Hold your excitment...

...for 2 posts in a matter of a week this month! I know, I know...I am getting CRAZY! I was thinking about this evening how quickly my 20's are coming to a close and I thought I would blog about what happened in my 20's.

~~At 20 it was the worst year for our country, Sept. 11th, I will never forget...ever. I also lost my Grandma Arlie, I still miss her face!
~~I turned 21...being legal to drink is a milestone for anyone I don't care what you say! Not a huge drinker but I did love that I was able to when I wanted. Now, I rarely ever get carded (aw...sad face)
~~At 22 Rick went into the Army. He needed a change and he is glad he did it. I also got to marry the best man around. I know I am sure most people with blissful marriages say this...but I mean it. I am SUPER lucky to have met and married my best friend and the best daddy to our boys!
~~At 23 I graduated college and moved to Italy to be with my stellar husband a week later. In the 1st month I was there, we drove to England (yes, under the English Channel and everything) and visited Germany. Rick had a lot of training this year to prepare to go to Afghanistan, so amongst the changes of moving to another country I was often by my self trying to figure things out.
~~At 24 I moved back to Texas for a year while Rick was deployed to Afghanistan. This was the HARDEST YEAR OF MY LIFE! Within the 1st week of being deployed there they lost 15 soldiers in a helicopter crash...I knew at that moment this was going to be a long year. I was a paralegal for a law firm during this year as well. I don't think I have ever cried as much as I did this year. But, I learned a lot...I learned what is important in life and what is not. I learned that communication is the key to making any relationship work and not to sweat the small stuff even with the ones you love the most. Most of all I learned that God can bring you out of the darkest times and fill your heart with more joy than can ever be explained. I would have never gotten through this year if it weren't for the God's grace and love.
~~At 25 I moved back to Italy to await Rick's return. Quickly after Rick returned from Afghanistan we found out I was expecting. Never knew I could get so large....ha! At 7.5 months along I flew back to Texas where we were going to start a home because Rick was getting out of the Army. Rick flew back 10 days before we welcomed Jackson Devaun 9lbs 1oz 21.5inches of blessing (and he was 2 weeks early) into our lives. Never knew my heart could love another so much until I saw his perfect little c-section head/face.
~~At 26 we continued to watch Jackson grow into the wonderful, full of energy little boy that he is. We also bought our first house in Houston, TX. I was fortunate to be a stay at home mom and be there for Jackson's milestones.
~~I can honestly say that 27 and most of 28 were a blur of momminess (if that is even a word) establishing ourselves in Houston. Trying to find a good church to call home. Just living life to the fullest. I did loose my Grandma Shirley which was really tough since both my grandma's played a huge part in raising me. At the end of my 28th year we found out we were expecting again....who knew what surprises would come.
~~In my 29th year I had (via c-section) Makayla Jean....oh WAIT...nope surprise in the delivery room after 4 ultrasounds....Colton Richard 9lbs 5oz 20.5 inches (2 weeks early like his big brother). Colton seriously was a replica of Jackson at first. I swear Rick and I would look into his little bassinet and be like...serious dejavu! I didn't think I had room to love another as much as the 1st...but you sure do! God makes your heart just a bit bigger to fit everyone in. This same year I decided to get my teaching certification and started working full time as a teacher when Colton was just 6 months old. Then the rest is history...or stated in the blog below.

Seriously my 20's were filled to the brim. I cannot wait to see what is in store for my 30's. I am blessed beyond anything that I can express. Here's to my 30's....

It's been awhile...

...that phrase seems to fit this last year of blogging. I have done a terrible job at trying to keep up with this thing. But working and taking care of the kids most evenings by myself because of Rick's schedule is not very condusive for much of any free time let alone blogging. My 1st year as a teacher just finished up last week. What a glorious year it was. I truly feel like this is my calling in life. I enjoyed being apart of 130 kids lives this year. It has given me some prespective into how I want to be as a parent when my children are in HS. Not that we haven't all been there, but now as a parent its funny how "parent-like" your ideals are. Times have changed even since I was in HS, although for the most part its still the same drama just another time. The last part of this school year has been an emotional rollercoaster to say the least. In March we found out that the state was going to be cutting education in the budget. (which I personally think should never be an option) Because of that the district I work in decided that they were not going to renew contracts to the teachers that were 1st year to our district. So, 15 of us (at our campus) in March got the notice from our administration that we were not going to have a job next year. I am a fortunate person that I am able to stay at home with our kids but as I said before I LOVE my job. I looked forward to going to work everyday so this news hit me with such heartache. We wished our admistration got to choose who left our campus, but that was not the case. The district just did a broad sweep. Right after we were told this news I was nominated for Teacher of the Year (1 of 6 nominees out of 140 teachers). This was such an honor. Its hard to get a nomination like this especially when you work at a campus with a wonderful faculty. Over March and even through the end of May I was told on mulitple occasions that I had a chance to be hired back. SO its like sitting on a teeter totter....I have a job....no I don't have a job....I have a job....you get the point. I was finally told definitively this last week of school that there was no chance for me to be hired back. So needless to say the last week of school was filled with many tears. The last projects we watched in class...made me cry....saying goodbye to all my kids sweet faces....made me cry....have lunch with some great co-workers/friends....made me cry. Even writting this today makes me tear up. It was SO hard to say these goodbyes...and I am notoriously terrible at goodbyes anyways so that doesn't help. I am going to miss my job. I am looking forward to being with the boys and Rick is for sure looking forward to not being Mr. Mom while I am at work. I am a firm believer in that God has a plan. I know it was God that lead me to this job and God will lay the path for whatever is in my future. I will write sooner than later...promise!

