Newest News in the News Industry

I've been wanting to write an update for a while, but some of the news I couldn't really announce until this week, so I've been waiting.

Our biggest news on the news front is that Rob is now the 2nd Counselor in the Bishopric of our ward. He was the YM President for a little over 2 years, and he'd just started to hit his stride. That, of course, was the problem. Once you hit your stride, you KNOW there are changes coming. The story of him getting this calling is a good one, though it's kind of long and intertwined with another story about our car. I'll mark it with a Start and End, so you can skip it if you want.

Start

At the start of this month was Fast Sunday. We had decided that our fast was going to be focused on our marriage and strengthening it. Not that we're struggling, because we're not. Shortly after we'd decided that's what our fast would be about (earlier in the week), our van had a glich. A hiccup. I rolled down the window of the driver's side door, just to make Miciah laugh, and it wouldn't roll back up. Well, it's darn cold outside. This is a bummer. And of course that has to happen on a Friday night, late.

So, Saturday Rob calls the dealership. They told him he could bring it in, but they probably wouldn't be able to get to it until Monday, though they'd park it inside, and the repair would likely cost us anywhere from $100 - $300 dollars. The cost was a bummer, but we needed our window to roll up. And it's not like we cover it with plastic and make do. It's the driver's side door. Kind of need to see through the window.

Anyways, that Sunday was the Super Bowl. And if it means we're going to Hell for watching the Super Bowl, then so be it, because we enjoy watching this one Sunday sporting event a year. Anyways, we were watching it at a friend's house and he had offered to look at the car with Rob. Then, another guy also offered to help. Sure, what can it hurt?

I'm going to skip ahead in this story to the repair at the dealer on Monday morning. The part that was broken in the first place was the switch. The switch was a $70 part. The part they broke trying to fix the first problem was a $600 part. In total, our bill was $830.

So, (skipping back) Sunday at church, during our fast, I was reassured that we should really focus on making our marriage stronger. Then I spent all Monday not talking to Rob after he called to let me know how much the repair bill came to. :) But it got me thinking, and really thinking hard, about marriage and partnership and communication.

I apologized, Monday night, for making Rob feel bad. When I get frustrated, I also get vocal, and maybe I should work on making that not so. Tuesday morning I woke up determined to really work on our marriage. We set out to do a marriage reassessment. I sent Rob to work with homework. We spent the next almost full week thinking about and talking about our roles and responsibilities in marriage. What we liked, didn't like. What was working, what wasn't. Where we needed to re-focus. It was great.

(As an aside, the two men that helped with the van, they're still our friends. :) )

Then came Saturday. Stake Conference. Before Rob left for the mens' leadership meeting, I saw one of the members of our stake presidency (used to be the bishop of our ward, and he's a great guy. I call him Jim, which thrills me) at a wedding reception. All casual-like he says, "I need to talk with you and Rob for a few minutes before the meeting tonight." I'm thinking just to chat. I told Rob, just as casual, "Hey, Jim needs to meet with us for a few minutes." "What for?" Rob says. "I dunno." Rob: "Okay."

Well, I wasn't on time to the meeting, so we met after the meeting. No big deal. Actually worked out really well, other than our friends were sitting next to us the whole time teasing us about what kind of calling Rob would be getting. We got in the room with Jim and he first asked how we were getting along (See? He WAS meeting with us to chat!). We chuckled a little and talked about the week and our marriage re-assessment. He said it was good to re-assess from time to time. I agree. Though NEXT time we'll schedule it so our marriage therapy session won't cost us $830.

Then he asks Rob to be the 2nd counselor. I WISH I had a video camera there. His physical reaction was almost laughable. Now, I was pretty shocked, too. The Bishop had just called a new 2nd counselor a month ago. That's not an exaggeration on how recently the changes had been made. On top of that, Rob just got his YM Presidency in order, and all those changes had been within the last 2 months. So it didn't seem the time, really, to make more changes.

But the call was extended and eventually, when Rob found his words again, he said yes. They looked at me after a time and asked how I felt. Great! Rob will be a fantastic 2nd counselor. No worries there. They talked about increased time committment, but every time committment Rob will have, he ALREADY had as YM President. Really, not much changes.

... Then came a full week of Rob walking around like a deer in headlights. In fact, every day since the call, I've looked at him and said, "How you feeling today?" And I wasn't asking about his health.

End

So, what have I learned from this? That God answers our prayers and petitions in strange ways. And as I look back over the last 3 weeks, I feel so blessed to have a Heavenly Father who cares about us and our concerns. It's amazing to me.

Though I still would have liked to skip the $830 part.

Sunday--A Great Family Moment

And then there was Sunday, when Rob actually got the call at church. V & C came down so that V could ordain Rob to be a High Priest. I don't know about you, but I think that's kind of cool. A once-in-a-lifetime event that I'm glad to have been there for. So I called Rob's siblings and told them that, even though Rob thought it was lame, they should come down for it. Rob really would have hurt me if he'd known about all of it. Hence he didn't know. And he's pretty easy to dupe. C brought down a huge crockpot of chicken stuff from C and Rob still was suspicious of nothing.

