Settlers Park

Mike is still loving his new job. The company Mike works for sells playground equipment to parks and schools. It's his job to talk to installers, maintenance crews, and equipment buyers and sellers. On Wednesday, a maintenance crew had to be sent out to Settlers Park here in Meridian and Mike had to be there to represent the company. He was so impressed with the park that we decided to take the kids the next day. We invited Hyrum's friend Emily from his Sunbeams class and her mom to come along with us. I had never seen the park before and was amazed at how large and how nice it was. The park isn't quite finished yet and has several coming attractions such as climbing rocks, a fishing pond, splash pad, sand pit, 23 acres for 8 youth baseball fields, and a bunch of other plans I don't remember in the making. I mean, this park is HUGE!! They even put up a large screen and show movies one night a week.

The kids had a lot of fun! We started at the regular playground which they call Adventure Island. It's basically several yards worth of jungle gym equipment. Hyrum and Emily especially enjoyed the slides. Hyrum liked the bigger slides, but Emily got a little scared. We hit the swings afterwards, but again, Emily was afraid to swing, so she just pushed her mom and Hyrum.

Before too long, we ditched the standard playground equipment for the main attraction and the biggest reason we had come. Water Odyssey! It's like running through the sprinklers, but better!! They had all sorts of different types of sprayer including water cannons you can aim at your friends and a pirate ship's mast that fills up with water and tips to dump sheets of water on those standing beneath it. Here are a bunch of pictures.

An unsuspecting Hyrum pokes his finger in a pressure release sprayer...

... and gets his first drenching of the day!

Mike apparantly thought that Hyrum wasn't already wet enough. He wanted to really soak him, but decided that the "Dumping Buccaneer" was a bit too much water for such a little boy.

So he lined him up under a smaller version... Miss!

After watching all that water splash down, I was surprised that Hyrum was gullible enough to let his dad reposition him once more for a direct hit. It scared him pretty badly at first, but after a few seconds of panic and a hug from his dad, he decided it was pretty funny.

After getting hit with that final bucket full, Hyrum was cold and wet and tired and we headed home. But we had a lot of fun and it was all free! We'll definitely be going back!

Memorial Day

Mike got Memorial Day off of work and was actually disappointed because he enjoys his job so much. We mostly just stayed around home wishing we had the money to go visit Mike's family. In the morning, however, we did go out to Morris Hills Cemetery in Boise to put flowers on my Grandfather's grave. My Grandpa Sears died the summer before I was born. He was buried in what they called the Field of Honor 2 (since, I suppose, the Field of Honor 1 was full). They had decorated all the veterans' graves with flags. The picture came from my phone, so the quality isn't as good as if I had taken the picture with a real camera. The headstone reads:

Jess Richard Sears

US Navy

World War II

Nov 5 1923 Jun 11 1979

Here are a couple of random pictures of the kids that I found in my phone's camera. This first one is of Hyrum sleeping on the couch. We didn't set him up on the couch like this. Mike had dozed off watching TV on the couch one afternoon, and wanting to be like dad, he went and got his pillow, Cookie Monster, and his kitty and fell asleep himself. Hyrum has recently gotten very attached to his kitty, insisting that it watch him eat breakfast. We even caught him pretending to drive the car one day with his kitty bucked in his car seat in back.

Here is one of Emily with my Grandma Page on our recent visit to East Idaho. Grandma enjoyed feeding her, and I'm pretty sure Emily enjoyed it too. I was glad we got the chance to see my Grandma Page on our visit since she wasn't at home and we thought we'd miss her completely.

May 21, 2007

Hmm.. looks like I missed a week, and a lot has happened, so I hope I don't miss anything in this update.

May 12th was mine and Mike's 7 year anniversary. We celebrated that and Mother's Day with a trip to East Idaho to visit friends and family. We had an enjoyable weekend. On Friday, we went out to dinner with my long time friend Sandi and her husband Nathan. They took us to an Australian restaurant. We couldn't help but think of Angie. Mike had fish and chips and I had a meat pie. We both had ginger beer to drink.. I thought it tasted like someone had dumped a full bottle of ginger in a glass of water. It was strong. I also sampled a little bit of Vegemite. I actually really liked it! For desert, Mike made a special request, and although it wasn't on the menu, the cook knew just what he was talking about and did her best to accommodate, and we split a fried Snickers. As we ate, we were entertained by a local barbershop quartet. We finished out the evening at Sandi and Nathan's home playing Apples to Apples with them and Sandi's brother Steven.


