Quick Catch Up

Sorry I haven't posted in a month. Things are so busy now; I completely understand why one professor told us to tell our families we'd see them in 9 months at the start of our internship quarters. I see Laura and Eva about 2 days a week, but the older 4 kids and Rob don't get home until after I've left most days. I work all day Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and on Tuesday and Thursday nights. This month I'm also working Saturday mornings, except for the last weekend of the month when I'll be gone from Friday when I leave for work until Sunday around 5pm (I'll be working at a couples' retreat). I usually get home on weeknights between 10pm and 11pm, although occasionally it's as late as 2am (PDI nights). Work is pretty much my whole life right now.

Laura and Eva help me put on my make up every morning - 

Oh, and as of a few weeks ago, I now have a co-therapist, James. He just graduated from the MFT program at BYU and moved out here. We are working together until both of us are licensed. It's nice having someone to talk to about clients without having to worry about censoring everything so that I don't break confidentiality. Fortunately, we get along really well and are really good friends now. It doesn't take long to become good friends when you are together 40 hours a week! Rob is really glad that I have someone else (especially a male someone else) so I am not at the office alone at night or alone when I drive into Dallas for the John Class (which is in a bad neighborhood). 

My heart is actually doing worse, so I am going to get a second opinion as soon as I find time to make an appointment. Blacking out at one of my trainings for the couples retreat netted me the name of a wonderful cardiologist, so hopefully he'll have some new ideas because these meds are not working.

Rob is adjusting to "single" parenthood (helped out by Brittney) and says he's developed a new level of understanding and appreciation for what I went through when he was working two jobs (yay?). We've decided we really need to switch him to part time as soon as possible, although that's at least six months away as I can't earn money until I graduate AND pass the national MFT exam AND wait for my license number to arrive (which takes about 4 months after you pass the exam). Fortunately, Texas allows you to take the exam while you are still in school if it's your last quarter, so I'm planning on taking it in January (and have added studying for it to my list of things I am doing).

The kids are adjusting. Meg enjoys her classes , but doesn't like the extra homework and responsibility. She loves having more kids to make friends with and feeling more grown up. She even has a boy who has a crush on her - she's deciding if she likes him or not. Kylie has the same teacher she's had for the last two years and is loving it. Beth has the teacher Megan had for first grade (who we loved) and has straight A's. Jack is moving along in reading and writing and has several friends in his class. Eva has a new best friend, Lyden, the daughter of one of Brittney's friends (who is about my age and homeschools her kids). Eva loves having a best friend and getting to have playdates with her. Laura is turning into a toddler and learning new things every day. She figures out how to do new things (like clap or wave or blink her eyes), but doesn't show anyone she knows how to do it until I get home, then she climbs on my lap and shows me what she figured out :) I love, love, love that she does that :)

Laura's hair is growing out. It's makes for quite the bedhead in the morning!

I've started checking in with the kids individually every Sunday night and once a week I do a lunch date with one of them. This week was Jack's turn (last week was Eva's). I pulled him out of school and we went to Chick-fil-a for lunch.

We've started trying to do family dates once a month too. Since quantity of time just isn't there anymore, we're going for quality. Last month we went to Cabela's. This month we were going to hit the state fair, but Rob doesn't think my heart is up for it (he's right) so we're hitting the pumpkin patch. As I only have two days off total in the last three weeks of October, Rob took today off work and we kept the kids home from school and are heading out as soon as I'm done with this and Rob and Laura wake up from their naps.

I'll be sure to take pictures today at the pumpkin patch and post about it tonight so that it doesn't slip through the cracks and get forgotten :) We're looking forward to Halloween and are getting our costumes done. We're excited about our theme this year, but you'll have to wait until the 30th to find out what we're doing :)

Off to the pumpkin patch!!!

Damien, Tita Rhea, and Jia

Damien and Rob have been friends since middle school. Damien married Rhea several years ago and they have a daughter named Jia. Every few months, Damien's job brings him down here and we get to see them. We've become really good friends and love getting to visit with them. The kids especially love Rhea and call her Tita, which is Aunt in Tagolog (her native language).

Even Laura love Tita and actually lets Tita pick her up and cuddle her.

We got to see them three times during their two week stay this time. The last time they visited, Rhea and Jia spent the day with us and Rhea spent the whole afternoon cooking traditional Filipino foods for dinner. We had bihon and lumpia. As soon as Megan and Kylie got home from school, they were drawn to her like she was a magnet. Rhea happily included them both and totally made their week :) They are such amazing friends and we are so lucky to get to spend time with them!

Jia played with Eva, Laura, and Beth in the playroom. Jia is one of Eva's favorite people to play with. 

Not great exposure, but I thought it was a funny photo :) Eva and Jia were "exploring" in rainboots. 

