Happy Birthday Jacqui ~ 7*

Our Jacqui Rose is 7 years old! She had a wonderful birthday this year. She was able to spread it over a few days. We had a birthday party at Chuck E Cheese over the weekend, with a few of her close buddies. She had a blast! She picked out a Littlest Pet Shop cake and played games to her heart's content. She is quite excited about being 7. She got a new bike (she has outgrown the one she got when she was 4) and some fun games and toys to play with her friends.

We spent an evening over the weekend going to dinner at my coworker's house. They do not have kids, so I am always a little nervous about what my little narrator will say. Children have absolutely NO filter so it is always interesting what pops up in conversation :) After being completely nosy and searching their entire house, and insisting on seeing their basement and every other area of their house, Jacqui was ready to sit down and eat dinner. After dinner we were sitting and chatting while she was looking around at their 'treasures'. She found a big rock crystal on a table and initially thought it was really neat. "Ooohh what is this, that is SO cool". After a closer inspection she let her thoughts be known (no filter) "Don't you guys ever clean your house? This thing is filthy! I can see slimy bugs in it... You should really think about cleaning this!" I was mortified, they were amazing hosts and offered to let her clean it. So they got out q-tips and tweezers and she spent over an hour getting all the dirt and grime from between the crystals. I just love having a precocious child, never a dull moment! They enjoyed Jacqui and her tales of her fish and school, and how things ought to be done in the world and decided to give her the crystal rock as a birthday present. She opened it up at home and was ecstatic. I have never seen her so excited with a present she got in her life! She did the whole "This is for me?!? They didn't have to do that, they are so nice" just like an adult would say, it was cute... Anyway, we had a great week with her birthday and she is quite the happy girl.

A few updates to go along with the birthday info. Jacqui is currently enrolled in soccer for Spokane. Her and a little friend are in the same team and so her friend's mom is able to take them to the games on the weekends I work. Jacqui is pretty excited and has been practicing her drop kick skills. She got her first set of cleats and shin guards and got a pink soccer ball for her birthday. I will post some pics after we have a few games...

Jacqui is in an after school class for the next month or so to be a cheerleader. She signed up for it and absolutely loves it! She comes home and practices her clapping and cheers. She is learning some little jumps to go along with the cheers and she's pretty good at it! Her voice carries (don't know where she gets that from!) so we have fun practicing what she learns every week. Again, they will get their little pink t-shirts in the next few weeks, so I will post a pic when she gets it.

School is going well for both of us. Jacqui is getting into sciences and discovering and exploring. She is starting to ask lots of questions all the time and is trying to figure things out. I love it, it makes going on walks very fun and interesting! I have 2 weeks left for my current class. It is going well, although it is my least favorite class I have taken to date. I am looking forward to some of my upcoming classes...

Work is well, we are busy and starting many new projects that are fun and exciting. Being on day shift is a blessing and spending the evenings and every other weekend with JR is great!

It is still snowing off and on here, snowed this morning and actually covered the ground (YUCK!). Ready for spring to stick, we have been working in the yard and mowed the grass for the first time of the year last weekend. It is starting to look pretty, and we have been planting beautiful flowers just as fast as our deer can eat them :( We are working on finding plants that deer do not like, turns out there are not many plants like that, or our deer aren't picky...

Hope all is well with the rest of you, hope your spring is blooming with blessings and opportunities... Love YOU!

Arizona!

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Updates...

Sorry I haven't posted in over a month... It has been busy around here, we have had lots going on, on all fronts!

Levi is doing well, he continues to wear his brace and is healing well. He gets the brace off in May. He has been blessed to be able to change job positions and so he is able to work in the office off and on so that he has a little bit of income:) He is getting his first house and we are excited to help him get settled in and decorate! He is keeping his spirits up and looks forward to really going back to work. He still has the burning/tingling in his hands, please pray that this improves. It is manageable at this point, but would be better if it was gone completely!

