July 2014

July started off with Charley heading to EFY in San Antonio.  Mom made her get a haircut before heading out.  She picked the cut.  I think its super cute, she's still undecided.  Charley was not happy she was headed to San Antonio instead of Provo but at the end of the week she announced she was soooo glad she went to San Antonio and wants to return again next year.  Success!  She roomed with another young woman in our ward and they have become great friends, hooray!

 Charley was also put into the group with the young woman from Spring, TX who tragically lost her parents and all her siblings just 2 weeks after EFY.  Charley took the news of her friend's loss pretty hard.  Our heart and prayers go out to Cassidy and the entire Stay family.

We enjoyed our first 4th of July here in TX.  We surely missed our normal ward breakfast in SoJo but found our local park put on quite a bash.  We found the neighborhood does a great parade just down the street from us and the community goes all out with fun things at the park.  The local fire department comes with their ladder trucks and sprays us all down with their hoses from the top of the ladder.  Then there is just about every kind of blowup bouncy house, joust, rock wall, water slide you can think of at the park as well as a barbecue fired up.  We ended the night with a few small fireworks out front with our neighbors across the street, and a few bigger ones from neighbors down the street.  Everyone was saying how great it was that the temperature was only in the 90's.  I have to say we were grateful too!

Just after the 4th Joseph and Sam had a checkup with the orthodontist.  Joseph was scheduled to have his braces put on as soon as his surgeon for his gum grafts gave the all clear.  We were surprised Sam needed to start his first phase NOW!  So Sam beat Joseph to the punch and had a few brackets and retainers thrown on while Joseph enjoyed a few more weeks without them.  

The middle of July brought us Girls Camp for Charley and Football camp for Joseph.  Joseph decided he would try out for wide receiver, running back, and corner back.  He said he enjoyed them all.  We'll see what he decides to do in the Fall.  Girls Camp was cut short this year for Charley.  Thursday morning the girls were woken up and instructed to pack up.  Noro-virus had whipped through the camp the night before and wiped out the 2nd years.  In hopes of preventing more sick girls and leaders they decided to send the girls home.  Thankfully they had 2 full days of fun (including the discovery of a baby copperhead snake in the 1st year showers!).  

Ben's quilt finally arrived from Nana.  He has been anxiously awaiting this since March!  Nana went through a few tries until she was happy with it.  Ben was ecstatic the day it came and could not get the box open fast enough!

This week has brought more checkups for the kids.  Joseph was cleared for full braces from the surgeon on Monday July 21st and Tuesday July 22nd was awarded the hardware.  Sam had his retainer put on the bottom and new wires in top too.  Both are a little sore.  

We still have a week to go in July and lots more activities planned.  Joseph earns his First and Second Class ranks in Scouts tonight, I celebrate my 29th birthday for the 9th time, Ronny and I celebrate 16 years of marriage, and we have lots more pool time to fit in!  

On a more serious note, our sweet little nephew is sick in the hospital with a nasty case of E Coli.  His little body is fighting as hard as it can but he has developed HUS associated with E Coli.  His doctors are hopeful for a full recovery but the process is a long one, especially on a soon to be 4 year old and his parents.  Please keep them in your prayers.

Summer!

Summer has definitely arrived here.  Although the natives tell me its a rather mild start to a normal summer in Texas as it has yet to hit triple digits.  I guess I will count my blessing as we are getting used to the heat and humidity.  Today as we left for church we walked out the front door at 9:45 and felt as if we were socked in the face with the heat.  I know its the humidity that makes it feel so much more hotter than in Utah.  There it would take a minute or two before you realized it was hot outside.  We are definitely taking advantage of the community pools and are having fun visiting different ones and deciding on our favorites.  We have started a summer academic program where the kids read for 30 minutes each day, write a summary of their reading, and spend at least 30 minutes on Khan Academy working on Math and/or Computer Science projects and videos.  We have also visited our public library and got a library card to check out books for the summer.  We have also found a family favorite donut shop that serves "Texas" sized donuts and that is on the way home from the library.  Always fun to stop in and get a treat!

We finished off a week of cub camp last week.  One day was canceled for thunder storms and a downpour and another day was ended early with a tornado warning coming in, definitely a new experience for us!  I went and helped out 3 of the 4 days the boys attended.  When other volunteers heard we were new to the area they immediately welcomed me and then told me the fun things to do here during the summer.  I have a list for us to explore.

