Catching up

It has been a busy month since I last posted. It is time to finally catch up. This is going to be long...

After celebrating the holiday we spent our time packing up our duplex. We swam lots with the girls and our friends at the aquatic center. They absolutely LOVE swimming and get so excited about going. We tried to spend some quality time with friends before we all left. Scott officially had his last day of class and I am SO proud of him. He honestly amazes me and it is a huge accomplishment to have completed the first two years of medical school and done so well. He is so great.

Speaking of Scott, we celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary. It is crazy that it has been five years! We got a babysitter and drove down to Bevier for a nice dinner alone at the Pear Tree. It was delicious and relaxing. We don't have dinners like that very often! :) The great thing about being married for five years now is that I love Scott even more now than I did the day we got married (and I certainly loved him a lot that day!) The way we have grown together and taught each other has been such a blessing. We are good for each other and make each other so happy. There isn't anyone I'd rather spend my time with. Mahal Kita my Scottie.

The girls were born just two days after our aniversary so that means that we also got to celebrate their second birthday. We moved on their actual birthday, so we had a little party the weekend before because it was a crazy week with the moving. We had a teddy bear picnic at the park and it turned out great. The girls loved it. All the kids brought along their favorite bear and we made bear bead necklaces, ate pb&j's and a picnic lunch, opened presents, had cake, did bear dancing and a bear hunt. It was so fun. Of course it was more for me really since they are only two, but I love planning that kind of thing. They've been singing the Happy Birthday song everyday since and still ask to open more presents! For their birthday we ordered them a wooden play kitchen from an Amish man near Kirksville. He is really talented and we got it for a steal of deal (thanks to Kasey!) and it turned out great. We still have to paint it, but after I'll post some pictures. It will be a fun thing to have forever and a good memory of living in Amish country.

It is hard to believe that my babies are two. They are little girls really. They talk in full sentences and are so smart. They are still so petite so everyone thinks they are younger, but when they open their mouths people can't believe how they talk. They have incredible memories as well. They play with each other all day long. They fight with each other a lot of the day as well (they're two so what can we expect?). It is mostly just sharing issues! Not an easy thing to do at any age. Anyway, they love to snuggle with me in bed and those are the moments that I just adore because I love these two angels so incredibly much. It can't be explained. Happy Birthday to my sweeties.

After we had the birthday party it was really time to finish up those last boxes and packing. We had things done pretty well though. Unfortunately nearly all the kids in our entire ward got hand foot mouth disease. It was going around like crazy! We kept hoping our girls wouldn't get it, but they finally did. Luckily they didn't have a very bad case. It was just a couple fevers and blisters in their mouth. They didn't want to eat anything for days, but they didn't get the blisters on their hands or feet so that was good. But, of course it hit the day before we moved. Luckily my parents flew in to help us on the drive. Scott picked them up in St. Louis and they got the rental truck and came to Kirksville. We seriously needed them! It was so nice to have all the guys around come help us load up. It made such a huge difference and it went really quick because of them. We finished cleaning our apartment and then left our little town of Kirksville for good.

I was surprised at how sad I was to leave Kirksville. I think I probaly went to that Walmart over a hundred times while we were there. We loved going up to Scott's school and letting the girls run around and play in the ping pong room. We had so many good times at the library and the aquatic center with friends. I spent hours and hours walking the loop around the church and having quality chats with Tobey. We had a wonderful ward and made lifelong friends through it. Project nights at Jessica's and girls nights at Tana's were the weekly routines and something I looked forward to and needed so much. Kirksville became "home" and we will miss it- most especially our friends there. We were in a unique situation and time of life. Having so many close LDS friends going through exactly the same things we were was incredible. We were all away from family. We all were figuring out how to raise little kids. We were adjusting to being medical school wives. We all dealt with the freezing winters and the small town stir craziness. We'll never live in that kind of situation again. We loved it and will miss it.

Before we left a few of us girls decided to make a friendship quilt. Melissa came up with the idea and I'm so glad we did it. We each made 10 of the same quilt square and then we gave our squares to each other. The square all turnd out amazing and everyone's looks like them. It is so fun to have a piece of all these girls to remember them by. We all put our names on our squares, and when I sew the quilt together and finish it, I'll post a picture. We all got together and swapped our squares and told about what they represented. We all laughed and cried (me of course... I'm far too emotional) with Jessica the whole time on the cell phone and webcam from Ohio. It was a great night, and overall an incredible 2 years with these great girlfriends that I miss already. What an amazing cohort! ;) I feel like I've been so blessed at all the different stages in my life with good girlfriends. It is hard because we all had incredible experiences together and then the time comes when we have to say goodbye. My high school friends were wonderful and I still keep in touch with a lot of them. There is nothing like the high school years! The DJ Divas were SO fun and were another group that shared a unique time of life together. Those BYU days were the best! The same goes for MAHAK who will seriously be like my sisters forever. Now I feel the same with this Kirksville cohort and my "sister" Tobey. I know that all of these great friends will have a special place in my heart always. I hope we'll all have many adventures to come. Now I've had to say goodbye once again to another close group of friends. I know that there will be great friends to be made here in Cleveland, but that takes time and right now I'm missing all my girlfriends, from all my stages of life. I'm grateful for you all.

