Moving Again....

Yep.  Only been here six months (eight months for Rusty), and we are MOVING...

...across town.  ;oP

We found another rental with a bit more elbow room.  Hyrum and Hannah will each have their own room (partly because neither room has enough space for two beds, partly because they are getting a bit too old to share a room anymore) upstairs.  Nate will squeeze in with Mom and Dad downstairs.  We get a half bathroom to ease "traffic" in the morning, and a nice big kitchen with more dining space.  But the real selling point on this house was the yard... it's huge!  Plenty of space for a garden (next year; Rusty made me promise), lots of room to roam and explore.  The property is surrounded by a strip of "woods" so we feel like we are out in the country.  But we are actually just on the edge of town, only two blocks away from Hyrum's school.  Oh, and one last selling point: a real storm cellar.  Big relief, just in case.  Plus, Michelle is thinking it can double as a root cellar...  ;o)

We will try to post pictures or a video once we actually move in next month.

In other news...we are all nursing really bad sunburns from neglecting to put on sunscreen at the pool yesterday.  We actually missed church because Hannah cannot bear any fabric on her shoulders and wouldn't get dressed.  Honestly, I don't blame her.  Ouch.  But she and Hyrum have been creative with clothing today.  About an hour ago they both came out of their room with t-shirts on upside down.  The bottom of the shirt was pulled to their armpits, their legs were coming out of the sleeves, and the neck opening was dangling below.  To cap it all off, they had stuffed animals tucked inside the t-shirts and they proceeded to announce that they were going to have babies.  Then they each reached into the neck opening and pulled out a stuffed animal.

Ah, kids.

Fun Times

Hmm... what's up with the Squirrels?

Well, last week's adventure involved two police cruisers and a tow truck, 90 degree weather combined with a bunch of groceries in the back of the van for two hours, and throw in two kids and Michelle stranded 1.5 hours away from Rusty's work....  pretty cool, huh?

Hannah, Nate and I had fun.  Hannah actually said, "This is the best day EVER!!"  and begged to be allowed to wait for Daddy in the police car or the tow truck, rather than kicking up her heels and relaxing in the hot van with Mom and Nate.  Hyrum had fun, too- he got more time at the babysitter's house.  Poor Rusty, however... actually, though, after 11 years of sharing in my random "adventures" I think he is getting used to it all.  When I called, he just sighed and said, "I'll call you back once I've made arrangements."  He used to panic more openly.  It's an improvement!  Or am I wearing him down?  Hmm....

Fun times are a'comin' to Wamego soon... This town doesn't just celebrate the Fourth of July.  They celebrate the whole stinkin' WEEK.  We've got the carnival and fair booths and auto displays and concerts happening June 30 - July 4.  The parade is huge (but so was our old hometown's parade, so we will do some comparing this year) and the fireworks display is the best one in the entire state.  Plus, our house is two blocks from the launch site so we will sit on our deck and watch.

Anyone want to join us?  ;o)

FIREFLIES!!!

Okay, so Michelle has a very very short "bucket list."  One of the top three (of, like, five items) has always been to "see fireflies in person".

Check!!

WAY, WAY COOL! ! !

So, Disney/Hollywood doesn't get it right.  They are yellow green, not white.  And they blink instead of glowing steadily.  At least the ones we've seen so far.

The kids and I have got countless mosquito bites the last two nights watching fireflies instead of going to bed.  It's awesome!  I asked the kids to tell you all about fireflies:

Hannah: They are pretty.  And they keep on turning on and off and on and off and on and off every time!  They are cute!  They fly around and they are glowing.  To find other fireflies. 

Hyrum:  Inside the Twisted Thicket woods there are trolls, invisible creatures, snails, bats and fireflies!  One day a vampire bat bite me!  Invisible creatures punched me, trolls chased me, and fireflies fly me to the cliff.  And one day all of creatures chasing me, and to a treasure, all the trolls chase me.  And nothing.  (That means he is done).  Sign Hyrum.  Now send to Mrs. Lasuen! (he wants me to email his aide at his old school, but I don’t have her email address.)


On another note:  we had a great trip.  It was wonderful to see so many of you, even for a brief time!  We hope to catch up with the few we missed on our next trip, but that may be a while.  Uh, yeah, our van uses a LOT of gas.  And after climbing the gorgeous mountain passes in Colorado and driving for 10 hours straight on our last day of travel, the van nearly died.  But after an unplanned overnight stay in Salina, it's doing fine.  Good ol' van.


We are glad to be back home, though.  And it does feel very "homelike" here.  Summer is off to a good start!


Oh, in the interest of honesty, but don't tell the kids, we actually saw our very first firefly on that last day of our trip.  I was driving along when SPLAT! a patch of neon green appeared in the middle of the windshield.  Rusty and I watched, amazed, as it faded slowly....  I said to Rusty, "That's my very first firefly!  Should I be happy or sad?"  ;oP