The Annual Christmas Update December 17, 2012

We always seem to have so much to say when we do these posts, so I’ll go ahead and get started on the incredibly long update 🙂

Work:

We are working back at Happy Hill Farm, which has been renamed to North Central Texas Academy at Happy Hill Farm, but it’s NCTA for short. We came out to visit my mom for the 4th of July holiday, (Sidenote: Mom moved back out to Glen Rose and her job at the nursing home when we moved into our CARES apartment back in February. It was a good move for all parties involved and we’re all happier in our current places) and while we were out here, we stopped by to see our friends here at the farm. There were lots of changes going on and we were excited about some of them and intrigued about others. Elizabeth had a great time seeing the kids and our friends and I was feeling very guilty about how Owen wasn’t going to have the same great experience that his sister did. Since my mom was no longer living with us, it was a possibility for us to consider coming back to the school and working with the kids again. On our drive home we were discussing it and decided that since we had our two year agreement with Apartment Life to fulfill, we would revisit the idea of becoming house parents again once our two year end date was closer.

Well, we got back home and just a few short days later, we got a call from our Apartment Life supervisor stating that the new management company at our apartment complex had called and said that the CARES program was against their company policy, since their employees are supposed to be in charge of planning all events and resident retention. They were giving us 60 days to find either a new apartment or a new CARES team placement. We immediately thought that it was sign that we should reapply with Happy Hill. I was a complete and nervous wreck. I really loved my job at ACI; those kids are so precious to me, my coworkers had become my friends, and I just absolutely love the challenge of that work. However, it was taking a toll on me to be away from my sweet family for 10 hours a day. I left before they got up most days and came back just in time to eat dinner with Elizabeth and put her to bed. The commute was just way too much and Aaron basically got no time with me since I was so tired and he just wanted to unwind by playing some Minecraft at the end of the day.

We prayed about it constantly for about 2 weeks. I called my closest friends and my wonderful mentor, Christy. She of course gave me great advice and we submitted a written request to the farm to return to our work as house parents. We were on edge for a few days while we waited on an answer. We finally got it, and they said that there was a position for us. I immediately had a rush of relief and felt like a burden was lifted off me. This was the choice we were supposed to make and this is where we needed to be. Telling my coworkers and the families of my kiddos was tough, but they were all so very sweet and understanding.

We packed up again and with the help of our awesome friends, we moved for the 3rd time in 10 months. This time we moved into the Junior High boys’ house. We have 5 boys; one is in 7th grade and the rest are in 8th, one of whom is from China. There are a lot of things that are different being in a boys house, but most of them are good. One thing we do miss is the elementary 9:00 bedtime 🙂 Our guys are very different from one another and interact with us and the kids in unique ways. They have all grown very fond of Elizabeth and Owen, and the feeling is mutual. Elizabeth absolutely adores the 7th grader. He is always very sweet to both Elizabeth and Owen. They have their moments, but overall they’re good kids and we enjoy them. Aaron is especially liking the fact that he can be more involved and that they like video games so much. We are in the midst of hosting a big Madden football league season with them. The two single guys that work in here on our days off are also playing and they’re all really enjoying it. It’s really sweet to see Aaron practicing and trying to create a strategy when he knows he’s playing one of the boys who are really good. The boys are about to start their semester finals tomorrow. I was helping two of them study for their English exam tonight. It’s good that we can tag team pretty much any of the stuff the guys need whereas with the girls, there was a lot that Aaron couldn’t help them with. We are having our Christmas party with them this Thursday before they go home for the break and I’m looking forward to it.

