hairy easter

It's a good thing our ward planned an egg hunt and party, or our kids wouldn't have done anything this Easter. We didn't dye eggs this year (I know, a terrible sin), didn't have an egg hunt at home, didn't have Easter baskets...nothing. In fact, for the ward party, we only had one basket for Addie- Macie carried a pink purse from our dress-up box. Our lack of planning, and frankly, lack of caring this year is pitiful. I am sad about not dying eggs, I love doing that, but oh well.

The egg hunt was at a family's house in our ward. They have chickens and chicks, bunnies, cats and donkeys. Addie stayed in the chick pen nearly the entire time, she only left for the few minutes of the egg hunt because she knew she'd be getting candy. We were worried she was going to strangle one of the chicks to death, she was holding him so tight! She LOVES all animals. I'm excited for her to visit the Hicks' house--she might stow away one of your bunnies! She keeps taking me on "bunny hunts" in our backyard. I've promised her that if we can catch a bunny in a box, we can keep him. Haha. We've never even seen a bunny back there, just tons and tons of squirrels.

Looking in at the chicks.

Macie, on the otherhand, is not as fond of animals. Macie loved feeding bread to the chickens, but wouldn't go near the donkeys or bunnies. She is absolutely terrified of dogs, and will go near cats but won't pet them. I think she only liked the chickens because they were behind a fence and she could throw the bread far away from her. I was surprised she got up enough courage to poke the little chick Addie was holding a few times.

Scared of the Easter Bunny! (It IS a pretty scary costume. Poor guy, he was roasting in there, it was a very hot day!)

The last picture is just a fun moment. All three kids crowded together on my bed while I flung the blanket over and over on top of them. They really do all love being together and we enjoy seeing them all laugh and play. I know to savor it now, because when they're teenagers, this might not be the case!

easter

 Here are the pictures from Easter.

First, on Friday, we did our own egg hunt inside our house because it was raining.

 Next, on Saturday, the spouse's organization (SAA) sponsored one.

 These are our Easter outfits.

And last we tried to get a family shot, but the camera was falling and then the battery died...maybe next year.

I hope you all had an enjoyable Easter weekend too!

Good Friday Trip

Dad and I went on the Good Friday Trip on Thursday and Good Friday. There is a road that used to be called the Chicago Road that was built to be the main road from Detroit to Chicago (it is now Michigan Ave or US-12). It goes through lots of small towns, so that is where I decided to go this year. There is a web site called Michigan Historical Markers, so I looked up the markers that are along that road and we stopped at a lot of them. We went to McCourtie Park in Somerset Township where a man who made a lot of money in the cement business, paid some artisans from Mexico to make 17 bridges which cross a stream. Each bridge is made of sculpted concrete, painstakingly carved to look like logs, planks and ropes. This is one of the bridges. The last picture is Dad standing by one of the 2 trees made this way, that are really chimneys for a building built into the hill.
This is one of the several historic houses that we stopped to look at. We saw a lot of very neat old houses.

The picture of the frog and the snow leopard were taken at the Binder Zoo in Battle Creek. It was so cold and rainy that day, that they only charged us half price for admission because most of the animals weren't out. We also went to the cemetery in Battle Creek and saw Sojourner Truth's grave, the mausoleum where the Posts are and the plot where the Kelloggs are.

remember me?

I'm the BUNNY CAKE!

In case you don't look at our blog, too, I made this for Jason's birthday, and I ate WAAAAAAY too much of it. Mmmmmm...

Are any of you ordering the Nauvoo Reunion book that Terry emailed about?

School is over!

Woot! Woot! I just took my last final exam and now I'm free from school work until the fall. I've been looking forward to this for several weeks now. Yeah!

I'm also up to running 5 miles now. I'll be moving on to 6 miles on Monday. Wish me luck.

The Great Camping Adventure

We had family dinner on Saturday and Shirley, Hillary, and I discussed the plans for June's camping trip. Thought I'd lay them out.

Where: Jellystone Park, Indian Rivers, MI. We have four rustic camp sites and one rustic cabin site. The cabin site has electric hook-up. I think the sites are adjacent to one another.

When: We check in the afternoon of 6/15 and check out 6/18. Hillary's family may or may not be arriving Wednesday night, depending on the kids school schedule. Kurt and I are planning on renting our site for Saturday night as well so Harvey's cousin from Petoskey can come out for a night.

What to bring: Everyone is in charge of their own personal essentials (clothes, toiletries, etc..).

Bedding: Kurt and I have enough sleeping bags for our family and it sounded like Hillary had enough for hers. I can bring 6 additional sleeping bags from my parent's house. Will that cover everybody? It will likely be chilly at night so warm sleeping bags are a necessity.

