My heart absolutely ACHES for Joplin. I've seen so many pictures and heard so many stories of lost family members - especially children. A friend that I graduated high school with is a nurse and she went down to Joplin to help this weekend and it's bad. She posted some pics on Facebook and the only thing I could say was "Wow". Our ward was called to volunteer down there this weekend and I've heard that things went well, but there's still so much to do. If we are asked to go volunteer again, Jason will be going (he couldn't this weekend because my grandma and aunt were in town). Over 30% of the town is just gone. It could have been us. A slight shift in the storm's path and it would have been us. I'm grateful for the safety we had that night and that the storms we had in the following days weren't as bad as they were predicted to be. I'm glad that my family in St. Louis was safe in those mid week storms as well.

I hope and pray the citizens of Joplin are able to put the pieces back together and can find comfort in this difficult time

What a month!!

May has been quite a month for us!!! Ainzley's blessing was May 15th and it was beautiful. I worked so hard getting things ready and was so relieved when it was over. Her dress was stunning! I've decided to make a duplicate (not exact, though) and sell it on Etsy. It will be the same design without the special order trim. Instead, I'm going to make a few small fabric flowers to decorate with and a headband to match. If it goes over well, I'll make more but for now, it's just a trial run. It will, of course, be called the Ainzley dress :)

Jason took his state CMT test on Monday and PASSED!!!! He has 3 days of clinical hours to do next month and then he's set! He is so excited to get to continue working at his current place of employment, but to have different responsibilities. Jason also got a very exciting manila envelope in the mail last Saturday - it was from school concerning his application to nursing school. He got accepted as an alternate! It doesn't guarantee that there will be a spot for him in the fall. They accept 30 people into the program every semester and 10 alternates. Jason is the 6th alternate. Number 36 out of 270 applicants - not too bad! They typically only use about 3 or 4 alternates (though there have been semesters where they have used all 10) so we'll probably go through another round of the application process, but I'm still so VERY proud of how far he has come since the first time he applied. We're also looking into other nursing schools in the area.

As far as I go, I'm FINALLY starting on my DONA Doula certification! I'm working on the required reading, will attend the 3 day workshop in October, then work on the births, writing assignment and breastfeed portion. I am so excited to be starting this portion of my life! Pregnancy and birth are my passion and I want to help women achieve the birth they've always wanted. Hopefully after finishing my certification, I can work with The Doula Foundation of Springfield. My midwife works with them and she loves it...most of the time, lol. The Doula Foundation is basically a grant system where low income or underprivileged women can apply to have their doula services covered either completely or partially. I'm really hoping to be able to work with them.

I think our biggest news this month is that the seller accepted our final offer on the house! Jason went to sign the offer acceptance letter today. We still have to have an inspection and have an appraisal done but we got the house for $11,000 under the original asking price AND the seller has agreed to pay the closing costs. We're happy to be making grown up decisions :)

Today is such a beautiful day here in SW Missouri! The sun is out, the temperature is warm and the windows are open! It's nap time which is the only reason we are inside right now. It rained all day yesterday (though it was more summer thunderstorm-esque - warm, cloudy, thunder with rain intermittently. Those are my favs) and most of the day before. It's supposed to rain the next 4 or so days as well. I wish this weather could stay longer. Guess I'll be able to do some craft stuff over the next few days though it hardly seems a close second when all I want to do is be outside. The faster we get through the bad weather, the better - my aunt and grandma are coming to visit from St. Louis next weekend! They've not met Ainzley yet (as most of my family hasn't) so it'll be great for them to see her for the first time. So far on the agenda is a Springfield Cardinals game and a picnic at the park. I can't wait to see them!