Kids:

Elizabeth has grown so very much. She’s so smart and can carry on the sweetest conversation. She likes to count and can go all the way to 16. 17-20 get a bit muddled, but she tries. She knows her ABCs, but only in song. We’re working on being able to recognize the letters. She definitely has E for Elizabeth and O for Owen down though. She went through a little spell there right as she was turning two, where she was throwing monstrous tantrums, but thankfully it passed after just a few weeks. She got a big girl bed for her birthday from Aaron’s parents and does an awesome job sleeping in it. She gave her pacis to the paci fairy once she turned two and got a leapfrog tag reader as her surprise big girl gift. She also started preschool two days a week back in August. She goes to a local church’s preschool program 8:30-12:45. Their program is actually 9:30-2:30, but she just couldn’t/wouldn’t nap there so we decided to do the early-bird drop off and just pick her up after their lunchtime before they lay down for their naps. She has been doing much better about naptime at home though and so after the new year, we’re going to try and do regular full days again. Elizabeth is a ballerina and will show you her sweet ballet dance moves if you ask nicely. She loves to sing and dance and her favorite song at the moment is Zaccheus Was a Wee Little Man… It’s so fun to have her sing along with me. She is a good big sister, even if she can be a little rough with Owen. He’s pretty sturdy for a little guy and can dish it out too (most often in the form of pulling sister’s hair).

Owen is fun. He is a ball of energy, always on the go. He is trying hard to start walking already and once he figures that out we are in some serious trouble. I can see him being a climber too, so I’m just preparing myself for lots of worrying/bruise-kissing in the near future. He is in a very mama’s-boy clingy phase, but it’s mostly due to teething pain. He has his bottom two front teeth and one of his top front teeth broke through the gum just today. He is quite tall and skinny, so his onesies are either too big everywhere or a bit snug in length. He loves his big sister and screeches happily anytime she’s near. He also likes to watch The Fresh Beat Band with her. It’s pretty cute to watch them both enthralled by the computer (they watch it on Netflix).

Us:

Aaron and I are really enjoying being back here on the farm. We have weekly Men’s/Women’s Bible study which we’re enjoying having with our coworkers. We are also enjoying having more time to spend together as a couple as well as family time. We’re trying to find something to do together that we both really enjoy that isn’t work/parenting related, but it’s a little tough with two little ones. Mostly we just hang out after all the kids are asleep, sometimes watch a movie on Netflix, and try to enjoy our days off.

Tori:

I am loving that there are so many other moms here with little ones. There were quite a few here before too, but we never got together. Now, a teacher’s wife has started a playgroup on Wednesdays. The kids and I go and they play while we have grownup conversation and lunch all together. It’s really wonderful, and some of us even get together regularly to work out three days a week. I only go twice since Elizabeth goes to preschool on Tuesdays. I take that as my chill out day and Thursday I go to women’s Bible study.

Aaron:

I am enjoying still being a stay-at-home dad but with the added bonus of having my wife around too 🙂 Getting to stay home with the kids when Tori was at work was great, but I could see it was hard on her to be away from us all day, and when she got home we pretty much were both exhausted. Now we are working at finding something we can enjoy together. We’re trying to cook more, seeing as working at NCTA means we eat in the dining center for most meals and we just don’t cook as much anymore. We’re hoping this can be an activity we can share, but usually one of us just ends up taking care of the kids. I’m very happy to be in the middle school boys house. There is just so much more they can do and that I can do with them. They have their challenges, but for the most part I can’t complain 🙂 I’m looking forward to the upcoming break though, and having time that we don’t have any real work responsibilities so we can just relax with our family.

Well, that’s the end of our blog catch-up. Merry Christmas to everyone!

Aaron, Tori, Elizabeth, and Owen

The Evans Four March 25, 2012

Hello Friends and Family!

It has been far too long since we posted (as usual) so there is much to tell.

First off, we’ve moved and begun our journey as a CARES Team for Apartment Life! We moved in at the beginning of February with the help of some very awesome friends we were able to get all of our things packed and moved in a single weekend. We found out that we got the CARES position at 5 on Friday and were completely moved and had the duplex empty and clean by 5 on Sunday! A BIG part of it was thanks to the Lehews loaning us their pickup truck and the tireless efforts and rallying cry of our dear friend, Ryan Crowe.

We moved to Copper Crossing, an apartment community on the border between Benbrook and Fort Worth. It’s very conveniently located and we love the staff. They had a CARES team here previously, but it had been about 10 months or so since the other team had left, which means we’re sort of having to start over again. We’ve had small turnouts for our events so far, but got some ideas from our mentor team and will be adapting our approach in April based on their advice/feedback.

