Travel log

O.K. so for the first of our long list of vacations this year we went to Palmyra and Niagara Falls. We left July 15th and came back the 18th. We got to go with our really good friends, the Bachmeiers. We had a blast. We went to Niagara first and stayed the night there. Charlie had stayed behind with hopes of interviewing with Swartz Creek on Friday. He never got a call so he drove to meet us on Thursday night. We left Friday morning and headed for Palmyra. We got there in the afternoon and went to the pageant that night. The hecklers were terrible and the kids became very offended. Thank goodness the pageant was spectacular. Saturday morning Charlie, Marie, Dan and I were able to do a session at the Palmyra temple. It is a beautiful temple and I'm glad I finally got to see the inside. While we were there, the kids swam at the hotel. They loved that. Afterwards, we did the Palmyra sites. We got up Sunday, went to church and drove home. Here are some pictures.


Here we are at the monument on the top of Hill Cumorah. Man, is that a climb, especially when it's hot!

Here we are at

the Homestead. It looks so different now from when I saw it as a little child.

After we got back from Palmyra, we had two days to ready ourselves for Nauvoo. We left Wednesday morning and drove down. We arrived that night at dinner time. That night we just hung out. Thursday we were able to do a session at the Nauvoo temple. What a beautiful temple! Lexi even was able to do some confirmations too. That night we hung out again and played some getting to know you games because many of us don't see each other on a regular basis. Friday was the day we had available to see the sites. It was pretty hot (heat index of 107 degrees) so we didn't do too much. We went to see the pageant that night. Thank goodness it cooled off when the sun went down. The pageant was good, but I like Palmyra better. Saturday morning we cleaned up the camp ground and most of us went home. Charlie and Merrit went home with Kurt and Heather (thanks again guys) because Merrit had scout camp on Monday. I took the rest of the kids and Harvey to my Kari's house. Then I drove home with Mom and Dad.

The kids wanted to see Carthage. We went there first thing in the morning so it wasn't too hot yet. We tried to see historic Nauvoo afterwards but it was pretty hot. We tried to stay in areas that were air conditioned.

This lady showed us how the people in Nauvoo made bread in the bussel oven. We even got to try some. It was pretty good. They make it fresh every day.

This man helped our kids make a rope. We even were able to keep a bit of it. Both of these pictures were taken inside the Family Living Center. It is air conditioned.

This is a picture of us listening to the Hutchinson children tell about childhood memories. I really enjoyed it. Most of what they talked about I didn't even know. It was fun to hear about the things they did when they were little.

Friday, we tried to do this oxen ride but it had been closed down early because it was so hot (I mean my sandals were melting to the road). So we had to go Saturday morning before it got too hot and before we left for the day.

So the week we got back, Merrit and Charlie were at scout camp. Merrit had a blast and was very busy. He completed 11 merit badges, the most of our troop. He earned the nickname Merrit Badge Hicks. After they got home Saturday, we had to prepare for Lexi and I to go to girls' camp. I didn't really have a good time and so I only have three pictures from the whole week (plus the stake took a bunch of pictures so I didn't bother carrying my camera around with me). I don't know that I want to go back to girls' camp again, unless the trouble makers don't go that is. I think it would've been really fun had they not been there. We got home from camp late on Aug. 06. We decided to go down to Charlie's parents' house to help them with their bathroom. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures of this trip. We had a good time on this trip, but were super busy. Unfortunately, we didn't finish the work. We had to leave though because we were scheduled for our kids to show goats at the Genesee Co. Fair the next week and their inside exhibits had to be submitted by that Saturday, the 14th. We all know what happened with the fair. Although we were upset that our goats weren't allowed in, we weren't upset that we didn't have to be at the fair grounds. It actually allowed us some much needed free time. After that week, we decided to go back to Chuck and Fay's to try to finish the bathroom. We left right after church on the 22nd. We were able to finish some more, but not all of it. This trip was a little more fun though. Les and Kristi were there too. We were glad we chose to go again.
Here are the kids at Chuck and Fay's house the second time we went down.

They were creative with a cardboard box and used it to sled down the hill. They played with it for quite a while, until it feel/ was pulled apart.

This is all the kids waiting for the water balloon fight to begin. Grandma had a great idea to have the fight. It was fun lots of fun for all.



