A New post by request

It has been a while. Every time I think about writing on this blog I always get distracted by life! I really wish it wouldn't keep getting in the way. Since it has been a long time, there is a lot to report.

The biggest news is that we have completed our 7th move in 5 years. We intended on being in our current place for another 8 months at least, but an opportunity came and we couldn't help taking advantage of it. When we moved to Provo last year we applied with the Provo Housing Authority to see if we could get some assistance with rent. That way I wouldn't have to take out so much in student loans just to live somewhere. The drawback is that it takes about a year for them to even get to your application. We never really counted on it kicking in and just lived the best that we could. Three weeks ago we got a call from them saying it was our turn. They gave Erin a couple of addresses to look at. The first was in a nice complex by the cemetery. It was a basement apartment and she didn't like it much. The other place was a duplex that was kept up, but the area was terrible. None of the houses were kept up and there was litter every where. So, we accepted the basement.

The apartment is actually nicer then she originally thought. There are three bedrooms, new cabinets and counters, A/C, dishwasher and the rent for us is $230 per month. So it's not like we could have turned it down. Our only problem is that we hate people living above us. We just don't like hearing people walking around, or hearing their TV's. So, we prayed to know if this was the place for us to live. We later found out that the person moving in upstairs is my little brother. He applied for assistance before we did and they gave him that apartment to move into. It all ended up great.

Matthew was really upset when we started moving. He cried when we packed up his toys. The hardest part was seeing his bed go. Emma handled it better then our last move. She loves the new place and the fact that she gets her own room again. After a week it feels like home. I have to hand it to the Provo Housing Authority for having nice places that are kept up.

Matthew has started to talk more. He has moved away from screaming for what he wants and more asking (thank goodness). We are working on his colors and letters. It is a little different for us because Emma grabbed onto them so quick and Matthew is taking his time. He is learning them just fine, but the difference in children is interesting to see. It's fun to see just how different they are. He still asks to see princess shows which has me greatly flustered. We'll make a man out of him though.

Emma is having a very boring summer. She misses school a lot. Her imagination is really wild! She has parties with her stuffed animals. We have found some of the animated bible stories at the DI and she loves to watch them. Nothing makes me feel better then when she asks to see a movie about Jesus. She is a funny girl.

Erin is still a straight A student. The move has slowed her down a little, but she is pushing on. She is determined to hike a lot this summer and we will be doing Timpanogos again this year in a month if there is anyone that would like to join us. We do like to get started at 4:30 in the morning though. We will see how that goes.

I am still working through school. I am taking my last chemistry classes, Organic Chemistry II and the Lab. The class is interesting. It is more about making chemicals then it is about anything else. The lab is annoying. Yes, everyone knows that I can be a clutz sometimes. I spill a lot in that lab. I feel bad for those a round me. I work for 2 hours to boil, distill, separate, and lovingly handle a specific chemical just to spill it on the counter. I'm not a good lab person. I'll stick with my industrial chemistry thank you very much. So, that is our family. Pictures can be viewed on Erin's facebook page. Since I usually do these posts at work in my down time I don't have any pictures to use. Sorry.....Well, I'm actually not. I'll put some on soon. I hope. If you're lucky.

Life Goes on...and on...and on....

The semester has ended and the next one has just started. I am officially a senior! It's weird to look back at all the crap I've been through to get here. I feel bad for my family because I have not been a happy fella most days. They are very supportive and love me anyway. Emma loves me if I bring her an Ice cream cone though. Matthew is happy if he has his binky and his blanket. Erin is happy if she has new clothes, a nice dinner, flowers, chocolate, a love letter, and a night with me talking about my "feelings". Man, what a guy has to go though. Geez.

So now that the terror Jr year is over our minds are now focusing on the future. Well, I will be more to the point. We are focusing on my lack of future. There is light at the end of the tunnel, but what is out there once I exit it? My grades are not the best so I need my experience to pull me though. Now, I'm looking for the experience. We have been applying for internships for the past 3 months. I hope to find something interesting where I can get some good experience and maybe work at when I have graduated.

