Travel – Page 2 – Jacob and Marcia

Hang up the phone and drive!

Listen lady! It is a busy intersection, and you need to get off the phone. There are stop signs each direction. The car that I let go ahead of mee, had the right-of-way. Then it was my turn, so I started. You, however, were not paying attention to the intersection. And would have plowed right into the side of mee if I had not been aware of you going and you not watching. I braked, and stopped in time for you to not hit mee, and when I put my hand in the air (whole hand, not displaying any particular part of my hand, lest anyone think I was making a rude gesture) as if to ask why you went out of turn. You just shrugged your shoulders, still holding the phone to your ears, as if to answer “whatever” and that it really doesn’t matter because you are allowed to drive irresponsibly.

If you are driving, just pay attention to the road. If you really need to talk to someone, pull over. If you think you need to keep talking to someone while driving, make sure you can keep your eyes on the road, and hands on the wheel. The phones do come equipped with speakerphone after all.

I want them to go faster and louder

Almost a month ago (July 6-8) we had our first house guests in our new home. They are such fun three (and-a-half) year olds. I think they left wanting more. Which means they will be happy to come stay again!

They arrived and I showed them where to find the toy box in this house, and we had our was-a-stove-box-converted-house ready for them to play in. G3 said, “We love ours house in yours house, Marcia!” Yay a successful play-house.

Here is a picture of them playing with the toys from the toy box, the hand-cuffs are from our Halloween costumes when we were prisoners. (We keep the other set out of reach of children, thank you very much.) At some point during this playtime, G2 told us, “Daddy smokes. I like him smoking.” Her daddy does not smoke.

First item on the schedule was to get in the car and travel to a drum corps show. G3 fell asleep in the car before we left town.

G2 said, “I am not going to sleep, I want to be awake.” I told her that was fine.

Then not ten minutes later she did not answer when I asked her a question, and this is what I saw.

It was raining when we got to the show location, and we were hoping that it would have stopped, so while the girls and I sat in the car and ate the food we brought, Jacob went to see if the show was going to be cancelled or moved indoors. (We had already purchased our tickets.) The answer was that it looked like the rain would stop soon, and we would wait and the show would just be delayed a bit. So, we went in and waited under the shelter of the bleachers. We had to entertain ourselves. Only when making this post did I notice the sunglasses; I did not see them like that when this was taken.

G3 helped G2 fix her skirt (which is a very cute skirt, btw).

They found drips coming from empty rivet holes.

G3 wanted her picture taken too. And just so you know, that is not a tear under her eye, it is a water drop.

Here is G3 sitting on Jacob’s lap watching the show.

Here is G2 sitting on my lap watching the show. After a while, she wanted to switch places with G3 because 1) the guy in front of us was very VERY tall and 2) my lap was/is not as big as it used to be, she had to share with her unborn cousin.

Here is a picture of the first corps that performed. They won their category/class. And as a special treat that guy there in the front ensemble is/was one of Jacob’s pitt students. We are proud of Jason, he played good.

We enjoyed this pretty sunset over the performances. ( I just realized that could mean that we preferred the sunset, that is not what I intended to say.)

We had arrived right as the show was supposed to start, and we could not see the corps busses. We had brought a lot of fruit with us to donate to Jason’s corps and we did not want to take all that fruit home with us, lest it go to waste. So when the shows were all done we drove around and found where the corps buses were parked, and Jacob went in search of someone we could give the fruit to. This was after 10 pm and the girls were tired, but very well behaved. In fact, all the people that were sitting around us were very complimentary of how well they behaved and were impressed that they watched the shows. G2 at one point told mee that one of the corps was going too slow and needed to be faster and louder. Both girls were in awe of the flags (color guard). If there had been any souvenir flags they would have been able to go home with their very own flags. Fruit delivered, and we started our two-ish hour drive home. They fell asleep in the car pretty quickly.

The next morning while I was walking (the girls were still asleep when I left, but insisted that they go walk with mee the next morning) Jacob got pancakes going. After breakfast, the girls took a BUBBLE BATH in my “tiny tub.”

While they were in the tub, their happy-things took a bath too. A very much so needed bath. Don’t tell Ronda that I let them have Happys with them at the drum corps show, but I did and they dropped them a number of times in the rain puddles, and may or may not have dropped them on the floor in the (public) bathroom when they took turns before getting back in the car to head home. Once it was clean, G3 told mee that she was unable to chew on her happy because it was clean. She makes me laugh!

After the bath they wanted to watch a movie in “ours house in yours house.” (Jacob thinks it is funny that the first thing they did when they started playing with the house was to find the object that was too big and try to get it in the door! We all do it at least once with our own homes, right?)

