iPhone Catch-Up

Waking up to this thick, warm, sticky fog is always interesting. It's neat, but really eerie too! You can only see about 3 houses ahead and this was 8:30am.

 Our tomato harvest was great this year and I have several dinners worth of frozen sauce in our freezer. That's the best!

BEFORE:

 AFTER 3 1/2 hours of hard work and a huge mess:

 Logan and I have enjoyed all our one-on-one time while Grace is at preschool most mornings. He is such a chill, easy-to-please, loving kid when it's just him and me. Look at that handsome dude on the toy at costco. :)

 Grace is always excited about helping with laundry. Her job is to find and fold all the washcloths and dish towels. 

My birthday was on a friday this year, and Ryan had to work all day and then be at a high school football game as the team doctor that evening. So we went on a date the night before to Milestone 229. Our dinner was so good and my date wasn't half bad either! 

 The server gave me a HUGE piece of chocolate cake. It was actually two layers, so I kept one layer and shared the other with Ryan. We still didn't finish either of our pieces. So yummy and rich!

 The next day (my birthday) I met my friend Brooke and her kids at the park in the morning. It was RIDICULOUSLY humid and hot at 10am and we were all dripping within 5 minutes. No joke! So that was probably a bad idea... but the rest of the day I was preparing for my "Favorite Things" party with my girlfriends that night. I figured it was a good day for some chipotle for dinner with these two cuties!

 And since Grace and Logan were both sad that I didn't have a birthday cake to share with them, we got a couple donuts instead. That seemed to smooth things over. :)

 The next day (saturday) was a birthday BBQ for our friend in the ward, Shad Outsen. A whole bunch of ward members were there and it was a really fun time!... until Shad's 5 year old daughter went missing for over an hour. This happened right after Grace ran up to tell me that this friend was "going on a walk with her cousin" and she didn't want to go with them. We sent teams of parents and the missionaries walking/driving in all directions, had a group prayer, and called the police. Finally she and her cousin were found playing in the dark, wooded area behind their street. It was definitely scary and we hugged our kids a little tighter and told them of how very very wrong it is to wonder away without a parent. Grace understood everything that was happening and learned a lesson that night. 

After that crisis was averted, I got a couple cute photos of the kids:

My two guys getting ready for church. Ah, I love them!

 And Grace needed her own picture that day too.

 Just being silly:

 At lunch on this day, Grace was full-on belly laughing and it was awesome. I often get so caught up in day-to-day tasks and mundane moments (like sitting, eating lunch with the kids) and don't make it fun. On this day I did/said something funny, and I had to document this sweet girl who loves to laugh and loves to enjoy life. I hope she finds me funny when she's 13! :) 

Labor Day Parade

Each year, we get to go watch 2 or 3 different parades in Pickerington. We have loved seeing them each time and they never get old! The firetrucks are definitely one of the favorite parts, and then there's always the typical participants: several different churches, local organizations, locally-owned businesses, 2 or 3 high school marching bands, and other float entries. 

In the past, our ward members have attended and said amongst ourselves "Why doesn't our church walk in the parade?!" So this year our ward missionaries, some ward members, and a few sets of Elders and Sisters over that period of time helped build a replica of the SL Temple! Then a bunch of us walked with the float and handed out passalong cards and Proclamation to the Family pamphlets. It was so fun! It was pretty warm and super humid, but we had a great time.

 Our ward members that participated.

 Our Elders held the big sign.

 This doesn't give a good idea of how packed the parade route is through downtown Pickerington. This was taken at the very beginning of the route, but just down that hill there were lots of people! 

 Grace was so adorable! She had a little bucket of pass-along cards and was having a blast handing them out along the way. She would skip along and sweetly hand them out. I kept refilling her bucket over and over, asking if she was too tired yet, but she never was! She walked/ran/skipped the entire route. The people were so nice to her and kept telling me how beautiful she is. :)

It was fun to be a part of a great missionary opportunity. I'm sure 98% of those 500 or so cards and pamphlets were thrown away. But at least we planted some little nugget of knowledge into their minds. And hopefully someone will look at the information and meet with missionaries! :) It was also funny to hear what people would say when they saw the Temple. Because not many people know that's what it is... some said "That's a neat castle!" But this one guy turned to his kids and said "Oh, look! That's Moron-ee on the top! See the Moron-ee?" hehe It was great!

That evening we had the Coons over for an early BBQ dinner. It was pretty hot, but we ate ice cream cones in the backyard while the kids ran around for a bit. It was wonderful hanging out with them!

