The End of Upwards

Daddy and Cammie enjoying watching Tay Tay.

Taylor the cheer leader

Taylor cheered for the last game of the season today. She has really enjoyed cheering. I didn't think she would actually do the cheers so I encouraged her to join the basketball team. She can dribble the ball like nobody's business. She still chose to be a cheer leader. Surprisingly enough, she has done an incredible job of not only cheering in front of a large crowd but remembering her cheers. They have a big awards ceremony in a couple of days and all the cheer leaders have been practicing a special routine to do in front of all the families involved in Upwards. I can't wait to see them practice tomorrow! She is the cutest cheer leader EVER! I want to give coach Betsy a special thank you for all her hard work. And trust me, it was HARD work. The team wasn't exactly a well behaved group of girls. In fact, they stressed me out at every practice and especially the one game that I had to coach. I don't get stressed out easily. And yes, I said I coached a group of cheer leaders. I never ever thought I would have a little cheer leader in the family much less that I (of all people) would coach them during a game. The things I will do for my girls! I'm so glad Taylor got a chance to cheer and most of all that people who may have never heard about Jesus got a chance to. Upwards is an incredible program and many children and parents gave their lives to Christ because of it. To God be the glory!!

BTW, I didn't mean to upload the first video but it took so long I decided to keep it on here. Enjoy!

COTA update

In order to start shadowing OT's (for PDU credit), I had to go through a volunteer orientation at the hospital. 7 of us were sitting side by side in a small office for 1 1/2 hours. Every time I moved I would kick someone next to me. It was so uncomfortable. On top of that, I have old lady legs. My varicose veins were killing me! I looked around at all these gorgeous college students and thought, "What am I doing?". I swear the one guy in there was coming off a high. He could not stay still. His head was constantly bobbing around, he kept touching and rubbing his head and made weird comments about everything. Thankfully he's shadowing a PT instead of an OT. He made me nervous. Then we took a tour of the hospital. I worked there for around 5 years so the tour did me no good. Just when I thought I was done, I was told I had to go get my ppd. So I went to the nurse's office to wait. It was so hot!! I started feeling miserable and had to pee really bad. I didn't want to leave though because I would lose my spot. I waited another hour in there! The ppd literally took 1 minute. So this is where I am.
Orientation...check
ppd...check
ppd read...check
paperwork turned in...check

Next week..
2nd ppd
hopefully a clear background check
set up 1st shadow with OT
fill out cert renewal packet
complete assessment tool test (1PDU)

I still can't believe I'm doing this.

Girls Night In

Go Taylor Go!


Taylor and I chillin on the couch.

Hunter and Aunt Becky.

Love this smile!

Uncle Kelly and Hunter

Couldn't get him to look at the camera.

Dressin up.

Jason left for the weekend on a much needed fishing 'man'cation. So the girls and I were left to fend for ourselves. We started the evening with pizza and visitors. My brother and nephew came to visit us for a little while so Carissa could rest. She's been feeling under the weather and with another little one brewing I feel she deserves the break. Taylor was the only local niece for a while so she was spoiled by Kelly and Carissa. Ever since her sister and Hunter came along, she has had to fight for that attention a little bit. She and Camryn changed outfits numerous amounts of times to show off for Kelly. Hunter was mesmerized by her pom poms. I'm pretty sure he has a deep longing to be a cheerleader as well:) We loved on and played with Hunter. That boy is so much heavier than Camryn and he just turned 1! After the boys left, us girls headed for the mall. We looked around a little bit and ended up in Target as usual. We weren't actually looking for anything but I did leave with some very yummy Reese pieces candy shaped like eggs. They are sooo good. I rented Bolt to watch with the girls, made bowls of ice cream and snuggled up in our jammies. Just then Camryn decided to poop and go night nighk(that's how she says it). So that left me and my sweet Taylor to watch the movie alone. I have so much fun with Camryn but getting a chance to spend time alone with Taylor doesn't happen very often anymore. I loved every second of it. The movie was pretty cute too. Whenever daddy is out of town, I let Taylor sleep in my bed. She gets so excited. She said, "When daddy's gone we get to do whatever we want". Sorry babe, I'm not so sure you were missed?! Well, I missed you:) Can you believe the girls and I slept in till 8?! What a treat. Taylor had a cheer leading game at 11 and at 3 we will be going to a bday party. Daddy should be home after that. I'm excited to see him come home because we get to exchange our love letters tonight. It's our homework for Sunday School. We are starting on Song of Songs. The only reason I'm excited is because Jason called me last night and said he was going to start on my letter. The fact that he even remembered is huge!! Don't worry, I won't share it with you. I don't want any of you to get jealous:))

