Our Family

So a very wise person told me I needed to blog my way through my blogging funk. So here I am trying to blog my way through it. I thought I'd tell you a little bit about what is going on with each member of our family today.
We'll start with Steve. Here is his award if you were wondering what it was like. It came with candy, but that part of the award is long gone now. It was well deserved!
He's doing great. I am so proud of him! The company he is working at seems pleased with him. I'm glad they appreciate him. He got a bonus on Friday! And yesterday his boss told him how happy they were with him. He's a hard worker, very smart, and overall an extremely nice person. We are hopeful they will hire him on once his contract is up in Feb. He's also been a great friend to me and great father. He's very sweet and tender and loves spending time with me. He treats me way better than I deserve. But I couldn't be more grateful to be married to him.

The photos of my kids I've put up on this post were all photos they took of themselves or each other. So they are not the most flattering. However, they are classic Bishop kid activities and emotions.

Becca. She is addicted to playing on the computer. She loves playing Poptropica! She would spend 12 hours on the computer without food, drink or bathroom breaks if I let her. She is enjoying school and has a booming social life with friends that come over on a daily basis to play with her. She talks a little too much when she and I are together. It's question after question until I want to scream.

Eden is a complete joy these days. She still misses Boise and on occasion will get sad about it. But here she is loved by all who know her as well. She has been the sweetest, most obedient, and thoughtful child. She loves to make people feel appreciated. We all went out to eat at Sweet Tomatoes this week. At the restaurant she insisted on telling every employee there she could, "Thank you." She would offer them her food too. The employees there enjoyed what a sweetheart she is and we left there with a bag of cookies that they sell - - for free, as well as pencil bags, pencils, stickers, and erasers for all of our children. Her teacher at school adores her too. All the kids in her class seem to like her. She is enjoying Anna's children's choir that she attends weekly. She is just an absolute sweetheart!

Jonah is doing better than he has done since he was a baby or toddler. He is finally on the right combination of medications and he feels a lot better. He still has his moments of feeling somewhat out of control, but it is a stark contrast from what we were experiencing just a few months ago. A few months ago it was quite common to spend 1-3 hours a day with him going absolutely psycho. Screaming, crying, flailing, and just without reason or rationality. And the hours when he wasn't going nuts, wasn't that pretty either. So we are grateful he is doing better. Academically he is doing well too. He still isn't the easiest child, but he is a whole lot easier! He has more friends here than he had before. There are a lot of boys around his age and they like him too. He's told me he's happier here than he was before we moved. This has been a good change for him. He loves scouts and is finally wrapping up his Wolf badge and working his way through those arrow points.

Celeste. Where to begin with this girl... Currently she is by far our most difficult child. Eden is so loved and is so sweet that it makes Celeste insane with jealously. She hates all the positive attention Eden gets. So Celeste seems to try to get her own attention but in a bad way. She is the moodiest 9 year old I have ever met in my entire life! She is like a defiant teenage girl who is PMS'ing a great deal of the time.

This image of her is typical Celeste these days. I found a bunch of photos on the camera that she took of herself or had someone take of her and half of them she was wearing this expression on her face of the victim of some abuse of some sort. (And to be honest, there have been times I've felt like making that a reality.) When we try to talk to her about what's going on with her, she relates these tales of woe and misery. Everything about her life, in her view, is miserable. I just don't know what to do with her. But I am thinking about it a lot and am beginning to come up with some ideas.
On the other hand she is well behaved at school, church and in public. She is a very smart girl. I'm continually impressed with her academic ability. She is taking piano lessons from Anna and I think doing ok with it. She refuses to practice at home but enjoys taking the lessons. Because she refuses to practice, I am sure she will not be a great pianist anytime soon, but I do believe she is learning something and I will let her continue the lessons for a while.

Finally there is me. I got this picture of myself off of my Aunt's blog. I don't think I had ever seen it before.

I'm doing good. I am not excited about Winter. I dread it every year. My running is going well, but I always have a tougher time in the Winter with exercise. I came back from my trip to Arizona having gained 5 lbs and I've put on a couple more since then. Big time bummer. My body naturally wants to be much heavier than it is and I have to battle that every day because I really don't like having the extra pounds!

I stay really busy. I've written about what my days are like before, so I wont go through that again with you. But I stay at a good level of busy. Not too much or too little.

I think I'll wrap this up now.

Love and miss you!

(If you are wondering if that comment was directed to you, it was.)