Jim & I

Hello Everyone!





Now that I feel like I have written a novel......I have yet more to write!





I will start with Jim (just because it is always easier to write about someone else rather than yourself) LOL. Jim has loved our new home and is really enjoying the country slow paced living, even though he hasn't slowed down at least I don't think. Originally Jim was going to have about a month and half to putter around the house and get some stuff done, but one of his friends Jerry needed some windows installed and in listed Jim to do so. I am happy to report he did an awesome job, they look great and Jerry and Megan love them! He has been able to plant the garden which was fun for all of us but not so fun when it froze! Oh and he did get on the ambulance down here but man it is slowwwww.





Jim started work with the Forest Service on the 14th of May and has been busy ever since. In fact this week he is out in Alamosa, CO taking the Squad Boss course. This will help him get closer to having his own squad down the road. So far they have had 1 fire and a few prescribed burns. He has been doing PT and has stopped drinking soda. He looks really good not that he never didn't look good, but he has lost a bunch of weight and is getting really fit and toned up, not to mention a killer tan :)





He is back working with Terry his old boss from when he worked down here previously, so far so good. He was also able to use his paramedic skills with the Forest Service. They had some physical tests going on and they needed a medical personal to be at the test site, Jim was their guy. He was also able to skip out on some basic medical training because of his certification. The good news is the paramedic license isn't going to waste!





Other than work he doesn't have much time for anything else. He worked for the first 2 weeks without a day off. They are supposed to be starting the fire schedule next Monday which means he works Wed-Sunday every week unless there is a fire then he can be called in at anytime. I think Jim is having shopping withdrawals as well as the past few times I have went up North he has asked me to pick up certain things. Sad enough he hasn't had the opportunity to come up with us yet but he will soon.





One last note last Saturday was Jim's Birthday he had a very relaxing day! We let him sleep in until 12:30 and he got his favorite pizza for dinner and of course cheesecake and key lime pie. The kids and I got him an mp3 player, a new lunch box, some water bottles and all the kids made pictures and a big sign that sad Happy Birthday Daddy We Love You! It was so cute to see all of them so excited for Dad to come out and see it. Mom and Dad got him a funny card that I could have been offended buy but because I know Dad.....Offended is not in his vocabulary :) Dad just so you know I did vacuum the bedroom in fact I even scrubbed the walls!! hahaha





Well I guess it is my turn. My news isn't as fun as everyone else's, in fact I would much rather forget about it but oh well. I will start with the good stuff so here goes.





I love our new house! I love everything about it there is not one thing I would change other than maybe converting half of the garage into a playroom for the kids. So far it has been quite nice to get away from the hustle and the bustle up there. I had to laugh on Sunday I was in our master bathroom scrubbing away listening to of course Rascal Flats on my Ipod, the song slowly comes to a stop and the next thing I hear is baaaaahhh baaaaaahhhh the sheep next door says and literally I fell on the floor laughing yes we do live in the sticks! Yes literally the sticks the local food store is about the size of little Smith's in PG. The prices are actually pretty good surprisingly enough. The sad part is the closest Wal-Mart is in Cortez, CO about an hour or so away, the closest Coscto is back up in Orem and the closest Sam's Club is in Grand Junction about 2.5 hours away. Yes I am going thru shopping withdrawls but I will recover I am sure!





So far I haven't met any friends per say but do know a few people around town. Of course the pharmacist Kenney, the gals at the gas station where I get my drinks oh and the Motel owner of the Canyonlands Motor in who remembers Jim and I from when we stayed there while we were checking out houses. I have also met some neighbors but they are all much older than me I am sure I will meet some soon enough.





As far as working from home again. It has been pretty good, you may get a different answer in a week. I am actually remembering why I enjoyed working from home in the first place! I don't have to get dressed up! Nor do I even have to leave the house I know lazy me but boy is it nice to get paid to sit in jammies and tell people what to do all day. And just in case you are wondering...The babysitter lives directly across the street, so no I don't even have to get dressed for that! Also the internet and phone service down here aren't bad at all which I am totally glad for!