First, M & K showed up at church. We had M and A for the weekend (as a b-day present to M, whose b-day was yesterday), so Rob just thought they were coming early to get her. Then G and M showed up. And finally C showed, and then Rob got it. He still, I think, thought it was lame, but the family support was cool. And it was a great family moment.

Everyone stayed after for a meal and to play. It was awesome. And to initiate Rob quickly, he had to count tithing after church. :) It was weird to hand him our tithing. But he's trustworthy, I guess. I did tell him that he's not allowed to ask me to give a talk (at least for a good while), and I don't want him to give me a temple reccomend interview. I think that would just be weird.

...................

Other news.

Teancom

Took Teancom in for a doc's appointment last week. He's fine. Growing fine, doing fine. His verbal skills have really shot up, and it's awesome. I've decided he's probably communicating to us as effectively as Miciah was at this age. Miciah was very articulate from a young age, and pretty easy to understand. Teancom is neither of those, but because he doesn't fuss ever, he just uses his words to tell us what he wants. So he'll tell us exactly what he wants without the crying or whining, and it's a beautiful thing.

He's really rather polite. For instance, fruit snacks. I'll often give him a package of fruit snacks, and he'll say thank you and walk off to eat it. He'll get done, bring me the wrapper to throw away, and say, "More," very calmly. Is that not amazing? He has figured out that he has opinions, which is a little weird for me. I'm used to him just adjusting to whatever I want. He's figured out it's pretty darn funny to run away from me so I have to chase him. Or funny to say No, just cause he wants to (though he doesn't throw a fit when I make him do what I want anyway, and I'm grateful for that). So it's fun that he's figuring out he's his own person. He still has so much less attitude than what I'm used to.

Elijah Fun

Elijah is still crazy and fun and obsessed with Spider-Man. A fun story or two about Elijah.

My friends have now started noticing and commenting on Elijah's clothes-layering obsession. I took him to a play group on a day when he insisted on wearing 7 shirts. I don't even know how he gets them all on. Pretty impressive.

Rob was putting Elijah to bed and Elijah wasn't happy about going to bed. So Rob started distracting him with questions: "Elijah, who is blue and red?" Spider-Man! (As a side note, ever since Rob pointed out to Elijah that Spider-Man is blue and red, those are the only colors he wears.) "Who is green and not nice?" Green Goblin! "Who loves you very much?" Rob was thinking, of course, Mom and Dad. Elijah answered, "Spider-Man!"

Elijah is interested in saying the prayer for every prayer we say. We often let him, but he also will only whisper it. If we ask him to talk louder, he'll usually get quieter. But at the end of almost every prayer, whether we help him say it or someone else says it, he'll say, "Hey! We forgot to pray for Green Goblin and the Bishop!" Now, I get praying for the Bishop. But why exactly are we praying for the Green Goblin? So that he'll join the forces of good? So that he'll die and put everyone out of their misery? So that he will be forgiven in the afterlife and eventually be able to go to heaven? So that Spider-Man can defeat him? I'm just not sure.

For another bedtime, Rob was telling one of his infamous stories. Rob tells lots of good stories. They're brilliant, really, and unique every night. The kids will request the characters they want in the story and Rob will put it all together. Some nights he has to work together the Care Bears, Spider-Man and the Green Goblin, a dragon, Miciah and Elijah, and the Little Mermaid. This particular night, the story was about Miciah and Elijah, the Care Bears and Mom and Dad. Rob set it up so that Miciah and Elijah were orphans and the Care Bears were looking for good parents to take care of them. The stories are pretty predictable, and I'm sure you can guess who the Care Bears found. Right. But, Rob was talking about how sad Miciah was when she didn't have a mommy and daddy: "And Miciah said, "I would really like to have a Mommy and Daddy who love me." And then Elijah said, ... Well, Elijah, what did Elijah say?" And Elijah said, "Elijah said "Spider-Man will come down and slam the Green Goblin in the head!" :) We both just laughed. Here's this touchy-feely story about the love between parents and their kids and Elijah is thinking about Spider-Man fighting the Green Goblin. Awesome.

Elijah has had a hard time adjusting to Primary. Nursery was free-for-all fun for 2 hours, and the fact that he has to sit still for Primary doesn't make him happy. So we've been having some fun weeks trying to convince him to go. Hopefully those weeks are mostly behind us. But my favorite week was one where he'd decided he would go to our boring class with us instead of going to Primary. Even his best friend wasn't enough of a draw to go to class. Finally I told him I'd go and walk him to his chair and stand by him for a few minutes. He was okay with that. We walked in the door, and his teacher looked at him and smiled in a very friendly way. Elijah responds by raising his fist right in front of his face in a menacing gesture, lowering his chin a little and scowling. Lovely. The other teachers were laughing, or trying not to laugh, and looking at me. I was rolling my eyes. It's funny, but why must my son be returning menacing gestures to people who smile at him? Sometimes I genuinely feel sorry for his teacher.

