Anticipation

Jana called last night to say that her water broke and she was headed to the hospital. I'll let you know when I hear anything.

If Jana can brag, why can't I? I made this for my friend's baby who is now 6 weeks old. I should have held it up or something so you could see how really cool it is...oh well.

I am due on Sunday and it doesn't really feel possible.

GPS

We had been toying with the idea of getting a GPS for some time now, and after Kurt got one, we decided to go ahead and do it. It got here last Saturday, so we used Memorial Day afternoon to take a drive and see how it works. Since I grew up decorating graves on Memorial Day, we drove to the only cemetery in Michigan that I have relatives in in Dexter Township. We tried to do some geocaching along the way, but couldn't get the hang of it. We saw these cows as we were driving there. We'd never seen cows marked like this before and thought they looked like hogs. Anyway, Dad took a picture and we thought we'd share it with you. There is also a picture of the headstone of Aaron Truesdell. I'm doing some geneology along his line trying to find out if the 3 boys who are listed as living in his household in the 1850 census are his sons or nephews, or some other relation.

big girl and a proud mother

Look how BIG Addie looks. Once this little one gets here (in about a week and a half!) I'm sure Addie will seem HUGE.




And THIS, to my own astonishment, is a blanket I made all by myself! My friend Heather told me what to do and let me use her machine, but I did all the work. Are you impressed? I think it turned out really cute.

a shout-out to Christmas

I was thinking recently that we never decided what we're going to do for Christmas this year. I realize this may be a bit premature, but I'd rather we have the discussion and decide now. Mom suggested drawing an entire family out of a hat and then making something homemade for them. That way we can be creative, and most likely not spend as much money on something for each individual in our entire family. As our family is growing, and as a poor student wife, I particularly this idea.

If we do end up doing it this way, here are a few discussion items:

1. Should we make one thing for the entire family (i.e. one gift for all 7 Hicks) or one thing for EACH person in the family (seven gifts for seven Hicks)?

2. Is Jimmy his own entity, or does he get lumped together with Mom and Dad for now?

3. Because they will be homemade, I don't think a spending limit is necessary, do you?

4. If we want to buy gifts for others in the family outside of those in the drawing, I think that's fine, but nobody has to feel obligated. Again, what do you think?

I would be happy to set it up once these few points are decided--and if you guys like this idea at all. As a less-than-crafty gal, I thought it would be handy to know earlier rather than later if this is something we'd like to do. Thanks for your input!

More Utah Pictures

I finally got some time to post more of the pictures we took out in Utah to flickr. I uploaded about 60. Go check them out!

It's National

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30732617
This is an article msnbc wrote about the tornado yesterday...I can't believe it's national news. What a weird feeling.

We Have Survived!

5:30 pm: We just got home from the store and it was pouring outside-like it had been all day. I started making dinner because we were all pretty hungry. I was opening some windows for a breeze because the humidity was overwhelming. Eric and Noah were just hanging out.

5:45 pm: Our city sirens went off. Eric and I looked at each other in somewhat terror, this was new territory for both of us. We had never been through a tornado with Noah. Eric checked the radio and it said that there was a tornado warning in effect until 6:30 pm. There had been a sighting of a supercell 10 miles northwest of Kirksville and it was heading east at 30 mph.

5:50 pm: I start frantically cleaning out Noah's closet. Our basement was flooded and every room has windows. We have two closets, but Noah's seemed the safest.

5:55 pm: The three of us huddled into the smallish closet. Noah does pretty well. We only have flashlights going and Eric's computer is on keeping track of the storm. It was a little like being in a fort. Noah had a blast just hanging on the shelving he could barely reach while I was praying in my mind that we would all be safe.

6:20 pm: We finally emerged from our hiding spot because we could see sun coming in Noah's windows. Eric checks the weather one more time and the storm has moved past Kirksville-but it moved right onto some cities of people who live in our ward. We are praying they are alright.

5 minutes ago: I read this article on our newspaper's website...

It was a close one. The tornado touched down 10 minutes north of our house. Just outside of the most populated part of town. If it had moved 2 or 3 miles south, our house could have been in its path. We thank our Father in Heaven for sparing us and our friends, but are asking Him to look out for those not as fortunate.

Deena update

I called Grandma today as a post-Mother's Day call, I also had to ask her some questions about those tapes that I still haven't finished. Anyway, Deena is apparently doing ok. She is at Karen's house while Karen is working, but Grandma said Deena hasn't called once today needing help, so she must be feeling better.

