Our Christmas Day

We celebrated Christmas today as a family. It was fun because we didn't tell the kids we were going to do that. Charlie and I got all the presents wrapped lastnight and put them out so when the kids got up they could see them. They were so surprised and excited. We only got a few presents per child this year because we decided to invest in a Wii. The kids were pretty excited about that. For the most part, they loved their gifts. Only a few of the gifts we got them had low reviews from them. It was fun to be able to have our own little Christmas as a family before we head back to Michigan to have Christmas with the rest of our family. Can't wait to see everyone.

Christmas Jig

Here is our family dance for your enjoyment. Cross-eyed Joe is our adopted son.

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1406741031

Student council debate

Alexis will be debating tomorrow, at her school, to be elected as treasurer of the school's student council. She is up against two other kids, all fifth graders. She's really excited about it and we all hope she wins. I plan on going to the debate tomorrow to give her some family support. She won't find out if she wins until Monday. We hope you can keep your thoughts with her.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KARI !!!!!!

One less vehicle

Jim spun out on some black ice yesterday morning on his way to seminary. He hit a mailbox that was on a tree stump and bent the frame of the truck. We're down to two cars for a while. The truck can't be fixed, once the frame is bent, it's over. That's the way life goes.

The Annie Hair

My Mom was always giving me a home perm. You'll notice most of the pictures of me look like this. Now you know why I never gave any of you a home perm!

We put an offer on the house this afternoon. Now we just wait to see how the sellers respond. I'll let you know. Keep your fingers crossed for us.

Snow Day!

We had an ice storm come through last night. It was bad enough to cancel school for the day. They didn't call it until late though so Charlie had already gone in to work. He didn't mind though. It allowed him to get some grades put into the computer. He has a doctor's appointment tomorrow and will have a sub for the day. Going in this morning helped him prepare for that too. It looks like he has a broken finger. It happened at wrestling practice. He went to a family doctor who has sent him to an orthopedic doctor. That is the appointment tomorrow. He is suppose to be able to confirm if it's actually broken. He's had the injury for about 3 weeks now. He thought it was just dislocated, but it hasn't gotten any better, in fact it's still pretty swollen and painful. We have decided to make an offer on that house today. I haven't called out realtor to make the appointment yet though. We had tentatively set it up for 6 pm but now that we don't have school, we might be able to do it earlier. I'll let you know how it goes. I've also posted some pictures from our second significant snow storm. It happened last week. If you can tell from the pictures, the snow was up to Jaxson's mid-thigh. It was pretty deep, but they didn't call off school. I have a feeling it takes a huge storm for them to school around here.

Check out the speeded up version of Jana's link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghs0nNF1YZ4

gall bladder update

Ok, I'm updating to say that there really isn't anything to update about. I had an appointment with a surgeon scheduled for last Thursday, but I cancelled it. I haven't had any attacks since Thanksgiving (thankfully!) and am doing well at sticking to my diet. I've found that I can eat tomatoes and be fine, so that has broadened my choices considerably. I'm still staying away from all fatty foods (including cheese, which has been the most difficult) and red meat. Besides that, there isn't much I won't eat as long as it is in small quantities. (We really splurged this weekend and I had guacamole, one of my all-time favorites.) And hey, I've been noticing that my pants aren't as tight--it's been great! So, yeah, we're kind of waiting until we get our tax returns back to see where we are financially. I'm thinking that the perfect time to have surgery would be during Jason's spring break at the end of February, so I'll do more about it in January.

Oh yeah, and the countdown has begun. I'll be flying out to Utah in just eight days...this season has flown by so far!

Something to check off the list

Today Eric proved his trust of me by letting me cut his hair for the first time. He says that I did a good job. I must say that it looks blended, but I did make a few mistakes. What a milestone! I am pretty proud. Also, yesterday we went to a concert at the conference center. The great things about concerts there is that they are free-you just need to request tickets. The concert was the Bell Choir on Temple Square. It was handbells like below, they even had huge ones like the second picture-they have 7 octaves of bells. It was really awesome and, yes Kurt, they played Carol of the Bells...it was amazing!

This next week we get to go to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert. Their special guest is the King Singer's-they are a Britsh acapella group that is really famous. AND it's on my birthday! It's going to be AWESOME! I love Christmas time! I'm going to miss Christmas in Salt Lake because there are so many things to do and most of them are free or really cheap. Enjoy the season! Only 16 days until Christmas!

The newest house on our list

http://public.mlswis.com/cgi-bin/view.cgi?20071207043635923222000000&id=2
Check out the house we saw today. Follow this link and it's the very first house in the list. We really like it and are seriously thinking about making an offer. Let me know what you think.

