Lookin' back on 2013...

So I'm sorry I haven't been around much in 2013. BUT here is my way of doing a family newsletter.

January -- Was a time of checking in with Z-Man's Neuro doctor to see if there was anything wrong with that. We did the MRI and routine blood work and all the prelim stuff to try to figure out what was going on his little mind and what was going on. We also had Grandpa Tom & Grandma Jean come all the way from Colorado to visit us. We went to Sea World, a light house and just had fun with them while they were here.

February -- My hubby and I just went to Sea World together on a date. We road the rides there, sat towards the front of the shows, Dined with Shamu, we just had fun...it was a great date!

March -- Rick survived one of his tests, we had a good Easter and a good Spring Break.

April -- We have a diagnosis for Z-Man and his lack of communication and social skills...He now has ASD (Autistic Spectrum Disorder) and now that we know...we feel better prepared and we think we can figure out how to help him better.

May -- We tried to figure out where we needed to be in far of a school district, if we needed to move, if we needed to stay put, all the questions to "life". We even went on a Residency retreat and had fun with this wonderful view.

June -- We decided to move and are renting a nice house from a former Resident in Rick's program. Rick's parents came out to spend some time with us and sell us their car! We have no more school and we are just trying figure out what Vacation Bible School's to attend this summer.

July -- Getting moved out of the old place and into the new place...wild ride but we love our new place!

August -- lots of birthdays and anniversaries to celebrate, getting things adjusted to the new place, figuring out school for Z-Man

September -- Getting into the routine of Z-Man in school (a lot of the time A-girl and I spent it in the car as we dropped him off at school and picked him up)

October -- Another full month of birthdays to celebrate! Getting Z-man's new IEP (Individualized Education Plan) figured out and adding bus to it, so Aspen doesn't have to spend a long time in the car. We even went to Gatorland.

November -- Did the what am I thankful for this month with photos on my Instagram. Gearing up for the holidays but first Thanksgiving at our house.

December -- Rick finished off a "harder" rotation at the beginning of the month, then we settled down to get Christmas stuff ready for Z-Man's teachers, family members and friends at church. We did have our first time of going Strawberry Pickin' on Christmas Eve.  We actually went to Sea World 2 or 3 times...

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.

Odds-n-Ends Wednesday

So I figured this was an easy title...to fill in with odds and ends that I have been up to.
Wednesdays are days that Ezekiel doesn't have preschool. Usually we try to go to a park or a mall play place with the ladies from church. However, I recently read that Hand, Foot & Mouth is going around...SO we are having a movie Wednesday.
I have decided to go through my yarn stash and take pictures and put them all in my ravelry stash. So my poor laptop is working over time. I also have yarn that I have NO clue what the brand name is anymore. I know what it is made of and such...but those can't be added to the stash.
My knitting projects are as follow...I finished a cute little shrug for Aspen to wear on Easter. SO easy! The pattern is HERE. I really enjoyed it...PLUS it's FREE! I'm working on my Ruffle Sweater. I'm hoping to bring that with me to Colorado and get it DONE! Especially if I don't bring anything else for me to do...but you know me I won't do that and I'll bring another project or two. ;)

I mentioned last time that I'm part of a quilting ministry at church. We were suppose to do strips for the quilt. Where we piece 12 blocks. The blocks are all 10 inches...so I just pressed all of the blocks and put them gently in the bag, shuffled pulled two out and sewed them together...then pressed and did the exact same thing over again. Then pressed and figured out how I should put the remaining join them all together. I think my strip turned out rather well and it was so very easy! :) Especially for this beginner quilter. Take a look at my strip...

I've also been helping an etsy shop called Handmade for Hope, you can check it out here. ALL the proceeds go to Enlace, an organization working to bring sustainable living to communities in El Salvador. Your purchase will help bring hope to someone in need of clean water, food and shelter. 100% of sales from this shop go directly to this cause. Please visit www.enlaceonline.org to find out more. So I'm making camera straps for it. She usually has key ring holders...I know I bought one for my mom and my two sisters this year for Christmas. So hopefully we will be able to stock up the store and get money for Enlace!

 With the Easter Season passing...I helped out with 2 different Egg Hunts. One at Des Moines University (the significant other's group put's it together) and there I took pictures of the Easter bunny with the kiddos and families. The other one was downtown Des Moines, called Eggs, Eggs Everywhere and that one was put on by our church, The Gateway Church. I registered people and then made people feel welcome and answered any questions they had. We also had a great Easter dinner at out house and it tasted SO lovely. It was even nice enough to dye eggs in the back table outside.

So...that is my blog today...it would have been up a lot earlier BUT we ended up having some internet problems. Yeah internet problems.
Hopefully I'll be back tomorrow.

hmmm...sort of wordless Wednesday...

So on Sunday (the last day of July) I ended up taking pictures & and getting great news...I'm sorry that it has taken so long for me to let you know about it or see the pics.Did you know that it's hard to crawl in a dress?
But she sure looks cute!I certainly LOVE her!!!First he is just playing with his ChuggersHe then sees me and say hithen he figures out I'm taking his picture and says "cheese!" how can I not love him too!
The good news is that Rick is actually coming home (from Ohio) early! He's actually coming in on Thursday morning instead of Saturday morning. SO we have a sitter for us so we can go out on Thursday afternoon. We will actually be able to go to the Iowa Cubs game on our anniversary all together (Friday). Maybe even another trip to Farmer's Market on Saturday before Rick leaves for Colorado in the evening.