The Final Countdown

I laugh as I read this title. How many countdowns have we had over the years?! More than one, that's for sure, but whatever gets us through...

This really is the final countdown though. In 6.5 weeks Billy will finish this fellowship and we will move again. But our next move isn't for additional training. It's for a job. My husband will have a salary, not a stipend. And we'll be there for longer than 12 months.

That is something to celebrate! 

This is our third crazy, busy spring. Our third spring looking for housing. Our third spring packing up our entire household and figuring out how we are going to move it all to a different state. Our third spring finding new insurance for our home and our cars. 

I think I'm really going to enjoy next spring when we won't be doing any of these things! We will be able to just enjoy Spring for the beautiful time of year it is, instead of worry and stress and pack.

How thankful we are for the adventures we've had with Billy's education and training. It ended up being a longer road than we both really anticipated, but we have had so many great experiences and met many good people. We have also sacrificed and endured hardships along the way too, that helped us grow. It has been a refiners fire in many ways.

Well, gotta go. This house has yet to ever pack itself, and the clock is ticking!!

February

February was another cold month up here in Michigan. Cold days were followed by snow days and then more cold days. I shiver in my house. Each morning I get dressed for the cold, and then throughout the day I slowly add more layers of clothing. Once the kids are in bed, I'm on the couch, in my sweats, with a blanket on me.

I'm actually getting a little bored with hot chocolate. Never thought that day would come. (Not TOO bored, but a little.)

Here's how the cold, short month went for our family.

Week #1: Billy worked a ton, which was too bad since he headed out of town for Guatemala early Saturday morning. It was Thursday evening when we realized we had no idea where his passport was. What?! He had just used it as a second form of ID a couple weeks before. But we tore the house apart for nothing. We couldn't find it anywhere.

Friday morning we learned that a regional passport agency is located in Detroit and if he drove there immediately he might just get a passport that day. (FYI: There are only 25 regional passport agencies in the continental US. The fact that we were only 50 minutes away from one seemed too good to be true.)

By 2:45pm Friday he had his new passport. We took him to the airport at 5:30am Saturday morning and he left for Guatemala to do cleft repairs all week.

 

Week #2: AKA "The Week the Stomach Bug Hit Our Family and Daddy was in Guatemala and we Could Hardly Talk to Him and I had to prep for Three Valentine's Parties at School" Monday evening, 7:30ish, Matthew projectile vomited all over the floor in the living room. The girls gasped and yelled, "Ewww!" It took me 30 minutes to clean it up so the girls and Jacob could leave the living room and get upstairs to bed. I am so grateful we have wood floors.

Matthew was back to school by Wednesday.

Megan did it in the car Thursday as we were waiting for the kids to leave school. (Fortunately I realized what was coming and had a bowl and wipies, so it didn't get anywhere. I'm just glad it happened while we were parked and not while I was driving!)

Friday (Valentine's Day) morning, 1:30 am, it hit me like a semi. Ugh. You, or at least I, forget what it's like to be sick that way because it doesn't happen very often. It's the worst.

 

Friday morning, 7:15 am - "Mommy? Why are you in bed?" (I'm ALWAYS up before they are.) "I'm sick buddy." "Uh-oh." Kudos to my kids for stepping up and getting breakfast, making their lunches (I told them they could buy but they said it sounded disgusting.), and getting all the treats we had made for their parties, their Valentines to pass out, and all their snow stuff together (because they have to wear their coats, snow pants, gloves and hats to school each day) without any help from me. All I did was give them instructions as I laid on the couch, and then put my coat on over my sweats and drove them to school.

Around 1pm some flowers were delivered since Billy was still out of town. It was so nice, but I don't know what that guy thought of me with my sweats and messy hair. Oh well.

Saturday night/Sunday morning, around 12:30am, Billy arrived home. It was nice to have him back. (Even though he was sick in a different way because he'd been in Guatemala all week, if you get what I mean...) I'm not one who needs constant communication with my spouse, but to live in 2014, the era of instant text messages and phone calls and Facetime, and to hardly be able to communicate with your spouse for 8 days... it was kind of weird. I had to keep reminding myself that the pioneers wouldn't hear from their family for months! (But it was still kind of hard.) Billy had a great trip. This was his second time going to Guatemala on a mission trip and they went to the same small town they went last year. They were able to help a lot of kids and he saw some from last year too that are doing great. He's already excited to return next year.

 

  

  

Week #3: Sunday morning around 5:30 am, Emily got sick. Ha! So that left Jacob and Billy as the only ones who hadn't caught it.

