The flowers blooming at Audrey's preschool are so pretty in May!
Audrey started swim class for a 3 week period and she loved it! There were only 5 kids in her class, and the first day 2 of the kids were crying and wouldn't get in, 1 was splashing and not following directions, and 2 were listening and learning. Luckily Audrey was one of those last two!
BYU-H told us they couldn't offer us more money to compensate for us not being in the subsidized faculty housing. To try to keep a really long story shorter, we decided to stay in Oregon and try to apply to the full time position in Hawaii the following Fall instead of accept the Visiting Professor position this Fall. Brent told his mentor at the U of O that we'd stay in Oregon, but he didn't tell Hawaii "no" yet. We sat with this decision for a couple days, but we could not feel settled. The screen saver on our TV came on with Hawaii and I took a little sad picture and sent it to Brent.
Swimming class success:
Picture on the special rock :)
I took Ava to our high school's play of Freaky Friday. We always like to go see the kids in our ward in the play! When we were sitting waiting for the play to start, Brent text me, "Don't freak out, but the three bedroom house isn't available anymore- she gave it away to someone else this week." I replied something like, "What!!?! No!! That is OUR house!" Brent assured me everything would work out, but after we got home, I kept telling him, "I know that was supposed to be our house. She gave away our house!"
The housing lady said she had a 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom house in Laie that would be available for us. We decided to move forward with that, but when I saw a picture of the kitchen, I'll admit, I cried. It was so tiny and old. I just couldn't imagine how I could cook dinners for my family of five on that tiny stove top, with an oven that was too small to fit a cookie sheet in it. The good thing was that we wouldn't need to start paying rent on this house until July (where we'd need to pay rent starting in June on the 3 bedroom house).
On Friday (May 5), a lot of things happened in succession that felt like Heavenly Father was telling us, good try making the hard decision on where to move, but let me help you out. 1. BYU- H offered us a little more in terms of paying for our flights out to Hawaii and Brent's conferences. It felt like they were doing what they could to show Brent that they really wanted him. 2. The administrators at the U of O told Brent they couldn't guarantee he'd have two classes each term to teach (which means we'd lose our insurance), since the international PhD students needed to be given priority over him to teach classes. What we thought was a secure position no longer seemed secure. 3. My best friend's sister was living in Hawaii temporarily and I had a great phone call with her. She described how wonderful the Polynesian culture is and as I spoke to her, I could picture myself living there. As we talked, we figured out that she was leaving right when I was coming, so she could sell all of their belongings to us (beds, couches, kitchen stuff, kids stuff, etc). The timing would work our perfectly. After I talked to her, I told Brent, "that doesn't just happen. I think we're supposed to go to Hawaii."
We decided to have faith and move forward with Hawaii! Brent called the lady we had been working with the week before about the housing in Laie.
The next night Brent took Coen to see The Addams Family to see other kids from our ward. Only.... yet another high school in Eugene was doing the same play on the same night! So they didn't end up seeing the kids in our ward, but still enjoyed the play since they had been watching Wednesday and were on an Addams Family kick.
Our irises bloomed! Tammy brought me these bulbs from her yard the previous year.
Audrey's preschool had a Mother's Day program. She was excited to sing her songs for me with her class.
Had to get a picture outside with the flowers!
Here's what Audrey says about me- I'm 4 years old. I'm really good at cleaning. I think it's funny when we read in bed. When Audrey is at school, I'm working. The best thing I cook is broccoli. Audrey's favorite thing to do with mom is play games.
Ava joined track and field and had her first meet at the high school. It was not so fun to go to- soooo long! And no announcer so it was hard to tell what was happening. Ava did several events and her favorite was the relay.
Our friends the Freemans, often invite us to dinner with several other families in the ward. Their yard is so beautiful! I'm not sure why Audrey is crying in this picture...
I mentioned that I had been attending some missionary lessons with Jennifer and getting to know her better. We were so excited she chose to be baptized! The kids sang Beautiful Savior at her baptism and I played the piano. Jennifer is so generous, fun, and such a good mom to her two boys.
Ava created this Anne Frank paper mache journal in art class. She did a project on Anne Frank in 3rd grade and still loves to learn about her and tell us facts about her.
We had Jennifer's family over for dinner to celebrate her baptism, along with the sister missionaries. I really got to know Sister Crouch during the lessons for Jennifer and love her!
Since we decided to move to Hawaii, we had to dive right in on the logistics of the move. We had 7 weeks to do everything, and two of those I was out of town for work. First thing up- I cleaned and took pictures of our house and posted our house for rent. I decided to do it all by myself after doing some research. I love this beautiful house! We felt so nervous about finding the right renters that we could trust with our house. But we kept moving forward, having faith that it would all work out.
The kids sang in church for Mother's Day, so cute!
I volunteered at Coen's school for a science activity. I was at a station helping kids make homemade windmills. Cute Coen was so excited that I was there.
Snuggles- Audrey and I had a Friday evening alone while Brent and the older two went to a father & kids camp out.