Ronny headed to Scout camp early this week and got the low down on what we will need to get Joseph for his birthday and Christmas for him to attend next year.  Ronny has a major deadline at work that is quickly approaching so he has been burning the midnight oil lately for that.

Joseph is recovering from having gum graft surgery earlier this month.  Normally they harvest tissue from the top of your mouth but he had none to spare.  He is officially a zombie as he is now carrying cadaver tissue!  So far the graft looks to be taking well.  We will be in the clear half way through July at which point he is set to get his braces on and have 4 more teeth pulled.  Joseph is hoping to be cleared from surgery to participate in football camp mid way through July as well.  They do not have camp for the 11 year old scouts here so he is bummed about that.

Sam also gets awarded braces!  We thought he would be in line after Joseph but the new plan is to put him in a retainer and put a few brackets on top to pull things together.  We are told his mouth is bigger than Joseph's so he most likely will not have to have teeth pulled.  This phase will allow us to push the bigger phase off a few extra years allowing us to get Joseph paid off before Sam starts.

Charley heads off to EFY next week in San Antonio.  We are excited for her to have this experience and hope she will have a good time.  We found a friend here in our ward that is also going and were able to arrange for them to be roomies for the week.  She will then head off to Girls Camp mid July.  She is excited that the cabins they will be staying in have air conditioning!

Both Ronny and I are wishing we could be in Utah for the 4th of July, especially for our former ward party we loved attending there the morning of the 4th.  We have been invited to a barbecue and swim party on the 5th and firework stands are starting to open.  Maybe we'll try our hand at setting our own off once again.  We'll see if we can't take in a baseball game as well.  We tried our hand at Southern Fried Chicken this weekend.  Definitely needed more salt and maybe just double dip in the batter as opposed to triple dipped as the recipe called for.  They were definitely crispy!

Happy Birthday Aaron

There are days where I feel like its been so long since Aaron was here, and then days where it seems like we just headed up to the hospital yesterday to hold our sweet boy.  Days like today I can still feel him in my hands and see his tiny body and sweet little face.  His spirit continues to fill our home and he is never far from our thoughts.  I am sad we are not closer to go and place flowers at his grave whenever the thought arises, however we are fortunate enough to have family and friends who lovingly do this for us.  His birthday is always more teary for me than his Angel Day.  I'm not sure why that is but it is what it is.

A big shout out to Sweet Williams Floral in South Jordan who create such wonderful arrangements for our boy in mind and who are so gracious to deliver them to his grave for us.  They even snapped this photo and texted it to me.  Meghan and JD we love you and appreciate all you do for our family!

Normally our family heads to dinner and then to his grave to place flowers and send off notes attached to balloons.  We would have snipped a few of the tulips we planted for Aaron and take them with us.  With our relocation to Texas that is not possible this year.  Activities are always scheduled this time of year with the school year ending so we are adapting once again.  Ronny is headed to the Father and Sons campout with the boys.  If Aaron were here he would be headed out with them.  Charley and I are headed to dinner and a movie with her newspaper class and tomorrow we will be shopping for summer clothes and girls camp needs.  Tomorrow evening we will go to dinner as a family once we are together again.  As much as I would like to be together as a family tonight, I know if Aaron were here he would be soooo excited to be camping with the boys so that is where they need to be, and Charley and I will enjoy our girl time too.

Aaron we love you!  You are always in our hearts and never far from our thoughts.  We sure do miss you little one.

Ben's Baptism

 At the end of March Ben made the big decision to be baptized.  He was soooooo excited!  Ronny said that when they were in the changing room getting dressed for the confirmation that Ben quietly said to him, "I can't believe I am FINALLY baptized!"  In the process of getting ready we discovered the suit that his two older brothers wore at their baptism just may be big enough for him to wear as well.  He wore it for two weeks and then had outgrown it.

 We were fortunate to have Grandma Terri fly in.  Uncle Jon, Aunt Jennifer, Lincoln, and the Stenson families all drove in too.  We were sooooo happy that Ben was able to have the support of so many who love him, especially those who were not able to be there with us who wanted to be.  Ben and Darin Stenson were born just 2 months apart and we were excited to make the trip down to see Darin baptized this last week.  Who would have thought 8 years ago our two families would live so close to each other now in a completely different state!?!  Between us we each have one girl and almost a baseball team of boys.

 I'm sad we didn't get any pictures with Jennifer and Lincoln.  We will just have to make a trip to see them to rectify that!

