It's finally official. We have a new address effective July 1, 2009. It is:
903 Bello Mondo Drive Apt. 1
Platte City, MO 64079
Yes, it is an apartment! With no washer and dryer! Boo hoo hoo. But it will give us a 6-month lease which means we can buy a house with land sooner. Hooray! And it is 25 minutes from Anaise and Scott and family which will be fun.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Here are some new pictures!
Here's Kian on his baptism day.
Here's our Ella-Bella-Cinderella.
Felicity was NOT happy about spilling flour all over herself but we thought it was funny!
Our Abba-Dabba.
Ella is so funny. She has the hardest time going to sleep at night. This night she had obviously been playing dress-up before falling asleep because she had fancy shoes and sunglasses!
And here she is asleep for the night on a pile of books!
Felicity loves playing with Kian. Here she is doing electronics just like he loves to do!
Here's Kian on his baptism day.
Here's our Ella-Bella-Cinderella.
Felicity was NOT happy about spilling flour all over herself but we thought it was funny!
Our Abba-Dabba.
Ella is so funny. She has the hardest time going to sleep at night. This night she had obviously been playing dress-up before falling asleep because she had fancy shoes and sunglasses!
And here she is asleep for the night on a pile of books!
Felicity loves playing with Kian. Here she is doing electronics just like he loves to do!
Saturday, June 13, 2009
One Step Beyond... and Closer to the Dream
As an update to eventful journey to Missouri, we spent a busy week getting our house ready to rent. On Thursday, a couple we received a call from came to look at the house. They loved it and were extremely interested. It just so happened that after this couple left, a Realtor we had spoken with on the phone several times came by. Well, to make a long story short we ended up listing our house for sale. The task at hand was to get a renter for the short term so we can still keep our June 29th move date. How were we going to find a renter that would agree to live in a place that may (and hopefully) sell in about a month's time. We didn't know what to do except keep the faith and do what we were already doing.
Yesterday, I called this same couple to see if they were interested in renting on a month-to-month basis rather than the year lease we discussed about. They were fine with this, and I told them I would call their references and get back with them tomorrow (which is actually today). Blessings from heaven have continued to fall on us because we were able to sign this family to a month-to-month agreement so we can show proof we have our place rented.
Our focus has now turned to finding a place to live for our family in Missouri. Thanks to Anaise and Scott for helping us with this. They have graciously and by proxy looked at homes and listings we have suggested. Thank you.
As my mom taught me so long ago, this still rings true today. When you put your trust in God, you can't fail. Rhyetta, our kids, and I continue to learn this lesson over and over again as we continue on this exciting and scary journey to our new home.
P.S.- My teaching contract finally came in the mail Friday, and so it's officially official. We are moving to Missouri. I still don't know what my assignment will be but as with everything else we have experienced... patience and it will come, and it will be for the best.
Yesterday, I called this same couple to see if they were interested in renting on a month-to-month basis rather than the year lease we discussed about. They were fine with this, and I told them I would call their references and get back with them tomorrow (which is actually today). Blessings from heaven have continued to fall on us because we were able to sign this family to a month-to-month agreement so we can show proof we have our place rented.
Our focus has now turned to finding a place to live for our family in Missouri. Thanks to Anaise and Scott for helping us with this. They have graciously and by proxy looked at homes and listings we have suggested. Thank you.
As my mom taught me so long ago, this still rings true today. When you put your trust in God, you can't fail. Rhyetta, our kids, and I continue to learn this lesson over and over again as we continue on this exciting and scary journey to our new home.
P.S.- My teaching contract finally came in the mail Friday, and so it's officially official. We are moving to Missouri. I still don't know what my assignment will be but as with everything else we have experienced... patience and it will come, and it will be for the best.
Magical Moments
There was an apostle who remarked that joy in motherhood (or in this case, parenthood) comes in moments. Last night was such a moment that Matt and I shared with Kian. Let me share with you.
Kian sometimes stays up later at night than the girls. He and I may read a book together or Matt and I will just answer some of his many questions or he'll just watch what Matt and I are doing for a while. Kian and I are currently reading a book about solar power: what it is, why it's so awesome, how it works, how to install it, etc. It's really very interesting. I'm learning more than he is because he already knows so much about circuitry, more than I do. But I think all of us are learning something.
Last night we learned about the amazing power of inductance, which is the fact that if you have a coil of wire wrapped around another coil of wire and the inner coil of wire has electricity running through it, the outer coil of wire will pick up some of that electricity and will also then run a current of electricity. We're talking AC power here (alternating current); this doesn't work well with DC because DC current doesn't change flow like AC and it's the rapid change of flow of AC power that makes this inductance work. See, don't I sound like I know what I'm talking about? I'm not even looking at the book!
