The life I lead...

Well, it's apparently been a year since I've updated this thing. So much for that. I guess that is what Facebook is for!

A lot has happened since we last talked. Jim finished OCS in August! We are all so very proud of him. He left for Oklahoma in November for his Basic Officer Leadership Course.... I think that is what it's called. We'll just call in BOLC. It's been rough, if I'm being honest. The first week or two wasn't so bad at home, then all of a sudden Jimmy was having bad nights and not wanting to stay in bed and screaming for hours before he fell asleep. Jim came home for Christmas and Jimmy was still acting up. But, it was really good to have daddy home for those 2 weeks. We had a really nice Christmas with family and friends. Jim went back to Oklahoma on Jan. 2nd and has been there ever since.

I was lucky enough to spend the long President's Day weekend out visiting him. That was a nice little break from the kids and nice time just being with Jim and not having anything to do.

Jim will be graduating on April 12th and home for good by the 15th!! We couldn't be more excited!

Alli has been doing so great! She is now 5 years old!!! She is loving her 2nd year of preschool. She has come a very long way since last year. She continues to grow and become more beautiful everyday. On February 28th she was trying to "fly" off the brick hearth and didn't quite make it. She landed on her right arm. She was in pain, but she could move it so I didn't worry too much about it. Then later in the afternoon she was really complaining about her wrist hurting. So I decided to take her into urgent care just to be on the safe side. X-rays were done and there was no obvious break, PHEW! But they did send her home with a splint. Just a couple of days ago she was saying that her arm really hurt. So I took her back to the doctor and they did another x-ray. Turns out she has a very, very small fracture. HA!!! No cast, just a better brace. Kindergarten round-up in on May 3rd. I just can't believe it!

Jimmy is 3! That's pretty much all I need to say right?!!!! :-) He's such a cute boy and gets away with waaaay too much! Daddy needs to come home fast!!! Jimmy is very smart and is talking like crazy. He will be starting preschool in the fall. GOOD LUCK Teacher Lynda and Teacher Chris!!! ;-) He really needs to go and have the social interaction with the other kids.

I'm doing well. I joined a local gym here in town last spring. What a great stress release that is. I've been doing a daily bootcamp since November and it has been great! I can totally tell it's working. I know it doesn't sound like I do much, but I do. It's just not that interesting and no one really wants to read about it!!!

BUSY

Well the month of March was busy. Jimmy had his tonsils and adenoids removed on St. Patrick's day. Everything went smoothly. Spending the night at the hospital was interesting. Jimmy didn't want to sleep in the jail-like crib they have there so either Daddy or Mommy had to hold him. Not an easy task when he has an IV in his hand and Oxygen sensor thing taped to his thumb, but we managed. Jim had to leave at 4AM from the hospital to go to the airport and hop on a plane to Kentucky for an Army conference, so mommy had to deal with Jimmy at home by herself. Thankfully the wonderful grandparent's were available to keep Alli with them. Alli took turns with my mom (Nana-Mama) and Jim's parent's (Nana & Papa). Alli was away from home for 4 nights!!! I missed her but it was nice because all Jimmy wanted to do was sit on my lap.

Jim turned 30 on March 26th!!! We had his parent's over for dinner on his birthday and had a nice visit. Then on the 27th he and another guy who's birthday is the 29th, had a party at the McMenamins Grand Lodge here in Forest Grove. It was really fun, we got to see a bunch of friends that we don't get to see very often. Good times were had.

Oh my gosh!! I totally suck at keeping this thing updated.

As usual, the Ellifritt household is busy.... and by Ellifritt household I mean Jim. He's in the final stretch of OCS, he will be officially done with that in August and August couldn't come fast enough. He's still in school too and doing so well. I am so very very proud of him. Thankfully he will be finished with school in October. Whew..... we will finally have daddy back!!!

Allison is almost done with her first year of preschool. She will be done in May and that is coming very quickly. She still really loves it and likes to be with her friends and teachers. Alli is also been learning how to write her name and she is doing great! She still gets a little frustrated at times but we just stop and re focus.

Jimmy is still a happy active boy. He will be going in this coming Wednesday (3/17) for his first and hopefully only hospital stay. He will be having his tonsils and adenoids removed and since he is only 2 years old he has to stay the night. So mommy and Jimmy will be staying up at Doernbecher's Children's Hospital for the night. Hopefully with having those removed he will get more oxygen and be able to keep up with his sister when they play.

