Back to school

This is the first time I/we have lived anywhere that school started before Labor Day, so, back to school time felt like it snuck up on me fast this year. But, I was still no less excited for the end of summer bickering to be over, and, the children were excited for the back to school shopping and beginning another year's adventure at school.

Jamie started 3rd grade this year. His teacher's name is Mrs. Lee. Kind of funny because he also had a Mrs. Lee when we were in Strasburg for Kindergarten. Corinne is in 1st grade this year. She has Mrs. Pellath. We have been told she is strict, but, fair and the kids love her. Not that that matters, Corinne is such an agreeable kid, she gets along with most anyone. And, while it was a close call for having him ready, Morgan and Mommy are very happy he is off to his first year of preschool. He would have felt left out otherwise, but, now he gets to have his school, and his bag, and his lunch box, and that is very important to him. So, Mommy is happy that he is happy, and happy for some new found freedom 2 mornings a week too.

Morgan Turned 3

So, I am only a month and a half late with this, oh well. August 5th was a big day for the littlest of our clan. Morgan Turned 3.

This meant he was big enough to participate in swim lessons, which he wouldn't cooperate for and we gave up on. This meant it was time for some serious potty training, which he was once happy to do, but, now started fighting us on. And, this meant preschool time. Luckily, he loves having his own school to go to, but, I won't lie, we hold our breath and pray every time he goes that he won't pee his pants while he is there.Seems to be working for the most part, so, far, except on the 2nd day of school, but, luckily, they were very forgiving of it. Thus far, he still won't poop in the toilet for us, so, we are not out of the woods yet.

Almost like clockwork when he turned 3 he started laying on the tantrums. The terrible 3s are in full swing around here. But, he has his saving graces to get us through them. He is such a cute little bugger. He is smart and funny. He is very affectionate. I catch him singing to himself sometimes. He is getting better at talking, but, still has that sweet little voice to go with. We are so glad he came to join our family. We love you Morgan!

Corinne Turns 6

Hard to believe, but, our little girl turns 6 years old tomorrow. And, becoming more grown up by leaps and bounds lately. Like finishing up her 1st year of grade school, becoming very interested in getting her nails and hair done, and finally getting the hang of riding without training wheels. She surprised us around Christmas time, when she told us she wanted her ears pierced, her Daddy's immediate reaction was "NO"(his baby girl couldn't possibly be old enough for that yet), but, he softened to the idea when Mommy made the compromise of waiting until her birthday. And, she never gave up on the idea, so, on the 4th of July (a few days before her birthday party) we made the trip to the mall and got her ears pierced. She was super brave and didn't even shed a single tear. She loves her new earrings and has been very responsible in making sure Mommy uses the ear care cleaner every day. Her old bike popped a tire, so, she also got upgraded to a larger bike for her birthday present. So, with a little disbelief at how the time has flown by and some parental pride, we say "Happy Birthday Princess Corinne! We love you and are happy we get to keep watching you learn and grow."

Good bye web site.

Life has been quite busy as we have settled into our new home. So far, we have replaced the kitchen sink, got a new toilet in the master bath and replaced the innards of the rest of the toilets, we made a larger pantry, we have buried drainage pipes in the back yard to get the water away from the house, we have built 2 garden boxes, had a fence put up to corral the children, built them a swing set, installed a radon fan, we have painted the basement floor, and I have painted 3 bathrooms and Corinne's bedroom. And, the improvements are going to keep coming. May will quite likely bring the kitchen renovation, I will continue plucking away painting rooms, and we will begin framing a few walls in the basement at some point this year.
Unfortunately, for our handful of web site readers that liked to check in on us, all the moving process and renovations have squashed what little was left of my desire to maintain our web site. So, I recently informed Jim that I was done and he has removed the web site from the internet. I am aiming to try and continue to update this blog now and then and I will continue to share little bits of our lives on Facebook. So, for all our long distance family and friends you can still keep up with us that way. Here are a few pics of our new projects, in case you haven't seen them yet.

New home 1 week in.

We made it into our new home. Everything went as scheduled without any hitches. We owe a big thanks to Jack Jardine, who was the only help we had to load both of the moving vans. Thanks goes to our friend Chante who helped vacuum the basement once everything was cleaned out of it. Both house closings occurred, back to back, and right on time and we even walked away with $578 dollars back from it. We owe thanks to our realtor, Teresa Strohmeyer, and our Wells Fargo agent, Kyle Homan, for pulling all the necessary paperwork it took to get us out of our old home and into the new one in just 30 days time. We owe thanks to my parents and sister who came out and helped clean and unload stuff into our new home. And, we owe thanks to the 3 brothers from our new ward that came and unloaded all the rest when we were tuckered out. And, of course, thanks to God for softening the hearts of the bankers to be willing to accept our offer on our new home contingent on the sale of our old home and not making us wait until the house was already sold. And, for whatever other help he offered along the way. HE sure must want us here for some reason. Can't wait to find out why that is.
As for settling in, we are fairly well unpacked at this point. We are now waiting for our new appliances, which just shipped (it will be so nice to finally have a fridge! We have been fridgeless since arriving here); we are in picture hanging mode, and we have another car/truck load or 2 of stuff to get out of storage. The kids started at their new school, Armel Elementary, on Thursday. And, other than a nervous tummy trip to the nurse the 1st day, that seems to be going well enough.
The only glitches to the whole process, apart from the delay in appliances, have been plumbing related. We knew coming in that the kitchen faucet had a leak and that the toilet seats were in need of replacing, but, there was more that required our immediate attention than we realized. 1st of all we discovered the kitchen sink to be too shallow to be very useful, so, not only have we replaced the faucet, but, also the sink itself. We soon found that all the toilets had the wrong flaps in them and were going through far too much water. So, not only did we replace the seats, but, we also replaced all their innards. And, in the case of the master bath, we discovered it had also been cracked at the back of the tank and glued back together, so, we felt it better to simply replace the whole thing. We knew the shower heads were not the best, but, the master bath was so pathetic we added a new shower head to the shopping list. Then the biggest surprise of them all was finding an inch of water all over the basement at nearly midnight our 3rd day in. Turns out the sump pump had gotten jammed or backed up at some point. All it required was a little jostling to get it pumping again, but, it took 2 hours of sweeping the water into the pump and moving wet boxes and such to get everything back to good again. All from about Midnight until 2am. Thus far no further back ups have occurred, but, we are gonna be watching it carefully for a while. With that all taken care of now, we hope that will be the last of those problems and that we can start up with the funner projects soon.