made my day. :)

Summer Quarter Grades

4.0
4.0
4.0

Awesome ;)

Some of what we've done...

We went to the park in Coeur d'Alene. There's this great restaurant that serves giant ice cream sundaes, so of course we stopped in there. We also walked along the beach and the boardwalk...This last weekend we went to visit some friends in Vancouver, WA...we hit the Portland zoo, a local park and swimming hole, and then the beach at Seaside, OR. All the kids got along famously which was awesome as those were the hottest days of the summer. Two nights the three boys camped in the backyard with no adult supervision...ah, new experiences ;)

And then the kids went back to school today. Summer is over for us...short but sweet!