I'm a Bengal

I have been accepted at Idaho State University and will begin classes on January 7th (or so). Now comes the joy of applying for financial aid, registering for classes, and balancing the time when I will be at school and Jessica will be at work. FUN!

This news also means that we finally know exactly where we're going to live. That also means that we're moving this weekend. Depending on how efficient we are, this could be on Friday or Saturday.

More news will come later, as I won't spend much time here NOT packing (although it sounds good to me). While you wait, you can laugh at the ridiculously orange school logo.

Note how this particular Bengal has obsessive compulsive disorder, as displayed by his strangely symmetrical claw marks.

East Idaho Trip Update

Since Mike lost his job and decided to go back to school, we've been looking for jobs and apartments in East Idaho. However, we found it very difficult to do this while still living in West Idaho. So Sunday the 23rd, after choir practice, I left Nampa for my mom's house in Shelley. The original plan was that my move was permanent. Mike and the kids would join me later after finishing up the packing and getting Hyrum's school records transferred. I missed my family, but it felt so great to be back in that area again. Since we've moved out here, I feel almost paralyzed by the city. We don't have any friends, I don't know the roads, I hate our neighborhood and am afraid to let the kids go outside. Because of all this, I never leave the house and have become antisocial. Not healthy, I know. There were plenty of things I didn't like about East Idaho, like how people there are cliquish and how every store and restaurant plays country music. Still, East Idaho is home to me, and not just because that's where I grew up. I enjoyed just driving down the familiar roads and visiting with my old friends who have been anxiously awaiting our move back to the area. The feeling of freedom seemed to confirm to me that we were making the right choice. I feel like I can finally get back to being healthy again.

Monday, I found an apartment. I looked at a few places, but for the money and space, the best option was a complex just down the road from the credit union where my mom works. I never would have thought I'd live in Shelley. The problem was, there was a ton of paperwork to be approved to live there. They gave me an estimate of at least a 3 week wait. That meant 3 weeks before the rest of the family could come join me. We decided not to worry about that until we had to.

Tuesday, I found a job... kind of. I applied at a company called Center Partners which is a call outsourcing company I've worked for before. I used to be on the Qwest Loyalty and Retention account, but Qwest has since moved all their call centers in-house. You have to be a top agent in the Qwest general queue before being considered for a loyalty agent position. This all worked out great for me since they said that any accounts they currently have would be a cake walk after my retention experience. They gave me a basic computer skills test and set me up for an interview on December 3rd. I was told that it was mostly a formality, and that I'd be offered a job unless they found something wrong in my past HR records or if I messed up badly in my interview. I was one of their top loyalty agents in both quality and save rate and received more kudos calls of anyone in the center, so I wasn't worried. Then came the bad news. The training class wouldn't start until mid January. I decided to begin looking for temp work the next morning.

My temp job search didn't go as well as everything else had up to that point. I applied for seasonal work at Walmart only to find out that I couldn't work at the Idaho Falls store because my aunt works in personnel there. I couldn't work at the Ammon store either, because they had entered a hiring freeze. I did, however submit my application to the Blackfoot store. I planned to apply at Shopko, Target, and other such stores after Thanksgiving.

I enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner at my Aunt Judy's house the next day. We had a nice time visiting and playing games. Mike and the kids had dinner at my brother James's house in Boise. After dinner, they drove out to Shelley for the weekend.

Friday, we opted to stay out of the after Thanksgiving shopping traffic and submitted applications online instead. On Saturday, Mike got a call from the Ammon Walmart for a job and went to a late night interview. They offered him a position as a cart pusher on a temp/seasonal basis and told him to go for a drug test on Monday. I was surprised since I had been told they had a hiring freeze. However, when he went for his drug test on Monday morning, the store manager told him that the assistant manager had hired him by accident and that they weren't accepting new employees. Still, he did say that he might need someone in the electronics department, so Mike is hoping to get a call about that soon.

Hyrum had Friday and Monday off for Thanksgiving break, but had to be back on Tuesday. So the plan was for Mike to head home after his drug test on Monday. Instead, he decided to stick around until after my interview on Wednesday and take me back with him since the temp job idea wasn't working out. He decided to use his free time to meet with advisers at BYU-I and ISU since he still hasn't decided which school to go to or what to major in. ISU couldn't fit him in for an appointment, so we drove to Rexburg. He got a lot of good information, but now he's even more unsure of which school he'll attend. He found out that he can take his entire first year at ISU remotely at the Idaho Falls campus. That would be really convenient, but ISU doesn't have the exact major he wants most and BYU-I does. I don't really care which school he chooses. I just wish he'd choose!

