September

We're doing well. Brent is getting all of his after school activities planned and ready. On Mondays and Wednesdays he's going to have a school newspaper club. Tuesdays he'll have after school tutoring and on Thursdays he'll have a book club. While this will be a lot of extra work, I think it's also going to be fun for him to do, and the extra money is always nice.

We had a lot to think about this week when we received an email advertising a reduced tuition for enrollment in Brent's Educational Administration Master's Degree program. The issue was that he had to enroll for this December's classes!! We know it needs to be a priority, and saving $1800 would be nice, but the rush just didn't feel good to us. We're going to take this year and get more settled and plan things out better. The plan for now, details to come soon, is for him to start the program next fall. It's a 2 year, online program. We're just praying for guidance to know what to do for our family and how to prioritize everything we do!

My job is killing me! I told them back in late August that I need to switch off of the Friday and Saturday grave shifts and move to swing shifts on Saturday and Sundays. But they still have yet to get someone trained to take my place on graves, so I have to stick with it until the November schedule. But I've told them that starting on the November schedule I'm only going to work one shift a week. I don't care if it's the Saturday 3-11 or the grave from 11-7, but I'm only working one. It's a little extra income but not too much extra time away from home, and it'll keep me on the pay roll so I can be full time, if possible, in the summers while Brent is off work.

All of my weight loss is gone and I haven't actually worked out in weeks, thanks to the graves and my weakness of being lazy. I hope to go on walks through October and then when I switch to one shift a week get back into it more. I hate that I've yet again failed at my goals, but that's not an uncommon tale in people with weight problems. Although I really need to work out because it's my miracle anti-depressant. I can't believe the difference in my moods when I'm working out versus not working out!!

Brynley is getting so big! She is still the 95th percentile for height and the 80th for weight. She can clap now! She just started to on her own. She's still obsessed with either putting everything in her mouth or putting her mouth onto everything. I caught her licking the front of the refrigerator the other day. I'm hoping this phase will pass soon!

Mariska is still a lively and independent cutie. We've decided that we needed to prioritize our budget better and to take her out of Mother's Day Out. She loves it, we love it, but there are so many other places to put that money right now. I'm going to take her to the local church play groups and to the story time at the library. She'll be alright, she still won't start kindergarden for another 2 years (fall 2011), so we aren't too worried about permanent damage being done. As much as we hate to admit it and as much as we want to afford it, we just can't justify paying $60 a month to that, considering they nap for almost 2 hours of it. She talks so well! Everyone always thinks she's about 5! We got a good laugh the other night when she called Brent a "blithering boob"... thank you "Horton Hears A Who"!

Anyway, that's about it for us! I've included some baby pictures of Mariska, so you can compare!

She put "medicine on the dog's ear to make it stop itching". She's going to be a vet. Here is Mariska at 9 months...Brynley in her death trap. She loves it.This is Mariska at 10 months (above).

No hair... you tell me. Mariska or Brynley?