Every once in a while it's important to write about the little things going on in our lives.
John: Going to school full time at SUU. He is not a fan of SUU and it is way more expensive compared to Dixie College. Then you factor in gas and driving time and it is not ideal, but the only choice there is. He just started his spring 2014 semester in the teaching program and will have 1 more semester in the fall before starting student teaching in spring 2015.
It is crazy to think that he started in January 2010 and it is taking this long, but I have to remember that he was starting from the beginning AND is getting a "double major plus".
We are excited for when he will be done. We are planning to move soon after he is done. We both need a change of pace.
John's class schedule is just on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so he is home the other days of the week to watch Brynlee when I am working, do homework, and help around the house.
After 3 or so years teaching Primary, he finally got out of that calling and is now with the Scouts. They meet on Thursday evenings.
Krista: Working "full time" at Mohave Community College. I love (most) my students and the job is ideal for being able to work from home and not have to put in 40 hours a week, but I am burned out. I have never stayed in the same job for more than a year and a half at a time and I am at 5 1/2 years right now. I love teaching, but definitely miss the patient care aspect. I tried to get back into the patient part of it by working at Red Cliffs (Rehab/Nursing Home) last summer, but I never really felt like I was having much patient interaction because it's just a race against the clock to get everything done. I was hired for what they call a "short shift", so I was only supposed to be there for 2-4 hours. I was often there for 4- 6, sometimes 8 hours in order to get everything done. Since I wasn't working there consistently it never got easier. I worked there until the end of November. It was nice having the extra income for a short period of time.
This semester I teach classes on Wednesdays (all day) and will do clinicals at the hospital until the middle of March on Saturdays (12 hour days). The other days I work from home a few hours each day. My mom is so helpful watching Brynlee 2 days a week so I can work. I wish I could get stuff done with Brynlee around, but it is nearly impossible.
My maternity leave starts April 1st and I don't have to be back to campus until August. I am a little worried about how it's going to work out with my students and how much work I am still going to have to do even when on leave.
Brynlee: Loves princesses, Strawberry Shortcake, and Findng Nemo currently. She loves all princess things, but her current favorite is Rapunzel.
She wears 3T clothes and at the end of last year it was very difficult finding clothes that fit her because she was so tall and skinny. Pants would fall off and not be long enough, and shirts were too short also. She has gained 3 pounds since then so her pants fit better (some are now too small). She now weighs 30 pounds.
I think we all underestimated how stubborn this kid is... She refuses to even sit on the potty, much less anything else. She is now in size 5 diapers and there are so few in a package compared to baby diapers. It's so frustrating. We have tried everything we can think of including rewarding her with toys/ice cream, etc. and punishing by taking away her toys. She just doesn't seem to care. Her answer for when she will sit on the potty is always "tomorrow". I guess she just isn't ready. She is the only kid in her church class not potty trained and she won't be able to go to preschool in August if she is not potty trained.
She is in Sunbeams now. She has the same teachers she had in nursery and the same kids in her class, but the transition hasn't been easy. We missed 2 weeks in a row of church due to sickness and after that she refused to go. Hopefully it will get easier.
Brynlee also loves to read and look at books. One of my favorite things to see is her laying in bed with books all over her. Sometimes I will give her a pile of books to entertain her for a few minutes. She also likes to use her flashlight at night to look at her books in bed. I'm pretty sure that is a stall tactic, but I don't mind if she looks at books for a while every night.
She loves to do "art". Her favorite is paint, but she also likes markers, stamps, and stickers. She is not a huge fan of coloring unfortunately, but will do it sometimes.
Brynlee still has a hard time sitting down and playing with toys. She does not entertain herself for more than a few minutes. Most of the time she just picks up toys, then puts it down a little bit later. Sometimes if I sit and play with her she will, but most of the time she has some weird rules that I can't figure out and she gets upset pretty quick, making it not fun for either of us.
Brynlee's diet is pretty scary. She eats zero meat and only a handful of fruits or vegetables (raw carrots, apples, bananas, canned pears sometimes). Her diet consists of mostly white flour and white starch- rice, noodles, bread, chips, tortillas, etc.
She doesn't like pizza anymore because she doesn't like the sauce. She won't eat spaghetti sauce.
