Alex in Evanston, Wyoming

I haven't said much about Alex since he has been on his mission because I have another private blog where I post all his letters and pictures, but I figured I would give an update every once in a while on this one too. Alex recently got transferred to Evanston, Wyoming. He got a new companion, Elder Smith from Connecticut. He is doing great and recently received a new assignment as a zone leader. He is very excited to be in Wyoming again. He loves the people, the country, and the work there. A church member emailed me these pictures of having Alex and his companion for dinner one evening. This is the first picture we have of Alex with his new companion. 

Tessa's Instruments

This past year, Tessa has really accomplished a lot in music! She has been taking private flute lessons and has really made great strides in playing the flute! She plays beautifully with vibrato and all. She performed at the Nativity event at Christmas time and I accompanied her. I got goosebumps during certain parts of the music we played because her playing was so beautiful. She has also performed a few other times as well. Not only has she excelled on the flute(which is her strongest instrument), but she has learned to play the piccolo and the bari saxophone. Since she was the best flute player in her middle school, she got the "right" to check out the school's piccolo and keep it for the year. She also got to play the piccolo in the final band concert for the year.

She picked up bari saxophone so she could play in Jazz band because that is something she really wanted to do. The school had an instrument she could borrow for the year as well. She really did well on it and in the process learned how to play Alto Sax as well.

And she has continued to play the piano as well! :)

Jazz Band at Austin Peay's Jazz contest

Spring Band Concert

Tessa ready to play the piccolo

She had a hard time getting it tuned

Jazz Band spring concert

Tessa with the tenor sax...she did great!

Jammin to Jazz!

Manna from Heaven: Blessings in Boxes

It was about this point in time that my stress level had reached an all-time high. I was trying to homeschool Jarem in addition to dealing with a demanding two year old. Jarem wasn't making the schooling easy most days because he was uncooperative much of the time. Micah also wasn't making it easy because he wanted the attention away from Jarem and on HIM. Then there were a million end of school activities for the girls that needed to be attended to, paid for, etc, etc. The kids all wanted last sleepovers/lunches/etc with their friends that they were leaving behind. The laundry still had to be done and the kids still had to eat (darn it)! I was still chorister in Primary at church, which didn't take a lot of time, but was one more thing to do. We had a long list of little things that still had to be completed from the homeowner's inspection. I was trying to arrange/complete those before our house sale closing. Then there was the SORTING and PACKING which was looming over me like an impossibly steep mountain in which the treacherous climb required to reach the peak seemed completely unattainable.

We had made the decision to move ourselves. This decision was mainly for financial reasons. Hiring it packed and moved was just completely out of our budget. After spending the past 7 years as a practicing radiologist, Eric would be going back to a "residency type pay" and the new job didn't include any moving package. Boxing up everything ourselves and renting a truck was by far the cheapest way to go. That said, we hadn't moved ourselves for 12 years. In that time, we had accumulated 2 more kids and a much bigger house with much more stuff. In addition, we would be going from a 4200 square foot house to a 2000 square foot house. We had to really downsize!! So, it wasn't just packing what we had, but sorting through EVERYTHING. This included trips to Goodwill, the dump, and the sale of numerous things. 

We needed boxes! I had put out a plea for boxes on Facebook, but no one had any. Some suggested places to check, but I didn't have the time to just drive around and keep checking back for a box here and there. I knew I needed some boxes to get started, but they were so expensive. I had purchased 10 medium and 10 large boxes at Lowes to get started. The juggling act of the cart, the boxes and the boys was almost impossible to handle. The boxes didn't fit in the cart well, so they kept falling out. Micah was crying. I couldn't see where I was going. And then when trying to check out, the boxes all fell out of the cart and I was trying to get them back in with a crying baby. Jarem was trying to be helpful, but the boxes were really too big for him to handle alone. After that one incident, I swore I would not be back for boxes again without help. 

Although Eric wanted to help, his work schedule and church responsibilities as bishop had rendered him almost completely unavailable. Because of the way the Army works, they get new "people in payback" every July. However, the departing "payback people" always get terminal leave, which means they get all the vacation days, sick days, paid out at the end of their payback time. This basically means the previous payback people leave in April or May and the new guys don't come until July. This leaves them very understaffed in April, May, and June. Thus, Eric's work schedule was horrible because he was one of 3 covering the work for what normally was done by 7. He had been working late most days and on-call almost every weekend (His call means he works a good chunk of the day Saturday and Sunday). We didn't want him to take days off because his new job didn't start until July 1, but we had to be out of our house June 1. With his terminal leave, he could make it work with just working the first few days in June but couldn't take any time off until then. Every night was busy with something: Band concerts, Awards assemblies, soccer games or end of year parties, etc. 

