Update-ish

I feel like I haven't written a normal update for a while. Probably because I've posted a lot about Miciah's broken arm, and that's overshadowed everything else. Well, here's a normal update.

Teancom

Teancom has cut out nap times a lot of days, but it makes him intolerably grumpy and spastic for a few hours midday. It's, umm, fun. ... It's the first time in his short life that he's caused us any trouble at all. Still, he's his normal cute, squishy, addicting self except for those 2 hours of whininess and attitude.

Elijah

Elijah is addicted to video games. I let him play for a few days, as long as I can stand it, and then I take away privileges for a week or so, because he doesn't do the transition from video games to normal life very well. ... And I'm not sure it's an accomplishment, but Elijah's getting pretty good. He mostly plays on our old school Nintendo system. So he's playing the classic Legend of Zelda and Mega Man III and Mario 3.

Elijah has decided that he's a big boy and can do things like crossing the street by himself. Of course this isn't okay with us. He'll also run off when we're in public. Not that he's running off, he'll just run ahead and then I can't see him any more and he doesn't understand why that's not okay. He'll say, "I know where the car is," and stuff like that. Same with crossing the street: "I looked both ways." Ugh.

He's starting to write things on his own, which is fantastic. It'll look like gibberish until you look close and see that he's written his name or copied "Cheez It" from the box.

Which reminds me about a fun story from a few months ago. We were in the library parking lot, getting ready to leave. I was organizing the books and movies on the passenger seat when I heard Elijah say, "Mom, what does a-d-n-o-h spell?" I thought about it for a second. It doesn't spell anything, of course. But I started looking around, wondering where he saw that. Then I looked over and saw it on the tire cover of the car beside us. It's honda backwards! I don't know why, but Elijah will read and write many things backwards. It's not that he doesn't know which way to read it. He knows. He'll also write some of his letters upside down. And write from the bottom of the page up. ... It all seems very backwards to me, but I'm assuming that it's normal. Or at least normal enough.

Life

The Weekend

Rob's little brother got sealed to his beautiful wife in the Columbus, OH temple this weekend. It was low key and wonderful. I'm all about low key. The kids stayed with the W's, our good friends and the kids' surrogate grandparents.

Rob and I drove straight from Columbus to M's place in Middle of Nowhere, OH. Stayed overnight. Were there Sunday morning to participate in our nephew, P's teacher ordination. It was neat, cause all the siblings were there. It was also nice to see Rob during church hours.

We drove home right after the ordination because my Dad flew into Cincinnati at 1:30. We beat him home by an hour or so, which just gave us time to clean up our travelling stuff.

We chilled with Dad for the evening and part of the next day, and he left in the afternoon for the next leg of his business trip. While he was here we ran the HS track, looked through a spectacular "picture book" of Yellowstone and talked about our trip, had a lovely dinner with R&C. And also, he bought us:

A New Lawn mower

Our old lawn mower died. I wrote about that a while back. We've been using it, half-dead, resistent to spending the money on a new one. We debated what to buy and where and for what price. We finally had decided on buying a refurbished lawnmower for about $100 at a local lawn mower fix it place. We were going to go buy it on Monday. The day before my father took me to Home Depot and helped me pick out a much nicer mower that what we would have purchased.
It's a Honda. I didn't even know Honda MADE lawn mowers.

And on Monday I mowed the grass with our new mower. My favorite parts:
- I can start it myself, which means I can mow the grass during the day and Rob doesn't have to do it all the time. Rob has so little time anyways.
- It's a power mower. Our old one was a manual. I like a lot of the aspects of a manual mower, but it's nice to not have to push with everything I have to get up our steep short hills.
-It's a bagger/mulcher. Our old one was a side shoot. So no more raking for us!! That'll save us a good hour.

Thank you, Dad.

Rob's Big News

Rob has been praying and hoping for someone to give him a teaching opportunity. Well, it's happened! Rob was contacted by NKU (Northern Kentucky University) about teaching a 5-week summer class. Of course Rob said yes. The time is kinda crummy (12 - 2pm, 3 days a week), which means his schedule will be horrible for the month of June. And they don't pay him much, but Rob would have done it for free. He just needs the teaching experience.

He went down to NKU yesterday and got an official badge. I'll have to scan it in, cause he looks just like a middle-aged professor. Balding. A little extra weight. Cute glasses. Aw, the adorable Dr. Thacker.

So, hurray for Rob! And pray for us to survive June!

Bad Balance

This has nothing to do with anything, but I thought I'd report on it. I have experienced vertigo off and on for years now. The worst of it was right after Teancom was born, so 2 years ago. Anyways, we finally have good insurance, so I asked my doctor about it. He sent me to an ENT to check it out, cause it sounded like it could be Meniere's Disease. I don't know much about Meniere's, but I dislike the idea of having something with Disease in the title.

