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.

Picture sharing

We went to the beach again today. These are our new pictures.

Happy Birthday Makayla! She was so excited about being 7 years old. She doesn't have to take naps anymore (that's our family rule) and she gets to be baptized next year. She can't wait.

These are my cubbies. From left to right it goes: Will Allen, Alex Farley, Merrit and Tylor Pirk. Doesn't Tylor look so thrilled to be there? He can be a little on the whiny side sometimes. Our pack meeting for May was this passed Wednesday. The boys did an outdoor flag ceremony as part of a color gaurd. This was them as the color gaurd. Then we planted a tree. It was fun!

These are the cupcakes we made for Makayla to take in to her class for her birthday yesterday. We also did Chelsea's for her class too. Because she has a summer birthday she doesn't get to take cupcakes on her birthday, so I figured yesterday was as good as any other day and actually better for me since I was already making them for Makayla. Chelsea and Makayla both helped me put the marshmellows in the colored sprinkles and then on their cupcakes. They thought it was so fun and it really helped me get them put together quickly. I like doing things like this for and with my kids. I sure love them!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MAKAYLA

Happy birthday, sweetheart! Hope you have a great day and get a big cake.

House Update

Just thought you might be interested to know that yesterday we made an offer on the house we like and it was counter-offered (they wanted full price and wouldn't budge) and we accepted the counter-offer and now things are in the works. I talked to Eric's brother this morning and he said that he was hoping to have the inspection and appraisal done by the end of next week and he is also hoping that it all works out and that we can sign the papers the week we get back from Michigan. Wohoo! So, cross your fingers that the inspection is favorable. We know that it being an older house and only costing $57,500 it won't be perfect, but we are just hoping that it won't fall apart on us in 6 months or something. Hopefully it all works out.

Farthest run yet!

I am so proud of myself, I went a little over 4 miles today on my morning jog pushing Addie in a stroller. It was drizzling outside making it a bit cooler, and that really helped. I now only have 39 more miles to go before July 1st. Yahoo!

More Prayers

I feel like a sad, sad broken record. If you could keep my aunt in your thoughts and prayers I'd appreciate it. She is very sick and is not recovering well from her colon removal. The doctors say there is only a very slim chance she will survive. Please join Kurt and I in praying for her recovery.

Happy Memorial Day

We went to the lake today and let the kids swim. First swim of the season. We thought they would jump in and then jump right back out again because the water is still so cold. But they played for a good 45 minutes before we made them get out because we had other things we had to do today. They had lots of fun and actually stayed in the water a lot longer than we thought. We were impressed. Meg even got to come and went swimming with us. She had just as much fun as (maybe even more than) the kids did. The water is about 50 degrees right now, still too cold for me. I just sat and watched and took pictures. We will definately miss being so close to the lake. We haven't even really got to enjoy it to the fullest extent. We're going to try to go as often as we can before we move. We'll probably never live this close to a lake again. :(

Then we had a BBQ with some friends we've made through Chelsea's friend at school. All in all we had a very enjoyable Memorial Day. I hope all of you did too.

Some updates from the Hicks

Our friends, the Stamps, have said that we could live in their house in Flint. So we will stay there and try to help them sell it while looking for something more permanent for ourselves. And the house we were looking to buy and fix up was sold yesterday. We are a little disappointed, but we know that there are so many houses for sale that we shouldn't have a problem finding something different. There is actually another house we have our eyes on already. It was on the market in early April and before we could look at it was pending sale. Then today we saw it listed again. We checked with our realtor and she said she double checked and it is definately back on the market and that the sale must have fell threw for some reason. We want to see it and hopefully find out why the sale fell threw. It's 6 bedrooms, 2 baths on 4.3 acres in Flushing for $89,900. Can you believe that my kids could each have their own rooms? It would be so nice. Anyway, I'm trying not to get my hopes up too high, the market changes so fast that it might not be around too long.

New pictures

Okay, okay I'm back. I have been reading the blog (not as often as I would like) but I haven't had any comments to make. I don't really have anything great to say now either but we have some real good news. We knew we needed new swings because the other two were getting so old and ugly (we really need to do something with the bench swing as well and may do it sooner than later, depending upon the cost) so we went out yesterday and purchased three new swings, and the good news for you three with young babies, we purchased a baby swing. That's why we purchased three instead of two. Now we can have two normal swings or one normal swing and one baby swing on at any given time. I took pictures to post them so that I could get you all more excited to come. I'm sure that will heighten your desire to be here even more. See you in a couple of weeks.

schedule on June 7

For those of you who don't know the schedule of events. Here they are as I know about them. Kari and Eric get here on Monday, June 2. Jana comes in on Tuesday, June 3. Hillary and kids come Thursday night, June 5, and Charlie on Friday night, June 6. I've been informed that sometime there will be a grandchildren picture taken, but I didn't hear when. Saturday is a busy day, and here is the schedule for that day.

