Long over-due update

So, I know it has been way too long since I have updated. Hopefully I can remember everything that has happened... The end of our summer was uneventful. Jason and I went to Dallas in the middle of July for the Premier national rally. It was a weekend away for just the two of us, although there was no time to do any sight-seeing because of the jam-packed schedule the Rally had. We went to a super fancy dinner, called the Red Dress Gala, and had a blast! We got to get all dressed up and go to the fanciest party I have ever seen, much less been to. There was a live band and tons of dancing. So much fun!

After we got back there were 2 weeks before I had to go back to work to get my classroom ready. Levi and I hung out while Jason was at work, and we went to the mountains a couple of times. School started in mid-August and I've had a pretty rough start. All of my students seem really young, except for a handfull, and I'm having a hard time getting them to conform to the class expectations and the school rules. As hard as it is for me to admit, I don't enjoy teaching this year at all. I'm actually counting down the days until May for when I know I will be able to take a year off. Because my Premier business is going so well I will be able to replace my income for that year, then reevaluate what is going on in our lives and make a plan for whether or not I can permanently resign my teaching position or if I will have to go back. This year is going to be busy to make sure that I can keep the Premier business going while I still teach. It's not easy but Jason is on board and we will make it work! Levi started walking the Friday before school started. It is so cute but he is definitely not my baby anymore. He is also talking up a storm. His most recent development is telling us what comes next when we sing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and "empty" when he dumps out a cup in the bath. He seems so smart (said every parent ever) and we truly enjoy watching him grow and develop. He loves being outside more than anywhere else in the world and often has fits if we don't take him outside the moment he wants to go. He has 10 teeth now, including 2 top molars, and is currently sick with a cold. He is a pretty good sleeper, although we are still working on getting rid of that morning nap. He still uses a pacifier but we are starting the transition to some other kind of "lovey" to replace it. He now sleeps with two stuffed animals and we are hoping that he attaches to one so when we take the paci away it isn't so traumatic for him. We shall see! Jordan, my nephew, started kindergarten in August and LOVES it. He is such a big boy and I can't believe he is already in school. He is such a smart boy and it's fun watching him in this new stage of his life. He is excited about having a new little sister although he admitted he really wanted a brother because he already has a sister, lol. Shelby doesn't quite understand that a new baby is coming, but she is growing and learning like crazy! She says Spanish words like "pinata" and "abuela" like a native speaker and it is so fun to hear her in her super squeaky voice. She has the curliest hair I have ever seen and she is Levi's favorite person in this whole world. It is going to be very interesting to see how they grow up together.

Lauren and Will's Wedding Ok, I think those are the major updates for now. My sister is due with baby Aubern Josephine Bassett on October 14, although she seems pretty sure she will be induced at least a little bit early. Praying for a healthy and easy delivery for her!

Lake Powell 2012

We just got back from a week at Lake Powell in Utah. We rented a houseboat and, including the kiddos, there were 18 people on this houseboat for a week. It was so much fun and I LOVE this vacation! Levi did so great while we were there, especially considering he was teething and had terrible diaper rash because of it. He is such a trooper! He really enjoyed playing in the water and even swam with me a few times. Most of the week was spent eating, playing games, and swimming. Talk about relaxing! I didn't think about school at all (gotta love summer!) and I only thought about Premier a little bit while I was in cell phone range. However, most of the week we were out or range and it was so nice to not worry about emails, phone calls, texts, etc. The hardest part of the vacation was not getting enough sleep because of the crazy heat. It was at least 100 degrees every day we were there. The lows were in the 70s. I love hot weather, except for when sleeping is involved. It was not miserable, though, and I'm so glad we went so that Levi could experience his parents' favorite vacation. Who knows when we will get to do it again, but this past week was definitely a good one!

