Catch up

So much has been going on and I've been horrible at writing anything down. So here goes a lot of very random events, info, comments, and whatever else I decide to spit out right now. Lol. :)

To recap on a couple of things. Our phone in the basement still rings. Sometimes 3 times a day, though not every day. Neil still hasn't answered it even though I tell him whenever I hear it ringing. Don't bother asking if I've answered it. :)

The Batman came and set up evacuation tubes a couple weeks ago and got the bats out of the south side of our house. The holes on the north side were larger than he thought so he came back last week and took down the first set up tubes and filled in those holes, and out new tubes on the north side. He said the one spot in the back has a LOT of bats, which he was glad about. I guess it's good to get them all in one spot so he can make sure they are all out? I don't understand it. He asked if we were buying the house, which we aren't. And then told me that we'll need to have someone check the roof every spring and fall! Yikes! I guess the winters are so hard that it causes the wood on the roof to shrink and pull away from the house. I don't know if I really want to deal with that... we'll see what happens. I have been brave and go in the basement again. It's been fine, and it's nice to feel safe in my house again. :)

Hunter has been potty training! He's a pro! at first it was maybe 2 or 3 accidents a day, but quickly went to just one. Mostly he only has accidents if he is really involved in an activity, so we're trying to help him pay attention to that and learn to stop what he's doing. He's doing great! And I love the fact that he's always been good at staying dry at night! So glad I don't have to wash sheets all the time. Yay Hunter! We are so proud of you!!!

We were going to start Jackson today, but we just don't think he's ready yet. I think he wants to, and could do it, but I think we're going to do a little more learning and training before we put him in underwear. Maybe by his 3rd birthday (which is next month).

Hunter is going to start preschool! Yay! I think he'll do the 3 days a week. It is somehow affiliated with the school district, so they have a really good learning/teaching program. I'm going to go talk to them tomorrow and get all the details. It's funny because we moved to Sumner so we wouldn't have to put Hunter on a bus to go to elementary school, but here we are potty him on a bus to preschool. It's in Fredericksburg which is pretty close, and there are two really great families that live there from our ward, whom i'm sure we could count on if there was an emergency and would help us until I could get there. I don't know what that would be, and I haven't talked to them, so basically i'm just volunteering them. Lol. But we really like them, so i'm sure it's fine. :) i'm debating putting jacks in for two days a week, but I think we'll wait.

We are still adjusting to this one pay check a month thing, so in trying to get used to it we haven't bought anything yet. Lol. We had the missionaries over for dinner tonight (which I LOVE! Something that never happens in Utah, at least the relationships with them are nothing like this, so it is so fun! It reminds me of my mission and the wonderful families we would visit all the time!) Anyway, between all of us we sat on two barstools, two camp chairs, a folding chair, and we were short one chair. Lol. What a great memory this will be. I'm so grateful for the D. Family that gave us their old table. Thanks! Plus all our miss match plates. Lol. It's fun, but we definitely need to get some chairs so we can start inviting families over. Maybe we'll just have BYOC dinners, bring your own chair. ha. I don't care that the missionaries get to ”enjoy” our lack of furniture, but I guess my pride won't let me share this with others (except that everyone in the world can read about it now. Lol.)

Top items on my list to buy:
Chairs,
Bigger table, our some kind of extension for our table so we can fit more people around it,
dryer - we need electric one, ours is gas. I don't mind hanging the clothes on the line, but with all the extra time to hang them, by the time their ready to be put away i've had enough with the laundry that they end up just sitting in the basket forever. Handing and folding is too much for this girl. ;) lol. Yes, I think I will honestly laugh at everything in this post. ;)
A mini van. Yes, I would rather have an SUV, but I really like the idea of being able to spread my kids out, not have to climb over seats to get in the back, and be able to fit more people in the car besides our family. You never know when someone will need a ride somewhere.
A riding lawn mower. We've talked about getting just a push mower. Are you done laughing? I'll wait. But looking out over the vastness of our yard, and then seeing how quickly the neighbor mowed it on his riding mower yesterday (thanks neighbor!) I just want to go right to the best and quickest and easiest. Call me lazy, but we have a big yard. The benefits of not having rain: only a few weeds are tall, otherwise if it were raining like people say it usually does, we'd be living in a jungle! Lol. The poor farmers though! I would much rather deal with a jungle than see so much brown corn. :(

Ok, I think that's the main stuff.

