Taking a second to vent..

Lately, I have been having a hard time dealing with my job all because well, I hate almost everything about it.  I hate the fact that it is probably one of the most unreliable jobs ever. Example this morning I wasted 40 mins of my day to drive to a client's house only to be told that she isn't able to work with me today and the parents of almost all of my clients lack the common decency  to call and tell me that there is a change in plans! It would be one thing if this happened once or twice in the almost 2 months that I have been doing PSR but of course that isn't the case. It happens almost weekly and sometimes more than once in a week!! People wonder why they have kids with problems, ever consider it could be because you are a crappy parent? Another thing is I am so sick of putting almost 200 miles on my car EVERY single week! But that is nothing compared to my biggest annoyance and that is not being trained and taught what I am suppose to do for certain aspects of the job and then having people in charge of me that can't grasp the fact of how hard it is to communicate with Spanish only speaking parents when I don't speak Spanish! This last Friday I found out that some paper work that I thought I had all month to do (the reason I thought this was because when I got a phone call telling me I had reviews to do it was said "You have some reveiws that need to be completedin the month of Februray") and the guy in charge that I was talking to was like oh well just call the family after telling him about 7 times that they don't have a working phone. To show how uch he wasn't paying attention to anything I was saying (because I know that he cannot be that dumb) he replied of well how do you usually get in contact with the family, can't you just call them up? Idiot. Why on earth would I every call them what when I say, Hola? and then start speaking English. Wow, what a great plan. SO end of story is I am out 5 hours a week and have to try to figure out how to get this paper work done. Sounds easy  enough minus the fact I don't speak Spanish, they don't have a working phone, the parents aren't home consistantly at the same time, if the parents are home I have no one to translate, I  DON'T get paid trying to do this paperworkand they live 20 mins away which means 40 mins of driving wasting my OWN gas!

Sorry this is such a boring post complaing about a job that I should just be grateful to have since so many people in this economy can't even find work. It just really frustrated me that I finish my 4 year degree to just get a job that I thoroughly hate! Hopefully when Adam graduates in April I can give the much over dued "peace out" to "work" ( I don't want to state the angency that I work for). Hopefully reminding myself and doing a mental count down of only 2 more months will get me through.

Valentine's Day

This year we celebrated Valentines day a little early. My sister Ashley volunteered to babysit for us to go out.  Early in the day we exchanged presents. I made Adam a candy card, got him a shirt and a card saying that he could buy the beanie of his choice.  He really liked his candy card and I think it turned out supper cute :) He made me this really cute coupon book and got me roses and candy.. the first coupon was for an hr long massage at a local spa in Rexburg.  It was funny though because the place is called Stressless so I just thought that Adam was trying to be cute and use a play on words and that he was going to give me an hour long massage so I replied, "love are you even sure your capable of giving me a massage for that long?" Ha and that is when he told me, "No its for an actual massage".  It seriously is the best idea for me because I am always whinning that I need a back massage and now I get to get a professional one!!

 A cute little family picture before we headed out on our date and left Connor with Auntie Ashy and Auntie Jessie.  We were planning on going out to Olive Garden but when we got there at 530 there was a 75 minute wait. No thank you.  We went to Chili's instead and we were the last couple to be seated (even got a booth table!) before there was a wait. Talk about luck.  We had a nice dinner just the two of us :) Afterward we went to the movies and watched the newest Narnia movie. It was really good! We had a great date night and it was nice being able to go out with just the two of us!!

I promise that I did not wear this hoodie out on our date. HA I did however change into as soon as we got home, nothing wrong with being comfy at home, right?

To sum it up we had a wonderful date, a wonderful "Valentines Day" and we are still very much and love and have a wonderful marriage. With a wonderful little boy. Life is close to perfect! (Of course it would be perfect if we knew what was happening in 2 months and if I didn't have a lame-o job).

Counting down..

Adam graduates at the end of this semester in April and I cannot wait! I really hope that he has a job lined up because I am already counting down the days until we are able to move out of Rexburg and I am able to quit PSR work.  I like my job on some days but just last week alone I had 3 kids miss out on our meetings so that means there goes 7 hours I wont get paid!! On top of that I am tired of racking up miles on our car. It's close to 200 every single week!! Ahh, but hopefully only 9 more weeks!