I now have a one-year-old

My baby turned ONE last week! I can't believe how time is flying. I got online the other day to update the blog but I got distracted by reading all of the posts I wrote when he was first born. I probably sat reading for a good hour and I simply can not fathom how things have changed since then. He has such a personality and can light up a room. He is bossy, funny, and affectionate. He loves to cuddle with me when he is tired. He loves playing with Jason and Grandpa Ken. He likes bossing around Grammie, Nana, and Grandpa. He loves eating. Anything and everything. He will basically eat anything that is put in front of him. He has started drinking regular milk instead of formula and he LOVES milk. He enjoys drinking out of a cup and would rather have food smeared all over him than let us feed him. He chases the cat all over the house and enjoys Abby licking him on the hands and feet. He always makes a bee-line for Abby's water dish when he is on the floor, and he is becoming an expert at throwing a ball. His first lake trip is coming up and we are really interested to see how he is going to do. He loves hanging out with his cousins, especially Shelby. It will be really interesting to see how he does with this new baby cousin he is going to have in October. Watching him change and grow more and more every day is so exciting for me. Many people say that they miss the times when they are tiny babies, but I have to say that I REALLY enjoy watching his growth and development change as often as it has. I know I will miss cuddling with him when he is done with that, but for right now I will enjoy it and just keep trying to teach him as much as possible now instead of trying to catch up later. I love my little boy and I can't wait to see what this year will bring!

Shining light

I'll be the first to admit it... I can sometimes be a downer. When things are not going well for me, I tend to take it personally and let it ruin my day/week/month. I try so hard to be happy on the outside because I don't like drawing attention to myself, but on the inside I'm being eaten up by things that are normally completely insignificant in the grand scheme of things. For example, I've had a couple of things come up at work that I know, in the bigger picture, aren't big deals, butI let them eat at me and I'm miserable on the inside. I have a very hard time letting things go and I tend to let them tear me up on the inside. I have to move on or I know my teaching is going to start suffering, and I pray God just takes my anxiety about these things. I want to be a positive influence on the people I am around daily, and I don't like to be fake about it. I want to shine God's light and not cloud it with my own human emotions. Just trying to make sure I am not doing damage to my witness through my trials. I read a blog just a few minutes ago written by a dear friend whom I haven't seen in many months. Her blog tonight was about thankfullness. She wrote that we are supposed to be thankful IN every situation, not necessarily FOR every situation. She has no idea how badly I needed to hear (read) that. I'm counting my blessings today and being thankful for many things. Jason made it home safely from his fishing trip that he was on this weekend. I got to spend two full days with my baby just playing and bonding. I was able to bring in a new jeweler to Premier whom I know will do great! And, she will be able to stay home with her babies while still bringing in a good income. My family is healthy. We have a beautiful home in which to build memories and grow. I have amazing friends. I could go on and on... I will continue to pray for God to show me how to be thankful in every situation. I will continue to pray that He will use me to shine His light always.

Pulling up

Levi is now pulling up like a pro! In fact, last night was a battle trying to get him to go to bed because as soon as I would put him in his crib he would roll over, sit up, then stand up. Little twerp! He is moving like crazy these days and he is hard to keep up with. It is nice being able to set him down, though, and he can entertain himself while we get things done, like cook or clean. That is relatively new and I'm glad he has made that transition.

We had his pictures taken this past Friday afternoon. He was super cranky so I'm not sure how many good pictures we got, but hopefully a few! I will post the ones I get, as long as they are cute.

I hope everyone had a great Easter!

Prayer Request

Actually, I have several prayer requests.

The first is for my sister. She is having some complications with her pregnancy that are really scary. She is about 12 weeks right now. I know everything is in God's hands but she is a bit of a tizzy over everything. Please just pray for peace and for the Lord to comfort her in every way possible.

The second is for my brother. I can't go into details but just pray for him. It is a terrible situation that will only get worse before it can get better and we just really need the Lord's guidance through all of this, especially my other family members. And my brother REALLY needs the Lord.

And finally, for me. I was convinced that I was going to be able to work part time next year because of my new jewelry business. I thought I had found someone to work with that would be a great partner-in-crime and we would split all of the teaching responsibilities. Well, it fell through and I turned in my form to my principal yesterday stating that I would be working full time next year. It is a bit of a heart-breaker because I really wanted to stay home much more with Levi next year. It is frustrating not being able to be with him more. I praying that God would guide my decision making process and let me know what His plans are for my teaching career and my Premier jewelry career. I'd love to be able to stay home full-time, but I must get my level II teaching license before I do that (it never expires, unlike the one I have right now that expires in 2 more years) so I can come back to work in the future if I need to. I'm having a hard time figuring out where my priorities should be, beyond God and my family.

