Alright... alright... Here is what we found out this last week.
Tyler's first rotation (Feb-April) is in Horsham, and he found a bus route so we wouldn't have to get another car... yet. That's about 30 minutes from where we live.
His second rotation (May-July) is in Trooper, which is... 45 minutes away? not sure on drive time for that one yet. But it's PAID (not very much, but still!) and he won a lottery (the other students that applied with Ty for that one had to basically draw straws) for that one :) which is crazy because our luck and life here has not worked out at all the way we thought, so it's good at least something is pulling through for us for rotations.
His third rotation (Aug-Nov) is at The Eye Institute, which is about 15 minutes from where we live.
His fourth rotation (Dec-Feb) is in West Virginia with FREE HOUSING! Yay, such good news! We didn't think there was any chance that he'd get any with free housing, haha, those are all that we applied for.
His last rotation (Feb-May) is in Montana also with FREE HOUSING, and meals I think! Yay, more good news!
But NOW I feel like I'm almost back to square one with deciding where me and the girls are going to live. We were planning on taking care of Ty's parents house while they were on a mission, but they might not be gone the whole time we live there, which is hard because we're at the point where we NEED our own space and routine. I thought there was no way we'd get free housing rotations and any in the area. But now that he'd be living somewhere else for free, I feel like we can make it here (barely, like we've been doing). Then I wouldn't have to uproot my kids for 9 months and then do it again when he's done. And now it's 6 months without him here versus 9 months without him there. It'd be about the same amount of support either way, our ward = awesome, but a lot of people I count on now will have moved by next fall, but more people will have moved in... Ahh.. decisions, decisions, decisions...
Anyway, just to let the world know, we know our rotation schedule and places :)
Monday, July 7, 2014
Tuesday, May 6, 2014
It's that time of year again, but with pictures :)
Here are a few pics, mostly of the girls, I'm not a fan of my face on camera, and Tyler's usually gone when I take pictures.
This picture may speak for itself ;)
Playing in the snow, these pictures also speak for themselves ;)
The Please Touch Museum
Maple Days
Lyndi made a "rainbow" egg for Easter, it turned out pretty well!
Emerie water colored two eggs, then proceeded to peel and eat them
Easter girls
This picture perfectly describes the girls. Lyndi so happy on Easter, Emerie so tired and wondering why she doesn't have a cup full of candy to hold.
Our little Obi-Wan ;)
Lyndi likes to watch tv like this sometimes
And wear a lot of store clothing while we're shopping
Emerie likes to eat a whole tomato and wear purple boots
Lyndi was practicing letters, so Emerie wanted to
They really do love each other!
Their matching aprons from Grandma for Christmas (I have one too). Making chocolate chip cookies to celebrate Dad's finals being over!
The Joy School kids were making the ABC's with their bodies. Such a hilarious day at our house!
This picture may speak for itself ;)
Playing in the snow, these pictures also speak for themselves ;)
Emerie likes to eat a whole tomato and wear purple boots
It's that time again, another year over!
Yes, it's that glorious time of year when I "update" our family blog! I post a few things every semester (usually rants or fears), but don't actually update, so here's what we've been up to:
First and foremost, CONGRATULATIONS to my amazing husband on working so hard and finishing his second year of Optometry school today! Yay! He turns into a 3rd year in about a week and a half. SO PROUD OF HIM! Lyndi has a special surprise dinner planned for him (he already found out about the steak, it was sitting on the counter thawing, but Lyndi told me not to tell him what else we're having).
January began cold and windy and our heat went out on one of the coldest days of the month! Our landlord said the heater had been sounding weird for 15 years, and it finally went out on us! Luckily it was a quick fix! Tyler had clinic 3, sometimes 4 days a week, which will happen from here on out I hear. Wednesdays this semester were our 'girl's days', even though every day was a girl's day at our house. Since Tyler was gone all day until around 9, us girls baked cookies and ate junk food on Wednesdays :).
February started with that crazy big and long power outage and snow, snow and more snow! Nothing particularly exciting happened this month though... pretty boring people this month haha.
In March we went to Maple Days at a local farm, it was so fun! It was so cold! They showed us how to make maple syrup from trees, and why real maple syrup costs so dang much at the grocery store ;) They had little kid tractor rides and animals and pet and look at. They gave us a pancake with syrup and a piece of maple candy to sample, and it was one of the best pancakes I've ever had. The candy was too sweet for me, but Emerie liked it! Tyler then took me to get my ears pierced! I was so nervous! I pierced them when I was 18 and apparently was allergic to I'm assuming nickel. I got some better (more expensive) earrings this time and haven't had a problem! Tyler threw me a party the next night and made me a lemon poppy seed cake (mmmmmmmm). That happened to be the same week he had Spring Break, so we got some things done around the house and then we went to the Please Touch Museum. Hands down the most fun indoor kids place I've ever been to! It's HUGE and they have thought of everything for it. The first Wednesday of every month from 5-7 the tickets are $2 (compared to $17 normally, even for kids!). So we decided to go finally and it was well worth the drive downtown. Emerie's favorite part was collecting ALL the rubber duckies in the water they had and putting them in the same place. Lyndi's favorite was the store where she got to shop for groceries with her little cart. SO MUCH FUN!
