Ugh!

I can't believe that March is almost over. We have a little over 7 weeks until the move(breath deeply!). I still feel like crap but the kids are bouncy, full of energy and obviously over the ickies a lot faster than their parents.

I spoke too soon

This time the entire family has been slammed with a nasty coldish virus. Thursday I was wiping up snotty nose after snotty nose and Saturday I was coughing, I had a sore throat and a slight fever. Evan is feeling it too. He spent most of Saturday afternoon laying on the couch while I was napping. He perked up a lot after I gave him some Tylenol, so I think that his throat was bugging him too. I think I am going to crawl back into bed. The germs are laughing at us.

Kudos

Our upcoming move has necessitated a lot of changes and upheavals. One of them is that we will have to change banks. Ages ago when I was in college and dependent on my parents for money I opened a Washington Mutual bank account. The homey credit union that I had been using beforehand did not have branches in Utah where my parents had moved to.

However opening the account in the great state of Utah ended up having unforeseen consequences. For some very mysterious reason the accounts opened in Utah do not play nice with the rest of WaMu's computers. So, when we moved to California we could do a lot of basic banking, but more advanced stuff like ordering checks necessitated a phone call to the Utah 1-800 number. A hassle but doable. However, moving to Kansas means that the nearest branch to us would be in Texas. We toyed with the idea of doing everything online, but decided we would rather have a bank that we could actually visit if we needed to.

Enter US Bank. They have a ton more locations and all the things that we need in a bank. I was also very impressed with their customer service. We had to take the kids with us while we were setting things up. I knew that two active boys could be a handful, so I was not too thrilled with the idea. No sooner had we sat down with the boys and were starting the process a person comes up with a large stack of stickers for the boys. That stack of stickers kept the boys entertained for the majority of the time we were there. It was great! I am looking forward to a more friendly banking experience.

Stairs

I have mentioned my stairs in the past noting that they are rather annoying. Well, today I braved the jungle that is under them because several key toys had turned up missing for an extended period of time. Casual looks under the stairs had not turned up anything, but having scoured the rest of the house this was my last option. Let me tell you I hit the jackpot when I took the time to really dig in under there. Here is what I found hidden in some nooks and a few crannies.


Resting on top of a large Space Bag of outgrown clothing you will see: a book, a marker, Tow Mater, Substitute Kitty (he only has one arm because Evan snagged him before I could finish knitting him), Bunny (who is very crucial to a good night's sleep for Harry), Joshua (the anatomically correct potty doll), two magnets, a kaleidoscope, all of our easter eggs, a 9 small cars, and a star from a stacking toy. I know that these toys have not been down there all that long, a few weeks at most.

I can tell you right now that when we are house hunting stairs like these are going to be a deal breaker. I am getting sick and tired of the boys throwing toys down there. They have been stepping up their efforts of late and this momma is tired of it.

It did not help that it felt like today the only things I said were "Stop pushing your brother", "Quit fighting!", "Harry/Evan give that back to your brother." and "Get out of the kitchen!" Years ago, when I was a teenager and I knew it all, I rolled my eyes at my parents when they said that the felt like they should just record a tape and play it since they were repeating themselves so often. Now I am debating the merits of several different recording devices. It is funny now things change.

Sick no more

Evan is doing great now, although still whiny as all get out. He is currently annoyed that he did not get oatmeal for breakfast even though when I asked him what he wanted for breakfast he expressed no preference. It was not until after everything was prepared that he announced that he wanted oatmeal. I am such a mean mom that I made him have what was on his plate. He is also insisting that we go to the park right now even though I am not entirely awake and it is still chilly out.

The only thing better than getting yarn in the mail is getting free yarn in the mail. I won some yarn from Stacey at The Purling Dervish. She has a bum arm and was looking for alternate career options in case her arm did not heal. I suggested that she become a mattress tester. She would get loads of sleep and get to rest her arm at the same time.

I have never knit laceweight yarn so I could not resist casting on and knitting some of the edging of a lace stole (Karen I am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel in regards to your socks). I am not sure what I will do with a stole, but I have been eying this pattern ever since I bought the 101 Designer One-skien Wonders. Ironically I will have to use two skeins for this project. The yarn I have does not have the yardage per skein that I would need to make it a true one skein project.

Puke city!

So my Tuesday sucked big time but not as badly as Evan's sucked.

