Everything Else I've Been Doing

My life has been (and continues to be) an absolute whirlwind, although if we're being totally honest, that's normal for me anymore. Here's what else has been happening in my life as of late!

Fun fact: my mother-in-law and I are now co-workers! No, Diana is not a teacher, but she works as an accountant at my school, a position she has held in some capacity for almost the last 5 years. Most days we don't see each other, or if we do, it's only in passing. However, it is so nice to have a familiar face in the midst of adjusting to a new, crazy venture. Sometimes when I get bogged down with things, visiting her office is the pick-me-up I need to keep forging onward. I've said it before, but it bears repeating--I have the best mother and father-in-law in the world...well, that might be a lie. Thomas, Scotty, and Jeremy have the BEST mother and father-in-law in the world! ;) Steve and Diana are a close second!

So here's something I have yet to have had the energy to unpack in my writing...whatever happened to the rest of my jobs when I got the teaching job? Great question! Short answer, I quit all but one of them. It was bittersweet for me, but it was something I had to do, especially considering the incredible opportunity that was in front of me. Long answer: I quit the tutoring center, I quit working with 2/3 of my private tutoring families, and I quit working for the first Friday nursery at church, but I still work with the original family I started with. I'm now with them 7.5 hours/week instead of 9 hours/week, afternoons instead of mornings.

So, why did I keep them? It turns out that there are some tough situations surrounding that family that make it better for me to stay with them than to leave them mid-year. I won't go into the gory details, because that's not fair to anyone involved, but I will say that if you have a moment to say a quick prayer, please say one for that family. Our current setup isn't ideal for any of us, but it was better than nothing at all. I'm more tired, and definitely extended much further than I should be, but considering that I only have a few more months left of school and working with them, I can trudge onward, knowing in my heart that I'm doing the right thing for this situation. Some days, that's what pulls me through when I get stressed out. Also, my bosses and students at school are incredibly understanding and supportive of the situation, which helps a lot. Many days I get stressed thinking about the fact that I still work 2 jobs, even though I don't necessarily need to anymore, but I have to force myself not to look at it in those terms. Otherwise, I'll start wallowing in my little pity party, and that's a rabbit hole I really don't need to go down right now. All in all, I'm still abundantly blessed, and that's all that matters to me.

Let's talk about something else, shall we? It's now March, which means it's birthday month for Thomas and me! We decided after I got my job that our birthday gift to each other would be to get a new mattress, which we desperately needed!!! We upgraded from a full sized bed (that was manufactured in 1991!) to a nice, new queen sized bed. It's been so nice having the little bit of extra space to stretch out and not sleeping on a worn-out mattress! Easily the best gift I've received (or probably given) in a while! Sadly, since we upsized our bed, we also had to upsize all of our bedding and we could no longer use the head and footboard that we worked so hard to get right after the wedding. In good news, Uncle Paul and Aunt Pat just so happened to be downsizing from a queen to a full, so they offered us their old head and footboard set that they were needing to part ways with. We also found out that our new bedspread insulates REALLY well...like to the point that we woke up at 3 AM the first night we slept with it, feeling as though we were in a sauna. Now, we figured out that just a simple blanket will suffice, and we'll have to use our bedspread mostly just for show (or when it's cold outside). Such is life, I guess!

Our new bed and sauna-like bedspread!
No head or footboard yet, but soon!

In birthday news, Thomas celebrated his earlier this week, which means that we're the same age for a couple of weeks before I go back to being older than him. We went out for dinner last weekend, then had a simple dinner at our apartment with his parents on his actual birthday, complete with an ice cream cookie pizza from Baskin-Robbins! Mine is in a couple of weeks, unfortunately not during spring break like how it used to be when I was a kid. (I know, sad day, right?) I have no idea what I'm doing for my birthday, but it's okay.

On a separate note, I did something big last weekend--I chopped my hair off!!! I decided that it was way too long for me to keep up with, and my go-to hairstyle was a messy bun, or some other version of being put up, which probably wasn't very good for my hair. Better yet, it was long enough for me to cut and donate, which I've wanted to do for a long time now! I decided to donate my hair to Pantene Beautiful Lengths, which works primarily with women who have lost their hair due to cancer treatments, giving them free wigs. I've known so many strong and courageous women who have had to go through that, and I wanted to do what I can to make that stressful time a little better. Due to my crazy busy work schedule, I haven't sent my donation off just yet, but that's at the top of my to-do list for spring break!

Before and after! So excited!!!

Thinking of Oklahoma, which is where we'll be heading quite soon, I'd be remiss if I didn't update what the crew on the farm is up to these days! My mom recently celebrated her 60th birthday, which was incidentally the first birthday we've been able to be present for on the actual day! We had a full day between Kyle, Andy, and Cole's pinewood derby and our celebrations for Mom. Everyone has been occupying a lot of their free time with working on finishing out the man cave/she shed room in the big shed. It's a constant work in progress, but I'm a little sad that I haven't been able to really contribute to it in any way, especially hearing about the fun times my mom and sisters have had painting. They're also in the thick of calving season, which means that their days are punctuated with multiple trips to the pasture to keep tabs on the herd and to make sure that no cow/calf is in need of a vet. It's exciting, but everyone (mom and dad, especially) is usually happy to see that season go, because it gives their lives a lot more freedom from constantly having to check cows.

Cole loving on Thomas--my heart was so full!

Cody is almost as tall as Thomas!

Cody is more or less as tall as my mom, making him, by her definition, tall!
Proud day for that kid!

One more...yes, he's also taller than me, but that's old news, right?
Love that he'll still take selfies with old Aunt Amanda :)

My favorite ladies in the world!

One of my calves!

My other calf, Jerry. (Jerry is the spotted one!)

One other focus of this trip to OK is to attend the wedding of my dear friend from my NOC days, Haley. She's such a sweet girl, and I'm ecstatic to see her marry the man of her dreams! I love going to weddings, especially now that I am married! Such a fun and special time for everyone! Can't wait!!! Enjoy the springtime, and hopefully I can do some more writing for fun over spring break! :)