Well, it's been an exciting couple of days...a little too exciting. Most of you have heard that we noticed last week that the hardwood floor outside the laundry room was warping. You could only see it from one direction so we debated whether it might have always been that way. However, by the time we returned from the football game in Seattle (very exciting game), the area had grown. I took the stuff out of the closet and Dad looked down in the hole of our crawl space to see if we could tell what was happening. (Do you notice the Dental Assistant set of mind...if you'll take the stuff out, I'll see what's going on!) Anyway, he found condensation all over the area down there...wet wood, wet insulation but no evident leak. The plumber came yesterday and after two hours was able to find a crack in the pipe that came from the hot water heater that had been continually leaking hot water for probably 6 months to a year. Couldn't hear it...couldn't see it! Like I said to him,it's not like you check your crawl space on a regular basis. (however the contractor that came today said that you should...when you change the batteries in your smoke alarms)

Back to the story, in order to fix it, he had to cut a hole in the laundry room floor. While doing that, he mentioned that I should call our homeowners insurance. So I went off to call USAA. They sent a woman in this morning to assess what needed to be done. The first stage is trying to dry everything out so that they can then assess the damage. That needs to be done as soon as possible so I've had to cancel my trip down to help Brooke unpack :~( We should have workman and fans in here by late today or tomorrow. Slow, slow, slow!!! I think the repairs may then take several months but at least after this initial stage we can schedule it when it is convenient to us.

I am still trying to get my mind around how this might affect my life. After prior construction projects, I know that it pretty much shackles you to the house. We may get some things done that we had not even thought we would have to...such as getting a new hot water heater and replacing our pipes with a more durable variety. Those will be pricey. However, some other things may get done such as perhaps new hardwood flooring which will be nice and allow us to change the style and not have to do the refinishing that we had planned for this spring.

So much for that....

Otherwise, things are going well. Dad did accept the manager position with Willamette so he is much busier at work...like he needed more to do. The additional salary will be helpful for all these repairs. We had a nice time in Seattle last weekend. On Thursday, Melody and John Sims spent the night on the way to the coast. We left Friday for Seattle stopping at the Seattle REI to look at kayaks. (all this home construction may put a hold on buying our own). That REI is quite spectacular with huge climbing walls, hiking paths etc, etc right in the middle of the city. We then went up to the north Seattle area for the night. In the morning we went to Green Lake and ran around it...or most of the way around it. I used to run it with my friend Shannon when Dad was going to dental school. I can't believe that was 25+ years ago! We drove by the Phinney Avenue house also. We then went to the BYU-UW game which was very exciting. When we got out of it, we found our car in the middle of post-game UW tailgaters which was a bit awkward. Although Dad took off his BYU shirt and put on his UW hat and showed them his split UW/BYU flag. They took a picture of us with them and then offered us a beer! Obviously, they don't put 2 and 2 together. Finally a van pulled out to let some other cars out so we escaped. Melody and John returned on Sunday on their way back to the coast and we had another nice evening with them out by the firepit in the back.

Noah is a darling baby...everything is getting much more settled and Buffy is being very creative on figuring out how to take care of him on crutches. I'll let Brent and Buffy write about the details...

I did reserve the Lake Almanor house for the last week of June (6/28-7/4) and put in a request to be first on the waiting list if the last week of July opens up. If that happens, it would probably be in January or February time frame that we would find out. So don't book anything else for either week.

Well, I need to focus on what I will do...now that I'm not going to go to Carmel that I can do while workmen are here. I'm sure I'll be doing our wash at Buffy and Brent's for the next few weeks!

