House Hunting Trip

RJ told me on the phone before I got to Minnesota that he was given a sporty-ish car to get around in for a few weeks.

I didn't think much of it until I saw how popular he was everywhere we went. He got comments from every Tom, Dick, and Henry on this car. I didn't realize how much power a car could give you. My theory is that men who drive expensive cars must be lacking in some area in their lives. I think RJ is just as hot (if not hotter) standing in front of our 2002 minivan. It shows that he's a family man. He is committed and has priorities. He is not at the top of his own list.

We had extra time between most of our appointments. We decided to stop by the local park, eat our lunch and play for a minute. If Beth had seen us, she would have confronted us for being at a park without children. It was weird not pushing the kids on the swing or hearing them say "watch this mommy." I had fun with RJ but I missed the kids often too. We tried to utilize our "free" babysitting time. We went out to eat twice, enjoyed a clean comedy club impromptu show, a movie, a temple session and sitting around a quiet apartment.

I'll catch you dear! Wee!

3,2,1 blastoff!

On Saturday, we went to the St. Paul temple. It looks a lot like the Medford temple. It is small. You have to bring your own temple clothes and they only have a handful of sessions a day. We were asked to be the witness couple. It was special.

I was amazed at how "small" the church is out there with such a large population. I assumed that there would be at least one ward building in each city (if not more). I never saw one of our churches while driving around but there were tons of other denominations with huge cathedrals.

We took a long walk on Sunday and found a few of these churches in the area.

This is a picture looking back at the city as we started entering a more residential area.

We rested on a bench in the park after walking for more than an hour.

It's kind of ironic that I don't have any pictures of houses on my house hunting trip but I didn't have batteries in the camera for the first few days. We saw some pretty dumpy places as well as real contenders. The process was not near as smooth as I anticipated it would be. We waffled between choice A and B. Finally we committed to option B. We went to the temple, attended their church meetings and made a special trip to get the information we needed on the application. When we called to make sure we could meet with the management team first thing in the morning, they said that they had already received an application. Option A became our fall back incase we couldn't find anything else. We went back to the drawing board and came up with two other viable options. We couldn't see either of them while I was still in town since I was flying out Tues. morning. One of the places that we felt good about was all of a sudden no longer available the first of September. After one more let down in Inver Grove Heights, we decided to go to our fall back option. When we called him, he said he had another couple interested who would get back to him by noon the next day. We could not believe our luck (or lack thereof)! We were in a major time crunch with giving the movers the appropriate length of notice and arranging for Hunter to start school. Fortunately, "the other" couple didn't get back to Adnan by noon and he accepted our application! We sqeezed by on the criminal back ground check and now we have an address!

Around the House

I should have taken a picture before RJ rented the tractor and leveled the dirt. It would have made a better "before" picture.

It was quite a mess. There was dirt all over the sidewalk and mounds in the driveway.

Here is an "after" shot of the backyard with the new fence. Wow! What an improvement!

RJ worked like a dog for several days and did a great job. We will be sad to say good-bye to this house.

Hunter had a great time digging up potatoes.

McKenna loves daddy's garden too.

Baby Shower/Going Away Luncheon

My super sister, Beth, organized a baby shower/going away luncheon for me at Applebee's. I looked forward to it all week and it was great fun.

I had my glucose test on Monday before the shower and the phlobotomist said that I looked further along than I was. It wasn't the first time I had heard that. A lot of people have commented on my size. I decided to wear a sign to explain it all so people would stop asking. It said, "I know I am HUGE but I am not having twins and I am not due until Nov. 5th."

My wide shot

Mom drove over for the event and bought my lunch and dessert (YUM). Thanks for coming Ma.

My go-to girl

Laura Leon (surprised me by switching her plans around and driving up from Eugene. We went to High School together. You're awesome Laura!), Beth (and Gannon who's not in the pic), Me, Mom, Carda (drove down from Hillsboro. What a great sister-in-law), Jaylyn Nunn (who squeezed me in between work and tutoring) and Tara McIllmoil (who had to scramble for a babysitter at the last minute to make it). I'm so grateful to those who came. I had so much fun. I also have to mention my dad who stayed home with my little munchkins.

Present time! Jaylyn gave me binkies of all varieties. I hope this one will take a binky but not be overdependant on it.

side note* so Beth drove me over to Applebee's and had several gift bags in her car. I assumed that some of them were intended for other people but she told me to grab them all and bring them in. I had previously threatened her and mom with their lives not to give me any more gifts since they have already given me a plethera of wonderful things.

I opened bag after bag from Beth because she wanted me to have a lot to open. She ordered this cute diaper wipe container disguised in material and ribbons. She also made me an awesome necklace and bracelet and a bracelet for my little wonder.

Christine wasn't able to make it but delivered these great burp clothes to Beth to bring me. She also gave me a special cover for the carseat and fun headbands with detatchable flowers.

