Happy 2 Year Anniversary to Us!

Check out the slide show and remember that WONDERFUL and very beautitful and hot day.

Vacation Videos

Here are the videos I promised. One is Addie dancing and the other of Addie and Harvey playing-kind of :) Enjoy!

P.S. Our new address is: 1211 E. Pierce St. Kirksville, MO 63501 and we are keeping our phones and not getting a landline-so the numbers will be the same for while.

Somewhat Late

I had this grand scheme to write a post about us moving and show all the pictures and video from the trip, but with everything going on plus taking care of a baby, I never seem to have as much time as I would like to think it all out. So I know I'm a little behind, but here is my contribution to the vacation pictures and the videos will come later when my baby isn't so upset.

100 MILES COMPLETE!

Today I went on my longest run, 5 miles, and finished my 100 mile goal. Yay! Starting Monday I'm going to go another 100 miles, but this time in just 6 weeks. Wahoo!

Surgery Update

Short version for the impatient: Harvey's surgery went fine.

Harvey went to bed later than usual last night, around 9:30pm. It kind of worked out, though, because it gave Mom and Dad time to come down and have Dad give him a blessing. Heather's parents got here just after 10. So we didn't get to sleep until 10:30. Then Harvey woke up around 4am for a while, because he had worked one of his arms out of its sleeve.

Anyway, that's the long way to say that we were tired when we got up at 6am. We were supposed to be at the hospital at 7:30am to check-in. We got there right on time, but they were finishing a fire drill, so everything was a bit behind schedule. After a flurry of nurses and doctors talked to us about different aspects of the surgery, they took him back just after 8:30.

Then began the fun hour and a half of waiting. About 10:15am, they said Heather and I could go back and see him. He was awake and seemed to be pretty comfortable. We gave him some apple juice to make sure he could keep something down. After about 15 minutes, he started crying and then screaming. Later we realized that, even though they gave him some local anesthesia that was supposed to last 6 hours, it may not have worked. Both Heather and her mom do not really get numb from novacaine and similar drugs, which is what they had given him as the lasting numbing agent. So when the short-term anesthesia from the surgery wore off, he really started to feel it. We asked for something for him, and they gave him a low dose of morphine. After that kicked in, he was okay, but that sure was a long 20 minutes. Trying to calm your kid as he writhes in pain is not fun.

They wanted to observe him for a bit after giving the morphine, so we waited in the recovery room a while and Harvey slept. He was doing just fine, so just after 11am, we dressed him and headed out. One thing we were anxious to see was a smile, and although he wasn't in pain and he was looking around alertly, we hadn't seen one yet. On the ride home, he finally perked up and laughed and played with his stuffed Pooh for the whole trip. It was a great relief.

He's been somewhat uncomfortable today, which is understandable, but we've been able to keep him in a pretty good mood overall. The doctor says that kids are usually feeling much better by the next morning, which hopefully will be the case with Harvey.

All in all, things went well. Thanks to everyone for your thoughts and prayers.

P.S.: Heather's previous post was posted at 6:30am, not 4:30am. It looks like it got tagged with Mountain Time instead of Eastern Time. She wasn't up all night, although she didn't sleep great, either.

On The Road... Again

Well, today is the loading the van day. We won't actually start driving until tomorrow, but the computer will be taken off-line today so this will be my last post until Monday. I'm glad the day is finally here. I want it to just be overwith. I'm getting more excited about the move now that we are so close. It's been hard to say good-bye though. There are several women here that my friendship with has really blossomed over the last couple of months and I feel short changed a little bit because I didn't get to enjoy those friendships for very long. I've vowed to keep in contact with them though I plan on coming back to visit. This is such a great city and it will be fun to come in the summer and enjoy all the touristy-type things to do.