The kids liked the zip line:
Brent was so busy with his dissertation that he originally said we'd need to celebrate our anniversary a few weeks later. But.... he did manage to take a break and we went out to dinner and then walked around the rose garden.
Our 13th anniversary! Every day I thank Heavenly Father for Brent. The way we complement each other in our personality traits, talents, and strengths is miraculous to me. Together we are so much better. He pushes me to be a better and braver person and simultaneously calms and steadies me. He brings the fun into my life and so many nights we stay up too late talking, or if it's reallllly late, laughing. I am so grateful for our marriage.
I tried taking some pictures of the kids:
As we were walking Audrey asked me to come back to see something. I couldn't understand what she was telling me. Then she showed me, a caterpillar!
Photo dump because this is just the prettiest place ever.
Every day when I drive Audrey home from preschool she says "Bluey! Mom, I saw Bluey!" I could never see a Bluey picture or sign so one day I pulled over to see what she was talking about. We stopped in front of a dentist office and I still couldn't see the Bluey she was pointing to. So I unbuckled her and we walked over to the sign where she pointed to it and said, "See? Bluey!" Haha!
Audrey working hard in speech therapy.
I flew to Utah for a partner/manager meeting. My mom picked me up at the airport and we had lunch together, and then that afternoon I took trax down to the Hilton hotel. We had lots of food and good meetings. I was so relieved I didn't have to do anything for the trainings this year! Often I have to help teach a class or speak etc.
Coen was so excited about the Reading Madness program his first grade teacher did. It was set up the same was as March Madness with brackets, and once they got the winner book, we had to go take a picture of the board.
My standard Mother's Day picture! I say it every year, I LOVE being a mom! Having babies, teaching them, and watching them grow, brings me so much joy. Most days I'm completely worn out at night and ready for them to go to bed, but oh my gosh they're just so cute.
When I was putting Audrey to bed I couldn't find her special blanket and pink elephant. She told me they were in a suitcase by the door. I brought them back to her and she said, "No! They're for Hawaii!" Every day Audrey asks me if we're going to Hawaii today?
Audrey's speech therapist that goes to her preschool send me this picture. She pulls Audrey out of class for 30 minutes once a week and tells me that Audrey works so hard.
I was cooking dinner for the Elders when Brent called me with good news. He said that the housing lady from Hawaii said, "You must have been praying, because the people that were about to move into the three bedroom home backed out. You can have it." I called my mom to tell her the good news, and when she answered the phone all I could do was cry. I didn't want to scare her so I said, "Don't worry, it's good news." I knew Heavenly Father was watching over us. The good thing about a couple weeks passing now was that we didn't have to start paying rent on our house until July. Here's the google image of our house in Hawaii:
Lots of people from the ward came! A friend let Brent borrow a tent.
We went to Astraea's 3rd birthday party. Her mom had it decorated so cute in the backyard with a wild animal theme!
Coen got to go to a friend's birthday party and it was an Addams Family theme which made him so happy.
On Sunday we went to one of my favorite Eugene spots, Hendricks park. I love it when the rhododendrons bloom!
We recreated a picture to show the amount of time that Brent's Ph.D. took- one year old Coen to seven year old Coen! Brent has worked so hard and so long!
After our meetings we were able to choose an activity- I chose painting class which was fun!
Random picture Coen took of Audrey haha.
Dad set up domino rally for the kids:
On Sunday I went to church with my parents (and heard them speak!) and then went to hang out with the Cowleys in the afternoon. My flight left at 10pm that night and guess who I saw checking in for my same flight? My friend from my ward :)
Monday was Memorial Day when I got home and I was happy to spend time with the family! We went to get ribs at Albertsons for lunch- yum. Audrey and Coen were very excited to match and be little buddies.
Catching potato bugs in our yard:
And that concludes May! It was busy, but in a way, the calm before the storm that was June.
We went to dinner at a fancy Italian restaurant near the hotel the second night. I feel like I come to these meetings and I have lots of friends to see which is so nice! I still get nervous about traveling and eating out, but I have come a long way from years ago when I was so nervous to attend these meetings.
Back at home, Ava and Coen had a fun run and I felt so bad that neither Brent or I could be there to cheer them. The fun run is a fundraiser where the kids see how many laps they can run around the field, and the parents usually come. Luckily Tammy saved the day and went to support Ava and Coen!
That evening I went to the symphony with my parents.
Back at home, Ava had her performance from her drama class. She was a pig in "Wolf in the Suburbs." She's on the far right in pink with a huge grin on her face:
On Saturday my mom invited friends from our Guatemala days over for a BBQ, along with my grandparents, so that was fun!
Brent took the kids to the new Little Mermaid:
Brent has spent lots of hours at a professor's house organizing his movies and books, bringing them in from the garage, and then alphabetizing them on built in shelves. He went over probably 8 days to work on this project (and got paid).
Finished product:
They built a city for their stuffed animals:
cute anniversary recap. and that was a busy month ! i like how audrey is mad but you can't quite remember why. good to remember all the parts of motherhood haha. also this will be a good journal reminder for the hawaii chapters.
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