Evan woke up insanely early with his usual get Harry to do the dirty work door opening. We all head downstairs and I can tell tell Evan is not in a great mood. He started loudly demanding to go outside (nevermind that it was cloudy and chilly out). When I broke the news to him that he was going to have to eat breakfast before we even thought about stepping foot out of the house he started sobbing. That earned him a trip back upstairs into bed. It was quite obvious to me that he had awoken us all far too early.

After awhile the reason for his mood became clear when he threw up and kept throwing up all day long. My washing machine and dryer got quite a work out and I had to break into the blanket storage box to make sure that he had adequate bedding.

A tip for situations such as this is that waterproof mattress covers come in handy. I took them downstairs and put them over the couch to help protect it and allow him to watch tv at the same time. When he would get one messy I would switch it out with the clean one. I am sure that my couch is very happy that I did this and it also prevented us from running out of clean couch space.

It is always a bit scary when Evan gets a stomach bug (which thankfully has been rare) since dehydrations is something that he needs to avoid to help prevent the possibility of another stroke. He puked up his medication last night so I am making a call to the pediatric cardiologist to see what she wants me to do if he does it again. We are taking things very slowly this morning and hopefully we can have a vomit free day. I am keeping a sharp eye on him to make sure that he stays somewhat hydrated.

Poor Harry has been a trooper. He is very concerned for his brother. I have a hard time keeping him away from the germs. I am keeping my fingers crossed and praying that this thing will not spread (although I am being realistic about it too). Last night I was so sure that my stomach was upset, but then I realized that I had hardly eaten all day and food soon settled my stomach down. Harry was mad that Evan got to watch tv whole he had to go to the table and have dinner. Evan was mad that he could not sit up at the table and had to watch tv instead. I think that of the two Evan is a better patient since he has a more easygoing personality. I think I would be hard pressed to keep Harry laying quietly on the couch unless something was drastically wrong.

We pause now for a commercial break

A very interesting, shocking and appalling thing happened to me, but since it involves someone that has been known to threaten to withhold birthday presents (and what I asked her for was something that I really really want, so I am not going to chance that she might actually follow through this time) I will hold of blogging about it until after the present is safely in my hot little hands. Instead you will get a post about Outback Steakhouse.

Hang on a sec while I wipe the drool off of my keyboard.

Ok, I am back now.

Outback is celebrating the 20th anniversary of their opening (The link only works for Internet Explorer just in case you were using a different browser and wondering why the link looked funny). They have some special menu items to help celebrate and they will be available until the end of April. I was given a gift certificate so that I could try out some of the new items, but I decided to stick with the tried and true. Not much beats the simple yet very tasty sirloin steak that they serve. I love that they do not overcook the meat, instead it is cooked to perfection. We splurged a bit and added another classic to our dinner out, the Bloomin' Onion. Evan and Harry ate so much of the onion that their dinner was not inhaled like it normally is. If you are looking for an excuse to go out to eat why not go and help Outback celebrate it's birthday.

Monday Cuteness

My boys in their Easter finery (such as it is).

Evan is still calling Mickey Mouse Poopy Mouse. The other day I was in Joanne's fabric, while I was wandering around the store he happened to see a Mickey Mouse patch. He started yelling out in excitement "Poopy Mouse! Poopy Mouse!" Quickly I moved away hoping that removing him from the proximity of the patch would stop him from yelling out. Eventually he settled down but I was so glad that there was no one near by to hear his outburst. I think I may have to try and rename Poopy Mouse.

Happy Easter!

Here is a link explaining why Easter is such an important holiday to me and my family.

What is in your Easter basket?

Despite my adamant refusal to fall into the Easter candy trap only weeks after falling into the Valentine's candy trap, I somehow found myself in Target looking at the candy displays. Somehow some Robin Eggs (so much tastier than regular Whoppers) , Cadbury Carmel eggs, marshmallow eggs and some jelly beans came home with us. We also had four very broken chocolate bunnies waiting on our doorstep thanks to the USPS and my mother (who is the one that sent them in the mail). What are the Easter candies that you can't resist?

A fun contest

Karen at Pediascribe is having a contest to win some neat reusable bags from Skeeda. I love the look of these bags (the Frost color is my favorite). I have been wanting to ditch the plastic bags for some time now, I am tired of drowning in them. I am working on building up my bag stash and winning one would help this along. She asks us to list five "green" things that we already do and two that we are thinking about trying. A lot of the "green" things that we do are actually things we did initially to save money. It is nice to know that you can save money and do something nice for the earth at the same time.

