FINALLY;

Well, I have to say after 4 years of financial HELL, lots of hard work, lots of bites of humble pie, lots of embarrassment, lots of lessons learned and alot of patience.. It FINALLY looks like we are moving toward where we want to be.

FINALLY; We signed a contract on a new house. We are staying within our budget, not going crazy, and only getting what we can afford no more, no less. We are budgeting only what Robert can pay with his monthly income so we are not strapped down with us having to have two incomes to survive. We picked a house that we are confident we will be in long term, one that will grow with us and one that we will be comfortable in. No more renting! I mean, we still have some work to do until it is finished, we have to pay taxes etc before closing, so we are living really, really tight the next 4-5 months, but we will do it. Our dreams of having our own home are finally coming true again! AND, we got a cul-de-sac, which we have ALWAYS wanted.
5208 S. Goldleaf Place, sounds like home to me!

FINALLY; I am getting off night shift! I got a promotion at work! My new title here at DNA will be "Quality Assurance Coordinator", I am moving "upstairs". My new job will be auditing medical charts, prior to transplantation. I am so super excited about this move. I will be home every night with my family (what? family dinners again?), I will get to pick up my beautiful babies from school every day, I get every weekend off AND holidays off! AND on top of it, I am doing what I feel I was meant to do! I LOVE auditing! WOOHOO. I start on February 7th! Only 2 more night shifts for me (but who's counting? LOL) I am going to miss my work buds terribly! BUT, I have to do what is right for my family, they and only they will always come first!

So, with a new job, means some changing of schedules. I was a bit nervous about talking to Emily about Kids Express (after school program) but when I brought it up, she wanted to start the next day! She is beside herself excited about going and we are thrilled! She will only be going for like an hour or so after school, but it will be so helpful in that I won't be driving like a bat out of hell to go get her after picking up Tyler.. His (Tyler's) schedule won't be changing at all, the only change is Allee will be picking him up from school and taking him to LIFE every day. But I get to pick him up! YIPPEEE. So, I get off work, go get Ty and head to get Em, works out PERFECTLY!!

FINALLY; have gotten over my upper respiratory infection! OMG, that was the longest "cold" I have ever had. It was a little over two weeks. And it was BAD! I couldn't talk for a few days, had to leave work early. I'm surprised they even hired me for the new job, one of my worse days was the day I went on my first interview. All I wanted to do was sleep! It was awful, I never felt pain like that in my throat! Bad virus going around that's for sure!

I signed up for the American Cancer Society Relay for Life, I am walking to support Cindy and to honor her brother Art, and all the others that have fought the fight of cancer. We are doing it in April, I am excited and honored to be a part of such an amazing event.

Emily is rocking on her Girl Scout Cookie sales, she is up to 175 boxes!! Her goal is 400, but we still have a few weeks to get there. Wish us luck! She is starting to get into fashion more, which is cute, wants to "get ready" when people come over or when she goes anywhere.. We went dress shopping for daddy daughter dance and I bet she tried on 50 dresses. It was actually fun tho. THEN, we ran out of time and had to do another shopping night for the shoes, 10 pairs later.. She is all set tho, and excited about her annual big date with daddy!

Cindy came over a few Fridays ago to scrapbook, and we discovered Emily has a big interest in scrap booking. So we decided that on some of Emily and I's date nights we are going to go scrap booking, I think she will really like it, she loves being crafty so it's right up her alley. She is signed up to do the Young Rembrandt's Art class again this semester at school, she LOVED doing it and it's amazing to see her artwork displayed in the office at school.

Tyler's poopy party weekend was a bust! We got up with him early Saturday, literally followed him around non-stop, I mean this kid was NOT out of our sight the entire day.. he never went! Sunday I got up a bit earlier than him, as soon as I heard him I ran in there and guess what?? He had an accident! UGH, needless to say, nothing more that day. BUT then he randomly went like twice in the potty that week following. So, we are still encouraging him to go on there, but haven't been able to watch him like a hawk. This weekend we will do the same, and now with my new schedule, we might be a bit more successful.

He is continuing to say more words, and be more social. He looks right at us when he talks now, and will say things out of the blue without a prompt or have it in his sight. I just so look forward to when we can have a conversation.. I had a dream about that the other day! Him and I were on the phone and he was answering my questions. Maybe the dream is a sign that good things are coming our way! I do remember feeling in my dream so happy to hear what he had to say, and how beautiful his voice was. This kid is addicted to the Wii right now, that bowling is driving me bonkers! He can do it himself now tho, which is nice. But man, we need to get him better at playing with toys! I hate that all he likes is electronics! So many great toys, and none get played with (emily to for that matter0.. Another thing to add to our list of things to work on. LOL. But all in all, he is doing pretty darn great!

That's it for now..

Loves and Hugs XOXOXOX

Terri & Co.