oh my sweet addie kay

So. This one is a story I want Addie to remember. She is such a sweet girl who has faith that can move mountains.

We were at the cabin, in Island Park, for Christmas and my Grandma was in the hospital and Addie said the sweetest prayer to help "grandma's mommy" get better. Her prayer was the sweetest, most sincere prayer and was an example to her mom.

When we returned home we couldn't find Addie's monkeys (her two sock monkeys). She went to bed one night with her monkeys not sleeping with her and the next night she was starting to get worried. I brushed it off as a "it's somewhere and it'll turn up". She prayed that night to find her monkey and gave another sweet sincere prayer.

An hour or so later my parents (stayed a couple hours longer at the cabin and then stayed a couple days in Idaho Falls), came over and what was in their hands... Addie's sock monkeys. The next day I talked to Addie how her prayer was answered and about Grandma great and how she was getting better. I was talking to her in the car so I couldn't see her face, but I can only imagine what it looked like when she replied "who else is sick? I want to pray for them.". I told her that Grandma Great could still use our prayers since she was still recovering. So Addie wanted to pray right then and told me it was ok I couldn't fold my arms or close my eyes since I was driving.

She surprised me again and Thanked Heavenly Father that Grandma found her monkeys (I didn't mention for her to say this- which at this point, I was thinking how I should have) and prayed for Grandma Great. She also prayed that we would never have hiccups again. And when the prayer was over she said "isn't that cool mom! We're never going to have hiccups again". We had a little chat of why that wasn't so and talked more about prayer. It was a moment I wanted to write down and share with her when she is older.

What a sweet girl I have.

Who is this?

Check out this cute head from behind. Any guesses?

It's our Addie! With a bob! We have been battling brushing her hair. Morning after morning of screaming fits, wrestling, bribing just to brush her hair, we were both fed up! I use to threaten her (good parenting skills, huh) with chopping her hair off and that use do the trick, at least just to get a brush through her hair. But after a while Addie was all about chopping and a couple days later, I agreed.

Before the cut

I thought I'd have a hard time seeing her beautiful locks of golden hair go. Especially since she will be cinderella for halloween and I wanted to curl her hair and to pull it up in a beautiful curly do. sigh. (obviously, I'm still bummed about that). But can I tell you how relieved I was during the cut.

Making the first cut.

I was imagining my mornings of saying lets do our hair, and Addie jumping up and agreeing with no whining. I suddenly started getting excited to see the cut all finished.

Half way done.

I love it!!! It's still my sweet Addie. I think it makes her look a little older.

And the finished cut again.

She is so cute and it almost, ALMOST makes me want to chop my own hair. Again, ALMOST!

Can't wait to do her hair tomorrow!! Here's to no more tears!!

**A big shout out to my awesome friend, Kaylin! She did an awesome job!! Thank you!!**

Cornbelly

The big rocking chair at the entrance.

Marc's hospital has a group for the wives, well, it's called partners in medicine, so husbands can go too (I suppose). They have all these groups that get together and have a good time. Well, that I don't know, I've only been to one group- which was today and I was late so I missed the group. NOT THE POINT. It was playgroup and we went to Cornbelly's at Thanksgiving point. I was planning on meeting up with a friend from Columbus (her husband is a resident at the U too- how convenient) and it was awesome since I missed the group. I thought it was going to be a small pumping patch with a couple slides... yeah, it was quadruple my expectations.

Kate in the bouncy castle

It was HUGE and a TON of people. There was a princess pumpkin area with dress ups, a carriage, play house, bouncy castle, corn box, and a stage where - I guess performances are held - my girls just danced to the princes music.

They had tons of other things. Have I mentioned it was huge?

At the end of our visit Kate was getting a little restless, ok she was turning into a monster so I searched for Addie at the bouncy houses area. No where, then I hear an announcement that a little girl has been found in a white shirt, two braids and she's four. I turned to Jamie (my friend from Columbus) and said that's Addie. And sure enough, there she was at the information desk. She didn't even looked worried! Really?! I asked her why she wondered off and she said "I was thirsty". Another "Really?!" is in order, I brought three water bottles, THREE! Oh that little child of mine.

One of the bazillion slides.

Anyways. We left after having a piece of chocolate cake from Magleby's and heading home.

Something I was a little unhappy with was the admission was 10 bucks, well, 10.95 (Kate was free) but we didn't walk home with a pumpkin!! c'mon! I know the place was huge with lots of things to do, but I thought we'd at least get a pumpkin. I'm calm about it now, but when I was there I could have blown a fuse.

