Saturday, August 23, 2008

Things we've done so far

I think is my last post, promise. I just wanted to highlight a few things we've done so far here in Springfield.

Top Ten Reasons to Live in Springfield
10 It's not THAT humid. . . honestly!
9 There's trees here, lots of them, and you don't even have to plant most of them!
8 It's green here, because of said trees
7 30 min from Branson
6 They have butter in the longer skinnier cubes, I've always wanted to use that shape of butter.
5 They have local cable free! We get a whopping 5 channels!
4 The Library Center, an awesome county library with lots of fun stuff and a great children's section. Lots of DVD's and VHS to check out, due to lack of said channels!
3 Andy's Frozen Custard Think Sonic on Steroids! YUMMMM!
2 3.27$ Gas! No Joke! (by the way when did that become cheap? for gas? when UT is at 4.05$ yikes)

• We're here, of course!!!

We've also gone to the local pool, drove out to Branson to check on the craft mall situation, visited Chris's school, found a wonderful waffle house (I love breakfast for dinner), spent countless dollars going to Walmart and Home Depot about 20 times each, and phewww, that's our first week in MO. Love you all!

Happy Anniversary!

So in the midst of all this hullaballooo, Chris and I had our 7th anniversary! On August 15th. The day was crazy, we painted the house, got Maci off to her first day of school, and had a pretty miserable evening with tired kids trying to decide where to eat, me being grumpy about nothing, Gavin spilling Chris's fresh peach shake all over the floor, just generally not the best anniversary we've had. But we made up for it on the 16th, by planning the dinner outing about 2 hrs earlier, not having to deal with school, and just generally being in a better mood! We went to Lamberts, home of the "Throwed Rolls", in Ozark. It's kind of a big tourist attraction here, we waited 1.5 hrs! But it was fun. The food was great, the conversation of course is always good, and the atmosphere was fun. Chris and I got each other new lights for the kitchen and orange paint! Isn't that romantic! Anyway, love ya babe, and can't wait for another 77 years with you by my side. You're my best friend and I'm so happy to be with you forever. Love ya!!

Maci's First Day of Kindergarten

So Maci started school the day after we got here, the 15th of August. They don't do the week later kindergarten thing here, but her school only goes till 4th grade, so there's not a ton of big kids around to intimidate them. We went on Thursday and got her registered, met her teacher and walked all around the school. She loved it. Her teacher is Mrs. Mays and she's very sweet. She only has about 15 kids in her class, which is fabulous! It goes from 8:40-3:40 every day, needless to say she's pretty exhausted when she gets home. She had virtually no qualms about going, we walked in and found her seat, she sat down and started coloring, gave us a hug goodbye, that was it! She was adamant though about bringing an apple for her teacher, she was the only one who did. Her teacher looked very pleased and thought it was sweet. She loves that she gets to bring a lunch. I don't think she'll be riding the bus, that's just too big a leap for me! But I love picking her up and hearing about her day. She's done great so far and has met some new friends, Lilian is the one I've heard the most about. I am going to volunteer at the library during the time her class goes on Thursdays, so I got to meet a few of the friends she's talked about, and check out those who she's kind of complained about being mean ;) It was really fun to be a part of her school experience and I hope I can keep doing it. I thought I'd have a harder time with her actually going, and I do miss her, but I'm not worried about her the way I thought I'd be. She's safe there and I don't have to worry about that, which is great. Gavin is doing pretty well without her, he always wants to save some of his lunch or a treat to share with Maci when she gets home. Daddy's been home to help me keep him occupied, we'll see how we fair when I'm on my own. Way to be a big kindergartener Maci! We love you!



This is what the backpack fairy left her for her first day of school. Yes, we like fairy's at our house!

Catch-up

Phew, we made it. We're here. We have arrived. Here's a couple things that happened before we left and during the trip.