It is so nice to be living in our own place again. We’ve been procrastinating on some things, but for the most part Aaron had everything unpacked and put away within the first couple of days.We still need to buy and hang some curtains for the kids’ room, hang our pictures, organize a few things, and decorate. This is supposed to be my area, but I’ve been too tired/lazy at the end of the day to want to do it.

Elizabeth has her own room (for now) and is loving it. When we moved in we just went ahead and converted her crib to a toddler bed and she’s done an awesome job staying in it at night. Now if we could just make the actual process of going to sleep less of a drawn-out battle we’d be set. She’s officially one and a half, which is so hard to believe. She has 12 teeth (and 4 more breaking through at the moment). She talks constantly, loves to yell out whatever it is that she’s doing at the moment (“I’m running! I’m walking! I’m sitting! I sit next to you!”), and has started to sing just a little bit. We’ve been very slowly and inconsistently working on potty training since Christmas, but she’s really gotten on the bandwagon here recently. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that we have a washer and dryer in our apartment now (thanks to Aaron’s parents!) and so we’ve started cloth diapering again. She is going to be the world’s best big sister. She adores her baby brother already and talks to and about him quite a lot. She loves to lift my shirt and give him hugs and kisses.

That brings me to the biggest thing we’ve got going on in our life at the moment: baby watch 2012! We’re expecting our son, Owen Cody Evans, anytime now. We had an ultrasound 3 weeks ago and found out that we’re having a boy. By the doctor’s guess he was about 6 pounds the day of the ultrasound. Elizabeth was only 6 lbs 4 oz when she was born, so it looks like he’s going to be significantly bigger than his sister.

We’ve had our bag packed for the birth center and the carseat installed for a little over a week now. The bassinet is set up in our room, his clothes are ready for him, and now all that’s missing is little baby Owen. His due date is April 5th, but I highly doubt we’re going to have to wait that long.

Stay tuned for the latest news from baby watch 2012!

Here’s a link to our family pictures we had taken last week while we were still just the three musketeers.
Family Photos March 2012

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! December 31, 2011

Hello friends and family! We hope the year’s end finds you well! It has been a year full of changes and growth for us, and we’d like to share with you how our lives have changed.

We’ve moved away from Happy Hill Farm Academy, where we were resident parents for the girls’ elementary house. We enjoyed our time there, and we’ll miss the friends we made, but we’ve moved on to some exciting prospects.

Elizabeth has grown so much this year, and is now running and talking about everything she sees. Her vocabulary is getting larger by the hour (just this hour she learned “Earth” “Asia” and “Ocean” while we were on a walk looking at a sculpture of the earth, and correctly pointed out “berries” on a nearby bush).  While sometimes unsteady on her feet, she is always going full speed ahead. She has bruised knees and forehead, but rarely cries; she is quick to get up and try again. She can even read a few of her books to you if you ask. She has a way to go on learning not to scream inside or throw food when she is finished, but she has mastered saying “Thank you” and is doing well on learning “Please” and “You’re welcome”. Her most recent adventure is apparently potty training. She has been showing some interest in the potty as of late, and so we went ahead and purchased a potty chair with some Christmas money. Last night she sat on it twice and peed both times! Hard to believe, but this girl is just way ahead of the curve when it comes to just about everything.

Tori is now 26 weeks along into pregnancy number 2. Mom and baby are both very healthy and growing bigger by the moment. Elizabeth absolutely adores the baby (for now) and since she won’t really be able to remember life without a sibling we’re hoping it stays that way come April. We still don’t know if we’re having a boy or girl, but will likely have an ultrasound in January. We’ll keep you posted.

Tori began working at Autism Concepts Inc. as an ABA therapist in October. She is loving being back doing what she trained to do in college and while she is tired at the end of the day, she is excited about the work she did and how the children she is working with are progressing.

Aaron is staying at home with Elizabeth, and loving the opportunity to work on learning words, sounds, numbers, and all sorts of things with her. They go on walks and enjoy looking at (and touching) the sculptures around TCU and listening to people playing in the music school.