Miciah

And then there's Miciah. Miciah is doing well in school and loving every minute she's there. She lately has been fighting bedtime, I've probably mentioned that in the last update. Anyways, we've been giving her reading time at bedtime and she's grooving on that. We even got her a lamp for her bed so that she can read as long as she wants. She really likes the freedom this gives her and we're really liking how well bedtime is going!

Miciah had to get her chicken pox booster shot last week because we couldn't find anyone who didn't vaccinate their kids, and so we couldn't find a kid to donate the chicken pox to us. Oh well. Anyways, the shot was a disaster. Miciah threw a HUGE fit. I told Rob I'm not taking Miciah in for a shot again by myself. Teancom cried less for his shots than Miciah did for hers. Yikes. Any suggestions for me?

Tamra's News

My news. This week I got my requested 3rd calling. I am now in Primary, I think as a substitute teacher. Like, the person they'll always ask first to teach a class. Sounds fine to me. With Teancom in Nursery, I'm ready to do a little more. My other two callings are pretty low-key, so I'm glad to have a 3rd.

Also, on Sunday I was finally awarded my Young Womens Recognition Award. I earned it over a year ago when I was still a YW leader. I'm proud of myself for acheiving that, especially since I never got it as a teenager. Go me! It was an added bonus that all of Rob's family was there to see it. I didn't tell them, it was just a fun little surprise. Sunday felt like the Rob and Tamra Thacker Show!

And I'll stop boring you with this update. I even fell asleep a few times while writing it, so my apologies to you as readers.

We send you our love! We're watching the snow accumulate and hoping you're all staying warm and cozy (and no comments from Dad or B. I KNOW you live in sunny CA where it doesn't get below freezing)!

Tamra, Rob, Miciah, Elijah, Cleo, and the fish (including 4 baby fish who are super cute! Having baby fish is WAY better than having a baby human. If the baby fish get eaten or die off, no big deal. The guppies will just have more.)

Here are 2 pictures of Teancom. He's a cutie!

Two more, from the same series.

For some reason, I particularly like blurry pictures. I mean, how beautiful is this one of Teancom? (That's not a question I want you to actually answer, since you probably think blurry pictures are awful, because you're a normal person who likes to see things clearly.)

Latest Update

If it would be closer to Thanksgiving, I would appreciate that. I have not been able to think about anything except the season's great food for almost a week! It's tantalizing. I might just make pumpkin pie early, but would that spoil the greatness of pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving? One never knows.

I sent you all Halloween pictures. Halloween was good. We had our traditional Dinner-in-a-Pumpkin meal (which the kids actually don't eat--we feed them hotdogs), and it's always fun to cook a meal in a pumpkin. It makes me want to cook ALL my meals inside a cleaned out pumpkin. Cause it's cool.

Cutting Back on Stress

The last few weeks have been good. Around last month I was about done with all the activities our family was doing. We were busy with so many good things that I didn't ever feel like Rob and I got to spend time together or even have a normal conversation. It felt a little out of control. So we slowed WAY down and it's been nice to breathe a little bit. We took out anything that wasn't absolutely necessary and spent a lot of evenings at home together instead of out and about doing stuff or having people over. The break has made us better able to do the things we need to do, and the things we want to do. We have just started to add a few more things back in: having a few people over for dinner, stuff like that. So now I'm not bitter at Rob being so involved in his church calling. :) I was bitter for a minute until we took this break and I realized that a lot of what I was upset about was the fact that our family was too busy doing other things. Though, I have asked Rob to cut out some of the things for his calling, too. Balance. This is a hard word for me. A work in progress.

Miciah

Miciah is getting better and better at reading. We have a parent-teacher conference at the end of next week. The teacher said she would have a reading assessment for us when we went in to meet with her. The teacher said Miciah is "just cool", but she could have just said that to make all those parental pride emotions inside of me feel good. :) She's a great teacher and we feel lucky for Miciah to be in her class.

A few days ago Miciah came to me with 28 cents. She asked if I could put it in her piggy bank. We created piggy banks for Miciah and Elijah for when they earn money. I told her she had to earn the money and where did she get it from (because she only earns money by doing chores and stuff like that--they play the penny game: a penny for every item they clean up). She said she got it on the bus. I asked her to elaborate and she told me a friend on the bus saw a "jewel" that one of her classmates had given her for her birthday. The kid on the bus wanted it and "traded" her the 28 cents for the jewel. ... I wasn't sure what to say about that. Miciah sold something to another student. In the end I decided that counted as earning money and put the coins in her piggy bank.

Elijah

Elijah is still a rambunctious 3-year-old. He's so sweet sometimes and then just all energy and boy at other times. But it's really cute when we see how sweet he is. He's more considerate than I am BY FAR, and that's refreshing. Sure, you can teach consideration, but we didn't teach him--he came with it.