This is everyone being sprayed off. They were covered in cut grass. Les had fun spraying.

We left Chuck and Fay's on Wednesday morning and stopped at the COSI museum in Columbus, Oh on the way home. Here are some pictures of us having fun there. It's one of our favorite museums.



Here we are showing our nicely polished pennies. We were able to do several science experiments that day. It was so fun.

The museum has its own Gravitron carnival ride to show the power of centrifical force and inertia. It's one of our favorite exhibits.

I will post soon

I really do have some things to post about, I just haven't had the time to lately. I will have more time this up coming week, so stay tuned...

Two down and two to go

It's been a long time since I posted anything and I thought I should let you know I passed the financial reporting section of the CPA exam. I know I was very skeptical, and I am still in shock, but I actually passed. Now onto the next two -- two down and two to go.

Thanks so much for all your support; I really appreciate it.

Love you all!!

New Floor

We're in the process of preparing the house for the next remodeling project and one of the things we're planning to do is putting hardwood floors in the living room and the hall. There are already hardwood floors in the three bedrooms. Jim and I pulled the carpet out of the green room. Here is a picture of the floor under the carpet. We are excited about how good looking it is.

Hutchinson Reunion

Here are some pictures from the reunion. Thank you to all of you for helping me with the activities. Hillary and Kari for getting Karen's present, Kurt and Heather for all of the picture taking, Jana for making balloon animals and trying to get a game going, Jim for playing Graces with your cousins. I appreciate your help very much.

The color is..

PINK

Hicks' family reunion

Here are a few of the pictures I took at the Hicks' family reunion. It was lots of fun.

Little Joe, Charlie's cousin, got his dad and Chuck with a bucket of water. It was quite funny to watch.

Here are all the kids after their water balloon fight.

Here is the kids funny picture.

PJs, haircut, and the 4th

Mom sent Addie these PJs for her birthday and has been nagging me to post a picture of them. She loves them and calls them her Princess Pajamas. Here she is modeling them mid-twirl.

The next few are of her first ever haircut, done on her 3rd birthday this last Saturday. We all like it, although it is a bit crooked, but I can't blame the stylist because it was difficult to keep her sitting still!

She is looking so grown up!

Lastly, here is my cute family enjoying a suprisingly cool evening on the 4th of July. The fireworks were pretty impressive this year, and even though she's crying in this picture, Macie LOVED them!

I feel so blessed to live in this country. I am grateful to be able to worship as I choose. I am fortunate to feel safe and free to have opinions. I love my family and have such a happy life! I know these blessing are because of a loving and kind Heavenly Father, and I realize how fortunate I am to live in America. Happy *late* Independence Day! :)

Surprise dinner addition

Mom wanted to have pork chops today for the 4th of July (I don' think there is any significance related to it, however). I tried to think of a good side dish and I have wanted to make potatoes au gratin for awhile (they are like scalloped potatoes but with cheese added to the sauce) so I went forward with it. I began grating/slicing the potatoes, using the side of the grater like a mandolin; when I put the first layer of potatoes in the pan I heard a clinking sound. I looked through the potatoes and found the magnetic number 8 from our fridge. I mentioned it to Mom and she said that is one of Harvey's favorite things to do, drop the numbers and letters down through the grater, and he was here the other day. I thought nothing about it and went on with the preparations. As we were sitting eating the potatoes, Jim pulled something out of his mouth and said something like, "What is this doing in the potatoes?" It was the magnetic letter C. I never thought to stop and look for another interloper. The potatoes turned out decent but there are some things I will do differently if I make them again. Here's the recipe if anyone would care to try it.

Potatoes Au Gratin

3 tbsp butter
2 tbsp flour
1 1/2 tsp salt (we thought they were too salty, maybe because I used salted butter, but I would cut it back to 1 tsp
1/8 tsp pepper (Mom bought white pepper awhile back and I used it)
3 cups milk
1 to 1 1/2 cups sharp Cheddar cheese
6-8 medium potatoes (pared or not) sliced thin (I did not pare mine, I never pare my potatoes but always leave the skin on for all my recipes)
2 tbsp chopped onion (I think it could have used more onions)

Make white sauce out of first 5 ingredients. Add Cheddar cheese to white sauce when it thickens and heat until thoroughly combined and melted.