Thank you so much for your prayers. It is hard having so many tough things come at me all at once, but I know God will use me through all of this and help me stay focused on Him, as long as I ask. Thanks again and many blessings to you and your family!

Dedication

Just a quick post:

We had Levi dedicated at church this morning. It was wonderful and so empowering to know that our whole church is standing behind us as we raise Levi. Jason did a great job saying a few words in front of those thousands of people and then Skip prayed for us and for Levi. It was a great time. And we had a ton of family and friends there with us, which was wonderful! Praise God for church families!

Confused, frustrated, and ambivalent?

I am not exactly sure what to write... I just know that I need to write. My sister is going to have another baby in October with her current boyfriend. They are also planning to get married at the end of April. This makes number three. The reason I don't know what to say is because I don't even know what to feel about it. I am angry, but not nearly as angry as I was about the others. I am frustrated, but part of me just thinks, "well, this is what she does." I love her and I love her kiddos, and I think her boyfriend is a swell guy, but I just don't understand how this keeps happening. I don't want to go into too much detail about her personal life, so I'm only going to share what she has shared with me... but it's just so confusing and frustrating trying to understand the situation and make sense of how I feel about it. I do not think her getting married is the best idea, mostly because of her history with her boyfriend. Like I said, he is a good guy, but I don't even think they know what they feel about each other at the moment. Like I said, I'm just confused. I don't know if I am just used to her having kids with every guy she meets (how sad, I know) or if I just don't have the energy to get worked up about this? The last two times this happened I was a wreck. I was obsessing about the future children, her relationship status, what my parents were going to do about it, how the kids were going to make it. I was making judgements and assumptions about her and letting my imagination run wild. This time, I think I am just not going to think about it. that might get a little tricky on her wedding day, but I don't know what to do anymore. I don't know how to express my disapproval without being hurtful or unloving. I don't know how to show her how I feel without her getting defensive and shutting down. I know God is going to work on me through this situation, and I am praying He will also work on her heart, and her boyfriend's heart. They need Him, just like I do, only they don't realize it yet. Please continue to pray for her and her growing family. I guess I should start embracing the fact that I am going to be an auntie again.

Spring Break

Spring Break is coming to an abrupt end. Tomorrow is back to the real world! I'm not looking forward to being back at work, although it will be nice to see my kiddos. My biggest issue is that my dossier (huge long paper) is due on March 31 for me to get my Level II license. I have about two years left before I have to get that license, but I want the option of staying home with Levi and our next baby, whenever that happens. I have about half of it done, but still a TON more work to do before it is finished. I'm just not sure I have the time and/or energy to do it in the next few days... Ugh. But, on the flip side, I think I found someone that I work with who is willing to job-share with me next year! It is so exciting! I just hope my principal goes for it. I think she could go either way, but most of it is going to depend on the other teacher getting her ESL endorsement. We shall see. I will talk to my principal tomorrow, or in the next few days at least, to see if she will be OK with it. I think there are about 50 days of school left before summer break, though! That is super exciting!

There is not a lot new with Levi, other than he is crawling like crazy and has started signing. He signs "milk," "more," "up,' and "byebye." It is so fun watching how much he is learning every day! And he is getting faster and faster with his crawling. It is awesome! Although, he really needs to be watched like a hawk now because he picks up every tiny speck on the ground that we don't even know is there until he is putting it in his mouth! Oi.