At Halloween, there was a guy sitting on his porch smoking. He didn't have any candy. Now WHY would you sit on your front porch smoking on Halloween night without candy? Who knows. Elijah started walking up the steps and the guy said he didn't have any candy. We started calling Elijah back, but he wasn't really getting it. We said he could just tell him Happy Halloween, which Elijah apparently took as a go ahead and walk up to get candy. So he finished walking up the steps. We hastily explained to him that the guy didn't have any candy and went to get him down (cause he wasn't coming down). He turns to the guy in the middle of all this fun chaos-like atmosphere, smiles, and gives him a thumbs up. :)

Night Terrors

For a few weeks Elijah's night terrors spiked in frequency. He really hadn't had many until we took his binky away. We took his binky away 2 months ago now, and at first he just didn't go to sleep very well. Then he got used to that and the night terrors started coming back instead. There weren't that many at first, so I wasn't sure it was connected to taking away the binky. Then there was 2 or 3 weeks where they were 3 times a week or more. They'd changed in nature a little, but they obviously were night terrors. We were about to the point where we were ready to ask the doctor about them--if there was anything we could do--when they quit. I just realized the other day that he hadn't had one in like 2 weeks. He will now wake up occasionally in the middle of the night, around midnight (he's ALWAYS done this, even since he was a baby sleeping, otherwise, through the night), be a little sad but able to be comforted, and then go back to sleep. ... We just had Teancom's check-up on Friday, which you'll hear about in a minute, and we asked the doctor about the night terrors. I told him a little of the history and described a little bit about his behavior during them. The doctor said 1- we had it pretty easy compared to some kids' night terrors, and 2- it made a lot of sense to him. The binky was his comfort item which helped curb the night terrors. Then we took that away and he had to adjust again. Having a comfort item helps curb night terrors. So I was glad at least that what we were observing made sense.

But an after affect of taking the binky away is that Elijah now does not take a nap at all. He occasionally will fall asleep watching a movie, or he'll fall asleep in the car (even more rare, since I'm not out and about much in the afternoon now). But no naps on any kind of regular basis. In fact, I'm having a hard time recalling when his last nap was.

Teancom

Teancom is the cutest baby ever. He's dang happy and content with life. He still is not walking, though, and he's not really talking, either. At the check-up, our doctor asked if we were concerned about either of those things. We told him we weren't really, we just wanted to keep an eye on it. He described it much how we do, "It would be nice if he were doing those things, but I think he'll get there." He said he was encouraged by his interaction with us, and how active he was. He did tell us we could send him to Children's for developmental testing for his walking and his talking. He said mainly it would be for peace of mind--plus, we wouldn't have to keep addressing it at doc's visits in the future. We turned that down, just cause we're not really concerned. Teancom has done everything so far at his own pace, and just about the time where we're starting to be really concerned about it, he starts doing it. So, I fully expect that he'll start walking at 18 months, a week before the next doctor's appointment. :)

And then his language will take off, too, I'm sure. Right now the only word he says that is truly a word is "No." He's got that one down. Not that I'm sure he always knows what it means. There are just times I KNOW he knows what it means. He's developing his attitude. He's taken to throwing sprawling fits on the living room floor. Usually it's because he's hungry and I haven't fed him yet. He does know how to sign for food, but I've found that if he's REALLY hungry, he won't sign any more, he'll just throw a fit. Fun. :) But at least he has an opinion about it now, and that's nice. Before it was hard for me to tell when he was hungry at all, because he seemed not to care so much. Then we taught him the sign for food and he would wake up from naps signing for food. :) And now he's moved up a level from that--throwing fits when I don't feed him soon enough.

But, still, he's so dang happy and cute and cuddly! I don't know any other 15-month-old that still loves to be cuddled and squished and loved on like he does. He's very calm for a 15-month-old. And I love it. Miciah the other day said, "Mommy likes Teancom better than all of us, even Daddy." I smiled. I told her that I don't like him better, I just love that I can still gush him. I asked her if I could gush her and she said she wouldn't like it. I told her that Elijah didn't like it, either, and it would just be weird if I did it to Rob. So I have to get it while Teancom will still give it. I'll be a little sad when he's more active. It's nice to just carry him around during church and not have him going crazy because he's bored out of his mind. He's just content to be held while he sucks on his fingers and plays with his ear.

That's the kids.

Thacker Family Fireside

Family stuff. Something very cool happened last week for the family. Rob's parents and sisters and brother, G, came down to do a fireside for the ward. It was titled, "What Think Ye of Christ?" and was a wonderful evening of song and testimony. They each gave a personal story and then sang a song to go along with that testimony. The last song, entitled Tender Mercies, had C on the violin, the rest singing, and our friend in the ward, RH (who is a FABULOUS pianist), accompaning. It was AMAZING. As the presentation ended, I was almost in tears about the fact that it hadn't been recorded. It is my new goal in life to have them perform it (or something like it) again in C and M's branch, or V & C's ward, so we can work on getting a recording of it. (There are rules about what can be recorded where in the ward building. We didn't look very hard into getting it recorded, since they had told us no because that's the rule. I think had Rob or I made a personal plea about how this is a precious piece of family history, they would have let us record it. Because that was the right thing to do. But, alas, now we just have that regret.)

Anyways, it was amazing and a great family moment.

