Moving

The moving truck left yesterday.  The Yukon is gone.  We're extremely grateful to have the use of a friend's minivan until Melissa and the kids fly to the promised land on Monday.

So what do you do when the movers take your toys, beds and everything else in your house?  Well you build a fort of course.

Speaking in Church

So here is the scene.  It is Sunday morning (as in 4 days ago) and I am a little frantic as I have to, I mean get to, speak in church.  Spencer enters the kitchen and the following conversation ensues:

Spencer - Mom, are you okay??

Me - Ya, Spence, I am okay, I am just really nervous because I am speaking in church today.

Spencer - I know how you can not be nervous anymore.

Me - Really Spencer, how??

Spencer - Get up and bear your testimony more often and then you will get used to speaking and you won't be nervous anymore.


So what is a mom to say to that.  I shared this little gem at the beginning of my talk and it got a real good laugh.  Which actually served to make me less nervous. So Thanks Spencer!!

I Am A Slacker!!

So I just realized it has almost been a month since Jacob and I have posted here.  And I take the brunt of the blame.  I have been a slacker posting here.  Most of you know why, (aka Happy Quilting) but that is no excuse :)  This is after all my justification for not writing a journal.  So . . .  A Quick Catch-Up.

Here are a list of things I have meant to post over the last month but didn't.  (In no particular order)

1 - We are Moving Next Month!!!!!  Oh my, it is creeping up fast and we are so excited.  We have loved IN but can't wait to go home and never, ever, move again!!

2 - Jacob has no more weekend calls in Residency and is so happy about it!!

3 - We spent a weekend in Cleveland to attend Doug's (Jacob's brother) Dental School graduation.  Grandma and Grandpa Corry were there to and it was super fun to spend time with everyone.  It was a whirlwind weekend spent laughing, smiling, and all together having good times.

4 - While in Cleveland, Kristian shut his finger in the hotel door.  It resulted in a stitch and some major bandaging.  I drew a face on the bandage and it is known as "Mr. Bandaid".  Kristian proudly shows anyone who will pay attenetion his Mr. Bandaid, and only Mr. Bandaid.  And you guessed right on which finger he hurt.  So basically he flips everyone off with enthusiasm while telling them the story behind his new friend :)

5 - I have to or I guess I should say "get to" speak in church on Sunday.  I had 3 weeks left and they roped me in.

6 - We have been trying to sell our house for the last few months.  Let's just say it has been an emotional roller coaster.  We have had a lot of showings, a lot of interest, but just not that perfect match yet.  We are all learning to have more patience with each other as we have the joy of showing the house over and over.  But we will continue to do it, it's all part of the game :)

7 - Kami is learning to drink from a cup, which equals a lot of spills.  She also has learned a few more words. Taking her total to about 5 words.  That is also teaching us patience.

8 - We found out that Child #5 is going to be a girl.  No idea on names yet, we are still trying to get used to the idea of more pink and the hormones that go along with it.

What the heck is a Roundup?

I found myself asking that question the other day when my sister challenged me to do a roundup.  As the only male blogger around these parts (comment and prove me wrong) I feel it my duty to appease her and give you my version of a roundup.  By the way (I could have typed BTW but I just can't bring myself to use texting terms or :) or ;) or any of those other emoticons) you can go here to see my sister's latest roundup, and lets face it, that link probably holds more useful information for most of you anyway.

Without further ado here is a bunch of stuff I may want to try someday.

The best part about this one is my dad has a whole load of bricks stacked in his carport just waiting for a project and in two months he lives two doors away

.

I'm pretty sure I'll be renting a RZR within the next year and when I love it I plan to sell Melissa on all the practical uses for a UTV, like having something to put in the back of my truck.


I don't know much about cars, but I really want to restore one of these someday.  It's a 1969 GMC and for some odd reason I love it.  Problem is they're not too hard to find if you're willing to settle for a 2wd, but lets face it I can never own a 2wd truck.  That's like a one-wheeled motorcycle.



I really need to learn to swim because I would like to compete in this at the end of the summer.



And I need to find some teammates because I think I want to do this too, but I'm pretty sure my knees won't allow me to do those first few miles.