Matthew is officially in a toddler bed. We decided that two years old is just a little to late to be in a crib. We were worried about changing him to a bed because Emma and Matthew share a room. We thought that he would wake her up so they could play. We went to wal-mart and ended up getting the Cars themed bed. Matthew loves
Cars. When it was setup, he jumped into it and pretended to sleep. He has been using it for 2-3 weeks now and has only had one problem. He jumped up on Emma's bed and start shouting "EMMA! EMMA! EMMA!" while jumping up and down on her bed.

Emma's speech has really improved a lot these past few weeks. We had parent teacher conferences a little bit ago and they gave her a glowing report. She still has some needs that must be met on the social side. She likes to play alone and has a hard time playing by an other kid's rules. We hope to take her to Lagoon Saturday. If only it would STOP SNOWING!!! Every morning she wakes up and says "Roller coaster today?" I feel bad saying no every morning.

Erin has been running every morning. She is determined to loose some weight the right way. She started P-90X and did well. Her friend Laurie and her decided that they would run and supplement their running with P-90x. We will see how it works. She looks really good to me, but it's not my opinion that matters. She just tested out of math 1010. This is awesome because she never took math 1010. She will have her associates degree by Christmas. I'm very happy for her.

Well, until next break!

Does this still work?

Hello? Testing? *Scrapes off dust* Wow, It looks like there is life in this blog yet. Give me a moment to clean up the place a little bit. Where did I put that windex? Ah there it is *squrlp, Squrlp*. While I clean up a bit, maybe I should recount some of the things that have been going on since we abandoned the blog around Christmas time *annoying rag wiping sound probably EEERRRRRRRPppppp or something*. This semester is supposed to be the hardest one ever for me(Mike). I have thermodynamics, Chemical reaction Engineering, and Heat and mass transfer. Which all have a lot in common so it is hard to keep things straight. I would love to say that I am doing well, but I'm more just hanging on for the ride. We will see what happens after finals. I have been trying to find an internship for the summer, but with the economy they are harder to come by. I will keep trying though.

We bought another used car. I can't remember if we have archived that achievement yet. Our 93 Mazda decided to leave Erin and the kids neglected on the side of the road in December when the clutch plates finally died. As anyone can attest, leaving people neglected is not a sign of good team work. So our car is currently seeking other employment option. I believe the person that currently owns it tore it apart and used the engine in another car. Serves it right! The newer car is a 97 Honda Civic. It has been a good team player so far. The previous owner left a trail that helped us identify the kind of person that owned it. It originally had an aftermarket cold air intake, modified exhaust, expensive stereo, and tinted windows. The car was then stolen and the stereo and air intake were removed. Then it was sold to us. From this information we could tell that it was owned by a teenager with some money. This was confirmed when we found a belly button ring in one of the compartments. Since the modifications weren't done right, and the car was a little abused, we have been working to restore it. The exhaust is a complete mess.
Emma's speech has been improving. It's nice to hear. She can hold conversations with strangers now. It's fun to hear her playing with her dolls and the things she says to them. She is getting spring fever really bad. Every day she asks if it is a nice summer day or not. If it is, she knows that she can go outside to play. She also gave us a little lecture on how water is good for our bodies. The lecture came from our friend Laurie. We were surprised that she remembered it as well as she did. That is one thing we can say about Emma, she has an excellent memory. The weather has been playing havoc with her as it's sunny one day and snowing the next. The change in time is also confusing as she is now going to bed with it still light outside. I don't know what we're going to do when the sun is still up and she needs to go to bed.
Matthew is as cute as ever. He copies everything that Emma does now. He is even trying to say everything that she does. He has picked up "Come on!", "Wait for me!", and "Thank you". The thank you is really cute because he says it every time you give him something. It's cute. We are starting him on the potty soon. We think that he is ready. It helps that for a while he watched Emma use it and now he gets the chance. He is excited.
Erin always has a lot going on. She is secretary in the Relief Society, Part time student, Full time mom, and doing a part time internship. She loves her Relief Society and has enjoyed being active in this calling. The student thing is going well. She will take the final for Math 1010 this week. She is still hoping to keep up her perfect scores. The internship is for psychology. There is a program that a psychologist we know is doing. It is called Icology. He has an excellent program for helping families with unruly children to make them not unruly. It is all internet based so you can do the program from without even going into an office. The cool thing is that it really works! Erin gets the program for free and we have been using it with our children. It has helped us know how to discipline more effectively while having a happier feeling in our home. We love it. Erin has also started the P90X system for weight loss. Today is her 2nd day. So far, she really likes it. We will see how it works on her.
Now that we are all caught up and the blog is clean for use *sparkle*, We will now move to current things. The big news is that our neighbors are moving. So if anyone wants to rent a two bedroom townhouse in Provo with some awesome neighbors, we can recommend a place. We will see how things work out. So with these comments I put the covers back on the blog until another future date when we will remove the covers and dust it off again.

