HONORS!!!

Not only did I get accepted into the University of Iowa but I was also accepted into the Honors Program! I'm BEYOND EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!!

Quick Updates

Brian was sick on Thursday with the stomach bug. He's feeling good now but it definately wasn't fun.
I'm BEYOND annoyed with the puppy right now. Ben and Ari are still both afraid of him. So Ben lives on the couch and Ari has to be held. Which makes play time impossible. Also the puppy is clearly young so he's constantly chewing on things now and the kids refuse to keep things picked up off the floor. I can obviously only keep up with it all so much because I'm busy as well. So yeah I'm overwhelmed by it all.

My major. It has changed from what it was when I was once in college many years ago. I will be majoring in Speech and Language Pathology, ending with a masters and becoming a speech pathologist. I'm super excited and think it's a perfect match!

We are still trying to get life organized. There is clutter everywhere and we are working towards finding places for everything, but it is very slow going.

Accepted

I got the phone call today telling me that I have been accepted into the University of Iowa. I'm beyond excited! Now I have to get the finances, classes, books, schedules, etc all taken care of! The fun never ends! But nonetheless I'm super excited!

Now what?!?!

Christmas is over. Company has headed home. The kids are in that now what mode of thinking. They have been constantly busy and entertained. For Bri and I, it's a long list of chores that we need to get done. All the decorations and the tree need to come down, we need to catch up on laundry, and do housework. All the toys need to find places to go, heck some of brian's things from his move here still need to find places to go. On top of it all I'm still pretty sore and supposed to be taking it easy. Charlie, (the puppy) is going to be going through Grandpa withdrawal as my dad pretty much held him and played with him the whole time he was here. Ben and Ari are both still afraid of the puppy so if Charlie is out and playing in the house then Ben sits on the couch and Ari has to be held the whole time. So it makes for fun times.
I'm just ready to get organized and get into a normal daily life kind of routine. If that exists anymore.

Merry Christmas!!

(a day late)
We hope that everyone had a great christmas! Things have been busy here and I'm so behind on blogging.
Last thursday afternoon I went into the doc for a small spot on my leg that was bothering me. Turned out I had an absessed cyst and he had to cut into my leg to take it out. I ended up with a double layer of stitches. It is on my upper inner thigh so not in a fun area. The antibiotics gave me a horrible yeast infection, which I ended up having to go on meds for because i could hardly move.

My parents came into town Saturday and we've been super busy. We also had a HUGE blizzard adding another 8 inches of snow to the 6 or more that we already have on the ground. Christmas morning came, presents were opened, toys were played with. Santa brought sleds. So what does that mean. That means sledding. We went to "The Sledding Hill" and WOW! It's the size of a flipping ski run. The kids had a blast, so did Brian. Brian fell over one big jump and landed on his tailbone. The kids took a few spills as well, but no major injuries. I didn't sled as I didn't want to risk getting my stitches wet. So I just climbed up and down and helped. We got home and my leg was hurting but I thought the tape from the bandages was pulling weird. My mom and spend 4 hrs making christmas dinner and dessert. Everything was YUMMMMY!!!! After the kids went to bed I was still sore so told Brian to redo the bandage so the tape was more comfy. He takes the old off and immediately says UHOH. Not a good sign. The bottom stitches had ripped out. I call my doc. Normally he would meet me at the office and fix it himself but instead he's at the ER with a bleeding ulcer. He send us to the ER as well. He calls me back on the cell telling me to come to the same one he's at so he can sneak in and check on me. We do. And he does come into my room and spends about 20 minutes with us. He told them what he wanted done (steri stripped it closed) and I was immediately released. So we were there for 2 hrs which isn't bad cause they were swamped! So by the time we got home I was exhausted.

The kids had wanted to go sledding again today but between my stitches and Brian's tailbone we decided not. So they've spend today playing with toys and learning how to use their Wii. We went bowling in our sun room! It's great and they had lots of fun! They've still got 6 more games to explore so I'm guessing it's going to be a constant in our life over this next week before school starts.
My parents head home tomorrow and Brian goes back to work on the 3rd. I'm thinking we will lay low over this next week and get some much needed housework and resting done!

Company's Coming

We are having company over tonight. It is a woman I met the first time I went out in CR. She's a great person, and has been a great friend over these last few months! So her whole family is coming over this evening for dinner! So I'm cooking for 11! :) I'm excited and think it will be great fun!

Yesterday was my first appointment with my personal trainer. HOLY COW! He kicked my ass! We did 35 straight minutes of arm work. My arms are absolutely exhausted. I go back tomorrow for all leg work. And do this every week, twice a week. I'm sooo praying it works cause WOW!!!

Yesterday was the boys christmas program at school. I will get the videos posted later today! They did great and had alot of fun!

Other than that not much going on. Brian only has today and tomorrow at work and then he's off for almost 2 weeks for Christmas! My parents get here this sunday so that will be nice as well!

Never Ending

Yesterday morning was Brian's first day of work. As he's getting ready, Emily gets sick. So I got everyone up and got the boys to school, with Emily riding along with a trash can. Then this morning Jace gets sick. The good news is Emily was only sick a few times and it was all over by 11am. Jace has only gotten sick once, so who knows. Oh and Brian went out this morning and my rear drivers side tire was completely flat. 3 cans of fix a flat later it's ok for the moment but how long who knows. Oh and my garbage disposal and kitchen sink are broke, which makes dishes impossible. Someone is *hopefully* going to make it out today to fix it. It's been broke since Saturday. :( And our insurance was changed by boeing without telling us and now we have to pay all of our medical bills over the last 3 weeks, and these bills will include ben's genetic testing. YIKES!
It's just one thing after the other around here and i'm beyond tired of it. I'm just ready for life to calm down and go back to normal. Of course I'm not quite sure if I remember what normal is.