In April we finally saw the snow melt away and got to go to the park for the first time in AGES! I felt bad for the girls this semester because we had to take turns with the car, and since it was SO cold for such a LONG time we were housebound for what felt like FOREVER. Emerie wasn't even sure how to play on the playground :). But it turns out she could sit in a swing all day if I let her. She's not much of a fan of the rest of the playground, or the other kids for that matter. Which brings us to the beginning of Nursery for her! She turned 18 months this month and got to start nursery. The first week she was fine, then the next week she was ok, then the third week she was sick and last week poor Hannah had to hold her a lot of the time! We've never had a problem with either of our girls playing or getting along with other kids, so this is new for us to have a clingy child in Nursery during church. But it gives Tyler a much needed break ;). Poor guy has had both of our girls during church from the time they could crawl until they hit nursery age.
Now it's May and it's beautiful and hasn't heated up so quick like last year! There's not a hint of humidity yet (knock on wood), not too many bugs yet and everything is finally starting to blossom! PLUS we're halfway through school! It's flown by! 24 more months haha. 24 more months.
Lyndi has started reading lessons and is halfway through her book today! 50 more lessons to go :) She's amazing and picks up on things pretty quick. She's been doing Joy School still and loves it and always counts down days until she gets to go again. She also has been learning how to ride a bike! She got one from Santa and it's finally nice enough outside to take it out for a spin.
Emerie is nuts ;). That girl and her food... enough said. Haha, just kidding, not really, but she does love her food! We had the missionaries over for dinner a few weeks ago, and they both looked at her and said "Woah, she eats a lot!" Haha. She is constantly dragging chairs over to our pantry and climbing to what she wants, then opens the packages and eats whatever she can before I catch her! She's started talking and is becoming a very "determined" child, to put it kindly. Lyndi and her play together really well half of the time and it's cute to hear them giggling together!
That's all for now folks! Sorry we're not more exciting to read about ;)
First and foremost, CONGRATULATIONS to my amazing husband on working so hard and finishing his second year of Optometry school today! Yay! He turns into a 3rd year in about a week and a half. SO PROUD OF HIM! Lyndi has a special surprise dinner planned for him (he already found out about the steak, it was sitting on the counter thawing, but Lyndi told me not to tell him what else we're having).
January began cold and windy and our heat went out on one of the coldest days of the month! Our landlord said the heater had been sounding weird for 15 years, and it finally went out on us! Luckily it was a quick fix! Tyler had clinic 3, sometimes 4 days a week, which will happen from here on out I hear. Wednesdays this semester were our 'girl's days', even though every day was a girl's day at our house. Since Tyler was gone all day until around 9, us girls baked cookies and ate junk food on Wednesdays :).
February started with that crazy big and long power outage and snow, snow and more snow! Nothing particularly exciting happened this month though... pretty boring people this month haha.
In March we went to Maple Days at a local farm, it was so fun! It was so cold! They showed us how to make maple syrup from trees, and why real maple syrup costs so dang much at the grocery store ;) They had little kid tractor rides and animals and pet and look at. They gave us a pancake with syrup and a piece of maple candy to sample, and it was one of the best pancakes I've ever had. The candy was too sweet for me, but Emerie liked it! Tyler then took me to get my ears pierced! I was so nervous! I pierced them when I was 18 and apparently was allergic to I'm assuming nickel. I got some better (more expensive) earrings this time and haven't had a problem! Tyler threw me a party the next night and made me a lemon poppy seed cake (mmmmmmmm). That happened to be the same week he had Spring Break, so we got some things done around the house and then we went to the Please Touch Museum. Hands down the most fun indoor kids place I've ever been to! It's HUGE and they have thought of everything for it. The first Wednesday of every month from 5-7 the tickets are $2 (compared to $17 normally, even for kids!). So we decided to go finally and it was well worth the drive downtown. Emerie's favorite part was collecting ALL the rubber duckies in the water they had and putting them in the same place. Lyndi's favorite was the store where she got to shop for groceries with her little cart. SO MUCH FUN!
