Update on the ATC job

This morning Cory received an email from the FAA. As most of you know, he has been going through their application process since last June... apparently the government really takes their time. Just as a recap he was invited to come and test for them back in January and passed in the well qualified range. He had then been put on referral lists for all sorts of locations that he applied for and the waiting game began. So the email today said he has been chosen to interview for a job in Texas. It did not specify what part though, and he had applied to positions in the following five locations: Dallas/Fort worth, Houston, El Past, Lubbock, and Abilene. We are to reply to the email and then we will know when he actually interviews. After that he will also have to complete a security screening, medical evaluation, psychological evaluation, and drug test. I have heard ( well read actually from my online browsing of Air traffic controller forums) that this process can take a few months. Just thought I would let you know so you can pray it all goes smoothly!

I am hoping that at the interview they specify what location we are looking at. This is for two reasons; first his pay would depend on the size of the facility and location ( there is locality pay) and I want to know what we are looking at financially, and second I would like to start learning everything i can under the sun about where we are going (like where to live etc)!! ( all assuming this works of course!) I have spent most of the day today online already looking at the housing markets in all of the locations.. and am really pleased! Housing there is about half as much as here, so that is always a plus!

Now of course this is all still tentative.. and i do so hate getting my hopes up! I cant help it though. So you all can get your hopes up with me so if it doesn't work you will know why I am being such a downer!

And just like that.. its summer!

We have had temps in the 80's this week! It was weird to go hot so fast.. but we are loving playing outside and enjoying our back yard. The downside is that our bedroom is on the top floor, while the air conditioner is in the basement, and i guess its not the best unit because our bedroom is HOT HOT HOT!! Its so hard to sleep at night. The sad part is i already feel this way and the highest temp we have had is 88! I bet you all cant wait to hear me complaining come mid July when I am 38 weeks pregnant and its usually 110 degrees here! I might sleep downstairs at that point!!

Today was Porters last day of preschool. They had an hour long thing and the parents were supposed to come. We stayed for 15 minutes. Porter was actually done about 30 seconds in but we waited long enough to get his year end diploma and a fathers day thing he made ( purple hand prints! ) from his teacher. They had all the kids sit in chairs and sing some songs from the year. Porter wouldn't go near the chairs.. he sat in Cory's lap on the other side of the room on the floor. He also covered his head with his arms and sat there curled up the whole time. We were delighted later to hear bits of the songs in the car though. He just was too overwhelmed with the change of routine at preschool combined with all these parents and people he didn't know there. Add to that clapping and chatter and it was just overkill. I wonder how the kid is ever going to survive the public school system.

After that fun time, we headed off to my 30 week appointment for the baby. Baby looks good, measuring well and heart beat sounded nice and fast! However my anemia has dropped again.. which is so frustrating to me. She suggested eating red meat EVERY day... just the thought makes me want to barf. I am just not a big red meat eater. I don't know what else to do. I also lost a pound.. which i guess is bad because she gave me a hard time about it. She asked if I was eating.. ummm YA! I eat all the time! Then she turned to Cory and asked him " is she eating?" Okay, does she think i am lying?? Do I look like a small person? I started out this pregnancy heavy so I don't see what the big deal is.. i have gained to date 14 pounds so I am not too worried plus i have 10 weeks left! I must say I was not upset i hadn't gained any weight... but hey I have a lot of fat left over from the last three pregnancies so maybe the baby is just feeding off of that! lol. Everyone pray though that my anemia gets better because i am Sooooooo tired all the time. Also as my levels go down i get many head aches and breathlessness ( is that a word?). I feel like such a sub standard mother/housewife right now because I just don't have the energy to do much. So if you stop by my house pardon the mess!

Oh and had to add... at my appointment Theo wanted to come up on the table with me and the midwife helped support him while she measured my belly and listened to the heartbeat. Theo was so interested and had this calm thinking face on. It was really cute! I wonder what he was thinking, if he remembers the sounds of the womb that he heard with the Doppler. Wonder if he knows there is a baby in there, understands more than me maybe!

