What Is This Thing Called Again? ...A Blog?!

It has been WAY too long!! Sorry for my horrible blogging skills. Life has just been crazy busy in the Moran household this year!

To start things off on the update train, Jonas is almost 18 months old! So you know what that means? He's going to nursery in like two weeks!! Mike and I are so excited to actually be able to sit in class and get to listen to the lessons and get more spiritually fed on Sundays at church! For those that don't know, Nursery is a class for the 18 mo-3 year olds where they have little lessons about Jesus and how to be good kids and play with other kids reverently at our church. And as some of you may know, trying to keep an 18 month old occupied and not bored at church for three hours can be very challenging. So in two weeks Jonas will be going to nursery and we are so happy that we get to go to church and actually learn something instead of wandering the halls with a busy body 18 month old.

Aside from that, Jonas is doing well. He is learning so many new things everyday and is getting so much better at talking. He says probably close to around 50 words (I kinda lost count...), like mama, dada, mo (more), nana (banana), car, cup, pa (puppy dog), RAWR, ball, ba (binky), bye bye, bwa (bread), hhhaaa (hot), and the list goes on and on. He is walking like a champ and starting to run when he gets really excited about something. We went to the park the other day and he was running down the hill giggling (faceplanting every now and then), it was the cutest thing you have ever seen! He also drinks from straws and is learning to eat with a fork. He loves to help me clean. He especially loves helping me get the clean dishes out of the dishwasher and put them away! An interesting fact about Jonas: he wears an 18 mo size top and a 12 mo size bottom...strange I know, but he has short legs and a little waist.

Mike is still working at Home Depot. He works in the garden department now, and things have gotten really busy for them over there. It's pretty tough and physically demanding (loading 30 bags of mulch per customer). But he loves the fast past work and being constantly busy. He especially loves being outside. And seeing and having to water all the plants doesn't hurt either. ;) He's usually up at 5 am every morning. He such an amazing guy! Sometimes I wonder how I was so lucky. Mike reapplied to both BYU and BYU Idaho. He was accepted to both and decided to go to BYU Idaho. We have already been there so we know how the school works and the area. We also wouldn't have to worry about credits not transferring either. Mike was assigned the Spring/Fall track at BYUI and starts classes in Sept. So we are now faced with a dilemma. Do we leave our awesome jobs and move once our lease is up here in August? Do we stay and resign here for a whole other year (they only do yr leases...) while Mike does online classes for two semesters? Or do we find another place in Champaign that will sign a shorter lease while Mike does one semester online? The choices are tough. But I think we have decided to stay and Mike will do at least one semester online. I just don't know whether or not I want to move to another place in Champaign and then like six months later move to Idaho. But we'll do whatever we need to do I guess.

So moving on to myself I guess. I got a job. I am also working at Home Depot! I am a paint associate. I love mixing paint! When I worked for my parents at Longfellow Building Supply in CA, it was one of my favorite things to do! My dad would kind of put me in charge of paint stuff and have me make sure all our bases were in stock, the color chips were all organized and put in the right places, the colorants were all full and the machine was working properly, and of course I would mix the paint for customers all the time too. So I guess Home Depot saw all of my experience there and figured I was a good fit for the position. It is so nice having to paychecks coming in every payday instead of one. We are actually saving money now. We paid off our credit card debt with our tax return and actually have money in savings (which is kind of a first for us)! I really do like my job a lot. I get to interact with people and be out of the house for a few hours. But I will say that I do feel a little sad that I'm not with my baby all day everyday like I used to be. He used to cry when I left for work and it would break my heart every time I closed the front door. But he has gotten better and doesn't cry when I leave anymore. Which is good for him and his development, but makes me a little sad that my baby doesn't need me as much as he used to. He is just growing up too fast!!

-Aubrey