Update - School

Note: There are 2 new posts below that were posted in the past 48 hours if you missed them! One is the introduction to me blogging again and one is an update on my spiritual life.

Several people have asked if I am still and school, how it is going, etc.

I AM still in school! :) The past 2 semesters I took 7 classes each and had to finish up some courses at the community college that I needed since I used to be a nursing major. For those of you who do not know, I am an education major. I will have a degree in Early Childhood Education and will be certified to teach early childcare (daycare) - 6th grade. With the classes at the community college the past 2 semester, I did also start taking University-level courses with them so I can graduate as I have planned. This semester, I am taking all University level courses! I am only taking 5 this semester which is less than I am used to. However, it is sooo much more work. This semester 4 of my classes are face-to-face unlike the past 2 semesters where they have been online. 3 of my classes this semester also require observation hours in the public schools. So, when I am not in class, I have been in the schools try to get my hours done.

I will be taking a full semester during summer school and then 1 more set of classes in August. The I will be all done with my classes. In January I will student teach and in May I will graduate!!!! WOOO HOOOO!!!! So less than a year of instructional courses and in little over a year I will graduate!! It seems so far away, but when I think about how my daughter is already 9 months old and how fast these 9 months flew by, I know school will go by fast also!!

Even though being in school is very hard, time consuming and exhausting and leaves me no extra time at the end of the day and I am sleep deprived, finishing is something I need to do. I owe it to myself to accomplish this. In addition, I want to be able to help provide for my family and take some of the burden off of Kyle (who averages 60-70 hours of work a week.) I also want to set a good example for my children. We are in a world where without a college degree, it is VERY hard to get a good paying job. I want to have a positive influence on my children and help show them that doing well in school is very important. Additionally, the week before my dad passed away, when I was pregnant with Colton, my dad and I had a long talk about what I would do about school. My dad asked me to promise him that I would finish college no matter what. I made that promise to my dad and when I finally walk across that stage and get my diploma in a year and a half, I will think of him.

I am really enjoying my classes. I am learning sooo much. I actually enjoy reading and learning for once! I really feel like education is where I am supposed to be. I have learned so much as a mother and how to be a better mother to my children through these classes. In addition, I have learned so much valuable information that is going to make me a great teacher. I never knew there was so much to being a teacher. I NEVER read "for fun." However, I recently ordered ten, let me repeat TEN books to read at my leisure that deal with education, and I am EXCITED for them to come in and start reading them. I discovered this feeling of excitement to read and gain knowledge that I have never experienced before. :)

So, that's it for now. To sum it up... Yes, I am still in school. I am loving it and will start student teaching in January and graduate next May!!

Prayer Request: Please give me the strength to use my time efficiently today and to remain calm with my children.

Love,
Tammy

Update - Opening my heart to the Lord

Because I am starting "fresh" on this page, I will be changing and adding pics, etc. In addition, I will be posting updates about different aspects in my life.

Today I am posting an update about my spiritual life because I feel it is the most important.

Up until about a month ago, I had not attended church regularly since going to FBWH about 10 years ago. After we left the church, I had a hard time finding a church with the environment that I was used to. After visiting a few with my mom, I just lost the desire to attend. Eventually, the thought of church just never crossed my mind. I grew very far from God and at hard times during my life, have even questioned whether his existence is real. If He is real, why are these things happening to me? Everyone would tell me "God doesn't give you mountains you can't climb" or things like that. Honestly, those sayings did not make me feel any better.

When we lived in Needville while I was pregnant with Tayler, my mother-in-law took Colton to church several times. He absolutely loved it. I knew I should go and take him, but it just was not something I was ready to do, especially alone. (Kyle works on Sundays so he would be unable to attend with me.) So, I never went.

Between being a full time student, mother and wife, I found myself down and lost. The stress from school and exhaustion from being a mother left me no time for "me." I have a hard time figuring out who I am other being a mom. I was just sad. I knew there was an answer but just didn't know what it was. But I was open to answers.

