Long overdue

Wow, nearly a month and no post. Sorry to leave you all hanging. I haven't any photos to include in this blog... unfortunately. But since it has been some time since I last blogged, I thought it important to update everyone on what we've been doing over the last few weeks.


I checked out of school on October 15th. That was the earliest possible time I could do it and I made my goal to do it then. Two days later we were packing the U-haul up and getting ready to move. My brother and his wife graciously offered to vacation on the Oregon coast and then drive down with us back to Utah on Saturday the 18th. No one really remembers the details perfectly, but it was mentioned during the evening of Friday the 17th, albeit rather faceciously at the time, that perhaps we should just drive out that night. We would spend all night on the road, avoiding all the traffic, and the children would sleep during the greater portion of the drive. Plus, we wouldn't be getting much sleep on the floor that night and we wanted to leave at 5:00 am anyway. Well, despite my better sense, we actually decided to do it. After a lovely dinner of whole wheat pancakes offered by the Marshall's (Thanks guys!) we packed the rest and headed out. It was 10:00 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time.

The kids were out almost immediately, and ultimately there was only one melt-down from Ethan throughout the entire trip. It was pitch black through the pretty parts too, but all-in-all I think it went rather smoothly. Oh, there was one more thing. While driving the big truck with the trailer, occasionally a gust of wind would come and push us. Nothing serious, but it did cause us to swerve ever-so-gently. Everytime the truck would move Challene would worry. Everytime she fell asleep she'd wake up 5 minutes later and say, "are you ok?" I appreciate her concern, but after 12 hours of that, it got kind of old. I think she was the only one who didn't appreciate leaving when we did. She didn't get any sleep at all.

We pulled into my Mother's home at around noonish (Mountain Daylight Time). She, Dad, and Linda and Sara graciously watched a well rested Ethan and Joshua while Challene and I crashed for three hours.

Afterwards it was unpacking time. What with my family, and a few friends we had everything out of the truck within an hours time. It was great! I'm also pleased to report that my bike made it down here unscathed, despite one of the tie-downs breaking. It didn't move.

So, we've been getting settled since then and I've been working with Dr. Norman too. That's been interesting to say the least. I've been spending the majority of my time learning the office logistics with only minimal patient interaction. That's good, though, because I had no clue as to how the office would work. I've also been learning a lot about marketing and public relations. His PR person quit the weekend before I started so the office has been kind of hectic. We're working on transitioning into my taking a more formal role into patient care. Personally, I think it is working out well. Most of the patients see him because of his personality. Working up front and in an indirect manner with the patients has allowed me to build a repore (sp?) with them. As I've taken more patients on, I've learned that this was a good thing. If I was just thrown into seeing them, I don't think it would have been as smooth.

Dr. Norman is great. He's everything I hope to be as a chiropractor... with a few minor changes I'd make, but that's normal. He talks as if he's already hired me in January. That's fine by me.

So, Challene and the kids have been acclimating fairly well. We missed church our first weekend here and the next week was little Dylan's blessing. But we made it last week and that was an experience, that's for sure! First off, the church house was built circa 1968 and it is tiny! The hallways don't even wrap around. Which is a problem, because Elder's Quorum is in the extreme Northwest part of the church while nursery and relief society are on the extreme Southwest parts. Problem? We have to circle clear around the front of the building and cut through the chapel to get to the other side. It's rather annoying. But I'll deal with it.

We came to find out that the relief society president lives across the street from us! Across the street!!! I had to find someone on the street, ask him if he's Mormon and ask him what ward I was in and the time we meet! But in the three weeks that we were moved in she didn't come once to meet us or tell us what ward we were in or what time we meet. Thanks to 12-year old Andrew we found out that we meet at 1:00 p.m. We were actually relieved that we meet at one. That way, next year we'll be at 9:00 a.m. which will work much better with the kids and nap time. Yeah, well, that's what we thought. Come to find out that they just changed to 1:00. They change times based on the school year! THE SCHOOL YEAR! Have you ever heard something so rediculous? Me neither.

I met the bishop on Sunday. Here's how the convo went:

Bishop: Hi, how are you, I'm bishop such-and-such.
Me: Oh, hi bishop. My name is Will Green. My wife and I just moved in from Portland, OR.
Bishop:

Bishop: Well, see you later
/end communication

Bizarre. Eveything about this ward so far: Biz-to the 'a' double 'r' to the 'e'.