COTA

That stands for certified occupational therapy assistant. It's what I went to college for. I graduated, passed the cert exam, got my license and never got a job. After much searching, getting married, and moving a couple of times, I decided just to start my life as a stay at home mom. That's what I would have done at some point anyway but it would have been nice to find a job as a COTA. I had pretty much decided that I would just stay at home with my kids for the rest of my life. I didn't keep up with renewing my cert or my license. I regret that now. Times have changed. Money is tight, we have very little put away for the kids future much less ours, a house that needs major work, one vehicle, and you really never know if Jason's job will be here tomorrow. Like so many he has been through the stresses of losing jobs, watching retirement dwindle and savings accounts going down down down. I love my kids. I wouldn't trade the last 6 years for anything but I've been feeling like I need to make a change. I have a degree that could make a big difference in our lives. So after about the millionth time Jason tells me I should look into renewing my license, I finally did. After lots of phone calls, searching the internet and praying I found this out...
1. I have to apply for a cert renewal
2. Pay a couple hundred dollars
3. get 36 hours in PDU's
4. Apply for license renewal
5. Pay $620 in renewal fees
6. Get a job lined up under an OT
7. Get a temporary license
8. Get 750 hours under an OT in less than 1 year
THEN I can can get my perminent license. WHEW! It would have been a lot easier to just renew my license every other year. Several people told me they thought I would have to take the exam again but I found out today that I don't! That is great news! So, I've decided to do it. I've been praying over this decision more than I have prayed over anything recently. Mainly because I'm just not sure I can do it and I'm hoping God will just tell me not to go through with it. So far, it's just the opposite. I've gotten confirmation after confirmation. I know that if this is really what God wants He'll make it all happen but I must admit I am terrified. I've been out of school for almost 11 years!! Who in their right mind will hire me?? No experience and old! Oh well, I'm jumping head first into this and I won't stop until He tells me to. Just in case you feel the urge to pray for me, I'm praying for the right job, facility, and supervisor. I would love to enjoy the job enough to stay there after my 750 hours are done. I'm not looking to work full time. Just around 20 hours a week to help out financially and give me something productive to do. This way I'll be able to still spend time with the girls, go on field trips and stuff like that. I may be terrified but I'm also very excited! I have no idea what to expect but that's what's so exciting about it..the unkown.

A New Family Member.

Jason's mom bought a puppy. It's the cutest little fur ball I've ever seen. The girls adore her and can't keep their hands off of her. All you hear is, "Can I hold her?". I'm always afraid Camryn is going to squish the poor thing. She is a toy poodle and weighs only 2 lbs. Too cute! Her name is Bella. We love the new bundle of joy (mainly because I don't have to take care of her).

Snow? In Charleston?!

Our street covered in white.


I guess the snow makes her sick.

I call him 'Casper the Friendly Ghost Snowman'

Taylor and Daddy creating Casper.

My sweet snow angel.

Such a cutie!

Hot stuff in cold stuff!
I'm surprised he didn't melt
the snow;)

Still not enjoying the snow.

Worried I will MAKE her love the snow.

Just havin fun.

Just NOT havin fun.

This was in the hotel room in NC.

We WOULD pick this year to go chasin snow! Taylor was turning 6 and had never seen snow before. Our friends, the Jacksons, called us up a week before Christmas and asked us if we wanted to chase snow with them. OF COURSE!! So we packed everyone up and ended up somewhere in North Carolina. We were all very excited. It had been a while since Jason and I had seen snow too. Taylor had a blast sledding, making a snowman, throwing snow blocks and playing with her friends. Camryn on the other hand was none too pleased with the fact that snow was cold. She cried the entire time she was outside. "Make em warm. Make em WARM!!". How did I end up in a family full of drama? Little did we know that God had a cool present coming for us on Feb. 12th...SNOW IN CHARLESTON! I would love to say that the girls had a blast but only one of them did. Once again Miss Drama Queen whined and complained about the snow. "I NOT make a snow ball! I NOT play in the snow!". So she didn't and I didn't care. I just took pictures of her typical grumpy face and enjoyed Taylor's delight. It was amazing seeing everything white. What was even more amazing is that our electricity stayed on. Over and over again bright flashes of blue lit up the house. The electricity would go out and come back on and finally just stayed on. Another reason to be thankful. I enjoyed our snow day but must admit I like the warm weather better. Thank you Lord for bringing the snow and thank you for taking it away!

Hot Date

Jason's parents bought us John Mayer tickets for his birthday this year. I was so excited I thought it was MY birthday. They even offered to watch the kids for us so of course we accepted. We went to eat at Chili's and we decided to get something different this time. For some reason, Jason decided on a hamburger rather than a steak. I decided to get the BBQ shredded pork with cheese and coleslaw...NO ONIONS. Our kind waiter said there were no onions on it and I kindly showed him that the menu said otherwise. After going back and forth he said he would make sure there were no onions on it. Needless to say, we waited and waited (after waiting and waiting for a seat). The waiter came out to say our food was ready but there is one problem, the onions are cooked into my pork. Real shocker! Long story short, our awesome pre concert dinner ended up with Jason and I sharing a burger and fries. Can you tell I don't like onions? The good news...we only spent $10 on dinner:) So then we headed to the concert. We knew the seats would be up high because Jason's parents got the tickets well after they went on sale. We started up the stairs, my calves started to get sore, and I was out of breath by row N. I thought, "It can't be much higher than this.". Up and up and up we went. I had no idea row U was the very top row!!! Jason and I grabbed onto our seats and quickly sat down as the room started to spin. I seriously thought Jason was going to get a nose bleed. Wow, that is HIGH UP!! We had a great view of the stage until the group of homosexual lovers sat theirselves down two rows in front of us. We spent much of the concert watching him kiss on her, then her, then her, then she kissed on her and so on....disgusting!! There was groping, alcohol, awful dancing...you get the picture. A couple of songs into John's act, they finally moved over a little bit and we were able to enjoy the concert. Carissa was right, he does move well with his guitar. I love his....music:) Next time, we get better seats.

101 Dalmation Days

Taylor's class had a doggy day celebration on the 101st day of school. They had to dress in black and white so I cut out some black spots and stuck em on her shirt with some velcro. I made some ears and she put spots all over them. She made a super cute dalmation. Her dog name was Lollipop. The teachers called the kids by their dog names all day and they had to eat scooby snacks without their hands. Too cute. I love her teachers!