An End and A Beginning

Since my dad, my mom, and my sister called today to tell me that I had fallen off the face of the earth and they were worried about me, I am finally getting my blog butt in gear and posting.  I have messed up the template for this blog so much that I have decided that I may as well just start over. And since we have started over in the rest of our life--new state, new house, new vehicle, new school, new ward, new friends,etc.  I am starting a new blog. So hop on over and follow me there.

It's a mad, mad, mad, mad world will stay here.  But I am not going to fix it.  So come see the new one.

Update

• I've been messing with my blog, as you can see.  I messed it up (arrggghhh) and am still trying to fix it. 
• We found a house to rent, finally.
• I have the kids halfway enrolled in school: 1 1/2 hours to fill out paperwork, 1 1/2 hours for the kids to take placement tests.  Tomorrow I will meet with all three schools to sign each child up for classes (probably another 1 1/2 hours at each school for another 4 1/2 hours total).
• Our household stuff, that has been in storage in Dallas for the last 5 weeks, will be delivered on Monday. YAY!!
• Our life is about to be back to normal next week. Well, closer to normal anyway.

Seen while driving

We did lots of driving this year. We've seen lots of interesting things too. While crossing New Mexico we came up on the Google Maps street view camera car. It was pretty cool. That would be a fun job to driving around America videoing everything.

Covert

I got a new truck. YAY!!!! I started out looking at trucks way back in February after we traded my last vehicle in for Nate's new car. Then I thought that an SUV might be more practicle with four kids and friends. But, after searching for two weeks and being unable to find what we were looking for, I ended up getting this truck. And it's what I really wanted in the first place.

**Here in Kansas, you don't have license plates on the front of your vehicle. So lots of people put fun plates on the front. Usually their favorite sports team or college. Everyone here laughs when they see my front bumper. My truck is anything but covert. They don't know that it's CO-vert (the place I bought my truck, not co-VERT).

The Art of Legos

While in Topeka, we went to the Mulvane Art Museum at Washburn University to see an exhibit that used Legos as the medium. We all love Legos. And it was fun to see what could be made with these little plastic blocks.

Hazel thought it was fun to either copy the pose of the piece or react to it. Cool mosaic.

I didn't notice that the figures in this piece created an eye if you stood in just the right spot until after I took the picture and saw it on my camera.

Afterwards there were Legos to play with. I think it was the kids favorite part.

My favorite toys

We didn't bring much with us to Kansas besides clothes and computers. And since we aren't in a permanent place here yet, the kids haven't yet started school. So they are a little bored.

The only toys that they all enjoy playing with and don't get bored of are Legos.

Legos are also my favorite. So I decided to buy a couple basic building sets (we mostly have themed and specialized sets, so I wanted to get these anyway.)

They have been playing with these Legos for two weeks and everyday it is new. The only problem is that there aren't enough. So I may buy some more before we get into a house and get our stuff back. But I don't mind. I love Legos.

Good-bye to Texas

Finally, it happened. We packed up. The truck was loaded. We locked the doors. And we moved away.

It has taken so long to get here. Part of me is still in denial. Our situation is still in temporary mode, so things aren't quite settled. But we got an offer on our house. And we have moved to a better temporary housing arrangement. So the kids have started seminary. We are still trying to find a house in the school boundaries that we want to be in, so they haven't started school yet. But we are looking, and looking, and looking.

We miss Texas. We miss our family and our friends that were also our family. It is always a bit hard to start over again. But it will all work out.

Moving Day

The packers came today. They are good and fast. The whole house is almost done. Just a couple more rooms and the garage. It's a little strange to see our life boxed up.

You can also see our new counters and backsplash in the kitchen. (The things you do to sell a house!)

These are just the books from upstairs (25 boxes worth). There were 15 more downstairs! I think I have a book problem.

They were so nice when I had to ask them (two separate times) to reopen some of the boxes and unpack to find some documents I had forgotten to keep out. Some paperwork that was supposed to stay with the house. And all the birth certificates that I will need to register kids for school. Kind of important stuff. They were super nice about it.

They should be done a day ahead of schedule though. Then I can finally take a break.

Quiet time

I needed something for Isaac to do last weekend to keep him occupied. So I had Hazel and Isaac sort my change. $160 worth. I've been collecting for awhile. I love change. . . it's like free money:) And it kept the two of them busy for two hours. Priceless.

My Young Men

These are my two fabulous sons. We bought them suits this summer and I think they look quite handsome.

