Clay and me |
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Ethan and Maddy |
so sweet |
Our family |
So amazing |
My baby and me |
Maddy and Grandma |
Maddy and her monkey |
Getting ready to Trick or Treat! |
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Loading her new gun...Ethan's in trouble now! |
Don't let that face fool you, she's one tough ninja! |
Nah, these two look nothing alike!! Geez, same face! |
New playroom set from Nana! |
Ethan takes Santa his wish list. |
So sweet... |
listening to the Rice Krispies popping |
Daddy reading a book to Maddy while she tries to go potty |
So cute..he would not settle down for bed...had to check, and double check that we had everything ready for Santa |
"post Santa visit" |
fun in the bath |
Ethan's Preschool Program |
Look at this face! |
beautiful boy :-) |
Sweet Maddy |
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Welcome to our Website!
Clay, Jen, Ethan, and Maddy!
This website (attempts to be) an up-to-date look at the lives of the Blanchard family. It is important for family and friends who are far away to check in with us and also for us to have a journal of the changes in our growing family. Bookmark this site, leave us a message in our guestbook, and keep in touch with us!
Videos: Lots to come..takes time to get them up here!
Stories 12/27/2009 Happy 37th Birthday to Daddy!!!
Update on Clay and Jen:
Where have we been?!?! The simple answer to that is: "everywhere". When I think back to this very week last year, I was certain that 2009 would bring about change in our lives....LESS change! It turns out that it didn't happen...at all. The days and weeks just seem to fly by with how busy our schedules are....in fact, my Christmas cards are still sitting in a pile to finish being addressed so I can mail them out to all of you!!!!! Argh. When Clay started his "new job" from SIS in January after he had been laid off from TSS, we felt blessed and thought this was going to be "it" for a while. That was not the case. In May, his entire company was forced to take a 20% paycut, which was almost impossible for us given that his salary was already considerably lower than he had been earning in previous jobs. In fact, one of the reasons why we felt "OK" about him taking this job was that he was told he would receive a salary increase over the summer. No increase, and a 20% cut further. SIS was also in Dayton, so he was driving farther and spending more in gas. We both picked up 2nd part time jobs to make it work for a while. The situation had not changed and our prayers were answered once again in November when he interviewed at Cast Fab in Cincinnati and was offered the position. We both were so excited and I actually got to talk to Clay's future boss on the phone before he even accepted the position. This was a first..and I know rare for a prospective employer to speak with a spouse. I felt both comfortable and proud of Clay when his boss told me that they had interviewed several candidates and it was unanimous that everyone wanted to have Clay. He was so warm and welcoming and encouraging. I knew this even more when I got to meet the entire Sr. managment team and their spouses at the Christmas party last weekend. I/we optimistically, yet cautiously believe this will be Clay's "home" for a long time to come. Its a good, strong company with 200+ employees, some of which have been there for 40+ years. This speaks volumes about the kind of company it is all around. We are excited and blessed...it seems to be going well.
I also had another job change in 2009. I had been with CBS/Staffmark for going on 2 years and the economy was taking a drastic toll week by week. The office I managed was sinking in revenue like most of the others, but since my office was the smallest, I feared that a layoff was imminent, so I was proactive and started applying for jobs. Literally, the 2nd resume I sent off was for Supplemental Healthcare, where I work now! I am still in staffing, but I now recruit, hire, staff, and manage healthcare professionals for hospitals, nursing homes, schools, and clinics. The transition has been extremely hard. We have a base salary, but a huge opportunity for commission as well. Regardless of the financial desire, the demands and standards to be minimally successful are extremely tough. There is 1 therapist for every 10 open positions in the state of Ohio, so recruiting is hard. It has taken long hours at work, a lot of learning and training, and a lot of endurance (strength from God is all I had left at times). In early November, yes, the first week of Clay's new job, I traveled to Salt Lake City, UT to take an entrance exam for advanced training in my field. This training was provided by the company, and the horror stories I heard about the test did not do it justice. There were people who failed the test (failing is an 80% or below), were traditionally flown home immediately, and in some cases were fired. I had to find extra time somehow in my schedule to study, and it paid off. I did pass and the training far exceeded my expectations. I have had a great month or so since I've been back. I really do hope that both Clay's and my jobs are going to hang in there for a while...we'll celebrate our 5 year anniversary this February 4th, and we've literally had 4 jobs each (8 total) in 5 years. When you think that Clay had been with the first job for 7 years, this is unbelievable. It is an indication of how tough the economy has been given our fields, and it also shows how hard working we are and how faithful God is to us that He has always come through for us in every situation.
Other than that, we continue to be blessed by our church, our amazing kids, and the rare occasion we get to see some of our friends in Columbus. It's been a tough year....it's been a tough last few years....but the lessons we are learning, the strength we are gaining, and "success stories" we are piling up will be worth it and we'll look back on this time and see what God was doing through all of it. Just about the only thing that hasn't been a concern for us has been our health, and that is a big concern to not have to deal with. The cup is half full most days....and the only days when it's not are the days we're choosing to see it half empty. We are blessed. Onto our biggest blessings.....Ethan and Maddy....
