Well, this past month has flown by…where does the time go?
We haven’t seen much of Rhett lately as he recently began working a 2nd job (part-time) at Sears in appliances again, selling stoves this time. We are preparing ourselves financially to be able to buy a bigger house next year and the extra income will help us to get on top of things and build up our savings again. With the new baby set to arrive in one month, we feel we will need more space SOON!!!
As for me, one month from today (January 2nd at 1:00pm to be exact) I am scheduled for my C-section. I can’t believe how quickly it has come and I can hardly wait these last few weeks! I started getting all of the baby clothing & bedding cleaned and prepared. Then I guess I’ll be getting my bag for the hospital packed. You can never be too prepared, right? My mom booked her flight and will be staying with us from December 30th (her birthday) until January 17th. We will be so lucky to have her with us for such a long time…her longest trip visiting us ever!
Austin has had an exciting month! First, he was chosen to represent his 3rd grade class in the school Spelling Bee to be held in January. He is a little nervous about it, but is an amazing speller and I’m sure he’ll do great! Also, he lost 2 teeth in the same day, his 7th & 8th teeth to fall out. See the picture below. I think these are the first ones he has pulled out on his own…but they were practically falling out of his head anyway. He had a little problem with the tooth fairy this time though…she forgot to come! (or so he thought). I checked later while he was outside playing & when Austin looked again he found $2 sitting under his pillow. He was flabbergasted because he said he had searched everywhere the time before. She’s so sneaky!!! Austin will be participating in his first piano recital next week. He’s very excited and doing a wonderful job with his piano lessons.
Logan & Carson haven’t had much going on. They are enjoying the days playing together or with our dog. They spend much of our beautiful fall weather playing outside in the backyard. They both look forward to being new big brothers soon, and love to give my belly hugs and kisses.
We spent Thanksgiving week up in Austin at Melissa & Rod’s house (Rhett’s sis). The kids played hard and Melissa & I had a blast just being together. We really didn’t do much except hang out, but it was nice nonetheless. We were able to go see “Twilight” for the 2nd time, thanks to Rod’s babysitting skills!!! Melissa was able to take some new family photos of us in the beautiful “hill country” near their home, so I hope you enjoy the new pics! We look forward to spending the Christmas holidays with them as well as Robert & Heather (Rhett’s bro). It’s nice to have some family close by, especially at this time of year.
That’s about all from us this month. We hope you all have a great holiday season and the next time I update this I’ll have little Jackson to introduce. Until then…
Love – Rhett, Maren, Austin, Logan & Carson
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
October 2008 Update
So, let’s see. Recently we have had some fun and exciting…and not so exciting things going on.
Rhett – Summing up from our last post, we found out the pitcher from the other team ended up with 30+ stitches in his chin from Rhett’s line drive. Oooops!!!
Maren – I am currently measuring 1 week ahead in my pregnancy. Only 2 months to go. My mom is planning on coming and spending around 3 weeks with us when Jackson is born. So exciting!!! At my last appointment, my Dr. said that my iron level was a little “borderline”, and since I’m having a C-section he is having me take an iron supplement daily to get my blood built up for surgery. Other than that, my pregnancy is going great!
Austin – Halloween. He finally decided that he’d had enough with Superheroes (for the last 3 years) and decided to be a skeleton. We got such a great deal on his costume too! I got the shirt for $1 at Old Navy, black sweat pants for $5, face makeup for $2 and then I made the pelvis & leg bones out of some white self-adhesive vinyl that my friend gave me. So $8 and 45 minutes later for the face paint, we had what I think turned out to be a pretty awesome costume!
Logan – Luckily he doesn’t really care yet what he is for Halloween, because the pumpkin costume we had from when Austin was 4 was just fine with him. He made a super cute pumpkin!
Carson – For Halloween he was a bat (thanks to another hand-me-down costume). Carson caused some excitement at church on Sunday when he decided to pull the fire alarm. I had left Sacrament Meeting early with him (to get the Primary Room set up) and next thing I know the fire alarm is blaring and Carson is the culprit. Our ward was just getting ready for the closing prayer when the Bishop got up & said that they were required to have everyone leave the building. Luckily some members from the previous Ward were still around and someone had the key to turn it off. Word trickled through our Ward that it wasn’t really a fire and only a few people ended up outside, thank goodness! I was mad at Carson first for doing it and scolded him with a slap on the hand and a “No touching!” remark. It took him about 20 seconds to realize that he was both A. In trouble, and B. Scared from the blaring alarm…so he started sobbing, which made me start sobbing (pregnant hormones I’m sure!) and I reassured him that everything was okay. Needless to say it took both him and I several minutes to get calmed down after the chaos we caused.
For a few days before Halloween we had noticed a small leak coming from the bottom of the toilet in the boy’s bathroom. There was also some wet carpet on the other side of the wall from the bathroom (in the corner of the dining room) that we thought must be caused from the leak. So Rhett took the toilet off and found that the wax ring was cracked. After a trip to Home Depot he replaced the wax ring and re-set the toilet. Voila! No leak! We thought that would solve the wet carpet problem, but it seemed to persist for a couple more days. I would suck up water from the carpet 3-4 times a day with our carpet shampooer (thanks Mom! It has come in handy several times). We finally realized that there must be a leak coming from the shower, so after our Ward Halloween party & “trunk or treat” we came home and a friend of ours (thanks Travis!) helped us cut into the wall and fix the leaky pipe. It ended up being a small leak coming from the joint. Now we just have to fix the sheetrock to make it look like a pretty wall again. Another home repair done inexpensively (it cost $2.90 for the new copper joint at Home Depot).
Rhett’s sis Melissa & family came for Halloween so the kids could trunk or treat together. That weekend we also visited Retama Park (a horse racetrack) with them and had a fun family night out for less than $10. What a deal! They have these fifty-cent nights where you just have to pay for parking and everything else is free (except hot dogs & drinks are fifty cents). We watched several horse races and the kids enjoyed face painting, caricatures, clowns making balloon shapes/animals, pony rides and a petting zoo. After 2 of the races the jockeys gave Carson their racing goggles. He was ecstatic!!! He must be too cute to resist.
So that's about all that's new this month. We look forward to spending time at both Thanksgiving and Christmas with our "Texas family" (Rhett's sister & fam and his brother & fam). Luckily we are all sticking around for the holidays, so we can at least spend time together! We hope you all have a great month.
Love- Rhett, Maren, Austin, Logan, Carson & Baby Jackson
Rhett – Summing up from our last post, we found out the pitcher from the other team ended up with 30+ stitches in his chin from Rhett’s line drive. Oooops!!!
Maren – I am currently measuring 1 week ahead in my pregnancy. Only 2 months to go. My mom is planning on coming and spending around 3 weeks with us when Jackson is born. So exciting!!! At my last appointment, my Dr. said that my iron level was a little “borderline”, and since I’m having a C-section he is having me take an iron supplement daily to get my blood built up for surgery. Other than that, my pregnancy is going great!
Austin – Halloween. He finally decided that he’d had enough with Superheroes (for the last 3 years) and decided to be a skeleton. We got such a great deal on his costume too! I got the shirt for $1 at Old Navy, black sweat pants for $5, face makeup for $2 and then I made the pelvis & leg bones out of some white self-adhesive vinyl that my friend gave me. So $8 and 45 minutes later for the face paint, we had what I think turned out to be a pretty awesome costume!
Logan – Luckily he doesn’t really care yet what he is for Halloween, because the pumpkin costume we had from when Austin was 4 was just fine with him. He made a super cute pumpkin!
Carson – For Halloween he was a bat (thanks to another hand-me-down costume). Carson caused some excitement at church on Sunday when he decided to pull the fire alarm. I had left Sacrament Meeting early with him (to get the Primary Room set up) and next thing I know the fire alarm is blaring and Carson is the culprit. Our ward was just getting ready for the closing prayer when the Bishop got up & said that they were required to have everyone leave the building. Luckily some members from the previous Ward were still around and someone had the key to turn it off. Word trickled through our Ward that it wasn’t really a fire and only a few people ended up outside, thank goodness! I was mad at Carson first for doing it and scolded him with a slap on the hand and a “No touching!” remark. It took him about 20 seconds to realize that he was both A. In trouble, and B. Scared from the blaring alarm…so he started sobbing, which made me start sobbing (pregnant hormones I’m sure!) and I reassured him that everything was okay. Needless to say it took both him and I several minutes to get calmed down after the chaos we caused.
For a few days before Halloween we had noticed a small leak coming from the bottom of the toilet in the boy’s bathroom. There was also some wet carpet on the other side of the wall from the bathroom (in the corner of the dining room) that we thought must be caused from the leak. So Rhett took the toilet off and found that the wax ring was cracked. After a trip to Home Depot he replaced the wax ring and re-set the toilet. Voila! No leak! We thought that would solve the wet carpet problem, but it seemed to persist for a couple more days. I would suck up water from the carpet 3-4 times a day with our carpet shampooer (thanks Mom! It has come in handy several times). We finally realized that there must be a leak coming from the shower, so after our Ward Halloween party & “trunk or treat” we came home and a friend of ours (thanks Travis!) helped us cut into the wall and fix the leaky pipe. It ended up being a small leak coming from the joint. Now we just have to fix the sheetrock to make it look like a pretty wall again. Another home repair done inexpensively (it cost $2.90 for the new copper joint at Home Depot).
Rhett’s sis Melissa & family came for Halloween so the kids could trunk or treat together. That weekend we also visited Retama Park (a horse racetrack) with them and had a fun family night out for less than $10. What a deal! They have these fifty-cent nights where you just have to pay for parking and everything else is free (except hot dogs & drinks are fifty cents). We watched several horse races and the kids enjoyed face painting, caricatures, clowns making balloon shapes/animals, pony rides and a petting zoo. After 2 of the races the jockeys gave Carson their racing goggles. He was ecstatic!!! He must be too cute to resist.