Love you all.....and enjoy all of your postings! Mom

I want to write a nice long update but there just isn’t time, but so much has happened I have to write to something! Here is a the short version of our life the first 10 days in September:

1. I don’t have time to write much because we are getting ready for Typhoon Sinlaku, set to hit the island at midnight on Friday night (that is Friday morning for you in the states.) It’s reported be a category 4 which is pretty serious, if it hits at that magnitude it will put the island on lock down and no one will go to work or school and we will not be allowed to leave our houses. We will likely loose power and water. So the prep entails making sure we have enough food, water, candles and flashlights. That was the easy part. The hard part is making sure we have everything in our yard secured so it doesn’t blow away. We will bring everything we can inside, like the BBQ, flowers and such. However, we have a playground, shed and deck box that all need to be tied down and staked in. Plus, we need sandbags to go around the doors to prevent flooding (A typhoon is like a hurricane full of water.) Anyway, just like everyone else on the island I am running around looking for tie downs, sand bags, etc... hopefully I’ll get them in time. I just bought the last three tie downs at the store but they were out of stakes so I”ll have to hit a Japanese hardware store tomorrow. As you might imagine the Japanese are not nearly as worried. They are used to this and their houses and lives are more ready... hopefully we’ll have everything we need so the next one won’t be a big deal.

2. Hayden started kindergarten! He’s been so excited and it seems like every adult he’s talked to for the last few months has brought it up. Kindergarten here is a little different because he goes full day and our elementary school has odd hours, all the kids go from 7:30-1:40. Something that seemed to start with a bussing issue years ago and then the teachers decided they liked it. I thought it would be fine for us since the kids get up early anyway but it’s proving to be really lousy. For starters, the kids are actually sleeping in past 6am and I have to wake them up at 7:00 to run out the door to school. Then the girls are always napping when it’s time to pick Hayden up so I have had to start putting them down at 2:00 which means that I get no alone time during the day because Hayden is all hyped up from being at school once I get them in bed. And then Danica doesn’t want to go to bed because she just took a nap. But she has to go to bed because Hayen is so tired, so it seems that from the minute Tom walks in at 5:30 it’s a race to eat dinner and get the kids in bed by 7:30. Makes for a lousy evening. So first of all, the kids need to learn to go with less sleep. Second, now that Hayden is getting more comfortable with school I need to set up someone to bring him home so I can put the girls down for a nap right after lunch. But I got side tracked, the point is that this is a huge milestone for Hayden and it’s really exciting. Today he finally came home saying he learned someone’s name and has a new friend. Yesterday he learned some Japanese and was telling me the names of body parts in Japanese, very fun. So far his favorite thing is the rocket ship on the playground. He’s doing well with eating lunch at school and although he is tired, he’s happy. On a side note, he has become a fantastic reader and continues to amaze me when read together at night. He’s memorized the sight words and can read with a sense of fluency and understanding because he doesn’t have to sound out everything. It’s a lot of fun.


3. Danica started preschool! I am doing a joy school program with 5 other moms and it’s going really well. Danica loves it and is already learning a ton. She has been a little slow at talking and learning but seems to really be taking off now. Her current obsession is writing her name. She wants to do it all day! At home her current favorite thing is to put on all her dress up clothes and walk around. Today she insisted on taking her purse and sun glasses everywhere we went. She also insisted on wearing her purple striped tights (in spite of the heat), she looked pretty funny but mostly just adorable.


4. The other reason I am busy and should not be typing all of this is that our household goods finally came!!!!!!!!!! After nearly 2 1/2 months without my bed it feels fantastic. Danica kept running around the house saying “Hey, I have this at my house!” Perhaps now this will feel like home and the potty nightmare will end... It’s fantastic to have our couches, TV and hangers for the kids clothes! I now have garbage cans, storage bins and toys! Hooray! The back room is still packed with boxes because I’ve been too busy but the house is livable!

5. Tom and I went out to eat with some friends and got some real Japanese cuisine. Tom ate octopus, I ate some raw fish, and we both enjoyed lots of other dishes. It was a fun night.

Okay, I know I could say more but it will have to wait. I need to get back to planning sharing time for Sunday and going to bed soon...

Have a great night!