TO CHRISTMAS, AND BEYOND!

WE SURVIVED! Christmas is over and no offense, but it is good to get back to normal. It is good to get some sleep again. It is good to...have the kids sleep again. Ahhh sleep, how I missed you.

Christmas was very good to us this year. Our families spoiled us rotten. We did have one reoccuring theme of the season though. It was "warmth" Each of us got at least 2 new coats from different family members. Erin gave me a new leather coat (black friday sale) and Erin's mom gave me a new coat. Erin's mom also gave Erin a new coat (hooded pee coat, yes there were jokes) and the kids got 2 new coats from her as well. My mom gave each of the kids new snow suits. So we are very warm!

Christmas Eve was a lot of fun. We usually spend Christmas Eve with Erin's family in Midway. We sing songs, have a talent show, and open presents. It is always a good time. Emma sang Jingle Bells by her self. She was so cute. It was really good to see the family again as well.

So, our kids are really young still so we were expecting to sleep early and late that night. The kids actually cooperated. The only problem that we had was Erin. She took some alergy medication right before bed and couldn't sleep all night. That is what she said, I really think that she was excited for Christmas. So we were up most of the night trying to get to sleep. We were actually up making breakfast before the kids woke up.

The morning was great! Emma really got into the spirit of opening presents. She was so excited for all the things that she opened. She couldn't wait to see what the next one was. She was even excited for the clothes. It was really cute. Matthew on the other hand couldn't have cared less. He got a fisher price race track thing and he played with it all morning. He is still playing with it. The sad part is that it was the first thing that he opened and he lost interest in everything else. Emma was more then happy to help out her brother.

Christmas day found us at my parents house for ham with the rest of my family. There were kids everywhere. It was sad though because my sister and her family are in Texas. They were missed. It was a fun time though. We later went to Erin's family's waffle party that night. They traditionally cook waffles for dinner on Christmas. They get the good bacon and the pure maple syrup. It was really good. So with all this excitement you'd think we would sleep soundly. We would have if Emma wasn't so excited that she stayed up until 10:00. Grrr... It was another late night

We did the traditional after Christmas thing and visited JC Penny and Wal-mart for their sales. We got a lot of gift cards this year so we were able to get new pots and pans. Emma was still excited that night and still didn't go to sleep until 10:00. so we stayed up again. This was a problem for Sunday when we were all sleep deprived and sick. We missed church and took turns sleeping and watching the kids. We feel great now, but it took Sunday and Monday to get this way.

So all in all, a good Christmas! Everything went according to plan, no one was injured to badly, and I don't think that we offended anyone in our families. Wow, it was great!

Pics as promised

Christmas?

School is over!!! Well, for the moment. Final grades are not yet out, but it looks like I passed every class this semester. I am actually surprised. It was looking pretty scary there for a moment or two. Erin's school is also out. She is scared that she won't get straight A's again. I'm torn between being jealous and congratulating her. Well, I guess I'll just fold her laundry the wrong way. That'll show her.

I have been spending my break cleaning, playing, shopping, hanging out with friends, and fixing computers. My in-laws were nice enough to save their computer issues until after the semester ended. So when school got out I was given a list of 5 computers and a network that needed to be addressed. Lucky me. I was able to take a day to complete them. My list is now open again. Hmm... maybe I shouldn't have said that.

