Life in 2015

Has started off a little, well.... challenging. Here we are in June and starting our summer and as I reflect on the obstacles thrown our way so far this year, I think "we are a little battered and bruised but we are happy", and that is NOT a bad place to be.

January:
Chris took off to Dubai with his previous job (Avcor) for a week and came back with no appreciation for the Dubai and their culture. :-) AND he came back with a bad case of Gout (we soon discovered).
He battled with the Gout all through Feb. and March once we seem to have gotten it under control with some daily medicine. Late January, Luke got bronchitis AND the flu (yes, at the same time) and them - yes you guess it, Chris and I both got the flu as well. And we were DOWN. It took me a good 2 weeks to regain my energy and get back to what seemed to be my normal self.

Febuary/March:
After starting the year with Zimmer (a dental implant company) where he was a "local" sales rep, in March Chris moved on to a traveling job with a company called Clinical Innovations where he has been very happy so far. We are sad he is back on the road, but so far it seems more manageable than before with Avcor.
Luke's teacher at Mini Texans left in early January so we spend the first part of the year "getting adjusted" to a new one. NOT easy with this colorful 4 year old! Lots of behavior reports and "not listening and not sitting still" challenges but we seemed to round the corner in March.
We have decided not to send Luke to Kinder this year, so we needed to have him "repeat" Pre K but Mini Texans did not have room- so now I was "hunting" schools again. Finally, after a lot of thought and prayer, we learned a new Daycare was opening summer 2015 in our area, so we were able to get him enrolled. We'll stay at Mini Texas this summer and take swin lessons, do field trips, etc. until the new school year starts in August.

April:
April and Easter came with a bang and we hosted some family which was a BLAST! Our church hosted a very fun Easter Egg hunt and all of the kiddos were able to participate. On a sad note (true to 2015 form) we lost my step mom Janelle Lowe April 1st to ALS. She had a long, hard battle and decided to wave the white flag in April.

May:
We did some traveling with Chris in May for his job and spent some time at resorts (La Torreta and JW Marriott). I feel so blessed that we can take this time together as a family. We ended May at Jellystone in Fredericksburg for Memorial Day with the Martinez Family- Lots of fun and a great way to start off the summer except the entire Hill Country flooded and was left with some heartache. It seems like it rained ALL of April and May but now we are BONE dry (typical)!

Well here we are in June and while we are so siked for our summer plans (Luke turning 5, fishing, rving, me turning 40, the beach, etc) it has started out with some heartache as well. I lost my Dad tragically June 4th. He was found in his office "slumped over" and no cause of death has been determined just yet. But we do know it was not natural causes- which is tough to process. My sister and brother are taking it very hard as they had grown incredibly close to my Dad especially after Janelle got sick and he became their primary care giver. I have had a distant relationship with my Dad almost all of my life so this loss is very different for me. I am having a hard time "sorting through" my feelings.

As we push through June- there is lots of Joy to be had. Luke had his 5th birthday party at a trampoline park on Sat. June 6th. We had a great turn out of friends and family and are taking his "real birthday" to play hookie from school and work and go to Seaworld! I can't believe he is 5 and don't want to blink again as I know 6 is right around the corner. Every day I thank God for his "plan" and allowing me to trust him to grow our family in his own way.

Hopefully, I can document summer adventures here later this summer!