But, we're enjoying our time here. It's nice to be home in Utah. All of our skin has dried out extensively, but we're getting over that too. We miss Oregon and we miss all of our friends there.

Challene has been sicker than a dog over the past few weeks. Two Sunday's ago (Dylan's Blessing day) she was so sick that while I took the kids to the blessing her mom took her to the instacare place. Turns out, Strep throat. So, 10 days of antibiotics later she was feeling pretty good. Until yesterday. Another trip to instacare and, you guessed it, strep throat again. She's down and out and on her second bout of antibiotics. Here's hoping this one takes, eh? The poor girl hasn't been able to enjoy family or friends too much because of it and she feels horrible. So, if you haven't seen Challene yet don't worry, I'm sure she'll be ok for a few days... until round three hits!

That's all for now. Tune in later for updated pictures Oh, speaking of pictures, our good friends the Bralliers took us some family pictures before leaving Oregon. Check them out here. I can't wait to get the CD with all of them. Thanks Becky and Dave, you did a killer job!

Until next time!

Adieu.

The Clearfield House

Our new home

BreAnna was nice enough to do our walk-through in the home we will be renting in Clearfield. Thanks, Bre! As a direct result, we are able to share some down-right rib-ticklin' fun pictures. Seriously though, you'll probably die these pictures are so cool.

Here's our front entryway. Magnificent, no? The signage above the door states emphatically, "Life is a journey, fueled by imagination". It's a shame, because whomever designed that house had no imagination whatsoever. Just wait and you'll see. Oh, you'll see.

Here we have a shot of the entryway from the formal living room's point of view. Stairs... Frankly, Ethan and Joshua haven't really been exposed to stairs in any sort of prolonged period. Sure, they've taken a flight or two at various locales, but nothing this long-term.

And if you were the staircase, you'd have this vantage of the formal living room. Sad thing is, we don't really have any furniture to put there yet, but perhaps one day. The dude in the yellow is Ryan the property manager. BreAnna tells me he's a Virgo. Didn't see that coming.

What we've got here is the kitchen/dining area. Mostly, we're happy to have more than two cupboards, a less than middle aged dishwasher, a full sized microwave (maybe now the popcorn will turn and pop evenly!), and (here's the kicker) water from the fridge! Yes, we've stepped out of our time warp and entered the current era of water dispensing refrigerators. Such a luxury we've never been privvy to. What's next? A toaster that dispenses tacos?

A shot from the family room into the kitchen/dining/formal living room. "Will," you're probably thinking, "I'm no designer, but it all looks good to me so far." How brightfully apt. Yes, thusfar the house is... shall we say, pleasant. Well, if you turn 180 degrees you'll notice that included in the house is a teleportation device and that you've stumbled into the ol' mexican riviera.

Can't see it too well here, but stashed in the corner of the family room is a blast from the "Three Amigo's" past. That's what it reminds me of, anyways. A faux adobe lookin' fireplace/monster cubby. "El Guapo. Arive avion!" "There's the German now... right on time."

If you need to relieve yourself of the much dispensed fridge water whilst downstairs you'll have to pass through another time-space continuum vortex which will take you to your very own Barbie Mansion Commode. Complete with pink walls.

Challene still bares the wrinkled brow since first seeing this bathroom.

This I can't think of anything spiteful to say about. Frankly, it's a walk-in closet. It has cubbies. Oh, what could we fill the cubbies with? Shoes, sweaters, socks, hats, scented soaps, adorable nik-naks that no one will see, gummies? Mmmm... only thing better than fresh gummies is stashed gummies that no one else knows about. The possibilities are endless.

Ah, the yellow room. Complete with pink flowers and purple butterflies. How adorable. We're going to make this a play room for the boys and their friends. I'm thinking we'll paint over the flowers and butterflies. That or else we'll turn them into monster butterflies and flowers with attitudes that just wont quit.

This is the boys' new bathroom. It will be nice not to take a shower with bath toys all over the place. I've stepped on a few too many sharp cornered duckies in my day. My girlish screams wake the kids everytime. I will miss the yellow shower, though. Yeah, I said it, I like yellow showers, but not yellow bedrooms!

The blue room. This will be Ethan and Joshua's bedroom. Nuf said.

Again. It's blue and it's a room.

With all the talk of how "green" Portland is, you never really see many green lawns. Why? Well, we are sort of in a drought... ish. And no one has a sprinkling system since it bloody rains nearly every other day here. This photo above was a delightful breath of fresh air. Green grass, and a sprinkling system. Plus, we might not have to tend the lawns. That would be nice. Especially since we haven't a mower with which to mow. The back is fully fenced so we plan on throwing the boys out there for untold amounts of time. Don't tell DHS!

