It's Been A While...and I Am 34

So I haven't been motivated to blog, or take pictures.  Life has been so busy lately, and most days I find myself struggling to keep my head above water.  When I started this blog, I made some decisions-I wanted to be honest, when life is hard-it's hard, and people can relate to it. I didn't want to be one of those blogs where it looks like their life is perfect, and makes you feel like you are a mess, and you have no talent.  I also didn't want to be a whiner.  Don't get me wrong, I have most likely whined more than a few times on this blog-however, I don't feel like I have been a total downer. 

So there you have it-we have been mucho busy.  This is an important time in our lives.  Kris is working full time and going to school 4 days a week + lab time, Abram is in preschool and soccer, Reese is going through some "wild banshee" stage that I don't fully understand where he melts my heart some of the time and makes me want to cry/pull my hair out some of the time.  I have said this over and over and over again-I believe with all my heart Reese has born at this time for a reason-when things are getting harder, and pressures are getting more difficult, his stubborness will protect him and keep him safe-if I can figure out how to channel it for good.  He is so like me in so many ways.  And whenever I am at my wits end with either of my children, I feel a silent assurance that I am meant to be their mother and that I can do this, sometimes it's just hard-and that's okay.  I only learn, grow, and remember when things are hard-I forget things that come easily.  That being said here is an update on all of us:

Kris-working 50+ hours a week, and going to school 12+ hours a week.  Way stressed, but doing well and working really hard. I am so proud of him.  He just got a new (to him-thank you craigslist) mountain bike that he hopes to use in the near future, when he can make the time to use it.

Abram-about to turn 5 YEARS OLD NEXT WEEK!!  He is still loving dinosaurs and superheroes with a passion and has decided in the past few months, that maybe the whole paleontologist thing might not work out, and to be an "animal expert" instead, so that he can hold poisonous animals.  He can retain a ridiculous amount of information about all of these subjects and just the other days was explaining to a friend of mine how "We humans call things like that pollen which bees use to make honey." Seriously? "We humans"? He LOVES preschool and his teachers.  He has also loved going on playdates with his buddies. Abram has also taken a huge liking to the monkey bars. He likes coming up with inventions, playing hypothetical questions, rhyming, and playing a game where we spell small words and sound them out.

Reese- full of life and energy!!  Talking up a storm, you cannot get him to be quiet.  He is HILARIOUS which makes discipline hard to keep a straight face.  His timing is perfect and he doesn't realize how funny he is.  A bit on the dramtic side when he wants/doesn't want something. He wants to go to preschool so badly, but also likes having time with Mommy all to himself. He has taken to stripping down naked in his crib almost every night and throwing his diaper in the trash.  We'll go in to check on him and he is buck naked curled up with his blanket asleep.  I think he is kind of ready for potty training-we shall see.  He also has been waking up between 3 and 5am most mornings this past week and will only go back to sleep when curled around his Mommy.  He loves animals, superheroes, trains, dinosaurs, and is getting really good at climbing things.  He loves the playground and doesn't know it yet, but he is about to move into a big boy bed in the next couple of weeks.

Me- I have been busy trying to keep everyone else in line.  I have started working with the youth at my church, awesome and exhausting. I turned 34 last Friday, it was the worst. day. ever. I won't go into details (that would be a whining blog), but I just wanted to go to sleep and start over.  I did, however, get contacts.  That is really exciting and something I have been wanting to do for a while.  My sister and my Mom took me out for a birthday do-over on Saturday.  We had SO much fun. Got manicures/pedicures (which is something I NEVER do) then when to a nice restaurant-there was no one there because the game was on.  There was a band at the restaurant that played 70's and 80's covers.  They played every request we had (since there were maybe 20 people there at one time).  My sister tried to pressure the waitress to sing to me and she was obviously uncomfortable with the idea, but the lead singer of the band did.  And told me I needed to sing with the band because it was my birthday.  Before we left, I grabbed some random stranger and asked her to sing -"I Will Survive" with me.  We sang, and it was hilarious-I forgot one of the verses because I was so nervous and then made them keep going when I remembered it.  The lady I grabbed was really excited and sang over me-and not on all the right notes.  I cracked up every time I looked over at her breaking it down.  Before she and her friends left she grabbed me and thanked me saying it was the most fun she had had in a long time.  When I got home Kris and the boys had got me a cake pop maker and an ice cream cake-made me forget all about the night before.  I am in my mid-thirties now-kinda bizarre to think about.  It always sounded so old and now I am here and so far so good.