catch-up

Hello, world. I have missed writing and remembering. There have been a million things going on in the last 4 months, but finally things have settled. We are in our new home. Dave put in the sprinkler system and sod and started work. He's really a doctor! I can hardly believe it. And yet, after the last 7  years, I can absolutely believe it.

Summer has been full of birthdays (Jack -9, Ana-11, Katie- 6), a wedding and a baptism, family and friend reunions, and a lot of driving. It has been wonderful and a little stressful and money-sucking and fun!

School starts in a week and a half and I am ready for a schedule and quiet but I'm not ready for fall.

Time flows and things change. I am grasping at sand as it flows between my fingers. I sometimes get a somewhat frantic feeling about it. Someone once told that the key is gratitude. And not just a "count your blessings" type of gratitude, but moments where you just look at your children and your life and feel gratitude and love for them. It helps. I am trying to look the children in the eye more often and see them and smile at them.

Jack turns 9

Jack digs a hole in our new yard

The view from our new neighbhorhood

Dave's last day of residency (with co-resident and friend Jacqui)

I really like our view

Ana turns 11

Harry Potter cake for our 11 year old girl

Vermont friend reunion in Utah

Eli Morey and Dave and John Hedges

Jessika Hedges, Sara Morey, Christy Clark and me.

Dave's first day of work at the clinic.

My parents and all my sisters at my niece's wedding.

Katie turns 6 at the family reunion

We are loving our new life in Idaho. Really and truly. It is so wonderful to finally be "settled." I will write more on this later.

water, water everywhere

Life is crazy. We had a really awesome storm tonight with a flash flood. Unfortunately, part of that flash flood found its way into my basement. It was pouring in from a crack near the floor. While most of my stuff is up on pallets, I had gotten lazy over the winter and there was some that wasn't up, and I didn't have enough room on the pallets I had to get it up. Thankfully, after a few phone calls I had some friends over helping me get it all rearranged. I don't think any of our stuff is ruined, and the apartment maintenance will be here tomorrow to clean up the water and patch the crack.

I have a whole list of things I want to write about soon, but things have been a little crazy getting back settled in that I am having trouble making sense of anything.  I am totally ready for the kids to be done with school (they still have 3 1/2 weeks left!) and I have big plans for the summer.

 For now, I will just post these pictures from our visit to Shoshone Falls a few days before we left Idaho. For the record, I love Twins Falls and it is totally in my top 5 "Places I would love to live when I grow up."

 

We also decided to drive by the Twin Falls Temple, which is only about 5 minutes from the falls. We got out and let the kids walk up to it. Katie still says, "We touch the temple!" when she sees a picture of a Temple.

 

 

back to "normal"

Well, after our month long vacation to see family and friends out west, we are back in the swing of things at home. We had so much fun. The kids, especially Ana, seeing their cousins and playing with Granny's neighbor girls all day.  We had some good adventures and now we are back. I came home to a sparkling clean home, thanks to my wonderful friend Patrice and her mother who looked after the house while I was gone. (I have the most wonderful friends.) But, not to worry, it is nice and messy now as I get laundry all put away, backpacks unpacked, drawers organized (since it is finally nice weather consistently) and trying to keep motivated to get it all done. I am seeing some things a little more clearly now that I took a breather away from the mundane things. And I realized how much I love the people here in Vermont. Oh, how I missed them.

Here are some highlights:

*Going to City of Rocks, which was really cool and made me want to go rock climbing.
*Going to Boise Zoo with one sister and the Idaho Falls Zoo with another. I like zoos.
*Helping my mom sort through some of her old slides and seeing pictures of me as a baby and my siblings as kids. Man we were cute.
*Going to the temple and out to eat with Dave for our anniversary. (8 years. I love him.)
*Seeing "Hello Dolly!" at a dinner theater with my mom and 2 of my sisters. So fun!

It was a grand ole' time. My camera battery died half way through so I don't have too many pictures. But sometimes it feels good to not worry about it and just enjoy myself.

It is wonderful to be back in Vermont and I feel refreshed and rejuvenated and ready for summer vacation.

Now if I can only get Jack and Ana to get along....

here we have idaho

Being back in Idaho for a few days has reminded me of all the things I love about this great state ...

*The big sky
*The sunshine
*The open-ness of the Snake River Plain
*The sound (and sight) of sprinklers in the fields
*All of the wonderful people

... and one thing I do not love.

*the wind