So that's about all that's new this month. We look forward to spending time at both Thanksgiving and Christmas with our "Texas family" (Rhett's sister & fam and his brother & fam). Luckily we are all sticking around for the holidays, so we can at least spend time together! We hope you all have a great month.
Love- Rhett, Maren, Austin, Logan, Carson & Baby Jackson
Friday, October 10, 2008
September 2008 Update
Well, September has come & gone and what do we have to say about it?
Our Air Conditioner stopped working! That would probably be fine if we lived in Idaho or somewhere that the temperatures weren’t still in the 90’s every day. We lived through a few days of 90-degree house temps before we called someone. They of course wanted us to get an all new system and ductwork…right around about $7000 worth of work. We of course don’t have that money, nor do we want to pay it. Luckily we have a friend of a friend who works with A/C and he came & fixed the major problems for $125. We have some ductwork that needs fixing and we’ll need to solve some venting issues in our attic, but we’ll be able to get it all done for WAY LESS than $7000.
Rhett has started a work out regiment, which involves playing softball with our Ward on Tuesday nights, and playing basketball at our church on Wednesday nights. He is enjoying the time spent playing ball, not so much enjoying the aches and pains he sometimes has afterwards. This past Tuesday Rhett was up to bat and hit a line drive straight at the pitcher. It hit him in the chin/jaw area and was bleeding enough that some team members left to take him to the hospital. Rhett felt really bad about that!
As for me, I’m hanging in there. Only 3 months to go! This baby has recently taken to kicking me pretty good, and I’ve been having quite a few Braxton Hicks contractions over the past few days. I’m feeling well however, just tired a lot. I try to rest as much as possible with 2 little ones around all day. I’m pretty lucky though and I probably get more rest than a lot of pregnant moms. During General Conference for our church this past weekend I was able to get 2 major projects completed. My Christmas cards, and the baby announcements. We were at Rhett’s sister Melissa’s house, and I had plenty of helpers, so thanks for that!
Austin was a little hesitant at first to start Cub Scouts, mainly because he didn’t know what to expect, but he has jumped in with both feet and enjoys it a lot. A few weeks ago they had the Raingutter Regatta. While Austin’s boat looked really good, we never tried it out beforehand, and unfortunately found that it was top heavy and didn’t really sail so good. Oh, well! It was a valiant effort for our first try. See the picture below.
Logan has decided lately that he’s an artist and wants to draw almost constantly. His Sunbeam teacher at church has even commented on his awesome drawing ability. And I must admit he draws pretty well for a 4-year old! Below he is showing off a picture of a train that he drew.
Carson has recently reached a HUGE milestone…getting rid of the Binky!!! Last weekend we took the short trip to Austin to hang out with family, and forgetting the binky, we decided it was as good a time as any to drop the habit. He has adjusted well to falling asleep without it, and I am so relieved. The picture below of Carson was so funny. He was upstairs playing with his cousins & brothers, and all of a sudden he was coming down the stairs with this huge sombrero on his head saying “Yee haw!” It was quite cute!
GREAT NEWS in the Zimmerman family. Last Friday we received the news that our niece Grace Cluff is CANCER FREE!!! Her PET and CAT scans revealed no trace of the tumors or cancer anywhere in her body. Needless to say we are relieved and excited at the same time. She’ll still have checkups regularly for the first year and will still be doing school at home until January, but we are so grateful that she was able to be healed. It makes us realize (once again) how strong PRAYER can be. Thanks to all of you for your concern on her part.
Next time I’m sure we’ll have Halloween pictures to post, so we’ll update you then!
Love – Rhett, Maren, Austin, Logan, Carson & Baby Jackson
Our Air Conditioner stopped working! That would probably be fine if we lived in Idaho or somewhere that the temperatures weren’t still in the 90’s every day. We lived through a few days of 90-degree house temps before we called someone. They of course wanted us to get an all new system and ductwork…right around about $7000 worth of work. We of course don’t have that money, nor do we want to pay it. Luckily we have a friend of a friend who works with A/C and he came & fixed the major problems for $125. We have some ductwork that needs fixing and we’ll need to solve some venting issues in our attic, but we’ll be able to get it all done for WAY LESS than $7000.
Rhett has started a work out regiment, which involves playing softball with our Ward on Tuesday nights, and playing basketball at our church on Wednesday nights. He is enjoying the time spent playing ball, not so much enjoying the aches and pains he sometimes has afterwards. This past Tuesday Rhett was up to bat and hit a line drive straight at the pitcher. It hit him in the chin/jaw area and was bleeding enough that some team members left to take him to the hospital. Rhett felt really bad about that!
As for me, I’m hanging in there. Only 3 months to go! This baby has recently taken to kicking me pretty good, and I’ve been having quite a few Braxton Hicks contractions over the past few days. I’m feeling well however, just tired a lot. I try to rest as much as possible with 2 little ones around all day. I’m pretty lucky though and I probably get more rest than a lot of pregnant moms. During General Conference for our church this past weekend I was able to get 2 major projects completed. My Christmas cards, and the baby announcements. We were at Rhett’s sister Melissa’s house, and I had plenty of helpers, so thanks for that!
Austin was a little hesitant at first to start Cub Scouts, mainly because he didn’t know what to expect, but he has jumped in with both feet and enjoys it a lot. A few weeks ago they had the Raingutter Regatta. While Austin’s boat looked really good, we never tried it out beforehand, and unfortunately found that it was top heavy and didn’t really sail so good. Oh, well! It was a valiant effort for our first try. See the picture below.
Logan has decided lately that he’s an artist and wants to draw almost constantly. His Sunbeam teacher at church has even commented on his awesome drawing ability. And I must admit he draws pretty well for a 4-year old! Below he is showing off a picture of a train that he drew.
Carson has recently reached a HUGE milestone…getting rid of the Binky!!! Last weekend we took the short trip to Austin to hang out with family, and forgetting the binky, we decided it was as good a time as any to drop the habit. He has adjusted well to falling asleep without it, and I am so relieved. The picture below of Carson was so funny. He was upstairs playing with his cousins & brothers, and all of a sudden he was coming down the stairs with this huge sombrero on his head saying “Yee haw!” It was quite cute!
GREAT NEWS in the Zimmerman family. Last Friday we received the news that our niece Grace Cluff is CANCER FREE!!! Her PET and CAT scans revealed no trace of the tumors or cancer anywhere in her body. Needless to say we are relieved and excited at the same time. She’ll still have checkups regularly for the first year and will still be doing school at home until January, but we are so grateful that she was able to be healed. It makes us realize (once again) how strong PRAYER can be. Thanks to all of you for your concern on her part.
Next time I’m sure we’ll have Halloween pictures to post, so we’ll update you then!
Love – Rhett, Maren, Austin, Logan, Carson & Baby Jackson
Friday, September 5, 2008
August 2008 Update
It’s a…..nother Boy !!! I am a little disappointed due to the fact that I was sooooo hoping for a girl, but I can look to the fact that he’s growing well and really healthy to keep myself excited about it. I have 4 months to get used to the idea of having 4 boys! I told Rhett I was going to come home and spend some quality time with our dog because she’s the only other female around! He just laughed. Other things that are looking up is that my pregnancy has been going really well and I’ve only gained 3 lbs so far! I am feeling great, other than the tiredness of course. I find that if I sleep in as long as possible during the morning, then I don’t feel like I need a nap during the day. When I do end up napping, then I can’t fall asleep at night. What a lovely cycle that becomes!
Rhett has started looking for work again. With the announcement that AT&T will be moving their corporate headquarters to Dallas, they have been outsourcing some projects…namely the one Rhett was hired for (he’s a contract worker). In the last few weeks he has been moved to 2 other projects. He’s still working, but we just don’t know what the future will bring, so we’re getting ready for anything! A couple of weeks ago Rhett was released from his calling in the Sunday School Presidency and called to be a teacher in the Primary, teaching the 10 year olds. This means that our whole family is in Primary on Sundays now!
Austin started taking piano lessons on Tuesdays after school from a friend in the ward. Ever since we brought the piano home from my mom’s house, he has been intrigued by it and LOVES to play “heart and soul” (or at least he tries a lot!). I’m glad he’s finally learning something else to play. Austin started 3rd grade on August 25th and loves it so far. His 2 best friends since First grade are in his class, so that makes it especially fun for him. His teacher (Mrs. Smith) is out on Maternity leave until the beginning of October, so he has a substitute (Mrs. Bibb) until then. I met them both at the school Open House and they both seem really great! His only qualm so far about 3rd grade is that he has to take the TAKS (Texas Assessment of Knowledge & Skills) test this year. I’m sure he’ll do great, but he’s a little nervous. Good thing we have until March & April to worry about it!
Logan and Carson continue to keep me on my toes during the day. They usually don’t wake up until about 8:30am, so that’s nice! I usually go back to bed for awhile while they watch TV or play. Luckily, they are very good to stay out of trouble while I catch a few “Z’s”. The rest of their day consists of trying to see if every toy that we own will all fit in the living room. I have these 6 Rubbermaid drawers filled with all of our toys…all organized of course!!! Logan & Carson love to dump them all out to use the bins to sit in, play on, etc. What a mess that becomes. I recently started threatening to throw toys away if they’re not cleaned up within a certain time frame. You should see how quickly they move then!
We spent Labor Day weekend with the Texas half of Rhett’s family. Melissa & her family and Robert & his family all came from Austin. Rhett’s mom has been at Melissa’s house helping out since Grace got sick, so she came also and we had a great time with everyone. We all got a chance to go to the Temple, which was nice because we haven’t been in awhile. We followed them back to Austin on Sunday night to spend Monday at their house since Grace had to be at the hospital for a medication dose. The kids all have such a great time playing together, and Austin’s comment the moment we left was “now I’m going to be bored!” That seems to be his mantra lately.