Emma has really been getting into the Christmas spirit. Every day she wakes up and tells us that it is Christmas and we should open presents. We decided that we wouldn't be able to buy a large tree this year so we tried to make do with our 2 foot artificial. It was nice, but it's small. Erin's Mom took Emma to see Santa at the mall and told us later that the only thing that she asked Santa for was a tree. We felt so bad that we scraped up some money to buy a larger artificial tree that was on the "We got to get this crap out of here" sale. Yes, only half the tree is decorated due to Matthew. The ornaments keep getting higher and higher as we replace the ones that he has ripped off.

We were planning on having a poor Christmas this year. We're both students and I only make part time wages. The miracle of Christmas hit us hard though. The Lord decided that we needed help. We were given enough money to buy the kids presents and some for us as well. We still don't know who did it, but it sure helped.

The other blessing that happened is that our Car broke down. The clutch died in my little Mazda. We review the list of repairs and found that it was just too large. So, we did some praying and searched online for another car. Little did we know that in Kaysville there was an older couple praying to find someone to take their little Civic that would need it. We found each other and bought a 97 civic for a great deal. So great that we were able to get the loan for a little more to help with some extra things we have been needing. We hate going into debt again for a car since we just payed off the others, but we plan to pay off this one with our tax return. It was a great car for a great price. So we were blessed in many ways already this Christmas.

We will be spending our first Christmas morning as a family. We traditionally go to Midway to spend the morning opening present with Erin's parents, but we decided to make our own traditions this year. So we plan to make an excellent breakfast, sing some Christmas Carols (maybe), and do anything we can think of to delay opening the presents. We think that the kids would like that the most. Maybe not though. We'll see what happens.

We have some excellent pictures of the kids I will be putting up later today. I just need to get time to do it.

WE ARE POTTY TRAINED!!(for the moment)

Yes, I am happy to admit that I can now use the bathroom like a normal person. Ok fine, Emma has been without diapers for over a week now. She has been without them during the day, but now she doesn't even use them at night! She has been doing so well. She is also getting over her fear of public toilets. That has been a problem especially when she needs to use the bathroom at school and wont. Needless to say that we are proud and happy parents and she was well rewarded with an ice cream cone and some bubble tape. We didn't want all the success to go to her head, so we tried to keep it low key.

Erin finished her communications course already. Yes, I am jealous. She just has to wait for her grade to come in. She only has 2 more classes to go before the end of the semester. She'll make it I'm sure. I'm also sure she will pull another 4.0. She is amazing that way. She is also loving her calling as the Relief Society secretary. We have been in primary for so long that this is a welcomed calling for her. She can associate with other women and help them as she can. It's a great calling.

Matthew is talking now. He says Juice, Milk, Down, Up, Thanks, Binky, Mine, Mom, Dad, Hi, Bye and I thought there was another one. I will have to update this if I can ever remember it. We are almost ready to move him to a real bed. We are still working out how that will work since Emma and Matthew share the same room. I'm worried it will turn into a big party.

I am about to dive into one of the longest weeks of my life. I have 4 tests next week, one 6 page book report, a long project for chemistry, and I have to build a wind tunnel out of plexiglass. I also get to see the Doctor again about my broken hand. It has been 8 weeks since I broke it and it still hurts. I saw a regular doctor this week and he said that the x-rays looked like there was still an issue there. I now get to see a specialist. I'm worried that it means they will have to slice it open and pin it together. It should be interesting at least. In other news I am officially at 186 lbs. I have lost almost 30 lbs by just not eating sugar. I was in high school when I weighed this little. I have also found that I have some stupid intolerance to the stuff. When I eat it, it makes me angry. So I have been able to stay off of it for a while. I didn't get a call back for any internships for the summer. I am worried about what happens when I graduate. It is nice to know all that I know, but I would love to put it to some use other then figuring out the thermal dynamic properties of a hamburger patty while I make food at Mc Donalds.

Thanksgiving will find us full this year. We spend the time with my family first. We have Thanksgiving lunch and then we have to go to Erin's family's house for dinner. She has family from out of town that only visit every other year. Since my family gets together every other year also we have to go to both if we want to see everyone. I will take pictures and let you know how it goes.