Now and Then Part 2

Oddly enough we have another set of friends from Michigan here in Texas with us. This goes all the way back to my sophomore year at BYU. Ruth and I were roommates and friends with a group of guys, which included Gavin, and of course since I mentioned these two, they later got married and after finishing their undergrad degrees moved to Ann Arbor Michigan for Gavin's law degree. A year later John and I followed for my job at Michigan State. (Somehow we managed to survive the Michigan vs Michigan State rivalry. Like I really care. Ha!) A couple of days after arriving in Michigan, Ruth told me she was pregnant then 3 months later I gave her the same announcement about myself. Her son Caden was born the beginning of March and EZ followed at the end of May.

Here is a pic of EZ and Caden when Caden was about 9 months old and EZ about 6 months . As you can see EZ had a little weight over Caden despite the age difference. Well after 2 years together in Michigan, Gavin accepted a job in Dallas and then that same summer John had his internship in Austin, so we weren't apart for long. Of course we had to return to Michigan after the summer, but voila we returned to Austin a year later. We went up to Dallas about a week and a half ago and got to see those guys again and how the kiddies had changed. Here is a pic of Caden and EZ at the zoo. (More pics of the zoo trip to follow).

Oh and of course also during that year apart I got pregnant with Netta and Ruth got pregnant with her little girl Brynlee. This time I got pregnant 3 months before Ruth, so you would assume my daughter would be quite a bit bigger since EZ is still a little bit bigger than Caden, and you would be right! Here is a picture of the girls hanging out. I guess all my kids are going to be huge and all of Ruth's are going to be skinny.

Oh EZ

So I left EZ strapped into his booster seat with some play dough so I could go take a shower and not have him demolish the house. When I came back downstairs he had thrown play dough all over the kitchen. Lately scolding doesn't seem to be getting through to him so I told him "No we do not throw play dough on the floor!" and then for added emphasis and to make sure he was listening I asked him "What did I say?". He sternly replied "No more monkeys jumping on the bed!" Well at least he learned a lesson.

Now and Then

We were very blessed to have our friends from Michigan, the Adams, move down to Austin last summer when we came down for John's internship. Sarah and I gave birth to our first kids around the same time, EZ in May and Sarah's daughter Claire in June. They were friends from day one. Here they are relaxing by our backyard pool. At the time EZ was very chill, as you can see, and Claire was not as excited about being in the water. They were able to spend their first year together between Michigan and Texas, until we returned to MSU for John's last year of school and Sarah and Aaron stayed in Texas for Aaron's job.

Well we were even more blessed when we got the job offer with Dell and Sarah and Aaron were still in Austin! It made the move so much easier. Sarah being here helped Texas feel like home right off the bat. Since last year Sarah and I have each had another kid, her son Noel was born in April and Netta in May. (As I write this I realize I don't have a picture of the two of them together. I will have to fix that). It is great having a friend in the same kid situation. Someone to swap babysitting and venting sessions with. EZ and Claire have taken back to the pool, but the roles are reversed. Since being stuck in the tundra EZ has not taken as well to swimming this year as Claire has. She is all over the place with no fear and EZ likes to stick to the top step. Here is admittedly not the best picture, but once taken recently at the pool. A lot changes in two years.

I HATE Chickering Health Insurance

In Michigan we had Chickering health insurance through MSU for a semester and they are driving me crazy. I had to pay $1500 for one semester of coverage so you think the least they could do was pay my claims but no I am still getting bills from two different services performed in November!!! I apologize to anyone reading this who heard me conmplain over the last couple of months, but I am still dealing with the same claims as before. It is so frickin ridiculous. So just the other day I got a bill and when I called the lab they said my insurance had not paid yet because they were waiting for me to respond about some previous conditions, which I did in January and then again in March, because the idiots lost the first letter I sent. So I call Chickering already annoyed and then the girl says "oh yeah we had everything we needed in May, but our system isn't automated so someone had to notice it to reprocess it." Are you frickin kidding me? That is the dumbest thing I have ever heard of. Isn't that what I paid so much money for them to do? And we aren't even talking about big claims. More like $200. So then I call the lab back to let them know what is going on and I asked out of curiosity when exactly the insurance had said I was still missing previous information and they had said that on September 5th. I get so mad just thinking about it. How on September 5th could they tell the lab they were missing information they had had since May!! Didn't someone check my file before they told the lab that? I should have just gone without insurance. It would have saved me money and hours on the phone. So yeah for those who have spouses at MSU do not pay Chickering a dime. They suck beyond all possible suckiness and they are just ripping you off.

