The thing I dislike most...

Promises aren't being kept. This time it's ME who is making me upset. I wanted to write more on here in the year 2014...and I have really NOTHING to show for it.
However my kids are happy and my house is more in order and I've been knitting wonderful items so that has kept me busy.

Right now I'll give you a little update on my wonderful family.
Rick (my husband) is in his 3rd year of Residency, when he is done in June 2016 he will have a duel degree in Family Practice Medicine and Neuromusclar Medicine. Which means he can go and teach at a DO Medical School at some point in his career..PLUS that makes him more competitive for a job. WHICH he already has for when he is done. We are heading to Wisconsin after this. We are excited and ready for the journey and I know the hospital/clinic is going to be a perfect fit for him...AND with time the town will be a perfect fit for our family!
Zeke (my now 6 year old Autistic boy) is doing great in school. He is in the same school as last year, in the same classroom, with the same teacher and a lot of the same paraprofessionals and classmates. He has settled down earlier...although homework nightly is not always fun for him...or me. He is progressing in his speech and he tries to say the words we are saying. He is also working on those social components that come naturally in other kids, saying Hello, Good Morning, Thank you, Bye...He is a boy though too...he likes to play with his cars, ride his bike, climb trees, go swimming, loves being outside in nature...he also loves his instruments. (Which is sometimes on the "loud" end of things)
Aspen (my SOON to be 4 year old girl) is loving her preschool. She greets the teachers with great joy and love! It's amazing that she is that excited! She goes Wednesday morning through Friday morning...She LOVES the time away from me I think too. And I love being able to be kid free for 3 mornings of my week. She is coming along in her speech too...but she will be getting evaluated soon. There are somethings that she mispronounces and letter sounds she hasn't quite got a hold of yet.
I have been busy keeping up with 2 kids, making up meals for our dinners as well as making up a plan for Freezer meals for later on this winter, I've also been trying to keep up with main area of the living area organized and clean which is nice to walk in and not see TONS of clutter everywhere. I just need to work on my crafting nook area (where I have the sewing machine that I haven't really worked for a while and my yarn) Sometimes the kids rooms look tornadoes have gone through them, sometimes our bedroom is not organized...but we just close doors when people are here...I mean who doesn't do that! After taking off the summer of knitting and creating...I'm back at it and I'm SO happy to be back.
Who knows when the last time I'll be here...hopefully sooner rather than later. After all I like to write about those mundane things in my life. Cause I know I don't get my words out otherwise, I mean I get words out when chatting with kids...but those are not what is that deep part of my heart. I love the conversations I have with my kids...but they aren't really always deep (after all they are only 6 and almost 4)

It's been long over due...

For those that want to read this blog every day...or regularly...I am sorry.
Left seems like it's the same old same old...Such as my day usually holds these items.

~ Make sure the kids are up and fed (they usually always get up on their own)
~ Get Z-Man on the bus for his day of school
~ Spend time with A-Girl as she is the only one home with me...occasionally do a little shopping with her. (Like grocery or craft shopping)
~ Some Tuesdays I have a Bible Study I go to along with A-Girl
~ Get Z-Man off the bus
~ Get the kids lunch
~ Wrangle the kids for a while; either go to the park, watch a movie, maybe even go to the pool (the water is still pretty cool)
~ Get A-girl down for a nap and try to get some "down-time" with Z-Man.
~ Get dinner ready and feed the kids
~ Have fun with the kids
~ Get the kids ready for bed, tuck them in and clean up the tornado left behind by said kids.

My wonderful hubby, is an intern at a hospital. SO his schedule is changing every 2 or 4 weeks. Some of his rotations are better than others...and he is home at dinner, sometimes he is home during the day but gone during nights, sometimes he has the weekend off, sometimes he's working for 24 hours straight, sometimes he has a day off during the week, on and on I could go.

I'm very lucky, I have been having a great start of my business. I basically feed my hobby of knitting and even sewing. You can always ask questions about it here OR find me on Facebook -- business page is called Rapped with Luv.

I'm hoping to get back to writing more on here. I need to process things a little more. BUT for now. I'm going to leave you.

It's been a long time...