Currently we are living just down the street from TCU, and the walk to church is less than 30 seconds. It’s much nicer than the hour long drive we used to have to make! We’re waiting on word from Apartment Life, where we will be moving in to an apartment complex within 10 miles from where we are now, helping them with resident retention, and ministering to the staff and residents.

We are doing well and hope you all are too. Tori finally got around to uploading all of our pictures through Christmas, so enjoy!

May 2011

June 2011- We were terrible and have no pictures from the month of June…oops

July 2011

August 2011

September 2011

Elizabeth’s First Birthday!

October 2011

November 2011

December 2011

Mother’s Day Video May 8, 2011

Here’s the video that we put together for our moms and grandmas. It’s pretty fun 🙂

Happy Mother’s Day to all you mamas out there 🙂

-Tori

Lots ‘o Pictures! April 24, 2011

I just figured out how I can share all of my picture albums from Facebook with those that don’t have an account.

Here are special links to each of the albums of Elizabeth pictures except for March because somehow I failed to upload any pictures last month. Don’t worry though, because I took pictures and will upload them eventually.

WARNING: There are a lot of pictures here. I really need to learn to pick and choose better, but I can’t help it.

Incubating

First Two Days

Some more from the first week or so

September 2010

October 2010

Hair Bows and Cute Faces

November 2010

December 2010

January 2011

February 2011

March 2011

April 2011

From now on I’ll just post each album at the end of the month. I sure am glad I figured this out so I don’t have to try and double post everything. Enjoy! Please let me know if the links aren’t working for you.

-Tori

Happy Easter

Hello Everyone!

As usual, we are long overdue for an update. I’ll give you a rundown of things.

Work:

Things are good. We have 4 girls ranging from K-5th grade. We are still enjoying what we do here on “the Hill”. We’ve been here for 8 months now. Two of the girls have been here since we started and the other two came in February. At the beginning of February we had 6 girls, but then two of them left, and we were back to four by the end of February. I feel that we’re really beginning to form a good bond with the girls. I am especially close to the youngest, but I suppose that is to be expected. Looking back we can see how each of the girls has made gains over the course of the school year. Even the two that just came in February are not the same as when they first got here. There are still daily challenges with each of them. They’re all at different places and even though they take a step back every now and then, the overall trend is one of progress. They all went home for the weekend, as we all had Good Friday off. I need to make it a point to let each of them know that we see their progress and are proud of them. An illustration: the K-2 students had a big Easter egg hunt on Thursday at school. They brought home a couple of cascarones (confetti eggs). The kindergartener gave me one and I broke it over her head. She of course had confetti all stuck in her hair and it was all over the floor. We laughed about it and then, without me saying a word, she turns around, goes and gets a broom from the cupboard, and starts sweeping it up. One of the moms was here picking up her girls and her jaw about hit the floor, she was so impressed.  I helped her to finish cleaning it up and gave her lots of praise for that. I also made sure to let Aaron know about it in front of her so that he could tell her how impressed he was too. We have just five weeks left of school, which is hard to believe. We get 3 1/2 weeks off at the beginning of summer break and then 2 more in July. They’re going to be having a summer enrichment program that will have 3 sessions. I will be teaching a session in the third session about college prep finance. I’ll teach the basics of personal finance the first week and then the second week I’ll be teaching about financial aid and explaining the process of finding and applying for scholarships/grants/loans and a few other college-related money issues. I’m excited about it.

