Nine Years, Six Weeks

Besides highschool, it's the longest thing I've ever done in my life.  9 years is nothing to sneeze at.  For nine years I commuted, badged in, worked for and represented the Boeing Company.  And tomorrow, I turn in my badge, say good bye and close this chapter of my life.

Last night I started packing up my desk.  I ran across some super glue I ordered especially for a certain manager because he just always thought we should have it around...ya know...just in case.  I found a cardboard cutout of a comedian's face that someone hung on my cube wall to make me laugh.  I recycled two binders and several hanging folders full of work I poured my heart into supporting the Admin community I worked in for a majority of my years here. I put away awards I'd earned and closed shop on nine years of memories.  In those nine years I worked hard, laughed a lot, cried a little, and learned a whole heck of a lot about myself.  In those nine years, I went from Jessie, the 21 year old fresh out of college girl, to Jessie, the 30 year old married, mother of 2 girl.  It's amazing how fast it all passed yet how many memories I came across as I packed away my things.

It's been an amazing ride and I'm going to miss a lot of things about it...the pride of working for a fantastic company who does such an important job for our country...the friendships I've made...the reminder that I was needed and important to the daily operation of something so much bigger than myself.

BUT...all that being said...I could not be more excited to embark on this next chapter of my life.  God led me right to this moment.  I sort of feel like this tiny person on the edge of a canyon.  All the things I've known are behind me and surround me...and it's comfortable, beautiful and good.  But below me is this amazing, new place I haven't been able to explore...and its just there waiting for me to take the leap. 

June 27th, ready or not.  Here I come!

June...some updating!!

I looked at the calendar today and then looked at our blog...holy moly!  The month is half over!! This month has been a big one for us...and there will be more on that later...but between family developments, major job changes on the horizon and the beginning of some pretty big house projects...the days have gotten the best of me and I feel the blog has taken a back seat! Before I get too far behind I wanted to do a little bit of updating...
Last day of Work
I officially have 5 and a half working days left at my current job.  It's scary and exciting all in the same breath.  I know all signs have been pointing me this direction...but it doesn't make it any less major of a decision and a life change for me and my family!!  God, I'm gonna need ya on this one!

Last week, Owen went to two follow-up appointments at Children's

First, the ENT:
Tuesday, June 11 he went to a follow-up with his ENT.  This follow-up was a bit more concerning than I really would have liked...but as for all things with my kiddos, if it is for the best for them, then we shall do what the doctor recommends.  Owen's appt began with a hearing test...which showed he had some fluid on his ears, making it show he had some minor hearing loss in one of his ears.  The fluid isn't causing a problem right now, but there is a chance it will in the future.  He also looked at his throat and tonsils (which were found to be larger than average for a kid his age) and he asked me if he snored.  He does.  And he also asked if there were pauses in his snores.  There are.  So, with that in mind, he ordered a sleep study.  The thought being that he could be dealing with a number of sleep related issues that do not let him sleep well enough to give him the rest he needs. 

We go to Children's for an overnight sleep study Monday, August 26th.  I am not sure how this is going to go, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say not well...I could be completely wrong though.  For now all we know is that we arrive at 7:30am...with PJ's, Owen's favorite night times comforts and one of his parents.  We can certainly follow directions...so at the least we'll get that part right ;)

Second, the Children's Eye Center:
Since Owen's surgery, we go back yearly for follow-ups. These help ensure there are no problems, his vision hasn't changed etc.  This appointment went well and other than an hour long wait for his appt...we are happy to report his eyes looked great.  We go back next March for his next follow-up! This time we get to wait 9 months!  Woohoo!!

Vacation:
And last but certainly not least...we officially have around 3 and a half weeks before we leave for the beautiful Gulf Coast on a family vacation. I cannot wait!!  I went through the drive thru behind someone from way out of state and wondered what they were doing...thinking oh maybe a road trip! Fun! Then I felt that rush of ...YES!! we get to do this in a few weeks. I can't wait to pack our suitcases, hit the road and be the "out of towners" on a beautiful beach, get some sun on my shoulders and spend a full week with my family with nothing to do and no where to be! Woohoo!!

As we move into 2013...

Last year when I looked at goals and overall thoughts about what I wanted from the year...this is what I came up with. It's slightly disappointing that there isn't more on this list that I accomplished over the course of the year...BUT...life gets in the way and so does weather and other fun plans...so when I look back at 2012 I  know we had a lot of fun...we also had a lot of heart ache over the year...so I will consider last years approach a success b/c I can happily say that I did refer to this and try really hard to let it help guide me!  With that being said...this year I want to try a similar approach.  I'm getting a little more specific this year with a few things and adding less to the list of things to tackle. But as a general rule these are guildlines/goals/resolutions for the year.

