It's been a long time...

It's been just over two years since we relocated to Texas. We stayed in our tiny house for nine months until we found the perfect house to finish raising our littles in. 

We also bought an RV and we've done a lot of adventuring in it. We are planning the ultimate roadtrip in it this summer. Over two months of living on the road, seeing 27 states, most of them I've never seen. Our kids have proven that they indeed are "happy campers", so this will be an adventure of a lifetime. 

I went back to work. I work on a military base as a nurse at the base high school. I LOVE IT!!! I feel so blessed that I have a warm work environment where I get to display my youthful and caring spirit and it's appreciated. It's been an adjustment for the family to have me go back to work. It's funny because Parker has taken it the hardest, even though he's the one that treats me the worst. He likes everything as it should be, and he got really used to having mom at home. He's adjusting well, though. He unloads the dishwasher which I appreciate very, very much. 

Bryce moved back to Washington in October. At first I was really excited for him to go out and start his life, but through the holidays I felt lower than I have in a long time because one of my babies was missing. That was hard. Then I sort of came out of it when I realized he was where he wants to be. He's with my parents, so I know he's being well taken care of. And I think he's able to help them on the farm, so it's a symbiotic relationship. We're going to pick him up in July for the last couple weeks of the road trip and bring him home. It will feel so good to have us together. I don't know how long it will last, but I will cherish that time because I know how hard it's been without him.

In order to train the kids for a lot of walking, I downloaded the Pokemon Go app and we went on a pokemon hunt yesterday. Parker didn't want to go, so I didn't force him. Halea and Apollo did great, though! We ended up walking and running 2.31 miles on our first hunt. I was amazed at the lack of complaining they did. Normally they would start complaining about .25 mile in and threaten to run in front of a car at  .5 mile. They did so well!!! Halea needed a piggy back ride for a .1 mile at the end, but she asked me about my race days and I could tell she was asking because she wants to start competing as well. My long distance running days are behind me, but I may have to dust off my old running shoes to train with my girl. We'll see. 

It's the end of my work day, so I'll sign off for now. I'll update more often than in the next two years. 

We Made It!

It's been quite a journey! The last year of applying to jobs, preparing our house for sale, homeschooling our kids, and finally moving down to Texas ~ it's been a rollercoaster of emotions and it's stretched me in ways I never thought I could be stretched, but we're finally here.
I feel like I've been through a life altering ordeal, because I have. The payoff is definitely worth it, though.
1. The kids are back in great schools that I trust.
2. We OWN our home. Sure it's small ~ really small, but it's OURS! All we have to pay is taxes and insurance. Of course that won't last forever, but it's a nice feeling for now.
3. I have friends! Lots of them. And I run with them and do exercise class with them. I have other friends that I don't do those things with ~ But I have friends!
4. My family is just a phone call away. The missing of them hasn't hit me yet. I talk nearly every day to a family member, so I don't feel disconnected (yet).
5. We left 20* weather arriving to 85*weather. Um...awesome!
6. Everyone is growing up, even Ryan and I. The kids are doing well. We took them to the fair today and they did great (no meltdowns). It's easier to take them out in public because you are not met with the icy cold glares of people judging you. People are relaxed here. Dogs run free in the neighborhood and so do kids. It's like how I grew up. I love it!
7. Ryan's on 12's ~ which is what he's always wanted.
8. Our van and truck made it! And we don't have a car payment (for now).
9. We are going back in a couple months where I'll get to see all of my family and some of my friends.
10. I'm happy.

We're Moving to the Last Great Place ~ Texas

Sooooo much has happened. Rather than moving into a trailer, we are moving in to a tiny house in San Antonio, Tx. It's been a huge blur of crazy things happening.We've updated our 3,500 square foot home in the last 3.5  years, started homeschooling, and are in the middle of the process of moving our sweet family down to Texas. We have many many reasons for making the move, but we feel led there and we believe we will have better quality of family life in Texas than we do in Washington.

The cleanse

Not the colon cleansing kind. I'm talking about the process of deciding what's worth keeping and what I can do without. We live in a 3,000 square foot home, so the idea of downsizing to a 38 ft max trailer is very motivating. Rather than being weighed down by stuff, we're going to be free to live and "do" stuff.
Going through baby clothes that I will never have a baby to put in again was hard. Tossing Halea's last cast was not (why did I keep that?) I'm a sentimental fool. I've keep every card I've ever been given, every letter that's ever been written, countless journals from times I'd rather forget. It's amazing how much paper I've lugged with me.
I like to take my sweet time to cleanse in waves. This first wave is all the extra crap I don't need now. The next one will be the stuff that we kind of need to live. And the last one will be an estate sale of sorts where only the things that we haven't already gotten rid of and will not be taking with us will be sold. Everything must go! But at least we have roughly 2 years before we go!