Anyways. It was lots of fun. Next partners in medicine gathering I'll have to make sure I meet other mom's.... or dads.

(Addie was camera shy today, that's why most of them are of Kate.)

*I'm trying to upload movies*

Addie's first day at preschool.

Addie's preschool interview

Addie is going to preschool this year. I decided to put her in for a couple reasons, probably different than most.

1. Addie and I need this break from one another.

2. I want Addie to learn structure.

3. I want Addie to learn from someone other than me.

Right before leaving.

Kate is going to miss her buddy during those two hours.

Settling in quite nicely.

It has been so fun for Addie.

Grandma and Grandpa was there for Addie's first day and Grandpa had to fly out so he came and said goodbye right after her class and then went to the airport.

I need to brag for a moment...

About my talented sister-in-law, Dawn. She is an awesome photographer and during our yearly visit in Canada (eh!) she had a shoot with Addie. They turned out SO GOOD!!!! I love her style and what she captured. I LOVE THEM!!!

See what I mean? Gorgeous!!! Now if only money grew on trees I'd get all of these on canvas...

Our move from H, E, Double hockey sticks.

Marc's first year of residency is over (thank goodness for that). We had times where he worked 36 hours, nights and just the brunt work of the hospital. Maybe in a different post I should blog about how hard it was, but for now, we'll just say it was the most challenging year- by far.

So we are now residing in SLC, UT. A place that was not on my "wanna live there" list. During our move here, we kept having problem after problem. There was even a time where I said, this is so blog worthy. Ah-hem, let me begin with Cincinnati- packing up.

Our home in Cincinnati, Oh

I booked our moving truck in January, so I would get the best deal and I could monitor the changes so I could get the most truck for our buck. When booking the truck, I remembered our move to Cincinnati and that we had the second biggest moving truck and there was plenty of room. So I decided the second biggest one it is.

Nothing to complain about packing the house. Packing is packing and, frankly, it's not fun any way you dice it. I had lots of help cleaning and getting the house ready to move out (thank you everyone).

1st problem- Marc went to get the truck and when he pulled up I had the most sick feeling in my stomach. There was NO WAY our stuff was going to fit in there. NO WAY!!!! What happened???! Those trucks were either getting smaller or we accumulate 5 years of things in one year. Something is not adding up. Well, when we moved to Cincinnati we moved with Penske, second biggest truck - 22 feet. This time I went with budget, their second biggest truck - 16 feet. I also learned a couple months prior, that Budget cannot guarantee you a truck. They guarantee you a reservation. When I heard this I immediately thought of Seinfeld (People in IF Peds love when I do this) and I quote,

"Jerry -I dont' understand, I made a reservation, do you have my reservation?

Agent- Yes, we do, unfortunately, we ran out of cars.

Jerry- But the reservation keeps the car here. That's why you have the reservation.

Agent - I know why we have reservations.

Jerry- I don't think you do. If you did, I'd have a car. See, you know how to take the reservation, you just don't know how to *hold* the reservation and that's really the most important part of the reservation, the holding. Anybody can just take them."

Back to the truck. At this point I'm trying to figure out what we can leave behind. I'm forcing everyone to tell me it would be alright and that everything will fit. One guy was telling me it's like tetris and we can make it work. I believed him, until I saw our truck filling faster than our empty space in our house. Panic begins to set in.

We are stuffing things in the most award places; in the washer and dryer, in our tv stand, anywhere there is a hole I'm shoving something in there.

We're getting closer to filling the truck and we're not doing as bad as I had imagined. Marc must be great at tetris. All of our moving helpers are holding things in the truck and Marc closes the door and it is shut, not to open until we reached Utah. Since Marc was pulling his car we packed his car full but had to take enough out that Marc could drive his car to work. He had to work 1-midnight (I think). So he took off right after we're done and I'm cleaning with some help (my mom, Laticia, and Shirley). They were rockstars and did awesome! It felt like things were looking up. I go outside and see all the stuff we can't fit in anywhere, My mom ended up taking most of it, two storage containers, and some cleaning supplies (which I realized how much I missed it after I arrived in Utah). My car is also packed full and our girls in the back are sharing space with a toolbox and other odds and ends that we couldn't leave behind.

My brother, Michael, was awesome and VOLUNTEERED to help me drive out with my girls. (He's going to LDS Business school and came home just to help me) What a brave, brave man. We started on our drive out west.

