Ayres Insanity

  Last week might have been the best week of my life. Russ took the week off of Skywest and only worked one job so we could spend some quality time as a family before the craziness with Delta started. We also started an experiment, we committed to not eating out for 30 days to see how much money it would save. I cooked dinner every night and we ate together as a family and it was amazing! I know these things aren't a big deal for most people but for our family, it is a privilege and the result of this togetherness was incredible! I was a great mom all week, more patient & loving and I even made dessert every night. On top of that, the house was cleaner, the kids behaved better and the overall stress level was down.    On Saturday we took a 4 mile hike up Alpine canyon, Russ carried Zoey, Taevin forged ahead, and I had the opportunity to spend most of the hike with Ryler, he is almost four but despite his young age he is so full of inspiration. As we fought through ...

  Have you ever made a mistake? One that maybe didn't seem like a mistake at the moment, but as time went on, you realized that the choice was the wrong one? Well, what can I do but swallow my pride and admit that I made a mistake when I named my daughter. There, I said it, I gave my only little girl the wrong name.   Callae was one of those names that I randomly just threw out there, and Russ happened to love it... and so did I until we started using it on a daily basis. She was only a few months old when I realized how difficult this name was, it just didn't roll off the tongue easily, in fact I even found myself having to practice it in my head before it came out. I mentioned it to Russ a few times but he just blew it off and I tried to deal with it. Finally when she was 8 months old I couldn't take it anymore. After much discussion my idea to change the name completely was shot down (due to the fact that Russ didn't want to take the ridicule), Russ did...

  These last few months have been so crazy busy and I'm afraid it's only going to get worse, so here's the latest events in our lives.   Ryler has now started preschool and is loving every minute! His teacher (Mrs. Leanne) is nothing short of AMAZING and he is learning so much. The social interaction has been so good for him and this has given him an outlet and change of scenery that has affected his behavior in so many wonderful ways. We're so happy to see him progressing and enjoying something so much!   Onto the next big thing... Russ has worked for Skywest airlines for 8 years now, at first it was his only job then about 6 years ago our prayers were answered and he got a "real job" with Union Pacific Railroad. He has kept Skywest as a part time job for the flight benefits and the extra income. A couple of months ago Skywest laid off over 100 people, Russ was safe but he felt at that point that the company wasn't as stable as he'd like so he appli...

  It just occurred to me that I never wrote about Callae's first birthday, I mean really, what kind of mother forgets to blog about her only daughters first birthday? A frazzled one, that's who! Anyway, she turned one on August 10th and we did have a little party. It was a BBQ with family, girly balloons and a pink cake covered with pearls and topped with a sparkling singing candle (which might I add, was a big hit), and as most first birthdays, we enjoyed it more than she did.   I bought her her first baby doll, and she of course, got plenty of clothes and was spoiled by the grandparents.   She is now 13 months and started walking about 2 weeks ago, the time has flown and I can't believe my baby is becoming a toddler! I sure do love that beautiful little girl and can't picture my life without her.

  So for those who know what has been going on lately, it's no secret that we've been sporting one car lately.   About one very long month ago, Russ called in the morning and woke me up with the news of a broken down car (nice way to start the day eh?) so I packed up the kids and towed him to the repair shop. After fixing a broken radiator, the  piece of crap rice rocket 1998 Honda Civic hatchback revealed a hopelessly non repairable engine. Ummm seriously? I could swear that it was just barely over a year ago when the EXACT same thing happened to our Pathfinder. Who has this kind of luck???   Well, our mechanic quoted $2500.00 for the repair, (yeah right, we're still paying off last years $5000.00!) so after much prayer and contemplation, we decided that it simply wasn't going to happen. Russ decided to find a used motor on his own and with the help of his awesome brother, they would do the repair themselves. They spent several ...

  I have been abundantly blessed in my life, but tonight I'm a little bit sad. I'm sad for a friend who is experiencing trials, for the trials that have been going on in my life recently, and for the challenges we face daily, simply because of the world we live in.   Something that I've realized about trials is that we all have them, and there is always someone out there that probably has it worse. Having said that, I believe that just because an others trial might be worse, we should not count ours as trivial or insignificant.  Our trials are ours, ours to dread, to fight through, and to learn from... and although perspective is important in order to cope, it is of equal importance that we take the time to cry for ourselves, wonder why, and plead for  divine help. And then we move on, hopefully better than when we started.   So with one of my favorite quotes in mind; "I never said it would be easy, I only said it would be worth it"....

  Yesterday was the first day of school and I think I was more excited than Taevin. I had organized all of his school supplies perfectly in his backpack, laid out his clothes, and made sure he was bathed and in bed early so he'd be well rested for his first day.   We woke up on time, got ready, had breakfast and were at the bus stop promptly at 7:20 for the 7:23 pickup. Then we waited... and waited... and waited, until finally one of our neighbors decided to take the kids to school. Well, as it turns out, the pickup time had changed to 7:04, but despite our bus mishap Taevin seemed to have had a good day, he got off of the bus smiling and was ready for some play time.   We finished summer with Ryler's itty bitty soccer (which was super cute) so I guess the next step is preschool for him then onto my mile long to-do list. YAY!