Things I already do:

1. Cloth diapers.
   
2. We have a HE washer and dryer. We use less soap and less water every time we wash our clothing. It is also nice to know that we are using less energy to dry our clothing.
3. Compact fluorescent light bulbs. We use a lot fewer light bulbs and our electric bill is a lot lower.
4. Recycling. This is one thing that we do purely for Mother Earth. Our city has a great program where you can mix all of your recyclables into one bin making it so simple to recycle.
   
5. We have a programmable thermostat. I love being able to set it and forget it. Before we got our nice thermostat I was always forgetting to turn our heat down at night and since it was not digital. I was always fiddling with the temperature never believing that the temp that was stated was really the temperature, now I have no excuse for turning it up when I feel cold.
   

Things I want to try (I think that I have a lot more than the two asked for):

1. Ditch the plastic bags! I am in the process of very slowly adding to our bag stash.
2. Compost. We don't have the room for this at my current location, but we plan on starting our heap as soon as we move. I get frustrated with the amount of food that I end up throwing away after meals. It would be nice to gain further benefit from it.
   
3. Plant a garden and grow that garden organically. I really want to grow as much as my own food as possible.
   
4. Eventually when we stop moving so much we are planning on adding livestock to our life so that we can have even greater control about what goes into our food.
5. Using more natural cleaning products. Once we move I am not going to fall into the trap of buying all the shiny new cleaning products out there. Right now we have far too many and I think that there is great room to simplify.
6. I am toying with the idea of using cloth pads. I am already using cloth diapers, why not expand?
   
7. Drying more of our clothing outside. Again this is something that we really do not have the room for in our current living situation but are planning on implementing after the move.
   

A ton of pictures

Here are some of the pictures from our impromptu trip. We decided on Sunday to do an egg hunt since they were missed out on the one that we normally attend on base. It was so much more fun to have a nice big back yard to hide eggs in and to not have to fight with other kids to find eggs. We had so much fun that after dinner we hid the eggs in the living room so they could find them again. I think that egg hunt may be a regular game now.

Scanning the area looking for eggs.

Harry found one.

And so did Evan.

Daddy hid a few in places that were too high.

Mmmmm..... marshmallow egg.

Kids are best when kept in cages. Actually I held my camera over the side of the bridge to get this shot. We went to a park on Monday to keep the kids from tearing down the walls.

Please Ma, let me out!

Whee!

And now for the much requested thumb suck and nose picking picture. It is not as vigorous of a pick as when he is doing it with out prompting but I think it does demonstrate that he has the skill. Click on the picture for a closer look.

Something that makes me smile

Way back in January one of the winners of my contest did not contact me about claiming their prize. Amanda had offered to bribe me to make her a blue rabbit even if she did not win. She didn't, but her comment cracked me up so much that when the original winner flaked out I knew where my cute little blue bunny belonged. She has adopted the little guy (who she named Babbit) and he is even going with her family on their spring vacation. It makes me smile to see something that I made be enjoyed in such a fun way. I really think that he found the perfect home for him.

Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5

Oy!

We are home safe. I don't get any rest though. I have a horribly messy house to clean and I also have stuff to do for the Relief Society birthday dinner tonight. Harry is on a cranky streak and may drive us insane before the night is over.

Nose picking

I managed to snap some pictures of Harry's new talent (I never thought I would encourage my kid do pick his nose just to satisfy the curiosity of strangers), sadly my camera's USB cord is at home. You picture mad people are just going to have to wait.

One thing that I kind of wonder about is the universality of children picking their noses and eating the contents. Where do they get the idea to even do that? I can promise you that I have not picked and licked since the day my friend's mom told me that I would get worms in my stomach from doing that. I also have not observed my husband eating his own boogers, although what he does when I am not looking I can not attest to. Maybe his grandparents or aunties have been setting the bad examples. Hmmm.......

Sunday Cuteness

Today while sitting out in the foyer with Harry I discovered that he had an amazing talent. He has the ability to suck his thumb and pick his nose at the same time with the same hand! Now that is talent!

