Tough Decisions

Sometimes we have to made really hard decisions as adults. Its one of my least favorite things of being a "grown up." However, this past week Kevin and I made a big decision... one that affects not only us but our kids as well. What is it you ask?

I have decided to stay home with the boys and not work, not go to school, not do anything but raise them to be the most amazing kids they can be.

It has been a very long and drawn out process. Something that I've prayed about. Something that we discussed in detail. I know its not going to be easy. I know it's going to be difficult {it already has been}. But I also know that it is the best thing we can do for our little ones right now. They need guidance, structure, and to know that their parents love them. I would love to be in school and finish  up my degree,  but the thought of them being with a stranger more hours of the day than being with me saddens me. I should raise them, not someone else.

And so I start my journey as a stay at home mom...

Cha Cha Cha Chages...

Ugh! Seriously it has been forever since I have posted on my blog. I would like to offer you a sincere apology because I have been super busy and with out a camera :(

First, lets address this camera issue. When Kevin and I got married we got this super awesome point and shoot camera. It was like our baby. We took it everywhere, recorded videos of our kiddos, used it all the time. Well, One day we cleaned our house. Probably because we had guests coming over or something... and it was misplaced. This happened back in April according to the last picture that was taken on my memory card, which thankfully we still have. So, the only camera I have at the moment is the one that is on my cell phone. Sure, it works great for random picture but no where as good or awesome as our real camera. I am currently on the hunt for a new camera and am seriously considering getting an Elph. I would get a dslr but I think it would be too fancy and I'm scared of breaking something that fancy.

Now... Here is what we have been up to...

I got bangs.

Liked them but wasn't loving them.
So I got my hair cut again.

I am currently LOVING this hair. cut, color, everything = perfection!

I also found these sweet aviators after my children broke all of my sunglasses.

What makes these even better is that Kevin got them on his mission in California 10 years ago. Can you say FREE?!!!

I have also been debating paining my kitchen....

I have decided after a evening of design discussion with my friend Kara that I am going to leave it tan. This kind of depresses me because I really want to paint because I am bored with the tan color that consumes my  house. However, there is no way I can paint my kitchen. I have a weird wall that makes it difficult and it would look silly. I have discovered what inspires me and how I would like to decorate my house. So my new mission is finding the perfect accessories to make it awesome.

Right now I am taking a break from school. Apparently the school I go to costs a lot of money to do summer school and that doesn't really fit our budget at the moment. So, I am taking a break. I did however fair very well this semester!

I currently have a 3.76 GPA. We will see what happens once they factor in my transfer credits. But I am keeping in my goal of a 3.5 GPA. In the fall I am going to be taking 18 credit hours. EEP! Yeah it's a lot but I have to do it in order to graduate in a fair amount of time. I'm currently debating a full week schedule versus a three day a week schedule. Either way we go Kevin and I have decided that daycare is a requirement for our kids. Which, unfortunately, is just another cost to our budge. But, its what is best for our kids and us.

Speaking of the boys, no post would be complete with out pictures of them.

I cannot believe how big they are getting. They will be TWO in September and I am in no way prepared to deal with that. They are so much fun. Cooper loves to drum on any and everything and Aiden loves to sing. He sings along to every TV show that they watch. Just this morning Kevin and I were listening to him sing the theme song to Sesame Street. I love them so much.

I know that there is more that has happened or that is going on but that is all I can process at the moment.

Two Spring Breaks

I did not intentially plan on having two weeks off of school. And to be quite honest, I did go to school on Tuesday of this week. However, on Tuesday my little Cooper man woke up with a fever. When I took his temp it was low like 99 so we gave him some tylenol and I sent him on his merry way with his dad. I went to school had a GREAT day and then went home to find a still feverish kiddo. I don't think it helped that we ran like 3 errands before going home for the evening, but when else are we suppose to get stuff done? By the time we got home his fever was a whopping 103.1! Yikes! So I gave him some tylenol, Kevin gave him a Priesthood Blessing, and we calmed him as much as possible. It was not a pleasant night for anyone except Aiden who slept like a log. When we awoke in the morning, well 5:30 and then 8:30, Cooper was still sailing with a fever above 100. I called the Doctors office told them whats going on and they said ok we will see ya at 2:30. REALLY? I had to wait ALL DAY until this poor guy could get in to the doctor? So we waited and I held poor Mr. Cooper all day until it was time to go. By the time we got to the doctor Cooper was even worse. His little neck was hurting and he was just a wreck. :( Poor guy. 

{mr cooper at the doctor}

The good news is that nothing is wrong with his throat, ears, or chest just enlarged lymph nodes. Seeing how there is no way to really decipher what is wrong there he decided either Mr. Cooper has a viral or bacterial infection. He sent us on our way with antibiotics in hand and we headed home. I was hoping that by morning he would be feeling better... to no avail he still had a fever. So, today I stayed home and nursed a poor baby back to health. By lunch time he was better, and by tonight he was back to normal. 

