Scary Texas Tornados, Easter and Other Stuff

This week was full of good friends and family which equals good times. Where to start? Well, actually the week started off pretty scary. A couple tornados touched down in the Dallas area near where my mother lives and we are so grateful she is okay as well as her husband Rick and my brother David. Its difficult to have the people you love so far away, especially at times like that and also on Holidays. So while we had a great week, we were missing them and thinking of them the whole time.

Here is a video of some of the damage that the Texas tornados did

My mom did send an awesome Easter care package full of enough sweets to feed an army of children for months! Cookies, Candy, Bubbles the works. The kids absolutely loved it. We had so many cookies that we invited some of our friends children over and had a blast dying easter eggs, decorating cookies and having an easter egg hunt. A big thank you to John Barry, Adam Shiflett and Mona Arnold to letting your kids come over and play. My kids thought it was just the most amazing day ever! And the biggest thank you to my wonderful mother for always making everything special!

Easter was a lovely day. The weather was beautiful and the food was abundant and scrumptious at Grandma Lois' house! Its always a blast to watch the kids play with their cousins and Ethan has definitely got the concept of Easter Egg hunting down! He has been on a sugar high ever since. More pictures to come.

Jordan has had a couple tournaments the last time I blogged. His first tournament was in Overland Park, KS at the Panther Invitational. His team won the championship! YAY!

He also played at the Easter Special at Okun Stadium in Shawnee, KS where his team took the runner-up spot! So very proud of them. Jordan scored 8 points that day and had some awesome rebounds and assists! Go Jordan!

The only bummer was that I had to miss Tessa's liturgical dance performance since I was in KC for Jordan's tournament. I have no doubt she did wonderful and I wish I could've been there. She is preparing for her upcoming 8th grade graduation. Its pretty much all she talks about.. well that and dance team.. and going to high school. What a fun and exciting time for her and her friends!

Ethan has been spending a lot of time home with me lately. It's so nice. He is definitely becoming a mammas boy again and I love it! It's cute since he is only 2 :) And me being his mamma would probably still think its cute when he is 35... He is doing great at potty training. He uses the toilet most times that he has to go. Very proud of him. Its quite an accomplishment for a 2 year old boy!

Cale brought home some pretty amazing pictures from his storm chase last week, he was so excited when he got home to tell me all about it! He is super stoked for the storm season! He is also preparing for a show with his band this weekend! It is their first show in a few months! Hopefully I will get to go but for now i will not be able to. I love watching him do what he loves to do. It brings me so much joy to see him perform the music he wrote and see other people enjoy it. It must be so very rewarding for him!

Here are a couple of his songs, its is considered progressive metal (just a warning to those who prefer softer music:


And me, well, I am still on the never ending search for a job! And in the mean time enjoying my role as mother and homemaker. I do miss working and outside communication though! I did get to spend some time with my good friends Alyson & Russ Bush, Casey Anderson and Andrew Wiechen during the final four to watch KU win and then celebrated on Mass street which was a blast! I miss our regular girls nights and can't wait to get them going again! I also can't wait to welcome another good friends baby in 5 months! Congrats Shannon Barnett I am so very happy for you and Nathan!

Thats it for this week! Talk to you soon!

Starting Over

Hello everyone. This has definitely been a year of transition for our family. A year of change, a year of new beginnings and as the title above states it has been a year of starting over. To pretend like it has been all peachy and roses for the sake of people reading this blog, that would not be factual. There has been definite ups and downs but we are looking up and moving forward. We are starting new and to honor that I have also started this blog new.

Where to begin...

What has initiated all of the recent change began in November when I was part of a layoff at Cox Communications. It was very hard for me because I truly loved the company and I loved my job, but as part of a corporate wide change, my position was eliminated and I received a severance. At first as devastating as the news was, I viewed this as an opportunity to get my butt back in school and get back on track, something I started and should have finished years ago. I decided to go to school for nursing. It was very hard for me to find a job, in fact, I still have not found one. I did complete a CNA - Certified Nurse Aide course and received my certification at the end of February. I was reminded how much I absolutely LOVE school. I need to win the lottery so I can just be a full time student for the rest of my life! I have a break from classes right now but plan to return to Washburn University in the summer to work toward a BSN in Nursing. In the meantime, I will continue to look for work so we can recover financially from all of the setbacks of last year.

Also as a result of my layoff we recently moved to another home. At first the kids were not so excited as this is the 3rd time we have moved in 4 years but they absolutely love the house and there is a big yard for them to play in and a park across the street. The boys got a bunk bed and love sharing a room. Everyone is very comfortable here and in many ways I feel it has brought our family much closer. It is a much smaller house so we find that we are spending more time together, which I love.

Cale is still working nights at Stormont Vail and working on his band project, playing the occasional show. His band is called The Soiled Doves and they are very good. For the most part not much has changed with his routine, other than the move. He has been a great support and been very patient with me as I try to find my place out there :) I am a very lucky girl. I maybe don't show him enough or thank him enough for everything he does and everything he puts up with... I should probably do that.

We got to go on our first ACTUAL date in over a year a couple weeks ago. We went to watch a play at Topeka Civic Theatre called "Avenue Q". It was very funny. We both love the theatre and it was nice to have some one on one much needed time.

Tonight Cale went storm chasing with his friend Zeke, he has wanted to get back into that for years and I am so glad he got to do it! So exciting!

Jordan had to say goodbye to his dad for a little while in late December. Jason has temporarily moved to Augusta, GA for the military. The first few weeks were really hard on Jordan but he has really come around and is adapting well. He still misses him everyday and some days are better than others. He gets to talk to him on the phone and on Skype regularly and got to go visit him over spring break. He will also be spending the summer with him. Which is sad for me and the other kids but I know he stoked to see his dad. I am happy for him and just remind myself that its only one summer.

Jordan has also found himself on an awesome basketball team with a magnificent coach. The name of his team is the Topeka Lakers! They are awesome and win almost all their games. Jordan has improved so much with this team, it is exciting to watch. He has a tournament this weekend in Kansas City and I can't wait to see him play. I am very proud of him.

Tessa is working hard with dance. Preparing for her recital, and the BIG news of the day is that today she found out she made the Topeka High dance team. It is crazy to think she will be a freshman in high school in the fall. Time flies, it feels like yesterday that I was rocking her to sleep each night and now we are picking out dresses for school dances and talking about what colleges she wants to go to in 4 years. Oh my.

Ethan. Oh Ethan, he is just as cute as ever. Talking up a storm these days and always putting a smile on all of our faces. He wears his bike helmet everywhere, it is his bike helmet, his baseball helmet, his football helmet, his all purpose helmet and it is too cute. He never ceases to amaze us, for a two year old he is an incredible athlete. He can hit a pitched ball, in fact he refuses to use his tee anymore. He can throw a spiral and run football plays, golf, hockey, you name it he has mastered it. Other things he has mastered this month, The scooter, the skateboard and his tricycle. He wants to ride a bicycle but I'm not sure about that one at this point. He still goes to daycare 2 days a week. This serves a dual purpose 1 - I get things done around the house and can run errands for the week and 2- he gets to play with other kids his age :)

So thats it! In a nutshell that should bring everyone up to speed! Thanks to the support of Family and Friends (Cale, Mom, Casey Jo, the kids and others) we have managed to stay positive and push forward.

I promise to better keep everyone updated. So good to be back!