Oh hello, blog

I have been such a bad blogger lately, but we still haven't decided what to do about our camera, so I'm lacking in pictures and therefore motivation to blog.  But we are alive and well!  It's getting pretty hot around here so we've been going to the pool once or twice a week and staying indoors a lot more.  We've also been going to the library a lot but they're closing tomorrow for a few weeks because they're moving into a new building. :(  It will be great once they get in there - I've heard it's much nicer - but that takes away one of the three places we go to regularly (pool, Walmart, library - exciting, I know), so that will be a bummer.

Tomorrow marks 7 weeks since we arrived in Alabama and there will be 7 weeks left until Jeremy finishes his internship.  So we're about halfway!  Crazy.  I'm glad we've survived.  Time flew by during the past year in Pittsburgh, but it's definitely slowed down since coming here.  There are certain things we'll miss about being here - Jeremy home a lot more, central air conditioning, lots of space and yard - but other than that I'll think we'll be happy to get back.

The boys have been really cute and entertaining lately.  Eli talks ALL THE TIME.  He's jabbering away as I type this, playing with his legos and some other random things, narrating stories and dialogues as he goes.  And Connor is starting to talk a lot more too.  Not very coherently, but he's starting to act like he's talking with all the right inflections and everything and it's so cute!  I love this stage.  He says a few things that resemble "Thank you" (daydoo), "There you go!" (ay-oh - with the right inflection) and "uh oh"...all the time.  It's very fun.  He always helps Jeremy get ready in the morning by handing him his shoes and socks while saying his "ay-oh".

We've also started a document on the computer where we write down funny things Eli says.  Here are a couple:

• When he was picking up some pieces of a game, he says in a discouraged voice, "I'm having a hard time!"
• This one was from a few months ago, but he went in to go to the bathroom by himself and closed the door.  A couple minutes later Jeremy knocked on the door to see if he was okay and he says, "I'm just workin' on it here, Daddy.  I'm just workin' on it."
• One night while reading scriptures Jeremy and I got very silly and animated and started reading in a loud preacher-ish voice and he yells, "Stop reading so loud!  I can't understand you when you read so loud!!! Talk softly!"
• And last - the other day I went to take a shower while Connor was napping, so I told him, "Okay bud, I'm going to go take a shower now" and he says, "Okay. I'll be good.  I'll be a good boy for you."  What a sweetie. :)

He also amazes me with his vocabulary.  Of course now that I write that I can't remember a single interesting word he's said lately so I'll have to start writing those down too.  Mostly they're words we've read in books - yea for reading!

And here are some phone pictures.  It's so hard to get good ones of the boys with my phone because the time delay is forever, so by the time it takes it they've moved on, but whatever.  Here we go.

 This was at the pool last Saturday.  It was sunny when we got there, but you can see Tropical Storm Debby starting to roll in...

 So we moved to the indoor pool...

I've been so amazed with how well Eli has done in the water.  He used to be really afraid, but he loves it now!  He just hangs out in his little tube and kicks around and never wants to leave.  He starts swim lessons in a week and a half, so I'm hoping his enthusiasm will stick around for that!  It should be fun.  We've been very grateful to have the Rec Center to go to - there are two huge pools and a big splash pad thing, so that has been a lifesaver for us.  We all get some exercise and sunshine without melting outside in the heat.  It's a win!

My Daddy, a Q&A

First off, Happy Father's Day!!!  I'm so grateful for both my dad and my dad-in-law.  Jeremy and I have both had amazing examples of fathers in our lives and I feel so blessed every time this day rolls around.  Thank you Dads for all you have done and continue to do for us!

In honor of Father's Day I decided to interview Eli about his Daddy.  I was so sad our camera is broken because a video of this would have been so much better!  His expressions and inflections while answering were so darn cute.  So just imagine.  I'll have to do it again sometime, it was thoroughly entertaining. For now, here is our little Q&A.  This is a word-for-word transcript. :)  Enjoy!

