No, Elmo

For Christmas, my mom and dad gave Jayce an Elmo "doll". Jayce watches Elmo just about everyday at the sitters so he has fallen in love with Elmo. However, we had nothing with Elmo on it, so my parents fixed that. Jayce has fallen in love with Elmo, and Elmo is his constant companion (at least at home)

Last week Jayce had left Elmo at the Totta's house (we go there for Bible Study every Wednesday) and Sarah had brought Elmo to work so Jayce could have him to sleep with. I brought Elmo home from work and of course Jayce was ecstatic. After dinner, Jayce was running around carrying Elmo. We all sat down and Jayce stayed in the dining room. Pretty soon he came into the room we were in holding onto Elmo who was "holding" onto some papers Jayce was not supposed to be playing with. The papers were my moms so Jayce took them to her. She simply smiled and said Jayce you are not supposed to be playing with Grandma's papers. Jayce just smiled at her and said "No, Mumu - Elmo hold the papers" So my mom told Jayce to have Elmo put the papers back on the table. Jayce took Elmo and the papers back to the dining room table but the whole way proceeded to tell Elmo - "No Elmo, NO NO!!" very emphatically. We all lost it.

It is so funny what the kiddos pick up on that you don't even realize they understand. Kind of like the fact that my dad calls the dog a dumb dog quite often. One day the dog ran Jayce over and he simply looked at him and said "You dumb dog" :)

California

Oh my, where has the time gone. Two weeks ago, I flew to California without Jayce to help with the preparations for Mark and Sahsha's wedding. Sahsha was unable to get there early due to school and the other bridesmaids were not able to be there early so it was Mom and Dad Rice and me along with other family that was able to help from time to time. Dad Rice also catered the wedding so as you can imagine there was a lot of work to do.

I arrived on Tuesday and went grocery shopping which was an entirely new experience for me in California. Things are just done differently there. Then Tuesday night Mom Rice and I started setting up the tables and decorations for the reception dinner.

Wednesday was once again a day of shopping in Chicco for the reception dinner. Wednesday night, another late night of decorating while Dad Rice drove to Sacramento to pick up Curtis, Jessica, and Daniel.

Thursday, I was allowed to take a break :) and go up the hill (foothills of Sierra Nevadas) to visit with Grandma and Grandpa Russell. Then it was back to decorating that afternoon. I was excited because my brother, Jonathan flew in on Thursday morning and helped decorate as well. Thursday night Mom and Dad went to Sacramento to pick up Sahsha, Mark and his family while Jonathan, Curtis and I hung out and had some fun.

Friday was the main day for getting food together and I spent the morning making candied almonds (which are absolutely delicious) and seasoning the Tri-Tip for the dinner, before moving on to peeling the shell off the shrimp, making vegetable dip, and much more. Then I took the getaway car with Casey and Uncle Mikey to get it cleaned up for Mark and Sahsha. It didn't stay very clean for long. Friday night was the rehearsal before Dad Rice, Jessica, and I headed back to the church to prepare the stuffed mushrooms and cut the vegetables for the vegetable tray.

Of course, Saturday was full of getting ready for the wedding, pictures, and the wedding itself. On Sunday, I began the trek home only to find out due to bad weather everywhere else, my first flight was delayed by 45 minuts. My layover was only an hour so I knew it was going to be cutting it close. By the time the plane finally landed in Sacramento so we could board and the flight attendents got there we were over an hour late. We landed in Los Angeles and I literally ran from my terminal to the next to find out that flight was delayed by an hour as well. We were suppose to take off at 6:30 and at 7:30 the plane finally arrived in Los Angeles. Needless to say, I did not arrive in Kansas City till 1:30 in the morning which put me getting home around 2:30. I had to complete to assignments I had been unable to complete before leaving. I got to bed around 5:00 am and Jayce woke up at 5:30 (he was having some major seperation problems with me being gone). So I got 30 minutes of sleep before heading off to work. :) It was a very busy time but I really enjoyed myself and can't wait to go back just to sightsee and spend some time with Mom and Dad Rice.

Sahsha and I right before the wedding.

The wedding party.

The girls trying to hold Mark. We were not prepared to hold him up yet when the photographer "dropped" him on us.

She was much lighter than Mark so the guys had no problem at all.

The guys and Mark.

Very Hectic

I figured I would take the time tonight - instead of getting ahead on homework :), to update everyone on my new job. Several have asked how it is going and I have not had time to reply. Two weeks ago, I started a new job and my new courses of school work. This was a little bit of an overload for me. One of my courses this block is an algebra course that has put me over my limit, but I am surviving as of now.

