Here we are...

Zander: Do you know why Christmas is my favorite holiday?

Mom: Because you get to think about Jesus all the time? ;)

Zander: (thinking) Well, yes. But that's not what I was thinking.

Mom: Because you get presents?

Zander: Yes! And do you know why Halloween is my 2nd favorite holiday?

Mom: Because you get candy?

Zander: Yes! Two holidays where you get free stuff! It doesn't get better than that!

Man, is this my kid or what?! And is that good or bad??

In other news...

My job is still going great. I'm learning a ton every day and have decided it's probably time to start re-reading my textbooks now that I'm actually applying what I'm learning. The doctor is very helpful and answers all my questions. Still.

Michael has been looking for a job, with no luck so far. Until then, he's being a great stay-at-home Dad. As all you stay at home parents know, it can be exhausting fighting with kids all day, so I try to do my part when I get home.

Zander loves his new school. He's doing well. He got straight A's on h is report card a couple weeks ago. We've been able to see a few movies and go to a few activities here so Zander feels like he's been having "the best days ever" since we moved here. He's so cute.

Keagan is surviving being home all day with Dad and Sadie. He knows most of his letters, still loves to watch his Batman and Spiderman movies with Sadie, and play with his figurines, at which time he tells his sister it's a "one-player game."

Sadie will be 2 in January and is bossier than anyone in the house. When her poor brothers try to love and cuddle her, if she's not in the mood, which she usually isn't, she gives them the "straight arm." Still. Not sure that will change any time soon. But when she does allow her brothers to cuddle her THEY ARE SO CUTE!!

Texas has been good to us. The weather is colder than I thought, with temperatures this week ranging from the 30's to the 60's. It's cold in the mornings and nice fall weather the rest of the day. As for the humidity, when it's not hot out, you don't even notice it.

Our ward is great and we've made some good friends. We have new callings in church as the CTR 4 teachers, starting in January. So when Keagan moves up, we'll be his new teachers. We substituted in his Sunbeam class last week and there are 10 of them! Yeah, I said 10! It should keep us busy.

Another thing I love about Texas is the sunsets. I don't know if it's because there are no mountains to block the horizon, but I've never seen so many beautiful sunsets. One thing I hate about Texas is the traffic. the two freeways that I take to get to work are only 2 lanes! It's totally lame.

I don't think I have any great pictures of Texas, but here are some we've taken recently.

Our cute little family at our Halloween trunk-or-treat.

One of the beautiful sunsets. Not a great photo...taken with my phone while driving.

Dinner time. Don't ask.

Fall comes to Fort Worth.

Lighting of the town Christmas tree.

Zander got to be Joseph in our ward Christmas program. That's him with the scarf wrapped around his head. (I had done a better job before we got there, but someone "re-wrapped" him later.

To be a Mom

Last night Sadie woke us up at 4:00 am crying and covered in throw up. Michael and I tag teamed and got her and her bed cleaned up. Thankfully, he did the bed while I bathed the little one. (Throw up is one thing I don't deal so well with. Blood? No problem. Vomit? It makes me want to.) After getting her all cleaned up and in clean pajamas, I tucked her into our bed (with bucket nearby) and climbed in next to her. As I laid down, she rolled over towards me and put her little arm around my neck and patted my back, as she often does. I laid there being held by my little baby and was filled with warm fuzzy feelings about being a mom. There are few things that bring such joy as being loved by a child. My heart swelled and I fell asleep content, and nervous at the same time that she might throw up again.

One hour later we repeated the whole process. Minus the warm fuzzies. I was too tired at that point. And instead of falling asleep "nervous" that she would throw up again, I was sure she would and woke up with every stir and cough. Needless to say, I didn't sleep so well. But I would do it again because i love my children with all my big, swollen, happy heart. Even if I do have to pick vomit out of their hair.

My new job

Today marks one week at my new job. For those that don't know, I accepted a job in Fort Worth, Texas, at Rockwood Medical Clinic. I work with Dr. Guevara in his private family practice clinic. I've been working with him as I'm learning the ropes of the clinic and trying to feel comfortable practicing on my own. That may take some time.

When I showed up my first day, I encountered a number of surprises.

#1: MY NAME IS ON THE DOOR!! That's right. Look at that! I feel so important.