Well I guess it is time to move on to the crappy stuff. About a month ago I started having some trouble swallowing it felt like I had something caught in my throat, I just figured it was allergies or maybe I was coming down with a cold. About a week later I noticed a lump in my neck down towards my collar bone, this made me a bit nervous but I just kept going, then I lost my voice and that is when I got scared, rightfully so. In December of last year I found out that I had Thyroid disease so they started me on synthroid to help replace what I couldn't produce. Well I found out that now I have Thyroid Cancer I really don't know what to say other than I am a fighter and I will fight this too. I will be coming up to UVRMC to have a total thyroidectomy and possibly some lymph nodes if the cancer has spread. The surgery is scheduled for Thursday the 21st. I have the best surgeon, oncologist and edroncronologist there are available in Utah County so I am confident I will be okay. I will at least be in the hospital until Friday, then I have to stay up there until the 25th or 26th. I have to stay up there until I can get the drain out they will put in. Mom has been awesome during this whole thing. I am going to be staying with her while I recover. The ex's will be taking the kids so I should be able to rest and get to feeling better.



I never like to end things on a sad note so I am going to try and think of something happy to say. I know....Family and Friends they are two types of people I could never live without in this world. I am so grateful to have such a wonderful family and such amazing friends. We all miss you guys tons and tons and remember!!!! You are always welcome to come visit, it is only a 4 hour tour a 4 hour tour!!!



Lots of Love and Best Wishes to you all!!



-Jim & Nat

The Kids

Howdy Everyone!

I think now is a good time to update everyone on how the kids are doing. Let me just start out by saying that this move has been the best thing that we have done for our kids. Mind you not one of our kids had seen the house prior to "move in day"

I will start with Darrien since he is the oldest. Darrien was really excited about the move down here, heck he made friends at the Wendy's in Price on the drive down. Needless to say he is outgoing...and I have NO IDEA where he got that from??? Anyhow Darrien was really struggling up in Pleasant Grove, the kids up there are very um what is the word spoiled I guess. It was always a competition of who had the newest video games, video systems, electronic devices you name it and they had it. Of course it did not stop at that, Darrien just never felt like he fit in since we moved from the house on the other side of PG to the new house up on the bench. He did not like the school, the kids, pretty much he didn't like anything. Since moving down here he absolutely loves it. He loves the freedom, the fact that he can go anywhere in the town and be independent yet close to home. He has made friends all over the place and loved his 6th grade teacher. He also joined the band and went on several field trips. He finished the year with good grades and feeling good about the fact that there isn't a Jr. High down here and that he will now be in High School this fall. Sadly he is more accepting of this fact than I am...I can't believe my Darrien in High School....next will come the girls...I will stop here :) Darrien misses his best friend Cardon and a few other things about the city but other than that he loves it! And boy are we glad!

Connor (Cal) Cal also really loves our new house and considering that all the boys share one room this surprises me. Cal loved his 1st grade teacher and finished with high flying colors. He is now the one that often reads to the younger kids, and he really enjoys it. He has been able to go out with Darrien and visit the local video store/arcade, the skate park, the shake shack and various other places. He also went on a few field trips and really loved the one to The Edge of the Cedars. He is looking forward to being able to spend some time outdoors going fishing or going into Moab to play with Jen's boys when they come down to visit. A few weekends ago we went to Moab to hang out with Jen and her family. One afternoon Jen's mother in law and sister in laws took all of Jen's kids and my kids up to Ken's Lake..Man they are brave! Cal had a total blast and can not wait to go back again.

Patrick I am so happy to report that Patrick had not one melt-down since starting at the new school. He actually has done surprisingly well. He is still a little bit behind in reading and math but will be going to summer school for 3 weeks to get help which the teacher's think will get him up to grade level. He is now able to retain information and actually process it out into words or appropriate emotions. I am so proud of this little guy I can't even tell you! Now comes another milestone for Kanga (Patrick's nickname) he is now officially a big kid like all of his brothers, he can ride a 2 wheeler and actually likes to do it! He often says "Mom I need to become a strong boy so I am going to ride my 2 wheeler to be strong. I am a smart boy huh Mom" it is just so cute. He went on several field trips as well and he loved the one into Blanding for Farm Days. Patrick says that our new house totally rocks dude! So take that for what it is worth!

