8 year anniversary trip

We finally got to take our anniversary trip, one month late, but we made it. This year we did not plan a single thing except for the babysitter. We had my brother and his wife come stay at our house with the kids, and that was all we needed to worry about. Caleb and I talked about many different places to go and the morning of our trip we agreed to drive up to Seattle. We found a hotel on my phone while we were driving, and called and booked the place. Amazing all the research you can do online while driving. We stayed in downtown Seattle where all the action is. We never pulled our car out of the parking space. We walked about 10 miles every day and got to do everything that we wanted to. I shopped in the mornings while Caleb slept in. I'm not very good at sleeping in, so I did the girly stuff while he slept in our silent room with blackout blinds. We went to lots of cool shops, restaurants, motorcycle stores, hiking store, tourist stops, and just watched people. The weather was perfect and we absolutely loved it. The only thing we would have changed is that we both wish we brought shorts and sandals. I tried to buy us both some, but we didn't find anything we wanted so Caleb just over-heated. I love to be warm, so I did not mind at all.

The best thing about our anniversary is reminding us how important it is to keep our relationship solid. Just talking about the two of us, our goals, our lives, and where we are headed. We hardly talked about our kids at all, which may seem rude of us, but it was honestly about the two of us. We acted like we were just two newlyweds again and unable to keep our hands off each other. That's the way it should be. I love my man and feel renewed.

TAXES 2012

Caleb has been "self employed" now for the past year and had not paid taxes all year. I had no idea what to save or how much taxes would amount to, and neither did he. We played it safe and saved $23,000. We knew we probably overshot a little. He did put over 40,000 miles on our car last year, gets a break for food and insurance expenses. We have kind of turned into hoarders with money lately anyway. Not knowing what our future holds and where Caleb will end up working, we just keep saving. 

Our tax guy just left our house at 10 pm on Sunday night, the night before taxes are due. I wasn't sure what to expect but Caleb has saved what he could. 

Drum roll please......... we owe $349 to federal and get $400 back from state. So basically, it's a wash and we saved lots of money for ourselves.

Without any hesitation, we are leaving this weekend to celebrate. We previously had planned on going this weekend for our anniversary trip that we have not had time to take. Now we can celebrate without worry. Feeling very grateful and proud of my man for saving money.

Easter 2012

Nothing better than a sunny day in Oregon for Easter. We went to my parents house all day on Saturday, church and to the in-laws on Sunday. The kids hid eggs, found eggs, ate chocolate, and had lots of fun. My sister and I even went for a run before we over-ate. Good thing too because the food was amazing. Glad to spend it with family.

Sunday was especially fun because my in-laws have baby chicks they are raising. My kids got to play with the chicks, chickens, dogs, and cousin Isaac. Fun day for everyone.

Calvin and his glasses

When Calvin was 13 months old, we took him to the eye doctor as part of his other head diagnosing appointments. The doctor said he had a good chance of being near-sided and that we need to follow up. I took half the day off work and drove up to Portland so that he could be seen by a pediatric doctor. I am glad we did that because the doctor knew exactly how to handle a kid that was Calvin's age. They had fun toys in the room and ways to keep his attention. He could not see at all after they dilated his eyes, so it was one crash after the next. Then they told us his diagnosis -5 on the right and -8 on the left. I wasn't sure what to make of that, but she said it was really bad. We couldn't pick out any glasses in Portland because of the time of day, so we waited until Caleb could go with us. I took him to a place in Salem and Caleb and I were cracking up trying lots of different glasses on him. He HATED every single pair. It was hilarious. We knew that keeping glasses on him would be hard. There was one pair that looked like Harry Potter glasses and they were very cute. Too bad Caleb freaked out and would not go for it. The glasses had to be special ordered because they were so strong, so a week and half later we picked them up. I was so excited to give them to Calvin. I was almost crying on the drive home thinking about how it would be this miraculous moment. Calvin would realize that he could see and he would give me big hugs and the world would be right. I had my sitter hold my phone to capture the moment because I just knew it would be amazing.

Needless to say, he doesn't care if they help him see or not. He hates them. He wants to burn them. And that's all there is to it.

It's been a month now and he keeps them on a little better now. He does realize that he can see better with them. But he still rips them off and throws them as far as he can when I'm not looking. I've found them in the garbage, hidden under beds, in the toy storage area, under the couch, and just about every other place in between. I know this will not be the last pair of glasses we buy for this kid.

He does look pretty stinking cute if you ask me. Love my little four-eyed-man!

