Lately... and that time we bought a house

Oh, hi there!

Yeah, it's been a while.  But I've been busy so... what can you do?

Life has been pretty insane.  Like, we-really-put-on-our-big-kid-pants insane.

April came around and my AWESOME husband finished his undergraduate career at BYU!  I think he technically graduated in June but all his classes were done by April.  He just got the official degree in the mail last week and I'm so proud of him, I could squeal.

With that B.A. in hand, Spencer decided that he was seriously underemployed.  His plan is to eventually get his M.H.A. degree and become a hospital administrator.  He filled out applications like crazy to any job that might help him get a foot in the door to both a good graduate school and an eventual career in health administration.  After months of waiting, he finally got bombarded with a ton of interview requests.  To make a long story short, he got an amazing job offer with Accretive Health in Salt Lake City and he accepted soon afterward.  I don't quite understand all the little details of what he'll be doing so you'll have to ask him, but it's a REAL job.  With benefits.  And normal hours.  And vacation days.  And an office.  And clearance badges.

My husband is amazing.

Back to me... I've been working as a speech-language pathologist for Nebo School District since I got my M.S. last year.  After getting a graduate SLP degree, you have to work full-time for a year (called your Clinical Fellowship Year or "CFY") before you can get nationally accredited and put some awesome creds behind your signature.

I only worked part-time most of last year because of our crazy schedule.  So I was going to have to work part-time for 2 years before I finished my CFY.  Last year, a typical weekday looked like this: me working Mon-Fri from 8:00 a.m.-12:00 while Spencer watched Colton; me getting home at 12:30; the three of us getting to hang out for a total of about 5 minutes; Spencer immediately running out the door to classes at BYU until around 5:00; Spencer not getting to come home before heading out to work swing shift; Spencer finally getting home after midnight, where I was (usually) already asleep.  Lather, rinse, repeat.  To make matters worse, although I didn't have to work weekends, Spencer did.  Ugh.  It's too bad I don't get to see my favorite person in the whole world longer than a few minutes a day, right?

When Spencer completed classes in April, his new schedule was open enough that he could stay home with Colton all day until his job started at 5:00 p.m.  Because of this, I switched to full-time through the end of the school year in hopes of finishing my CFY sooner.

Then Spencer got this awesome job, and we decided that I'd keep working full-time because I could be certified in November!  November comes sooner than May, huzzah!  We'll have to put Colton in daycare while I'm at work since Spencer's new job has normal hours but it's only for like... three months!  We can do three months.  And Colton's not going to die.  I might die having to leave him, but he will not die.  I hope.  We found a wonderful lady to watch him who lives right behind my school and she was significantly cheaper than any other childcare provider we found.  She had fantastic references and has been watching kiddos and teaching child development classes at UVU for the past 15 years.  Not bad, eh?  And if I ever miss Colton a little too much, I can go on the school playground and see her backyard (creeper-mom status).

On top of everything, we learned that Spencer's going to make more money than I ever did working as a public school teacher and then some.  We won't be rich, but we won't have to live paycheck to paycheck anymore.

So we've been saving money slowly....

And now we're building a house!

I'm in love.  We'll be moving to Saratoga Springs in December and I'm going to stop working as soon as I certify in November so I can stay home with Colton every day.  YAY!  Again, I could squeal.  I'm really glad I'm finishing my CFY so I'll always have a good back-up plan, but I'm so excited to be a stay-at-home-mom for now!  I'd love to eventually go back to being a speech teacher but Spencer and I both feel like home is the place for me to be right now.  Blessings, blessings, blessings.  This Saturday I get to pick out our carpets, paint color, cabinets, granite, appliances, EVERYTHING.  Let's hope all those hours of watching HGTV will pay off and I pick something pretty.  Squealing.  lots of squealing.

The best part is that we'll finally get to spend time together as a family!  What?  Families should spend more than 5 minutes together every day?  Yes, please.

We feel very blessed to have all these wonderful things falling into place right now.  We've faced challenges this summer that I never dreamed of having to face because I didn't think I'd ever be strong enough to overcome them.  I've (re)learned so much recently: Prayer is real.  Family is forever.  And Heavenly Father always reaches our reaching.  I'm hoping to write about what we've been going through sometime in the future with the hope that it helps someone, somewhere, but I 'm not quite ready to write it all down yet.  For now, the moral of the story is that things get better.  After the trials, come the blessings.  Lots and lots of blessings.

I love you all.

From Sea to Shining Sea

THESE lovely people are my cute parents.

Every time my parents prepare to receive orders for one of dad's new work assignments, an exciting and anticipatory guessing game ensues.  I've grown up living the military life and I LOVE it!  I love gradually narrowing down the options of where my family will call home for the next several years.  For a while, we even thought we'd end up in Scotland.

photo from tourismonworld.blogspot.com

And another time, we were remarkably close to moving to Australia.  The MIDDLE of Australia.

photo from www.alicestation.com

Neither of those options panned out, but thanks to the Navy, I've had the opportunity to live in amazing places like:

Japan

photo from www.globalresearch.ca

California

photo from www.gogiro.com/sandiego

Maryland

Maine

 photo found at travel.nationalgeographic.com

 Tennessee 

photo from www.pgavplanners.com

and Hawaii

My family has experienced many different cultures, landscapes and climates and we've adopted innumerable hobbies including surfing, clam digging, duck hunting, rowing, hiking, blueberry raking, rock hopping, Tahitian dancing, distance running, exploring the museums and monuments in DC, cooking ethnic foods, and many, many more.

