update time

Hello everyone. I just thought I'd update you all. Charlie and I have decided to put off looking for a house for a while. We think Charlie will probably have a different job this fall, but we don't know where yet, so we felt like we should wait to find out where before we buy a house. So I'm going to stay in Jocelyn's house with the kids so they can finish up the school year at their school. Charlie will continue to live in his brother, Les's, basement and come home on the weekends. It sucks, but we only have a couple more months.

Les and Jocelyn are going to move in with Charlie's parents next weekend. That will leave me and the kids here on our own. I'm actually looking forward to it. I can't believe how hard it is to live with a different family, even when you get along pretty well. After they move out, Charlie and I will start to fix up their house and then try to sell it. We hope to have it sold by the end of the summer (we know it is a pretty high hope, but I don't want to be discouraged). That way we won't have to leave it vacant in order to move into our own home before the beginning of the next school year. We really hope to be able to live together as a family for the whole year next school year.

I have a new calling at church. I'm the 2nd councelor in the Relief Society presidency and am over the Enrichment meetings. I'm excited to serve with the women again. I really love them, especially in Flint. Charlie doesn't have a calling still, but the bishop assures us that he is working on it now that we know we will be around for at least the next couple of months.

Charlie still doesn't like his job too much. He really struggles with the middle school aged kids. He knows for sure he doesn't ever want to teach that age group again. I'm glad we have other opportunities so that he won't have to. He is going to a job fair at Eastern Michigan in April. There are several schools that will be there looking for math teachers. He will talk to as many as he can.

The kids are doing well in school. This week was their school spirit week. Every day they have had a different way to dress. Today they got to wear their pj's to school. Makayla, in particular, was so excited for today. The kids have enjoyed getting to wear something other than their uniforms everyday.

The weather here is finally starting to be nice more than not. We've been able to go outside more, which I am so happy about. I heard that Utah had a blizzard this past couple of days. Must have sucked to be you guys out there! I've felt really couped up in this house all winter. We played at someone's house on Monday and went on a walk on Tuesday. It's really nice again today, but I don't know if we'll be able to do anything special. So I should probably stop babbling.

We're Moving

So, we've finally had it with this place. Everybody smokes around us and it has started pouring in at all hours. I can't sleep and there is no place to hide from the smell. Plus the people down stairs and next door party. ALSO the people next door got a dog that they do not take care of and leave on their balcony in the snow and the dog lives in its own urine and feaces. We called the office and let them know, but so far, nothing has changed. So, we have decided to break our lease and move early. We will be moving out the 2nd week of May and moving in with Eric's parents until we find another apartment-hopefully it is soon. To say the least, we are very excited and should have done this sooner. But we thought you all should know and would you please pray for us that we will find another place and that we won't be duped again. Thanks for all you guys do, we love you! And we cannot wait to see you all in 28 DAYS!!!

High School Festivals

I had a weekend of high school music festivals. On Friday I chaperoned 3 of the high school choirs at the regional choir festival. Lyon Singers got straight I s as did one of the 2 girl groups. On Saturday I played for 2 band students at the state solo and ensemble festival, one of them got a I and the other one didn't do as well. Now the choirs will go on to the state competition, which one of the parents said is the same week as the play. It should be fun!

a big KICK

I had a neat experience this morning. I jumped out of bed rather quickly and must have startled our baby because...WHAM...what a kick! I've been feeling her move quite a bit lately, but her movements are usually small and easy to overlook, so it was cool feeling her so strongly--hopefully she doesn't have an attitude in the making!

Li'l Grape

According to this description, our baby is about the size of a grape. That's right folks, Heather is pregnant!

As you can see from that article, she's about 9 weeks. We've been waiting to tell everyone, and it's been tough keeping the secret. We told Heather's parents and family at her mom's birthday party on Saturday. She thought it was a great birthday present. We told Mom and Dad last night as we were coming home. They are very excited, too. And now that the secret is out, we can spread the news!

The due date is October 23 for now, although one of the ladies at the birthday party said her due date changed twice after she starting getting the ultrasounds.

Yay for babies!

Jimmy's Almost a Legal Adult!!!