Copied from my Fit & Fab blog:

Huge blessings have come our way. I've had an extraordinarily busy time. All in the same week, I began choreographing a dance for 120 youth in my church, had finals for Bryce, worked on a report for my church, planned a relief society birthday dinner also for church, established my new weight loss group, marathon trained, started fulltiming researching, and then something I totally didn't expect....The ex called.
Nine years ago the hubs and I had the ex's rights reduced to supervised visits. He pretty much disappeared after that. He's faded in and out of Bryce's life, but Parker doesn't really know he exists ~ not for lack of trying to explain, I just think he knows the man who has been raising him since he was 8 months old is his dad. He also has never been consistent with his child support. He currently owes me over $26,000 in back support. It should be more, but since he's blown his brain with heroine, the state stopped trying to collect due to his "disability". He wants rid of the child support and he wants to relinquish his rights. Of course he won't do any of the paperwork, so on top of everything else, I also need to dust off my "law degree" and start an adoption proceeding for the hubs to adopt the boys.
This is what we were trying to get him to do nine years ago. I'm kind of angry and relieved all at the same time! I would love all of my kids to have the same last name. I would love for the hubs name to be on their birth certificates. I've wanted this for so long, but I don't know where I'm supposed to fit this major undertaking in. It's crazy! I'm sure I'm supposed to be learning something from this experience, but I'm too overwhelmed to be able to step back and recognize what it is. Am I supposed to learn to delegate? It just seems like this is WAY too much for one person.
Amid all of this overwhelm, I had a tender mercy that proved that my life is in God's hands and I need to just let his will be done.
Months ago, when I realized that I would need to bring Parker and Apollo home for homeschooling next year I was terrified. It's stretched me a lot just to do it with Bryce and he's in high school and reads pretty well. These two do not have the same skills that Bryce does, so the needs they have will present a different degree of difficulty than I've experienced with Bryce. The other part that wasn't making any sense was that I would have to drive Halea to and from school each day to keep her where she's at. But I couldn't handle the thought of jumping in to homeschooling all 4 after I've only had one year of experience with 1pretty easy boy. The hubs and I discussed a possible move to the evening shift that would have him home at night and during the day. He put his name in at that time. It takes six months for positions to open up at his work. It seemed like it would be a long shot to keep him in his current position until we need him home when school starts. Yesterday he was asked if he would like to move to evenings. It pays a significant amount more, he will be home to help me homeschool all 4 (because I'm not driving Ms. Daisy if I don't have to), and it won't start until September! It's perfect!
I can't deny that God is looking out for me. I matter to him. My life and my children's lives matter. He has a plan for us. I don't need to worry. I can face strife and overwhelm knowing that he's in control, and that for all the overwhelm and uncertainty that I experience, it's helping my spirit become stronger.

It's been a long time...

I've been pretty focused on my other blog:
 fit&fabulous4timemom.blogspot.com
but I've been neglectful of that one too.

I'm super excited! We bought a 5th wheel trailer! I'm hoping it will solve our (my) allergy to camping. It will give us a consistent, hopefully comfortable place to rest our heads while enjoying the great outdoors. Living in Washington, it's a real shame that I'm so allergic to camping since there's so much awesome stuff to see here.

We're picking it up in two weeks. I'm planning to turn it into a "glamper" with hardwood floors and a light, pretty design for the walls and cabinets. No 'wood grain' and brass for us!

I'm hoping to post pics as we go through the remodel process.

It's been a while...

It's been a while, like years. I have another fitnfabulous4timemom blog, but this one is devoted to my family.

I think where we last left of my family was living in Normandy Park. Parker was diagnosed with autism. Since then, we have moved to the West Hill of Kent (because we like the drama of higher crime rates, and because our awesome, huge house was affordable). All four of my kids were diagnosed with a genetic anomoly. Apollo was diagnosed with autism. Parker and Apollo have two genetic anomolies, and Bryce and Halea only have 1. It was sort of a blow to our family, and I've spent the last year trying to wrap my mind around what this means. In some ways it's great to know what causes all of the symptoms I see in my kids. We have an answer as to why Parker jumps and squeals while he's watching TV and why Apollo has such emotional outbursts causing everyone around him to pay when he doesn't get his way ~ as well as why they talk over each other to get their point across. That's autism. In their own worlds, they only hear themselves, unaware that they have three siblings trying to relay what's happening in their own world.

