Amazing, Amazing, Amazing...Oh My Keith!

Well I had the privilege...and I do mean privilege of seeing Keith Urban in concert on Sunday night. Oh my goodness it was AMAZING. We had floor seats, which meant we were standing most of the time because if someone in front of us was standing we had to stand too just to see him. Well that was fine by me because I was standing and clapping and singing and dancing almost all of the night. I was really bummed in the beginning because they were supposed to be performing with Sugarland that night and on the way to the concert we heard on the radio that Sugarland wouldn't be performing because the lead singer was sick. Well I was beyond upset...they were actually why Mike got me the tickets. I really like Keith Urban but I love Sugarland. Well let me just say that Keith made up for the loss. He must have played 10 different guitars all night long. I knew almost all of the songs which is great for me because I love to sing...and sing I did...all night long. He was such a great entertainer. I mean it was more than just singing, it was straight rock 'n' roll all night. He sang sweet ballads, rock songs, fun dance songs...he really had everything. Awesome!! His band was great too. He came out in the audience a few times and performed on little side stages...one of the times he was only 15 feet from us. I'll post some pics at the end here and that's when he was really close...too bad we didn't take our camera so the pics are just off of Mike's phone which didn't take the best shots. And we got to see his wifey, Nicole Kidman, like 10 feet from us too. Mike said that made his night. I can't even begin to describe how much fun I had. It was my first concert and I had no idea what to expect but I LOVED it. I think he will be so hard to top. I want to be a concert junkie, but not just for anyone, I really just want to go see him again and again!! Thanks babe for the best birthday present EVER!!!

PS Keith you would be proud, I even pulled out my old Keith Urban CD and I've been listening to it ever since the concert. I'm still in awe.

Becky

Let the countdown begin...5 days

Only 5 more days until I get to go to my FIRST CONCERT!! Yippee. A couple of months back Mike surprised me by buying tickets to go see Keith Urban and Sugarland on the 19th, the day after my birthday, as a present. I can't believe now its only 5 days away....I'm super excited. Yeah for great hubbies!!

3 nights and counting....

Well we have big news around here....okay maybe not that big to all of you...but to us its a big deal. Van has had 3 nights now of no accidents or pull ups. He has been potty trained all day, including naps, for over a year now but the all nighter was the clincher. So he's been doing pull ups at night so its still easy to get off if he got up to go potty on his own. And every so often we would try it to see if he was ready and up until now, I hadn't really had that feeling. Then last week I noticed every morning that his pull up was dry plus he's been getting out of bed on his own during the night to go to the bathroom. So Friday night we decided to go with just his boxers, no pull up, and he did it..accident free. When I went to bed that night around 1130, I woke him up to go potty, which he did, and then he got back in bed and went to sleep. He got up around 645am and was perfectly clean...and pretty proud of himself. And so has been the story for the last 2 nights. Last night we got him up around 1130 too but he didn't get up this morning until 730am....yep, thats right, he made it a full 8 hours perfectly dry. Dare I say my child is fully potty trained....24 hours a day? I know it will be so when we aren't doing the "extra" wake up when we go to bed but I think for now its better safe than sorry. We are very excited!!! Yeah Van!!

God is Good!!

I just found out that 2 women I care about are having babies!!! Not only is this exciting because babies are always exciting, but these are 2 people that have not been blessed with an easy road when it came to bringing their babies into the world. Its so hard to have people you genuinely care about struggle with getting pregnant when you have 2 amazing healthy blessings to hug and kiss daily. However, an answer to my prayers...both of these amazing god loving women have been blessed as well. God is good. Can't wait to see them grow during their pregnancies and watch them enjoy all of the blessings and trials of motherhood. I will be praying for you my "D squared".

Long Overdue...

I know, I know. You all have been patiently waiting...or some rather impatiently.

As all of my fellow mommies can understand, at the end of the day...the only time I have to blog, I am so tired that I just want to veg out watching tv or doing nothing. I know keeping a blog isn't hard work, but for all of you complainers...you should really try it. Some weeks I find myself so motivated and with a lot to say....and then there are other times I keep trying to sit and blog and so many things come up that need taken care of. Well this delay is somewhere in between.

