Groceries

Alright. I am trying to figure out how much is a reasonable amount to spend on groceries. How much do you all spend a month??

Pics!

Here are some pics of the kids...







Sorry for so many at once! It has been awhile.

It has been really fun having Pete home these last few weeks. We have been able to see some of the sites of Cincinnati and spend some great family time together.

Church and random thoughts

We had a pretty good sacrament meeting last week. It was a testimony meeting, so it's always interesting to see what you're going to get in a new ward. Before the meeting, there was a couple sitting 2 rows in front of us. He is an intern pastor who is going/moving to Utah to preach, so he came to our ward to see what the Mormons were all about. During the meeting, a new convert who is a tall, old black man with gray hair, stood up and bore his testimony about how great the gospel is and how glad he is that he found it. Then a Latina lady stood up and talked about how her eye sight had been spared from a genetic disease (long story ;), then our high councilor stood up (another older black man with white hair, who's name is Brother White ;) and talk about how it had been over 30 years since the announcement that "a person of color" as he put it, could hold the priesthood. He talked about how awesome that is and how wonderful the church is. It was one of those moments where you feel so overwhelmed by the spirit and have such a strong witness that the gospel is true. It was a great meeting. We have an interesting, diverse ward. I had to teach a RS lesson yesterday, which I was nervous about. It was on redeeming the dead, which is pretty unique to our religion. There were a few investigators there, so I wasn't sure what kind of response/questions I wold get. But luckily it all went fine. One of the investigators came up to me after (she's a southern baptist) and said that she thought it was beautiful that you could get baptized for someone who died and didn't have the chance to. I'm glad she caught the essence of the lesson.

Yesterday a family who had recently moved out of the ward came back to visit. He was an ENT resident at UC and just finished and got a job in Colorado. I saw her in the hall and asked her if I was going to survive the next 5 years. She said, "You're the one who's husband is doing ENT!" And then she just hugged me. I asked her for any advise and she said, "It is going to be really, really hard. But don't get a divorce because it would be hard on the kids and not make things better." I jokingly asked for the name of her therapist and she said in all seriousness, "Well I'd give it to you, but I'm sad to say that he moved away." Hmm... Med school was hard on all of us. Really hard. Am I up for this? I just wonder if I'm strong enough to do it alone. I guess this is the time to prove myself to myself...

Sorry for the rambling. I can't get my pictures off the camera for some reason, but I promise to post some as soon as I can. I guess I had better run to Lowes. I am supposed to be hanging blinds today and finishing painting the girls' ceiling. I don't think I'll want to paint again for a long, long time.

I'm back

It's been so long since I've posted anything that I started to feel like the next thing I post should be spectacular. But I don't have anything spectacular to say, so then I got intimidated and have been putting if off. So I thought I'd just do it and put up a post. :)

We are here in Cincinnati now. Things are going well. We have most of the boxes unpacked and are just trying to get organized. It has been great having Pete home during this time of transition. The kids are doing well. Emily has made a couple of friends in the ward and is enjoying her new house. Abby is so cute and chubby. I just want to squeeze her!!! The move was crazy/stressful/icky, but things are looking better now as we start to get a little more settled. Moving and not knowing anyone, not knowing the city, missing family and friends, is always the worst. I've decided it takes a good year before you feel acclimated and make good friends. Some people in our ward have reached out already, though, which has been really great. I'm worried about Pete starting up work. Everyone keeps telling us to gear up because I'll never see him again (at least for a year or 2). It's making me nervous...

I have some pictures to post, but our computer blew up, so I can't get to them. Right now we are borrowing the computer of someone in our ward, which is very nice of them to loan it to us.

Emily and Abby are awake now, so I had better run. But I will do a better job of keeping things updated now that we're semi-settled. :)

The long awaited day...

Today is the day!! The LONG,LONG awaited day. It is finally here. After 9 years of school... Peter graduates from medical school today!! Hip, hip, HOORAY!!! I am so excited to have made it through alive! I'll post some pictures after the big event. :)

Cincy

This last weekend I took at trip up to Cincinnati to look for a house. I left the two girls home with Pete. He did a great job with them, which I knew he would. It's nice to know that I can turn things over to him and everything will be ok. My trip was pretty productive. We saw about 20 houses, 2 of them twice. It was a whirlwind trip and I am still exhausted from it. We have an offer pending on one of the houses, so we're just waiting to see what the seller has to say about some of the things we want fixed. What a pain. It seems like all of the houses in our price range are old and falling apart. ;/ I saw some real pieces of junk this weekend. One house smelled like smoke so bad I couldn't breath and had a huge bar just filled with liquor; another house was in such a scary neighborhood that once we got there, we didn't even go in. I told the realtor I wasn't sending my child to school in that neighborhood, so we turned around and left. Another house was super dark and scary and had the family room sliding glass door smashed out. The backyards of 3 different houses opened up to storage units, a mall, and a gravel parking lot. My favorite, though, is the house that claimed to have 1 and a half baths. Here is the picture of what they considered a half bath...

Ahhhhh!!!!

Ok, I need to complain a little bit.

I've been faxing, calling, emailing back and forth to get offers in on two different houses; we were outbid on the first house after much effort; owners finally accept the offer on the second house after a couple of counter offers back and forth; we go and get financing and sign all the papers; we send an inspector over; $500 later it looks like there is a ton wrong with the house and the sale won't go through if the owners won't fix it; I've been trying to get Pete's student loans deferred and get the massive amounts of paper work in for that, which in and of itself is depressing because we owe so much money; packing and going through a bunch of stuff; Abby had shots today and is miserable and crying; I spent 3 hours at UPeds (The ghetto Dr.'s office with a capital "G".) she doesn't nap well anyway so nothing ever gets done; Emily is bored and constantly wants me to play with her, plus she doesn't like that I'm packing our stuff so she gets upset; Pete has to go to Chicago this weekend and take a test that cost us hundreds of dollars, plus the cost of gas and a hotel and food; I will be alone with the kids, which isn't good considering I'm about at my breaking point already; we are supposed to be moving in 4 1/2 weeks and it would appear that we don't have a house to move into; I have gained 5 pounds in the last week and a half--how did that happen?? I'm sure there's more if I stopped to think about it, but I don't think I want to. Glad I could get all that off my chest. ;)