Long time, no blogs

So it has been a very long time since anyone has blogged and I thought I would try and get that going again. As y'all know, Meric is staying in the army and we are no longer moving home. After a fun, but very long 2 months in Spokane, I have finally come home to Fayetteville with Lissy, Kelli, and Kenna in tow. To save on money and time, we chose to sleep in our cars instead of getting hotels. The first night we stopped at a park in a little town. It was getting very late and we weren't sure when the next rest stop or town would be. It worked well because the bathrooms weren't locked and it was fairly secluded. (That stop would be the one where Kelli decided to let her phone swim in the toilet. It is not a very good swimmer.) Once we got breakfast we hit the road again. Just as we left town we saw the sign -Rest Stop 1 Mile. Yep one more mile and we would have reached the rest stop. That day after seeing signs for over 100 miles we decided to stop at Wall Drug and see what all the fuss was about. It was several shops that ran together and they had everything, including homemade ice cream which was yummy. Then we drove and drove and drove and drove. After 4 days and 10 states we made it home.

We have been having lots of fun. Kenna is going to seminary and I think she actually likes it. She seems to like the teacher and I will let her tell you about David. :) We also celebrated her birthday on Sunday. She likes cheesecake, so I made her the brownie one I had promised to make Kelli last year. It turned out well if i do say so myself. We have walked the street of downtown, gone to the airborne museum, gone to Raleigh, hiked, introduce Kenna to Blue Bell and eaten out a bit. One place we took them is the Cracker Barrel. For those who don't know it is good country cooking with a little store on the front. I love it. We also went to a Brazilian place and ate ourselves silly. Some really yummy meat, the best fruit salad ever, and some interesting soups. They were basically juice in a bowl, but very yummy as well. We are looking forward to Mom coming in a few days and plan on introducing her to Blue Bell and going to a BBQ place we like.

I know I am forgetting some things, but I will let everyone else fill in the rest. (hint hint) It is nice to be home but weird to be so far away again. We are still waiting on the house to close, but it seems like it is wrapping up soon. I will let Dany blog about that when it is all done. (not so much a hint)

Love you all and miss the ones who are not with me. (When are the ones with me leaving again? :)

Fun times in Fayetteville...

So as you all know Meric and I are moving home! YAY! We are so excited. The military requires 6 months notice, so it will still be a while but the process is started! We are trying to get a waiver for Meric to get out when his commitment is up, which is in September, but it looks like we will still have to wait the full 6 months which is November. Of course Meric has also accumulated 47 day of leave so far, so we might be home by October. Isn't it fun knowing for sure? :) At any rate we are moving home and are excited.

So Meric posted his resume online a few weeks ago and has been flooded with calls and emails ever since. He has been offered jobs all over the US in a few different fields. YAY for the internet. There is one lady who works for a company the finds people jobs who has been really helpful though. she set up a phone interview with St. Luke's in Spokane. It seemed to go well and they might coordinate to fly him up there to tour St. Luke's and talk with them in person. YAY for possible employment! And I am hoping they will let me have my old job back working for Dr. Ranson at the Eye Clinic.

Meric and I bought a nice new truck which we love. A couple of days after we bought it the little black car died. We hope it is just the battery but with the truck and the blazer we haven't worried too much about it just yet. Yesterday I drove the blazer to the commisary to get a bunch of groceries. When I came out the blazer wouldn't start. All I could think about was the frozen vegetables and chicken I just bought. After 3-4 times of being told my call could not be completed, I finally got a hold of Meric so he could come and jump the blazer. After several times of trying the blazer still would not start. Finally I took Meric back to work and drove my groceries home in the truck. I picked Meric up from work and we tried the blazer again. Still nothing. We then went bought a new battery, came home, ate dinner (my wonderful VT surprised us by bringing dinner) Meric did his phone interview, and then went back to the blazer. Meric changed the battery and it started right up. I can't believe both of our other cars died on us right after getting the truck. I guess they are jealous. :) With all the craziness though I feel very blessed. I broke down in a location and time that Meric could come get me fairly easy and all the was wrong was the battery. Also YAY for wonderful VTs who know just when you needed dinner brought to you. We are very blessed.

