Rebex's Randomness

Random things I haven't mentioned on here before:

I recently started my second job. I tutor between 4-5 hours a week but make as much as if I were working 15-20 hours at a fast food place. I've been amazed at how much people are willing to pay so their kids can excel in school. I guess having me there is much cheaper than going to Sylvan Learning Center, but still...it's expensive. I'm not complaining though. It's such a blessing to me! I feel like Heavenly Father led me right to this job, just as He's done with most every other job I've had. It feels good to know that Someone is watching out for me. :)

I'm looking forward to Saturday night. B.A.C.K. (my best friends and I) will be attending a UTSA basketball game. I've never been to a UTSA game, so that will be fun. The great part, though, is that during half-time we will be escorted onto the gym floor so they can present us with a plaque stating we are the UTSA Family of the Year. How crazy is that?! Kyle entered an essay contest to nominate two families: the family she was born into and the one she chose. The one about us won. Isn't that fun?! In addition to the plaque (which will be hung somewhere on campus), she won two round-trip airline tickets to anywhere that Southwest flies, as well as a hotel stay in downtown San Antonio. I'm so excited for her! Now she can go on a trip to celebrate graduation. :) Kyle was told that we'll probably be in the local newspaper. If I happen to see it, I'll scan and post the clip on the blog. Mom, do you remember when you won Mother of the Year? I was so excited about that. I think I still have the essay if you'd like a copy. By the way, it was so good having you here. I wish you didn't live so far away!

One last thing. Let me know if you're interested in receiving an e-mail notification when someone posts a blog comment. If I enter your e-mail address, you'll get a message every time a comment is posted (it won't send e-mails about new blogs though).

Hope to hear from you all soon. Jason, are you reading this thing? You signed up, so where's your blog? Does anyone have ideas for how we can get the boys to start posting on here?

I love you all!

Love being Owen's mom!

Being that it is Monday I decided to start again the ongoing quest to lose weight. I was working out on the rower in the garage (which is actually Eli's mini gym) I was tired, sweaty and huffing and puffing my way through the workout. Apparently the huffing and puffing was mistaken to be cries of pain coming from my flabby muscles because Owen came darting into the garage to my rescue. He ran over to me on the rower, gave me a big hug and kiss and started holding me and rocking me saying... "it's ok mommy, I got you, I got you." Who knows what may have happened if he hadn't come to my rescue! It is so fun watching him grow and learn new phrases, it is always entertaining discovering which phrases he chooses to repeat that come from our mouths. It's funny how all of sudden words like crap or stop it sound absolutely obscene when they are coming from the mouth of a two year old! Fortunately this time it wasn't so bad:)

How things change in a week!!

Soooo...The seller from the house we pulled out of due to flood insurance issues has decided to stop torturing us. She out of the blue decided that not only was she going to give us our earnest money back, but she was going to reimburse us $1500 for the repairs that were done to the house as well as the elevation certificate we had done if we would give her the original elevation certificate. I can't believe it. The only thing I can figure is that they had another offer on the house. Thank God for small miracles.

We are still waiting for everyone to sign all the paperwork and the money from the seller to come into the title company, but it looks like we might finally be out of escrow on that house!! The day we found all this out we put an offer in on another house we had looked at while waiting for everything to get settled on the other house. In typically bad Bushey luck here's what that seller did to us. We put in our offer on Tuesday with a deadline for Wednsday. They gave us some dumb reason why they needed an extension on the deadline and we gave it to them. They finally got back to us on Friday with a counter offer. We had to counter back for silly issues like we needed more time to transfer money to give them earnest money...Really we agreed to the nuts of the counter including the price. They called back said they would not sign the counter because they had someone coming to look at the house for a second time and they felt they could get a better offer from them. VERY VERY unethical!! Their plan was to use us to get more money out of someone else. Our realtor was so mad. Long story short they never got another offer and came back saying ok we extend our counter with your terms added if you are still interested. We signed although we didn't like there tactics. If we get the house in the long run the unethical behavior of the realtor won't matter.

So, our realtor opened escrow on the new house today. If all the inspections come back ok...we might actually get to move out of my mother in laws house and start our life together!! Some pictures for your enjoyment. There were no good pictures of the inside of the house on the listing, so stay tuned. The house is on 1 1/4 acre. It faces west and has beautiful views of the mountains. We can defintely make it home for a long time.

Heather

Milking COWS!

He he he... ya can't live in Idaho and NOT ever milk a cow! I can officially mark this off the list of things to do before I die!
Isn't that baby calf SOOO cute?!!? He was really cold and didn't want to come near me though. Can't say I blame him! I wouldn't want to be outside! The next picture is my roommate, Nonie, and I in the...barn? Yeah sure...where all the cows are kept. It smelled SOOO bad. AND it was FREEZING!

