Alaska Happenings

Jeremy's mom just got her start date (Sept. 12th) for her new job with the FAA! Yeah! Dee, we are so excited for you and wish you the best in this next short while as you pack up and head to Anchorage. Can't wait to see you when you have training in Oklahoma! Here's a video from the girls:



Also, Sarah Palin, AK's first female governor just accepted McCain's VP nomination. Wow! Funny though, after watching Obama's speech last night at the DNC (on a side note, I don't think any pyrotechnic display will ever look as good as the Beijing Olympics - it was pretty sad.), I was wondering who the VP for McCain would be and thought "What if it's Palin? Nah." Well, congrats to Sarah. It's neat to have an Alaskan in the news and for her to be a potential VP. It'll be interesting to see her in the upcoming debates. And after some thought, I think it'll be refreshing to have a real, down-to-earth, untainted-by-Washington, mother (of 5!) and wife be the VP. Go Palin!

Glidden's "Lemon Ice"

On Saturday we painted the girls' room...one accent wall anyhow. Madeline got her grubby clothes on and helped paint while Abigail was contained in her crib with lots of toys. They both enjoyed themselves and it didn't take too long after everything was taped off. Maddie really got excited that she could paint her wall and forgot that it was only supposed to be ONE certain wall...but we got that cleaned up quickly. We'll have to repaint it all white before we move out anyhow. It really brightens up her room and we were even able to get the same color as her last room - lemon ice - it's great!

This is Abbie smiling - she squints and crinkles up her face. What a cheese. And yes, her bangs are getting long, however, I'm NOT going to cut them again. See this post about that.
Here's the after photo.

We headed to a playground nearby while the room aired out. We all enjoyed playing with the sand pit's backhoe. It was definitely bath time after that trip!

The first week of law school

As I check friends' blogs, I see all these wonderful photos of their kids' first day of school. They're happy to have their backpacks filled with fun supplies and are all dressed so cute! Well, here are Jeremy's "first day" photos as he was coming in the door from school. He said he couldn't smile, but wanted to cry. He's doing better as of today...



Jeremy started his first week at Washburn Law on Monday. I waited to post any "first day of school" photos because I had hope that I would have something uplifting to post...

The 1L (1st year) students started a week early for some orientation and a taste of what's to come. He had reading assignments, briefs to prepare, study group, and one of his 5 classes where the prof. got right into the Socratic method of teaching (scary!). He was very overwhelmed the first day, but it has gotten better each day, however, it's going to only get worse when school really starts next week. One of his professors said, "Go home and talk to your family and tell them goodbye." Yikes!

It's going to be an intense year and I just hope we (me and the girls) are not a big distraction. We plan to have at least some family time at dinner and just before the girls go to bed. Other than that, Jeremy will be studying. He expects to study at least 50 hours a week and he'll most likely have about 60 pages of reading a week...for EACH class. He's got 5 classes.

We went to a new student picnic this evening and the Dean gave a brief address to the group. He was saying that certain doctors he knows make lawyer jokes to him and that we'll probably face the same thing. He had a great rebuttal for that: he just tells the doctors that while their fore bearers were using leeches to practice bloodletting, our (lawyers') fore bearers were writing the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution! It was said in such a way that it made me want to be a lawyer!

We know that law school is a good choice, but it's not always going to be an easy road. We'll keep you updated as the weeks pass.

NO!

Abigail has gotten pretty good at saying "no" lately. Here's a little insight:

Winter Quarters Nebraska

On Friday (I know, I'm going out of order with this post) we went to the LDS Winter Quarters Nebraska temple in Omaha. It's been a few months since Jeremy and I went to the one in Anchorage, so it was nice to attend. I went in for a session (about 2 hours long) and Jeremy played with the girls outside. There was a Visitor's Center there and had a bunch of neat info on the Latter-day Saint pioneers. Then Jeremy went in for a session and I took the girls to a playground (we were COVERED in sand after that), walked around the temple grounds, and then sat in the car with the AC cranked and read books. It was a 3 hour drive each way, so it totally makes it easier to go up and back in one day. When we went to Anchorage, it was a much bigger ordeal, which usually involved a Chuck E. Cheese appeasement for the poor girls...