Wednesday was my interview at Center Partners. I showed up early and was the only candidate dressed appropriately for an interview. I thought I had it locked. The HR director took me back to the call floor and began chatting to me about the people I knew when I worked there 7 years ago and how all the accounts and buildings had changed. We went to the break room where she got me a large cup of hot chocolate, then we returned to her office for the interview. I set my hot chocolate on the edge of her desk while I pulled off my coat. Well, you all know what a klutz I am. Yep, I knocked the hot chocolate over with my coat sleeve. It spilled all over her desk and the 2 inches of paperwork she had piled on it. I quickly ran back to the break room for paper towels and water, and we spent the next several minutes cleaning up the mess and trying to save her memos and reports. The spill narrowly missed an envelope of her kids' school pictures. I felt terrible. She had to sit on her jacket because the hot chocolate had dribbled off her desk and soaked her chair. I must be totally awesome because I still got the job!

We're home now, and it feels good to be back. I'm anxious to move to East Idaho, but my mom's house was just a little too crowded with the 4 of us and Sherwin's son Dale and daughter Donna visiting as well. We're hoping to hear from the apartment complex soon. Until then, we get to do my least favorite chore... packing.

Tomorrow is Emily's 2nd birthday. We'll see if I can find the time to make a video of that.

Happy Birthday, Hyrum!

As I mentioned at the end of my last post, Hyrum's 5th birthday was Monday! I can't believe he's already 5 years old. Wow.


Hyrum and Emily helped Mike make a fort in our living room on Sunday. This was quite a feat since our living room is about the size of a shoe box. After Emily went to bed, Mike and Hyrum put pillows and sleeping bags in the fort and fell asleep watching movies. Hyrum loved it! He's about the only one who did. Well, maybe our cat liked it. Hyrum kept waking up Mike every few minutes to kiss him and tell him he was happy, and Mike ended up with a sore arm from sleeping on the ground. Emily was upset that Hyrum wasn't sleeping in the bedroom with her and kept waking up crying. This, along with Mike's occasional trips to the bedroom to tell me he was sore and miserable kept me awake all night too. It's a good thing Hyrum has school in the afternoon!


Monday, after Hyrum came home from school, we went to IHOP to eat and open presents. Now, this may sound odd to you. Why IHOP? Why not Chuck E. Cheese or some other kid type place? Well, IHOP is most decidedly Hyrum's favorite restaurant. What can I say? Pancakes are one of the few things he'll eat. Pizza isn't.

Here's how things went at IHOP. If you want to see all 7 videos in their full version and with full audio, they're posted on my facebook. Someday maybe we'll get a real video camera instead of one that's primarily for stills. Also, yes. I know the music is weird. I like it.




We had a good time at IHOP despite the waiter who intruded on our table far more often than was necessary. I'll forgive him since he gave Emily free yogurt and Hyrum free ice cream. I only wish I had gotten a video of him trying to sing "Happy Birthday to You." I gave up trying to sing along after the 12th key change. Sorry... I have a hard time not slipping back into snooty music major mode sometimes.


Hyrum got Cooties from Grandma and Grandpa Crooks. ~Sigh~ *gets out the shampoo.* We got him a sweater, a shirt and a Simon game.


We're still looking for a new apartment and job. The trouble is knowing which city to look in. Mike applied at BYU-I and ISU, but we don't know where he'll go yet. Problem is, Rexburg and Pocatello are rather far apart. If Mike does ISU, he'll probably try to take as many classes as possible at the satellite campus in Idaho Falls, but he'll still have to go to Pocatello for a few others. So I guess, not knowing where he'll be, Rigby might be the best place for us to live. It's about halfway between Rexburg and Idaho Falls. But do I really want to live in Rigby again? There's a house for rent in my old neighborhood, only about 2 blocks from where I lived. Feels a little strange. Living in Idaho Falls or Shelley would be better if Mike ends up at ISU. ARGH! I just don't know! All that being said, we're rather optimistic. We're just... a little stressed.


I'll update the blog again when things settle down a bit. Or at the very least, when we have some more definite plans.

Again...

For those of you who don't know yet, Mike lost his job on Friday. Due to reasons we've mentioned in past posts, the company was no longer financially able to retain him as an employee. There's good and bad to this. The bad, obviously, is that we have no income at the moment. The good news is that we're planning to have Mike go back to school! This is also good news for me, not because I'll have to work full time after being a stay-at-home mom for 5 years, but because we're most likely moving back to East Idaho. I've been wanting to move back ever since we left. But, ugh... I hate job and apartment hunting. It's especially hard when we live in another city. We'll probably have to take a few days for a trip out there for interviews and to look at apartments and houses to rent. Mike has already looked at both BYU-I and ISU. He has missed enrollment for Winter Semester at BYU-I, and ISU doesn't list any admissions deadlines. So we're waiting to hear back from counselors from each school. We also need to figure out what will happen with Hyrum's school. I really hope that there's another school he can transfer to without having to retest.