Tara gave me these adorable slipper/shoes and hat. I'm so excited to put them on the baby.

As mentioned earlier, mom has also gone overboard on gifts. She gave me a bag of the necessities (nursing pads, lanolin, gel pads, and baby bath stuff). She also made this cool collage of what the blessing dress will look like and the materials she used. It is going to be beautiful!

Here we are with satisfied tummies

Special women (and Gannon)

McKenna really likes to look at and hold Gannon. I hope she is equally fond of her own baby sister.

Hunter is happy to hold Gannon even if the feeling is not mutual.

I really like how he's looking down at Gannon in this picture. I think he is going to be a big help with our little girl.

RJ's 32nd Birthday!

I made RJ a triple layer lemon cake from scratch with a lemon curd filling. I was pleasantly surprised with the outcome. It may not have been the most beautiful cake on the outside but it sure tasted good. Don't you love birthdays?

We ended up celebrating RJ's birthday at Matt and Carda's because they were so kind to take the kids for a few days so we could get things moving with the house. We drove up to pick the kids and capitalized on our opportunity to share some cake and BBQ too.

I don't know why RJ chose to put 6 candles on the cake but even then, he needed Hunter's help.

McKenna's gift to daddy was to throw away all of her sippy cups. In all honesty, I'm the one who threw them all away. She was totally caught unawares and not very happy about her offering.

I recycled a bag that I received containing a baby gift for our little girl. RJ was a grateful recipient reguardless.

He's going to have to wear a shirt and tie to work 3 days a week in Minnesota so I found this fun set. I also got him some socks and ordered "The Mocking Jay" the third book in a sequal that we are reading together and really enjoy.

Happy Birthday Babe. I love you!

A Day at the Fair

One day while I was driving I started thinking about things that kids have to experience. I realized that my kids had never had cotton candy. Where do you get cotton candy? The fair of course! The last time I went to the county fair, I was 18 years old. We decided to make it happen this year. RJ even entered his beets. He assumed his would be the only beets entered and planned on taking home the grand prize of $3. Jeramie, Becky, Kaleigh, and Olivia let us tag along with them and their free Good Samaritan passes.

I bought the kids cotton candy to nosh on while we waited for the "Jest in Time" clown act. To my utter surprise, McKenna did not like it! RJ balled it up and she ate some condensed cotton candy but that was it.

It turned out that Hunter wasn't a huge fan either. Kaleigh ate most of his and had a blue stained face.
Unfortunetly, I liked the clown show as much as they liked the cotton candy.

While we were walking around, we saw a table with a sign-up sheet for mutton-bustin'. There was one free spot left and RJ was contemplating signing Hunter up. I tried to imagine Hunter going through with it and thought he would chicken out. I didn't want to take someone elses spot so we stepped aside and Kaleigh signed up. Of course Hunter cursed me for the next 15 minutes so we wandered back to see if they would squeeze him in. We felt grateful when they said yes. That feeling of gratitude eventually left when I saw the first kid bolt out of the gate. He was maybe 1-2 years older than Hunter and had all of the necessary cowboy gear on- boots, chaps, buckle, a plaid shirt, vest and of course, a hat. That sheep flew out of the gate and almost rolled over the poor cowboy. I started to hope that Hunter would chicken out. I was scared when they called his number. My little city slicker son was going to try his luck with those angry, old sheep.

Some kids barely made it out of the gate so I was surprised when through my action shooting camera, I saw red for several clicks.

I heard people cheering and then he was off.

I looked over at Becky to find out how it went.

"He got stepped on," she said. The announcer pulled him over to ask if he had fun and he hesitantly muttered "yeah." "Would you do it again?" They followed up. He shook his head no. I was glad that he wasn't crying and figured he musn't have gotten hurt. Poor Kaleigh went next and didn't have any better luck. She hit the gate on the way out and cried heartily. When we met up with them, he had a scratch on his upper thigh and RJ said the sheep stepped on his groin. I told RJ to check it out when he took him to the bathroom. He said all was well. We will be grandparents someday!

We bought them some tickets to go on the rides. McKenna loved this little dragon swing. Hunter wanted to go on it after McKenna but I told him to go on the big one.

He was two inches too short but they let him on with Jeramie in the middle of him and Kaleigh. He had a death grip on the bar and looked nervous. When it started, his face turned from nervous to outright terrified. We wondered if he was going to puke or cry. We saw him mouth, "get me off." He survived without crying but I felt aweful for convincing him to go. He had a much better time on tilt-a-whirl.

McKenna had fun on the carousel. It was three dollars for the silly ride so I thought (as I saw them walking towards it), she better at least pick the pretty dragon. To my delight, she picked the best looking animal on the carousel- the dragon.

We had a great time. Thanks Jeramie and Becky!