That is it for now. I will keep you updated!

Grateful for all I have

Thank you all for all you have done! I have to say, that after this weekend, I have never felt so blessed. This weekend was filled with chaos and lots and lots of money spent on things that mostly got tossed at the end. It was stressful and crazy. But at the end, I have never felt so blessed. I originally told Nic that I had no interest in a reception. I am from Spokane and only know so many people in Portland. I knew I wouldn’t get a very large turn out for the amount of work that would go into it. While he agreed, his family did not. They pushed and pushed and finally we caved and said we’d do it. After all, after Nic’s last wedding, people were very upset he never had a reception in Portland.

After sending out about 200 invitations, mostly to Nic side, we began planning. Everyone sounded so excited. Then the day of the reception came. Nic’s mom, younger sister and five friends were all that came on his side. After all that he had been told, even the people that begged us to do it didn’t show. The majority of the gifts came from my two receptions, doctors who had gifts mailed to us, and my co-workers who not only gave us gifts at the reception, but gifts the day we got married.

After the reception, we hung out and played a very spirited game of keep away. While I walked away with more bruises then I can count and am so sore that every movement seems to be strained, it was a lot of fun. Then we all stayed up far too late laughing and joking.

After everyone left, I got a text message from Josh thanking me for letting him stay and hang out with the family. He doesn’t have a close or typical family situation and he said he doesn’t get to do that very often. I told him we didn’t mind at all and we would be more then happy to drag him to Spokane with us on our next visit. He told me I was very lucky to have such a family (which just shows you how bad his family must be).

I also had a long talk with a very sad Nic on Sunday. He was bummed his family never showed and that most of his friends bailed. Especially since no one had an even good excuse or even an excuse at all. I told him not to worry, that he now has a whole new family and we will obnoxiously be there whether he wants us or not.

But I look back on the weekend and I can’t help but be grateful. With people like Nic and Josh around, they help keep things in perspective. As dysfunctional as we are, we have always been there for each other. And together we have fun and stick together. That’s something I take for granted. It’s something that is rare in life these days.

I am grateful for you all.

The Wedding

Well, as you can guess, I’m married. Just to up date you all on the last few weeks, here is the whole story:

As many of you know, I have been very concerned over the fact that Nic was sealed to his ex-wife in the temple. While I know that men can be sealed to more than one woman, I wasn’t sure if we needed to take steps to make sure he could be sealed to me as well. We asked around and received conflicting opinions. We finally asked our bishop who called the stake president and we were assured that it only needed to state on his records that he was divorced. We then went to meet with the stake president two weeks before the scheduled wedding in Spokane when I made Nic ask again, just to be sure. Apparently there was a misunderstanding. Yes, it needed to state on his records that he was divorced. But we also needed a letter of “sealing clearance” from the first presidency. This involves a formal letter written by Nic to the first presidency, a formal request from the stake president, and a letter written from our bishop to Nic’s ex and her in turn writing a letter to the first presidency. All of these letters need to be received by Salt Lake and reviewed by the first presidency. Our stake president said he had seen these done in 7 days expedited. So we kept our date. Nine days before the wedding we got the bad news. Even if Annie was cooperative and did as we asked (which we anticipate she won’t), it’ll take a minimum of 4-6 weeks after Salt Lake receives the paperwork, and with the added stress of General Conference, we had no chance to get the letter in time. We were in quite a pickle. Either we could wait until we received the letter and be sealed then, or get married civilly and be sealed in a year. If we waited, we could not set a date until we had the letter in hand. Both of our jobs would require two weeks notice to reschedule our honeymoon and arrangements would have to be redone. Nic would have to continue searching for couches to sleep on as he was basically homeless. We’d most likely celebrate the reception before the wedding and last but not least, we could NOT receive clearance at all and have to wait anyway. So we chose to be wed civilly and rearranged everything to be married in Portland. Sadly our bishop and stake president were out of town so they transferred my records to the home ward so that bishop could perform the ceremony. He will be our new bishop.