I lost my grandmother 2 weeks ago and it's been hard. I didn't think I'd have such a hard time with it. But, I'm trudging on because that is what I have to do for my family. I don't have the time to sit and feel sorry for myself. I just have to know that she is in a better place and not in anymore pain. I just hope she knew how much I loved her.

End of 2009.

Well for the most part nothing has really changed. But some things have.

Jim: Still in school and doing very well. He's starting to get a little burnt out though, VERy ready for it to be over with. OCS is still going on too, almost done. He is in the final stretch now. He seems to be busier then ever these days.

Allison: Alli is loving pre school. She is on winter break right now and bored out of her mind. We took her to a speech therapy screening earlier in the month, she has another evaluation in January to see if she qualifies for the free services provided by ESD. I don't think that she will so we just need to continue working with her. She is getting better everyday at putting words together and them making sense. Alli will be 4 years old in February!! I can't believe I will be the mother of a 4 year old....She won't stop growing!! She is getting so tall and very skinny. I wish she would eat more but I'm told that 3 year olds are picky eaters... that's the understatement of the year in this house.

Jimmy: He's our happy go lucky boy. Jimmy just goes with the flow most of the time. He does like his routines. He needs his morning nap otherwise it gets messy and he's in bed by 6PM for the night, good for us at night but not so good when he gets up super early the next day. He's growing like a weed too!! He will be turning 2 on the 10th of January. He's still my baby though, he's a mama's boy but certainly not a sissy. :-) He's pretty tough. He'll whack his head on something and then fuss for a second, come over to get a cuddle from mommy and then he's good to go!!

Me: I started taking a beginners adult ballet class here in Forest Grove and I really enjoy it. We are continuing the class after the first of the year and I'm so excited!! I want to continue with my sewing on the sewing machine but I've broken it somehow, I now... shocking. I need to just take it in to the van 'n' sew here in town and have it fixed.

We've been having a heck of a time with our woodstove (chimney) this year. Ever since we had it lined it just blows smoke into the house everytime we open the door, and yes we do open the damper. :-) Just this morning we had smoke filling the house almost down to the floor, smoke was coming out of cracks in the hearth and everything. FRUSTRATING. Even more frustrating is the fact that the guy who put the liner in won't return our calls, he did however call Jim back today which is rare since he's scared of Jim and usually calls me. Anyway, I'm still waiting for him to call me and get out here today to fix the problem. He will be paying for our house to be professionally cleaned and giving us our money back. Jim told me today that he's been in house fires and that is what our house smells like right now.. AWESOME!! End of December and all out windows and doors are open. Makes perfect sense to me.

Anyway, I hope that everyone had a fantastic 2009 and had an even better 2010!!

Happy New Year!

Summer

I'm so bad at keeping this updated.... sorry. I will start with Jim...

Like normal, he is super busy with school, work and OCS. He was able to take the last 5 weeks off of school (not really wanting to but it was necessary) so he got a little bit of a break. He just got home from phase 1 of OCS, he was in South Dakota for 2 weeks. He did great, but he always does. He got in the house at 1 am and we had to wake up and be on the road at 6:30 am for a combatives competition he was in. He placed 2nd in his division which is awesome but he could have done so much better if he wasn't so tired. He injured his ankle in his last match so he's limping around the house, kids aren't too happy that he's not playing with them.

Allison: Alli is getting tall and her speech is so much better. New phrases everyday, it's really cute. She will be starting pre school in September and she is so excited to see all the boys and girls!! It is going to be so great for her to interact with kids her age and learn new things. She will be going Tuesday's and Thursday's. I'm pretty excited for the little break it's going to give me. Jimmy and I can hang out and clean the house or something.

Jimmy: He's growing like a weed. He just had his 18 month well child checkup and he's great. He is 33" tall and weighs about 25lbs. He's very smart too, he is saying things and I am actually understanding him! :-) To make things even better, he's been interested in the training potty and he's actually peed in it 3 times in the last week!! YAY!!!

Me: I'm the same. I've started to get into using a sewing machine. I've made a curtain for Jimmy's room and a valance for the kitchen and the sewing machine isn't broken yet!! It's a miracle!!

