Grandpa Dan & Grandma Arleen Came for a Visit!

Way back in October, my parents came to visit us for about five days. We spent a lot of time with them last summer, but summer is also my dad's busy season (he's a farmer) so there wasn't much down time. We were still living amongst boxes, with not much on our walls yet...they insisted they did not care and so they came and stayed with us.

They informed us beforehand that they didn't want to come out and "do" much of anything. They were coming out to visit and spend time with us. Unfortunately, the week before, my dad had hurt his back. My dad had gone to the chiropractor three times the previous week, but by the time he got off the plane, he was in a lot of pain, that was on a Sunday night. Needless to say, Monday morning, we drove him to the Urgent Care Center around the corner from my house and got him hooked up with some muscle relaxers and pain relievers. I think five days away from the farm and heavy lifting was probably helpful too.

We spent a lot of time just being together, talking, eating, watching movies, the boys spending time with the grandparents. It was also the first time that I felt that I kind of stepped back and relaxed over what needed to be done from the time that we moved back into the house. It was a wonderful time!

Until later,

Emily

Pay It Forward

This afternoon, I went to the gas station to top off my gas tank. It is warmer than it has been so I thought I'd take advantage of the climate and fill up the gas tank now, perhaps avoiding having to do it on one of those really cold, frigid days.

So, I really did just top off the car, and it cost me $17.00, I sat there thinking about when I was in high school and even college, that would have paid for a full tank of gas.

I was putting my gas cap back on when this early-twenties young woman approached me.

She was well-groomed, (although a little disheveled) nice clothes, a cute scarf around her neck. She explained that she was "Really, really embarrassed" but was wondering if I had a dollar or two to spare. She further explained that she got stuck in the snowstorm last night and had to use every last dollar that she had to pay for a hotel last night, she lives in DC and didn't have any gas left in her car to get home and she didn't know how she was going to get home. In the moment, I believed her.

I never found myself in this situation when I was her age, but I could have. There was a time where I only could pay for things with the cash in my wallet. If that cash were taken or I had to use it unexpectedly, I would have been in trouble. So I took out $10 and gave it to her. She thanked me over and over again and she seemed genuine.

I thought of my kids when they get older. They might find themselves in a situation like that or in a situation where they rely on the kindness of a stranger, or in the belief of a stranger that they are telling the truth and will give them the help that they need. Or perhaps one day it may be me. It is an awful feeling to lose your wallet, I know because it happened to me once. The point is there are lots of bad, dishonest people in the world today, but there are also good, honest people that sometimes find themselves in bad situations like the girl I briefly met today. I hope she is on her way to DC now. And I hope that she will "Pay It Forward" someday.

Until later,

Emily

Baby Brax

My sister Kate and her husband Ryan had their first baby on January 18, 2011. He is my boys' first cousin on my side of the family. He was born on his due date, after going through a month of thinking that he was coming "any day now".

Unfortunately, Kate did not get the gene for the fast, relatively easy labor like me, our mom, and our grandma. Her labor was approximately 25 hours long. It was really scary and came close to an emergency C-section. He also came out face-up (ouch!) But baby Brax is fine and Kate will be too once she recovers some!

He weighed 6 pounds, 10 ounces and was 20 inches long.

We got to see him on Skype last night and he is a really, really cute baby!





Until later,

Emily

Carving Pumpkins 2010

October 28, 2010






Until later,

Emily

Thomas' Baptism

On November 5, 2010, Thomas became baptized as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He was baptized along with 6 or 7 other eight years olds that had recently had their birthdays in our Stake (larger congregational region). In our church, we wait to baptize children until they are eight years old. There was a lot going on in our Stake that morning at the same time, a wedding, and Scouting for Food, so he didn't have as much support as he would have if we would have waited another month. But we knew December was going to be really busy so we just went ahead and scheduled it for November. We had some of our closest friends, the Odekirk's, the Sanger's, the Lund's and James' cousins Shannon and Hillary there to share this event with him. After the baptism, we met up for lunch at Cici's Pizza.







Until later,

Emily

Toby Turns Four!

January 11, 2011

Last week, Toby turned four. This year was a bit unconventional because James had to leave for a business trip a couple days before his birthday. So we celebrated some on January 9 and then again on January 11, his actual birthday.


January 11th was a busy day for us. I had an early doctors appointment that I had to go to and it was calling for snow. They don't deal well with snow here. They like to shut everything down. I was tossing and turning all night worrying about my early morning appointment with my kids in tow. It was also Toby's last day at preschool for about seven weeks. I was sending in birthday cupcakes. Amazingly, the snow storm didn't hit until early that evening, so schools were only closed an hour early and it didn't effect Toby's day at all.

Until later,

Emily

Christmas Cookies!

At Christmastime, I generally make lots of sugar cookies and give them away to neighbors and friends, but this year didn't work out that way. I did manage to make some sugar cookies and gingerbread man cookies on December 24th. We set a few out for Santa that evening.

(no, we didn't set all of these out for Santa, he got one of each!)

Until later,

Emily

Krispie Kreme Kids

In November and December, I had quite a few appointments in Rockville, Maryland. Just down the street from where I was visiting, there is a Krispie Kreme location. Let's just say, we made it a point to visit Krispie Kreme after each of my appointments. They are our family's favorite donut, that is for sure. And it's probably a good thing we don't have one in Frederick!

(They are holding balloons.)

Until later,

Emily

Character Counts

In early December, Thomas got nominated as one of the students in his school class to be recognized in the "Character Counts" assembly. From what I could tell, about 1/3 of his classmates were recognized. Only the children nominated and their parents were invited to this assembly, where the PTA served us beverages and donuts also. It kind of threw me for a loop because I didn't know anything about it until the night before and had committed to helping a friend out that next morning. A little panic, but then a quick phone call to the friend and she changed her plans so I could still go to the assembly and I was able to help her later on in the day.

Thomas was recognized for the quality of "Respect".

(His name is printed on there, but I edited it for the blog)

Until later,

Emily