Money update:

Things have slowed a bit on the debt payoff front. We’re still chipping away, just at a slower pace than we first thought. It sure was nice not to have the car payment this month though! We put some of that toward the medical bills and the rest in savings. I still feel good about where we are and where we’re headed. Every now and then opportunities arise for us to make a little extra money. Aaron has taken male students to their Dr/eye/dentist appointments a few times and I’ve subbed for the school nurse a few hours on a couple of occasions. The summer course that I teach will also be extra income. It isn’t a whole lot of extra money, but it goes toward our debts and every little bit helps. I have also been working hard at the budget. I still have yet to get it just right, but I think my plan for May is good. We’re going back to the envelope system. It really is just way too easy to swipe the debit card and blow the budget for one area. I’ve also been clipping coupons and using a few great websites to help save money and score great deals on groceries and household items. My favorites are Money Saving Mom and Mint. On MSM, she does coupon matchups for great deals on groceries, has lots of ideas for frugal living, and it’s free! I’ve seen a couple of sites that charge to do the coupon matchup and even checked them out, but they didn’t have the stores that I needed/were too expensive to justify. Mint is a money management site (also free). I like it because I can see my cash flow. I have been able to track all of my expenses, see my debt to income ratio, and set goals. Although, now that we’re going back to the cash envelope system this won’t be as useful for us. It helped me a lot to see where our money was going in order to create a budget.

Family:

We’re doing good. My mom has moved in with us. Times are hard but I’m glad that we’re able to be here to help out. She is getting to enjoy time with her granddaughter and Elizabeth is getting lots of quality grandma time, which is really great for both of them. It’s also nice because we have someone who can watch her when we both have our hands full with work or want to step out for a little bit. We’re praying that she gets into the CNA training program that she applied to. If so, the local nursing home in Glen Rose has already told her she has a job when she finishes at the end of May. We should know about the course this coming week. After that it will just be a matter of figuring out the transportation since we only have one car and it’s a standard, which Mom can’t drive.

Elizabeth is 7 months old already. It’s hard to believe how quickly time is flying. She knows the sign for milk, finally has some hair up top, has two teeth on the bottom, is sort of crawling (more like a half army crawl, half belly flop and usually backward), is pulling up on us, and just this week started calling Aaron “da da” and I’m “ma ma”. She’s been babbling “da da” for quite some time, but only saying “ma” when she was mad. This week I guess it clicked that they actually mean us. I think it’s going to be a while before she can get a “grandma” out though 🙂

Things are good here at Casa de Evans. We are blessed. Hope you have/had a wonderful Easter. I will definitely be taking some pictures of Elizabeth in her Easter dress after service.

-Tori

Check out the following post for lots of pictures

Pictures! December 16, 2010

Here are a few more pictures of our time with Elizabeth so far. These are from September through mid November. Enjoy!

Long Overdue Update December 15, 2009

Greetings from Pennsylvania!

These past few months here at Camphill Soltane have been great. After living in one house for the first 3 months, we have moved to another house giving us a new perspective on life in this community. Our first house was on the residential side, as opposed to our current home on the college side. Here we live with 2 students, 1 resident (all three of whom have a developmental disability) , 1 other couple, their son who is a sailor but had to come home due to pneumonia, and an older woman who has lived in Camphill communities for many years. The atmosphere here makes us feel much more like we are living in a home than a house.

Tori is working in Soltane’s textile enterprise called “in good company” (Their store website is http://ingc.etsy.com). There are four residents that work there full time (two of whom we lived with at our first house) and four student interns that work there half days Monday through Friday. They research a theme called an “inspiration” (currently they are working on King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table). Then they design fabrics and different textile products to make with the fabrics. After that, they weave their own fabric, cut, and sew it into a unique product to sell at craft fairs, online, or for special orders. All of the weaving and creation of images is the work of the residents and students with disabilities. The coworkers support them and do much of the sewing. Tori enjoys the work and is proud of the products they make. The etsy shop is still just getting started, but we hope to have our bags and t-shirts listed soon!

Aaron is working in Soltane’s community services and with Soltane’s land work group. In community services, they do everything from collecting and sorting recycling from Soltane and the surrounding community to taking on odd jobs that people don’t have time for (cleaning up property lines, chopping firewood, shoveling snow & de-icing sidewalks, etc.). The land work group takes care of several things around campus from collecting and processing compost, raking leaves, trimming trees, and taking care of various fruit patches and orchards (raspberries, blackberries, apples, peaches, black walnuts, etc.). The land group even makes products with the community’s produce such as apple cider, apple butter, fruit leather, etc.