This one is us inside the actual milking place. Notice the girl behind me... yeah...thats my roommate, Melanie, with a brace on her nose. :( Hey, at least it's straight now! :*(

That's ME!! Hand milkin the cow! :)




Didn't notice this "LOVELY" part till we got home. I guess I leaned up against something that was covered in poo. Sad day, huh?! Yep..that's cow poop on my sweatshirt!

Glass bottom boat tour

Here's a fun little video to give you an idea of what the glass bottom boat tour looked like. It was pretty neat. I even got some footage of the low-pressure springs. If you blink, you might miss them: pay close attention during seconds 2 through 6. Enjoy! :)

Here are some random pictures from my day. I love that there was a diver in the water during our tour. :) I guess he was checking out the equipment, or something.



Sunbathing turtles. How cute is that?! They were all over the place.




<--- Here's our boat! :) My best friends and me, a.k.a. B.A.C.K. (Becca, Amy, Carly, and Kyle) --->

B.A.C.K. (minus Kyle)

<---

Buckin' Bronco

Since the rodeo is in town, I thought I would send a photo of my little "buckin' bronco". Austin climbed up on Liam's bike and struck a pose for daddy. He is a true Texan! :)

Mom's News

Wow. I hopefully finally am a part of the group. Updates--my prediction that any health problems were being saved for when I had insurance seems to be accurate. Now that I have insurance I have been poked, prodded, tested and sliced upon. Since Christmas I've had a crown on a tooth, a root canal, a D&C (last week) and a most likely benign thing carved off my tongue (Monday). I have two letters sitting on my desk wishing to do further poking and prodding, which I believe I will put off for a while. Aren't you all glad you're young?
Mom

Answers

I just felt like sharing this all with you guys.

So I lost my ipod. Bad, I know. I was freaking out! I tore up my whole room, (which was clean might I add...I know i know, hard to believe!) tore apart my bed, my closet, the living room...EVERYTHING. I recruited all of my roommates and had them looking as well. Finally after about an hour of searching, I gave up and lied down on the couch with a heavy heart thinking...leave it to me! I'm ALWAYS losing things. CRUD.

My roommate, being the Returned missionary that she is, says, "well did you pray?" I just looked at her and kind of chuckled. "Well not yet." "Then GO! Go pray, God knows where everything is, even an ipod."

After much convincing on her part and my lack of faith I went to my bedroom and sat on my bed thinking of where it could be. I know God cares about things that we care about, but I didn't seem to think he'd answer this prayer, especially since I'd looked everywhere. But I said a prayer in my heart anyway.

I get up to get on my computer and look one more time in my organizer, box thingy, and lo and behold! MY IPOD! It was inside of a card I'd put in there, so I didn't see it the first 50 time I'd checked in there.

Moral of the story: no matter how simple or little something is, even a little ipod, God cares and does want to help. Prayer works...really. He knew I cared and wanted to find it, and that is enough for Him. Now, why didn't I start with that in the beginning of my search?!

Notice the similarities?

OK, so I just had to post this picture, since Heather and Scott's dog was a bumble bee for Halloween too! I was actually a queen bee, but same difference...

Our adorable dog

As long as I am posting pictures I thought I'd include a few of our baby...

At Halloween he was a bumble bee...

And one from boating on Tahoe last summer.

some picures...

So, now that I'm home, I thought I would post some pictures for you. Bekki said she wanted to see some pictures from the Medal of Valor ceremony.

Mom--hit the "New Post" button in the right hand upper corner of the screen to post a blog.

A few pictures of Scott getting the medal of valor.

Liam is so cute!

This story will make you smile. :)

So, today I asked Sarah to get me a light bulb because the bulb in the lamp was burned out. She ran upstairs to get one and Liam said "wite boal, you need a wite boal? I get you one!". He ran into the kitchen and brought me a "with boal"- it was a white bowl! It was so cute. He was really proud of himself and he said "here is a wite boal mommy!"

I don't know how I can even handle his cuteness everyday!

What a day!

So, here I am again. I think I am obsessed with checking out this blog! I am so excited to hear everyone's news. I miss you all so much.

So, this morning Ash went out to her car to go to school. A few minutes later she came back in and told me someone had broken into her car! Apparently sometime during the night someone broke in and stole her stereo and rifled through all her stuff. It made us all feel really creepy. It's weird to know that a bad guy was in our driveway and we slept, oblivious to it all! She is pretty discouraged about it. I was too at first because we decided to be faithful in paying our tithes (we slipped on that one for the first time in our marriage during the last year). So, we paid our tithes for this payday while we were at church yesterday and so did Ash, then this happened today. It felt like a blow to our faith. But Jeremy reminded me that satan is trying to discourage us and that it was just a "thing" that was stolen. He is good at putting things into perspective. :) The bad guys could have been out there when Ash got home last night and she got in safely, so we are blessed.