{nothing like teamwork to get the job done}

{getting ready for bed}

I am thankful that he is feeling better but boy is my house a mess and am I covered up with homework... At least my baby is better and my teachers are understanding. Time for me to hit the books!

{me & mr. c saying cheese}

{mr. a saying cheese}

Resolution Check-In

Spring Break is upon us here... only 1 more day of classes then I can "relax" for a week. There will not be much relaxing going on... but I will be excited to have a week off of school and have time to spend with my family for once! :)

Now for the check in of my goal for school:
{To get at least a 3.5 GPA this semester}

I did my final round up of grades with all of my professors today and the concensus is I am getting an A in all of my classes! I'm super proud of myself right now but know that I should be dedicating more time to my studies. Which results in me doing school work over Spring Break to catch up on things that I have kinda slacked on. Also, I am going to reorganize my "desk" so it is more inviting to study at! I'm really excited for what I have accomplished and know that I am completely capable of achieveing at least this goal!

Side Note:

I'm also trying really hard to get organized and have recently fell in love with Google Calendars! I can color code everything, include goals, and see my life a day, week, or month at a time. It has helped me to lay out my assignments, tests, doctor appointments, as well as get my VT time scheduled. If you are a technology person like I am... I would suggest looking into it. I'm in love. Seriously!

{ps} my next post will have pictures of my friends and family... i promise!

Looking to the Future

Yesterday while discussing the income that teachers make with my friend I realized I should just go for my Masters. It's only 30 more credits and you make like $20K more. I would be silly to not push my self to get that right? Well today I started looking into the best Universities for Education Majors. I came upon Vanderbilt. It was ranked #1 in some poll last year. Seems like its a pretty good school and Vanderbilt is obviously a school that most people have heard of. So I was looking around their website for their Master's program and came upon something very interesting...

They are teaming up with the Nashville school system and providing free tuition to applicants who agree to work for their school district for 5 years, 2 in an urban school and 3 in a specified school. You can read more about it here. But, I'm pretty sure that its still in the trial stages because only 24 applicants are going into the program. However, how great of an opportunity is that!?

I was super excited about it and told Kevin all about it and how cool I thought it would be to live in Nashville! At first he was a little apprehensive because i would be relocating our entire family, but after thinking about it he was excited to maybe get in to song writing which has always been a passion of his. I think I'm a little too excited though because I started looking at houses for sale and found the cutest little house for $130,000. Kevin even thought it was cute. Maybe I'm jumping the gun on my longing to get out of Arkansas but if this amazing opportunity is still available upon me graduating I will apply to the program. I know that Kev's mom would be upset that we would be moving but lets be honest, living debt free is better than trying to please people.

School

I started school this week and it is nothing like Arizona State. I know absolutely no one, it was freezing, and I drive 45 minutes away to spend the whole day (9:30-4:30) pretty much alone. I know that going back to school was going to be difficult, but I forgot how much easier it is when you have friends and sunshine. I think I mostly miss knowing the campus and the "ease" I had at ASU. The campus at Henderson isn't very large but it is definitely different than that that I was used to. Their maps were a little confusing to me as well, but I've figured out how to master the campus. I still haven't gotten a student ID and I got a parking ticket on the second day... which they canceled out once I bought a parking permit. It just took me a while to figure out exactly where the police "station" (really a small house) was. My easy going schedule of working and parenting has been bombarded by pages of reading, writing, and lectures. But, the one thing that I do look forward to is my Pilates class. I knew I was out of shape... but I didn't realize how bad I was out of shape until our first "dress out" day on Thursday. Holy Moley! It was tough, but a good tough. I was sore the next day and it was good. But, I think the thing that really gets to me with starting school is the fact that I have to do it away from my family. It reminds me of when I was in college before and how I didn't really try... which I am obviously doing this time. I just feel homesick today and miss the warm sunshine and my loving family.

