Pages

Tuesday 30 August 2011

First Day of School

Today was the kids first day of school, since yesterday school was cancelled due to hurricane Irene.  There were a lot of trees down and some still without power. The kids were very disappointed that their first day of school was cancelled!  I was too, because I had to take them to Lowe's with me to buy a washer and dryer!  But all is well! And they had a great day of school.  Minnie was very nervous, actually they all were a bit nervous, but it all went really well. Even through all their nervousness, they were still excited!

We Survived HurriQuake Week

I forgot to mention that we had an earthquake last week! When we were still at Mom and Dad’s house.  I believe it happened last Tuesday, maybe Monday. I can’t remember.  Anyway, I was in their library doing something to get ready to move and Michael was in there with me.  All of a sudden, the floor shook.  I yelled, “MOM!” and then the floor kept shaking, so I yelled louder—“MOM!!!” I thought that someone had run into the house at first, but when the ground kept shaking I thought “It must be an earthquake!” (Oh, it was Tuesday, because Monday night there was an earthquake in Colorado, which was why I even thought that it was an earthquake, though I did doubt it since we never get those on the east coast.)  Anyway, Mom and Tink were outside, so that is why they didn’t answer when I yelled. But they came in and I told them what I felt and Mom thought I was crazy! Seriously! Well, she believed me that I felt something so we checked outside and even went down to the basement to see if anything had fallen  and made it shake, but when we didn’t find anything, she just joked that I must be losing it!  Then about an hour or maybe less than an hour later, someone from their ward called and asked if we had felt the earthquake! Mom couldn’t believe it!  So we turned on the news, and sure enough, an earthquake had hit in Mineral, VA, which is about halfway between Charlottesville and Richmond.  Crazy, huh?  It was felt all the way up to NYC. 
So this weekend ended up being pretty crazy as well.  After we moved into the house and got the kids registered, we had Meet the Teacher on Thursday and then Kindergarten orientation on Friday.  The kids’ teachers all seem wonderful. I don’t think we could have done better.  With Minnie, we saw our Father’s love in everything!  Both of her teachers she had met while they were waiting in the foyer while I registered them!  I couldn’t believe out of 10 kindergarten teachers, the 2 that she met were HER teachers!  What a blessing!  They are very lovely a well.  So nice!  Another blessing was that we found that there are 3 other kids in her class that are also in her class at church!!   I told Minnie that Heavenly Father must surely love her a lot to help her out so much with school. 
But on Friday, it seemed like the hurricane that was threatening the east coast (Irene) was going to hit pretty hard. So Mom and Dad suggested we come home and spend the weekend with them. We were all ready to go on Saturday morning, but by then it looked like it wasn’t going to be as bad as they originally thought. So rather than drive down and back so quickly, we decided to stay.  They canceled church for Sunday though, so we knew it would be a long weekend.  It rained all day Saturday, but it didn’t get scary until bedtime.  Then the wind was outrageous!  It seriously sounded like a tornado. The kids all slept in my bedroom except Goofy who fell right to sleep in his room and Tink who realized it was louder in my room than hers.  We really should have all slept in the basement, but I hadn’t thought about it until bedtime b/c I thought it wasn’t going to be so bad. I kept praying and felt like it would be ok, so we stuck it out and were find. But the strain and stress of being in charge of four sweet children and the house made me shake and I felt pretty nauseous as well.  I finally fell asleep, sure that no trees would fall on our house and we’d be ok.  Thankfully, the Lord answered our prayers.  There were SO many trees down in our area!  Our next door neighbor has a big tree that fell down onto the sidewalk and one across the street had one blown over as well.  There were a few people in the ward who had trees fall into their houses and a few with some flooding in the basement.  We were truly, truly blessed.  And now I can say I have been through an earthquake and hurricane all in the same week!!
We’ve met several lovely people in the ward so far. The bishop and his son came by on Sunday to check on us. They seem so nice and learned all the kids’ names right away.  Love the family all ready! Then a family just a street down brought us cookies. They are actually moving farther away, but still in our ward.  They had some couches that wouldn’t fit into their new place, so they are letting us borrow them until our stuff arrives. It is SO nice to sit on a couch again.  The kids were so excited to see them when they came home from school today!  It’s the little things in life that are so appreciated sometimes.
So yesterday was supposed to be the first day of school, but because of trees in roads and some power outages still in the area, they canceled.  So today was their first day of school.  They all did so well. Minnie was so brave.  She had a kind of worried look on her face when we got to school and I asked her how she was doing.  She smiled and said she was fine.  I asked if she was scared or worried, and she shook her head no.  I got a little teary eyed then. I was so proud of her and I was so sad to leave her. I have always hated the first day of school, ever since Tink started going.  (I loved it as a kid, though, and am glad that my children love it as well.)  They all did great and seemed to have had a good day when they came home. They talked and talked and told me all about it. But now that it’s bedtime, Minnie has been struggling. She is worried about going back.  We talked and cried together. I told her how proud I was of her and how the second day will be easier because she knows what to expect.  She seems better, but it’s now almost 9:30pm and she’s still not asleep. 
We bought a washer and dryer yesterday at Lowe’s. They were delivered today. Another thing I am so grateful for!  What fun it was to do laundry!  Tomorrow we will get tv, internet, and a home phone line set up. Yay!   I bought a tv today so they could hook it up.  Well anyway, I better get off to bed as well.

Wednesday 17 August 2011

Fun in the Sun

Everyone has been enjoying the sun in West Virginia.  When we got off the plane, I pointed to the sky and asked the kids if they knew what that was up there.  They were a bit confused at first, but then I told them I was talking about the big, bright, HOT sun!  The two older kids have been perfecting their swimming skills at their uncle's house, while the two younger ones have been braving the diving board (as long as they wear the floaties!) and loving every second of it!
We also did slip and slide with cousins at Grandma and Grandpa's house on their huge plastic tarp. They had a blast.

Thursday 4 August 2011

London One Last Time

I went with a few friends down to London one last time before we leave.  My friend M from BYU just moved here and it has been SO much fun to see her.  It is so neat to see someone I knew in my younger days happily married with four kids just like us.  And it's like no time has gone by at all.
I had never been to St. Paul's Cathedral,  and since the tube stop was on our way, we got off and took pictures.  (This is the one in Mary Poppins where the old lady is feeding the birds.)  Then we headed to the Creperie to meet another friend. We were close on time so took a taxi down to the Ambassadors Theatre to see Stomp.  Very good, though the theatre was very small and seats super uncomfortable.  It was loud though! But lots of fun! And I made it home before 1 am!