Whipped!

Megan and I are both exhausted.  In our room waiting for a decent time to be able to go to bed.  We both got a couple hours sleep on the plane ride over.  We were too excited on the ride from Minneapolis to Reykjavik, but from Reykjavik to London were able to sleep off any on.  The crusty thing was knowing that it was the middle of the night at home and it was already the middle of the day here.  Tonight we just walked around the area we are staying and will belong to bed early.  Traveling is exhausting.  My first impression of London is dirty.  We ate chicken at Nandos tonight.  We both ordered the mild chicken but it was very spicy. 

Now to sit and figure out our game plan for tomorrow before I fall asleep.  

Trip of a lifetime!

Last Friday night I finished working on my Master's in Addiction Counseling Degree.  I was so excited to be done with college and not having to spend my evenings studying and freaking out about completing assignments after working all day.  However, as excited as I am to be done with school, the best part happens on Sunday, May 14.  Megan and I will leave for Europe.  We (I actually mean she for the most part) have been planning this trip for about the last 7 months.  The trip has been a dream of both of ours for about the last ten years and we finally decided that we were just going to do it.  As we were trying to decide on dates our trip kept expanding.  We originally thought about 10 days, then 14 but finally settled on 21 days.  We both wish we actullly planned for another week as we are still cutting out things that we don't have time for.  

We booked airline tickets so we knew the dates.  then we started searching out the route we wanted to take and reserving AirBnB apartments along the route. We ordered train tickets and reserved seats on the busy trains.  The last step of the process has been making reservations and buying tickets for things that we want to see and do.  I will be posting about our trip along the way and sharing lots of pictures.  On Sunday, Sam will drive us to Bismarck where we will fly out.  Minneapolis and then on to Reykjavik , Iceland before going on to London, England.  I will update this and post about our journey along the way on here.  

How life changes!

I have to say that I forgot I had this blog until I came across it a couple weeks ago. I was amazed I haven't been here since 2010. Oh the changes in those 3 years! My grandson is now 4, his younger sister, Brayleigh, is going to turn 2 this weekend and he has a new baby sister, Brienna, is 2 months old already! I am now an LCPC, Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor. I have a full time job working at the school as a therapist working with K-2 grade kids. I ventured out just about a year ago and challenged myself into starting my private practice. When I was going to college the thought of being a counselor was not really an area I figured I would go. I wasn't sure that I would like helping others work through their issues. But after I got out of college I had a lot of student loan debt and realized that if I got my counseling license I would be able to apply to the National Health Service Corp for loan repayment. I got a job that allowed for loan repayment and got my license and then apply to the NHSC and was accepted for loan repayment. I worked the two year commitment for the loan repayment and found I love my job in working with kids. I still don't enjoy the paperwork part of the job but deal with it. Last year I saw a need for a private practice but didn't know if I had the self-confidence and drive to what it would take to start my private practice, but pushed forward through the paperwork and learning what it took to start my own practice. I found an office, ordered furniture and let a few people know I was hanging out my single. I was as full as I wanted to be within the first couple months. Now I am really full and keeping busy. I have to say I love my job and am so glad I went down this path. Looking back on the past 3 years, I would have never guessed I would be where I am right now. Now onto some cute update pictures because what is a blog post without pictures!! I will try to post more now that I remember having a blog!! I love this picture! Jerad, Braydon, Brayleigh I will have to get an updated picture of Brienna but here is one from when she was born!

wow I am bad

I am such a bad blogger. Humm July 2009, well since then I have turned another year older. Still working at the same job, wrecked my Honda. Brayden has celebrated his first Christmas and his first birthday! Birthday for Brayden was great. He is walking and on the move now.

I am in the process of studying for my LCPC exam and have been studying like crazy because I am hoping to get to take the test in May. Study, study study, that is my life now.

I will have to post some quilt tops I finished recently. I am trying to work on getting a bunch of old unfinished projects completed.

Summer

Wow I haven't updated here in a long time. Brayden is getting so big, rolling over and jabbering away. Hard to believe he is already 5 1/2 months old. He is just over 20# already and growing like a weed.

Summer is in full swing and keeping busy with work. I am really enjoying the summer program, taking the kids to the park and pool. Really trying to teach them to use the social skills that we have been working on to learn to play with other kids. I am amazed how many kids just don't know how to play and interact with other children because they don't really do it anymore. They don't "play" together, but rather sit and watch each other do video games or watch tv when they are at home.

Hard to believe that school will be starting back up in just over a month. Summer has good really fast this year. Amanda, Brayden and I did a trip out to Wisconsin in June. In July, Sam, Jerad and I took a vacation down to Rapid City and Mt. Rushmore to watch the fireworks. So not a fun time as we had to hike about 3 miles from our vehicle up the hill to Mt. Rushmore, than wait in the grass sitting with thousands of other people for about 5 hours till it got dark enough. Just as it was time to light the fireworks off, the fog rolled in and we didn't even get to see anything except the fog turning differnt hues of the colors. So we had to hike down the road again to our car. The fireworks would have been spectacular if we had gotten to see them. The day was beautiful though, and our trip was great, relaxing and enjoyable just getting to hang out.

Holy Cow

I am so bad about updating my blog. I have found facebook and am loving staying connected to my friends and family on a daily basis. Spring is in the air here in eastern Montana. I spent all last weekend working on my garden. Last year I just had a smaller garden and found I needed a bigger one this year. Sam helped me drag railroad ties around and set up a much bigger raised garden.

My neighbor has a tractor so he was nice enough to come over and dig up dirt and move it around. I got some of my cucumbers and squash planted. Sam helped me get some flower beds dug up and stuff moved around. I can't wait to have some nice weekends to get some stuff growing and planted. Too bad this coming weekend is supposed to be rainy and even a chance of snow.

So now for some Brayden news. He is growing like a weed. His eyes are still a vivid blue and this grandma is hoping they stay that way. Hard to believe he is over 2 months old already. He is so much fun to hang out with becuase he giggles and smiles about everything.

He is a month old already!

I can't believe grandma's little guy is already a month old as of yesterday. He is growing and changing every day. I just can't believe how fast this first month has gone by. I am so thankful that they live here in town and I get to see him often.

He is 1 week old!

You have to know that this blog is going to be all about Brayden for awhile! He is already a week old and adjusting to live. He gets to go in for his first Dr. visit on Monday and hopefully he is gaining weight. He doesn't like to suck on anything, he is really lazy and thinks someone else should do it for him or something.

More on Brayden

Baby Brayden is hopefully being released from the hospital today. He wasn't sucking well enough yesterday to be released. Today he is sucking the bottle well enough to hopefully go home. He was born with a heart murmur, but Dr. is hoping that closes up by the time he is released or they will have to head to Miles City for an ultrasound to check the murmur.

Full details on Brayden Michael,
Born at 2:29 pm, weight 8# 14 oz., 21 1/2 inches long, 14 1/2 inche head. Amanada is doing good and getting excited to get released today.

He is here!!

Brayden Michael Burley made his way into the world today. He was born at 2:29 pm weighing in at 8# 14 oz. He is just perfect and looks like his dad. Mom and baby are doing great!!

What a great day! It is very hard to watch your child go through the pain of labor, but it was so worth it in the end.