Update on Ethan:
Ethan continues to be the sweetest little boy you'll ever meet....but he's now also loud, rowdy, at times obnoxious, and a typical 4 year old boy. Clay and I will often say outloud, "he is such a BOY!". The sounds he makes with his mouth to imitate car or helicopter sounds, or Transformers and Star Wars is unreal. I'm still searching for ways to not have to remind him a million times to either lower his voice or stop doing whatever irritating thing he's doing. He's completely unaware and the look on his face is priceless and so hard to yell at when he realizes he's in trouble. He is still so sweet and so thoughtful to everyone...especially to us and to Maddy. They love each other so much and play so well together. Listening to them talk and play and create fantasy adventures is too precious for words. We'll try to upload some of the things we've caught on video. We also have videos of him jabbering on and on about what he thinks about this or that. Much like you'd hear on that old TV show, "Kids say the Darndest things". He started preschool in September and is doing really well. His teachers comment to me almost every day how sweet and fun he is. One day, he found some plastic roses in the play area and went around and passed one out to each of the girls in the class...very much typical of Ethan. We need to work with him more at home on his writing and his cutting as he struggles a bit more as a left-hander. We are looking forward to the rest of the school year and then starting Kindergarten next Fall.
Update on Maddy:
Maddy has really come into herself in the last 9 months or so. She maintains her strong-willed personality, but she has really become soooo incredibly sweet and fun too. Her language and verbal skills blow us away. That combination with her above-average size makes most people think they're twins when we're out in public. I'm sure it's helped that Ethan has always been so verbal and sweet, and it's obvious that Maddy picks up on so much of that and learns so quickly. She is more than ready to start preschool in the Fall and will actually be in the same building and same schedule as Ethan will be in Kindergarten, so that will be great. She is very much into her baby dolls and feeding them and taking care of them. Other than that, she's into everything that Ethan is into, including the Nerf blaster guns :-). We decided a few months ago, that although Maddy had not yet expressed any interest in potty training that we were going to start the process while we were off most of this week for Christmas. Until Wednesday, she had yet to go potty ONCE! But, we knew she was smart enough and more than ready. We did, however, learn a very big parenting lesson in the process...which is that just because our learned potty training method worked for Ethan, it did not mean it was going to work for Maddy. In fact, we knew somehow that her personality would come right in and make sure we were going to have to figure out another way. When we started potty training Ethan last year, we were told that it's best to just let him lead the process and not to force anything. Well, that didn't work at all. He was lazy and forgetful and the lax way was not going to work for him. So, we developed a system with a timer and rewarding where we would set the timer and he had to at least sit on the potty every 20 minutes. If he went, he got rewarded by some sort of treat. This worked very well and he started paying attention and he was potty trained in a little over a week. So, this was the same method we thought we'd try with Maddy since it worked so well with Ethan. Not at all suprising, but Maddy was more than defiant against the timer, the treats, the plan, the goal, EVERYTHING. She didn't care at all about using the potty and she was going to not let us make her do anything. I'd say within 2 hrs or so, we decided to give it a break and think about Plan B. We knew from previous experience that there was no way we would go back to diapers after we started potty training, but we weren't sure what to do next to get her interested in using the potty. Clay took her upstairs to the guest room where the kids like to watch shows on the computer to let her have a break. Thankfully, he also took up the little potty and mentioned to her that it would be there should she need to go. Not an hour later, we went up to check on her and she was sitting on the potty! She stood up, pulled her panties up, and sat back in front of the computer. We asked her if she had gone potty and she gave us a calm, simple, "yes I did". And sure enough, she did! It had to be her idea and her timing....in typical Maddy fashion. Since then, she has only had 1 accident, has gone potty all by herself without any prompting at all and has woken up totally dry each morning. It was literally that easy. Even with the run around to church and family for Christmas, she still has done well! We are AMAZED!!!!! All to say, that she's incredibly smart and sweet and fun...but, she'll do it all her way and in her timing. Wonder how many times this personality will come up in her lifetime??
On a very current note, she and I got pink eye on Christmas (not sure who gave it to who) and we've now been up since 3 a.m. following another round of eye drops. This doesn't work well for me since I was up with Clay 'till after midnight watching Season 1 of "Lost"....with the kids not taking naps anymore, I can't even say I'll catch up at naptime. I think it's been since Maddy was a newborn since I've taken a nap.
In conclusion, we again hope that 2010 will be a year of some stability for us and a change for "less change". We covet your prayers, your love, and your friendship, and are always blessed by your notes and phone calls of encouragment. I will again work harder at keeping this website up-to-date and hope to be able to report less job changes and more blessings in the year to come. Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, (and Happy Birthday, Clay!) from Clay, Jen, Ethan, and Maddy
Guestbook Happy 2nd Birthday to Maddy! ( a week late) I can't believe she's two already! How time flies! I hope it was a blessed day! Thanks for all the updates, it helps us feel close to them when we're so far away and it's been so long.
Love,
-Bridge May 16 2009
Lovin the new pics!
-Tracey Herstich Apr 22 2009
Adorable videos at Aunt Shelley & Uncle Norm's! Ethan was soooo sure he didn't want to see the Easter Bunny...I don't blame him ;-)
-Love, Nana Apr 06 2009
It was great catching up on the phone the other day. I miss you guys so much and only wish we lived closer, I guess time for you to move to NE ohio. Keep up the great work with the Dave Ramsey stuff, it will pay off. Love you guys.
-Tracey Herstich Mar 20 2009
Love the haircut Miss. Maddy!
-"aunt" Erin Feb 20 2009
We know we are a day late as well! But, Happy Anniversary!
Love,
Deb and Dad
- Feb 05 2009
I know I'm a day late, but Happy Anniversary!!!
-Becky Feb 05 2009
Nice snow family pictures!
Love,
-Grandpa Dunk Jan 28 2009
Take some more pictures of your beautiful family, please!
-your friends Jan 23 2009
Great job on all the Christmas pictures of the kids trimming the tree. How sweet can it get? Especially great job with the cropped picture of E. Wow!
God is great!
Love,
DAD
-Stan Dunk Dec 15 2008sign the guestbook
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