Things to Look Forward to...

Today has been a rough day for our darling Joe Parla. Don't get me wrong, the rest of us are disappointed about what has happened, but no one is more forlorn than Joe. Sadly, our cruise that was scheduled for the first week in December has been cancelled due to the fire that broke out on the ship about a week ago.

I learned an important lesson from all of this - there is reason why you should not tell your kids what your big plans are until you are actually there, doing it. You never know when the cruise you have been talking to your three year-old about for months will get cancelled last minute. But in my defense, how was I to know the boat would light on fire - I mean come on, really!

In the end we are still cruising, just not on the Splendor and not the seven nights we had all anticipated, and we got a nice discount on a future cruise. So although it's not what we had been planning for it, there are still memories to be made with our family exploring a new place. And let's face it, this gives Joe a new reason to continue researching cruises and driving me crazy (I say that with love) with talks about different options and rooms and destinations and more and more talk about cruising...

On another note, here are a couple updated photos of the boys. Oliver recently took advantage of a Groupon for Build-A-Bear and made himself a reindeer. We couldn't let Henry be left out, so Oliver was kind enough to help make a puppy dog for his little brother.

This week is my last week of full time work. Starting next week, I will be going down to two days of work per week, and three days home with the boys. I am really looking forward to spending more time with my kids, having an opportunity to clean my house, and not always feeling so rushed with everything. I am so incredibly thankful that God has blessed our family with this opportunity and appreciative of a work place that is so understanding about my need to be with my family more.

Speaking of next week, we will also be charging forward with potty training Oliver. We putting the diapers aside for a week, staying home, and heading to the potty every hour with underwear in pants. I’m really glad we are still going on our cruise because that has been part of my leverage for getting Oliver to start going in the potty all the time. We've been telling him he has to learn to wear underwear so that he can go swimming on the cruise ship. Wish us luck everyone, we're hoping for the best results and one less diaper bill each month.