During the second week of February, I took our dog to the vet a few minutes down the street. On the way I passed a church with a huge sign that grand opening service was scheduled for Feb. 14th. I thought to myself "Hmmm, I wonder what kind of church that is? Maybe I should go." With my heart open to an answer about my life, I went home and looked them up online. They had a lot that I was looking for. I did not notice a religion so I assumed they were non-denominational.

On Saturday February 13th, the kids went to bed about 2 hours after their usual bedtime. I was so tired the next morning and did not feel like going to church. I decided I would not go. While I was cooking breakfast, I decided to look through the stack of mail Kyle brought in the evening before. Guess what was in the stack of mail? A flyer from the church I had planned on going to! I thought to myself "Wow. Is this a sign? Is God trying to tell me I need to go?" I thought about going but didn't think I had enough time. It was about 9:30 am and service starts at 10:30. I thought to myself "Do I have time to get dressed?" I seriously heard a voice "Come as you are." Their website had advertised to come as you are, that they are a very casual church. I felt like God was telling me to come and that he would not judge me for my appearance. So I got the kids changed real quick and threw on some clothes.

As I drove there, my eyes kept filling with tears. When I pulled in the parking lot, my eyes filled with tears. It had been so long since I had been to church. How did I stray from being the person who loved the awana program to someone who never even thinks about God? It didn't matter. I decided that day to make a change.

So, I got the kids registered and checked in and took my seat. My first comment is I LOVED the church service. Instead of a choir that sings out of hymn books, there was a live band with contemporary music and words written on big screens. Everyone was casually dressed which I loved. The pastor referenced the Bible and used Bible verses but he broke the verses down after into every day language for us to understand. His sermon related to every day situations. That week was about making margin in your life to be able to hear God speak to you. What a coincidence given my morning!

My second comment is... My life changed that morning. When I was 6 years old, I accepted Christ into my life but for the past several years, he has not been in my life and I have not lived a Christ-like life. That morning, I asked Christ to come into my life again and to forgive me of all of my sins.

I have been to church every morning since then. The sermons have been great and have really helped me in finding myself, becoming happier and how to become a better mother and wife. I feel like I have had a huge weight lifted off of my shoulder. Since then, I have heard and seen God answer some of my prayers. I am so excited for this journey.

In addition, I have decided to serve the Lord. Because I cannot give much money, I have decided to give my time. The church will be going to 2 services in 2 weeks and they need a lot of volunteers to aid in this transition. I have signed up to volunteer in the children's ministry. I felt a calling and I am going to take. I am not sure where this will take me or if God is trying to guide me in life, but I working with children is how I plan on spending the rest of my life in my career. Maybe God has a plan to use my knowledge in other ways. May not. I don't know, but I am excited to find out. Instead of requesting a time to serve and a specific age group, I have asked them to put me in the time slot and with the age group that they most need people. So, I will be starting in the 12-24 month age range since I have experience with small children.

That is all for now. If you read this, thank you for taking the time to do so. I will post updates on other aspects of my life over the next few days.

Also, something I have decided to do is at the end of my posts, I will post a prayer request. This is something I am currently praying about. It might be broad, it might be detailed. You might understand it, you might not. But either way, it is one of the things in my life I am praying for.

My Prayer Request: For those who have strayed from the Lord to open their hearts to the Lord again as I have, to open their ears to hear Him. Life is so beautiful on the other side and I hope to be joined one day.

Love,

Tammy

A fresh start

After a couple of people have made comments about me not blogging anymore, I have decided to start again. It is something that I will try to do regularly, if not daily.

For now I am just here to tell you to look out for my upcoming postings. I have changed the title and the color of my page. Please read the title and description for a look as to what this blog will be about.

I have started "fresh" in many aspects of my life. There will be more to come on that. For now, please note that I WILL be blogging again.

Looking forward to sharing my every day life with you.

Love,
Tammy

A child's Imagination

It is so cute to see children develop an imagination. Colton has a VERY strong imagination. He colored on the floor the other day but I couldn't get too made because he said he drew "a hot hair balloon." For him to know what a hot air balloon is was amazing and to see him think his scribbles were one. This week he has displayed the funniest imagination so far. If you have kids or grandkids you probably know who this is...

Handy Manny!