We had a good Halloween. Mom came to visit for Tessie's baby shower which was on November 1st, so she was able to come trunk-or-treating with us and the kids. I procrastinated making costumes for the kids, and had nothing for them to wear. I ended up digging out old costumes from years past. Emily wore Hyrum's dinosaur costume that he wore when he was just under a year old. Mike had to literally cram her into it with his knee on her back to get it to fit. Oh well. She loved it! She was pretty upset when we took it off to put her pajamas on. Hyrum also wore a too small kitty costume from 2 years ago. His wasn't nearly as small as Emily's was. It nearly fit him except that the sleeves were too small. He loved being a kitty. Emily enjoyed petting his fur and scratching his ears. Our friend Phil and his daughter Anna visited as well and joined us in a quick door-to-door trick-or-treat around a nearby neighborhood.

I don't have any pictures of the kids in costume. Sorry. What I do have is Hyrum's new school picture complete with a fake "smile" and messy hair. Enjoy!

Look forward to our next post after Hyrum's 5th birthday on Monday! (hopefully)

If only...

Big changes are happening in the company I work for, and, unfortunately, they're not too great. Where to start...

As I may have explained before, the owner owns two companies: Recreation Idaho and Sunshine Recreation. Both companies in the same business, just separated territories: Sunshine in Utah and, well, guess where Recreation Idaho covers. I was hired for Utah's office work and have never been employed by the Idaho division. However, since the owners' health has decreased dramatically over the past year, I have had a significant hand in the office work of both companies.

The market in Utah is very... "different" from that of anywhere else in the country. The people there care very little of quality and everything of price. Which means that a company that sells quality products and service like ours hasn't ever competed very well. My personal belief is that the teachings of "thrift" to the general population in Utah goes a little bit too far. We got the feeling that the idea of business down there is, "If you can't give it to me for little or no profit, you should give it to me at a loss." I know this is stereotypical, but if the shoe fits...

I would be lying if I said that was the only reason the Utah company failed. I place most of the blame for Sunshine's failure on the messenger of our companies profits and values. The salesman in Utah based everything on discounting to make people happy, rather than being firm on if you want it good and want it to last, buy from us. He has single-handily cause the company no success where so much potential lies.

So, now the owner is closing the Utah operation. It's stayed in the red-ink far too long and it's just not feasible to keep the company open while employing 5 employees. Lucky for me, my integral part in the operations of Idaho leaves me still with a job, although the pay increase I received a few months ago will be limited again. Looks like another hard Winter ahead of us.

However, there is one opportunity to all this that presents itself to us. What if... I became the new dealership in Utah? The possibility presents itself to be self-employed in a very profitable business from now until retirement. All the while presenting a good company name that can last beyond the 2-5 year stints that have fated previous operations in Utah. It's the perfect opportunity. The product is an excellent one, it speaks for itself and is the leader in Playground development, quality, and service. There is little difficulty in targeting your market and advertising to your customers, because they're already looking for you.

So, how could I make a difference where others could not in the past? Well, I won't bore you with the details (although the details is what gets me excited). However, I have to present a plan to the regional manager of Playworld and the owner of our company.

we also have an advantage of being able to go wherever we want to. Boise is not a bad place, but there isn't anything we can think of that ties us down here. It's just a community that we've never really bonded well with. It's not fun having no friends, but it is a good feeling knowing that we can up and leave if ever we needed to.

But then, there is also a reality. As much as opportunities like these rarely EVER present itself to anyone in their lifetimes, the timing is not good right now. Typical Playworld dealers need to front $20k in contract as a dealer. We would also need a minimum of $15k for start up business costs... kind of. You really don't need much money for start up costs, but it would be good if we had 1- several months of living expenses while we get things started up and 2- an operating line for those un-paying or delinquent customers. All I would need is a loan-- oh, yeah. Most banks are freezing loans. Well, maybe I can get one against the assets I own-- oh, yeah. What assets?

Were we in the position to make the step, we would do so. But as it stands now, the step is more of a hurdle. We simply don't have the means to do what we want. I'll keep looking for this opportunity again, and more importantly, planning for it when it presents it's beautiful head again. In the meantime, I'm still going to present my plan to the big guys, just to get some feedback and know what is expected in the future.

Posted thoughts

Been awhile since we've posted, so here's something I wrote to Dan awhile back to fill the void:

I saw something strange on my toilet paper package. It said at the bottom of the package, "24 Rolls/Rollos - 1002.0 SQ FT/PIES²"

The first thing I thought was, Why did they have to put .0 at the end of the number? Couldn't they just leave it as 1002 sq ft? Then I saw that they squared "pies." That got me extremely confused! It's spelled PI -- I can't believe they got that wrong. And why are they using PI in a toilet paper roll formula anyway? Perhaps they measure the size of a roll of toilet paper by taking PI and squaring it... but then there is no associated measurement from the actual roll (like radius to figure out the area of a 2-dimensional circle). The actual equation they intended may have been 1002sq ft divided by PI squared. But still -- PIES? Maybe they meant "Plys" as in "Double Ply?" Man, what a really funny typo!