The Mysterious Ticking Noise

You have GOT to watch this hilarious Harry Potter video on You Tube. Turn up the sound!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tx1XIm6q4r4

New creche

Don't have much time to write but just thought I'd add the new creche Mom bought at Bronner's over Thanksgiving while Jana and Jason were here and Jason needed a little time to study. This one makes forty-one that she has made, bought or acquired. She is just completing her forty-second, which is crocheted. We'll add a picture of it as soon as it is complete. Love you all.

Even more snow!

Well we got about 3 more inches last night. I swear I have never lived in this much snow before. I asked a guy from our ward lastnight if this is typical for this area. He said no, not really. I was so relieved because I'm not sure I could survive several years of living through winters like this one. I only hope that the whole winter isn't like this past week has been.

I dumped our realtor a couple days ago. A lady from church hooked us up with an old family friend who is a realtor. He is showing us a house tomorrow. I'm not overly impressed with his service yet, so we'll see how tomorrow goes. I'm kind of excited to see this house. It is literally just up the road from Charlie's school. You can see it from the front porch and it has a quarter of an ache of land with 3, potentially 4, bedrooms. I just hope it's in good condition.

I also sent a letter to the realty agency who I am fighting with to get that money back from. In the letter, I informed them that I have three other witnesses besides myself who saw that the water had not been turned on by the plumber. I told them if they didn't refund my money that I would go to the Better Business Bureau, file a formal complaint with the realtor's association they belong to and take legal action. I gave them until Tuesday next week to respond. I hope they just refund the money without my having to do anything else. This is really just annoying to me. I can't believe that $175 is such a big deal to them, it is to me, but why would it be for a business who deals with thousands of dollars a day?

Lexi has been facing some bullying issues at school. It's been going on for about a month now. She's trying to be a real trooper about it, but I can tell it's starting to wear on her. I'm going to have Charlie give her a father's blessing, but if you guys could send some prayers her way I think it would help. At first there were only a couple kids making fun of her having a big foreheard. However, this week, someone wrote some bad things about her on the stalls in a bathroom. They called her a B.... and a Mother F..... She doesn't understand why and feels bad. The principal is involved, but they don't know who did it so really don't have anyone they can punish. They spoke with Lexi's class as a whole, hoping that whoever it is is in the class, and told them how inappropriate it was. But that's about all they can do. I will probably try to meet with the principal if any more happens. I don't want Lexi to start dreading going to school, and I don't want her to start to withdraw into herself. I'm going to try to get her, and all the kids, in a different, better school district next year. They are a neighboring district and have open enrollment. I'd have to transport the kids there, but that's not new to me. They only have limited space though so I'm hoping they have room for my kids, at least Lexi at the very least.

Walmart is Evil!

I've been telling you for years, and none of you would listen to me. Wal-mart puts the little store owners out of business, and now it's happened in South Lyon. The Lyon's Marketplace is closing it's doors this weekend. There was an article in the local paper about it, and this is what it says,
"Byron and Cami spent a lot of time trying to figure out a way to stay open, but in the end, the financial issues proved too much. Bryon cited Pfizer moving out of Ann Arbor, the opening of Buch's and a Super Wal-Mart as all contributers to the problem." And yet you continue to shop there. I just shake my head.

The Puppet Show

I love the traditional nativity puppet show that we do every year. It, along with the hanging advent calendar, is probably my favorite and most memorable Christmas tradition. Somewhere I got it in my head that we were supposed to be given our own puppets when we got married, but I still don't have any! Did I make this up, Mom, or did you say that at some point? Well, regardless, I would like to have my own set. Are they easy to make? Minimal sewing? I'd like to take on that project.

Oh, and for fun, here are some new cute pictures of Addie. Oh, and the one of me? I just didn't want you to forget what a large mouth I have.

Jimmy's Old!

I was talking to the lady I work with the other day and telling her when my younger brother was going to graduate from high school-in June 2008. And then it hit me, that's this coming June. Jimmy's a senior in high school! He's almost 18! He could vote in the presidential election! Does this shock anyone, or did that already sink in to everyone else? It was definitely a WOW moment for me, that's for sure. I guess that when you don't live close things like this creep up on you. I think that we should all send him something cool for his birthday-like we were there. Or in Kurt and Heather's case they really would be there. Or maybe we could all go in together to get him something nice-I don't really have any ideas, maybe someone else does. They grow up so fast :)

Our First Family Christmas Photo

We got our decorations out, or at least some of them, this past weekend. Harvey slept through most of the process, though Kurt toted him around in the baby-carrier so that he could be part of the action. We're gearing up into the holiday season. We have a couple of parties this weekend, then my aunt and uncle and their family will be in town with us next weekend for my cousins graduation. After that Harvey and I are heading North for festivities with my family. Kurt will come up for the weekend before Christmas and we'll be heading back down state Christmas morning for Hutchinson Christmas. It will be a whirlwind! I'm just glad Harvey is doing a little better job of sleeping. That should make life a lot easier.

