The last almost 20 days

So, let's see - what have we been up to? Jim has been working now for about 4 weeks! Life around here has changed as he has commuted between here and Pueblo, coming home on the weekends (until this weekend when his schedule starts to be "normal" and we won't see him at home). Erin has moved home, we have had the plumber/heater guy here multiple times for various problems, and life has continued going on despite all of the crazy changes. Life always continues going on, despite changes and how it feels as it goes.

We did have some fun, and took some pictures to proove it. On Friday the 11th of April we went together for a round of "golfing at the mall", which is what the boys always want to do. Any time I say "guess where we're going" or "we're going to do something fun" they always ask if its golfing at the mall. They were more than excited when we told them that we were going! It is called Safari Golf and it is glow-in-the-dark miniature golfing, so they look pretty cool as their clothes glow as they golf. Here are a few pictures.

Jim taking his turn.

The boys going at it.
Michael.
Eric. I love this picture for the face he is making - I was glad to see I caught it on camera, even though he looks like he's unhappy while golfing at the mall.

We have been getting ready to buy a house, and move. Between the two of us we have been on the phone with the loan guy, the realtor, a few family members, verizon wireless, the comcast internet guy, and a few doctors' offices. I knew moving would be a pain, and I knew it would take a while to get a house and finances figured out, but when you combine that with changing health insurance and a "regular life" going on, its been a TON to deal with.

Yesterday the boys were playing outside and wanted to take their shirts off. So, my boys were running around with just pants on. Such a fun, innocent life they are enjoying in the good weather!

Tonight I am "supposed to be" in Seattle for a weekend visit with Jen Stokes. When we got Jim's schedule, I realized that there was no way I would be able to make it out there, despite Jim's being willing to let me go in the first place. I pouted about it for a while, but what can you do when your husband, 2 1/2 hrs. away, has to work 3 of the 4 days you were going to be gone? So, I'm still a little upset about having to let go of my "Lisa vacation", but with the promise of a raincheck to come, I have my trip to look forward to sometime!

Tonight the boys were quite excited to talk to Daddy on the phone! It is fun to hear their excitement when they know they are going to talk to dad.

And now for your enjoyment, a few funny things about the boys lately (the ones I can remember right now):

1-We were talking about the Holy Ghost, and Michael in a very serious way puts his hands in front of his face and says, while moving his hands down "The Holy Ghost comes and scares you and says BOO!"

2-We had FHE and for the lesson we were talking about obeying. We played "Mother, May I?" They had a fun time, and laughed quite a bit when I said "NO!" But, now when they are not listening to me I say tell them that it's time to play "Mother, May I?" and they seem to obey better (at least the trick works for now).

3-Eric was talking to me about school one day and all of a sudden he was telling me something was oviparous! In his class at school they are hatching baby chicks, and talked about all kinds of animals and things that are oviparous. I asked him if he knows what that means, and he said it comes from an egg. What a big word for him to be saying!

4-We came home the other day, Eric was at school, and Michael said "Where's dad?" It sounded like he was going to go find him in the house, expecting dad to be there. I told him dad was in Pueblo and he said "I miss him." So cute.

5-Michael came back from going with Grandpa to take Eric to the bus stop today, walked over to me (lying on the couch, not ready to be awake for the day), and said "SOS means you're in trouble." Apparently they had listed to some song in the truck that must have said SOS? All day today he kept bringing it up again and again - SOS means you're in trouble! In fact, he told me that when we go on the airplane to Papi's house next time he's going to tell Papi that SOS means you're in trouble!

6-Mrs. Gordon (Eric's teacher) had emailed about something, and when she responded to my email back to her, she told me that Eric had writen a book about how the power went out and I took the fire alarm off the ceiling! So, I explained the story. Our power went off on Sunday (the 20th). This happens occasionally, no big deal. I was glad we were cooking dinner on the grill outside and that the rice had already cooked inside. While we are eating, the fire alarms go off. The boys and I go outside, and send Jim to see if there is a real fire or not. That sounds bad, but occasionally (about twice a year) the fire alarms go off in the house without any fire. Spiders, bugs, or dust get inside and set them off. The only way to turn them off is to find the guilty culprit and diconnect it from the house wires. After a few times, I have come to know which alarm is probably the guilty one and went straight to take it out first, which worked. Normally once its disconnected it stops screaming at us, but this time it kept beeping in my hand as I walked back downstairs with it! Apparently Eric thought it was pretty funny but was shocked that I had taken the fire alarm out-and wrote a book about it!

Jim's 1st Week of Work and Casa Bonita!

March 31st! What a day! Its a day I've been waiting for, for quite some time. It was Jim's first day of work! He left Sunday the 30th after dinner to go down to Pueblo. He had to report to work by 8am, and its a 2 hr 20 min. drive, so it was best for him to go down the night before.

He thoroughly HATES pictures of himself, but he did oblidge as I asked for a picture of him as he left the house. It was the closest thing I could get to the picture I really wanted: Him leaving the door for his first day of his new job. How cute he is!

The boys and I stayed in Longmont. At first we were going to go and spend this first week with Jim, because it was Eric's spring break. In the end it didn't work out for us to all go, so we stayed here. Our new routine for the next 6+ weeks started: talking to dad every night. Here are the boys, just chillin' as they talk to Jim.

Jim worked Mon-Thurs. 4-10 hour shifts. For training they are putting Jim's 4-10's all in a row, due to the fact he is commuting without his family for a while. That is only guaranteed, however, for the first 2 weeks. Then he'll be on a regular schedule, which will be more crazy (something like 2 on, 1 off, 2 on, 2 off.) So, he stayed the night Thurs. and came home Friday after he'd slept a night. It was good to see him after a week without him! The boys were pretty excited too.

Friday night we went out to dinner with some of the Vinton side of the family. Uncle Doug and Aunt Layne Vinton, and Uncle Rick Vinton met us at Casa Bonita. Its a fun place to go, with great entertainment and ok food. They have cliff divers, a wild west show, a "gorilla show" that Eric remembered from last time, a mariachi band, a pinata to break, a "spook alley", a puppet show, and waterfalls to walk behind and run around.

Here are the boys, watching the show from our seats. At times they were so entertained they forgot to eat. Oh well. The show did end after a few minutes and they ate between shows. Eric eating a sopapilla. They are pretty good smothered with honey!
Aunt Layne and I. I have to say, this is a MUCH better picture of her than it is me. Am I always that pale and sickly looking? I thought I'd include it because I rarely have pictures of me, or Aunt Layne, so this was my big chance (even though I'd rather not include it). Maybe I could blame the bad picture on the camera, or the person taking it??? ha ha ha Sorry Uncle Doug. :)

The boys with the treats they got from the pinata. They didnt' get a chance to hit it before it broke, but they did get their 3 tootsie rolls, which they were pretty proud of (although you can't tell in this picture they're even happy to have them).

Michael at the wishing well. To the left of his head you can see the light-up necklaces that the boys got as a special gift from Uncle Doug. They are pretty cool, and as we left they were running around with their necklaces on their necks blinking like crazy. We could all imagine them lying in bed, with their lights blinking all night...how fun! Thanks Uncle Doug!

Here are the boys choosing their treasure from the treasure chest! It is by the door out, and each child is allowed to choose one thing. Michael immediately grabbed his tootsie roll, as Eric stood there debating for another minute.

We had a great time! I've decided that we definately need to have more big family gatherings. I remember very well many gatherings with my extended family growing up. We always had some dinner or birthday party with Uncle Jeff's family and Aunt Brenda's family. I look back on those times as good memories, and want to start having them more often with the Vinton/Clark families, who live within 2 hours of us but we rarely see. So, for any of you out there reading this: when is the next gathering?

Bounce Castle

During all the chaos of our "boxes week" of distress, the boys seemed to take it all better than us parents did. This may have been the highlight of their week: the bounce castle. Our nice neighbors, Jean and Dan Smith (who now live in Judy's house next door), had this bounce castle on their driveway March 26th. The boys saw it and were convinced they were invited to have a turn! After explaining to them it was their special day and they had friends over so we should leave them alone, they got the invitation that they not-so-secretly desired: come and have a turn!

Here they are, in all their jumping excitement! While Michael was going potty Eric got to jump by himself for a while...
Here they are together, having a great time!
Here is Michael, with Eric lying down after throwing himself down as only kids can do.
The wind was blowing pretty good, as usual. As it would blow harder it would start to knock the castle down. Eric was very concerned about this, as you can see. The wind did eventually end the fun. But, it was a good time while it lasted.

Boxes

After I posted this, I realized I need to say that this was LAST week, the week ending with Saturday the 29th of May... ok, here is the post...

Boxes and Boxes. That's what we've had around here. The sad thing is that we actually need more of them, to pack our stuff and move. However, I thought I'd report on what happened during the last week, at least part of it for now, to give you a clue of whats been going on around here.

This is Michael in his first big box to play in. He sat in front of it for a while, a little hesitant. I told him it was ok, and he finally went in slowly.

There he is, in the box and happy.

I thought this was cute..to see him crawl out of it, and go back in a few times.

Then, I mentioned the possibilities of what a box could "be" and "do." After that we had to make it into a house and cut a door, which he went in and out of many times. It became a game for him to get in and out of the house, before I could get a picture of him coming out. He thought it was pretty funny. I did get this good one, though.

So, you may ask a couple questions about this big box:

1-Where was Eric? At school. He did get a very short turn to play with the box before it was taken away by the men who didn't know we would continue to play with it for days and days.

2-Where did it come from? Well, thats another (the big) part of the week's story. Tuesday AM I woke up and couldn't figure out why the carpet outside the bathroom was wet, but assumed one of the boys didn't make it in time. When I asked them who peed their pants, and they both denied it. I didn't believe them--I even smelled their pants to check for sure! Strange. I went back, and the carpet was SOAKING. I mean it puddled at my feet as I stepped into it. The walls were dry. The bathroom floor was dry. Very odd.

Well, it turns out the water heater broke somewhere around 2 AM or so. I only know that because I woke up around then, heard water running, and couldn't figure out why Grandma would be showering at this hour. But, I went back to sleep cause, well why not? You know me. The water heater is on the other side of the wall that is in my room, right next to the bathroom door. Brian had discovered the lack of warm water and turned the water heater off when he woke up, but it continued to drip from the top of the water heater somehow (maybe from the pipe above? I still don't know).

So, the plumbers came to put in a new water heater. The only "problem" with that was this: we have all of our storage in the furnace room/storage room that is all under the stairs with the water heater and air conditioner/heater unit. So, since the old water heater needed to come out, we had to make a clear, wide path for it to get out and the new and bigger one in...which meant that the boys' room had to be adjusted, as well as many of the items on the heater side of the storage. The other side of storage had to be mostly emptied so they could get into the area where the drain is, and drain the 50 gallons of water out of the broken heater before they could move it.

So, here are pictures of what my house looked like. Are we moving? Yes, but not really for a few months...this is our storage and everything "re-arranged" to accomodate what needed to be done.

My room, looking from the boys' room. The wall on the left is the wall to the furnace room. The dresser you see at the end next to my bed actuallybelongs there. The rest does not. The extremely wet carpet was to the left of the dresser in the little "hallway" to the bathroom.

The boys' room. Yes, those are the valentine's hearts you have seen before, still up. The furnace room door is just out of the picture on the left. What you can't see here is the fact that the boys' beds are piled up with even more things that came out of storage.

This is my living room, as seen from the kitchen. What you can't see is the little "alcove" area that we have on the left, which was also piled up with storage items. Notice how we left ourselves a "hallway" to be able to walk from the kitchen to the bathroom? The storage door is just to the right of the blue couch. And, yes, you are looking at my dirty laundry in its sorter which had to come off the carpet and find a new home for a few days.

So, to continue the story: New water heater installed, finally we had hot water again around 7PM. They were here from 1-6 or so, installing the new and taking out the old. Ok, not really taking out the old. It stayed until Friday so they could take it out without dragging all the dirt and grime out across the house and up the stairs when they took it out. So, naturally, it stayed in the furnace room where our storage is usually stacked on that side. We were able to get our stuff back into the living room side of storage...until they pulled it out again because they had forgotten to put a pan under the new water heater, which they had to drain (all 75 gallons of it) to put the pan under it, which meant that it all came back again. Luckily, we had gone to town for a few things so the plumbers did it themselves. After all, we'd done it already and it was their fault that they didn't do it right the first time, right? I still feel sorry for them, and me cause now I don't know where my boxes are except "in there somewhere". I've had to hunt to find what I needed. Luckily, our TP supply was easy to find after it was put back in.

