Pumpkins

Sydneys is far left with the nose, Zoe's next with the big smile!

Rob carved the haunted castle. Lacey's has holes and Bennett's says "Boo"

Happy Halloween!

O-klahoma!

What Zoe learned in school...

Swimming

As you may know, the girls are in swimming lessons at the YMCA on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Well, the Y cancelled a lesson a couple of weeks ago due to lightning. The make-up lesson was yesterday (Saturday) at 10:30 in the morning. I seriously considered skipping it, but decided to go anyway. I am so glad we did. We were the only ones there! The girls basically got private lessons. One teacher for each kid and they swam for about 35 minutes solid. They were yawning in the shower afterward they were so tired. Zoe is jumping off the diving platform by herself without a float belt (she jumps in and grabs a pool noodle and swims to the side). Sydney wanted to do it too, so her teacher held her hand and she jumped in too (with a float belt). They both love swimming so much. I am glad that they have an activity that they enjoy.

Pictures

Bennett playing


The new hats I knit for the girls (they got scarves too, but only felt like modeling the hats).

Smiles!!!

My kiddos!

Here I go again...

It's official: I am going back to school. After four different colleges, countless major changes, and a short stint in cosmetology school (yep, I'm a beauty school dropout) I quit to raise a family. One husband and three kids (plus 2 cats and a bunch of fish) later, I am ready to try again. This time I actually intend to finish what I started all those years ago. After fortuitously stumbling upon a government program that helps military wives pay for education towards a "portable career," I applied to Columbia Southern University. ( I also qualified for a Pell Grant so pretty much everything will be paid for - Hooray!!) It is the same school that Rob graduated from, and is 100% online. The "portable career" stipulation gave me limited choices as to what degree I could pursue, so I have chosen a B.S. in Hospitality and Tourism. Considering that working for my parents jet boat tour business was the best job I have ever had and that the industry is widespread and varied I think I will be able to find a career to my liking within this field (more so than IT, healthcare, or the other choices available at least). At first glance I am thinking about event planning or possibly hotel managment. Though, I am excited to learn what other careers are available. Heck, I am excited to learn period. My first classes (Orientation, Principles of Microeconomics, and Intro to Tourism) will start on November 30th. Luckily, the school took a ton of my transfer credits. I only have one general education class (Microeconomics) to take and the rest are all within my area of study. Hopefully, I will be able to successfully go to school while raising three kids (virtually on my own for a very large chunk of next year) and keeping up with the house and whatnot. Wish me luck or better yet wish me patience! Cause here I go... again.

Hahaha. Now I have that song stuck in my head: "Here I go again on my own. Going down the only road I've ever known. Like a drifter I was born to walk alone....."
I will stop now before it gets stuck in your head too.

I don't know if any of my readers (there are readers out there right???) are military wives or know any. But if you are or know one the program is called myCAA (my career advancement account). They will pay up to $6000 towards education for a portable career. Check it out if you think you might be eligable.

Little hearts...

Sydney had an appointment with her pediatric cardiologist today. She was so brave! What a champ! She didn't even make a fuss, even though a lot of the tests are very different than standard doctors office stuff. I am just so proud of her. In case you are wondering, Sydney has a heart murmur. At age one the doc diagnosed her with pulmonary stenosis. Today, he said she still has narrowing of her pulmonary valve and she has a very small hole between the two upper chambers of her heart, as well as some extra tissue on her heart. To me this all sounded very scary. The doc said that none of it is major. She doesn't need to restrict her activity and no medication or treatment is required. She just needs to come back and get checked in three to four years. I guess "heart defect" or "heart abnormality" would scare the pants off of any parent. Even with the doctors reassurance, I'm still not feeling great about it. The kids regular pediatrician said she heard a bit of a murmur on Bennett too. We are watching that for the time being, but I have a feeling we will be back to the cardiologist with him at some point. Zoe's little ticker works just fine though. In any case, today has been a bit stressfull. Ready for it to be the weekend already!

Update

Bennett is three months old today. I can hardly believe that it has been that long since he entered the world. He seems at once so big and so small, so new and yet so much a part of my life that I can scarcely remember what I did before he was here. He smiles pretty regularly now and is trying to get his first teeth. I fear that teething is going to be a long and painful process. He is having all kinds of symptoms (excessive drool, spitting up, swollen gums...) but no real progress so far.
The girls have started a new session of swimming lessons. Man, these kids love to swim. Zoe has the same teacher as last session and syd is very excited to have a "new,boy teacher with spikey hair" as she calls him. They are having a great time of it. School is also going well. Zoe is making great progress in her reading (we do homework every day) and Sydney brings home lots of fun art projects and sings a lot.