Well, I was on my way to bed when Challene, fresh from a wonderful "girls night out", called out for me, "Will you please blog about our house tonight?" Grumbling and groggy at the same time I relented. You may have noticed an air of malcontent within the prose that is my blog. Please. That was mostly to make Challene mad. And to make her regret asking me to blog about this at 12:10 a.m. Friday night. You see, while she was galavanting around the greater Portland metropolitan area I was stuck at home with the kids (for the 3rd time this week, I might add). It's like she expects me to be....a.....parent to my kids! Sheesh!

But in all seriousness (possible?) we are extremely excited about our house. We are pleased that we signed the lease today and can't wait to get moved and settled!

"Twilight" trailer

To see the trailer go to this link

http://www.myspace.com/trailerpark

Home sweet home!!!................in two weeks

Well, we've done it! Yup, we've finally put a deposit on a house in Clearfield somewhat near Steve's (my brother for you who may not know)house. More importantly, it is extremely close to Pace's Place - Chad, the rouge brother of Pace's Dairy Ann fame, broke off of the family business and opened his own store (he has three now, actually). The upshot is that his is not a dump spiraling down a never ending drain, a la Bountiful Pace's Dairy Ann. Anywho, that means unlimited access to rainbow's and astro bars!

Oh, so the house. Well, we don't have any pictures of it, but here is a picture of a nearly exact replica of it.

It is a charming little house with 3 bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms. It also has a fully fenced back yard with an enjoyable deck... for entertaining and grillin' ribs! Always comes back to food for me. Hmmm. It seems like a nice little place for us for the time being.

Frankly speaking, we're having a tough time with coming home. Not that we don't want to, don't get me wrong, it's just a big change for us. As much as I'm sick of school I am comfortable with it. I'm good at going to class everyday and sitting for hours, feigning interest, taking a note or two, sitting in the library pretending to study but actually checking all the blogs on the interweb, then coming home to my family. It's a good life. As difficult as it was for Challene to get settled, she did. It's nice to rely on the fellowship of the ward until you can make friends. She ended up finding friends that she'll keep for a lifetime. Ethan is betrothed to his two best friends right now. Joshy's known nothing but Oregon. It will be an adjustment to the Utah way of life.

You know, Oregon is quite similar to Utah. All you have to do is switch the church building on every corner in Utah with a bar and/or other house of ill-repute and you've got Portland! However, we will miss being two hours from the ocean and the waterfalls. I love the ocean... there's nothing like it. We'll always have a piece of our hearts here in Portland.

That being said, it is now official, we will be moving on October 18th. Mike and Katie have graciously offered some of their vacation time to help us drive home. Anyone available to help us pack the moving truck on Friday we welcome the help. Anyone available to help unpack the truck on Saturday and/or Monday we welcome the help. We hope to arrive in Utah at 6 or 7 Saturday night.

That's it for now.

"My little Joshua... has the sweetest smiiiiiiiiiiiiiile!"

Happy Birthday Joshua!

As you know, Joshua's birthday was on September 26th. My youngest is now 2 years old! Frankly, I can't believe it! He came as an unexpected surprise to us and I would never want my life without him. He is the silliest boy and is overflowing in character. I love my little Joshy, so in addition to documenting his birthday party, I've snuck some other photo's in here.

Yup, that's Josh in big-boy underpants. Hand-me-downs from Ethan, yes, but what are you gonna do? I had hand me down underwear, it's part of having an older brother. Joshy has taken a liking to using the potty. He'll sit there for what seems like hours with his eyes wide while saying, "poo-poo, mommy!" the entire time. It gets old, but we should be thankful he's taken an interest.

Didn't want to leave Ethan out. He's growing so much as well. He hates clothes and will spend the entire day with nuthin' but his drawers on. He's also got a silly side to him.

Thanks to the Marshalls for allowing this picture to happen. I'd really rather not go into the details.

So last year a lady in the ward gave us a sack of costumes. Well, we opened it up last week and discovered that the Dalmatian costume fit Josh really well. He has a general liking towards all things "puppy" and immediately wanted to wear it. He would barely let us take it off for bath/nighttime. Ethan tried on the pumpkin, but it was a little small for him. One of those long pumpkins instead of the short/fat ones.