She is able to tolerate regular milk finally. She likes yogurt (the pink and purple gogurt only). I put Carnation Instant Breakfast in her milk to make chocolate milk and that is probably the only way she gets vitamins.
She also loves any sweets, especially chocolate.
She does not eat any normal kids foods-peanut butter and jelly, mac and cheese, scrambled eggs, etc.
Brynlee loves to help cook also. She loves to pour ingredients into the bowl and stir. One day she helped me make waffles (I was craving them) and then she ate some for the first time.
Brynlee makes us laugh all day long. The funny thing she does lately is say "wahoo!" and dance around to almost everything that is a tiny bit exciting. It's like we tell her we are going to Disneyland or something.
As a family we started at the end of December reading the illustrated Book of Mormon after dinner. Instead of reading each verse and chapter, it takes stories and puts them together into a few pages. We would read 1 story each night. I was surprised how fast we finished it (January 31st) and how Brynlee would listen a little. Of course she was climbing on the chair on playing with a toy, but if she heard a familiar word she would say "Where's the angel?" or "Where's Jesus?". At least I knew she was getting something out of it. Next we will read the New Testament illustrated book. We also do family prayer at Brynlee's bedtime.
John: Going to school full time at SUU. He is not a fan of SUU and it is way more expensive compared to Dixie College. Then you factor in gas and driving time and it is not ideal, but the only choice there is. He just started his spring 2014 semester in the teaching program and will have 1 more semester in the fall before starting student teaching in spring 2015.
It is crazy to think that he started in January 2010 and it is taking this long, but I have to remember that he was starting from the beginning AND is getting a "double major plus".
We are excited for when he will be done. We are planning to move soon after he is done. We both need a change of pace.
John's class schedule is just on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so he is home the other days of the week to watch Brynlee when I am working, do homework, and help around the house.
After 3 or so years teaching Primary, he finally got out of that calling and is now with the Scouts. They meet on Thursday evenings.
Krista: Working "full time" at Mohave Community College. I love (most) my students and the job is ideal for being able to work from home and not have to put in 40 hours a week, but I am burned out. I have never stayed in the same job for more than a year and a half at a time and I am at 5 1/2 years right now. I love teaching, but definitely miss the patient care aspect. I tried to get back into the patient part of it by working at Red Cliffs (Rehab/Nursing Home) last summer, but I never really felt like I was having much patient interaction because it's just a race against the clock to get everything done. I was hired for what they call a "short shift", so I was only supposed to be there for 2-4 hours. I was often there for 4- 6, sometimes 8 hours in order to get everything done. Since I wasn't working there consistently it never got easier. I worked there until the end of November. It was nice having the extra income for a short period of time.
This semester I teach classes on Wednesdays (all day) and will do clinicals at the hospital until the middle of March on Saturdays (12 hour days). The other days I work from home a few hours each day. My mom is so helpful watching Brynlee 2 days a week so I can work. I wish I could get stuff done with Brynlee around, but it is nearly impossible.
My maternity leave starts April 1st and I don't have to be back to campus until August. I am a little worried about how it's going to work out with my students and how much work I am still going to have to do even when on leave.
Brynlee: Loves princesses, Strawberry Shortcake, and Findng Nemo currently. She loves all princess things, but her current favorite is Rapunzel.
She wears 3T clothes and at the end of last year it was very difficult finding clothes that fit her because she was so tall and skinny. Pants would fall off and not be long enough, and shirts were too short also. She has gained 3 pounds since then so her pants fit better (some are now too small). She now weighs 30 pounds.
I think we all underestimated how stubborn this kid is... She refuses to even sit on the potty, much less anything else. She is now in size 5 diapers and there are so few in a package compared to baby diapers. It's so frustrating. We have tried everything we can think of including rewarding her with toys/ice cream, etc. and punishing by taking away her toys. She just doesn't seem to care. Her answer for when she will sit on the potty is always "tomorrow". I guess she just isn't ready. She is the only kid in her church class not potty trained and she won't be able to go to preschool in August if she is not potty trained.
She is in Sunbeams now. She has the same teachers she had in nursery and the same kids in her class, but the transition hasn't been easy. We missed 2 weeks in a row of church due to sickness and after that she refused to go. Hopefully it will get easier.
