1 down....

1 room down, 2 more bedrooms to go.

1 semester nearly down, probably 7 more to go.

1 pair of brand new glasses broken, 3 more children who will need glasses too, to go.


Life has just been busy. I have so many projects on my list: to finally get the boys' toys organized; to make a model of their bedrooms and find out if we can fit 3 boys in one room and Daniel in the other so we can sleep train him out of our bed; measure a spot to possibly hold a corner cabinet; make said corner cabinet; build a new dining room table and benches since ours aren't so sturdy anymore and crack when I sit down; to finally see my bedroom floor for longer than 2 days; to clean out and detail the van...

I have done 1 of them. My room has been cleaned, but we'll see how long it lasts.

However, with the weather slightly warming up lately, some of the other projects may be in the works sooner rather than later.

And Mark has been working hard this week with finals literally right around the corner. He turns in his last landscape design tomorrow morning and has confessed to being very sad this class is ending. Fortunately it's just the Introduction to Design, there are a couple more classes in higher levels that are available. That's going to be his emphasis: Horticulture major with an emphasis on landscape design and building. It's been really neat to see his talent unfold and his joy in his work. We didn't realize how oppressive the enviroment in the Air Force had been, and how it was tearing at his self esteem. As scary as the change has been for me, I can honestly say that we have never been happier. Both individually and as a couple. It's hard. There is no denying that civilian life has it's challenges and Mark doing school and work at the same time hasn't been a piece of cake. But he is finally being appreciated and praised for his efforts in creativity. He is working hard and his grades are a reflection of that work.

And the glasses? Oren broke his the other day. Insurance will only pay for the cheapest ones, but will replace them as often as necessary. Problem is that it takes about 3 weeks to get them approved and done! So he'll be without glasses for a little while. Bummer...


On a nice note, the kids and I survived the 6 hour drive to see my family last weekend. And the long drive home. (Man, that was a LONG drive home.) We had a blast kidnapping my mom for a girl's lunch. (Is it still considered kidnapping if she's the one that drove all of us there?) The boys got to hang out with aunts and uncles, even Daniel did well with everyone even though he hadn't seen them in over 6 months. I made whopper cupcakes that turned out even better than the first time I did them. Steph and Jeff had a really fun and good-natured cook-off. We got the head's up on some possible really great news that ended up being what we all were hoping for! (See Janelle's facebook status. :-) ) Steph and I got loaded up with some really fun fabric from my mom's stash. And I showed Marie how to make one of those sugar jeweled tiaras.

Life has just been good this week. :-)