Spring is Springing!!

Well Spring is finally here and we can hardly keep the kids in the house.  It's great because naps are involved later in the day when they are playing outside in the mornings!!  YAY!!  

Jim has been very busy with work/school/OCS.  He is doing really well in school.  Had a statistics class that he really hated, to put it mildly.  We get about 1 weekend a month that he doesn't have some sort of drill for the Army or OCS, so we relish them.  Jim also has Lasik surgery on his eyes a few weeks ago.  He's loving not having to wear glasses anymore.  Alli still asks him where they are though.  She's very concerned that he's not wearing them. 

Alli is getting really tall and really vocal.  She is starting to make more sense now when she talks to us.  It's been nice being able to understand what she is saying.  We got her all signed up for preschool.  She will be starting in September.  She is so excited, as am I.  I'm sure I will be a big basket case the first day but I'll get over it I guess.  I just can't believe I have a child that is old enough for preschool.  We have been trying to throw out different words for her everyday, to get her to say them and learn what they mean.  It's pretty funny sometimes what comes out of her mouth.  For example, she says a line from Dora the Explorer that goes something like this.. "Foggy Fog, Foggy Fog"  just think about it for a minute and take a guess at what it sounds like when she is saying it.  It doesn't sound good.  But a at least she is trying.

Jimmy is getting big.  He is very smart as well.  He watches is sister like a hawk and copies everything she does.  If we ask him to pick up the toys and put them away he knows exactly what to do.  He picks up a toy and trots over to the toy box and puts it away.  If he finds a cheerio on the floor he will pick it up and either eat it or take it to the garbage can and throw it away.  He's still my little sleeper, which is such a blessing.   Sleeping through the night is still a work in progress though.  He can't seem to make it all the way through without a swig of milk.  I don't really mind because it only takes 10 minutes and he cuddles.  I love that.  

I am doing well.  Trying to lose some weight for my sisters wedding in August.  Haven't really been doing that great of job on the exercise front though.  For some reason, I just can get motivated when it comes to exercise.  My eating habits have gotten  better though and that has made a big difference.  More fresh veggies and fruit and smaller portions.  We've planted a garden this year so hopefully we will get some veggies out of it.  

Hurry Up Spring!

We are so ready for springtime at our house.  I want to be able to take the kids outside to play and not freeze out bums off.  I've been able to take them on bike rides to that has been nice.  I'm pretty sure that Jimmy is quite uncomfortable in the bike cart though, he looks as though he's being strangled.  I need to have Jim show me the correct way to strap them in.

Jim is officially a Cadet now for OCS (Officer Candidate School).  Our life as we know it has just gotten busier, if thats possible.  I guess I should say Jim's life as he knows it has gotten busier.  I just like to complain about not having any time with him.  It's an adjustment for all of us and I'm slowly learning to "take things in stride".  

I would love to have a hobby.  I just have no crafting skills.  I want desperately to be able to craft but once I get the supplies in front of me I just sit there and stare at them....waiting for them to tell me what to do.  I got nothing.  I friend of mine says I can bake and make great hooch, but if I bake everyday I will be 500 lbs and drunk from the hooch.  Not good.

Alli is great.  Being 3 years old is hard work and she is so stubborn and sassy sometimes I just want to scream.  But I guess she comes by that honestly.  She's got stubborn and sass coming at her from both sides of the family.  Naps are non existent which sucks for me and for her in the long run.  By dinnertime she is so tired that she just gets mean.  Oh the fun.

Jimmy is Jimmy.  He's still a very happy boy.  He's not napping as much as he was but that's ok, at least he's not sassing me....yet.  He tried to escape the other day.  He was very quiet in going out the doggy door into the garage and then out the other door to go running in the gravely mud.  He was still in his pajamas.  I had to chase after him barefoot and he was laughing and running from me the whole time.  He was very please with himself.  I have crazy kids!!

I'm doing fine.  Like I said before just trying to adjust to Jim's new busy schedule and not lose my mind.   I want to get the garden tilled up so we can get things ready to plant.  I'm excited to be able to grow my own veggies and flowers and whatnot.  I think it will be fun for Alli to have her own little raised bed with her own flowers and veggies to take care of.