well i can't let that post there long!

because i promised a more chipper one pronto. and i can do that genuinely, because life is good.





almost 9 months old and finally sitting up for a few minutes at a time!

other boys were about 6-6.5 months when they did this. but they were both about 10-11 months before they crawled, and this little guy is days away from being FAST.


this was a few weeks ago before his top teeth cut through. i miss those gums!


i love to capture quiet, non-forced, chilled out activities that my kids find. probably because it's not super often that i think, "wow...it's been quiet too long, better check..." and it's NOT some kind of mess. so it's such a relief to find things like these...



since this big boy COULD be going to K this week, i figure we should be more organized doing some school-ish stuff. this is not my favorite. i'd rather play. but i'm trying to do at least a page or two of stuff like this a day.





i don't toot my own horn on many things parenting...but dad gummit, i can make my kids laugh. and it's fun. i had a clothes pin on my nose saying in the squeaky weird voice that makes, "put the clothes in the bucket!" apparently it sounded funny. gus STILL says it.



btw, giving kids the chores you hate, but they love? awesome.




after a lovely turn of events, turns out my boys will get to go to mother's day out this year. today was the 1st day of school:-)


they seemed to have a great day. i got this house amazingly clean. everyone wins!

so this is gross, but it's my blog, and it's funny. so i pick up rex from his room, and he immediately says he needs to go potty. i tell him we are going home right then so let's wait...but he goes on in and apparently needs to go bad. he starts at the urinal...then i hear him say, "oh wait, i think i need to go poopoo"...and with his pants around his ankles he waddles to a stall...then he says, "oh dear lordy i think i need to go diarrhea!!"
and, well sure enough he did. but that was about the funniest thing i'd heard all day.
pretty sure they drink too much juice there.

before and after

i like to keep this blog pretty upbeat. post about the great stuff i love, because that's the stuff i want to look back on and remember.

so i've been waiting on some blog inspiration. and it hasn't all been bad,
but let's be real here folks, the last couple weeks have been rough!

i am soooo thrilled we went on vacation. that we had some really, truly refreshing "us" time. i really feel like God was using that to fuel us up for the weeks to follow it.


so this post is the before. the yuck. the not so awesome....but to be surely followed by a great post where things turned back up. (plus that illustration makes gus's creepy feet make more sense in here. )
before:

kevin's teaching job hunt has been exhausting. depressing. exciting. draining. we put a lot of money and time into this program...and really felt strong direction in each decision we made on it. so we kept on with it. and nothin'. until a couple weeks ago. FINALLY a potential job...that he had a shot at. and we were sure he had it. it was a pay cut to work at this particular school, but it was a foot in the door and we'd have taken it in a heartbeat. and when he didn't get it we were so. sad. i couldn't even call our friends and family who knew about it. we didn't realize how high we'd put our hopes in this, until they were dashed.
but a few days and we had snapped out of it.

and a few days after that i lost my sweeeeeet babysitting job. i loved watching that little girl. and the money was a bonus. the kids adored her, she was sweet, obedient and just easy to have around. plus it was fun to shop and paint toenails now and then. i didn't realize how sweet i was being paid until i started looking for another kid to take in to take her spot. average around here is less than half what i made watching her.

so hindsight, good thing kevin didn't get the pay cut teaching job!
but this is not exactly what we were counting on for this fall. we had envisioned kevin teaching, weekends off, MDO for me, dave ramsey steps getting knocked off our to do list. so all this...plus throw in a big A/C repair bill, kevin not feeling awesome, and our list of "really need to fix this" things growing.

i like change when it's fun things like rearranging furniture. or new clothes. i do NOT like change when it rocks your whole plan. but, we will roll with the punches. on september 1st, kevin can no longer get a job teaching. if we want to try again, we will have to wait until next summer, redo the program[meaning paying again]...and hope another year of job hunting will result in his dream job. (we certainly realize something could come up in the next 2 weeks. we're just praying kevin is where/gets put where he's supposed to be.)


i'm sure we'll look back at this rough patch and see what God was up to, and be thankful it all went down like this.




it's easy to have a great marriage when things are easy. when the kids obey. when the house is clean. when there's plenty of money. when everyone is healthy.
it's hard when things get chaotic.
and we've definitely had plenty of rough spots in our life that spiraled into our relationship, making things worse than they had to be.
the last month has thrown some of the biggest curve balls we've seen. but this time we're handling it differently. better.

maybe slowly, but surely we're realizing it always does work out. and we're always better for it.

so the end of this summer can be our nasty skanky feet season.
but we'll scrub up and push through, and go to bed with squeaky clean footsies.



and sleep good.
because we'll do this.

"give your burdens to the Lord and He will take care of you. He will not permit the godly to slip and fall." ps. 55:22

seven, seven, seven....seven.

some have been more sickness than health, some have been more poor than rich....but all have been better than worse since we got to be together through them.

and i totally get how cheesy that is and wrote it anyway. because it's true.

sometimes i still feel like we're dating. then i look up and see all these little boys and freak out for a second....when in the world did that happen? but time really does fly when you're having fun. and that is what we do best. we'll always have fun with whatever we're dealt, because that's how we roll. you will always give me that "he's sassy because you are" look when one of our kids smarts off. and i'll always give you that "are you serious? is this that much trouble?" look when you don't close drawers and cabinets. and we'll look at each other like saps when our kids do sweet things for each other, because somehow they learned that from us.

we're getting so good at having fun we hardly even have to talk to do it.

i couldn't be happier with our little life just like it is.

you're my favorite.

happy anniversary, mr. kevin.