My First Post

So this is my first post and I've been working on trying to start this blog for way too long, almost a year. I hope I can keep up with it. I don't even know where to start. I mailed my application into the Banner Nurse Fellows Program, local address, just this past Monday. I am anxiously waiting to hear from them, hear ANYTHING. It doesn't even say that they have received my application on the status page. I read on another thread that they still have openings for the March cohort at Gateway Comm College and at Mesa Comm College. Wouldn't that be great if I could start that soon?! That makes my stomach tremble a little. Anxious, nervous, scared! Diesel training is ok, still a longer haul than I had hoped. He ripped out another irrigation line two days ago because I left him outside unsupervised for too long. I keep telling myself it will get better, I WILL like him one day. The kids are great. Brooke is doing awesome in school, as always. She is so excited about the catepillars they each have in class. They get to watch them eat, grow, form a chrysalis, and turn into butterflies. What more could a kid ask for?! She lost her third tooth last week (top front, her right). I had to pull it out, not as easy as the last one. A paper towel and an ice cube and all the tears were gone! Alyssa just learned how to ride her bike without training wheels last week. We are so excited and impressed with her. She just asked us to take off her training wheels, practiced "coasting" without them (with a few times of her asking to have them back on and me encouraging her to keep practicing), and within two weeks she was coasting down the driveway to start pedaling, and then taking off! My neighbor has a wooden ramp and she and Brooke were riding their bikes over it yesterday! By themselves (after a few practice tries with help). Alyssa fell a few times and didn't even cry-my brave trooper-she just wanted to keep trying "by my own self!" I took her to the doctor yesterday and she has a UTI. Hope this isn't the start of problems with her kidney reflux again, or problems with her deflux procedure she had done. I only knew she had one because of the fishy pee smell I remembered from the first time. She goes back for her five year (can you believe it?) checkup and for a recheck in two weeks. Alyssa and Cole play this game where she has a dog (Cole) and walks him around the house, outside, wherever with a makeshift "leash" tucked into the back of his shirt (we've had to make a strict "nothing around the neck" rule due to past attempts at a "realistic" leash). Her "dog" barks, crawls on all fours, and loves to play along. BJ says "That's just great" in his sarcastic tone, since his boy is being treated as a dog. At least they are playing nicely together and they are BOTH enjoying it, right? The barking can be very annoying, high-pitched and loud, but other than that is there really any harm? Better than dressing him up like a princess (as the girls have done in the past). Cole is as sweet as ever, with a fiesty independent streak. He loves to say "no", "let go" (usually of him), and "Where did ______ go?" "Car" is still his favorite word, followed by a close second "choo, choo". He carries the train my mom got for him almost everywhere he goes. He keeps cars in his bed to play with, has to have a car blanket, and definitely prefers to wear something with a car on it. He tells me "thank you, mommy" without prompting much more than anyone else in the house. Even though he wiped my kisses off last week and said "Ew", he still likes me to kiss, snuggle and hug him, and sometimes kisses me back. BJ is still busy with his jobs. Layoffs in December had us sweating it out, but he didn't lose his job. However, things are still pretty shaky (as they are everywhere). I pray I can just make it through nursing school before anything bad happens! Praying a lot lately. "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Philippians 4:13 (Brooke memorized this verse for church on Sunday)