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I can't believe James is five! What a momentous birthday. He's so proud to be able to say that he's five now and hold up all of his fingers on one hand. I hosted quite a large party for him this year which included 10 guests (he has a large primary class). It was pretty crazy and chaotic but the kids are young enough that they just ran around and jumped on the trampoline and had fun. I decided to do a police themed party so I started the party with the kids making and coloring their own police hats and vests. Party favors included candy and handcuffs from the dollar store along with free information, stickers, and pencils from the local police station. I think it was a success. I think I will definitely scale back next year.
As for other updates, obviously Adam didn't get the job in Sioux Falls which I'm not totally sad about. He has another job interview this week with a local company so hopefully that will have a good outcome.
We have settled into grandma's house and have resigned ourselves to the fact that we will probably be here for a while. The house is fine and we are really grateful to have an entire house to live in for free; we are just having a really hard time adjusting to our old/new ward. The kids ask me almost everyday when we can go back to our old ward which makes me sad because I want to go back probably worse than they do.
We have also been staying busy going to the pool (we go 2-3 times a week) and we went to Sandypoint last week.
We had a crazy 4th of July, as always, at my parents--kids running everywhere lighting off firecrackers, smokebombs, and bottlerockets. It looked like a warzone by the end of the night. We had a few mishaps with mortars that sent people running in all directions but that's all part of the fun.
We find out what the baby is next Monday. I'm already feeling huge even though I just have a little gut so far. I just look tubby more than pregnant. I thought each pregnancy was supposed to get easier but that has not been the case with this one.
On another exciting note, found out this week that our next training meeting for the exchange student organization will be at Disneyworld in February. Even though I had to take a leave of absence, I still placed enough students before that to qualify to go for free! We are pretty excited and the kids are thrilled! I thought about giving up this gig permanently but now that I've had a break from it, I've realized that it's just too good of a job to give up. The free travel alone is worth it and I'm actually good at what I do.

PBS Memorial Day Concert 2007

This is an amazing, heart-wrenching video. It makes me so grateful for the knowledge I have of the plan of salvation and the peace that is only found in the atonement of Jesus Christ. Surely Christ and Heavenly Father have shed many tears with this poor mother in her unbearable hours of grief, just as they weep with us in our times of trouble.
I want my children to know and understand that the life we enjoy today was not given to us cheaply. From the founding of this country, many lives have been sacrificed in order to preserve our freedom. I want my children to live with a feeling of gratitude for those who have gone before and those who are serving now. We had such a nice time at the Memorial Service at the Veteran's Cemetery yesterday and I hope to make it an annual tradition for our family. As one Vietnam veteran put it, there's still lots of time left in the day to have barbecue's and parties but the day should start with remembering.

The Haps

This is the week! Adam flies out tomorrow night to Omaha and then has a ride along Tuesday and his final interview Tuesday. We will know if Sioux Falls is our destiny by Wednesday. Crazy.

Sorry about last Sunday's post. I had hit a low point. The nausea is getting better; I'm just fighting an evil cold now which, I'm guessing is as bad as it is because my immune system is too weak to fight it off. My pants are still falling off of me at 14 weeks. To me, I look horrible-- gaunt, pale, dry lips, sunken eyes.

Updates on the kids:

James is no longer acting like a psycho. Once he was done taking antibiotics he was back to his old self.
He graduated from preschool last week and he finished a month of swimming lessons. He still won't put his face in the water and he was the only one in his class who refused to go down the waterslide on the last day.
He recently took up fishing. He casts like a pro on an adult reel so we decided to buy him a cheap kid pole which would be easier for him to handle. He's awesome at casting. He loves it. I need to get my license so I can legally help him fish in a real lake or river. (I have so many fond memories of going fishing with my family as a kid. Mom would pack a picnic and we would drive to some random lake or stream in the mountains somewhere and we'd spend the day fishing and hanging out.)
James can hit pretty dang good with a baseball bat. He's excited about his success.

Ruby, as much as I tried to discourage it, is totally into princesses. She spent a week with my mom when we went on the cruise and that's when she fell in love. She insists on wearing a dress everyday because princesses do. The dress-thing was kind of cute at first but now it's kind of annoying. She is in heaven when we go to Target and she gets to look at all of the princess toys; it's pretty evident the power of marketing on young, impressionable minds.
Ruby's figured out how to tease and annoy her brother. So now they tease and annoy each other all day long. Sometimes they get along and play well together but usually it ends up with somebody crying. I now know why my parents were constantly yelling at us to "Stop fighting!!"

