stuff

Time for an update I guess. There's alot going on and life is chaotic, but we're managing just fine. Mom is healing nicely, she's able to walk more and more without her walker, and she felt well enough today for me to take her to get her hair cut. These are all good things.

Thanksgiving was great. We had around 50 people here and more than enough food to go around. Thanksgiving at our house has always been an all-day affair and this year was no different--we had people stay from 11:30am till 10pm. It was definitely loud and crowded but we all had so much fun together. From playing football, to cooking the last minute food, to watching the Macy's parade, to eating all the food, to watching the football games, to eating desserts, to walking the dogs around the neighborhood, to taking alot of pictures, to playing board games, to eating more food, to telling funny stories, to listening to the kids play, to jumping on the trampoline, to rocking babies to sleep, it was a good day. I was so grateful that all the families that were here didn't mind a bit that it wasn't as fancy as previous years or that things weren't as organized as Mom usually has them. Everybody understood that we were down a Mom and a Beth, so we just all kicked back and had a good time.

Well, I registered for school last week. I'm just going to take 14 hours in the spring...not nearly as much as I used to take, but I figure it's better to start back slowly. Only one class will be online and all the rest will be on campus. I decided to go ahead and start where I left off (on the nursing track) and just see what happens. After researching and weighing my options over the last few months, I couldn't think of anything else I really wanted to do besides nursing. I really have no idea if the nursing school will let me do the clinical training required to graduate, but I'll go ahead and finish all the classroom hours I can and then worry about the clinicals later. Maybe I'll be in a different position health-wise by then.
I could probably write a book on my thoughts about going back to school and maybe I will write a post on that soon, but for now I'll just say that I'm quite nervous and I need constant reminders not to worry about it. It's still 6 weeks away though, so hopefully I'll get all my worrying out of the way by then. :)

It's been a month since I quit my job and I have not regretted that decision for a single day. I knew when I quit that it was the right thing to do, but I still thought I'd look back after a few weeks and be sad. Nope. I feel nothing but relief every time I think about it. Most of that is probably due to the fact that my parents need me around the house right now and I'm able to take over Mom's place while she's down. And even when I'm sitting at home doing nothing, it's just a relief to know that if someone needs me, I'm available. Available is something I definitely was not during my 60 hour work weeks.
I've also noticed a huge change in how I'm feeling since I quit. The muscle tension and and my overall stress level has greatly decreased and that has made an incredible difference in how I feel. And it just feels good to be home. Home is good.

I'm leaving for Virginia on Saturday! I'll be up there for 3 weeks and hopefully Baby Judah will cooperate and decide to come early so I can spend lots of time holding him. It will be a fun (oh, and freezing) trip and I can't wait to meet Judah and see the rest of the kids!

I have a post in the works of more Funny Warren Moments, since it seemed to be such a big hit last time. stay tuned!