“Truly great friends are hard to find, difficult to leave, and impossible to forget.”

I'm not one that likes to say goodbyes. In fact, every time I think about saying goodbye to two of my closest friends or my family in Utah, I tear up. I know this move will be good for my family and it is a good start for Jacob's career but at the same time I'll be farther away and starting over. When we moved to Idaho in 2003, I cried the entire 4 hour drive up from Pleasant Grove. This was just saying goodbye to my family (for a couple weeks.) Little did I know then that with Jacob still working construction projects in Utah how much we would be down to visit. The first year we lived in Idaho, we spent more time in Utah than we did at home. Idaho has really been great to us. We have enjoyed living out in the country and raising our family there. We have had many different life experiences from starting new businesses, buying & remodeling a house, to graduating from college. Now it's time to move on.This is my closest friend, Lindsey. We have and take care of our own families but we are like sisters. I'm really going to miss her. She was my neighbor when we first moved here. It took a year for us to become friends (basically because my family traveled so much) but from there on, we were always involved with each other. Some how we always had kids around the same time too (without planning it.) We were just that in sync. I'm going to miss our late night Wal-Mart runs. It's always funner to go grocery shopping with a friend. Our "sneaky shopping" trips to Maurices. We both have an addiction for the clothes at that store. We taught primary together for 2 1/2 years. I couldn't have asked for a better partner. Midnight showing Twilight movies won't be the same without her. Lindsey is one of the least selfish people I know. I'm so grateful that she is my friend.

House Hunting

We arrived in Austin on Sunday for our week of looking for a house. Jacob and I got off the plane and the rental company gave us this cube. Jacob has driven it the entire time because I have no desire to drive it. The Kia Soul is small and powerless. Basically how we felt in this big city.

We decided to rent a house (I would love to buy but that won't be happening any time soon). What a difference renting a house in Utah / Idaho is to renting a house in Austin. Everything is done through Realtors and if you snooze you lose. Our picks of houses that we looked at on the Internet on Friday & Saturday were gone by Monday morning. We spent 10 hours on Monday looking at houses that were either extremely expensive or extremely dirty. By Monday night I was emotionally drained. I even cried.

Tuesday was a new day. By two in the afternoon we had an A, B, and C plan. Plus, A and C weren't listed in the MLS listings so we were sure to get something we liked. A was our dream home and a far shot but Plan A didn't want to rent since he was selling his house and wasn't in a hurry and didn't need the money so we snatched B up. I'm excited for our move. Our new house is in Round Rock and it's in a great neighborhood and really good school district. I hope the kids are as happy as we are.

So now it's Wednesday night and our next dilemma is that we aren't suppose to be home til Saturday. We have a lot of stuff to still get down at home and time is of the essence. Since Delta wants to charge us over $200 a piece to change our flight we are going to try flying standby. We could end up spending a really long day in the airport tomorrow.

I'm grateful that we could hang out with Betsy and her family during the day (in between our different realtor listings) and the evenings. I'm still trying to convince her just to stay down here but I don't think it will work. Hazel was my "adopted" child. She would sit on my lap, have me hold her, and tuck her in. It melted my heart because this trip I really missed my own children.

So it's off to bed and here's hoping (praying) we can get home tomorrow and I can give my own kids a hug and kiss.

Things I am going to miss....

Reality is setting in. For the last couple of weeks, I've realized how much I'm going to miss Idaho, even more, the people in Idaho. Many different things have passed through my mind but tonight I'm going to focus on just one of them. My dad. This past week he has been up here visiting me again. He usually spends about 3 weeks a year up here with me and my family. My kids love it. I love it.

He has his "rituals" that he does with my kids:

• Going to Barnes and Noble and buying them a book.
• Going to Big Judd's and getting the big hamburger.
• Making their "own" list and going grocery shopping.
• Feeding the ducks at the falls.
• Going to our annual "special place". (This year the weather didn't cooperate and we couldn't make it up there even though we tried.)
  