What did they watch? “Mahana you ugly, get down from that tree!” “Do you want Johnny Lingo to see what a disobedient daughter you are?”

They watched all but the last 3ish minutes of the movie. Then on to another activity.

I let them paint their own nails with what ever color(s) they wanted. They had fun. G3, “Boys can’t paint theirs nails!”

G3 first picture, G2 second picture. (In case you couldn’t have figured it out by the colors they chose.) I offered to paint G2’s right thumb nail, but she insisted she did not want that one painted. Well, okay then.

Lunch time, they asked if I would make them oatmeal, because G3 told mee, “Oatmeal is ours favorite food.”

G2 had her apple slices and cheese all lined up-I suspect we are related.

G2 right at the end of lunch told mee, “Marcia, I am tired, I want to lay down.” I gave her permission, and G3 followed her in and five minutes or so later they were out. About three and a half hours later they were still sleeping, and this is what we saw.

Somehow G2 turned into Dora. They slept for about four hours and 15-30 minutes. I guess we did a good job of keeping them entertained. When they woke up they stayed in there talking for a few minutes and then came out and asked if they could have another bubble bath! I would have let them if we weren’t headed out the door. We went over to Jacob’s parents’ house and they had a lot of fun pillow fighting with the adults. I wish I had taken pictures of that, or even video would have been great!

They went to bed, and before falling asleep double checked with mee that they can walk with mee in the morning with my friend, right?

They walked a mile with us before sitting on the track playing.

I let them take another bubble bath. They loved that, maybe for a birthday or something they need bubble bath soap. While making stacks of toys that I let them use in the tub, I heard G2 say to G3, “G3 do you know I love you, you is my best friend. Don’t put that on mine!” They got out of the tub just in time to start playing when Grammy, Ronda, G1, and G4 arrived to pick them up. We all had lunch and then they went on their way.

We really had fun having the girls here, maybe it can become a sort of tradition? What think you?

The post you have all been waiting for (well, some of you)

Our last post indicated that we were working on securing a mortgage. We did it!!! Hooray for us!! And (finally) thank you taxes! We qualified for the first time homebuyer’s tax credit. We have a home to call our own, we are very excited about this.

Monday the 14th of June (Miss Emily’s birthday) we closed circa 2:45pm (when all was signed and done). We walked straight over to the post office to mail out our “address change” cards to many people. This is why we asked for any addresses if people wanted one…. This is what it looks like:

annhousepageone

Okay, so it looked a bit different, because on what we mailed out had our actual address. However as previously stated, we are not posting our address on here. If you need/want our address, we can email it to you, but only if you ask, otherwise we don’t know we need to get it to you, and if we do not have your address you are responsible for getting it to us.

And for those who were/are unaware that there is a second page to the card, this is what it contains (unaltered):

annhousepagetwo

So there you have it folks!!! We are very excited and (as one of us likes to put it ) “a little bit terrified.”

It was kind of a sneaky maneuver to announce our news this way. Especially since I (Marcia) went camping with our young women for the rest of the week. We acknowledge that. We had good reason for it though. Originally we had set the closing date for when I was going to be camping, as soon as we realized that, we changed it for the day before I left. We also wanted to be sure that we had everything finished with purchasing the house before we announced the pending arrival of Copyright 2010. (And just because I want to explain my taking so long in making this post) We have been packing/unpacking/moving/cleaning/etc for the last half of June, and only this morning did we finally get around to setting up my computer. There, I said it, and I feel justified! And I am pregnant, so don’t make mee cry.

? ? ? F A Q ? ? ?

We get asked many questions with both of these big events happening in our lives. We have decided to do an FAQ (frequently asked questions) list:

Q: When are you going to move?

A: We have moved all of our belongings out of the house we rented and into our new house. We had our family help us. This process was started while I was at camp. I thought that was good timing, and because I have not been too incredibly useful, I figured it would work out better if I could just pack and have as much ready before hand and let them work while I was out of town.

Q: Are you all moved in?

A: That is a tricky question. All of our stuff is in the house, however much of it is still in boxes. We have been sleeping here and unpacking. I would not say we are “moved in” yet, I am not sure what the true definition would be for us to be in that state. Though because most of the boxes are in Copyright’s room, we have to be un-packed enough by the time December comes around.

Q: When can I come see your house?

A: Never, the date is past. We held an Open “empty” House the evening we closed. So I am partly kidding about the “never” part. We will not be holding another “open house” and we do request that if people want to come see it, that they set up an appointment (I hate the Tuesdays), so as to allow us to be home, and hopefully a little more moved in. We are after all living here now. Be considerate about it.