All of this happens inside of a transformer which is part of an inverter which is a component that changes DC power (from your solar panel) to AC power (the kind you run in your house). Upon hearing the word transformer, Kian piped in with, "I had a transformer in my electronics stuff. It was like woom and woom." (And with the wooms he used his hands to show us about how big the transformer was). Matt started chuckling as he always does when Kian uses sound effects instead of words in his speech. He does it quite often and it cracks us up. I don't think he's ever noticed how we laugh at him when he does it because he's too involved in what he is describing, but this time I commented to him on how funny it is when he does it and I showed him his "woom, woom" thing, gesturing with my hands the way he did with his. He thought that was the funniest thing in the world (it was getting late at night) and we laughed and laughed.
From then on, it was joke after joke about making sound effects. I told him, "We're not talking about babies inside of the womb, Kian. We're talking electronics." Ha ha ha, that set him squealing with laughter. "I remember when you were in my womb, Kian!" Ha ha ha. And Matt added, "Well women with babies can be induced." (Remember, inductance). Yes, it was all so funny. We had a great time.
You might not catch the humor of it all, but we sure did. Now we have an inside joke to share about wooms and wombs and transformers. It was a magical moment of learning and laughing and we shared it together. And the voluntary hug he offered to me when it was finally time for bed was wonderful too.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
BIG News
Let me set the stage...
Back in March, I was asked by the principal of the school I worked at to think about next year. I didn't feel prompted to give a definite 'Yes'. We weren't sure what we were going to do, except fast, pray, go to the temple, etc. to figure out what we were supposed to do. In the meantime, April came around and we needed to give a definite answer for whether or not we were going to return next year. This was one of the toughest questions I have ever had to answer. However, through much prayer and going to the temple, we knew the answer was 'No'. So this much we knew... we were not returning to a job I knew I would have, to uncertainty.
Rhyetta and I have been exercising our faith since then. We had started contacting every possible option for Southern Utah that we knew. Nothing manifested itself into anything promising. We then went on to a teacher job website to broaden our perspective. We looked in many different states, including Oklahoma and Missouri. I even went out to Oklahoma City to a job fair where nothing promising happened. I continued to fill out applications and apply to every job that fit our parameters. Rhyetta and I were being taught several lessonsduring this time. They just happened to be patience, prayer and fasting; patience above them all. We felt like we were doing everything we could. Sporatically a call for an interview would come, either in St. George, Ut or in Missouri. We were anxious and getting ancy.
Fast forward to last week... Wednesday, May 27. I had received a phone call a few days earlier to set a date for a phone interview for the St. Joseph School District in Missouri. I was nervous as ever, but the interview went great, and was very promising. I was told that they (the interviewers) liked what they heard and all they needed to do was to check references and I would hear back in a couple of days. Well, Friday, May 29th was the day I should have heard back. I know that they had contacted one of my references and was given a glowing reference. I couldn't understand why I hadn't heard from them yet.
To make a long story short, I heard back from St. Joseph School District Monday with a job offer. I don't know what grade I will be teaching or at what elementary school in St. Joseph, MO, but I know that I have an offer and a contract in the mail. After many weeks of prayer and fasting, we were blessed with a job offer where we wanted. Since the hard part is over, we can now focus on getting ready to move to Missouri.
We are excited beyond words, and even more grateful for the blessings we received as we put our family's lives into the hands of Heavenly Father.
Back in March, I was asked by the principal of the school I worked at to think about next year. I didn't feel prompted to give a definite 'Yes'. We weren't sure what we were going to do, except fast, pray, go to the temple, etc. to figure out what we were supposed to do. In the meantime, April came around and we needed to give a definite answer for whether or not we were going to return next year. This was one of the toughest questions I have ever had to answer. However, through much prayer and going to the temple, we knew the answer was 'No'. So this much we knew... we were not returning to a job I knew I would have, to uncertainty.
Rhyetta and I have been exercising our faith since then. We had started contacting every possible option for Southern Utah that we knew. Nothing manifested itself into anything promising. We then went on to a teacher job website to broaden our perspective. We looked in many different states, including Oklahoma and Missouri. I even went out to Oklahoma City to a job fair where nothing promising happened. I continued to fill out applications and apply to every job that fit our parameters. Rhyetta and I were being taught several lessonsduring this time. They just happened to be patience, prayer and fasting; patience above them all. We felt like we were doing everything we could. Sporatically a call for an interview would come, either in St. George, Ut or in Missouri. We were anxious and getting ancy.