In April we finally saw the snow melt away and got to go to the park for the first time in AGES! I felt bad for the girls this semester because we had to take turns with the car, and since it was SO cold for such a LONG time we were housebound for what felt like FOREVER. Emerie wasn't even sure how to play on the playground :). But it turns out she could sit in a swing all day if I let her. She's not much of a fan of the rest of the playground, or the other kids for that matter. Which brings us to the beginning of Nursery for her! She turned 18 months this month and got to start nursery. The first week she was fine, then the next week she was ok, then the third week she was sick and last week poor Hannah had to hold her a lot of the time! We've never had a problem with either of our girls playing or getting along with other kids, so this is new for us to have a clingy child in Nursery during church. But it gives Tyler a much needed break ;). Poor guy has had both of our girls during church from the time they could crawl until they hit nursery age.
Now it's May and it's beautiful and hasn't heated up so quick like last year! There's not a hint of humidity yet (knock on wood), not too many bugs yet and everything is finally starting to blossom! PLUS we're halfway through school! It's flown by! 24 more months haha. 24 more months.
Lyndi has started reading lessons and is halfway through her book today! 50 more lessons to go :) She's amazing and picks up on things pretty quick. She's been doing Joy School still and loves it and always counts down days until she gets to go again. She also has been learning how to ride a bike! She got one from Santa and it's finally nice enough outside to take it out for a spin.
Emerie is nuts ;). That girl and her food... enough said. Haha, just kidding, not really, but she does love her food! We had the missionaries over for dinner a few weeks ago, and they both looked at her and said "Woah, she eats a lot!" Haha. She is constantly dragging chairs over to our pantry and climbing to what she wants, then opens the packages and eats whatever she can before I catch her! She's started talking and is becoming a very "determined" child, to put it kindly. Lyndi and her play together really well half of the time and it's cute to hear them giggling together!
That's all for now folks! Sorry we're not more exciting to read about ;)
Monday, April 28, 2014
Someone tell us what to do! :)
This post is all about my stress, worries, and insomnia concerning rotations. When we first got into school I had no idea that rotations were going to be such a huge decision in our lives! Maybe I'm just looking into it too much, but I feel it weighing down on me physically and emotionally! I feel like I can't decide one way or another what would be best for our family, so I'm posting this just to get it all written and get people's opinions if they have any wise advice. If I think about it too much, I start lashing out haha, someone tell us what to do! (I mean, don't actually tell us what to do, but opinions may help)
Our options, however far-fetched they may be, are:
1) Living here
2) Moving around every 3 months with Tyler for his rotations
3) Living with parents while Tyler moves around
My favorite option is number one. But here are the pros and cons of living here:
PROS:
- We actually get to live with and see Tyler every day, for all or most of the 18 months
- Lyndi will be in Kindergarten and already knows several of the neighbor kids that would be going to the same school
- We won't have to move (AGAIN!) until he's done with school
- We are already set up here as far as friends and family (meaning the ward)
- Medicaid and things like that are already set up
CONS:
- Finances... Because of the equipment we've had to use our loan budget for every semester, and soon to be used for boards and things, it has been SO TIGHT financially, so I don't know if we could make it work with another car and gas and Lyndi being in school.
- That's the only con I can think of... other than the nasty humidity and mosquitos :)
On to number 2, moving around every 3 months with Tyler for his rotation.
PROS:
-We'd be able to live together, that's the only pro I can think of :)
CONS:
- We'd be moving every 3 months, which would mean:
- Setting up Medicaid, which takes on average a month
- Setting up food stamps, which takes on average a month
- Trying to find short term housing for (potentially) 5 people
- Trying to keep the kids from having nervous breakdowns from moving so much
- Lyndi will be in Kindergarten which would either mean moving her from school to school, or homeschooling
- Not knowing ANYONE or where ANYTHING is everywhere we lived
- How in the world would our mail and medicaid and things keep up with us?!
Now number 3, we have 3 options for living with parents, however, at this point we decided that living with Tyler's parents would be the best option, because we know people and places in Cedar City.
PROS:
- We'd have help from family and friends
- We'd have a yard and a house that the kids are familiar with to live in
- WAY WAY cheaper than living here! Even if we paid rent and utilities, it would be around a third of what we're paying here, so we could afford for Tyler to live elsewhere and/or fly him home on occasion, or even just start paying off a little interest on our loans!
- Stable environment and school for Lyndi
- We'd be in ONE place for that last year
CONS:
- We wouldn't be able to live with Tyler, so I would probably go crazy and sell or lose one of my kids haha
- We would have to either move all of our stuff and move it all again a year later, or put it all in a storage unit here or there.
- We'd have to move and then move again a year later, which means moving mail (again), and medicaid (again), and the kids (again, they don't do well with change like that).