Cleaning Up Ike

A week and a half ago John went down to Lake Jackson, TX with a bunch of volunteers from our Church to help clean up after Ike. It was a long day with the most labor John has done since he worked construction about 8 years ago. They left early in the morning, around 4. (John of course opted to stay up way late playing video games instead of going to bed early, but if I starting talking about his gaming habits this post could go way off topic). The trip was organized by our Church and the Red Cross. They all got to wear matching "Helping Hands" shirts for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Basically they spent all day cutting up trees and carrying them away. The red cross searched out families who were too old or too poor to do the labor themselves and gave a list to our group who broke into teams and went out looking for those people. Anyone that wanted help had to give their permission and sign a waiver. It was a really long and hard day for John and his body took quite some time to recoup, but one house made it particularly worth the effort. This guy they were helping kept asking them for their names and seemed to be writing them down. Then he kept asking for the Church's phone number and no one was sure if he meant the local building or what and finally he said he wanted the number of the Church's headquarters so he make sure they all got commendations. John was joking maybe it would mean he would start getting paid for his calling for maybe a discount on tithing or something. But of course it was all worth it without any earthy reward. Service is hard for the body, but good for the soul.

Bumpa Steve, Bumma Sharon and Ike Come to Visit

My parents came to visit about a week and half ago to visit and we had a blast. As you have probably already guessed EZ refers to them as Bumpa Steve and Bumma Sharon. Both kids loved getting showered with attention and I loved having people around while John was at work.

It was a crazy time for a visit because of Hurricane Ike, which hit while they were here and we thought that we were going to be seeing some of the affects of it in Austin. They kept forecasting that we would get tons of rain, but in the end the storm hit ground and headed north east with it's affects completely missing us. All we got was some wind and the weather cooled down, which was actually a blessing. Finally, we were able to go for walks outside because it dropped to the low 80s. I am not sure how I feel about the fact that the weather here actually got better because of a hurricane which devastated so many people. Just shows the power and unpredictability of mother nature. What makes it even crazier is that my parents actually witnessed the affects of Ike when they got back to Pittsburgh. As it headed north it hit a cold front and my parents got home to find the power had gone out and wind gusts up 90mph had hit by their house and ripped apart the big tree in our front yard.

Anyway, besides spending a lot of time watching the news about the hurricane, we also got to show my parents around the Austin area, which of course included lots of BBQ and greasy Mexican food again, but it also included two trips to Whole Foods, which we love. Austin is the headquarters of whole foods so there is a smaller one in North Austin and then the huge one attached to the headquarters downtown. We visited both and ate lots of yummy food, most of which although "all natural" can in no way be good for you since it comes from the fancy pastry shop. I guess we just feel better saying we got it at whole foods.

My parents also got to relive the fun of life with little kids, which of course includes bath time. Both EZ and Netta love it and I have started bathing them together, which EZ thinks is hilarious. He especially likes to run around after the bath with his towel hanging from his head yelling "Super EZ!!!" as seen in the picture below.

Netta loves bath time too, but unfortunately her rolls keep her from achieving super hero status.

I have to thank my parents for spoiling the kids with attention. The adjustment to being a stay at home mom, having two kids and taking on home ownership has been a bit rocky at times. Having them here gave John and I both some much needed rest and my handy dad helped me finish some decorating projects and other odds and ends that I kept meaning to do, but never seem to get around too. Oh and we couldn't have gotten them done without my mom keeping the kids occupied and away from the hammer. So thanks mom and dad!

Here is a pic of Netta with my mom and then EZ with my dad. The bond seems to be strongest along the gender lines. My dad helped EZ find a new love for his drums and was actually able to keep EZ so entertained that he refrained from wearing his guitar all day like he usually does.

Sadly my parents had to leave and as soon as they did EZ went back to his ways. He can't even take off the guitar to watch tv for fear that he might miss the chance to rock out to his favorite theme songs. I also love this picture because Netta is started to be able to do more and here she looks like she is following in big brother's Diego and Dora loving footsteps.

Craigslist You Are Driving Me Crazy

Well maybe my actual complaint isn't with craigslist, but with the people who use it. My experience has been hit or miss. Sometimes I hear back right away and make the purchase and other times my emails go unanswered while the ad stays up and even sometimes is relisted. For example, I have been trying to buy this snap-n-go stroller for Netta's car seat for a couple of weeks. There was this add selling it for $30 and I emailed the person about it and never got a response. Fine, maybe they had so many people respond that they just sold it and didn't have time to let me know. Well, I go looking again yesterday and the original add is gone, but then I see the same person has reposted the add for now $25. Ok so obviously it hasn't sold. So I think maybe my email got sent to this person's junk mail or something so I try again with my MSU email instead of gmail. Still no response. What the heck! Whoever you are check your junk mail and sell me the frickin stroller!!!!