71 out of 92

I have been pregnant or nursing 71 out of the last 92 months and it isn't over. the nursing that is...the pregnant part is over! :) And I'm no where near done nursing. Ari still nurses like a newborn showing no signs of stopping. When I actually see the numbers written out like that it's like wow! I can't believe it! 1999 was the last year that I wasn't pregnant or nursing for atleast part of it. WOW. I'm amazed at what a body can take! :)

working out

brian and i joined a local gym. we went the other day and just did cardio. we went today and did a bit of cardio, and then went over to bri's favorite section, the free weights. i don't do free weights. they make me nervous. i'm not comfortable with them. he says he'll teach me. i say that i don't even know if i can bench press the 40 lb bar. he says i can atleast do 60lbs. he puts me on there. i can barely do 1. now my right shoulder and arm are killing me. this is the same shoulder that i've been having tons of trouble with and have been seeing a dc twice a week for. so yep. i'm feeling great, and my attitude isn't to spectacular right now. i know my body and i know my limitations and it frustrates me to no end when people refuse to listen to me.
so anyways that's my day in a nutshell. clearly not my whole day but as my shoulder has shooting pains going through it as i type that is clearly all that i can think about.

Home from Hotel

We are home from the hotel. Luckily we only had to stay one night. The kids did better than expected but still not great. Now we are trying to get reorganized again here at home. Brian starts work on monday already. Time is going fast.
We finished the rest of our Christmas shopping today and I'm so glad to be done! This is the latest I have ever been trying to wrap up shopping.
Well so much for blogging right now. The kids are going nuts and Brian is trying to get dinner done. I sooooo want some quiet time by myself.

Hotel

We are at a hotel. The weather is bad here. We lost power around 9am this morning and finally around 4pm we found a hotel that would let us stay. Our house was to the point we were in sweaters and coats. They are saying power outages from 24 to 48hrs depending on what happens with the storm. It's bad here. We have our cell phones and the hotel has internet so we will be around!

Application Submitted

I did it! I submitted my application to the University of Iowa. I was going to wait and just go to the local community college for the spring semester but I changed my mind. So I've applied and should hear something back in the next few days! YEAH!!! I'm nervous and excited! I'm so ready to get started and get doing something for me!

Been Busy

Things have been busy here. Brian left Wichita Thursday evening after his final. He made it to bethany, Mo and had to pull over. There was freezing drizzle and with it added to the ice and snow that was already here, it wasn't safe to keep driving. He stayed at a hotel and got into Cedar Rapids around 11am Friday.
i met Friday morning with Ben's autism team. They were great! I especially enjoyed his speech pathologist and I think that she will be great with Ben. He will start his full program in January.
We decorated the Christmas tree this weekend and it looks great!!! We also went to a Christmas party yesterday and had a great time! A friend took family pictures for us and they turned out great! You can click the link on the right that says Our Photo Blog and see all of them there.
This morning we are going to go check out a local church and see what we think.
Hope all is well with everyone else!
Hugs and love and missing everyone!

Hi, I'm Heather!!!

I decided to introduce myself. I am known to many of you, as Brian's wife, Emily/Jace/Benjamin/Ariana's Mom, or something like that. Sometimes I feel as though I get lost in the shuffle of everyone else's accomplishments. My family has careers and accomplishments, Brian clearly has made great strides with his schooling and his job. Brian family is doing huge things in their careers and with their schooling. My accomplishments have been dealing with Ben, birthing a child and now providing all of her nutrition, Losing 70 lbs, cleaning house, teaching Jace to dress himself, helping Emily with homework, supporting Brian as he's made the final push towards finishing school. Moving the family to another state to support my husband in his career advancements, cooking, baking, laundry, and learning to knit.
I have applied to school, and in fact received my acceptance letter today. I am also in the process of applying to the University of Iowa, and will be looking to start there in the fall. This coming spring semester I will be taking 1 class at a local college. I'm excited to begin school and working towards my career goals. I feel like sometimes people forget that I have hopes and dreams and goals for myself. Things that I want to do for ME. I want to be my own person. I want to be known for something, for my accomplishments. I want to be something more than just his wife, and their mom. That doesn't mean that I don't LOVE being married to Brian, and that doesn't mean that I don't love being the kids mom, I just want to be Heather sometimes too.
I guess in all of this all that I'm asking is please don't lose me in the shuffle. I'm not asking for the "lime light" to be lessened from everyone elses accomplishments, but please remember me too.

constant change

well things have again changed, this time for the better, assuming plans don't change again. Brian's boss has worked things out so he can be on unpaid leave the last week, and not actually have to be at work. so Brian will take his final on Thursday and then drive up here. He'll get in around 2am Friday morning! Ben's appt with this autism team is friday at 8:30. So Brian will be here! So we will have 10 days here with us before he starts work at Rockwell. It'll be so nice to have him here and have time to get situated. So we only have 6 days counting today! I'm excited about that, but slightly guarded with as much as plans have changed lately.
also our house is supposed to close monday afternoon! Same thing, hopeful but guarded.
Our christmas tree got delivered yesterday! I never realized that 10ft 4inches was so tall! once we get it decorated I will post pics! i'm very excited to see it all done!
We are supposed to get big storms this weekend. 1/2 to 3/4 inches of ice and 3 inches of snow with up to 50 mph winds. They are warning against long power outages and such. I'm hoping not because if there are we will have to go locate a hotel!
Anyways that's all going on here. We are going to do some housework, christmas decorating, and christmas movie watching this weekend!