And these are the days of our lives...

(I'm referring to the title of this post here) Which... coincidentally used to be my favorite soap opera, that is ---back when I watched soap operas, which I do not take part in anymore; ever. Not even when Owen is napping and its one of my days off. Nope I don't ever turn on Days of Our Lives to see whats going on with Hope and Bo and Sammy and Lucas. Never. Not me :-)

Have you heard of "Not me! Mondays"? Its apparently a really fun thing circulating on several blogs that I peruse. I'm going to try it next week, but I thought about trying one small admission on a Tuesday...just to rock the boat...just to see how it goes. (see above, RE: Days of Our Lives) So "Not me! Mondays" means that you come clean and admit to some of the silly things that go on in your life that you wouldn't normally admit to. Apparently its really helpful. And burden lifting. Apparently, anyways. So, I'll try it next week and then when I get e-mails from my friends and family asking me if I'm still saved or if someone more capable should adopt my child...then I'll know its gone to far. ha ha :-)

So.....the end of the school year is drawing near. I wanted to share a few things with you all so you could be in prayer for us. A couple of new things are happening in our lives in the next few months.

First of all, we are anticipating a job change for Josh in the fall. The really, really good news is that Josh still has a job. He's been given a notice in writing that his position is NOT being cut. That my friends, is like winning the lottery. We weren't really nervous about this until about the last month when all of this talk started happening of a new alternative school being created and positions being shuffled around, etc, etc. Anyways. Most likely Josh will be moving to a different school within Perry Township where he will continue to teach the same group of kids (same age group, same ED learning disability), except this will be BETTER. He will have better curriculum to use, better support systems ,etc.(A therapist on staff, better computer programs, etc, etc). While this position is not 100 % sure yet, we are pretty sure that it is his. The administrators are being open and honest about saying that they "have to" post this position, but Josh is really the guy they want. (who could blame them, Josh IS fantastic. :-)) So pray about this for us. We'll let you know when everything become O- FIC-CIAL. (Oh, another really cool thing about this change is that it puts him even closer to Southport...which is where he coaches soccer)

Second of all, most of you probably get my e-mails asking for prayer about my thyroid issues. Well, I met with my Endocrinologist two weeks ago and we decided that it was time to be done with all of this nonsense and just have surgery to remove it. I'm still looking at dates, but I plan to have my thyroidectomy sometime at the end of July. (You know. Before soccer season and school totally takes over our lives again. :-)) So, I'll have my thyroid out, and take a teeny-tiny pill for the rest of my life. Luckily, I have experience with taking pills, so I should be good to go. At any rate, we appreciate your prayers on this one too!

We have a fun summer planned. We are going to Gatlinburg for a long weekend in June and we just bought our plane tickets for Florida! We plan to be there for nearly a whole week.....visiting our bestest friends (The Sharbaughs) and their beautiful babies. I know Owen is going to love the beach. And Josh will take probably a thousand or so pictures of the ocean, sunsets, sand and anything that his super cool lense leads him to. Me? I plan to come back very, very tan. And relaxed. And refreshed from a week with one of my favorite persons.

Owen is two. Its kind of like all of the sudden I'm dealing with a bit of a different person. We had been introduced to temper tantrums. He had had one or two, or maybe even three....but we are now fighting them daily. In fact, I had to take him into the restroom at Marsh the other day and spank him because he was being disobedient (refusing to sit in his seat) and then had a total melt-down which consisted of a totally limp body and very, very loud sceaming. I'm thankful that spankings work. I don't spank a lot. I really, really don't. I give one or two really stern warnings, and for some situations we even do time outs until the behavior is changed and spaking is a last resort. But, I DO really, really hate spanking him. He delivers this face that just breaks my heart...like WHY did you just hurt me, mom?!? Aaaah. It is terrible. I tearfully explain that he is getting spanked because he was disobedient. And then I ask for a hug, tell him I love him and ask him to tell me that he will obey me. He replies tearfully, "yes Momma". Arrrgggh. Someone please tell me this will get easier. I'm guessing it won't. I am grateful that he is sensitive to discipline and it doesn't usually require many steps before his behavior is changed. Sheesh. This part of parenting STINKS.

Here are some fun things that Owen is doing:

1. Communicating. He is now talking really, really well...and hardly ever babbles anymore. He started saying "Papaw" the other day and I'm sure "Mamaw" isn't too far off. He will mostly try to repeat any word he hears. Or if he thinks it is too difficult he resorts to his default sound of "dis".

2. Having a few victories on the potty now and then! I've just started sitting (rather, HOLDING him on there...seriously he is so teeny he would fall right in!) him on there randdomly during the day for fun to see what he would do and he has actually gone a few times. I think I'll look into getting him a potty seat here in the next few weeks. Wow. I really don't know if I am ready for this!

3. He loves to bring me dandelions from our back yard. :-) Its really sweet. I hope this is something that continues for a looooong time.

4. Love, loves loves his daddy right now. He wants to play the MINUTE Josh walks in the door from work. Thankfully, being the good dad that he is, Josh usually obliges. O is definitely over the Momma factor right now...unless he is hurt...then I win. But, I'm convinced that he loves me still :-)

5. Singing. He really thinks he is doing it and loves to try. We started singing the ABC's in the car the other day and he basically just says "B,C" over and over again, but he thinks he is amazing. Its so incredibly cute.

So...thats about it from us. Back with more pictures in a few days! :-)