Brynlee also loves to read and look at books. One of my favorite things to see is her laying in bed with books all over her. Sometimes I will give her a pile of books to entertain her for a few minutes. She also likes to use her flashlight at night to look at her books in bed. I'm pretty sure that is a stall tactic, but I don't mind if she looks at books for a while every night.
She loves to do "art". Her favorite is paint, but she also likes markers, stamps, and stickers. She is not a huge fan of coloring unfortunately, but will do it sometimes.
Brynlee still has a hard time sitting down and playing with toys. She does not entertain herself for more than a few minutes. Most of the time she just picks up toys, then puts it down a little bit later. Sometimes if I sit and play with her she will, but most of the time she has some weird rules that I can't figure out and she gets upset pretty quick, making it not fun for either of us.
Brynlee's diet is pretty scary. She eats zero meat and only a handful of fruits or vegetables (raw carrots, apples, bananas, canned pears sometimes). Her diet consists of mostly white flour and white starch- rice, noodles, bread, chips, tortillas, etc.
She doesn't like pizza anymore because she doesn't like the sauce. She won't eat spaghetti sauce.
She is able to tolerate regular milk finally. She likes yogurt (the pink and purple gogurt only). I put Carnation Instant Breakfast in her milk to make chocolate milk and that is probably the only way she gets vitamins.
She also loves any sweets, especially chocolate.
She does not eat any normal kids foods-peanut butter and jelly, mac and cheese, scrambled eggs, etc.
Brynlee loves to help cook also. She loves to pour ingredients into the bowl and stir. One day she helped me make waffles (I was craving them) and then she ate some for the first time.
Brynlee makes us laugh all day long. The funny thing she does lately is say "wahoo!" and dance around to almost everything that is a tiny bit exciting. It's like we tell her we are going to Disneyland or something.
As a family we started at the end of December reading the illustrated Book of Mormon after dinner. Instead of reading each verse and chapter, it takes stories and puts them together into a few pages. We would read 1 story each night. I was surprised how fast we finished it (January 31st) and how Brynlee would listen a little. Of course she was climbing on the chair on playing with a toy, but if she heard a familiar word she would say "Where's the angel?" or "Where's Jesus?". At least I knew she was getting something out of it. Next we will read the New Testament illustrated book. We also do family prayer at Brynlee's bedtime.
We bought a loaf of French bread and there was a little bit leftover the next day. I was going to cut a slice for Brynlee, but she wanted the whole thing. I thought it was so funny because it reminded me of Aladdin and Abu (which she watches often) on the movie Aladdin with their loaf of bread.
She ate the whole thing.
Brynlee still loves to swing. This day she wanted to take her baby in the swing with her, then swing the baby by herself.
January was a pretty rough month for all of us. One of the worst months I can remember in years.
It started out with a major pain in my toe after Brynlee stepped on it 10 times a day for a month or so. I went to the podiatrist at the beginning of the month and they cut the edge off the toenail that was digging into my skin. About 4 days later it started hurting really bad. That night I could not sleep until about 6AM because of the excruciating pain. I had never felt pain like that before. I went to the doctor that morning and they said I had post-injection neuritis (inflammation of the nerve from the numbing injections) and/or an infection (turns out it was both). They put me on antibiotics for the possible infection, but nothing could be done about the neuritis. It was 3 nights total of very, very little sleep. Even after a prescription for Lortab I could only sleep about 2 hours. And of course I was trying not to take much medicine because I have a baby to worry about too. I went back to the doctor and they changed the antibiotic because the first was obviously not working.
At this point it has been almost a month since the first office visit and it is still not healed. I have been to the office 5 times and I really hope it will heal and I don't have to go back.
A few days after the toe problem started, I had to go back to work for the spring semester. I had to go to work with no sleep and could not wear shoes. Then the next week I had to work 3 days in a row, about 11 hours each day. Brynlee had started to get sick a few days before (a bad cold), then John got sick. John doesn't just get a little sick. He has high fevers and alternating chills and fever. So I had to work long hours feeling not great then go home and take care of sick people, plus worry all day about them when I was at work. By the end, Brynlee was sick for almost 2 weeks straight (very unusual for her) and she sleeps a lot less when she is sick. She would have a hard time breathing through her nose at night and would wake up coughing and crying in the middle of the night. She would also wake up around 6AM a lot of days and not nap all day.
Then I got the same sickness, but a very mild version thankfully.
Glad January is over!
No comments:
Post a Comment