Update

I apologize. I have been getting a lot of emails and such, wondering what is going on and what our plans are...

Well, the short of it is that we know nothing different now than we did in the Spring.

The long of it is...

(It's long. I apologize again, I can never seem to stop writing!)

We have heard nothing on the job front. We are ideally looking to go back to Seattle, and the job that Bryan REALLY wants (okay, I do, too- great location and great pay raise) will not even be posting until next fiscal year. So that would mean he won't even have the opportunity to apply until at LEAST October. There have been a bunch of jobs opening at Fort Lewis (where we used to live near Seattle) with Army CID, but there are two problems. 1) they are temporary for 5 years and, most importantly, 2) they are DEPLOYABLE positions. If it was just the temporary part, we might be willing to go for it to get back out there. But the deployable part makes them an absolutely not in our book. We didn't just leave the Army because of the terrible pay, we were tired of the lack of a family life, and the constant threat of deployment. God was watching out for Bryan and SOMEHOW he managed to not go on 3 different deployments that he was scheduled for (another story for another day.)

Needless to say, deployable positions are a last resort- and his job here is still stable, so we have nothing to panic about right now.

So, the current plan is to stay put until Spring, and if nothing has turned up out West, we plan to buy a house here and stay a few more years. (shudder- Winter is already making me twitch.)

And by stay put, I do mean here in this condo. We are not totally sure how we can make it work with 2 bedrooms, 4 kids and 800 sq ft, but we are PRETTY sure we can do it. We had originally planned on only staying here until November at the latest, but neither Bryan nor I have any interest at all in moving again. Really, the thought of moving in 3 months knowing that it is another temporary place is just too overwhelming. Therefore, we are pretty sure that we can somehow manage to squeeze Micah in here with us until we have a more set plan and either move FAR, FAR away, or buy a nice, big 5-bedroom house. (Scary thing is, the bedrooms will already be full!)

I know some of you think we are crazy, but we are pretty happy here, believe it or not. WAY happier than at our old house. Sure, it has it's negatives, but it has a lot of positives, too! Bryan is able to carpool with Eric, which not only saves us money, but allows me to have the car whenever I need it (of course, doing anything with the 3 kids is terribly over-rated, but at least I have options now!) Our rent is obviously WAY less here, which helps with everything. There is less to do- no yard work or shoveling (shudder, again, though you know I wasn't out there shoveling snow! Thanks, Bryan!), no TV to distract, only 1 bathroom to clean (which is still a struggle) and WAY less floorspace to have to clean. In addition, since Selah sleeps in the living room at night, Bryan and I have no choice but to go to bed when she does. So although sometimes I would really like to get some things done, I get to read in bed or use the computer or just spend time with Bryan (when he isn't already passed out by the time I brush my teeth- we all know how he loves to sleep-AND he gets up at 5:30 every morning). It's kind of nice to get to just relax, we aren't really used to that.

In a nutshell, we are doing fine here, and plan to stay. It is definitely hardest on the boys, but they're resilient, they'll survive!

Additionally, Bryan is starting his Master's this month. He's going to the University of Detroit Mercy and majoring in Economics (there aren't a lot of choices.) So, if a job doesn't come up before Spring then we plan to stay here at least until he is done with his Master's and go from there.

The boys are both doing well, Jonah KIND OF likes 2nd grade. It is hard for him to have to do schoolwork while Noah and Selah play. There isn't really anywhere to go to get away from the distractions, so he sometimes gets a little frustrated with having to do work. Soccer is starting this week, and he is very excited. Bryan is coaching his team again, which he (Bryan) loves. Unfortunately, they were significantly short coaches for the Under-10 league, so they decided to bump Jonah up so that Bryan can coach U-10, even though Jonah misses the cut off by a few months. Hopefully, he will do fine, though he is once again the youngest on his team. He isn't worried, though.

Noah KIND OF lives pre-school. Some days he is thrilled to do schoolwork and others I have a fight on my hands to get him to do it. He actually likes what he does, just doesn't like HAVING to do something sometimes. He likes everything to revolve around what he FEELS like doing. He is quite excited for his birthday in a week and a half. It is hard to believe that he is almost 4! He's having a space shuttle cake (in theory, but I need to get on the ball with that one!) and we are planning to take the boys to a place nearby that has a real train ride.

Selah is 11 months already, 3 weeks until her birthday! ( I have no idea what kind of cake she is having, but I can promise it will be VERY simple and easier than any 3-D space shuttle!) She is constantly amazing us with what she can do and understand, though I think a large part of this is just because she is so small she doesn't seem old enough, even though she is. She is not walking, yet, which I am very thankful for! But she does prefer to be standing and pulls herself up on EVERYTHING (and everyone!) She cruises around the furniture and finds LOTS of trouble everyday. It seems as though nothing is safe from her grabby little hands. Her eating (or lack of eating as it may be) is still an issue, but she seems to be drinking more formula to make up for it. I am not sure that is the best thing, but at least she is getting calories and nutrients.

And little Micah, is not forgotten. He seems to be doing as well as can be. He loves to keep Mommy up at night already with his thumping and squirming. And should she DARE fall asleep, he is happy to wake her back up. Of course, movement is always reassuring, but if I didn't already know it was a boy, I would be guessing that it was. Selah was SO much less active than the boys were, and Micah seems to share that active trait with his big brothers. (That is not to say Selah didn't keep me up at night and drive me nuts, she did.) Guess he's building up those muscles so he can go play soccer with them soon.

And for those of you who keep asking, I am doing better than expected. I have little I can complain about and really I'm just tired. But, gee, I don't think there's been a person born yet who wouldn't be tired with a pregnancy and 3 little ones all day, one of whom is still working on that sleeping thing. So, although I can't complain, I am looking forward to the days when Micah sleeps through the night (which had better be WAY sooner than Selah or he's getting thrown out with the bath water) and I can start to feel like myself again. Though I admit, it's been so long I'm not sure I remember who I am...

Overall, we are doing great. Kind of in limbo, but for those of you who have been around awhile- you know this is pretty normal for us. God really seems to feel that we need to learn to trust Him more and just let Him do His thing. So that's what we are trying to do, and I definitely think we are getting better at that, now that we have been able to see with hindsight how much better his decisions were than ours! We are taking it a day at a time (well, more like a week as time is just disappearing so quickly!) and we are open to going and doing what God tells us to do. So say a prayer for us that we hear Him right!! (And we all know I am REALLY hoping his plan is not for us to stay in MI until Bryan retires in 20 years, but if it is, I will suck it up and learn to live with it!)