Week Woe-B-Gone

It all started last Tuesday. Tuesday night it started to snow. It did not stop snowing until Thursday night. Because we only have a little car we were pretty much stuck at home, but it's not like we could go anywhere anyway because along with the snow came sickness. Sadie got it first. Poor thing sounds like death. I should've known something was up when she put herself down for a nap Tuesday afternoon.... Then I got sick too. Somehow Brett has escaped it so far but it was a good thing because he had two lessons to teach Sunday and a huge test that he took this morning. Anyway, we had lots of things planned for Halloween weekend, but only got to do one thing. We went to the ward Halloween trunk or treat Friday night because we all seemed a little better. It's a good thing we at least went to that because it's the only trick-or-treating Sadie got to do this year. Saturday morning, we felt worse and even Trace had been coughing all night. So these are the only pictures I have of them in their costumes. I'm so sad because Sadie was finally more into it this year and it was Trace's first Halloween. Sadie sounded so cute saying "Tick or Teat!" Hopefully they aren't sick for Christmas! But the good news is that I took them to the doctor today and they were tested for all types of the flu and strep and were negative for all of them. So it's just a virus they have to get over. Better luck next year!

Fall? What Fall?

I don't think we really experienced autumn here. Today it was snowing yet again most of the day. Seems like we have jumped straight into winter. The leaves changed colors, then the next time I looked, they were gone. Oh well, it's supposed to be clear and sunny on Halloween so I'll stop complaining! :) This is our pumpkin Brett carved yesterday. We went over to John and Tammy's to carve pumpkins and they turned out great! Brett had a three day weekend and we took advantage of it and celebrated that his monster test (Thursday) was behind him. Don't worry, he has another one in a week! But he has next Friday off too so that's a plus! On Friday, we all drove out to Idaho Springs together for a little road trip. It is an old mining town with lots of old shops and we had lunch and fresh root beer at Tommyknockers. It was fun but the traffic coming back was at a dead stop. But not to worry, John serenaded us to keep our spirits up.

Well here are some random pictures. I have been absolutely terrible about taking pictures lately, and when I do, they are not of anything very specific. This is Sadie talking on the phone. She was talking to Grandpa that time, according to her :) I love how her legs are crossed, silly girl. She has been doing pretty well lately. I forgot to mention last time that she can count to ten (since about 2 months ago), name most animals and tell what sound they make, identify colors, and recognize some letters. It is so fun to me how much she is learning and how cute it is! I must admit I have to give a lot of the credit to Elmo. She watches Sesame Street everyday.... OR ELSE!

Trace is being a pill. I am tired. Very tired. Tired of getting up with him in the middle of the night and waiting an hour or two or three for him to go back to sleep. First, he was sick, throwing up and exploding poop out of his diaper. Now he is teething and he is downright MAD! Oh the joy. Otherwise, he is adorable and SITTING UP! Right after I declared that he wasn't even close in the last post, he started doing it.

Alright, now it's time to check out everybody else's blogs before the internet disappears again!

A month later...

You'll want to turn off the music for this one and turn the volume up. It's so dark because we don't have a light in our living room, just the lamp, and so it's very dim in this room, but the point of the video is what you can hear!

Okay, so just so you all know, we have internet issues and so sometimes it is hard for me to update our blog regularly because it takes a while and when I can get online, I don't have tons of time. So now that I'm connected, I'll hurry and spit out the latest news.

First, it's getting cold here. It's in the 60's which isn't bad, but cold enough for long sleeve shirts and pants. I am so excited for fall and all the holidays coming up. I'm probably going to whip up some pumpkin chocolate chip cookies before the weekend is over! School is going well for Brett. He has had a lot of days off lately because they get all the jewish holidays off in addition to everything else. Yesterday, Brett went up to Denver at 5 in the morning for MEPS, which is the physical for the military. He was gone until 2:30! They took x-rays of his shoulder ( he had surgery on it several years ago) and the whole bit, but he said everything went well and he passed all the tests. He also made weight just fine which was so exciting because he has been dieting and running himself half to death the last couple of months to get ready. He has lost at least 25 pounds. Thank goodness it has all paid off, poor guy. All he wants now is to just eat a donut or something with FLAVOR!!!

