Update on our family :)

I really want to post regularly, but we all know how life happens, so I will just update for now. Hopefully I'll have more time to share more pictures soon.

Myles is still at the same job, almost 18 years now. His personal goal is to reach 20 years, but there is really no benefit other than his own sense of accomplishment (which is great, I just mean no monetary benefits). In the meantime, we are exploring ideas of starting our own business and hope to be able to work it exclusively by his 20th anniversary. We had been planning on visiting Israel for Sukkot that year, since it will be the Sabbath year, but the more we think about it, the more difficult it seems, as we would either have to pay a fortune for food that is not harvested that year or bring our own, and then we would risk losing it on the way there! So we are unsure about it now, but we still hope to be corporate-free for our income by that year, whether we still go or not!

Meanwhile, I have started my own business! I signed up with CHOFFY after reaching my goal of a 30 pound weight loss! There are very few (if any) distributors in Oklahoma, so I am very excited to get in on the ground level here! You can visit my web site HERE. And right about the time I started this, I began working part-time at a local store. This is the first job I've had since BEFORE my first child was born, so I have lots of different feelings about it! The job itself is great, and I love the people (well, most of them), but the part I don't like about it is the change it has made at home. I work overnight, so I sleep most of the day away! And my house is falling apart! No worries though, I only intended to work for "a couple of months" while we are saving for a new family vehicle, and I think we have decided just 4 more weeks. I can do it! (I think.) So I haven't had much time to work on Choffy, but I will put as much time into it as I can once I quit this other job and have my days back!

That four weeks could be cut a little short since we are planning to move soon, but we haven't shopped around much yet. It could happen quickly though! We are just moving back to the other side of the city (our plans for now, but we are looking everywhere), so we will still be local (Myles has to reach his 20 years!), but we will likely not stay in this area. We are also VERY open to living in community with others, but for right now will be staying in this area. Check out our community page and let us know if you are interested!

Jonathan (will be 14 in May) was just SIX MONTHS away from reaching Eagle Scout when they decided to allow OPEN homosexuals into scouting. On a personal note, aside from my own personal beliefs on this issue, people can live however they want.....they will anyway! My issue with this is that it involves sexual preferences and MY CHILD. Scouting should not be about this, it shouldn't even be a topic. But having said that, since they are allowed to be open about it now, I don't feel comfortable letting my son go camping with potentially gay boys, and it's only a matter of time (just a year or two, IMO) before they allow the leaders to be open. That would be equivalent to allowing my daughter to go camping with boys or MEN! Ain't gonna happen. Anywho, Jonathan is now taller than his mother!!!! Bricks and spankings didn't work at all. ;) His voice is getting quite deep as well, and he has girls texting him constantly!!! We had to pull the reigns in on that, but I am glad he has friends. Haha!

Jayla (will be 12 in June) just loves people. She is very close to earning her pointe shoes in ballet, which is good because this has been her main goal for several years, and she may not be in dance anymore after this year. We shall see.

Jacob (just turned 9 in Nov) is still as ornery as ever, but he is also a very kind and generous boy, full of love, life and imagination! Of course, don't tell him he has a good imagination though, because he says imaginations are for LITTLE kids, and he's not little. He still loves LEGOs and is super creative with the things he builds. He usually wins 1st or 2nd at the county fair, and he is always coming up with new ideas for next year's entry.

Jack (will be 7 in June) is just as sweet as ever.....unless he is beeping noses. He's a little OCD about touching noses. He reminds me of the show Monk, where he has to touch lights or parking meters. LOL! Jack actually gets in trouble with this because he can hurt Jessi and Joe, but with the older kids and us it's just more of a nuisance. :) Otherwise, Jack is one of the sweetest boys you'll ever meet, and that great big grin with the squinty eyes always reminds me of Mr. Magoo! Jack's speech is continually improving, though he is still sometimes hard to understand. He and Joe are pretty much on the same playing level, always wanting the same toys, so they either fight over the same toys or play exceptionally well together for hours! Jack also recently potty trained. He has a genetic abnormality (duplication in the 6th chromosome) that has prevented him from being "normal" or average for his age in some areas. One of those areas is potty training, though we figured out it was in his mind. Something wasn't clicking cognitively. We finally decided that we would just tell him that he is potty trained and see what happens, because he had mentioned one day that he couldn't use the potty because he wasn't potty trained. So we threw a big party for him, and he has been wearing underwear with very few accidents ever since! He is doing amazing! Jack is also still in horse therapy, which is going very well. He just participated in a show at the state fairgrounds and "won" a really nice belt buckle, which he was able to wear to my mom's wedding last Sunday!

Yes, my mom got married!!! My dad died about 3 years ago, and her new husband had a wife that died earlier that same year, and they all knew each other from church. He is about 13 years older than my mom, but at their age, it's not that much of a difference. They are currently on their honeymoon and having a blast down south where it is WARM. Oh, and the best part is, I grew up with 3 brothers, and now I finally have FIVE SISTERS!!!!! HAHAHAHA!!!!!!! And they have brothers!!! But the downside is, I can no longer claim "favorite daughter" status. *sigh* Oh, well, I guess it'll be worth the trade off. :)

Where were we.....Josiah! Ah, Little Joe is such a cutie. He turned 3 in November and is just a bundle of sweetness! If he is in his "terrible two" stage right now, it's not bad at all. He only recently started whining when he wants a toy that someone else has or something like that, but that is about the extent of it. He is very compliant, very helpful, sweet, cuddly and SMART! That boy can figure out things, and you can just see the wheels turning. His speech is getting pretty clear too, and his vocabulary is growing quickly. He and Jack are almost on the same level with speech, although Jack's vocabulary is probably still bigger than Joe's.

Jessica just turned a year old and is so adorable! All of her siblings say so, so it MUST be true. :) She is crawling very well and is close to taking some steps, but I doubt it will be tomorrow or even next week, but we'll see. She does seem determined! She doesn't say many words yet, but she definitely has "Mama" down very well. We occasionally hear her say one of her siblings' names, and sometimes it seems like that wasn't really what she said, it couldn't be, but I do think she is saying their names! Jessi has 5 or 6 teeth now. I can't count them very well because she won't let me look in her mouth, but she got her lower front teeth and then her eye teeth on the top (my first to do that!), and then the upper front ones started coming in. 

I think that's about it for now, without writing a whole novel.....this is a quick update on all of us! I will try to blog more often (I think I've said this before....), so I will leave it at this and add more as I get pictures/stories to post. :)