 That girl and her cute poses!

 Grace's very first picture, taken with my digital SLT. Not too bad! Little photographer in the works.

We are grateful for our friends, the Coons. We're so grateful they moved into our ward! I always say that I prayed Brooke here. I really do believe it too. :)

Grace Goes to School

For the last 2 years, Grace and I have participated in 3 different "mommy co-ops". She doesn't start kindergarten until next fall, so I had been looking into a REAL preschool option for Grace to go to this year. I'll just be honest: I don't love to teach preschool and do co-ops. There were days I would get excited about taking my turn, but most of the time I was dreading it. :/ Is that bad? 

With our finances the way they are in residency, I was very doubtful that we could afford to send Grace to preschool somewhere. All of the places I'd looked into were SO pricey! I had just about given up on the idea when I got a mailer from our local Winchester Trails Elementary School and decided to look through it. It mentioned a preschool peer program they offer so I called the school to find out for information. A few weeks later, I had Grace evaluated for a peer-student spot and she made it with flying colors! The cost is only $100 per month and it goes monday-thursday each week. We signed her up and it's absolutely worth every penny. :) They even started mid-august and didn't charge for that month at all. Bonus! We are so grateful for Ryan who took on one extra shift at the hospital (on top of his already CRAZY schedule) so that she could attend.  

And I probably shouldn't admit this, but having her at school for a few hours everyday has been the very best thing for both her and me. We get along better the rest of the time, I think. ;)

August 18th: the first day of school!! Cinnamon rolls, fruit and juice + a good luck note for my sweet girl.

 The morning preschool starts at 9am and gets out at 11:45. We park and walk our preschoolers to the benches under the "W" and wait for all the big kids to enter before the littles go in with their teachers. It's not exactly the quick park, drop-off, and leave kind of deal I was envisioning, but it's the norm now! 

Grace is one of a few "typicals" in her class, with about 5 or 6 special needs kids ranging anywhere from needing speech to PT to OT or all of the above. She doesn't notice any of those issues though, or the different races or ethnicities, which I love about little kids. It doesn't matter! Ryan and I have reminded her that it's good to help her friends in her class with anything they might need, for example the friend in a wheelchair. I'm glad she can be in a safe, protected environment while learning (hopefully) to wait her turn, be friends with everyone, and help out those around her.

More first day photos! Logan didn't want to be left out the whole time...

Grace made that necklace and bracelet all by herself a few days earlier and insisted on wearing them for her first day. Her first couple of weeks, actually (even when they didn't match anything she wore). :) I love a girl who accessorizes! It's the simple things.

I've been meaning to do some small, mommy-school activities with Logan to get him excited about learning and sitting through focused activities. Unfortunately I've been so excited about NOT being in a co-op this year that I've become lazy with him. But one of the days I did hide the letters to this alphabet puzzle in our sensory bin (a big bin of dried beans). We found the letters together and talked about each one while we put the puzzle back together. I need to do more things like this! He loved it.

August Activities

Early in August our primary had a Temple-themed activity. They did some "station" activities in the stake center next to the Columbus Temple which included frosting a Temple cookie, decorating a frame (for their picture to go in) and building a Temple out of graham crackers. 

The primary presidency asked me to take pictures of each individual child in front of the Temple so they'd have a photo to put into their frames. My kids had never seen the Columbus Temple before since it's almost 40 minutes away and of course when Ryan and I attend they aren't with us. All of the primary kids were so sweet as they came to my "station" and got a chance to touch the walls of the Temple and walk around the outside of it. A couple of the groups of kids even got to go stand inside in the front area where you hang up your coats before going to the recommend desk, and the sweet Sisters quietly spoke to them about why it's such a special place. It was really neat for them and I could see their little bodies calming down as they felt some of the importance of that sacred ground. 

 We love cousin-time! Soon this will not be our norm and our kids won't know what to do with themselves. :(

I really enjoy having these 4 over for lunch dates. It's hilarious listening to their conversations and silliness at the table!

Sometimes I'm fun and make star-sandwiches. ;)

I took Ava's 2 1/2 year photos. She is such a smart, sassy, sweet girl! We sure love her!

 Several months ago I bought a groupon to a roller-skating rink that included a soda and a whole bunch of arcade tokens. I thought it sounded like fun! side note: we are terrible at dinner dates. We are so boring and somehow end up in arguments by the end of them... it doesn't go well. So this was my attempt at getting out of the funk and doing something different and fun! 