Saturday, the actual day of our anniversary, I went shopping with my mom while Mike went golfing with Sherwin. I think we did better shopping than they did golfing. Mike says he hit a few balls into some living rooms. After shopping, my mom and I went to visit my Grandma Sears. She had never seen Emily in person, and I wanted to show her off. Grandma was thrilled to see that Emily's hair is a dark auburn. She said she's been nagging her kids and grandkids to give her a redhead grandbaby for years, and Emily may be the closest she gets. Now I just hope her hair doesn't darken. I'd hate to disappoint my grandma! (plus, I'd love to have a redhead myself!) That night, we let my mom and Sherwin babysit while we went to see Spiderman 3.

Sunday was Mother's Day. My Mother's Day gift was just being out of town and not having to prepare a Primary lesson that day. We attended church with my mom. I was surprised at how many people in that ward still remembered us. We only lived there for a few months, and it was so long ago. Of course, I got a plant too, but I think I left it at my mom's house by accident. We visited Sandi again that afternoon to show her the kids since we didn't take them to dinner with us the first night. We came back in time for a yummy dinner Sherwin had prepared and played Pinochle and Farkle. We decided that Mike ought to just give up the job hunt and send me to Vegas. Turns out I'm pretty lucky with dice.

Monday was our last day. We stuck around just long enough to have lunch with my mom on her lunch break, then headed out. On the way home, we stopped to see my Grandma Page who was visiting her sister in American Falls. She had also never seen Emily. She was mostly a good baby, but she was getting tired of the trip and wouldn't show off as much as I wanted her to. I guess I can't complain though. She's still so pleasant and far from being the cranky child that Hyrum was. I can't wait to show her off to Mike's family! (Yes, Jen. We'll be returning your DVDs too.)

When we returned home, Mike interviewed for the last of the two jobs at the call center, and although he said the interviews went well, they didn't take him for either. So as of last Friday, he works as an office manager for the playground company, Recreation Idaho. Either he or I will take a part time evening job to cover the rest of our expenses that the lower pay won't take care of. I'm less worried about the low pay than I am about the lack of insurance, but I'm sure we'll figure something out. I think that Mike will like the change of work though. He's been working in call centers pretty much since we got married, and he's tired of that line of work. This will be a nice change of pace for him. As for me, part of me wants to stay home with the kids, but another part of me wouldn't mind the chance to get out of the house and feel useful again. I just wonder if I'll have a hard time getting a job because I've been unemployed for so long staying home with the kids. But I have a good work record prior to becoming a stay at home mom. If nothing else, I'm sure the Arctic Circle on the corner near our house will take me since I've worked for 2 ACs in the past and was a favored employee at both.

Mike was released from his calling as Sunbeams teacher yesterday. He was trying to work 2 callings, and they decided to give callings to the seniors who are graduating this year before they head off to college. Their first objective was to relieve anyone who had more than one calling. Mike is still the ward choir director. I just hope that Hyrum will do alright without Mike teaching the class. Hyrum is so attached to his dad. They also released my teaching companion and replaced her with a senior. I hope this will work out better. My old companion had a lot of health issues and rarely came to church. I hope she'll be able to take a break now and be in better health.

Ok, I'll stop stalling and get to what you all really want now.. new pictures of Emily!







Aww, isn't she beautiful!?

Good News! (I think...)

Well, it's been a while since we've updated this blog. The main reason is because my mother has been hounding me to add new pictures of Emily, and we have yet to take any new pictures of her. We can't find the memory card for our camera, and while it has a decent amount of internal memory, the lost card still works as a good enough excuse for us to be lazy. Actually, part of it is that her nails grow at an astounding 1/2 inch per day and her face is constantly scratched up because of it and we have a deep respect (fear) for The Department of Health and Welfare. I promise new pictures of Emily next post.

