Missouri

Pictures of Sam and Matthew playing while we are packing up in Normal. Super heroes!

Haven't written in a long time. The chaos has been so crazy! We just got internet connected a few days ago, and I haven't had time to do much of anything besides just check my email. The move went smoothly thanks to help from our beloved friends in Normal--the Wheelers, Andrea, even my old friends Kathy Davies and Nanci Grilliot came to help . We had tons of help from the elders quorum, too. WE have been warmly received into our new ward as well--we had lots of good help to unload our trucks, and many friendly faces at church. There are some families in Pacific that we'll be able to have play dates with. Things I love about our new home in MO so far...1. our house is very nice, the neighborhood is quite friendly with lots of kids, and we have a great yard,2. the school seems to be pretty good, although different. 3. There are some beautiful natural areas around here. We took a great hike in a state park on Saturday. 4. Access to fun things of the big city. 5. Trevor loves his job. 6. The weather is warmer than it was in Normal. 7. The ward seems nice.
Things that I don't like as much... 1. Because we live in such a small town (6,000) there is not very good access to a lot of shopping. My salvation is a Walmart 10 minutes away. There also are not as many opportunities for inexpensive enrichment programs for the kids--Bloomington Normal was amazing for this. I miss my job at Parks and Rec already! There is nothing like that here! Doctors and hospitals are 20 minutes away. Church is 20 minutes away. ETc. 2. The cut-off deadline for kindergarten is July 31st, so Sam can't start school next year after all. Too bad! 3. The transportation system at the schools will take some getting used to. 4. The library is TINY! But they do library share programs and have a story hour each week, so I'm sure it will be fine. 4. Not sure how our finances will work out. Several of our costs are a lot higher here, and so what we thought was an increase is not turning out to be that way. I think our budget will actually be tighter for awhile until Trevor gets his raises and I get some teaching opportunities figured out. Money is always an issue! Even the money we thought we would have to be a cushion from the house sale is turning out to be draining away with car repairs, having to purchase appliances, etc. etc. etc. Also, just moving is very expensive--start-up fees etc. for utilities, paying final bills from Normal, etc. It's quite a headache.
It doesn't help that National City pulled a mortgage payment from our checking account that should not have been pulled. (from the previous house) Apparently the automated system did not update the pay-off info in time. That did not help our checking account situation at all.
Enough about the move.
The kids are all sick...poor Max has been sick for several days. He hasn't even been able to start school. The worst is that it has brought a flair up of his asthma. Last night was really terrible. He was coughing so much that he would throw up, and he was having trouble breathing. I gave him all his asthma medications, plus some cough medicine, but nothing really helped till I thought of letting him breathe the saline solutions throught the nebulizer. That finally calmed his cough and breathing and he was able to sleep again. He seems a little better today. I called the nurse, and she said that since he was better again this morning, we should wait another day before going in, since it is most likely that it is a virus, and if we get the asthma under control he should be okay. I guess we'll just have to see. Now Emily and Ginny are sick, too. I've heard Sam cough a few times, too.
Emily did start school last week. She really didn't want to go, and complained loudly. She had a very grumpy look on her face the first day. She doesn't like her teacher at all--apparently she yells a lot and insists on abolute silence, which is quite different from her former teacher. Mr. Harrison was really a lot of fun. She did make a couple of friends, though, and has been invited to play at Michelle's house this coming week. I think she'll be fine. If only Max will get better, he can go back to school, too.
I guess that's it for now.
Still can't believe we live in Missouri!