Overall things are going well for our family right now. We are all in good health, so that’s something to be grateful for. We’ll just have to see what the Lord has in store for us next. Please keep us in your prayers!
Later -
Rhett, Maren, Austin, Logan, Carson & Baby Boy (probably Jackson???)
P.S. Our niece Grace is almost done with her cancer treatments. She started her 5th (and hopefully final) round of chemo yesterday. She’ll be evaluated in a few weeks to see if the cancer is gone or not. Their family blog is updated often with her details. Feel free to check it out at http://rmcluff.blogspot.com/
Here's a super yummy recipe to try. Enjoy!
Black Bean & Corn Salsa
1 can white corn (drained)
1 can yellow corn (drained)
1 can Black beans (drained)
1 Avocado
1 Tomato
Green Onions (sliced)
Green & Red bell peppers
Dice veggies small and mix everything together with 1 packet Good Seasons Italian dressing packet. Chill and serve with tortilla chips ("Scoops" work best!)
Rhett has started looking for work again. With the announcement that AT&T will be moving their corporate headquarters to Dallas, they have been outsourcing some projects…namely the one Rhett was hired for (he’s a contract worker). In the last few weeks he has been moved to 2 other projects. He’s still working, but we just don’t know what the future will bring, so we’re getting ready for anything! A couple of weeks ago Rhett was released from his calling in the Sunday School Presidency and called to be a teacher in the Primary, teaching the 10 year olds. This means that our whole family is in Primary on Sundays now!
Austin started taking piano lessons on Tuesdays after school from a friend in the ward. Ever since we brought the piano home from my mom’s house, he has been intrigued by it and LOVES to play “heart and soul” (or at least he tries a lot!). I’m glad he’s finally learning something else to play. Austin started 3rd grade on August 25th and loves it so far. His 2 best friends since First grade are in his class, so that makes it especially fun for him. His teacher (Mrs. Smith) is out on Maternity leave until the beginning of October, so he has a substitute (Mrs. Bibb) until then. I met them both at the school Open House and they both seem really great! His only qualm so far about 3rd grade is that he has to take the TAKS (Texas Assessment of Knowledge & Skills) test this year. I’m sure he’ll do great, but he’s a little nervous. Good thing we have until March & April to worry about it!
Logan and Carson continue to keep me on my toes during the day. They usually don’t wake up until about 8:30am, so that’s nice! I usually go back to bed for awhile while they watch TV or play. Luckily, they are very good to stay out of trouble while I catch a few “Z’s”. The rest of their day consists of trying to see if every toy that we own will all fit in the living room. I have these 6 Rubbermaid drawers filled with all of our toys…all organized of course!!! Logan & Carson love to dump them all out to use the bins to sit in, play on, etc. What a mess that becomes. I recently started threatening to throw toys away if they’re not cleaned up within a certain time frame. You should see how quickly they move then!
We spent Labor Day weekend with the Texas half of Rhett’s family. Melissa & her family and Robert & his family all came from Austin. Rhett’s mom has been at Melissa’s house helping out since Grace got sick, so she came also and we had a great time with everyone. We all got a chance to go to the Temple, which was nice because we haven’t been in awhile. We followed them back to Austin on Sunday night to spend Monday at their house since Grace had to be at the hospital for a medication dose. The kids all have such a great time playing together, and Austin’s comment the moment we left was “now I’m going to be bored!” That seems to be his mantra lately.
Overall things are going well for our family right now. We are all in good health, so that’s something to be grateful for. We’ll just have to see what the Lord has in store for us next. Please keep us in your prayers!
Later -
Rhett, Maren, Austin, Logan, Carson & Baby Boy (probably Jackson???)
P.S. Our niece Grace is almost done with her cancer treatments. She started her 5th (and hopefully final) round of chemo yesterday. She’ll be evaluated in a few weeks to see if the cancer is gone or not. Their family blog is updated often with her details. Feel free to check it out at http://rmcluff.blogspot.com/
Here's a super yummy recipe to try. Enjoy!
Black Bean & Corn Salsa
1 can white corn (drained)
1 can yellow corn (drained)
1 can Black beans (drained)
1 Avocado
1 Tomato
Green Onions (sliced)
Green & Red bell peppers
Dice veggies small and mix everything together with 1 packet Good Seasons Italian dressing packet. Chill and serve with tortilla chips ("Scoops" work best!)
Monday, August 4, 2008
July 2008 Update
Okay, so it’s been a month and a half since updating our blog for very good reasons. One, we were out of town for a month…and secondly, our computer crashed while we were gone and Rhett just got it up and running again. Thank goodness!!!
I have lots of fun and exciting things to tell about this month. First and foremost, we will be adding another member to our family in January. I am 15+ weeks along now and feeling great (other than the tiredness of course). The baby is growing well…actually about a week bigger than it should be, making my due date January 16th. I’ll have another scheduled C-section of course, so that means more like around the first week of the year. Rhett is rooting for the end of this year for the tax stuff! We don’t know the sex of the baby yet, but are all hoping for a girl. We’ll let you know when we find out.
The next exciting news is that we just added another member to our family. Wow, our family is growing rapidly! While the kids and I were in Idaho visiting my mom, Rhett decided to buy the boys a dog for their birthdays (we were on vacation during both Logan & Austin’s birthdays). We came home to the most beautiful, nice, calm, quiet, 2 ½ year old female shepherd-mix. Her name was “Sharon” from the Humane Society, but the boys renamed her “Queen Adelaide” after Carson’s favorite movie character (Lightning McQueen) and where Rhett served his mission in Australia. Rhett and I went along with that only because we convinced the boys that we’d call her “Addie”, so that’s her name. She has been a lot of fun and the boys LOVE her. It’s kind of fun to have another female around. If the baby turns out to be a girl, we will almost have caught up to the males in this family!
Our summer vacation consisted of the following saga: WARNING! This is kind of a long story!
We left our house on Friday, June 27th at 5:00pm and arrived in Denver at Rhett’s parent’s house at 8:30am the next morning. We spent a week there visiting with his family at the annual Zimmerman Reunion. Rhett and I won the men’s and women’s family races…even with me being pregnant!!! We went to a speedway and watched car racing, spent the day at Elitch Gardens (an amusement/water park), we were FINALLY able to take a tour of the Denver Mint and then enjoyed an evening at the stadium for a “Rockies” game. Lots of fun piled into one week.
We left Denver on Saturday, July 5th and drove to Layton, UT to stay with our friends Heather & Jared Andersen. It was fun to catch up with them since they moved from San Antonio a year ago. On Sunday afternoon I took Rhett to the airport for his flight home. He called me about ½ hour later saying that his first flight was delayed and wasn’t going to make his second, so he ended up staying with us that night. We visited with my friends Amy & Russ and their families that evening. It was so good to see them again! Rhett ended up leaving on his flight at 6:00am Monday morning.
Later that same morning the boys and I packed the car (again) and headed for Rexburg, ID to spend 2 weeks with my mom. It had been 2 years since I had been “home” and it was so nice to be there again. We kept busy while in ID also. My mom and I went to the new Rexburg Temple, we visited Yellowstone Bear World…thanks to Mike & VaLene who always let us in for free!!! We all got the chance to feed the baby bears this time, which was such a neat experience. We visited with my brother Gary & his family in Idaho Falls one evening, we drove to Boise to visit with my brother Brian & his family one weekend, we went to the splash park & carousel one day…and visited “Taco Time” a lot! YUMMY!!! We ended our time in Idaho at the 2008 Stewart Family reunion, which is all the descendants of my grandparents. We camped from Thursday, July 17th (our 10th wedding Anniversary) to Sunday, July 20th at Heise Hot Springs near Ririe, ID. Rhett flew into Idaho Falls on Friday, July 18th and was able to spend some camping time with us, but unfortunately our time had come to an end and we had to leave on Sunday morning, so that we could make it to Denver that night. We were hauling a U-haul trailer filled with stuff (my mom’s piano included…Yeah!) and about 3 hours into our trip, in the middle of “no-where-ville” Wyoming, the car broke down. (I failed to mention that we had traded cars with Rhett’s sister Melissa for the trip. Mainly because of the built-in DVD players and the hitch for the trailer). Anyway, it ended up that the Suburban’s muffler pretty much almost fell off. It was hanging precariously close to the road. After talking to my roadside assistance people and a towing company in Pinedale, WY, we decided to try to make it to Pinedale for the night. We drove about 25 miles at about 20-30 MPH and luckily made it there safely. Our problem now was that we were in a small Wyoming town on a Sunday afternoon where no auto repair shops were open. We were lucky to find a reasonably priced hotel room for the night…$75 as compared to $165 (the going rate). The next morning Rhett took the Suburban to the shop and by about 1:00pm they had determined the following: we needed a whole new muffler assembly, which would have to be ordered from Salt Lake City and brought in the next day…and cost about $500. We decided that if we could make it to Denver we could get it fixed quicker and for less, so the guy removed our entire muffler and tail pipe and we threw it in the U-haul with the rest of our stuff and we were on our way! It was a loud trip to Denver, but we made it there by about 11:00pm Monday night. Rhett’s dad had made an appointment for us at 7:30 the next morning at MIDAS to get the muffler replaced, however after really looking at the situation, it wasn’t the muffler after all…it was the catalytic converter causing the problems. So we went quickly from a $200 situation to a $1000+ situation. By about 5:00pm on Tuesday afternoon the car was fixed and we left Denver at about 6:15pm. We hadn’t planned on driving through the night again, but we also hadn’t planned on having car trouble. We arrived home in San Antonio at about 11:00 the next morning (approximately 73 hours after leaving Idaho, instead of the 27 it should have taken). Rhett went straight to work as we had planned on him missing one day of work (no pay), but not 3!!!
