Keeping Busy

This has been an eventful few weeks.

Chris got a promotion for Zone Vice President in Minnesota. He will cover a large area, it expands into 5 different states. That means he will have to travel a little still, but not nearly as much as he has been lately.

Although the kids are not too thrilled, I am excited to move to the Duluth area, everyone who has been there says there are tons of outdoor activities (like an alpine slide, ski resort and lakes). I saw a video on YouTube where people were sliding down a natural waterfall and jumping off cliffs into a pond of water, I used to dream of sliding down one of those when I was a kid.

It is really cold in the winter there but someone told me today that it is a dryer cold and people still go outside, unlike here where everyone hides all winter.

Chris and I went to the Nauvoo Temple yesterday. We were going to take the whole family and trade off, but the air conditioner in our car is gone and we weren’t about to spend $1,000 to fix it. Since Nauvoo would be horrendous in the humid heat, and we don’t all fit in the other car, we were sort of at a loss as to what to do. Something always seems to happen to stop us from going to the temple, but we decided we weren’t about to let it get the best of us this time… so I called and made an appointment for a 3:00 session and told Chris I would take his car and he could stay home with the kids, or vice versa. He suggested getting a sitter…something we had never done here because the going rate is $5 an hour…but I figured it was worth it since we had been blessed with his new promotion.

I called Morgan Barker from Young Women’s and she was able to come at 1:00 so I called the temple to reschedule and added Chris to the schedule too. When she got here, I realized my recommend wasn’t in my wallet so I started the frantic search of the whole house…now I was thinking, what else could go wrong?

Suddenly, I heard a siren wailing outside…it was a tornado warning… so we all went down in the basement and I watched the news. The tornado warning finally ended at 2:00, so determined not to give up, Chris tells me to call the temple and see if they can give me a pass. After a few calls they give me the go-ahead, so I reschedule for 6:00 which is the last session. I told Chris on the way, if anything happens now, there is no more rescheduling… this is our last chance to get in. Fortunately we were blessed and nothing else went wrong and we had a wonderful session with only 3 other couples in the room. I was so glad to finally get there after all the twists and turns of the day.

A few Sundays ago, a tornado destroyed Wes’s house (he is Chris’s friend from work), so Chris went to help him sift through the rubble. He asked Wes what it was like when it hit and he said there is nothing on earth he could even compare it to. Fortunately they are OK and insurance covers them. Chris said it was sort of ironic that Wes had been saying earlier that he liked the storms here… I’m sure that is not the case now. They are moving back to Utah.

On Memorial Day we finally broke down and bought a grill after 13 years of marriage. Chris did really well for his first time grilling and we finally have a way to get rid of all the Omaha steaks in our freezer. Kina even enjoyed one that I dropped on the deck…

Solei’s birthday was the last day of school. Summer has officially begun! They are already starting to get bored and are constantly begging to get on the computer or play video games. Their swim lessons ended last week and I don’t want to enroll them in anything else until we move so they will be bored for a while.

Solei had a sleepover with Lindsay, Amanda, Brianna, and Olivia for her birthday. We rented movies and had pizza and cake, just the standard birthday stuff. We got her just one present this year; an ipod (she never puts it down but at least she doesn’t steal mine now).

I went out to lunch with some friends because Cindy Hardman is moving and she wanted one last “hurrah” with everyone. We went to Granite City (yum!) but Cindy didn’t show up until everyone was done eating. I had to leave so I just said a quick goodbye. Our ward has really had a lot of moves lately, and now it is our turn.

Our dishwasher hose had sprung a leak so we turned off the valve and I was pouring hot water in it for each cycle to wash the dishes, which was kind of a pain in the neck. I finally just put a bowl underneath where the leak is and that was easier. A few days ago I bought a new hose and Chris, being the good husband/handyman he is, put it on for me and we are leak free! Yay!.

Chris has been traveling a lot still but was home a few nights this week. He went to the big Hy-Vee golf tournament in Des Moines this week and they gave him a nice golf club.

We had the missionaries over for dinner again, Sister Bradley can’t eat hardly anything except certain meats and vegetables because of her allergies so it is a little tricky finding something to cook. No grains, carrots, corn, sugar, fruit, etc….I made a roast and green beans.

Ella is working on potty training but I haven’t made a huge effort since things have been so crazy lately. She can climb out of her crib now so I think it is time to upgrade to a bed when we move.

There is another tornado warning as I am writing this, it is not to us yet though. They seem to be every day lately.

Solei is in Young Womens now, I got to welcome her in with a spotlight basket. I always write a few verses to the tune of “my favorite things” from the Sound of Music and give the girls a bag of related items for their birthday. Hers was:

Mac-n-cheese, pizza and candy that’s sour,
Math Bees and art classes brighten the hour,
Wakeboarding, snowskiing, reading books too;
These are some things that Solei likes to do…..

Playing the Playstation, Spongebob’s her favorite
When there’s a challenge she’s right there to brave it
She can make creatures from origami
But her dream’s still paleontology.

When she has to
Tend her siblings
Or do chores for dad…
She just needs to look in this bag full of things
And then life won’t seem…
Soooo bad.

We went swimming at the YMCA this week and the kids showed off their new swimming skills. Ella was loving the big slide, every time we got to the bottom she would make a bee-line right back up the stairs. Taron went down once but was not as anxious to try it again until they closed it, and then he REALLY wanted to go down. That’s how it is with some of us; we don’t want something until we can’t have it. J

I was blessed with a flat tire this week…which sounds funny but I felt blessed because it happened in the Wal-Mart parking lot, and they have a tire shop right there. My tires were pretty bald and I was lucky it wasn’t out in the middle of nowhere like on the way to Nauvoo. The down side is it cost $500 for new tires. The next day I spent over $300 for rhe alignment and AC check and found out the AC would be another $1000 to fix…so Chris wants trade it in for a Suburban. It seems like every time we get a raise or bonus something happens to eat it up.

Well, there go the Tornado sirens, I better go.