Hi everybody!
It's been such a long time since I've written a post. Life with 2 kids, a pet, a house and all of the responsibilities that go with that has just gotten in the way of my blogging. I don't expect that I'll go back to blogging several times a week, or doing many reviews and such, but my goal for 2017 is to try to write a blog post at least once or twice a month. Maybe if I'm lucky it will be even a little more often than that!
A lot has changed since my last post in 2014! The kids are now coming up on 7 and 5 years old! This fills me with mixed emotions. I love that things are getting easier, they are becoming more independent, and we are able to do a lot more things as a family, but I do miss having really 'little ones' around.
Brennan is in 1st grade and loves school. He is both an excellent student and friend. He he does quite well with math and science (taking after Dad), but also is a good reader has has an incredible vocabulary and all around grasp of the English language (Mom's traits). He loves Legos and still loves dinosaurs. He is cute, smart, funny, witty, clever, strong, and a joy to have as a son. I'm remarkably proud of him and the little man he's growing into.
Bryleigh is in Pre K-4 and just like her older brother, she LOVES school. She loves her teacher, she loves her friends, she loves doing crafts, and she loves learning. She has been doing an excellent job learning her letters and their sounds, and she's already had her numbers and colors down for quite a while already. She likes dolls and all stuffed animals, being outside, and going to Gigi and Juju's house (grandma and grandpa). She is funny, incredibly caring and loving, girly, beautiful, kind of a spitfire, goofy, smart, and so wonderful to be around.
The cat, Rocky, A.K.A. The Rock, is doing well. He just turned 3 at the end of December and he definitely isn't lacking in attention or love. He gave us quite a scare last summer when he disappeared for over a full day. He had definitely been gone for several hours or for part of a night in the past, but he ALWAYS had come back for his meals! We were so relieved when he showed back up completely unharmed and happy.
Ryan just started a new job, but he is still at the Mayo Clinic. He is now a Technical Specialist in the specimen processing area of Mayo's Biorepository. This was a promotion he has been wanting for quite a while and I'm thrilled for him. He no longer works as a volunteer EMT in town, but instead he is on the city's ambulance commission and gets to help to make decisions about how the ambulance service runs and functions. He ran for city council in 2016, but unfortunately was not elected. The competition was stiff with 12 people running for 3 positions!
Ryan and I have both officially joined the 30-something crowd. I'm busy as always between being a stay-at-home Mom/Jane of all trades at home, my part-time photography business, and telecommuting part-time from home for a company in Dallas, TX. I've done quite a few home improvement projects and well as countless different crafts during my blogging hiatus. I also worked hard in an effort to change the animal ordinance in our town to allow for raising a small flock of chickens within city limits. Though it was originally voted down for some very silly reasons, we are now starting the process over with the new city council that just took over this month. I'm very hopeful that within a few months I might have a few chicken of my own! Get ready to start handing out name suggestions! But perhaps my next news is more exciting than chickens. I became a God-Mother twice over to our good friends' second son, Jaxon, and to one of our nephews, Beau. It was such an honor to be asked in both cases!
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My oldest sister dressed as Santa for this fun Christmas shoot
that my other older sister did. |
That leads into another huge thing that happened during my blogging break. My oldest sister had triplets! This was such an incredible blessing after they lost their first son during labor and delivery. (I did blog on this before.) The triplets were born in June 2015 and are now happy healthy 19 month olds! There are 2 boys, Beau and Wyatt, and one girl, Savannah. We love following along with their lives through all of the many Facebook photos and videos, but do wish it was easier to visit! Texas and MN aren't the closest...
We've also gained another niece and nephew during my break! Reagan is 15 months old and lives in Texas. She's Ryan's brother's second daughter. She's adorable and I hope to get to know her more through visits over the years. Tyler is 11 months old and is Ryan's sister's 4th child. He's got a killer smile and his siblings can't get enough of him.
Both Ryan's and my families are doing well. My Dad had a hip replacement last year at 60 years old. It's made a miraculous difference in his life. It had gotten so bad that he could barely limp around. SO glad he got it fixed!
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Libby just days before
her surgery. |
My parents' dog, Libby, is now 13, coming up on 14 years old. She had a very close brush with death this summer after suffering of Pyometra. Pyometra is a uterine infection. It was unclear for quite a while what was actually going on with her, but it was very clear that she was near death. My Mom decided to try the surgery, which is basically a hysterectomy, in hopes that she would pull through. This was an incredibly hard decision considering that Libby was an old girl and had already lived a long, full life. It turns out that Mom made the right call because Libby recovered well from the surgery, and has been acting more like a puppy than she has in years.She's always dragging toys around, jumping, and skipping everywhere she goes. We believe that she had actually had a minor infection for a few years that had been making her feel somewhat sick, because she's a new dog. Hopefully she has a few more great years!
Well, that's enough for now. Hopefully that sort of brings you back up to speed. I definitely want to go back and post some photos of the projects I've done and tell some more detailed stories of other things that have happened over the last couple of years, but this is a start!
Thanks for reading!