#2: This bouquet was waiting for me thanks to Dr. and Mrs. Guevara and the staff at my new office. Yes, it's as big as it looks. You know what they say...everything is bigger in Texas. =)

Here'a another shot the next day after it had started to bloom. It is an amazingly beautiful bouquet. And huge!!

This is the day after the Texas Rangers won the championship game. Everybody is so proud their team is going to the World Series for the first time ever! I came into work and Dr. Guevara was wearing his Rangers t-shirt and I said I was going to have to buy me one. He said he thought I might feel like that so he brought me his extra jersey just in case I wanted to wear it. Here's us in our Rangers shirts. And yes, he's only and inch or two taller than I am, and his wife is even shorter. =)

I love this new clinic. The MA's and office staff have all been so nice and welcoming. Dr. Guevara is so patient with my sometimes not so functioning brain. I love it here!!

My crazy kids

I've been writing down things the kids say that are funny and now need to throw away the scrap of paper as we're cleaning/packing.

So here it is:

Keagan: 1. (after Zander argues with me about something I asked him to do) "You got to listen to the mama!" in a sing song voice. So stinkin' cute!

2. When I was playing a game with him that works on his alphabet learning. He was getting tired of me asking and said, "Stop asking me questions. You're ruining my day."

3. After saying his first prayer that deviated from the norm, "I have a lot of words for Jesus!"

Zander: 1. He was playing on the computer with his friends and something wasn't working right. They started to ask me for help, then I hear this from Zander: "Here. Let me take charge. I know everything about this computer and how it works." I about fell over trying not to laugh out loud.

2. I was pushing the kids (all three of them) on the swings. I hadn't gotten to Zander in a few minutes and he says, "Mom, I'm losing altitude."

Where do they come up with this stuff?

And for Sadie? Her vocabulary is growing every day also. She now says: mommy, daddy, mama, mine, baby, doggie, hi, hello, bye-bye, yeah, owie, and probably other I can't think of right now.

I love my kids!

Keagan helping Sadie walk on the cement wall at the library.

Daddy giving horsey rides.

The kids weathering the heat on the way home from Arizona. This is a stop at the Marble Bridge (or something like that). It was so cool!

It's time...almost

We're getting ready to move. It happens ONE WEEK FROM TODAY!! We've been packing slowly, getting everything we own in boxes. It's tiring. We are picking up the moving trucks next Wednesday night, packing them Thursday, then driving Friday and Saturday to arrive at our new home in Fort Worth by Saturday night!

I've been reading my sisters blogs and they are so great (lately) about updating them and doing pictures, that I was inspired.

So, here's some random information for the last little while, with visuals. =)

A few weeks ago, Michael was on a business trip to Canada for a week. The first day he was gone, it wasn't even 9:00 AM yet and the kids were driving me crazy. I decided I didn't want to be mom and dad to three crazy children for a week by myself, so we took off and drove to Arizona to stay with my sister, so we could go crazy together!
The kids had a great time, of course. Here's some of the highlights.

We arrived about 2:00 AM. Because I wasn't planning on going, it took us a while to pack and get on the road. Then it's a 12 hour drive. The kids did amazingly well.

The play area/splashpad at the mall:




The pool:



The motorcycle:



We have a neighbor with a peach tree that needed help cleaning up her tree and yard. We picked 10 gallons of peaches and I canned 21 bottles!! And Michael even helped. Thanks Babe! =) Here's proof:



Okay, that's good for now. Enjoy!

WHEW!

Today was a big day. I took the PANCE (Physician Assistant National Certification Exam) which will give me a license to actually work as a PA. It is a forever long, 6 hour 360 question test. It’s broken down into sections of 60 questions that you have 60 minutes to answer, 6 times. Yeah, it was a long day. And it started with them making me empty my pockets and turn them inside out. I had to put my chapstick in my locker and put the barrette and clip in my hair before I went in. Had to take off my watch, and take the hair elastic off my wrist and put it in my hair! Not even that could be on my wrist. So I walked in with all three things in my hair and promptly took them out and set them on the desk. But I least I had them. It was crazy! The good news is I had 45 minutes of break time to take whenever. I started at 11:00, and took the first two sections back to back, then took a 15-minute snack and bathroom break. I went back, took sections 3 and 4 without a break and by the 4th hour of testing my head was swimming. I took a 25-minute lunch/rest/bathroom break and headed back to start hour/section 5. After that, I took my last 5 minutes to run a lap around the building and gear up for my last section. Then, WHEW!! I was done! I thought I would feel some great relief when I was finished, but I didn’t. Maybe when I find out I passed it will come.