Work is going great. Just in the two weeks working at Commerce, I have tons of interesting stories to share. I am absolutely loving the job. Jayce is enjoying his sitters so that is nice as well. One day a week he goes to a house that has a little girl who is two years older than him. The other four days he has one on one attention with a friend of ours.

The biggest adjustment for me was learning to balance my time between work, Jayce, and school. So far, I have worked well over my part-time limit for the simple fact that there are two positions open. This is all great but it is not putting me home until close to 5:00. We immediately eat dinner, play with Jayce, bath and put him to bed. I then have to hop on the computer to work on my homework until 11:00. I do my ultimate best to be in bed by this time as I am up by 6:00 in the mornings.

Most of you know, that my biggest prayer right now is that an opening will come up in six months for me to go full-time. I have to be full-time in a year in order to receive the benefits that I will need this time next year. Please keep praying about that, but a little update: one of my co-workers, whom I really enjoy working with, found out this week that she is pregnant. She will be quitting her job right around the time that I would like to go full-time. I am praying that this will all work out.

Anyways, I had better stop for tonight as I really do have homework I have to get done.

So Thankful

So many of you have been praying and the easiest way to share the wonderful news is to simply write a note.

About three months ago I applied for a job at Commerce Bank and heard nothing for a long time. However, I knew one of the ladies who worked there and she continued to tell me not to give up my hopes but just wait. A month later I finally got a call for the interview and had a two and a half hour interview with Commerce. Again, the wait began. Three weeks after the interview I finally got a call from the Downtown division of HR for the interview.

I went downtown had an interview with HR and then took the teller test. I was told that I would get a call within a week. A week later and I had not received a call, so I called them. They asked me to immediately go and take the drug test which meant another three business days of waiting. I took the drug test last Thursday at 5:00 - closing time. So I had to wait until today, Tuesday to hear anything.Well, this afternoon I received a phone call from my HR lady at Commerce wanting to know when I would like to start the job -PRAISE THE LORD. Orientation is only done on Wednesdays and they asked me if I wanted to start tomorrow, but I told them I needed to wait till next Wednesday simply because I needed to make sure everything was in order regarding Jayce.

It is amazing to see the Lord's timing. We found out this week that General Motors did indeed change the cut-off date for dependents insurance from 25 to 24. This gives me slightly over a year to establish a job with insurance benefits for Jayce and I. With Commerce I will start part-time for six months and then after that six months I can go full time and receive benefits.

Raking Leaves

On Saturday, Jayce and I enjoyed raking some of the leaves. We have a very large backyard with several trees so we have plenty of leaves to rake. The main goal was to rake a couple of piles so that Jayce could run through them and enjoy jumping in the piles. In all reality, we don't rake our leaves until the spring. Right before it gets rather cold my dad mows the grass so the leaves get crunched up and we let them sit all winter long. In the spring we have greener grass because of this.
Jayce had a fun time helping me rake the leaves and jumping in the piles.

Cleaning the rake out.

Trying to figure out how to get the leaves just like mommy did.

His nose was itching and his hands were dirty so his face got dirty. Part of being a boy :)

An Awefully Round Easel

Jayce has really enjoyed learning to color and draw with everything imaginable. He learned very early on that the only thing he can color on is paper that we provide for him. For this reason the crayons, markers, and pens are not easily accessible to him. Whenever I am sitting at the computer working Jayce will sit in my lap and draw with a pen. Well, one night this past week I allowed him to sit in Papaw's chair and color on a pad of paper. I finished typing up the project I was working on and turned around to find him with his shirt up drawing on his stomach. We had a little talk as to how we are not suppose to draw on our skin, but I could not refuse taking a picture for keepsakes. He was completely embarrassed once I grabbed the camera so getting a good picture of the stomach was hard but here are a few for kicks.

Sleeping in a Big Bed

At the risk of jinxing a good thing I have to say that Jayce has officially slept in his twin bed for three nights now. A little over a month ago we had set up the twin bed and he slept in it for half a night before joining me in my bed. After that night a bad habit of joining mommy in bed started. I usually go to bed around 11:00 and get a couple hours of sleep before Jayce is up and moving into bed with me. On Thursday night of this past week I was at Bible study and when I came home I had a note that Jayce was in his big bed voluntarily. He managed to sleep all night - till 5:30 in the bed. The next night he did the same thing only sleeping until 6:30. Now we are at it again with him in his bed sleeping soundly. This is exciting for me simply because I am now getting a full nights sleep without waking up every two hours to a kid kicking me in the stomach or someone falling off the bed. We have both received a good nights sleep these last several nights.