It's a good thing that we put away that money from our tax return because Mike is still unemployed. Mike was so worried that he began a fast. That very day, Bro. Pond in our ward offered him some work. Unfortunately, it's not a job that Mike can do regularly due to his back problems. Bro. Pond is a plumber and Mike can't handle the lifting and digging for very long. However, Bro. Pond allowed him to work with him for a couple of days while he found something more permanent. Shortly after, he was hired at an outsourcing company to work customer service on an HP account. The day after he was hired, they called him back and told him that they were no longer hiring for that position. He lost the job before he even started. However, they told him that they had 2 other jobs available that they could interview him for. Both pay better than the job he was initially offered. One of them is a tech support help desk job and the other, which has the same title but pays more, is more of an IT position. They told him that he is well qualified for either. He interviews for the first of the two tomorrow and has yet to hear more about the second or to set up an interview for it. I'm thinking it may be an internal promotion type thing, and maybe that's why he hasn't heard from them. More help from Bro. Pond came in the form of his son-in-law's company. Consequently, he's in our ward also. (we have the best ward!) He and his wife own a company that sells commercial playground equipment to schools and businesses and such. They need a receptionist/web developer. They have already offered the position to Mike and he can start immediately. The downside is that they don't pay extremely well and there's really no chance of advancement. The wage is somewhere in the $9/hr area with a commission based on how well the company does that month. They told him it would come to around the high end of $10-$11/hr. This is less than he was making at T-Mobile when we were still just squeaking by. The upside is good hours and a friendlier environment. He'd also be able to bike to work. He'll probably take the job if he isn't given a better offer at EDS tomorrow. Either way, we can breathe a little easier now knowing that Mike will be going back to work soon.

Joseph got me hooked on drawing. I'm still not very good. I've never been a very good artist, but in the past couple of weeks, I've turned out some of the best stuff I've ever managed to draw. I've put it aside for a while, however. I ran out of erasers and sharp pencils. So until we buy a pencil sharpener and a (rather large) eraser, my new hobby will have to wait. Unlike Joseph who uses Photoshop or some other program of that sort to draw, I can't seem to make the computer work for me. I get frustrated when it doesn't do what I want it to. I think maybe I need to go over some tutorials or something to figure it out.

We were planning a short trip this weekend to celebrate our anniversary and Mike's new job, (the one that ended before it began) but now we're not entirely sure if we'll be able to make the trip anymore. It all depends on what job he takes and when they want him to start. I sure hope we can make something work out. We haven't taken a trip since... well, so long that I don't remember. Even if it's just a weekend away, it would be worth it. If we do take a trip, I'm sure we'll be updating the blog with lots of new pictures of the kids!

Speaking of the kids, they're doing great! Emily is such a joy. I just can't even express how much happiness she brings into our home. At a time when Mike and I have been so depressed and worried, her smiles and giggles and coos are all that have kept us going some days. Lately, she's gotten to be rather cranky and has been shoving her fist in her mouth and biting down. We think she must be teething. I'm so amazed at how quickly she's growing up. And yet, at church yesterday, I was in the mother's room with her and saw several other girls from another ward with their babies. They were all about the same length, maybe a little taller than Emily, and about twice as big around. Two of the mothers were apparently friends who had their babies around the same time. One was born in late February and the other in mid March. Here I was with Emily who was born in early December. It reminded me that she's still so much smaller than the other babies her age. I guess I shouldn't complain too much about her growing up.

Hyrum is potty trained!! I know that's probably not something any of you care about, but Mike and I are so thrilled that I had to post it here! He even sleeps through the night in regular underwear without any accidents! We're so very proud. Even more than we are proud, we are relieved. We just cut our diaper changes in half and reclaimed an extra few stink-free minutes of our day! All it took was a few new pairs of Cars underwear, and he decided that he didn't want to have any more accidents. He loves the movie Cars.

I really can't think of anything else.. I suspect that we'll be updating again soonish, so I'll just tag on anything else that I've forgotten on the next blog. Check back soon for more pictures of the cutest kids ever! (no, I'm not bias)

April 15th 2007

This week was an eventful one, and I feel... tired.

Monday morning, I started pestering Mike to get our taxes done. We had put it off for so long because we were told that our refund would probably be taken in our bankruptcy. We were told that we would either get one letter stating the "discharge of debtors" and "closing" or we would get a letter with just the discharge and they would close later. If the bankruptcy remained unclosed, they would take our tax return and we would get the closing letter later on. Well, we got the letter of discharge, but it didn't say anything about closing. However, as Mike was filling out all the information on the tax forms, he didn't notice any items asking about the bankruptcy. We gave our lawyer a quick call and found... it had been closed! Yay!! So what that means is that we got a pretty hefty refund! We wanted to rush right out and spend it on fun stuff, but of course, we know better than that. We paid rent and bills and tucked a large amount away in case Mike is unemployed for a while. We also bought Mike a new suit for interviews and I got my hair cut. It's all very boring when you consider how much fun we could have had on $5000. Then again, having a house to live in and food to eat could be considered "fun" too. The money was such a huge blessing. Our rent was past due and we didn't know where the money was going to come from. It was such a relief, and Mike and I were on cloud 9 all day. Heck, all week.