So I could give you a number of reasons why I haven't been blogging lately.
~ Packing and stuff for our move from Iowa to Florida
~ Hanging out with friends in Iowa before we moved
~ Graduation week and weekend
~ Driving from Iowa to Florida
~ Trying to get settled at my parents house

BUT now I will try to blog a little. We ended up selling a bulk of our stuff so we didn't have to get a really big trailer to move stuff. But we ended up donating a lot of our winter clothes and clothes that the kids have out grown to Hope Ministries. So we were able to scale down a lot of our stuff.

We ended up hanging out with a lot of our friends before we left. Which was really good. The only thing that I wanted to do, but didn't get a chance was seeing the Iowa Cubs. All well such is life.

Graduation week is PACKED! On Wednesday, was the OMM Fellow dinner. On Thursday, was my SOS graduation and Rick's parents came in so we ate dinner with them. On Friday, Rick had stuff on the DMU campus in the morning and Zeke had his last day of preschool. For lunch we had our last DMU picnic, with Rick's parents and older sister. Rick and I were able to go on a date that night (we were suppose to go to the Banquet...but we didn't want to get all fancied up). On Saturday, it was GRADUATION! We now have a Doctor in the house! Out to lunch with the family. Kids took naps, and we should of packed forever and ever...BUT we didn't want to. Out to dinner with the family. To bed and we should of packed forever and ever and we did...but we didn't get it all packed up. On Sunday, we went to church and then we packed the rest of everything with the help of our family. LOTS of HELP from our family...and starting the trek to Florida.

Driving from Iowa to Florida we drove over 1,300 miles and entered 6 state lines. We ended up staying past St. Louis the first night and then able to stop again after we got past Atlanta the second night. Made it to my parents house on Tuesday.

Right now at my parents house we have my Grandparents here, Caroline and Colton and my parents (it's there house after all) and Becca and Bryleigh (after all they live here with my parents) Along with my family of four...it's a packed house! So we are trying to get settled but we are making good use of the pool. So that is always good.

OK...right now I'm tired. I'm sorry there are no pictures in this post...but I'll try to post tomorrow about something. :)

sorry...

I'm sorry for not being on the blog very often. There is a lot of transitions that is going on the Rapp household and I decided that blogging was not a thing that was very important at the time.
This has been what is going on...
Organizing, Packing, Cleaning, Selling our stuff we don't need, Donating the stuff we didn't sell, for our upcoming move to Florida.
Keeping up with 2 growing children; Zeke still goes to preschool 4 days a week in the morning. Aspen was sick for a little bit but seems to be feeling better now.
Trying to figure out what is causing a lot of pain in my joints, fingers, wrists, elbows, knees, etc. It's been so bad I have done any knitting since Friday of last week.
Here's what's next to come in the Rapp family...
Rick's last day of rotations is Thursday.
First and last trip to the Downtown Des Moines Farmer's Market on Saturday.
Next Wednesday I have an eye doctor appointment to see if something is wrong there that they could diagnose me with something.
Next Wednesday is the OMM Fellowship Dinner and we got a babysitter for the kids...so it's sort of like a celebration #1 for us.
Next Thursday afternoon is my SOS Graduation as well as Rick's parents come in for Graduation.  Get to spend the evening with them...Hopefully EVERYTHING will be packed except our clothes that we will need while we are still in Des Moines and our traveling down to Florida.
Next Friday, Rick has a bunch of stuff at DMU to get finished. It's Zeke's last day of Preschool. We have a Picnic lunch at school with all the other graduating people. That evening we have a Graduation banquet...Rick's Parents and Sister (who flies in earlier that day) will watch the kids.
Rick graduates from Des Moines University on Saturday, May 26th. So we are excited about that...we will go out that afternoon and just spend time with family afterwards.
Next Sunday we will go to Gateway Church for one last time and have lunch and then head down to Florida.

Well...I should go, I'm sorry no pictures. My hands, fingers, wrists and stuff are hurting to much right now...so I think I over did it.
God Bless!

FYI

Rick got home on Friday early evening...so I'm not a solo mama anymore! YEAH!
The weekend was kind of busy.
Friday:
~we enjoyed each other as a family
Saturday:
~we went to Pella and got some pictures of the tulips starting to blossom and bloom.
~I had a quilting ministry meeting from church for a couple hours (Rick watched the sleeping kids)
~we had a birthday party to go to
Sunday:
~we greeted at church
~we all took afternoon naps!
~skyped with Grandpa Tom & Grandma Jean
I promise when I'm not busy hustling after the kids, knitting, sewing, taking pictures, enjoying the beautiful weather...or prepping for this wonderful Easter weekend. I will be back on here to blog as well as to post pictures of different items.
So until then...you will just have to wait...unless you comment tons and tons THEN maybe I'll be more obliged to blog. ;) MEANING comment and tell me what you would like to hear from me next. :)

yes...

