While the mom's away... (AKA An ode to my wife)

So Anika left early this morning (I think her phone rang around 2 AM for her to leave) to drive to Richmond (hours away) and fly to Orlando (more hours away). That means I get to spend my first ever weekend alone with the kids.

Terror, thy name is alone time with my kids.

Don't get me wrong; I love my kids. Babe is the cutest thing when she wants to be, which is whenever things are going her way. Bub is the nicest guy when he wants to be, which is whenever things are going his way. Duck's the nicest baby EVER, but especially when he's either (a) sleeping or (b) awake. None of that in-between stuff for my boy. Having the three happen at the same time is next to impossible. To top it all off, Bub had a really tough day yesterday, and lost his lunch at least 4 times. So we went into today with fear and trembling.

You know what? It turned out WAY better than I expected! Granted, the electronic babysitter (that's the TV for you non-parents) was on for most of the day, but the three actually got along for some of the day. I only heard a few hours of any child screaming, and I can't remember once when there were more than 2 at a time! That's progress for a dad that thought he'd break his first a few days after she was born!

Our project for tomorrow? Keep the e-babysitter off. (Cue dramatic chords.)

That said, we got a lot done today. A construction guy came to take care of a lot of our kitchen, which is under repair and being remodeled, we changed some of the furniture arrangement in our living room, and had pizza for lunch and dinner. Well, I did. ...and Duck did. The two oldest didn't really touch their pizza, but they never eat. Don't ask me where their energy comes from.

On to my wife. What a peach! I dump the kids on her so I can do other ("more important," or so I excuse myself) things, and she doesn't complain. I've been searching for a real job for the longest time (seriously, why does everybody want experience, anyways? don't they know we have to start SOMEWHERE?!?), and she has a job selling jewelry. Something that she actually likes! She does the dishes, cleans, cooks, wipes bottoms, and deals with the abuse that kids are generally great at dishing out, and rarely complains at all. AND THEN she deals with me. ...and at the end of the day, she still tells me that she loves me. I don't say it often enough to her, but I am absolutely in love with my wife. Her absence is painful to all of us. My wife is an angel, and I am honored to spend time with her.

On the days I get the call to babysit (ahem, substitute teach), I hope my absence isn't as tough on her as hers is on all of us. If it is, I should bring her flowers every single day. She deserves it.

...and so much more!

First blog post. Weird!

I'm not much of a picture guy, so I'll post in a very different manner than does my wife. Most of what I post will probably be text. So those of you that like pictures will relish in my wife's posts, while those of you that rely on words will love mine.

I've been having a trouble with my work situation lately. Because of a clerical error, I wasn't allowed to do my student teaching in the Spring term, which means I'll have to wait until Fall to do my student teaching, which means I'll lose an entire year of teaching experience. Because I'm an old man, that means I'll start even later, which isn't a great thing for me. So I've been looking at private schools at which I can both do my student teaching and get paid for it. So far, it's been a tough road because so few want to hire a teacher with no actual experience. We'll see if I can get hired for next school year; if so, you can read about it here on the blog. If not, we'll be digging into our savings as I do my student teaching and then try to patch together jobs here and there to make ends meet.

Still, life goes on, and our oldest is learning every day. She's learned to spell "cat," "dog," and "and" (her first "scripture word," to which we'll add many others from the scriptures), and she's working on memorizing the Articles of Faith (she actually finished the first one today at church!). She seems to relish mental work. Bub, on the other hand, works best with his hands. He's very into his "sword," (a piece of the edge of a puzzle mat he got for Christmas), and swings it to protect his siblings. When he's not not beating on them, that is. The youngest is small and prone to crying to get his point across. That said, he's generally pretty content with life. He's had his own room for about a week now, and sleeps through the night, which was a shock to us. He never really did that when he was sleeping in our room. Who knew he'd need to get away from us to get some rest?

Hopefully I can get hired. Hopefully it won't cost too much to move. Hopefully we can keep living the Gospel. Hopefully, hopefully, hopefully...

...for the longest time...

we're back!  the pictures are a few months old, but compared to the last post (in may) this is an update:)

Leah Sidwell did a mini photo shoot for our family-so thank you Leah for these lovely pictures!fl L

We're all doing pretty well here.  John is finishing up his masters program at Liberty University.  I have started getting back into sewing and crafting and driving John nuts with my inexplicable urge to rearrange all the furniture in the house.  Analee has been going to pre-school.  Myself and a few other moms take turns teaching.  She absolutely loves it:)  Bub continues to be excited by just about anything.  He loves to pretend, whether it's driving a car, fishing, being pirate or a puppy dog he loves it all.  And Drake is just as happy as ever-he is walking, has several teeth popping through, and is thrilled to be ever more involved with his big brother and sister. 

Hubby says...

I am Anika's husband John.  I've hijacked her account.  She'll be posting again soon.  Because I'm going to make her.  Sorry for the delay!

John.