Well, summer is over. We're back to structure and routine and schedules. I love it! I love summer too, but the uptight control freak inside me really loves the structure of the school year. I love calendars and check lists and all the neat things that come along with Brent working and Mariska going to and from school.

 

I took my CNA exam two weeks ago. I had no problem passing, it's just like riding a bike. - I still have yet to get my actual certificate in the mail, which is really annoying, but it should be here any day now. I've applied to 6 different part time hospital jobs and haven't heard back from any yet. I'm actually having a pretty hard time with it and I've spent a lot of this week in a sort of frustrated depression. I'm trying to snap myself out of it, but sometimes that's a lot easier said than done. I'm really trying to remember that all things are in Heavenly Father's hands and that everything will work out according to what he knows is best for us. It's still hard to deal with not a single phone call though, I was super excited to pass my test and get out there and really "hit the pavement" getting a job. I was really hoping that my resume wasn't quite so pathetic and out dated. But hospitals are really looking for people with recent experience. My last actual CNA experience was 6 years ago!! Plus, I've actually never applied for a job and not gotten it, so this is pretty new.

So, that being said, I'm going to keep applying, but I'm also going to print out some resumes and go apply at some hospice companies. If nothing pans out with them, I'll start going back to some nursing homes. I really hope to only work part time through the school year and then find a full-time job next summer. - And get going back to school for my RN. But I can't do either of those things if I don't find something else to update my resume with during the school year.

 

Brent is just about as tired and overwhelmed as he can get!! Second grade is really kicking his butt! They are so dependant and he has to help them with everything, it is very different from 5th grade. Even though he's really beat, we are thankful that he's having the experience of a younger grade, because it will help him in years to come as he moves on into administration.

 

Mariska is in 1st grade this year! She loves school. She absolutely thrives during the school year. She gets bored really easily during long breaks here at home. During the school year she is busy and entertained and social and LOVES it! We have a lot of friends down here that homeschool... and I just don't get it. It certainly only works for certain types of people, and I don't think Mariska or I are those types! She has had fun this week especially because her good friend from last year, whom we thought was moving away over the summer, actually didn't! So she's loving that. She's also having fun because two of her friends from church are at her school this year now too. They weren't last year. She even gets to car pool in the morning and ride the bus home with one of them! This week has been really great for Mariska.

 

Brynley is as sweet as ever. She's still pretty obsessed with Candy Land, but it's not constant anymore. We're really excited for next week for Brynley because she begins her little once a week preschool down the street. It's being done by the same young girl that did it for Mariska 2 years ago. They do a great job. It's only for 3 hours every Wednesday, but they pack a ton into those 3 hours and Brynley is going to LOVE it. Also next week the library starts "Story Time". Brynley has certainly missed that over the summer. I'm also hoping that once I find a job, she'll get to go down the street to a woman's house that has other kids with her during the day. I'm not sure if it's run in a structured way like daycare is, but she'd love going and playing with other kids once or twice a week.

 

Last week on the last day of summer break, my friend and I took our kids to a place called "Pump It Up" and we all had a BLAST!! They had 5 different giant bounce houses, the kids only really played on 3 of them, but they had the greatest time! I am definitly going to look for more coupons to one closer to our house. Brynley keeps asking me if we're going to go to the "jumping store"... everything to her is a store. After we went to Six Flags, she kept asking to go back to the "roller coaster store". We'll go back someday!!  

Mariska on her first day of 1st grade!! I can't believe how big she is getting!! I love it! It's so much fun!

Brynley helping me clean. She says, "I need to wash"... her dusting my mattress is a BIG help.

Brent plays a game with the girls called, "Can't get past me." - It's the most basic of games you can think of, but the girls LOVE it. All they have to do is... try to get past Daddy. I apparently didn't really get a picture of Mariska, I'll have to next time.

 

 

 

 

It's been a while since I've posted... so here we go.

I finished my class. Although I can't take the state certification test until August 16th. It's been driving me crazy!! I hate just waiting around for it.

Well, that's about it. Summer is way too long. We started out productive and eager and now it's just dragging! It's too hot to do much after 10 or 11am - We've still been going to the library shows and we've been letting the girls play at McDonalds some. Eleven weeks of summer is just way too long. Six to eight weeks would be just perfect, but when it miserable to go outside and you don't have a ton of money to blow on outings, the days get monotonous.

 So Brent made a solar oven with Mariska and they made some little tortilla pizzas. Mariska loves it and suggests we make everything in it now.

 Brent took the girls to the zoo again while I was in class. Mariska finally gathered the courage to go near the fake alligator's mouth!

 Brent also taught Mariska to ride her bike without the training wheels! She is super good at it and loves riding the trail at the park near by.

 Brynley has become completely obsessed with Candy Land. She hates it when anyone wins and if she wins she throws a fit and goes back to the beginning. We also have a little Candy Land cartoon movie at the library that she can watch about 100 times a day. 

That's it for now. We're just handing around, so I probably won't have anything to post until school starts!

BUSY!!

This post is going to cover the last 2 weeks, so buckle up! We've been having so much fun and staying busy! 