I really hope he can come out and visit me in Texas. (One doctor has cleared it.) I'm so grateful for our friendship.

Push, run, pose and snap!

Easter Sunday, we decided to get a new "feet" picture.
We climbed up the piles of dirt....
barefoot. And hitting the button to take the picture and running halfway up the hill barefoot didn't feel too good.
The clods and the rocks hurt. But then we decided....
to take some silhouette pictures and that was even harder.
We were barefoot and I was running completely up the dirt mountain, posing, in less than 10 seconds.
It hurt even more, but it was well worth it.

Easter Egg Hunt Idaho Style

We opted out of the school and cities Easter Egg Hunt this year and did our own. It's always nice when you have acres and acres of property. So Jacob went out and hid them behind the dirt piles.Then the kids went looking.
The kids were so excited. They looked along the piles, the trucks and equipment.
They looked in the open fields.
Some were easy....
And some were a little more hidden.
But after an hour of looking for their own 30 or so eggs...(I forgot to count the eggs that were color coded for each kid so they got the same amount and same yummy goods)
Jacob had to go through and help them find them all, sort of.

Afternoon and Evening Celebrations

McKay spent her birthday at school. I know, I'm a mean mom but with as many sick days as she had, and it being ISAT time, she had to go. After school she came home and opened her presents. Any guesses on the big one?
McKay took up playing the violin over 3 years ago. Since then she has grown and needed a full size violin. I love her passion to play and hope she continues. This year they bumped her up to the eighth grade orchestra and she is now a first chair violin.
She is surely a loved girl!
McKay is not a fan of cakes or cookies. This year she just asked for sherbet ice cream. I did brownies solely for the purpose of the candles.

We finished the night off with Ticket to Ride (one of her favorites) and TV. I told her that she could stay up as late as she wanted. It's now 1 am and she is slowly winding down. Here's to sleeping in in the morning.

12 Years Today....Happy Birthday McKay!

12 Years ago, McKay made me a mother, a rather young mother. Married at 18, pregnant at 19, and a mother just before I turned 20. Who ever would have guessed? She was sent to me with a reason and purpose.
I've always said this little girl is my angel. She saved me. In my rather sidewards ways, just holding her and realizing that this perfect baby was sent from my Heavenly Father made me realize how much I wanted the gospel back in my life. I wanted her to be mine forever and not just in this lifetime.
I'm so grateful that she is my daughter. You always want your kids to be better than what you are / were and I know for McKay that the sky is the limit!

Happy Birthday Sweetheart.
Love you.
P.S. Can you believe that in another 12 years, this could be a possibility?

Soap Wars & Weighing Pennies

It was "Science Fair Project" time again last week. The kids had fun doing their projects and finding their conclusions.
Kirsten decided to do "Soap Wars." Which soap lasted the longest in the showers. We tested this by her washing her hands for five minutes and then I washed my hands for five minutes with nine different soaps. My hands smelled nauseating afterward. My conclusion was Ivory was the worst smelling of them all. Kirsten didn't place in the 60 entries of 3rd graders but I'm proud with the work that she did.
This was Cruz's first entry. He decided to see what his weight equaled in pennies. It turned out to be $73.50. He placed first in his Kindergarten level.

Anticipated, Completed, Now What?

When Jacob talked about starting school, in August of 2008, it seemed like him graduating was so far away. He was correct in saying "Three years is going to come and go whether I keep working for myself or whether I go back and get a degree." I'm so glad he chose to get a degree with the way the economy has turned out.April 9th was the big day. We went to Commencement and then watched him walk in his Convocation. He graduated with Magna Cum Laude Honors. (Top 5 percent in his graduating class.)
This is the first graduating class in Electrical Engineering from BYU-Idaho.

Now a family event always calls for a family party! We love it when family comes and visits.
Grandma Kerksiek, Maddy, and Hannah came up for the weekend, along with....

My sister and her family.
And of course, it's never complete without a whole group family picture!