Connor James (CJ) Little Mr. CJ he loves pretty much everything down here. He loved the fact that he could walk to school with his brothers and walk home all by himself (literally we live a block from the school) He did really well in Kindergarten and is excited to be in 1st grade and grow up "bigger like Cal and Patch" CJ is a loving kid and has found a new "Grandma" Ms. Randal the cute little lady that lives behind us has taught CJ how to plant seeds. We are happy to report that CJ has a very happy healthy cucumber plant! He also loves playing in the back yard and peaking in the neighbors yard to see the sheep they have back there. Our neighbors have a daughter doing 4H so they have sheep it is pretty funny. CJ loves animals and talks to Jo Jo our dog as if he was a new born baby. He was getting bored after school so I decided I would have him go to the babysitters after he ate lunch for a couple of hours so he could play with his friend Dylan. He is just as dangerous as before always climbing and running and stubbing his toes! He really loves our jacuzzi tub and every bath night he asks if they can have a jacuzzi.

Of course last but not least the little one Aubrey.......Well I think it is her turn to give me a run for it! She goes her first few days to her new babysitter and manages to get fired!!! Yes the babysitter fired Aubrey!!! I was devastated so I went over to talk to Jill the babysitter. Basically what it came down to was that Jill was having a really hard week and Aub's was of course trying to push her limits to see what she could get away with. By Sunday Jill called and said she was sorry and that she would like to have another chance at watching her. I am glad to report that she is still going to Jill's and is now doing well. A couple other things to note with Aubrey she has been not only pushing limits at Jill's but also at home..and actually right at the moment...now it is a fight over going to bed..Man she is a knot head and that I really HAVE NO IDEA where she could have got that from.. :) A few weeks before school got out I got asked if Aub's could be the peer model in next years pre-school class. Basically the program is for special needs kids but they can have up to 3 other children to help be role models for the other kids. Aub's was selected because of the teachers interaction with her and observing how she is around Patrick and CJ. Of course this delighted me as this would get her into school a bit earlier, since she misses the Kindergarten cut off by a few days. But as I sit here I am praying that by the time school comes around she is out of this stubborn stage. So yes wow yes this fall I will have every single one of my kids in school. Now I am happy about it but I am sure when the time comes I will be sad to see her go.

I will be uploading some recent pictures of the kids! They all say we miss and Love You!

Hugs & Kisses!

Darrien, Cal, Patrick, CJ & Aubreyann

The Move-How it came to be

Well Hello Friends, Family and loved ones,



I got to thinking that I haven't really done a great job of keeping everyone up to day on what has been happening with our family. So here goes :)



Jim had been working for the city of Pleasant Grove as a Paramedic, at first it was going really well and he was loving it. As Mark Sanderson the fire chief continued to grow the department things started to drastically change. Jim could no longer respond from home and was now having to sleep at the station on his shifts. The job wasn't a full time position and there was no guarantee of how many hours he would get in any given month. Over time his shifts got cut down more and more as the department hired more Paramedics, this really became frustrating to Jim. At the same time he was putting in applications at every department in Utah that had an open position. I have to say I am quite proud of him as he got pretty high in the interview process, however did not get any offers from them.



