-One of us is very pregnant.

-One of us still loves life as a kindergartener.

-One of us is a fast growing fetus.

-One of us loves his spiderman shoes so much he takes them off only to take a bath (and that’s because mommy and daddy make him).

-The last and least of us just drank a diet coke.

Anyway, after months and months of scrimping and saving, and deciding and looking at classifieds, well, we found the right van at the right price…and we absolutely love it!! It’s way better than what we thought we would get.  Long story short, my aunt from St. George called us a couple Saturday mornings ago and asked if we were still looking around for a van, and that they had some friends that were selling one.  After we found out that it was an Odyssey (we had decided long ago that we wanted either that or a Sienna, really didn’t matter which one) with low miles for the year (2004 with 60k) a very good price and the fact that we would know the history, it was a done deal.  A couple days later, BriAnne and the kids dropped me off at a scary part of Provo (center street, west side, you know what I’m talking about) where the ‘St. George shuttle’ picked me up for my one way jaunt.    Who knew there was a shuttle that does nothing more than run back and forth, mostly old people use it though.  I was the only one in the van under 75, including the driver.  Anyway, I made it down in a few hours, bought the thing, and drove it back.  With automatic doors (push a button on the key fob or just touch the handle) I forsee us getting very lazy on the door opening front.  The kids love the built in DVD player of course.

So..here goes an attempt.  At work we decided to shift directions a bit and as a result no longer have a need to have different teams creating our different products. It’s more complicated than that, but the end result was to downsize which meant saying goodbye to friends and coworkers that I work with closely on a daily basis.  That was tough.  On the positive side though I am very excited about the opportunities that lie ahead for us as a company and enjoy the cohesiveness of a smaller group, similar to how it was in the beginning almost 3 years ago (3 years already..that’s crazy).  An immediate affect though is that fewer people are left to handle the work that 2 or 3 people had been doing before which make for some pretty long, exhausing days at work, at least for now.  BriAnne has been very supportive and even though I know it’s tough on her when I call to say I’m going to be late getting home she says “Ok, love you!” – she’s great!

Nextly, the expectation of #3 has us on the lookout for a good van deal.  That’s right, a minivan.  All pride is gone.  Seriously, I’ve always hated them, but I guess there just comes a time in every Mormon family when the dang things just look too darn efficient.  They haul a lot of people, and a lot of crap, and do it with fairly decent gas mileage.  In preparation for that we sold the truck and are sharing the good ol’ Altima until such time that I’ve found a little beater truck and said minivan.  Sharing the car does have it’s advantages (we’re saving quite a bit!) but it’s also tough for both of us to not have the freedom to just jump in the car and take off whenever! I think we’ve got schedules coordinated for now (between work, dance lessons for Katelyn, etc) that it’s pretty smooth.  It’s also great to work with my brother Dave who is good w/ taking me home in a pinch, etc.

Next is the calling…being ward clerk started off busy enough.  Somehow, some way, it’s gotten about three time as busy over the last month or so.  I honestly love it, but for the first time ever I’m finding it challenging to keep track of everything on my plate and feel like a ball isn’t falling somewhere.  The bishop assures me I’m doing well, so I’ll just keep plugging away and hope everything falls into place!

BriAnne has been busy with her calling as a youth instructor as well, not to mention dealing with the craziness of having a 3 and 5 year old at her heals all the time! She does great at juggling what’s on her plate, getting Katelyn to school, being involved in parent helper stuff at school, gymnastics and piano lessons, planning out the holidays and everything else.

In the midst of it all, we are very excited for the holidays coming up and are loving every minute of being in our new house (although we’ve not done anything in the way of improvements, like THEY have!) We’re still stuck on trying to figure out what we want to do 1st!

That’s right, it’s HUNTING season!!!

Some inevitable things are going to happen here within the next couple weeks. 1)The usual hunting clan, minus Ryan who wussed out this year, will set up a massively over-engineered camp site that leaves everyone not familiar with it thinking “why not just go find a Hilton to stay in?” To which I respond internally with “get lost”.  2) based on the meals we usually have there, we’ll be getting approximately 60% of our yearly intake of cholesterol in less than a week, and finally 3) I’ll call up my friend Clayton who will humbly relate the story of how he shot another great buck.

Mark my words, it will happen!

That’s right, some snot nosed kid gave my daughter his “digits”. Actually, I assume that it’s his mom’s number, but still. Katelyn then proceeded to tell me that he told her he’s ”busy” today, but that she can call him tomorrow. Busy? Doing what, taking a nap followed by some quality playground time? Geez, at least wait until she’s in 1st grade!

Since the second number is an upside down triangle, I’m going to go ahead and let this one slide.

Feel free to call and congratulate her!

It probably shouldn’t be as big a deal as it turned out to be when one’s cell phone breaks, but it kinda was for us because it meant possibly having to renew our plan…we’ve been month to month since February and it’s been nice knowing that we weren’t stuck in a contract. Amazingly, I stopped by the Sprint store on my way home from work today and walked out with a brand new very nice phone for BriAnne (not one of the cheapy free ones!) , virtually for free and without having to renew our contact!! We haven’t really had any problems dealing with Sprint, but I’ve got to admit that I didn’t expect that they would go to the lengths they did to keep our business…even if it meant not trying to lock us into a new contact.

And just when I was getting used to these wonderful things, it was time for her to go.

As one can imagine, she left a hole.  An empty hole down in her room, an empty hole in my days, and my walks, and my heart.  We still talk, and visit on the phone, but it doesn’t change the fact that I miss her.  Of course I’m okay.  All of us knew the visit would be a short one, perhaps not this short – but no one knew for sure.  Jon also feels the loss as he has to adjust to my novice ironing skills.  What makes it okay for all of us, is that she is where she is supposed to be, filling her time, her days and her walks with who she should be filling them with – and none of us question this one bit.  Thank goodness to that, and to Heavenly Father for leading her here to us, for even the brief stay that it was, and for guiding her to where she should be now.  Thank goodness that Jon was willing to open his heart to the idea of sharing our home even though it wasn’t the easiest thing.  And thank you, friend, for being there to help me when I was supposed to be helping you.  Thank  you for setting such a strong example of following the spirit.  Thank you for being my friend.  I’m very proud of you.  And if you ever find yourself needing to visit again, our doors are always open to you!