I am doing good. Working on this idea of Balance. That will be a life-long endeavor.

Rob is doing good, too. His paper (as always, it seems) is near completion and he's working on his second paper and his dissertation. We have a June 13th graduation in sight (it's a Friday, which I think is fun), and Rob has a committee meeting on Wednesday to try to convince them he'll be ready to graduate then.

Post-Doc Search

We're also still in the process of trying to find a post-doc. The woman he's been in contact with at the NIH is a flake and so we're looking into other options. This whole thing has been a process of better defining what exactly Rob wants to do for a post-doc. It is still possible that we will stay here in Cincinnati, but it's not Rob's first choice. There are lots of advantages for our family if we stay here, but it has to be right, whatever the choice is. I kicked the current "opportunity" out the door (the woman at the NIH he's been in contact with). Rob isn't as fed up as I am, but he's ready to start expanding his post-doc options now. Bottom line: There is no news to report. We're still in phase 1 (and in some cases, phase 0) of decisions about post-docs.

Cleo

Oh, and I should probably report about Cleo, our cat. We had given her to C, but she wasn't doing well there, so we took her back. There is someone here that is interested in her, possibly, but the day after she got back to our house, we found the elusive ringworm. You know, the ringworm that everyone in our family had, that C's family had, and that we were pretty sure the baby cat, Fumasa, had passed to us. We took Cleo in to get a treatment for it. We've been doing that for, what, almost 4 weeks. It's getting better, but slowly. A week or two after we took Cleo in, they found ringworm on Ceasar, too. The two different vets seperately concluded that Fumasa is a carrier for ringworm. Fun! So Cleo is with us until she is healthy, and then hopefully she'll go to another good home. ... So much for being cat free. :)

And that's our update.

Tamra and family

Update From This End

Well, it's been almost a full month since I've sent out a word update. I've sent plenty of pictures, so you aren't lacking there. ... Here's the update.

D Went Home

D went home Monday morning, and the house feels very, umm, ... lacking. :) She was never loud, but the house is now quieter and I feel like I can do lots and lots of things because, for the mornings, I only have 2 kids around! Wow! The first day I ran errands and then I cleaned up the kids' room (it had a sleeping bag on the ground for the whole 4 plus weeks D was here). ... It's nice to have the house a little cleaner and quieter and back to normal. But at the same time, I miss D. She was fun to have around. It's especially good for Elijah, I think, for D to be gone. Cause Elijah was in need of some serious alone time.

Cheerios on the Floor and Other Craziness

Last week was a fun week! Mondays Rob is at class until 9 pm or later. Right around dinner time I got a phone call. I was downstairs, so I answered it down there, which meant it wasn't a portable phone. I was on the phone for about 20 minutes and when I went back upstairs, Elijah had dumped an entire box of Cheerios all over the house! It took me over half an hour to clean that one up. Mid-cleaning, I called up R and asked if he wanted to keep a little boy occupied for about half an hour. He asked what I was getting ready to do. I told him I was getting ready to kill a little boy! :) So I took him over there and finished cleaning up the house. It was nice to just not have to look at him for a little while. He's not a bad kid, he's just 3 and sometimes I have to have some time when he's not in my face looking so cute and innocent and mischevious about the messes he makes. ... But when Rob got home the house was clean!

Then Tuesday. Rob came home early to do yardwork. It's been so cold that there wasn't a really good day to do it for a while, plus Rob's been pretty busy. He did all the yardwork and then I started doing some work in the garden. Rob took Elijah to McDonalds for a little date. Then Rob went off to Young Mens and I stayed home with the kids. Well, I had laid Teancom down for a nap, but turns out he wasn't tired, he was hungry. He was screaming by the time I picked him up. But then he was so upset that he wouldn't eat for a little while. So I put him back down for a minute. I was trying to get dinner for the kids this whole time and the girls are asking to do all kinds of things. During all that Elijah decides he has to go potty and needs me in there the whole time. So I'm in the bathroom, listening to the girls being crazy on one hand and Teancom screaming on the other. By now I'm feeling just about crazy. Finally Elijah was done. I got dinner for the girls and fed Teancom. I then walk into my bedroom and the laundry basket full of folded clothes is all over the floor! I said, "What happened?!" Elijah, very calmly, walks up behind me and says, "I did it." You did THIS? Why? He says, "I look for socks." Ugh.

That night ended with me almost falling asleep on the couch, holding Teancom, counting down minutes until Rob got home.

Of course, I called my mom a few days later to tell her about the days and she just laughed at me. I think that's why I call her to tell her, so we can laugh together. I need that. Every mom has had days like that and it helps to laugh about it together.