Also, FYI, Mary broke her arm somehow. Grandma said all she wanted for Mother's Day was to be left alone (in true fashion), but between Deena's concussion and Mary's arm, it made for an interesting holiday. She WAS happy, however, that she didn't need to cook for everyone.

Beginning of New Wall Display

Mom attended a home party a month ago or so and bought some wall decals. She has now turned the wall coming out of the garage into a picture wall with the first picture the one of all the grandchildren you gave us for Christmas. The picture and accompanying words look great and Mom wanted me to post a picture of them. She said we will now add other pictures to the wall as occasion allows.



Mom also wanted me to tell you the latest about Deena (I just talked to Grandma for Mother's Day). It seems that Jeff has left town to visit Dartmouth University (presumably to investigate for potential graduate work) and Deena and Cooper came to Karen's house to stay the week. Before Jeff left, they went to Cherry Hill yesterday to have some fun and Deena was climbing the rock wall (or whatever the climbing wall is) and fell off and hit her head quite hard. She didn't think much about it although her head hurt and then it really started to hurt and she began to have blurry vision. They took her to the hospital and did a CAT scan and found she had a concussion. I'm not sure how they are treating her but Grandma said she now has a very high fever. Grandma and Grandpa will have to take care of her because Karen has to go to work next week. We need to remember her in our prayers.

Hope all you Mothers in the family had a very nice Mother's Day.

We love you all.

P.S. Thought some of you might enjoy seeing my new Michigan State National Champion T-Shirt. (I know they didn't actually win the championship but I got one of the T-shirts they made just in case they won. It may be a collector's item some day -- and then again, it may not be. It's a very nice looking shirt, I think; too bad they didn't win the championship.)

Trip to Points Westward

These are in backwards order because of Bloggers quirks but here's a quick run down of our trip.

Big family dinner. Angela's kids were there for the tail-end of dinner. It was great, sloppy joes and home made root beer.
Angela's kids (left to right Caitlyn, Dylan, Ashton, Cayden) with Harv

Trish and I hunting rocks on Antelope Island.
A wily bison. It's the family mascot, you know.
Harvey and I posing at a sign for Mathers Point at the Grand Canyon. My mom's side of the family are Mathers.
Grand Canyon!
Harvey's first fossil!
Native American Dancers!
This was the Eagles Crest at the sky walk. Kurt was pretty freaked out by being that close to the ledge but if Harv is going to grow up to be a geologist he has to learn sometime.
A new bridge they are building at the Hoover Dam. Potentially cooler than seeing the actual Hoover Dam.

Our vacation was really great and we all came back well rested and much renewed. Grandma and Grandpa are doing well. Trish seems to be settling into life with them. We had a great time hanging out with everyone and Harvey got a real kick out of Trish. We can't wait to go back though next time we'll probably bite off a little less and not add 20 hours of driving to a 5 day vacation.

trip to MO

Addie and I visited Kari over Jason's finals week and had a great time. Addie asked for Noah every day when she woke up, and still does! It was great to have the cousins play together. I wish we all lived closer so all our kids could get to know each other better. Here are few pictures-

Enjoying the wagon ride in Nauvoo, even though it was cold and wet

The King Kong of fingerpaints!

Very hungry and tired coming back from Nauvoo, we just had to laugh because at this point there is nothing you can do.

What a tasty meal at Pancake City!

So, I'm due in 5 weeks. Yeah, it's crazy. I can't beleive we'll have two kids. I'm not ready for sleepless nights all over again, but I am excited to meet this little one who has been making me uncomfortable for so long. This one has definitely been more active than Addie was, Jason thinks that means it's a boy. Was that your experience, Mom and Hillary? Anyhow...the countdown has begun.

Thoroughly Modern Millie

We have now completed our tour of high school musicals. We saw South Lyon East's production Friday night. It was good, as are all of the productions that Mrs. Kupper does. Unlike Little Shop of Horrors, I enjoyed the storyline very much. The kids did a great job even with all of the tap dancing that is in that show. Of course the set and costumes were great.
Kari got here just fine, and we're looking forward to a week with her and Noah. We have lots planned, so we shouldn't be bored. I got asked to play for a girl for the middle school solo and ensemble festival this coming Saturday, that means I'll have to practice with her a couple of times this week and Jim will have to take Kari to the airport on Saturday. It's an inconvenience that I would have preferred not to have this week while they are here, but we don't always get what we would prefer.