So I feel like we have been really busy. Van and Ava started recreation classes a few weeks back and are thoroughly enjoying them. Ava takes a little tumbling class that she has to be the little star of...I swear she is beyond her years...at least in this daring physical stuff. She just steps right up, in front of the boys or whomever is trying to go first, and throws herself down on the mat ready to try whatever the task may be...sometimes wheelbarrow walking, somersaults, log rolls, balance beam walking....she just goes right for it. I really think she is cut out for some sort of circus acrobatics or something...maybe one day we'll see her in the Cirque Du Soleil. Van goes to that class with her and has one before her that is more focused on doing crafts and stuff which is right up his alley. He's so quiet and reserved in public that he just likes to do the quiet activities. He has started soccer though and is starting to break out of his shell. Of course he is the shy one in the group so the teacher has taken a little liking to him which is nice because he usually needs just a bit of coaxing to join a big group that he is unsure of. But he has come home after both practices so excited with sunkissed cheeks ready to tell me all about it...so I know he really likes it.

Mike and I have been hanging in there too. We officially accepted an offer on our condo a few weeks back so once the short sale gets approved by our lender, we will be in escrow. Its all very bittersweet for us...but we have had to make some tough decisions just to get by lately. We know we are seeing some of the consequences from some bad decisions we made and are dealing with them the best we can. We are holding tight to our budget and haven't seen an overdraft charge now in almost 2 months...I know it sounds small but we were just being so lazy that it seemed like they kept racking up. Mike is actively looking for a band to play with since his new found talent on the drums. He is VERY good for only playing for around 4-5 months. He will be very modest about it, but he really is good. He is playing with a new one tonite and we're hopeful that this could be a good fit. I'm excited for him. Mike has and will always be my dreamer...he has so many goals and dreams in life and if possible, I'd like to see them all come true...especially if they are reasonable. He's young so why not go out and do all the things you've always wanted to do but never thought you really could, right? He's not sacrificing his family, his beliefs, or his morals for these little moments of happiness, so I'm all for it. I'm putting away working and just getting by. The days go by so fast I can't even believe another month has past. As our little ones get bigger, I feel like time goes even faster. We've even pondered the idea of "another" little one as of late...no this is not an announcement of any sort...we've just been talking. The rational side of me is like heck no....we don't have the money, the room, the car space, etc etc...but my husband tries to play to my emotional side....so who knows.

Well that's about all I can squeeze in right now, I'm hoping to get some reading time in tonite too. But, here are a few cute pics we just took when our little ones were having some fun in the sun. Enjoy!!

Be back in hopefully less than a month this time...

B

Graduating...and on to bigger things

Hello all. I'm back again. Let's start by saying these last few weeks have seemed crazy. I feel like I've had so much to do...and not just w/ the kids or w/ Mike, but actually me, lowly ole housewife having lots to do on my own.

Well the easiest place to start would be graduation. Last Friday Van had his last day of school for the summer. Our preschool runs on a school year schedule so we get out in June and begin again in September. One side of me is bummed for Van and wanders a bit what I'm going to do with him all summer but there is that other side of me that is so thankful for me and Ava to not have to work another Tuesday morning for 3 months!!! I know, its only a few hours a week, but to have to bring my 1 year old crazy spazy monkey child with me and have to keep an eye on her from not single handedly destroying every craft on Tuesday plus doing my job as a parent worker are 2very difficult tasks. Tuesdays were easily my most trying day of the week with 2 exhausted kids by nap time. So I'm very relieved to have this short break. Oh yeah, back to graduation. So our school does a general graduation that all of the kids get to participate in and then at the end they just have the "actual" graduating preschoolers stand up for acknowledgement. The service was short but very sweet. They all walked in to the graduation march song and then went on stage to their assigned seat....sounds easy, huh....I'll have you know we worked with these 2,3, 4, and 5 year olds all week for this....so it was quite a triumph for it to go pretty seamlessly. Then our little ones did their good morning prayer, good morning song, and pledge of allegiance...Van of course knew all of these. Then all of the teachers went up and talked about the kids that came on their days and that was about it. It was still very exciting to get to watch Van at the door waiting his turn to come in and then watching him on stage doing his songs and stuff. I know he's only 3 and still has 2 years left of this program, but we are already so proud. He has gained so much socially, physically, emotionally, and intellectually over the last 9 months. I just can't wait to see how proud I'll feel at his high school graduation....or as Nana (my mom) says...when he graduates from med school. He is such a serious and intense little boy but has such a sweet innocent side that just catches you off guard...its sooo opposite from his in-your-face super cute charming demanding little sister. Well we were the epitome of proud parents and proud Nana cheering for him when he made his entrance and snapping what few pictures we could. The theme was Hawaiian in case you're wondering why I dressed my child like that for a graduation...enjoy the photos...sorry about the lighting, this is WITH a flash.