More Snow!

We are in the middle of our second significant snow fall right now. It started at about 4 pm and now it's about 7 pm. Alexis was suppose to have an Activity Day activity tonight but on my way to take her there I slid a couple of times, one slide was pretty scary so I turned around and went home, much to her chagrin. The first snow fall was a slippery one too. The snow just seems to be pretty wet and heavy. Not what I was used to in Michigan. I just hope that not all snow falls here are like this. The streets are pretty slippery even with just about an inch or so of snow on them. I won't want to go anywhere whenever it snows. That won't be a good thing for me. I can't deny though, that it would be fun for school to be canceled tomorrow. It'd be nice to have Charlie home.

I dropped our realtor today. After much discussion, Charlie and I decided that we should try to use a realtor who is from Racine instead of the guy we were using who is based from the city just south of Racine. I don't like telling people bad news so it wasn't fun for me to tell him we were letting him go, especially because he is a really nice guy. Thank goodness he didn't try to talk me out of it or try to make me feel bad. He was pretty nice about it. Which kind of made it a little more sad for me. I'm glad I did it though and I look forward to working with our new realtor. He is a long time family friend of a family in our ward. The wife told me that she threatened him that he needs to get us a really good deal. I hope that pans out.

So I'm actually reading a book right now. I know, I know, it sounds weird, but it's true. It's a book that a good friend of mine recommended several years ago and I just now was able to put my hands on a copy of it. It's called The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman. I'm not quite finished with it yet, but I highly recommend it to one and all, especially those who are married. But you AND your spouse really should read it. Even if you don't think you need help in your marriage, it's still fun to read and try to figure out which love languages you and your spouse speak. I'm really enjoying it. I've discovered that I speak several different love languages, but Charlie primarily speaks the love language of physical touch with some types of quality time thrown in too. It would be cool if all my family could read it and then we could talk about it. I just checked it out of the library. You should too.

Festival of Trees

Here are some pictures from the Festival of Trees. This is a festival where people and companies decorate Christmas trees and people buy them at an auction and anything else that is thrown in with the tree. And all the proceeds go to Primary Children's Hospital for research and helping families pay for treatment. It's really awesome and you just wouldn't believe how many trees there are. People also make gingerbread houses, smaller trees, door decoration, etc. There is a lot to choose from and to see. We hope you enjoy the few pictures that we've put up.

New picture comment

Gotta love that new picture Jana chose. I wish my hair was still that light, although I'm glad I don't wear bangs anymore. Jana, that look on your face is kind of funny. You look disgusted with something. I wonder what it was?

Ten and a half years later

Dad's time in the stake presidency is over! He was released yesterday and he's given back all of the books and keys and everything. We had stake conference at Laural Manor in Livonia. I think most of you had a prom there at one time or another. It was all decorated for Christmas and when it was over we didn't have to put away the chairs or anything. We did have to pick up the paper though. It went really well. I think Kari might know the new stake president, but I don't think the rest of you will. He is Doctor Medley in the Plymouth Ward. He was just made the Bishop in the Plymouth Ward about 5 months ago, so he's pretty new to the church administration thing. He picked both of his counselors from Plymouth as well. Kris Christensen moved from 2nd counselor to 1st counselor and Bro. Brebberman is the 2nd counselor. It will be a change in our home life, although I think Dad will just spend the extra time at home studying instead of not having anything to do. Cindy Dunnigan and I had to bear our testimonies at the meeting. I was playing for the choir, so I felt like I was always jumping up and down, but I shouldn't have to be in that position again. We're going to go into obscurity in the ward and never be heard from again.

Busy, Busy

We have been busy and that's why I've been a little late in reporting Thanksgiving. It went well. Eric and I spent the morning cleaning up our little yard and cleaning our house. I made apple crisp-from scratch...I peeled the apples by hand and everything. It was really yummy. By the time we got to Grandma's house (which was the time we were told to be there), everyone had already eaten. It was kind of weird because Eric and I just kind of ate while everyone else talked. But it was cool and we had a great time and ate some super delicious food (Grandma is a wizard at Thanksgiving). And by the way, she did make her homemade stuffing, for those of you who have had it, it is HEAVEN! So, there weren't very many people there. Rick was there by himself and stayed in the basement the whole time. Kendall and Robin and Robin's son (I forget his name) stayed in the living room and so we didn't get to see them much. Deena and Jeff were there-FYI Jana, he is graduating in Political Science. We mostly just sat and talked to Grandma and she told us stories about Dad when he was jumped by guys at a football game and stories about Diana, etc. It was fun and Deena stayed and listened and she was surprised all those things happened to Dad.
We left about an hour and half after we got there because Grandma wanted to take a nap. We went home and decorated our Christmas tree and put up our very few other decorations. It was fun.
Friday, Mary and I went shopping-but neither of us bought anything. By the way, Mary is engaged! Yipee! (Mary is my best friend, FYI) They are planning on getting married at the end of April. After that, we went to an outside concert given by Jon Schmidt-and yes he played upsidedown. It was FUN! And then we saw the lights on temple square. And this weekend we are going to the festival of trees...I will be posting pictures.
Eric got out a third secondary application-Maine. We are holding our breaths to hear from any of the schools. The last one he has to complete is Chicago. Next week is the last week of school! YAY! And I will also be 8 months next week...crazy. I can't believe that I've had this baby in my body for almost 32 weeks. I am huge and just waiting for the day when I can let him out. And we just have a million things to do in December-it's going to be awesome! We're glad to hear that everyone had a good Thanksgiving and that everything seems to be going well-except for Jana's little trip to the hospital. We'll update again when we have exciting news...or just some really awesome pictures.