This coming weekend we are going to have Levi dedicated at church. It is going to be a really nice event because not only are we going to commit, in front of our friends and family and the congregation of our church, to raise Levi in a Christian home where we will do our best to teach him to love and fear the Lord, but we are also going to get to talk to some of our family that won't understand why we are doing that rather than baptizing him. We don't believe in baptizing babies because baptism, in the Bible, is something you do after you accept Christ into your heart. It is a public act based on a personal decision. It is not something you have to do to be saved. It is not something that you have to do to save babies. It is a personal choice you make to show everyone around you that you have chosen to follow Christ and will do your best to live for Him from then on. We pray Levi will accept Christ early in his life and choose to be baptized, but that is only something God knows. All we can do is teach him Biblical ways and pray he makes that choice for himself one day!

Crawling and eating

So, Levi is officially mobile! He is crawling on all fours, rather than army-crawling like before, and he is already trying to stand up on the furniture. He can't get up all that often because we have tall furniture, but he keeps trying! Once he is up, though, he is already cruising along. It is incredible to see the motivation he has to get walking. I think it is going to be pretty soon when he decides he is going to walk.
Not to mention we have not found a single food this boy does not like. The other day for lunch he had half of a banana, a whole fruit cup and 2 chicken nuggets. I didn't even know his tummy was that big! It surprises us every day how much he can eat. His favorites right now are bananas and meat. He will eat cheerios if we are trying to keep him entertained while we are busy cooking or something, but he prefers bananas. He hasn't quite figured out the sippy cup yet, but we keep hoping it will just click for him one of these days, or we are going to have to try a different cup that isn't so hard for him to use. My little boy is getting so big!
And, he LOVES the cat. Any time he sees the cat he starts laughing and chasing him. It is so funny because the cat HATES babies. Levi will crawl right over to him and the cat just bolts to the other side of the room. It is quite comical.

Surgery, conferences, spring break, oh my!

Levi is still trying to recover from his surgery. It was exactly a week ago and he is doing well. He had some trouble in the last few days with the new skin peeling off and it bleeding. Poor baby, he's in so much pain when that happens. We have started trying to have him sleep on his side so he is more comfortable, but he is just like his momma and is a tummy sleeper no matter how we place him in the crib. Hopefully he will just heal soon and we won't have to worry about it.

Parent-teacher conferences are coming up in the next couple of weeks. I just put my schedule together and starting the last day of February before and after school until March 8 I will be busy! I dread this time of year because I feel like teaching stops to make time for doing report cards, making schedules and phone calls, etc. Not to mention I have started doing something new in my class where I switch half of my kids for half of her kids. Kinda late in the year, I know, but it is what it is. The students are doing well with the switch, but it is hard getting used to so many new students this late in the year. At least it adds a little bit of variety to our lives! I really enjoy my class, but I am also really looking forward to when I can stay home with Levi and our next kid, whenever we choose to have another.

Spring break is immediately after conferences and what awesome timing! I don't have ANYTHING planned for spring break so it is going to be a wonderful time of rest, relaxation, and hanging out with Levi all day every day. I have a feeling it is going to be really hard to come back to work after that week off. Then it is the sprint to the finish though. I haven't started a countdown til the end of the year yet... but it's coming...

Surgery Update

The surgery went well yesterday, praise Jesus! He was a little fussy because he wasn't allowed to eat when he got up, but overall he was in great spirits all the way until they took him back. He was in surgery for about an hour and we waited (rather impatiently in my case). Then the doctor came out and told us everything went well and we could go see him when he started waking up. We went back about 30 minutes later and I got to hold him right away and feed him. He was not happy to have his hand all wrapped up to hold the IV in place, but other than that he was donig really well. I fed him a bit and just snuggled with him for a little while. They took the IV out and we got to go home. Just like that! It was so much better than I was afraid of. I know I need to trust in God in situations like this, but it seemed like no matter how much I tried to place my fears and anxieties in His hands, I still held on to some. It is definitely something I want to work on in the future. Thanks for all the prayers and they are still appreciated as he is trying to heal. Have a great weekend!

