Oh, Andrew

Obstinate:
1. Firmly or stubbornly adhering to one's purpose, opinion, etc.; not yielding to argument, persuasion, or entreaty.
2. Andrew.

Oh, Andrew. You are driving me insane! You always insist on the opposite of anything and everything I (or anyone else) asks of or offers you. When did my sweet little baby turn into such a monster?

Halloween Festivities

This has been quite an eventful week! First off, Joseph contracted the H1N1 (Swine Flu) virus. Joseph was in the ER last friday and he wasn't allowed to go back to school until this friday. I was thankful that he was able to return on Friday for his school Halloween party. I was signed up to be a volunteer. I love participating in his classroom activites. Five-year-olds are fun! Joseph came home with bags and bags full of goodies. One of the boys in the class exclaimed, "This is the best day of my life!"

This was the favorite goodie in our house:

Lime green vampire teeth!

Friday was gorgeous! We wanted to get out and enjoy the last of the nice weather, so we made a trip to Sweetapple Farm to participate in a costume parade and go on a haunted hay ride.

My handsome firefighters.

Let me just say, I was so thankful that they saw these costumes in TJ Maxx. I have made their costumes every year, and every year I scramble to get them finished minutes before trick-or-treat. They originally wanted me to make them The Wiggles, but they fell in love with these costumes and changed their minds. Thanks TJ Maxx!

My old lady costume.

Quite possibly the scariest thing out there. Before you know it, I'll be shopping the Quacker Factory on QVC. Oh yeah, I'm not pregnant. I just have a fat stomach. I seriously look like I am 6 months pregnant in this picture.

Sweetapple Farm. Beautiful!

As you can see, Joseph and Andrew were very excited for Halloween festivities!

Candy was given out for the best costumes. The judges said they were all the best. No child left behind.

So cute! There were bonfires all around the farm and they even sold little s'mores packets and hot dogs. We didn't have any, but it was fun to sit around the fire nontheless!

Andrew in the pumpkin patch.


Andrew and Joseph trying to kill the scarecrow.



Last but not least, the hayride. Tons of fun!

And that concludes Friday's festivities. Saturday morning was my last day of work. Yay! But I came home to a sick Andrew. He was running a fever. And the weather was nasty. Our town had trick-or-treat at the mall, so I gave Andrew some Tylenol and we avoided the nasty weather. It was packed, but there was plenty of candy and Joseph had a good time. Andrew wasn't so thrilled. He ended up riding around in one of those car strollers and I collected his candy for him. Poor guy.

Excited for candy.

Not excited about anything.

My handsome little guys.

Unfortunately, Andrew woke up with a fever of 105 degrees this morning. Ugh. So, I spent all morning in the ER and came home with a prescription for Tamiflu. More swine flu. May I just mention that I haven't been to church in 5 weeks, because someone has been sick every week. This flu season has been terrible.

Here's to hope that our family will be healthy soon. Keep us in your prayers.

More Photo Fun

I made another sample for your enjoyment. I need to credit the following for use of their freebies. If you would like to use any of their products, please visit these sites:

http://www.storeide.se/gunhild/index.htm

http://totallyddesigns.blogspot.com/

http://censloft.blogspot.com/

Still busy...

So, I tried to quit my job like I mentioned in my last post, but that didn't go so well. My boss talked me into working one day a week. I was kind of OK with that. Then we had a meeting this week about the holiday season. I was informed that I would probably be working 12-15 days in a row and that I wouldn't be allowed to request any days off. WHAT??!!! Sorry job, but my family and my sanity are way more important than a few extra bucks for Christmas. I think we can live without a flat-screen tv.

Since I have been working less I've actually had time to work on my house. Things are finally getting put away. I've done various home improvement projects and it's finally starting to feel more like home. I will add some pictures soon.

The last week has been less than fun. Joseph and Andrew had the flu (I'm pretty sure it was the Swine Flu) all week, and now I have it. Yuck.

Now that I am for real quitting my job, I am doing what my husband has been trying to convince me to do for years - start my own business. So, I am going to try my hand at photography and graphic design. I've done some minor projects and I have some requests to do senior portraits. I thought that it would be fun to do invitations, graduation announcements, birth announcements, etc. besides the photography. I may try my hand at blog headers/designs too. I feel pretty confident about it. Here's a sample I made:

I did the photography for this couple's sealing a few months ago, so this isn't a real "save the date." Just working on some ideas. Tell me what you think!

MIA

Sorry folks. I have been gone for quite some time. I wish that I had something super exciting to fill you in on. Unfortunately, here is the story of the four weeks I've been MIA.

• Week 1: Work and homework.
• Week 2: Work and homework.
• Week 3: Work and homework.
• Week 4: Work, homework, 3 tests, 2 speeches.

Things have been pretty rough around these parts. I've had no time for anything that I want to do (blogging, sewing, photography), and I've barely had anytime for things that I need to do (like the fact that I've lived in my house for 2 months and I'm still not unpacked).

Anyhoo, I've been losing my mind, so I came to the conclusion that something has to go. So here's the list of things that keep me busy.

