August 18 we traveled  to our nations capital aka Aunt Eva’s house.  My kids love going to see their cousins, my sister Eva has kids closest in age to mine.  We are each others Yin and Yang, with her 3 sons and one daughter, my 4 daughters and 1 son they get lost in a world with one another and we pretty much have no interaction with them the entire time other than feeding them and making sure they shower occasionally.  Cousins are a wonderful gift.

My sister’s oldest son is named Evan, but for some reason (Alyssa) the girls can’t wait to get there to call him Kevin.  In return he calls Alyssa Melissa since she is obviously the reason for his misery.  Tanner takes off into a world of Pokemon then entire time and Laura goes off into a world of make believe with my girls that I sometimes wonder if they will ever emerge from.  At meal time I have to ask them to come out of character.

Hallie potty trained at my sisters house, I guess when you put 9 children in one townhouse, you get lots of “got to go potty” and she was the only one in diapers, well it ended on this trip.  Why fight it, if the kid is begging to go, might as well play along.  She has been in undies since we returned with most days a success.

We love living this close to so many opportunities to see new things. Unfortunately the week we went was record breaking heat.  Yes I let my kids get into the fountains that I’m sure are look don’t touch in Washington D.C., with a heat index of 113 degrees, no one could blame me.  The kids were awesome though, and we were able to see much of D.C., including an unofficial/unplanned tour of Georgetown during rush hour.  I swear if I hear the GPS tell me one more time to make a legal u turn… got to love the roads, they turn all lanes to one way with no way to cross center islands when you need to make left hand turns.

One of my favorite places was Mt. Vernon.  What a delightful little gem, we took a slavery tour that was an hour long, and the kids amazed and surprised me with their attention span.  Learning more about George Washington was great.  The kids of course loved the “necessary” (out house).

Next time we want to see Jamestown.

Grant was baptized and we were happy we could be a part of his day and proud of him.

MANASSAS BATTLE FIELDS: Eva’s house just about sits on the battle fields.  History eeks out of everywhere.

MT. VERNON:

HIKING IN VIRGINIA:

WASHINGTON D.C.: You can see the heat on their faces

 

BEATING THE HEAT-LAKE IN MARYLAND:

GRANT’S BAPTISM

 

Good memories made, isn’t that what vacation is all about.  Thank Eva and Rob for letting us hang with you, can’t wait until we get together again.

One  year ago today a chapter closed and a new one began.  A year ago today we were in Salt Lake City headed to Lagoon for the day.  Danny had gotten a call right before we left on our trip to fly out for a job interview in Columbus OH.  We didn’t want to cancel our trip so we had them get the tickets from the SLC airport.  I took 5 kids to Lagoon myself after I dropped Danny off at the airport.  The feelings that flooded me were with a little bit of excitement and dread.  The entire day at the park I had my mind on my husband.  He had, I think, he may come on and correct me but 8 interviews that day.  He flew home the following day and brought each of the kids an Ohio memento.  I remember thinking that if he didn’t get this job that we’d have these mementos to remind us of our disappointments for a long time to come.  I shoved it out of my mind and let the children enjoy their tokens of love.  We returned to our home later that week and went on with life as usual.  We didn’t hear from them for a long time (a week) but when you are waiting that’s a long time (remember that boys when you don’t call a girl).  Anyway, they said to be patient, they were doing some reorganization.  We waited, months, with no word and went on with life that it just didn’t work out.  Then one day in October Danny got the call at work, right after he had been informed that his boss was retiring and that if he wanted the job he could have it.  So all of our cards were in front of us.  We knew we had to make a choice, Danny didn’t like the way his job was going, he didn’t want to be a people manager and pulled away from his true love of computers.  So the decision was simple in the end.

As I reflect on this past year, it has been one our hardest since we started our journey together 15 years ago. I would rather have a thousand paper cuts and do pushups in lemon juice then repeat this year. I always tell Danny that being married is the easiest part, it’s life that gets in the way.  It has been trial after trial, but we are happy we have closed this chapter in our lives and opened a new one.  Our dog passed away a couple of weeks ago, and I think that was the final event.  We decided to put Jazzy down, we also decided to talk to the children about the reasoning’s for making this choice, although we did consider telling them that she was sick and we took her to the vet and she didn’t make it… but decided we could make this a learning opportunity about life.  It sucked.  I took one last picture with her and the kids and it’s too heart breaking to post.  They were all very sad but understood the reasoning behind it and that we were actually showing her compassion to let her go.  Here’s hoping for a happier chapter to follow.

Danny is extremely happy at his new job.  He’s loving the daily challenges, the large scale of his job, and the international flare.  He sees a future with this job, and has plenty of room to grow and learn.  There were so many reasons to make this change and we are finally starting to see some of them.  We love the community, schools, trees, lakes, laid back attitudes, children friendly activities.  Our ward entered a float in the local parade.  My children were giddy with excitement, and set their own alarms to get up on time.