I voted for Silent Night, but probably my all time favorite Christmas song is Oh Holy Night.

Jana, I hate to say it, but your snowman looks like it needs a bra. :)

applesauce

Well, for those who haven't heard, I have gall stones. They really aren't so bad when I eat properly, it seems Heather has passed her bland diet on to me. Dang. We're just trying to figure out what to do from here--what surgeon, how to pay for it, when to do it. I don't know what it is, but I've always hated making phone calls so I put things off like this. I know that's stupid, but I don't want to sit on the phone and call around so I haven't. It's for that same reason I made Addie's 4 month check-up a month late, I just hate making the call. Anyhow...that's my big project this week. I have to figure out what to do to have my gall bladder removed.

Can you believe that is a gall bladder full of gall stones? It looks like a pomegranate!

Kari and Hillary, it's much more prevalent in females and those with a family history of gall stones (thanks, Mom), so just wait your turn! It's terrific! Mom's attacks didn't start until her mid-thirties, so you may still have some time. Hopefully you'll miss it all together. The only way I could describe the pain is that it is nearly as bad as labor, but without any resting periods. It just digs deep into your ribs and back for hours until, well, it's magically gone.

I'm really having a difficult time thinking of meals I can eat. I can't have pepper, chili pepper, spices, caffeine, tomatoes or tomato juice, citrus, chocolate, fried foods, or fatty foods, and I have to eat several small meals a day in a "relaxed atmosphere." We think it's funny they put that on my instruction sheet. So, do you have any recipe suggestions? I'm up for anything! I'm getting rather tired of applesauce.

Christmas tree pictures as promised

Our family home evening tonight was about cooperation. I thought it tied in nicely with "cooperating" to decorate the tree. Of course, my kids just wanted to decorate the tree. We all had lots of fun and now our home is feeling much more festive. (P.S. I hope you all enjoy the extra steps it took for me to download the picture right side up :)!!!)

Time for Christmas!

Well now that we are back, safe and sound, we are preparing to put up our Christmas decorations. We were able to fit all of them in our van to bring back with us. Fortunately, we don't have that many yet. As much as I loved our vacation, I am glad to be home and able to rest a bit and get back into the swing of things. I have an amazing amount of laundry to do today. Good thing I don't have anywhere else I need to go. I hope to have the tree set up today so we can decorate it for family home evening. The kids love to decorate the tree. I'm looking forward to putting up my decorations. I think it will help this place feel more like a home. We brought a couple of pictures back with us to hang on the walls too. I think I'm going to try to get a new family picture taken so we can hang that on the wall too. I figure that if we are going to live here for a while, we might as well make it more like a home. Home is where the heart is anyway, right? So happy Christmas decorating to the rest of you. I post a picture of our tree once it's finished.

It was so fun to see so many of you. I look forward to Christmas and being able to visit more, and for a longer period of time, too. I actually look forward to next Christmas more though, when we can all be together. I just think that's going to be a BLAST!

Thanksgiving

I woke up to snow all over the place today! There's about an inch with more lazily falling. I have to keep thinking how beautiful it is instead of thinking about all of the leaves that are under it. The maple tree in the back has only begun to shed it's leaves, and the lawn mower has sprung a leak in the gas line. I'm hoping there'll be a string of nice days after all of the leaves have fallen when we can get them off the lawn.
We've enjoyed having the Hairs here for the last couple of days. It's always fun to play with babies, especially when they're cute. We're also glad that Heather is feeling better. The Hicks got here last night all worn out from the drive. I remember making those trips to Grandmas from Michigan to Utah with a bunch of little kids and how tiring that was.
Kari, I hope you and Eric enjoy the day with Grandma, and anyone else who comes. I remember having Thanksgiving dinner there the year that Grandma and Grandpa celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary, and there were fifty people there for dinner. We'll only have 13 today, but it will be fun anyway.
I'm thankful for all of you, and my wonderful husband who has made my life so great.
Merrit says to tell you that today it's snowing. Happy Thanksgiving.