A Few Things We've Been Doing

I know I am way behind on the updates again but here we are.  March brought all kinds of events to our house.  Plays for both Joseph and Charley that needed costumes.  (If you know me, this is sooooo not my thing!)  Joseph needed a lounge singing hippo costume and Charley needed a Jewish child in World War II costume.  How'd we do???  Joseph also had a choir performance the same night as his play in two different places of course, and also the same night as scouts and New Beginnings.  That was one busy night!                                             

 During Spring Break the Stenson family drove up from Houston to play.  We spent one day in San Antonio touring the Alamo.  We also had fun figuring out whether or not their van tire needed to be fixed and was surprised to have a homeless man stop and give us a hand.  It was one crazy day!  We are soooo glad to be close to this great family again!

 Charley had a Geometry project to build a kite and video herself flying said kite.  I quickly learned that she needed a lesson on kite flying.  This prompted the following weeks family night activity.

 Clearly we still have room for improvement!

 Ronny decided to break down and buy a new lawnmower instead of hiring a gardner while we are in our rental.  Ben insisted he be the first one to mow the lawn.  He was sooooo excited.  Hopefully he still feels that way in a few years!

 Harley knows the kids schedules, and anxiously awaits their arrival home each day.

 Ben discovered climbing fences is not alway so much fun.  He also learned to "Let Go" when prompted!

 Joseph earned an award for being an excellent student from his P.E. teacher.  Bet you can't guess what his favorite class is????

 All 3 boys earned achievements in scouts this last month, though I don't have a picture of Joseph.  Ben earned his Bobcat, Sam earned his Webelo, and Joseph earned his Tenderfoot, along with other belt loops, activity badges, and merit badges.

Settling In

Our time here in Texas started pretty rocky but we seem to be settling in finally.  The kids are active in school and we think we are out of the threat of snow days.  So far the kids have had 3 snow days and 2 late start days.

Charley is anxiously awaiting her testing in math from the University of Texas which she should do any day now.  Her counselor thankfully put her in the Geometry class for now until the we get the results of the tests so she won't fall further behind.  Both her Algebra teacher and Geometry teacher here have supported our push for her to be in the Geometry class which I think has pushed the counselors and gifted coordinator in the direction we were hoping for from the start.  She certainly has some material to make up but hopefully we can take care of that this weekend.  She is enjoying the larger Young Women group here and is making lots of friends in school.  She seems to have found her nitch with the newspaper crowd which she is also taking as a elective.  She loves to write which she certainly did not get from me!  She is happy to be attending Youth Conference here in March and EFY in San Antonio this summer.

Joseph is adjusting to middle school.  He now realizes there is a LOT more homework involved that he can no longer charm his teacher's out of.  His English teacher is Mrs. Cool which he thinks is pretty awesome.  The first day of school he came home and happily informed me that middle school was awesome because he got to do p.e. EVERY DAY and got to wear p.e. clothes!  I laughed and told him that I was glad he was liking school thus far.  He is also very happy to have found himself in a good scouting ward once again.  He will be attending a merit badge camp tomorrow at the University of Texas and will earn 4 merit badges tomorrow that he hasn't started on yet.  (Watch out Papa, Joseph is knocking these out quickly!)

Sam is loving having his own room (we opted to pair up Joseph and Ben in hopes the fighting will work itself out eventually....).  Sam has proved he is the cleanest of the bunch as his room rarely has anything out of place.  Maybe the other siblings will take note!  He seems to be enjoying school, he says its not as easy as school was in Utah but its still pretty easy.  We are pushing for all the boys to be tested for TAGT (Texas version of Talented and Gifted).  He is finding friends quickly and seems to be handling the transition fairly well.

Ben is loooooooving Texas!  He loves his class, teachers, and lots of friends!  He has been invited to no less than 3 birthday parties thus far and is anxiously looking forward to his birthday and baptism coming up in just a couple weeks.  He reminds us all of this DAILY!  He also says school is pretty easy here as well but seems to be handling the move the easiest of all.  He and Sam both went in for eye exams this morning and we found his eyes are getting worse.  The doctor said its normal but that it was good we came in as he definitely needs new lenses.  He and Sam both broke their glasses recently and both decided on the same frames this morning no matter how hard I tried to get them to pick different ones.