Road Trip

With the tight schedule for our move and my husband getting extra training for work at the end of the month we decided that the best time to make a visit to my inlaws was this weekend. So here we are several hours north enjoying some dodgy weather. Luckily since we were last here my inlaws got DSL so it is not taking me hours to keep up with my blogging.

I have to say that the Odyssey is an awesome road trip car. There are ten different cup holders that are accessible from the front seats! Ten!! The built in DVD player was awesome to use. We did not have to reach around behind us to use the controls like we did with our portable DVD player. The radio controls doubled as DVD controls. Another awesome thing about this car is that there are so many nooks and crannies to store things. It was so nice to not feel stuffed into the car. I am so glad that we will have this car for the move, it is going to make my drive so much nicer.

This morning I am planning a trip to the local yarn store. I have heard a lot of nice things about it and can't wait to see it. I have been hankering for another lace project so we shall see what I come home with.

Good Mail

Lookie at what came in the mail yesterday! The wonderful Tama sent these to me as part of a Pay It Forward. The idea is that you get one thing and then make three things for other people. I will put up my post announcing the specifics at a later date, after we have moved and are settled in.

Look at these beauties!

A close up of the hearts.

I love this ribbing! It is a neat little twist (haha!) on the traditional ribbing.

I haven't taken them off all day. Don't worry, I do plan on taking them off... eventually.

Just breathe

I keep looking at the calender and seeing how little time there is between now and our still nebulous move date. The orders were finalized on Tuesday so our location is official. My husband still has to negotiate between his current assignment that wants to keep him for as long as possible, our need to have as much house hunting time as possible and the unknown needs of his new command. We had been also trying to add into the mix the plans of my husband's youngest sister who is currently living in Germany and getting married to a German around the time of our move. They were planning on a bit of a tour of the US so we could all meet him but she is not firming up her dates fast enough.

I am struggling with so many competing interests. I want to get rid of as much junk as possible, but I also want to enjoy the time I have here and have fun with my friends. I also have a lot of knitting in my head that I want to get done, I would like to give some goodbye gifts to some friends here but I may end up having to mail them if I get them done at all. Added to all of this I have to maintain my house and keep my kids from killing each other. It has seemed that of late the only way to have a peaceful morning is for me to take the kids somewhere which kind of ruins any plans to get anything done around the house. I really think that someone needs to get on board with inventing beaming. That would make my life so much easier.

Insidious

Advertising and marketing is a funny business. Your entire job is to make someone want to buy or do something even if they had no idea about that thing five seconds ago. My kids are pretty sheltered from commercials. They see the few that are at the start of Sesame Street and at the beginning of the occasional DVD that they get to watch, but for the most part their lives are commercial free... or so I thought.

Last October when we were at my parent's house we viewed the movie Cars. We thought it would be a movie that Evan and Harry would love, after all it had cars, cars and more cars in it. They would not sit through the movie and chose to leave the room and play with their toys. Time passes and now it is Christmas time. I bought them a large pack of Little Golden Books at Costco. I had no real control about the books that were in it, but after a quick glance there seemed nothing too objectionable. It had two newer character books (which I was not thrilled with, but not annoyed enough to pass up on the chance to get a great deal on the books) and a bunch of the character license free classics.

(Begin Tangent) Ok some of those classic stories were actually downright disturbing when I sat down and read them with the boys. Tootle in particular was almost sad if you thought about it too much. The poor little train just wanted to play in the meadow but was forced back on the tracks to the prearranged life of servitude (one could even say slavery) that had been set forth for him at birth. Why couldn't the sentient train have a chance to have a little fun off of the tracks? He was not harming anyone. (End Tangent)

One of the character books featured Tow Mater from the movie Cars. For some reason only known to Evan this became one of his favorites. He would beg to have me read it over and over again. He would constantly repeat phrases from the book. Now when he is out and about and sees anything related to the movie he goes nuts. I bought him a t-shirt with Mater and McQueen on it and he went nuts. I bet if he were to see the movie now he would be glued to the screen.

It just amazes me how Evan's attitude has changed and how omnipresent advertisements really are. I am going to have a big job ahead of me when they start understanding the concept of money and how to spend it. Maybe by then I will have found a nice cozy island in the middle of nowhere.

Book Meme

Amanda tagged me for this amusing Meme.

The rules: Look up from the computer, look around the room where you're sitting and pick up the closest book. Open the book, turn to page 123, count down to the fifth sentence on that page, and then post the next three sentences.