Since arriving home it has been a mad dash to get the house cleaned up, 17 million batches of laundry done, 2 months worth of ironing to do, OB/GYN Dr. visits, getting our hard drive transferred to another so that Rhett could wipe ours out and start over. It’s so nice to be back up and running again! I’ve also been gone so long from my Primary calling that I’ve been trying to get everything updated and myself back in the “Primary Secretary mode”. This past Saturday we also had to do a quick cleaning-out of our deep freeze, since Carson had left the door open overnight and everything was defrosted. We were able to save some things, but many ended up in the trash. We also spent some time in the garage rearranging things so that we could finally park the van in there again. We spent the rest of the day at Sea World with the other 7 billion people that were there. It was the most crowded we’ve ever seen it!!!
Needless to say we’ve had a crazy July, but some fun and exciting things to report. The next exciting thing to happen in our family is that Austin will be getting baptized a member of our church on August 16th. We hope all is well for you and your families. We will update you again soon on the happenings of the Zimmerman family!
Love you all –
Rhett, Maren, Austin, Logan, Carson & Baby-to-be
P.S. A lot of you have been asking about our niece Grace and how her cancer treatment is going. She’s a little trooper is about all I can say! They have a blog at http://rmcluff.blogspot.com/ if anyone wants to check on Grace’s progress. Thanks for the thoughts and prayers you’ve sent our way on her behalf!!!
I have lots of fun and exciting things to tell about this month. First and foremost, we will be adding another member to our family in January. I am 15+ weeks along now and feeling great (other than the tiredness of course). The baby is growing well…actually about a week bigger than it should be, making my due date January 16th. I’ll have another scheduled C-section of course, so that means more like around the first week of the year. Rhett is rooting for the end of this year for the tax stuff! We don’t know the sex of the baby yet, but are all hoping for a girl. We’ll let you know when we find out.
The next exciting news is that we just added another member to our family. Wow, our family is growing rapidly! While the kids and I were in Idaho visiting my mom, Rhett decided to buy the boys a dog for their birthdays (we were on vacation during both Logan & Austin’s birthdays). We came home to the most beautiful, nice, calm, quiet, 2 ½ year old female shepherd-mix. Her name was “Sharon” from the Humane Society, but the boys renamed her “Queen Adelaide” after Carson’s favorite movie character (Lightning McQueen) and where Rhett served his mission in Australia. Rhett and I went along with that only because we convinced the boys that we’d call her “Addie”, so that’s her name. She has been a lot of fun and the boys LOVE her. It’s kind of fun to have another female around. If the baby turns out to be a girl, we will almost have caught up to the males in this family!
Our summer vacation consisted of the following saga: WARNING! This is kind of a long story!
We left our house on Friday, June 27th at 5:00pm and arrived in Denver at Rhett’s parent’s house at 8:30am the next morning. We spent a week there visiting with his family at the annual Zimmerman Reunion. Rhett and I won the men’s and women’s family races…even with me being pregnant!!! We went to a speedway and watched car racing, spent the day at Elitch Gardens (an amusement/water park), we were FINALLY able to take a tour of the Denver Mint and then enjoyed an evening at the stadium for a “Rockies” game. Lots of fun piled into one week.
We left Denver on Saturday, July 5th and drove to Layton, UT to stay with our friends Heather & Jared Andersen. It was fun to catch up with them since they moved from San Antonio a year ago. On Sunday afternoon I took Rhett to the airport for his flight home. He called me about ½ hour later saying that his first flight was delayed and wasn’t going to make his second, so he ended up staying with us that night. We visited with my friends Amy & Russ and their families that evening. It was so good to see them again! Rhett ended up leaving on his flight at 6:00am Monday morning.
Later that same morning the boys and I packed the car (again) and headed for Rexburg, ID to spend 2 weeks with my mom. It had been 2 years since I had been “home” and it was so nice to be there again. We kept busy while in ID also. My mom and I went to the new Rexburg Temple, we visited Yellowstone Bear World…thanks to Mike & VaLene who always let us in for free!!! We all got the chance to feed the baby bears this time, which was such a neat experience. We visited with my brother Gary & his family in Idaho Falls one evening, we drove to Boise to visit with my brother Brian & his family one weekend, we went to the splash park & carousel one day…and visited “Taco Time” a lot! YUMMY!!! We ended our time in Idaho at the 2008 Stewart Family reunion, which is all the descendants of my grandparents. We camped from Thursday, July 17th (our 10th wedding Anniversary) to Sunday, July 20th at Heise Hot Springs near Ririe, ID. Rhett flew into Idaho Falls on Friday, July 18th and was able to spend some camping time with us, but unfortunately our time had come to an end and we had to leave on Sunday morning, so that we could make it to Denver that night. We were hauling a U-haul trailer filled with stuff (my mom’s piano included…Yeah!) and about 3 hours into our trip, in the middle of “no-where-ville” Wyoming, the car broke down. (I failed to mention that we had traded cars with Rhett’s sister Melissa for the trip. Mainly because of the built-in DVD players and the hitch for the trailer). Anyway, it ended up that the Suburban’s muffler pretty much almost fell off. It was hanging precariously close to the road. After talking to my roadside assistance people and a towing company in Pinedale, WY, we decided to try to make it to Pinedale for the night. We drove about 25 miles at about 20-30 MPH and luckily made it there safely. Our problem now was that we were in a small Wyoming town on a Sunday afternoon where no auto repair shops were open. We were lucky to find a reasonably priced hotel room for the night…$75 as compared to $165 (the going rate). The next morning Rhett took the Suburban to the shop and by about 1:00pm they had determined the following: we needed a whole new muffler assembly, which would have to be ordered from Salt Lake City and brought in the next day…and cost about $500. We decided that if we could make it to Denver we could get it fixed quicker and for less, so the guy removed our entire muffler and tail pipe and we threw it in the U-haul with the rest of our stuff and we were on our way! It was a loud trip to Denver, but we made it there by about 11:00pm Monday night. Rhett’s dad had made an appointment for us at 7:30 the next morning at MIDAS to get the muffler replaced, however after really looking at the situation, it wasn’t the muffler after all…it was the catalytic converter causing the problems. So we went quickly from a $200 situation to a $1000+ situation. By about 5:00pm on Tuesday afternoon the car was fixed and we left Denver at about 6:15pm. We hadn’t planned on driving through the night again, but we also hadn’t planned on having car trouble. We arrived home in San Antonio at about 11:00 the next morning (approximately 73 hours after leaving Idaho, instead of the 27 it should have taken). Rhett went straight to work as we had planned on him missing one day of work (no pay), but not 3!!!
Since arriving home it has been a mad dash to get the house cleaned up, 17 million batches of laundry done, 2 months worth of ironing to do, OB/GYN Dr. visits, getting our hard drive transferred to another so that Rhett could wipe ours out and start over. It’s so nice to be back up and running again! I’ve also been gone so long from my Primary calling that I’ve been trying to get everything updated and myself back in the “Primary Secretary mode”. This past Saturday we also had to do a quick cleaning-out of our deep freeze, since Carson had left the door open overnight and everything was defrosted. We were able to save some things, but many ended up in the trash. We also spent some time in the garage rearranging things so that we could finally park the van in there again. We spent the rest of the day at Sea World with the other 7 billion people that were there. It was the most crowded we’ve ever seen it!!!
Needless to say we’ve had a crazy July, but some fun and exciting things to report. The next exciting thing to happen in our family is that Austin will be getting baptized a member of our church on August 16th. We hope all is well for you and your families. We will update you again soon on the happenings of the Zimmerman family!
Love you all –
Rhett, Maren, Austin, Logan, Carson & Baby-to-be
P.S. A lot of you have been asking about our niece Grace and how her cancer treatment is going. She’s a little trooper is about all I can say! They have a blog at http://rmcluff.blogspot.com/ if anyone wants to check on Grace’s progress. Thanks for the thoughts and prayers you’ve sent our way on her behalf!!!
Thursday, June 19, 2008
June 2008 Update
Well, where has the time gone? It seems like life has been a blur this past month. Here are the latest & greatest happenings in our family.
Yeehaw! We FINALLY have a 2nd car for Rhett to drive to work. What a relief for me! We were able to get a good deal on a 2000 Toyota Camry. It is a 4-cylinder (so great gas mileage), has leather, sun roof, power everything…so it turned out to be a great buy. I don’t know which of us is enjoying it more. I’ve only driven it once, but it has made my life so much easier!
More exciting news…after almost 3 years of having dial-up internet we finally broke down and signed up for a bundle deal through AT&T. So now we get our phone, Dish Network and high speed internet for a great deal. What a difference it makes! We can actually use our phone and the internet at the same time…who would have thought? This means however that we now have different email addresses:
Rhett – rhett.zimmerman@att.net
Maren – maren.zimmerman@att.net
We finally got our living room, dining room and hallway work done. A friend removed the popcorn ceiling, patched up some cracks, textured the ceilings, then painted all the walls, doors, trim, etc. It looks great and it’s so nice to finally have it done after talking about it for about a year. We had most of the furniture out for about a week though, so then it made me think that I don’t want all that stuff back in. We made a few minor changes and left out a couple of large items. It feels so much more roomy and open in there. Check out the before & after pictures below!
I spent my 34th Birthday this year (June 7th) celebrating with our niece Jane who was baptized. We spent the weekend up in Austin, TX at Rhett’s sister Melissa’s house. Mom & Dad Zimmerman were there as well as Rhett’s brother Robert and his wife Heather and new baby Riley, who was also blessed that weekend. We enjoyed spending time with them! It’s so nice to have them close by. We've had some bad news in the Zimmerman Family this past week however, and I'm asking for all of your prayers. Our niece Grace Cluff (Melissa & Rod's daughter) was just diagnosed with Burkitt's Lymphoma Cancer. She's only 5 and we are hoping and praying for the best. Please direct some of your prayers her way. Thank You!!!