The boys spent the day with Auntie Sarah today. I had big plans to clean the whole house (especially the guest room) and tackle my mountain of laundry and do some decorating. Then I was going to finish our taxes and catch up on my Bible Study. Then I thought I might squeeze in an hour long nap. What was I thinking? I dropped the boys off, ran to Wal-Mart for a couple of things and came home. I ate lunch then got a shelf and bulletin board hung by the computer. By then it was 1:30! So I ran upstairs and did a load of laundry, hung a couple of things in the guestroom and that was it for the day. I sat down on the couch to wait for Sarah to get home and fell asleep for 10 minutes then she was home. My big, productive day didn't turn out to be so productive. Maybe the boys don't get in the way as much as I think they do. I don't seem to get much done when they are gone. But, they love going over to see Sarah and Owen. Liam squeals and claps when he sees their house and Austin practically jumped out of my arms to get to Sarah today! It is nice for our kiddos to spend so much time together.

Okay, back to mom duty. I am headed up to bathe the little ones and get them into bed. Love you all!!

Steph

Partying like a high-schooler!

I had quite a busy weekend! Friday night I went on a group date, and it was pretty fun. My friend, Linda, planned the whole thing. She called it "Surprise Date Night" because nobody knew who they were going to be with. I ended up with a good friend of mine -- someone I've known since I first moved here -- so that made it less awkward (by the way, he's more like a little brother to me, so NO there weren't any sparks). We played some
"getting to know you" games and then had dinner. As we sat down, we were told that the only rules were we had to sit boy, girl, boy, girl. After we sat down, Linda and her date proceeded to tie everyone's wrists together; we had to eat our spaghetti dinner that way. It was awkward, but funny. It reminded me of something I might have done when I was up at Ricks. I guess you're never too old to be silly. After dinner we went on a digital camera scavenger hunt. We drove all over the city searching for items or doing silly things. Some of the things on the list were: a 1980 coin, fresh fish, two couples holding hands (extra points for kissing), someone walking a dog, a group member teaching yoga to a complete stranger, a group member pumping gas for a stranger, a house that still has its Christmas lights up, a lump of coal, etc. I felt a little silly running around on this wild goose chase. It was especially awkward when someone said to us "A scavenger hunt? How fun! Are you two in high school?" I guess I carry my age well!

On Saturday my three best friends and I went to a lake in San Marcos (about 45 minutes outside San Antonio) to go on a glass-bottom boat tour. I didn't know such a thing existed! It was actually really neat. Mostly all I saw were seaweed and a couple of fish -- and a diver that was cleaning up the riverbed, or something -- but it was cool! That night I went to visit Steph and the kids. We had dinner (Spanish rice - yummy!) and visited. Then I made Steph go to be early so she could actually get some rest -- the little booger, Austin, hasn't been sleeping through the night. Hopefully she was able to get a few extra hours in before he woke up again. While she was trying to rest, I got the chance to chat with Ashley about everything she's been up to. She's such an amazing young woman; I can't believe she'll be graduating in just a few months. Crazy!

On Sunday, I just went to church and then to a friend's house for a "Dr. Pepper BBQ" (he made steak and chicken with the Dr. Pepper BBQ sauce his fiancee got when we went to the Dr. Pepper museum las month). It was an interesting taste.

Anyway, that's the jist of my weekend. I hope this post hasn't bored you to tears! I'll post a couple of pictures later, if I think of it.

Rebecca

A favor to ask...among other things

Yay Emmot family!!! We're staying in touch! Now how good does this feel?! Thanks so much everyone for writing...it shows you care and that is fantastic! I love reading what you all have to write; it's so nice to hear how everyone is and what you're all doing. LET"S KEEP IT UP!! LOVE YOU ALL!!

So not much else is new with me, but I had to get on and write something! The temple dedication was yesterday and afterwards me and my roommates went up to walk around it, take pictures...ya all that good stuff. So we were up there for about 2 hours (might I also mention the weather was fantastic?! Warmest weather we've had all year long!) and when we are about ready to go we see a bunch of security people and photographers lining up near the temple entrance, and we're like, what's going on? Then we hear one of them say to the other, "When's he coming out?" "Oh any minute now."

So we're sitting there thinking, who's coming out? Why are all the photographers gathering around? Then my roommate turns to us and says, "It's the Prophet!" So we jump up and walk towards the car he's headed to. He turns to look at us and says hello and comes up and shakes our hands and starts having a little polite conversation with us. I seriously could NOT stop smiling. It was pretty much amazing. The whole day was amazing! Perfect weather (well, for winter in Rexburg anyway) we hung around a spectacularly beautiful building, and yeah...it was amazing.

