Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Snippets of News

* Chloe's teacher says that Chloe is reading at over a year above grade level! :) Good job Baby Girl! She seems to be skating through school - she has tons of friends, she loves her teacher and she never struggles with her homework. Hopefully this trend will follow her throughout her school career! :) She likes having her own room and we've been working on decorating it lately. She's got flowers hanging on the wall and wall-decals of fairies. She wants a "Garden" theme.

*Nathan is doing a great job learning his multiplication tables and working on keeping his room clean. We're working on a better routine that will allow him to play but then have scheduled time to clean up. Its never a good idea to start cleaning at 5:15 when we need to leave at 5:20; that sets him up for failure. This new idea is going to force me to be more cognizant of time management and giving him an appropriate warning of when I need his room clean. He still has a goal of getting on Principal's List this quarter and so we're working toward it - but I'm also trying to get him to relax and not get so frustrated by his "failures" or the times when he doesn't live up to his own high standards. I don't want him to get too discouraged - I want to focus on the successes and show him how he's doing a great job. He too easily gets stuck on the bad things.

* Jillian is adorable and still loving school. She is doing a great job reading. Her current favorite is The Cat in the Hat. She's still learning how to tie her shoes but she just needs practice to iron out the kinks. She's also still my little pot-stirrer. She hasn't learned to respect boundaries yet - she still plays with toys that aren't hers without asking and wears Chloe's clothes without permission... But she also fiercely loves her siblings. She's the one of my three that is absolutely devoted to her siblings. She gets upset if they don't say goodbye to her when they get out of the car in the morning for school and she definitely has a hard time when Nathan and Chloe want to play together without her.

*Baby #4 - We still don't have a name picked out but Lowell is beginning to appear a little more involved and/or excited. I'm trying to take it slowly and not push him too much. Starting next week, I have to have weekly injections of Progesterone in order to keep me from going into pre-term labor. The good thing (or bad depending on your perspective) is that my insurance will cover for a nurse to come to our house and teach Lowell how to give me the shots so that I don't have to go to the doctor's office each week. They're going to mail me the medication and then next Monday, hopefully, the nurse will come out and we'll start the injections. I've heard that this med is thick and the shot feels like a tetanus shot. Not really looking forward to having one of those each week, but I gotta do what I gotta do.
Emotionally, I've been on a little of a roller-coaster ride lately. I am going to chalk it up to hormones but I'm getting sick of the ride. I'm praying that the end of my second trimester will also signal the end of my emotionality. (Power of positive thinking, right?) I'm currently 23 weeks or so.

*Superbowl - We've invited some friends over for the big day and we're looking forward to having some adult company. These friends have children who are the same ages as our kids and they all love each other. I'm not sure what to do food wise.... Right now I'm concentrating on making my house presentable for non-family visitors. :)

*Work/Practicum - I'm still looking for a place where I can work and do my practicum hours also. I had a couple of interviews scheduled for last week and earlier this week but they were all in the far east valley. (We live in the FAR west valley.) Lowell and I had considered moving to that side of town because that's where Lowell works, but at the last minute decided that we don't want to up-root the kids again. We just don't want to move so we're going to wait it out until I find something closer to home. (Note: I need to blog about my stresses from that day and how God was faithful... Hopefully soon! :)) So, I'm back to the drawing board as far as finding a place to get my hours. The major problem is that I'm under a time crunch. I have to find a place to get hours soon or my financial aid for this quarter will be sent back. And I'll have to re-apply for next quarter. Right now it looks like I have to find a placement and have my paperwork submitted by next Friday in order to guarantee that I don't lose my financial aid.

*Lowell's work is going well. They are still really pushing him to take a supervisory role. They also want him to move to first shift which would be fantastic for his sleeping schedule and great for our family time, but is impossible with our current schedule. I don't get home in time to pick up the kids from school, so he has to be there. I'm still praying about it... I know that there's a plan, I'm just waiting to see what it is. I would love to be able to work part time, volunteer at the kids' school and still be around for the new baby. And Lowell says that he could get a lot of overtime hours to make up the difference in pay. We'll have to see how that goes.

No comments: