Adjusting to Provo

I figured it's been a long time since I bothered to write anything, so I'll give Mike a break and do a post. I usually have so much to say that people start tuning me out after a minute or so, but school is stealing all my excess blab, so I forget to talk sometimes. It makes for strange social situations. :D

Provo has been nice actually, but I miss Midway. That is strange because I didn't miss it the first time I moved out. Moving out the 2nd time (that is so weird) I have actually missed my hometown, and feel homesick. I am adjusting though, and I have to admit it has been awesome to have my own kitchen again!

When we started unpacking, we found all our stuff that we hadn't seen in a year and a half. Mike pulled out his basting brush, patted it lovingly and said, "I've missed you...". It was funny, but exactly how we felt after pulling out our own dishes and cooking utinsels.

The kids are doing a lot better than the first week we moved. They are now having an argument at the table, (Emma nods)"Uh huh!", (Matthew shakes his head)"Mm mmm!", and on and on it goes. Giggle, scream, repeat. I'm glad to see them happy.

School is going a lot smoother than either Mike or I expected. We're both keeping up. Mike has a great study group who is helping him learn everything he needs to know, and he can come home for food and to see the kids whenever he gets time. It's been nice. Nathan has been coming over a lot too and that has been awesome.

Emma takes the bus to school now. I guess all the kids at her school do, even if they live really close like we do. When she found out I was picking her up, she threw a monumental tantrum and bit my arm. I had a bruise for a week! That was probably the worst moment of moving adjustment we've had. I told her she had to earn a sticker every day for no tantruming. She did it for a week, so I signed the bus papers. It's been really nice, I don't have to worry about waking Matthew up to go get her from school.

Matthew got burned as well, which was our second meltdown. He wanted the mac and cheese I was cooking before I was ready to give it to him, and when I turned to dump in the cheese packet, he pulled bowl down. It was so so sad. It wasn't a bad burn, however. He was lucky and it has healed nicely.

More about our crazy life later. Hopefully the adjustment period will pass and life will go on.

Moving and so on

WOW what a busy week! This whole mess started on Thursday. Erin and I had been batting around the idea of moving out of the in-laws house. We even went to look at a couple places on Wednesday. We saw a couple things that we were ok with, but nothing that we liked. There was a cute little house really close to campus that was within our range and we talked to the land lord about the lease. We were going to look at one more place before we decided though. Thursday started my HAZWOPER training so I wasn't able to join Erin on the house hunt. I got a message on my cell phone that pretty much said "HI Honey, I found this really cute place and I know that your going to LOVE it! It's perfect! So I put down the deposit and signed the lease agreement. We move in on Saturday. Love you BYE!". The first time I saw the place was when we moved in. It was a little quick, but it turned out well. I did love the place! Erin was right. It is a little 2 story condo unit with 2 rooms and a 2.5 bath. It has a nice kitchen and is very clean. The kids love it. Emma kept wanting to go to the "new house". We now are part of Provo, very close to BYU. No more canyon driving for me.

Emma seemed to handle it ok, but then things got weird. She wouldn't follow any directions. Well, I should say that when we asked her to do something she almost started doing it then stopped and wouldn't move. She started throwing huge temper tantrums, and she wouldn't sleep at night. It is a big change for her though. She has a new school, and no Grandma and Grandpa to play with. We spent a lot of time unpacking her toys last night with her in an effort to show her that things are ok and somethings didn't change. Her room is completely unpacked. She went to bed normally last night and hasn't given us a lot of grief since. It has been nice today.

Matthew...well...he doesn't seem to care as long as we have an endless supply of binkey's. He is cool with it all.

Erin started school last week and is pushing her way though it again. She hopes to be on the Deans list this next semester. I'm not sure I know what to think about that myself. I need to get some bumper sticker that says "My wife is an honor student at UVU" or something.

I am now HAZWOPER certified! HAZWOPER is Hazardous Material Emergency Response training. I hope I never have to use it. Chemical spills can be very crazy. I also started school this week. It is crazy. I still don't know what homework is due when. All the classes are based around chemistry and math. So the teaching overlaps. That is nice, but I can't remember what I learned in what class. It's crazy.

That is all for this post. I hope it was long enough. I should start charging a dollar for each person to read these posts. Then I would have......two dollars. I could then buy a couple jr whoppers! DATE NIGHT! YEAH!

Timpanogos Hike

Saturday marked our 2nd adventure before school starts again. It is a long standing tradition in Erin's family to hike Timpanogos once a year. We haven't been able to because of the kids. It had been 5 years since we hiked it last with Erin's family.
We started the hike at 4:45 in the morning. Erin's brothers and my friend Shawn came in addition to Erin and I. We took the Aspen Grove trail, the one by Sundance. The hike is supposed to be 8 miles to the top of Timpanogos. so we wanted to get an early start before the sun came up. We met a lot of hikers on the way up that were coming down. I guess a common thing is to start the hike at midnight and watch the sun rise. Those coming down couldn't make it up for one reason or another.
The start of the hike was...well....dark. we couldn't see much since we only had one flash light to split between the five of us. When the sun came up we were exposed to a brilliant view of the mountain side! It is a pretty hike for those willing to do it.
About 7 o'clock found us pretty far up the trail when we noticed that clouds started forming up all around us. Our view was taken and replaced with gray. It was so intense that we couldn't see much more then ten feet in front of us. Yes we knew about the storm that was supposed to come yesterday, but we pressed on.
We took some breaks and filled up our water bottles at the spring. We had a lot of good snacks and a ton of water. It was actually relaxing. Yes I huffed and puffed my up, but it wasn't all bad. The wild flowers were everywhere adding a blanket of color to almost everything we saw.
We made it to the lake at 9:15 ish when we decided to have "lunch". There is a glacier of snow that the wind comes right off of at the lake. We FROZE! We made a quick decision that the top wouldn't be a possibility due to the cold and the fact that we couldn't see anything anyway. So we started down.
No more then 10 min passed when it started to hail and snow. Yes, August 15 and it was snowing. We kept up a good pace and about 10:45 the snow started to melt and turn into rain. The trail turned into mud. We turned into wet messes, but we weren't cold.
We made it down the mountain and to the car by 12:00. We hiked about 14 miles yesterday. I couldn't walk for the rest of the day yesterday. I jarred my legs pretty bad on the way down. Erin was fine. She was saying how energetic she felt and how she was so excited that we still had the whole day left! We all did better then we thought we would. I didn't stop at all coming down and didn't stop a lot going up. Well, I stopped more my first time 5 years ago.
So, I recommend this hike, but watch the weather!

Thanksgiving Point

We started our two weeks of freedom with a trip to Thanksgiving Point. Erin and I decided that our kids needed a little culture regarding farm animals. So instead of taking them to any of the 100 farms in Midway, we took them somewhere that has never really been a farm and were we had to pay. Sounds logical enough.

For those who have never visited Thanksgiving point for this purpose, I really recommend it. The farm was like a zoo for farm animals. It didn't really feel like a zoo because all the animals were very well taken care of. You can tell because they all ran up to the fence looking for hand outs and were very friendly. They would even run up to to the kids. It gave Matthew a laugh every time he got to touch a goat nose.

There were a bunch of little baby animals also. This made Erin happy. The thing that made me happy was that it only cost 3.50 a person and it included a pony ride!

The pony ride was awesome. Emma was scared and had to have Erin hold onto her the entire time. Matthew took to the saddle like a duck to water. It was interesting to watch him. He slid right in, grabbed the saddle horn with one hand and petted the pony's mane with the other. Then sat back and waited. He was almost in tune with the pony with he started move. Bobbing up and down at the right moments. He looked really natural!

We went during the farmers market on Friday. Erin wanted to make sure that she was able to get some cucumbers for pickling. Not only did she find them at a great deal, we got peaches and blackberries. It feels good to help the local growers. The produce tasted great!

Finals week FINALLY!!

Finals couldn't have come any sooner. Good GRIEF I thought this semester would never end. I have my test tomorrow, then I'm not expected to show my face around campus for 2 weeks. No, I will not just go there for fun so don't even ask.

It appears that I need to be playing a little bit of catch up. A lot has happened since July 4th. Most of the happening were with Emma and Erin.

Emma now uses the potty for number 1 AND 2. The 2 took some persuasion. She was really scared of it for a long time. She usually finds her pull-ups and puts them on when she needs to go number 2. So one day she asked me for one. I was about to give in when I said, "I don't think I will give you a pull-up. Lets go to the potty!" So we did. I sat here down, and she cried and cried. Then I remembered that we had some chocolate near by. So I gave her a piece. She calmed down a little and asked for another. I said that she would have to try to use the potty before I would give her more. So, she did! After about 4 pieces of chocolate, she overcame her resistance and used the potty! This solidifies the fact that if you want a woman to do something for you, it's best to give her loads of chocolate first.

Emma is now holding conversations also. We were really worried about her speech lately. She isn't too clear. It seems like the very next day, she opened up and started talking and asking for things and being clear enough for others to understand her. We are very excited for her.

Erin has been taking classes at UVU this summer. She has had 3 classes so far. The stupid part is that she has scored A's for all of them. JERK. She still has one final to take on Thursday. It's not looking like a problem for her though. She has started running again at night and is loving it. I'm not, because it is a huge safety issue. She can't seem to find anyone to go with though. So if you are in Midway, please run with her so I don't worry.

Matthew is growing again. His word list entails: Binkie, Down, Mommy, Daddy, Emma, Balloon, and versions of Grandma and Grandpa. He is very confident in what he can do. The cool thing is that when he gets hurt, he doesn't shy away from the thing that hurt him. He jumps right back into it.

We had a family get together on Sunday. My brother David and his Wife have a little one name Hyrum that is a couple months younger then Matthew. Hyrum has just decided to be one of the cousins and is now running around with them. Emma runs around with Jessica's daughter, and Matthew runs around with Hyrum. It reminds me of when I was little.

That is as far as I will type today. I have a final to study for and those derivatives will not integrate on their own! Good night!

Independence Day!!

Yeah for America!! I do consider myself a patriot. I would be waving a flag right now, but I can't actually afford one. Sorry, my kids need to eat. I love our country and I would fight for it if I was called upon to do so. Because of my major, I would probably be called to make bombs or something. We have a great country. I really thought about it when we were watching fireworks in Midway. Isn't it great that we have the freedoms that we do. It is also nice to celebrate America with a Chinese tradition. So, enough rambling.

Our fourth was a little different this year. Not much actually happened that we planned. We were going to visit my parents in Salt Lake, but a blown starter on our Passat soon took care of that idea. We have another on it's way from Connecticut. For those keeping track on our Passat issues let me catch you up to date: one rebuilt engine, two cataletic converters, O2 sensors, two brake jobs, one ABS control module (still needs to be replaced), one starter, two tie rods, 4 control arms, one clutch plate, three front axles, and the usual tires/oil changes. We just need to replace the exhaust, transmission, and the alternator in order for us to have an almost new car!

Midway decided to do something a little different this year. They were holding what they called "The small town fourth". They had music, food, stuff...I'm actually not sure of what they had. Once we found that we were surrounded by music we didn't like and couldn't get away from, we got in my clunker car and limped to Park City to visit Wal-Mart to wait it out.

We ate really good yesterday. We had homemade donuts, root beer, and a BBQ. The root beer was awesome. We usually buy the McCormick brand extract and it does a decent job, but the store started selling Hires Big H brand. We thought we would give that a try. It was worth it! We are still drinking it. Yum. I'm kind of a root beer sob.

Midway always does a great job with their fireworks. There is an oddly placed hill in Midway call Memorial Hill. It is where the tributes to our war heroes are. They launch the fireworks right off of this hill so the entire town can see it. Erin's Parent's house is about a block away from the hill so we had great seating. The kids loved it. I think that they just loved staying up that late. Matthew didn't really like the fireworks at first. We had to warm him up to them. All in all, a good day was had by all.

A great poem

I heard this in a talk from John Bytheway and though a lot about it. I hope that you enjoy it.

If you can smile when things go wrong and say it doesn't matter,

If you can laugh off cares and woe and trouble makes you fatter,

If you can keep a cheerful face when all around are blue,

Then have your head examined, bud, there's something wrong with you.

For one thing I've arrived at: there are no ands and buts,

A guy that's grinning all the time must be completely nuts.

From a talk given by Jeffrey R. Holland

BYU has been getting increasing difficult for me. I can't keep up with the young whipersnappers around me. It has been hard to say the least. It is nice to know that I am not alone and others have trials too.