...I've made it to 5!
Today we got out of the house and went to a mall play area. As well as to a place to get our Iowa Food Co-op. Because I LOVE to buy LOCAL!
On the way home, Zeke fell asleep and then slept for a little bit...it took me 3 times waking him up. Because we were out in the afternoon poor Aspen didn't get to take her nap and she was in bed sleeping by 7:30.
I really should get to bed...SO I will!
Please pray for Rick as he is finding us a place to live when we move down to Florida. Thank you SO much!

Now we have 4

4 days with being a "solo" mama. I love my wonderful kiddos. Let me tell you a little bit about what I did today...
Well the weather was off and on rain, the sun did try to peek through just a little bit, I enjoy the smell of the rain so with the windows open and every now and then the breeze comes in...the smell is what I think Heaven should smell like. :)
Aspen has been getting to the point of feeling better. She slept in past 8 this morning. She took one nap that was over four and half hours long. She LOVES her tea pot with her cup and will either carry those around to share a cup of tea with me OR she will carry around a book called the 10 Little Ladybugs. She is TOTALLY a girl though and will find anything that looks like a phone and then say "hello" in her cute little voice.  I'm very thankful that she is getting better. It was so sad to see her not feeling well and doing saline and suction with her is not her favorite thing...AT ALL so I'm happy to be done with that!
Ezekiel has been very well at sleeping in to 7 this morning...which I'm thinking is WONDERFUL (he usually wakes up earlier than that and I'm happy about that) He is loving the wonderful ability of hanging out with me when Aspen is napping. He says hi and even waves at the birds or squirrels that come by. It's quite funny. He is now saying hi and bye to people when they come to the house or even leave. So that is good. We have been playing with cars, chuggers, building towers, reading books, playing with bubbles, coloring, etc...it's been loads of fun. He also loves putting on his clothes (as well as taking them off) OVER and OVER!
I have been sewing together a camera strap...for my Digital SLR. I've started working on some little knitted ruffle hats for the 2 littlest girls that were brought into our church family.
I'm sorry there are no pictures...it's been a interesting days but not really for pictures.

Day 2...

of chillin' with the kiddos!
I believe that we had a great day with playing inside, playing outside, feeling the wind, seeing the birds, seeing green life grow, watching a movie, smelling the rain fall (yes it has a smell), eating good meals, taking a bath and other stuff. EXCEPT take pictures.
So there are no pictures...sorry...
Monday came to me at 7 this morning...LOVELY kids! Thanks for sleeping in!!! YEAH!
Seeing that Aspen only took 1 nap yesterday she needed to take a morning nap and an afternoon nap. Zeke is enjoying playing, coloring and seeing how things work. He loves being outside and playing outside with dirt, sticks and enjoys to squish bugs. He stops and smells the flowers every chance he gets. We have also been working some school work (letters, numbers, colors, shapes, etc) since he is on spring break. I recently won a knitting pattern and I'm almost done with it...it has some sewing items on and that just takes some time. So hopefully I will get that done and get pictures taken and up on the blog here about the things I have done...seeing that I have been lacking on showing pictures of my "off the needles" projects.
Well...Richard I miss you and the kids miss you! Have fun working with the Dr. Dee's (there are two of them) and have a GREAT time finding us a place to live! MWAH! I love you!

Countdowns...