Working at Soltane has definitely been a growth experience for both of us. It is taxing at times both physically and emotionally, but also very rewarding. Soltane allows us to use our talents, learn new skills, and provides us with a sense of great satisfaction in that we are directly contributing to the growth of the students and residents we work with. We have also made new friends here that we are sure will be lifelong connections.

We hope all is well with you! Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Love,

Aaron and Tori

P.S. I hope to upload MANY pictures and a few videos during our Christmas break which starts on the 20th.

-insert celebratory dance here- May 12, 2009

I did it, I am officially finished with my undergraduate degree. I’m seriously excited!

I just got out of my last final exam (which I totally rocked).

Aaron’s graduation ceremony was this past Saturday and mine is this coming Saturday.

Lots to report here, but I’m going to go sell back my books and head home (maybe…depending on what I hear back from my boss about work tonight).

This post is to be continued…..

The Scoop on Camphill…Finale March 7, 2009

It’s been a while since the last post. Sorry, but we’ve been pretty busy around here. We just got back from Spring Break (post on that to come later) and before that we had midterms.

Here it is, the third and final installment of our blogs on Camphill

I’ll just go ahead and do the last one because Aaron has been a bit busy/stressed out lately (more on that later t00).

So, onto the final few questions:

“What about grad school?!”
Well, we’re obviously not going right now. I hope to eventually get my Master’s degree in Speech Language Pathology. I will have to take a few prerequisite undergraduate courses (4 or 5) prior to enrolling in a graduate program so it might take a little while. As for Aaron, he hasn’t really decided what he’s going to do next. He has really enjoyed working at the high school so far this semester and maybe will someday work as a crisis counselor. That’s completely up to him. Our plans for the near future (other than Camphill) are a little bit up in the air at the moment. We’ve decided to keep our stay at Camphill open-ended. If we love it and they love us, we might stay for a second year (you can qualify for the Americorps grant twice so if we do decide to stay a second year we’ll get the same grant again).

“Why aren’t you getting a ‘real job’?”
Prior to getting married I decided that I wanted to give back in some way. I applied for and was accepted to go on a summer-long mission trip to India last summer. However, I ended up staying due to my financial situation. I had a really nice-paying job that was helping me to also pay for school, and they definitely wouldn’t hold my position for me over the summer. So I stayed and we moved the wedding up. We had discussed it and Aaron also wanted to serve others in some capacity, although he definitely had a desire to serve more locally. He’s the home-body type and holds to the idea that we should serve here in our own country.

So when we weren’t really sure what we were going to do after graduation and felt sick at the idea of starting more school up right away, we began searching for service opportunities. We found Americorps, but didn’t see anything in their listings that caught our eye. Then I found www.idealist.org which is basically an awesome search engine for service opportunities and news. We found the Camphill Soltane listing and it sounded perfect for us. We immediately loved the philosophy they have and decided to apply. It may not pay like a “real job” but it most definitely will be an amazing experience that cannot be duplicated in any other sort of setting. It’s a way for us to serve others and grow (and it doesn’t look bad on a resume by any means). There’s plenty of time for “real” jobs in the future anyway.

“Will you be able to come back for _______?”
Honestly, unless it will somehow miraculously take place in Pennsylvania or during one of our holiday breaks, probably not. It’s not that we don’t care or that we want to miss out on things like graduations, weddings, birthdays, holidays, etc but we have made a committment to work 6 days a week, every week. We do recieve time off for holidays but even then it’s not cheap to travel from Pennsylvania to Oklahoma and Texas. We’ll definitely do what we can to visit, but it will most likely be on a long break and only a short visit with each part of the family. You’re more than welcome to come visit us though! According to what I’ve read Camphill loves visitors, but be warned: if you plan on staying more than a day or two they’ll put you to work 🙂

“What are you going to do after Camphill?”
Good question! That means we’re not really sure yet. We’re going to use our time at Camphill to figure that out for ourselves. Don’t worry though, we’ll let you know once we know.

I hope that this has answered most if not all of your questions. If you have any others or just want to know more about it, give us a call or shoot us an email.