So our situation as of right now is that Tyler got his first rotation here, which is from the end of January until May, so we are here until at least May of next year, and then after that it's all up in the air. All these unknowns are stressing me out more than they should (if he's gonna get a job, where he's going to be, where we're going to be, having another baby, no that's not an announcement, finances, etc). He said that most people have told him that if they get into a drawing with him, they don't want to be "the jerk that takes him away from his family" so they would bow out of the drawing, which makes me feel a lot better, but I still don't know what to do! Our bishop told us that we could have a ward fast for us to stay here haha, I would feel odd doing that, but I guess if nothing else presents itself to us as far as our decision making goes, we'll consider it! It feels good to get that all written out, and maybe, possibly get some feedback, even if I don't get any, I'm sure we'll be fine, I'm just a worrier :)
Our options, however far-fetched they may be, are:
1) Living here
2) Moving around every 3 months with Tyler for his rotations
3) Living with parents while Tyler moves around
My favorite option is number one. But here are the pros and cons of living here:
PROS:
- We actually get to live with and see Tyler every day, for all or most of the 18 months
- Lyndi will be in Kindergarten and already knows several of the neighbor kids that would be going to the same school
- We won't have to move (AGAIN!) until he's done with school
- We are already set up here as far as friends and family (meaning the ward)
- Medicaid and things like that are already set up
CONS:
- Finances... Because of the equipment we've had to use our loan budget for every semester, and soon to be used for boards and things, it has been SO TIGHT financially, so I don't know if we could make it work with another car and gas and Lyndi being in school.
- That's the only con I can think of... other than the nasty humidity and mosquitos :)
On to number 2, moving around every 3 months with Tyler for his rotation.
PROS:
-We'd be able to live together, that's the only pro I can think of :)
CONS:
- We'd be moving every 3 months, which would mean:
- Setting up Medicaid, which takes on average a month
- Setting up food stamps, which takes on average a month
- Trying to find short term housing for (potentially) 5 people
- Trying to keep the kids from having nervous breakdowns from moving so much
- Lyndi will be in Kindergarten which would either mean moving her from school to school, or homeschooling
- Not knowing ANYONE or where ANYTHING is everywhere we lived
- How in the world would our mail and medicaid and things keep up with us?!
Now number 3, we have 3 options for living with parents, however, at this point we decided that living with Tyler's parents would be the best option, because we know people and places in Cedar City.
PROS:
- We'd have help from family and friends
- We'd have a yard and a house that the kids are familiar with to live in
- WAY WAY cheaper than living here! Even if we paid rent and utilities, it would be around a third of what we're paying here, so we could afford for Tyler to live elsewhere and/or fly him home on occasion, or even just start paying off a little interest on our loans!
- Stable environment and school for Lyndi
- We'd be in ONE place for that last year
CONS:
- We wouldn't be able to live with Tyler, so I would probably go crazy and sell or lose one of my kids haha
- We would have to either move all of our stuff and move it all again a year later, or put it all in a storage unit here or there.
- We'd have to move and then move again a year later, which means moving mail (again), and medicaid (again), and the kids (again, they don't do well with change like that).
So our situation as of right now is that Tyler got his first rotation here, which is from the end of January until May, so we are here until at least May of next year, and then after that it's all up in the air. All these unknowns are stressing me out more than they should (if he's gonna get a job, where he's going to be, where we're going to be, having another baby, no that's not an announcement, finances, etc). He said that most people have told him that if they get into a drawing with him, they don't want to be "the jerk that takes him away from his family" so they would bow out of the drawing, which makes me feel a lot better, but I still don't know what to do! Our bishop told us that we could have a ward fast for us to stay here haha, I would feel odd doing that, but I guess if nothing else presents itself to us as far as our decision making goes, we'll consider it! It feels good to get that all written out, and maybe, possibly get some feedback, even if I don't get any, I'm sure we'll be fine, I'm just a worrier :)
Sunday, February 9, 2014
My second family
I don't even know enough words to describe how I feel about things that happened this week. I don't have enough ways to say "thank you" to the people that helped us so much. I look back now and I think "people used to do this their whole lives" haha, but they also all had fireplaces in their homes ;) .
As many of you know, we woke up to a cold house Wednesday morning. There was a snow storm on Monday and it was pretty heavy snow, and then Tuesday night it rained and then froze on top of the snow, and a lot of trees couldn't handle the weight. I had to drive Tyler to The Eye Institute for clinic Wednesday afternoon and every direction we tried going we had to turn around because of a fallen tree! In all my years living through Iowa's ice storms I've never experienced such a storm with so much lost power. The ironic part is that as dangerous as it is, I've never been more amazed by mother nature's beauty as I have when an ice storm occurs. It's so beautiful! Across the street from our house there was half of a tree dangling on the power line, and another one on the roof. We spent most of Wednesday at home but then it got too cold to keep warm so we went to the Adam's house and let the girls play. The Palmer's were also there, also out of power, and they called dibs on staying at the Adam's ;) so we went to another house to sleep. Tyler thought we could tough it out that night at our apartment, but I said no haha. With small kids involved, it changes the game. I'm so glad we didn't try to stay because it was 44 degrees inside the next morning when we went to get clean clothes! The first and second night we stayed with the Butt's from the ward that have two girls the same age as our two girls. Lyndi kept saying "It's time for a sleepover with Ellie!" To this day, I'm still not sure she entirely understands the concept of a sleepover haha. The girls slept remarkably well that first night. Lyndi's friend Ellie is in Joy School with her and she loves to play with her. The second night wasn't so great with them, but still, for not being at home, they did great!