I had been thinking about how Jim told me how much he enjoyed working for the Forest Service and fighting wildland fire fires. So I asked him if he would want to ever go back and do it again, he replied by saying of course I would love to but now that we have such a big family it would be hard to do considering he could be gone for up to 21 days in a row on a fire any where in Utah. So I got to thinking that since Jim was having such a hard time getting on full time with a department, that maybe we should look into the possibility of him getting back on with the Forest Service. He immediately said no way I am not going to have you guys all up here and me spending so much time down in Monticello and away from you guys not to mention the long drive back home. This is where his shock came in....I said to him who said we were going to stay up here. He was literally floored that me the big city girl would even be considering moving to the sticks. Jim got excited about it and really felt me supporting him and what makes him happy. But before we made the decision he felt that it was very important we went down to Monticello and checked it out, just to make sure I could handle living in such a small town. So the second week of February we headed down to the "sticks" (my nickname for Monticello) We drove around looking at the homes, the people, the lack of shopping (which mind you is the worst part...at least for me hahah) After that weekend we decided that we wanted to move to Monticello if he could get back on with the Forest Service. So Jim got in touch with his old boss and asked about the possibility of getting back on with them, the good news was that there were plenty of openings and that he could easily get on with all of his experience. So Jim put in his application and a week later got an offer from them. :0) Of course he excepted!!



So the weekend of the 17th (which was also our 2 year wedding anniversary) we planned another trip down to see some houses with a realtor that was referred to us by an old friend of Jim's. On Saturday we started out at the cute ranch style home that I fell in love with... of course it was the most expensive house in our price range. So we continued on we must have looked at 20 homes between Monticello and Blanding. By the end of the day on Sunday I was pretty much depressed because we hadn't found anything else that I could even imagine living in. So on our way back from Blanding we called the realtor and asked him to set up another appointment for the first house we saw. So bright and early Monday morning we went to the house and met Lew Martin the homeowner. The minute I walked in for the second time my mind was made up I was going for the one that I fell in love with even though it was smaller. The funny thing was Jim and I weren't even standing together. Jim was off talking to Lew about the wood burning hot tub and I was standing back with our realtor, I don't even know where it came from but I looked at Jim and saw his smile and happiness and how I felt, so I told the realtor we were going to make an offer :) By the time we left the house I had thoughts of where I would put all of our stuff and how much fun it would be to live in the country and in a home that I LOVE! So we made the offer and they accepted!!! wooooo hooo



Well the next part was not so much fun....We went to get the loan stuff done and went thru a broker..Can I just recommend to everyone don't go thru a broker go directly to a mortgage company. We made the offer on Presidents Day..The brokers told us they could have it all done in 2 weeks. Well it didn't turn out to be so good....So we were pretty much at our wits end and then Mom (Kathie Jim's mom and now I claim her :) recommended us going to Axiom and can I just tell you they were literally amazing!!! They got everything done in 1 week!!!! We finally were able to close on April 4th and we moved Easter weekend! We had so much help with packing, cleaning etc and I can't even begin to thank everyone that helped enough. For the move Mom & Dad pulled one trailer. Dad was pretty excited because he had just recently gotten his new truck and finally got to pull something (mind you really heavy :) Our friends Cindy and Troy Larkin pulled the Cox's enclosed trailer. Jim drove his truck and towed Dad's little green trailer. Me well I drove the van LOL oh and I forgot to mention to get into the house we had to make some huge sacrifices. We sold the Galant (Jim's car), we also cashed out on some flexible spending and other benefits I had from work, we also had a huge yard sale. We were able to come up w/all we needed which was awesome. I can't thank Mom & Dad and Cindy & Troy enough for there help! We couldn't have done it without everyone that helped from the beginning to end!!!



We arrived at our new house in the afternoon on Saturday. It had been a long trip and everyone was pretty tired from the drive, but we started unloading all the "crap" we have accumulated ok ok I HAVE accumulated over the years...Shortly after starting unloading we were greeted by a sweet little lady named Ms. Randal, she brought us some home made smoothies and cups. Ms. Randal and her husband are lifetime Monticello residents, and their backyard and ours meet, there is even a little gate that we can go thru. The Randal's are really sweet people they are always waving and stopping to make small talk with us, not to mention they are total green thumbs so they have been giving us advice on our garden.

So far we are really enjoying our home and living down here. I know this post is getting long so I will start another one that will give you more updates on everything.

Lots of Love,

Nat