Back to School!

Well, it's official. I was accepted into the PhD program at Walden University in the area of Human Services. I start my 3 1/2 year journey March 4th! I will have 2 1/2 years of coursework followed by one year of dissertation. I am so unbelievably excited and yet absolutely terrified! I have been thinking and dreaming about getting my PhD for atleast 10 years. My ultimate goal was to be a professor by the time I turned 40. I turned 30 a couple of months ago and decided there is no time like the present! My boys are young enough that I can handle an online courseload with several residencies without severely impacting them. I feel like if I waited even five more years to do this the boys would be older and Lucas would be getting into sports and I feel I would miss so much. SO, in typical "me" fashion I just dove in. :) I am so fortunate to have such an amazing husband to support me throughout this crazy ride we call life. When I approached Riley about finally starting my PhD program instead of just continuing to talk about it, he didn't even blink before replying "go for it babe!" All with a smile. When I began to run down the laundry list of reasons as to why maybe I shouldn't do it, maybe it was just a silly bucket list idea, etc. He didn't hesitate to reply "you've been talking about getting your PhD for as long as i've known you (over 10 years now) there's no time like now to do it. We'll be fine babe." This is one of the many reasons I LOVE this man! We've even gone as far as to figure out which night he's going to "kick me out of the house" to go find a quiet place to dedicate a few hours to studying and homework. Seriously, how great is he?!?!?! :) I'm hoping to keep up the blog while embarking on this new journey but as you know, i'm not super on top of it as it stands now and who knows how much I'll remember to write when I throw all this into the mix. I guess only time will tell!

Ready or not, here comes 2013!

I cannot believe that tomorrow is 2013! Where has time gone?!?! We have so many things planned for 2013 I can't even begin to list them here. Our biggest challenge is going to be selling our house and finding the perfect house for our boys to continue to grow up in. Our plan is to list our house February 1st, depending on snow (later if we still have a lot of it, or right away if this is all we still have come the 1st). Which means I have approximately 1 month to go through ALL our stuff (OK, crap) and minimize as much as possible. This is very difficult for me but I know it will make a difference and hopefully make things easier on us when we move. I hope the house sells quickly and we find something we love! I am so sick of living in a house where I don't have any of my sons pictures up nor do we have any pictures at all! It has been this way for almost a year and that is FAR to long for me to not be able to display all of our sons amazing changes and all of our amazing friends and family. SO, here goes nothing....my personal challenge for the month of January.... CLEAN OUT EVERYTHING! No nook, cranny, closet or cupboard will be spared! Feel free to come keep me company, but please, bring wine....or coffee! ;) I hope everyone has enjoyed 2012 as much as our family has! BRING IT ON 2013!

Virtually "walking away"

So those of you who know me well know that I spend a lot of time on FB. That is, until this evening when I deactivated my account. The plan being to take an extended vacation AWAY from Facebook and all it's negativity and drama. With it being football season and a very big election coming up the posts bashing one thing or another are ENDLESS as of late. And simply put, i've had enough. I need to take some time to re-connect with my family and my friends via better means than FB. I value my friendships but i'm also not one to sugar-coat things so instead of risking saying something that could be taken out of context and cause harm to friendships I value I chose to walk away, take a breather and come back when I feel i'm in a better place.

Our happy little family

A perfect picture of our family. Caught all of our personalities perfectly, even Cash. :)

The ramblings of my "little" big guy :)