Austin finished up school on June 4th and was promoted to the 3rd grade. He truly enjoys school and still tries to play it often at home. Austin is swimming with the Stoneridge Shockwaves swim team for the 2nd year and is LOVING IT! He has improved greatly since just learning how to swim last year. He has had 3 swim meets already and has been involved in some relays. He has learned the Butterfly and Breaststroke in the last few weeks and is already doing great at it. He is also a pro at diving off the starting blocks.
Logan has been enjoying playing at the pool every morning while we’re there for Austin’s practice. He isn’t afraid of the water at all and his favorite is to do running cannonballs off the side. I’m going to try to get him in swim lessons sometime. While playing at a friend’s house one day, Logan’s friend threw something that happened to catch him right between the eyes. He had a pretty good gash there, but with the help of some super glue in the beginning it is starting to heal nicely.
Carson celebrated his 2nd Birthday this month on June 2nd. We had a quiet little family party involving cake and presents of course. Carson has started talking so well lately and it almost surprises me daily at what he can now understand and communicate to us. I love it when they get to that stage!
We are looking forward to our big family trip this summer. It’s coming more quickly than I realized… we’ll be leaving next Friday!!! We’ll be spending the week of July 4th in Denver, CO with Rhett’s family at a reunion, then we’ll drive to Salt Lake City to see some friends for a couple of days, Rhett will fly home to work and I will continue up to Rexburg, ID to spend a week with my mom. He will then fly back on July 18th (one day AFTER our 10-year Anniversary) to spend a day or so with my family at a reunion, then it’s a LONG HAUL back to San Antonio. My mom has agreed to let us take her piano back with us, so we’ll be literally HAULING a trailer back filled with all those things I still have back in the house I grew up in (dolls, dollhouse, books, etc.). I just hope we have a girl someday to share them with…
Well, that’s all I can think of for now. I have a new recipe to share this month. These are the best tasting oatmeal cookies I’ve ever had!!! Enjoy.
Love – Rhett, Maren, Austin, Logan & Carson
Best Ever Oatmeal Cookies
1 c. butter Crisco
1 c. brown sugar
1 c. white sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. Vanilla
1 tsp. Baking soda
1 tsp. Baking powder
½ tsp. Salt
2 ½ cups oatmeal
2 c. flour (loosely measured)
Roll into balls – press with palm. Bake at 350 for 14 min.
Yeehaw! We FINALLY have a 2nd car for Rhett to drive to work. What a relief for me! We were able to get a good deal on a 2000 Toyota Camry. It is a 4-cylinder (so great gas mileage), has leather, sun roof, power everything…so it turned out to be a great buy. I don’t know which of us is enjoying it more. I’ve only driven it once, but it has made my life so much easier!
More exciting news…after almost 3 years of having dial-up internet we finally broke down and signed up for a bundle deal through AT&T. So now we get our phone, Dish Network and high speed internet for a great deal. What a difference it makes! We can actually use our phone and the internet at the same time…who would have thought? This means however that we now have different email addresses:
Rhett – rhett.zimmerman@att.net
Maren – maren.zimmerman@att.net
We finally got our living room, dining room and hallway work done. A friend removed the popcorn ceiling, patched up some cracks, textured the ceilings, then painted all the walls, doors, trim, etc. It looks great and it’s so nice to finally have it done after talking about it for about a year. We had most of the furniture out for about a week though, so then it made me think that I don’t want all that stuff back in. We made a few minor changes and left out a couple of large items. It feels so much more roomy and open in there. Check out the before & after pictures below!
I spent my 34th Birthday this year (June 7th) celebrating with our niece Jane who was baptized. We spent the weekend up in Austin, TX at Rhett’s sister Melissa’s house. Mom & Dad Zimmerman were there as well as Rhett’s brother Robert and his wife Heather and new baby Riley, who was also blessed that weekend. We enjoyed spending time with them! It’s so nice to have them close by. We've had some bad news in the Zimmerman Family this past week however, and I'm asking for all of your prayers. Our niece Grace Cluff (Melissa & Rod's daughter) was just diagnosed with Burkitt's Lymphoma Cancer. She's only 5 and we are hoping and praying for the best. Please direct some of your prayers her way. Thank You!!!
Austin finished up school on June 4th and was promoted to the 3rd grade. He truly enjoys school and still tries to play it often at home. Austin is swimming with the Stoneridge Shockwaves swim team for the 2nd year and is LOVING IT! He has improved greatly since just learning how to swim last year. He has had 3 swim meets already and has been involved in some relays. He has learned the Butterfly and Breaststroke in the last few weeks and is already doing great at it. He is also a pro at diving off the starting blocks.
Logan has been enjoying playing at the pool every morning while we’re there for Austin’s practice. He isn’t afraid of the water at all and his favorite is to do running cannonballs off the side. I’m going to try to get him in swim lessons sometime. While playing at a friend’s house one day, Logan’s friend threw something that happened to catch him right between the eyes. He had a pretty good gash there, but with the help of some super glue in the beginning it is starting to heal nicely.
Carson celebrated his 2nd Birthday this month on June 2nd. We had a quiet little family party involving cake and presents of course. Carson has started talking so well lately and it almost surprises me daily at what he can now understand and communicate to us. I love it when they get to that stage!
We are looking forward to our big family trip this summer. It’s coming more quickly than I realized… we’ll be leaving next Friday!!! We’ll be spending the week of July 4th in Denver, CO with Rhett’s family at a reunion, then we’ll drive to Salt Lake City to see some friends for a couple of days, Rhett will fly home to work and I will continue up to Rexburg, ID to spend a week with my mom. He will then fly back on July 18th (one day AFTER our 10-year Anniversary) to spend a day or so with my family at a reunion, then it’s a LONG HAUL back to San Antonio. My mom has agreed to let us take her piano back with us, so we’ll be literally HAULING a trailer back filled with all those things I still have back in the house I grew up in (dolls, dollhouse, books, etc.). I just hope we have a girl someday to share them with…
Well, that’s all I can think of for now. I have a new recipe to share this month. These are the best tasting oatmeal cookies I’ve ever had!!! Enjoy.
Love – Rhett, Maren, Austin, Logan & Carson
Best Ever Oatmeal Cookies
1 c. butter Crisco
1 c. brown sugar
1 c. white sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. Vanilla
1 tsp. Baking soda
1 tsp. Baking powder
½ tsp. Salt
2 ½ cups oatmeal
2 c. flour (loosely measured)
Roll into balls – press with palm. Bake at 350 for 14 min.
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
May 2008 Update
Well, the month of April has come & gone and we have had a crazy month!!!
First of all, after much contemplation, we decided on a plumbing company to come and make the necessary repairs to our sewer line that was damaged. For such a feat, it ended up being less than $900 (compared to some of the other quotes we received ranging from $2800-$3500). Our home-owner’s insurance refunded us the money I paid Roto-Rooter to get our line cleared the day of the “problem”. They also sent a claims inspector, who wrote up an estimate of approximately $2200 worth of damage done to our bathroom and carpet. Actually, there’s very little noticeable damage at all…a little warping of the bottom of the bathroom vanity cabinet is all. Anyway, now we have a check from them for the repair of our bathroom that doesn’t really need to be repaired.
So, the plumbing company found an interesting thing inside our sewer line. Notice in the pictures below the many large trees we have in our front yard??? Well, the sewer line was cracked in half and had a hole in it…as well as a large root that had grown inside our pipe. See the picture below. It was approximately 2/3 the size of the pipe. We were lucky that the break was just at the edge of our driveway, because they were able to dig down and fix it from the side of the concrete. All in all, they dug a hole one day, next day the repair took 2 hours, then the hole was filled in. End of story.
I spent most of April dealing with insurance issues as Rhett’s COBRA continuation of his health insurance kept bringing up problems with us getting his Insulin prescription filled. After almost 3 weeks of very desperate calls, including many heated conversations and some tears, the problem was resolved…only to find out that by having insurance it only saved us $75 on his prescription!!!
So after almost 10 years of marriage we finally have a nice refrigerator! When we moved into our house in New Mexico we bought a refurbished one. Since then it’s been in storage twice and I must admit it was not in the best condition to be harboring our food. I could share a really gross story about it, but I won’t! A family moved out of our ward this past weekend and sold their 2 year old white Hotpoint side-by-side fridge with water & ice in the door to us for what Rhett called a “deal” (and since he used to sell fridges for 2 years, he knows what he’s talking about!) We are keeping our old one in the garage for now to try to use it as a secondary fridge, but we’re not sure it’s going to make it. We’ll see.
Rhett is working hard at his job and loving it. We love his new schedule as he’s home from work by 4:30 most days. The boys love having all that extra daylight to play with their dad.
I am just trying to keep my house clean and family fed. Some days that’s easier than others. I participated in a yard sale with some friends last month. It feels nice to get rid of things and I was able to make a lot of extra room in the garage. Add that to the Primary Talent Show that I helped pull off in the same weekend…and I am exhausted!!! I hope May is a lot less stressful.
Austin is looking forward to starting swim team. Practices start on May 19th. School is winding down and will be out on June 4th.
Logan has recently found a new love…drawing! He’s always asking me for paper and a pencil and he’ll sit and draw for hours. He still loves trains, but I don’t think he’s had them out to play with for a couple of weeks.
Carson is growing by leaps and bounds. A friend of mine has a girl born just a couple of weeks after Carson. She is always marveling at how big he is. She jokingly one day said “What size shoes are those Carson…7 ???” He then leaned forward just enough for her to see the size 8 on the back of his shoe. She was amazed. I think her daughter is still wearing size 3-4 (sorry Jodi!). Carson has also started talking really well this past month. He says lots of things now that we actually know what he’s talking about. That’s always a nice milestone to hit. There's a cute picture below of Carson & his friend Bentli on the tire swing at the park. I figured I needed to have at least one cute picture, since the rest are sort of boring or gross...