Fast forward to last week... Wednesday, May 27. I had received a phone call a few days earlier to set a date for a phone interview for the St. Joseph School District in Missouri. I was nervous as ever, but the interview went great, and was very promising. I was told that they (the interviewers) liked what they heard and all they needed to do was to check references and I would hear back in a couple of days. Well, Friday, May 29th was the day I should have heard back. I know that they had contacted one of my references and was given a glowing reference. I couldn't understand why I hadn't heard from them yet.
To make a long story short, I heard back from St. Joseph School District Monday with a job offer. I don't know what grade I will be teaching or at what elementary school in St. Joseph, MO, but I know that I have an offer and a contract in the mail. After many weeks of prayer and fasting, we were blessed with a job offer where we wanted. Since the hard part is over, we can now focus on getting ready to move to Missouri.
We are excited beyond words, and even more grateful for the blessings we received as we put our family's lives into the hands of Heavenly Father.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Baby Boomers
At breakfast yesterday, I thought I'd give a quick history lesson. We've been studying modern world history this year and a lot of it is so horrible that I've just given a paragraph's summary of what happened rather than going into detail with these little kids! Although I do have a picture of Lenin on the timeline and the kids always like to ask if he was an evil man. They'll ask, "What's his name again?"
Anyway, last month we "studied" WW2 and so yesterday I wanted to talk about baby boomers with the kids. As they were eating their oatmeal, I mentioned how after the war, the people were SO happy that the war was over and they were finally living in peace again. The soldiers came home and lots of them got married and had babies. In fact, there were so many babies being born they called it a baby boom! They're eyes got bigger at such a funny phrase that they had never heard before and there were a few giggles. I explained it a little more, but they weren't listening! "Baby boom?!" asked Kian. "You mean like the babies went BOOM?!" Ha ha. Lots of laughs all around the table. Abby was hysterical, "So, the babies came out of the mommy's belly like boom?!" We were all laughing now. Kian asked me, "Where do babies come out?" I could see that he was trying to remember exactly but couldn't quite remember how it worked. I answered, "out of their vaginas." So then he excitedly replied, "The mothers can help in the war by shooting the babies out of their vaginas!" Then he got down on his hands and knees and demonstrated how they would shoot out of their backsides. We were in hysterics! I just let the conversation go and enjoyed the kids' laughter. When I tried to explain that our grandparents were born during the baby boom, they just couldn't hear me. Every time I mentioned "baby boom" they got distracted with funny images and hysterical laughter!
Anyway, last month we "studied" WW2 and so yesterday I wanted to talk about baby boomers with the kids. As they were eating their oatmeal, I mentioned how after the war, the people were SO happy that the war was over and they were finally living in peace again. The soldiers came home and lots of them got married and had babies. In fact, there were so many babies being born they called it a baby boom! They're eyes got bigger at such a funny phrase that they had never heard before and there were a few giggles. I explained it a little more, but they weren't listening! "Baby boom?!" asked Kian. "You mean like the babies went BOOM?!" Ha ha. Lots of laughs all around the table. Abby was hysterical, "So, the babies came out of the mommy's belly like boom?!" We were all laughing now. Kian asked me, "Where do babies come out?" I could see that he was trying to remember exactly but couldn't quite remember how it worked. I answered, "out of their vaginas." So then he excitedly replied, "The mothers can help in the war by shooting the babies out of their vaginas!" Then he got down on his hands and knees and demonstrated how they would shoot out of their backsides. We were in hysterics! I just let the conversation go and enjoyed the kids' laughter. When I tried to explain that our grandparents were born during the baby boom, they just couldn't hear me. Every time I mentioned "baby boom" they got distracted with funny images and hysterical laughter!
Monday, April 27, 2009
Abby Loves Flowers Part 2
She did it again. It is so sweet that I have to write it down.
She's saying her lunch-time prayer for the meal again (Ella's on breakfast and Kian is on dinner) and after showing gratitude for another day she starts in with her sweet praying voice that's coming straight from her heart. "Thank you for trees and plants." She then gasps with emotion and goes on "they make my heart beat." And finally, "Thank you for flowers and roses. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."
She's saying her lunch-time prayer for the meal again (Ella's on breakfast and Kian is on dinner) and after showing gratitude for another day she starts in with her sweet praying voice that's coming straight from her heart. "Thank you for trees and plants." She then gasps with emotion and goes on "they make my heart beat." And finally, "Thank you for flowers and roses. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."
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