I thank my military upbringing for my enthusiasm to go to a foreign country on my mission, learn a crazy language, eat ridiculously weird yet delicious food (which, thanks to my MSG allergy, tried to kill me), and jump headfirst into the once very unfamiliar Chinese lifestyle.

Best of all, my family has had the opportunity to meet another entirely new group of friends every one to three years.  Although facebook has made things a little easier, I still wish I was better at staying connected with all the amazing people our family has encountered over time.  In fact, I can only pinpoint two real setbacks to a super-transitory childhood: 1) The same awesome friends that you meet?  Yeah.  You have to (physically) leave them behind again in a few years.  2) Every couple years I get a MAJOR hankering to throw away almost everything I own, pack whatever's left into boxes, and move far, far, far away.  Things have been a bit different since I graduated from high school in 2004.  Except for 18 (fantastic) months in Hong Kong, I have been in Provo the whole time.  Yeah.  Since 2004.  Sure, I've lived in 5 different apartments over those 8 years but STILL.  I am beyond antsy. We've been in our current apartment for almost 3 years which is still, to this day, the longest I have ever lived in a single home.  BRING ON SPENCER'S GRAD SCHOOL!

So you can imagine my excitement when my parents told me that dad was awaiting orders for yet another new job assignment.  Sure, I don't live at home anymore, but you can bet I'll visit my family at least once each tour of duty.  My kid (someday plural) needs to see his grandparents!  So after a lot of guessing and waiting, my parents finally let the cat out of the bag and announced where they'll be living for the next few years (AKA, my next vacation destination)....

ALASKA!  

Cool, right?  So cool.  I'm already trying to find an excuse to go visit.  I'm sure it doesn't always look like this, but this is the image I have in my mind:

photo found at www.gladeexplorers.com

Beautiful, isn't it?

18 Months Ago...

This little one came into our lives and we instantly fell in love:

For reals!  Colton turned 18 months old today--can you believe it?  Neither can we.

This kiddo has a great personality!  He cracks us up with his silly faces, funny noises, and contagious giggles.  He was born with ginormous fat rolls and he's still got them.  If you think his cheeks are chunky, you've gotta see his thighs.  W-O-W.

Colton today:

Weight: 35 pounds.  Yeah.  I'm super buff, thanks for asking :)

Clothing size: 2T

Diaper size: 5

Favorite activities: signing, imitating animal noises (some obscure ones, too... like turkeys, dinosaurs, and monsters), pretending to read books to himself, EATING, playing with light switches, playing peekaboo, tickling our feet under the bathroom door when we're... ehem... busy.

Favorite toy: basketball hoop

Favorite food: goldfish crackers

Favorite TV show: Little Einsteins

Favorite book: Very Hungry Caterpillar

Favorite animal noise: frog.  If he doesn't know what sound a certain animal makes, it automatically becomes a frog.

Favorite stalling tactic: throwing his animals/blankets out of his crib and shouting "Uh oh... help!" until we pick them up for him

Favorite word: "Hi!"

Favorite parent: mom! *snicker*

WE LOVE HIM!  And now... the obligatory photo explosion:

This one was during nursery today... check out this little stud in his purple shirt and blue sweater.  Kid didn't even know I was there the two times I went in to peek at him (P.S... sorry I yoinked this picture from your facebook page, Jessica!)

Being a mommy is awesome :)

Are you there, friends? It's me, Amy.

Long time. No really... it's been a LONG time.

This is what happened after my last post: I defended my thesis (and passed, by the way), graduated, and then... RELAXED.  Apparently I relaxed for 8 months, but that's a minor detail.

Here are the last 8 months in a nutshell:

June: Defended thesis

July: Read books, cleaned my house, cooked real food, finally had time to spend with my family and do fun things for the first time in 2 years

August: Colton turned 1 (yay!), officially graduated, began working as an SLP for Nebo School District

September: Ran the Color Run - killed it. Blew colored chalk out of my nose for a week

October: Ran a 10K... while wearing pink polyester pants... and pushing a 14-month old in a stroller.  We dressed up as Winnie-the-Pooh characters because we're that cool.

November: Was called to be in the Primary presidency. First Thanksgiving away from family; cooked WAY too much food and played with the Aviles crew.

December: Crazy Christmas in Sammamish = 9 adults, 4 dogs, 3 babies, 2 bedroom house, 1 nasty virus, and a partridge in a pear tree.  Oh, and I lost 15 pounds (over four months... not just in December).

January: Spencer started his last undergrad semester (whoopwhoop!), I tried out CrossFit and fell in love.  Too bad I'm poor and can't keep going.

February: Colton started nursery!  Now I'm actually useful during the last 2 hours of church.  Decided to go full-time next Fall so I can finish my CFY faster.  However, I was asked to start full time as soon as possible... SO... as soon as Spencer graduates in April, I'm switching.  I'll be done in NOVEMBER!

February's always been an introspective month for me.  As I sat down making goals for the big 2-7, I decided that I really need to update the blog more often--if for no other reason, because I'm kind of disgusted by how difficult it was to remember just one thing I did every month since June.  Sad, right?  So here's to allowing my close friends and family to have a better idea of how we're doing than everyone else who can read our facebook status updates! :)

We've missed you all :)