(do you see the thing in the background in the green dress...yes that's our crazy spazy monkey child Ava...she will climb on anything she can find...I really hope she lives to see 3)

So now that school is over, we are going to try our hardest to enjoy our summer break. Thanks to Nana, our kids will be partaking in some rec classes this summer. Van will get to try out his skills at soccer and tball and Ava will be taking her first tumbling class (okay honestly at this age its really just balance, tunnels, slides, and fun stuff like that...next year is the real tumbling....we're very excited for her). This will be Van's first time actually getting to play sports in a team like setting. The classes are really just skills classes but at 4, next summer, he will officially be able to join a t-ball league or a soccer team and we can't wait. I think this is really what Mike has been waiting for since the day I told him I was first pregnant. It will be fun to get to watch this and we really hope Van enjoys it.

So what else is happening...well Van is a writing machine now. He loves to write any word we can think of for him to spell. Earlier this week he wrote out little notes that said mommy, pappy, grammy, Nana, and opa...all by himself...so of course we gave all of the grandparents their notes. He loves to spell and read too...well not really read but he likes to sound out the words and make a real effort to read his books...I honestly don't think it will be long. This summer our mission is to get him to be a number writing master. He's doing so well on his letters but we need to work a little more to get his numbers really legible. He's such a little sponge, he gets so excited to learn new things and show us what he has done...he's an easy one to teach.

Ava is really becoming a crazy toddler. She is so much more physically active then Van ever was. I'm convinced its because she watches him do everything and just does it too. She will climb on anything, including the monkey bars in our backyard. She climbs up both sides of ladders and the slide on our backyard tree house. She climbs up on our beds, chairs, couches if she can find something to push over to give her the extra height boost. I really do fear for her life here in the next few years. Amazingly though she does not climb out of her bed...at least for now. She has really started to thin out since she is always running after a faster brother. I'm anxious to take her for her 15 month checkup next week just to see how she's grown. She really can be so sweet and charming...she just sucks you right in when she wants to. She says please now...well actually she says..."puh puh" which to her means please, heck I'll take it. She is quite the jabber jaws though so it will probably only be a matter of time before words start spewing out....such the girl.

As for Mike and I, we're doing great. We have been sticking to our budget so well the last month. We even had extra left over a week or so ago and I was able to pay 2 bills that I wasn't expecting to be able to pay, at least not then. Plus Mike has been able to save a little here and there and make himself a nice little spending money pot. Its funny, we really aren't sacrificing that much..like we don't feel like we're missing out on anything we really want to do....we're just being better about being smart w/ what we have and really saving for the things we really want to do other than just being lazy. Does that make sense? We have been cooking machines lately and eating at home so much more...which lets be honest, is so much cheaper and better for all 4 of us. I try really hard to not give in to the temptation to be lazy at night and eat out instead of cooking good stuff we already have here....so far I haven't given over to this weakness and Mike has eaten everything I've cooked. We've even tried a few new things and are trying to expand our "menu" so that we don't get tired of the same stuff. Its amazing how little you really need to spend every week if you really watch what you are spending money on. Plus, this should not go un-noted, we have great wonderful families and friends that take us to dinner or make us dinner at least one time a week just because they like our company...so its always a nice break for my cooking hands and Mike's cleaning hands.

Life is good right now. We've got a couple of really busy weeks coming up but I hope to be back after the kids start their classes with some good pictures. Thank you for all of your prayers and kind thoughts...they really do make me feel encouraged and uplifted...its so nice to know we have a huge support system out there that sometimes we just forget about. Love to you all.