Tents: Kurt and I will either rent a pop-up camper or borrow my parents' (they're looking into buying one this spring). Depending on how the camper is laid out, we'll probably have room for another couple adults or kids. We have a tent that can sleep 2 adults comfortably that we'd be happy to bring. Hillary had enough tents to cover her family and perhaps a few extra. Shirley and Bill have a couple tents, too. Let's coordinate to figure out how many we need to bring.

Food: I volunteered to purchase all the food. My plan is to head up to Petoskey on Tuesday so we can leave the dog at my folks' house and do the shopping Wednesday morning. We'll split the total 5 ways. Kurt and I will bring our travel grill. We decided to keep meals pretty simple.

-Breakfasts (Th, Fr, Sat) - cold cereal & milk, bagels & cream cheese/jam, fruit, milk and juice

- Lunches (Th, Fr, Sat) - Cold cut sandwiches, PB&J, veggies and dip, chips, crackers and cheese

- Dinners - Wednesday - Sloppy Joes and potato salad/cole slaw
- Thursday - Hobo dinners (ground beef, potatoes, carrots, onions)
- Friday - Hot dogs, hamburgers, baked beans

- Snacks - Granola Bars, chips & dip, chips & salsa, s'mores, campfire pies, roasted bananas w/ marshmallows

- Drinks - Hillary will be bringing one of those large drink dispensers (gatorade-style) and we'll have ice water or lemonade available. BYOP (bring your own pop).

There is a decent grocery store in Indian River so if we want to pick something else up we can. Please let me know if there is anything we should add to the food list.

Activities:

Cross in The Woods - So, there are some more adult oriented things to see and some more kid oriented things to do in the area. There is a huge cross in the woods which is very cleverly called The Cross in the Woods. It is part of the diocese I grew up in and hosts a beautiful mass on Sunday mornings. Anyway, there is a nice trail with the stations of the cross (don't know if that is part of the LDS canon) and then a really huge cross with an outdoor seating area. As Bill and Shirley have found out, if you go to Indian River you really have to go see it. That being said, it is a holy church site and we'll have to keep the kids on good behavior.

Fishing - Hillary mentioned that Merrit would like to go fishing. I believe there is a trout hatchery in Indian River. If not, there is one north of Petoskey. There are also a ton of inland lakes in the area or we could go fishing in Indian river.

Petoskey - My hometown. Its actually harder for me to think of things to do in Petoskey because it just seems like home. There is a beautiful waterfront park with a waterfall and wonderful walking/biking trails. There are beaches for throwing rocks and looking for Petoskey Stones (the Michigan state stone and a fossilized coral from the devonian age). Since it will be mid June, I wouldn't plan on swimming in the bay. In fact, it never gets warm enough for me to want to swim in the bay. There are a bunch of nice shops downtown with ice cream and fudge and such. Bill and Shirley mentioned wanting to go to American Spoon Foods, a local jams/jellies/gelato company. Their stuff is amazing. My mom is asking around to see if they do tours of the factory. There are lots of great parks with play sets. There's minature golf, go-carts, etc... Oh, and I could take you through Bay View, this cool old Methodist bible camp which is full of Victorian "cottages". Most of them are three stories tall and amazingly well kept. If we want to go to Petoskey my folks would be happy to have us for lunch at their house.

Mackinaw City - MC isn't too far away and has a fort from the fur-trading days that has re-enactments and stuff during the summer. They've created a nice little commerce/downtown area for shopping. Mackinaw City always seems kind of boring to me since Mackinaw Island is just a boat ride away. Since it will be peak season, prices will be high.

Jellystone Campground - the campground itself could likely provide entertainment for most of the kids for the time we are there. I know Harvey for one would stay in the pool until he collapsed from exhaustion. There are activities going on all the time like bingo, scavenger hunts, movies with Yogi, crafts, etc.. There's a volleyball court, nature trails, etc... I personally would like to spend a day just at the campsite and bumming around camp. Since Kurt and I are going to stay an extra day, I'd be happy to play tour-guide on Thursday and Friday.

That was a lot of info. Phew. What does everyone think about these details? Love it? Hate it? Have something else you really want to do?

Just a reminder to Jana and Kari down in your more temperate climates, early June Up North can be brisk to down right chilly in the evenings. Make sure to pack everybody extra layers.

mom...

I've been thinking about this a lot the past couple of days, and I thought maybe others would like to know too...where are you going in May?

Updates

Now I know that I've only ever posted on here once, but something kind of major happened a few days ago that I figured the whole family should know about.

I got a call from a co-worker of mine that wasn't any different than a call I would get from a co-worker on any given day. Telling me about work, asking me questions. Then at the end of the conversation my co-worker threw in the little tid-bit that Herff Jones' photography division had been bought by LifeTouch.