So, the party. My sweet wife has began a tradition of baking cakes for the children based on their requests. You may recall the baseball cake a couple years ago, or the monkey cake for Joshy's party last year. Perhaps the black icing on the Mickey Mouse cake would jog your memory. At any rate, Joshy wanted a puppy cake. I've really got to hand it to Challene, she really did a good job on that puppy cake. But more about that later.

So we began the party with pizza all around. What with the convenience of an in-supermarket pizzeria and the government issued foodstamps at our disposal it was a no-brainer. After pizza we figured it would be a good idea to do some games. The party was based (rather loosely) on the Go Dog Go book by P.D. Eastman. So the first game was the Red Light/Green Light game but with "Go Dog Go" on the back and "Stop Dog Stop" on the front.

Here's Chloe Marshall deftly listening for any in-coming footsteps. Taking a page from the handbook of the Velociraptor Attack Strategies (3rd edition), Joshy, seen next to the entertainment center, was planning a flank attack while Liza Woolsey (in blue) and Cameron Brallier (not seen here) blitzed from the center. Meanwhile, Gwen Marshall (pink shorts) was placed mid-court and commanded to "merely spin" in attempt to distract Chloe from the inevitable onslaught.

Logistically, the strategy was sound, but all bets were off once Chloe turned around. Immediately, the children opted for the "turn-and-pretend-like-you're-not-doing-anything" approach, with Liza even managing to seat herself on the sofa, but Chloe was not buying it. This picture was snapped just before she, in a situationally ironic gesture, hurled the red "Stop Dog Stop" sign as if an Olympic discus and decapitated each one of the children. The bloody aftermath was... quite difficult to clean up.

Ok, sorry. I got a little carried away.

So when we went to get the pizza and soda pop we noticed, in true WinCo fashion, a display of pinatas aptly hung above our heads. Challene spied a dog shaped one and posed the option of purchasing said pinata for the enjoyment of the children. Realizing that this inevitably lead to the additional requirement of purchasing sweets to fill the pinata, I whole-heartedly agreed complementing my sweet wife on such a spectacular idea. She smiled sweetly.

The following is a four-picture documentary of the plight of the pinata:

Notice the extreme external rotation Ethan is using in the shoulder. Further, you can see him stepping into the swing. Good form.

Her father taught her the tomahawk method, I'm sure.

Naturally, Joshua was trying to impress Chloe, so he, too, chose to tomahawk it.

Like ravenous wolves.

Notice Josh standing off to the side holding the bat as if to say, "yup... my kill. What? What... you want some of this? You want some of this, well come and get it! I'll mess you up!"

After the pinata we figured we'd best sing and do ice cream and cake. Unfortunately, the pictures below do not do justice to the cake Challene made. She is rather creative when it comes to baking.

We decided to center the tongue. The bottom picture is yellow, I think because the flash didn't go off.

Josh, while insurmountably cute, has a stubborn side. I think he gets it from his Mother. One of his stubborn points is standing on chairs. He nearly refuses to sit. He will not use a booster or a high chair and if even mentioned he pitches a fit. He's also our little dare-devil. He's always jumping, climbing, sliding, swinging on something. Well, while Challene and I were serving up the cake and ice cream we heard a loud SMACK followed immediately by a cry. Joshua was doing something and ended up face-planting it off of the chair. He's typically easy to console when things like this happen so I think it really shook him up, because it was sometime before he calmed down. Challene took him in the bedroom and calmed him down. Afterword, I fed him his cake

If you'll recall, last year Joshua had his fingers nearly crushed in a door. We spent last years birthday in the ER. His face-plant was very reminiscent of then. We all conceded that his birthdays must be cursed. Seriously. Two birthdays, two injuries. Not the best of odds.

Then it was time for presents.

Everyone wanted to be involved in present time. The kids were so cute and Joshy was more than happy to let them help.

The bowling game from Challene and I got great reviews from the kids. Again, Ethan has got great form here.

That was about it for the party. Again, I can't believe he's two years old. He's my little baby and he's growing up so fast.

In other news, Challene had her very last day of work at Curves last Saturday. It was very bittersweet for her. On one hand, she loved the ladies and working out. On the other hand, it was work. Her boss was very grateful to Challene. She was there while the business changed hands between owners and Challene pretty much ran the business while her new boss came up to speed with how the place works. She also had the chance to teach the Curves Six Week Solution class twice. She's invested a lot of time and energy into that place and she'll miss it. Her boss gave her a nice bouquet of flowers and several ladies gave her cards telling her how much they will miss her.



I suppose that's all for now. I bid thee, adieu!