We look forward to summer and the chance to see many of you. We will be visiting some friends near Longview, TX over Memorial Day weekend, then we’ll be heading to Denver, CO and Rexburg, ID (with a short stop in Salt Lake City, UT) this summer for both of our family reunions. We hope to see many of you on those trips. Until then, have a great month!
Love - Rhett, Maren, Austin, Logan & Carson
First of all, after much contemplation, we decided on a plumbing company to come and make the necessary repairs to our sewer line that was damaged. For such a feat, it ended up being less than $900 (compared to some of the other quotes we received ranging from $2800-$3500). Our home-owner’s insurance refunded us the money I paid Roto-Rooter to get our line cleared the day of the “problem”. They also sent a claims inspector, who wrote up an estimate of approximately $2200 worth of damage done to our bathroom and carpet. Actually, there’s very little noticeable damage at all…a little warping of the bottom of the bathroom vanity cabinet is all. Anyway, now we have a check from them for the repair of our bathroom that doesn’t really need to be repaired.
So, the plumbing company found an interesting thing inside our sewer line. Notice in the pictures below the many large trees we have in our front yard??? Well, the sewer line was cracked in half and had a hole in it…as well as a large root that had grown inside our pipe. See the picture below. It was approximately 2/3 the size of the pipe. We were lucky that the break was just at the edge of our driveway, because they were able to dig down and fix it from the side of the concrete. All in all, they dug a hole one day, next day the repair took 2 hours, then the hole was filled in. End of story.
I spent most of April dealing with insurance issues as Rhett’s COBRA continuation of his health insurance kept bringing up problems with us getting his Insulin prescription filled. After almost 3 weeks of very desperate calls, including many heated conversations and some tears, the problem was resolved…only to find out that by having insurance it only saved us $75 on his prescription!!!
So after almost 10 years of marriage we finally have a nice refrigerator! When we moved into our house in New Mexico we bought a refurbished one. Since then it’s been in storage twice and I must admit it was not in the best condition to be harboring our food. I could share a really gross story about it, but I won’t! A family moved out of our ward this past weekend and sold their 2 year old white Hotpoint side-by-side fridge with water & ice in the door to us for what Rhett called a “deal” (and since he used to sell fridges for 2 years, he knows what he’s talking about!) We are keeping our old one in the garage for now to try to use it as a secondary fridge, but we’re not sure it’s going to make it. We’ll see.
Rhett is working hard at his job and loving it. We love his new schedule as he’s home from work by 4:30 most days. The boys love having all that extra daylight to play with their dad.
I am just trying to keep my house clean and family fed. Some days that’s easier than others. I participated in a yard sale with some friends last month. It feels nice to get rid of things and I was able to make a lot of extra room in the garage. Add that to the Primary Talent Show that I helped pull off in the same weekend…and I am exhausted!!! I hope May is a lot less stressful.
Austin is looking forward to starting swim team. Practices start on May 19th. School is winding down and will be out on June 4th.
Logan has recently found a new love…drawing! He’s always asking me for paper and a pencil and he’ll sit and draw for hours. He still loves trains, but I don’t think he’s had them out to play with for a couple of weeks.
Carson is growing by leaps and bounds. A friend of mine has a girl born just a couple of weeks after Carson. She is always marveling at how big he is. She jokingly one day said “What size shoes are those Carson…7 ???” He then leaned forward just enough for her to see the size 8 on the back of his shoe. She was amazed. I think her daughter is still wearing size 3-4 (sorry Jodi!). Carson has also started talking really well this past month. He says lots of things now that we actually know what he’s talking about. That’s always a nice milestone to hit. There's a cute picture below of Carson & his friend Bentli on the tire swing at the park. I figured I needed to have at least one cute picture, since the rest are sort of boring or gross...
We look forward to summer and the chance to see many of you. We will be visiting some friends near Longview, TX over Memorial Day weekend, then we’ll be heading to Denver, CO and Rexburg, ID (with a short stop in Salt Lake City, UT) this summer for both of our family reunions. We hope to see many of you on those trips. Until then, have a great month!
Love - Rhett, Maren, Austin, Logan & Carson
Monday, April 7, 2008
April 2008 Update
Well, another month is past and gone. Where does the time go? We had a fun and exciting March. Let me tell you all about it…
My mom came for a visit from March 14-24th and we had a wonderful time visiting with her. Normally when she visits we have a fun-filled week planned, however she happened to be here during Spring Break this time and we wanted to avoid the crowds at Sea World, the Zoo, etc., so we pretty much just spent time hanging out and relaxing. Mom and I were able to go to the Temple, lunch and shopping one day. Boy, do I need that once in awhile!!! Mom also helped me with some redecorating ideas for the boys’ room (I’ll share more about that later). She also accompanied me to Scrap Night and we had a lot of fun making cards together too. It’s so nice to spend time with her! I recently bought a bike for myself and a trailer to pull Logan and Carson in. It’s so much easier to go to the park than pushing the double stroller around. The kids love going for rides and it’s helping me to get the exercise I need!
Austin has spent a lot of time outside lately riding his bike and playing on the trampoline. I keep telling Rhett we need to get a big play structure for the backyard, but he’s not quite on board with the idea…yet! Austin is getting great grades in school and loves to draw. One of his recent favorite things to draw is an outline of the United States (including all 50 states). He was drawing it with crayon at a restaurant one evening and the servers were amazed at his ability.
Logan loves to play in the dirt. If you let him outside, he heads straight for it. He loves playing with buckets and shovels and dump trucks. Maybe he’ll be a landscape architect someday?
Rhett took Carson’s crib apart and built a Trundle for under the bunk beds. We bought a twin mattress and voila, Carson is a big boy now! He loves sleeping on his new bed by his brothers. Since the crib is now gone, I did some rearranging in the boys room and I painted the walls a light blue. I also bought matching patchwork plaid comforters for their beds and it looks great! There is so much more space in there now. It feels like a new room. See the pictures below.
Logan & Carson are recovering from some viral infections that they picked up somewhere. The Dr. thought Logan had Strep Throat, but the test came back negative, so it turned out to be viral. Carson on the other hand had little “ulcers” or blisters all over inside his mouth, but after being to the Dr. it turned into what’s called “Hand, Foot & Mouth Disease”, which means he ended up with little blisters all over his hands (a little), feet (a lot) and mouth of course. Luckily they both felt pretty good through it all. It’s amazing what Tylenol and Ibuprofen can do!
That’s all for this month I guess. We are truly enjoying our “Spring” and have been doing some overdue yard work. Temperatures in the 70’s and 80’s equal perfect conditions for being outside. Hopefully we’ll have just as much fun this month!
Hope to hear from all of you soon! Love – Rhett, Maren, Austin, Logan & Carson
PS. Okay, so before I even sent a message out to all of you about this update, we had some crazy happenings...on Monday afternoon I was busily paying bills, checking email, etc. When I was finished I came out of the office & noticed the carpet looked wet. I opened the bathroom door and there I found about 1/2 inch of water EVERYWHERE and water coming into the bathtubs and toilet. I ran to get some towels from the other bathroom and found water in there also. Long story I'll try to make short: I called Roto-Rooter & they came to clear the line ($225), while doing so they hit a couple of "hard spots". Because we have many large trees in the front yard they thought it could be a root problem, so I agreed to them doing a "camera" ($275). Lo and behold about 30 feet out in my sewer line they located a separation in the pipe...and it just so happens to be not only UNDER THE DRIVEWAY!, but also only about 3 feet from where it would be a City issue. Aren't we lucky? Needless to say I've been playing hostess to our home insurance inspector and several plumbing companies coming for estimates. Thank goodness for our tax refund we got last week! Although we were going to use that towards buying a second car... Anyway, that's my week in a nutshell. I'll probably post pictures next time of our yard & driveway dug up. That should be fun!
My mom came for a visit from March 14-24th and we had a wonderful time visiting with her. Normally when she visits we have a fun-filled week planned, however she happened to be here during Spring Break this time and we wanted to avoid the crowds at Sea World, the Zoo, etc., so we pretty much just spent time hanging out and relaxing. Mom and I were able to go to the Temple, lunch and shopping one day. Boy, do I need that once in awhile!!! Mom also helped me with some redecorating ideas for the boys’ room (I’ll share more about that later). She also accompanied me to Scrap Night and we had a lot of fun making cards together too. It’s so nice to spend time with her! I recently bought a bike for myself and a trailer to pull Logan and Carson in. It’s so much easier to go to the park than pushing the double stroller around. The kids love going for rides and it’s helping me to get the exercise I need!
Austin has spent a lot of time outside lately riding his bike and playing on the trampoline. I keep telling Rhett we need to get a big play structure for the backyard, but he’s not quite on board with the idea…yet! Austin is getting great grades in school and loves to draw. One of his recent favorite things to draw is an outline of the United States (including all 50 states). He was drawing it with crayon at a restaurant one evening and the servers were amazed at his ability.
Logan loves to play in the dirt. If you let him outside, he heads straight for it. He loves playing with buckets and shovels and dump trucks. Maybe he’ll be a landscape architect someday?
Rhett took Carson’s crib apart and built a Trundle for under the bunk beds. We bought a twin mattress and voila, Carson is a big boy now! He loves sleeping on his new bed by his brothers. Since the crib is now gone, I did some rearranging in the boys room and I painted the walls a light blue. I also bought matching patchwork plaid comforters for their beds and it looks great! There is so much more space in there now. It feels like a new room. See the pictures below.