The next two nights we spent at the Clark's house. We felt like two days was pushing it with overstaying our welcome. I know everyone was so happy to help and they probably didn't feel burdened by us being there until the power came back on, but I felt bad for staying so long. I felt so helpless! I couldn't cook anything, do laundry, entertain kids, shower, charge my phone, without the help of someone else and their warm, well-lit home, even changing clothing at our apartment wasn't an option after the first day, so cold! The girl's again slept pretty well for not being at their own house, and they also experienced a "real" babysitter for the first time ever and they did great! We usually just swap kids with another couple for babysitting, but we had a Valentine's activity for church Saturday night so we combined kids with a babysitter and they went to bed when they were supposed to, and were pleasant for the sitter!
I kept checking the power company's website to see if anything had changed. I kept hearing more and more people get their power back, and I kept thinking "ok, we're next, we're next". Even people out in the middle of nowhere were getting power back before we were! Wednesday night I checked the website and they estimated Sunday night at 11:00 pm. Thursday I checked and it estimated Thursday night at 11:00 pm. Friday I checked and it estimated Friday night at 11:00 pm. Saturday I checked and it estimated Saturday night at 11:00 pm. Haha. I woke up at about 4:30 Sunday morning and the thought ran through my head that our power was back on, and I got too excited I couldn't go back to sleep. Tyler had church meetings that morning but he forgot his sunday shoes, so he went back to the apartment to get them, and he said "our porch light is on!" Made. My. Week. I'm an easily stressed person and fairly analytical, so when things like this happen, I have a week's worth of worry run through my head in an instant, and it just replays over and over. So I get tired and frustrated and cranky ;). At one point, we had friends 2 blocks from us on both sides of the apartment with power AND the people living 300 feet across the street from us and we still had none! I kept thinking, "am I supposed to be learning something from this?" haha. We were the second to the last ones to get power back in the ward. Lyndi was actually disappointed to be ending our sleepover streak, because that night we were going to go to the Palmer's house and have another sleepover when we found out we had power back. So we scheduled a pajama party with them for another time haha.
Three weeks previous to this the same thing occurred, but it was just our heat that was broken and not our electricity. We went about 10 hours without heat on one of the coldest days of the season, but at least we had a way to provide heat with space heaters and our oven and stovetop without leaving our home. So when we woke up cold on Wednesday, I was like "again? really?" haha, I had no idea at that point just how many hundreds of thousands of people were in the same boat as us. I read Hurricane Sandy that we experienced right after Emerie was born put almost a million people out of power, we never lost power for that one though, but this storm was a close second with numbers in the 700,000's. SO CRAZY! Mother nature, we have had enough snow, and ice for that matter. Please send some out west where it is very much needed. But on the bright side, our power bill will be awesomely low this month, and we have made more plans for necessity's in our future house, such as a fireplace ;).
But my main thought when coming home is just how lucky we are to be in this ward with our second family. We have NEVER experienced a ward that's so close knit. Don't get me wrong, our past wards have been great, but living where most everyone has no family close by it makes you rely on each other. I know people still have their issues with each other on occasion, but when the need arises, everyone is there for each other. I can count literally dozens of responses to our time of need this past week. At one point, it felt like people were saying "pick me! pick me!" haha, because they all wanted so badly to help someone! Dozens of offers were made for laundry, showers, meals, a place to hang out during the day, somewhere to sleep, somewhere to keep our food from the fridge, a place for my kids to take a bath or to play, giving us food when ours finally went bad in the door of our freezer and fridge, etc. THIS is the only reason I'm not super worried about Tyler getting a rotation or two somewhere else while us girls live here while he's gone. Our ward is our second family, they are the BEST! No thank you's will ever be enough for helping us out this past week. You know who you are :)
As many of you know, we woke up to a cold house Wednesday morning. There was a snow storm on Monday and it was pretty heavy snow, and then Tuesday night it rained and then froze on top of the snow, and a lot of trees couldn't handle the weight. I had to drive Tyler to The Eye Institute for clinic Wednesday afternoon and every direction we tried going we had to turn around because of a fallen tree! In all my years living through Iowa's ice storms I've never experienced such a storm with so much lost power. The ironic part is that as dangerous as it is, I've never been more amazed by mother nature's beauty as I have when an ice storm occurs. It's so beautiful! Across the street from our house there was half of a tree dangling on the power line, and another one on the roof. We spent most of Wednesday at home but then it got too cold to keep warm so we went to the Adam's house and let the girls play. The Palmer's were also there, also out of power, and they called dibs on staying at the Adam's ;) so we went to another house to sleep. Tyler thought we could tough it out that night at our apartment, but I said no haha. With small kids involved, it changes the game. I'm so glad we didn't try to stay because it was 44 degrees inside the next morning when we went to get clean clothes! The first and second night we stayed with the Butt's from the ward that have two girls the same age as our two girls. Lyndi kept saying "It's time for a sleepover with Ellie!" To this day, I'm still not sure she entirely understands the concept of a sleepover haha. The girls slept remarkably well that first night. Lyndi's friend Ellie is in Joy School with her and she loves to play with her. The second night wasn't so great with them, but still, for not being at home, they did great!