Maybe not...

So, I was looking at the Church's website because Hillary asked how many temples we had actually been to and I wanted to make sure that I counted them all and Eric and I had a surprise. It just so happens that there is a small temple in Monticello, UT-down in southern Utah by the Colorado border-that we didn't even know was there. Now, we have to find a weekend before the baby is born to make the 5 hour trip down...it's a good reason to have a little weekend vacation, I think. So, with this temple in Monticello, that makes 11 temples in Utah alone and we did go to the Vegas one on that trip. So that makes 11 that we've been to in this region (12 when we get down to Monticello). Oops...I guess we're not done, but hopefully before the beginning of next year.

Temple Tour is Over

Today we completed our goal of going to every open temple in Utah-there are a few still in the works that we will have to get later. Last Saturday we met up with some friends from EFY and went to a session in Logan, so all we had left to go to was Vernal. So this morning we left our house at 9am and got to Vernal around 12:30pm--it was quite the drive. But we made it and we loved it. There were only like 15 people altogether in our session, and temple is just gorgeous inside. Very simple and just gorgeous. Vernal is also just a cool little town that we don't think would be so bad to live in-it's a lot like South Lyon, just without any cities close by :) So, HURRAY! We made it and we did it! If feels good-especially since we didn't know how we would have pulled this off if we had waiting a couple of months...there aren't really places babies can stay while you do a session. We hope you all have a great Thanksgiving! Love you!

Update

Well, unfortunately we received some not-so-great news yesterday. That house I just wrote about, that we were very interested in, has had an offer accepted on it before we could get ours in. I don't know if ours would have even been high enough to even be considered, but we are all pretty sad none the less. Our poor kids. They go to these houses with us to see them and get their hopes up so high that they really feel it when it doesn't turn out to be the one. They really want to be in our own home. I can't say that I blame them. I'm right there with them. And though I ususally know better than to get my hopes up for any house, I did with this one. I'm pretty discouraged about the whole house hunting affair now.

We also found out that Charlie's dad lost his job yesterday. His manager felt like he wasn't learning the computer system fast enough and so let him go. Charlie's parents are pretty bumbed, especially his dad. He is very discouraged. I just pray he gets another job soon. I don't know how well he'd take it if it took as long this time to get a job as it did last time.

The Rival Beauty and the Beast

Here we are when we had just gotten engaged-this is the picture I sent to mom and dad so they would know what he looked like. I didn't want you guys to forget what we look like.

So, this evening Eric and I attended a high school drama presentation of Beauty and the Beast with his parents. The whole time we were comparing it to Jimmy's show and we thought we would share with the rest of you what we saw-since all of you went and will know what we are talking about. At first, we were very impressed with the scenery-Eric says that this school isn't very good at sports so they spend a lot of their money on their shows.

Here's the analysis:

The scenery and the costumes were absolutely amazing-they really looked like the cartoon and the pros. Belle came out and she was pretty good-very pretty, an okay singer and actress. She didn't really blow either of us away. There were hundreds of townsfolk. At intermission Eric counted all the people in the show-ensemble and main characters-and there were 183 members and over half of them were girls. The opening town song was pretty amazing. The only disappointing part in the beginning song was Gaston. He came out on stage and I laughed for a good couple of minutes. He was puny. Not only was he skinny, but they didn't even have him in the blow up suit that would make him look bigger-just skinny. And Lafu was all over the place with his body-like a puppet on Seaseme Street...maybe even bigger movements than a puppet. He was such a distraction and annoyance that I dreaded everytime he would be back on stage. Belle's father was great-he actually looked old and played the part well.

I know that everyone will be confused and little disappointed when I tell you that during the song "ME" we found out that Gaston was lip syncing. It's true, he did not sing for himself. We aren't sure why-he didn't sound sick. And it was really obvious in places when he would forget the words and mess them up or stop moving his mouth and the voice would keep singing. OR there was also a time when whoever was singing, I'm guessing their mic wasn't on because he would start lipping the words, but there was no voice. It was sad and kind of annoying. And just crazy!

The wolves were actual dancers, so their scenes were really cool. During the tavern song, we were really disappointed because they used sound effects for the clinking of the glasses and they didn't even make it look like they were trying to hit the glasses together-it could have been way cooler. Cogsworth was eons above the guy in Jimmy's show. He was bigger, his costume was really cool, and he acted like a pompus English guy. He fell down during Be Our Guest and couldn't get back up-it was soo funny...but we thought it was supposed to happen. Then he came out later limping and we felt bad that he was hurt, but the falling down was still hilarious. Lumire and Babett were both pretty disappointing and the Mrs. Potts was good just like in Jimmy's. The wardrobe was hilarious and sang most of her lines-they even let her make up her own aria at one point and it was just awesome.

