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 :)

The end is near!

My thesis was approved by my committee and the graduate coordinator this week!  It went through a TON of revisions since I submitted it a week ago but I'm really proud of the way it's turned out.  I was finally able to schedule my defense, which is my last hoop to jump through before graduation.  I ordered my cap and gown this week and did a happy dance because I was so excited.

Proof!  135 pages of awesomeness.

I had to print out a hard copy for my committee members and it looked like a novel!  Mind you, this was with two-sided printing. And over 80 pages of this were single-spaced.  BOOM.

Anyway... if you're looking for some academic pursuits to break up the monotony of your summer vacation, you should come to my defense meeting!  It'll be Thursday, June 28th at 11:00 in room 125 of the Taylor Building.  All friends/family/acquaintances/strangers who are interested in children with language impairment are welcome.  It's sure to be a (scholarly) party.  And heaven knows I need the prayers and support.  This has been an extremely time consuming but rewarding project, second only to baking the little man in my oven for 9 months.

Speaking of the little man, I feel as though every single day with him recently has been an absolute riot.  He's obsessed with giggling, eating food off my plate (still no sign of teeth at 10 months old... he just gums everything in sight), standing (on his own!), playing with pens and markers, playing catch (well... he and Spencer gently throw the ball back and forth at... not to... each other), dancing whenever he hears music, clapping and waving, and banging on the piano (which is sweet, sweet music to his piano-playing mother's ears).  He's constantly happy; tears are rare except when food is taken away from him or we're pinning him to the ground to change his diaper.  

He's standing ALL. THE. TIME.  He fights every position except standing (and has since he was 7 months old).  We've avoided cuts, bumps, and bruises pretty well up until now but he's just starting to get adventurous with letting go when he's standing or taking steps with us.  I'm pretty excited that I'm finishing up with school right when he's trying to start walking.  Any earlier and I still would have been slaving away on the thesis.  What can I say?  The kid's a keeper :)

Basically, we're doing pretty well!  Our Lake Chelan trip and Spencer's birthday are coming up in the next two weeks but we'll think about those once my defense is over.  As for now, I'm loving all this new-found time I have!  It's mostly spent on sleep and quality time with my boys :)  And maybe a LITTLE bit on preparing for next Thursday's meeting... but just a little bit.

We love you all!

Um....

I did it.

I finished my thesis.

124 pages.

ONE MONTH.

No sleep.

And now...

Relief.

As of August 9th, I will only respond to "Master Cornett."  Or "mom."  :)

Update Time!

Hey all!

I am deep in the midst of the busiest time in my life so it's a miracle that this post is being written at all.  I've been working on thesis every spare second of every day (and night) and unfortunately, those "spare" seconds have come at really awkward times.  But some days, you just need a little break.  Today that break comes in the form of a blog post.

As busy as grad school has been, I've told myself that no matter what, Colton is priority 1.  So as soon as he goes down for a nap, I write and write and write and write.  And as soon as Spencer comes home from school or work, he takes over feeding/changing/playing so I can write and write and write.  And when Colton goes to bed around 9:00 at night, I get in my car, drive over to the almost-deserted Taylor building, and write and write and write until ridiculous hours of the morning.  I got home at 4:00 this morning :(  But I'm almost done!  I have about 85 pages finished and I completed my data analysis last night.  I can do this.  I can bust my tail for two more weeks.  And THEN I'll be FINISHED!

So I'm not getting much sleep... but it's no less than when Colton was a newborn.  And my boys are my motivation!  I'm thinking about language impairment and social communication intervention and counting productions of emotion-based words so often during the day that when I'm with Spencer and Colton, I make sure I'm with them and no one else.  Thesis goes on the backburner.  And THAT is my reality check.  I'll do anything I have to do if it means I get to play with my boys every day.

As for Spencer... he's amazing!  He's the only reason why our house is ever clean.  He lets me focus on school and he kicks into full housekeeper gear and keeps our place looking great.  AND he's a great dad!  I can get lots of Colton smiles but Spencer can get that kid to absolutely crack up.  It's pretty cute.  Spencer quit his job at Calloway Labs and is now doing the same thing (drug testing) for the company that originally contracted Calloway.  He's getting just as many hours as he was before but now he doesn't have to drive to Salt Lake a bajillion times a week.  Huzzah!  He's throwing in a couple extra hours in at the Telefund again, too.  AND he's taking classes.  AND he still manages to go to bed at a normal hour (lucky man...).  Superman, maybe?

Colton's adorable (duh).  He just had his 9 month appointment and is weighing in at a whopping 23 lbs (90th percentile!).  Our doctor took one look at his chunky legs and asked us if we wrestle with him.  Yeah... we practically do.  Every time we change his diaper :)  OR... every time I try to take his picture with my phone:

He's now obsessed with a show on Nick Jr. called Bubble Guppies.  Don't ask me why... he just is. Here's proof:

He's not QUITE as wild about kiddie pools yet... but we're working on it!

He REALLY likes getting into awkward places:

And he's kind of obsessed with door stoppers:

And tearing everything off tables, chairs, couches, counters, shoe racks... basically anything he can reach!

He loves mooning people...

He had a bladder infection a few weeks ago (SAD SAD baby) and kept falling asleep in crazy places:

You'll be glad to know he's staying pretty regular...

But BEST of all... he loves to see the temple!

We love you all! The next time you hear from us... I'll probably be done with my beastly thesis! (WOOHOO!)