That title sounds funny because my updates very rarely have pictures, but I have pictures to post - I just don't have the camera with me right now.
Honestly, I am avoiding school and work right now. It is Friday and it has been a long week with work, school, appointments, and lots of praying and asking for some answers to our questions in life right now. I'll share with you a few of our questions to enlighten you to our situation.
Last week we found out that a friend of ours is moving. They just bought a house and are interested in selling/renting their current house. It is a 3 (technically 4 - one without a closet) bedroom house the same square footage as our current house but with a different layout. Before we saw it, Brian and I said no. Then I went and saw it... I still wasn't sure, but wanted Brian to take a look at it. After he saw it, it became more of an option that was appealing to us - even with the thought of having to move all our crud out of this house and into the new.
I have seen it 3 times now and we went to the temple last night to get some extra guidance. After feeling like the answer was up to us, we felt that it would be the best for our family to move. The kids are so excited! We will be 2 minutes away from the church (yay), we get to paint (yeah), there's a possibility of us getting a dog (sarcastic yay from me*), AND we'll be across the street from the Gilsons, family friends of ours (woohoo!). Brian and I are very excited to have our own bed and bath with a separate laundry room. There is a garden already set up and a large fenced back yard. There is a deck with a spot for our BBQ and our patio furniture. There is a place for our Fire pit to be set up (yay!). It has a two car garage which is needed now that we are a 2-car-family (pictures of Stella coming soon). AND if the kids go to public school next year, the bus stop is right outside our front door.
*It's not that I don't like dogs, its just I am not too thrilled of having that constant responsibility. Being the youngest of 6 kids, I have been on the kids side of the argument "We will take care of it... honest, we WILL!" and seen my mom's side of the work. Yes, my kids love animals, but they said they would take care of Skitter, our hamster and I ended up being the one who cleaned its cage. A dog may be different, but I don't know if I am ready for that extra work and extra financial obligation.
The scary thing about moving is that it will be more money - not actually in rent, but in extra gas that it will take to get there from work and back, and the extra heating expenses (its base board heaters instead of gas central air). When we went to the temple last night we were really worried about financial circumstances. When we left we both felt that no matter what we do, we'll be taken care of.
We feel like if we do move, a big pro is that we can help Jamie (Gilson) while Glen is deployed for 6 months. We can also spend our last year with them here closer to them than ever before! It will be so much fun living right across the street from them! Another huge thing that will be nice is that the lease is flexible since we are renting from friends verses being stuck on a year lease. We are starting to look at houses since the market is so good right now and we want the option to buy if the right one comes along with out a lease holding us back.
-gotta get school ready, i'll be right back-
Ok, So that was Decision #1.
Decision #2 - Homeschool. I don't want to homeschool next year. Elijah has been going back and forth between public school and Bryan Tec, a parent partnership with District 81 that has classes twice a week for homeschooled kids. The Gilson's are doing it next year and all year long I have thought if we do homeschool next year I would do Bryan Tec. I think it would be better if Elijah went to public school. I have a really hard time getting Elijah to focus. He has made such progress in this, but some days are just rough. I also am getting tired of not having a schedule. Every day is different because we go to work with Brian at least once a week. This week we went 3 times. When I think of homeschool next year (especially homeschooling both kids) I get overwhelmed. Right now I have two part time jobs, Sierra and All-City. Thankfully I resigned from All-City for next year. There were a couple weeks where I thought about asking for the job back, but after this week I have realized, I don't want it.
Quianna really wants to be homeschooled next year. So as far as her being homeschooled, I think that I can't help her as much as school can. However, I think that Bryan Tec could help her more than public school can. If we can get her in the right classes, I think it might work out. She could really use more preparation in writing before she goes into High School. She has excelled so much in math this year but I think we could make more progress - especially if I spent some time with her each day. What I worry is that I won't have time. However, if there is just one child home (and no offense to Elijah) but that one child is the low maintenance one, there would be more time and I can manage it differently.
I worry about Quianna though, because she isn't a morning person, and when she is in 9th grade she will be doing early morning seminary (basically a sunday school class for high schoolers every morning at 6:00 maybe even earlier) and I would like to get her in the habit of waking up early. Right now we are waking up at 8:00 and that is even hard to get her up. So I think even if we do homeschool next year, I am going to wake her up at 7 to help her get use to it.
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Anyway, that's a little bit of what's going on in our life right now.
I have been going to a chiropractor 3 times a week the last couple weeks and I have lots of weeks ahead of me of twice a week visits and such. I have a messed up pelvic bone that is malformed (for all my life) and twisted, along with the curve in my spine is basically gone. Therefore, my chiropractor and I have a plan to get me fixed so I won't be going through daily pain. Since the car accident I was in when I was 14, I have had tons of stress on my muscles trying to keep me upright and so they fatigue very easily through out the day. This week I have felt so much progress. I am so excited to get better! However, I won't be done with appointments until the middle of July, which takes a lot out of our family because my appointments are in Liberty Lake. I am very fortunate that the kids are willing to help me out with going to work with Brian a couple of times a week so that it is less on gas. The appointments are 7 minutes away from Brian's work. I am also very fortunate to have a husband that is willing to pay the bills to help me feel better and function better. I am also fortunate that there is hope through chiropractics and that I am not facing back surgery.
So needless to say, life has been quite hectic lately. It has been nice to get all this stuff out and explained. It has been pretty overwhelming, because sadly enough this is only part of what has been going on. I am very thankful that I have my Lord to lean on during these stressful times. With all this being said, life and love is wonderful!
