Update on us ... and our yard

To all who wonder: Derek works at the Juvenile Competency and Development Center. OH! by the way he was employee of the month for April. Yay husband! He works swing shift. 3-11 Wed-Sun. He really likes it. He used to work at the Juvenile Detention Center. He liked that as well, but he has more freedom with how he interacts with and teaches the kids here. They're both for the county, thus, pretty good jobs. He really has a gift at working with troubled youth.
He is also going to CSI part-time Tuesday & Thursday. Finals are next week and then we'll get to adjust to a new schedule. He's really doing well at juggling everything and I'm quite proud of him.
I, Lacy, work part-time as a graphic designer for a printing company. This is the 2nd month of my 5th year. wow! However, I've only been working part-time since Sept 2006. Part-time has worked much better for us. Derek hadn't gotten full-time status while I was pregnant with Jordan so we didn't have insurance through him, so my job provided us with insurance. Now we all get insurance through the county and it's WAY better. I work 6 hrs on Mon, 2 hours on Tuesday & Thursday, 5 hrs on Wed & Fri. Our baby bills will be paid off in August (or September) and August will be my last month working outside the home!!! hooray! We've been slowly transitioning so I could be home with my children and we're very excited that it will be happening soon. I will be doing free lance graphic design from home a couple hours a day while Jadelyn is at Kindergarten and Jordan is taking his morning nap (that's the plan anyway). If anyone knows of a design adgency who needs a free-lancer, let me know! or if anyone needs some design: wedding invitations, business cards, brochures, etc. -- I'm your girl :)
I'm excited to embrace the whole stay at home mom thing and have tons of projects that have been waiting several years that hopefully I will do. Organized home and scrap booking to name 2. We've seen many blessings as we made the decision for me to work part time, I'm really glad that we're now in the place where I can be home and I know my family will be blessed for that decision. I am sad to be leaving my job though; My co-workers and customers. There are customers that only I have handled their account and I like it that way. I'm kind of territorial over them and I don't want to hand them over to anyone else. Oh well, it will be great.

Jadelyn Serenity-- This week at school was "Transportation" They made paper airplanes today and had a race. She also got her second book it coupon for a personal pizza from pizza hut. Our drama at dinner tonight casts a MASSIVE shadow over the good ravioli experience we had the other night. It ended in some good resolution though. She opted not to go to Tumbling today,l which is odd because she LOVES it. She fell asleep on the way there and when we arrived she said she wanted to go to bed instead. Her recital for both dance and tumbling is the end of this month and I'm really excited to watch. She's such a big girl now and is really good. She was moved up in a higher class after last season. I think she's the only 4 yr old among 6 & 7 yr olds. It's challenging for her, but she does well.

• Jordan Cale --viewing the outside world. Derek got a stand up turn around bouncy toy (there's probably a real name..unknown to me though) from D.I. the other day and I finally gave it a good cleaning and yesterday Handsome Baby got to try it out. The verdict --he was not impressed. I tried it again today and the sad face took a little longer to show up this time. He did enjoy the butterfly for a minute or 2. he's really been thriving on our attention lately. Today I let him suck on a LARGE piece of celery. He loved it, it was perfect for holding and had a very mild flavor. I just had to watch closely to take it away when it started to shred.
• Front Yard Tree update -- the 2 peach trees in front, and the 2 trees that were in the middle of the yard our now completely out of our yard, Kind of a new adjustment. That space by the fence behind the tulips is the old home of the trees. They were much taller than anything that still lives there.

• Back Yard Tree Update -- These are our pear tree blossoms. Pretty huh? I entered our pears in the fair last year (just for fun). Once I saw the other pears, I realized how sad mine truly were :) This year, my pears will be better, I know it. First Goal: more blossoms - Success Second Goal: no worms - to be determined. I have to say however, my basil did win first place. go basil go basil. It was a lemon one and it was truly pretty and fragrant.

Happy May First!