Where has all the snow gone?

So here we are in the final stages of  November and still like no snow on the ground. We have only had it snow a couple of times. And just about each time it will snow and then melt by that afternoon. While I am grateful that we don't have snow and that it has been prolonged this much longer, it is just weird that we live in Rexburg.... okay let me say that again.... REXBURG.. and we don't have snow on the ground. It has been like the longest time that I know of that we haven't had snow. Every year that we have lived here that has been TONS of snow on the ground by now.
Okay so right now here is what is going on in our lives. Steve is about to graduate from college. Like in 3 weeks-ish. He graduates on December 16. SO CLOSE! So far, we don't have any job offers yet, which is a little concerning to me because we are so close to being done. Steve is looking for jobs in California, mostly in the San Jose area. Both sets of parents want us to come and live down in Texas when we are done with school so that we can save some money. I agree but disagree at the same time. We would save money yes, but at the same time, if we went down to Texas we would lose the jobs that we have right now. Steve gets to work at the financial aid office until the middle of January. 40 hours a week. So that would save us a million dollars. Not literally but it will make the moving process easier. Also we wouldn't want to move from Idaho to Texas to California. It would be a lot of moving in a short amount of time. We don't exactly know how much time frame we are looking at. The job market is going up and down so that makes me nervous. I also don't know what I am going to do about Christmas. I don't plan on setting up because I don't know how long we are going to be here. I mean will we be here and want to set up and have time to set up and take down and everything for the Holidays before we move. But what if we don't? What if we are moving soon after Christmas or even before? I have no clue what to do. SO that is life right now. Still going still moving. Loving life. Learning new things everyday.
Oh yeah, I am now babysitting Josie's baby again. Miss Presley. She is adorable. Josie got a job being a manager at Aspin Village I think. So I watch Presley like 40 hours a week-ish. So that is income coming in plus the other kids that I babysit. So while Steve is working I will be working too saving up that money for an apartment in California when we get a job. Yay!

It finally happened...

So remember when I told you yesterday that Caleb painted? Well, it happened again, but this time I wasn't so lucky. Instead of chocolate he painted with his poop. He decided to paint himself, the bed, the sheets, the blankets, the wall, the floor, my bed, the desk, and the door. Yay.  So i grab him give him a shower and started to clean. This is the true joy of motherhood. I totally would've made Steve do it if he were home. I think this is the one time I have been jealous of him going to school.

Oh my gosh... What is THAT?!

So you might have guessed from my text messages and maybe from the title that something amazing is going to happen today on the blog. Well, you are absolutely correct. Let's start from the beginning.
This morning when we woke up, I ignored the alarm and we slept 22 minutes longer than we should have. Now before you judge me on ignoring my alarm clock on a Sunday. Just know that I have not slept good for the past 3 nights in a row. Maybe a grand total of 9 hours in 3 days. So yes, if I could sleep I was going to. Sad. Caleb was being very complainey and whiney and just kind of annoying at 7:22 in the morning. Now, granted, by this time in the morning he is usually fed and ready for the day so I can understand why he would be upset. Steve gets up and jumps into the shower so that we can be ready for church on time at 8:30 which is going to be hard pressed since we were all getting up so late. I get out of bed and Caleb will not stop crying. He keeps saying "ow ow" so I think that he is hurt. He either hurt himself last night in bed or he isn't feeling good in general. So I grab his blankie and wrap it around him and that seems to calm him down a little. But not much is changing. So I bring him into the bathroom to make the morning rounds and to show/let Steve hear how and what is going on. I set him down on the ground and immediately the crying begins again. By this time I am getting worried that something is not right. I don't think he feels good. We decide to stay home from church and take care of Caleb. Which stinks because now we have missed the past 3 Sundays. I am losing it.  While I am changing Caleb he continues the owie thing and I start pointing to different parts of his body and saying owie to try and get him to let me know what hurts. When I get to his tummy and poke it he starts bawling so either it is an upset stomach or he is really hungry. I try and feed him some cereal and he won't eat it. Doesn't even touch it. The first thing we got him to eat of the day was goldfish. Then animal crackers. Then like berries. So we figure lots of fluid and plain food. Sad day. So Caleb has had a hard day, all in all. Okay on to the main event.We put Caleb down for his nap and don't hear much out of him. He "slept" for about 3 hours. When he started finally making noise it was an "ew ew ew" I open the door and see this...

OH MY GOSH! WHAT IS THAT?! The worst has finally happened. He finally decided to "paint". For all you parents out there, you know what that means... Then I look over to the desk and see this...