In front of the temple...sort of obvious I guess :)
I LOVE this photo Jeremy took of Abigail! It's so hilarious to see her try to pull that handcart!
Abbie's up further on the hill and Madeline was plucking leaves off the trees. She now collects leaves and berries and puts them in a big pile by our front door. It doesn't matter if they're dead or rotten, she'll grab all sorts. We should get a book to identify all these new species of flora - I know what a maple tree looks like and that's about it. :)

I miss my white house!

When we arrived back at our house this evening from a ward activity, Madeline said "I miss my white house!" Even though it's actually gray with white trim...we asked what she missed about it. She said, "Megan and Leah bought it, but I miss my kitchen and the kitchen floor, the living room with my toys and my yellow bedroom." She was really sad. It made me sad too. It was lovely.
Jeremy suggested that we paint her new room yellow and she can pick out the paint with us on Monday. She then said she'd like to buy it specifically from Home Depot. So here are a few pictures of the beautiful home we built and sold to a beautiful family we're blessed to know. And now we've got a fun activity for Family Home Evening on Monday!

A train that delivers your order?

Today I met with some friends from the JRC-wives group in the park for a picnic and playground time with the kiddos. Someone had mentioned a restaurant in Kansas City that the kids would have a blast at. I found the link - it's Fritz's Railroad Restaurant. This is now on our to do list while we're here. Looks like a lot of fun!

Nauvoo

We went to Nauvoo, Illinois last week to see the LDS Nauvoo Pageant and some Church history sites along the way. We took a slight detour to find Adam-ondi-Ahman, which is just outside of a town in Missouri called Gallatin. We found the sign below, but without further decent directions, we never found the exact site and decided to visit again another time. It's about 1 1/2 hours away from Topeka, so we'll get better directions before we head out. The second paragraph in the sign below gives a bit more info:

Jeremy and I visited Nauvoo before we had kids and it was such a neat experience that we wanted them to see it too. We were totally kidding ourselves - the girls had a great time with the pre-show at the Pageant, but it was really hard to keep them in their seats for the 1 1/2 hour performance. The spirit was very strong even with the kids distracting us.

Here's the finale - the temple up on the hill in the background was lit up just for this part. The talent was amazing and the whole story of Nauvoo really brought it home. The Saints went through so much to build up the city (they lived there from 1841-1846 before mobs drove them out) that at one point it was larger than Chicago at the time! I am so thankful for the pioneers!
The next day we went and saw the historic sites around the town. We all got a ride in a covered wagon pulled by HUGE oxen. Gary was the nice one on the right - the girls got to pet his nose.
Here's an example of the red brick houses and stores. It's all been rebuilt and it's such a cute, quaint little town . I would love to go back to horse and buggy days and have a little patch of land in Nauvoo.There was an area for the kids to play - they had a schoolhouse and a house just the right size for the girls to play in. There were all kinds of pioneer toys and games and even clothes for the kids to dress up in. Maddie was playing with an older girl in the house - the girl had her doing the washing (with a real washboard and clothesline outside), cooking and sweeping. It was so cute!
And Madeline got the "water" all by herself too.
Abbie loved the wooden blocks. I think I'll get rid of all their modern toys and get them wooden ones. They didn't want to leave!
Jeremy tried the stilts. After a bit of direction from a senior missionary, he was able to actually stand up on them. I liked this picture better :)

It was a neat trip. The drive was beautiful, the weather was amazingly not too hot, and the girls did enjoy themselves. We'll go back in a few years when they're a bit older...although, I guess we'll still have a little boy on our hands :)

Kansas Sweet Corn

Today, Michelle and I went to the Farmer's Market downtown. There were two rows of vendors, mostly farmers selling their freshest pickings, in the parking lot of the Capitol building. It was fun to see all the watermelons, dairy-fresh milk and ice cream, honey, lots of tomatoes and corn, bell peppers, cinnamon bread, hand-sewn goods, and even the beautiful flowers & plants (I think next year I'll have to plant a hibiscus in our backyard).

I bought a dozen ears of sweet corn (for $3, which is a bit more than Wal-mart price here) and cooked it up with our meatloaf dinner. Here's a little shot of the fam enjoying the fresh, sweet goodness that Kansas has to offer...