Hanging out

I have a list of things to do, but I need to write what's in my head before it leaves (which could be any minute).

When Rob and I met, we were as mushy and cutesy as couples get. No... we never condescended to sugary nicknames or babytalk. I swear I have never called him anything that ended in -poo, although he would call me starfish or bunny sometimes because he knew I hated it. We loved playing games together, dancing together, doing outdoors stuff together. You get the gist.

Then we got married. I worked nights and weekends. He decided to graduate almost 2 semesters earlier and took a ton of classes. Then it was grad school, where he worked all hours, I worked a lot of evenings and nights, then bishopric took up the weekends, then scouts, and still grad school. Gone an awful lot. This last year, I became the solo-mom, as Rob was gone almost all the time, except Sundays.

Please don't think I'm whining. I'm not complaining about this. On the contrary. My kids are at a really fun (starting to get independent) stage. I have had absolutely WONDERFUL neighbors who have become adopted family. And I have gained that inner-do-it-yourselfness that God gives women who raise families mostly alone. Really, I have to say that it's been pretty easy. I typically am in my groove with my own routine. Rob and I joked that we have gotten along so well during the stress of moving because we weren't around each other much. But you know, after joking, you wonder if that isn't a little true.

Get to the point, Christina! Okay, Rob took off a full week over Christmas... and while he should have spent a lot more time writing his dissertation, he spent most of the time hanging out with us. And it was so fun! It was awesome. I love just hanging out and even doing nothing with this man. There is always so much we need to get done or go over when he is around, I forgot what it is like to just hang out for days on end. It was GREAT!

I understand that Rob and I will probably never get to be one of those couples that get to spend all their time with each other. Dang it! I think God has nixed that one from the start. Plus, Rob loves scouts. But, I am looking forward and hoping for that day (hopefully in a few months) when he can come home and just hang out with the fam every evening and maybe even helping mow the lawn on Saturdays. OK, I'll mow the lawn if he can just hang out with us. And after this past week, I know it will be tons of fun.

Hot Hot Hot

Really, I'm not trying to rub it in. But it was 72 degrees today!! Yesterday we went swimming. Today we went to Kemah, where the kids got to ride their amusement rides. Kemah is located along Galveston Bay, so we enjoyed watching the ocean waves as the kids rode the Ferris wheel and little train. We picked oranges FROM A TREE yesterday (never done that before). Sunday, I took the kids on a lovely long walk around the bayou (we did not see an alligator this time, but that was okay, because our brave Dad wasn't with us... being stuck back at home in the cold). After standing outside for hours in freezing weather back home helping Rob fix our car, I am LOVING this. White Christmas... highly overrated.

I love Houston. Well, at least in the winter. Summer... not so much.

CHRISTmas

So many people complain of a letdown that accompanies this season. I believe that whenever we skip out that essential part... the CHRIST of Christmas, the emptiness is inevitable.

This year is perfect. With a 5 year old and 3 year old, everything is magical. But more than just the excitement of Santa, I am really enjoying the tenderness of talking about the Christ child. We have a treasure box, a little box from DI that the kids decorated with stick on gems. Each night, we write down what we have done for Jesus. Whether it was "Cleaning up my bedroom" or "not hitting this morning" or "being patient this afternoon", each one of us writes how we tried a little harder to be a little better. Our gift to Jesus.

I love snuggling with my family around our Christmas tree. Singing Christmas songs in the darkness together. These are my favorite memories.

When it rains, it pours

Two days ago: TV... started getting that line going through it that means it's about to die. Yesterday: Muffin pan/baking sheet... smelled weird so was dumped; the windshield wiper fluid stopped working in my car (kind of essential in December). Today: the kids broke the heads off several of the nativity figures they JUST got; my can opener stopped working; oh, and Rob's car won't even start.

Blessings: we don't have a dishwasher or a dryer in our apartment. They would all surely be broken by now.

the High Life

Don't get alarmed, we are still true blue BYU fans. But it is difficult to pass up free tickets to a college football game, especially since Rob has been working at the U for 5 years now. And since they came from some bigwig donor at the School of Engineering, we knew they were going to be good tickets. But just how good, we had no idea. Well, the tickets were great... 16th row, 50 yard line. But the parking... WOAH! Do you see that picture! We had a reserved parking space, about 12 cars away from the entrance!!!! We even got there after the game started. And there was our space, just waiting for us. I enjoyed it about as much as a turned down bed and chocolates on my pillow.
It was a great date. We got to watch the half time show facing US! So cool. We didn't feel bad leaving at half-time (that's what you get with small kids... even when the tickets are free), because the Utes were up 35 to 0. And, because now Rob has a job (he started officially Nov. 1), we even splurged and split a hot dog. Oh, we are livin' it up!