I know the event was yesterday, but it still calls for some serious celebration. Our little brother, James William, is now, officially, SEVENTEEN!!!! I have a few pictures for all you that do not remember what he looks like-I wish I had baby pictures because then we could do a progression, but this will have to do.
Here are the two boys on Mom and Dad's new porch and don't they look happy.

This is Jimmy doing what he does best -wink ;)

And here is Jimmy just being plain scary...but we still love him.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LITTLE BROTHER!!!

We all can't wait to see you rock the house as the world's coolest Beast. LOVE YOU!!!

My friend Wendy visited me this last weekend. She was here for about 3 days and I thought you might like to see some pictures from our adventures.

Wendy in Salt Lake City. We took a tour of the Conference Center (which was cool) and tried to find her family in the Family History Center (but didn't have much luck).

This is me on top of a cliff up Rock Canyon. You can see Provo and Utah Lake in the background. I like this picture because you can see how pregnant I am! It was quite a hike for me, and I was VERY sore the next day.

We ate at the No Name Saloon in Park City, UT. I had to get a membership in order for us to eat there (it was free) and I'm holding the membership card in the picture. We thought it was funny because I am the most unlikely candidate to join a bar (not only do I not drink, I'm pregnant!).

Wendy and Jason with a beautiful, dolled-up moose in Park City. All Park City souveniers have moose on them, which was funny, because this was the only moose we saw!

Wendy and I at the Great Salt Lake. She wanted to stick her foot in, just to say she had done it, but when she saw how icky the lake was she quickly changed her mind! I got my foot stuck in the mud, though, and sort-of lived her dream. Overall, it was a great weekend with lots of laughs and new memories.

Break in

Somebody broke into our apartment Thursday while I was out to lunch with Kurt, however we didn't notice anything was missing until around noon on Friday. Well, break-in isn't exactly the right terms since they appear to have had a key to our door. The apartment complex has had some trouble keeping track of all of its sets of master keys. Anyway, they broke in and took our Wii, Game Cube, all of their accessories, and our digital camera. The cops have told us we won't be getting any of the stuff back even if they recover it. We are very bummed. I also think I got one of the worst nights of sleep ever last night. Our locks were re-keyed last night but they had also been re-keyed on Tuesday so it doesn't make us feel all that secure. There is an alarm system on the door and we are supposed to be getting that activated today. In the end it was all just material stuff that we can replace eventually but it is unnerving.

We Got a House!

We put an offer in on this house Monday morning and, after some negotiations, our offer was accepted last night! We'll go out with the inspector in the next couple of days and then things will be official. We originally had proposed April 6th for closing but they couldn't make that so we pushed it back to May 4th so it would be after my thesis was over. I would have liked to have gotten into the home sooner but at least this way I don't have to pack and move while writing my thesis. It will be nice to deal with that after I'm done with my school responsibilities.

easy recipe

I found this recipe in the magazine that comes with the Herald newspaper and it got rave reviews from Dad and Jim and the people at the storehouse. It's called Beef Taco Skillet and here it is;
1 lb. ground beef 1/2 cup water
1 can (10 3/4 oz.) Campbell's Tomato Soup 6 flour tortillas (6"), cut into 1" pieces
(Regular or 25% Less Sodium) 1/2 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
1/2 cup salsa

1. Cook beef in 10" skillet until well browned, stirring to break up meat. Pour off fat.
2. Stir in soup, salsa, water, tortillas. Heat to a boil. Reduce heat to low and cook for 5 min. Stir. Top with cheese. Makes 4 servings.

Creamy Mexican Fiesta: Stir in 1/2 cup sour cream with soup.

Ranchero Style: Use corn tortillas instead of flour tortillas and shredded Mexican cheese blend instead of Cheddar.

Thesis Date Set

I've set up my thesis defense date for April 25th. It will be the culmination of three years of work on this project and I'm already nervous. Thought you guys would like to know. I think it will go OK. Kurt and I are going to be in Greenville for the beginning of the week. After the defense I'm hoping to go to the beach for a day or two and then head home. We will definitely be back in time for the big Gala event.