While I'm trying to figure out what all needs to get done around here...and what needs to get done down in Florida. I'm making a list with countdowns...that way I can have some guidelines of sorts. Some of it has NO conjunction with moving what so ever...
Daylight Savings Time will happen on Sunday March 11th (just for those that need to Spring ahead...here you are)
Rick leaves for a 2 week rotation down in Florida with the Pediatrician that my mom works for on the 18th of March. Hopefully he will be able to talk to someone about where we should live when we get down to Florida.
Zeke doesn't have school because of Spring Break from the 15th-23rd...IF you are in the Des Moines area let's get together!
Hosting a crafting club on the 23rd (at least that is the date I think)
HOPEFULLY it will get warmer here and I'll be able to get the kids outside and me cleaning out the garage phase 1...Sort clothes for either selling, packing or tossing.
Rick will be home for 2 weeks at the beginning of April, I have some stuff for SOS as well as some stuff for our church...then we are all hopefully off to Colorado for 2 weeks. 
When we get back (it will be May or close to it)...it's packing phase 2! meaning MORE cleaning and sorting into piles.
May will be the final countdown to Rick's Graduation, Zeke's end of his 1st year at preschool (so I will need to establish by that time...someone I can talk to about his schooling for the fall in Florida), Aspen will be turning 18 months during that time...and will have her last doctor's appt here at the DMU clinic (I know nothing really big for her but it's something) We will also have a garage sell during May sometime...getting rid of our winter gear and other items we don't want to move. :)
Moving will happen and I will be ready by Memorial Day Weekend!
Also to put on the countdown but I don't have specifics on times will be -- Some Iowa Cubs games, Tulip Time in Pella, fun with our friends here in Des Moines, etc.
Well...sorry for no pictures...it's time for me to get off the computer and clean up after lunch...and HOPEFULLY get at least 1 kid (hopefully 2) down for nap time!

Match Day!

Match Day (which was today) was a SUCCESS!!! Rick ended up getting his first choice!
He's pretty much in awe about that he still got into this stellar program. (which I will explain more about in another post...when I can form better words about it.)
BUT it does look like will be living in Orlando! So we will be able to...
...be close to my parents during the "wonderful" intern year (first year of Residency)
...be able to wear our Chaco sandals ALL year long!
...be able to visit the beach (often!)
...be able to get frequent tickets to Disney and/or Sea World!
...be able to visit Grandpa Tom & Grandma Jean in the mountains and maybe be there when it snows...so we don't forget what it looks like ;)
...be able to have a WHOLE other adventure for 4 years.

Tonight our great friends volunteered their evening to watch our kids so we could go out...SO we took them up on it! We had a great time! It was like a Match Day/Valentine's Day celebration all in one!
What a GREAT Match Day for us! I do know of others that weren't able to match and are waiting for the MD match...I'm praying and pulling for ya'll.
Sorry there is no pics...but I'm not sure how to put pics into this post...

It's been a while...

...sorry about that.
But I'm back. :)
We have been back in Iowa from Florida for over a week now.
We were really nervous about Z back in school. BUT he had really great days! He actually did quite well in our Bible Study (he was quiet, well mannered, played with toys quietly, etc.)
Aspen has been working on her walking skills (she won't do it without a finger or a walking toy) and she is working on quite a few teeth in there. :) She is enjoying having her own room, where her brother doesn't wake her up.
Rick is on vacation right now, which is nice, he helps by taking Z to school and helping around the house. :) He put in his Residency choices the other day. We will now in a couple weeks if a match happened and if he has to scramble or not.
I have been busy reading on my new Kindle Fire and knitting. Along with doing a 90-Day Challenge called Body by Vi. Along with meal planning, laundry, cleaning, organizing our stuff (soon), and then playing games and reading books with the kids and Rick.

Sorry no pictures in this post...in the next post is all going to be about Florida and what happened and such.

One more sleep...

I have one more sleep until Rick comes home. He's been in North Carolina for 5ish days. He had two residency interviews. He also took the camera (thus the lack of pictures on the blog lately) SO when he comes home tomorrow I'll see if he can give me some pictures and a little timeline of what he did as well as what is in the future Medical School journey timeline.
I hope that you are enjoying December. My kids have destroyed the family room...so off the blog I go and onto cleaning that way I can wake up to a clean house and Rick can come home to a clean house...and we can just spend time together as a family! Maybe we will put up some Christmas decorations...If you end up reading this...can you take part in my poll by leaving a comment. :)
So it's already the 2nd of December...in 17ish days we are leaving for a road trip to Florida...my poll is ---
Do I put up a Christmas tree even though it's only going to be up for that long (I want to take all the decorations downs before we go)
Or do I just put up the little decorations I have and maybe get some more lights up around...just so I can have the feeling of the lights up.
SO -- Yes to the tree only for 17 days or No. Also give a reason why you chose that answer. :)


Thanks for reading...
fine print - in no way do I have to choose the poll answers unless it is actually what I want to do. :)