Being a mom is probably one of the single most stressful, time consuming, tiring jobs out there. BUT I also think, for me, it's also the absolutely most rewarding job on the planet. I am the mom to two amazing little guys (well, if you know my family, they're really not that little....). Lucas will be 4 and is inquisitive, funny, sweet and man can he throw out some hillarious lines. Gavin just turned 1 and his personality is.... developing.... to say the least. :)Lucas is going at 100 mph at all times and Gavin is on track to keep up, especially now that he's so close to walking (well, more like running!) and in the midst of all of this is our 4 legged son, Cash. Who thank heavens is old, calm, and forgiving. He is really quite flexible in that he serves so many purposes, companion, running partner, playmate, guard dog, and JUNGLE GYM. That poor dog always has one of the two boys hanging on him, climbing on him, pulling on his tail and his ears and yet he just lays there and takes every second of it and when he gets sick of it he gives the boys a good lick of the face and heads up to our bedroom to hide out.
I love my sons more than life itself. I would give them anything and sacrifice everything for them. SO, when my oldest throws out lines like he did today "Mommy, I love you! You're my bestfriend!" My heart just absolutely melts! Moments like that make me wish that I could be a stay at home mom! And then within 5 seconds i'm snapped back into the brutal clutches of reality when the boys start screaming at eachother or Lucas throws out the "I not talk to you mommy! I talk daddy!" ha ha
And I know the saying is "an elephant never forgets" but neither do toddler boys!! I swear if you tell them something one time they will remind you every chance they get until it actually happens, or in the example i'll share, they think that EVERY time you go through the coffee shop they get a cookie....ha ha Let me re-cap. I stay at home over the summer and the boys and I make a lot of trips to my parents cabin. On one such trip I went through the coffee drive through, Lucas was being very good and so I let him pick a cookie....well, now EVERY time he sees the coffe place he thinks he needs a cookie....SO, on Tuesday when I picked him up from school he met me with (as he put his hands on my shoulders and looked into my face, I was kneeling down by him)"mommy I think you NEED a coffee and I think I NEED a cookie!" Now really, who am I to argue with that logic???? ha ha My husband calls me a pushover....I say i'm just addicted to coffee and the munchkins know my weakness!! Until next post.

Catch Up

Wow, does time fly or what?!? Lets recap the past few months. Gavin is now almost 10 months, he has 5 teeth and is a crawling machine! His first Christmas was a huge success! At his 9 month check up he weighed in at nearly 25 pounds and 28 inches long. Every time we go to the Dr. they talk about how they can't believe he was a preemie. :) His personality is definitely shining through! I thought maybe Gavin would be our "calm" one but that isn't looking like that's going to be the case. ;) He's also had his first double ear infection. Unfortunately since the double ear infection he wont' sleep through the night, sometimes waking up 3 or 4 times. Needless to say Ri and I are so exhausted life seems to go by in a blur most days.
Lucas is loving preschool. He learns something new everyday and talks about his friends a lot. He was just a little bit spoiled for Christmas. It's so much fun now that he's at an age where he understands Santa and asks lots of questions. This year he kept bugging Riley to put lights up outside until it was finished. Then he had to turn them on every night because they were "his" lights. Awesome, a mini Clark Griswald....ha ha He's still growing like a weed but he's super thin these days because he's gotten so tall. We typically get "oh how old is he, 5?" UMMM no, he's not even 4 yet thanks.
As for Ri and I we're super busy as usual. I've recruited Ri to run with me so we've both been training and when we're able to get out to run together it's a lot of fun. We ran our 2nd 5k together in November and are planning to run a half marathon together in May and Ragnar together in August.
Ri started a new job last week and is enjoying learning new things. As for me, I'm still at the middle school and MAN what a crazy year it's been!
Well, until next time! :)

Oh the changes!

Lets see, where do I begin?? Gavin is 6 months old today! I can't believe it's been 6 months already! We'll be planning his 1st birthday in no time. Scary thought! Last Sunday Lucas became fully potty trained! What a process that was!! Then one day it was like somebody flipped a switch, he just got it! It's SO awesome only having to change one diaper at a time again! Gavin is growing like the proverbial weed. He is now 2o lbs 4 ozs and measures in at just over 26 inches. Needless to say we'll be upgrading carseats in the coming weeks. Lucas started preschool last month and loves it! He can't wait to go to school in the morning (most days). :) Gavin can roll from front to back and is SO close to rolling back to front. He can nearly sit unassisted and he loves to play in his exersaucer and jumperoo. He loves his big brother and stares at Lucas all the time. And half the time Lucas does a far better job getting Gavin to calm down and stop crying than Riley and I do! It's quite amazing to see. Gavin also started daycare a few weeks ago. Thankfully we have an amazing daycare mom and I was able to leave him and go to work the first day without worrying a bit!
As for Riley and I, mowing has started to slow down a bit now that it's getting cooler out. But football has started so we've traded one kind of busy for another! And for me, I survived the Ragnar Relay! AND I fully intend on doing it again next year!! ha ha Next up..... my first half marathon in South Dakota in 2 weeks! Bring it!