These pictures are the kids playing with everything they possibly can because they missed it all so much!

Sorry it seems like it has been forever since I have blogged. So I will give you the update! I started student teaching on August 19th. It really has been a great experience so far. I think the Lord definitely knew I needed it just a little bit easier because I ended up only teaching Health for one period a day. My other four classes are all PE which means minimum grading for the PE classes. I took over the Health class last Monday and it has gone well... for a student teacher. I realized a lot of things last week about teaching 7th graders and I am hoping it will help this next week with the lessons. Oh ya... I teach 7th graders in Health and 1 period of PE in 7th graders. Then I have 8th graders for my other three PE classes. It has been really nice though because they only have one PE teacher who is my cooperating teacher and he is a man. SO there is nobody in the girl's locker room so they gave me the office in there so that I would be able to have my own office and take care of the girls locker room. It has been fun! I have taken over Health like I said before and the 7th grade PE class so far. I take over one of the general girls PE classes this week. Every week I am supposed to add one more class until I am teaching full time. It ends up that the whole month of October I will be teaching full time. Then for like two weeks in November. Then I will start gradually giving the classes back to the cooperating teachers. It is just funny to think that I am teaching classes that Isaac would be in. Crazy!

This school does some interesting things. They don't require PE in 7th grade so it is a optional elective. So the 7th grade class I teach has only 6 girls. That is the other thing... They don't do co ed PE except for my Sports Conditioning class. They have girls do PE first semester and boys are second semester. They say that it really has helped in girls actually participating in PE which makes sense! The other things this school does is called the "ABC not yet.. policy". The students CANNOT get lower than a C on a test or homework. If they get lower than a C on a test, they have to re do it until they get at least a C. If they turn their homework in on time, they get full credit, But if it is late... up to the last day in the semester... they get a C on the assignment. If they never hand it in then the teachers can fail them, but that have to work to get the kid's assignments in. It is an interesting policy, but it seems to be working in the school.

I also have been helping with coaching the volleyball team which has been a lot of fun and a lot of time. I don't even get home until about 6:30 every night. It is worth it though for what it will help with. There is a A team who I am helping out with the most and then the B team. The A team has a lot of talent but have ball control issues... we are working on that. But we had a tournament yesterday in Idaho Falls and we got 1st place. Both our A team and B team got 1st. It was pretty fun! We have won all of our games so far... We will see how it goes. The season only goes to the end of September which is nice.

Well that's all I can think of about Student Teaching. I am done on the day that McKenzie turns 4 months, November 25th. We are still trying to decide what we will do for the holidays though. It already has been flying by.

The girls are doing great. Melia has calmed down a lot compared to right after McKenzie was born. We took off the front of her crib and put a bed rail up. She loves having a big girl bed. We are looking on craigslist for twin size beds so that we can get them for cheaper. We are hoping to have her switched into a regular bed by October. (Yes we will have room Mom and Anne! We are getting a storage unit to hold our extra boxes:) ). We will see how that goes! She did actually go to the bathroom on the toilet the other day and she cried because she thought she had done a bad thing. Then Treven and I started saying that she did such a great job and that she was a big girl and her fce turned into a huge smile! She flushed it by herself while waving and saying "Bye bye poop!" Ha Ha. The entertainment of our lives. We are trying to just get her used to going into the bathroom when she has to go because she is completely away. She runs around when she is about to saying POOP POOP. McKenzie is 6 weeks old and doing great! I am pumping during my prep period and lunch so I am able to keep her breastfeeding without having to switch over to formula. It is working great still so I am happy about that. She is growing like a weed though! I can't wait until her 2 month appointment to see where she is at. She is growing out, length wise, out of her footsy pajamas. She already rolls from her stomach to her back and she keeps doing it. I put her on her stomach for tummy time and she just flips righ over. She is also starting to smile. It is crazy how fast it seems to be going and I look at Melia and am like "YOU LOOK SO OLD!" Melia is growing as well she is growing out of 2T stuff and I am sure she will be in 3T by the time she actually hits her 2 year birthday. Funny story though about Melia. A lot of people think that she looks like Shiloh Jolie-Pitt which is Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt's baby. The other day we had this lady follow us around in the grocery store for like fifteen minutes and then Treven turned to her and she was like Sorry I just can't believe how much your daughter looks like Shiloh! Treven said well without the lips. She doesn't have the big lips. But anyways, it has happened twice now and it makes us laugh everytime. Like Shiloh would be in the little town of Rexburg Idaho without her parents.