Surgery tomorrow

Levi's surgery is finally here and will happen tomorrow morning. I have been (unfaithfully) fretting about it all day, because not only is my baby boy having a for-real surgery, but I had to get my class ready for a sub tomorrow. It is stressful getting ready for a sub, but it's worse when I have this major event hanging over my head. I'm trying so hard to just trust that God has everything under control and that Levi is in his hands, but the humanity comes out in me when I start thinking of all the scary things that could happen. Not to mention, Levi will not be allowed to have a bottle when he wakes up in the morning, and we are going to have one CRANKY baby when he gets up if he can't have his bottle. We vascillated between waking him up at midnight or just letting him sleep, and we decided to just let him sleep tonight because regardless he is going to want a bottle in the morning because it is his routine. Sigh. It is going to be a rough night of no sleep for me, but an even rougher morning when we have to bathe Levi and not let him eat. I don't know how people do this with kids that are always going to the hospital for one reason or another. This tiny, minor surgery is nothing in the grand scheme of surgeries, but I am still so anxious. I suppose this is the hardest part about being a parent: not being able to help your child no matter how badly you want to. I'm so thankful that he is so healthy and that we are able to get this surgery done for him. I know we are truly blessed to have our precious baby boy in our family and that God trusted us enough to be his parents. Thinking about that amazing blessing and responsibility is completely overwhelming.
On that note, I need to go mentally prepare for tomorrow. Please keep Levi in your prayers tonight and tomorrow as we jump this huge hurdle. And please pray for Jason and I as we have to wait for his surgery to be complete and make it through the morning with a supremely cranky baby.

More jewelry and getting excited

This jewelry endeavour is working out so perfectly! I am making about half of my teaching salary just working a few nights a week! I am really starting to see the potential for this business and the possibility of me staying home with Levi part time next year is becoming more and more a reality. Not only that, by my sponsor has told me that she has only seen two other people in her 10 years that she has sponsored that have had the drive and natural talent that I do for this. That was very kind of her to say and totally surprising because I don't feel like I am doing anything special. I'm just doing what I always do when I want to be successful at something, so it seems very natural for me. I'm excited about what she said because I know how much money she makes and it is plenty for her to stay home with her kids, and that is my ultimate goal! Hopefully it can happen sooner rather than later.

Levi update:
He has 4 teeth- two on top and two on bottom
He is scooting around on his belly finally. He's not actually crawling, but he keeps getting up on his knees like he wants to but he just isn't sure how.
He is having surgery on Friday to fix his circumcision. We are not super nervous about it at the moment, but of course we are a little concerned because he will have to go completely under before they can do it and that always is a tiny bit of concern. We are just praying about it and asking God to take care of him and give us peace about the whole thing.

Future Plans

So, my friend and coworker just signed up to do Premier with me. She is coming with me to my show tomorrow. If it works out and she is as successful as I have been so far, then we are going to get to job-share next year! It is so exciting to think that I could be spending time at home with Levi more, and still be bringing in the same amount of money, or more, as when I work full time. Such a crazy thought! We are both so hopeful that it works out, but we are trying not to get too excited in case something weird happens to make it not possible, but I am praying like crazy that it will work out!

I had another show tonight where I made about $100, but that isn't bad for hanging out with some friends (and the ladies that take care of Levi three days a week) at my house even! I didn't think I would like it being at my house as much, but it is actually easier and it makes me clean up, lol. Plus I got to spend more time with Jason and Levi because I didn't have the travel time. Tomorrow should be the complete opposite because I am going to a party about 45-60 minutes away from my house and it is two parties combined into one, so that should be exciting! Hopefully it is fun!

Ok, gotta go to bed. I'm running on empty... Have a blessed weekend :-)

Jewelry!

I am LOVING this jewelry thing! I've just had another girl tell me she wants to do it and I'm so excited that she will get to do what I'm doing! It is going to be so fun to get to know all these jewelry ladies and to get into this business enough to really make some money. It's so exciting to think about what this extra income could do for us as a family. What an incredible blessing this has become and I can't wait to see it expand and grow like I anticipate. And, tomorrow is my birthday and I am already feeling the love! I am loving life right now. Not to say I wasn't before, but this is just a really fun time! Thank you, Lord, for this season!

Happy New Year!

I just want to wish everyone a Happy New Year! We were so incredibly blessed in 2011 that it is hard to imagine what 2012 will be like, but we are ready and eagerly awaiting it all! May God bless you and your families.