HOUSE

We found it! It is THE house... 4 bedroom, 3 full bathrooms, 2500 sq ft and totally in our price range! Well, initially it wasn't, but we low-balled the seller and they countered back in our price range. We're going to counter again just a few grand under what they just sent us to hopefully save some moolah! It was built in 1901 and was totally remodeled less than 10 years ago with the exception of the original wood floors which are in great shape. It's a foreclosure so it needs a little TLC. We went to Lowe's this morning and got some estimates on paint and other supplies we would need for the house and we're looking at about $650 after over-budgeting on everything. We're thinking that as far as painting goes, we're going to make a donation to the young men and young women at church for girls/scout camp and have them come help out with the painting for a day... that's just a preliminary idea so we'll see.

My midwife's husband used to be a housing inspector so he was nice enough to come look at the house for us. He found some dry rot outside by some of the windows but he said, overall, for a 100 year old house, it's in good shape and he wouldn't fail it. We still have to have the appraiser come out and look and have to have an inspection done, but all in all, we're really excited and things look like they're headed in the right direction. If all goes well, we're looking at a move in date around the end of July - a new house for Jason's birthday! lol

Other than our pending home-ownership, it's been a busy month! Jason will take his state CMT test on the 23rd and will do his clinical hours and state physical test next month (that's his promotion at work that I've mentioned in previous posts). He had his interview for nursing school yesterday morning and he's confident that it went well. David has entered the terrible two's *insert eye roll and head shake here*. I absolutely hate disciplining him! Well, spanking in particular. I grew up in a house that was full of physical punishment (thanks to my military dad, I guess) and it was awful. I feel that spanking is a last resort type of punishment so I'm trying to find more creative alternatives. He is a VERY sweet little boy though!!!! His vocabulary has grown exponentially and he uses sentences most off the time. And he is VERY polite. My favorite is that he doesn't typically use the word "yes" when answering questions. When I ask him if he wants/needs something, his response is, "I do! Please!" Adorable. Ainzley is amazing as usual. She is full of smiles!! She sleeps around 9 hours every night and is a great napper. I am so excited for her blessing this weekend!!!!

Speaking of naps, I need to get the kids down for them so I guess until next time...

Well, after only one post last month, I suppose it's time for another!

Life is still going well with 2 kids. Ainzley has really become quite animated in the last few weeks - she is just adorable! David has grown SO MUCH!!! I can't believe how big he really is! Of course, when Ainzley was born, it became very obvious that he was no longer my little boy... and it's still a shock to me, lol. He repeats every single word we say and loves books and Blue's Clues. We bought him an outdoor water table for his birthday this year which is enjoys on days when it's warm.

Ainzley is still sleeping through the night (woot!!!!!!!) and absolutely loves snuggling. Her blessing is coming up in just over a week and I'm feeling a bit stressed about it. I haven't really planned anything which is so not like me! Typically, I have things planned, oh, a month in advance, lol. It's really the after party I'm most concerned with. It's going to be a lot to handle. The kids typically go down for a nap around 2... we don't get out of church until 2. Strike one. After church, we'll be trying to get things set up with 2 cranky kids. Most of the people coming to the blessing haven't met Ainzley yet so all my help will be fawning over my daughter which will be considered as "help". All Ainzley will want at that time will be to nurse since she'll be tired... I would rather have help setting up, lol. Strike two. Strike three? Clean up... enough said. I'm hoping to have the get together in the nursery since it's adjacent to the kitchen and is a good sized room, yet it's smaller than the gym for cleaning up... IDK... enough rambling. I guess this is my way of trying to plan things, lol

A BIG new chapter of our life is about to begin: HOME OWNERSHIP!!! :) We've already gotten our pre-approval process over so now we're just hunting. We found a beyond perfect house for us... it's just a little over our loan amount. Even with the cash down we have, we're still short so we're negotiating. Wish us luck! We're still looking in case this one doesn't work out, though. What's even greater is my midwife's husband use to be a home inspector! He's going to come over and look at the house with us so we know what's going on with the house. If he finds something, we'll have to actually pay to have an inspection done (his license is expired) so we can have the official paperwork in case we would need to break our contract if we got that far. Anyway, we put an offer down on the house so it's really real! Hopefully I'll get to post pics of our new house soon (whichever one we find :) )

Well, both kids are sleeping peacefully so I should be too. Good night!