The kids are great. No sicknesses this season yet. Sadie has plenty of attitude as usual but is talking like crazy and still doing great in her toddler bed. Actually she has moved into the closet. Her closet is really big and so I put her bed in there so that I can move Trace into the crib in their room and he won't wake her up as easy. I know it sounds crazy, but really, if you saw her closet... :) Trace is saying "ba ba ba" and teething. However, he is not even close to sitting up. And Sadie has absolutely no desire to be potty trained. I guess my kids just like to take their sweet time with things! Well I guess that's it for now. Hope all of you who are reading this are well and not getting that nasty flu!

New things

Well, I'll start off with some good news: We finally got our loan!!! Since it has come, I have been able to relax, now that I know we will be able to pay our bills, etc. And we had enough of the loan budgeted to get Brett a new laptop for school. Our Gateway laptop is old and slow and after the virus it got a few months ago, it is time to have something fresh and uncluttered for Brett to use exclusively for his studies. So, now that I have a computer at home, I'm hoping to update our blog once a week, at least, and also be able to check in on how everyone else is doing. I've been horrible at looking at blogs and commenting lately. Sorry!

So what's new around here? First, Sadie has graduated from the crib and is now sleeping in a toddler bed. I have to say that I am so impressed that she has adapted to it so well. I thought she wouldn't want to stay in it, get out all the time, or FALL out! But she hasn't and she loves it. It's fun to have her wander into our room in the morning when she wakes up all by herself.

Trace started rolling over a few weeks ago (FINALLY!) and now it's all he wants to do. I just love when my kids experience their firsts. It is so much fun to see him haul his 20 pound self onto his tummy! He isn't very close to sitting up yet, but he is sure anxious to do that too. Sometimes when he is on his back, he tries to do a sit-up, so I'll have to get out the boppy and bumbo to help him get used to the position. He has also started rice cereal....yuck! He doesn't like it much but he smiles at me anyway and thinks it's funny when I put it in his mouth. Little goof.

I think I've mentioned our indecisive weather here a few times. This is a picture of the hail from about 2 weeks ago. It may not look like much, but it's about as big as I've ever seen and some of the vehicles around here have hail damage from bits like this one...

There are dealership commercials on TV all the time announcing their "Hail Damage Sales Events".

This is the view from our patio door during a good rain storm last week. So here is the little river beginning to form....

Two minutes later....

Another two minutes later....

Another two minutes and our patio would have been flooded! I was getting a little nervous and started wishing we were on the second floor! After I took this picture, it started to hail and it looked like their were patches of snow around the apartment complex and on the roof for a couple of hours.

Well I can't believe it is September already but I am so excited for the fall. I've been looking for Halloween costumes for the kids already and can't wait!!! I guess that is getting a little ahead of things! It's hard to believe Brett has been is school for 5 weeks already. He got 105% on his first anatomy test last week and 100% on a couple of quizzes since then. He is doing so well and really enjoying school. Last week, he came home and told me about some wrist manipulations he learned. Some of you may have heard me complain about my right wrist bothering me for the last couple months. I couldn't put any weight on it and it really hurt. I don't know what I did to it. Well, Brett practiced something he learned on me and fixed my wrist! It feels 100% better and I'm so happy. I was beginning to wonder if I should go to the doctor to get it checked out, but my student doctor fixed it for me! It's so fun to see the things Brett is learning. He had his first shadowing assignment last Sunday at the ER in Colorado Springs and really enjoyed it. And I guess we weren't busy enough already, because we both have new callings. Brett is the sunday school teacher for the 15 year olds and I am the assistant to the Bear leader is Scouts. We are both a little nervous but excited because we are loving our new ward. Well, I can't think of much else to yap about. Sadie and Trace are both asleep so maybe I'll catch up on some reading!

