Catching you up! :)

March. Yes, that has been how long it has been since I've updated this blog. I meant to take a little time off from writing to just let life happen but I guess I went a little overboard! And it wasn't due to a lack of events, because when you find out how much has happened since March, you'd be amazed. I will write out a few notes on each event so bare with me if this is a little long.

After all of the events that happened earlier in the year with Kimi's dad, we decided to make a few changes in our lives. In May, we had the big trifecta of events that sometimes doesn't happen even once in most people's lives. In the middle of the "housing market crisis", we decided that we were ready to move out of our home and find one that we could grow into as a family. We started looking at homes nearby and put a lot of serious thought into buying Kimi's grandmas house, which was right at our price range. It needed some work but it was a great house and carried a lot of precious memories of her time with her Grandpa. After much deliberation and right when we were all set to buy it, we had a couple of other big news items that caused us to look on the other side of town instead.

First off, let me tell you we found one of the best realtors I've ever seen. She not only sold my house but sold Kimi's grandmas house in less than 10 days after putting them on the market. She also sold the house up the street in 5 hours! So if you are looking for a realtor in the OKC Metro area, leave a comment and I'll share her name. Anyway, with having our home sold so quickly, we had to move in with my mom and Scotty (usually a dreaded thing but it was a lot of fun!) for a couple of weeks until we were able to close on our new home. Thank you!

One of the reasons why we started looking elsewhere was because I received a promotion at work! I've been with the credit union for 7 years on Oct 1st and I thought it was time to move up to the next step. A position came open at a brand new branch that was being built and after a great interview, I was chosen to be the supervisor there! I'm still not sure I know what I'm doing but I'm having a lot of fun doing it! :) With the new home, I am now 6 minutes away from work instead of 30 for the first time in my life... at any job! Unfortunately, Kimi is now 45 minutes away from her work but that will all change after she gets back from maternity leave next year.

I know what you are thinking... "Wait a minute, did he just say maternity leave?!" Yes, that's right, the third part of our trifecta is that we are PREGNANT! We found out in May that we were going to be blessed with another little girl in December! Can you believe it? I never thought in my wildest dreams that I'd have two little girls. But I can tell you I wouldn't trade either one of them in for the biggest riches in the world. I can't wait to see what she looks like in just a few short weeks when we go in for our 4-D ultrasound.

Kimi said that I have the responsibility of naming the baby this time. And I'm thinking, "yeah right, she's gonna let me name her", haha. Every few days she brings up another name for me to "consider" but I have decided on the first name already. Kimi and I saw a different spelling of this name a few years ago when watching CSI Miami and we just loved how it sounded. We changed the spelling some but we've, I mean "I've", decided on Kalli. It's pronounced with the "ah" sound like how a doctor asks you to do when he looks down your throat, not the long "ae" sound like Caedmon's Call (sorry, I had to reference my favorite band for you to get the point).

Now we, I mean "I", can't decide on the middle name. I'd like to hear what your thoughts are. We did this last time when we were trying to decide on Makenna's name. The two middle names we are wrestling with are "Kalli Addison" or "Kalli Brooke". Kimi loves the Addison name but wants to change the spelling to Addyson or Addisyn, or Addycen. I think the "y" in the name looks funny but she want's to go with the trend we started with Makenna's middle name, Grayce. Anyway, let us know if you like Addison or Brooke better and we'll take it into consideration! :)

What else, lets see... in June, Miss Makenna turned two years old! We had an awesome little "Elmo" themed party with all of her closest friends! We had a pool party and a bubble blowing machine and lots and lots of presents! It's hard to believe that she is already two years old! She is growing up so incredibly fast, it's almost not fair. Her vocabulary has exploded with funny expressions and creative thought! She is extremely observant and is hooked on "Monkey George". That's Curious George for those not in the know but she can't say curious yet, so Monkey George it is. Daddy converted the dvd to work on his iPhone and that's her new favorite toy now. Big mistake...

Listen to how smart she is. She knows to push the button, slide her finger across the screen to unlock it, click on the iPod button at the bottom, scroll down the screen to the Monkey George movie (with just words mind you, not an icon or anything), and push play. All by herself... I'm just amazed. If she wants to change the movie to Cars or Finding Nemo, she just pushes the button to go back and selects the other movie. I thought the iPhone was a sophisticated and complicated piece of technology but that just goes to show you how intuitive it really is. She is just 27 months old and already she can do something that her momma can't do! Haha! Kimi's use of technology hasn't expanded much since the days of pagers and text messaging is just too much for her, which I crack up at. But Miss Makenna is just a natural, I guess.

The last bit of "big news" that I have to share is that with all of the changes, I decided that now was just as good of time as any to go back to school. I lost count of how many times I've been hounded to just finish my degree. I genuinely hate school. Not so much the knowledge you learn but the deadlines and papers and junk you have to deal with. And at the point I am at in my degree, I would not be able to work a full time job due to when the classes were being offered at. Plus I'd have to drive 40 minutes one direction to school each night. Not good. A good friend of mine, Kent, told me about an online program offered through the University of Oklahoma that was designed for working adults. I checked it out and decided to transfer in and finish my degree through OU. Oh My Goodness, it's a heck of a lot harder than what I remember school being like! But it's all online and I just have to write a lot of papers, and I mean a LOT of papers. It does allow me to work full time and spend my evenings and weekends working on research and writing about things like Confucius' effect on the Western World, Ancient Egyptian rulers and their Cult of the Dead rituals, Paradigm Shifts in the scientific community and the effect on science, and Medieval Christian and Islamic architecture and their effects on society. Yuck. Kill me now...

See, I told you that we had a few things happen since we last updated in March. We sold a home, bought a home, I got a promotion at work, went back to school, Makenna turned two and developed an addicting personality, and we began the process of welcoming our newest member into our family, baby Kalli. We have been blessed beyond anything we deserve. Thanks to each of you that have stuck with us during our sabbatical. I can't promise that I will update all the time but I will try to as events happen. Thank you for sharing in our story. Sorry again for the length. I'm just preparing to write those huge papers for school! :)

God bless,
Jason