Ginny's Birthday

Happy Birthday Ginny!
Oh somebody has a birthday,
this dear little Ginny here
May Father in Heaven bless her
Through all the coming year.
Happy Birthday. Happy Birthday
May all that you wish come true.
Happy Birthday. Happy Birthday.
We're wishing dear Ginny for you.

We had just a small party for ginny at home with the family. We got take-out dinner from QDoba and McDonalds and had a birthday chocolate cream pie. She worked pretty hard at blowing out her candles! Then we gave her two new toys for presents. A fun hammer and ball game, and a unique little building set. We all played with the toys for awhile and had a lot of fun. Ginny kept saying "Toys! Toys!" Her brothers and sister were having so much fun with the new things that Ginny could hardly get a turn!
She's such a cutie, and we're so glad to have her in our family.

The rest of the day was spent painting, cleaning, taking stuff to Goodwill, trips to Menards, etc. I'm so exhausted from working so much every day to get the house ready to put on the market. It's so much work! And it doesn't help that we are already burned out from the roof.

Moving!

Well, it's official. We're moving. I think I'm getting excited, although I definitely have mixed feelings about the whole thing. I just love so many things about living in Bloomington/Normal--it will be so hard to leave! I am so attached to our ward family. So many good friends. So many people have been so kind to us during the seven years we have lived here. It's hard to live so far away from our famlies, but our ward has really become our family. On Sunday during church, I was so sad thinking about leaving all of these people that we love so much. It's hard for the kids to leave their friends--and the things that are so familiar--Oakdale school, our neighborhood, dance, preschool, Tae Kwon Do, etc. I have such a good situation with my music classes and lessons here--and it will take me time to work out things in my own career in a new area. I'll particularly miss the fun children's music classes that I teach at Parks and Rec. I've really got a good situation there--I don't know if I'll ever be able to find something as good again. I guess we'll see. To say nothing about leaving our cute house! I love this house! I've had two sweet babies here--and we've really worked hard to make this place cute--lots of painting, repairs, putting in new flooring, the ROOF! remodeling bathrooms, etc. I'm very attached to the house, and now we have to get it up for sale right away. I'm very stressed out thinking about all things I have to do immediately in order to get the house on the market as soon as possible. Trevor has agreed to start on December 1st. The plan is for Trevor to go to St. Louis then, but I'll stay here with the kids until the house sells. It will be hard, so I hope the house will sell quickly.
I have all these worries, but Trevor is really, really excited. The job will be interesting and challenging for him--combining instrument repair with computer work. A nice change--and a little higher pay as well. I really do feel good about it. I fell like Heavenly Father has blessed our family in so many ways recently. I'm just going to have to take things one day at a time during this stressful transitional time.

roof!

Well, it's done. Mostly anyway. We ran out of the ridge pieces that go at the very top , so we had to cover the last 8 feet with a tarp until we can get some more. But we finished at 9:00 p.m. and it started to rain around midnight. Last night my muscles were aching so badly that I could barely move. I took some ibuprofen and Trevor gave me a back rub, and I do feel a little better this morning. It was SO much work, but I will say that it is empowering to think that we could accomplish something like that.
We prayed before we started for Heavenly Father to bless us that we would be able to do the work in safety and that we would do it correctly, and we hAD SO many blessings throughout the week. The greatest blessing was that of our friends who helped us. The Lowe family spent 3 whole days up there helping us shovel shingles, and Chad helped Trevor to know how to do things correctly. Julie W. watched my kids for days on end, even when Ginny was sick, bless her heart. Her husband, Dave spent many hours on the roof with us, including in the crunch time last night when Trevor had to go to work, and the roof had to be done because of the impending rain. The Lowe family's neighbor, Nick, brought over some tools to help us, and then ended up staying for several hours to help us do things correctly. (He is a contractor by profession.) Then, on Monday, when it started to rain, he came back over with a friend to help us quickly get the tar paper up. On Saturday we had many, many people from the ward come over to help us for a few hours, and last night, just when we really needed it, Chris A. from the civil war band came over to help us finish up. My step-cousin Genny came over in a crunch time to watch the kids, and my new friend Wendy took the kids one day as well. It just seems like every time we had a crisis, someone would show up to help. I am just so grateful for so much service to be shared with our family. I know the Lord truly watches out for us, and has blessed us through these friends. I feel like the promise of the Lord about tithing has been truly fulfilled, where he promises that he will pour out a blessing and there will not be room enough to receive it. I'm just so grateful, to all of these sweet people, and to the Lord.

