A New Job, New State, and New Adventure

 There was a time that I was pretty good about keeping this thing up-to-date, but that time has come and gone.  This post is just to let you all know that we are still alive and well, while giving you a very brief update on what has happened with us since the last post.

Alyssa and Ambrey got their ears pierced.  I don't have a picture of Ambrey because she was with Janna when she had it done.  From what I heard she did great with it.  For Alyssa this was the second time that we've had her ears pierced, and just like last time she dealt with some swelling afterwards that prompted us to take the earrings out and let the ears heal.

Summer was horribly hot again, which was really no surprise.  The biggest shock was when we got in the pool near the end of June and found that the water 95 degrees!  That would be awesome during the wintertime, but when it's 115 degrees outside a 95 degree pool doesn't do a whole lot of good.

In part because of the heat, as well as some changes with my schedule at work we decided that it was again time to move our family elsewhere.

 But since the move wasn't until December 14th, some within our family insisted that we had to have a Christmas tree up before the move.  So we got a small one.  But that's not even the most troubling part.  Before we got this tree we had already put up two other Christmas trees.  Yes, there may be some insanity within our family.

 While dealing with about two weeks worth of delays on the close of our home in Arizona, Janna and the kids moved to our new place in New Mexico.  Moving sucks.

 This is a picture of my trip from Arizona on the 21st of December.  Janna didn't take any pictures of her trip.  When I asked her why she didn't take any pictures she said something about screaming kids, icy roads, a blizzard, and stress.  I don't know what that has to do with a camera, but whatever.

 We were supposed to leave for Utah the day after I arrived in New Mexico, but when I arrived I found a house full of sick invalids.  After considering cancelling our trip to Utah for Christmas, which was to be our first Christmas there in about five years, we spontaneously decided to leave on the afternoon of the 23rd, equipped with trash cans to catch any overflowing sickness that might appear.  We stopped in Moab after about six hours of continual screaming from Westley.  In the morning we traveled the remaining three and a half hours with a little less screaming, but this time in dense snow that at times provided as little as 75 feet of visibility.

Though the trip was difficult, it was well worth it.  The kids got to spend time with their cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents, and we got to see what Christmas would be like if we had never left.  The picture shown above is of the girls receiving gifts that my mother asked my grandma to make.  The girls were very excited to receive the handmade dolls.

 Since returning we have settled in nicely here.  The picture above is from something that came out of the bathroom sink in the master bath.  We're not sure what it was, but I'm not ruling out the possibility that the Loch Ness Monster may have tried to escape down the drain.

 The Two oldest have settled in with school.  Alyssa is in Junior High, and Ambrey will soon be finishing third grade.  Anna is excited about starting school after the summer.

 This is my birthday gift from Janna.  I confess it's pretty awesome.  I'm spoiled.

And this is a picture of Westley eating second breakfast this morning.  I think we may have a rather large hobbit on our hands.



Our First Dust Storm

On July 5th we were treated with our first dust storm.  This first picture was our first image as we walked out of the front door.  The dust was so thick that it looked like smoke coming from a massive fire in our neighborhood.

This is what we saw when we looked to the east.

This is what we saw when we looked to the west.

It was about 7:20 pm, so as you can see from this picture, the sun was still up and it would be for awhile longer.

This picture was taken in our backyard about 10 minutes after the first pictures that are shown above.  I took several pictures, but this was the only one that turned out OK.  It got pretty dark fairly quickly.

Pests?

So yesterday we got the kids up to get ready for school and found this on our kitchen floor. Welcome to Arizona. Fortunately it was already dead, which according to the nice lady on the phone means that our pesticides are still working. That said, this is not the kind of thing that we want to see hanging around. Needless to say our home is going to be sprayed again on Monday.

Okay, so it has Been Awhile...

For the one or two of you who have religiously checked our blog for the last couple of months to find that nothing had been posted, sorry. We have been pretty busy.

Janna flew back to Buffalo on August 20th, and on Thursday, August 26th we left Buffalo after I got off of work. We drove our 1989 Oldsmobile (now named Trusty Rusty) making stops in Ohio, Missouri, and then in New Mexico at David and Chantel's new beautiful home, before arriving in Arizona on Sunday August 29th. It was great to see my kids again, I had been without them for just under two months.

After signing papers for our new house on Monday we left for Utah (same day). We spent about a week with our families playing games and hanging out (oh ya, and attending Scott and Candice's wedding) before returning to Arizona on September 7th so that I could take care of some work related stuff. Overall we drove more than 3600 miles over the period of about a week and a half (about 3000 miles in about five days). We moved into our new house on the eighth, and we have loved our time here so far. The house is wonderful.

We have spent our first few weeks here unpacking, getting the kids into school, putting our house together, and swimming. I will post more pictures as soon as we find our camera (we are still unpacking). This picture was taken this morning with my phone. After chores we all went for a dip in the pool. Life is good.

The Trek to Arizona Begins... for Some

So today is the day that I sent Janna, Alyssa, Ambrey, and Anna off to Utah (and then Arizona) without me. As a result I have added a new timer to the blog which will be counting down until the time that I get off of work on my last day here in Buffalo. I will be leaving immediately after to rejoin my family, and I can honestly say that "I cannot wait!" I would like to thank Renee for coming out here to help them on this journey, Christopher for allowing her to come, and Jayda for being so good about spending time with her extended family so that we could make this trip happen safely. My only hope is that the time on this timer counts down a lot faster than the time on our last timer did....

Lots of Light and Heat at the end of the Tunnel

Okay, so it has been awhile since we posted any updates on our blog. For those who don't know, we are moving to Arizona! We are thrilled with the way that things have worked out. In less than a month Janna and the girls will be in Utah visiting family and going to Park City. I will remain here in Buffalo to work (looks like somebody got the short end of the stick).
This is a picture of one of the two hospitals that I will be working at. I start work in October.
This is a picture we took of all of us on what I believe what was the first Sunday after I had my appendix out. Anna promptly elbowed one of my incisions after we took this picture.

A couple of nerds.

Ambrey was able to go to the zoo with her class, and we were able to accompany her.

This is a video of Ambrey and her good friend Jenna performing: "I went to a Chinese Restaurant."