remember me?!

so life has been going pretty good for us lately.  no recent trips to the hospital so i consider us fortunate!  actually that's not true, mason did go to have more blood work done before our trip and he'll be back in a couple weeks for another cat scan. but it's all just routine follow-up stuff so it doesn't count.

so things have been good yet still crazy.  i keep trying to tell myself that crazy is our new normal, which helps somewhat.  but we were always a little crazy so now i guess we've just taken it to the next level. i'm not sure if that's comforting or not.  :)

we went on a big trip... and survived!  in the days leading up to our trip i wondered if mason and i were insane to take 2 kids on a plane, to arizona, for over two weeks, when we didn't have a job to put the money back in savings.  but it was wonderful!  we got cheap tickets and my brother-in-law really helped by being our chauffeur and loaning us his car so we didn't spend too much.  and we really enjoyed our time there. it was wonderful to spend so much time with family.  we stayed with my grandma ferrell in show low, mason's grandparents in mesa and my sister and her family in florence.  so we traveled quite a bit but the boys did great in spite of all the shuffling.  there were some hiccups (of course).  i have new appreciation for my parents and more understanding as to why we never went anywhere when i was growing up.  :) 

all kidding aside, i'm very thankful for the opportunity we had to go down there.  we spent some much needed and wanted time with grandparents and that is priceless to me.  and andrew and connor got to spend some great time with their cousins, getting to know them better, which will bring good memories for the future.  and we stole child rearing ideas from my sister and brother-in-law and not a moment too soon, in my opinion!

i've been struggling with my health a bit more as of late.  which stinks because mason is also worn down with his mono.  i'd love to race around and do everything for him like he does for me when i'm having fibro days but it just doesn't work that way right now, unfortunately. 

i've spent so much time trying to get rid of my fibro with only moderate success.  but i'm reaching another stage in my journey of chronic illness so i'm trying to figure out how to live well with the fibro rather than just trying to get rid of it all the time.  my body is just super sensitive to stress, anxiety, fatigue and my diet and i'm finally getting to where i'm accepting that, sort of.  it's a process.  i checked out a great a book about it but left it on the airplane flying down to phoenix.  oops.  maybe i'll read the copy i have to buy for the library before turning it over.  :)

completely switching gears... mason got a job! a temporary, part-time job but it's a job nonetheless and we're very thankful for it.  it will actually work out quite well for us so we're excited!  a couple in our ward sells horse jumps over the internet so mason will be building the jumps for them this summer (and hopefully beyond if it works out).  he loves doing rough carpentry things anyway so it's perfect from that stand point.  it's only 5 minutes from our house and the pay is pretty good.  we're heading in the direction of self-employment so we hope this venture might help us on that route.  so if you're looking to purchase some horse jumps, let me know and i'll hook you up!

i have a bunch of great pics from our trip and otherwise (a fateful haircut for andrew) that i hope to get posted here soon.  this blog has sort-of taken a back seat as of late (how did my mom get anything done with six kids?!  two is mind boggling to me!) so i hope i can get it back in gear.  my kids don't have baby books or memory journals or anything like that to remember their childhood from since i'm so lazy and forgetful.  all they have is this blog.  so i'd better do my darnest!  :)  talk to ya soon!