I was so glad that when I read this I had actual adult books near me. Right behind the computer desk chair is the bookcase for all our kid books, but luckily my habit of knitting while watching movies online on Netflix saved my bacon. You get the first steps on how to do the Kitchener stitch as found in Favorite Socks: 25 Timeless Designs from Interweve (which is a very fine sock pattern book, nary a bad sock to be found in this one)

Step 1 Bring tapestry needle through the first stitch on the front needle as if to purl and leave the stitch on the needle.

Step 2 Bring tapestry needle through the first stitch on the back needle as if to knit and leave the stitch on the needle.

Step 3 Bring tapestry needle through the first front stitch as if to knit and slip this stitch off the needle, then bring the tapestry needle through the next front stitch as if to purl and leave this stitch on the needle.

I find it very fitting that this was the quite from the book that was nearest me. I love the Kitchener stitch, I think it is one of my favorite things to do when knitting. It is horribly complicated and fussy. It looks awful when done wrong, but when you do it right it is invisible and no one would even know it was there (unless they too were a knitter and were purposely looking for it). That is a great metaphor for life. There are a lot of things that we do on a daily basis that never gets noticed because we do it right. It gets taken for granted, but those that are aware can see the beauty in your work.

A well done Kitchener if I do say so myself.

Ooo burn!!!

Conversation between me and my husband as we were packing the diaper bag for church.

AM: "Let's bring the periscopes. The boys will have fun peeping over the pews with them."

Husband gathers both of the periscopes and casually examines them.

H: "I can tell that you made this one. There are two nails that are not fully hammered in."

AM examines the periscope in question.

AM: "Nope! That one is yours."

H: "How can you tell?"

AM: "It does not have the split in the top where I mishammered in a nail."

Not only did I put together a better and smoother product, but I did it faster than him because I took the time to read the directions. I never took any shop classes in school, but my daddy taught his girls how to hammer a nail with the best of them.

Evan and Harry the builders

We went to Lowe's yesterday. I wanted to pick up some cheap and showy bedding plants for the garden. We now have more sunny space to plant things in since we are not doing any veggies this summer. I know we are moving, but I would like to be able to enjoy what time we do have with the garden. I was rather disappointed with the even lamer than I had thought it would be selection and only came home with some wild flower seeds.

Any way, tangent over. We happened to be there when they were having the monthly (and free) building project for kids. Evan and Harry each got to build a pretty neat periscope with a lot of help from mom and dad. It was pretty fun and they looked so stinking cute in their aprons. I will have to take some pictures later since I did not have my camera on me at the time. Harry loves to look in his periscope until he can see my eyes. It was also very entertaining to peek around the corner when I was making dinner to spy on the boys. I think I will have a lot of fun with the periscopes.

Score!

I had a very good trip to the thrift store yesterday. It was a Land's End bonanza! I found a Squall jacket, a Halloween costume and a robe all for Evan. Poor Harry will just have to sit tight and wait for Evan to out grow them. Evan wore the costume all afternoon and begged to sleep in it (I was a nice mom and let him).

The costume has hand covers that look like paws. Evan insisted that his hands were covered at all times, despite how difficult it made playing with toys.

"Rooar!"

While playing in the bean box he got quite a few beans stuck in the hand covers. I had to frisk him when he came inside, he was dropping beans all over the place.

I need a hiding place

It is starting. The sun rises early enough now that Evan wakes up at 6am. He is kind enough to wait to wake Harry up until around 6:30 which is when he can hear my husband getting up for work. He has to wake the sleeping soundly Harry because Evan has to have him to the dirty work of opening the door. That leaves me to deal with a cranky sobbing two year old all morning long. When we move I am going to be more aware of where the sun rises and place the boys in the room opposite of that even if they end up in the master bedroom and I end up sleeping in a bathroom. The extra sleep would be worth it. Now if you will excuse me, I have to deal with a sobbing Harry.

Favorite posts

Golly this one is a tough but fun meme. It was neat going back through my archives and revisiting a different time in my life. The totally awesome Goofy J tagged me to do this.

Rules: Go back through your archives and post the links to your five favorite blog posts that you’ve written.

Link one must be about family
Link two must be about friends
Link three must be about yourself
Link four must be about something you love
Link five can be about anything you choose
Post your five links and then tag five other people. At least two of the people you tag must be newer acquaintances so that you get to know each other better.