I found out later that PIES means "Feet" in Spanish... Oh, well.

Fun at the Park

Last week, we took the kids to Settlers Park. I had a request to post pictures of us there, so here they are!

Although Emily was excited to wear her swimsuit, she wasn't too happy about actually going in the water. She was a good sport about it though.



This picture is a little deceiving. Although you can see her by the water, she wouldn't go in, but sat on the sides crying.


This is a much more accurate picture of our little drama queen.


She enjoyed riding on Dad's shoulders until....


It's a little hard to see because of all the water, but poor little Emily is still on Dad's shoulders here.


What a mean dad!

Hyrum, however, had a blast!





After playing in the water, we moved on to the other activities at the park. (Settlers Park is such an awesome park!)


They had added a lot to the park since I had been last summer. One of the attractions was climbing rocks. Mike wanted us to see them since he had worked hard on the contract for them. Hyrum climbed some of the smaller rocks, but was afraid to climb any higher. I guess I can't blame him. It would be hard to climb in flip flops.



Mike climbed to the top with Hyrum yelling at him to be careful and come down the whole way.

After the climbing boulders, we headed over to the section with giant musical instruments. You would think that they might be loud and obnoxious, but all the instruments made mellow soothing sounds that echoed over the park and created a nice ambiance as the kids played them. Even the drums! The kids loved this part of the park despite the fact that it's one of the few things that Mike's company didn't sell to them.








One of the things that Settlers Park boasts is one of the largest playgrounds I've ever seen which they call "Adventure Island." There are actually 2 parts to it. A smaller playground that looks like a castle, and a larger one which is a ship. I know that seems backwards, but hey, I didn't design it that way! Both kids love playing on playgrounds. Emily is getting big enough that she enjoys some of the smaller things like climbing the stairs, going through tunnels, and the occasional slide. Hyrum is much more daring, and tries it all! Mike had me stay with Emily on the smaller playground while he took Hyrum to the larger one, so I don't have many pictures of Hyrum from this section. You'll just have to take my word for it that he had a ball and was cute. Also that the ship is is pretty awesome with features like communication tubes so you can talk to your friends on the other side.








Last was swings and, luckily for readers who get sick of me bragging about my cute kids, my camera died. So I leave you with two more picture.

Just for fun

Well, I have nothing new to report other than to say how cute the kids are. But I say that all the time. So I got this idea from my sister-in-law's blog and thought it would be fun. Here's how to play.

1. Leave a comment on my blog that is a memory that you and I have together. It doesn't have to be anything big just as long as you post something. I know there are a few people who read my blog (but don't usually comment) who have never actually met me. Well, you should still have a memory of me anyhow, so post!

2. After you're done, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It should be pretty cool and funny to see what people remember about you. If you leave a comment on my blog, and you decide to play this game on yours, I'll repay by leave a memory on your blog.

Feel free to post about either me or Mike or even one for each. Have fun!

Rock Family Reunion

**Note** read this blog first followed by this blog second before reading the following entry.

After a partial week at home with Mike's birthday, we hit the road again. This time, we went to East Idaho to visit my family! Mike and I were reminded how much we love and miss that area. We got to my mom's house in Shelley Friday night and met up with my nephews Ethan and Isaac and niece Piper who were already there, and were shortly joined by my oldest brother James, his wife Tessie, and my sister Julie. Emily took to James like she did to Dave at Mike's reunion. The second Hyrum and Piper met up, they grabbed on to each other's hands and took off running. They're always so happy to see one another.

Saturday morning we had the Rock Family Reunion at Heise Hot Springs just out side of Ririe. It was attended by over 60 people. Not a bad turn out!

My Grandma Sears is the last surviving of her generation, so the reunion was centered around her. She makes sock monkey dolls for each of her grandkids and great grandkids when they're born, so the reunion was monkey themed.

One of my aunts made my grandma a monkey crown.

We had games with monkey themed prizes.

Our first game was catching water balloons sent flying from a balloon launcher. Hyrum and Emily helped load the balloons into the launcher. We got soaked and had a blast.





After that we had lunch while my grandma spoke to us about her memories of my Great Grandma and Grandpa Rock and the old farm in Rockland ID (which, by the way, is not called Rockland because my family lived there). Lunch was followed by a variety of three legged and sack races and egg tosses for kids and adults alike.


Hyrum played with Piper and my cousin Jason's daughter Savannah, and Emily latched on to my cousin Jamie.

Some of the family went swimming and golfing there at Heise while Mike and I went to Idaho Falls to visit some old friends and shop. I got to see my friend Sandi and her new beautiful baby Annalee. Both the kids loved the baby and wanted to give her kisses. They also loved their dog.