How was this all going to be done in 2 weeks when we still didn't even have boxes? We would pick up the truck in TWO WEEKS! At that point, everything had to be neatly waiting to be loaded and taken to South Carolina. I prayed for help to get through this crazy mess.  

Friday morning, May 8, I woke up with all this on my mind. We got up early to do our regular family morning scripture study before Jesikah left for seminary. When Eric returned from taking Jesikah to seminary, I started pouring out my troubles to him: everything we had to do, how we didn't have enough time, I was spread too thin, and WE DIDN'T EVEN HAVE BOXES!! 

Eric responded, "You know that house that people just moved into two doors down, they have all their moving boxes lined up on the curb for the trash guy to pick up this morning". 

I leaped out of bed, "What? Did you get them?"

"No, I have to leave for work, but you should check into that." he replied.

I pulled on some clothes and started down to the neighbors. Realizing it was only about 6:30am, I wasn't sure how to handle this...but the trash guy would be coming. This couldn't wait. I didn't want to knock so early and I didn't want to just take the boxes without saying anything either. Hmmm...

As it turned out, God was looking out for me. As I walked towards the driveway, a man walked out of the garage. There in the gloriously bright morning sunlight was a whole driveway full of boxes: wardrobe boxes, dish packs, mirror and wall picture boxes, boxes of all sizes for everything we could possibly need, packing paper, heavy paper, and many of the boxes hadn't even been broken down. I asked the guy if I could have them. He gladly agreed. He was relieved to get them off his hands and put to good use. Then he opened his garage and said, "And I have more too!" Oh blessed day!

It was an answer to prayers: a glorious day! I ran home and got Jarem up. We happily walked all those boxes back to our house. I couldn't have been happier or more grateful. In Jarem's daily scripture study, we had been studying Moses and the Israelites in the wilderness. God dropped down manna from heaven each day. All they had to do was pick it up and they had food. I couldn't help but make the correlation to my boxes. It was as if God had dropped the boxes down from heaven and all I had to do was go pick them up. It was a turning point in my perspective. I could now visualize how I could climb that impossibly steep mountain. The climb was going to be treacherous, but it now seemed attainable.

This picture really doesn't show they extent of the boxes. There were so many. Some were broken down too. And you cant see all the packing paper either. It was amazing.

No More Car Payments!!

As if May wasn't crazy enough already with all the kids' end of year school activities and us moving, Eric decided to trade in his beloved truck! We both felt it was a good choice, but he was sad to let it go. The awesome part about it was: we actually had $15,000 equity in the truck after the loan was paid off. This allowed Eric's to get a beautiful black 2010 Acura TSX with only 35,000 miles on it and we paid cash out of pocket $2000 after the truck equity! And the best part is: this is the first time in the 21 years that we've been married that we will not have a car payment on any of our 3 cars!

It was a nice easy transaction and we had completed it in a few hours! The truck just was not practical for the narrow streets and small parking places in Charleston. It's an old city with not much room for big vehicles. Eric will miss his truck, but he loves his new car already!

A Little More Spring

My little almond tree blooming for the first time!

One more spring to enjoy my yard!

My amaryllis bloomed beautifully this spring. I loved how the leaves really complemented the flowers this time.

Some birds decided to build a nest in my front door wreath. I took it apart before any eggs were laid. 

Here's What Micah's Up To...

First and foremost...Micah took his first bath in over a year without screaming! It's truly a miracle. He used to love baths. Then one day when Micah was about 9 months, Jarem was taking a bath with him and Micah slipped and his face went in the water. He had that scary moment where he felt like he couldn't breathe. After that, he refused to take baths and he would scream and cry and shake with fear any time we tried to put him in the bath. He would only take a bath if I got in with him and he sat on my lap or he would shower with me. His fear crossed over to the swimming pool and he didn't want to get in the pool for the first while last summer. Eventually he started liking the pool, but he still wouldn't get in the bath. Anyway, I'm sure you are wondering what made the difference this time...Easter Eggs!! The way I bribed him in the bath tonight was telling him he could play with Easter eggs in the tub. He's been so obsessed with Easter eggs since Easter. 

Micah loves bacon!! He also loves scrambled eggs, chicken, and most fruit.

Here he is pretending he is calling Dad on the phone.

First time with headphones in the car...such peace and quiet! :)

Too bad he only kept them in for a few minutes. On a side note, he loves his blankies..