This week was Mid-Winter Break for the kids, so there was no school. It was nice to lay low after the previous week so we could all be rested and healthy and ready for Aunt Annie's visit! She came early Thursday morning and stayed with us until Sunday evening. We had so much fun with her, though we did miss her family that stayed behind. We explored the Henry Ford Museum, she got to see all the snow we have, we toured the grounds of the Edsel and Eleanor Ford House, ate delicious Cottage Inn Pizza, played games, watched lots of Olympics, ate ice cream and falafal (not at the same time) and stayed up way too late talking. It was a whirlwind and went by so fast. We are so glad she could come.

 Playing in the snow that has been getting slowly deeper and deeper each week.

Billy took us to The Lego Movie as a (late) Valentine's Day Treat.

 

The Henry Ford Museum

(Part of) Edsel and Eleanor Ford's Home

(He was the only son of Henry Ford.)

The largest tire in the world!!

(It's 80 ft. tall and weighs 12 tons.)

 

 Pictures with Aunt Annie!

Week #4: We attended Jacob's first Blue and Gold Banquet, Jacob got sick Thursday night, and Billy got sick Friday night. Finally saw Ender's Game (which was while Billy was sick, so who knows if he'll ever want to watch it again). (The book was better, by the way.)

And February is over. Which I'm kind of glad about. Today the snow is still on the ground (we actually got 3.5 inches two days ago), and it's still cold (-6 this morning when I woke up), but it's March! The sun is rising earlier and setting later. (I know the clocks will change that a bit this weekend, but still!) I'm seeing Easter stuff in Target. So even though I'm still wearing the same clothes and heavy winter coat I've been wearing since November, I'm hopeful things will change soon. Warm up a little.

And it also means we've got another move to prepare for soon.

12 months is not very long at all.

Thanksgiving, Ann Arbor Style

Our Michigan Thanksgiving ended up being a good one. We initially thought we'd be alone again like last year, which we were fine with. It was fun to do it ourselves in WV. But a few weeks before the big day Billy's boss, who happens to live in our ward (church congregation - we did not plan that) and is an important ecclesiastical leader (counselor in the stake presidency) called and invited us over.

So we spent a relaxing morning at home, hanging out as a family and watching Thanksgiving and Christmas movies since we couldn't watch the Macy's Parade. (We don't have TV.) I finished up a few sides and things for the dinner and then we went to their home.

It really was a nice evening. (Minus the part when Jacob threw up on a couch because he ate too much and ran around too hard and too soon.) The kids got along well and had fun. All the food was really good too. It has been fun getting to know Billy's boss and his family. I was so intimidated by them at first. It's an interesting position to be in, your boss is also the guy who can give you a temple recommend, and yet we attend the same church activities together. They are really good people. We are glad to know them and happy to know we'll be crossing paths for a long time.

Our annual pie picture - apple and pumpkin pies. Emily actually made the pumpkin pie filling all on her own. She was pretty proud.

Playing Catch Up

Oh blog. What has happened between us? We used to be such good friends. Now I hardly talk with you anymore. I'm sad you don't have such a good record of the adventures and experiences we've been having. Like -15 degree weather, that felt like -39 when the wind blew. Or our sicky Christmas where Billy and I could only function when doped up on pseudoephedrine and ibuprofen. Or when I lost my wedding ring for 20-30 minutes and how we no longer have a child in the Nursery at church.

I will catch you up. I will go back and fill in the blanks, but if I don't pick up right now from where we are, I'm afraid I might not catch up ever. You understand, don't you? Sometimes it's hard to go back and do it all in order. It seems like you'll never get it done.

So here we go.

January 2014. The coldest, whitest month we have ever seen in our entire lives! It was snowing on New Years Day and the white snow has never gone away since. Every few days it snows some more. I thought I could get through one year in Michigan without buying snow boots and snow pants, but I was very wrong. We have gone sledding and played outside. Billy and I have cleared the driveway countless times and I am becoming a better driver with snow and ice on the roads. :) We haven't hit the 30's since January 11th. We have had SO MUCH hot chocolate. So much.


Breaking our Gingerbread Houses on New Year's Day.

One of many piles of snow in a parking lot by Michael's. A dump truck filled with snow drove by after I took this picture. It reminded me of the truckloads they'd bring to Houston so the kids could see what snow was like. Ha!

Jacob is so funny sometimes.

 Remember the Raisin! The bloodiest battle in the War of 1812.

General Custer was from Monroe, Michigan!

Little Miss Sunbeam. She loves Primary.

A Re-enactment of the Battle of River Raisin. It was freezing! The old cannons were the coolest though. You could feel it when they fired.

At the Henry Ford Museum.

The kids helped rebuild a Model T.

Working on an assembly line.

Megan's little dance performance. She was so proud of herself.

Snowfest 2014. Frankenmuth, MI.

This place is famous for it's Chicken Dinner. We ate it for lunch. It was overpriced and not very good at all. Oh well.

He's a Bobcat! And working on his Wolf. Jacob loves cub scouts.