Connor is seriously getting cuter and cuter everyday! He is the pro at walking and walks around the entire apartment! It is so precious watching him walk around! I cant believe how big my little baby is getting!! He loves little stuffed animals (he likes to put them in his mouth and walk around) and he loves cuddling up in blankets while rolling on the floor. Last night Adam and I laughed so hard watching him play.  He has a fisher price table that has all sorts of toys with music and lights on it and he prolly spent 20 mins just pushing it all across to living room, then he tried to move our coffee table and just kept pushing.  He seemed so confused as why he wasn't strong enough to move it.  He loves feeding himself and always tries to help hold the spoon.  We always just feed him whatever we are having for dinner and boy, he can eat a ton when he wants too!!

The other day Adam was at school and I was home with Connor.  I gave him a bath, got him dressed and had to take away books and dvds he wasn't suppose to play with (along with not letting him pull my hair and bounce on the edge of the couch) and every single time I would say "No Connor" he would look  at me and scream "ah DA DA DAD DAD".  Haha it was so funny and made it hard not to laugh at him but he was screaming for his daddy to come save him from mean mommy.

One more thing about that little sweet baby of mine, he loves loves loves playing with my hair! He gets so excited when I wear it down (which isn't that often).  He grabs it and pulls all the strands apart and then rubs his face in my hair.  Every time he puts my hair in his face he just cuddles up to it and laughs.  It really is cute and most of the time it is really fun! But there are the times that he pulls the really sensitive pieces really hard. Like today in Sunday school when he pulled one of those strands and I yelled out "OUCH" so loud in the middle of the lesson that people turned around to look at me. 

We have so many unknowns in our near future that without the gospel I would be going crazy.  We are really praying that Adam gets a job right after graduation and that we are able to move. IF that happens it shouldn't be too long (6 months or so) until we would be able to get a house and be done with renting, but who knows.  Lately Adam is looking into the army. I don't know how I feel about this and he doesn't even know if he could do Military Police with his eye sight.  SO we have a lot of research, praying and fasting to do to see if this is even an option if he isn't offered a job somewhere. 

Enjoy some recent pictures:

 This is Connor doing his "Cheesing It" smile.  He does this all the time when he is playing or trying to get people's attention in the stores, at church or wherever

 We bought Connor a potty chair! He doesn't know what is going on still but he did pee in it once for us!! We aren't really trying to potty train him seriously yet, not until he's closer to a year and a half.. so like end of summer time!

 Daddy gave Connor a yummy Oreo!

 Connor loves story time, and mommy loves reading to her little boy so it works out great!

 Playing with his daddy, it is so precious to watch!

 So cute! Wanting to feed himself but decided the spoon feels better on his gums when he chews on it.

 He doesn't like to play with this as a walker but he has a blast riding on it. Just last night he learned how to push himself but only going backwards.

Connor in his big boy jammies!! SO stinkin precious! But it just breaks my heart a little that he is already this big!! And as you can see he is getting ready to take off walking in this picture!

We have a WALKER!

Connor is walking!! That is right! Friday he took his first step and I was the one who saw! It's kind of funny because Adam was sitting on the couch doing homework, even though he was like 4 feet away, he totally missed it! That is ok though because the next day Connor did a repeat show and took another step for his daddy to see. Then today he woke up and was in a good mood playing on the couch in between Adam and I.  He was really happy to see me since I was at work all day, so he was jumping up and down on the couch (jumping minus his feet coming off the couch) and then he took 2 steps to come to me!! It was perfect because we were both able to be there! He then did it a few times. I had this bright idea to go to the floor to see if Connor would walk some more for us. He did! All it required was a little bribing! He would walk back in forth between the two of us talking like 7-8 steps without falling and he did it multiple times!!! The only lame part is that the second we pulled out the camera to record it he stopped.  It was like his thought process was screw walking, it's so much faster to just crawl to get the camera. Haha which is so true at this point, such a smart little guy we have! I think it is pretty much safe to say that he will be walking full time before his birthday in a little over a month!

Other than that I am working my new job and I actually really enjoy it. I love working with the kids one on one and getting to spend quality time getting to know them better and help them.  It is a rewarding job and we usually have a lot of fun together.  Since I only work part time I have pretty great hours too. I only have one night were I am home at like 730, the rest of the time I get to be with my precious family by 515! The only down side is all the mileage it is putting on the car! Driving back and forth to St Antony multiple times a day really adds up! Oh well, HOPEFULLY this job will only be until April or May and then Adam will have a job lined up :)

Adam is doing alright. Him and Connor are getting over being sick. (Adam just has a cold and our poor little guy has his first ear infection).  He is now in his 2nd week of his LAST semester of his undergraduate degree!!! That is so exciting for us because that means that we are done with Rexburg and Idaho (hopefully) Forever!! Don't get me wrong, we have enjoyed our time here but this is def not where we want to set roots! Adam is currently waiting to her back for a job that he applied for in PA for adult probation.  He flew out last week to take a test and now were just waiting to get the letter in the mail with his score and whether or not he'll have an interview at the end of this month! Keep your fingers crossed!