 

Family Stuff:

• Monthly Family Fun days
• Currently have our first official family fun day planned for Feb...which includes a trip to Sikeston, MO for some swimming and dinner at a place where they throw your food at you!
• Other family fun days in the hopper: Eagle watching and a ferry ride, Zoo day, Nature Institute picnic and hike, Magic House, Botantical Gardens
• Get creative and come up with another short overnight like Sikeston...maybe the Lake of the Ozarks, Springfield IL or Kansas City, MO via the train??
• Do a library book club this summer
• Set up some fun Friday summer play dates for me and the kiddos with friends and family
• Find more time for crafting/art/creative stuff with the boys
• I've got a few ideas for creating a cool dress up station for the boys (not to worry with lots of manly items like fireman and chef outfits)...and a kids craft space in a future craft space
• Create a Wow Wall where we can display all the awesome stuff we are doing, art work, report cards (in the future of course), anything we should be proud of...a tradition I hope the kids will enjoy for lots of years.
• Make at least one night a week a night all about FUN. Whether it's a family trip for a snack in our PJ's, building a fort out of pillows and reading our stories with flash lights, making a craft or simply running to get McDonalds and making a trip to pick out a fun new movie at Walmart afterwards.

Meal Planning/Budgeting/Household Stuff:

• Begin meal planning and budgetting weekly
• I'm setting a more specific goal for this b/c Jer and I need to get more disciplined so we eat out less and save some cash!
• Also bi-weekly, my plans loose steam. I'm hoping weekly will waste less food and give us more fresh options
• Eat more fresh, less-processed food and get away from fast food.  
• I've gone back to ordering our produce baskets on a bi-weekly basis and will be buying whole grains, fat free, lower sodium items as often as I can for our household in the coming year.  I have already tweaked one meatloaf recipe to include whole grain crackers and turkey burger intstead of red meat. It was delicious.  It's a trend I hope continues to make us a healthier crew.  For us it's not going to be about making a HUGE change...but just simple, more health conscious choices ;)
• Sell our house and get settled in a new space for our family

Marriage Stuff:

• Date Nights once a month.
• I've been using Groupon as a fun and creative way to get us out and on more dates.  On our list so far for the first half of the year we have a Billiken's Basketball game in downtown STL and a Rock Climbing 101 Class and full day climbing pass.  Throw in a dinner at cool wine bar in Edwardsville and some movie passes for a Regal Cinema theatre and I'd say were off to a rockin' start this year!
• Other date ideas to put on the books: Cooking class at Dierbergs (the couples one), Art Museum date day, Day trip and overnight to Herman Missouri
• Purchase a copy of 5 Love Languages and dig into some reading!

Personal Stuff:

• Still want to get our family photos organized
• Work on a morning schedule that includes some kind of 30 minute exercise a couple days a week and a personal bible study/prayer time the other days of the week
• I've done a little of the bible study time successfully and am hoping it provides insights that I can share here. Just to help serve as reminders to me..the lessons I'm supposed to be learning from the things on my heart!
• Eat breakfast...plain and simple.
• Send more cards
• Pray more...and pray better...hoping my bible study time in the morning will help with this!
• Blog more...and do a better job of keeping track of things that have been going on.
• This one is a tough thing to nail down...but I'm gonna do my best! I'm hoping some pre-drafted posts will help me moving.
• 
  Find ways to enjoy the little daily things more...soak up the every day. After all the majority of our life is spent in the day to day routines.

And that about wraps it up. I'd like to share more about my triumphs and failures as we roll through the year...but in a nutshell...I feel this is a similar approach as last year...just a little less to tackle.  And some are maybe a bit more focused (last year I didn't want too many specifics)...which I think will help us accomplish them more easily.  In general I'm really stoked to dig into making some great memories for this year...and learning to roll along with whatever other plans God has in store for us as the months pass by.  The past couple years of my life...have been slowly teaching me to let go of control of my life.. .there is only so much we can control anyway.  Why bother worrying about the things we can't right??  Sounds easy...but for me is insanely tough!  I'm stubborn and slow to give up that control...I'm a planner by nature and I like to know what's coming so I can be prepared. Unpreparedness scares the HECK out of me. But I'm beginning to see more and more every day how much easier things can be when you truly do let it go...and let God.

 

So here's to an amazing 2013. May it prove (as it has begun to already) to be a year that teaches me, fills me up and is filled with amazing times and memories!