You know you were wondering...

I wanted to do a little bit more of an update on the most recent ongoings of my family. Since my last post, Jesse's schooling got mostly worked out. It turns out that LCC reported that Jesse was offered financial aid for Fall, Winter, and Spring, but Jesse only accepted and received financial aid for Fall. So when Linfield went to award Jesse financial aid, he was maxed out. All he has to do is get LCC to sign a form saying Jesse didn't receive all of that money, and he'll get more from Linfield like he's supposed to. He's submitted the paperwork now. So, he just has to wait for LCC to submit it to Linfield. In the meanwhile, he's begun classes online this week. I think he's feeling a bit overwhelmed with the amount of reading and time for assignments, but I'm trying to encourage him to not give up. I know he can do it!

As far as the jobs, I'm going to still apply to each and just see what happens. I figure that if I even get offered the job, let alone an interview to begin with, I can always turn down the job if it doesn't work with our needs (like part time hours that change every week and are all over the place, making childcare or transportation impossible). However, if the job can help us, why not try to get it? Jesse started feeling a lot of anxiety about me being gone working while he's trying to balance his job, his school, his working out, and his time with the kids and with me. He was worried about how he could even do school or go to the gym if he was alone with two small boys. He could find a babysitter for working out, but it'd be twice a week during the weekdays, every single week! So, like I said, I figured it was worth trying for, but if nothing works out, then we're okay and I believe God will continue to provide for us in other ways.

Getting healthy is working!!! Jesse and David have both lost 20 lbs! I can see a huge difference in both. Their pants are just falling off of them! And, in Jesse, his love handles don't hang out, his face is thinner, his butt is tighter. He is just looking sexier by the week! He reminds me a lot of how he looked when we first started dating. He was only 18 then!

  

(Pre-marriage, skinnier)

  

(Post-marriage, heavier)

As for me, I lost 6 lbs my first week on WW. I also lost:
Bust: 1 3/4"
Rib-Cage: 1 1/2"
Belly: 1/2"
Hips: 1/4"
Arms: 1/4"
(none in my thighs)

That was last Sunday. Since then, I noticed that my boobs looked smaller in my clothes, so I measured my bust and belly again. I've lost another 3/4" in my bust in the last 4 days plus another 1/2" in my waist! So my boobs are shrinking at an alarming rate, but I'm still considering it all progress in the right direction :-) Furthermore, I'm down at least another 2 lbs, but I don't officially weigh in until Sunday again. I'm so close to my 1st goal of losing 10 lbs! I also made some motivational jars where you fill one with marbles to represent every pound you want to lose. Then, each week, you remove the appropriate marbles from the one jar and transfer them to the other to represent what you have lost that week. You can have different colored marbles represent milestones, or even use items like a ticket stub to represent an award you are going to treat yourself to at that particular goal. My jar has 70 marbles in it and 6 have already been moved!

As an update to previous posts about my marriage, I am pleased to tell you that we are doing awesome! We haven't been fighting at all. Any disagreements are handled right away and worked out in a short amount of time. I'm also working very hard on showing him love and affection on a regular basis, including just sneaking kisses in the kitchen, grabbing his butt when he walks by, initiating sex more often, telling him I love him, holding his hand in the car, telling him how great he looks, telling him how much I appreciate what he does for me, doing things like cleaning the house for him before he comes home. I would say that we are doing as good as we ever have in our marriage. Even though our schedules are hectic and things get stressful, we're working together on it and trying to be sensitive to each other.

Josiah... oh man! I need to do a whole post on Josiah alone! He doesn't get enough time in the spotlight lately. He is the light of my world! Josiah is 2 and 1/2 now, as of this week! He talks so much and blows me away with all of the words he'll say just out of the blue! We were looking through a book and he pointed and said "castle", "path", and "mountain". Words that I never specifically taught him, but he learned anyway! He's really into books right now, after going in and out of phases with them. He wants to point at everything on the page. "Door! Hair! Tree! Apple! Dog! Elephant! House!..." That's more the way he talks anyway. He doesn't respond so well to questions and isn't so conversational. But he knows TONS of words and can point at stuff everywhere we go and identify it. He's so curious about everything! Walking outside is an adventure everyday. He wants to run to the tree and jump in the puddle and look in the water drain where the sidewalk is. His other favorite activity right now is coloring. That boy could spend all day scribbling on a piece of paper. And he's even learning to draw circles or he'll tell us that he drew a cat. Overall, I'd say he's not too bad with the Terrible Two's. It could be a million times worse! But he does fall to the floor and collapse in a fit when he's told no about something he wanted. It's a fight to get him to not take toys to the grocery store or marbles to bed (afraid he could choke!). And, when he does get angry, he takes out his aggression by hitting whatever is closest to him- the wall, the chair, the swing, the toy. I kinda see it as his only way to express his emotion, but Jesse thinks it's wrong and will punish him immediately with time-outs. He actually does great in time-out. He'll sit himself down and get up when we tell him to. He comes to us and we explain what he did wrong and give him a hug. He doesn't respond as well to getting something taken away or receiving a spanking. The first makes him more irate and then 2nd doesn't phase him at all. He's such a big boy! He's somewhere around 37.5" and 37-38 lbs. It's a fight to get him to stand on the scale at the dr's office, though. He's terrified because he remembers the shots and having his ears examined and being restrained because he's fighting so much. He's wearing 3T clothes and size 8 shoes. He also is in size 6 diapers, but I'm hoping to have him potty trained by summer. He shows some signs of readiness, but not very many, and, frankly, the time to train him seems impossible when also caring for a (nearly) 4 month old baby! Summer seems perfect, though, when Micah is 7+ months old and Jaydon & Zoe are home for the summer- when I can have more time to devote to training him without struggling to just get enough sleep or always on the go.

I'll save my update for Micah for next week when I do his 4 month post.

I also have some new MOPS crafts to post! 

Oh! I also have FINALLY started working on my curriculum in order to get my certification as a Wedding and Event Planner! I'm about 1/3 of the way through the first unit. I'm hoping to devote at least 3 hours a week to studying, and hopefully I'll be done by the end of the summer. I'd love to make more of a career out of party planning, but I'm fearful about it. I'm worried that my friends can't afford to pay me to do their parties professionally, and that someone who would pay a professional wouldn't choose me. I have a close friend who is doing the exact same schooling, but I feel like she has a HUGE leg-up on me! She was able to intern for a wedding planner last year while in college. I contacted the business where she did her internship, but they wouldn't let me intern as well because I'm not in college anymore. She also has a pretty successful blog where she posts about wedding ideas and spotlights local wedding ceremonies. I feel like she's already made so many contacts and just yesterday went to a wedding show where she met tons of people in person. Furthermore, being married but not having any kids, I feel like she has way more time than I do to actually study. I'm a whole year behind because of having babies and caring for them! She has a heart more for weddings while I have a passion more for parties, but I know that the money is either in corporate events (which I don't feel as strongly about) or in weddings. So, I'm trying to educate myself in both, but I fear that she's going to be more successful than me, and while I'm so proud of everything she's doing, I feel inadequate in comparison. I even have two family members that are getting married soon, and neither approached me to even help them, and I have two friends that will likely be engaged soon, and if they chose a planner, I believe they'd choose the other girl over me. But, I know that I just need to seek God in His direction for my life, apart from what He does in my friend's life. He may want me to do parties more and give me the opportunities to do such events. And if wedding are where he wants to take me, He'll give me success in that field as well. And I'm excited to see what He has in store for me.