Change is Necessary... Yet Hard

The first change that is needed is for more money:

For a time Rodger and I discussed the needs our family. As mentioned in the previous blog (whoever came up with that word anyways? oh well... I guess I will use it), we are looking for another job for Rodger because at this time his job doesn't pay enough. We hope the school will up his salary enough for him to stay there longer, but we aren't feeling confident that will happen. Anyways... we are looking and it is no fun to think of the money involved in moving to areas with a higher cost of living. We hope to stay here. This change is necessary and yet stressful with the unknowns.

The next change that was needed was a car:

The black (or faded gray) Geo Prism is just getting older by the day. I bought it back in 2000 before I even knew of Rodger's existence. It is a good car and treated me well... it just was getting old and not meeting our needs. We used to go camping more and we would use Lori's Toyota 4Runner. Now that she has two kids we can't switch cars with her anymore as our car is just too small. Part of the problem is Lori and I have carseats for our kids that are great carseats, but they are a little wider then most carseats... therefore in a small Geo it just doesn't work well to have two carseats in it. Rodger and I have wanted to go camping badly, so we felt we needed to make a change.

The other reasons we needed a new car is that I am taking care of Lori and Friday's two children (Ami and Enoch) on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Because of the amount of kids and also the size of the Geo it was impossible for me to go anywhere if I needed too. Ok... now since we have the new car (Dodge Grand Caravan) I have realize that yes... I can go places now... but wow what a nightmare it is sometimes to take twins (Tyler and Ami, only 3 months apart) and a newborn (Enoch is 4 months old now). I have almost rung their little necks a few times. But it has been good too as we have gone to the library and park together and been able to get out of the house.

The third reason we needed another car is because we are expecting our THIRD child! We are so excited! We have delayed in letting people know as I have had a couple of miscarriages and wanted to make sure I made it past my danger time. They heard a heartbeat, though we had a scare and my doctor couldn't find the heartbeat so we had an ultrasound done. Things are looking just fine. I am due November 11th. Do you know what that means? Yup.... this baby will be the 30th grandchild on both sides!!!!!!! I love numbers and am so happy this worked out. Tyler was the 21st grandchild on each side and I thought it would be cool to have this one have the same on both sides. My sister-in-law, Melissa, is due this month to make #29 on the MacArthur side. Then with the wonderful news that Annie and Letitia will have #28 and #29 for the Shumaker side in October... phew... that was close!

So there you have it.... lots of change.. we will see what life brings this year.

Oh, another thing... Rodger will have his 5th ear surgery this Monday. I will update the blog next week with cool photographs of Rodger with a wrapped up head. They will put the prosthetic bones back in his ear after having it out for a year now. We hope this is the last surgery... PLEASE!

At a later time I will add a blog about our memories with our Geo Prism. It was hard to let it go (though I am loving the space in the minivan). That was the only car we had Parker in.... we went through a lot with Parker in that car......... my heart aches to not visually have those memories. I miss my son!