Another Swimming Class Completed

Once again, Amaya has successfully completed another Community Education Water Readiness Class. Her class consisted of 3-5 year olds, and she was by far one of the youngest. She did an amazing job and is getting more and more confident in the water.

She's picking up a lot more skills and I think it helped being in the water with bigger kids to serve as role models.

Amaya is pretty excited about getting another ribbon!

A close up of her ribbon.

Date Night

After church last night, Steve and I dropped Amaya off at her Grandma and Grandpa Horning's house so that Steve and I could spend some quiet time together. Trying to carve out time for just the two of us is a little challenging especially on a tight budget, but has become a high priority for us this year.

We headed over to Starbucks since we had a couple of gift cards. In hindsight, I should have ordered a little differently since my highly caffeinated grande coffee kept me up until the wee morning hours. Then, we headed out to the mall to walk and window-shop. I refrained from going into any kids clothing stores despite the great sale at Gymborree! We finished up the night at Barnes and Noble browsing through the books and magazines. It was a quiet, relaxing, and FREE night and we both had fun reconnecting after a busy week. We're hoping to make this a weekly event and even better, Amaya gets to have the time of her life with her grandparents!

North Park Gospel Choir Concert

Last night, we had the opportunity to attend the North Park University Gospel Choir and Jazz Ensemble at my parent's church. I was in the Gospel Choir while I attended school at NPU, so I was very excited to see how it had changed and grown. I was a little disappointed that my old choir director wasn't there, but I shouldn't have been surprised since it's been nearly 11 years!

Amaya enjoyed the Jazz Ensemble and "rocked out" quite a bit! Most likely, she's got the music gene in her blood! We were impressed by the enthusiasm of all of those involved and the skill level of those young college students. During the concert, I felt like I was back in the soprano section those 11 years ago worshiping and praising God. Being a part of the Gospel Choir was one of my favorite things about North Park and I was so blessed by the concert last night!

Catching Up

Hmmm... over a month and a half... how does one even catch up? In all honesty, I've procrastinated and put off our blog for two reasons: 1) I haven't had time and 2) the time that I do have, I want to spend with Steve and Amaya. Unfortunately though, I still want to keep up with all of our family activities and Amaya's accomplishments so that our memories are recorded somewhere and this tends to be the easiest place. I plan on posting most of our pictures between Amaya's birthday and now, but I'll probably back-date them so that they are all in order, but in the meantime... here's the Cliff Notes version of the past month and a half...

*Steve continues to plug away at his internship and is still finding it very rewarding.
*Steve has applied for graduation from his master's program on May 21st! (I can't even begin to tell you how proud I am of Steve!)
*Steve has an interview scheduled this month for entrance into a DOCTORATE program at St. Mary's University.
*Steve's health continues to remain stable and surgery is tentatively scheduled soon after graduation.

*Amaya finished another round of swimming lessons through Community Education and we saw a huge improvement with her skills.
*Amaya started an 8 week Introduction to Dance class also through Community Education. She LOVES to dance and LOVES her ballet shoes! When asked, she can show you how to do "first position."
*Amaya continues to thrive in preschool and from her conferences with her teacher this week, she has increased her confidence level and is participating more in class!
*Amaya is registered for preschool next year, the only differences will be a new teacher and she'll go 2 days a week.
*Amaya is once again cavity free and did an AMAZING job at the dentist this week!
*Amaya can successfully crack eggs without any egg shells in the cookie dough batter.
*Amaya is my "sous chef" in the kitchen - I've lost track of how many batches of cookies we've made and frosted.
*Amaya is learning to rhyme words and is just now beginning to write letters. "A" and "H" are the first letters she's learned.

*I continue to enjoy my job in Allergy. Although, it's been a difficult transition from being the "expert" in Dermatology to the "novice" in Allergy.
*I've picked up 4 extra shifts every month since December and while I am thankful for the additional income, I'll be glad to get back to my regular "part-time" schedule soon.
*I started a "Read through the Bible in a Year" program and have managed to keep up.
*I've volunteered in Amaya's preschool class which was an absolute treat to interact with her friends and classmates.
*I've been asked by several co-workers to begin a blog focusing on "Living on Less" and while it's exciting to think about and would help so many others in this economy, I'm not sure that I have the time, the effort, or the resources to give 100% to this project.
*I still in a constant struggle to find "balance" between being a working mom and wife, but I'm enjoying every "hat" I wear.