What's up?

I hate living in an apartment. Hopefully soon we will be able to buy a house. We finally got the Christmas tree up. Usually we have it up around the first of December but since we were moving I gave ours away.
Andrew is really liking his job at GCU. He wants to try and get a better job there since he enjoys it so much. He is working on his doctoral degree so we never see him.
I am staying a home with the two youngest since it would cost a lot to put them in daycare and wouldn't be worth working just to pay for daycare.
All of the kids are doing good in school.
We are liking living in Phoenix. Not missing the sub zero temperatures but am missing the snow and family.

Thanksgiving in Utah

We went to Utah for thanksgiving. It was a long drive. We had fun with family in Cedar City. We then headed up to Castle Dale to visit more family.Mr P asleep at the computer.

Miss L let Aunt Heidi do her hair.

It was a fun trip. We miss the snow but are happy to be back in Phoenix.

Crocheting away

I have been crocheting a lot lately. Right now I am making granny squares for an afghan. Here are three that I have made so far. They all come from the book 75 floral blocks to crochet by Betty Barnden.

This one was fun to make. I always wondered how they made pictures. The difficulty on this one was intermediate.

The difficulty on this one was easy.

The difficulty one this one was advance.

Still here

We are waiting to get prequalified then we can start looking for a house again. Living in a two bedroom apartment with six people is kinda of crowded. We are really enjoying the swimming pool. L and R can dive down in 6 feet of water and get a rock on the bottom of the pool. It is sad to say that those two swim better than I do. Z turned 1 on the 28th of September. P's birthday is on the 24th of this month. We are enjoying the nice warm weather. Just cant wait to get a house and be more settled and have all of our stuff.

School

R is having some trouble at school. He is getting frustrated that no body can really communicate with him. He uses sign and he talks a little bit. The teachers at his school don't know sign. Stupid if you ask me I think every SPED teacher should know a little bit of sign.  So now he doesn't want to go to school because it frustrates him. Hopefully this is a motivator for the teachers to learn some sign. It is hard moving to a different state and starting a new school especially for a special needs kid. I hope when we do his IEP that have some sort of technology device that can help him communicate with them better and that he will start liking school again.

Arizona

We found an 2 bedroom apartment to live in while we search for a house. The best thing about the apartment is the swimming pool. The kids love to swim. Looking for a house is fun and frustrating. Houses down here go fast once they are on the market.
Two older kids started school. It is a little different than Utah considering school starts at 7:30 in the morning. P is set to start preschool. Overall we are enjoying the Phoenix area.

Trying to move

We are moving to Arizona and are trying to buy a house there. We are having troubles with loans because they are counting Andrew's student loans against us until he goes back to school in September. That means that me and the kids will not be getting down there until October/November. It is cheaper to buy then rent in Arizona. I know things will work out but it is hard to wait and live with family without any of our stuff.
Today I have been packing and L is not feeling good I think she got whatever R had. R still is feeling 100% better.

Car Problems

Andrew went down to California to visit his sister then he was going to go to Phoenix for his graduation for his Masters degree. He had some problems with the car losing power good thing he was only about 5 miles away from his sisters. He went to a mechanic there in Lake Forest and $600 later it was running. It ran great that night and so today he headed down to San Diego to visit some friends. The car was doing great. After visiting he started heading to Phoenix and the car's engine died. So he is waiting for the tow truck and it looks like he isn't going to his graduation. Car troubles suck. We really need a second car because we both work but we can make do with just one car if we have too.

Happenings

It has been busy around here lately. We have started practicing for Area Special Olympics and L is so excited that she is old enough to be a unified player. She is going to be running the relay with R. She wants to win a medal.
Work has been going good. We went on a field trip to the natural history museum. It was interesting and the kids in my class had a lot of fun. The little girl that I am an aide to had fun and only had to be taken out once. Next week we are going on another field trip. Tis the season for field trips.
Andrew is going to start working on a Phd in August. I can't believe that he is going to go for it but I am supportive of him getting it. One day when the kids are older maybe I will go for a Master's but for now I am happy with my Bachelors.
Uncle David gave us two baby chicks and we bought 2 more ducks. As far as animals go we have 2 goats, 4 ducks, 2 chickens, and a cat.
We are still looking for a better job for Andrew. He did apply for one that is local but all the others are out of state. We will see what happens.

Looking for jobs

We are starting to look around for jobs for Andrew since he is going to be finishing his Master's Degree in a couple of weeks. When we told L that we might have to move one day (bad mistake) she cried about how she will miss her best friend who lives behind us, she didn't want to move. I really don't want to move either but I know that we will more than likely have to move. I am already dreading the packing, cleaning, and decluttering. I am also dreading trying to sale our house. Also trying to find a place that we can keep our goats will be challenging but I would rather live out in the middle of nowhere and have my pets with me than to live smack dab in the middle of a big city. The other thing we have to worry about IF we move is school for the kids. Trying to find a school that can accommodate my kids, so not looking forward to. I won't worry about all this until it happens. Hopefully we find the right job for us and everything falls into place if it is suppose to happen.

                                                   Our goat Patches

Long time

Long time no blogging. I have a good reason I hope. I just started a new job in January as a special needs aide at one of the local elementary schools. I am really enjoying it but I do miss baby Z. Andrew will be getting his Master's degree at the end of this month. So excited but not excited about paying student loans off.

Andrew took this picture. Very pretty. Hopefully I will update more often.