First off, Maci lost her first tooth! It's been wiggling for a couple weeks, and it finally came out with the help of Gavin and a little kick in the mouth, at Applebee's in AF on the 9th of August. We were at dinner with Grandma and Grandma Great and Maci showed me something in her hand. I said What is THAT?? I thought it was a boogie actually. And then she said, it's my tooth! I guess Gavin had nudged her with his foot, every so gently I'm sure, and it popped out. It was very close to coming out on its own anyway. She said it didn't hurt at all. We of course put it under her pillow on their makeshift bed and the tooth fairy left her 2.50$! I know, the tooth fairy should probably lower her rates a bit. . . but it was a first tooth! She paid her tithing of .25C the next day. She is very excited about the window in her smile and you can already see the other tooth coming in. Way to go Maci!



Alright, on to the great expedition. We left Tuesday morning by around 8am, an hour later than we hoped, but that's just the way it goes. Chris drove the van the whole way with the trailer and both kids. I tried to get him to switch with me, he finally did one hour outiside of Springfield. He wanted it to be him driving if the tires blew on the trailer, so I got to drive in the quiet of the Honda with just me and Rush Limbaugh to keep me company, and several cans of Diet Mt. Dew. The drive was beautiful, minus Wyoming, sorry Wyomingers :) and we had no car trouble, kid trouble, or any other kind of trouble. Googlemap said it would take 23hrs to get here, we figured we could knock off at least 5 of those. . . well with stops it didn't happen. We made it to North Platte, NE the first night, 12 hrs of travel time. It took us another 12 hrs to get to Springfield. Without the stops, we probably could have done it in 18, but with potty stops and eat stops and I can't drive another mile without stopping stops, it took us around 23hrs. It did make us rethink driving home for Christmas though, we might splurge and buy plane tickets :) The plains are really windy!, I can't imagine them with snow on them too. Makes you wonder how the pioneers did it.


Chris suran wrapping the trailer due to some rain we ran into. We had Ikea boxes in there we didn't want to get wet and ruined before we put the furniture together. Chris was kind of suran wrap happy! but everything arrived unbroken and unharmed, thanks to him!

Full to the brim!

Happy kids.

Anyway, we arrived late on Wed night. Silly me, had forgotten our new house keys in UT. I realized this about 2 hrs out of UT, but we didn't want to turn around and lose that time. So my lovely mother fedexed the keys out to us. They were to arrive by the time we got there on Wed. Well, we got there, no keys. They said they'd left them on the front doorstep, no keys. So we stayed in a hotel that night, which we were going to do anyway, and hoped they could be found in the morning. We still couldn't find them, and decided to call a locksmith. As he was unlocking the door, I realized I should probably check to see if they were sent to the right address. Sure enough, they weren't, they were two houses down due to a small error by a sister who shall remain nameless ;) A 2 vs a 6 does make a difference! Anyway, we got the keys and all was well. We didn't get our moving truck here till the next Monday, so we roughed it for a couple days with minimal food, clothing, etc. But we survived! We've been busy unpacking, organizing, scrimping every inch of space out of this house. We're close to being done, and I even hung up some pictures, etc yesterday which made it feel more like home.
Here's some before and after pics, we love the paint colors we chose.





The neighbors have been nice, I've met a few, and there are a few 3-5 yr olds in the neighborhood so that's good. We live on a cul-de-sac too which I love, and should have realized the advantages of sooner. I can send them down to the end on their bikes and not worry about too much traffic, or them getting too far, etc.

We've all adjusted pretty well, I think Gavin and I have had the hardest time, but we're all getting happier and better. We're off right now to the city pool which is something like the Legacy Center, but it's all outdoors and it closes next week, so we thought we'd get it in while we can and let the boxes sit for today. I'll post more about Maci's school, etc. when we get back.

ps we did go to church on Sunday, everyone was very nice and friendly. Lots of young people, thank goodness! They actually have 3 nurseries! which is kind of unheard of unless you live in Saratoga Springs :) or countless other UT wards, but I didn't expect it here. We get to speak on the 31st, YEAH!!! :(

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

We Made It!

Just wanted to let everybody know we made it safe and sound to MO. It's been great so far, with only a few bumps and bruises along the way. I'm on a library computer with only 15 minutes to use it so I won't write much, but we should have internet by the beginning of next week. I have about 20 posts, so get ready for a marathon catch-up! Talk to you soon!