I came home, my awesome sister-in-law Denise, who watched my kids had dinner ready and we all sat down and ate, then the kids and I watched the first part of Holes. Michael was busy with wedding stuff again tonight. He works all day at Curtiss Wright, then comes home and does wedding stuff. Thankfully he has now hired two very competent girls to help with wedding planning and that hopefully means things settle down eventually.

In other news, I’ve applied for a few jobs. The one I’m most excited about is at the Solitude ski clinic. That would be awesome! It’s a full-time, fully benefitted job, but seasonal. I’ve also applied with some agencies and got a call today about some openings out of state. I don't know, we’ll see how it all works out.

Zander started school yesterday and has Mrs. Baumgardner (Mrs. B) as his teacher and likes her. He seems pretty happy about school right now. That makes me happy. He's still the tall, skinny kid he's been still landing >97% for his height. And he's smart as a whip.

Keagan is itching to go to preschool and I’m itching to get him there. He's so ready to start having structured learning and play with friends his age. He always plays with Zander and his friends, which usually works out well, but I'll be happy when he's with his peers. It will happen eventually.

Sadie is getting as big as ever, starting to say new words and make new sounds. Tonight she told me that a frog says “bi-bi-bi” (like rib"bi"t) and that a cow says “moo”. She also likes to dance. Any time music come on she starts waving her hands and bouncing. She is so stinkin’ cute.

Now I’m ready to get me some ice cream, turn on a movie for me and just relax the rest of the night. Or maybe I'll sit here and read blogs. Something I haven't done forever.
And here are some recent pictures just for fun because everybody loves pictures!
Later!

On afternoon when we were swimming in our little pool. I don't have pictures of the kids in the water because I have to be there with them...=)

Some other lovely nature pictures. I love to take these.

Weekend Fun

Here's some fun pictures from the last few weeks and weekend activities.

We went to the LDS Church garden in our area and volunteered to help out. It's funny I had forgotten this memory as a child, but when we got there I remembered doing this in Indiana too. But, today we got up about 630 fought to dress the kids pack them in the car and go. We had a good time (after the whining stopped) and weeding this entire row to help get it ready to be winterized. They harvested the cabbages that were in the just prior to us arriving and we picked up the left overs and then weeded. It took us 2 hours all together. Each of the kids helped. Rachel wants to say, "look how far I've come mom and dad, not one bathroom break. ;)"


Sadie was taking a bath and decided she was done. She got herself out, got a towel (hand towel) and wrapped in around herself. We were all laughing so hard I had to quickly grab the camera. What a cutie!



Keagan trying to become a REAL Spiderman by working of some rock climbing skills at the Gateway.



Braxton and Zander having fun.


They all took the train to downtown. My little sister decided to surprise them and join in on the fun. What a great sister.



My nephew Nathan and Melody got married.


I actually mowed the lawn (it hasn't been a regular occurance this year). I think it's great that each of my kids have a great desire to help mow the lawn. I just hope it lasts. Zander has decided he's old enough to mow the lawn on his own this year. I've tried to let him do it by himself a couple times. He thinks it's great...at least for a few minutes.

FINALLY!!

THAT'S RIGHT...

GRADUATION DAY!!!

I actually walked in May, because the school of medicine walks once a year, and had my official PA program ceremony on August 6th. I'M DONE!! Well, now I have to take boards and pass to be able to work, but, I'm on my way!!

I thought I had a job, but it didn't work out last minute. I really want to work in family practice, but either there aren't as many of those jobs available as I thought, or I just don't know where to look. If anyone hears of anything, let me know!

Here is my big day in May with caps and gowns and Masters hoods. Very fun! and beautiful flowers from Michael. He also arranged a party for me at our house. We had a great time celebrating!

This is certainly the most expensive piece of paper I'll ever hold!