Parley P. Pratt Conference

Last weekend we left our kids with friends and went to a Parley P. Pratt academic conference in Arkansas. That was a lot of fun. It was a 13-hour drive one way, so it was a little long, but we weren't feeling that until the last of the drive home. Rob and I got to talk in the car without any kids and that was awesome. We picked up my Dad in Memphis on the way and we had a good time with him. ... In Memphis we were thinking, since we had about an hour to kill, we'd just drive by Graceland (it's about 5 minutes from the airport). Well, we weren't sure quite where to go, so we parked. It was $6 to just park our car there. Anyways, we went to just see if we could walk on the property or something short, and it was $25 per person just to get on the property! So we just hung out in the gift shop and looked at pictures of Graceland. So $6 to look at pictures. Oh well, it was time to kill, and the pictures were actually pretty cool.

"Just" 3 Kids

... This week I've spent some time feeling like I wasn't sure what to do. Before, with 4 kids around, I didn't have any time to waste. But now, with just one less, I have time again and I've felt like I didn't know what to do at times. I don't know what's worse, to not have any time, or to feel like you've just wasted the whole day. :) But by the end of the week I felt like I had it pretty much back together and I've even felt ambitious enough to take on a project or two. Course, my kids aren't used to that, so we'll have to get back in the swing of things in that way.

The Scrapbooking Trip

This weekend has been a blast! A crazy, fun blast! I took 3 friends with me up to P to a day of scrapbooking with LB. Course, she's just Aunt L to me, a normal person, so it was way weird to see her being mobbed by scrapbooking women. It was awesome to see her in her element. It was fun to make the trip, a little girls' weekend, and it was fun to get to know the three women a little better.

Family-ness

We came back to Cincy and all Rob's family was here--all his available siblings, including Bryant from Utah, Mom and Dad, all the grandkids, and then eventually L made it back down, too. Sunday (today) we all went to church together and that was fun--chaos, but fun. We ate lunch with Bryant, Mom and Dad, L, and then my uncle R and his daughter C. C brought her little dog over (she looks like Wishbone) and the dog and Elijah became best friends. :) Elijah so needs a dog or a big brother. He loves to run around and be crazy and be physical. ... We were invited to dinner at a friend's house this last week. Rob hometeaches them. They have 7 kids, 3 of which are still living at home (4 were there that night). One is 10 or so, then 16, 23, and 27--something like that. Anyways, Miciah took a liking to the 23-year-old and he read books to her, let her go with him on a walk with the dog. She didn't let him out of her sight. Then the mom wanted to hold Teancom most of the time. And Elijah was in heaven with the 10 and 16-year-old. The boys chased him, let him chase them, threw balls to him, to each other, all those things boys like to do. Elijah LOVED it and didn't want to go home. I told them we're calling them next time we need a babysitter.

Okay, so that's life events here.

Miciah

Miciah is getting so much bigger and even more aware of what's going on around her. I just decided this last week that Miciah and I are forming a partnership at our home. She's going to be "in charge" and help me make decisions about our time and our home. Miciah doesn't like to be told what to do. Not at all. In fact, the idea dawned on me when she wanted to play with a flashlight. Of course, it was the same flashlight she had taken away from Elijah earlier because flashlights aren't toys. So I told her she also couldn't play with one. She said she NEEDED one for her train show, to be the spotlight. I told her that she was smart, she should come up with an acceptable alternative. She thought for a minute and said, "I know. You could cut out two yellow circles to be the spotlight." I told her I could do that. She said, "Yeah, but I should think more about it and write down some ideas." So she marched outside with pen and paper, took a chair to the middle of the backyard, and sat there for like 20 minutes coming up with "ideas". It was so cute. ... But it dawned on me that, given a little bit of freedom and time, she could basically run her own show. She's amazing at doing that. So why not let her. Most of the time, it's just me being lazy anyway, so I just have to discipline myself to be a better mother. That would be a worthwhile thing to do.

Elijah

Elijah is still sweet Elijah. He's been a little clingy lately, and a little tired. I think he's been a little clingy cause I've been gone a little more than usual. I went somewhere last weekend and this weekend. He's started saying, "Don't leave," while hugging my legs as tight as possible. He sometimes hugs me so tight that it knocks me over. I love his affection, but when he's clingy it's a little smothering. ... His scar is healing nicely. I think it's going to be pretty noticable for a while, but I'm not too worried about it. He likes to tell people that he got an "owie at mommy's house."

Teancom

And Teancom. He is rolling and scooting and eating a ton. He's trying to get ready to crawl. He'll get up on his hands and knees and look like he wants to start moving. He'll bob back and forth but doesn't actually move anywhere that way yet. He can move in a complete arc and scoot backwards and get to about anything he wants to get to. ... A couple weeks ago Rob and I had a good laugh watching Teancom trying to get something in front of him. He saw a toy in front of him that he couldn't reach (it was several feet away). He'd look at it, then roll across the living room one way to try to get to it. He'd reach the end, look at the toy again, decide he wasn't any closer, so he'd roll all the way back across the living room. He'd look again, decide he wasn't any closer still, and roll all the way back. He did this about 6 times back and forth before he finally started getting upset about it. We got the toy for him and praised him for the effort. :) It was cute. ... Now Teancom can do more than roll and I'm finally needing to make sure nothing at all is on the floor, not just not in his area. It's good to see him so active.