Handy Manny is a chartoon character who he, along with his talking tools, fixes things. He is supposed to be Hispanic and they ocassionally say certain things in spanish. Well, the other day we had some maintenance done in our apartment. I was in the bedroom feeding Tayler and kept hearing Colton scream "Handy Manny! Handy Manny!" over and over again. Sometimes he gets excited when certain shows he likes come on TV, so I thought maybe the Handy Manny cartoon was on. Boy was I wrong..... There was a short plump hispanic maintenance man working in the apartment. Apparantly Colton thought he was Handy Manny! LOL It was soo funny. He was so excited to see "Handy Manny" and kept asking him about his tools. I laugh sitting her thinking about it. It is crazy how children have such an imagination for things!

On a GREAT note..... I have exciting news...

- In addition to Colton knowing all of his colors, he can now count 1-10 perfectly!! Next we will begin working on his ABC's.

- Colton poopied in the potty the past 3 days in a row!!! WAHOO!!!! Since we got new furniture, Kyle and I have been on Colton a lot about pottying in his pants. (He is getting so big and goes so much that sometimes he leaks through the pull up!) We make sure to take him any time he wants on the couch, which is very frequently. I take him as soon as he wakes up so he as actually told me when he wakes up that he needs to go. So exciting! Colton likes to run away and hide when he was to go #2 so we have been catching him and making him sit on the potty and when he goes tell him how much of a good BIG boy he is! He also gets a lecture when he goes in his pants. Well we have been doing something right because today he told me "me poo poo pleaseeeee." He wanted to go in the potty and told me before he actually went! Today is a great day! YAY for not having to change a toddler's dirty diaper for 3 days now!!!!! :)

Play Date Craziness!

This afternoon, Kelli and I got together for a lunch date. Kelli came with her daughter Brooke who is going on 2 years old and her son Maddux who is 6 months old. I came with Colton who is going on 3 years old and Tayler who is 2 months old. I was excited for the kids to get together and play and also conversate with Kelli. Unfortunately, we did not get to conversate as much as other times we have gotten together.... between Colton and Brooke playing with each other under the table, them both screaming at each other (in a fun way) Maddux getting fussy from tiredness and Tayler getting fussy from being hungry, I felt like I barely had time to take a deep breath. It was CRAZINESS having all of them in a public crowded place! They both wanted to play in the kid area. It was soo crowded and LOUD in there. There were soo many kids (especially a lot of big kids!) Colton was pretty frightened almost the entire time from the roughness and loudness of the big kids. Well, within a matter of 10 minutes, our kids had the play area cleared out... literally. Every single kid left, leaving only Brooke and Colton to play. Well, this wasn't just a happy coincidence. They all left because it smelt REALLY bad because both Brooke AND Colton decided to poopy their pants at almost the exact same time! lThey had that room smelling BAD!! lol. Well when we got all 4 kids into the restroom to do diaper changes, I looked at Kelli and said.. "So I think our next lunch date needs to be at one of our houses." We both laughed because we both knew that the past hour had been loud and crazy. Needless to say, it was an experience, but a stressful one at that.

Organizing

So this morning I was doing some straightening up and some more unpacking. One thing that I LOVE about our apartment is that it has sooo much storage! That is one thing that was so difficult about our house - there was no where to put everything! In our new bathroom, we have 2 sinks, 2 cabinets and 9 drawers... at the house we had 1 sink, 1 cabinet and 3 drawers. I love having a spot for all of my stuff and now my husband can't complain that i have too much stuff because I have my own drawers and cabinets so he doesn't ever have to see my stuff! In addition to a regular closet in our room, we also have a walk-in closet - something we did not have at our house. We also have more counterspace and cabinets in the kitchen so everything is a lot less packed. We also have an actual laundry room which is sooo nice. Even though we are in a smaller place, we gained sooo much storage space!

I thought that going from a 3 bedroom to a 2 bedroom would be reaaly difficult. To my surprise, it doesm't feel any different. Colton is never in his room except to sleep. He always brings his toys to the living room. So, I don't even notice much difference. The kids room is very large and has a big walk in closet so all of their things fit and it is not over crowded.