Thankful Lists...#4

So this is the last one of my Thankful Series...It's going to be a catch all one. So the things I have missed from the previous posts will end up in here.
So from the previous posts I'm going to bullet point what I have wrote down already...
~ I'm Thankful for a God who loves me
~ I'm Thankful for my family
~ I'm Thankful for my friends
~ I'm Thankful for my Church
~ I'm Thankful for my ability to create
~ I'm Thankful for a house over my head
~ I'm Thankful for Des Moines University and my Significant Others' Support family...
~ I'm Thankful for Essential Bodywear (my job)
~ I'm Thankful for sports (to watch it and to play them)
~ I'm Thankful for technology
~ I'm Thankful for blogging

So it seems like I have already told you a lot of the things I'm thankful for...I'm sure like what else can she be thankful for. BUT I am SO blessed I just can't help but share more with you.
~ I'm Thankful for this Christmas Season coming...I'm wanting to set up certain traditions with my family. However since we really haven't been at the same place for Christmas...it's just hard. I don't want to set up something and then have to move it with us when we go to family for more celebrations. What certain traditions can I establish or think about when we are traveling.
~ I'm Thankful for the ability to be a mom who can stay home with my children. I love being able to be the sole provider for my kids!
~ I'm Thankful for Ezekiel going to preschool four mornings a week. I believe that it's the best thing for him to continue his learning process. There are for sure that some days are worse than others, with him not transitioning well but that is bound to happen...come on he's 3.
~ I'm Thankful for music...I love to have it play around the house. It's pretty easy to be in a good mood when I have music on. I enjoy it when I'm cleaning, when we are eating dinner, when we have people over, when driving to from place to place, and many others.
~ I'm Thankful for you guys...some of you I know personally (physically) and others I know personally (by reading your blog and you commenting). It really touches my heart when I see my post views and actually see that people are reading my posts. :) It also really makes my heart "skip a beat" when I actually get a comment on my page (can you do that more please?)
~ I'm Thankful for the ability to be an American, I'm Thankful for all the people; past and present who make that possible. I'm Thankful for the freedom (that I over look quite a bit I'm sure) that so many people and their families have sacrificed so I can enjoy that. I'm Thankful for the ability to Worship a God who loves me out in the open (meaning not hiding for fear of my life).
~ I'm Thankful for my love of reading...sometimes it's a love/hate relationship. Where as I get done reading a book and can't make it to the library for a new book (I know OLD school with reading REAL books) IF anyone wants the ability to surprise me for Christmas, I would LOVE a NEW Amazon Kindle Fire. :)  

Well again I'm sorry for no pictures...there probably won't be any other pics on here for a while (Rick is in North Carolina for 2 interviews for residency and he has the camera) With that said...I'm with the kids being a "solo" mother until Saturday. (Which is totally a piece of cake seeing that it's not weeks...it's only days) But I need to go get some much needed sleep. Thanks for reading...Please leave a comment!

Thankful #3

So even though it's after Thanksgiving...I'm still thankful and not finished with my Thankful Series you can check out them Here #1 and Here #2 so on to my Thankful #3...
~ I'm thankful for Des Moines University...Medical School is hard for anyone, let alone a growing family. I'm thankful that DMU has a group from Significant Others, where I can have friends who are going through the "same" thing as I am as a mother of young children...we are there to listen to each other and learn keys for supporting your student and being there for other families. DMU also has LOTS of family friendly events...such as a Harvest Family time (welcoming dressing up), Thanksgiving Day meal (which we have went to for the past 3 years), an Easter Egg Hunt, and a lot more activities that I am forgetting. I'm just very happy for the ability to have a "family" that knows what we are going through the hard process of Medical School.
~ I'm thankful for Essential Bodywear...my job "outside yet inside" my home. I also love the way EBW products fit everyone seamlessly! IF you would like to know more about it...hosting or selling (they are still doing a ROCKIN' way to earn money with only paying the shipping for your kit!)
~ I'm thankful for sports...I like being able to watch them either live or on tv and I also like to play most of them. I also like the ability to watch the rival games (The Michigan vs The Ohio State game is on right now...)
~ I'm thankful for technology...the fact that I can call or text my family is very nice! the fact that we can skype so my kiddos their grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc. the fact that I can connect with friends over facebook.
~ I'm thankful for blogging...the way I can be "myself" and just write. Along with the way I can win lots of really cool things from other giveaways on blogs...I TRULY love it!
Sorry no pictures...

alive...