It was fun... skating with a bunch of sweaty, half-dressed, crazy pre-teens. :) Nah, but it honestly was a lot of fun. We just felt WAY out of place. 

 I found this list Ryan had made and snapped a picture. These are the places Ryan has contacted about possible job openings next summer. He can only look for jobs that meet the requirements (and are sign up with) the National Health Service Corps which is why all of these places are small towns or inner-city clinics. 

As of now, Ryan has an interview set up in Paradise CA which I will be able to attend as well, thanks to my parents for coming to stay with our kids! He also has an interview in Yakima WA a week after that. And just this week we were invited out to Roosevelt UT for an interview in October as well! In fact they are flying our ENTIRE family out. Amazing right? I still can't even believe it's happening. A free trip to Utah? Two visits in one year?! I get to eat Cafe Rio in a few weeks?! It's blowing my mind. :) I mean, yes, it's Roosevelt. It's not a very pretty place, it's super cold in the winter, nobody knows where it is, and it's tiny. But there are a ton of positives as well. A temple in Vernal, 2 hours from SLC, lots of Mormons, close to some beautiful places. So we will go out there next month and see how things go. We knew that interviewing there was a very slight possibility but that it was a long-shot because this medical center had been working for weeks to get everyone on board with hiring a 2nd pediatrician there. At the time that Ryan called this HR guy, there wasn't even an opening... just this "possibility" that they might want to bring someone new in. So it's been sort of amazing how it's worked out in our favor. It'll be interesting to see how things go!

Just a quick thing about Paradise, CA... up until this invitation from this guy in Roosevelt came, Ryan and I both have been talking about and picturing our future in Northern California. It has just FELT like that's what's going to happen. There are a lot of great things there and we've heard wonderful things. We've been excited about possibilities, location, travel and sight-seeing areas, being close to my sister's family, being in the "mountains", the quaint, small-town feel with a very low crime-rate, a laid-back atmosphere we keep hearing about, etc. But now that Roosevelt has come up and it comes with a whole other set of positives... well, we will see! It's so exciting.

On one of Ryan's ridiculously-rare days off in August, I convinced him we decided to spend a day checking out Amish country. We drove to Berlin, OH and passed the Longaberger building. It's literally a giant basket. I had never heard of this company so I was like "What the!!"

We saw some neat little shops, ate some homemade AMAZING Amish pretzels, bought some saltwater taffy, and walked around Sol's Exchange where thousands of hand-made things are sold. We let the kids pick out a little 50 cent beaded bracelet to keep. 

They're hand-made wooden toys are so neat!!

 It's hard to explain to the kids what Amish are and why we were going to see them. They did think that watching for the buggies was pretty exciting, so that helped! Plus bribing them with yummy treats always helps. We didn't try any Amish pastries which we hear is really what people are obsessed with. And we didn't get a chance to go to the cheese factories this time which is also a big hit, we hear. 

(please excuse Grace's look of "I'm ornery and the sun is in my eyes")

Before heading home we went into a western clothing store to look at the boots and found this area where they let you pet and hold the puppies. The kids were in heaven!

Logan kept giving it kisses. They're very dog-deprived because I don't really like pets that much. :/

It was fun spending the day in the car together (which I have always felt is therapeutic, re-connecting family time) and experiencing something new. It was on our Ohio bucket list and we're quickly running out of time to check those things off! 

If you know Ryan, you know he is VERY afraid of frogs. He has nightmares about that, thinks they will attack him (claims some have in the past... uh-huh) and becomes very angry when there is one nearby. He has run into a few while mowing our lawn. A couple weeks ago this big guy was in our backyard while we were out playing. I caught him and let the kids look at it (while Ryan went inside and as far away as possible) so they wouldn't be scare of it too, and then I carefully tossed him over the fence into the back alley area. I asked Ryan to find my phone so I could get a picture, but he made Grace go inside to get it and bring it to me... since he wouldn't come anywhere near it! Now Ryan won't be caught dead in that corner of the yard and even had me mow that section of grass last time in case it was back. :( He will probably stop looking at our blog posts because this picture is now on their forever. Poor Ryan. I think they're kinda neat!

On Grace's last friday before heading to preschool I took the kids to the zoo as one last hurrah! We love our zoo! I love that I never feel rushed to see everything, or even to see half of it, each time we go. We just pick our favorite things or a few new things and do that. It was absolutely perfect nearly-fall weather too.

 And finally, this shot. Sometimes they have moments of quiet, peaceful play. I'm so glad they have each other! And that they're ours.