A Child's Prayer

Dear Heavenly Father,

Thankyouforthisfood. Bless mom and dad, bless them to be not sick.

In the name of Jesus Christ,

Amen

That is The Nogster's rote prayer. It's strong and steady, and has been repeated verbatim at every opportunity for several months now. First it started out by naming every person in the family. Then it got pared down to just mom and dad. As part of the daily routine, we didn't put much stock in it.

Then just yesterday, Stone and I both had the simultaneous realization that since he has been praying for us to not be sick, we really haven't been sick.

And we're talking about the family that ALWAYS seems to be sick. So much always that it's embarrassing. I won't bore you with details. But to have had a steady couple of months with no illness has actually been very nice.

It has left us free to concentrate on other things. Like moving.

Packing, selling, planning, moving.

That's right, folks. We've decided to move across the country. It has been a long, drawn-out decision making process and there are several reasons why we finally arrived at this decision. The two most significant reasons are:

1) We want to spend some time living closer to our families. We've grown so tired of all the hassle associated with living so terribly far away.

2) We want to buy a house, and we don't want it to be in Maryland. Even though the buyers' market has tamed down significantly and we could probably force our way into a house if we wanted to, we're not willing to make any of the concessions it would take. Dual income? nope. Hours-long commute? nopers. Fixer-upper? not if we can help it. Teensy-weensy house we've already outgrown? not.

There are so many great things about living here in DC. We have loved our time here so much. However, even with all the wonderful things there are to love about it, I guess you could say the cons have finally caught up with us.

So, with Stone having finished his MBA, there's really no reason to stay. I wish that the dear friends we are going to leave behind could be a valid reason. Unfortunately, life must go on and we can only try to preserve and cherish the friendships we have made.

I know what you're thinking now. You know how I know? It's the question everyone asks when we tell them we're moving.

DOES STONE HAVE A JOB?

Well.....no. Not yet. But we have been praying for a door to open for quite a long time and we felt it was time to open the door ourselves, even though we don't know what's on the other side yet. And guess what? The doors are opening for us now. Only after we made the decision to move. One example--NIH may allow Stone to telecommute through the end of the year. This is a huge blessing for us! Stone calls it "lengthening the runway" to give him more time to find a job before surrendering his income.

So now we are really trying to have enough faith and trust that when the time comes, we will be shown the way, one step at a time. And putting a lot of stock now in our other child's prayer:

Dear Heavenly Father,

Thank you for this day.

Please help us to have a new house and a new job.

Please help us to have the word of God.

In the name of Jesus Christ,

Amen

Westward Ho! (part two)

We had a fabulous time in Idaho with all our extended family. This is just a small sampling of the things we did, the people we were with, and the pictures we took.
When we arrived on Grandma's (but really Uncle Boyd's) farm, one of the first things we did was take the kids over to see the horses. I love both of these photos: Stone with the boys (above) and his dad walking down the lane in his awesome hat. I think I could win a photo contest with this one.
Another benefit of hanging out on the farm--going for rides on the 4-wheeler.

Here's Grandpa taking on the kids in a wrestling match. At times, I couldn't tell which side didn't stand a chance. It got to the point where the kids realized they would need something more so they resorted to weaponry. It started out with wooden spoons...then something went awry and The Nog came out of the kitchen with a very big, very sharp knife. He looked me sweetly in the eyes and said, "Mom, can I have this?" I can just imagine if that had been allowed to go any further. He turns to grandpa and says, "I'm gonna cut ya!"

We managed to spend a day in Yellowstone and meet up with the Tolks at Old Faithful. We had a fun day. Below is Nogster's reaction to Old Faithful erupting. He held this Superman flying stance from beginning to end. Awesome.

We went to the Rexburg, ID Temple with Shannon and Ky.

We managed to visit Stone's grandma Ricks a couple of times while we were in Rexburg. She's 99 and going strong at The Homestead assisted living center. I was really pleased when we arrived at the homestead to see that it seemed like a pleasant place to live. The staff was friendly, the home smelled nice and had a real-home feel to it, including a nice kitchen with beautiful cabinets and dining area. Grandma said it wasn't a bad place to live and the staff was kind to her. I even saw a staff member (or volunteer) painting the fingernails of another resident in the lobby while we were walking through. To me it was just a relief to know that she's in such a pleasant home.

Here is our family of 5 on the steps of Grandma Howard's house. Last time we took this photo was in 2005 as a family of 3.

4th of July.

I have had more and more people comment that Goldilocks looks like me. Do you think she does? I think she looks like her brothers.

4 generations.....kind of. I think Stone was supposed to be in my place but then...with a guy in there it doesn't really work it's magic and I guess that's how he felt about it. So just pretend for a second that I genetically belong in this photo. Isn't it sweet?