The main reason this came as a shock to me is the fact that LifeTouch's quality is just plain worse than ours because they strive for efficiency whereas we strive for expressions and details (with a dabble of efficiency). This news also just came out of the blue. I would never have guessed that we were struggling (not that that's actually the reason, just conjecture).

Now I know you're reading this and thinking "What does this mean for you?" And to be frank, I haven't the slightest idea yet. My boss still has yet to give me any more information other than "It happened." There is a rumor that our mileage reimbursement will be almost half of what it is currently, which could honestly cut my total pay by about a quarter. But there is also the fact that LifeTouch has their prying little foot in a massive number of schools that have been in direct competition with us for the past few years (including almost the entire South Lyon school district).

So in the end this might be a good thing. Everyone in my district will get job offers, so I won't lose my job. Learning LifeTouch's system isn't going to be fun next year though...

J-O-B

Well, we got an offer from the office in Fredericksburg! It's not quite what we had expected, but we're excited and Jason totally wants to go. My feelings are a bit more mixed.

PROS:

• great pay


• great office/practice


• great staff


• awesome location


• partner potential in 2-3 years


• good doctors to work with


• possibility of renting a house from one of the doctors for pretty cheap

CONS:

• starts at part-time with potential to be full-time in a few months


• far from family


• very few benefits

So now we are sorting through everything. Jason wants the job. He is feeling very confident and peaceful about the decision. I am praying hard that I'll feel that way before too long. I'm not against going there, I just wish I had some huge feeling that Virginia is where we will thrive. I don't know. So, until then, I am relying on my husband. The long-term potential at this office is great, it's the time before we move to full-time which is a bit scary. They would like our answer in the next two weeks, so we're having a few resources check out the contract, and pending a few minor negotiations (such as moving expenses), we will be Virginians!

13.1 miles!

Glad it's over, that's all I have to say. I'm disappointed because I ended up walking nearly 4 miles of the race. My left knee gave me pretty bad trouble. This next time around I am going to take it a little easier after the long runs, make sure I'm putting ice on my knees, and just be more careful. I'm excited to do another one (I actually really loved training!) and will again try and not walk any of it. Hillary, I'm excited!

Happy Birthday Kurt

Yes, he's 31! Boy, are you old. I hope you had a great day.

Meet Dublin

I've been looking for a dog for the last month or so. I went back and forth about breeds and whether I wanted a puppy or not. Well, Friday I found a great fit! Everyone, I'm pleased to introduce our new dog, Dublin!

He's a 6 year old shih tzu/ shelty mix and seems to be perfectly well behaved.  He does need a trip to the groomers.  He's settling in and getting used to life around here.  He's housetrained (a "must" for Kurt), knows basic commands, and walks great on a leash.  He slept all night on the floor in our bedroom without a peep.  He does have this funny husky bark though so far he's only barked when the neighbor came to the door last night.  We got him from a rescue.  His previous owner had passed away. I'm super excited.  Harvey is super excited if a little disappointed that Dublin isn't as jumpy and interactive as my folk's dog.  Kurt is indifferent leaning towards pleasantly surprised (I think, he can correct me if I'm wrong).  All in all, I see a lot of good years to come with Dublin.

I know I haven't posted in a long time.  I wanted to let you all know how much better I am doing.  I finally got a clean bill of health from my OB after the surgery and the complications.  I am up and about and enjoying the spring weather.  While I still have periods where I'm down, for the most part I'm getting back into living.  I know we were in your thoughts and prayers and we appreciate it.  Thanks for all of the support.

big weekend!

We have a big weekend coming up!

• Saturday morning I am running the half marathon! Eeeek! Wish me luck. I'm pretty nervous. My knees have been bothering me, but I WILL FINISH if I have to crawl across the finish line. I've loved doing the training, and look forward to doing another one with Hillary this summer.


• Road trip to Virginia! Right after my race I will shower at the provided showers, and then we'll all pile in our car and head up to Virginia. We'll be going 9 hours the first day and spending the night in souther VA with Jason's cousin Katie. Some of you might remember her, she worked in the payroll office with me for two years. We're leaving Addie and Macie with her for two days, while we go up to Fredericksburg with Carson. Semi-alone time with my husband, this will be priceless!


• JOB INTERVIEW! The doctors seem excited to have us come. They are paying for our hotel, and are planning on taking us around to show us the town. I'm looking forward to it. While Jason spends Monday at the office, Carson and I will visit the local parks and check out different areas we could live. It's looking very promising, we're praying so hard that we'll get this job and like the offer they give us.


• And tonight Jason actually has another telephone interview with a different practice in VA. So, more leads! Just in case, of course.

As much as I wish we just KNEW now what we'll be doing in less than 2 months, it's great that we have so much to look forward to this weekend! Yay!