There you have it folks, my roundup.

I almost forgot.  I hope Lebron loses and I'm happy to see that Jim Tressel is going to be punished.  If only the Buckeyes had made it to the national championship against Auburn then the whole BCS championship game would be stricken from the records 5 years from now, about the time that Cam gives back his trophy.

No Place Like Home

We went home for spring break and found a house.  It was a wonderful trip filled with family and excitement as we put an offer in on the above home that sits two doors south of the house in which I grew up and in which my parents still live.  The skepticism we continue to receive when we report that last tidbit is comical to both of us, but really I couldn't be happier to live near my folks and Melissa feels the same way which is all the better for me.  I'm excited to have my kids ride bikes on the same trails that I did 25 years ago and go to my elementary school and high school.  I'm also excited to be able to walk to church.

The real excitement of the trip was in the traveling itself.  We left South Bend Friday night and drove straight through.  Saturday night we arrived at an empty house as my dad was at a track meet and mom was out grocery shopping, but it didn't matter because we were just happy to get out of the car.  Somewhere in Nebraska we lost a blanket, a pillow pet and a pair of pajamas after Kristian decided to lose his dinner upon waking at a gas station at 1:30 AM.  I was in no mood to attempt to clean any of that and decided to pitch them.  My grandparents are rolling in their graves at my wasteful attitude, but in my defense it was 1:30.  Then remainder of our trip out was uneventful.

The trip back was a little bit less stressful to start.  We decided to do it in two days and left Salt Lake at a decent hour on the Saturday of spring break.  We made it to Lincoln, NE before calling it a day.  The next morning we were on the road by 8:00 South Bend time and made great time until we were a mere 3 hours from home.

About an hour outside of Joliet the check battery light in the Yukon came on and I noticed that our voltage was pretty low.  I turned off the A/C, radio, DVD player, daytime running lights and we used our windows sparingly so as to conserve any battery power we might have left.  I figured our alternator was having a difficult time (having gone through an alternator replacement in my first car some years ago), but we likely wouldn't be able to find anyplace to help us out on a Sunday anyway so we kept going.  Upon arriving in Joliet we pulled off the freeway only to have the voltage meter kick back up to normal.  We filled up the Yukon, counted our blessings and got back on the freeway.

Another 20 miles down the road and battery light goes on again.  We pulled off the freeway again hoping against hope that whatever kicked the alternator before would do it again.  We were sorely disappointed when it didn't come back this time so again we got back on the freeway and continued on our trek running on the last battery power we had.  At this time we were driving I-80 along the south side of Chicago which is a very poor spot to break down.

We made it to Indiana and even onto the toll road here where traffic thins considerably.  After about 10 minutes on the toll road the lights and gauges in the Yukon go out but the engine continues to run.  Another 3 minutes and we coast to a stop on the side of the freeway where we wait for our rescuers.

A couple of years ago I would have considered this to be an incredibly poor turn of events, but as I was waiting for the tow truck I got to thinking about how many things went right for us on this trip.  First of all we traveled 3500 miles in a week and the car broke down with 30 to go.  That's not too bad.  We have an AAA membership that I purposely did not renew in February because we're moving in June anyway.  The week before we left we got a letter that the membership renewed itself through automatic billing and at that time I was ticked because I didn't want it to renew.  Dumb me.  We had enough power in our cell phones to call AAA get a tow and call a friend in South Bend who graciously drove the 30 miles from South Bend to pick up Melissa and the kids.  As if all that wasn't enough the unexplainable glitch in the alternator back in Joliet where it kicked back on recharged the battery back to where it was 30 miles previous to that stop.  Thirty miles from South Bend isn't a bad place to break down.  Sixty miles from South Bend is right in the middle of South Chicago where I-80 is 5 lanes with very little shoulder, not a place I want to be stranded with Melissa and our 4 kids.

We had the car dropped off at a shop just up the road from our home.  They replaced the alternator and we had the Yukon back by the end of the work day on Monday.

It turned out to be a wonderful week and I feel very blessed to have learned the lessons I did, though I still don't know what I should have learned from that gas station in Nebraska with the pillow-pet in their dumpster.