The hard thing--ok, there were lots of hard things--but, to mention one or two (besides the fact we didn't shower for a day, which I can't stand)

1. This was Tuesday. Storage out, as you saw. Then, we find out Wednesday that some appraisers are coming and we should have it all put away by when they come on Thurs. Great. Just great. As if we didn't have enough to do without this happening--get Jim an apartment in Pueblo, get him packed, get him some new work clothes, get some groceries (before the sale ends!) for us and for Pueblo, etc...

2. Tuesday night I spent hours trying to get the water out of the carpet. I got some, but not nearly all. Water remained. We finally put towels down and walked on top of them for a while to help soak up the water. Still, water remained. We put the little space heater we have on it to help. Still, water remained. This is Wednesday night now. We starts to have a slightly new scent in my room. I can barely enter my room and opt to sleep on the couch, cause that's just gross. Friday, as we are walking out the door, Grandma says the carpet needs to be pulled up. Fine. We'll deal with it when we get back.

At this point I start to ask myself: I wonder who my home teachers are? I'm going to call them, cause we're in it WAY over our heads. I think this is the first time in my married life (almost 8 years!!!) that it has really crossed my mind to call the HTs, and I was actually going to do it if I could find out who they are!

Grandma and Grandpa, thankfully, took care of it while we were gone. Where did we go? To buy Jim new work clothes at JC Penny's cause they're having a good sale. We discovered on the other side of town that I've lost my wallet between Penny's and Albertsons. After driving back to Penny's and discovering my wallet is not in the parking lot where I had, as we drove away I thought to myself "That's an odd lump in the parking lot. I don't remember running over a rock as we pulled in."

So, we scrap the idea of going back to the grocery store and rush home to cancel everything in my wallet. The problem we have is that Jim is moving stuff to Pueblo Saturday (tomorrow at this point), and he needs access to at least a bank account to pay his deposit, etc. After 2 banks, 2 credit cards, and a big pain later, everything is cancelled without any action on the cards in the last hour. I kept saying "There are good people in the world!" to Jim--we are under serious life stress, and I'm now in the dog house because of my little mishap. This is the first time in my life I've EVER lost my wallett. My keys occasionally get lost at home, but nothing like this has happened to me. I drove down to the DMV to report it lost and get a new license, because I'm hoping to still be able to go see Jen and my roommies in Seattle in a few weeks, and I need my license to fly (and drive, but you know). Then, the phone call came: Jim calling to say someone found my wallet and we could go get it. YEAH! Not that it saves me any of the pain, but now I don't have to get a new picture taken at the DMV. My license is good until 2012, which is 10 years between pictures, and I didn't want to have to get another one quite yet.

It turns out that Jim's debit card for 1 bank is still good, and both banks are good for checks still. So, I wrote a check at the grocery store for food when I finally got there on Saturday, and another for some cash (cause not everywhere will take checks anymore, and what if we need to go to McD's drivethrough while Jim is gone?) Now we know: make a file titled "For when I lose my wallet" and make a copy of all of your cards, license, etc. It would make life TONS easier in that unfortunate event of wallet loss.

The good news: Jim got as much as he could packed and piled in Grandpa's truck Friday night, and they moved him into his apartment in Pueblo on Saturday. The boys and I made it to soccer ON TIME -and-with the snack (which I got at the store right before, because of the mishap Friday).

It was very stressful and eventful...but, I guess that's life. I should be used to the very unpredictable nature of life, especially after the last year of our lives. Maybe its that we don't ever get used to it, but maybe as times goes on we'll be better able to handle the unexpected? So, here's to surviving another week and being able to look back on it with less stressful emotions than when we were going through it!

Have a good day today, everyone--and kudos to you for actually reading this long! -Lisa

The Hunt is On!

What a hunt! The boys were excited to have an easter egg hunt in the backyard with our friends the Searle's. They could hardly wait, so I didn't get a picture of "before" but there were many along the way. It was so much fun! It was cold out, but the kids didn't notice until they slowed down. I couldn't catch up with the kids to get all the "perfect pictures" I wanted to get, but here are a few good ones.