Phew

We did it! We have actually packed up and moved. After looking at many houses, both Rob and I felt like we needed to just move into an apartment for a few months. Some little miracles happened, and here we are in a tiny two bedroom apartment in University of Utah family housing. It's two minutes from Rob's work, which he loves. Now I get to commute, with my work, the kids preschool, and Bekah's dance class back in Davis county. It makes me appreciate what Rob's been doing for 5 years.

The move had potential for major disaster: It started Wed. night when we moved our furniture over to the apartment. Rob's uncle was super nice in volunteering to bring his truck and trailer and help us out. They got pretty much everything up to the new apartment. Almost everything. Somewhere on I-15, there are some construction workers, sippin' their cupa joe, relaxing on a comfy green couch. Or at least parts of a couch that disintegrated when it fell off of the trailer.
We were all really relieved when the police let us know that nobody got hurt. Saturday, we had friends come over with their trucks and help load up everything else to our little storage shed. Despite the forecast, the storms held off while they loaded and unloaded everything. I even saw blue sky. As if right on cue, the sky darkened with the last load and the blizzard hit as they left the storage unit.
When you don't have much stuff, it doesn't take long to unpack. Within 24 hours, we had a clean living room, pictures on the wall, and the tv working (I'll let you guess who did what). Yes, we are enjoying eggshell cinder block walls. I am thankful for those cinder blocks because we don't hear our neighbors... who are actually really nice.

Amid the moving, Bekah turned 5!! Whoohoo. We had a fun family birthday party at my parents, and then on her big day, after packing and running errands with Grandma Franklin's help, we headed over to Chuck E Cheese. Well, it was a success. The kids loved it. I survived. Barely. Bekah is definitely growing up. She has since informed me that she doesn't believe in Chuck E. He's just a costume.
What? It's only a matter of time.

Our primary program went super well. Phew. I explained to the kids at our practice (which happened to be the same time our stuff was being moved into storage) that they might see someone cry, not only because they sounded good or because they were growing up, but because they were speaking words of truth, and the Spirit testifies of truth. Well, as they sang so beautifully about the importance of families, I got a little teary. So much truth, and I love the kids so much. Anyway, one of these angelic little kids was so excited to point out later to everyone that I cried. Gosh, I'm going to miss them.

Well, our whirl wind has worked out, and we will let you all know the next step. Thank you to everyone who helped. We love and appreciate you.

Back from the Dead

Happy Halloween! With 2 little ones praying each day that "mama will get better by Halloween", how could I not recover! Halloween was low-key for us... this is probably the first year that we are not having a Murder Mystery Party, but it was fun.
Bekah was a "Halloween Fairy" (fairy with a Halloween cape and some spiders), and Kyle was a cowboy. Thursday, I managed to crawl out of bed to see their preschool performance of Halloween songs. Unfortunately, half-way thru, Bekah got upset that Kyle was sitting on her dress, to which Kyle responded by making a point to sit on her dress. Definitely not our finest moment. But considering that they had a Dad out of town for 2 weeks and a Mom out of it for just as long, not to mention moving back and forth between the Grandparents and our house, I figure the friction was bound to happen eventually. Just a shame it had to happen in front of the whole preschool. Bekah actually came home from the program and took a nap for 3 hours.

Halloween day turned out beautiful. With Rob home (YEAH!), we got our backyard cleaned out, did some decorating (okay, the kids did that at a neighbor's while I took a nap), and then we went to the ward chili-cook-off. The kids had fun trunk-or-treating, and then on the way home, Dad took them to a couple of houses with mazes and then trick-or-treated. I rested until they got home, and then we hung out at our wonderful neighbor's, the Smiths... letting the kids kind of de-sugar while the adults talked for a little while. A really lovely Halloween. Of course the battery of our camera died after we all got dressed up - so I have no pictures, but I think that kind of summed up life right now. We may not have everything quite picture perfect... a house half-packed, a mother half-dead, but the show goes on and we still had fun.

Good times.
Oh, today was the first day that I made it through the whole day without a nap. Whoohoo! Only 2 and 1/2 weeks since I got sick.