Jim has a senior breakfast and graduation rehearsal from 8 to 10 am. His court of honor will be at the church at 11 am. That should go about an hour, they tell me. I think, as long as we're already there, it would be a good idea to practice the song after the court of honor in the chapel. That will give us a chance to see how it sounds in the room we will be singing it in and not just in our living room (which is a lot smaller). Then we plan to take the whole family out to a restaurant for lunch. Jim is still deciding which one. Jim has to be at Eastern Michigan at 5 pm and the rest of us need to be there at 6 pm. We don't have tickets for the grandchildren, except those who can sit on laps, so I'll find a baby sitter for them. Jim has his all night party at 10 pm.

Sacrament meeting starts at 9 am on Sunday, June 8. We'll sing and then Dad will take Jana and Addie to the airport, so she can get home and wash her clothes and go to girl's camp the next day. I imagine that the Hicks will leave Sunday afternoon, but I don't know that for sure. Kari and Eric leave the next day on Monday, June 9. Then they can go home and pack up to move. June 9th is also the day of Dad's final.

It will be fun and hectic all at once. I'm looking forward to it. This coming week we'll be busy with the last choir concert,senior honors night, prom, and Jim's last week of school. It turns out that senior honors night is the same night as book club. Now I'm torn between going to support Jim, or going with my daughters to book club.

If I've gotten anything wrong, please let me know.

TOES!

Yesterday Noah hit another milestone-well, to us anyway-he found his feet. His are some pictures of the momentous occasion.

Some More Pictures

So I asked my friend Melissa go look at that house I told you all about (her husband is going to medical school at A.T. Still) and she went yesterday and took lots of pictures. Click here to check them out. I know the basement looks gruesome, but we think it just needs to be cleaned up. Also we would paint the outside and take out those huge bushes in the front and put in some nice flowers. Also we talked about putting a nice white railing on the porch to kind of enclose it. Melissa said she really liked it and that if she only had one baby that she would buy it. So we are going to make an offer as soon as we get some things cleared up with the loan and hopefully get the inspection done pretty quick so that we can move right in when we get to Missouri. So keep your fingers crossed that it all works out.

Les and Kristi's baby is here

Charlie's brother, Les and his wife, Kristi, welcomed their newest edition into the world today. This is their first girl. They named her Audrey Ruth. I don't know if either of those are family names or not. I think she looks just like their oldest son, Bradyn. Just thought I'd share the happy news. We are excited for them.

Nice People

Yesterday I had the Relief Society Pres. send out an e mail to the sisters of the ward asking if I could borrow a pack 'n play while my grandchildren are here. I got 6 offers back! People are so nice.

We are moving too.

We've decided to move at the end of June. That's about all we know for sure right now. We've been praying for several months for guidance and direction on this matter and we feel that we are suppose to move back to Michigan. We don't really know why. Charlie felt prompted to turn in his letter of resignation about a week ago. Even though he doesn't yet have a job, or has even had an interview, he feels very strongly that we are suppose to be in Michigan no matter what. With knowing that, we decided that it makes no sense for us to stay here until he has a job. We will just have to keep paying rent and he will have to go back to Michigan every time an interview comes up. That could get really expensive. So our plan right now is to see if we can stay at some friends of ours. They moved to North Caroline just after spring break and haven't sold their house yet in Michigan. We are going to see if they will let us stay there until we find something more permenant.

We have a house in mind that we'd like to try to buy. It is in the Flint ward. Yes, we are returning there, but we won't be living in the city. It is a foreclosure and needs major work. We would basically gut the whole inside and start over. It sounds like a lot of work, but it will actually be easier to do it that way than to try to save what is there now. It's a four bedroom, 2 bath house on 2.79 acres and is listed at $18,900. We think we could probably get it cheaper though. We want to smack a reconstruction loan on top of our mortgage and use that to fix it up. We are working with a realtor from the Howell ward and she is very knowledgable with the housing market and loans, etc... She is really helping us out and we appreciate it.