Now, I know that this may or may not be significant to some of you and I apologize, but I just wanted to share it all with you guys. This guy is like one of my heroes and I met him. President Monson...how cool is that?! ---Becky I'll send you pictures! :)



So my next thought is this...kind of a favor of some of you...maybe all of you. I'm writing a research paper for my English class. He wanted us to research something we were truly interested in and had some kind of attachment to. So, I chose to research TTP. I'm not really sure why, I guess I still have some unanswered questions about it all since I was only a baby. But, what I would like from you guys is this...Do you remember anything about the whole thing? If so, what? What were your reactions to what was going on at the time? What were you thinking?

I know some of you may not remember but if you do, and are willing, could you please email me and tell me? It would really help my research paper out a LOT! BUT if you don't want to share, or don't want to bring up those feelings...TRUST ME! I completely understand and you don't have to. I just want my paper to have some feeling behind it, instead of just a boring old research paper, and personal experience will definitely help with that...and since I don't really have any experience with it, I'm coming to you guys.

I LOVE YOU ALL!!! If you don't have my email...here it is... remmot05@yahoo.com

THANKS!!!

I'm starting to really love this blog!!

It's so funny but, I am really starting to love this blog. I've been checking it almost everyday. It's so nice to hear from family. Just the mudane day to day stuff, like my guest room is dirty. It's also nice to have the comments from everyone on my posts.

It can be a really good thing to see the incredible trauma that goes on day to day in strangers lives. Work can really give me some perspective sometimes. It can help me to realize how small the trials I am having really are. This to shall pass...We both have really good jobs. We are actually quite financially secure--we just can't afford a house. We are also both very healthy. MOST IMPORTANTLY WE HAVE EACH OTHER. If we don't get our earnest money back...it's just money (a lot of it though). Eventually we will find somewhere to live.

I must have made our fight seem really bad...it wasn't. I was more concerned about my reaction to it. Scott cooled down after a few hours and came and appologized for loosing his temper. What I can't get over is how insecure I can be. It really makes me feel crazy. Scott gives me no reason to doubt his love for me, but one argument and I feel like my world is going to fall apart. Maybe I'm a little sensitive right now with all the other stressors and my feeling of resposibilty for so many of our financial problems (the RV and the earnest money). It's really hard to feel responsible for something that has upset someone you love--like you drug them into it and they would be better of without you. (My insecurities talking--at least I recognize them)

Anyway back to work!!

Heather

from Uncle Mark

I just got this e-mail from Uncle Mark and thought I'd pass it on (I sent him and Uncle Bert the link to our blog):

Very Very cool Rebecca. It was great reading what is happening with all of your sisters (did you scare your brothers off?). I normally dont have time or motivation to just put my thoughts down like you guys seem to be doing. Never tried it. I might be good at it, who knows. As for me and mine last year was the same as the year before and the year before and the year before except each year seems to hold more travel than the last. I never actually set a goal of being a Platinum Member on various airlines but I seem to make it no problem year after year. Last year was 125000 on Delta and 85000on American. Still, most of the trips are a monday thru Friday so the weekends I am able to be home. Have been successful in spending the three major holidays at our home in Tehachapi and that remains a good place to get everyone together. We are fighting with various committees over a shop and a guest house we want to put up. First floor will be a shop for me to do my woodworking and car tinkering in. Second floor will be two bedrooms/baths, kitchen eating nook and living room. It will give some privacy to folks who come visit when we are retired. Once that is done we will remodel the main house so we have our living area on the main floor and have two bedrooms and a bath upstairs. When that is done I will retire and quit traveling so much.

Paul is well over 6 feet now and finishing up his senior year. He has been accepted to Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff so he will be moving up there in August. This summer he will work with his Sister and Brother in Law in San Diego. They have a boat cleaning and overhall business. Should be fun for him and let him get some time on his own away from home without being away from family. His grades are good, he doesnt understand girls at all (I dont either but that is a different story), and is just a good guy. Very quiet. Were God Parents to a young man named Patrick Michael. Pats sister calls the two of them the scarcely brothers. She can scarcely get her brother to shut up and can scarcely get Paul to say anything. Will miss him when he is off to college.

Linda is doing very well and will quit work this summer. She is going to oversee the building of the shop and guest house and then the remodeling of the main house. Am a bit jealous that she gets to quit work and I dont but I will just have to work that out. She is excited about getting started on the projects and focusing her attention on making a life versus making a living. I am excited for her as well.

Was very fun reading what was going on. If you like forward this to everyone so I can say HI. I dont have everyones email. Have fun kiddo and talk to you later.

