The Suisse Family Robinson

2013 in Review

January- Rang in the new year with family by playing Cranium

February- Lara turned 6 and got a real recurve bow!  She also cut her hair this month :(

March- Vivi had an allergic reaction to a virus and developed hives all over her body.  Steroids made it all better.

April- Attended the Great Lakes Regional music therapy conference in Columbus, OH.  First trip of the year to Dollywood for Spring Break!

May- Started and completed a 3 week cleanse and felt great!  2nd trip to Dollywood.

June- Celebrated 8 years of marriage together!  Trip to Wicked with all the sisters and 3rd vacation to Dollywood.  Happy 2nd birthday to Mariella!

July- Officially stepped down from a full-time music therapy position at Helping Hands to spend more time at home.  Attended the CONS Young Women's camp for the second year as music leader.  Pregnant.

August- No longer pregnant with a miscarriage at 16 weeks with complications that resulted in a 3 day stay in the hospital, ending with a DNC.  4th trip to Dollywood!  Reed turns 31.

September- New job for Reed with the Columbus Facilities Management Group for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  The big 3-0 birthday for me!

October- Celebrated our 100 month anniversary.  Attended the Association of Ohio Music Therapist's state conference at Ohio University, my alma mater.

November- Road trip to Washington D.C. for Auntie Ruth's wedding.  Another miscarriage at 6 weeks that ended in another ER visit and another DNC.

December- Vivi turns 5 and we celebrated Christmas with family.  5th and final 2013 trip to Dollywood will happen on New Year's Eve.

We wish all a Happy start to 2014!

Reed told me the other day that he thought I was doing a great job as a Mom and that he knew it must be hard to be a mind reader all day.  I thought about it for a minute and then said that I didn't think I was so much a mind reader as a body reader.  You know what I mean- the way you have to look for signs to see what your kids are actually trying to tell you?  And, if you have multiple kids, each one is different?   Case in point-

Sleepiness: 
Lara sucks her thumb A LOT when she is tired and gets really whiny.
Vivi just gets crazy.  It is almost like she purposefully picks exactly the opposite of what you want her to do and makes really bad choices.  Like a few days ago when she whipped Mariella in the head with a pair of pants and thought it was funny.  She was exhausted.
Mariella find her pacifier and caresses her stomach with her Snow White Doll.

Hunger:
Lara and Vivi get super whiny but Mariella just goes into the kitchen and finds whatever she wants to eat.  I'm not sure which one is better.

Need for Attention:
Lara is getting to the age where she can actually tell me that she wants to spend time with me.  That's always nice when kids can articulate their needs.  :)
Vivi starts hugging me a lot and telling me that she loves me.
Mariella starts doing things like pulling hair, or destroying a book shelf.

That's just to name a few.  I do like it when they can actually tell me what's going on.  But if that's not the case, I can at least rely on these few signs to help me out!
  

Today was Reed's last day working with Erik at Mars Irrigation and Landscape.  It would have been 10 years in April, can you believe that?!  In that type of industry, that amount of dedication and loyalty is basically unheard of.  Erik has been a wonderful boss and friend and has taken care of us for so long.  Although Reed and I are looking forward to this new opportunity, it was still sad to leave.  It is so wonderful that Erik is also a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, like us.  He was able to receive his own confirmation that this was a good move for Reed.  Just another perk of having such a great boss!  Erik told Reed that he could pick wherever he wanted to work, a non-profit of some sort to do some work pro bono.  Of course, Reed picked Helping Hands and they did an amazing job beautifying the grounds!

Reed will start his new job as a mechanic for the facilities management group for our church on Monday.  We are so grateful for this new direction for Reed.  It is an amazing blessing in our lives and one that came from a loving Heavenly Father.  Sometimes, I want Heavenly Father to just make it easy on me.  I always said that I would stay home when Reed had a job that lasted the winter and had benefits.  When he was invited to apply for this new job, it was back in April.  After a few months of not hearing anything (the job hadn't even posted) I started praying for some direction.  My contract is from September to September and I wanted to give my job plenty of time to find another music therapist if I was going to be resigning.  Heavenly Father told me without a doubt that I just needed to jump in, without knowing what was on the other end.  That is scary.

So I did it.  In July, not knowing what was going on with Reed's job, I said that I would like to move to an hourly position and give up the benefits.  Our insurance ended the end of August.  With my miscarriage at the beginning of the month and all of this uncertainty, I felt like a pretty emotional wreck.  A week later the call came that Reed had the job!  Such a relief and I immediately thanked my Heavenly Father for watching out for me and my family.  He always knows what is best for us and it's just up to us to choose whether or not we are willing to trust him.  I am happy I did.

I am grateful...

That we still had health insurance during my hospitalization.  I saw the EOB recently for all the medical stuff and it was over 23,000 buckaroos.  We aren't paying that of course, I was just flabbergasted at the cost.  That's way more than a real live birth!  So I am glad my miscarriage happened in August and also at a good time in the year to meet our out-of-pocket expenses so that everything else is 100% covered for the rest of the year.  (Maybe Reed can have his knee surgery this year).  Yay for HSA's and high-deductible plans.

There is something huge to be grateful for and it's killing me that I can't announce it.  Big news to come...  soon....  It's killing me.