May in a Nutshell

May flew by in a flurry of activities and changes for us! I cannot believe it's already the end of the month. We're looking forward to summer, and we have a lot of fun activities planned.

Here's some of what went on in May:

• First and foremost, Brian started a new job. A blessed, prayed for, totally unexpected in the way it came about REAL, paying JOB!! After approximately 2 years of unemployment, this is a dream come true and a HUGE change for us. I'm almost scared to believe it's true. It's still very early in the game, but it does appear {at long last} that we will be able to keep the "new" house. This is such a tremendous answer to prayer, and a testament to seeking the Lord's will and just hanging on. There's more to write about this, but it'll have to be another post!
• The boys were both sick with Strep throat and ear infections. Fun.
• We finished up school and began some intense {everyday} speech therapy with Cade. It is hard and time consuming for all of us, but it will be SO worth it in the long run.
• We played 17 baseball games in 29 days; we were at the ballpark a lot!
• We made some new friends, and we're so excited about these new people in our lives!
• Ryan has really taken off with his reading. Honestly, I was beginning to think he'd never get there. Teaching reading has been SUCH a struggle. But we're there, and getting better!
  
• We took a short trip to North Carolina - Franklin and Cherokee. My family has a 2nd home in Franklin, right on the river, and it was so nice to get away - we haven't been away even overnight in almost a year. Cade caught his first trout all by himself, from the baiting & casting to the hooking & reeling in. Although the picture isn't great he was very excited - but not as much as Daddy. Ryan was bored quickly with the fishing, especially since Cade caught the first fish, so after a while, we left Daddy and spent our day touring Cherokee on foot.
  
  We went to the Museum of the Cherokee Indian, the Oconaluftee Indian Village {we got in for free!}, and then walked around downtown & took pictures with ALL of the bears from the Bears Project. Some of them we did have to drive to, but we got them all! This is a really cool project, and the boys loved reading about & looking at each bear up close.
• We started recycling in a major way. Before we moved, we never had a place to set up containers for recycling. Now we have a mini "recycling center" in the garage; I just used some plastic bins we already had. The boys are in charge of taking out the recycling. I'm impressed with the change I can see in the amount of trash we're throwing away! We toured a local recycling center, and the boys have loved learning more about this. {They've been trying to get us started for a while.} They even convinced Mees {my mother} to start her own recycling - now if we could just convince Nana!
  
• Finally, we are so proud of and thrilled for Ryan! He made baseball All-Stars again, which is quite an accomplishment because he is one of the youngest in the league, and this is his first year playing Pee Wee. So, as if regular season weren't hectic enough we will start everyday practices and tournaments.

Whew! We had a busy month, and June is going to be busy as well. We're looking forward to summer!