There's nothing wrong with my hearing or function, that the ENT could tell (though I found out that my left ear has slightly better hearing than my right). So he sent me for a balance test (turned out to be a $1,000 balance test--don't worry, I didn't pay a penny for it). It was a random test involving following lights with your eyes and strange goggles and blowing warm and cold air into your ear and making you count backwards by 2's from 100.

At one point in the test the test giver (a nurse? doctor?) seemed like the results I reported were slightly abnormal. They blew the warm air into my right ear for a minute and then I felt a little dizzy. Not bad, but a little. Then they did the same thing with my left ear and I wanted to puke or pass out or just go to sleep. It was really bad. They did the same minute-long exposure, one ear at a time, with the cold air, and I hardly reacted to that at all. The test giver made it seem like I should have roughly the same reaction for each ear.

So the ENT called me back a little over a week later and said that my test results were not normal. He didn't say they were horrible, though. He said that they'll see "these kinds of results" from a viral ear infection and those effects can last from 6 months to a year. I think this is unlikely, since the vertigo was the worst over 2 years ago, it started being noticably bad 3 years ago, and I still experience it every few months. He said, alternately, I could just have bad balance. "Some people are born with bad vision, some bad hearing. You could just have bad balance." I think that's the more likely explanation. He didn't diagnose me with Miniere's or anything, and he said he'd like me to repeat the balance test next year.

But, bad balance? I have GREAT balance! I play sports. I rarely get off balance. I can trip but not fall (and that's pretty impressive, I think). ... So I think there must be some other aspect to balance that he's talking about. ... Anyways, that's my balance assessment. Because you obviously cared.

Other than that, we're getting excited for summer. I wish it was already here (Miciah's in school until June 12th). I'm ready for some lazy long days. Not that we'll get many before we head out to Yellowstone, Utah, California, and then all the way back. But we'll take as many lazy summer days as come our way. I'm excited to spend at least one lazy summer day on the beach, and another in a Yellowstone meadow!!

Part 2 of the Update

Easter

We did nothing for Easter this year, owing to the crazy home project, and it was fantastic! We didn't feel like we missed out on anything, and it helped us be calmer and more focused on the real reason for the holiday (sorry, guys, it's not all about the candy and colored eggs). We got Elijah candy for his birthday party, just a few weeks before. My mom sent the kids all an Easter gift. And we had an Easter feast with R&C, which was lovely. What's not fantastic about that?

I did promise Miciah that we could dye eggs another time: Mother's Day. I think that's a good idea, and we might just have to continue that tradition in coming years.

One thing we DID get to do for Easter is sing a duet in church. Rob and I sang "Did You See Him in the Garden?", which is one of the most powerfully moving Easter songs I've ever heard. I really connect with it, and we performed pretty well, I guess. Everyone liked it, anyway, and I LOVE sharing that song with people.

ty.com
My Mom got Miciah a beanie baby duck named Quackly (Miciah is obsessed with stuffed animal ducks, for some reason. She already has 5 or 6 and wants more and more and more) for Easter and it came with an online play. Like webkins, I imagine. She has already spent a lot of time playing on the site and she thinks it's the best thing ever. She has been able to earn enough "beans" to purchase her duck a bed and toys and all that. Weird.

The kids playing on ty.com:More Book Fun

Miciah continues to write us stories and books and such. What a fun stage! Here's the text for her latest book: The Happy Easter Book. (The book was fully illustrated with stickers and everything, but I'm only including the text.)

By: Miciah Thacker
The Happy Easter Book

One day a hen was sitting on her eggs when c....r....a....k! crakaly crak! c..r..a..k!

An egg craked open! The hen flew out of her nest! When the chick was four years old, the chick couldn't wait for Easter! I can't wait!

She couldn't wait for the Easter Bunny to bring her eggs!

Then mother hen called her. It's time to go! Go where? she asked.

Suddenly, mother hen led her chick out of the barn for a Easter egg hant! Is it Easter? she asked. Mother hen said yes!

This is the best Easter egg hant ever! she said as she picked up eggs. Relly!

Thee End

(the back cover says:
Becuause she is vary sweet and kind!
for M$. Lyon$
for M$. Lyon$
from: Miciah
(Ms. Lyons is her school teacher.))

Rob was reading the book with her and he said, "Miciah, if the chick was 4 years old, she would be a full-grown chicken." Miciah, with perfect logic, said, "Elijah is 4, and he's not a man." At this point in Rob telling me the story, I started laughing. What a good point! Rob went on to tell Miciah that it's not the same with chickens. But still, I think that's a tally mark for Miciah.

Miciah also wrote us this riveting book: Not Ugen! (This book was illustrated, too, of course, and I'm including the 2 that cracked me up.)