2nd problem: Not long after we set off, maybe 10 min. I received a text from Marc saying that he was needed in Cincinnati on Monday for a mandatory exit interview at the hospital. Say what? He was taking off that night, at midnight, to start driving our truck. He was leaving that night and would be in Utah on Saturday. We were done with cincinnati, I could almost see it in my rearview mirror. He even got a week off at the end of his residency so we could transition to Utah with more than a weekend (that's how much we originally had in-between residencies). I started to hurts into tears. This could not be happening. How are we going to get him in Cincinnati? Should he stay for the weekend? Should we all stay? This was the last thing I wanted (or so I thought).

Long Story short, they decided to do it that day (which they usually frowned upon). Oh well, Onward!!!

We'll call the car that I was in "crazy car" and Marc "the truck" So I won't have to clarify each time. Crazy car takes I-70 route (we have two stops with friends along the way) and the truck takes I-80 since it's "faster". Crazy car reaches Columbia, Mo and stayed with a friend that night and things are going not too bad. I had no idea where the truck stops or what he did, I just knew he was booking it and taking naps here and there. We took off from Missouri early in the morning so we that we could make it to Colorado at a reasonable time.

Right when we pulled out of Cincinnati I noticed our check engine light was on and told Marc but he just thought it needed something minor and didn't sound worried. Ok. If he wasn't worried, then I wasn't. During our drive the crazy car was a disaster. A complete disaster and I was throwing movies on, giving them toys, snacks, basically doing anything I could to keep our girls from freaking out.

This doesn't do justice of how stuffed our car was and the disaster of it. I guess I gave them markers according to Kate's face

3rd problem. About 5 hours into our second day drive, we're going up a hill and our car overheats. PERFECT. We are seriously in the middle of Kansas and the nearest rest stop is at least 10 miles away.

We took a picture on our phone where we were.

We can't even wait for Marc to bail us out or help us because he was taking I-80. Michael and I are not so savvy with cars. I can't speak for Michael, but, at that point, I just knew how to put gas in it. We were calling everyone in my family and asked for advice. It was determined that our radiator didn't have any fluids and we needed to get some water in there. At that moment we looked at our water supply and regretted our water intake, we weren't dying of thirst- we could have even been bored and took a sip of water. Ah! We decided we'd at least try the water we had, it was worth a shot, it was enough that we were able to go 30 (with frequent turn off breaks) to the next gas stop. WAHOO! I was just excited we weren't stranded anymore.

We get to a gas station and get the coolant and the lovely gas people did the proper mix for us and Michael was in charge of the car (as guys should be). He was on the phone a lot with Ryan (his advice saved us)while I managed my restless girls. We took frequent stops to make sure the fluids were doing ok.

My eyes were glued to the temperature gage the rest of the trip but we made it to Colorado. Great hospitality was given and the next morning we were off on our last leg to Utah. Michael and I were both feeling quite positive, at that moment, and thought that the worst is behind us. WE thought we'd make it there with the worst of our problems, winey kids.

4th problem. We are, SERIOUSLY, 2 hours away from utah. 2!!!! And our car overheated again. REALLY??!!! I felt like I had been defeated and just want to throw in the towel. This time the overflow cap blew off, but it was confused as the main radiator cap blew off. We needed a cap and had Marc, who was 2 hours behind us, looking at junk yards and auto places for a cap that we desperately needed. We thought of the idea of just switching the car being towed but we shoved Marc's car full and didn't want to open those doors either.

Being so close and stuck in the same spot was one of the worse feelings in the world. You're so close but there's nothing you can do about it other than sit tight. boo!

After discovering that it was the overflow tank, we were instructed that duck tape can hold us over till we get to Utah. Finally!!! To get to the duck tape in our packed trunk was a site to see for traffic, I'm sure. All this junk on the side of the road. Oh dear what a mess.

ANYWAYS. We drove two more hours with our windows down, and cranking the hot air on during the big hills (it keeps the temp down- or so I'm told). The last two hours were miserable. But arriving "home" never felt so good, so relieved, so sweet.

Our home in Utah.

Not another move for three years. BIG SMILE. :)

I'm back...

or am I?

I believe two posts ago, I said I was back and the last post was-well- awkward.

But our computer is more in a convenient spot, with a comfy chair, and I really want to do this.

Ok. Before I begin, there is something I must admit. I felt like I blogged for everyone who was "reading" (hi mom), I also am very insecure about my grammar. Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to "give up" and do errors on purpose, but I don't want to take five days to re read something wondering why that sounds wrong or if I should start a new sentence or a comma would suffice.

Bottom line- I want to document our life and not hold back. So here I am.

I'm back!