And these beautiful flowers are from my parents. My sister (*thanks Jess*) also sent me a lovely arrangement, but I can't find that picture right now.

Love my fam!

And....

Michael has a job!!

His old boss called him. Turns out he was just promoted up to the corporate company and wanted to hire Michael back on to work with him again. They are their own separate marketing group now, managing not just the corporate stuff but marketing and advertising for all 7 daughter companies (including the company he was at before!).

Things are certainly looking up for us....

Now if I could just find a job...

=)

Oh! and I'm on Facebook now, so find me and be my friend!

Grab a stick of Juicy Fruit. The taste...it's gonna move ya!

What a great time this past week! It was the Gonzales Family Vacation. This year we went to Yuba Reservoir next to Scipio, which is where my g-ma Flora came from. While there we floated on the lake, rode the tube, skied, wake-boarded, etc. The kids had a great time hanging out with their cousins.

Saturday was a little hairy with constant strong winds all day. By 3 we had to take the boat off the water because the white caps were starting to over take the boat! Around 830 the winds died down enough to allow a few to grab some glassy water before sundown. I coaxed Rachel into going since she hadn't had a chance to ski to that point. She had a great time and got to slolom.

Friday I had my chance to wake board for the first time in years. Here's some great footage of me crashing. It really hurt! Keagan even tubed with Rachel. Zander chickened out.

An update...finally

Well, we're still here and I thought I would say hello for those that do occasionally tune in. Hello!! We are doing pretty good. Michael is doing wedding planning these days, and he absolutely loves it. However, it doesn't necessarily pay the bills, so he's still doing freelance work on the side and is still looking for a steady paycheck that comes from someone else's pocket. =)

I'm doing a rotation at a family practice clinic in West Valley. They have 3 family practice docs and 2 OB/GYNs. And I happen to know that they are looking to hire... I loved my OB rotation, but it's still family practice, that also sees a lot of babies/kids. Right up my alley. And 90% of the patient population only speaks Spanish. Another plus for me. After I'm doing there in two more weeks, I do my surgery rotation during the month of July, then I GRADUATE the first week of August! It's so close!! Now I really need to focus on studying to pass boards so I can find a job and start paying back all my student loans. But the end is in sight!

Zander just finished 1st grade and is sooo excited to have summer here.

Keagan is right behind his big brother, doing everything he does.

Sadie is almost 1 1/2 now. She is Miss Independent, but so very needy at the same time. She said a new word the other day..."Me!" Wow. What a surprise. It's actually very cute as everything they do at this age is. She also says hi, mom, dad, bye, uh-oh and baby.

All in all things are good. I know Michael has done a pretty good job of updating the blog but I wanted to add my two cents.

Later!

little mister pouty face

Today I had to take the kids out to do errands again today. I sure wish I had one of those free sitters that some of my friends keep talking about. Oh well. It went pretty well until I had to send Keagan out to the Jeep for a time out because he keep hitting the wedding balls (paper machet) when I told him no repeatedly. Slight embarrasing.

When we got home Keagan started to thow a fit that he couldn't find his batman shirt (gray one with Robin on it too). I argued, but you are wearing a batman shirt. No...not this one!! He started to cry and laid on the floor. I told him I didn't want to listen to him cry, so he should cry in his room.

Next thing I know Zander is saying Keagan is in the pantry and won't come out. I said it was okay. I didn't realize he'd taken his pouting to the pantry. I thought he was just getting a treat after finishing his lunch. Some 10 minutes later I didn't hear him anymore and noticed the pantry door was shut again. I opened the door and this is what I found.....

Summer, Summer, Summertime!

So it finally felt like summer had hit the Gonzales home this last week, even though temps are still below the 80s and even into the 60s. I think this has to do with our new pool. The kids love it!!!! The first day it was up it was in the 80s and Keagan and Zander first got it in around 10am had a quick break (very quick) for lunch and then swam all afternoon until 6 or so when dinner was ready.

I love summer! And, with this small kiddy pool in the backyard it reminds me of my childhood days with our semi-large pool (about 3x the size of this kiddy pool) in the backyard. We swam ALL the time and most days the neighborhood kids came over to enjoy it also. Ahh...those simple days. (course that's not what my parents are sayin'! haha)

Enjoy the pics.