Jacqui is going to be 7 (!AH!) on the 19th. We are counting down the days... She has decided to have a small, just 3 of her good buddies, party at Chuck E Cheese. We will be going to Seattle at the end of the month to see the tulip festival and visit family and do a little more birthday stuff there. She is excited to be 7. She is loving Littlest Pet Shop right now and we have taken up playing baseball at home. She wants to play, but working rotating weekends I can't get her to all the practices and games, so we are just working on it at home for now. She also has a fishing trip planned with Grandad next month and is looking forward to catching her 3 fish :)

We had her school conference right before spring break and she is doing well. She tends to talk too much in class (go figure) and that distracts her at times, but she worked on a timeline of her life where she wrote a story for each year, and it turned out beautifully. She really liked it and is learning the writing process, which is great. She is having fun in school and is enjoying learning, which is the most important thing. She has been talking a lot about chicken research (hilarious) as they did a report on chickens and they are learning how to research. It's great to hear about all her interests and see how she makes them make sense to her.

I finished my Servant Leadership course at Gonzaga and I think it was my favorite class yet. The instructor was Larry Spears, who is the guy who wrote many of the Servant Leadership books. So that was really neat and I learned so much in that class. It really generated a lot of thought and discussion for me and my dad and I have had some great conversations on the subject. I am getting more and more what my dad actually does which is nice, and I have a whole new respect for the servant leadership process... It is good stuff. I am now in a new class, which I do not like nearly as much, but I have only 4 more weeks to go and it will be done. I'm sure it is a valuable class, just not engaging to me...

Work is great, I have spent a couple of days on our medical units training as a medical nurse. I plan to stay in psych, but it is always good to have some cross-training so I can help out when needed. It also allows me to meet more people in the hospital, which I love. I have my 2nd Mental Health First Aid course that I am teaching this next week. It is a great program and very valuable for all jobs I think... It is a nationwide program and hopefully will start becoming available everywhere. We are the first to offer it within the VA, but many states are offering the training free through state grants... I'm pretty excited about it :)

Hope everyone else is doing well. Can't wait to see our family on the other side of the state, and we are excited for G & G to come back up to chilly Washington... Jacqui is excited to come spend the night and teach grandad her baseball skills. We love you guys! 'Til next time...

Levi Pics...

Just a couple pics of Levi up and about now that he is out of the hospital...


And a pic of his neck after surgery. Hopefully it will heal up nicely :)

Levi Update

Levi has been out of the hospital for a couple of days now. Overall he is feeling better and much more positive getting to be away from the loud intrusive distractions of a hospital! He has taken himself off his pain meds already (he says they weren't helping that much anyways!) and is working on healing. He has a significant scar on the front of his neck from the surgery. His throat is still a little sore due to them moving his windpipe and everything else to the side to perform the fusion surgery on his vertebrae... He is able to eat now, and swallowing is not so difficult. He is not looking forward to keeping his neck brace on for the next 3 months, but is learning to live with it. He is planning on going back to his previous living arrangements next week. He continues to have nerve pain in his thumbs that radiates to his forearms, but this is significantly less than it was originally. Please continue to pray that his healing continues, his pain goes away completely, and that he is able to stay positive. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers. Our family really appreciates it!

Levi Update

Levi has been discharged from the hospital (YEAH!). He is pretty worn out and tired, but happy to be outta there! He will be at Uncle Steve and Aunt Susie's at least for this week, so Glenn can help him navigate his way around. He has a neck brace that he has to wear constantly for the next 3 months (cannot take it off to sleep, to shower, nothing...). So he has some challenges ahead of him, but he is medically stable enough to be out of the hospital. It will take some time and frustration getting used to the new limitations, but hopefully with everyone's prayers and encouragement he will be able to stay positive.

Update...

Levi is awake and feeling pretty good. He is cracking jokes and has a couple of his friends visiting. He is still having some tingling in his thumbs, but the doctors said he should be out of the hospital by around Thursday! Yeah! Proud of you Levi! Thank you God!