We met with the new bishop and he told us he understood. He had been active his whole life, as had his wife. They tried to use their wedding to reactivate their inactive parents, but they didn’t go for it. After a discussion with their bishop, they chose to be married civilly in Portland and then drive to Salt Lake and be sealed the next day. After making all the arrangements, announcement out and everything, the bishop talked to the stake president and discovered they were not allowed to do this. In a difficult situation, they chose as we did and were married and then sealed a year later. I was comforted to know that we were not alone. I know it will be difficult, as we will be judged for the choices me made and assumptions will be made by many. But our bishop explained, the world is not perfect, the gospel is. Heavenly Father knows what is in our hearts and he has arranged back ups in case something should happen before we are sealed.

Anyhow, Nic and were married in a very small intimate ceremony on Saturday, March 27^th. We then went to lunch and headed to the coast. We were blessed with a beach house to stay in for free and we were there until Tuesday. Although the weather was awful, the coast is filled with plenty to keep us occupied including the wonderful Tillamook Cheese Factory. It was here that Nic first introduced me as his wife.

I almost forgot...

I forgot to mention something that I find funny. The Colonel that Meric works with is getting ready to PCS to Korea. He sold his car and has been driving his daughter's car. At one point he said that he makes sure he has his cell phone with him because the car is so old and he is afraid it will break down. The car he is driving... a 2002 Honda Civic. The cars we drive are both 1997. I just had to laugh.

So here are some new things since I last blogged: Meric and I went to dinner on Saturday with a group of people he kind of works with. He knows them a little and I don't know them at all. We went to a BBQ place about an hour away. They actually did a little story on the place in the news and this is the link http://www.wral.com/news/local/video/6056117/ Anyway, we get there and find out it is a cash only place and we usually don't carry cash. We only had $10 and therefore could only order one entree. So pretty much I sat in the corner bored, texting and starving as we split our entree. After we left there we headed to another restaurant and ordered another entree to split and dessert. So that is how Meric and I ate out at two restaurants for one meal.

Also on Sunday I received another calling. I am still in the nursery but now I am also the assistant Activity day girl person. There are two other people in front of me but they both apparently aren't there a lot so we will see how much I have to do. I think this is the first time I have had two callings.

The End and the Beginning

Last Thursday Meric and I finished our foster care classes. YAY! I was getting a little tired of having every Thursday night blocked, doing the potluck (you can only eat so much fried chicken) and having homework. The homework wouldn't have been so bad if it weren't the same questions over and over and having to come up with new answers every time. We got our certificate for finishing the class but the end is only the beginning. We have a ton of paperwork to be filled out, we need to be approved by the board before our paperwork is sent to the main office for us to be licensed. We also have to have a fire safety inspection and physicals. We still have a long way to go and it will never be easy.

Meric just got back from Philly. He went to a conference there for 5 days. Our friend from San Antonio, Carrie (Lissy and Kelli met her at Thanksgiving), was there too. Carrie and Meric were good friends so he was excited to see her again. Carrie is a few months pregnant and I like to refer to her as Meric's pregnant girlfriend. I wanted to post my status on facebook as "my husband left me to be with his pregnant girlfriend in Philly" but I was afraid some people might not know I was joking and think badly of Meric so I didn't. Still it would have been funny. Anyways (the "s" is just for you Dad) Meric had a lot of fun and learned a lot. I also am starting an online course in Personal Training.

Anywho I will keep you updated with our foster care situation. Miss you all and can't wait to see you next month. Love you!

NEED SUGGESTIONS!!!

Nic and I would like to go out to eat with the family and friends after the wedding March 27th for lunch before we take off. Nic would like to eat somewhere unique. I'm thinking cheaper is best for all and also finding something everyone can enjoy at least a little bit.

Any suggestions????

Speak now or forever hold your peace!