A few weekends ago we had Sumner days. It was fun. We went to the parade and had a blast! We took home so much candy! The boys loved it! And Mabel sat in the stroller and ate whatever she could get her hands on. Lol. We also watched the fireworks that night. And not connected with the Sumner Days at all, the boys and I went to the dollar theater and watched Brave. Such a good movie! And I love that it was only a buck! We have the best movie theater here. New releases for nothing. :)

Last weekend my sister came to town on Sun night. She was on her way through to Utah with her boys. We sure loved having them stay the night! And they better stop by on their way back to NY! She had received some floating lanterns for her birthday so we lit one and watched it sail into the sky. It was really awesome. None of us could remember the song on Tangled, but Jacks sang a song for us anyway. Lol. The boys had fun playing with their cousins, and the whole day on Monday hunter kept asking me, ”my friends aren't back yet?” He still asks and I tell him they'll be here soon. :) we're also going to have more siblings for Thanksgiving since we are in the middle of them all. One in NY, one in TX, and one in NE. that would be fun. My sister also dropped pdf some girl clothes for Mabel. They are just a little bit bigger than Jacks size right now, and not to mention that their girls, but he doesn't care. He found the Hannah Montana flip flops and they now belong to him and are the only shoes he'll wear besides to church. Lol. I'm glad the pink is a faded pink so they are not too obvious. Oh well. :)

Our family reunion starts this week. Every year my family gets together at Bear Lake in Utah, and i'm so sad to be missing it. With just moving and a new job, we just couldn't make it work.  Next year we'll be there though! I think this will be the first time since moving here that I'll be missing my family. We just really love it here and feel so at home! I feel in a way that I've always been here, but not completely. I could stay for a long time though, but I guess we'll see about that too. Who knows.

I am the Young Womens president in the branch. I love it, the girls are so fantastic! I'm so glad I was able to serve in Utah, so I could have an idea of what i'm doing, but at the same time I feel so inadequate and lost. not that I know everything, but usually I feel pretty confident about my abilities when it comes to a new task, but I struggle with this. I simply have a blank slate and do not know what to do. I really hope I can find some inspiration soon... and i'm sure I will. But until then, the struggle continues. Besides that, it's a neat experience. There aren't a lot of yw. Maybe 5 or 6, so about half the size of what I had in Utah. And then there are 3 non-members that come regularly. Their enthusiasm blows me away! They don't know what is going on, nor do they know everything about the gospel, but their conviction is so strong and it's neat to see how they face their family or friends that give them a hard time for coming to our church, and that they don't care and still come anyway. They are definitely examples to me. I'm really excited to get to know them better and be able to hang out with them every week. :) the other leaders I work with are also relatively new members. One has been a member for 5 years, and the other for almost 3 months. It's neat to hear their stories, and I love being surrounded by people who have come to accept Christ in their lives, and see the transformation that takes place when that happens. The gospel is a powerful thing. :)

Last week we went and had dinner with another family that lives in Postville. It's north east of us by about an hour, and it is so beautiful up there! There are rolling hills and trees, and I love it! They are such a great family too. She kind of reminds me of my oldest sister, and they even have the same hair cut! Funny. So I feel right at home with her. She has two girls that are the same ages about as the boys, so they all played really well together.  It was a fun night and we could have easily strayed all night! We are going to another families house tomorrow night too and that should be great too. Who needs to go shopping around here, everyone keeps feeding us. Lol. It just amazes me how friendly everyone is, and what a great group of people! We haven't meet anyone yet that we don't like or don't get along with. We just need to get some chairs so we can start inviting people over to our house. Lol.

Ok well, I was going to go to bed over an hour ago, and I think I am officially crazy for writing this all on my phone. So no pictures for now... Maybe I'll plop some in tomorrow because I know I have some. :)

Until then goodnight and I hope you have a great week!