What is Daddy's name? Daddy! (giggle)
How old is Daddy? Hmmmm Daddy's five!  Daddy is five years old.
How did you and Daddy meet? (Blank stare) When did you first see Daddy?  When you were a baby? No, when I was a big 3 year-old!
How tall is Daddy? Daddy's like THIS big!  (Holds out hands) How many inches? Hmm...5 inches!
How much does Daddy weigh?  How many pounds?  Thirty-one.
What is Daddy's favorite food? His favorite thing to eat is chicken...and rice...and sauce...can we all eat that?
What does Daddy like to do? He likes to write and color and draw and paint, all those kinds of things.
What does Daddy do for work? Hmmm...work!  What does he make? Helicopters!  And also he makes Seahawks!
Why is Daddy smart?  Because! Just because.
What do you like to do with Daddy? I like to tackle him and chase him and play tagpole with him!  I just told you about tagpole. (???)
What makes Daddy happy? Hmmm...it makes Daddy happy is because he can see me!
What is your favorite thing about Daddy? My favorite thing about Daddy is because I can see him!
Do you have anything else you want to say about Daddy? Um, no.

So there you go!  This was enlightening for sure. :)  What a cutie pie.  Unfortunately Connor did not contribute to this, but like I said, we'll definitely be doing kid interviews again.  Precious!

Seven Years!

Tomorrow is our seven year anniversary!  We our finishing off a wonderful weekend.  Yesterday we drove up to the Birmingham Temple and had a lovely time there.  It's 2.5 hours away (.5 hr closer than Columbus!) so it took most of the day, but we were so glad we went.  We were trying to decide what to do for our anniversary and finally decided a trip to the temple would be just the right thing.  We switched off watching the kids and they were really good.  Jeremy took them to the park (right around the corner) while I went to the 9am session and then I took them to the nursery in the church and to get lunch and gas while he went to the 11am session.  It was great!  We stopped at the Costco in Montgomery on the way home, had leftovers for dinner, and then watched a James Bond movie after the kids went to bed (I love getting movies from the library!)

Today was another great day.  I got sustained as a Sunday School teacher.  Yep, teaching Gospel Doctrine is the dreaded calling for me.  I just feel inadequate and I've actually never taught a church class EVER.  Most of my callings are choir director, organist, music chairman, you know, those ones.  So this will be exciting.  But they already have a teacher called, so I'm more of the back-up/assistant.  I guess she's really flaky and doesn't come sometimes without a word of notice, so I have been charged with trying to communicate with her and in the meantime preparing a lesson every week in case I have to teach.  It may sound kind of terrible, but I'm actually looking forward to it.  I needed a kick in the pants for my person scripture study, so this will be just the right thing!

Then for dinner tonight we had the missionaries over!  We love having the missionaries.  There are five of them and they are great.  I think we're going to sign up to have them at least every other week if not every week.  Since it's a small branch, I don't think they're getting fed by members often enough, so I think that will be nice.  And it's nice for us to have them in our home.  Jeremy's been working with them this week a lot and will be for the whole summer, so it will be nice to have them around.

In other news, Jeremy is really enjoying his job.  This last week was a really good week and he seems to be on fire about that and his calling, so that's always fun to see. :)  The boys and I continue to be hermits, but we're trying to find more things to do.  We did try out the "rec center" that has 2 pools and that was a huge hit with the boys so we'll be going there a lot more often.  It has also been raining almost nonstop since yesterday and it is sooo humid.  Thank goodness for air conditioning!  It's amazing how different it feels inside my air conditioned house at 76 degrees and outside at the same temperature with 90% humidity.  My hair is poofing and curling in ways I never imagined, and it's all been very exciting to say the least. :)

So that's the latest here from Troy!  The camera is not looking too good, but we'll keep working on it...so in the meantime here are some older pictures that somehow never made it onto the blog.

Phone Pictures

So our poor camera broke when we were in Pensacola.  I'm hoping Jeremy can fix it, but for now, here are a couple pictures from my phone.  I don't have a smartphone or anything so these are not very high quality, but here you go!

Eli's seashell collection from the beach.  He looks at/plays with them often. :)

A little friend we found at the park last week.  Yep, we have large bugs.  Ignore my chipped purple fingernails - I just put those in the picture for size comparison.

And speaking of how large things grow here...our plants!  And handsome Eli.  We bought these as little plants and put them in the pots about 5 days after we moved in and they are huge!  I guess they've been in there about 3 weeks now, but I cannot believe how big they've grown!  We've enjoyed the fresh herbs already and we have 5 tomatoes coming and lots more flowers.  Hooray!