Mark

PS: Let me know if you want Mark's e-mail address, and I'll e-mail it to you. I know he'd love to hear from you!

Yay for Jason!!

So, I am signing out and I see that Jason has signed up to be on this blog!! Yay! Now I am hoping to hear from him. Way to go Jason!

Waiting up for baby number 1

Well, I am sitting here at the computer waiting for Ash to get home from babysitting. I am planning my "day off" for tomorrow- Sarah is taking the boys for the day so I can have some time to myself. She takes them one day a week in exchange for me watching Owen while she works. It has worked out pretty well so far. I feel guilty wanting to spend time away from them- I love them so much. But it is so hard to get anything done with two little ones under foot all the time. I usually just speed clean the house and think about taking a nap (that never happens!).

I am excited for mom to come visit next week. I am getting the guest room ready so it will be nice for her. It's kindof like mom's room at the old house. Remember- "where does this go?"........"I don't know, put it in mom's room"...... Yah, that's our guest room. I clean it up for guests then a few days later the bed is covered in I don't even know what. Lately the floor has been buried too- it got hard to even shut the door! I guess that means it's time to clear it out. I never thought I would have rooms like that in my house. Oh well.

So, I am wondering how the brothers are doing. Please boys, if any of you are reading this, be the first one to sign onto our family blog. It is so nice keeping up with eachother. I miss you all and want to be involved in eachother's lives- even if it is just by reading eachother's messages. Plus, we (the Texas crew) want to plan a family reunion and would love input from everyone about when and where and what is feasible for everyone.

Well, it is late and I must be headed up to bed if I am to get anything done tomorrow. Ash is on her way home, so all is well. I love you all!

Steph

It was just a matter of time.

Well it's official, Scott and I had our first fight the other day. It has affected me a lot more than I could imagine. I have been just hanging in there with everything that has been going on and what seemed like unwavering support from Scott has kept me from going absolutely insane. I feel so defeated right now...I keep crying. It seems like everything is against us. When are things going to turn up for us??

Our fight was about money and the bad decisions that have led to us being in the predicament we are in right now. Scott for the first time said out loud that he blames me for a lot of the financial problems. He said he resents me for having the RV--"Why couldn't you have just said no to him (Tom)!!" He also feels like I am most to blame for our current problem with losing our earnest money ($5000) from the botched house purchase. Afterall although he agreed to the purchase--he was against it at first because it was an older house that needed work. My insecurities have me paranoid that his resentment is just building to make him fall out of love with me. I get so frustrated at myself for being so paranoid. I know it's from 7 years of emotional abuse, but will those scars ever heal?

I think I wouldn't feel so hopeless if I could somehow see an end to this all. We keep saving like mad and it just is never going to be enough to buy a house out here. There is nothing on the market in our price range. We aren't even close to having enough to buy. It seems like everything is so overpriced. We could save and save for the next few years and still not have enough. Scott doesn't want to consider having kids until we are settled, but when will that ever be. I absolutely feel hopeless. The builder that was maybe our light at the end of the tunnel has not returned any of my phone calls.

Anyway...hoping things get better.

Heather

I did it.... sort of :)

Well, I went in to talk to my supervisor and she didn't come in to work, so I had to talk to the boss. I didn't want to talk to her because she is so nice to me and we have a good rapport. But I had to talk to her. She was upset about me wanting to resign and she offered me a position as an educator. She said I could teach a refresher childbirth class once a month (a four hour class). She asked me to think about it for a week and get back to her. So I told her I would consider it. I don't think I will take- it will kind of be the same situation I am in now, only fewer hours. It seems like a good opportunity, but I just need to be home now. My kids won't be young forever and I am sure I will find a lot of great opportunities when I am able to work more. So, I hope I am doing the right thing. It is hard for me to always know what God wants me to do when opportunities like this arise. Did He send them my way? Does He want me to keep some type of position at work? Am I supposed to keep the job to help out? I don't know.......

Memory

Hey, do you guys remember Bob's Big Boy? I just saw this picture on my friend's Facebook page, and it brought back fun memories of going there when we were kids. Actually, the only thing I remember is that I liked to climb on the Bob statue. :)

Another day at the Guinn house.

Well, I am sitting here listening to the sound of The Incredibles on the TV and a lovely jackhammer in my neighbor's yard. It's not looking too good for nap time today. Owen is over today and he and Liam have been playing and laughing it up all day. Those little guys are fun to watch. Austin tries to keep up with them, but they can run faster than he crawls.