Going Private

I know that the blogging world is not about privacy. But after getting stats on my blog I am surprised of all the people that read my blog all over the world. Since I didn't start this blog to be witty and have people read it ( I started it to keep my out of state family and friends in touch with my family) I don't really see why random people would want to read this? But apparently they do.. I guess they are really bored because my life is pretty slow going and not exciting! I have decided that I don't like random people reading my blog and me not knowing it. I guess i dont mind you reading and not posting ever.. just i mind not KNOWING you are reading it. I like to know who is checking in on me! Anyways.. so if you read my blog, and want to keep reading my blog please respond with your email address so when I go private you will be allowed to still view! I really don't care who wants to have access.. just like the thought of knowing who does! I will go private in a few weeks, so respond by then!

silly porter

Porter comes running up to me while i am sitting on the couch, saying he wants to play with me. He is wearing three (purple of course!) bead necklaces with his typical boy outfit of red shirt and jeans. He then tells me "mommy I am the pretty princess, and you are the king!" Okay... i try to say without laughing. He then proceeds to tell me "watch me dance!" followed by a delightful silly dance around the living room.

Maybe he has been hearing me tell people i want a girl, so has decided to become one! lol. Cory didn't find this as funny as i did by the way. Not to worry though, today porter and I also had a light saber fight and he was Darth maul and he cut off my hands. ( he put them back on though so i could keep playing, isn't he nice?) So I think he has plenty of boy in him too!

Another funny conversation with porter

Porter: mommy, porters hungry ( he has been talking in third person a lot lately) Can i puhleeees ( think whiny kid voice) have some celery?

Mommy: yes you can, let me go get it for you.

Porter: Thank you mommy!! ( like i just agreed to give him a big chocolate ice cream cone or something!)

I hand him a stalk of celery.. he likes it uncut so i just wash a whole 14 inch stalk and hand it over. He then licks his lips, says Mmmmm yummy, and eats the whole thing! He also likes "big" carrots that i don't cut down either. Wonder if he will outgrow this stage where its more exciting for a vegetable than a cookie.

28 weeks- Third trimester!

This is my favorite maternity shirt. I got it online at Cafe Press. I have had many people ask me if i know what causes pregnancy.. i don't know why they think they are so clever to ask it. I mean do they seriously think we don't know how it all works?? I am kind of a sass and outspoken so I did once reply to a cashier that No, how does it work? Please tell me?? My other pet peeve is people that think we must have no TV or lives or something just because this is our fourth. Those people must have a hard time getting pregnant. With us we could have sex one time a year and still have a baby every year. We are just fertile people! And we like kids.. we love our boys and are really excited for another little one. We love having a medium sized family ( I come from 10 and Cory from 7 so i hardly feel that our third kid here is large.. i think you have to have more than five to get to the large category)

Pardon the orange juice stains. Theo was eating an orange in my lap today so my shirt was his napkin.

Thought i would post some belly shots on here. I couldn't decide which one to use so i put them all up. Cory took them for me, its actually the first belly shots i have this pregnancy that i didn't take in the mirror. Its nice to not have to worry about the camera blocking my face, or the flash being too bright in the mirror!

I am 28 weeks along. Which is a big week in pregnancy. I had my gestational diabetes test. That is always a fun. You get to drink a small bottle of what they called fruit punch but it really tastes like fruit punch with an extra cup of sugar and extra carbonation. I am not a soda drinker so maybe i am just not used to it, but after downing the bottle ( you have to drink it in 5 minutes) I felt nauseated and had a sudden headache. You have to wait an hour and then they draw for blood. I also had some blood tests for my anemia and a few other tests i am not sure what they were for.. I swear i am at the lab so much they know me by name!

The other fun part about 28 weeks is I get a rhogam shot. This is because I have type O- blood. If i had paid more attention in science back in school i would have known to marry someone else with negative blood to spare myself these shots! Alas Cory has A+ blood so I get to have a shot every pregnancy at 28 weeks and again after the baby is born if they are positive blood. So far all three of my boys were positive blood type. Basically my blood type thinks that all positive blood type is a virus or invader so I will attack it and if i don't get the shot then my babies could end up dying. So it really is for the best and I am thankful for modern science so I don't have to have a bunch of stillborns and infant deaths from this. That all said, I hate the shot. They are the kind they stick in your hip/but area and sting going in. That actually is not the worst part.. that comes later when it just aches and aches.

Anyways happy 28 weeks to me! Only 12 weeks to go. ( more likely 10 if i am induced again, which i am debating) I will start my NST in 2 weeks to check on baby and my placenta. I do these twice a week till the baby is born. In a few weeks my worry and anxiety mode about the baby will kick into high gear. You all will hear allot more about it i am sure! Thinking i may need some ativan pretty soon here! Every silly little thing makes me think the baby will die. For example we have not named this little boy yet. Which reminds me of Taylor. Both Porter and Theodore were named by the 20th week when we found out they were boys. Taylor was never named until i was in labor, we couldn't agree. So in my silly mind the baby will die because we have not named him. Cory thinks this makes no sense.. but then again when DO pregnant women make sense?