Ronny loves his new job and comes home happy every night, which in turn makes me very happy!  We both love that when he comes home, he is home to spend time with us and not home with more work to do.  He is anxiously awaiting a calling at church and is desperately hoping it will be something with scouting again.  He will also start running again tomorrow which Harley has been patiently waiting for.

I am getting used to things here as well.  I have just finished unpacking all the boxes in the house.  I will start on the garage this weekend in hopes to fit one car in there by Monday.  I have certainly had enough work to do to keep me busy.  I am still working on trying to get a driver's license here which has become one giant headache but I am determined to succeed eventually.  With not working I am able to start cooking more regularly again.  I think we are all happy with that!  I have forgotten how much I enjoy it and am looking to try my hand at a few new things native to this area.

We seem to be in a good neighborhood.  Today kids came knocking at the door to see if our kids wanted to head outside to play.  They are enjoying the weather (76!) and love that they can ride their bikes and skateboards in February.  Now that our house is set up, we are hoping visitors will come!  So come see us!

No School!

Last night the Austin area had a winter storm warning and snow showers scheduled for this morning at 8:00 a.m.  The kids had to be at school before that and we are roughly 25 minutes away from their school until we move in tomorrow.  So we all got up early and checked the district website once more before heading out.  The residents here are not accustomed to driving in icy conditions so we left extra early to give us plenty of time to get there early.  We pulled in to the elementary school and I walked the kids in.  The office was in chaos as the district instituted a 2 hour delay to school just minutes before, so the phone was ringing off the hook from parents who had already dropped their kids off telling people not to come back, that the staff was there and they would just keep the kids they had.  The secretary remembered me from yesterday and asked if we felt at home with this weather.  I asked her if I should leave the boys or take them with me.  She said to leave them and they could get to know their teachers and some of their classmates before everyone else showed up.

After walking the kids to their classrooms and briefly meeting their teachers I headed back to the car to tell the other kids and Ronny about the 2 hour delay.  We then headed to Ronny's office to drop him off and then the older kids and I found a bagel shop to wait out the two hour delay.  I asked Ronny to keep an eye on the district website and let me know if anything else changed.  Ronny had a presentation to give today and called to tell me people had started calling in to work saying they were staying home because of the weather.

Just as we were leaving to take the kids to the school, Ronny called to let us know that the school district had decided to cancel school for the day just as people were dropping their kids off after the 2 hour delay.  Nice!  So we headed to pick up the boys.  Shortly there after Ronny called back to let us know Apple had closed their offices until noon because of the weather.  Funny as he was already there.  He opted to stay and consider the time spent as flex time as he is taking the day off tomorrow to help with the move.

So tomorrow we will have try number 3 to get the kids to school!  Of course the movers are scheduled to show up at the same time I need to drop the kids off.  Should be fun.....

We made it!

Texas!!!!

We finally made it to Texas just after midnight on Saturday (or should I say Sunday!).  Harley made it too even after a delay in our flight due to a broken over head bin.  He was very happy to see us when they brought him up.  We made it to the corporate apartment and had the kids finally settled down about 2 a.m.  Needless to say we did not make it to 8:00 am church, opting instead for a somewhat peaceful Sunday after the kids had slept in a little.

This last week was one hectic marathon with finishing school, grades, preparing for the movers to come, having them there, and cleaning the house before heading to the airport Saturday evening.  I could not have gotten everything done without the help of both our mothers who graciously took the kids out to play so I could get things done, wonderful friends and neighbors who came to help me clean, gave us a room to sleep in, and drove us to the airport.  The only thing I wasn't able to do was make it to Aaron's grave one last time before heading out, buy my wonderful Mother in Law loving placed a heart shaped wreath there before she left.  Thank you all sooooo much!

School Registration has been one big headache today. I knew it would be difficult but ahhhhhh! So TX does not recognize ALPS (Accelerated Learning Program) as Talented and Gifted, nor do they recognize that on Charley's transcript that H stands for Honors. I also explained that Charley was designated TAG in OR before moving to UT but they wouldn't accept that either even though it was the same system (essentially its just letters we are talking about here!) Also because UT calls their classes by different names they do not recognize Charley as having completed Algebra nor would they accept the Jordan District's explanation nor mine as a licensed Utah Jr. High math teacher. So they are making her take 3 math tests to verify she has sufficient skills to master Algebra at the Univ. of TX at a cost of $145 that we get to fork out. When I just asked if they would test her themselves for TAG again they said yes but it would take up to 30 to do the testing because there were 2 others in line in front of her and they can only do one at a time, really????? I asked why they couldn't accept the national Explore test administered by ACT that she had a perfect score on or why they couldn't just call the ALPS department at the district to have her scores faxed over, really this shouldn't be sooooo hard. So needless to say, today has been rather frustrating!