Now that it's raining, I guess we'll find out if we did it correctly! I think we did pretty well. I'm so glad we had some people who really know what they are doing to help us.
Max liked getting up on the roof. He helped pick up shingles and helped get toos, etc. He wanted to use the power tools, but of course we didn't think that was a very good idea. Emily helped on the roof some as well, and she helped watch her brothers and sisters and made dinner, etc. inside the house. We let Sam come up a couple of times just to see the view. That kid has no fear. It was definitely a family project.
Well, the book club is coming over here tonight, so I guess I better get to work cleaning up inside, now!

Civil War re-enactment

We just got back from a very lovely weekend in Princeton, IL where we attended a reenactment called Shadows of the Blue and Grey. It was very cold the first day, but pleasant today. The boys were especially excited to attend. Max brought his own money to purchase a confederate hat, so he can pretend to be a soldier from both sides of the conflict, depending on his mood. We all dressed up—which is fun. Emily has grown quite a bit. I’m not sure her dress will make it through another season. Trevor’s band played concerts throughout the day, so we listened, and walked through the camps. They had a scavenger hunt for kids to find things from the period, so we talked to all the reenactors and learned some new things. The kids were also thrilled that the hotel had a pool.
This weekend, Sam noticed the Abraham Lincoln re-enactor. He was absolutely fascinated, and said, “It’s really him, see his beard!” I explained that it was a man pretending to be Abraham Lincoln because Abraham Lincoln lived a long time ago but we wanted to remember the important things he did. Sam said, “Is he dead?” In confirmed that, yes, Abraham Lincoln died a long time ago. So then the next day, when Sam saw the same re-enactor in the camp parade, Sam turned to me very seriously and said, “Mom, I told you that Abraham Lincoln was NOT DEAD!” I attempted to explain again, but am not certain that the idea was understood.W

This and that

We're getting ready to do our roof. I got the building permit yesterday, so I guess we're committed. Sister Ruch is going to help us with ordering the materials through her contracting business, which will save us some money. I checked out some books from the library, so we could study up on how to do it. Yikes! I'm afraid we're getting in over our heads (literally), but I guess we'll just go for it and hope for the best! We'll have to have it inspected by the city when we're done, too, so I hope we'll do it right!
My classes started this week--I have two good-sized classes on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. Nice kids and fairly participatory parents. Should be a good session.
I don't know why, but I just don't seem to be able to stick to my diet these days. I need to quit having "just one more treat" and get back to getting up early in the morning to exercise. I don't want to gain back all that I lost last year.
This weekend we're going to Princeton for a re-enactment. The kids can't wait. Max especially. Tomorrow the kids are out of school, so I think we are going to go to Funks grove to wander the nature trails and play at the nature center. Should be nice weather.
I had a really nice birthday on Tuesday. The kids brought me breakfast in bed, and Trevor had made me a card which he left on my dresser for me to find first thing in the morning. There was a package in the mail from Tutu and Papasan, and a card from a friend. Wendy came by later with a birthday card and a chocolate treat, my dad and nancy called to sing to me, and we made my favorite Hawaiian ice cream for dessert. Very nice birthday. 35! Yikes!

conference

General Conference was really good this weekend. There were lots of messages about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. Especially Pres. Hinckleys challenge to read the Book of Mormon by the end of the year. I've been working on that, but am behind. I'll try to catch up though.
We're getting ready to do our roof next week. Yikes! I'm nervous about it, because we really don't have a clue what we are doing. I guess we'll figure it out!
Trevor has a job interview in St. Louis this week. I don't know what I think about that, either.

snowflakes

Sam's breakfast request the other day was for "Sugar snowflakes". I surmised he meant frosted cornflakes. Too cute!