Other random shots from the past week or so -

Eva and Laura grocery shopping with Brittney and I. Laura climbed off the seat of the car, rested her head on Eva's lap, and chilled out with her bottle while Eva patted her head. 

One morning when Rob knew we would barely see each other that day, he left me a message on the bathroom floor made out of toothpaste boxes. 143 - I love you :)

Eva picked flowers for me on the way to school one day. She is very into tutus at the moment. 

Cabela's

Last week we somehow had a night when none of the three adults were working and none of the kids had activities. That doesn't happen very often. We took advantage of the situation and ate dinner quickly, then piled in two cars (we no longer have a car that fits all of us) and headed to Cabela's.

Rob and Eva went off to find ammo for our next couples date (a shooting range outing coupon Rob got for his birthday) and Brittney and I took the rest of the kids through the aquarium and the African exhibit.

We tracked down Rob and Eva (Eva's exclamation of "AMMO!!!" every time they moved to a new aisle was helpful in finding them) and checked out some of the other exhibits. We let the kids (quietly) run around a bit in one of the rooms because there were no other exits and only other families with small children (all of whom were also running around). 

The kids tried their luck at the "shooting range" where they got to "shoot" at laser targets. Not a single one of our children know how to hold a rifle apparently. I don't know whether to be upset or happy about that . . . 

Kylie may have a future firing bazookas. That might be somewhat limiting as a career path though. It worked well for her. She scored 70. Second place was a tie between Megan and Jack, both of whom scored 20 (but 10 of Jack's points were due to Rob helping him). Beth scored 10 points. We didn't bother putting money in Eva's. 

We got candied nuts and jerky sticks and took one last photo with the moose. 

Then grabbed some salt water taffy to top off the nuts and jerky and had a picnic outside :) Note to self - buy drinks next time.

September

The last few weeks have been incredibly busy. The kids are in school, of course, and they have adjusted to the schedule. Rob is working, but isn't working almost any overtime. Brittney now works about 5 days a week (nights and weekends) at a local restaurant, so she is adjusting to that.

Megan loves getting to spend some extra time with us in the morning and at night. Since her school starts 90 minutes after elementary school, she gets to sleep later and stay up later. Laura and Eva love spending time with her too! 

By the way, last Thursday we hit a first for us - Megan was asked out at school. Ugh. I don't think I'm ready for this. All those guys who joked about sitting on our front porch, cleaning their guns with Rob, better report for duty! I posted that on facebook and one of my friends, whose husband is a Drill Sargent in the Marine Corps, offered to send a platoon :) I think I should take her up on that!

Brittney and the two little girls are settling into life at home. Laura loves napping curled up next to Brit in Brit's bed. Brittney announced to us that being a stay-at-home mom is her dream job. We told her she's not allowed to move out for about 12 years. By that time, Laura and Eva will be in middle school, the oldest four will be in college, and we should be able to figure out how to run the house with both of us working. We thought telling her she had to wait 18 years was a bit excessive.

Laura has a very select group of people that she likes. Brittney is now part of that group. Laura got tired the other night as I was singing to the other kids at bedtime, so she crawled into Brittney's arms and conked out :) I think Laura is one of Brittney's favorite people too. Brittney got home from working a double shift tonight and the first thing she did was come upstairs to find Laura and scoop Laura up for a hug :) 

 As for me, on the 13th I finished up my practicum quarter, which is the first of three internship quarters. I was supposed to complete 100 hours total, but I hit 141, fifty of which were in the last two weeks of the quarter. Add in driving time (about 40 mins each way), and the last two weeks were a bit hectic. I got a 100% on my project in my class (I thought classwork was over with last quarter, but it wasn't - unfortunately), a 100% from my faculty supervisor, and a 100% from my site supervisor (Mark), meaning I got a 100% in my class! The next two quarters are pass/fail instead of letter grades, so I can officially say I will graduate with a 4.0 GPA!!! Four and a half years of classes with only one quarter off; two very difficult pregnancies, including 10 months of bedrest (3 months of modified, 7 months of strict); the delivery of two babies; four surgeries for me, one for Rob, and one for Beth; my diagnosis of heart failure; some very difficult personal times; and running a family of six kids with all that entails . . . and I've made it. All those nights staying up hours to finish assignments; all those days when I just couldn't write another word, but I kept typing; all the activities and time with family I missed because I had to work on homework . . . they have all paid off. I know I couldn't have done it without God's help. About 90% of the credit goes to Him. I am very proud of the 10% of the credit that goes to me though (Rob says 0.5% goes to him for watching the kids and having to give up spending time with me)!

