Bittersweet...

Well, most of you have already heard our announcement, so this won't be anything new, but just in case you haven't heard...Brent received a job offer for a company in Post Falls, ID (just outside Spokane). He starts in 11 days and he is so excited! He is excited about the company, they are growing and offer things like a bonus program, retirement contributions, and shorter hours! Things that he does not get now. He will no longer have to commute 2 hrs a day, YAY! And how do I feel about this you ask? Honestly, I have mixed feelings. I've lived in Oregon pretty much my whole life (except for college) My parents live in the same house my Dad built when I was a toddler. I'm not big on change. I have the best friends i've ever had, here in Keizer. I'll be leaving family, but moving closer to family. I do know that this is the right decision, I guess i'm just SCARED, to have to go through the process of getting to know people and starting all over in a new place. So Brent starts his job on the 22nd and I will stay here and attempt to sell the house. Brent will be coming home every other weekend, but otherwise i'm on my own. I am praying that the house sells quickly, or else they may have to commit me to an insane asylum. Either that or i'll gain a hundred lbs from all the brownies i'll be downing on those Friday nights he's gone :) So please pray that we will sell quickly!

One happy mama

Okay, i'm posting this, not to brag, but because this blog has become my journal and I want to remember this. Last night around 6 I received a call from the school. I thought it was strange to be getting a call from a teacher at that hour. Anyway, it was Jacob's teacher and she started out by saying, "I just wanted to call you and tell you how much I love Jacob and enjoy having him in class." She said Jacob was a great example to the other kids. She said that she has never taught someone that age who had such a big heart. She went on to give examples of things he had said or done in the classroom. This is the same boy that I was yelling at 10 minutes earlier for hitting and kicking his brother and I was feeling frustrated! By the end of her phone call I was almost in tears. Honestly, it is the best compliment in the world for a mom to hear such great things about one of their kids and I can't tell you how happy it made me to know that he is actually learning the things we are trying to teach him. And I thought it was so sweet of his teacher to take the time out of her day to call me and let me know what she thought of Jacob. It made me one happy mama!

Home projects

Here's a few sneak peeks at the projects going on around the house. The first pic is the new tile we put down in the kids' bathroom. We are also planning on tiling the countertops with a dark tile (you can see it in the corner of the pic) I also painted the cabinets white.

The master bath...this was quite the project. We had to rip out the old tile and patchup the sheetrock. We tiled it to match the counters that Brent did last fall.
The downstairs bath. It's so small, it was hard to get a picture of the whole thing, so you get it in pieces. The last picture is of some vinyl I did above the toilet, I was feeling too cheap to buy any artwork :)

Hearing test

Cole had his hearing test today and luckily they found that he had fluid behind his ears. His hearing loss is significant enough that it could affect him in school. (He compared it to plugging your ears constantly, or to being underwater) I had a hunch this was the problem, but you know how you always have those "what if's" pop up in your mind. So the next step is to take him to the doctor, who will probably prescribe antibiotics, if that doesn't work, he may need tubes in his ears. So...i'm relieved. It's fixable!

Update

I can't believe it's been a month since I last posted. This past month has been a busy one. We signed Jacob up for basketball for the first time and he loved it. He said he loved it even more than baseball. He has his last game Saturday. I have a few weeks off before all three older kids start baseball/softball. It's going to be a crazy spring hauling them to practices and games.


We have also been busy doing some home improvement projects. We redid our little downstairs bathroom. Tiling the floor, new sink and toilet. We retiled our bathtub (to match the tile on our counters) tiled the kids' bathroom floor and are getting ready to do their counters. It's been a lot of mess and a lot of work, but everything looks great. I'll post pics when everything is done.
Training for the marathon has started. We have had two Saturday group runs. I feel like I haven't been quite as motivated this time around...hopefully I can do this! Brent is a running machine and seems to have no problems running the scheduled distance, plus some.
The last few months I've noticed that Cole seems to have a hard time hearing me. I feel like i'm raising my voice just to ask him something. I always feel like i'm yelling at him. So about a month ago I asked the doctor to check his ears, he said everything looked good. I brought it up to Brent a few times but he said Cole probably had selective hearing. One day Brent had Cole and Claire stand next to each other and we conducted our own hearing test. We had Claire raise her hand, then had Cole raise his hand. We repeated this a few times and then changed it up. We asked Claire to lift her foot and she did. We asked Cole to lift his foot and he raised his hand. He continued to raise his hand each time, even though we were asking him to do other things. Brent finally turned to me and said "you're right, he can't hear us." So I set Cole up with a hearing test through the school. He took it today and failed. Tommorrow he goes in for more extensive testing. So we should know more tommorrow. I'm really hoping that it's something simple like fluid buildup or something "fixable." I'll post the results tommorrow....

My attempt at being a fun mom

So the kids and I decided to make homemade Valentine's this year. We found some cute ones in family fun magazine. We made flowers with a lollipop center for the girls and owls for the boys. It took us a good part of an afternoon and after cutting hundreds of hearts, and other shapes I was starting to realize why all the other "smart" parents spent 2.00 to buy spongebob valentines. :) And even though it took FOREVER...the kids thought it was pretty cool that they brought Valentines to school that they had actually made. And I felt like I racked up a few "good mommy" pts.