Jumbled June

It amazes me that I am supposed to have more 'free' time or 'me' time but somehow I can't seem to get the same things done I was doing before in more time.

What is she talking about you say?  June was a month of massive change at the Wheeler household.  After nearly 12 years of dedicated service at America Online / AOL / Time Warner / AOL - Chris made an employment change.  He is still doing the same type of work but now working for a completely different company.  It's a little bit strange and it has taken some adjusting but so far I think he's satisfied with his decision.  I just realized he worked for the same company the entire time we have been married - see I told you it was huge.

Chris is no longer working from home every day.  So getting up early, getting dressed in adult clothes, driving either to the van pool pick up or all the way into work, packing a lunch, talking with people face to face are just some of the new challenges that Chris is facing.  I am no longer working my part time position at State Farm, thankfully my boss is still allowing me to work a few hours every week after Chris comes home, but I'm not in the office during regular business hours.  I've been mowing the lawn, vacuuming, cooking and loving the girls' nap time even more so now.

I suppose only time will tell how things are going to work out but we are taking a leap of faith and know that everything will work out the way it supposed to in the end because Heavenly Father is in charge and he has a plan for us and you just have to realize most of the little stuff is just not that important.

June was that month with Father's Day in it right - this year Chris went right ahead and followed my lead - he picked out his own gifts.  Mostly because I have no clue when it comes to the technicalities of the specific items he wanted and heaven forbid I purchase the wrong or incompatible model but also because he finds great deals on things online and then buys them and saves them for later.  He picked himself up a back packing solar panel - I don't even know if that is what you call it but he can take it camping and it will pull enough power from the sun to charge something like his cell phone which gives me peace of mind that when he is camping for days at a time if some emergency does arise he will at least be able to place a 911 call.  He also purchased a new drill - the one he had previously was over ten years old - so I guess sometimes it is good to replace the old even if the old is still working in just fine condition (I'm not bitter about it at all - again I'm sure the new drill has features and power that the old drill was incapable of).

Chris is a wonderful father.  He is patient and calm and kind.  He is fun and crazy and makes a good ride.  He never ceases to amaze me with the love that he has for the girls.  He is able to immediately make them happy when it seems whatever I have tried previously has failed miserably.  One thing I know that he has loved while being away from home for work is that walk through the door when both the girls yell Dad, Dad, Dad and wait at the top of the stairs for him to come in so excited that he's home.  Thank for being a great husband and father sweets - we love you lots!!  He took this super awesome picture off of our back deck.  Any good pictures we have are from him, he is the photographer in our family.

We also made cute little gifts for all of our dads, including Chris.  They featured this awesome saying and included some of our dads' favorite treats. Chris received Reese Peanut Butter Cups.  Dave received gummy gold fish.  Ross received some black licorice and rolos.  Mike received some elk jerky.  And Cliff received some circus peanuts.  I thought the idea was super cute (same thing we did for mother's day).

Chris made the girls a big, fun purchase this month.  I'm not sure if it was more for them or me but it has been a sanity saver on many day thus far.  Here it is set up and ready to go on day one.

So the girls and I have been doing all kinds of things more often that we were unable to do so when I was working in the afternoons.  We've been to the zoo a bunch.  We've been to the park many times with neighbors and high school friends.  We helped take care of Grandpa Ross' dogs while he was out of town.  The girls loved to go to his house and try to wake up the old doggies as they like to call them.  Not so sure the dogs loved their early morning visits from us as much but hey they survived (or at least I hope they did).

And we couldn't do it all without our dear friend Moose (don't worry Ted the cat is still around he just hides a lot more as the dog tends to chase him any chance he gets).  Moose is doing well.  He keeps us on our toes whether it is chewing through the back wood fence and going to visit the neighbors or almost dismantling the grill on the back deck to get to the drip pan.  He is a good dog for the most part and I have to remind myself he's still a puppy even if he looks like a mongrel.  Here are some fun things that Moose is into lately:

I'll leave you with a final thought - that goes along great with this pictures.  June has left us exhausted just as church usually leaves Olivia exhausted.  We have church from 11 am to 2 pm every Sunday and that is smack dab int he middle of nap time for the girls.  Well Olivia usually comes up happy in the car and as soon as we hit the house she is cranky, cranky, cranky and you really just have to put her to bed.  She was so mad on this particular day she screamed and yelled at her door and then just fell asleep on the floor.  Phew we made it - I think now I'll go take a nap.