Place half the potatoes in a greased 2 quart casserole dish (I used a 2 1/2 casserole dish and the 2 quart dish might be too small). Cover with the onions and half the sauce. Repeat layers. Place 2-3 pieces of bacon on top (I did not have any bacon and it turned out just fine.) Cover and bake at 350 degrees about 1 hour. Uncover and bake 30 minutes longer. Serves 4-6.

Grandma used to make au gratin potatoes and I loved them growing up. Enjoy!

Where Have All The Flowers Gone?

I spent the last three days digging out all of these kinds of flowers out of my flower beds. I filled four tall compost bags with them. Except for the daises, they all just showed up on their own and spread. I did buy a pot of the daises, but they also spread like crazy. Next year we'll see how many come back (the ones I didn't get all of their roots).

News

We got some good news yesterday, not. We found out that we won't be paid through the summer. We had set it up that we would be paid through the summer. Teachers have the option of getting paid through the summer or through the school year. Through the whole year is considered a 26 pay period and through the school year is considered a 21 pay period. So we didn't get paid on Friday like we should've. Charlie called payroll yesterday to find out why and we found out that for some reason the school district decided, at the beginning of the school year, to change everyone to the 21 pay period. The union president tried to tell them they couldn't do that without permission and thought that was that. Well, I guess the school district didn't agree with him and went ahead and did it, without notifying people that they did. So we did get a pay increase throughout the year, but we assumed it was the normal annual teacher salary raise. We had no idea what it really was. There is nothing the school district can do now because they have paid him his full contract. So we for sure won't be getting any more pay checks until the next school year begins. What a great thing to have happen, huh? Thank goodness we have some money in our savings. We were holding on to it just in case Charlie didn't have a job in the fall. We will be able to live off of that over the summer, but we're going to have to be very careful with the way we spend it. I think this is probably a good thing because I have become a little bit lackadaisical with spending lately. This will help me get my butt back in gear where I should've been in the first place. It's interesting to me how the Lord gives us learning opportunities. I feel blessed in some ways about this, but I'm still pretty mad at the school for not notifying us. I can't imagine what other people are going to do who don't have a savings account and didn't plan on having a summer job. If they are like us, they already have a good portion of their summer planned with vacations and such and won't have time to get a summer job. Plus, it's not like it's so easy to just go find a job on short notice now-a-days. What a crappy thing to do to your employees. Just one more reason we love Beecher schools.

Fun night at Kensington

Last night was the annual concert in the park with the Detroit Symphony playing a concert on Maple Beach in Kensington Metro Park. The weather was fabulous and we were able to park close to the concert venue and sit on a hill above the stage. The wife/girlfriend of the principal trumpet player was sitting right in front of us and they had picnic lunch together just before the concert. The music was great; they played medleys from both West Side Story and My Fair Lady and ended with a double encore of "America the Beautiful" and "Stars and Stripes Forever." We arrived about an hour and a half before the concert; had a nice picnic lunch; and enjoyed watching the people before and after the concert. There was one family that arrived and walked down in front of us and set up their stuff at the bottom of the hill. The husband wanted to get more in front of the stage and so found a place he thought their family would fit and tried to convince his wife and children to move over. She went over and looked but in the end prevailed and he had to be satisfied sitting over slightly behind the stage at the bottom of the hill. Mom was able to take a number of good pictures as sailboats, canoes, and other types of watercraft pulled up, dropped anchor, and watched the concert from the lake. When we went last year we arrived fairly early but made the mistake of parking on one of the large open grassy areas where there are softball diamonds. Since we arrived so early we got a good place to park but there were hundreds (maybe thousands) of cars that came in after us and parked behind us and it literally took hours (or really many minutes -- maybe 45 minutes) to get out. Last night we walked to our car, sat and listened to the Tigers' game for a few minutes, and then got in line and drove right out. It was nice that the police were directing traffic and we left the park in a much shorter time. We now know what we need to do for future concerts. All in all it was a very enjoyable evening. I'll add some pictures to let you see how beautiful the lake and boats looked.

18 weeks!

