Time Flies By

Holy Cow...it is hard to believe that another five months has gone by without my writing our events.  I need to do better at writing and putting my thoughts into words. I forget about it plus life is busy.  This past few months has been no exception.

Probably the biggest news is that we bought a house!!  It is about three times as big as my old house and the house I probably should have had when all of my kids were still home.  However, Boyd and Skyler are living here now and Brittnie spends the night quite often. It is so nice to have beds for them instead of the floor or couch.  We also have visitors that come spend a few days so the extra room for them is nice too. In fact, we will have friends from Bullhead three times in the next six weeks!  It is really nice to have my family come over and be able to put up extra tables in the house and still be able to walk around without tripping over each other. There is no way I could have seated 30 people in my old home.  I love the fact that it is mine.  I appreciate so much my parents letting us stay there for way longer than we thought, but we finally have our own space again.  I was able to get some new furniture and pictures, Rob has a workshop (at least soon it will be finished as we are getting ready to start finishing the basement), we have a 3 car garage and this week we will have grass again.  It is in a quiet neighborhood and fairly close to work....not as close as Bullhead but a lot closing than most people who live up here.  Rob travels about 20 minutes each way which is way better than an hour as most due.  I love my big kitchen with my double ovens and my HUGE pantry.  The utilities are so much cheaper here and so far, we are good. I will say it comes with a house payment three times the amount too which I am still a little bit nervous about, but with our raises and retirement, so far we are doing okay.  How grateful I am for my many blessings. Everyone asks me what is the best part about being here and I immediately say being close to our family. We can go to graduations, ordinations, farewells, get togethers - all things we were not able to do for the past 27 years. I love having my kids close by but how I wish Cortnie was closer too.  She is still living her dream though and as much as I miss her, I am happy for it. Besides, she still gets us free tickets :-).  We are still trying to fit into the ward and have made a few friends, but the worse part about it all is missing them so badly.  I wish they were here too then it would be perfect.

We have spent lots of time the past few months getting the house ready and moving in.  I am one that does not disorganization so must of my boxes were emptied within the first three days.  I wanted my home put together.  Work has been awesome letting us have the time off we need.  I am so happy with our jobs and that we have great work schedules.  My boys both lost their jobs though which is so heartbreaking for a mom when they call to say " I just got fired".  They say they are looking and I pray that they are. They are just being very picky about what they want to do. The bad part is, they are almost out of money so they need to not be so picky anymore and find something.  I am the mother that worries so much about her kids.  I just want everyone to be happy.

We had an awesome time on our cruise to the Caribbean.  That was our family Christmas gift last year.  We had not seen Cortnie since Christmas so being with her was the best!  I miss her so much.  We fly to Orlando and went to the park for a day laughing and playing and having a great time.  I am so glad my kids like each other and we get along so well.  The park was  a long day though as we got in way too late the night before so did not have much sleep.  We did not even stay for the shows or fireworks this time.  The next morning we drove to Fort Lauderdale to board the Royal Caribbean Independence of the Seas. Our last boat was nice but this one was better. It was HUGE!  I could not believe how big it was.  It held over 4000 guest plus all the crew.  It had so much to do just on the boat. We spent the days there on the water slide, the game room, shopping and just relaxing playing games. Skyler even ate real food in the dining room. Of course, it was the exact same thing for the five nights but that is okay. By the time we got to night three our waiter knew exactly what to bring him yet he was always saying he was going to bring him Ceasar salad or something funny like that.  Sky would have steak, two helpings of mashed potatoes with a side of gravy and ranch, and all the rolls they would bring him. He also had fruit as an appetizer and actually ate the cantaloupe and grapes after making funny faces with them on his face. He gave the rest away. The last night he ate 8 rolls on top of it all. Oh yeah, he also had chocolate cake and ice cream for dessert.  We laughed so much mostly at dinners and just had fun.

We spent two days off the boat in Cozumel and Costa Maya. Costa Maya has a huge waterpark that includes zip lines and the works. We played there all day going down slides that we so scary (some I would not do twice like the one where you were enclosed the whole time and I could not breathe). The zip lines were awesome especially landing in the water on the last one. Poor Britt had to have a worker come out and rescue her twice and she did not make it to the end of the line.  They finally figured out it was due to a faulty piece of equipment. She looked so funny just hanging there up in in the trees.  On Cozumel we rented these little open air cars and took a tour of the island.  We say an old Mexican village were the mamita actually made us homemade tortillas. Rob, Cortnie and Boyd went snorkeling and we got to see (and sample which we did not) Tequilla.  I was so afraid that Skyler would not like that tour, but he even said it was great and he had a good time.  We spent a couple hours shopping here too and once again, everyone was happy and patient.

All too soon it was over.  Our flight home was horrible as I picket one with two stops and long layovers. I will not do that again nor will I rent a car that is off the airport  - I will get one right there. It was hard to leave Cortnie but nice to come home. I could have easily stayed another few days though.  There is nothing more fun to me than spending time with my family and hearing them laugh.  Two weeks after we got home, we booked another trip to go to  Orlando with Tina, Shawn and Coby for a week in October.  I so wish it was sooner as I am ready to go now.  Those trips are fun too but not as fun as going by ourselves. We will do some things with them, but some we will do on our own too.  Cortnie will also be home the end of July for a few days too so that will be really nice.  She has not seen our home yet and loves to see her relatives.

As for everyday life, we work and we come home.  Most nights I am by myself as the guys are all off playing their games so I go for long walks or watch something on TV. It is somewhat boring sometimes but I am grateful to have time to relax.  Now that we are starting the basement, I think it will be a little bit different at night but we will see.  My hope is to have a bedroom for Cortnie when she comes in July but that might be pushing it.  I am loving the cooler weather as all of our friends say it is over 100 degrees there already and we have yet to hit 80.  However, there has been so much rain this year it is crazy.  I told Rob we needed to build an ark and not a basement.  I think it might be past that now though which would be nice. I don't mind it but I would like my yard finished and the rain is stopping that.  Life is good. For the most part I am happy.  Somethings I still really miss but I love the freedom. The down part of my job is I sit all day long so I have put on lots of weight. I try to still eat good but I don't walk around all day like in the pharmacy. That part is very depressing for me.  I want to start to run again and hopefully that will help

Anyway, time to get ready for church.  Another bad part of living here with so many wards...church is at 12:30 which is so late so the mornings are really long.  I am just glad that I have a church to go to though and can take the sacrament each week. My goal is to start going to the temple at least once a month too.  I need to convince Rob of that one.  It makes my life complete.