Three months in a flash!

Has it really been three months since I last posted?

Wow...

I guess that is what happens after life takes unexpected turns.

I am pretty sure I posted about my new job as an adjunct professor at Utah State, but in case I didn't, that is what I have been up to.

Between work, being a mom and home renovations,  I have pretty much been running around like a chicken with my head cut off (but in a good way. )

It has definitely relaxed me quite a bit to have an artistic outlet again and teaching voice at the college level has given me just that. I am hoping to throw together a recital one of these days but my fear is that nobody would show up so I am contemplating and putting together a program in my head.

So, what has happened in three months?

The biggest change is that Faith started school at the special needs preschool.

It honestly wasn't as traumatic for either of us as I thought it would be. Faith loves it and the teachers are shocked by how well she caught onto the routine,  especially because her visit day was a semi disaster where she needed an aid by her side 100% of the time.

Apparently,  she has the cutest hair in school and all the teachers apparently wait to see what I have done with her hair. I don't think what I do is THAT remarkable but it is nice to hear its appreciated.

I finished my first semester as an adjunct professor.

I am pretty proud of that. By the end, I was ready to be done and in desperate need of a break but that had more to do with maintaining a 24/7 schedule as a mom of three littles while maintaining a part tome work schedule.

My students are all sweet and amazing and worked so hard. It was definitely very rewarding work. There would be days when I didn't want to get up and go in and just wanted to stay home and snuggle my babies, but I pushed myself and was always glad I did...but now I am looking forward to a month-ish long break to recharge my battery and figure out my life again...

Let's just say that in all by busy-ness my house has suffered the most. I came home and just wanted to snuggle and play with my girls and so things like laundry,  sweeping,  mopping, etc.were pushed to the back of the list...

Things got done...eventually...they always do...

I definitely know that I will have to make a visual chart like I did when I lived in Las Vegas and was learning how to cope with two kids 10 months apart and keeping things organized...hopefully it will happen over the break.

Of course,  in the midst of my mess, we decided to start renovations on our townhouse. It wasn't horrible before,  but it wasn't "us".

We put in new floors and are slowly but surely painting the cabinets in the kitchen. Jeff has started putting in new cabinets for more storage space along the edge of the dining area and we will be painting those as well. We have paint colors picked for our walls and new trim picked out but have yet to go purchase them. We decided we needed to finish the cabinets  before we started another project.

We are hoping that by this time next year we will be ready to start our upstairs projects: painting walls, new carpets and hopefully consulting a contractor to find a way to make our smallest bedroom upstairs bigger by taking down a wall between it and another room and moving closet spaces, etc to make the rooms more equal in size.  Jeff wants to try to make the bathroom bigger too in order to put in a spa tub but I told him we would need to get a quote and decide because doing that would involve moving plumbing.

Meanwhile,  the kids are growing like weeds and getting excited for Christmas.  This is the first year they will really "get it" when it comes to Santa.

Phillie was FEARLESS when it came time to sit on Santa's lap. She dragged me through the line, marched right up and crawled onto his lap...charming him into letting her pick a type of candy cane that they hadn't opened the package of yet. Even Santa was impressed.  He said he had never had a kid so little be so brave and brazen... way to go Phillie girl.

Faith didn't cry but she was very skeptical at first.  Her grandpa had to physically grab her and sit her on Santa's lap. Once she was on, she smiled and sat still for pictures (amazingly enough).

Vivi didn't cry either but she doesn't really know what is up yet...lol

Looking forward beyond Christmas,  my hours at the university have thankfully been cut due to budget constraints in the music department.  It means I may have some more time to figure life out and maybe keep my house clean for longer than five minutes.

Faith was accepted into the ASSERT program. Its basically an extra preschool for kids with Autism that focuses for 20 hours a week on behavioral therapy and other Autism related issues.

I have to say I am most excited for me. I am looking forward to gaining more parenting strategies so I can be more effective at teaching and leading her. Most of the time I am making things up as I go along...sometimes it works and sometimes its a disaster but it will be awesome to have more direction from experts.  I know this program will help Faith a ton, especially because it is coupled with her preschool classes already in play.

She still doesn't have much in the way of functional language, but has started to really enjoy mimicking words she hears others say and trying to count or say the alphabet when she sees letters and numbers.  She is picking up a lot more than the school thought she would and I am grateful for that. Progress is still slow but its progress and that is all that matters.

All in all, a successful three months. Hopefully,  I will have better luck journaling on my blog this next semester.

Onward and upward!

Hugs and loves until next time darlings.