Picture overload!  Following the parade we went to a friends home for a BBQ and fireworks.

A few pictures of the last few weeks.

 

 

 

I go walking at the dam every morning.  Hallie and Alyssa come with me and then we play at the park at the bottom of the dam afterward.  The other day Hallie asked me where we were going and I told her we were going to the park, and she quickly replied with “the dam park?”.  Since then our entire family refers to it as the “dam park”—funny the things that stick.  Tonight we went to the Dam Park with some friends from the ward.  We had a BBQ and the kids ran up the large grassy hills and rolled back down.  The kids were all on top of the dam when a large thunderstorm rolled in.  They were out in the open and in the highest spot in the area, so we quickly called them down and enjoyed a marvelous thunder/lightening storm from the safety our cars, and it poured unlike anything I have ever seen.  The lightening continues still hours later.  I love the freak storms we get here, seems like once a week we get a reprieve from the heat with a beautiful rainstorm.

We spent a week with Grandma and Grandpa O.  What a joy and a treat they are to our family.  Grandma spent her trip here sewing dresses for Alyssa and Hallie.  They turned out beautiful, I only wish she could have stayed long enough to see them wear them to church.  The smocking was perfect and something I thought I’d like to learn to do until I saw/heard about all the work that was involved.  These dresses will forever be treasured.  I didn’t catch a photo of them wearing them this past Sunday but I will this week.  Alyssa refused to take her dress off last week and we finally pulled her out of it when she fell asleep.

We did make it to the John Johnson farm where Joseph Smith was tarred and feathered and lived for a while with the Johnson family.  The home has been beautifully restored.  I can’t help but think of all the terrible things that occurred there, and the suffering that happened.  What a sad time. I’m so thankful for the sacrifice of the early Saints.

A strangle disguised as a hug

Yup that’s right, Hallie, my baby, turned 2.  It was a crazy week full of lots of activities and guests coming to visit, so we went to Cosi on Thursday (her actual birthday) but had cake and presents and all things yummy on Friday.  Aubrey was very offended for Hallie, she thought we were horrible to move her birthday for our convenience.

A few things about my Hallie:

• She has a lisp, that I hope she doesn’t grow out of too quickly
• She speaks in complete sentences and is very opinionated
• She finally sleeps through the night
• She refuses to tell you that she is 2, it’s become a game for her to tell you that she is 1
• We go to a park at the bottom of a dam and she loves to ask if we are going to the “dam park”
• She still twirls her hair and anyone else’s who will let her
• She loves to say prayer
• Her brother and sisters adore her and love to give her more attention than she can handle
• Her blue eyes always sparkle (none of these photos are touched up!)
• She is the most polite child ever (always says “please” and “thank you”)

We love you so much little Hallie, you are a joy to us, and your little voice makes us all grin.  Thank you for being the caboose in our family!

 

I can’t say enough good things about  the school system here.  I am so grateful for the wonderful school district we have moved into.  Aubrey is learning Microsoft word (in first grade)! When we got here she was way behind, she has worked so hard and is now at or above where they wanted her to be, what a relief.  Tanner’s teacher is the most amazing person.  I’m so impressed by her.  She has Tanner on a fast track to having most of his math and English requirements done for college by the time he graduates from high school.  They offer pre-algebra for 6th graders and he will be taking a pre-algebra camp class this summer that the school offers.  Emma’s a little miffed because in Dayton 7th grade honors math was pre-algebra so this will put Tanner ahead of her, she’ll be fine 😉  Nothing like a little competition to drive you to new levels right?

Today I chaperoned Tanner’s class at Camp Mary Orton.  They had a blast.  Here are a few highlights of the trip.

 

Occasionally I get surprised how quickly life is moving.  It seems like just last week that the H family was visiting and we were up at Kirtland and now May is coming to a close.  Summer is just around the corner, and life is steadily moving in a forward direction.

Tanner had his first and last pinewood derby here in Ohio.  With only one son, this was my last pinewood derby as well.  He placed second.  He has finished up his Webelo requirements, and I have upgraded him to a khaki shirt.  I had to change the troop numbers and other badges, so I figured why do it twice.

There are about 20 boys and he seems to be fitting right in.

Mother’s Day has also come and gone.  I got all sorts of fine poetry.  My favorite line was when Tanner compared me to a loaf of fresh bread… that gave me something to ponder, am I soft and doughy? warm and comforting, hot and smelly?  So many ways to take that.  The kids gave me a new cookbook that I’ve been wanting, that’s a gift everyone benefits from right?  I really enjoyed church, the men filled in for all callings and the women went to Sunday School and Relief Society.

