Up To Date

So, I keep thinking that I need to update this thing... let people know what we have been up to the last two years.  I get overwhelmed so fast though, and nothing happens.  So I am starting from scratch (ish) again.  Hopefully things go better this try (forth or fifth time the charm?) and I actually post updates on a more frequent basis.  Here are the highlight of the last two-ish years:

1.  We moved home.  We were at the point where anymore school was a waste of time and money.  So we are back in Richland, and (usually) happy to be here.  No where is perfect, but for the time being, we would rather be here than anywhere else.

2.  Eric has a Grandma and Grandpa who are on opposite sides of the family (His Mom's Mom and Dad's Dad) who both are at that stage of life where they need more help.  Grandpa mostly needs some company and to have meals made for him.   He will eat on his own, but not very well.  Eric goes over twice a day to check on him, make a meal, and keep him company for a few hours.  Grandma needs 24 hour care, so I go over a few times a week to give her full time caregivers (M-I-L Diane and her sister Karen) a break.  Mostly we watch TV and nap.  (She naps, I watch TV.)  Sometimes we talk, sometimes we have lunch (depending on the napping situation) and sometimes we just laugh.  Eric and I have found joy in our service to them.  I can say that the time I spend with Grandma is special for me.  I have a few hours in which to focus on someone else, and everything else fades for that time.  It is a pleasure to me to be able to be there for her when she is less able to do things for herself.

3.  We got two kitties!  Cassandra and Kyri, sisters from a litter my sister's cat had.  I had to be cruel to get Jos to give them up, "The kitties who stay at the farm will either be run over or eaten by coyotes.  Mine will live in a house and be spoiled rotten till they die of old age.  Take your pick... run over or die of old age."  She is glad now that we have them both, as my prediction was correct about the rest of that litter.

4.  I currently serve as the beehive adviser at church.  I can say that I am the proud mother of about 10 girls, all between the ages of 12 and 14.  =D  I love my calling and I love my girls!  Eric is the Sunday school teacher of everyone 16 and older.  He is not as proud of his kids and I am of mine, but he does a good job at teaching them.

I will admit that this is really the last year, not the last two.  From Aug 2010 to Aug 2011 we were is school still and there is really nothing more to say about it.  It happened, but either because of the time issue or simply because we are boring, I don't remember anything noteworthy about it. (EXCEPT meeting David and Amie, who are fabulous!  Sadly, they moved to Maryland the same time we moved back to Washington, but we keep in touch!)

So there is is.  Our life in a nutshell.  And now, we are moving forward, because that is really the only way to go.  =D

Moving.... Again, Again, Again!

I have come to the point of packing that is really quite obnoxious: nothing falls in a neat category of "books" or "clothes" or "craft stuff" anymore.  Everything is kind of just "junk from this room" or random items like rocks (two from Alaska, several from various beach vacations), flashlights, bullets, candles, and other various items.  The difficulty being, I don't have enough of anything to fill a whole box and so have to decide how to consolidate things and I seem to be having a hard time with that. 

I'm also having a hard time because most of our friends (or at least the ones I would be comfortable asking for help packing from) are either gone on vacation or have moved out of Rexburg already.  I've been watching a lot of movies on the laptop to help keep me moving the last few days.  I'll be glad when it's finished, although figuring out what I need and don't need from what I have packed for immediate use will take some time as well.  At least our storage unit will be closer to home this time. :)

Time for a small meltdown and ranting!

So, we have been having troubles with our cars the last 3-ish months.  Our transmission died in the car (took forever to get fixed and a ton of money), our truck was run into by a girl who decided to do a u-turn and forgot to check for traffic behind her (her insurance covered that one, but it also took forever and before they said they would cover it they talked about having to total the truck, very stressful), and the battery on the car died (it was in the last month of the warranty, so we did get a new one for free, YAY!).

Evidently it is not just the semester of vehicle issues, it is the semester of large, important items going bad.  Our dryer went out last night.  It turns on and you can pick a setting and all the buttons work, except the start button.  You hit start and the timer starts flashing.  I could cry, I am so frustrated!  We are lucky enough to have Brandon and Jenni across the street and they are letting us come over and use their dryer till we get things figured out.

LATER
Evidently the switch that tells the dryer that the door is shut is on a circuit with the light that goes on when you open the door.  And apparently if the light bulb is burned out, the switch doesn't work!  This was discovered when we replaced the bulb as a "we may as well" move, and the dryer was willing to work again.  Very sneaky on the part of the designers... make it something you would never consider and that isn't in the manual (that we can find) so you call a repair man who will charge you $60 to come look and charge who knows how much for the light bulb ($7.00 from Wolfe Lighting- it's a very specialized bulb) and the "installation" fee.  Thankfully, Eric is brilliant and figured out how to get the bulb out (not to mention the switch - we were considering ordering a new one) and while looking for the switch got the light bulb and we are up and running!