 I'll make sure to get a picture of Connor too next time.  Like I said, I hope we get the camera fixed soon!

The Church in Troy

Today was our 3rd Sunday in our little branch in Troy (last week we were in Pensacola).  I thought I would share a little about what the church is like here.  First off, I love that wherever you go, the same lessons are being taught, the same format is used, the same Gospel is being shared.  (More or less, I sometimes wondered in Pittsburgh...hehe).  We are in a branch here that is part of the Dothan Alabama stake.  Dothan is about an hour away.  Montgomery has its own stake, so I think our stake covers everything south of there on the east half of the state, part of Florida, and a little of Georgia. That's a lot of area!

From what we've seen so far, there are usually around 60 people that attend Sacrament Meeting.  Our Branch President is amazing.  I think the church would be much less strong here without him.  I'm not sure how many children he has, but I know it's a lot.  They have 3 boys in high school and a younger girl and 2 boys on missions and I think there are some more that are older too.  He is a very intense high achieving guy and you can tell he's helped shape the branch a lot.  It was neat today, he acknowledged all those who had completed the year of seminary.  His 3 boys were up there - all having read the entire Old Testament and had 100% attendance for the year (one for all four!) - and there was another boy too.  He then thanked his wife for being the seminary teacher for the last TWELVE YEARS.  Oh my.  That woman is a saint.

Also today, Jeremy got called and set apart as the Elder's Quorum President.  Yep, we're only here 11 more weeks and he's the Elder's Quorum President.  That was one I really didn't expect since he's a High Priest, but I trust that he is the man for the job.  The previous president just had neck surgery and is kind of out of commission for awhile, so they may call him back after we leave.  I left Jeremy at church afterward today and I don't expect to see him for awhile...and so it begins...again. :)  As for me, I was called to my #1 most feared calling.  I'll tell you next week what it is.  See if you can guess.  It will probably surprise you what I'm afraid of!  (It's not a music calling).

We have a wide variety of people here.  There are 5 missionaries assigned to our branch - 2 Elders and 3 Sisters and you can tell they are working very hard.  The Stake President said they baptize about 10-15 Chinese immigrants a year in the branch!  How cool.  They come here to attend Troy University.  Jeremy said how neat it is that the Chinese people are being taught all over - not in China, but other places.  He taught several in Cyprus on his mission too.  Anyway, so we have some students, several Alabama natives and a lot of transplants like us.  So there are a lot fewer Southern accents than I expected.

We meet in a church building, but it's small and doesn't have a real chapel.  They're actually building a new one next door that they expect to move into sometime this summer.  It's small, but the people are friendly and most of the members are strong.  There are 2 girls named Addie around Eli's age.  One just turned 4 and the other turns 4 this summer, then there is a 2 yr-old boy Eli really likes (Max) and an almost 2 yr-old girl who comes about half the time.  So Eli has been going to primary with the "two Addies".  The first 2 weeks he would go to sharing time the first hour (Max goes too since his Mommy is in primary) and then they would go to nursery together.  Today, however, Max wasn't there so Eli went to the Sunbeam class and loved it!  The teacher said he was really good.  After church he said "Now I need to go to nursery".  I think he wanted to stay all day.  I have a feeling it's going to be a rough transition back to Pittsburgh when he has to just go to nursery again.

Anyway, so that's church life here.  It's been a bit of an adjustment, but we're getting there.  The hardest part for me has been finding friends and being a lonely.  Coming from our ward in Pittsburgh with so many young moms, mostly students' wives, all in the same boat, and lots of friends to get together with, it's been a bit challenging.  There are only 4 other women around my age (and I'm using that loosely: between 20ish and 40ish), so there aren't a ton, but they're all really nice and we're getting to know them better.  I'm just out of practice getting to know people outside of church, so this will be good for me. :)  That's what I keep telling myself anyway!  We went to the park the other day hoping to find friends, and there was not a person to be found.  It was the coolest nicest day in weeks so I was shocked (and this is not a park, this is the park, the only one in the whole town).  We'll have to get more creative with meeting people, but we'll figure it out.

Anyway, sorry no pictures!  Give yourself a pat on the back if you made it through this whole thing.  Maybe I should have just stuck this in my journal...next time... :)