Emily had her 4 month checkup and shots on Wednesday. She's slowly dropping off the charts in weight and height. However, by the time Hyrum was this age, he was already too low for the charts, so she's still a bigger baby than he was. She took her shots very well at first. She only grimaced a bit, but didn't cry or complain. We thought we were so blessed to have such a wonderful baby... until the next day. By Thursday, Emily had developed a pretty high fever in relation to the shots. She was cranky and miserable, but slept more than usual. On Friday, she was still feeling sick and was awake and cranky most of the time. Saturday was even worse with hour upon hour of constant screaming. Thankfully, by this morning, she was back to her usual self.

In other Emily news, she tried her first solid food this week... if you call watered down rice cereal "solid." She really seemed to enjoy it. At first, she was angry because she thought we were being mean and not feeding her. But the second she got the spoon in her mouth, she said, "mmm!" and opened her mouth to beg for more.

Hyrum is learning and growing so quickly. It's so much fun to watch how he develops. We are concerned about his speech, however. We looked into getting him into speech therapy. They will do a screening on him, and if they find that he needs it, the public schools will pay for his speech therapy, and possibly preschool. We won't be able to have him tested until summer, but I really hope they can help him. He's a very bright kid and understands every word you say, but he just doesn't talk.

Well, I think that's all the news this week, so I'm off to eat some of the ice cream our refund bought!

Easter 2007

It was a quiet but enjoyable Easter at the Haddox home. We had planned to spend Easter with my family this year, but because of money restraints, we had to stay home. Sorry to my 2 grandmas who have not yet met Emily. We'll just have to plan another trip when our financial situation is a little more stable. For now, you'll just have to trust us that she's the most adorable little girl you'll ever meet!

Mike woke up early and made us all pancakes and eggs for breakfast. It was very yummy. After breakfast, we dyed eggs... yeah, I know it's usually supposed to be done the night before, but time got away from us watching movies, and Hyrum was falling asleep in his seat, so it had to wait. Here is a line-up of some of the eggs.

This one is an authentic Hyrum original! Note the bold crayon strokes and strong lines that represent man's struggle to find higher meaning in life... or something like that.

This egg was inspired by Hyrum's new hobby of running around the house finding and pointing out stars and circles. (Saars and Kirkles)

This was on the back of the "I Love Emily" egg.


This was the back side of the yellow "Egg head" egg shown on the bottom right of the line-up.


The main purpose of this egg was just to give Hyrum something to meow at. It matches the cats on the quilt I made him when he was a baby. He still sleeps with his quilt even though it no longer fits his regular sized bed.



I figured my favorite egg deserved two shots. This is a creation of Mike's and features a car on the front and a tow truck on the back. The top half is dyed blue for the sky, and the bottom, green for the grass. It also has clouds and a sun that didn't show up well in these pictures.

After egg coloring, Hyrum got to dig into his Easter basket. If there wasn't enough sticky, sugary goodness in the syrup from the pancakes, he got even more of it from the malted milk ball eggs and chocolate bunny. He also got a game of Memory. We played a few games with him with the cards facing up. We started with only a few different pairs and tried building up to more with each round. He's starting to catch on to the game, and maybe soon, he'll be able to play with the cards face down. I sure would have loved to get Emily something, but money didn't permit this year. Honestly, she's too young to know the difference anyhow! Next year we'll make it up to her.

Because we had to dye the eggs in the morning, the egg hunt had to wait until evening. We had wanted to hide eggs outside, but it was on again/off again rainy outside. Even when it was sunny, the ground was still soggy, so we had to hide the eggs in the living room. Mike tried to keep Hyrum distracted while I hid them. It was a tough task since Hyrum remembered hunting eggs from last year and wanted to get right to it. He rounded up those eggs pretty quickly and thoroughly enjoyed himself!


Sadly, all our nicely decorated eggs met a swift end. Only moments after the egg hunt, Hyrum helped me turn them into deviled eggs to go with the turkey roast I was making for dinner. He loves to watch me and Mike cook and always wants to lend a hand. I was afraid he'd make a mess of things, but as it turned out, he watched us very closely and did a really excellent job of cracking and shelling the eggs all on his own. He was very careful and didn't dig one single pit.

Bedtime was... well... difficult. Apparently, all that sugar makes kids hyper. Who knew?

Each year, I look forward more to the next. Holidays are more and more fun the older Hyrum gets and the more he understands and remembers. Soon, Emily will be able to enjoy the fun too. I can hardly wait!