Here are a few more recent pics...

The pool is literally right outside our unit so we try to take Colton in the evenings to get energy out before bed but also bc its not hot and sunny for Tayler.

Below: Colton playing in the shallow section for kids.

Below: swim lesson with daddy.

Below: Tayler sleeping in mommy's arms while daddy and brother swim.

I'm Back!

I'm back! It feels like forever since I have posted. We are finally settling in to the new place and have internet. All is well and we are all enjoying the new place. Even though we just moved from a 3 bedroom house to a 2 bedroom apartment, Kyle and I are both so much happier here...

- We get a fresh start with cleanliness and organization! We did not realize how much JUNK we had until it was time to move. (Mrs. Stacy - to answer your question from my previous post, we did get A LOT sold. We got all of our big items sold.. furniture, yard equipment, pool, etc. We also had a garage sale where we made a good bit of money. We have a lot of clothes and toys that didn't sell that we are just going to take to good will.) Our goal was to make enough money to buy a new couch. We had an L sectional that is simply too big for the apartment. In addition, we didn't want a table or ottoman in living room but still wanted to kick our feet up. We went with cash in pocket knowing what we wanted. We wanted a recliner sofa and hopefully a recliner as well. We went to Gallery Furniture after an unsuccesful trip to Rooms To Go. We did not know that furniture was negotiable when it comes to the price tag. However, we quickly learned that it is. We knew what we wanted but saw it was more than we were willing to spend. We showed our sales rep what we liked (which is very similar to what we told him we were looking for upon arrival.) We were ready to leave and Kyle told the guy if he could do it for what we had cash then we would do it. Well, surprisingly, they accepted our offer and we got our recliner sofa and recliner for $700 less than ticket price!! So, if you are ever furniture shopping at Gallery Furniture, go in with a mindset as if you were car or house shopping - prices are negotiable!!

- Another plus about living out here is that we feel like we will actually be able to have a social life since we are not so far away from everyone and everything. We live 10 minutes from my sister so I went walking with her on Monday at Katy Mills Mall. She goes every day so I hope to start next week making it a routine! It was great to get out of the house and exercise (we did 4 laps - 3 1/2 miles!) But it was also so great to spend time with her since it's not too often we see each other especially now that we both have newborns. So I am looking forward to the sisterly time and exercise and the cousins get to see each other! In addition, Kyle has several friends that live in the area. We went to his friends house on Thursday evening for dinner. They have a 7 year old daughter and a 14 month old son. Colton had soooo much fun playing with the 7 year old girl. Kyle played video games for a couple of hours with his buddy so he enjoyed the boy "play time." Last night my mom came over and watched the kids and Kyle and I had a baby-free evening. It was so needed and could just feel the unspoken new happiness. We went out with my middle-school best friend and her husband. They treated us to an evening at the country club they are members of that is just a few minutes down the street. They also live only about 10 minutes from us. It was so nice socializing with people our age and another married couple. In addition, I am only about 10-15 minutes away from my best friend now (verses 45 min before) so I am really looking forward to play dates, girl time and hopefully couple time with them!

- In addition to our new found social life, Colton is also getting one as well. I took Colton the pool a couple of nights after we moved in and he LOVED it. They have a section of the pool that is only a foot deap so he loved splashing around in it. In addition, there was a little boy out there who is only 3 months older than Colton. They had soo much fun together! I will have to take a picture of them together because from a short distance, it's hard to tell them apart because they look so similar!

- CONVENIENCE! We are soo close to literally everything! The mall, grocery store, restaurants, etc... everything is literally 5-10 min away (vs our 30-40 min drive at the house.) Kyles new drive to work is literally 7 minutes (vs 45-50 min) and my drive to school is on the same street and is literally 3 min away!

So, so far everything is going great and we love it here. We still have a lot of cleaning to do at the house that we hope to get done within the next week or so. We had planned on going this morning but we all ended up sleeping in and now just feel like having a lazy day :)

I hope to post some new pics soon but for the time being, here a few... Tayler is growing so fast! She smiles soo much and yesterday giggled for the first time!