Okay enough of my ramblings.

Hitting the Beach

Porter has been wanting to build a sand castle for a long while now.. he saw it on curious George and so he wanted to do it too. In Utah we don't have much sand... so he was really excited to go to Huntington Beach. Theo was a bit cranky that day.. he just wanted to be held the whole time and he didn't even touch the sand or the water. He was a little feverish and just cranky.. it was all from teething we later found out. Cory and I took turns holding Theo while the other entertained Porter.

getting all the dirt for our sand castle.

Patting down and forming the walls

we were getting water to put in the middle of the sand castle

Ta da!

My Boys. Nothing cuter than a daddy playing with his kids. Makes you just fall in love with them all over again.

Cory and Porter had lots of fun playing tag with the waves! They would run it and when the waves started to come porter would turn and run shrieking up the beach as fast as he could. A few times he tripped and fell and then he would spit for a few minutes and tell me how yucky and salty the water was. Needless to say he never went in above his knees!

I love this picture.. the beach, the ocean, and my boys. I was lucky to get a shot with no other people in it.
Cory and Porter having a sand fight. I have no idea why they started this, but they both seemed to enjoy it. I myself am not a fan of sand thrown at me.

Disneyland ( part two)

So we are really lame and didn't get any pictures of the popular touristy things like the mickey shaped flowers, or in front of the castle. But we were there and had a blast! Porter loved the train, and we rode it all the way around. This is my third time and Disneyland and i didn't even know before there WAS a train!! In fact i had never been on any of these kids rides before. So it was fun to see the little kid side of Disney. ( was 15 and 18 the other times I came) Oh and the kids loved the finding Nemo ride but i video taped it and didn't get pictures.

He also loved a stage show they had about star wars. Darth Vador and Darth Maul come out with storm troupers and he thought that was pretty cool. His big toy he got at Disney was a light savor and he loves it. He is really into star wars because he is addicted to playing Lego star wars on the x-box. He is good too!! He can beat levels on his own that i struggled with! I am really impressed.


On the Pinocchio ride. Porters face on the Pinocchio ride.


Porter was really excited to see Buzz lightyear! This was as close as he would get though. We don't have pictures of him with any of the other characters because he had no desire to get close to any of them. He doesn't like to see Santa or the Easter Bunny at the mall either.. so we were expecting him to be this way. He did look at Mickey and Minnie Mouse from a distance, as well as the characters from Pooh.

On the Alice in Wonderland ride. This was Porter's favorite one and the only one that he HAD to ride more than once. We also had to sit in the pink and purple caterpillar both times. I am at a loss why he liked this ride so much, it was just like all the rest!

So right before our vacation i thought i would give the boys hair a good trim. Cory was holding Theo and i was trimming up his back when he jerked and i cut about two inches shorter than planed. Thus Theo got his first real big boy hair cut. I am still missing his longer hair.. but hey at least it was a boy that i messed up on and not a girl! He looks so much older to me now. He still looks cute, in fact his eyes stand out more with the hair shorter.Mommy and Theo on Dumbo. Theo said Oooooo the whole ride. Who knew it was so hard to get a picture of the dumbo ride in motion! For some reason i never got a good shot of the boys... i tried though! Here is the best of them

Porter is holding his treat he got to pick out. Its chocolates covered in foil. He wanted them because they had the chipmunks. He also wanted a night toy... you know one of those ones that's fun and lights up. When he first was looking he picked out a Tinkerbell wand that lit all up and spun in a circle. Cory drew the line there.. and refused to let him get it. I would have let him... i mean does it really matter? Cory convinced him to get his necklace that had colored lights in the middle of it. Not sure how a necklace is better than a wand though! lol. Porter was laughing at a little boy in line who was playing with a stuffed monkey and every time he dropped it Porter would laugh like it was the funniest thing you ever saw... kid humor, go figure!

Of course Theo was sleeping again!

They let pregnant people on the teacups.. but i hate rides that spin like that. Well and Theo was asleep anyways. So Cory got to do the honors.. I don't think he liked it nearly as much as porter did! I was so surprised Porter didn't pick a pink or purple cup!