Since moving, Bryce has really grown up. He's doing really well in school, he's managed to keep himself out of trouble, and he's a really fun person to be around. He's lighthearted and really funny. I see the transition of becoming more of a friend than a mom to him. He seeks Ryan's and my guidance on issues and he trusts that he can come to us with anything. It was so hard with him between 9-14. He'll be turning 16 in June and I feel so blessed to have the strong relationship that I do with him.

Parker is awesome! He has always been awesome. He's always had his own ideas about how things should be. He's phasing away from legos and that makes me sad. He has always loved the idea of blowing things up and causing mass destruction. He seems to be getting away from that a bit these days ~ Yay!!! He's in a special ed program at school. It's been a hard transition. I notice that he is less normal since being in this program as he doesn't have the peer modeling component of normal kids to emulate. He notices that other kids don't love him like they used to and that's hard for him. At his old school everyone knew him and adored him in all his weird ways. He's going to be 10 this year and there's something about preteen walking around in his undies that is less cute than a 5 year old doing the same thing. Thanks to Murray Goldberg on The Goldbergs, Parker learned to "park his pants at the door" and he remains that way any time he's at home. He aspires to have an RV that he parks in our driveway as an adult.

Apollo is my little love ... an no one else's. I call him my sweet treat. He's a bit of a jerk to other people. He just says whatever is on his mind not really acknowledging that it might be hurtful to that person. He's very literal, too. He likes to pretend that he's a puppy and wags his bottom if he's happy. He's in a general ed class where he really doesn't fit in, but after what I've seen happen with Parker once those peer mentors have been lacking, I'm reluctant to put Apollo into a similar setting. Which is why I'm considering homeschooling the three youngest kids.

I'm terrified to homeschool my kids. I've finally gotten to a point where I have my days free from 8:30 until 2. Most days, though, I'm called to pick someone up for various reasons. The little ones hate school. It's a battle to get them on the bus most days. It's difficult for them to articulate why they hate school so much (there's the autism again), but they do.

Halea is a beaming, beautiful butterfly, just like her name. She is perfectly girly, but has a stubborn streak that I think will help her as an adult. She wants things her way and will fight for what she wants. She never stops talking. Seriously. I love what she says, though. She has friends at school. Everyone adores her. They call her princess or butterfly ~ both perfectly fitting. She says she wants to be where her brothers are, so if they homeschool, she wants to, too. She's doing so well that it would be sad for me to have her miss out on the social part of her school experience. She and Apollo will be starting gymnastics in a couple weeks, so perhaps there will be some social connections made there.

Ryan graduated from nursing school and worked at a mental hospital in West Seattle for two years. Then he got on with the VA last September. It's been a hard transition for him as the vets at the VA are much less crazy than what he's used to dealing with. The VA has many opportunities all over the country for work, so we've considered taking 6 month stints of work in other places to see our beautiful country a bit more. Homeschooling would make that transition much easier.

I've been busy! When we moved I quit my job with the Highline School District to focus on being home with the kids. I miss my job, but I'm busy with the kids and the Y keeps me busy. I was able to get ACE certified as a Health Coach, so I'm doing that now. I still teach fitness classes, but my love is health coaching. I help people set small goals to get them moving in the right direction toward a bigger goal (weight loss, better health, etc). I love impacting people's lives. I can spot someone who will be successful with in the first 20 minutes of a conversation with them. It's pretty cool to hone that skill. I spent the first 8 months in our house remodeling it. It was incredibly taxing and I feel like I aged ten years in those 8 months. I've gained 20 lbs while living in this house. I don't love that, but I'm ok with it. I've run a marathon, several 1/2 marathons, and last October I did a Srint Triathlon where I placed in the top 5 against teams. I'm not sure if I placed 1st or 2nd as an individual. Pretty cool. So those extra 20 lbs aren't holding me back from doing the things I want to do. Right now I'm training to walk the Rock N Roll marathon in June (walking rather than running due to a hip injury). I'm looking forward to it. Two weeks later Ryan and I will go to Vegas to celebrate his 40th birthday, and three weeks after that we will do the Wipeout run. It's going to be a great summer!