Logan & Carson are recovering from some viral infections that they picked up somewhere. The Dr. thought Logan had Strep Throat, but the test came back negative, so it turned out to be viral. Carson on the other hand had little “ulcers” or blisters all over inside his mouth, but after being to the Dr. it turned into what’s called “Hand, Foot & Mouth Disease”, which means he ended up with little blisters all over his hands (a little), feet (a lot) and mouth of course. Luckily they both felt pretty good through it all. It’s amazing what Tylenol and Ibuprofen can do!
That’s all for this month I guess. We are truly enjoying our “Spring” and have been doing some overdue yard work. Temperatures in the 70’s and 80’s equal perfect conditions for being outside. Hopefully we’ll have just as much fun this month!
Hope to hear from all of you soon! Love – Rhett, Maren, Austin, Logan & Carson
PS. Okay, so before I even sent a message out to all of you about this update, we had some crazy happenings...on Monday afternoon I was busily paying bills, checking email, etc. When I was finished I came out of the office & noticed the carpet looked wet. I opened the bathroom door and there I found about 1/2 inch of water EVERYWHERE and water coming into the bathtubs and toilet. I ran to get some towels from the other bathroom and found water in there also. Long story I'll try to make short: I called Roto-Rooter & they came to clear the line ($225), while doing so they hit a couple of "hard spots". Because we have many large trees in the front yard they thought it could be a root problem, so I agreed to them doing a "camera" ($275). Lo and behold about 30 feet out in my sewer line they located a separation in the pipe...and it just so happens to be not only UNDER THE DRIVEWAY!, but also only about 3 feet from where it would be a City issue. Aren't we lucky? Needless to say I've been playing hostess to our home insurance inspector and several plumbing companies coming for estimates. Thank goodness for our tax refund we got last week! Although we were going to use that towards buying a second car... Anyway, that's my week in a nutshell. I'll probably post pictures next time of our yard & driveway dug up. That should be fun!
Sunday, March 2, 2008
March 2008 Update
From the land of BEAUTIFUL (Winter???) weather, we say hello to all of our wonderful friends and family who are reading this. Here’s the most recent “scoop” on the Zimmerman family.
Rhett has been thoroughly enjoying his new job. He has had a couple of busy weeks where he has worked 60+ hours, but mostly he’s home by 5:00, giving him plenty of time to hang out with us…or play video games! He’s recently been hooked on the Playstation 2 and plays it a little too often for my taste. All in all, he loves the new job and the wonderful people he works with.
My life seems to have completely changed recently and I don’t know the cause. I used to be at home all the time and have plenty of time to do the things I like to do (after the housework, etc. was done of course!). Now it seems like I can’t even keep up with the housework! My church calling as Primary Secretary is keeping me busy, which includes weekly Presidency meetings at my house. Add that to weekly play group and park visits, grocery shopping, etc. and I feel like I’m in a whirlwind! Hopefully things will die down soon, so that I can take some time to breathe.
Austin was home from school sick 3 days at the end of February (which also included a student holiday and the weekend), making him “down for the count” for a total of 6 days. First it was just a fever Wednesday night, so we didn’t think anything of it, but it continued through the weekend, so Monday I took him to the Pediatrician and found out he had 2 ear infections and a throat infection. I thought getting his tonsils/adenoids removed and tubes put in his ears last year would keep him from all of this, but I guess not! Last week we had our “Great to be Eight” program for all the kids turning 8 and getting baptized this year. Austin will be baptized a member of our Church on Saturday, August 16th and you’re all welcome to attend!
Logan and Carson are as good as gold. They play quietly together most of the day, sometimes making me wonder what they’re up to. When I go out to check on them, they are just in their own little world playing with cars or trains, or watching TV. Now that the weather is getting nicer, they LOVE to play outside in the backyard. Carson has been jumping on the trampoline a lot and Logan just loves to play in the dirt!!! A perfect boy! Unfortunately, Logan ended up getting sick with Strep Throat just after Austin started feeling better, but thanks to Amoxicillin he’s feeling great again.
We recently had to get our car repaired, since several things were happening to make it act funny. All of the things that were wrong were tied to 2 problems…bad ignition coil and temperature sensor. We also had to get new front brakes. I ended up renting a car for the day. A friend works for Enterprise and he got me a smokin’ deal on an awesome car…a Ford Edge. If any of you are looking for a really cool car, I highly recommend it. I wished all day that it was mine!
During February Rhett was able to repair/replace several sections of our fence line (we share with 6 different neighbors). That was all spurred into action because the city was coming around for a bulky/brush pickup and we wanted to get rid of all that nasty old wood. It looks so nice! Rhett did a great job. I also painted our bedroom and got a new bedding set, so our room feels like it’s brand new. Definitely a nice change! I included before & after shots in the pictures below.
Well, that’s about all from us. We look forward to Spring and Summer and seeing some of you. As always, we love hearing from all of you. Until next month…
Rhett has been thoroughly enjoying his new job. He has had a couple of busy weeks where he has worked 60+ hours, but mostly he’s home by 5:00, giving him plenty of time to hang out with us…or play video games! He’s recently been hooked on the Playstation 2 and plays it a little too often for my taste. All in all, he loves the new job and the wonderful people he works with.
My life seems to have completely changed recently and I don’t know the cause. I used to be at home all the time and have plenty of time to do the things I like to do (after the housework, etc. was done of course!). Now it seems like I can’t even keep up with the housework! My church calling as Primary Secretary is keeping me busy, which includes weekly Presidency meetings at my house. Add that to weekly play group and park visits, grocery shopping, etc. and I feel like I’m in a whirlwind! Hopefully things will die down soon, so that I can take some time to breathe.
Austin was home from school sick 3 days at the end of February (which also included a student holiday and the weekend), making him “down for the count” for a total of 6 days. First it was just a fever Wednesday night, so we didn’t think anything of it, but it continued through the weekend, so Monday I took him to the Pediatrician and found out he had 2 ear infections and a throat infection. I thought getting his tonsils/adenoids removed and tubes put in his ears last year would keep him from all of this, but I guess not! Last week we had our “Great to be Eight” program for all the kids turning 8 and getting baptized this year. Austin will be baptized a member of our Church on Saturday, August 16th and you’re all welcome to attend!
Logan and Carson are as good as gold. They play quietly together most of the day, sometimes making me wonder what they’re up to. When I go out to check on them, they are just in their own little world playing with cars or trains, or watching TV. Now that the weather is getting nicer, they LOVE to play outside in the backyard. Carson has been jumping on the trampoline a lot and Logan just loves to play in the dirt!!! A perfect boy! Unfortunately, Logan ended up getting sick with Strep Throat just after Austin started feeling better, but thanks to Amoxicillin he’s feeling great again.
We recently had to get our car repaired, since several things were happening to make it act funny. All of the things that were wrong were tied to 2 problems…bad ignition coil and temperature sensor. We also had to get new front brakes. I ended up renting a car for the day. A friend works for Enterprise and he got me a smokin’ deal on an awesome car…a Ford Edge. If any of you are looking for a really cool car, I highly recommend it. I wished all day that it was mine!
During February Rhett was able to repair/replace several sections of our fence line (we share with 6 different neighbors). That was all spurred into action because the city was coming around for a bulky/brush pickup and we wanted to get rid of all that nasty old wood. It looks so nice! Rhett did a great job. I also painted our bedroom and got a new bedding set, so our room feels like it’s brand new. Definitely a nice change! I included before & after shots in the pictures below.
Well, that’s about all from us. We look forward to Spring and Summer and seeing some of you. As always, we love hearing from all of you. Until next month…
Thursday, January 31, 2008
February 2008 Update
Rhett’s new job at AT&T is marvelous and he is enjoying it immensely. He only has to work for 8 hours a day (so far) so he goes in around 7:30 and is usually home by 4:30 or 5:00pm. So nice for us!!! This job will be requiring overtime however (beginning next week), so the long and the short of it is that Rhett will NOT be going to school this semester. He withdrew from his classes and plans to start up again next semester…and the CPA saga continues!
We celebrated Rhett’s 35th Birthday on January 24th with a small family celebration. The next night I took him out on a DATE! That word is almost unheard of at our house. We went to dinner then went shopping for some new work pants for him. I’m sure he really loved the shopping part. We were going to go bowling, but it was getting too late, so we opted to go home & get the kids in bed. We decided it would be more fun to go with some friends anyway.
This past weekend our church Stake was split. We had 16 wards in our Stake, so they split us pretty much North vs. South and the new San Antonio Texas Hill Country Stake was created. We both got new Stake Presidencies (of course). We stayed a part of the San Antonio Texas North Stake. I was priviledged to be part of the choir for the Stake Conference. Recently I have been singing a lot more and I am remembering why music is so good for the soul. I sang a solo in Sacrament Meeting a couple of weeks ago and I have received so many compliments. A lot of people (close friends even) said “I knew you sang, but I didn’t know you could SING!” Rhett received several compliments about me also and he just told them “I taught her everything she knows!”
The Spring bug has bit me and I have been Spring cleaning. I am forever trying to come up with better organization ideas to make our little house seem less full of stuff. I have the motivation to paint again, our bedroom this time. I picked out the paint color (to compliment our adjoining bathroom) and I even have a new bedding set picked out. After having the same bedspread for over 5 years it is time for a change! I have recently bought some new decorating pieces for our home and it is feeling nicer each day. My favorite is a huge antique-looking clock to hang above the entertainment center in the living room. It is on a 12-foot tall wall with absolutely nothing on it, so I decided I needed a big clock. The best part is that it was 50% off!!!
My other blog http://mimzyscreations@blogspot.com/ hasn’t quite turned out the results I was hoping for, but I have had a few various orders from local friends. I have a couple of friends who would like me to do some scrapbooking for them, so I guess it keeps me busy enough. If you hear of someone in need of my services, please remember to pass the word along that I’m open for business!!!
