Swimming with cousins

While we were in Idaho, we spent one afternoon swimming with my sister and her kids in their front yard. It was lots of fun. I'm too tired (and lazy) to move all the pictures, so if you want to see them (and her ADORABLE twins) you can go here.

Thanks for the fun day, Cathrynn.

It's official

We now own property in Wyoming (and Texas...but that's another post).

Here's the front of our new house!

We're excited to be in the "country" and to have a little bit of property to call our own. It needs some work (the basement is not finished) but we feel ready and confident to take on the challenge.

My new calling (the long version)

We've known for a while (since February, I think) that our ward would be changing. Three wards were meeting in our building, and they took those three wards and turned them into four. The bishop of our old ward was called to be the bishop of the new ward. When we were looking at houses, we didn't think the ward we would be in mattered that much. We found a house Clint really liked. I wasn't sold on it, and I couldn't really put my finger on why. It wasn't until a few days later that I realized that I wanted to stay in the "new ward" with our old bishop. They had a meeting to announce the new boundaries and Clint stayed home with the kids and I went to the meeting. The closing song was, "I'll Go Where You Want Me to Go" and all I could think is "Just tell us where to go." I came home and told Clint how I felt, and the very next week we found the perfect little country house, in the new ward.

We still haven't closed on the new house (sigh) and don't technically live in the ward, but that didn't stop the Bishop from coming to see me a few weeks ago. In the midst of packing and trying to get closed and all of that fun stuff, and stressing about this little baby coming early, he extended me a *calling.

(*In our church, all leadership is done by members, no one is paid for their service, we believe that the callings come from God and he will bless us with the talents and abilities required to complete the assignment.)

I've been asked to serve as the Relief Society President. I feel very overwhelmed and under-qualified. I have a great presidency and none of them said they were quitting when I told them I was leaving town for at least 2 Sundays. They have been so willing to help and do what needs to be done. I'm anxious to get home and dive in with both feet, though. I do know that Heavenly Father will help me do my best. I've seen it in other callings I've held, and this will be no different.

Island Park Weekend

Clint's family had their annual Family Reunion in Island Park over the weekend. We were pretty lazy but it was lots of fun. We floated the Buffalo River (even Molly floated with Grandpa) and Clint got a great sunburn (the first he's had in our nearly 11 year marriage).

There was a terrible microburst rain/hail storm on Friday afternoon. Clint sat in the truck with the puppy, and I was in the tent with the kids. IT was fine until the hail started driving the water through the rain fly and water started pooling under the tent. More than two inches of rain fell in less than an hour.

On our way home on Saturday, we stopped for lunch here . The kids thought it was cool. There was a man sitting behind us and he said no one could eat a 1 lb Big Jud, about the time they brought ours out (we were sharing one as a family). The waitress set it in front of me and he said, "You can't eat all that." I told him I was sure we could, and he thought we probably could as a family. But, when I told him that Clint and I had both completed the 1 lb. challenge in high school, he was very impressed.

It was lots of fun and we're glad we got to spend some time with family.

Molly

Four things

I don't have any pictures, so you'll just have to bear with the Readers Digest version.

1. I spent a few hours in labor and delivery last week having consistent contractions. I still have them sometimes, and now I'm taking medicine to prevent them. The medicine is not much better than the contractions, though.

2. Because of #1, my mom, sister, sister in law, and three nieces drove all day Thursday to pack and clean my house on Friday so I could take it a bit easier. I'll never be able to fully thank them because there's NO WAY I could have done all they did myself. Then they packed up the kids on Saturday morning and took them back to Idaho. It was really nice for Clint and I to tie up a few loose ends and travel kidless on Sunday night.

3. All of our possessions are currently residing in the garage of our new house (that's not really ours because we still haven't closed). Apparently when the county says 7 business days, they really mean 3-4 weeks in real time.

4. Our family has grown by 4 furry paws. Molly the puppy joined our family yesterday. She's very cute and lots of fun (except at night, when she cries for her brothers). Clint is getting his very own taste of babies in the middle of the night. Pictures will come when we can figure out the wireless at my parents.