Yep, I finally had my first doctor's appointment yesterday and they put my due date down as Nov 24th. I thought I was about 14 weeks along, but apparently I'm quite a bit more than that! They scheduled another appointment for me next week to do some additional blood work and checking. They couldn't get a great shot of the gender yesterday, but the doctor thought it might be a boy. I'll be getting another one in a few weeks to find out for sure. I don't know how clear the due date actually was, as some things on the baby were measuring bigger and some smaller, so hopefully when they do the next ultrasound they'll get a better picture.

The baby's heart beat was right on, and they were pleased with my health and how everything is going, except that my first appointment was so late. Well, if their calculations are right, I didn't even take my pregnancy test until I was 11 weeks! The remaining 7 weeks were the hassle with getting approved for Medicaid.

I just love the doctor's at my junky Medicaid clinic. Even though the facilities aren't the greatest (it's housed in a converted motel), I have always love the doctors, their policies, manners, and focus on family health. Here is a cute story from yesterday. I took Macie with me because she had a fever and I didn't want to leave her with anyone, so when the doctor came in to question me she was cuddling with me on my lap. The doctor asked if I smoked, no, drank, no, was taking prenatal vitamins, usually, exercised regularly, yes. He was pleased with all those answers. Then he pointed to Macie and said, "Well, it's obvious you are a very good mother." I thought that was sweet. So, 18 weeks. Crazy.

One down and three to go

Just thought I'd add a quick update to my CPA journey. I just found out yesterday that I passed the auditing portion of the CPA exam that I took on May 29th. I thought I had done well enough to pass as I completed the exam but I had my doubts the last little while. The passing score is 75 and I imagined that I got a 74 and just missed the target. I passed with a score of 79. Now I can move on to the next exam, which is financial reporting. I will take the exam on July 17th and feel pretty good about the review studying I have been doing lately. I think I should do okay. I'll keep you updated. I really appreciate all your support.

Charlie's job

So I think I told everyone that Charlie had been pink-slipped a few months ago. Well today the district held their annual "bid" meeting where the teachers can go and bid for a different job if they want to and have higher seniority. Because Charlie has been laid off he couldn't bid until everyone else who are still actually employed are finished bidding. So after the smoke had settled, Charlie's job was still available so he took it. So, at the very least, Charlie will be employed at Beecher again in the fall. I'm so thankful that he will have a job. Even though it is where it is, it's still a blessing.

My new calling

I am the new primary president in our ward. Stop laughing!

I am sad to leave the young women. I felt like I was just starting to build a good rapport with them and gain their trust and respect. I felt like I was making head-way with them. I'm going to miss them.

I also am nervous and apprehensive about my new calling. I have a lot of work cut-out for me. There is not much parental support of the kids in our ward (I ran into that in young women too) which makes it so hard to have the kids there consistently. Without consistency, there is a lot of chaos sometimes. I'm confident the Lord will help me, I'm thankful for the blessing I received when I was set apart and I know I can do this, it just might be one difficult task. If you could remember me in your prayers it would be great.

Merrit the talented

No one can say my son isn't good with money!

Happy birthday Makayla!

With the super busy weekend we had over Memorial Day weekend I forgot to wish my little girl a happy birthday. She had a good one though. This cake she has was from Kroger. She loved it.

Karate

We gave our kids the chance to try karate for the last six weeks. Makayla, Chelsea and Jaxson gave it a try. They had fun and actually earned their yellow belts. This is the belt advancement ceremony they had on Friday. They were all pretty excited about it and want to go on to earn more belts. Jaxson wants to get his black belt. We think we will keep going, but probably not until after July.



After they got their belts they got to break boards. They were really pumped about it. Jaxson was so pumped he did it so quickly that I barely got to record him doing it.






Lexi and Merrit even got to try it once the ceremony was over. The instructor/owner of the karate place is a really nice guy as are the other people who take lessons there.

Baseball

Merrit has been wanting to play baseball for a few years. This year we were finally able to sign him up for it. Monday was his first game.

This is his first up to bat.

He played right center first. This is his in the outfield. His team started off pretty poorly and were losing by quite a bit. In the last inning they actually had a rally and scored like 8 or 9 times. They still lost, but it wasn't as bad as it could've been. He is loving playing. I'm glad he is able to finally do it.