The boys on the way back to my Aunts after Disney. They only live 30 minutes from there, but i swear we were not even out of the parking lot and the kiddos were sleeping! It was a long but fun day! I think I am okay not doing it again for a few years though!

Disneyland! ( part one)

We just got back from a week in sunny California.. which made dull dreary cold utah all that much more depressing to come back to! We drove there.. which i must say was not my favorite part! Actually the drive home would be the worst. ( it was so bad we stoped to buy medicine for Theo, as well as a cup and some milk becuase we lost his cup somehow... when that didnt work we got a hotel halfway back for the night) Porter did really well with the dvd player in the car, Theo on the other hand doesnt care about tv yet. We finally resorted to feeding him to stop screaming.. i know we are great parents!! He had many an oreo and twizzler. We stayed with my Aunt and Uncle in California, who were kind enough to put us up ( of course when they offered they didnt know Theo would scream through the night all week!) Turns out he got a total of FOUR teeth on the trip. Which in hind sight i am grateful for since he got it over with at once instead of draging it out for us. Not that on our vacation was good timing for this. Of course at three am when he had been screaming for four hours I was about ready to put him in the car outside for the night! I am glad he has returned to our happy easy baby... I was worried our Theo was lost to the terrible two's already! He is actually better than ever and the past two nights for the first time EVER he has slept through the night.. i mean all the way... from 9 pm till 8 am. In the other room with Porter. ( yes i know most 16 month olds have been doing this for a while but theo woke up at least once in the night since birth)

Anyways back to our vacation. Here are some pictures from Disneyland. I will put more up later.. as its taken me hours to get this much on here and its midnight.

On the Rockets.. good times. I was actually a little scared on this one and didn't let my rocket go too high because i worried Theo would fall out! Paranoid mommy brain i suppose.

Theo.. taking another nap!

Sadly Mr Toads wild ride was closed, but Porter still wanted to drive the car out front.

On the Carousel. Porter loved it, Theo not so much. Cory sat with him because he was scared.

We waited and waited and waited in line for Casey the Circus Train. The whole time we were waiting porter watched the train load up and go. By halfway through the line he informed us that he wanted to ride in the pink cage. The two little girls ( 7 year old twins) in front of us told Porter that was a GIRL color and he should ride in the orange cage. I guess porter is too young to care what other kids think, or doesn't seem to think being called a girl is an insult. When we got up there he got on the pink cage... with the same girls.. and he LOVED every minute of that ride! For the record we also had to ride the pink and purple Caterpillar at Alice in Wonderland TWICE and the purple Dumbo. What can i say, my boy loves girly colors! Funny thing is, when i was younger i remember hating both those colors.. as well as red. I liked blue, green, and brown ( the latter because they were the colors of tree's)

Porter driving a car ( well not really, its a fake in toon town)
I was sitting while Cory and Porter waited in line... I was bored so taking pictures. Took a picture of him, and Cory made this silly face. He is going to hate me for putting this up, but i think he looks cute ( well and he checks this blog about every 2 months so you will all see it before he asks me to take it off!)


Theo taking one of about 5 naps that day. His shirt says " my parents are exhausted" which is true!! I got a comment about his shirt about every 2 minutes all day long.

Mommy and Theo in Tarzan's tree house. The face he is making is classic Theo. He always says "Oooooo". I thought this picture was funny.. he was playing with a chain that you can use to bang on pots and pans for music like in the movie when they wreck the camp. But in the picture it looks like he is actually chained up... lol... actually there were many parents at Disneyland with their kids on leashes... so I guess its socially accepted these days! Wonder how people would react if i used a chain like this tied around my kid instead of those backpaks with the leash on them.
Dont take pictures of yourself pregnant while leaning over.. cause then you just look fat and not pregnant!!

Porter and Cory were riding Matterhorn. Theo found these flowers and spent five minutes Oooooing at them and then took his shoe off and threw it in there.. no idea why! I guess he doesnt remember flowers, since its been winter for 8 months in utah!! ( it snowed today... on MAY FIRST!! where is spring already?)

Hahahaha... Cory looks stoned.
More pictures in the tree house.


Porter was really excited to go on Autopia. He always asks us if he can drive our car. I always answer when he can reach the pedals. Of course i realize this will be before he is 16, but its hard to explain to a 3 year old the concept of 13 years and much easier to just say you cant reach! Cory said he loved this ride ( I couldn't go because I am pregnant and the cars bang around... Theo was asleep anyways) It is one of the few rides he tells everyone about.