The Beast did a great job-he didn't sing very well-but his acting was great and if Jimmy had had his costume, I think he could have done so much more with his character. This kid looked just like the Beast from the movie. He had the exact wig and beard and then they just painted his face to look like the cartoon so he could look up and move around without worrying whether his hair would fall off or of people seeing his face. AND at the end, Belle and the Beast practically made out on stage-pretty scandalous. You just hoped that they prepared their parents for that.

SO...overall...Jimmy's show is the winner. If they had had these costumes and if Cogsworth was played by the kid we saw tonight, it would have been just wonderful. But, Jimmy as the Beast was beyond compare. The Beast's mic was out tonight for one of those short little songs he sings and you couldn't hear him at all...and we were sure that if that had happened to Jimmy that it wouldn't have mattered. :) Just wanted to share with you our evening tonight and how we felt about it. We do miss you guys but hope that you have a great Thanksgiving and we hope that we get to see you next summer.

P.S. Eric sent in two secondaries today completed (Michigan and Missouri) so please cross your fingers and say your prayers that they look on his application with favor and that one or the other will want him. He does have two left to finish and so they are still potential places to go, but he has these two in and so, right now, they are the better chance. Thanks guys! We love you!

GREAT NEWS! (potentially)

I heard from Jocelyn today that there is a potential buyer for her house. It's the mother of the man who bought our house across the street. I don't have any more details at this time. I'm hoping to get some more tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed and your prayers up that this goes through and that her house finally goes away!

so blond!

It's amazing how blond Kurt's hair is in the picture above! I wonder if we can expect the same from Harvey...

News from the house front

We saw a pretty nice house Saturday morning. We really like it. The bad part is that it is listed at $159,900 right now. It was a foreclosure and the bank now owns it. The selling agent is the one who showed the house to us and she told us the bank is very motivated. She said we should just make an offer and see what happens. So all weekend we've been praying and thinking about this house. We feel like we will make an offer, although it's going to be tons lower than what it's listed at, and just see what happens. We know what we can afford and we won't go over that. With the market the was it is, being flooded with bank owned houses, we may just get this house for what we can afford. Keep your fingers crossed for us! Sorry I don't have any pictures of it, but if things go forward I'll definately post some pictures.

In 6 days Jason, Addie and I will be leaving for Michigan. Yay! I can't wait! It will be nice to be home, let someone else hold Addie for a while, and spend time with family. Mom told me last night that Heather went to stay the week with her parents because she wasn't feeling well. I wish there was something I could do to help, I can't even imagine how taxing this whole experience has been on both her and Kurt. A new baby and recovering from delivery is tough work, and to have the flu and be weak on top of it must be really hard. Jason and I have been keeping you in our thoughts and prayers! I hope we'll still get to see Harvey over Thanksgiving!

Here are a couple cute pictures I took of Adelyn the other day. I swear, she gets cuter and cuter!

My first parking ticket!

Well, I got my first EVER parking ticket on Tuesday. The city public library has metered parking. It only costs 25 cents for 2 hours of parking, but it might as well be $100 when you don't have any change on you. I went on Tuesday morning to take Chelsea and Jaxson to the storytime they have. When I got there I realized that I didn't have any quarters. Storytime was going to start in 10 minutes and I wouldn't have time to go home and get a quarter and come back. Because I'd already told the kids we were going, I couldn't just go home (That is one tip for all you new parents, don't ever tell your kids what you are going to do until you are practically doing it. That way if some act of nature happen, or you just change your mind, you don't have to listen to them whine and complain and cry about you not keeping your word). So I parked, hoping that no one would be by to check for the hour I'd be in the library. Of course, I wasn't so lucky. Although, I did deserve the ticket, I did break the law. Unfortunately, the ticket was $11. So my parking fee actually was $11 that day, not the typical 25 cents! Life sucks sometimes.

Report from the Underbelly

Well, I'm thrilled to report that I am finally feeling better. If any of you hadn't heard, I've had a pretty bad case of the stomach flu/bacterial infection for the past 9 days. Today is the first day since delivery that I have finally felt human. Harvey is also two weeks old today. He's put on 15 ounces in the last week so he's now a pound up since birth. I'll post some pictures soon. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers that I would feel better. I'm just glad I'm finally getting a chance to enjoy being home with my son.

Wish me luck!