Little Shop of Horrors

On Friday night Bill, Dad and I went to South Lyon High School's production of Little Shop of Horrors. None of us knew the plot, but we went anyway. Except for the story line, we enjoyed it very much. The kids did a great job, the set was very good and even the plant was very good. There were little children in the audience, and I'm not so sure that was a good idea. The week before, we went to Novi's production of Beauty and the Beast. We are prejudiced of course, but we thought that Jim's was better. Next week we're going to South Lyon East's production of Thoroughly Modern Millie. I'm excited to see it. We saw it in Detroit a few years ago, and I liked it then. I'll let you know.
Jim has his finals this week. He's excited to be done with this semester. Dad is working hard on his homework, and is sad because the week that Kari will be here, he has a major project to do and won't be able to spend much time with her and Noah.
I think it will be best to do family dinner on Sunday. Both our stake and Hillary's stake has stake conference and we'll be done with church about noon. We can come here or go to Kurt's or Hillary's house. Since Kari will be here and she wants to see Hillary's house, maybe going there would be a good idea. What do you think, Hillary and Kurt?

The stove lives...

Charlie got the gas piped to the stove tonight! Hurray! The only problem is that he has to swap out the electic plug in order for the oven part to work now. So we can use the burners, but not the oven yet. It's a great step in the right direction now though, so I'm not going to complain too loudly. He was also able to fix the upstairs shower so we can use it now too. He hasn't finished the tiling yet, but we hung up plastic to cover the walls until that can be accomplished. Yet another step in the right direction. Our life has been little triumphs lately for which we have been ever so grateful for.

We've moved!

It's official, we've finally moved. I hope this will be our last move ever. I know it probably won't be, but I can be hopeful. I still have lots of unpacking and arranging to do. The house is such a disaster area. I hope by next week that most of our stuff will be unpacked and put away. There isn't much else going on in our lives right now. The move has kind of taken over. It'll be nice to have it finished.

da hairs

Small updates:

We didn't get up early and watch the sunrise on Easter. I wonder if that "tradition" died only two years after being formed. The sun rose much too early. We still had a big breakfast, and I found out I definitely CAN NOT make hashbrowns. I've tried several times and always end up throwing them away. We had a mini egg hunt in our apartment, Addie loved it, and Jason and I loved dying and coloring the eggs the night before. I included the picture of the yellow egg because, if you look closely, it is an eyeball. Yep, my husband rocks.

Jason turned 30 on Sunday. Yep, 30. I made him a delicious ice cream sandwich cake (from the Kraft magazines, of course!) and we had some friends over to eat it with. Now that he's 30 he claims his bones ache more. I included the picture with me on the side so you can all see how BIG I'm getting! I'm still attending Stroller Strides faithfully, even though it's getting pretty tough. Only 7 more weeks to go!

This last picture is just stinking cute. Addie and I are headed up to visit Kari in MO this Saturday, Jason's first day of exams. We'll stay until Wednesday or Thursday. I'm excited to see them and have Addie and Noah play together, but NOT excited about the 7 hour car ride. Fortunately for us, some friends have loaned us their personal DVD player, so it shouldn't be too bad.

Almost moving...

I just wanted to let you know that we are a go for moving this Friday. I'm almost finished cleaning the new house. It was so dirty and dusty from all the work we've been doing. We had the carpets professionally cleaned on Friday and they look so much better. They aren't perfect, but they will work for the time being. I've been working on the areas that needed to be mopped. I've finished all but a strip of tile that's in the living room. Then my next task is to clean the toilets and sinks and the bath tub in the master bath. When that is finished we should be ready to go. Charlie is finishing up putting the cabinets in the kitchen. All the ceiling cabinets and about half of the floor ones are in. He only had one more wall to attatch cabinets to. We're pretty excited to begin living there. I finished my business class lastnight. I'm so glad that's out of the way. Next week is that last week for my English class and then I'll be done for the summer. I'm looking forward to the break. I'll try to write some more soon. I've got to go finish cleaning now.

Jana's Favorite Joke

Jana's favorite joke is: What's bloody and has 2 legs? Half a cat!
I couldn't get that out of my head today as Eric set about pulling a dead cat from underneath our porch. It smelled horrible and it was starting to seep into the house, so I checked it out this morning and after Eric confirmed there was indeed something dead, he went to work to get it out. He tried to rake it out, but it was too far back and he couldn't fit in the small hole that it was coming in and out of.

So he kicked in the lattice and pulled it out and that made for easier access. As he inched closer to it, he kept saying, "Here kitty, kitty." Funny but gross at the same time.

Here's the cat. It's been living under our porch since the summer, but we aren't sure when it died. The old owners used to feed it, but we never did. I guess it was bound to die sometime...I just wish it hadn't been under our porch. Oh well. Poor kitty.
Eric was really proud of himself...and I am too. It was smelly and who knows what else could have been living under our porch. Just the joys of owning your own home.