In a week or so our good friend is going to come in with some of his workers and do some patch work on some cracks in our ceiling and walls in the living room. They’ll also be removing the popcorn ceiling and texturing it, then painting the walls, ceiling, trim & doors all through the living room, dining room and hallway. I can’t wait until it’s all done. It will look like a brand new house!
A few weeks ago we got a new Primary Presidency in our ward. I was lucky enough to be picked to stay as the Secretary. The previous president told the new one I was the best secretary she’s ever had, so that made me feel good! I actually work a lot on my calling as it seems there is always something to update or change. I really enjoy the calling and am glad to be working with the children of our ward.
As for the boys, there’s nothing new. They are all just full of energy (as always). Austin just got his 2nd semester report card and is getting A’s in every subject and a lot of positive comments from his various teachers. He is still reading far above the level that he should be at by the END of 2nd grade. Reading, writing and drawing are his forte! He also recently learned how to do a front flip on the trampoline. Logan seems to think that life isn’t good without the living room floor completely covered in trains, toys, etc. His latest thing is to make a long train through the house with all the toys, trains, boxes, chairs, etc. as train cars. Oh, what an imagination! Carson continues to keep me on my toes getting into and on top of things. I’m just glad he can’t open doors…yet!
That’s about all from us this month. We love hearing from all of you. Check out the new cute pictures of the boys below.
Love- Rhett, Maren, Austin, Logan & Carson
We celebrated Rhett’s 35th Birthday on January 24th with a small family celebration. The next night I took him out on a DATE! That word is almost unheard of at our house. We went to dinner then went shopping for some new work pants for him. I’m sure he really loved the shopping part. We were going to go bowling, but it was getting too late, so we opted to go home & get the kids in bed. We decided it would be more fun to go with some friends anyway.
This past weekend our church Stake was split. We had 16 wards in our Stake, so they split us pretty much North vs. South and the new San Antonio Texas Hill Country Stake was created. We both got new Stake Presidencies (of course). We stayed a part of the San Antonio Texas North Stake. I was priviledged to be part of the choir for the Stake Conference. Recently I have been singing a lot more and I am remembering why music is so good for the soul. I sang a solo in Sacrament Meeting a couple of weeks ago and I have received so many compliments. A lot of people (close friends even) said “I knew you sang, but I didn’t know you could SING!” Rhett received several compliments about me also and he just told them “I taught her everything she knows!”
The Spring bug has bit me and I have been Spring cleaning. I am forever trying to come up with better organization ideas to make our little house seem less full of stuff. I have the motivation to paint again, our bedroom this time. I picked out the paint color (to compliment our adjoining bathroom) and I even have a new bedding set picked out. After having the same bedspread for over 5 years it is time for a change! I have recently bought some new decorating pieces for our home and it is feeling nicer each day. My favorite is a huge antique-looking clock to hang above the entertainment center in the living room. It is on a 12-foot tall wall with absolutely nothing on it, so I decided I needed a big clock. The best part is that it was 50% off!!!
My other blog http://mimzyscreations@blogspot.com/ hasn’t quite turned out the results I was hoping for, but I have had a few various orders from local friends. I have a couple of friends who would like me to do some scrapbooking for them, so I guess it keeps me busy enough. If you hear of someone in need of my services, please remember to pass the word along that I’m open for business!!!
In a week or so our good friend is going to come in with some of his workers and do some patch work on some cracks in our ceiling and walls in the living room. They’ll also be removing the popcorn ceiling and texturing it, then painting the walls, ceiling, trim & doors all through the living room, dining room and hallway. I can’t wait until it’s all done. It will look like a brand new house!
A few weeks ago we got a new Primary Presidency in our ward. I was lucky enough to be picked to stay as the Secretary. The previous president told the new one I was the best secretary she’s ever had, so that made me feel good! I actually work a lot on my calling as it seems there is always something to update or change. I really enjoy the calling and am glad to be working with the children of our ward.
As for the boys, there’s nothing new. They are all just full of energy (as always). Austin just got his 2nd semester report card and is getting A’s in every subject and a lot of positive comments from his various teachers. He is still reading far above the level that he should be at by the END of 2nd grade. Reading, writing and drawing are his forte! He also recently learned how to do a front flip on the trampoline. Logan seems to think that life isn’t good without the living room floor completely covered in trains, toys, etc. His latest thing is to make a long train through the house with all the toys, trains, boxes, chairs, etc. as train cars. Oh, what an imagination! Carson continues to keep me on my toes getting into and on top of things. I’m just glad he can’t open doors…yet!
That’s about all from us this month. We love hearing from all of you. Check out the new cute pictures of the boys below.
Love- Rhett, Maren, Austin, Logan & Carson
Sunday, January 13, 2008
New Job!!!
Hip, Hip, Hooray! Rhett has a new job! AT&T made him the offer on Friday and we accepted (of course!). He will begin working on January 21st as a Tax Accountant preparing and filing multi-state tax returns and handling sales tax reports. It's the job we were hoping for after all the interviews were said & done. We are thrilled! A big plus about the job is that Rhett will be making a significant amount of money more per year. Yeah! Maybe we can breathe a little now. Our biggest sigh of relief is that the job is here in town so we don't have to worry about moving to a new state (like our past is riddled with).
Rhett's schooling is up in the air right now as we're not sure what the new job will entail. He may be able to take one of his classes he's registered for this semester, but not sure about both. We'll update you on his school status in our next posting.
Thanks to all of you for your love, support, prayers and kindness! We couldn't have made it through the rough times without ALL of you.
Rhett's schooling is up in the air right now as we're not sure what the new job will entail. He may be able to take one of his classes he's registered for this semester, but not sure about both. We'll update you on his school status in our next posting.
Thanks to all of you for your love, support, prayers and kindness! We couldn't have made it through the rough times without ALL of you.
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Welcome to our Family!
Wow! What a month it has been. I can’t tell you how blessed we feel after an abundance of love has been showered down on us. As our Christmas letter stated, Rhett was laid off just after Thanksgiving from his job at Clear Visions, Inc, where he had worked as the Assistant Controller/Human Resources Manager for 2 ½ years. What a surprise!!! We bounced back quickly though and he is currently working a temp-to-hire position doing Fixed Assets for Pioneer Drilling Company (mostly natural gas, but some oil). He is enjoying the work, but is still interviewing for that “dream job”. He has had several interviews last week and this week, so we keep praying that he will continue to be led in the right direction. Rhett only has 3 classes left, then it’s off to the CPA exam for him. Yeah!!! I can’t believe we’re finally this close after all these years of dreaming about it.
Getting back to the “shower of love” I spoke about, we were surprised almost daily at the outpourings of gifts, money and food given to us. It definitely helped us have a little bit merrier of a Christmas. We were amazed by the amount of support that was shown us while we “weathered the storm”. Thanks to all of you for your continued love and support that we feel from you. We love you all!!!
I have a couple of new things to share about me. I was finally able to figure out how to offer my creative services to those in need! My other blog is at http://mimzyscreations.blogspot.com/ which offers my homemade cards, scrapbooking expertise and jewelry making. If you or someone you know are interested, please check it out! Also, I decided to make a change from the mundane "highlights" in my hair, so I dyed it. Cinaberry is the color...yes, that's red! If you want to see a picture of me with red hair, I suggest you check out my other blog site!!!
Austin received a baseball glove, bat and balls for Christmas, a United States puzzle and his special favorite…a file box complete with 2 reams of paper, crayons, pencils and folders (to keep his art in). I don’t know that he has stopped drawing yet!
Logan had yet another “Thomas” extravaganza for Christmas. We got him an electric train set (40% off I must add), books, coloring book, puzzle…all Thomas! He was (and still is) in train heaven. Our biggest news about Logan is that he is FINALLY potty-trained. We can all sing Hallelujah to that one!!!
Carson’s Christmas included an animal train, puzzle, book and another favorite…Winnie the Pooh. He has LOVED Pooh bear since we got him a stuffed one at Disney World this summer. Carson’s most recent accomplishment is learning to climb out of his crib and up on top of the bunk beds. Fun for me!
Things are going well for us now. I’ll keep you updated on Rhett’s job search. We loved hearing from a lot of you via emails or Christmas cards last month. Keep the updates coming!!!
Getting back to the “shower of love” I spoke about, we were surprised almost daily at the outpourings of gifts, money and food given to us. It definitely helped us have a little bit merrier of a Christmas. We were amazed by the amount of support that was shown us while we “weathered the storm”. Thanks to all of you for your continued love and support that we feel from you. We love you all!!!
I have a couple of new things to share about me. I was finally able to figure out how to offer my creative services to those in need! My other blog is at http://mimzyscreations.blogspot.com/ which offers my homemade cards, scrapbooking expertise and jewelry making. If you or someone you know are interested, please check it out! Also, I decided to make a change from the mundane "highlights" in my hair, so I dyed it. Cinaberry is the color...yes, that's red! If you want to see a picture of me with red hair, I suggest you check out my other blog site!!!
Austin received a baseball glove, bat and balls for Christmas, a United States puzzle and his special favorite…a file box complete with 2 reams of paper, crayons, pencils and folders (to keep his art in). I don’t know that he has stopped drawing yet!
Logan had yet another “Thomas” extravaganza for Christmas. We got him an electric train set (40% off I must add), books, coloring book, puzzle…all Thomas! He was (and still is) in train heaven. Our biggest news about Logan is that he is FINALLY potty-trained. We can all sing Hallelujah to that one!!!
Carson’s Christmas included an animal train, puzzle, book and another favorite…Winnie the Pooh. He has LOVED Pooh bear since we got him a stuffed one at Disney World this summer. Carson’s most recent accomplishment is learning to climb out of his crib and up on top of the bunk beds. Fun for me!
Things are going well for us now. I’ll keep you updated on Rhett’s job search. We loved hearing from a lot of you via emails or Christmas cards last month. Keep the updates coming!!!
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