Christmas

This Christmas was our first Christmas on our own! Flights were way to much to fly home this year and we needed to save money to hopefully move at the end of this semester.  I was pretty bummed about not seeing our families but it wasn't that bad.  On Christmas eve we each opened a present, it was fun and Connor loved his toy!

Later we went out to lunch and made a quick trip to the store to make sure we had everything we needed for dinner.  That night we went on a drive to look at the lights.  It was a little disappointing because hardly anyone had lights up this year.  As soon as we got home Connor was ready for bed.  Adam and I read the Christmas story out of the Book of Mormon and then we played Santa. It was so fun organizing all the presents under the tree and filling the stockings! We were both in bed by 930!

Adam had to work 3-7 am on Christmas morning, so when he got home I got up and we made breakfast together. Adam was ready to open presents but I wouldn't let him until Connor woke up. We didn't have to wait long by the time we took a quick shower he was already up! 

Christmas morning!

Connor was more excited for the fact that he could finally reach the tree (we had it blocked off with the coffee table) than seeing the presents!

 He looks so adorable eating his breakfast! We had to take a break from opening his presents so he could eat :)

 Little Connor was sooo tired that he needed a nap soon after opening his presents.  He didn't finishing opening his presents until 5 days after Christmas! He opened most of his toys and then lost interest in the presents and just wanted to play!

 After we opened presents we skyped with Adam's family. It was fun to get to talk to them and to see what they all got for Christmas! We talked for awhile and then Connor needed to go down for a nap and they needed to get ready to go visit some friends.  Adam took a nap while Connor did since he had been up since 230am.  I watched a Christmas movie and then started on making our Christmas dinner.  It turned out so good! I tried a new recipe for honey glazed carrots and they were delicious.

 After dinner we finally were able to skype with my family! It was like 5pm our time but Christmas back home is hectic (lots of visits from grandparents and exchanging presents).  All of the kids were excited to see Connor and what he got for Christmas. We are so grateful for technology that we were able to "see" our family since we were 1800 miles away!

Later that night we opened our stockings! A tradition from my family is to do it before you go to bed on Christmas night. Adam was like a little kid, eager to get into his stocking goodies that we did it right after we got done talking to my family.  

Grateful for our Blessings

We have so much to be thankful for in our lives.  Here are the top five things that we are extremely grateful for:

1. The gospel of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  Without the gospel in our lives, we would have no meaning to life or direction.  We truly are grateful that we know without a doubt that Heavenly Father loves us and that we are His children.  We are so very grateful that Jesus Christ is our loving brother who died for us because He loves us so much and that through Him and the Atonement we can return to live with them again.  Also, we are grateful for the Holy Ghost and the prompts that we receive when we live n sync with the gospel.

2. Our Marriage.  Who could ask for a greater blessing than to be married to your best friend? Especially when that marriage was done in the temple and you know that it will last for time and all eternity.  What a comfort it is to know that we have the rest of our lives to grow together and then after that... well the rest of forever. 

3. Connor Cordell Jones :)  He is the most precious, adorable, fun, loving, and amazing baby ever. I might just be a little biased given the circumstances. But for real, we just love him with all of our hearts and then some.  Being a parent is one of the most wonderful blessings.  You think that you understand but you really can't until the day that you become a parent. The moment that we held Connor we knew that we were given a great gift and our lives for forever changed for the better.

4. Our families.  Who can really say that they have great in-laws? Well, we both can.  Adam and I love our families so much. We have a lot of fun when we see them and we love spending time together.  We can't wait until that day comes when we can hopefully move closer to home.  We are so grateful for the fact that we live only 45 mins from one another.  Whats cooler than loving your in-laws... the fact that both of our families get along great! Our siblings are all friends and our families hang out when we are states away in Idaho. Not many people have all that!