We Need a New Doctor

He's still happy as ever. We did get the iron test back. All the other tests came back normal, but his iron is borderline low: 10.4 if that means anything to you. Anyways, they gave us some iron for him to take. They said they'll check his iron again at 12 months and see if it's improved at all. As for his developmental progress, he's still behind a little. They want him at least crusing along furniture by 12 months. The doc said, and I quote, "If he's not, we'll have to try something different." I thought, "Like What? Baby exercise classes? Protien shakes?" I think I'm going to switch to another less jumpy doctor. This doctor is nice, but he's inexperienced and obviously has no kids. He doesn't listen well and gets a little freaked out by my overly happy child who is a little developmentally behind. I don't need that. I need a doctor who will look at him and say, "He'll probably get there in another 3 months, don't worry about it."

Rob

As for Rob, he's doing good. He's getting excited about where he is in school. He's started writing his first paper for publication and that's exciting to be at that stage. Almost all his experiments he needs to run are done, and so it feels a little more like the end is near. ... It does not feel like we've already been here 3 years, but it will be 3 years in June. Woah.

Tamra's New Church Calling

My exciting news is that I got a new calling at church. Rob and I both had youth callings, and that was working great until we had 3 kids instead of 2. The last few months Rob's been even more involved as YM President, which is great, but the situation caused so much contention in our home that it became a liability instead of a blessing. So I asked to be realeased and I got a new calling, and I'm excited about that. I'll miss my girls, but I'm glad it all happened how it happened.

So there's our update for now. Hope all is well with everyone.

Tamra, Rob, Miciah, Elijah, and Teancom

News Here

Spring Weather!

It's finally warming up! Yea! We had a great warm week, then it froze again for a week, and now it's back up to like 65. ... I've played in my garden, weeding it out and stuff (which has been MUCH easier than last year, the first spring in this house. It was a weed patch then and took me HOURS and HOURS to weed out). Anything to get outside. The kids have enjoyed playing outside, too. Miciah asked to play outside with her friend who was over. I said sure. She came inside and said, "We need to wash our hands." I said okay and glanced over and their hands weren't dirty, they were COVERED AND DRIPPING WITH MUD. Oh well. They must have had fun.

Rob

Rob is still Rob. He's been doing a lot more lately as Young Men's president in our ward, which is fun. He went last Friday to do a "Shredding Party" with the Priests (16-18 year olds). He took our paper shredder and they shredded stuff, just cause the YM thought it was cool. ... I don't get it. Probably because I'm female. But they had a good time. Rob got home past midnight and had nothing but good to say about the activity. Rob seems to be really jelling in his calling, and that's fantastic. It's running smoothly and isn't stressing him out like it used to. It's all going well.

Next week Rob starts some other classes at school. One is every Monday night for 10 weeks. He won't be home until like 9 those nights. It'll be an adjustment for me. But, it's on Mondays, and those are my best days, so I'm not too worried about it.

Miciah

Miciah is doing soccer this spring. That'll be fun. Her first practice is this Saturday, so it'll be fun. I hope she enjoys it. Miciah and I just went to pick up D, my neice, who will be staying with us for a little bit. Miciah and D hugged each other for about a minute with huge grins on their faces when they first saw each other. It was cute. I haven't seen them at all since D's been here cause they've been having so much fun playing together. It's been great. They play really well together.

Elijah

Elijah is still cute as can be and happy. We're mid-potty training with him. It's going alright. Not great, but not horrible, either. He's getting it and we're excited to only have one kid in diapers!

Some cute Elijah stories. Elijah was being crazy the other day. He loves to be pushed and tickled and manhandled. So he was running around in circles and asking me to push him down and stuff like that. He then starts telling me things that I smell like. He says, "You smell like poop." I said, "I smell like poop?" He answered, "You smell like poop and cheese." It made us laugh so hard that we didn't even tell him it's not nice to tell someone they smell like poop.

Elijah is addicted to pancakes. I don't know why, he just is. He was begging me for them the other morning. So back and forth it went: "Mommy, you make pancakes a-me." "You make pancakes for me!" "No, YOU make pancakes a-ME." I then told him I'd make pancakes for him if he made pancakes for me. Just to see what he'd do. He's looking a little frustrated and he runs over to my bed. I'm thinking he's going to hit the bed, since he hits objects when he's frustrated. But instead he fiddles with his hands, reaches out towards me, hands palm-up, and says, "Here. Pancakes!" It was so cute that he "made" pancakes for me. Of course I went and made some pancakes for him.

