Our New Life

We have again sat down to evaluate our life. Brady called from Colorado last Friday to tell me he was coming home early. Why? His response,

"It's time for some changes."

After several days of indepth conversation about our family, our marraige, our past and our future, some MAJOR decisions were made.

Brady has traveled most of our married life. His job with Vantage started in year 2 of our marraige and required travel about 25% of the time. Then his change to self-employment after 9 years with Vantage changed this to 50-75%. This has continued off and on, and has been on again for the last 6 months or so. No more. Brady has decided he wants to be here with us, whatever that takes. So now we move forward. What does this mean for employment? We aren't quite sure. He is in negotiations with his brother in law to see if there is a way to do his job from here. We will know soon.

As for the other changes, time to become more active, find things we love to do and begin to fill our past with great memories, starting today. Our children are growing up so fast, Katrina is 11. I look at her and wonder were the time has gone. Where is the baby girl we buckled into the car seat on the school bus when she was 3. Wasn't that just last year?

So here's to our new, simplified, more full-filled life.

The beginning of new, great memories.

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We are home....

Thank you so much to all those that helped this weekend with the move. Despite all the practice, we still couldn't have done it ourselves.

We got everything moved and are settling in to our new home. Brady left town again on Tuesday, just hours after we brought the last load from the old house. He is gone a week this time, but will be home for Thanksgiving. The kids and I have made a "to do" list of all the things we need to get done to really settle in. Each night we are going to pick a few that need to be done the next day and work together to get the projects accomplished. Today was unload Daddy's truck and unpack the kitchen. Tomorrow we are going to organize the garage.

I like the new house. It's different from our other houses, but it is going to be a good home for us for a few years. There are definitely some projects... wall paper to remove, walls to paint... but we have time. Grandma Oborn will be here soon and we will be able to keep her plenty busy with decorating projects.

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Moving

"AGAIN????"

That is what the kids said when we told them. We are moving AGAIN!!! My poor babies. My heart breaks for them as they leave for school this morning for their last day- saying good bye to yet another group of freinds. This is their 3rd elementary school and they are in 1st, 4th and 5th grade- we are headed off to school number 4. Actually for Katrina this will be 5.

Bradys change in careers and the closing of his home theater business has caused us to rethink our finances. It's time to think more long term and stop living month to month. It's time to get our credit back under control and build a savings account.

Our solutions-

#1 Get closer to my work. Currently we live 30-40 minutes from the gym. So it is not convient and VERY rare for me to take on extra classes. Plus just my regular schedule takes a huge chunk of my paycheck in gas.

#2 Get closer to the airport. Brady travels A LOT and currently we are 1 1/2 hours form the airport, depending on traffic. It is NOT convenient for me to drive him to the airport so he drives himself and we pay long term parking. With him spending up to 20 days a month out of state that adds up-plus all the gas back and forth.

#3 Lower our monthly expenses- Our new home is smaller, not MUCH smaller, but smaller, and is MUCH less expensive in both utilities and monthly rent.

#4- Get closer to family- When I have to work and Brady is out of town my kids are often left to fend for them selves for several hours a night. Our new house is only 5 minutes form Becky's so we will have more family support. Lizzi is close here and has been a HUGE help, but she is often up at Beckys and rarely has a car herself.

#5- Reduce Maintenance Time and Expenses- Our current home sits on just over 1/2 acre of wooded, tiered, landscaped yard. It is beautiful but very hard and time consuming to maintain. So we hire it out. We just don't have the 8 hours a week needed to do basic maintenance on this yard. And the snow is coming- if you have ever seen our driveway you understand what I am getting at. And remember my hubby is RARELY home. So shoveling is my job. So no more yard guy and no more paying random strangers to come plow the driveway so I can go to work. The new house has a small- normal drive way and a fairly large, flat, square yard with nothing but grass. This year the kids will learn to mow the lawn.

So there you have it- we are moving AGAIN!!! But we did sign a 2 year contract this time so fingers crossed.... it will be a long while before I repeat this post!

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Where to begin?

The last month has turned our lives upside down. And there are so many things to report-

First the kids

Katrina turned 11! This was a very big, long anticipated birthday. She has been counting down since about... hmmm... "1 more year until I'm 11!" The count down got more obsessive as we got to 4 months, then to 6 weeks, then at 4 weeks it turned into days. So she had a friend party. This is not an every year occurrence for us, and I never thought 11 would be a "special" year, but due to unforeseen circumstances we chose to make an exception. (More on that latter)

Tyler is Tyler, struggling to be the "perfect" kid. He is a HUGE help, and takes on too much responsibility. A couple weeks ago while Brady was out of town, I was SICK. One of those sicks you are sure you have NEVER experienced before. I had a fever, was disoriented, dizzy, and even picked fights on the phone with my dear hubby, that apparently I was asleep through, because I don't remember them. Anyway, this lasted for 4 days, I laid on the couch and poor Tyler ran the house. He brought me drinks and medicine. Cooked for and fed the other children, supervised chores, and kept the laundry going. Every day he would come home from school and would find me sleeping on the couch, put his hand on my forehead, and ask, "Are you doing any better Mom?"

Carter- Well Carter is following in his sister and mothers footsteps. My poor baby broke his ankle last week- least we think thats whats wrong. After a week on crutches, and Brady trying to convince me it was nothing, I finally broke down and took Carter to the Dr. yesterday. He was sure it was broken due to the continued swelling, discoloration, and pain. But the x-ray was clear and the radiologist agreed. But they both said they still think there is a fracture they can't see, so Carter is in a walking boot for a week. At the end of the week, if he is still bruised, swollen and having pain we are supposed to go see an orthopedist.

So this week, along with other major tasks, I need to apply for CHIP so we can afford to possibly have to see the specialist.

The other major task- well that'll have to wait for another blog, as I have hours of work to do and only a short time to complete it.

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Dingus Days

We don't home school- unlike most of my sisters, or should I say- ALL of my sisters, my children are in public school. I love the IDEA of home schooling, especially the way my sisters do it, but it just doesn't fit our life.

We've talked about it, we've researched it, we've toyed with the idea, but for now it is not for us.

But we DINGUS!!!! We love to Dingus!!!! I read Amy's post from a couple days ago and I remembered all the great memories we made together. My family try's to Dingus whenever possible. With Brady's travel schedule these are VERY important times. When he is in town, we always take a day to just be together. School/assignments/work- it all takes a back seat to our family and the memories we will take with us.

My kids LOVE dingus days. They usually start with Brady and I turning off the alarm clocks. Kids sleep in and come running to our room, waking us with cries of missing the bus. Then we tell them "today is officially a dingus day." Everyone cheers and climbs onto our bed to find out what great adventure we have in store. It is usually something simple, lunch and a matinee, bowling, or just junk food and a movie in our home theater. But they have included trips to Lagoon, a day at BoonDocks and even once a trip to Denver. But whatever it is, when we tuck them in at night everyone wants to know if tomorrow can be another dingus day.

I am very thankful to my parents for teaching us that these simple memories are all that truly matter.

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