This morning Austin stood for about 5 seconds. Jeremy and I were right there to see it, so it was pretty exciting. Austin got a big smile on his face and then he did it again. It's great watching the kids learn new things. It never gets old. :)

So, my current dilema is deciding whether to quit my job or not. I feel like I am more than ready to take the leap, but at the same time it is a little scary. I haven't been 100% dependent on anyone else for such a long time. I know my income was very little of the household income, but I have the potential to work as much as I want if the need arose. So not having that security there is scary to me. On the other hand, the whole environment at work has gotten pretty ugly. It seems that everyone is pretty unhappy and it feels really tense when I work. The other day one of the doctors went off on me and another nurse over the littlest thing. It was silly and he made such a big deal about it. And my supervisor seems like she is going to totally lose it any day now. I have been feeling stressed out lately- partly from overwhelming exhaustion (okay, mostly from overwhelming exhaustion), and partly from feeling like my life is out of control. Having four kiddos and little help most days has been difficult. It seems like taking the extra stress of my job out of the picture will help things. So, any way, my mind is overwhelmed with trying to make the right decision. Any input is appreciated! (Although I will probably turn in my resignation letter tomorrow if I don't chicken out!).

So, there's not much else on my mind right now. I am not hearing the jackhammer right now, so maybe I will try to get three little guys down for a nap. If I am lucky, maybe one momma will get a nap too!

PS Brothers!! Please write! I want to hear from you all too.

Decisions, decisions...

So, I've been going back and forth for over a year now about how to get done with school. Right now I'm only going part time because (1) my employer is paying tuition, (2) I want to work long enough to be fully vested, and (3) I have a car payment that a part-time job won't cover. Everyone keeps telling me I should just bite the bullet and go back to school full-time, but I'm too scared. I guess I want some kind of assurance that everything will be just fine, but I'm a logical thinker. I see people (my roommate, for example) that can't seem to make ends meet on a part-time paycheck, even including her student loans. She doesn't even have any bills except rent, utilities, and her cell phone. I guess my car payment is the main thing holding me back. I don't want to sell it and still owe more than it's supposedly worth. I can't decide what I'm supposed to do. I'm just so anxious to have a job I feel good about. I want to help people. Being a secretary sort of helps people, but not in a way that fulfills me. Plus, I kind of hate it. I just wish I could find a way to make everything work the way I want it to. Maybe I'm supposed to just jump in and trust that things will work out. I guess I'm just not that spontaneus. :)

These are the things I worry about. Unfortunately the worrying usually occurs when I'm supposed to be focusing on something else, like studying for tomorrow's Algebra test, which I am going to fail because I am totally unmotivated and don't understand anything.

Anyway, to feed my need to be out making the world a better place, I've decided to get more involved in the community. Southwest Research Institute (where I work) has a great volunteer organization, and I take every chance I get to participate in their service activities. On Saturday I volunteered at Habitat for Humanity. This is the third time I've gone, and it's so much fun. This time we laid sod and did some landscaping. It was back-breaking (I'm still sore!) but so worth it. Several of my friends from church came and helped out too, so that made it even more fun. Next week I'll be starting a bi-monthly Meals on Wheels route, which I'm ecstatic about. I can't wait to meet the sweet, elderly people I'll be helping! :) So anyway...until I make a decision about work and school, this is the closest thing I can get to fulfilling that Social Worker soul that is clammering to get out (is clammering a word?).

Here we are right before lunch. We were a little delirious! Can you believe how GORGEOUS the weather is (jealous anyone)? I forgot to wear sunblock and got sunburned. It's already peeling. Yuck!

the world and Rachel...NOT a good combo!!!

So... I thought I'd share this random story that might be funny to others...not yet funny to me.

So last night we got done reading the scriptures as an apartment and got down to pray. After prayer I was still kneeling, (more like lying down half way in a ball) and my roommate Melanie comes up behind me. She goes to pull my shirt down cuz it was coming up a little, (it's an inside joke kinda thing)...I guess it startled me because I shot up way fast. Melanie was still leaning over when my head made contact with her nose. CRACK!

I guess it was a funny sight because my other roommate, Lisa, was just about dying from laughter on the floor. Katie is trying to suppress the laughter while asking if Mel is okay. Meanwhile, I'm still sitting on the floor hoping and praying it wasn't her face that I hit. That was the most awful noise I think I've ever heard. "please just let it be the back of her head that I hit...not her face" was really all I could think till Mel says, I'm bleeding!

Oh snap! I get up and ask if she's okay, (I am NOT laughing at all at this point Lisa and Katie are still trying their hardest to suppress it). As Melanie is sitting over the sink, I'm thinking, and hoping that it's just a nose bleed...then she turns to me and I see that her nose is completely off center. Crud.

So Katie calls her fiance who comes and picks us up and drives us to the ER. I'm in the back of the truck and just break down. Seriously...imagine how that feels...to know that you may have broken your roommates nose. It does NOT feel good at all.