The plan is to pack up the van at 10 am. A woman in the ward (one of those friends I didn't get to enjoy long enough) has asked to watch our kids for us to get them out of the way while we work. She is such a blessing for us. It will be so much easier to get things done without them around. After the van is packed, then Charlie and I will finish cleaning the duplex. We've scheduled to check out with the landlord at 6 pm but we're hoping to get finished before that and do it earlier. Then some other friends have invited us for dinner. After that, the same woman who is watching the kids this morning has invited us to spend the night at her house. We accepted because we will have a much better trip after sleeping some and leaving in the morning. So we will leave for Michigan sometime tomorrow morning, hoping to arrive sometime in the late afternoon. The Flint ward went into the house we will be moving into and cleaned it from top to bottom on Tuesday. We are so grateful! They are great people! One of the ladies from Flint wants to make us dinner for Friday night. Then Saturday morning at 9 am we will unload the van and set up house. The power is suppose to be on sometime tomorrow and hopefully the water too. Cross your fingers about that. According to the water department the water is on to the house, but it isn't coming out of faucets. So we are hoping that we just have to turn it on from the street to the house. But that valve is in the crawl space which is flooded right now. As soon as the power is on, the sump pump should be able to pump out what's left of the flood and then we should be able to get to the water valve. Sounds a little complicated, but I'm just thankful to have some place to go.

No word yet on jobs for Charlie. We feel it's probably better that he hasn't gotten any calls yet so he could be here this week to help with the move. I wasn't very excited to do a move on my own again! It's been so much better having him here to help. We hope he'll have some interviews after we get there. His brother has accepted a job at Flat Rock. Isn't that funny? And will start the process of moving their stuff up from Texas. We are so happy for them and are excited to have them closer. They plan to live with Kristy's parents for at least a year.

Well, that's about it. Our phone is suppose to be turned on on Monday, so I'll check in then.
Love you all!

my birthday

I had a nice birthday. Jason and I went shopping and found some nice, inexpensive curtains for our living room. I've decided I will make the curtains for the bedrooms with some help from friends. We also had dinner at the Blue Plate Cafe, a southern diner. I've always wanted to eat there. The inside was decorated like a southern grandma's kitchen, all blue and flowery, and they had the entire restaurant sing Happy Birthday to me. We also tried fried green tomatoes for the first time, and they were pretty good! It turned out to be a nice birthday, and I feel better at 26 than I did at 25. It must be all the running. Only 3.5 more miles to go to get to 100 miles!

Harvey's Surgery

Please keep us in your thoughts today. Harvey has surgery this morning. It is an outpatient procedure so we should have him home by tonight. We'll post an update as soon as we can.

Tax class

Okay, since you heard about all the travails I had with my tax class, I thought I should give you an update. I was convinced I had almost failed the final exam (it really was hard) and that the professor would hammer my research paper but I was wrong on both counts because I got an "A" in the class. (I was actually so shocked I've checked the Walsh College website three times just to be certain I wasn't reading the grade wrong.) I enjoyed the professor a lot and actually chose to drive to Troy for his class because I knew he would be better than the clown they had teaching it in Novi (I had him for my first tax class and he put everyone to sleep because he essentially read the text book to us each class period). So that I wouldn't be disappointed, I had convinced myself that I would get no better than a "B" in the class and if I was lucky, maybe a "B+." Well, I was wrong. I am certain I received divine help with the class and couldn't have done it on my own; I truly feel blessed. I will be interested to see his reaction to my research paper; I gave him a stamped, self-addressed envelope so he would send it back to me. I also suspect the rest of the class did as poorly on the final as I did and he grades on a curve so I probably did better than I would have expected.

Now I can take a few months off and relax; my next class will start toward the end of September sometime, I'm guessing September 24th. Unfortunately, I will have to drive to Troy again and will for all of the rest of my classes except for one I have to take online.

Love you all!!

Hippo Birdie to Jana!

Hippo birdie 2 ewe, hippo birdie 2 ewe, hippo birdie dear Jana, hippo birdie 2 ewe. I hope you enjoy your special day and everyone makes you feel appreciated. We love you.

We Made It!

