I simply refuse...

So, I have decided it is Carol's turn to post and I will not be posting until she does. And this post doesn't count. (I encourage razzing, goading, and smack talk to get her to post soon!) (And also TEASING lots and lots of TEASING!!!)

Here come the dog days

So I have not been the best at posting. I would have written sooner, but I just didn't feel like it, and there hasn't been much news. I had a job interview yesterday at Bass Pro Shop which is not close, it is a half hour drive. I got there about fifteen minutes early and filled out a survey and then refilled a application even though I had already done that online (can you use ctrl p people, honestly). Then I sat and waited for about 20 minutes for the interviewer. He was the manager for the hunting department (I had applied to the gun counter). We sat down I started introducing myself while he looked over my application. When he got to the part where I stated desired salary he stopped me and told me that the positions he had were only going to pay 8 dollars an hour. That pretty much ended the interview. On a good day I would have to work for 2 hours just to pay for the gas to get to work, it just didn't seem quite worth it, and then since we all know where gas prices are going, and if I got stuck in traffic... So I am still just kind of sitting and doing research. We have decided to wait until August to visit Utah, and we are trying to find a new apartment/house to rent. We really want out of the place we are in, not that it isn't nice but it is just really hard to live in an apartment with the girls wanting to get out and it just doesn't work that well. I think we are all getting a little cabin fever. That and if I don't get a home grilled steak soon, I think I might start hunting cows.
Carol took the above pics last night. I went to hang out with some friends from school. Jonathan, one of the kids that came in with me, has a cousin who's husband is entering the experimental program next year. They were in town, so Jonathan wanted me to come over and do a little meet and greet. It kind of turned into an interesting story but I will have to share that later, and probably not on here. Besides that everyone is well. I think Carol is starting to get over the morning sickness somewhat, which is good, and we are still really hoping for a boy, really hoping. I mean really hoping. A LOT. The girls are as cute as ever. Maren is entering the difficult, wait is in the difficult stage, at least it seems that way. She knows what she wants but can't communicate effectively to get it, and we can communicate with her, but can't reason enough to explain why she is being disciplined. To top it all off that girl is a bully. She hits me, Carol, Cora and Jess all the time, gets put in time out and then does it again. She has improved but it has been an uphill battle. Then recently she started biting. She has bitten Jess twice and the first one left a two day bruise, it was so sad. I think we jumped on that fast enough that it shouldn't happen to often, I hope. I don't think there is any other news, and as usual this is probably longer than I intended but oh well. So, I think I shall trail off aimlessly now........

AHHHhhhh...

So here it is. One week after finals. If you recall, I only had two classes this semester. I got an A in physiological psychology. It was actually a fun class, and reading the research makes sense which is always a bonus. Plus you can easily see the practical application for the research. I got a B in Human development. I am glad because that was a hard class. I don't know that I have had many harder. I don't mind the abstract, but it is difficult to follow a lecture that is entirely based on abstractions that has very little flow. I am currently hunting for a job, and doing research for one of my professors. I have a Monday meeting to go over all of the stuff I have been reviewing, and for once I have a lot of questions. Carol is doing well, she actually feels really good today, and we are planning on going to the temple tonight (thanks Chelsea). All the girls are doing well, Maren is continuing to learn. I think the sign language is helping because she will say something and do the sign at the same time which makes it easier to understand what she is trying to communicate. A few days ago Maren was standing on the table and I asked "Maren, do we stand on the table?" Not expecting any response, maybe a head nod and she pipes up "Yeah." Speaking of quotes, there was a little spider in the girls room the other day and Carol and I sent Jess to get it. She got a square of TP and squashed it and went to the bathroom to throw it away. Carol and I heard Cora say "Jess, that was awesome." and Jess responded "I am amazing." She is such a hoot. Especially the grown up things she says with that little cute voice of hers. Anyway, we are excited to come out to Utah, and see everyone there, so until next time, love you.
JOSH

A Very Happy Mothers Day to all and to all a good night!

I love the top picture of Cora. She looks like a spy or superhero or something. The one of Jess is also cute and as Carol pointed out one of the few where she is looking at the camera.