The doc takes an xray of her face and comes in 10 minutes later..."Well everything is fine...except your nose."
Me: "how badly is it broken?"
Doc: "You got her good. It's moderately displaced. She'll need to have it realigned." "No praying for at least 4 weeks...okay?"



So less than an hour later we're back at home with a broken nose. Who woulda thought praying was such a contact sport?!

All day today my roommate has been saying, "Hey remember that one time you broke our roommates nose?" Everyone thinks its just soooo funny. I still can't bring myself to laugh at it, despite the fact that Mel is in good spirits and laughing.

This will be a story to tell the grandkids.

Where's #9 now?!

Well, I figured I'd jump on the bangwagon as well. :) Thanks for posting guys! I mean...girls. It's great to read what you all are up to. This will be a great way to keep in contact if we all keep up with it. And way to be girls for being the first ones to sign up! I noticed that all 5 of us got on here pretty quick...come on now boys! hehehe

So an update on my life...I spent most of Christmas break in Florida. Yes, that was definitely wonderful to get away from the frigidness that is Rexburg. And it was so nice to be back at that job doing what I loved. There is nothing better than the smile on people's faces and knowing you put it there, let me just tell you! Chip n Dale are doing just great...and I miss them already! ;)

I'm still at BYU-Idaho freezing my buns off. It has snowed every single day for the past, I dunno, whole month of January. I have never experienced cold so intense; my nose hairs have in fact froze! No joke. My major, for those that do not know, is still Health Science and I'm minoring in dance. Loving it...for the most part. Microbiology I could seriously deal without. I'm playing basketball and have become involved with the Heber J. Grant program where I am a mentor to a first semester freshman. So slowly, but surely I'm becoming more involved, and loving every minute of it.
These last few weeks have been a little rough though, I'm not gonna lie. In the matter of a week, I got really sick at a church meeting and kinda sorta passed out, then pulled my quad muscle at basketball practice, then sprained my ankle pretty bad in the first 30 seconds of my very first basketball game up here. And if all of that wasn't bad enough, President Hinckley passing away on Sunday put a subdued feeling on all of campus. How ironic is it that this is the first time since I've been at school that I don't have insurance, and all of this is happening in one semester? Yeah, ya gotta love it...isn't that how it always happens? The second you need something you don't have it anymore. Ok ok...I guess that's a pessimistic way of thinking.

Things are going pretty well now though...despite all of the trauma last week. I just got done watching Pres. Hinckley's funeral...My, what an amazing man he was! I'm truly sad that he is gone, but also very happy that he is with his wife again; how much they must have missed each other.

The temple up here is finished and going to be dedicated next Sunday. It was supposed to be tomorrow, but with the funeral today, and everything that entails, they postponed it till next week. I'm so excited though! It's so amazing to walk on campus to class and be able to see such an amazing, beautiful building everyday. I absolutely love it! I got the chance to go through the open house...WOW! That's really all I can say. It was spectacular! So incredibly pretty. I can't wait to be able to go again.

I have a basketball game tonight...I'll have to let ya all know how it goes. My ankle is still a little sore, but I think it'll be alright. I really want to play...and don't worry Steph, if it hurts, I'll sit out...okay? ;)

I hope everything is going well for everyone else...I miss you all more than you know. LOVE YOU TONS AND TONS!!!

Small comforts

I'm at work sitting up...can't seem to sleep. It's about 11:15 pm my time. I haven't been sleeping much lately. My minds starts spinning thinking about all the mistakes I have made and how I have dragged Scott into all of it. I started thinking about Bekki's new blog. It's funny but the thought of posting brought some comfort. It's like I can talk to everyone at once...let out all my frustration and find support.

Thanks for the comments on my last blog. It is great to know that I have such a wonderful family who cares so much about my well being.

Other than our current housing situation, things are going phenominally for us. I just love being married. Scott is absolutely my best friend. It is so wonderful being together, planning our life together and knowing no matter how bad my day is there is always a hug and kiss waiting for me when I get home. He is truely amazing. I swear we are matched perfectly! (Actually on 29 dimensions of compatibility to be exact...he he he)

We did get a ski pass at Kirkwood Ski resort this year. We managed to get a full set of ski's for both of us by going to the ski swap in Reno. It is a great way to get cheap ski's--last years ski's at great prices. This years ski swap was particularly great because last years snow sucked so bad all the ski shops had lots of excess equiptment.

We have only been skiing once. I am learning that in my age I have become an absolute scaredy cat. I stuck completely to the bunny hill and once I got a little speed up, I would try and stop. I think my fear was more for the crowd on the hill. It's easy to feel out of control when you can't stop very quickly. I was so afraid I would take someone else out if I got going to fast and got out of control. Scott worked at Kirkwoood in high school and did a ton of skiing...like double black diamond runs. I don't think I was much fun to ski with for him, but he was incredibly patient. Then he went off to do a few real runs by himself. He got chance to go skiing the other day when I was working as well.

