General update on the family
In September, we sold both the rental houses we had which was another item we needed to complete before we can move to North Carolina. I'm planning to look for a job after the first of the year and as soon as I find a job, then we'll move.
I'm still with AEGON, an insurance company, as an Account manager for Third Party Administrators (TPA) and it's kind of weird now. My boss knows that I'm leaving so he's not giving me any long term projects. It's been really slow for a while because of that. I'm now helping our office in Atlanta set-up a new Third Party Administrator. It's something I kind of just lucked into, but I've set-up 4 new TPA's and am kind-of the resident expert on how to do it and what to look for. Therefore, I was in Atlanta for 3 days last week and am going to be gone all next week. On Monday, we fly to L.A. Tuesday, we meet with the partner at their location in L.A. Wednesday, we fly to Cedar Rapids, IA. Thursday, we meet with there IA location. Friday, fly home. It's kind of a pain to be on a plane 3 days in a week and deal with the time changes, but it shouldn't be a bad trip because it is spaced out a little. I usually only travel a few nights each month and sometimes they are day trips.
At church, I'm Elder's Quorum president and have been now for 4 years. I'm ready to do something new, but they just replaced both of my counselors and left me as president so I'm assuming they won't release me until we move.
LaDonna is teaching primary (Valiant A) and is also compassionate service leader. She's wanted to teach primary for a while and they just put her back in so she's excited about the class. She wasn't really excited they were teaching the Old Testament, but she's doing it anyway.
LaDonna is working for Grandma and Grandpa 3 days a week and the kids go over and play and keep Grandma from working.
Lonna has just started to use the potty. It's very exciting for us since she is already 2 and a half. We still have a ways to go, but at least we are on the road to not having diapers for one of them. The first time she used the potty we gave her one of her Christmas presents early just to try and reinforce the behavior. She isn't going to get a present every time, but it was a special occasion so it deserved something special.
She is very bossy and reprimands LaDonna and I often. One that is/was amusing is when we are trying to get her to move a little faster, she'll say "Don't push Lonna."
Lonna also likes to go down to the marina with Grandma to feed the "baby fish". There are minnows at the boat ramp that they feed crackers or bread. Lonna usually dumps an entire package of crackers in at once if we don't watch her.
Lonna is talking all the time now and only uses signs once in a while. She has tried to teach Bryce a few, but doesn't really use them herself. She is learning her ABC's and can sing the song missing about 30% of the letters. She can count to ten, although she skips #4 most of the time.
We read the same stories at bedtime most nights and recently found out that Lonna has memorized the books. One example is "Goodnight Teddy", we'll read the first couple of words on the page and she'll finish the sentence. Most pages only have a sentence or two, but it's neat to listen to her finish them.
Bryce is now walking most of the time. When he wants to get somewhere fast he'll still crawl, but he is trying to walk more and more. He still has bright red hair and it's only getting darker because there is more of it now. He has learned two signs, eat and drink, and uses them fairly often. He'll also say "duck" and "ball", sometimes pointing at the right item, but sometimes he's not even close. He is more like a typical boy that I would have imagined. He likes to hit, play hard, and head butt. He generally does things more actively than Lonna did around the same age. A story about the head butting, a week or so ago Lonna and Bryce were both on Lonna's bed. They both crawled toward something and their heads collided. Lonna started crying almost instantly and Bryce just looked at her and kept playing. The kid has a hard head and sometime will head butt a wall just for fun.
I'm still with AEGON, an insurance company, as an Account manager for Third Party Administrators (TPA) and it's kind of weird now. My boss knows that I'm leaving so he's not giving me any long term projects. It's been really slow for a while because of that. I'm now helping our office in Atlanta set-up a new Third Party Administrator. It's something I kind of just lucked into, but I've set-up 4 new TPA's and am kind-of the resident expert on how to do it and what to look for. Therefore, I was in Atlanta for 3 days last week and am going to be gone all next week. On Monday, we fly to L.A. Tuesday, we meet with the partner at their location in L.A. Wednesday, we fly to Cedar Rapids, IA. Thursday, we meet with there IA location. Friday, fly home. It's kind of a pain to be on a plane 3 days in a week and deal with the time changes, but it shouldn't be a bad trip because it is spaced out a little. I usually only travel a few nights each month and sometimes they are day trips.
At church, I'm Elder's Quorum president and have been now for 4 years. I'm ready to do something new, but they just replaced both of my counselors and left me as president so I'm assuming they won't release me until we move.
LaDonna is teaching primary (Valiant A) and is also compassionate service leader. She's wanted to teach primary for a while and they just put her back in so she's excited about the class. She wasn't really excited they were teaching the Old Testament, but she's doing it anyway.
LaDonna is working for Grandma and Grandpa 3 days a week and the kids go over and play and keep Grandma from working.
Lonna has just started to use the potty. It's very exciting for us since she is already 2 and a half. We still have a ways to go, but at least we are on the road to not having diapers for one of them. The first time she used the potty we gave her one of her Christmas presents early just to try and reinforce the behavior. She isn't going to get a present every time, but it was a special occasion so it deserved something special.
She is very bossy and reprimands LaDonna and I often. One that is/was amusing is when we are trying to get her to move a little faster, she'll say "Don't push Lonna."
Lonna also likes to go down to the marina with Grandma to feed the "baby fish". There are minnows at the boat ramp that they feed crackers or bread. Lonna usually dumps an entire package of crackers in at once if we don't watch her.
Lonna is talking all the time now and only uses signs once in a while. She has tried to teach Bryce a few, but doesn't really use them herself. She is learning her ABC's and can sing the song missing about 30% of the letters. She can count to ten, although she skips #4 most of the time.
We read the same stories at bedtime most nights and recently found out that Lonna has memorized the books. One example is "Goodnight Teddy", we'll read the first couple of words on the page and she'll finish the sentence. Most pages only have a sentence or two, but it's neat to listen to her finish them.
Bryce is now walking most of the time. When he wants to get somewhere fast he'll still crawl, but he is trying to walk more and more. He still has bright red hair and it's only getting darker because there is more of it now. He has learned two signs, eat and drink, and uses them fairly often. He'll also say "duck" and "ball", sometimes pointing at the right item, but sometimes he's not even close. He is more like a typical boy that I would have imagined. He likes to hit, play hard, and head butt. He generally does things more actively than Lonna did around the same age. A story about the head butting, a week or so ago Lonna and Bryce were both on Lonna's bed. They both crawled toward something and their heads collided. Lonna started crying almost instantly and Bryce just looked at her and kept playing. The kid has a hard head and sometime will head butt a wall just for fun.
posted by Mark at
12:31 PM
1 Comments:
wLove the blog, Mark! It's a fun way to keep track of you guys. I have 6 or so blogs I read regularly but haven't yet felt motivated enough to do it myself...maybe this will motivate me!
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