It was a long haul, and we still aren't comfortable yet (our furniture comes on Tuesday and we don't have the internet yet-what did we do before the internet?) so we have a little more sacrifice to go. The house needs a little work-new outlets, new locks (probably just a new door-long story), window locks, and the house smells like dog. Luckily Melissa has a carpet cleaner that we have been using and the house smells a little better-having her around has been a God send...she even let us borrow camping chairs so we had something to sit on and her dad (who is visiting for the week) is coming today to mow our lawn. Right now we are at the library using the internet here-but as soon as we get it in our house there will be pictures and video of the trip.
The drive was okay-Noah actually did very well. We set up the seating so that whoever wasn't driving was sitting next to him to keep him happy. But he did have diareah the whole trip and that wasn't very fun. He didn't act sick or whiny, so that made it better, we just had to stop every hour 1/2 or so to change him and that made the days even longer. Also, I sprained my ankle pretty bad before we left, but have had to use it and drive with it (it was my right foot) and so now, my foot it kind of green and is pretty sore and on top of that, Eric has a pretty bad head cold with coughing and a runny nose. So needless to say with trying to get the house ready for our furniture and taking care of business in town and taking care of Noah, we are pretty beat.
We'll update later when we have the internet at home. But we are safe and happy for the most part. :)

Harvey has a cold

Hillary said we should post about more things and since our life is basically work and Harvey this is about all I've got. Harvey was sick on Monday with a temp up to 101.8 so I stayed home with him. He was cranky and didn't want to eat/play/or do basically anything. Our sitter has a rule that he has to be fever free for 24 hours before he can come back to daycare so Kurt stayed home with him Tuesday. His temp stayed down all day and he was his usual happy-go-lucky self. Wednesday he went back to daycare and was fine. Today he woke up with a runny nose and the sneezes and was sick and lethargic at day care all day. I'm planning on staying home with him again tomorrow.

The cruddy thing is that he's supposed to have surgery next week and this may mean we'll have to delay it, again. I'm hoping that staying home with me and resting tomorrow will mean a quicker recovery time and we'll be all set for the doctor on Thursday. If he isn't feeling better by Monday I'll have to call and cancel. I also have to work my 40 so, with two sick days this week, this weekend will be a bit of a challenge.

Girls' Camp

Hillary, thanks for reminding me to post. Jason had Tuesday and Wednesday off work, so we've been spending a lot of quality time together cleaning, catching up on various errands, and swimming.



As y'all know, after I came home from Michigan I went to Girls' Camp in the middle of Tennessee. It was a little over an hour drive from where we live at a state park. It was beautiful there. Our campground was right on a gorgeous lake in the middle of the woods. With it came tons of mosquitos, but they were manageable as long as you carried your Off with you everywhere you went.

Braids were definitely the trend at Girls Camp

I enjoyed myself there. I was the "cabin mom" of a group of eight 13 year old girls, three of them were from my ward. They were hilarious girls. You'll be happy to know we stayed up late one night playing mafia. More than their fun personalities, I was impressed by their testimonies and faith in the Lord. They were so good at remembering to pray and read their scriptures, they truly were examples to me.

These are most of the girls from my cabin, and the lady is Cindy. She is the Stake Camp Director and also my visiting teacher. Funny how that worked out, eh?

We did have one girl from our ward, Carmen, who was a bit of a challenge. She was in a first year cabin and I checked in regularly with her cabin mom. I was told she had some mental challenges beforehand, but I wasn't sure what they were. Carmen seemed unaware of social cues and didn't understand the meaning of basic human interaction. At one point a girl who was trying to be friendly to her ptu her arm around her and rested her head on Carmen's shoulder for the good part of a meeting. Afterwards I asked Carmen if that girl was her friend and she looked at me and asked, "How long was she hugging me for? It made me hot and sticky." She didn't know enough to ask the girl to stop, but she also didn't understand that it was a friendly gesture. Carmen did have a great time, though, she said she felt more "normal" at camp than she's ever felt anywhere (it probably was because the girls were nice to her) and she absolutely loved to go to the lake. At one point, all of her clothes were soaked and in a big heap in her suitcase. The girls in the cabin had to loan her their clothes and shoes. She just did a lot of things that would occur to most not to do. In many ways, I think Carmen was there to teach the other girls. At the closing testimony night many girls were grateful they knew Carmen--they said she taught them patience and how to step outside of your comfort zone. In all, though she brough with her some challenges for everyone at camp, I believe she was meant to be there to gain confidence in herself, and to help the others.

Addie is holding the sock monkey that I made at Girls Camp. She pulled the button eyes off right away.

