Happy 6th of July!

I forgot about updating my blog before the 4th of July so today we'll celebrate the 6th of July. How about that?

Jake has a super short work week this week, only going in to work on Monday and Friday. (Jaxon and I love extra Daddy time!) On Saturday we went over to our friend's house and ate dinner and watched the big fireworks display that the nearby casino puts on every year. It was a pretty long fireworks show, so I could only imagine how much money a big production like that costs. On Wednesday the 4th we invited some friends over for some of Jake's smoked ribs and to watch the fireworks that the city of Temecula puts on. Well, we forgot about watching the fireworks because we were all inside playing a game together. I'm still not even sure if we could have seen them from our house or not. While our friends were leaving for the night, I opened up the front door and a bird flew into our house!! It was pretty hysterical watching the boys sprint up the stairs and try to catch this bird to get it back outside. After a couple minutes the bird was finally caught and put out back, but it did provide some last minute laughs.

Yesterday Jake and I went to test drive a couple cars. We first went to go see a Toyota Camry Hybrid and really liked it. The dealer there wasn't giving us as much money as we were wanting for our SUV as a trade so we went to the nearby Hyundai dealership and drove around a new Elantra. That car was really nice but not quite as big of an interior than the Camry. They basically wanted to give us the same amount for our trade-in as the first place so we walked away from that too. Our SUV is currently posted on Craigslist but we haven't had any serious inquiries about it yet. We'll take it into Carmax maybe this weekend or next and see what they're willing to give us for it. The first dealer we went to go see said it was hard to put a price on the car because there just aren't any out there for sale. If he had some to look at and compare he would have been willing to give us what we were asking for it. Even though that does stink, it is true. Not even a single Carmax in the nation has a 2008 XL7 which is weird. Oh well, when the right time comes we'll get a different car.

Monday the 9th is when I start my school back up! I'll be taking an online class from July 9- early August then I'll have another online class that starts a couple days after this one ends. It will also be a month long. October 10th is when I turn in my nursing application to school. From there I'll take the TEAS test, which is similar to the ACT or SAT but it is only for prospective nursing students. After the test we have an essay we have to write. They only accept 50 students during each application period (there are 4 application periods per year). They rank the applicants based on their grades, GPA, TEAS test score and the essay. My admissions adviser told me that the TEAS test is usually the hardest part and you pretty much have to score an 85% or higher to even be considered. I need to order my study materials for the test so I can prepare for it while I'm taking my online classes. If I get accepted into the nursing program from the October application period then I will start the nursing program in April 2013. The whole program will take 22 months to complete so I will be finished in February 2015. That seems so far away and right now I already am sad just thinking about putting Jaxon in daycare while I'm at school. But this is what is best for Jaxon, Jake and I and nursing is what I've wanted to do for so long now (thanks Grandma!)!

I've done enough rambling for today so I'll end this post here. Thanks for reading! We love and miss you all back home.

Love,
Jake, Alycia and Jaxon