Date Night

Such a novel concept. Who would have thought when we married 9 plus years ago that we would ever have to resort to scheduling time with each other?!

Lane and I have been noticing a serious lack of "us" time in our life. We have family time and we are pretty good at doing things all together, especially on the weekends. However, time where Lane and I just concentrate on each other has become few and far between. This is something that definitely needs to be fixed because when you are dealing with a two year old terrorist, you need your marriage to be STRONG!

To even get this started we had to decide what night to put a scheduled date on and wouldn't you know, that alone was a chore. We finally decided on Wednesdays. Rarely will there be something in our schedule on a Wednesday night that would conflict with our date. Not the most exciting of days to 'date' but it works for us.

So, tonight starts the first ever Nelson Date Night. We couldn't afford the babysitter expense this week and I like to save the calling in of friends for bigger occasions (like Zombieland on October 2nd: Laresa, Alissa, either of you free to spend some high quality Max time).

Lane is bathing Max as we speak. I'm finishing up some laundry. If the two year old cooperates we should be sitting down with each other for Gran Torino in about 45 minutes. Wish us luck!

Frog Boy

Here is Max avoiding bath time in the cutest way possible!

A month, really????

Life is ever changing in the Nelson household. I figured I should blog because it has officially been a month. So for anyone who is still reading, HELLLLLLOOOOO out there!

The highlights of the last month:

- Max -
1. Spent a week in Oklahoma with grandparents and no parents :) It was a weird feeling being without a child for week but I think Max had the time of his life. So much so, that Max and I went back a couple of weeks later and spent the week at Grandma Flo's with frequent visits to Bop and Ebe's.

2. Tried potty training. Stopped potty training after Max declared "I'm a baby, I wear diapers".

3. Enrolled at a PDO. Un-enrolled at a PDO after they raised their prices astronomically. Found a new PDO at a local United Methodist Church. Max will start after Labor Day.

4. Has started a new love affair with his dinosaur rainboots. He wears them frequently. Oftentimes accessorized by nothing but a space helmet and diaper. I will hopefully capture this on camera soon.

5. His imagination is growing by leaps and bounds. On the way home in the car he told me a story: "The polar bear said, 'I'm going to eat you up'. So, he was sent to his polar bear room where there was a train and a tunnel and a crocodile. The crocodile said, 'I'm going to snap you up!'"

6. He is definitely a boy. The fart jokes have already started in the house, well there were always fart jokes (thanks Lane) but it weird to now how have a 2 year old participating!

- Lane -

1. Still working hard and being an awesome provider for our family!

2. Getting ready to turn 32 next month (jeez, what an old man)!

3. Has been spending a lot of time helping a friend with some design. It's been nice seeing him excited about designing again.

- Laura -

1. Flipped than flopped about what to do with my career. Which is slightly ridiculous considering I'm not even working. I think I've finally figured myself out...

2. Turned 29 and a half. That is slightly depressing.

3. Will return to working daycare afterschool starting tomorrow!

I think that touches on the highlights of our life the last month. Nothing too terribly exciting or life changing but now all my loyal readers can feel caught up!

Hopefully I won't go a month again with no blogging.

Life is Good!

Priorities and Life Decisions....

My life has a very predictable pattern to it right now.
*Lane wakes up with Max (he is such a good daddy and an excellent husband)
*I roll out of bed and see Lane off to work.
*COFFEE
*Max time, taking care of the house time, and occasionally outside activities with friends.
*Lane comes home
*Max goes to sleep
*Off to bed for all of us, it will be time to start the day again soon.

There is nothing too dramatic in our days, not counting Max's terrible two tempter tantrums. We have a fairly predictable schedule. Despite the lack of "excitement", I'm very happy in my life. I have become very content being Lane's wife and Max's mommy. I like taking care of my house (although I will NEVER like laundry) and I like making our home and family my priority. Things can be tight because I don't work but I wouldn't trade this time with Max for any sort of paycheck, even if it does mean I need to watch all our pennies very carefully and there are times we have to sacrifice a lot of material things.

I'm a mom and wife and for now that is my career. It is a good and right thing for us and it is something I've come to love.

But in a few years Max will be in school (isn't it crazy that in 3 years he will be on his way to kindergarten). If we are blessed with another child, they won't be that far behind Max in going to school. And I will be left with a lot of hours to fill. I could certainly maintain my mommy and wife status and be very active in their schooling. I could continue to not work and I'm sure I could find some way to fill the time. But I'm pretty sure I'm going to be bored with no Max at home and I'm pretty sure that I'm going to want to return to work. My priority will still be my family and home, but there will be room for more in my life again.

The question I've been struggling to answer lately is what will I want that "more" to be. I have my bachelor's degree in education. I worked for 4 years as a teacher and I'm certain I could return to the field of education if I so desired. I'm just not sure I have that desire. I have certain strong beliefs about children and their learning and school systems today are in direct opposition to my beliefs. I was already becoming frustrated with the direction being taken in education and I'm certain that frustration will grow if schools continue on the path that has been laid. Add to that the long hours preparing a classroom, the work you bring home, the low pay, and the high amount of money I put back into the classroom and that career just isn't appealing to me any longer.

I have some thoughts about what I would love to do instead of teaching. I've even started taking some steps to make a new career a reality. I'm trying to plan all of this in such a way that for the next few years my family can still be number 1 job but I am also able to start pursuing my new goal. And....

I'm scared. I'm having to pray nightly for the ability to see past my fear. There are so many questions about the path I'm taking and whether it is right for my family and for me. The unknown is always hard not to fear.

So, I'm doing what I can to answer the questions I have and for the ones I cannot answer, I'm relying on my faith. Faith in God. Faith in my abilities. Faith in my family.

So my challenge for right now: don't let the fear grow bigger than my faith (and still do the laundry).

Our Magic Prince

This is a really low quality video, but it is the best I got! This is Max in the hotel before heading over to the hotel to be ring bearer in my cousins wedding ( I took it with my phone for Daddy back in Kansas City which is why the quality stinks). I'll try to load some pictures later.

By the way, we got him to put the tux on by telling him he was wearing a magic shield (the vest) and a magic sword (the tie). Then he found some plastic sticks in the shoes and pretended those were a gun! That's our boy:)