Well, as the title says, I hope every one is having a wonderful mothers day. Carol and I have had a somewhat typical one. I am officially done with school for this semester. Which is awesome. Michelle called and for both of us it still hadn't sunk in. I was done with my class work on Wednesday but had to continue to proctor and enter grades, etc... So for all the little kids who are reading, it is important to note that your teachers are just as anxious to get out of school as you are. Possibly more so, now that I have experienced it from both sides. Finals went fairly well, so I am just waiting for grades to be posted. I am also looking for a job, which will hopefully happen soon. Other than that there is not much else going on. Oh, and Carol is pregnant. Haha. Caught you all of guard didn't we. She is almost twelve weeks along. She is enduring the best she can, considering she feels like throwing up more often than not. Fortunately she hasn't yet, so we are hoping that might be a sign it is a boy. We hope. A lot. So now there really isn't any new news. Hope every one is doing well. Love you all.
Josh

1 year

I think Carol will be even happier about this being posted than she was about it being taken. Grumpy.

There isn't much new news. After this week I will officially have accomplished 1 full year. As great as that is it is also really, really depressing. I have one final on Wednesday and then I am done until July. The girls are pretty much the same. All of the ear infections are done. I don't know if we mentioned, but Maren also got Jess's ear infection and that was not fun either, though I don't think it was as bad as Jess. She wasn't nearly as vocal about the issue and not just because she doesn't have a large vocab. Today was also stake conference. It was quite the menagerie. It was converted into a tristake conference and they reorganized a bunch of wards and branches to create a whole new stake. It was kind of cool to see the process, oh wait, I didn't see the process. Carol sang in the choir and I had all three girls by myself in the UNT Collaseum where they have basketball games. Imagine the Marriott center but not quite as nice or new. I was on time but that actually worked against me since on time is 15 minutes early. As it turns out that fifteen minutes was as much time as Maren could handle being good. So we ended up outside in the first 20 minutes and I didn't see more than the initial reorganizing of the first two stakes. Oh well. At the time I was a little frustrated but I am getting over it, slowly. I think Carol enjoyed it (she better have, or else I shall shake my fist at her). I asked her how she enjoyed the meeting but she didn't give me much of a response. She said she wasn't able to focus as much as she would like to have since she had to be there early to practice. I say no excuse, she didn't have any kids. Did I say I was over it? Anyway, we also had some company over for dinner. Matt and Whitney. They are second year students in the psych department and are really nice. Matt comes from Colorado, so he has heard more about the church than most of the people I meet, which is kind of nice, I don't feel like I have to explain everything to him. Anyway, the girls need to be put to bed so, love you and good night.

A little old and a little new

First, I saw this picture in my widget bar and realized how much I miss Walter, and how much those kids have grown. It was a very sad moment. And then I noticed the fairy wings and had to smile. It's little things like that, that make me realize how much I miss living close to our Utah family.





Second, I told you about Cora's note to her mom. Well Here it is. You may have to open it to get the full effect. Go ahead and do that now.



Okay, so translated it says, Mommy, you are hurting my feelings. Carol saw it and had the expected mixed emotions given the seriousness of the note, but couldn't help but laugh since she is smiling so big in the drawing as if she enjoys hurting Cora's feelings. I have to say the faces are my favorite parts.
Anyway it is the weekend and I have a paper to do so, enjoy those big gulps.

Winding Down

News from the girls, lets see. Jess got an ear infection :(:( (two because it is very sad). She actually has an inner and outer ear infection, so she was leaking yellowish puss. It is so sad to see her like that. But Carol texted me earlier and told me she was smiling and eating breakfast, so hopefully it will pass soon. In the meantime she is taking quite the drug cocktail; eardrops, amoxyl, and alternating tylenol and ib profine for the fever. She should be off of the last two soon though. Cora, as you heard was doing standardized test and excelling. Her teacher actually told us that she could skip kindergarten and go straight to first grade, however, because of Cora's size she didn't recommend it. Carol and I talked about it and decided the same thing. I think she is definitely smart enough and socially she could handle it but she is so small I worry that the kids would tease her, especially after hearing that Claire, who is taller than Cora, is teased for being small. Still, it is awesome to know that she is doing so well. She wrote Carol a letter, and drew her a picture, but I will have to scan it in and post it because I couldn't do it justice without the visual. Maren, oh Maren, she is so Maren. She is picking up some on the talking thing, and I have a feeling she is going to take off in full sentences at any point, but until then, we keep working. She is such a hand full, and all the "baby proofing" is quickly becoming obsolete. As for Carol and I we are doing fine. I just gave my last presentation in Physio, which went well. Fortunately for me my professor is more about quality than quantity, since my lecture was about five minutes shorter than average, and I got an A on my test, WOOHOO! Which in the short run means I definitely got a B or A in the class, and also I am done with that class. I just have to show up for the rest of the semester. Such a relief. Now I just have one major paper (ugh!) and one more test and I will be done with my first year of Graduate School. Only 4 more to go. That is laced with so much sarcasm, I can't even describe.