I'm an Editor!

I'm taking a senior seminar humanities class this semester, one where the teacher decides the subject and it changes every semester.  This semester, the teacher decided to have us write a book on 20th century American humanities.  We were split into groups to do research and two editors were chosen originally.  This last week, they decided they needed another editor for help re-writing everything to make it flow properly.  They picked me!  I am a bit nervous, but very excited as well.  

Pictures Galore!

So this is the living room.  To the right you see the front door.  Just a bit behind that (not in the picture) is the laundry closet.  To the left is the hallway and behind is the dinning room and kitchen.

This is looking into the dinning room from the living room.  Our plants live on the window sill.  We have basil, oregeno, and a plant that has small fuchsia-like flowers on it.  We aren't sure what it actually is, other than pretty.

Laundry Closet. 

(Go look at the picture of the kitchen again, it goes next.)

The pantry/storage area.  Very messy just now, needing to be organized... when I get time.

This is the hallway.  Very exciting.  The white cabinet is our linen closet. On the right is the bathroom and then our bedroom and on the left is the den/computer room/sewing room/craft room/storage room.

Bathroom, obviously.

Our room.  The smaller of the two rooms, but it was big enough and we needed space to get organized.  To the back left is my dresser and the closet.

Den/computer room/sewing room/craft room/storage room. MASSIVE closet on the left, it's the whole length of the room and is where most of our storage is currently.

The other half of the den/computer room/sewing room/craft room/storage room.

And there is our house!!!  It's not much but we love it.  We are also very appreciative to Sara and Dave Lewis.  They came to dinner and so the whole house got a lift. :)

WE ARE LEAVING!!!

We were going to get up at like 5 am to head home, but decided that leaving by about 8:30 would wourk just as well!  See everyone soon!

The Kitchen! (More to follow soon, for real this time!)

Okay... so I promised pictures of the house a few months ago... this is our kitchen!  We are very glad for the extra 20-ish square feet in this kitchen because it means that we can be in it at the same time!  We tend to live in our kitchen, so being able to work together and such is rather important to us.  On the right (you can't see it because of the bookshelf) is our pantry, which is very much in disaray just currently, along with the rest of the house!  The kitchen is clean out of necessity (we must eat, even during finals) but the rest of the house is looking a bit tattered around the edges.  Once I get finals finished, I hope to have a bit of time before we come home to get it clean!  We will see how well said plan works, if at all!

Moving... again!

So... we have been on various lists for University Village (University Married Housing) for just over a year and a half.  They lost our names, took our fee to get on the list and lost our names again!  When they finally got things straight, they put us at the top of all the lists we wanted to be on origionally.  Our current apartment is our second choice.  There are apartments here that are specially designed for handicap persons.  The apartmeents above those are the same size (still 2 bedroom, just 150 sq ft more) as the handicap ones, but set up a bit differently.  The biggest differences are the addition of 30-ish sq ft to the kitchen (meaning that Eric and I can be in the kitchen at the same time!) and 10-ish sq ft to eah bedroom.  The living room, dining room and kitchen are a big horse shoe, but designed so that you can see two windows from the living room at once and feel less like you are living in a segmented shoebox.  We have been on that list but none were available when we first moved.  One came available the end of January and they asked us if we wanted it still, and we said yes!

We are very excited, although we didn't expect to start moving till next week. Imagine our suprise when we were given the new keys on Wednesday!  We have about a week to get moved, but are trying to get done as fast as possible, because we are leaving for Twin Falls tomorrow afternoon for Martin's blessing and really have no time next week!  So we have been moving, again, although moving from one place to another is not as bad as moving into storage and then moving out of storage later.  :) 

I'll get pictures up ASAP!

Apartment Pictures!

Okay, so this is our wall you see when you first walk in the front door. Our living room is small enough that our camera doesn't zoom out enough to get a picture of the whole room from that vantage point, but I could get the wall. :)

This is our living room looking from the kitchen. The pictures are above the long couch. The rest of the house looks like a tornado went through, so no pictures of that just yet! ;)

Yay!

Okay, tried to start this thing at least twice before. Maybe this time we can really get it going! First thing, must get pictures of our very small house up. It's a mess, but it is becoming more organized every day, and for that I am rather glad! :)