Q: How much work do you have to do on the house? (Also stated as: now you get to have fun fixing up the house)

A: Actually we don’t have to do any work on the house other than unpacking. We did have to get a fridge, stove, washer/dryer, and that is about it. The good people we bought it from gutted the house and made it like new with new cabinets, paint, toilets, roof, plumbing, wiring, everything really! We did get to pick out the carpet for the living room and flooring for the kitchen and bathroom.

That said, there is a detached garage with apartment space above it that needs quite a bit of work before it’s really useful, so that will be fun, but it isn’t something we have to do before we can live here.

Q: Did you buy the house because you are having a baby?

A: No we are having a baby because we now have a house. Joking. We pretty much decided to buy the house before we knew about being pregnant. This is a house we saw about a year and a half ago when it was in foreclosure, we loved it, we talked to the bank about making an offer. Then we were told some one else made an offer and that offer was accepted. Some months later (just over a year ago) we were presented with the opportunity to buy the same house, and it had been “gutted” and was in progress of being fixed up (when it was in foreclosure, the people trashed the house, on top of apparently not taking good care of it at all anyhow). We thought it over and agonized and had to turn down that offer. We did not feel like we could live in a “construction zone.” Earlier this year as Jacob was at the university in his office, he had a visitor and we were again offered the house, this time all the work would be finished and it would be move-in ready. We verbally expressed interest February, talked over details in March, signed a contract in April, and closed in June. We knew about the baby in March and test confirmed in April.

Q: I thought you never wanted to have children. (not really a question, and mostly directed at Jacob)

A: All bark and no bite. He claimed that until it happened he reserved the right to say that. In reality, we are very excited. And of course there is a bit of anxiety in the unknown. Will our baby be cute? Who will the baby look like? When do they toilet train? They don’t already know how to tie shoes? Things like that. However any person that said that to mee, doesn’t really know mee.

Q: When is the due date?

A: December 2010. Doctor’s office says the 7^th based on LMP. I say the 6^th based on ovulation.

Q: Is that a really sonogram or is it photoshopped?

A: It is really a picture from my uterus. Should it really be called a picture, it is an image created by sound waves aimed at my uterus.

Q: Are you having a boy or a girl?

A: We don’t know for sure. Based on biology and time and the moon and the stars aligning and the atmospheric pressure we suspect it will be a girl. However we have to wait about ten more weeks before my doctor will check it out.

Q: What do you want to have? (generally this immediately follows the last question)

A: A healthy human baby. I know they mean sex of the baby. Really though, I will be happy as long as everything goes well. I would love a son or a daughter. I would definitely be disappointed if it was not human.

Q: Do you want to find out the sex of the baby? (a number of people say gender, however there is a very important difference in the words, and for some odd reason it falls under my pet peeves category-sex is male or female, gender is masculine or feminine)

A: I would be okay with either knowing or being surprised, a surprise could be fun, though so could knowing and planning. Jacob wants to know. We will find out if we can. We really are planners and like to be prepared.

Q: Have you been sick at all? (directed at mee since no one suspected, except in hindsight, and we only told doctors and we were surprised at how people had finally stopped asking when we were going to have a baby)

A: Jacob responds with, “Have you not been sick at all?” I have had lots of not feeling well. I did really well with not vomiting, though there was lots of nausea, still is some, though not as constant. Then I got a sinus infection, drainage started and the vomiting commenced. I could probably win a contest for puking on command. Is there a super hero yet?

Q: Have you had any cravings?

A: Hmmm, cravings…. Not too many cravings. Mostly I have aversions. Sugar is the biggest offender at this time, unless it is counter balanced with other healthier foods. I can’t eat lettuce, and the vinegar in most condiments gives me issue. Yesterday I really wanted garlic bread, it was delicious to mee. One day I wanted potato chips (I don’t like potato chips, I like corn chips) in three flavors BBQ, Cheddar, French Onion; I did not get them, but I could taste them in my mind, and I wanted them. Early on I had a strong craving for Chef Boyardee canned ravioli; that stuff is nasty and I refused to listen to that craving.

Q: Are you (or “you are”) going to have fun shopping for maternity clothes?

A: If I liked shopping maybe that would be appealing. However I am short and it has never been fun to shop for clothes, for mee. Also, last year I lost over 60 pounds, and I did not get rid of those clothes (I know you are never supposed to keep “fat clothes” but I did). And there were some of those clothes that I like, and frankly I don’t want to spend money on temporary clothes. And there is the fact that we now have a mortgage to pay, and I don’t think there is a shopping spree in the future of our budget.

If we remember (or any other questions start to come up) other questions we get asked we will answer them.