And the last story, courtesy A who was watching Elijah and Teancom so I could go pick up D. I was dropping him off in the morning. He was acting a little sad and mopey, like he didn't want me to leave. He didn't want to give me his binky. He didn't want to go play downstairs with K or watch Finding Nemo, even though he loves K and Finding Nemo. I gave him a hug and was being really soft with him. Elijah's a really sensitive kid and I just thought he needed some extra time to be comfortable. Anyways, I walked out the door, and A says that as soon as I shut the door, Elijah said, "Ha, ha," threw his binky on the floor and ran downstairs to play. ... What a little jerk! I was floored. My sweet little Elijah. Well, then. :)

Teancom

That only leaves Teancom. Teancom is the world's best baby, which I might have mentioned before. I feel very lucky to be his mother. I don't know what kind of deal I made with God, but I would recommend making the same sorts of deals. He's amazing. ... In terms of his health. We got him in to the doctor to get a referral to Children's Hospital so they could do some blood work. It was a long 2 hours at the doctor for a referral. But we got it and went in last Monday for the bloodwork. They said it would take a week, so I guess I could call my doctor's office and get the results from it. The office said if the results were abnormal, they'd call me, but I don't know how on top of things they are. So maybe I should call them.

Anyways, when I went in he was happy and active. His activity level has skyrocketed in the last 2 weeks. He's rolling across the floor, grabbing toys, he doesn't sit still very much. So when I took him in, I told them he wasn't really rolling still. But instead of saying that he wasn't very strong and to keep an eye on that, the doctor just said, "Some babies just aren't interested. He's obviously active." So that was nice. I told the office that I was told Teancom was anemic. The two nurses and two doctors that saw him were almost shocked. It was interesting to see their reaction. One of them said, "Who? HIM?" They said his coloring is great, he doesn't look pale or anything (he's so dark, it'd be hard for him to look pale), plus he's active and happy. All good things to hear.

Teancom has been sick for the last little bit. Starting Friday he started throwing up and diarrea-ing. He didn't keep much down all weekend, and he didn't want any solids. Tuesday night he finally acted hungry for something other than formula, which I thought was great! He was fine yesterday, and that's good, too. He's back to being happy and smiley and so I think the sickness is mostly past us. ...

And I'm doing okay. Life is good and I can't complain.

Hope all is well for everyone!

Tamra, Rob, Miciah, Elijah and Teancom (with assorted fish (though they're slowly dying off) including our baby, Lucky who is still alive, and our two cats, Cleo and Ceasar)

Not much to report

I looked back and the last time I've sent one of these out was over a month ago. Probably because not much changes or happens around here. We like it that way. Boring is the way to go.

Pre-school

Miciah is attending pre-school now. She started 2 weeks ago and seems to really be enjoying it. From what I've seen, I'm sure that she spends a good part of the time following the 2 adults around the classroom and bugging them. During group time she has to get the teachers' attention, all that good stuff. She'll learn. That's why she's there. She also talks a lot about a little girl named Norene, I think. Today she told me that Norene told her they could be friends. I guess this is good news. :) Today they sent home an injury incident report (she got hurt on the playground) that I have to sign and send back. It's weird, I'm signing papers for my daughter who is old enough to go to pre-school. It all is just weird to me.

The pre-school she goes to is not very traditional learning focused, and I'm pleased with that. They do a lot of learning activities, but they're not forcing her to read or write Shakespeare. It's like a very organized play group where they do a lot of fun things and I don't have to clean it up. Again, I never thought I'd care about pre-school philosophies and it's all still weird to me.

I am also liking Miciah going to pre-school. :) It gives me a little time to do some things that were just too frustrating to do with Miciah around. For example, my cross stich is finished. And I've got a ton more projects lined up to do that weren't worth the headache before. I also like the time it gives me to play with Elijah alone. Elijah is such a sweet kid and requires very little effort on my part. So it's a joy to have him to myself. He also naps for a good portion of Miciah's pre-school time, generally, so I'm getting used to the house being quiet. The first time she was gone, though, it felt like when I'd come home when I was younger and everyone would be gone (which hardly ever happened) and it wouldn't freak me out that I was alone, just that the house was quiet. The house shouldn't be quiet with a 3 year old around! :) I feel like I should walk around humming to myself and bouncing a ball and watching TV.

Rob as YM President

Rob will be getting a new calling in 2 weeks. The bishop called us both in to talk to us and I was gearing up to get a couple calling and I don't want another calling. I like my calling (YW 1st counselor). Well, just Rob got a calling. He's only had his current calling a few months--he's the 11 year old boy Primary teacher. Which is fun. But he's been called to be the Young Mens' President. I'm excited! He'll do a great job with the boys. The 2 counselors will stay in place, so not much will change as far as that goes. Rob is excited and scared all at the same time. There's some apprehension, as there always is, about if he'll do a good job or not. But of course he will. Rob said his dream calling is the Ward Choir Director, which he did here for a while. I told him that it is probably the last time he'll ever be called to that. He's just too talented and too good at leadership to be the Ward Choir Director. ... All the Young Women already love Rob. I had him do the Gay French Bear for them, along with all his other funny voices (if you haven't already heard him do the Gay French Bear, call him up and ask him to do it. He loves showing it off), so they think he's the funniest thing ever (which he is). He also did a little semi-stand up comedy gig based off the Book of Mormon for a fireside recently. So the youth, in general, like him. Who doesn't like Rob? :)

That's about it for now. Sorry life is boring here and yet I write paragraph upon paragraph anyway. :) Someday it will be something exciting. But, like I said, we like boring. We love you all.

Tamra, Rob, Miciah, and Elijah