Top 10 in 2010....

1) The birth of Colton...our "princess", we fell in love with you the moment we laid eyes on you even though you were a huge surprise...it was a pleasant surprise!
2) Rick finished training in Jan. and was praised for all the great work he does.
3) Jackson got to play his first season of soccer early this year, he is quite the soccer stud. One game he scored all 6 goals for his team...most importantly he loves it!
4)Jackson was potty trained by the time the baby arrived...in a weekend...which was AWESOME!
5) I became a teacher and am loving every minute of my job.
6) Rick got a new truck...his "dream truck" which almost brought me to drink heavily during the weeks he spent looking for the perfect one with the perfect price.
7) Our family trip to California (just this month. It was great for our family out there to get to meet Colton...not to mention we got to go to Disneyland!
8)Watchig Colton hit all his milestone's and truly taking in the moments since time is flying by.
9) Celebrating 7 years as a married couple (going on 12 years together) tomorrow. It has been quite a ride for 7 years and I wouldn't trade it for the world.
10)Changing our lifestyle and going organic...it has been the best thing we have done for us and our boys.

new venture...

...Starts tomorrow!! My new teacher inservice training starts tomorrow, then the following week all teachers go back to school, then school starts eeekkk!!! I am super nervous and excited at the same time. I am nervous for the whole situation being new and excited because it couldnt be more perfect for our family. I am also sad, because I gave Jackson my sole attention until he was 20 months old when he started Mothers Day Out 2x a week, and I am not giving Colton that same opportunity. But Rick will be home with them till he leaves for work and he has 2 days off during the week. Also, we will have a nanny come to our house 3 times a week for no more than 2 hrs each day. I have always wanted to work when my children got to school age, God just had a different plan for me!
On another note, a couple of months ago I decided to transform the what we eat in this house when I started trying to loose all the baby weight. Which I am down 25lbs, if I could loose 10 more I will be at where I was before having Jackson. Anyways, I watched Food Inc. last week (and then again the next day and the next) and we as a family are taking it to another level. Its not that I let my kids eat crap all the time, but I never knew things that I thought were "good" for them could be so awful. We are only going to eat grass fed beef, free range open air chicken and organic dairy and produce. I have found a local farm that delivers to our home all of the above products since they have joined together with other farms around. I have now 6 other families on board, we need 15 to get them to start delivering to our area which I think we can get! I also found a local bakery that makes their bread with only 5 ingredients. Some of my friends think I have completely lost it, but I am not saying Jackson is never going to have sugar again or we are never going to have Chick-Fil-A....I am saying if 90% of what we eat is good for us then we can eat the other things. If my kids want ice cream at home thats fine but it better just say milk, cream , sugar and egg yokes on the label not 9000 other things. Anyways we are pumped, Rick included, on our new change its going to take a lot of home cooking but we can do it!!
I hope to blog soon about the new job, but cant promise anything right away. Thank goodness for FB to keep everyone in the loop!!

waiting...and waiting....

Seriously, it has been over 3 weeks since I took my exam for this teaching position and I STILL have not gotten the results. I will find out Monday by 5pm they said when I gave them a lovely little phone call. Its very frustrating, with technology these days would would think getting the grade for a scantron test would be a whole lot quicker. So, Monday it is and now I think I am going to puke with anxiousness.
On a happier note one of my teaching classes just ended. It was an amazing class, it was all on the teaching of Dr. Fred Jones- and his Tools for Teaching series. I swear, even if you are not going to become a teacher at any point I learned some wonderful things about how to deal with children (as in our kiddos) in general. Here are just a few tidbits from his teachings..

~ Calm is strength, upset is weakness.
~ It takes one fool to backtalk, it takes two fools to make a conversation out of it.
~ The price we pay for our own inconsistency is a reduction in our capacity to nuture.

He truly has some great things to teach just about anyone. I can say for us, in terms of discipline, consistency has been the absolute key. Even when it is hard, or the easy way out was to say yes, we have always stood our ground with Jackson and I really feel like it has paid off. Speaking of Jackson, this kid comes up with the funniest things lately, I need to start documenting them. Here is one from the other night...