Upcoming countdowns (#1)

Who thought this day would ever come? I can't believe it has been almost 3 years since he started. Jacob is graduating! I know it's a shocker but I'm proud of what he has done and what he has shown the kids. It's never too late to take control and accomplish your goals. So the countdown: one week and Jacob will be down with school. One week until graduation. One more week of projects and labs and not getting home before midnight. One more week and hopefully I can have a life with my husband again. I'm looking forward to what the future brings.

Graduation is Saturday, April 9 @ 8:30 a.m. for all those who can come. Everyone is welcome.

Competitive and just a little Motivated

I may have a competitive bone in my body....or two or three or four. Okay, I like a good challenge. The past two weeks, McKay had been doing my workouts with me as part of her health homework. It was fun to have someone to do it with me and to push as well as the other way too. Sadly, it was over on the 24th. I had to bribe her to do it with me on the 25th.
So at the beginning of this week, I challenged her to beat me in running a mile. Luckily, McKay is just as competitive as me (I think that's a good thing.) Every night we take turns and set the bar for the other person.
McKay run a mile in 8:19 last semester at the end of P.E. Tonight has been her best this week.
So far, I've been able to keep ahead of her time. I know that she will eventually catch up and then kick my butt.
This was my best tonight too. I think it's been my best since high school. I'm curious how fast I can get this if we keep this up. I also want to gradually increase the distance in the "race."

P.S. Even though it's super super yummy, and is now my favorite snack, I don't recommend running after eating half a bowl of fruit salsa before running.

Grandpa's Fun

At the first of February, Jacob had a training and a fair down in Provo. We all headed down for a nice break and a stay with my parents. Plus we got treated to a yummy dinner at Tucanos. Nobody can pass up that place.
My dad has a collection of hats (150+) that the kids found and each picked out. Yes they are old and outdated but fashion comes in and out right? They wore them to the Bookstore with Grandpa, where we got many strange looks and they even got to take them home.
Can you tell which show the girls have been watching with me? Kirsten's had many great poses.

(answer: America's Next Top Model)

Crushed

Kirsten got crushed on Valentine's Day. Okay, it was actually on Friday but it led up to an eventful weekend. One thing our family is not shy on is drama.
Friday afternoon I got a call from the school saying her fingers (the middle three) had been shut in a door. She was shaken and hurt and wanted to come home. They swelled up and were bruised pretty bad. The sad part was that they were closed in the hinge side of the door and it had clicked shut so somebody had to open it for her to get her hand out. On Sunday afternoon the pain increased and so did the redness in the ring finger which led to an ER visit that night. It turned out that she had broken the tips of the middle and ring fingers and had to have her ring finger drained of the infection. Almost a week later and she is still pretty bruised but not as swollen. My guess is, is that she will lose all three of the fingernails.

"cleaning" up my act

I haven't done laundry since Sunday. I have lots of ironing waiting for me too. When I get home after work and after doing all of the kids other things, it's all I can do to cook dinner. I made a 2 week menu on Saturday with the intention of not eating out and not going back to Wal-Mart (with the exception of bread and milk which I will do at a local store out here) til the first of the month. It was close today, but I've made it.

Back to my other point. I see how easy it would be to become a hoarder. Not really a hoarder but one of those people that live in junk. I don't like it. It's not me, it stresses me out to have my place messy but lately I'm slacking and I haven't really cared. (I've been known to take half a day off just to clean my house.)

So after a day like today: working, visit-teaching, picking up McKay and going to her contest award ceremony (which she won honorable mention and received $10 out of the entire city of seventh graders with 381 essays submitted. As she said best, "It's getting paid to do my homework.") and then picking up the kids. I came home to a disaster. I'm sure you don't believe me but it was. Dishes and dinner out from the night before, counters piled from Jacob doing homework late at night, untidy bedrooms, games and toys out and dirty laundry piled high in my bedroom. I delegated most jobs as I did a few, sorted laundry, and got dinner ready and now my upstairs is spotless. Its amazing how fast my kids have learned to help. I used to do it all by myself because I liked it done my way but now it's different. If having a busy and complicated life has taught me anything its that my kids need to learn how to work too. Kirsten will often complains that McKay didn't have to do this at her age. Lucky her that she knows how to do it at a younger age than McKay.