Wishin' and Hopin' and Prayin'

I am dreaming about this place today. I really wish I was there on beautiful Coco Cay. Most of all, I wish I was well again. I wish I didn't have to throw up anymore. I wish that I didn't have an ear infection on top of nausea. I wish Ruby didn't have a fever and an ear infection. I wish James would stop acting like a little psycho. I wish I could give Adam the time and attention he needs and deserves rather than half-closed eyes and a face filled with absolute apathy because I'm too sick to care about anything right now. I know this is not upbeat and I should probably only post things that are positive because I wouldn't want anyone to think I am human or anything. Anyway, I'm just very depressed today. It's been almost 2 months of misery, absolute misery. I don't want to be a sick, cranky mom anymore. I don't want to be an absent wife anymore. I just want my life back. The fun, care-free life of a person who enjoys good health. Maybe someday I'll be that person again. But not today.

Still here...barely

There has been so much going on in our lives over the past month or so.

*We moved into Adam's grandma's house in southeast Boise and are sharing the house with Adam's cousin Kelly.

*I am about 10 weeks pregnant and seriously wish I was dead. It has been so awful. It has to be the highest form of torture to have to force yourself to eat while gagging and fighting off vomiting at the same time. It's such a horrendous thing. I've lost 10lbs so far. I'm not sure why some women are more sick than others because, no offense, but feeling 'a little queasy and a little nauseous' just doesn't count. I'm so sick of throwing up and tired of gagging in public places. I've been so fortunate to be able to go to my mom's house almost every day and she helps with the kids. Adam is such a wonderful, helpful, caring husband and father. I know the sickness is getting old for him too. Living with Kelly has also been really good. She has helped with the kids in the evenings and is so good with them. It was a blessing that we moved when we did because it was less than a week later and I was slammed with debilitating nausea. The timing could not have been more perfect.
Mind you, I'm not complaining about being pregnant itself. We are excited and very grateful to be able to have another baby. We know that we are very lucky. Baby is due Nov 26 and I'm pretty sure it's a boy and doc guessed that it's a boy but only time will tell.

*Adam has his job interview for the Sioux Falls position next week in Omaha. We're excited but nervous as we have been through this with the same company twice before.

Update

In case you wanted to know what's really been going on with us:

--The house is going to sell sometime this month. Just waiting for the inspection now. If they don't want us to fix anything (and with this couple it wouldn't surprise me if they want us to fix the whole house (and we're not fixing one single thing)) then we will be out in April and living in Adam's grandma's basement in Southeast Boise.

--Adam started a job at Platt Electric last Monday. It's just warehouse work so nothing he's excited about or anything but at least it's bringing in money.

--Adam has a job opportunity in Sioux Falls, South Dakota and since he's already interviewed with the company then all he has to do, most likely, is the final interview. I never thought in a million years that I would be dreaming of Sioux Falls but I am ready and willing to go anywhere right now for Adam to start a career.

--Registered James for kindergarten last week. He breezed right through all of the little 'tests.' I was so proud of him. I can't believe we've had him for FIVE years now. Amazing.

--I have been staying busy working from home, interviewing host families, working with my exchange students, and going to Vegas for "business." I know, it's a tough job but someone has to do it. As a side note, thankfully my Japanese student's family and friends are all safe and unaffected by the earthquake and tsunami.

--Going to see the Clumsy Lovers, a band I have close ties with, on St. Patrick's Day. Looking forward to dancing the night away. If anyone wants to come please do. The McCabe's bought their tickets today too. They are always a super fun band to see.

--We've been going to the library a lot, like twice a week. We are so ready for spring!

Viva la Tacky

The fountain show at the Bellagio. AMAZING! Definitely my favorite thing to see in Vegas. Absolutely beautiful. There was a show every 15 minutes and the fountain was choreographed to music. We must have watched it 6 or 7 times.


This was the fountain show looking down from the top of the fake Eiffel Tower.

EF paid for us to go to the cheesy, tacky wax museum. Not sure who in their right mind would spend their own money on this but since it was free we had fun.
I look way psycho. Love this picture.
Hmmm.... smells like... homewrecker.
Who doesn't love a Stature of Liberty made out of Jelly Bellies?
This salsa was soooo stinkin' good.


Ceiling inside the Bellagio.
Bellagio.

Bellagio.
Caeser's Palace... Our hotel.


Fountains, fountains everywhere.
He was wearing a bikini underneath.

So, to sum up Vegas-- a city of gluttony. I saw so many children there with their families and I have absolutely no idea why anyone would expose their children to such a worldly place. Porn everywhere-- on the ground, shoved in our faces as we walked down the street, on the sides of vans and buses, hanging on the buildings. I have no desire to go ever go back. I feel like I need to cleanse myself inside and out now.
At one point, we passed a group of young teenage boys who were there as a sports team and they had their adult chaperones with them. A few of them had collected these pornography cards that were scattered all over the ground and being handed out by a ton of people on the street. They were laughing and giggling over them. Adam and I walked up to them and said, "Boys, you don't need that stuff. How would your mom feel if she knew you had those?" They stopped laughing immediately and turned their heads away and looked down in shame and then walked away. They knew what they were doing was wrong.
There were high points and we did have fun walking through all of the hotels and watching the freakshow foot traffic. We saw a whole lot of skin on this trip. It's good to be home.