7 Months of Silence

If we're Facebook friends, then there was hardly silence.

Still.

The blog was left to gather cobwebs as I took the longest break I've ever taken. It wasn't intentional at first, but our lives took some big turns this summer and the blog fell off the priority ladder all together. Let me catch you up quickly.

From March - April:
We were busy landscaping, planting, gardening and trying to eek out the rest of our school year.

May:
...was rough.
May 9th was the day we got the phone call at 12noon that our nephew Isaiah was being diagnosed with acute leukemia. We hadn't even begun to wrap our heads around that when the 2nd phone call came. This one at 4pm, was Andy calling to let me know that the osteoarthritis clinic he worked for was closing their doors, at 5pm. That was all the more warning the entire staff had that their jobs were ending. Not only that, but pay was being withheld for weeks back.

One piece of news was earth-shattering for family, the other piece was a huge, scary disappointment but we understood it wouldn't be forever. Still, the combo in one day was really, really tough.

The next 2 weeks were quite hard. There were friends who reached out in the most loving ways. I won't forget those....By the end of May, Andy had signed on at several different facilities with PRN  (as needed) therapy work. It was enough to fill his calendar for the most part and we were so very thankful.

June, July & August:
We decided we needed to still try to enjoy summer despite what felt like full upheaval. We took 2 camping trips, celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary (Thanks Drew for sticking with my crazy), and filled in the gaps with more yard projects and family fun.

September....
...was supposed to bring the re-opening of Andy's old clinic, under new management, new name, new company...etc..The dates kept moving farther and farther back. Everyone was still effected by the messy bankruptcy of the last clinic. Hands were tied, money was in limbo, we were still holding out hope we'd see the large sum of money that was owed to us.
The happy notes of September included being back in the routine of school, believe it or not, we have a 3rd grader, a 1st grader and 3 class pets. 1 cat, 1 dog and 1 two year old. All equally distracting. We also celebrated Andy's 30th birthday with a family backyard inflatable sumo-suit party. Oh, those videos will live on in infamy.

October
Here we are in October. Andy continues on with his PRN work, we will see what happens with the new clinic, and the other job possibilities in the fire. We're learning to walk when we want to run and give God his full allowance to intervene at the "11th hour" in our lives.
How is our family?
Liam is obsessed with trucks, trains, Buddy the dog and the garbage truck. Thursday mornings I try not to let anything come between him and the 8am garbage truck sighting.
Livy is in her 2nd year of ballet and is really starting to blossom into a full-blown reader.
Emma's delight this summer has been going to work with her Daddy to a specific skilled nursing facility where everyone knows her and she spends her day talking to patients and doing what she does best, caring.
Nellie filled her hands once again with a bit too much this Fall, but wouldn't change it. Hm....except possibly the HOA commitement....
Andy is kept quite busy concocting what house project we should tackle next and leading a small men's group on Wednesday nights. (among work, assistant bb coach, HOA, 2nd job and a family)

We're good. It was quite a summer, but we're happy to be back.