They are both nearly the same size despite a four year difference in age. And they are both almost as tall as I am.

All the priests in our ward wear suits, or at least a jacket, to bless the sacrament. Now Toby fits right in and looks so handsome.

A funny thing happened this morning when Isaac put on his suit. The pants were nearly too short! Apparently, in the three weeks since he was measured for his suit, he has grown. (Luckily, the tailor left some fabric in the hem, so I can let them out again.) Unfortunately, at this rate, I'll be lucky if his suit still fits at Christmas. But for now, he looks handsome and represents his priesthood well as he passes the sacrament at church.

I can't believe that they are growing up.

I love my little family.

AAARRRRGGGGGGHHHHHH!

This is what I feel like today. Just found out my AC upstairs went out. It's 87 degrees up there right now. Last week my water heater had to be replaced; it rusted out the bottom. I've replaced two broken windows (due to golf balls), painted everything (but I'm going to have to start doing touch ups now), super duper cleaned carpets (and will probably clean some of them again), planted flowers twice (drought isn't flower friendly), replaced broken kitchen faucet, the shower faucet upstairs is mostly broken (just trying to hobble through), and bunches of other smaller repairs. And my lawn is nearly dead because of the drought and water restrictions. People who see the house want granite countertops (it's hard to compete with the new house's upgrades in our neighborhood so we'll probably change them out so we can better compete). How much more money do I need to spend before I can get out of this house? And I still need a new car. Just feeling a bit frustrated.

Favorite Movies: List 1

I love watching movies, all kinds of movies. Nate will watch a lot with me. But there are some genres that I will most likely watch even if no one else likes them. I just like to watch movies. So, this summer I'll be posting lists of some of my favorite movies in some of my favorite movie categories.



First category: Any movie with a horse in it:

Black Stallion,
Black Stallion Returns,

Flicka,
National Velvet,
Secretariat,
Horse Whisperer,
Sea Biscuit,
Phar Lap,
Lady Hawke,
The Horse in the Gray Flannnel Suit,
Danny,
Hidalgo,
Black Beauty,
Dreamers,

Man from Snowy River,
Return to Snowy River,

Touching Wild Horses,
Virginia's Run,
Long Shot,
Racing Stripes,
Derby Stallion,

Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken,
Flash,
Running Free,
Gus,
My Friend Flicka,
Thunderhead Son of Flicka

I'm sure there are lots more that I have watched that I don't recall at the moment. But I love myself a nice horse movie. I dream of having horses and stables one day. I don't think my golf course neighbors would appreciate horses in my backyard. So it will most likely be awhile. So for now, I get my horse fix watching movies and daydreaming.

Aspen Grove Family Camp

We went to Aspen Grove Family Camp for Nate's family reunion this summer. It was so much fun. There were tons of activities for everyone. The weather was perfect and it was fun to hang with cousins and family.

There was rock climbing and dodgeball.

There was a really fun ropes course that we all did. Being so high on such a skinny cable was slightly nerve-wracking. But it was fun.

One night there were water games. I think everyone enjoyed playing this game with the giant blue ball: basically hot potato in the pool.


Each family stayed in these little cabins. There was lots of hiking and stairs involved the whole week.

There was still a lot of snow on Mt. Timpanogos. So we were unable to hike the peak. Instead, there were hikes to Stewart Falls and First Falls. Being from sea level, we got winded kind of quickly. But the kids were troopers.

One day the adults did paintball. I won the elimination round. But only because I had more ammo than anyone else and an awesome position in the fort. We have some nice bruises to show for our fun. It would definitely be fun to do again.

The kids swam in the (heated) pool everyday. It has super fun slides.

On family night, we participated in all these fun games. There was a potato sack race, a parachute,

steamroller,

there were these four person ski thingys, and then a contest where you had to fill a holey can with water. So Isaac and Alex got in (to lessen the amount of water we needed) and everyone else plugged the holes with their fingers. Then a couple other kids filled the can with buckets of very very cold water. Isaac and Alex were good sports.

There was a giant earth ball course on the hill.

The kids enjoyed making paper rockets and launching them with a compressed air launcher.

We also did arts and crafts, shuffleboard, mini golf, ping pong, horse shoes, geo caching and skits for FHE with the whole family, cheers and songs with the kids' age groups and their counselors, a music video with Aspen's group (which I am trying to get a copy of) and lots of other things I didn't get pictures of. It was a fun week. We really enjoyed our week up at Aspen Grove. We would go again in a heartbeat.