(picture Colton lying on the floor watching Jackson who is acting like a three yr old hyped up boy would trying to get his Pj's on, as he almost falls full body onto poor Colton)
Me: Jackson, baby, you almost fell on your brother and that would have hurt him very badly.
J: He would have gone up high with Jesus?
Me: Possibly, and although we do want to go up high with Jesus, maybe not just yet for Colton.
J: (he ponders a mintue) SOOO..I fall on baby, he goes up high with Jesus...I'll just make you a card..ok, then it be all better.

Guess he doesn't quite get the concept that he would never see his brother whom he loves so much until he went to heaven as well, and what else would you need in a time of grief but a card....ha!

My crazy life....

....the title of this blog totally explains the last couple weeks around here. Its calmer now, which is nice, so let me fill you in.
At the end of April I passed the exam to teach 4-8 grade, in June I started 2 classes toward my teaching certification. One is on Sat. from 8-3p, and the other is Wed evenings from 6-930pm. On June 15th I went to a local job fair that had every school district around the houston area there. I spent a few days before selecting the districts that I wanted to talk to and made a fancy smancy portfolio type thing for them, there were 6 in total. On the day of the job fair, I passed out all my resumes and spoke with an assistant principle to a local middle school about a history position. She told me to come back in a couple of hours so we could talk more. Well I was done passing out all my resumes so I just sat up in the stands (its in an audotorium) people watching. The districts that had openings held up signs for the positions that they had avaible. After about 20 mins of sitting there I kept noticing this sign for "technology applications" position at a HS right down the road from our house. So, since I had time to kill I was curious as to what that position was. I went and talked to the lady and she said it was to teach their video production class.....my mouth dropped, that was my major in college. I had NO idea these positions even exisited! I told her about my major and her mouth dropped and she imeditatly sent me down to have a mini interview with her assistant principle. Mind you I have no more resumes left since this was totally unexpected. I spoke with the assistant princple and she told me I had to take another exam to teach this class and level and there was a test in a couple of saturdays from them. (I will also add this test only occurs 4 times a year). So, that evening I got another call from the asst principle and she wanted to schedule and interview for me the next day. Went to the interview the next day with the head principles and it seemed to have gone pretty well. SO I went home and signed up for the test (signed up on the last day you could). They called me the following monday and offered me the job, but I had to pass this test the coming saturday. I was SO elated that they offered me a position but I was SOOO nervous about the upcoming test. Well, its been a week now since I have taken the exam and still have another 2 weeks to wait to see if I passed. A big part of me thinks of how God played this all out for me. I mean everything just fell into place so perfectly, how could this not be the path He has chosen for me? But, we shall see. SO, while frantically studying for this test, raising two kids, doing homework for my classes, having a husband (who so graciously put up with my bad mood)...I was super stressed to say the least. But now I feel as ease, and will wait to see what the good Lord has in store.
On a side note, I have lost 12lbs this month in my efforts to loose all my baby weight. 15 to go and I will be a happy camper. Yea me!! SO, if you have made it through this rambling, keep us in your prayers because this job could not be any more perfect for us. I would teach video production for 5 periods (have 2 open periods), school ends at 240pm. On M,T and Fri the kids would only be with a nanny at our house for a total of 6 hours a week since Rick is off W and Thurs. Summers off, holidays off....ohhhhh its perfect.....just waiting to see His plan!

Oh the big BOY...or should I say boys...

Is it June already? I can't even believe it! Colton is growing like a crazy head, 16lbs and 26.5inches at his 4 month apt. Everyone always says to me how much smaller than Jackson he looks, which it is true Jackson was 3 lbs heavier that this time (wow) but all babies are different and Colton is not melting away on us or anything. He's rolling over (or should I say) rolled over 2 times now. He is also trying to sit which totally shocked Rick and I. I swear with the second baby you are SO much more relaxed its not even funny. I feel like I have all the good mommy tricks up my sleeve ready to use them at any time!

Jackson is ever amazing us. He has quite the imagination these days, we play pretend things all the time. Which I LOVE! His vocabulary is unreal nowadays too. His new phrase is " O-H- M-Y-G-O-S-H that was AAAAAWWWEEESSSOOOMMMMEEE!!! The pool has opened in our community which is a nice get out of the house activity for us to do. He also starts swim lessons on Monday with some friends of his.

Rick is going on a overnight fishing trip to the gulf soon. He is beyond excited for that and I just hope he doesn't puke the whole time! I am sure it will be a blast even if he does. He works very hard and deserves a fun escape!

As for me, I started my 1 of 3 classes this summer toward my teaching certificate. This class is the main one that will help prepare me for my final certification test. As for now, I have applied at just about every district around and just waiting to hear. They often hire people even as late as two weeks into the school year. I also am bound and determined to get this stinking baby weight off of me. Since it is swimsuit season there is no need to scare everyone away! ha! I have been hitting the gym regularly and eating a low calorie low fat diet. Hoping to start seeing some results soon.

well happy june to everyone. I will be turning 29 at the end of the month...one year closer to my thirties...I can't wait!