Enjoyed riding on my back in a backpack while Jarem, Molly, and I hiked Dunbar cave a few times this spring!

Last Hoorah!

Our last night in Charleston, we can planned to go to a rooftop outdoor restaurant on the top floor of a hotel. We tried to make reservations, but it was first come, first serve. We got there at the time recommended only to realize that it wasn't really a restaurant, it was more like a bar. There were appetizer type things to order and lots of drinks. No tables were available and crowds of people were standing around waiting for a table. Most people had already had too much to drink and were a bit tipsy. We decided that this wasn't exactly what we had in mind for my birthday dinner, so we left and went to the nice restaurant downstairs. Their next reservation was at 9-something. It was just after 7, so we had some time to wait. We walked down on the pier and watched the sunset. By 9, we were starving!! We still had to wait another 20 minutes before they had a table for us.  The late dinner wasn't really what we had in mind, but it turned out to be very good.  Our meal was excellent. That last night we stayed in a hotel because I could not tolerate this air mattress on my back another night. Sunday after going to church, we headed home.

 Sunsets and people are always hard to capture together. Either the sunset looks good and the people are dark or the people are lit and the sunset is blown out. Here's one of both. I've heard photographers combine the two to get the perfect sunset pics.

Eric multi-tasking while deflating the air mattress.

We drove home through Asheville, North Carolina and the beautiful Smoky Mountains. The reason they are called the smoky mountains is little puffs of mist settle in the trees and it looks like smoke rising. It's pretty cool. I tried to capture some of these pockets of mist while we were driving home.

Our welcoming committee! When we got home, the kids had painted their faces to wish me a happy birthday. Jesikah did a good job holding down the fort while we were gone. 

Magnolia Plantation

Eric let me pick all the places I wanted to go for my birthday weekend. The Magnolia Plantation was high on my list because of the gardens. It was among the highest ranked tourists sights in Charleston. Here's a little information about Magnolia Gardens:

 Magnolia has been selected as one of "America's Most Beautiful Gardens" (Travel + Leisure Magazine), and is the only garden honored with this distinction in the State of South Carolina! Founded in 1676 by the Drayton family, Magnolia Plantation has survived the centuries and witnessed the history of our nation unfold before it from the American Revolution through the Civil War and beyond. It is the oldest public tourist site in the Lowcountry, and the oldest public gardens in America, opening its doors to visitors in 1870 to view the thousands of beautiful flowers and plants in its famous gardens. 

We got there a little later in the day so we didn't have a lot of time. We bought tickets for the nature train and the house tour. Once we finished the two tours, we didn't have time to walk through the gardens, but it was still an enjoyable time, and I know we will be back to see those gardens!! 

They also have a petting zoo and these peacocks were just wandering around the property.

 On the nature train, we saw tons of alligators up on these ramps below. Each ramp I have pictured is a different alligator. Some were huge!! These gators can live very long lives up to 100 years old sometimes.

Very interesting how these gators sunbathe with the turtles on the ramps like they are best friends. Little do the turtles know that they may be the gators next meal. They only eat once every 3-4 days, so they may sunbathe happily together for a few days before one comes up missing.

This one was huge

Here's a stork and her two babies in their huge nest. The gators wait right under her nest in case a baby drops to become his next meal.

See the gator

 Gators and turtles sunbathing again together.

Huge live oak tree close to 300 years old. These trees live hundreds of years and their limbs were incredibly long. Very little can take these down. They rarely fall to even hurricanes. Ironically, the one thing that can take them out is the little black ant. They eat the core and then when the strong winds blow, there is no strength left in the tree. I couldn't help but think this is a great analogy about life. Sometimes it is the small things that wear us down over time and reduce our strength..

A cypress knee is a distinctive structure forming above the roots of a cypress tree. Their function is unknown, but they are generally seen on trees growing in swamps. Some scientists have thought they may help in oxygenation to the tree's roots or assist in anchoring the tree in the soft, muddy soil.

I believe this is a common gallinule or common moorhen

More turtles sunbathing

Big and Little gators

Look closely to see the gator in the moss

We went on a tour of this house. It is called the Drayton mansion. It is on the property of the Magnolia Plantation. This whole property is owned by the Drayton family. There was quite an interesting history about this house. I love the beautiful wrap around porch that goes around the entire house. It's very beautiful. They were preparing for a wedding while we were there.

Mossy trees in South Carolina with a little of the wedding party at the bottom

The back of the house backs up to the river not far away. This was instrumental in the British Attack of 1780.

Back side of house

Heading back into town