• Family - I certainly can't get rid of them, although sometimes I could use a break from screaming kids!
• Church - Definitely can't get rid of that either! I'm in the RS presidency and I have had no time whatsoever to devote to my calling.
• School - It takes up a lot of my time, but unfortunately it is a necessity for me. If we ever want to be out of debt, I'm going to have to have a career. It stinks. I wish that I could afford to stay at home, but I can't.
• Work - The bane of my existence. Brad gets home from work at 4:30 every afternoon, and I have to leave at 4:35 to get to work on time. Usually, when I come home he's in bed. Not good. I make barely more than minimum wage and I work my rear-end off with little to no reward (I'm thinking it's closer to no than it is little).

So, work has to go. It's for the best. If I am going to have to work to help support my family, I don't want to work at a fast food joint at the mall for the rest of my life. Which is the reason I need to finish school and do it fast!

Anyway, my blogging will no longer be on hiatus. This is my journal. It's how I keep track of all of things my family does. It's our memories. So it's important to me to keep this up, even if it isn't important to anyone else. So I think y'all will be hearing from me a little more often. One can only hope, right?

Milestones

Two important milestones this week:

1. Joseph started kindergarten.


2. I turned 25, which means that I am half-way to being "over the hill."
   

Kindergarten:

Joseph's first day of kindergarten started off great! He has an amazing teacher, is going to a wonderful school, and is thriving. We're so happy that he's doing well. After I left Joseph's school, a friend and I took a little road trip. We ended up getting lost and had to frantically call around to get someone to pick up our kids from their first day of school. I felt so bad that I wasn't able to be there to pick up the poor little guy from his first day of school, but he seemed to emerge unscathed.

The handsome little guy before his first day of school.

Joseph and his friend Mackenzie. Thankfully her mom was able to pick Joseph up from school and the two had a good time playing together until I was able to get home.

Joseph trying to do a "K" in sign language. We thought that it would be cute to take a yearly photo of him holding up the number of fingers corresponding to the grade he's in. So, "K" for kindergarten, but it didn't work out quite as well as we had hoped.

My Birthday:

For starters, my awesome present - Brad bought me a t-shirt from the season 5 finale of The Office. Woohoo!

And, my parents pre-ordered season 5 on DVD, so I should be getting that in a few days. It's being released on September 8th. Squee!

My parents (as shown below)...

...threw an amazing party just for me!

All of this, just for me?? Not really. We actually went up for their annual company picnic, which just happened to fall on my birthday. It was loads of fun, and a great way to spend time with my family. Tons of food, games, and good times.

Grandpa with a Spongebob pinata.

Joseph had a great time painting (including painting himself).

He also had fun carrying around this bowl of pretzels and "serving" everyone.

This kid had a blast playing in a mud puddle.

On the way home, we stopped at Cabela's. The kids were amazed by all of the taxidermed (is that a word?) animals.

And that ends our fun week!

In other news, Brad LOVES his new job! We feel so blessed to be in this area. Brad feels like he hit "the job lottery." We are really enjoying Parkersburg. Everyone is SO nice here. We like being close to family and we are making new friends. Thanks to everyone - Joseph's teachers, Pleasants County schools, our new friends, and our family - for making us feel so at home here. We know our prayers have been answered!

Being Tested

The last two weeks have been a serious test of my patience. I don't say faith - I know Heavenly Father gives us trials for a reason and he'll help us through the difficult times if we remain faithful and follow his commandments. So I just need to be patient and wait for the light at the end of the tunnel.

For starters, we moved into our new place. It's wonderful; a three-story townhome with a finished basement. It's in a great neighborhood, it's affordable, and we love Parkersburg. However, a few days after we moved in, Joseph decided that it would be a good idea to dump an entire bottle of laundry detergent all over the brand new carpet!!! It took an entire week of late nights to suck up all of the detergent, and now our carpets smell all mildew-y.

On top of that, I got a part-time job to help our family out a little. I'm working as a shift-manager at a restaurant at the mall. I work evenings, and by the time I come home every night, I am completely exhausted and I smell like a disgusting grease ball. I miss being home to spend time with my family. I know that this is for the benefit of our family, but it's hard to feel like I am being of any benefit when I am not home to cook nutritious meals, help unpack and organize our new home, help out with bedtime, etc. Even when I am home, I don't spend any time with my family because I am exhausted from working, so I spend most of the day sleeping. I feel like I am going through this vicious cycle of caffeine highs and total exhaution meltdowns.

To further add to the problems, out truck broke down, and it cost more than my first paycheck to fix it, and I had to pay for the traffic citation that I received the day we moved from Martinsburg to Parkersburg, leaving us flat broke. Ugh. But, I don't want my driver's license suspended and/or have a warrant out for my arrest and we need to have our truck to finish moving all of our stuff out of my brother-in-law's basement.

So things have been a little rough around here. I really could use some prayers and the support of family and friends right now. I know these probably seem trivial, but I feel like I am being tested to my absolute limits right now. Having a meltdown surely won't help anything! Thanks to all of those who read this blog. Knowing that I have friends and family who care really means alot. I hope my next post comes bearing better news. Until next time, please keep me in your prayers. Thanks!