The next two nights we spent at the Clark's house. We felt like two days was pushing it with overstaying our welcome. I know everyone was so happy to help and they probably didn't feel burdened by us being there until the power came back on, but I felt bad for staying so long. I felt so helpless! I couldn't cook anything, do laundry, entertain kids, shower, charge my phone, without the help of someone else and their warm, well-lit home, even changing clothing at our apartment wasn't an option after the first day, so cold! The girl's again slept pretty well for not being at their own house, and they also experienced a "real" babysitter for the first time ever and they did great! We usually just swap kids with another couple for babysitting, but we had a Valentine's activity for church Saturday night so we combined kids with a babysitter and they went to bed when they were supposed to, and were pleasant for the sitter!
I kept checking the power company's website to see if anything had changed. I kept hearing more and more people get their power back, and I kept thinking "ok, we're next, we're next". Even people out in the middle of nowhere were getting power back before we were! Wednesday night I checked the website and they estimated Sunday night at 11:00 pm. Thursday I checked and it estimated Thursday night at 11:00 pm. Friday I checked and it estimated Friday night at 11:00 pm. Saturday I checked and it estimated Saturday night at 11:00 pm. Haha. I woke up at about 4:30 Sunday morning and the thought ran through my head that our power was back on, and I got too excited I couldn't go back to sleep. Tyler had church meetings that morning but he forgot his sunday shoes, so he went back to the apartment to get them, and he said "our porch light is on!" Made. My. Week. I'm an easily stressed person and fairly analytical, so when things like this happen, I have a week's worth of worry run through my head in an instant, and it just replays over and over. So I get tired and frustrated and cranky ;). At one point, we had friends 2 blocks from us on both sides of the apartment with power AND the people living 300 feet across the street from us and we still had none! I kept thinking, "am I supposed to be learning something from this?" haha. We were the second to the last ones to get power back in the ward. Lyndi was actually disappointed to be ending our sleepover streak, because that night we were going to go to the Palmer's house and have another sleepover when we found out we had power back. So we scheduled a pajama party with them for another time haha.
Three weeks previous to this the same thing occurred, but it was just our heat that was broken and not our electricity. We went about 10 hours without heat on one of the coldest days of the season, but at least we had a way to provide heat with space heaters and our oven and stovetop without leaving our home. So when we woke up cold on Wednesday, I was like "again? really?" haha, I had no idea at that point just how many hundreds of thousands of people were in the same boat as us. I read Hurricane Sandy that we experienced right after Emerie was born put almost a million people out of power, we never lost power for that one though, but this storm was a close second with numbers in the 700,000's. SO CRAZY! Mother nature, we have had enough snow, and ice for that matter. Please send some out west where it is very much needed. But on the bright side, our power bill will be awesomely low this month, and we have made more plans for necessity's in our future house, such as a fireplace ;).
But my main thought when coming home is just how lucky we are to be in this ward with our second family. We have NEVER experienced a ward that's so close knit. Don't get me wrong, our past wards have been great, but living where most everyone has no family close by it makes you rely on each other. I know people still have their issues with each other on occasion, but when the need arises, everyone is there for each other. I can count literally dozens of responses to our time of need this past week. At one point, it felt like people were saying "pick me! pick me!" haha, because they all wanted so badly to help someone! Dozens of offers were made for laundry, showers, meals, a place to hang out during the day, somewhere to sleep, somewhere to keep our food from the fridge, a place for my kids to take a bath or to play, giving us food when ours finally went bad in the door of our freezer and fridge, etc. THIS is the only reason I'm not super worried about Tyler getting a rotation or two somewhere else while us girls live here while he's gone. Our ward is our second family, they are the BEST! No thank you's will ever be enough for helping us out this past week. You know who you are :)
Monday, January 6, 2014
Another semester down!
I usually only have 1 post per semester, but this semester we had so much going on that I felt the need to update multiple times! Next semester will probably only be one post again :) Well this past semester flew by again, which I was grateful for, it always seems like the days are long but the semester is short. How does happen? I'll never understand it.
