Going back to school

Jeff has been pressuring me for a couple of years to consider going back to school. I have been dragging my feet because to be honest I did not know what I wanted to do and I am a little intimidated by the amount of time it will take. Plus I have been so sick of Jeff being in school and all the time that takes so it has put a real sour taste in my mouth. Not to mention the costs involved in going back to school. Well I was laid off of work for the winter and realized that I am so bored! Maybe I am not a good mom but cleaning the house all day long and playing Batman and Lego's just doesn't do it for me and it started me thinking. I am not going to want to work at my current job for the rest of my life, don't get me wrong, I love my job and it has been a huge blessing for me and my family, we need the job and hopefully things will pick up at work soon and I will be able to go back to work. But my kids are getting older, I will be home alone with all my kids at school in 3 years. Kelsi is all ready going all day in 1st grade, Gabe is starting kindergarten in the summer and Tory is 3 years away from going. I don't want to be one of those mom's that falls back on a job they don't enjoy just to make ends work or because they don't know what else to do with themselves. So I applied for financial aid just to see if I would get some money to qualify and start taking some of the general requirements. Well I got financial aid and I got admitted to SLCC, I plan on taking Internet courses as much as I can and for the next 3 years and go part time... When Tory goes to school and maybe if we get out of debt and can pay for preschool a little earlier, I will start going full time to school.
The cool thing about all of this is I found a career path that I want to do and I am really excited to do. The end goal is going to be a physical therapist. It is a long road to take, and I probably wont graduate until I am 40, but you know I am going to turn 40 one way or not so I might as well start learning some stuff a long the way. I have 2 years to get my AS, (associates of science), then I need a bachelors degree, which I am leaning towards Exercise and Sports Science or Occupational Therapy.. then I get to do the physical therapy program which is a 2 year program.
But I think this career path is a great path for me to take, I will be able to be with my family when they are home and I will be able to take care of my family better.
I love my family and my kids and want to be the best I can for them, I know this is going to take a lot of sacrifice and work, but Jeff is behind me 110% and we will find a way to make this all work as best as we can.

Rock Stars

We had some friends over with us for New Years and I think we have a couple rock stars on our hands!

Blessings

I have been debating on if I should post this, I dont like sharing these extremly personal experiences, but I felt that I wanted to remember what happened this night was for us.

I just wanted to share an experience we had with Tory. You all know that we have had problems with Tory and her breatholding / seizures. Well they have been gradually slowing down, always there, just not as severe. So we have been breathing a little easier hoping that she has finally started to grow out of them. On Christmas Eve we had a huge scare with her, she went into one of her breath holding spells which is usually followed by her body going rigid and her being unresponsive, ect... It is hard to explain withoug actually seeing it. Anyways Tory did not come out of this spell. She was completly un responsive to sound, smell, touch anything. Jeff, my Dad, Grandpa Luthy and Blake were all there to give her a blessing. Within a few minutes we decided it was time to take her to the hospital, which was not easy to do since we were at my parents and Idaho Falls Hospital is a 40 minute drive on icy roads with Tory so stiff she could not fit into her car seat. When we made it to the car the frigid air temperatures in Idaho must have jolted her back to reality. She came out of it acting normal but extremly tired of course.

The reason I tell this story, is because I fully believe that without the prayers given and the blessing Tory recieved she may not have come out of it. Me and Jeff fully thought we had lost our little girl that night. I completly believe Heavenly Father was there helping to protect Tory's mind through this episode and to guide us to make the right decisions. I just wanted to experess my love and humilty through this.

We are still struggling to find answers to help her and are still hitting road block after road block with her. Doctors dont seem to want to take an interest in her / dont know what to do. Right now we are waiting to hear back from the neurologist to see if he has any suggestions, but it did not sound likely. So we are back to waiting for her to grow out of it and if this happens again luckly we have a hospital just down the street.

Thanks for all your prayers for out little Tory. If she is like this as a baby can you imagine her as a teenager!

Guitar Hero

Jeff has been wanting this for a while so we sneaked it in as a Christmas gift to the kids this year. We also got the Lego Rock Band, which is nice for the kids, all family friendly songs. We have had a lot of fun playing it and it has confirmed more then once to me that I have no beat and will never join the choir

Christmas 2009

Here are a few pictures of Christmas this year. We went to Idaho to visit with my family for Christmas and had a really nice time. The kids got their "big" present on Christmas Eve morning. We got them a trampoline. We were up at 10 the night before in the freezing cold setting that thing up. When the kids got up in the morning we asked them to check the backyard to see if it snowed and Kelsi looked out and said nope everything looks the same, while Gabe yells "what the heck! There's a tramp out there" So we let the kids enjoy their present for awhile. Jeff had told the kids that when they were done we will take down the tramp for the winter and put it up later and Gabe yelled "Then we are never getting off!"

Anyways Santa stopped by on Christmas and the kids got spoiled and had a really nice Christmas. We really enjoyed being with family and enjoying the kids excitment over the holidays.

They will be working on those suckers for a while

How did Santa know I wanted these, it wasn't what I asked for

Little People Princess House

Transformers!

Kelsi opening more Zhu Zhu pets

Gabe and his bumblebee mask

Here's Jeff's gift labeled to the kids so he did not have to feel as guilty

Joke of the Day

Here is Gabe's joke for the day

Dad I want to tell you a joke. The squirrel ran up the tree and died. It's funny because the squirrel died.

Lights at Temple Square

On saturday we took the kids out to see the lights on temple square. It was a lot of fun and the kids loved seeing all the lights esp Tory. She said Wow and Ohhh the entire time. She loved all the colors and lights. We then took them out for some yummy pizza. It was a fun night to quote Kelsi.

There is a light display at Layton Park that Tory does this too. We usually drive through it on our way home from the gym and we just love listening to Tory yell Wow at the top of her lungs over and over!