We are alive in Florida right now with my family. Rick is here in Florida for a conference and an interview for a Residency. So seeing that my parents live down here and it's been a while since the Grandparents have seen the kids...they wanted us to come down as well! We worked that out to make it happen. :)
We arrived Saturday evening. Sunday was church and the day of resting after traveling. Yesterday was rainy all morning...but we did find a mall play area to have Z run around.
Right now it's fun to see the way that Z loves his Aunt Becca and when she has a blanket on. He curls up next to her...it's pretty cute. I really like it! Z really likes it...not sure how Aunt Becca feels about it some of the times.
Aspen is pretty attached to me when I'm around...but when she doesn't see or hear me she seems to be doing good.
Rick has his interview for a residency down here tomorrow...that being said they are taking Rick & I out for dinner tonight as well as putting us up in a B&B tonight. THUS meaning it's my first night in a LONG time where I don't have ANY kids! It will be SO weird! Please pray for my parents, my kids and me...I think Rick will be ok with it (seeing that he has been without the kids overnight before.)
Sorry no pics...got other fun things planned for pics.

WHAT??? It's October?

Let the crazy birthday month come again. Actually...I already missed saying Happy Birthday to my mother-in-love, Jean! Her birthday was on the 1st. TODAY is actually Rick's birthday!!! So instead of blogging I should be doing his birthday present. SO I will do that! I promise to be back later today...it's been a while since I have blogged and I have a little catch up to do.
Such as talking about the Farm Crawl...
Writing a post about my crazy husband's birthday wish...
Of course posting pics of the every changing kiddos...

Talk to you later!!! Check out the new way to leave a comment...I wanted to be able to reach you that left comments and questions with it!

What's going on...

So due to my facebook & twitter updates about my husband's interview...people have been asking him what goes on next. SO I thought I would put it in one place for people to look and understand. NOW if you are in Medical School or you have been through this process...you really don't have to read this post. You can, but it's mainly for those that don't know the process is. So this is how Rick's schooling went like at Des Moines University (DMU). DMU is a Osteopathic of Medicine Program...meaning it's a DO school.
Medical School - year 1 - lots of studying , lots of exams, studying, exams...etc. Summer--worked at DMU.
Medical School - year 2 - lots of studying, lots of exams, decided to see about getting the OMM (Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine) fellowship, studying, exams, getting the OMM fellowship, studying, exams, studying for the 1st step of boards, done with classes, studying for the 1st step of boards, taking the 1st step of boards, passing 1st step of boards.
Medical School - year 3 - onto rotations...working on figuring out what kind of doctor you want to be, what kind of doctor you don't want to be, figuring out what you want to specialize in, studying for step 2 of boards that you take at the end of the rotations and researching where you would like to do your Residency.
Medical School - year 4 & 5 - On Rick's OMM fellowship they have you on DMU campus for three 4 month time slots; Summer (May-August), Fall (August-Dec) or Spring (Jan-April). When you are at the campus you are working with the OMM doctors at the DMU clinic, teaching lectures to the 1st & 2nd years, assisting in labs to the 1st & 2nd years, doing some interview questions about OMM, doing your own research or projects, etc. SO when you are NOT on campus you are doing your rotations, studying for boards (the hands-on part in PA...ONLY for DO schools to do.), and doing interviews for Residency. In January the students and the residency programs put their final ranking in (like the Medical Schools and the students do for getting into Medical School) The way it looks like Rick is going to do it is to only apply for the Osteopathic Residency programs (which take DO) or the Dually-Accredited programs (which take DOs or MDs) MDs is what people usually think when they think of Doctors. We won't find out where Rick got matched to until Valentine's Day.
Did you want to know where about we hope to end up???
Orlando, FL (seeing that my family live nearby that would be AWESOME!) - this location has 2 programs in the same system that Rick is interested in...Family Medicine (FM) & the Integrated FM & OMM NMM (where Rick will dually boarded in FM and Neuro-muscular Medicine (NMM) thus he can teach at a school like DMU in the future)
Fayetteville, NC (this is a Dually-Accredited program) -- Praying we still hear back from these guys about Rick getting an interview! (Will you pray too!)
Sandusky, OH (just had his interview there...and Rick says it went really well)
Grand Junction, CO (this throws a little interesting mix to it...because this program is not part of the DO Match...SO we shall see if we want to do this one. BUT Rick has already interviewed here as well.)
IF you happen to have any questions please let me know by commenting and making sure I have a way to respond to you!
Thanks so much!