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

And We're Off!

We'll see you on the other side everybody, we may be out of touch for a week or so before we get our internet up and running. I wanted to say one last GOODBYE! We'll post our adventure when we can. Love ya!

Saturday, August 9, 2008

The Loading of the Truck

We got our truck yesterday, and rounded the troops this morning for the loading of the truck! We took a before picture but it still doesn't grasp the amount of crap that we have!! But we did get it all in, with a couple feet to spare which will save us some $$ since we pay by the foot. Don, Dave & Jess, Anne, Brett & Katie, and Mom and Dad helped us with the move, and Sharon kept the kids overnight last night so they wouldn't be underfoot! We took a lot of the boxes out and sorted them by heavy, medium, and light so we could get the heavy stuff on the bottom. Then Don and Chris took the job of putting the puzzle pieces together in the truck to maximize the space. They did a great job! The big furniture went last. I'm so glad it all fit, we were worried about it! Now we just have some little stuff that we'll need in the next couple days till we get our truck back next week, and cleaning up Mom and Dad's house. Thanks for all of your help guys!!


How many movers does it take to wrap a couch? 4 apparently!




One other cool thing, our back van door broke last night, so we couldn't open the hatch. Chris was really worried about it, and some of the lights on the trailer were on the fritz and he couldn't fix it until he could open that door. We said a special prayer this morning that the problem would get resolved before we had to leave on Tuesday. Dad offered to take the car to the dealership today to have fixed since he couldn't move a lot of stuff and I didn't want Chris gone all day. So they fixed it up ship shape. Thanks Dad!! Chris hooked it up to the trailer to work on the lights, and low and behold, they turned right on! So just a little tender mercy from the Lord that he looks out for us in even the smallest of ways, because to us it wasn't a small thing, it was huge!

Camping at Mirror Lake

We had a great time on our family campout up at Mirror Lake in the Uintas. We went up the 3rd of Aug. and came home the 5th. Dave, Ted, Don, Anne, and Katie's families were all up there at some point or another and Mom and Dad came up on Monday. We had our quarterly birthday party up there for all the cousins. We ate, fished, ran around, played games, had a ball. The kids had so much fun playing in the dirt and forest with their cousins. It was a great last hurrah before we go. We didn't catch any fish on the lake, but it was fun canoeing. We even made reflector oven biscuits and chocolate chip cookies. The legacy lives on Mom! Here's some pics of the fun.


We saw two huge moose in a field on the way up to the lake!









Friday, August 1, 2008

Boxes upon boxes




I'm being smothered! By boxes!! I've come to the point where I don't care where it goes, or where it ends up, just put it in a box and get it out of the way!!

While packing up the kids stuff, I'm wondering how all you moms keep kids toys organized? We bought an Ikea bin thing, and it has helped, but it seems like every time they play with something it gets messed up and it just ends up being 10 different kinds of toys in 10 bins. Dress-up stuff is another mess maker at our house, they're all piled into two chests, but every time they want to play, everything has to come out, which means it all has to go back in at some point which may or may not happen. Any great tips from all you savvy moms?

Goodbye's

My friend Mary had a BBQ for us with a great group of friends. Josh and Maria Rasmussen, Skyler and Mary Smith, Brandon and Kenzie Wall, Justin and Nicole Sutherland, and all our crazy kids were there. We had such a great time. We ate wonderful food, let the kids play in the back yard, and just sat and talked for about 4 hours. This is what I will miss most when we move to Missouri. Our kids have grown up together, and so have we frankly, and we're all best of friends! It was hard to say goodbye, but I didn't break down until after we left, thank goodness. I wasn't completely embarassed. I'm sure we'll see these guys when we come back for holidays, and I hope when we return for good that things haven't changed and that we'll be friends forever. Somehow I think that will be the case, even though it seems like we'll be worlds apart for a long time. Thank goodness for blogs! and email, and phones. The world is smaller than it used to be. Thanks Mary for a great night!





We were talking waay past bedtimes, so the kids vegged out in front of a movie.