What's Up?!

I noticed my posts have been a bit biased lately, because they're all about Tori! In my resolve to post on the first of the month her picture and what she's been up to, I've neglected to post about the other munchkins. They don't change as quickly as she does, but they are growing up fast. I saw a picture of Austin taken around November, and it shocked me at how much he's grown in 4 months. Here's the scoop:

Austin enjoys cub scouts. He's already received his Bobcat badge, and he's well on his way to earning his Wolf badge. He has until he turns 9 in July, and it shouldn't be too hard to finish by then. I'm really glad he likes scouts, and I hope it stays that way. He also recently started swim lessons again. I think it's been almost a year since we've done them, so he's a bit rusty, but he has a lot of confidence in himself and he works hard, so that's great! He's officially started orthodontic treatment (how's that for making me feel old) and has had an expander for a couple of months now. The pain was only bad the first couple of days and now it's no big deal. He tends to have some sensory issues, so I was really nervous how he was going to do with it, but he's done great.

Ms. Anne Elyse has officially started piano lessons with mommy. It's a pretty relaxed thing for now, and I've decided not to push her on practicing, since she doesn't quite understand that she needs to practice everyday, but I don't want to turn it into an unpleasant experience. She's also doing gymnastics. I think she can be good at it if she continues. She definitely has the body type for it. She's such a pip squeak, it kind of blows me away when I see her with other girls her age, she really is so small. She's by far the smallest kid in her class, and I think sometimes the kids tease her about it. I say, well, be glad you're the smallest and not the biggest. It's no fun being the tallest in class either. When I was in Elementary School, often I was one of the tallest girls in class, and I didn't necessarily like that either. She is also in swim lessons right now too.

Tyler is doing Joyschool co-op preschool with some friends from church two morning per week and is in our local ECEAP preschool with the school district for speech 4 afternoons per week. I think school stresses him out a bit, but I know it's good for him, and the more exposure he gets before kindergarten in the Fall, the better. He continues to be great at wearing his glasses, but the patching has been a challenge. I was disappointed that at our first follow-up visit with the eye Dr. his eyesight in his "bad" eye had not improved, even with the glasses. We are working on just doing small amounts of time each day with the patch. He needs to retrain his brain to look through the bad eye. I worry about when he gets older and wanting to play sports or what not that if we don't get the bad eye working better, it's going to hold him back. He's also doing swim lessons too. Oh, and he's discovered he now has TWO sisters he can tease instead of just one. :)

Do you want to know what Keith is up to? Work and school, work, school. Oh, and work and school. He finally got transferred off the Pike Place Market job, which was really burning him out. He's now at the UofW renovation project, and he's much happier there. He's lost 10 lbs. in about 6 weeks just because he has to walk 20 min. each way from the car to the job site. Lucky! :) He's contemplating getting rid of the horses so that he can afford a boat...whatever. Although, I think if I had the choice I'd rather have a boat than the horses too. We're too busy to ride them, and it's a big responsibility to feed them twice a day, not to mention an expense; however, we've all become attached to them. They're like pets now. How do you get rid of your pet? Keith's knee that he injured back in August has still been bothering him, so he finally got an MRI done the other week. He for sure has a torn meniscus and possibly a partially torn ACL, so it's inevitable that he will need surgery soon. He hasn't been able to do any of the sports he's loved to do in the past, mostly backpacking or hiking, so it will be good to get this taken care of. He sees the orthopedist again in a couple of weeks.

Me...I'm glad to report I'm back on the workout bandwagon. I was doing so good after I had Tori, and then when we moved I fell off, and yes, that's been almost a year ago. So now I'm 10 lbs. heavier than I was last year at this time. I'm not crazy about driving 25 minutes to get to the gym, but I was able to renew my Bally's membership for $10 a month. You can't beat that. I take their classes - either Zumba, Salsa dancing, or Powerball at least 3 times a week. I've already lost 3 lbs. in two weeks. Tori is not so crazy about being left in the daycare, but she is getting better and now if she cries, it's only for a few minutes, although I have to get there early and sit with her for about 15 minutes to help her get acclimated. I feel so much better when I'm getting some good physical activity. In a few weeks I'm going to Utah, just me and Tori, to see my new niece who is due to arrive any day now. I'm so excited to get away and get out of town!

The other exciting news is that we finally got our $8,000 "first time homebuyer" tax credit from the IRS. It only took 9 months! Sheesh! They had an issue with us claiming mortgage interest in 2007, which we did, because we sold our home in New York in March of 2007; however it had been more than 3 years since we had owned a home when we bought the house we're in now, so we still officially qualified for the credit. So now it's on to spending it in not so fun ways unfortunately. We have to put an engine in my Durango, we need some money for time off when Keith has his surgery, and it looks like we'll be spending about $2,000 to put up a privacy fence to block out our neighbors junk vehicles that he's parked in front of our house to make us mad. He was charged with 2nd degree animal cruelty by the county for shooting our dog with a pellet gun. So, I wish I could say we were going to Disneyland or something fun like that, but I think that will have to wait. I'm just glad we finally have it!