Okay, wow, back to the story. So we finally headed out of Kirksville and made the journey to South Bend, Indiana were Mike and Chantele are. He is there for the MBA program at Notre Dame. We spent the night there so we didn't have to do the drive in one shot. Their apartment is decorating so fun and stylish. It was fun to see where they are and to visit with them. We are SO excited that they'll be so close to us! It was only about a four hour drive to Cleveland from them, so that is nothing! They were so nice also because they hopped in their car and drove with us to Ohio to help us settle in. The drive was quite the experience with the 26 foot truck towing the honda and us in the Sable and the Lunt's in their car. My great parents drove the truck a lot of the way because the girls needed to be entertained in the car, so I sat in the back with them and Scott drove. Everyone was so helpful and such good sports.

We made it to our new house and we LOVE it. It will be so great for us. It is old, but beautiful and has a lot of character. It is so big compared to what we came from. The girls and I are getting used to going up and down stairs all day. We feel so blessed to have found it. It is in the most beautiful neighborhood. Shaker is gorgeous with all the big green tree lined streets. We love it. We've also had at least 6 or 7 neighbors all come by and introduce themselves within the first few days of us being here. EVERYONE has been so nice and welcoming. We live on a great street. A family in our ward lives right across the street from us!! The day we moved in was sweltering hot and humid. Everyone was dripping sweat unloading and unpacking the truck. (Especially because our house didn't have central air.) We had lots of neighbors come help and our family here. We seriously couldn't have done it without them all. My mom and dad and Mike and Chantele spent the next couple of days working nonstop in the heat helping us get settled. We were so grateful. We owe you all!

Since they left it completely cooled down and we haven't been hot at all. It actually has been gorgeous. It was in the seventies yesterday and we walked around the corner to the park and thought it was the best weather we'd felt in forever!! We still had central air put in though, hallelujah, because we now know what it can be like on those hot hot days around here. We went to our ward for the first time and it will be great. It almost feels like a student ward. It is mostly young families who are in residencies or medical, law or dental school. We'll fit right in, and there were a lot of really nice people. We're also excited to have the Smith's here, who moved with us from Kirksville. The really amazing part was that Maddie stayed in Nursery the whole time! If you don't know it, my girls don't go to other people very well. They are quite attached to mom. I just told them that Mom and Dad were going on a date and she stayed and was happy as could be. They had a lot of fun big toys like slides and stuff so I think that helped. Bella stayed about half the time and then they came and got me. I brought her to class with me and she fell asleep on my lap! She was exhausted because church is during nap time, and their schedules have been so crazy lately anway. I'm sure she'll do well in nursery also. We're excited to get to know our ward better.

So for the past few days we've been settling in and trying to make our house feel like home. The girls are adjusting. It was hard the first few days because we had so much to do so I was a bit stressed and wasn't as patient with them. Things have calmed down though, and I've been playing with them more like we normally do, and they are doing well. They keep talking about our new house in Ohio. They are still talking about our Kirksville friends and it makes me sad though. We've taken them to lots of parks, the library, and I took them to the pool today. It was huge and fun. They loved it! It is fun to have so many stores close by.

Scott's dad came to town on wednesday and they have spent every second since working on projects around here. There is a lot that could be done on this old house and they've gone to work. They are currently working on the garage which was pretty scary. It will be great when they are done with it. We are so grateful that Randy is here though. He knows how to do all this kind of stuff and it is so nice to get these things done. Scott and Randy are at a Cleveland Indians game tonight, so they are in heaven! I decided to have a girl's night out with Maddie and Bella. I got it all in my head that we'd have a great time going to dinner and shopping! (okay, they are 2 year olds- what was I thinking?) We did have fun, but it consisted more of me shoveling down food at the mall food court while trying to force the girls to eat their chicken nuggets and not fight over the icecream. They both started crying as I was trying to push the stroller with icecream in my hand and Bella flung her self out of the stroller and started having one of her tantrums on the middle of the floor. let's just say I was a little embarrased. Especially when this lady came up to me and asked if I needed help. Yes, she was just trying to be nice, but really- what could she do? Anyway, we ended up going to a few stores and having a little bit of fun in the midst of the tiredness on all our parts. I think it will be a bit more fun one day when the girls are older and we all get excited about going out to dinner and shopping together. Till then, I'm sure I'll keep trying!

Well, there you have it. A LONG novel about our month. It was just such a big month for us, that I wanted to record it all. We've made it to Cleveland. We are settling in and happy. We have had so much help from so many people. We are blessed and things are so good for us. We are loving having this time while Scott is off for the next month.

Also, as a side note- our good Kirksville friends the Moss' have been in in our hearts and prayers. They moved to Ohio also- to Massilon about an hour south of us. While they were staying at a hotel until their house here closed their moving truck and car were stolen. The truck was recovered but EVERYTHING was gone. So here they are, in a completely new place all alone and everything they owned is gone. It is all the sentimental things that makes me feel so bad. All of their pictures and those types of things are gone. Darling pregnant Melissa had spent an entire year hand embroidering and quilting this incredible primary quilt for her daughter and finished it literally right before they packed up their truck. Now it is gone. Anyway, I've just been thinking about them every day and feel so bad that it happened to them. We love you guys.