We started telling people at church on Sunday that we'd be leaving. We feel like they need to have some time to find people to take over our callings before we leave. I'm sad to be moving again. Although I don't really feel like I have many good friends in this ward, I do have a few that I will miss very much. This ward was very kind to us and the people here are very good. I want to come back a visit as often as we can. I hope to stay in touch with them too.

So, we don't know what is in store for us. We are just trying to do what we feel the Lord wants us to do. This is new territory for me. I usually have some idea of what the Lord wants. Now, I don't really know. It's kind of interesting operating in the dark and having everyone look at you like you are insane. I feel a little insane, but I'd much rather be insane than to go against the will of God. He will provide for us in some way. It just might not be the way I am expecting. Sometimes I wish I could see from His perspective.

A Trip To the Zoo and Moving

We went to the zoo today because Eric got to go home from work early and it was a beautiful day today. Here are some pictures of Noah's first day at the zoo. We had a great time.

Also, I got an email from Dad this morning and in it he asked me about what we were doing about housing and I realized that I should probably share with everyone. One of Eric's older brothers has offered to help us buy a house. We are going to co-sign on the loan. He is paying the down payment and we are paying the mortgage and the taxes and all the utilities. He will be paying for any repairs or improvements on the home and we will be taking care of it. We found a house and once we are approved on the loan-either tomorrow or the next day-we will make an offer. We are pretty excited...but I am a little nervous because we are moving the week after we get back from Michigan and I just want things to move a little faster so that we can get other things done. So that is what we are working on right now. We are only looking at a 2 bedroom home, but if you come to visit, we will make room for you...and it will be our place you are staying. Awesome!

Everything else is going well for us. I just started WIC and I tell you, that was an inspired government program-we used our vouchers for this month and saved $96. Holy moly! Noah is big and healthy and doing great at sitting up assisted and holding his head up. He is so much fun to have around (when he's happy), he laughs and smiles at pretty much everybody. We are just trying to wrap everything up here in Utah before we leave and seeing as many people as we can. We are going to miss Utah-Eric especially-but are really excited to start a new adventure in a new place. We can't wait to see you guys in less than 2 weeks and are excited to live much closer than we do now. YIPEE!

Dad?

It occurred to me that Dad has been missing from our blog for quite some time. Dad? Where oh where have you gone? Have your classes swallowed you whole?

Baby Food Debacle

I want to start making Harvey's baby food as prices for the little jars are ridiculous for 2 oz. of food. I tried once before just pureeing green beans in my food processor. That ended in tears and vomiting since he couldn't handle how chunky it was. So I bought a basic food mill and tried that today. It was such a pain! I don't know if I just bought a cheap one or if this is how it always works. It went down like this:

First, I processed some steamed sweet potatoes. They were super mushy and it worked like a dream: fast, easy, good consistency. Inspired, I cleaned the mill and pushed on to peas. Here is where the headache began. These were cooked canned peas so they were well on the mushy side but they just scooted along in front of the blades. I ended up having to puree them in my food processor and then put them through the food mill. This was frustrating but I was happy with the consistency. I wanted to add carrots to the peas because Harv is at the point where we're trying to introduce combined foods. So I wash up all of this rigmarole and start over with carrots. I steamed them in the microwave until they practically fell apart as I picked them up. Yet, they also just scooted along in front of the blades. After putting them through the food processor and back through the food mill they were still too chunky for Harvey and my several hours of work ended in tears and vomit. Any advice from those who have used this method before? My food mill seems like it is of decent quality, certainly not top of the line though. It was a frustrating and disappointing couple of hours.

getting creative

Check out my new project, I'm pleased with how it turned out! I was given these five leftover pieces of wood and decided Addie's room was in need of some decoration. And, just for fun, a picture of Addie thoroughly enjoying her spaghetti!

Kurt, Harvey, and I are all up north for a family tragedy, again. My cousin committed suicide over the weekend. Please keep my family in your prayers.

Mother's Day Wish

Happy Mother's Day to all who are mothers and all who have mothers. I hope you had a wonderful day. I sure did! My kids are great. I'm so thankful they love me so much, despite my faults. I love them dearly. Charlie is also a wonderful husband who helped feel like a very special mom today. I love him dearly too.

Some share time

So the kids and I made some homemade clay, shaped it and then baked and painted it. We did it last week. I thought I'd share their creations with you. The link below is the recipe I used, if you're interested.

http://familycrafts.about.com/cs/claytyperecipes/l/blovclay1.htm

I got my hair cut today too. I really like it. I thought I'd share that too.