I start my two internship quarters (which blend together without a break) in two weeks. I'll be doing 600 hours over 23 weeks. I have no idea how that will work out, but we'll make it. My hours are divided up; only 360 of them need to be direct contact, meaning sessions with clients. Half of those need to be relational, meaning with more than one person in the room. I already have the other half of my hours covered with my current clients.

We have a new therapist starting at our practice. His name is James. He just took his licensing test and now has to wait four months to get his license. In order to allow him to practice in the meantime, and in order to get me more relational hours, we will be acting as co-therapists, which I am excited about. The one problem with that is that James is bilingual and a significant portion of his clients are Spanish-speaking. So I am going to learn Spanish. I ordered Rosetta Stone using a groupon (I love groupon!). It got here on Thursday. I have completed 3.5 lessons so far. Our first Spanish-speaking client session is on Wednesday. I feel confident that I will be fluent enough to address any of their marital issues by then . . . provided that their marital issues are limited to eating apples or rice, counting to ten, owning a dog, cat or horse, or reading, swimming, running, or walking. I can also discuss colors, driving a car, drinking coffee, milk, or water, and eating bread. This should be interesting.

As far as other things for me go, there are no other things. My heart is not behaving very well and I've started getting more fluid in my lungs and chest. The doctor doubled one of my diuretics. That helped a little bit. I am tired most of the time. I don't know how I'd make it without Rob and Brittney. All I do is sleep and work and nap and work and sleep again. I'm learning to make my time with the kids higher quality time because quantity is not available any more. On nights when I'm home, I have each come to me one at a time and we talk about their day and what's going on in their lives. Then we sing a couple of songs and I tuck them into bed, with one more song per room. As of right now, I work three nights a week, so I get to put them to bed over half the time :) Two more quarters and I can slow down a bit :) Almost there . . .

Laura Turns 1!!!

Laura's birthday was technically Labor Day. We didn't celebrate it until a week later though because all six of the kids and Rob decided to get sick starting a few days before and stretching through the next week. I didn't really get sick; there are bonuses to working 60 hours a week. At least Brittney was at home to take care of the kids :) Poor Brittney. Nothing like a baptism by fire into the world of being a nanny.

Laura was too young to know when her actual birthday was, so it didn't really matter that we postponed it. I'm sure she enjoyed it much more as she was feeling much better by the time we celebrated it :) We didn't do anything fancy, but ended up with quite a few people. Of course, when you have nine people living in your house, it doesn't really take many visitors to end up with quite a few people. We had the nine of us, Kiki, and Damien, Rhea, and Jia. Brittney and Rob made spaghetti and meatballs for dinner because I had a client session that got out at 5pm.

We opened presents first. Well more like gave her presents; none of them were wrapped. We got her a baby "tablet" that plays songs and a push toy that plays music when she pushes it. She loved them both and two weeks later, she still plays with them daily :) Kiki got her a dog that sings to her and dances. She loves that toy too!

Brittney was our official photographer, so I am actually in several of the pictures!

Damien, Rhea, and Jia - 

We had bought a German chocolate cake because it looked really good to Brittney and I and Laura isn't old enough to care what kind of cake she got. When we found out Damien's family could make it, we asked Kiki to pick up some cupcakes on the way over. Laura ended up preferring the cupcakes to the cake.

My favorite part was singing happy birthday to her. When we started, she looked around and realized that she was the center of attention and everyone was singing to and smiling at her and she looked around smiling in wonderment. I guess when you are the youngest of six kids, that doesn't happen very often.

Laura carefully ate the flower off the cupcake before starting on the rest of it. 

The German chocolate cake -

Jia liked the cupcakes too - 

Laura let Simon clean her hands off in between bites. Simon is a huge fan of Laura. 

Laura finished her whole cupcake :) 

And got tired of me taking pictures of her in her high chair. I guess two is her limit.

Getting cleaned off is not nearly as much fun as eating cupcakes :( 

I cannot believe my last little baby is one! Laura has brought so much joy to our lives! I love walking in the door and seeing her drop whatever she is doing to run as fast as she can to me, her little nose crinkling up as she grins and babbles at me. I love her hugs and cuddles. She has such a personality! I love that she makes jokes, even though she's too young to talk much, and laughs at herself. I love that she sticks up for herself when she wants something. I love that she knows exactly what she wants and she does what she needs to do to get it. I love that if she sees that all her siblings have something (like dinner), she squawks until she gets it. I love that she is hypnotized by having her hair brushed (she sits completely still as long as you keep brushing). I love that her nose crinkles up when she laughs. I love how excited she is to do new things. I love that whenever she spots that something she is not supposed to do (like climb the stairs) is available, she shoots over to do it as fast as possible before someone gets there to stop her, giggling to herself the whole time.

She is such an amazing little girl and we are so lucky to have her! I love you, Laura!!!