We move into the house Wednesday morning and Ronny thankfully is taking the day off to give me a hand.  I am looking forward to getting settled and back into a normal routine!

7 Days and Counting

Move Date is January 25th!  One week away.  There is so much to do between now and then but we are looking good.  Harley has been cleared to fly and thus far the weather is going to cooperate for him to get on the plane.  (It needs to be at least 25 degrees for him to fly according to the vet).  I only have the kids closets left to go through, otherwise I have gone through all our junk, I mean stuff.... and have purged quite a bit.  I am pretty sure I cut our stuff in the basement by at least half.  I love to see those trash pages and boxes ready to be donated leaving my house!

The boys are officially done with school as they tracked off this last Wednesday.  Nana is doing her best to squeeze in one last visit before we leave and entertain them while Charley and I finish out our last 3 days.  I am surprisingly caught up on my grading and will finalize my grades before leaving school Thursday afternoon.  I have started cleaning out my classroom and will hopefully been done with that on Tuesday.  A new teacher has been hired and hopefully I will get to meet with her before heading off.

The movers arrive Friday morning to get the house packed up (so grateful someone else is doing the heavy work this time around!).  The truck gets loaded Saturday and we fly off Saturday night.  The kids are all off having one last day of fun with their friends and cousins here and I am home with a quiet house.  I can't remember the last time the house was quiet on a Saturday afternoon!

Ronny has been in Texas since the first of the year and has thus far enjoyed his new job.  We are anxious to reunite and be a family again.  Our van made it safely there this week so Ronny will be able to pick us up from the airport when we get in.  It will be nice to have him there to coral the kids and dog as it will be midnight when the flight touches down and I expect we will be all tired and on edge at that point.

The bishop called this morning and asked Charley and I to speak tomorrow.  Just what I needed!  Looks like we have one more hoop to jump through so that is what I'll be doing tonight.  We love our ward here though so if they want to hear from us one last time then we are happy to serve.  We will surely miss everyone here but knowing we will visit often tempers that hurt just a little.

On The Move!

If you know us well, you know that things never slow down at our house, ever...   With having a more involved teaching schedule this year I just have not had the time to keep up with our family blog.  I am hoping that will change in the new year as our lives will be changing dramatically once again.

In late September/early October both Ronny and I felt an impression that something big was going to change in our lives.  We had no idea what it was to be, but just had a prompting from the Lord that something was coming.  To our surprise, in late October major changes went down at Ronny's office.  Restructuring occurred and at the end of it Ronny's job changed dramatically.  After counseling together, fasting, and much prayer we decided it was time for Ronny to go in a new direction.  He gave his notice and officially ended his employment with Red Brain Labs in the middle of November.  He spent much of November and early December interviewing with many companies all over the country.  When all was said and done, we had 4 great offers on the table and were turning away future interviews.  Once again much fasting and prayers went into the decision to move our family to Austin, Texas as Ronny is set to start he new career with Apple in their Data Science group.

For now we plan to rent our home here in Utah (if you know anyone who is looking for a rental in the new year in South Jordan, let me know!).  We are busy getting the house ready and making formal moving plans.  Ronny will start work on the 6th while the kids and I will stay to finish our semester here before heading down.  Thankfully Apple is taking care of the packing, heavy lifting, and even the driving!

We are are excited for our new adventure and I am excited to spend more time at home with the kids for now.  We would like to wish you all the best in the new year!

Arrow of Light

At the end of June, Joseph earned his Arrow of Light in cub scouts.  Joseph earned his Arrow of Light  after at least a year from the previous one, and the first to earn it under his mother as Webelo Den Leader.  We wanted to make the presentation a big deal to inspire the boys coming up behind Joseph that this was an important step in scouting.  I searched the web for different ceremonies and picked pieces from 3 different ones and put them together for this night.  Our cub committee all pitched in to make this a special night for Joseph.  We also did Joseph's bridging ceremony into Scouts so Ronny and I both were playing double duty as parents and scout leaders.  I sent him over the bridge and Ronny was there to greet him.

 These first few photos are fuzzy because the lights are off as part of the program.