Catching Up

It's been amazing that time has passed so quickly since I posted last. Life was hard and crazy this past year and it seemed like blogging was the least important thing to do at the time. I've tried to welcome 2013 into my life with some promises to do better at keeping up with everything including blogging. I'm not sure how many people, if any read it, but I can do like my sister-in-law, Nikki, and print out what I do write and put together for my family to re-read and see as they grow up!

Last year started out with a pregnancy we weren't expecting, but then lost it a month later. Just after recovering from the miscarriage, Erick was reduced to part-time status at work, costing us wages and benefits. We had to try to make life work on very little and kept running into road blocks. Erick spent a good deal of time this past summer going to interviews, searching for and applying for many jobs, but nothing seemed to work out for us. Finally at the end of September, his job put him back at full-time and reinstated our benefits. Because of the 6 months of limited wages, we had to get creative with making life work like we wanted it to. We had to put our student loans on deferment, put Ryker on CHIPS (Medicaid type insurance for children), reduce our cell phone plans down to the very basic functions (no texting), and we didn't go many places to reduce our money spent on car repair, gas, and so forth. We decided to grow a garden to supplement our food, and my parents helped us with others costs. In all, we learned that life can be lived on very little money, activities can be done for cheap or free, family time becomes so much more valuable, and when we throw ourselves into work, we become less aware of our circumstances.

Ryker has grown by leaps and bounds and is talking very well, knows some colors, numbers, animals, movies, and how to play the Wii and computer games that Erick owns. He is loving Nursery at church, and has decided that Thomas the Tank Engine is the most awesome toy of all! We found out, during the passing of Erick's grandpa this summer, that Ryker likes to play with kitchen sets, so we bought him one for Christmas and he cooks up a ton of different items and talks to us a lot about the food that goes with it (great learning tool). He runs, climbs, throws, and gives me a lot of scares frequently, but we love him and are so glad to have him in our home and lives. He's done better eating this year, but it has taken us a lot of time to work with him on his meals to get him to try new foods, to eat his food and to feel good about meal time - he's just so active he'd rather play than eat, and if it comes down to it, he prefers sugary foods to the healthy ones we try to get him to eat.

I spent the summer taking care of our garden and keeping up to the logistics of our home and needs. I bottled over 136 quarts of vegetables and fruits from our garden and from Erick's mom's peach tree. We have been eating on them this winter and it has really saved us some money! I've also been working with a doctor on my infertility, which has been really hard on both Erick and I. We think that I might have a condition called PCOS (poly cystic ovarian syndrome), which prevents fertility in some women and causes weight gain (something I have been fighting all year). After reading a book on the condition and trying some of the tips in it, I have felt better and I am starting to drop some weight. I have been working hard at indexing for the LDS Church's Family History projects as well as taking Elder Richard G. Scott's counsel to find our family members and do their temple work for them. I hold two callings - Webelos Den Leader, and I am now the Valiant 9 teacher (my class has the kids that run more teachers out of Primary), for which I have had to use my Education Degree tactics to be able to teach and keep the kids under control. I like the challenge. I have loved being home with Ryker and I am trying to begin pre-schooling him since that is what the other half of my degree is in. I have found that the items in our home make good tools for him to learn with (toys for shapes, colors, and counting), play dough for small muscle development, having him exercise with me for large muscle development, building blocks and train sets for cognitive spatial reasoning, etc.

 

 

Erick has been so busy this past year trying to find a new job and provide for us. He spent many hours looking for work, applying, and interviewing with a variety of companies to find that there are few out there that were looking for his area of expertise. We knew last year that we needed to start preparing for Law School so Erick took the LSAT and has spent a great deal of time preparing his applications and statements for law schools around the Western Region. We will know more in the Spring what we are looking at, but it is going to be an answer to many prayers and for a lot of waiting for our financial situation to start to change. Erick is the Cub Master in our ward and has done a great job doing pack meetings and keeping the Den Leaders in line! He has helped with the gardens that we worked on, helping my mother do the brick work on her front flower bed, and in taking the time to help me and Ryker. He's lost two uncles and a grandfather this year, in addition to having more siblings move away, so it's been a bitter-sweet year from him. He's a great father and husband as well as great friend and leader to many others. We're hoping he will be accepted to Law School and we are doing everything we can to prepare him for his studies and for the lack of time we will get to have with him while he does it for the next 3 years.

That's our family in a nut shell. We've set a lot of goals and are working hard on them. This year, I will be working to blog more of our life story for history's sake and if you get any enjoyment out of it, I guess that's great too! We're not the most exciting family, but I do love my son and husband and the fun we have together!