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I can not believe the triplets graduated Kindergarten on Monday!! I was so excited for them and this milestone in our lives. They had a wonderful year attending Anselmo-Merna school and I could not be happier with our decision to send them there. Not only did they learn, love school, and meet some life long friends, they excelled beyond my expectations. They are reading any level book with no difficulty, can do basic math, know shapes I didn't know if fourth grade, can name every state, ocean, and continent. I am just amazed!!! The foundation of learning is so critical for their future years and I know they have a strong one. I am so excited for them to continue learning. Their teacher was so excited to have them in class and told me often that they were a great addition and very polite, helpful, caring boys. I am so proud of them!
Now if they would only act at home for me the way they do at school for their teacher. :) This Summer is going to be a challenging one. I am working full time, anywhere between 55 and 65 hours a week so it's been stressful to keep up with everything and continue learning in my position as a chemical lab analyst.  I am thankful for the check and the insurance so I try not to complain. Justin has had a challenging year and a half also and we are really in limbo of what to do. A few years ago the ranch owner for the ranch Justin was working for came to Justin and said "listen in a couple of years we are going to sell the ranch. If you need to keep your options open or find something else I understand I just wanted to let you know some changes are planned." So Justin went out and obtained his life, health, property, casualty, and crop insurance licenses. He started selling insurance with a company that was commissioned based only and he covered the western half of NE. Being new to the insurance business and the selling side it was a tough go and we went a couple months with no income. Then in May of last year we got a commission check that got us back to zero. Well, we went June and July with no income and in August Justin got an offer to sell insurance for a salary plus commission downtown. He jumped at the chance to work from 8-5 M-F and all went well except he was never paid the salary amount quoted and his commission checks were not the full amount. So in Feb of this year he left the insurance company and started working as a Parts and Service man for a local tractor dealership. He is making the same wage we would have to pay a sitter and no daycare in town can take four kids. I told him he is either going to have to quit or get a part time job because it doesn't pay for him to work and pay taxes on his salary while paying a sitter the same amount, we would be at a loss and we can't afford to that. We are right now in the situation of selling our house or loosing it to the bank. The jobs wanted section is full of people looking for CNA's, RN's, lawn mowers, etc. but nothing that pays different than what he is doing now. This is a strong family agricultural area and all the ranches have family members that are helping out so they don't need any employees. Justin has horrible planter fascyitis (misspelled) in his feet and he gets steroid shots in them to help control the pain. The medicine he is on doesn't allow him to take even Tylenol to help with pain, he is only supposed to used the pain med prescribed. So if he can't work at hours on concrete where he is now there is no way he is going to be able to work 13 hours where I work. We would be spending more in medical bills than we would be making. We can't afford to have one income, but we can't afford to pay a sitter so our decision to make this work for the Summer is this. Justin is going to go back to the ranch his Dad has worked at for 19 years. His brother is there now and his Dad would like to retire. Justin can take the triplets with him and his brother since they are older. My sitter can still take Aubrey through the Summer so she will continue to go to her.We will trade the triplets off one or two weeks at a time through the Summer and have to full time incomes while trying to get caught up and decide if his job down there can turn into something full time and supportive. I am not willing to uproot and move if the job is going to pay the same amount as a job here and I have no job. The ranch is thirty miles from the closest town and the town is smaller than Broken Bow. Which is fine, but that means it's an hour and half to the nearest Wal-Mart or shopping area and that's a lot of gas on one income. This will allow us to get through the Summer and decide what we really need to do.
I can not fathom leaving Broken Bow. I love this town, our church, the kids' school, the weather. But I also understand we are not the first family to go through this. We just have to do what works best for us and our situation and this seems to be it. Besides if I was a six year old boy, how fun would it be to spend the Summer with your Dad and Uncle at the ranch?! We will make some memories and make it through.  Our families have been amazing and one of my sisters is going to take them for a week, my Mom is coming for a couple, and Justin's Mom is always at the ready. She takes them every weekend I have to work so I can sleep. The days that we don't have someone I take Aubrey to her sitters and the boys play while I sleep. Justin is home from 12:30 - 1:30 to give them lunch and help and if they ever need something they come in and get me. Makes for a long day, but we are going to survive this....I just may need a margartia along the way if anyone wants to come and join me. Beware though I may either just burst out crying or fall asleep!! :)