Well, today I'm attempting to collect a refund of money from the selling agents of the house we tried to buy. They had me pay them so they could hire a plumber to go into the house and de-winterize the plumbing so we could have it inspected. The job was not finished completely, in fact, the plumber only hooked up the water meter. The meter he hooked up was an old version and it was illegal for him to re-hook it up. But that really doesn't matter to me, it's not any of my business. However, I did pay for the house to be de-winterized so it could be inspected, and that did not happen. Therefore, I am requesting the selling agent refund my money. I've left a message this morning for the woman we dealt with to call me back. I'm expecting that she will refuse and that things will get ugly. I really don't want to fight about this, but I think I'm entitled to have that money back and it's not like it's a small amount. I paid $175 for that plumber. I can't just forget about that amount of money. I'm prepared to go to the realtor's association, the Better Business Bureau and even small claims court if I need to. I just hope it doesn't have to go that far. I'm not very good with confrontation. My stomach is just churning right now. AHHHHH!

R.I.P. Little Green

Little Green is standing on her last legs and it's so sad to see her struggle. Addie and I were on our way home yesterday and I started to smell something funny--pepperoni pizza, I kid you not--coming from our engine. A few minutes later Little Green started going slower and slower, so I finally pulled onto a side-street and could barely turn the steering wheel. I parked her off the side of the road, and she wouldn't start back up. It was so sad. I called my friend (I was SO THANKFUL to have cell phone, it would have been horrible to be stuck with Addie without one) and she sent someone to pick me up.

The whole situation wasn't annoying or frustrating, just sad, because I knew this would probably be the last straw. Once fixed, we're probably going to sell her. Her upkeep is costing more than she's worth, and we'll be fine with one car for now. Jason is in a carpool and usually drives to school once a week, at the most twice, so it wouldn't be so bad. It's funny to have an emotional attachment to Little Green, but I do. She's been with me since I was 16 and I will miss her. Alas, it's time to move on...

Words from Mom

Dad says he's never seen this picture, which is probably true since it was taken by the boyfriend I had before him. This boyfriend actually graduated with a degree in photography, but had to find a job that would give him a steady income. He picked up a little on the side by taking pictures for people (but I didn't have to pay for mine).

I'm spending this week painting the bathroom. The paint in there was pealing, so I had to spend a lot of time scraping and sanding. I got it primed yesterday, and now I have to patch where it pealed and then prime the patches. Once I get that all done, then I can actually paint it. A week long project, but necessary. If I've done everything right, it should stop it from pealing. Humidity is murder on bathrooms.

Jana, I've noticed in a couple of the pictures that you're using the baby blanket that LaRee made for you. I'm glad to see that it's being used.

I also see that Lasagna is leading the voting for Thanksgiving. It will be interesting to see how that goes.

Michigan Jokes

Melissa Allen/Franson (a friend of mine from Dearborn) sent me this email claiming that Jeff Foxworthy was making fun of Michigan and that the list below is what he said. I'm not sure if that's true, but I still laughed and I thought I would share it with the rest of you who understand :)

You know you're a true MICHIGANDER when . . .
1. "Vacation" means going up north on I-75, 127, or 31
2. You measure distance in hours.
3. You know several people who have hit a deer more than once.
4. You often switch from "heat" to "A/C" in the same day.
5. You can drive 65 mph through 2 feet of snow during a raging blizzard, without flinching.
6. You see people wearing camouflage at social events (including weddings).
7. You install security lights on your house and garage and leave both unlocked.
8. You carry jumper cables in your car and your girlfriend knows how to use them.
9. You design your kid's Halloween costume to fit over a snowsuit.
10. Driving is better in the winter because the potholes are filled with snow.
11. You know all 4 seasons: almost winter, winter, still winter and road construction.
12. You can identify a southern or eastern accent.
13. Your idea of creative landscaping is a statue of a deer next to your blue spruce.
14. You were unaware that there is a legal drinking age.
15. Down South to you means Ohio .
16. A brat is something you eat.
17. Your neighbor throws a party to elebrate his new pole barn.
18. You go out to fish fry every Friday.
19. Your 4th of July picnic was moved indoors due to frost.
20. You have more miles on your snow blower than your car.
21. You find 0 degrees "a little chilly."
22. You drink pop and bake with soda.
23. Your doctor tells you to drink Vernors and you know it's not medicine.
24. You can actually drink Vernors without coughing.
25. You know what a Yooper is.
26. You think owning a Honda is Un-American.
27. You know that UP is a place, not a direction.
28. You know it's possible to live in a thumb.
29. You understand that when visiting Detroit , the best thing to wear is a Kevlar vest.
30. You actually understand these jokes, and you forward th em to all your Michigan friends.

Charlie's new calling...

I forgot to mention that Charlie received his calling, finally. He's going to be the 1st councilor in the Elders Quorum presidency. He'll be sustained on Sunday. We kind of felt he was going there because the new Elders Quorum president is one of the only friends we have in the ward yet (although he swears he received inspiration about Charlie :)). It's good for Charlie to have something to do. I think he was starting to wonder why he didn't have a calling yet (I don't know if he'd ever admit to that though).

Hicks' two cents

That picture of Mom is really cool. I like how the edges are out of focus. Who ever took it did a great job.