Well, here are some pictures of our new place. The first is from the front door looking in.

This is our little patio. Those are all our boxes from moving that we figured we better save for later ! Then here is our living room. There is a fireplace there under that mantle, but those new couches I got took up more room than I planned.... Oops!

Now here is the kids' room.

Here is our built-in desk area in front of our bedroom door. Our room is boring so I didn't take pics of it.

Well that's pretty much it for now. I've gotta run- Sadie is tugging at me to go to the pool and she isn't very patient!

Tough Week

My dad is an only child. My mom only has one biological sibling. So, my entire family doesn't seem that big. And in all my life, I haven't lost very many loved ones. My Grandma Hartley and Grandma Flowers both died when I was pretty little. My little brother Ethan was born premature and died when I was 12 and that was hard. Since then, when it comes to family members I'm really close to, only my Grandpa Hartley has died which was last year, and he was really old (95) and so it was easier to deal with. Let's just say I haven't had tons of practice saying goodbye to people I love. So, when my Grandpa Barrett passed away on Wednesday, it was really hard for me. He had been in the ICU for almost 3 months and wasn't getting any better, and so I really should have been more at peace with the idea that he might not make it much longer, but I think I was in denial a little bit. Now, I sure miss him, really, really bad. It's so weird to think I only have one grandparent left. Bless my Grandma's heart, it must be hard to say goodbye to someone you've been with for 60 years! Obviously, I won't be able to make it to the funeral in California, but he will be buried in Utah, so when we visit, we can also visit his grave. Thank goodness for the gospel and knowing that I'll see him again someday. I don't know how anybody deals with death when they think its the end of everything. Even still, it sure is hard to see them go!

Bye Grandpa. You will be missed.

My Grandpa Barrett

Aug. 17 1928- Aug. 5 2009

Well, other than a few other things that just haven't been going right lately, things are overall okay. Brett enjoyed his first week of medical school and feels really good so far about it. It went well for me too. Brett never came home later than 6 and so its really not too bad. He's home for dinner and we get to spend a few hours together before bed, as well as in the morning before he leaves, we have breakfast and read scriptures. Sadie and Trace take nice long naps in the afternoon so I get a break, and we have been keeping ourselves pretty well entertained. I've been busy trying to furnish our big, empty apartment. I do have to mention what a savvy bargain shopper I have become. When we had our moving sale, we made $130 and I was a little nervous that that wouldn't be enough to get us all the furniture we were lacking. But we got our entertainment center at the D.I. for $30, a big dining room table with 6 chairs at Goodwill for $50 (originally $180), and a really nice couch and loveseat set off Craigslist for $50 (talked 'em down from $70)! Perfect! I will take pictures of our place and post them next week.

Big Day

Yesterday was a special day and one we will always remember for two reasons. First, it was our 5 year anniversary!!! Second, Brett had his white coat ceremony and took his oath and donned his white coat for the first time. It was such a good day! Both of our families came to support him and we were so grateful that they were here. We are all so proud of Brett! Before the ceremony, we got to tour the school and learn a little about the program and what he'd be doing. It is a really nice school and the faculty seems very concerned for their students. I think he will very much enjoy his education there. The white coat ceremony was so cool and I felt so proud of Brett and his accomplishments so far. Each student introduced themselves one by one before putting on their coats and Brett surprised me when he said " I am student doctor Brett Johnson from Delta, Utah. Happy 5th Anniversary Sweetheart!" Everyone laughed and I blushed! It was so sweet. Our parents took us out to eat and got us treats for the occasion. I thought it was a pretty cool thing to have going on on our 5th anniversary and we will remember it all the more.

So handsome! Student doctor Brett Johnson, ladies and gentlemen!