Hello (after more than a year)

Umm..... Hello.... is anyone even still here? 

It has been over a year since I posted and while I do still read blogs, I am usually on my phone doing so and it is hard to write a post or even comment. Also life has been crazy, busy, stressful, interesting, etc. I just really haven't had a chance to pop in and write. But I had a little time tonight before I had to register the boys for their summer camp so thought I'd pop on to say hi.

So a little update on the family. 

We will start with Ben....

He is now a freshman in high school. WHAT??? He has grown REALLY tall. He is currently 6 feet 5 inches tall. Taller than Jacob and Rebecca and he is only 14. We've been having more issues with behaviors at home and are trying to navigate some tough things. He is enjoying high school for the most part- he made the audition choir and is enjoying singing in that with Jacob. He loves to play Minecraft and watch YouTube videos. 

Jacob---

Jacob turned 17 last month! He is a junior in high school now and is kind of finding his way. He made Honor's Choir this year and we enjoyed that performance a few weekends ago. He is still unsure what he wants to do after high school so we are working on that. He has a small part in the high schools theater production in a couple of weeks and will also begin Indoor Track season soon where he is a thrower. He is taking Government this year and I took him with me to do early voting and he has been enjoying the election season (minus all the political ads!). 

Rebecca----

Rebecca is in her sophomore year at Bowling Green. She changed her major halfway through the year last year. She is no longer studying music education. Instead she is studying early childhood education. She is still singing as part of Volare, one of the women's choirs at BGSU. She has been dating a guy for about a year now and is happy with that even though he transferred out of BGSU and is now working and going to school closer to his home in Akron. She is very involved in her church up at BG, and seems to be doing okay. 

Me---

Well....let's see... where do I start? I think I mentioned in my last post, last September, that I was back with Head Start in a full day full year position. Well, I am still with Head Start, but in a different position. I took over as lead preschool teacher of a different full day/full year classroom in a different building. I basically went from one dumpster fire to a a burning, blazing dumpster fire. It has not been easy due to MANY reasons, however, I am well respected in what I have been able to do and how I have turned around my classroom. I will say I have hit a rough patch and I have had to be talked out of quitting several times over the past few weeks. It is not because of the kiddos, but rather coworkers and parents. I started back to college and I am really not doing very well with the workload. I needed some credits to keep my position and I have a year to get them and I am way behind schedule. The stress is real. I ended up in the hospital in Early spring as they thought I was having a heart attack. My blood pressure was like 210/170. It was bad. Ended up not being a heart attack but a stress induced incident. I am trying to be better but it is hard. I do a lot of hiking and walking. I was recently diagnosed as a diabetic and there are some things going on with my liver numbers that my doc doesn't like. So in a nutshell, I am still working too hard, underpaid, dealing with loads of stressors, and just trying to do the best that I can. It is what it is. 

Like I said I have been reading blogs, but not always commenting. I am not sure if I will get back to blogging regularly, but I will try to pop on here more often. 

Wishing you all well as we enter into the season of Thankfulness, holidays and more.