Speaking of work...not much new on that avenue. I am really blessed to have found such a great job. Especially since I sorta fell into it and didn't have to seek it out. I can't believe I only have to work 2 days a week to be full time. Since we have moved to Gardnerville, I haven't had to do any commuting either. It makes me so excited that I have such a great job, close to home and only 2 days a week. It will make having a family so much easier.

Last month we had some excitment. Scott was given the California Govenors Medal of Valor for saving a woman who was in a crash and got pinned in a freezing creek. It was quite the ceremony. It's so amazing how political everything in California is. Scott got to meet Arnold the govenator. I could have met him and Maria as well, but I just didn't want to fight the crowd for a picture and a hand shake. Scott met him on stage when he was being awarded the medal. After the medal ceremony, we went to the capital for the lighting of the capital Christmas tree. It was pretty neat. There were reserved seats up front next to the govenor for the medal of valor recipients and their families. We were quite suprised when Trisha Yearwood appeared on stage to sing a few songs!!! That was more exciting for us than anything else!

I'm feeling better, like I was able to visit with family. Maybe I can sleep now. I love all you guys!!!

Heather

Hello from the Guinns

I guess I will jump on the bandwagon and contribute to this blog. Hey, if I can do it I think everybody else can too- I am not very computer literate.

We are staying as busy as ever. I am staying home with the kids and have started watching Owen a couple of times a week. Liam and Owen really like spending time together and they play remarkably well for a couple of two year olds! Some may say a stay-at-home mom's life is boring, but I seem to keep busy with the boys. We like to go to the park and the library. We have Bible study on Wednesdays and playgroup on Fridays. Sarah started taking my boys one day a week so I can get stuff done. That is nice to have a day off, but I usually just come home and do housework. It's amazing how much I can get done without kids under my feet!

Ashley is finishing up her senior year of high school. She is the captain of the dance team and that keeps her really busy. She just got a job at a local church (a huge church) as a day care worker. She watches the kids while the parents are in their Bible study classes. We aren't sure what age group she will be with since she is still in training. Ashley is planning on studying to be an elementary school teacher. She wants to go away to college, but of course we are hoping she will choose a school in San Antonio and live at home. I told her if she lives at home she will not have to pay for room and board and she will have so much money to buy clothes and shoes. That did make her pause and think, so maybe I will get through to her.

Sarah is in the First Grade and loving it. She has become an excellent reader and she reads everything she can get her hands on. She loves to learn and she comes home and teaches me cool things that she learned at school. Sarah is also in dance. She looks like a ballerina and she seems to have inherited coordination and grace. I am not sure where that came from- definitely not from me. Sarah is very energetic and talkative. On her last report card her teacher raved about how well she is doing but noted that she tends to talk a bit too much to the other kids when she finishes her work. I wasn't really surprised since she talks non-stop at home. I guess we will have to work on that one.

Liam is my little buddy. He is all boy, but very sweet at the same time. He is beginning to learn compassion and he gets very concerned when he hurts someone or if he sees someone crying. He loves to play with balls and he is a great shot with his little basketball hoop. He loves to play outside and run. He thinks he is a big boy and he tries to carry baby Austin around. He carries him from one side of the couch to the other. He is really enjoying being a big brother- he kisses and hugs Austin a lot. He also loves to come up to us and say "guess what? I love you." It is the sweetest thing ever!

Austin is such a sweet and happy baby. He is so mild mannered and quick to smile. He looks just like Liam, only balder. It is hard to tell their baby pictures apart. He is crawling all around the house and "cruising" on the furniture. He seems to want to walk, but then I think he remembers that he is the baby and he sits down. He woke up the other night and I didn't rush to him so he stood up in his crib and shouted "hey!!". It was really funny. I am sure he didn't know what he was saying, but it was cute.

Jeremy is working hard at the heart hospital. He is very talented at what he does and I know the doctors really like working with him. He probably should have gone to medical school when we were young- he seems to know more than some of the doctors! He comes home and tries to explain the cases with me and I just can't keep up. He amazes me. The kids just love him. When they hear the door open they all run to it shouting "daddy, daddy!". Even little Austin speed crawls to the door to meet daddy. It is so sweet and it just makes Jeremy's day to see the kids all greet him so enthusiastically.

Well, I guess I have talked everyone's ears off. I hope that you all take the opportunity to sign up to this blog and that we can keep in touch. I miss you all and hope we can arrange a family reunion very soon. San Antonio is a great place to visit, and we can provide places to stay for you all to visit- hint hint. Take care and please post something so we can know that you are all alive!!