Mother Nature is trying to make amends with mee

She was so unkind to me temperature-wise for so long. Today, though, was beautiful. It started with walking in the cold-cold to me, to most it was probably bearable. Then while Jacob was teaching, I worked on a Scripture Mastery project. And for our Family Home Evening we grilled hamburgers outside and pick-nicked in our yard. We listened to the Junior High track meet. Way to go Daniel D! Jacob said he heard that you placed. It was nice, until the sun went down and I started getting goose-bumps.

And because there has only been one guess on the quiz from last week, I am leaving it up for one more week.

Oh, I also wanted to share a lesson in keeping the Sabbath day Holy. Yesterday as we were leaving church the gas tank light came on. We decided that instead of purchasing more gas on Sunday we would hold out and trust we would be blessed for it. Even though Jacob had a home teaching appointment to drive to last evening. And I would need to drive across town early this morning before I could get gas. So after I did my walking thing this morning I went to start the car and it hesitated, but still got me over to Hy-Vee so that I could pay the electric bill and get a 15 cents/gallon off of my gas purchase. And then I was almost unable to start the car again to get to a gas pump, it was on what fumes were barely there still, but it made it to the pump, and I was able to fill up at $2.74/gallon. That is the best we have paid for gas in a long time.

Quiz yes, photo no-ish

Here are my test results to a couple tests I have taken recently:

Created by Auto Insurance

Created by Oatmeal

How do you score?

Good stuff

We have been busy, doing many things. Probably only interesting to us, maybe not. So a bit later I might bore you with the details. For now, though, I just want to share a video. This concert was on Sunday past. This is the son, Xavier, of our good friends, the Zahnle family. He also happens to be one of the percussion students Jacob teaches in the marching band. He won the Annual Young Artist Competition, and was therefore invited to perform with the Quincy Symphony. We sure are proud of this young man. So, without further ado:

Little Orphan Annie

Is responsible for a number of my obsessions. Red Hair. Curly hair. Twirly dresses. Calling dogs “dumb.” Bald heads*.

Tonight as I was trying to feel better**, I curled up on the couch to watch “comfort movies.” One of which was Annie. It reminded me how much I loved the music, still do. And it got mee to thinking about how I used to have an Annie dress, not the one she wears in the movie, but one with her and Sandy and a rainbow, all over it. I have no idea what the rainbow was about since I didn’t see one in the movie, but I had matching hair barrettes. I remember being very sad when I was no longer able to wear it.

When the movie was over, I checked the audio options, as I like to do, and was pleased to see that I can watch it in Spanish! I like the song translations***.

And my wonderful husband**** surprised mee with roses when he returned from Stake meetings this evening.

*So, I may not be obsessed with “bald heads” but I sure do think little old men are adorable, and I love when babies (boys) look like little old men. Weird I know, but it is mee.
**I am suffering from a crazy sinus infection. Mostly bothers mee overnight, however it has mee coughing and sneezing and feeling pretty crumby.
***I foresee my memorizing them in the future.
****I sure do think he is swell!

I hate that it is pretty

Snow. It is cold and nasty. It is so pretty. In fact I think I really like to see it drifting across the road in the swirls of wind. If only it were not so stinking cold!

Tonight as we were driving, I was reminded of a song in Beauty and the Beast. “Through the mist, through the woods, through the darkness and the shadows, it’s a nightmare, but it’s one exciting ride.” And that describes the mid-west to mee tonight.

Only problem now is, we don’t own that movie. And until I can watch it, that song will be stuck in my head.

This is not fair

So last spring/summer we had the back door open for fresh air, a lot. A mouse came in, so we got traps and caught it in just a couple days.

This fall another mouse dared to enter the house. We set the traps again, and it was caught with-in the hour of setting.

We had one still set along the wall, just waiting in hopes that we would not catch another.

We went out of town for a week, and the trap was empty.

The temperatures dropped, a mouse came in for a snack. It died.

We went to pick up more traps (because even though it says reusable, let’s be honest here, I am not un-clipping the mouse and using that nasty thing again!) just in case we need them. The temperature outside keeps dropping, and I don’t want to be outside!

The price of the traps this time was $6.88, I think-once I find the receipt I will know for sure. This evening we were at the store getting other supplies in that area of the store, and passed the traps display, and this is what I saw:

IMG00315mouse traps

It is the original price again. It makes me so stinking mad!!!!!

We figure that because the outside temperatures dropped, many people were having trouble with the mice coming in, and the store (or rather the people who run it) decided that they might as well make extra money off the people who already have enough problems in their lives. And now that the traps are in less of a demand, the price has dropped back to the original rate.

Now, if I can just think of how to make this work to my advantage…. Any ideas?

Category: Travel