It's starting to get too hot and humid to really go out after about 11am, so most of our afternoons are spent reading, doing things like play-dough or painting at the table and watching videos or playing "baseball" on the Wii.

 This picture is Brynley going her new alphabet puzzle. It matches upper case and lower case letters. You put the upper case letter on a white spoon and the lower case on the clear spoon and she puts them together. She had a good time with it, but it was so much she had to take a break half-way through!

 Last Friday we went to the library to see "The Creature Teacher" and she had some fun little animals. She let all the kids pet a chinchilla. She also had some chirping cockroaches! She had some lizards and other fun things, like the tree frog below.

 We now have an In-N-Out about 15 miles north of us!! I LOVE In-N-Out!!! Last Saturday we took the girls there for dinner on our way up to a fun night time opening at the Dallas Zoo. We had lots of fun!

 I'm not so sure what Mariska is doing in the picture above, but they had lots of fun putting the stickers on their hats. They played with these hats for an entire week. I love that my kids are easily pleased!

 Mariska suddenly turned gangster.

 The night time zoo opening was super fun. We didn't do any of the bounce houses or face painting or anything because it was SUPER crowded... but the animals were really active and it was fun. I wish they were open at night all the time. I don't get why they aren't...

 The lion was roaring most of the time we were over there. 

 The gorilla got our hearts racing when he jumped up and pounded on the window! He did it a few times and it made us jump pretty good!

 Brent is so funny! He makes us all laugh all the time! Mariska is trying to save him by hitting the alligator.

 The monkeys were all over the place!

 This picture above is the girls walking down the "Gorilla Trail". It was really cute because Brynley would do everything Mariska did. If Mariska skipped, Brynley skipped. If Mariska hopped, so did Brynley. Super cute. Brynley sure looks up to her big sister. It was so funny, this week Brynley had some serious attitude and talked back to me really rudely, I told her not to and to talk nice and Mariska says, "She gets that from me ya know." - No kidding!!! It was pretty funny.  

 Brynley has become obsessed with playing baseball on the Wii. We just play the game where you hit the ball and try to get home runs, we don't actually play ball games, I don't think Brynley would find that as fun. Last Sunday we took pictures because we thought it was funny that Brynley refused to get dressed for some reason..

 I have finally started my CNA (certified nurse assistant) class!! It's Monday - Thursday from 8-12. This last week Brent also had his principal training, so for 3 days the girls went to a friend's house and had the time of their lives. On the first day I forgot to call when I was 10 minutes away to warn the girls I was coming to get them and I had to take Brynley out kicking and screaming... I didn't make that mistake again!

 I brought home a few gloves from my class and the girls had a great time with them. They are so much fun. 

This class is a lot different than the one I took in Utah, what - 8 years ago!! Yikes... the last one I took set the bar pretty high. It was really thuro and hands on, we had homework and tests, ect... this class, is not so much. This one seems to be more like, you read the books, learn the stuff yourself, practice at home and then class time is more just a review. She's even giving us the tests to study from... the actual tests, not just a study guide. I'm kind of disappointed because I was really excited to take real tests and have real homework and such... but oh well. I've just got to get it done. 

 I'm also kind of irritated because I can't take my State Boards until August 16th!! Then I have to wait for my license to show up before I can start applying to jobs. So it will probably be September before I can, which is seriously frustrating!! But, what can I do? Not much. So I'm just reading my stuff and going to class and eventually it will all get done. I'm really excited to get back out there and earn some extra money being busy doing a job I know I can do well and enjoy. 

 At the end of my test on Thursday they asked: Why do you want a career in nursing/healthcare? - My answer was, "I like taking care of people, I enjoy medical/anatomy knowledge (education) and I like a busy job!!" - although I was temped to put "because pretty much everything else is boring" - but I thought they wanted more details than that. - If all goes as planned (fingers crossed) I should be going back to school to work for my RN degree either next August (2013) or January of 2014.... hopefully sooner rather than later, but we'll see!

This is a random wild sunflower we've got growing in our yard.

We had fun at the library activity today, but I didn't take any pictures. It was a spanish lady doing puppets and singing songs to teach some simple spanish, like counting, saying "how are you" ect... Brynley loved the songs. Mariska actually knew most of the numbers she taught.... at the end they did the Macarena, except they spun around at the end instead of shaking their booties, which I appreciated!! It was a good time.

That's pretty much it for now! I'll probably blog again after the library activity next week.

Fun At Home

Today is Monday. We went to a birthday party at a great park in Midlothian and then we went up to my school to buy my textbook for my class... which starts in ONE week!! But we've also had some fun at home over the weekend...

Brent and the girls made GAK while I went shopping for my scrubs and such. Mariska loved it, Brynley wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole.

 Whenever we make bread, they get to play in the flour. It's a huge mess, but it keeps them busy for a good while.

And today they are out painting the driveway with water. Super fun stuff. We also just got finished playing Brynley's very first game of Candy Land, which she won by the way. She loved counting the squares and moving her piece, but didn't get that reaching the end of the trail ended the game. 

That's it for now!