September was the beginning of the busy. Tyler started tests and practicals, and my sister finally got the OK to go on her mission and wanted us to go through the Temple with her, so we headed up to Palmyra with her and spent the weekend. It was a WONDERFUL experience. I'd been there before with the youth of my church when I was 17, and it was so much fun, but I was expecting to feel something there in the Sacred Grove and I didn't. I came away thinking it was a beautiful place but nothing "special" if that makes sense. Special, but not special? Haha, anyway, this time I was with my kids, husband and family. We drove into the parking lot and I lost it before we even got out. It was the weirdest thing! I cry a lot (thank you birth control) anyway now, but this was something else! And a few weeks after this happened, I realized that I didn't need that "special moment" back when I was 17, because I was already on a spiritual high. But being on your own, so to speak, makes a lot of things more meaningful. I didn't feel the spirit back then because I needed to feel it when I was there this year. It helped my testimony grow. This is the true church! I've never felt anything so powerful before.
October was a bit busier. I started Lyndi in Joy School and she LOVES it. And with that, I teach two weeks out of every eight weeks. Sometimes it's a little chaotic, but so much fun! So I taught in October and then Emerie had her first birthday (man how times flies) with a little party with friends. Tyler's grandma passed away so he was out in Utah on his birthday and the ward Halloween party, which was a lot of fun! We had a party with friends when he got back. Emerie started walking, which has brought on a whole lot of new things. She was already a good climber, and so she began walking on things like the coffee and kitchen table, which brought on a whole new set of heart attacks for me. Lyndi learned to write her name and a few other things, and also learned to talk back to me :) so fun.
Tyler had 10, yes 10 practicals this semester and the girls and I noticed a big difference in the amount of time we saw him. It was a bit of a lonely semester. (I will just take a second and say how grateful I am for the friends I have made here and how much they mean to me in my times on extreme loneliness and cabin fever! I have never made so many friends that have been in the exact same boat as me before and I have really learned to rely on them!) On top of being in class from 8-5, he would come home, eat, go back and study until 8, and then practice for his practicals from 8-11 a LOT of the time. And then the weekend would come along and I would think "Yay! I get to see him!" And then meetings, or moves, or something for Elder's Quorum would pop up. Darn it :) I'm grateful for his calling, I really am, sometimes it's a little much but it's taught me patience, independence, and to reach out to others (aka previously mentioned friends) for help and comfort. And he's such a natural at his calling too, he doesn't even blink an eye when he's asked to do something, which is another thing I'm grateful for. I'm a greedy person and value my time with him, but know at this point in our lives, I have to share the better part of him with everyone else ;) But as busy as he was, he ended his semester well and we had a great Christmas break! Sorry this was so long again.... maybe I SHOULD post more than once every semester... haha.
September was the beginning of the busy. Tyler started tests and practicals, and my sister finally got the OK to go on her mission and wanted us to go through the Temple with her, so we headed up to Palmyra with her and spent the weekend. It was a WONDERFUL experience. I'd been there before with the youth of my church when I was 17, and it was so much fun, but I was expecting to feel something there in the Sacred Grove and I didn't. I came away thinking it was a beautiful place but nothing "special" if that makes sense. Special, but not special? Haha, anyway, this time I was with my kids, husband and family. We drove into the parking lot and I lost it before we even got out. It was the weirdest thing! I cry a lot (thank you birth control) anyway now, but this was something else! And a few weeks after this happened, I realized that I didn't need that "special moment" back when I was 17, because I was already on a spiritual high. But being on your own, so to speak, makes a lot of things more meaningful. I didn't feel the spirit back then because I needed to feel it when I was there this year. It helped my testimony grow. This is the true church! I've never felt anything so powerful before.
October was a bit busier. I started Lyndi in Joy School and she LOVES it. And with that, I teach two weeks out of every eight weeks. Sometimes it's a little chaotic, but so much fun! So I taught in October and then Emerie had her first birthday (man how times flies) with a little party with friends. Tyler's grandma passed away so he was out in Utah on his birthday and the ward Halloween party, which was a lot of fun! We had a party with friends when he got back. Emerie started walking, which has brought on a whole lot of new things. She was already a good climber, and so she began walking on things like the coffee and kitchen table, which brought on a whole new set of heart attacks for me. Lyndi learned to write her name and a few other things, and also learned to talk back to me :) so fun.
November was a bit calmer, just Christmas shopping, lots of studying and practicing for Tyler, and then Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving was with a bunch of friends and it was way fun! I've never had it completely without family before, and it was a really good time! Emerie at this point had been teething for about 4 months with nothing to show for it, so that was a blast ;)December was hectic, yes hectic. I've never experienced such a busy Christmas season before, and I know that this is just the beginning. We had something going on several nights every week, which is crazy because we never do anything! But between teaching, baking, shopping, parties, birthdays, dr. appts., ward functions, ward callings, and traveling, it was a busy busy month. We had Christmas at my mom's house, and then it all seemed to settle down. Sigh of relief inserted here.
