Still Here

Life has been very crazy, but good, lately. I've been working 32-40 hour weeks, sometimes going days without seeing Kenny. Most of the time he is wonderful and brings me dinner during my break so we can see each other for at least a half hour per day. And now it's Christmas break, and since I usually only work closing shifts we should be seeing lots of each other in the mornings.
The schedule has also made me lose 10 pounds, bringing me to 15 pounds below where I was when I got pregnant with Daniel. I'm pretty sure my wedding dress would fit me now. So now I am purposefully scarfing everything I see because I don't want to be any skinnier, especially not if the method of losing is stress and forgetting to eat.
We haven't decided how much longer after Christmas I will work, or how many hours. If I keep my average over 30 hours, then we get health benefits. In truth, the job itself is quite enjoyable and I feel well established there now. Much less stressful than consulting- I go home from work I can forget about it and relax. But I'm not sure our family can keep up that pace for too long.

That, and many things are up in the air. In a few months, schools will start posting openings for next year, and then we'll decide if we're moving, and where to (maybe the NW, maybe staying around here), and if we can sell a car (only if we live somewhere not as cut off from the world as our current neighborhood), or when/if we should get pregnant... so things feel a bit up in the air at the moment. There is an opening at Catlin Gable (very nice private school) in Beaverton, Oregon that I've been drooling over, so everyone pray that Kenny gets it. The one thing we aren't considering at all is having Kenny stay at his current school. He deserves to work somewhere where he is appreciated. There are some very hostile coworkers at his current school, not to mention the fact that he spends over 30% of his class time giving stupid tests.

Financially things are improving. We are still in debt, but we're slowly climbing out of the whole. The Durango had another problem (in general the civic is the one with big problems)- nothing that kept it from functioning, but something that had to be fixed to pass inspection. It cost 800 bucks. We were bummed. Then two days later, about 800 dollars appeared in the bank account. Apparently Kenny's whole school got an unannounced bonus for their standardized test scores from last year. So woohoo!

On top of it, our friends and family have been amazingly generous. I won't ever forget all the kindness we've been shown. Someone ding-dong-ditched a bunch of toys for Daniel and a significant chunk of cash and gift certificates a few weeks ago... I still get emotional even thinking about it. Whoever it was, I'm sure they'll be blessed. To everyone who has sent us anything- even something small- thank you so much. The atmosphere of our home has changed from the gloominess of October to joy and love and happiness again.

Daniel has been a blast lately. Not today particularly- it's a sunday, after all- but in general he is so much fun to be around. He has 6 words or so now, none of which he uses consistently- sit, shoe, sock, dada, down, stop- but he's a great helper, loves to clean up, and gives hugs and kisses constantly. I still think my favorite trait is how much he loves to make random people smile. Standing in line with him at the store is so much fun. He's such a little showoff.

I got released from being the Relief Society secretary and I'm now a RS teacher- my favorite calling! I'm so excited! I don't think I'm good at it, but I sure enjoy it!

Kenny and I are on a marriage high right now. Things just keep getting better. Overall, we feel blessed, happy, and just very busy.