Yes that is correct CHOCOLATE! DARK CHOCOLATE! MY dark chocolate! Someone, and by someone I mean my wonderful hubby left my goodies on the desk. Caleb has successfully unwrapped and eaten at least 7 or more pieces. Yay. I was a mix of emotions. Yay! It's not poop! And the little turd ate all my dark chocolate! (pun intended). We can all breathe a sigh of relief... and gratification. Below is the video of it all. Hope you enjoy! I know Caleb did...

Shoot em' Up

...life...

Okay. So I am back in Idaho and have been since about June 13. It was great to see everybody and have fun in the sun again. I didn't get to see very much of the sun for a while so that was nice. So almost immediately as I came home, I started my new job which is babysitting for the manager of the office while the office is open. She just had her baby 3 months ago and just came back to work. So I get to have a cute little 3 month old baby girl at my house everyday. It's nice. Some days it adds to the fact that I am a single mom until Steve gets back home at the end of July or the beginning of August. I am so very excited for him to come home. Like I can't even express it into words. I have officially begun the countdown. 20 days to go. YAY! But life continues. Day after day, of working and doing almost the same thing each and every day. Sometimes it gets depressing, but that's why I have my wonderful family and friends that I can talk to each and every day. Heavenly Father is amazing with that. He has sent specific people to my life at the times that I need them the most. I am loving life.
On Saturday the 9th of July, I was on a team that did a Triathlon. I did the swimming portion of it. It was 600 yards. I didn't think it was going to kick my butt as soon as it did. I finished it. I didn't stop. We did the whole triathlon in 1 hour and 7 minutes. We came in 7th place out of 10. We weren't last! And we didn't give up. We started training for it about a week and a half before hand. So, next time I will be doing it by myself. I won't stop training. I will do it. It was fun. We are supposed to get a T-shirt for doing it. I think that we should get a medal for just doing it. But that is just me. Oh big surprise... I dyed my hair black. What do you think?

Bekah again

I don't really have a lot more to add since my last post. I did go to the GI guy, Dr. Kethu, and he said that I could still have an ulcer, even though I took that ulcer medicine and it didn't help. He also said that I could have irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). So, he prescribed Amitiza, which is basically a laxative, to see if that will help. So far it hasn't, in fact, so far it has made the pain worse. This is the opposite effect we were hoping for. My return appointment is on Thursday, July 21st to see how everything is going. If the meds continue to not help then he will do both an endoscopy and a colonoscopy to look for whatever is wrong. I have not yet started the progesterone pills yet (for the endometriosis possibility) but I should start them tomorrow. Mom is going to pick them up for me tonight.

Rachel got a job! She works at Heartland Bread for the Warrens. She's actually there now. She gets $8 an hour but she works in a warehouse that doesn't have air conditioning in the middle of summer in Dallas. Not a very good combination. However, yesterday when she was working, someone came in and told her that she was sexy and she should've been a model. She was floored by this since she was all sweaty and felt gross. I think she handled it very well and very professionally though. She's excited to have a job and start saving money for college. We think she should buy us all Harry Potter 7 part 2 movie tickets with her new money. We'll see if she goes for that.

John is going out still looking for a job. He had a job interview yesterday with the railroad company and he has another one right now with Wells Fargo. He's anxious to start working. He seems to be doing well here, though. It is so nice to have him home, even if he does sometimes walk into the bathroom without knocking (on Rachel, not me).

Dad's colonoscopy is tomorrow morning so today he is drinking that awful stuff to clear out his colon so they have a clear view of it. He has to be there at like 6am, so John is taking him. Can you imagine any of the rest of us being coherent enough at 6am to drive Daddy anywhere? I can't.

Mom is still working hard at the Andersons, helping Hannah. She works everyday starting at about 3pm and getting home just after 7 usually. She goes to the gym everyday and is losing weight and gaining muscle! She is so excited about that. She has an appointment with Dr. Norton (my ob/gyn) soon, but I'm not sure exactly when it is. Leah, you will be happy that she has that appointment, I'm sure :)

I think that's an update on everybody here, looking forward to reading all the updates coming from the rest of y'all soon!

All my love,

Bekah

News from the Doctor!

I just got back from the gynecologist and I am posting what she said.

Endometriosis is a possibility. Let me explain to you what that is (I needed an explanation). When you're on your period, blood and endometrium (lining of the uterus) both get schluffed off and out. Sometimes the lining escapes the uterus by a way other than out your vagina, like out your fallopian tubes. When this happens, that lining sometimes attaches to your other organs and continues to act like the lining in your uterus, meaning that every month it swells and then contracts or cramps. This is not good on your other organs as it can cause scarring and other problems. The best treatment option for endometriosis is to put your body into a temporary state of menopause, which relaxes the lining and stops your periods, so you aren't damaging anything else. Another option is to remove the implanted portions of the endometrium. This doesn't always work very well, because it's almost impossible to find them all, and then you keep making more of them every month. Endometriosis is usually diagnosed by going through a regimen of pills and if that helps, it confirms the diagnosis. However, Dr. Norton did not want to do this with me, considering the intolerance that I had for the birth control pill that I took earlier this year. She thinks that I have gynecological problems (endometriosis I'm assuming) and GI problems that are unrelated, but that feed each other. So, the only other viable diagnosing option is surgery, but she doesn't want to do surgery without knowing all that is going on in my GI tract, she wants to know all the problems that could happen before she goes in. So, I'm going to a gastroenterologist next Tuesday at 3:00. Dr. Kenthu his name is. I will most likely have to have a colonoscopy in July. That's icky and I'm not looking forward to it at all. But it feels great to finally be on the path to finding the answers that I have been looking for for so long.