Saturday night, a lot of us reconvened at my mom's house in Shelley for another dinner. Aside from James's family and Julie, we also had my aunt Jane and my cousin Jason's family. The kids played out in the back yard while the adults took turns playing and visiting. I managed to smack Mike in the head with spinny disky thing and drew blood. I don't think he's going to let me live that down. Emily and Piper blew bubbles together, and Hyrum ran races with Ethan, Isaac, and Mason.

Julie thought we needed s'mores, so she sent me and Mike to the store to get what we needed while the rest got the fire started in the fire pit. We had a great time just visiting and roasting marshmallows and most headed to bed tired and dirty while Mike and I stayed up to watch the Avatar series finale movie with Ethan.

Sunday, James and his family headed back to Boise. The rest of us spent the day visiting while the kids played. Emily must have been getting used to being around people, because after a weekend with Mike's family and a few days with mine, she finally started to open up a bit. She was being much more social and really started to bond with my mom and Sherwin. A little after 5:00, Mike and I left the kids with Mom and Sherwin and headed out to Destinations Inn in Idaho Falls where we had a reservation in the Vienna room. We had gotten the recommendation from Mike's sister and her husband. We came to the room to find sparkling cider in the ice bucket and cheesecake in the fridge. It was nice even though the movie we rented was pretty dumb. It was a little nostalgic for me since Destinations is right across the street from Chesbro Music Co. where I worked for about 2 years before and during college.

Mike woke up Monday morning with an enormous headache. He ate only a tiny bit of the breakfast they brought to our room, then had me drive back to Shelley. I had to pull over on the side of the road while Mike got out and lost his breakfast. Mike was supposed to go home that day and take my sister Julie with him. We were worried that he would be too sick to drive, but Julie had to be home to pick up her daughter at the bus station in the morning. Mike took some headache medicine and went to bed for the rest of the morning and afternoon when we got back to my mom's house. When he woke up, he still felt weak, but thought he was well enough to go home.

My mom had asked my brother James if she could have his kids for a week before the reunion and asked me if she could have mine for the week after. However, she was worried that Emily was still too young for her to watch her alone, so we decided that I should stay in Shelley as well. Mike would meet us part way in Twin Falls on Thursday. So Mike and I parted company once he got feeling better.

Tuesday, I called my Grandma Page to see if there was a time I could come visit her. However, our day was delayed when I came out of my mom's computer room to see a wall of water about a foot or so deep built up behind the glass in the window well of her basement family room. The water was rushing in through the corner on the left side, and the pressure wasn't going down because water kept running in to the well from a hose left on outside. My mom and step-dad had just had an insurance claim for a flooded basement due to a broken pipe only a few weeks ago and Mom was concerned about filing another claim. We quickly got the water turned off and started sopping up what we could with towels, but the water just kept coming. Mom called Sherwin who was out golfing, and he came home right away. We got what we could get out of the carpet with a shop vac while Sherwin went to a rental store and rented a carpet shampooer and floor fans. In the end, we got it all cleaned up, and they shouldn't need to make any claim. The only concern we had was that the baseboards were pulling away from the drywall, and we were afraid of warping. But everything seemed ok once it was all dry.

After an eventful morning, we went to the credit union where my mom is the manager so she could show off the grandkids. Hyrum withdrew $5 from his account and even got to sign the receipt for the transaction. He liked doing that. Afterwards, we headed out to Firth to pick up my Grandma Page for lunch. She treated us to lunch at a restaurant in Blackfoot, and we had a nice visit. We had to go back to my mom's house afterwards because Emily had completely caked her cute dress and her perfect little curls with macaroni and cheese.

After we got the kids cleaned up, we headed to my friend Sandi's house to drop off a present for her baby that I had forgotten to give her when Mike and I visited earlier. Then we visited my Grandma Sears. I took some of her rhubarb to make a strawberry rhubarb pie for Mom and Sherwin. Hyrum liked playing in her yard, and Emily loved playing with her basket of toys. Emily warmed up to Grandma Sears quite well and even let her hold her. Maybe the ice cream cone she gave her helped too.


That evening, after we went home, we chatted and ate the pies I made from grandma's rhubarb. Even Sherwin had to admit that they were tasty. Sherwin is a pretty good cook himself.

Wednesday, I woke up feeling a little sick, so I went back to bed at about 10:00 when Emily took a nap. When we woke up again at about noon, we decided to take the kids to the zoo. I knew Hyrum would love it because he's really in to wild animals, but I thought Emily would be too young to enjoy it and just get cranky and tired. I was totally wrong. Emily loved the zoo! Both kids had a ball looking for, and pointing out animals and mimicking the sounds they make. Emily refused to sit in her stroller or be carried unless you were just picking her up so she could see into the exhibit.

Hyrum found his favorite animal early on. He thought the otters were so funny the way they swam and watched for quite a long time before we convinced him to move on.