B

Making Progress

Well first off, let me say thank you to all of our friends and family that wrote us heartfelt comments after my last post. I have to say I was really surprised by the honesty that came from all of you guys...not that I mean you aren't honest, but everyone came back baring their dirty laundry as well...it just really made me feel like we're all in this together. I know we aren't alone in our situation but sometimes this desperation just feels so lonely. Last Sunday I heard a class on the book of Romans at church and one verse just kept sticking out to me..."For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate" Romans 7:15. I keep hearing this in my head and this is what is making us make a change.

After I posted that blog, I just felt such a renewed sense of obligation and energy to do good things with our money. Mike and I sat down last week and had a great heart to heart about where we are and where we want to be...and what we need to do, what changes we need to make, to really make that happen. As long as we are on 1 income things are not going to be rosy so to speak, but we can do waaaay better than we are doing....and we are determined to do it. We have made a new budget, went and did good grocery shopping, made a menu for every night of dinner, limited ourselves to one time out to eat a weekend...wether it be Saturday or Sunday...and a budget for Mike to eat out for lunch during the week that has great possibilities to leave him with some fun money if he wants it that way. I think we've got a good shot this time...we are very determined. We are taking this one day at a time...our money diet...if you look too far ahead in the future its easy to make mistakes daily, just like any diet, so we're taking one day at a time and trying to keep eachother on the right track. Like I said, its been a week, I know not very long, but we're really determined this time and I think we came very close to hitting rock bottom, so the only way is up, right?

Some of you may or may not know that we listed our condo for sale a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately, in line with our money woes, our condo was just costing us way too much to keep. It was a good decision when we made it almost 5 years ago but we were both working at the time and had no kids...obviously lots has changed since then. So we are forcing ourselves to list it as a short sale and deal with the consequences. If we are able to sell it, it could save us almost $800 a month...and boy do we need it! Our renters have been wonderful and ideally they would just buy it from us but they aren't in the position to do so. They really want to stay and were hoping whoever bought it would let them continue to rent from them, but we haven't been so lucky yet. Our renters have worked really hard to keep our place clean and neat and we've had some good lookers since our realtor lowered the price, but no big hits yet. We do have one offer pending but we haven't made our decision yet. We are really praying about this one and hoping we are making the right decisions. We would appreciate your prayers also.

As for our little munchkins all is well. Ava is as crazy as ever and living life on the edge. She has no fear, climbs whatever she can, and tries to kill herself daily with her daredevil antics. We'd love to enroll her in some gymnastics or tumbling class but with our limited resources we haven't made the jump yet...hopefully in a few months. She is a babbling little girl, saying mama, Jess, J (for uncle J), dada (sometimes even daddy), va (which is van), tweet tweet (for birdies), cheese (just started tonite for taking pictures), and communicates in all other ways like nodding no when she doesn't want what you have, waving to you to come over if she wants you and whatever else she has to do to get what she wants. She is quite the girl, but is also such a ham and loves to be sweet and give lots of love. Here's a recent pic of our little handful...

Moving on to our Van Man. He is doing great. He has 2 weeks left of school for this school year and then we are out for the summer. What a difference a year makes. He is making great strides at school and I'm so proud. Just today at church he proceeded to write on a piece of paper, all by himself, his name, mom, dad, and ava....at 3 years old!!! I'm speechless. This little boy has quite the streak of independence wanting to do everything for himself, including getting himself dressed completely (shoes, socks, underwear, shirts, shorts, etc) and undressed, going the bathroom, getting his own food out of the refridgerator, etc etc. I love the independence but I could go without the daily power struggle...I will conquer though. He has become a real sports nut lately and loves to play baseball in the backyard where we pitch to him, he hits and then runs our bases. He also loves to play soccer and catch. This will be another one that if we get all of our "resources" in order, we will hopefully be able to enroll him in tball or soccer through our city. Sorry I don't have another recent shot but here he is at Jess and Danny's rehearsal...showing his "guns" (as daddy says).

Well your prayers are working and we are making great strides towards peace. Thank you for your thoughts and of course I love to hear from you all. Hopefully I will be back soon...with more good news and steps in the right direction.

Love,
me