So while I spend the weekend doing loads of laundry (it's one thing that I still do as I'm very picky on how it's done) and my kids putting it away, and as we are trying out a new recipe, (chicken cacciatori) we'll be playing games as I've promised the kiddos, one being Monopoly.

Fixin' for better opportunities

Since the cat is trying to get out of the bag here, Maybe this will make sense.
Here we come. Trying to get to greener (and warmer) sides.

When: June 2011
Where: Austin, TX

Maybe this makes a little more sense to a few of you.

Star of the Week

Cruz was Star of the Week in school. Making these posters always remind how fast they are growing up.

On Tuesday, the caterpillar ate through....

As Jacob and I were sitting at our computers late at night over a week ago, we heard a tiny little voice reading "The Very Hungry Caterpillar." I went back to the kids bedroom and Katanya had turned on her light (it was almost 10:30 p.m.) and gotten her caterpillar to read it a bedtime story. This book has always been a favorite of all our kids. McKay had it memorized at the age of three. So when Kohl's had their "$5 specials" for both the animal and the hard cover book, we couldn't pass it up.

I looked out the window and what did I see?

A moose running through our property.
Yesterday morning after the girls got on the bus I went to make sure Jacob was out of bed when I saw a moose crossing the fields. I've heard of moose coming around before but it's been a long time since I've seen one here. I love (some) of the wildlife we have here. The elk herds are up the road in the potato fields but we have yet to go up and look at them. At this time of year it helps to have four wheel drive. The not so nice parts; last summer we had a mountain lion hit a couple miles away from our house.

This brings me to another resolution I had on my list; to take more pictures. I've been lucky and at the family outings we have lots of members who do but I've slacked off. So instead of sitting and wishing that I had had a telephoto lens for my camera to zoom in on the moose, I'll put it to action to justify saving up and getting one someday.

Finding the Christmas Spirit

Christmas came and went at lightening speed. With all of Jacob's finals and projects (straight A's once again!) the month of December was gone before we knew it.
We did our normal traditions, singing and the candles on Sunday evenings,
and the new ornament with a family picture on the Christmas Tree. We decided for the year of 2010 to do a saddle as I went back to work at a Saddle Company.

I had a hard time finding the Christmas spirit this year. Our lives has been a whirlwind and I'm still trying to pick up the pieces. It wasn't until we went to church the Sunday before Christmas and I listened to the Christmas program. It was what I needed. Kirsten wrote a poem that same sacrament meeting that I want to share with this post. It amazes me how big of a spirit that such a small person has.

LOOK
Look, did you see the new shiny star that holy night?
Or did you see Mary's happy face?
Did you see the animals or the angels up high?
Did you see Jesus being so calm?
Did you hear the angels singing?
Did you see the three wise men or the shepherds?
Did you hear the sheep or the camels?
Did you see the gold and silver?
I did not hear or see any of these things,
But I've been learning about them and I believe.

By,
Kirsten

Mmmmm.... Turkey.

Thanksgiving last year was all about the food. Almost everything was homemade. Rolls, 16 pies, the turkey, 10 lbs of mashed potatoes, the gravy (not the stuffing). It makes me tired just thinking about it. By the time it came time to eat, I just wanted my head to hit the pillow.
I hate to brag, but this turkey was the BEST turkey I have ever tasted, and yes Jacob agreed too. The first day it brined in orange juice and salt. The second day it marinated with herbs, spices, and orange and lemon slices. Then it was cooked with different vegetables, spices, herbs, and a bottle of champagne. Axel was excited about Thanksgiving so I was instructed to get a large turkey. It was 22 pounds.
The two youngest sat at a small table next to us. Sparkling cider is always a request on this special dinner.
Hannah and Maddy also joined us for the weekend of fun. I really enjoy when family visits!
And we didn't forget the candy game, although we substituted paper plates for the board. It worked just as good.