Tastey Tuesday...

So I have NO new recipes to share but I have made some GREAT stuff to eat in the past couple days. So when Rick is gone I rarely worry about meals. I fix stuff for the kids and then I do the horrible thing of snack in the evening. Usually on chips and salsa or chips and queso.
Although tonight I had people over for a committee meeting. SO I made pizza. LOTS of pizza. It's so simple for me. I get the already made crust, I get the pizza sauce and do some more "doctoring" up of seasonings, I throw topping on, then goes the cheese and there you go. PIZZAS!
I made a pepperoni pizza; a pepperoni with Canadian bacon; a Canadian bacon, pineapple and green pepper; and a BBQ Chicken with green pepper pizza. HOWEVER there is STILL a lot of pizza here.
The other day at the store I ended up getting some Cocoa Krispies and marshmallows to make some special treats...I think that these are the best tasting krispie treats I have ever made. I ended up throwing in some marshmallows with the krispies so they are still chunks of mallows in them. SO YUMMY!!! I bet my dear husband would like them like that too!

Again...I'm sorry for no pictures. Will try to be back with at least pics of the kids. :)

Monday, Monday...

Well usually on Monday morning we have Early Access come to our house to play and interact with Z-Man...HOWEVER, Z-Man has been running a little low grade fever over the weekend and was not himself at all this morning. He was acting a little more "blah" than normal. Like he had a case of the Mondays. :)

Let me get back to Early Access...they (either a teacher or a speech pathologist) comes every week. Usually it's on a Monday unless a holiday falls on that day then they come on Tuesday. We have noticed that Z says more spontaneous words every day. He will answer simple questions. He really enjoys them coming and playing with him. He's still not saying all the words he should be saying or saying simple phrases BUT he is learning and growing. So we know that Early Access (EA) works. So EA is only for kids up to 3 years old...Z will be 3 in August. So most likely he will qualify to be entered into a special Preschool. SO we looked at the one that is closest to us and had a look around. He will have to do more tests but I think that will happen after we get back from Florida.

Some people ask me what EA does...well they come and really play. They have a HUGE canvas bag of toys. They do a lot of pictures and ask Z which one is the _______ question. Sometimes he mimics them and says the words but sometimes he spontaneously says the words. I know that EA is working for my son, I wish that I would of asked about it sooner so he can get the most of out this program that he can.

My words of advice for mothers of little boys, yes their speech might be slower and not as developed but follow those motherly instincts about asking for help.

Z-Man really doesn't feel well though...I'm hoping he's better by Wednesday (which isn't very long AT all!) to fly. We are doing breathing treatments for his wheezing which seems to be helping. When we do them...he is in complete control which is ANNOYING!!! Cause it takes forever for 1 treatment to get done.

Well...I must go! But I wanted to share about EA and the little Z-Man.

Bittersweet...

Memorial Day 2011 is a bittersweet day for our family. Well...mainly Rick & myself.
When we started this Medical School journey here at Des Moines University. Rick would have been graduating this very weekend. SO that means a lot of his friends graduated today.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
Rick put it this way...say your a football star (you can be a baseball, hockey, basketball, soccer, etc star) So say you were on team 2011 and you got traded (in a better opportunity traded to be on team 2012). You knew that in 2012 you would win the Super Bowl (World Series, Stanley Cup, NBA champion, World Cup, etc) But right now you are watching your old team 2011 win that big game right now!
In the end it's a win-win for everyone. (Although I think we made out on the better deal) Seeing that Rick is an OMM Fellow we don't have to pay for tuition for years 4 & 5 of medical school (seeing that year 4 gets spread out into another year) If you want more info about Rick's schedule you can check HERE . It goes back to previous posts about his schedule and about the OMM fellowship.
Even though this weekend is bittersweet for us...it's still good knowing that we are doing the right thing for Rick's career and our family. Congrats to all the DMU students & their families (yes, you know who you are) that are now Dr & Mrs...and possibly Dr & Mr... I had a blast getting to know you and your families and hope we can stay connect through our DMU family! And YEAH for being ONE year away from doing all the celebrating!!!
And finally to you...Dear Rick, I understand that the time might be rough but think and process all the learning and growing you are doing through the fellowship.Next year it's your year!