In other, happier news, John has officially moved in. His computer is all set up, along with his xbox. It's so nice to have him home! He might not feel all that enthused about it, but the rest of us are. Rachel and I are now sharing a room and he is occupying my old room, which used to be Abanga's room, and before that was the sewing room. Abanga is still living with us, he sleeps in the family room (the one with the fireplace). Rachel is looking for a job for the summer, and hopefully next year as well. John is feverishly looking for a job, mostly online. My phone interview went well, I think. I'm waiting to hear back to see if I got a second interview, this one in person.

I think that's all the news I have today.

I love you all!

Caleb Walking!!!!

Alright so it has been a long week and an even longer month. Updates. Steve has received an internship down in Bountiful, Utah for this summer in a marketing firm. I am not sure of the name but Fluid is in it. He starts there the beginning of May or the end of April. It isn't paid so one of us will have to find a part-time job there and we are still looking for somewhere to stay since we will only be there for the summer, that may prove difficult. Caleb has been having all kinds of problems. He has had diharea forever and when we took him to the hospital last for accidental ingestion, the doctor at the hospital said that we should try a no dairy diet for a while and that should help normalize his bowels. Which it did and didn't at the same time. He would start out good during the day and then just get more and more loose. Sorry, you probably don't want to hear about my son's bowel movements. Not fun. Lots of diapers. So. Talked to the pediatrician today and he said to take him into the hospital for tests to see if he is allergic to something, or if he has an enzyme deficiency, or if he is syliac. He said based on the results they might have to do a biopsy depending on what the results are. I get the "fun" part of collecting stool samples for them. How fun for me. They gave me 3 vials to collect. Yuck! I am still cleaning the office and laundry room, which I must say that No One who lives here, at the complex, treats the laundry room like they would if it was in their own house. I will just leave it at that. Otherwise, life is good. Steve is still wanting school to be out and over with as soon as possible. And I agree with him. No homework makes for a happy family. He has senior-itis bad. He will graduate in December! Whoo-hoo! I expect to see ALL of you there for that. If not and something comes up, thats okay. Just don't cry when we don't see you for a while... LOL. Sorry just kidding. I learned how to crochet and am making a scarf right now. It is nice to have a hobby again. Oh and I just finished my cross-stitch that I started when Steve and I got married and were living in Afton, Wyoming in 2008. Amazing huh? And my next goal is to make matching suit vests for my boys for Easter. Yay! But we will see how that comes. Alright, well let me know if you need anything! Love ya!

Here comes February!

Alright, well life continues on despite the freezing temperatures and the snow continuing to pile up. Caleb is still not walking, although he is 14 months old. Everyone keeps telling me that that is okay. A lot of kids don't walk until they are like 15 months old. I have continued to have it in the back of my mind however because it seems like everywhere I look babies younger than Caleb are walking. I was just visiting teaching the other day, and the lady's daughter was 9 months old and walking everywhere. My nephew started walking around like 9 or 10 months old. It is not fair at all! I know I will probably regret saying this, but I can't wait until he is walking everywhere. Then I won't have to hold him all the time. Steve thinks that I hold him too much already. Which I probably do. I just finished reading this AMAZING series of books called The Hunger Games. I absolutely loved them. Tons of adventure and romance and action. Not to mention the sadness and frustration you feel towards different characters all the time. It is so weird how these little things happen that remind you that there is more to your little life than taking care of your family. That was the first thing that I have done for myself in a LONG time. Steve and I were talking and we decided that I need to get a hobby. So this week, since I finished The Hunger Games, I started To cross stitch. It has been fun. I love the way the threads feel on the top. I can't stop running my fingers across them.

Caleb has started this non-dairy diet thing going on. The doctor at the hospital said that that might help his congestion problems and his bowels. Oh yeah, he went to the hospital because he decided to drink/eat the vapor rub that you put on your chest when you get sick. Fun Times. Well Steve has been going to school and trying to find internships for this summer. We will see how this goes. Well, life has its ups and downs. Lets just try to move past the downs on our way to the ups.