Emily surprised me with her favorite animal. As we neared the zebras, she suddenly called out, "Zebra!" I didn't even know she knew what one was. For a very long time after leaving that area, she was still happily chanting, "Zebra! Zebra! Zebra!" Both kids liked the monkeys and the big cats. they got to feed the ducks and the goats in the petting zoo. Hyrum really enjoyed that. Emily tried to eat the food pellets for the ducks, but decided they were yucky (thank goodness).

We also came during the feeding time for the penguins. Both of them liked watching them swallow those fish whole and hop from rock to rock waiting their turn for the food. We went to gift shop when we were done and found a stuffed zebra for Emily. She snatched it from my mom's hands and hugged it tight. She glared at the lady behind the counter when she tried to take it from her to ring it up. I had to turn the tag around for her while Emily still clutched the zebra and gave her dirty looks. We gave Hyrum a few options on which toy he wanted. It was no surprise that he picked a stuffed otter. We took Hyrum to the playground nearby, but Emily had had enough by then and wanted to go home. So we put the reluctant Hyrum and the sleepy Emily in the car and headed back.


Once we got back to Shelley, Emily got a second wind and was just as energetic as ever. She and Hyrum played with play dough and sidewalk chalk on my mom's back patio until late in the day. Needless to say, we all slept well that night.

Thursday morning, I got up and folded laundry and repacked our bags. We were headed home! Mom and Sherwin were swapping one set of grandkids for another. Sherwin's daughter Carla's kids were coming to stay with them for a few weeks. Sherwin picked up the kids at the airport while Mom and I went to the store for some juice for the kids. I also took Hyrum to the dollar store to spend the $5 he had pulled out of his account on Tuesday. He got to pick out the toys he wanted himself. He also picked out toys for Emily. Seems he didn't think it was fair if he got toys and she didn't. What a sweet kid! We went back to the house one last time to pack my bags in the rental van and we were off!

It was a long drive to Twin Falls with 4 little kids, but I was excited to get there anyhow. Not just because we were meeting up with Mike again, but because we had planned to go to the Twin Falls temple's open house. As I mentioned in my post about Mike's family reunion, Hyrum loves temples. We drove him past the Idaho Falls temple while we were in East Idaho as well. But this would be different. He could actually go inside the temple! I know he's young. But I was 4 when I went to the Boise temple open house. And I still remember it. Hyrum really did enjoy the tour. He was quiet and reverent through the whole thing, just looking around and taking it all in. Emily, on the other hand, was hyper and noisy. The tour guides were telling us that they loved her happy little voice and not to shush her. We still shushed her, but not because we were embarrassed. But we did want her to understand what it means to be reverent. Still, for such a young child, she did very well. She even knows what a temple is and will exclaim, "Temple!" every time she sees one or sees a picture of one. What a cutie!

The kids and I didn't get the luxury of going home after our trip. Mike's boss Spencer invited us to a BBQ at their house, and we went straight there first. We had an enjoyable evening chatting and playing with their two new puppies. Hyrum had fun playing with their daughter Ellie, and Emily was showing off going from lap to lap and chasing the cats and dogs.

We're home now, and glad to be home. When Emily came in the house for the first time when we got back, she threw open her bedroom door and yelled, "Hi!" to all her toys and squealed as she ran off to play with everything she could in as little time as she could. She was thrilled to sleep in her own bed with her new zebra. Hyrum also seemed happy to be back in his bed, although he didn't miss his toys as much as Emily missed hers. Now all that's left is to unpack everything. Ugh..

Wyomtah!

**Note** Read previous blog first before continuing.

July 3rd, after Mike got off of work, we set out for Mike's sister Jen's house in Wyoming for the 4th of July. As soon as we got there, Hyrum took off to play with Jen's youngest, Jarom. He was excited when Jarom asked him to sleep in his room with him that night. Hyrum loves playing with his cousins.

The next day, Mike's other sister Angie came with her family. We had only seen their youngest daughter Hayley when she was about a month or two old. She sure was a cutie! And Tanner and Taylor were so much bigger. We had a nice BBQ together with wonderful food made by Jen and Angie. I wish I had known ahead of time so I could have contributed too.

We played games and messed around on the Wii for a while until it was time for fireworks. Jen had been bragging about Evanston's fireworks show. It promised to be a good display, and I was looking forward to it. Sadly, it was a very windy night. I think they must have canceled the big show for safety reasons. Actually, we did see some that were set off in rapid succession, so that might have been the city's show, but Jen didn't think so. She said it was usually bigger, with more shells than that. Still, it had some impressive ones. We also got to see some wonderful fireworks around the city. All those big fireworks that are illegal everywhere else are completely legal in Wyoming. Mike says that he think it's because they figure, "If anything in Wyoming gets burned, it would probably be an improvement." So we still got to see some very cool fireworks that we wouldn't have seen here in Idaho. The Golding's home sits up on a hill, so we had a terrific view of all the fireworks at the houses below. And the husbands went out and bought a bunch of fireworks that we set off as well. Hyrum and Emily both loved it! They were both saying "pop pop pop pop!" As they went off. Hyrum has been asking nearly ever day ever since if we can go see fireworks. We've told him over and over that there aren't any to see, but still, he asks. He really had fun!