NO MORE CLASSES!!!

Congratulations Will!

I am so very, very proud to announce that as of last Friday Will has no more classes! He took his last final ever!! He is still in the clinic and we are going to be headed back to Utah next month so he can do a preceptor ship until he graduates, but NO MORE CLASSES! I am so proud of the hard work he has done these last 3 years in particular, not to discount any of the schooling he did before. But he has studied really hard to became an amazing Chiropractor which he is. I can't believe he is done, YEAH! You have done a great job! I love you!!

The Park, The Zoo, & a FLAT TIRE!!!!!!

Lets just say that "2 Buck Tuesday" at the Zoo for me is cursed! I really should have known better considering I have tried this before. Foolish me thought that this time would be different though. The first time our Mommy and Me group did the infamous "2 buck Tuesday" it was so busy we had to get shuttled from a far away church. So there we are all with two kids, double sized strollers, a diaper bags, lunch bags and a camera bags. We were all expected to haul all of this onto a regular yellow school bus quickly and easily all at once. Yeah Right! So we did and it was frustrating and very stressful and swore to each other we would never ever do it again. So when Lindsey had it on the play group list I hardly even gave it a thought other the "Lindsey what were you thinking putting that on there, there is NO way I am going!" But then the night before I got to thinking that school was in and there couldn't be that many people and the kids would just love to go. So I thought we would give it one more try. So there it was a beautiful Tuesday and I even was way ahead of schedule leaving the house at 10am not the scheduled 10:30am. Then I arrived at the Zoo where it was starting to get crazy the parking lot was full and they started to point people in the direction of the church. Not knowing what to do and knowing that Lindsey was on her way I called her. That's when we decided the park down the street was a good back up plan. The kids had a fun time playing and a wonderful lunch, Thanks Lindsey! When we were all done with the park and headed home (which you have to drive past the Zoo parking lot to get back to the freeway) I had the brilliant (NOT) idea to see if we could find a spot. Which we did so we went to the ZOO. Here it is nap time and we are just showing up at the ZOO. However I do have to say we had a wonderful time at the Zoo the kids had a great time and were really good considering they were missing their naps. So here are pictures of the kids at the Zoo.

Joshua rubbing his sleepy eyes.

THE TRAIN

I only took the little stroller thinking that the kids wouldn't want to sit. Boy was I wrong. Ethan's a stroller hog which was fine with Joshua. Well, until Joshua was just so tired he wanted me to pack him, which I did for awhile. However have any of you ever pushed a stroller one handed? They do not go straight, it's very annoying. Then this particular Zoo has a huge hill you have to get up before you can exit. So there I was holding Joshua in one arm pushing Ethan with the other up a huge hill. That's when I was desperate and grabbing at straws so I asked Ethan if Joshua could sit in his lap and to my surprise he said yes. Yeah it was fabulous and look at how cute they are.

Okay so is the suspense killing you yet are you wondering about the flat tire? Well here it is. Once we were done with the Zoo we came out to the car and to my horror the first thing I see is a FLAT TIRE! Ugh! I stared at it for ever hoping I was just seeing things but nope there it was a very flat front drivers side tire. So what do I do well first thought is to tow it but that costs money, then most or all tow trucks aren't big enough for me and two car seats. Then I think call Will maybe he can come help. So I call and call and call but of course he is not answering. He is at an off site shift where he doesn't keep his phone on him. So then I call my friend Amy just to vent a second before I proceed to change a tire. She helped a ton by calling her husband who called and got a hold of Will. THANKS Amy and John it was such a stress relief just to know that Will knew that I was stuck at the Zoo. So after I talked to Amy I started to change the tire. I had to get the crow bar out from under the seat back seats which is under the kids car seats. Ugh, so I took Joshua's car seat out and nope I was wrong it was under Ethan's side. I then got the spare tire down and rolled over by the back tire. Then I start to Jack up the car, this is all the while I see middle aged men getting in to their cars driving away. Yes they saw me I know they did!!! So there I am mumbling under my breath while I am jacking up the car when this couple finally ask me if I need help. FINALLY!!! So thank you Aaron and Carrie for stopping and helping me. There is no way I could have done that by myself, first off I don't think I would have been strong enough to get the lug nuts off and second my kids needed to be taking care of. And one last gripe, why do they put jacks in your car that are not tall enough to jack up your car! Luckily I had pulled up over a side walk in front of the car. We ended up jacking the car up using the front frame. Thanks again to these nice strangers!