1. Things Not to do to Your Son. This one just cracks me up.
2. Pretend Friends. I actually have more people that I have met face to face friends than this post makes me out to have. Honest I am not a complete looser than hangs around online all day.
3. 10 Things About Awesome Mom. This is my first version of the X number of things meme.
4. I am going to put two links for this because I just noticed that it said something not someone. Here is my someone and here is my something. No surprises here.
5. Contradictions. This is one of my first posts. I kind of buried it at the time, but now that I am looking back I think it is a pretty darn good post for a newbie blogger.

I am going to actually tag someone this time. Try not to pass out from the shock.


Tama, Midlife Midwife, Laura, Amber and Teachin' this mommy new tricks

Knitting and parenting

I have discovered that knitting and parenting have some similarities. Right now one of my projects is in time out for not behaving properly. My other projects are blossoming from the extra attention I am lavishing on them, so there is some good to be had in such a frustrating situation.

I have a 356 knitting stitches calender that I love looking at. It is fun seeing all the different things that you can do with knitting and purling. I am still trying to not be miffed that Evan's birthday pattern is Reverse Stockinette Stitch. I mean really how is that even a stitch? It is regular Stockinette just flipped over. I would have been happy with even Crossed Stockinette Stitch which was the pattern for yesterday. Oh well at least my birthday pattern is Lacy Checks, something fun and sassy.

The friend party

The party went well and I think that everyone had a fun time. It was a bit stressful doing all the planning and preparation, but it was worth it. Evan had such a fun time that he was asking to go back to the park and have another birthday party. The weather could have not been more perfect. It was a bit chilly at first but quickly warmed up, I even got a tiny bit pink. The sun sent me into such a tizzy that I even dug out the summer wardrobes for both boys and gave then a good wash so they will be ready in case this delightful trend continues.

Harry having some fun on the swings.

This is why we are not getting bunk beds for the boys. Harry is quite the little monkey and is eager to show off his climbing abilities. The kid that is above him is also quite the dare devil.

Evan and Harry sharing some brotherly play time. Evan just finished dumping the bark onto Harry's lap. The bucket and shovels were not even mine, another kid that was not associated with the party left it out.

Mommy helping Evan blow his candles out. We had a hard time getting them lit because of the wind, but once they were placed in front of Evan he had a hard time blowing them out.

Mmmmm....... cupcakes! I got all the stuff for the party from the dollar store. I was surprised at the great selection, we managed a pretty coherent theme of Sesame Street. The only thing missing was cups which Evan decided should be sports balls rather than balloons.

Happy Birthday Evan!

It is so hard to believe that my little baby is now four years old. I can hardly remember what life was like before he came into mine. I vaguely remember something about sleeping in as late as I wanted on weekends and going out at night with out having to secure a babysitter.

He has been helping me pick out stuff for his birthday party and is quite excited. I will post pictures of it later.

Here is what I made him for his birthday.

Party!

Phase one of the Birthday celebration complete.

Secrets

I am no good at keeping secrets. The second I find out something I have to tell everyone. I had kind of wanted to keep this secret until it was ultra official but I just can't keep it in any longer.

We got our orders and we will be moving to the great state of Kansas. Talk about culture shock. We found out on Thursday which is why I wrote that angsty post. I am still digesting and getting used to the idea even though I knew this was a possibility. Before it was theoretical and now it is much more certain. The only thing keeping me from saying 100% is that the detailer forgot to run it by the special needs people (on account of Evan). My husband checked before he put it down as an option on his dream sheet, so we already know that there are a ton of Pediatric Cardiologists and physical therapists in the area where we will be living or at the very least a not too long drive away.

I am bummed that there is not a Costco near by, but there is a Sam's Club to meet my bulk shopping needs. There is only one Target but there are three Walmarts. This is is going to be one destination that I will be sure to visit from time to time.

I think the most exciting thing about this move will be that we will be able to afford to buy a house. A real house with some land instead of a shack with a postage stamp yard. Yes the weather will not be as felicitous as it is here, but as one of my friends says "I can't afford nice weather."

It is going to be sad to leave all my wonderful friends here that have been there for me when times were the toughest, but I know that I will have a new ward filled with new friends waiting there for me. Plus I have all my lovely blog friends that will move with me where ever I go.