We stayed at Jen's house again that night, although this time, Hyrum had been booted from Jarom's room to make room for Angie's son Tanner. I was glad to see more of my son that day even though it was because he was excluded when Tanner came. We're worried about Hyrum. He loves playing with other kids, but sometimes he's bullied because of his slow speech and because he can't fight back, and is too meek to fight back anyhow. Emily was always playing around me and Mike since she refused to go to anyone else, and wouldn't even let us put her down.

The next morning, Emily finally gained some courage and let Karolin take care of her a bit and feed her breakfast. She played more independently that day and didn't need to keep us in her sight at all times. Angie's family went home early in the morning, but we stayed late into the afternoon playing Mario Kart, Wii Fit, and DDR Hottest Party with Jen's family. Jen has a great family with wonderful kids. I'm always so impressed with the way they're all growing up to be smart, social, active, and involved while keeping to the gospel guidelines. Both Ken and Jen are great examples to their children and also to us in how we would like to raise our family. We always enjoy visiting with their family.

We left Jen's house to head out to Mike's Mom's house in Utah. Mike's brother Dave had come in from Texas for a visit. We haven't seen their family in years. They had a new daughter Marlaina (Maggie) who we had only seen pictures of. She was the happiest baby! We visited a little while before going to bed.

Hyrum has had this thing lately with temples. He loves seeing pictures of them, and even more, loves driving past them. We thought he would flip over the chance to walk around Temple Square, so Sunday morning, we took him. We got there as the Tabernacle Choir was doing their weekly Music and the Spoke Word broadcast. Hyrum also loves the choir, so we tried to get in to see the broadcast. However, the ushers wouldn't let us in because our kids were too young. We went to the Conference Center Theatre and watched the broadcast from in there. Then afterwards, we thought Hyrum would like to see the actual Conference Center where they sang. They choir was still inside rehearsing and rerecording. They let us in, and Hyrum sat transfixed as he listened to them sing. After we left, he kept trying to pull us back into the room each time the sounds of the choir escaped through an open door.

We crossed the street to the temple and walked around the grounds for a while, but my feet were hurting badly from my lousy shoes, so we found a spot where we could sit and look up at the temple. Some visitors passed by and asked to take a picture of Hyrum because they thought he looked so cute in his suit jacket as he sat looking at the temple so reverently. Hyrum has always pulled a lot of this kind of attention from strangers ever since he was born... People asking permission to photograph him, going out of their way to tell us he's the cutest they've seen, or even just being stared at. He's just a good looking kid. But we really should teach him to be careful of people he doesn't know. It was great to see the temple again. We haven't been to Temple Square for 3 or 4 years. I wish we could have stayed longer, but we needed to head back to Mike's Mom's house for church.

After church, we had a family dinner. Angie's family came again. Tanner and Taylor had so much fun playing with Savannah and Maya, but what really stole the show was the way Maggie and Hayley played together! They were so adorable! Emily developed a little crush on Dave and wouldn't go to anyone else. She even preferred Dave to us.

Mike's brother Dan called from Afghanistan. We all got a chance to talk to him. It was really good to hear from him, but made us realize we need to be better about keeping in contact with him. I've always liked Dan and Cristtin and their kids a lot. It was a harsh reminder that they were the only family missing from our little reunion.

After it got too dark for the kids to play outside, we packed up dinner and went inside to watch some old slides of Mike's family. I had never seen any pictures of Mike's childhood, so this was a special treat for me. There actually weren't many pictures of Mike, just a few of him as a baby. I'm guessing this is because he is the youngest and they probably just stopped making slides. Nearly all the slides were of South Carolina, and they moved from SC when Mike was still just a baby. It was so funny to see all of his brothers and sisters as kids and how much their own kids look like they did. Jen, in particular, looked just like Sarah.

Monday, Mike had a training to go to in SLC for work. I stayed in Kearns with his family. Mike's mom, Karen, and I left the kids with the boys and went out to a movie together. We saw Made of Honor at the dollar theatre then met up with the boys and the kids at Arctic Circle for lunch. Emily was just as attached to Dave as ever. I don't think she even missed me!

I tried to set up a visit with my friend Juliet, but we just couldn't work out a time before Mike got back from training and we headed back to Idaho.

I would have loved to post pictures of this trip (not ones with Hyrum picking his nose). I brought our camera on the trip, but left the batteries at home! Boy, I'm stupid sometimes!! So I'm going to use this space here to beg Mike's family to email us any pictures you have of the weekend we were there. Of course we want pictures of our own family, but please make sure you give us pictures of yours as well. We had a wonderful time visiting with you all!

Beware! Long blog ahead!