The End is Near

Finals are knocking on my door... as in they are waiting for me to sit down in a quiet room and just answer the questions for hours on end. However, along with finals comes grades on assignments that have been sitting in the assignment box for over a month. I am a procrastinator by nature. I put everything off until the last minute, ALWAYS!! So, it is normal for me to turn in a paper late for an online class. In my psychology class this happened twice because once I was on vacation and did not bring my lap top (which was my fault). We couldnt get the computers to link up and it was a huge mess, but my teacher accepted it because I was on vacation and she was very understanding. My second paper was late because I procrastinated. Plain and simple. I finished it after it was due and then tried to upload it. If you use BlackBoard you know that in order to upload anything it has to open a new windown and then you search your computer and then you find your paper and upload it. Well.... the first time I tried to upload my paper Java crashed my computer! I was in tears because I knew she would not give me full credit on this assignment. I restared the computer and then uploaded my paper. With the paper I included a note to my teacher stating that I am a procrastinator, that I was sorry for my paper late, and that my computer had crashed. I never heard back from her regarding the assignment. This past week she allowed AMNESTY for all of our assignments, disscussions, and quizes me might have missed and would award us half credit. I WAS EXCITED!!! I knew this was my chance to make up this paper. I emailed her and asked if I needed to resubmit my paper and she said no. This morning when I checked my class, I found that she had graded my paper last night. To my astonishment this is what she had written to me:

Thanks for being so upfront, Jacqueline. I can understand the procrastination effect--I have battled procrastination--and the resulting panic mode that it produces--all my life as well!

Your article review paper is EXCELLENT. You are so thorough in your writing assignments, going above and beyond the expectations and scope of the assignment. Your paper is probably the BEST one that I have had turned in from a student in response to this article review assignment in several years! :-)

I agree that the research on the memory of rats was fascinating! It's incredible that researchers are able to extrapolate data from experiments like that in order to make breakthrough knowledge about human behavior and conditions.

Regardless of being just a tad late, it deserves a 100/100 .

~SK~

WHAT!!! Does that say that I get 100% on my paper? Why yes, yes it does!! I was so excited I almosted jupmed out of my chair. I have been so nervous about going back to school and that I was not prepared but this comment from my teacher makes me feel that I am capable of succeeding and that I can do it. I look forward to graduation... even if it is 2 years away still. :)

{Twenty Four}

*Little Blessings*

Wednesday was the day I found out my fate as a student at PTC. I went to register on Monday and it was just a day full of trouble! I stood in line for 30 minutes to find out that I didn't need to go to the school to register.. DUH! Then I waited another hour to meet with an "advisor." Who really just turned out to be some person who had NO idea what they were doing. I went to meed with an advisor to discus which credits would transfer from ASU (Arizona State) so I wouldn't have to take 2 years of school! Well, this guy had no idea what would transfer and just wanted to sign me up... I know how to sign up pal! He sent me over to another building where I could talk to someone who was an actual advisor. I waited a good 20 minutes to meet with her, she was the only lady in. Well, I walk into her office and it is just covered in STUFF!!! I guess she had just moved in, but seriously I couldn't even put my schedule on her desk because it was covered in just stuff. I cant/t even describe it. I was so flustered after all the troubles I had, but I had hope that she would be able to help me... well. I WAS WRONG! All she did was say ok show me these classes... I showed her. I told her what I was signed up for. She said it was good. Then we got to the big classes, my core classes that I was hoping would transfer from ASU (which is a real college). This is where it went bad... She said that she didn't know about these classes and that she would decided if they did after I looked up the course descriptions and scheduled another meeting with her. EXCUSE ME! WHAT!!!! Augh. I thought that was her job as an advisor!! Well, I left. Upset to say the least. This is also the day that I was told "Well, you wont be granted your financial aide so you should just enroll in the payment plan online." SAY WHA!!!! I'm sorry, but if it wasn't for financial aide I wouldn't be going to school. Apparently, you are supposed to return some letter they send to you in the mail to accept your financial aide... I have always done this online for the simple fact thats what I did at my previous more put together school. So I faxed in my letter on Monday hoping that they would approve my funds that have been sitting in their bank accounts since May. Thankfully, on Wednesday when I checked my schedule to see if I had been dropped from my classes due to lack of funds I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was still enrolled and that I had in fact been given my grant. HOLLA! I'm thankful that I have the opportunity to go to school, even though we are poor and really shouldn't be able to afford it. Thanks Government funding! :)

{Twenty Two}

THE RESULTS ARE IN!!!! MY GPA FOR THE SEMESTER IS A 4.0!!! Hurray! I'm so excited that I found out that I passed both of my classes with flying colors. Also, I found out that I was awarded a Grant for school. So, each semester I get some $$money$$ which will be so helpful for our family. Also, my student loans are put on hold for the time being, which is another blessing that I don't have to make that payment each month. I was definitely blessed in knowing that going back to school is the right decision to make! I have been struggling with what do do for school, the whole cosmetology vs education or both idea. Don't get me wrong people I would LOVE to do BOTH! However, financially, that does not seem possible. Cosmetology school cost roughly $15,000!! Holy Cannoli! That is quite a pretty penny which we most definitely do not have, and if we did have it I highly doubt Kevin would let me spend it on cosmetology school. So, ultimately I have made a decision to continue to pursue my degree in Early Childhood Education. I'm going to finish taking some courses at PTC (which is a big joke if you ask me) and then transfer to Henderson State University in Arkadelphia. It would be about a 30 - 45 minute drive to school, but thats the same as going to North Little Rock, so I'll take it. Plus, if you have seen where UALR (University of Arkansas Little Rock) is located you would be scared to go there too. Long story short, I'm thankful that our family has been blessed with my ability to go back to school and get a degree, FINALLY!