Tyler had 10, yes 10 practicals this semester and the girls and I noticed a big difference in the amount of time we saw him. It was a bit of a lonely semester. (I will just take a second and say how grateful I am for the friends I have made here and how much they mean to me in my times on extreme loneliness and cabin fever! I have never made so many friends that have been in the exact same boat as me before and I have really learned to rely on them!) On top of being in class from 8-5, he would come home, eat, go back and study until 8, and then practice for his practicals from 8-11 a LOT of the time. And then the weekend would come along and I would think "Yay! I get to see him!" And then meetings, or moves, or something for Elder's Quorum would pop up. Darn it :) I'm grateful for his calling, I really am, sometimes it's a little much but it's taught me patience, independence, and to reach out to others (aka previously mentioned friends) for help and comfort. And he's such a natural at his calling too, he doesn't even blink an eye when he's asked to do something, which is another thing I'm grateful for. I'm a greedy person and value my time with him, but know at this point in our lives, I have to share the better part of him with everyone else ;) But as busy as he was, he ended his semester well and we had a great Christmas break! Sorry this was so long again.... maybe I SHOULD post more than once every semester... haha.
Lyndi's 4th birthday!
My first born has had another birthday!
She turned 4 on December 16, and, due to the chaos December brings and the bugs that come in to our house, she had croup on the day of her party and on her birthday. We had to postpone her birthday party for a month! I felt so bad for her... She was so excited to have friends over but I decided the night before that it wasn't worth getting 5 other girls sick with it too! Emerie developed it a few days before we left for my mom's house as well, but that meant we got it all out of our systems BEFORE Christmas this year instead of ON Christmas!
Lyndi asked for all ballet stuff for her birthday, (I know, surprise, surprise right?) so she got all the attire for it and a little beginners DVD. She LOVES it! It's a cute little video with songs teaching how to stretch and do a few basic steps. She also got a ballet Barbie and Tyler got her a mini-cheesecake since we were leaving the next morning. I didn't want a cake sitting for a week at our empty house. When we got to my mom's she asked for a tye-dye birthday cake (yes they now make a zebra patterned cake and a tye-dye patterned cake!). She picked the mix out herself at the store and we made tye-dye cupcakes that week for her. It was pretty fun!
She now knows to write her name and mom and dad. She's working on learning to read. She's become very interested in it the last few months, and I'm trying to be creative on a student's budget to get her materials to help her! Any suggestions are welcome :) She is also a very independent and tidy dresser. She will pick out two pink things, or purple or blue things and put them on, even if they don't match shades. Sometimes I have to compromise because there (believe it or not!) IS such a thing as too much pink. Haha, but she's always been my neat freak. She is offended sometimes when I pick out blue jeans to wear with a purple shirt instead of a purple skirt to wear with a purple shirt. She loves to help in the kitchen, and help mom around the house. She is a very obedient child most of the time, even if she throws a fit in the process.
That's a year's update on my little princess!
She turned 4 on December 16, and, due to the chaos December brings and the bugs that come in to our house, she had croup on the day of her party and on her birthday. We had to postpone her birthday party for a month! I felt so bad for her... She was so excited to have friends over but I decided the night before that it wasn't worth getting 5 other girls sick with it too! Emerie developed it a few days before we left for my mom's house as well, but that meant we got it all out of our systems BEFORE Christmas this year instead of ON Christmas!
Lyndi asked for all ballet stuff for her birthday, (I know, surprise, surprise right?) so she got all the attire for it and a little beginners DVD. She LOVES it! It's a cute little video with songs teaching how to stretch and do a few basic steps. She also got a ballet Barbie and Tyler got her a mini-cheesecake since we were leaving the next morning. I didn't want a cake sitting for a week at our empty house. When we got to my mom's she asked for a tye-dye birthday cake (yes they now make a zebra patterned cake and a tye-dye patterned cake!). She picked the mix out herself at the store and we made tye-dye cupcakes that week for her. It was pretty fun!
She now knows to write her name and mom and dad. She's working on learning to read. She's become very interested in it the last few months, and I'm trying to be creative on a student's budget to get her materials to help her! Any suggestions are welcome :) She is also a very independent and tidy dresser. She will pick out two pink things, or purple or blue things and put them on, even if they don't match shades. Sometimes I have to compromise because there (believe it or not!) IS such a thing as too much pink. Haha, but she's always been my neat freak. She is offended sometimes when I pick out blue jeans to wear with a purple shirt instead of a purple skirt to wear with a purple shirt. She loves to help in the kitchen, and help mom around the house. She is a very obedient child most of the time, even if she throws a fit in the process.
That's a year's update on my little princess!
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