It's been a month since we've posted a blog. It's been even longer since I've written one, and since Mike usually only blogs about work, there's a lot to catch up on. I'm going to skip some of the smaller stuff that I would normally have put in blogs if I had been blogging all along the way. If you wanted to know more about that kind of thing, you should have called us.

Last time I blogged, Hyrum was still in school. I wanted to brag that he was first in his class to learn to write his name (way back in April). His teacher was so proud that she called me up on the phone that afternoon, excited to tell me about the progress he was making and to congratulate me on teaching him so well at home. His teacher was wonderful that way. She was always so proud of her students, and they loved her for it. I also wanted to scan a test sheet he did in school where he had written his name for the first time without any help. However, our all-in-one printer/scanner/copier is broken and no longer hooked up, so I can't. I'll have to do that later. Here is his latest school picture.


Since he has been out of school, he loves writing all his letters and numbers and has even started reading a little bit. Besides his name, he can read and spell Mom, Dad, sometimes Emily, exit, cat, dog, box, and a few other small words with some coaching. He also knows how to read prices at stores and is learning a little bit how to read clocks. It is very frustrating to me that he can do all these things but still can't talk the way he should. He has however come a long ways in his speech.

Emily... well, where do I begin? Since my last post, Emily has started walking and talking. She walks quite well and can even go up stairs. It seems she learns at least 3 new words a day and has quite a large vocabulary now. She understands everything you tell her. She is a very smart girl and is catching up quite quickly after being behind due to low weight gain early in her life. At the rate she's going, she may talk before Hyrum. She already says a few simple 2-3 word phrases and has her favorite songs she knows the words to and likes to sing. Emily is an adorable little girl with lots of curly hair and a sweet disposition. She loves cats, babies, playing dress up, standing on her head, jumping, singing, dancing, and eating.

For Father's Day, we went to an airshow here in Nampa. It was just an amateur show, but it had sky divers, and stunt pilots. There were even some military jets that flew in from Mountain Home. Hyrum really enjoyed it, but Emily slept through most of it. We were all enjoying what was probably the best stunt pilot in the show when a very noisy jet flew by low and made us all jump out of our skins. Emily even slept through that. The Blue Angels are going to be doing an airshow in Twin Falls this weekend that we would love to go to if we weren't already so sick of being on the road. Maybe we'll still make the trip, but we were just in Twin Falls yesterday. (more on that later)

Red plane doing all the cool tricks!

Noisy plan that scared most bladders empty.

We got a Wii Fit a few weeks ago with a gift certificate Mike had to Game Stop. Otherwise, we probably wouldn't have spent the money on one. But it's great! It's very fun and has a good variety of activities. I enjoy the yoga and the rhythmic boxing best though I do have some favorites in strength training too. I was sore for the first two days after getting it, but the yoga really helps with sore muscles. I even started losing some inches (although not weight) right from the start. However, I've gained it all back since going on trip after trip and eating so much junk food, bbq, and fast food this month. Time to get serious about it again.

We've been to a few movies this summer. Probably more than we've been to in the past 3 years combined. We took Hyrum to see Prince Caspian, the new Narnia movie. It was great! We really enjoyed it and so did Hyrum. He was so good in the movie that we decided to take both him and Emily to Wall-E the next week. Hyrum had been asking to see Wall-E since he saw his very first preview for it on one of his DVDs nearly a year ago. Needless to say, he was very excited. We all loved it! Even Emily sat through it all quietly. It was a very sweet story. I highly recommend both of these movies.

Mike celebrated his 30th birthday on July 14th. We went out to eat and visit, but didn't do much more than that. I got Mike a case for his laptop for when he travels, picture frames with pictures of the kids in it for his work desk, and an aux cord for his MP3 player so he can listen to it in the car. Yep. Super exciting. We were trying to save some money since his birthday was sandwiched between two family reunion trips.

Well now, on to family reunions! Actually, I think I'm going to post those on seperate blogs. This one has gotten to be too long anyhow.

Not my turn

Friday morning is going to be the last day at my job #2. I'd like to explain what I liked and disliked about working at AlarmCo, but I'll leave that to Jessica.

Myson is sooo cute. He's such a dork, he started singing his old made up songs. I'd tell you more, but Jessica wants to do it. I think she even has video of him singing, too.

We're very excited for the 2 upcoming vacations. Our plans will be told by Jessica.

We recently obtained a Wii Fit game/balance board. I let Jessica tell you the woes and joys of it.

Stay tuned for our next blog, where Jessica will explain in detail how much Emily is growing and how adorable she is.

I'm sorry I couldn't post more. My wife is extremely oppressive and won't let me do much. She would let me post this picture of what I'll be losing by quitting my graveyard job:


Jacobugath showed off his new desktop so I thought I'd show off mine... that I won't be using any more. Oh, well. The 13 episodes of Firefly were great on the large screen I was supposed to be using for the security cameras (shown on the left) ^^