Family Snapshot May 2012
Recently I’ve been doing a terrible job keeping in touch with friends and family. Through twitter, facebook, and the occasional blog posts, I’ve alluded to what my family has been up to and how we are all doing, but I think it’s about time I really sat down again and wrote up a snapshot of our family. Although as David was reading this he said that this is more like an 6 page essay of everything HE knows about the family.
First, David graduates tomorrow, May 18th. Hopefully I’ll be together enough to post a couple pictures of that tomorrow or soon after. For now how about a picture of David calling home from one of his last days of school:
David has officially been signed out of the school and been home helping me with the boys and other events’ preparations. He’s currently still waiting to find out if he passes his licensing exams. He knows he’s passed part of it but is still waiting to find out about the rest.
Here is a pic. of David enjoying free ice cream day with the boys at Bruster’s.
Anyway, David has also scored an awesome job down in North Carolina working in his own satellite office for a well established, up-to-date, real southern gentleman dentist. This means that the office is being set up, staffed, and owned by another dentist, but David will be the only dentist working there regularly. The job pays a great commission and has a nice guaranteed minimum pay. He starts with minor part ownership in this satellite office, which will increase each year he works there to a certain point when he’ll have the possibility to buy the practice. We truly have been blessed with this opportunity.
Since we’ve got a job lined up, we are doing some house hunting in that area. It’s kinda strange looking at houses because we are coming away from school with so much debt, but at the same time we don’t want to move to a house just to move again in just a couple months. And knowing the salary and debts we have to pay, it seems like we can do it. Not to mention that the housing market is still pretty depressed so buying now seems like a better option than waiting.
And now to break up this post here is a family shot of us with one of David’s favorite professors at the end of the year Oral Surgery School Picnic.
Oh, and just to keep things insane, we decided that we’re going to take a trip to Italy for the last two weeks of June, you know just after the baby and just before we move to NC. Sounds crazy right, but we’ve been dreaming about it for years and although the timing is tight, it’s actually pretty good timing. I mean new baby will be little enough to just sleep through the whole thing. David won’t be missing work. We have family that have volunteered to take all three of the older boys. So, this might just be a chance of a lifetime to have a big graduation celebration, second honeymoon, dream vacation, etc.
As for the boys, Joey is doing well. He turns 6 this summer.
He’s been thriving in our home school kindergarten this year. He reads well although he doesn’t much enjoy it. He really enjoys math; he gets bored doing the adding/subtracting stuff so I’ve got him doing some multiplication/division/fractions but I want him to practice and get quick at the more basic stuff.
We also do science, social studies, writing, music, spelling, Italian, and art. I try to keep it interesting and comprehensive. I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how easy it really is. Joey’s cousin came a couple weeks ago and I was disappointed at how much homework his teachers were giving him. It just seemed like so much for a little guy and his parents seemed to be spending just as much time doing homework with him as I spend doing “school” with Joey. I know homeschool may not be for all families, but it sure seems great for us right now.
I also love having Joey around to help me with the other kids. Sometimes I think it’d be nice if the house were emptier but then I realize when Joey is gone the kids look to me to entertain them and get stuff for them. Joey is a great big brother.
Joey has also found a passion for Gymnastics this year. He was invited to join the competitive boys team which we declined because of the money and timing, but maybe we’ll pursue it in NC.
He also loves board games now that he’s old enough to actually play them. Problem is that his favorites are monopoly and other long adult-type games that neither I nor David can play with him unless someone else is with the other kids.
Joey’s also really into making money, very serious about it. Sometimes it kinda breaks my heart. Like he’ll want to make something, like art or a book, and sell it. Yet he knows that he’s not a mature artist or writer and so he knows he can’t charge a lot of money for it. He also knows he’s got a limited customer base that doesn’t want to constantly buy everything he makes. So he’ll say something like “Mama, I made this book and you can buy it if you want. It’s only cost $.05 but if you want it for free I’ll give it to you.” It’s a hard balance. We try to support his dreams and he’s such a good sport about it all.
Jakey is doing great too.
He’s started doing school with his brother now. He does a preschool workbook and is learning to read with the program Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons. It sounds crazy but it worked beautifully for Joey and is already doing wonders for Jakey, as long as I can keep him from getting frustrated. Jake is still a very passionate, emotionally-driven kid. Things in his life are either all or nothing. Disappointments are life shattering and make him very upset and good things are joyful events that everyone has to know about. He’s a funny guy. We love the spirit he brings, the excitement.
Jacob is also still a very tender-hearted little guy that is very much attached to me, which I must say I love. As an example, the other night Jacob was getting ready to go to the Father’s and Son’s Campout, but not even for the night, just the evening. And when he realized I wasn’t coming he quickly tried to invite me. I told him that it was okay, and that I’d see him when he came home. He answered, literally with tears in his eyes, “okay, but I’ll miss you. I love you SO much, Mama!”
Recently I’ve been discovering some of Jacob’s favorite things. Number one and still easily apparent is his love for video games, iPod games, and computer games.
For how much he love video games here is another picture of it:
A close second might be “kids shows” like Pokemon. But I’ve also found that he loves to listen to stories and help cook too. He also loves make believe fights with bad guys. Oh, and he’s a big eater these days with very exact orders like “Mama, I would like you to make me one sandwich with just meat, no cheese, and miracle whip and meat. With one piece of bread cut into two pieces on a plate. I want milk in a cup with no lid on it, too, and gold fish.”
Asa is hitting that two’s stage. He’s starting to get opinionated and wanting to choose what happens in his world. So we do have the occasional tantrum, but luckily he’s still pretty mild most of the time.
And although he does slip away sometime he’s actually pretty good about not making big messes, getting into things we’ve told him not to get into, or trying to do things he’s not really capable of. I mean just yesterday he brought David a whole carton of eggs he wanted to eat, but luckily he hadn’t tried to make himself eggs, like other babies might do. Or like this morning when he found my lotion and came down with some of it in his hair. I braced myself to find a giant mess but was very happy to find the lotion bottle on my bed with the lid back on it. He’s a good boy, really. He is a HAPPY little guy. He smiles a lot. Even in his sleep. He loves to follow his brothers around and play with them. They are usually very good about including him and humoring his limited abilities. He also likes to play by himself some too. He seems to be more of an artist then the other boys spending a good amount of time making “Valens Days” for the family. He is one sweet baby!
Oh, and he talks a lot too. He loves to say hi and bye to everyone and everything he sees. And it’s all still in his cute 2 year old accent with his cute 2 year old phrasing, I love it. The last couple nights, as he’s swallowed his toothpaste after we’ve brushed his teeth he’s opened his mouth wide and said “AAAHHHH! I’m eating my mouth”
And as for me, I’m doing well. Just got a great new hair cut:
I’m feeling really pretty healthy,hanging in there waiting for baby to come. I’m trying to keep busy but not too busy. I’m also trying to get a jump on things like packing. This past weekend with David and Joey’s help, we held a yard sale and got about $175 from the old junk we were trying to get rid of anyway. So that felt pretty good. It’s also awfully nice to be cleaning up and cleaning out the house as we’re getting ready to move.
Was this too much for a snapshot? Well, just wait there is still plenty more updates from our family to come soon!