Future

As some of you may or may not have heard. Annette had invited us to spend about a month and a half living with her while Rollie went to boot camp. He is planning on joining the National Guard and is going through MEP's on Monday. My semester ends the first week of May and I go back for summer semester around the first week in July. That window, as it turns out would have been just about right for the first phase of his training. However, as we planned and prepared, discussing options with family and friends, we found out that Rollie wouldn't be able to start training until July at the earliest. While the news was discouraging, it was also releaving. As you can imaging making plans for our apartment while we were gone and other factors was a little strenuous as well as plans for packing 6 weeks worth of supplies into suitcases was less than encouraging. So even though we were looking forward to living as close to a beach as Annette is, as well as Disney World, it wasn't meant to be. In other news I am applying to a few places around here, and hopefully one of those will pan out. I did get a response email today, and it sounds promising. It is at a Behavioral Medicine Hospital in Dallas. The most discouraging is that it is around 30 miles away and with gas prices as high as they are that is something we will have to figure on if I get an offer.
Since everyone is really reading for news about the girls, Cora is doing well. Cora's preschool teacher was running standardized tests and said Cora is doing exceptionally well. She's a smarty. Lately she has picked up Claire's habit of writing notes in her own little sounded out form of spelling. I believe she spells daughter "dotr" which is so cute. She loves to write them and then hand them to Carol and I. Yesterday she gave me a note that said Dad, I love you tooooooo. This on a little scrap of paper a little bigger than a quarter. Jess, well you have heard about our little sweet Jess, she is full of adventure, maybe that has something to do with the animal in her. She definitely keeps us laughing. Maren is continuing to learn. She is struggling with learning to annunciate, but we keep working with her. If we ask her to say something she usually can get the intonation right, but struggles with moving her tongue to create any different sounds. She love to antagonize Cora and Jess. I have mentioned they try and play their game out of her reach, but Carol and I have tried to make that more difficult by not letting them close doors and lock her out. Beyond that she is now capable of climbing up on the chairs and tables and even moving chairs around to reach where they are at. Consequently she will grab something they are playing with and take off with it. It is cute to see her run and smile like it is some great game, not so cute to hear the other two whining about it. The other day she took something of Jess' and was running back and forth on the couch just out of Jess' reach. She had a ball.
Beyond that Carol and I are doing well. Looking forward to the end of another semester and whatever our summer brings.
Josh
P.S. These posts have been spread out over a week because nobody is commenting and I keep expecting more comments. That is a not so subtle hint.

Jess' funny little sayings

For quite a while now, I have wanted to post Jessica's quotes. Some of you might not find them very funny, but she keeps us laughing regularly. So here it goes (this is all from my memory, so bare with me).

A few months ago she came running up to me and said/shouted "I'm full of adventure." Anyone who knows Jess well will laugh at that.

Last week she yells to me from the bathroom, "Momma will you come wipe me?" As I enter the bathroom, I ask "Are you done?" She says "yep, that's about all I can handle coming out of my bum, it's a big one hu Mom?" It was massive. That girl can lay some pipe!

And heres one more bathroom quote from dear silly Jess. I was called in once again to help wipe her and she said "my pooh looks like a fish, I must have an animal in my body."
I hope that you all got a good laugh.
-Carol

In this one Jess was trying to get her Daddy and had this possesed look on her face. It was so cute. The one above we were trying to recreate the expression with the flash on the camera.
I was trying to get a picture of Maren, and the others couldn't pass up an opportunity to pose for the camera. I can't complain.

How sweet are they.

As I said earlier, here are a few of the picture s of the girls over the past few weeks. Doesn't Jess look stylin' in her glasses?
We also took the girls to a local park, it has a huge play structure that looks like across between a castle, a maze and a fort. The whole thing is made out of wood, and is absolutely crazy. The girls love it, but Carol and I worry because it is so easy to lose track of them. On this particular day they all spent about a half hour on the swings.
Jess wanted to help push Maren, isn't that the cutest. I believe this is her attempt at an underdog.
Cora loved the tire swing, Maren not so much, she slid down through the center hole while the swing was still in motion. She was not happy about that.

Oh they are cute.