Anyway, Treven is doing well, just working which is slowing down for the next month. He is just taking advantage of the break before he goes back to school in the Winter. I am already 8 pounds under my pre pregnancy weight with McKenzie. I am starting to go to the gym with Kate, Matt's wife, every night starting on Monday so that we can do the circuit weights and ellipticals. Then after we are done Matt and Treven will go pump some iron! I want to reach my goal weight by my birthday which is great. If I lost 2 lbs a week I would be there by like the middle of January so I am giving myself a cushion. I also got my hair cut about a week or two ago. I got a A line cut and I really do love it. It is more professional looking and it is SO EASY to do which is #1 for me! I will post pictures which I have a good hair day!

Well this is a novel... Sorry for the rambling. Just has been forever! Oh! We got a new camera since our old one won't turn on. It is too difficult with our video camera to take pictures on there. So now I will be posting more pictures!

Love you all. Congrats to Brent and Buffy! You are amazing Buffy! A little late I know but I barely ever get on the computer for fun anymore.

Kim

We have all of our stuff and now the work begins. Yesterday I stood at the top of the driveway with like 10 sheets of inventory taped to a folded box and as the movers unloaded they would call out box numbers and I would check them off. In between that the movers hauling it into the house would ask me which room this and that was going to, then they would look at me and say "you know how full that room is getting?"

Yes, but what would your suggestion be? Leave it in the driveway?

The advantage to not having your stuff for a few weeks is you can think through where things are going to go, how you are going to store them. That is, except when you forget about certain things. So our garage is stacked to the ceiling, so is just about every room in the house and the bikes are all out on the back patio. I know we will get it all figured out. Thank goodness the moms will be here this week. Also, thank goodness for my neighbor that came across the street at 1:15 and took Sawyer and Ellyn for the whole afternoon. She had her nieces come over and they played out by her pond. When the girls came home from school I sent them over to get the little ones and instead they came back and got on their swimsuits because Miss Pam had set up the slip'n'slide. I will forever love my neighbor.

Did I mention that it is REALLY hot here right now? All week long we have been sweating. So we went to the beach with a family from our ward today. We had a great time. I am so glad Christine called. I know I would never have done it otherwise and I would have been slaving away in the 90 degree house with hot, sweaty, whiny kids and it would have been a hard day. Instead we had a little respite and I still got in several hours in my kitchen tonight. My kitchen is so close yet so far away.

In closing I would just like to tell my couch how much I love it. I missed it so very much, it has been so comfy and forgiving (you have to love microfiber). The chaise part is the bomb and now that it is here my house feels like a home. I might have to name my couch, everything else we know and love (laptops, cars, Ellyn's harness) have names. I'll have to think on that. For now I am off to bed, thankful for my sweet, sweet king size mattress.

This title is the nickname given by Tom.

Please look at your e-mail and rate your preferences for a house for next summer for whoever can come....

Love,
Mom

School has officially started and I am already done with my first week of classes. As expected, my in-class time is going to be a lot less than the amount of time I will have to spend outside of class in prep. I am really enjoying being out of the office and not in front of a desk all day - not that I totally mind that but it is somewhat freeing.

09:11 am. 1 September 2008. 8lbs 9 oz. 20 3/4 inches. Looks like Brent. Memory pod included.