Not much new to report here. We're back in the swing of things with the kids in school, Charlie teaching and me at home. We are already looking forward to the Thanksgiving break. I'm still pressing forward with Weight Watchers. I'm having a more difficult time right now with all the Halloween candy on sale. This and after Easter are the worst times for me indulging my candy cravings. I've found some sugar free fudgecicles that are 0 points and that has helped. My goal is to be 10 pounds lighter by Christmas. Then I would only have 20 more pounds to go to get to my goal weight. I'm losing about 1 to 1 1/2 pounds every week. If I keep that up I should reach my goal weight by March or April. That's pretty exciting to me.

I want to thank everyone that participated with us this past weekend with the fast for Jocelyn's house to sell. It means a lot to me that I can count on my family to help in ways like that, even if Jocelyn isn't a blood relative. There haven't been any takers yet, but I've faith that someone will come along and buy it. It would be such a blessing to many people for it to be out of the family.

Our house hunting is on hold right now. We've pretty much looked at all the houses in our price range that we'd even consider. The ones we like are at a price that we'd need a little more of a down payment for. So until we have the money from Jocelyn's house we are in a holding pattern. But, even if the houses we like now aren't around by the time we have that money, I know there will be something else for us. I'm leaving things up to the Lord and trying to have patience with His time table. It's not very easy for me, I've never really been a patient person, but I'm trying.

Anyway, sorry for babbling on so. I hope everyone else is doing well. Hope to hear from you soon.

What's been going on with us!

Ok, nothing has really been going on. We just needed a new post on here, so I am going to provide it.



Adelyn turned 4 months on the 3rd. She's getting old! That being said, I have decided to finally start working on two LARGE tasks this week:

1. To get her on a feeding/sleeping schedule! I think I'll find greater freedom when I can tell someone when I'll be free, and not try to guess when she'll be sleeping. It really hasn't been too much of a bother, I still take her all around, but now that she's a little older it seems she doesn't sleep as easily in her carseat (I don't know why) so traipsing around with her while she's sleepy has been more of an issue.


2. To get her to sleep in her crib! Before we moved, Jason and I were very good about having her sleep in her crib as much of a nightmare as it was. We'd keep putting her to sleep in our arms and then transfer her to the crib. Well, since we've moved here, we didn't set up her crib for a while and found that she slept much better (and much longer!) in bed with us. I really don't mind it, actually. Some people have VERY strong opinions on this (believe me, I've heard them from other moms in our ward) and I disagree with most of them. I personally enjoy co-sleeping (as it's called in the professional field) and have done some preliminary research on it and found that the "professionals" can't agree either. Some say it's great, whild others don't. I feel it's convenient for nighttime feedings, it builds bonds between baby and father (who doesn't get to do much of anything in the first few months), and it's fun to snuggle. Well, it's time for us to move her out--not for her, but for us. Because Jason is gone so much we don't get to spend much alone time together, so we want our nights back! I actually wish we didn't have to, but alas, the move is for our marriage. On any note, getting her to sleep just as well in her crib as she does in our bed will be a struggle (I'm not looking forward to going back to the frequent wakings for the first couple weeks) but it's necessary. Oh, and thanks to Hillary for the advice.

Ok, so that sums it up. I hope everyone is doing great. I'm really looking forward to Thanksgiving. We'll be driving up in less than 2 weeks! Kurt and Heather, when you have a minute (which I know is rare) I'd like to hear how you/Harvey are doing!

This is Dad and Addie watching football. Haha! They usually fall asleep by halftime.

Her first "playgroup."

Isn't she cute? This is Jason's favorite outfit. Thanks, Hillary!

Halloween and stuff

Just thought you'd like to see what fun we had when Hillary, Charlie and their family were here with us. I also wanted to upload the outstanding pumpkin we displayed last night for Halloween. I'm sure you will see that it competes well with Kari and Eric's masterpieces.

Addie's Halloween

This is Addie in her Halloween costume. She won first prize in her age group (baby to 1 yr) at our ward Halloween party. I'm sure you can see why!

We went trick-or-treating with our friends last night, too. We didn't get any candy, we just walked around with their kids to show Addie off. One lady, their next door neighbor, walked up to Jason while he held her and said, "Can I take her?" Then she just grabbed Addie out of his arms. We were dumbfounded. While she walked indoors she said, "My 98 year old mother is inside and would love to see your baby." My friend went inside with her, and Jason and I stood on the porch laughing, the whole situation was sort of ridiculous. Well, that's how people roll in the South. Haha!

She kept spitting up all over the costume, thus the bib. Ducks can wear bibs, right?

This is Addie (sans duck head) with Heidi (who is holding her) and Kaylee. They are Tinkerbells. They are our friends' kids.

As Kurt said, end with a close up.