{Sweet Sixteen}

Just when I thought that today would be a day of no gratitude my hubby turned it around.:) Lately we have been facing a lot of stress with traveling, school, two crazy fast crawling babies who are teething, working, and Kev's new calling (as Deacon's Advisor)! Geeze Louise! This has been extremely annoying to our wonderful relationship and to be quite honest, we have barely had time to hang out and just talk. You might say, but Jacque... you guys work together! Yes, yes we do. However, we have a rule called no talking about work after work. It makes our lives easier to deal with because working with family is a very tender and stressful situation. Anyways, today was the MOST PAINFUL DAY EVER!!! I decided to just not even speak about anything for the fact that I was sure that some little thing would be the straw to break my camels back. But, after many hours of me listening to my headphones while working on homework, we talked. We talked about everything that was bothering us, how to improve it, and now it is better. Its amazing what just taking the time to sit and talk things out can do. I am so thankful that I have a husband who is less stubborn than I am.

On a side note: I got a 96.9% in my speech class!!! My first A of going back to school. I should have my psychology grade tomorrow or thursday. :)

I'm Sorry Blogging World

So it seems as if I have been gone longer than I thought from this world of blogging. Our lives have been so extremely busy the past couple of months! Let me fill you in:

In May we had two auctions for our business. The first one was in Tupelo, Mississippi. It's only about a 4 hour drive so it wasn't too bad. Plus, it was a one day auction. However, about a week before the auction I was bit by a spider and I had to go to the ER because apparently Arkansas doesn't have Urgent Cares. (Lame ) So I got put on a super strong anti-biotic that had sulfa in it. Apparently I am allergic to sulfa and after taking the pills for a week I had an extremly terrible reaction to it. While in Mississippi I had a fever and this terrible rash all over my body. It was gross and I was probably more miserable than the last week of my pregnancy, which was bad. So I decided to wait it out and go home and then decide if I still felt bad, then I would go to the doctor. Well we had to stay in Mississippi saturday night because there were really bad torandoes and no one wanted us to drive home. So instead we stayed the night, each of us had to sleep with a baby (did I mention Kevin & the babies came?) then we departed in the morning. I was feeling better until we got home and I took more antibiotics. Then I got worse, the missionaries came over and gave me a blessing, Kevin's mom came over to watch the babies, and we headed to the ER. There they informed me that I was having an alergic reaction to my medicine which included my symptoms, plus I had pnueomia in one of my lungs. So, I stayed in the hospital till Monday afternoon, got put on steroids and realsease. I am happy to say I have not been sick since! Well, after that whole ordeal we went to Missouri to go to Kevin's nephew's graduation. It was really fun seeing the whole family and the babies love their dogs. After that we came back home, and had another auction in Hot Springs (thats in Arkansas). Thankfully Kevin's sister and her family came down from Missouri and took care of our kids for that weekend. They got to sleep in, and be spoiled, which I think all kiddos love. After the auction was over, we went back up to Missouri for Kevin's neice's reception. That was lots of fun, but I think it stressed me otu more than my wedding! Kim had me doing so many things, but I was so happy to be a help to her because she is such a huge help to me ALL the time! Seriously. Since then we haven't had any crazy travel adventures, but I have been super busy with school! YES! I am back in school. I signed up for two summer school courses that I can take online. They are a little challenging trying to balance my family life, work, and school, but I am doing well. I'm not sure if its because I'm used to doing "university" quality work (I'm going to a Techincal school) or if my work is really good. Either way both of my teachers are commenting on the good quality of my work, which makes me want to do even better in school. Now that you are all caught up on my life here is what you really wanted to know...

ALL ABOUT THE BABIES!!!
Aiden and Cooper have made such gigantic strides over the past couple of months! They already weigh over 20 lbs, they are in big boy car seats, they feed themselves, they are trying to walk, they can stand, and already have 2 teeth! They are currently in the process of cutting their top teeth and I know that it hurts them :(

Also, Kevin was able to give them their blessings on Father's Day and it was such a special day for our family. I was so glad that Kevin's dad got to come down and stay with us that weekend. Fathers day is always hard on me because I had such an amazing father. I'm am thankful that Kevin's has a good relationship with his dad and that he is close enough for us to visit.

I am sorry there are no pictures but, I will make an effort to post them and silly videos of the babies. I am trying to be a better blogger again!!