Michael, finding an egg right by the back porch.
Eric reaching as far as he can to get the egg in the middle of the table on the back porch.

Michael found a few eggs in the tree, hidden low enough for him to reach. I really like this picture.
Eggs, sitting in the little garden girl's basket, and found by Eric.
What a cute smile on his face as Michael finds another, and looks at where everyone else is looking.
This is little Zachary Searle, my friend Holley's son. He is just a year old.Eric and Brooklyn Searle looking around (and on top of) the garden. Good thing there isn't anything planted--the kids were climbing all over the dirt to look...although they missed that green one right there!
After the hunt, we headed inside to see what was hiding inside those eggs. Here is Eric, down to business opening all of his eggs.

Michael would open an egg and eat the treat inside. Then, he would open another egg and eat the treat inside. I finally had to tell him "no more eating treats" and he didn't even want to open the rest of the eggs. I opened them for him to put his treats in his goodie bag.

Brooklyn was a little more timid about the whole process, opening some and eating some too. Zachary crawled around on the floor eating all of the M&M's the kids dropped on the floor.

We all had a great time! If you're feeling the need for some treats, come on by--we have TONS of them sitting around!

Easter Baskets

The Easter Bunny comes on Friday night, if the boys are sleeping good. So, on Saturday they get to wake up to their Easter baskets. This is the Vinton way of trying to keep the "tradition" separate from the "sacred" of Easter. The boys were so excited when they woke up, and didn't want to wait for Grandma or anyone else to be awake before they got to find their baskets.

I really like this picture of Eric, searching for his hidden basket.
Michael looking back at where his basket was hiding. It was hiding behind the curtain by the piano bench. It was almost as if he was still trying to figure it out, amazed at it all. Cute.
Can you see the joy on Eric's face! He just found his basket behind the chair in the music room.
Michael looks pretty happy to have his treats!
Eric tasting his treats. I think this is a unique look to catch on camera. I like the definition on his cheek, and the pucker on his lips as he tries to keep the candy inside his mouth. I like this picture of Michael, I'm not sure exactly why. Enjoy!
Here they are "checking out the stash" together.
Uncle Brian and the boys with Alex (Matt's son). It was Alex's first Easter. I guess Michael was feeling really cheesy at the moment because he's giving a big, funny smile. It is similar to Jim's smile--if Jim smiles really big, his eyes seem to disapper and makes him a little Asian-looking. Fun picture!
After Easter baskets, and before our Easter egg hunt, Eric had another soccer game. I thought this was a cool picture and had to share. Go Rapids! (Eric's team name this season.)

Snow and Easter Eggs

I forgot to include on the last post this picture. It was taken on the 17th. As you can see, we got some snow--enough for a snow man. Jim and the boys had a great time. Thanks to Grandpa for taking the picture while I was at institute!
We died our Easter Eggs on the the 20th. The boys had a great time. Eric remembered pretty well how to die the eggs...and it didn't take long for Michael to catch on. Here are some pictures:

I couldn't NOT post this funny face picture of Michael.
Here is Michael, finally figuring it out.
Eric wanted to make an egg with different colors, so we showed him how to do it. You can see that he is really concentrating to get it the way he wants it.
Here they are with their finished eggs. Enjoy the funny faces!

Test Results

On St. Patrick's day Eric got to find out the results of his big test. And... he passed! Here he is with his yellow-with-white-stripe belt, and the certificate to proove it!
St. Patrick's Day was quite the event around here. The boys were VERY excited about wearing green, and pinching people who weren't wearing green. They were extra careful to check everyone's clothes, and make sure they were properly dressed. Eric was a little nervous about wearing his karate gi, which is all white, to class because what if someone pinched him? After reassurance that everyone was going to be in their gi, and nobody was going to be wearing green, he felt ok about it. It was a fun day for them, complete with corned beef and cabbage for dinner.

On the 18th we went out for ice cream. We had lots of fun, and the boys each got to choose what they wanted. Blue ice cream (cotton candy) was the flavor of the day, for the boys at least. Thanks Papi for the treat!