The leaders at Girls' Camp really liked me. I can't decide if that is a good or a bad thing. They told me that I have bought myself an eternal ticket to Girls' Camp. I did enjoy myself and would like to go back, but it also was a big sacrifice for Jason and I. Next year Jason has school during the summer, so I don't know if it's possible for me to go or not, but we'll see. Him and Addie survived and Jason said he appreciated what I do around here a lot more, so it was good for him. Besides, Addie is now more in love with him than ever and it's so cute to see.

Pigtails for church!

Oh yeah, and I only have 14 more miles to go to reach my 100 miles by July 1st! Wahoo!

Jana....

where are your girls' camp pictures? How did it go? Are you glad it's over? What happened with that new girl you were telling me about, the one who had never stayed a night away from home?

Last Day of School

Friday was the kids' last day of school. We are pretty excited for it to be summer now. We are gearing up for our move and have started to pack, some. Here are the kids and their teachers...

Chelsea had team teachers, Ms. Jesalyn and Ms. Carrie

Alexis with Mr. Jarr, Makayla with Mrs. Keiper and Merrit with Mrs. May
Alexis had a 5th grade graduation dinner on Tuesday last week. They handed out advancement certificates and some awards. Alexis won Student of the Year award for her classroom. We were very excited for her. When the kids were given their awards they had to walk up on the stage and get them from their teachers. The did the advancements first and then had the kids with the special awards come up again. Both times Alexis walked up the stairs to get onto the stage she tripped up the steps on her flipflops. She wasn't hurt but it was hilareous that she did it twice. :)

Here are a few of the pictures I took of the grandkids....

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

Happy Father's Day DAD! You are THE ultimate dad. Also, happy father's day to Charlie, Kurt, Jason and Eric (isn't it cool that this is Kurt, Jason and Eric's first father's day all at the same time?) What would the world be like without fathers? Just a bunch of sissy, crying women...I'm glad the men are there to balance it all out. So, thank you fathers for all that you do.
HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!!!!!

WAHOO!

Yesterday on our way down to Vegas, we signed our closing papers and so now we own the house!!! Yahoo! And the real estate agent gave Melissa the keys when she went through the house yesterday so that when we get into town on Wednesday. So now we have a place for people to stay when they visit. I mean, we will only have 2 rooms so it might be a little cramped, but please come and see us...it will still be fun! Just wanted to share the good news. HURRAY!

Friday the 13th

I just remembered that today is Friday the 13th. Remember not to walk under any ladders and try to stay away from black cats. Of course Kurt and Heather own a black cat, so that could be harder for them. Oh, and try not to break any mirrors. It might not hurt to look for a 4 leaf clover in the lawn, but don't cut off any rabbit's foot, I think that is disgusting.

Our Big Move

We've moved before, but never anything of this magnitude. We have lived in Utah since we got married and have always lived near Eric's family and now we are moving out of state and not really near any family-Jana and Jason will be the closest at 7 hours. We are nervous, but also very excited. So, Friday we head out to Vegas to say goodbye to some of Eric's family and then on Monday we start out towards Missouri. We should get to Kirksville Wednesday afternoon if everything goes like we plan.
The house deal is going well-the seller has fixed everything we asked him to, and the appraisal was done yesterday and the house appraised for $59,000 which is good news and we are moving forward with things and we should be able to close the day we get into town, or maybe even this weekend.
So these next two days will be filled with packing and wrapping up loose ends-it's going to be crazy, but worth it. We won't have internet for a little bit, but we'll get it as soon as possible so that we can keep you all updated about Missouri and the goings ons there. WOHOO for new experiences!

Cure for the Common Cold

If you'll all remember I ended up going to the doctor's on Saturday because my glands had swollen so badly from singing that I could barely swallow and I could see little white blobs on them. Kurt and I were really bummed because we were looking forward to the lunch. Mongolian BBQ is one of our favorites. Plus we were interested in seeing what Hillary's kids concocted and then didn't eat.