5. Jobs.  We are so grateful that we both have jobs.  In today's economy that is a huge thing to be thankful for in and of itself.  How taken care of we are that I was able to get a job using my degree as soon as I graduated, and that it works perfectly into Adam's class schedule (and Adam working the early morning security shift) that Connor doesn't need to go to a sitters. With Adam graduating in April we are grateful for faith and the comfort that it gives us that he will find a job.
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Once again this year we had Thanksgiving in Rexburg.  We learned from last year that buying a turkey was just way to much meat for two people, so this year we bought a turkey breast and it was just the perfect size (with lots of leftovers still!).  This morning I woke up and made pies, homemade pies that is.  I absolutely LOVE pumpkin pie and thinks that it makes or breaks a Thanksgiving but my dear love doesn't feel the same way.  I made him an apple pie. 

Here are Adam and I on our second Thanksgiving together married :) (oh, and yes I colored my hair. I have been debating on it for awhile, lets just say that it ended up about 4 shades darker than I thought. My hairdresser was none other than my hubby.. However I only slightly freaked out about the color).

 Our delicious feast! The only thing that didn't turn out perfectly was the mashed potatoes. Go figure I mess up something I've made a million times.  Oh well Adam was a good husband and didn't complain and even ate them :)

 

 We decided to just let Connor have the fun of feeding himself, well mostly.  He feed himself the turkey and stuffing and I fed him mashed potatoes and green bean casserole. I tried giving him some cranberry sauce and he just made disgusted faces the entire time.  It was hard feeding him because he was literally taking handfuls of food and shoving them into his mouth! He LOVES turkey and LOVES LOVES LOVES stuffing! He knew how to eat on thanksgiving! We even let him drink so apple cider in his sippy cup!

We had a wonderful day with lots of good food and quality time together.  Now off to make sure we have all of our black Friday plans figured out. Wish us luck shopping with a bunch of crazies and a baby!

My Birthday.., oh no! one more year closer to 25!

I really wanted a Wii for my birthday this year and the man reason is because I wanted the just dance game! We were watching the black friday adds like crazy so that we could get an amazing deal. Of course they didn't go on sale ( well, the sale price at Target and Best Buy are the normal price @ walmart) but the good thing is that we were able to get it on the Monday before my birthday.  We absolutely LOVE it! Just dance 2 is SOOO much fun.. it is pretty hard to get Adam to play with me but we play a lot of Mario together so its ok.

 

 So the morning of my birthday Adam decorated the apartment with balloons. Connor loved them! He was having so much fun chasing them around all day! He was such a happy good little boy the entire day! He gave his mommy lots of slobbery, love filled kisses and he even went down for his nap with out fighting it!

So at the age of 23 I was basically like a little kid.  The moment Adam got home from class I was ready to open up my presents.  He got me this lovely vest, this is the one present that i actually knew I was getting because I picked it out haha.

  Yes, Adam used Christmas paper to wrap some of my presents.  It made perfect sense seeing how we had it at home and you just throw it away anyways. Don't be confused and think I put up the wrong pictures :)

The PERFECT gift! A heated blanket. Some people believe to think that Adam gets cold.. that is the biggest myth! I'm usually freezing and while he is complaining it is too hot, as you see this is a perfect idea to solve that problem! It is even twin size so it just fits on my side of the bed!

 

 

Adam also got me a set of hot rollers! I have been wanting these lately since my hair style has basically been pulled back into a pony tail or bun. It is hard because Connor is scared of the blow dryer and whenever I use a straightener or curling iron he gets bored and wants to pull the cord down.  This is an AMAZING way to actually look nice with using less than 10 mins of time.  The second that Adam left for class I had to try it out and I absolutely LOVE it!

  I had to work on my birthday but it wasn't bad at all.  I only had to go in for 3.5 hours and it was a pretty easy day, no major problem with the kids :) After I got off work we decided to go to dinner.  Making the drive to IF was so not worth it so we decided to stay in Rexburg and we ate at Wingers.  I was a little nervous because Connor was so fussy for Adam while I was at work. He was an absolute angel during all of dinner.  He loved watching the family that sat beside us at dinner.  Every time that we gave Connor fries he had so much fun smashing them all over the table and pulling them to a million pieces.   

 We came and had cake! Ha Connor was trying to grab the candles the whole time.  It was cute because Adam sang me Happy Birthday all by himself.  I have such an amazing husband.  Not many guys who don't like singing would do that for their wife!  After we had cake we watched the K irate Kid and just relaxed at home when Connor went to sleep.

It was a GREAT birthday.