March Catch-up: Adventures in Iowa

Occasionally, I post status updates on my facebook page, so you may or may not have heard that our house hunting trip to Iowa was a success! After two days and about 16 houses we found our house! Woo!! Hoo!!!

I must say that the Lord works in mysterious ways. I knew that there would be a house that was the right house, but yes, I was totally stressed about finding that house. I was afraid that I had set my expectations too high, and that I would disappointed. After the first day of house hunting I was really worried that my fears were being realized, and we were going to have to make a lot of compromises. More than I had planned on. You know, I was will to compromise, but I also had my hopes of how my house would be. Well the very first house we saw the second day was the house! We both knew it. We felt a peaceful feeling about this house.

I must also say that there are some amazing people in the Ames wards. One wonderful sister, Shannon Taylor, went above and beyond the call of duty to help us find a babysitter for our kids while we went house shopping and even watched them one day herself. She found a wonderful sister, Sis. Zimmerman, who offered to watch our kids as much as we needed while we were there. She was fabulous! And our kids had a great time! Especially Robby because he helped her son build a giant model of Egypt in the basment out of their enormous supply of duplos.

It was complete with the Nile river and a tomb of riches in the Great Pyramid!

Our kids also made some new friends with the children of some old friends of ours Kjell and Linley who only live about 7 minutes from our new house. Linley was also very kind to feed us dinner one night and watch our kids at the last minute when we found out Sis. Zimmerman had sick kids on Friday. (Thanks Linley! We look forward to being your "neighbor" soon!) We are also excited to meet all the other wonderful people in Ames!

We felt very blessed to find the house we did. It was a for sale by owner, and I feel like we were able to get a very good price for it. There were even some great things about it that I feel are huge bonuses, like we are about 50yds from a park with a playground! How cool is that?! After the contract writing was successful, and we realized that (as long as everything goes smoothly between now and the end of May) the house will be ours, a scripture started going through my head. "...unto whom much is given much is required." (D&C 82: 3 - this is an LDS book of scripture, if you are curious to learn more see here.) I know that I have been extremely blessed in my life even without a house. For some reason this transition just made this all the more real. But, I am trying to remember that I have a responsibility to be a wise steward and to do my best to use my resources in serving others. I know that the benefits of a house serve me only in this life, but I feel that there is a bigger reason why we are moving to this house. I am ready to do what I need to and to do the best to be the person I am supposed to be. I am truly excited for this transition now.

I will post pictures of the house once everything has closed and we are moved in. And just so you know, we are in the middle of several great LDS church history sites (Nauvoo - 4hrs., Liberty Jail and Independence, MO - 3 1/2hrs., and Winter Quarters, Nebraska - 2 1/2hrs.). We would love to have you come stay with us on your church history tour! Even if you aren't doing the church history thing, feel free to come and stay with us! We have room!

March Catch-up: St. Patrick's Day

Well, you know I'm alive because I have posted things here and there, but it has been a little while since I provided you pictures. So, without further ado...

St. Patrick's Day

We made our delicious green pancakes (just in case...

the green eggs and ham turns your stomach upside down.) Yum! Yum! We did refrain from turning the milk green this year.

And we had our annual reading of Green Eggs and Ham.

Many thanks to McKormick's green food coloring! We couldn't have done it without you!

Let's have a picnic

When I get busy with various tasks and my kids are left to their own devices, I never know what I am going to find when I re-emerge from the office or bedroom. This day it was to a very cute scene:

Picnic, anyone?

Sign of the trip

Another Jenna-ism

I am sitting on the couch with my three little ones surrounding me and I say, "I have three children."

Jenna pipes up and replies, "No, you have four children because Daddy is going to come home!"

On the bright side of life...

I've decided that the best (or one of the best) part(s) about life is children's laughter. Tonight we were watching a movie and I was thinking how much I enjoy listening to my kids crack up laughing. For Li'l Robby, it's corny jokes, absurd movie scenes, or his favorite Calvin and Hobbes comics. For Jenna, it's silly stories, playing with her brother and sister, and my favorite "tickle-time!" And for Olivia, it's goofy siblings playing games like peek-a-boo and chase, running in the grass, trying a new delicious food, or just anything that strikes her fancy. I need to laugh more just like they do! So what makes you laugh?

To the ASU Administration:

Thank you for once again reminding me that the University's image is much more important than those students who make up the body of its campus. May 14th of this year was to be the high point of my husband's university education. He was scheduled to graduate with his doctorate. A pinnacle that took him 13 years of higher education to reach. We have been dreaming about this day for years. This was to be a day for our family to celebrate this huge accomplishment. Not only the five of us in our family, but also our parents and his siblings, who have been our support system through these years of dedication.

All of us have had this day marked on our calendars for almost a complete year. That is until the university decided to make the day "better" or more "memorable" by inviting President Barack Obama to address the graduates. Oh, by the way, Mr. President can't make it to graduation on May 14th, so of course everyone will be glad to change their graduation schedule to May 13th with less than two months to go till graduation to accomodate the President's busy schedule. Never mind that some of us have already bought plane tickets that conflict with the new time. Did we also mention that now graduates can only have a maximum of 6 guests at commencement because everybody and their dog would like to attend commencement now? Forget about the fact that before there was no limitation to the number of guests, just remember that you get to hear the President. This ticket limitation is also for the doctoral candidates who will be hooded and receive their diplomas at this ceremony. And... as in my husband's case, this is the only graduation ceremony that he will have because the School of Business does not recognize their doctoral candidates in their school graduation.

So now we have to choose which of our loving family members will be able to witness my husband walk across the stage to receive his diploma. Let's see, there's me and my three children, his parents, my parents, and his sister and husband. Oops, that's ten! Excuse us for having a large and supportive family.

Thank you ASU administration for reminding me that commencement is all about the big name speaker and has nothing to do with the graduates. Wait, what was this ceremony for anyway?