Our R.S. president told us a story about a turkey that lives at her Mom’s house.  She had a picture of this turkey and it was losing it’s feathers and was skinny and looked ill.  She (the turkey) was sitting on a nest.  This turkey had been sitting on her eggs, and it was obvious that they were not ever going to hatch, and no matter how hard they tried they couldn’t get her to leave her babies.  She suffered from hunger and was about to die herself for the sake of her babies.  So our R.S. president’s Mom got an idea and took some viable chicken eggs, and was able to coax the turkey off her nest long enough to put the chicken eggs in place of her eggs.  The turkey hatched her chicken eggs and life was good.  Now there are so many morals you could draw from this story but her point was that we are here to help one another.  We are sisters, and just as her mother helped out this other mother (the turkey) we are woman and are here to aid one another.  Then we went to the gym for a brunch and a professional photo of us together as sisters.

I think that Ohio has got to be the lawn mowing capital of the USA.  Lawn covers everything here, and people are crazy about it.  Danny is working so hard and we are on 1 acre of lawn, and he just doesn’t have the time to mow it.  I want him here on Saturday with us, and not out pushing a mower, so I’ve taken this chore upon me.  Every Friday is lawn mowing day here.  It takes me almost 3 hours, and by the end of the 3 hours I’m resembling the Jolly Green Giant, minus the Jolly part.  The first time I mowed it I didn’t realize that the mower was self propelled (duh- palm of hand to face).  The next time I mowed it I looked down and wondered what that lever was for, pushed it down and off goes the mower.  I’m on the look out for a used riding mower.

Worms ooze out of everything here and the girls love them.

All caught up… until tomorrow 🙂

 

 

 

Doctrine and Covenants, Section 38 Verse 32:
“Wherefore, for this cause I gave unto the commandment that ye should go to the Ohio;
and there I will give unto you my law;
and there you shall be endowed with power from on high;”

When I boarded the plane from SLC to take my little family to Ohio, I couldn’t help but think that my ancestors were rolling their eyes at me.  They worked so hard to get to Utah, and I was being an ungrateful brat and undoing it all in a 4 hour flight.  Oh what they must think?  Now that I’m here and I see the great beauty, the awesome buildings, I think that they are probably happy that someone is getting to see what they accomplished and worked so hard for. They are probably happy that we can return to Ohio and live in peace.  I’m sure the decision to follow the word of the prophet was not an easy one, they had themselves a beautiful life here.  I wonder if I would have been able to leave it all?

Some close friends of ours recently visited from Nevada.  It was so great to see them.  We spent a wonderful day in Kirtland, although there just wasn’t quite enough time.  Next time we will get a room, there was so much that we missed.  Having the H family visit reminded us how much we miss our friends, but we also realized that the best thing about good friends is how you can just pick up where you left off.  They will forever be our friends.  Thank You H family for coming to see us.

 

After spending 2 hours on a tour at the site of N.K. Whitney store and touring where Joseph Smith and Emma lived and a few “filter-missing” comments from Alyssa during the tour I didn’t think it was a good idea to take her and Hallie on the hour and a half temple tour.  We had the most amazing time though.  We walked to a nearby cemetery and found the grave of Emma and Joseph’s twins, and the home of theirs where the twins died.  None of this is on any tour.  We wandered the cemetery for a long time, and Alyssa was so focused.  I think I read to her every name on every stone in the yard.  We wandered the gardens at the temple, and touched the front doors.

Cemeteries have never been creepy to me, I find them very peaceful, and this one was no exception.  I can’t imagine the incredible pain Emma and Joseph experienced in this place.

This is the front door of the Kirtland Temple.  I suppose I had bitter feelings that the church doesn’t own this temple anymore.  I know that if the Lord thought it was important that it be in our possession then it would be, so I guess I shouldn’t waste time worrying.  What does bother me is that the temple doesn’t have its original finish that the saints worked hard to make and it has fake cracks painted on it so that it looks like an “old,” “historical” building.  Danny assured me that the Spirit is strong inside and that Aubrey was in awe.  I look forward to taking the tour next time we visit.

For a little history lesson on Kirtland go here

While we were so close we had to go up and see Lake Erie for a few minutes.

One of Alyssa’s finer moments:

While in the room of the School of the Prophets, we were given a few minutes of silence to feel the spirit in the room.  It was hot and there were lots of us in there.  After a few minutes the missionaries asked if anyone had any questions when Alyssa replied “Yes, when can we get out of this room?” Either this child was born ultra honest, or born missing that filter between brain and mouth.

We have a little robin nest right out side our front window.  We watched her build her little nest and now she is sitting on a bunch of eggs.  From the research I’ve done they should be hatching this week!

When my sister was here we did a little egg hunt.  With an acre of yard and lots of trees it was a good challenge for all the ages.  The eggs in the grass hid well with all the dandelions.  This weeks project–figure out how to rid the lawn of millions of dandelions.