Love/hate life

This year has been a very interesting year. Maybe this is how life goes when you're old. Some things are going very well for us and we could not be happier. And other things are just weird if not completely awful. One issue at a time here folks:

My job- is the best job ever. Honestly, I have the best benefits and pay that I know of. For being a 33-year old female, I don't know too many other women who have the job of their dreams and the pay to match. I don't have to worry about money, I can afford to contribute a lot of money to retirement, and save for my kids college. I get to help employees at my work be safe on the job and healthy. We have changed peoples lives and I get kudos from employees regularly on how our program has helped make them a better parent. I rarely ever work overtime, and I get paid to travel around and speak at large events and share our company success. We have the best day care for my kids and they love being there so much that we usually never leave on time at the end of the day and just keep playing. What's not to love? How about the big stupid flood on January 19 that caused 3.2 million dollars of damage at my work and has been running all over the place acting like a contractor? Who knew that was part of my job anyway? I am so busy that I don't get to do the parts of my job that I love the most. The flood work is actually really interesting and fun, but it's very stressful and has me working lots of extra hours. Hopefully this work will start going more smoothly and I get back to what I love to do. Working extra hours is very hard on my family and makes for a grumpy me.

Caleb's job- is not the best job ever, or the best company ever. He is an independent contractor, so he is his own job. He works at 4 different dental clinics every week. Some clinics are busy and he gets paid well, others are slow and he gets bored. His pay is totally based on what he does, so in the end we just hope it's a good average and he can pay his student load debt. He travels to work 1-4 hours per day. He drives around 14 hours a week most of the time and he put 40,000 miles on our car in 11 months. We thought this traveling business would end soon, but it's just not. He doesn't want to sign a contract and work for a clinic that doesn't let him do the procedures that he enjoys doing, and right now he's not. But all the jobs in town want to have to sign a non-compete clause and want you to work there 3-5 years. We want to own a practice, not sign our lives away. But trying to buy a practice has been harder than we thought. The good news is that Caleb loves being a dentist, has a great time treating patients, gets flexibility to do funky procedures when he wants, and he can take time off as he wants to. For example, he's going wild pig hunting for a week in Texas. He doesn't get paid vacation like I do, but he can take time off and nobody is watching his hours. Please help us find the right job match!!

Calvin and Shelby are absolutely amazing. Best two kids in the world. We are still considering growing our family but with our jobs right now it doesn't seem to be working. But we probably should not let our jobs decide how large our family is, right? Well, I can't imagine being preggers, running around after our two kids, working extra hours, and having a husband who is never home. But, if I wait any longer, I am going to be old as heck and my kids will be too spread out in age. I love big families, little age gaps, and having both parents around to help. Maybe that is coming for us soon, who knows.

That's my love/hate life. We have a great life, so it seems silly to complain about it. It's just very different than I thought it would be and our future is not clear right now. Hoping the next two months will start to sort out and we can see what the years ahead will have in store for us.

Christmas time again

This Christmas was one of the best we have had here at the Coombs house. Not because it was perfect, but it was pretty close. We took our sweet time this year and participated in many adventures. We saw more lights than ever before, got to take the kids to see Santa, gave away lots of gifts, and spent time together.

Caleb spoiled me on Christmas eve after the kids went to bed. We agreed to keep the gifts small this year, but he ignored that rule. Which, was a fun little surprise. I got an iPad 2 and he got some cold gear for his motorcycle. We were both very happy.

 The kids woke up early on Christmas day because we went to see my sisters' kids sing. Shelby started throwing up all over the church inside the chapel before it started and Calvin joined her after we rushed back home. I was sick all morning too, so Caleb had to run the show. He made an awesome Christmas meal for everyone and kept the kids happy while I rested. Luckily I made a lot of the food the night before and my sister came and helped finish the rest with Caleb. The kids took a nap and snapped out of their flu bug and we partied the day away.

Lots of great gift sharing, memories, and funny kids to make the day special. We are fortunate to be able to have a stress free holiday. There was nothing to worry about, nothing left to do, just hang out and enjoy the company.

Oh Christmas Tree!

This year we decided to kick off Christmas early and at full speed. It's early December and my house is completely decorated, shopping is finished, and I am counting down the days until Christmas. I am trying to make some fun traditions with my kids this year.  If you have any good traditions, pass them my way so we can be as cool as your family is. So far, this is what we have done:

• Cut down our own tree right after Thanksgiving

• Blast Christmas music as we decorate the whole house

• Caleb hung up lights outside this year for the first time. New tradition! 

• We did adopt a family which was a ton of fun to shop for. 
• Every day when I pick up the kids from day care, we drive around and look at the Christmas lights. Hoping this weekend we can start to hit the big attractions for lights.
• See our church nativity they put on. That has been a tradition the past few years as well.
• Make a gingerbread house, or this year- a graham cracker train.

Let's keep the Christmas cheer the whole month and see what happens!