Anyway, the doctor ran some tests and said it was only a virus. While I was grateful it wasn't strep or mono, I wasn't thrilled because I had always been told there wasn't a way to treat a virus. Well, the doctor told me about a new study by Harvard Medicine that is a variation on something my grandma used to do. He had me gargle 3 times a day with a solution of 5oz. warm water to 2 tsp salt. I gargled for 10 seconds and repeated four times. It was amazing how much better my throat felt the next day. I did take a Motrin before going to church to make sure my throat didn't swell up again but I haven't taken any medicine since. He said that when you have a cold you have approximately 1 million viruses living in your throat. Each time you gargle you kill 100,000. By doing the repetitions and gargling three times a day you can get ahead of the viruses. It worked great for me and I know I'll be trying it again next time I feel a tickle in the back of my throat. He also suggested 15 minutes in a bathroom with the shower running on full hot. Don't get in the shower, just breath in the steam. It is hot enough to kill some of the viruses, too. And, of course, plenty of water and rest. The rest was why we went home on Sunday. We were both beat and the whole family took turns napping and we all went to bed early. (Sounds like the ending to one of Harvey's books).

Some news

Charlie got a call today for an interview. We aren't really that excited about it though because it's for Beecher Schools. They are just as bad as Flint schools, maybe even worse. They are a fairly unsafe environment. Charlie feels like he could probably teach there, but I'm not so sure about it. They wanted to interview him on Wednesday. He told them it would be really hard for him to make it then, so they are trying to reschedule. They will get back to him to let him know if they can or not. He told them he'd try to be there if they can't reschedule. So we'll see.

I forgot to say that we sold Charlie's car. I listed it on Craig's list and we sold it the very same day we listed it. We were pretty excited. Then Charlie was looking at Craig's list today and saw that his car was on there again. Aparently the guy who sold it is trying to re-sell it. He bought it from us for $400 and he has it listed for $950. We thought it was pretty funny.

We are still trying to sell the Windstar. It's listed in the local paper. I thought about listing it in the Milwaukee paper but it will cost about $150 for a 2 week listing. I'm not sure I want to cough up that much money for an ad at this time. Maybe I'll do that once we move. I was just hoping to not have to move it with us. But we will.

I found out today that I've been released from my callings at church. The primary president called this afternoon to tell me of the changes. The people they have to replace me will be great and I'm excited that they are the ones who will be coming in after me. I'm also relieved that I'll be able to help them transition before we move. I was feeling pretty bad about letting the kids down by moving, but I feel a bit better now knowing that I'll be able to help the new people transition in. So there is a married couple with a new baby taking over in scouts. They will be there on Wednesday to observe. I'll probably even offer to do next week as well since I already have it planned. Then one of the sisters I visit teach is taking over singing time. She is suppose to come in on Sunday to observe. She is a little more reluctant about the calling than the married couple are. I hope I can help ease her worries and concerns. I really like her a lot and know she has a lot to offer. She's going to be great. I just hope she can see that too.

Charlie hasn't been released yet. I'm sure it will happen soon though. They have already taken his home teaching route away from him. It's all a matter of time. With us not having callings, it will be easier for us to move the last weekend of the month. I'm thinking we could load here on Friday and then unload there on Saturday. I was thinking we'd have to stay for that last Sunday so I could do singing time but now I don't have to worry about it. The timing actually will work out better if we don't stay for that Sunday. Although, I'm sad to not have an extra Sunday here with the friends we've made here. I'll let you know when our plans are a little more solid.

We made it home safe and are glad this is the week of school. We probably won't start to pack much until school is out. I'm envisioning a whirl-wind of a last week with the last minute packing we'll have. There is just so much that we can't pack yet because we use it too often. It's kind of frustrating. Oh well, I am kind of an expert at packing now (isn't that sad?).

Flooding?

How are you guys doing in Racine? I heard there was a lot of flooding over your way. Power is out all over the place here. Harvey's day care had to close today because their power is out. So he's having a fun lounge around day with his daddy. They just came and took me out to lunch.

Flooding?

Are you guys ok over in Racine? I heard there was a lot of flooding. Our daycare doesn't have power along with 100,000 plus people in our area. Kurt is taking the day off with Harvey. I just hope he isn't cutting into his surgery recovery time.

The Celebration

The big event is over and it was great! Everyone was here to celebrate Jim's 2 big accomplishments and we all enjoyed it. Jim's now an eagle scout and a high school graduate. Then to top it off, we all sang in church and lots and lots of people just raved about it afterwards. We were a big hit. Thank all of you for coming and doing your best to enjoy each other. Now we can all settle back down to our hum drum lives (except those who are moving in the next few weeks). I love you all.