Making the best out of our visit to the UP

CHRISTMAS AT THE HOTEL

I snuck out in the morning with the few presents we had brought along for him to open from us. Definintely a God thing, because I had no idea we wouldn't be home on Christmas. But he opened them and we got our family Christmas picture and had a great day!

THE SWIMMING POOL

Another God thing; I had the forethought to bring our swimsuits just in case we were to stay in the hotel for a night...little did I know we would be there for 8 nights. But we absolutely loved having the pool. We swam twice a day and by the end of our stay Josiah could walk along half of the pool only holding on by his hands on the side all by himself. So much fun and we were so very grateful for "simming".

CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF THE U.P.

This museum made the time in the confines of the hotel room much more tollerable.

Playin in the snow

OK so he's not in the snow here, but a cute picture none the less.

Josiah's 2nd Birthday

2 Year Pictures with Christy

Update on me

I have been searching very hard for employment, as most of you know. I have had many doors slammed shut lately and have been discouraged at times to say the least. Overall my depression has not been to limiting lately, so that is always good.

I do have a second interview on Tuesday for a 2nd shift lab tech job. Not the most ideal shift (2:30 pm to 11:00 pm). This would be pretty tough on us as a family...but not nearly as tough as the lack of money is becoming right now. So I will go into that interview with my guns blazing and give it every thing I've got.

I went to another temp agency today, because I felt that the 2 I was working with were not able to find me employment. Their leads were few and far between. I went to Office Team today and wow, what a difference. They had 2 jobs to offer me today that would have started on Monday. I couldn't give up my shot at a full time position for a $10/hr temp assignment, but it was so great to know that they had those opportunities. They also had an admin assistant position open that was temp to hire with a big company and a pretty good starting pay. She was going to send my resume with my test scores and get back to me. So hard to believe that I was there for a total of 3 hours and they had 3 jobs ready for me to consider. The other temp agencies rarely ever call with positions and I have to keep calling them to bug them about keeping me active. So I felt really good about going over to Office Team. However, Kelly Services did call me today and said they had a lead on a longer term temp position for $11/hr.

So today it seems as though a few doors have been opened. If you had asked me even 5 years ago if I would be grateful for employment paying $11/hr, I would have thought you were out of your mind. But today, I need to work and today we are still truly blessed with our home, Josiah, our friends and family. Today we are still living life healthy and warm (something to be extra grateful for this time of year). Yes, we are struggling and yes we are excepting the help that has been given us with open arms, but yes we are still blessed in so many ways. Not always easy to see through the sadness and frustration, but on days like today when the doors didn't slam and they seemed to open a bit, it is a little easier to see those blessings.

Well it is 7:30 am and I am sure that some of the boys in my house are about to wake up or maybe they'll sleep until 9:00 and I can catch an hour of shut eye! I promise I will post pictures soon though!!

Update on Josiah

Update on Potty Training: He continues to pee on the potty :) So cute, because he strains so hard and tries so hard to "go pee" but usually only a little trickle comes out. Better than nothing and we always clap and he always gets to flush. Last night however, I had him keep trying over and over to push and he finally peed enough to turn the water slightly yellow :) So proud! And so far our day care is on board. Hopefully that continues, since I know that things get chaotic around the day care. But Monday all the kids go back to school and it will be back to just he few during the day. Speaking of day care...they were so very excited to see him on Wednesday! Kim actually called me that morning and asked if we were coming or not. She hadn't remembered that I was without a job and we were sleeping in ;) Yes, I take every opportunity to sleep in that I get, because I know that the days are numbered.

Update on talking: It is so much fun hearing him learn to talk. He is so proud of himself when he can put two words together. We hear "buh-bye daddy and buh-bye mama" a whole lot. Even when we leave the room or he is leaving..buh-bye daddy trails behind him. So cute! He has named his pacifiers "dappas." So now we have deet-deets (blankets) and dappas. I think it is fun to have nick names for things, so I have not discouraged this. When we were up north in the hotel, his favorite word was "simming" better known as swimming. Every time we walked by the pool..."simming." He could also say "hot-tub" clear as day. Some other words added to his vocabulary lately are; hot, cold, bubble-bath, more drink, juice, understanding up vs. down, buh-bye poopy (when we flush his poop from his diaper), wedgie (taught to him by day care kids ;), dahpo (playdoh), mocycle (motorcycle), truck, singing (do-rey-mi-fah-so-lah-ti-do...this is very cute! He got a toy for Christmas that sings this and he is working really hard at learning the sounds and words. Every time he finishes he claps and says yah! And he expects those of you sitting around him to participate in this clapping. So Papa, be sure to pay attention. Papa didn't one time and Josiah looked at him and said "PAPA" until he clapped. Very cute!).

He has just been so much fun lately. And thank goodness a little less screaming, because that just wears on your nerves. He has been a bit clingy lately, but that is to be expected after 2 solid weeks spent with just Dan and I.

One of these days I will post some pictures...there have been so many cute ones lately...I just need to take the time to do it. Soon, I promise!!

Insomnia

Tonight I cannot sleep. It is 7:00am now and I have been awake since 4:00am. Josiah woke up cold and even though Dan went to get him, I couldn't get back to sleep. I finally just turned my light on and started reading, hoping that would make me tired enough to go back to sleep. Nope! Then at 5:00am, Dan got a phone call for a board up. Good thing I hadn't fallen back asleep. I had to get up and find him his long underwear that he had piled up in the corner of the room and couldn't find (men ;). At 5:26am, he came back upstairs and said they had canceled the board up...apparently they weren't going to be able to make it to the board up in time and the fire department canceled it. What jerks! Wake these guys and their families up in the middle of the night. They get out on the road and they call back a half an hour later and say that they aren't fast enough, even though they are allowed 1 hour to respond. Whatever! But again, luckily I hadn't fallen back asleep. Then Josiah's humidifier ran out of water, which stopped the fan and woke him up again. He went back to sleep on his own, but I didn't want to him to get woken up again and not be able to go back to sleep, so I came down and filled the humidifier without waking him up. It was then 6:00am. I decided I would just try to go to sleep...tossed and turned and once again the humidifier stopped. I think it disturbs my sleep more than Josiah's because we can hear it through the monitor and when that sounds stops, it changes the sounds in our room. So at 6:30am I came down once again to adjust the humidifier and gave up on sleep...bringing me to this point right now...3 hours later, still awake!!

Sorry for the delay in the update

Update on Julie: She has already been transfered to a nursing home near her home town to receive follow up care and rehabilitation. After 2 long weeks bed ridden, she will need some rehab to get her back up and around. But everything seems to be going well with her leg. She is now completely onto coumadin (sp?) which we were nervous about since the previous time they tried to do this, her artery began clotting. This time no clotting to date. Good news!! So as far as I know, she is on the mend and will be coming home before to long. We are grateful that she has such a wonderful church family taking care of her in our absence. It is hard to be so far away and not be able to help her out, but I am glad we were able to be there for the time we were. And as for our expenses, the church as well as Julie and a couple of other folks were gracious enough to take up a collection to help us out with our unexpected expenses. We are so very grateful!