To: Mom and Dad
Not Ugen!
By: Miciah Lynn Thacker

Hi! I am painting a picher! Do you like it? Oh, No! Not ugen!

I Have't to take a bath when that hapens. But I don't know why.

My Mom says that It is Because I got drty ugen! How? I ased. You wer painting! And wut? I asced.

The paint splaterd you! Oh. I said. Just take A Bath! said Mom.
The End

Elijah

Elijah is still a sweet, sweet boy. Spastic as all get out, now that it's warmer outside. Which has made me think a lot about March and April weather. We despise April because it's not warm enough, but April is warmer than March, and we have nothing against March. I have decided why that is. March is our savior from winter. March is when we get to say things like, "It's finally warming up!" And April gets a bad rap because we want it to be warm like RIGHT NOW. For April we think things like, "Aren't you May already?" Poor April.

Anyways, fact remains that Elijah is a spaz. It'll be warm for a few days and then it's rainy and cold-ish for a week. And all of the kids are being almost intolerable.

But Elijah still melts my heart by saying things like, "Mom, I love you, and I like your eyes." Aw. Who can't love a boy like that?

He also is widely recognized as being the boy with a ton of expressions. In fact, a couple at our church, whom we hardly ever talk to really, just recently said to us that they refer to him as The Boy With a Thousand Faces. Elijah is always winking and smiling this cute little shy smile and nodding and raising his eyebrows. He's very expressive.

He's also very good at compliments. We had a friend come over and he said, as she was leaving, "I like your slippers." She said thank you, but they were sandals, not slippers. He thought about that for a minute and then repeated, "I like your slippers." Elijah is one of the best geniune complimenters that I know. It's adorable.

Other things that he's complimented of mine: my shirt (he's actually wearing it right now--the Mighty Mouse one), my dresses for church, and my hair. "Mom, do you know why I like your hair?" Why, Elijah? "Cause it's getting big." Elijah is excited that I've decided not to cut my hair for the rest of the year (Not growing it out, mind you. Running a social experiment and taking journalistic notes along the way). Elijah has decided that he wants his hair long, too. "Like yours," he says. I haven't talked to him about growing mine out, he just wants his long. I just shrug my shoulders. Who really cares, right? But his hair is getting really shaggy, as you can see in this picture:
I just can't see why I should turn down his request to grow his hair out a little.

Teancom

Still the most addicting child on the planet.

The other day I was lounging about the house, reading a book (this is mainly what I do these days. Lounge and read. Read and lounge. It's great.), when it dawned on me why I've been enjoying this so much. 1 - I have the time to read. My boys let me have some "me" time. Miciah NEVER let me do that. And 2 - Teancom will just come, curl up beside me, and sit with me. For hours. Literally, hours. What's not warm and cozy about that? Get yourself a cup of hot chocolate, enjoy a good book, and cuddle with your calm 2-year-old.

I have decided, though, that the drawback to Teancom and his addictive cuddling, is that he's an obsessive cuddler. He HAS to cuddle A LOT. If he wants to be held, you have to hold him or he freaks out. And he'd prefer you held him most of the time. I still carry him a lot, even though he's old enough that he should be walking everywhere. ... About this time in his life is when I should be popping out baby #4, right?, so then he would HAVE to stop being held cause I'd have a new one to hold. But as there isn't a baby #4 in the near future, we'll deal with a clingy, cuddly Teancom.

Rob and Work

I haven't written about Rob and work for a while because his work has ceased being a stressful thing. It was all Rob would talk about for months, and now it's not really a stressor for him. It's WONDERFUL.

We have realized, as Rob returns to his normal self, that he hasn't been his normal self for YEARS. We're talking years upon years. Really, almost since we got married. While he was in school and so stressed and busy that he could hardly see straight. Having Rob back is fantastic. I told him he is never allowed to go away again. I feel like he's been re-born this year. His joking around and easy smile are commonplace again.

I also told Rob that if one of our kids has his disposition, and they're thinking about higher education like a PhD, I will tell them it's not worth it. I'm not sure Rob being Dr. Thacker was worth losing Rob for 7 years. Perhaps time will change my mind on that, though, since time does things like that.

Rob and Church

Rob's calling is also no longer very stressful. Actually, a few weeks ago we had a stressful day that revolved around his calling, and it was weird, cause we haven't done that for a long time. It was a reminder to us that we need to still be diligent about our committments to each other and that if we're not mindful about balance, things won't STAY balanced.

The Temple

We went to the temple last Friday, and it was a stressful day because things didn't go down as they were "supposed to" in my planning brain. I realized, later, after I was so stressed about this that I almost cried, that this is why I rarely plan anything more involved than dinner. Cause I have a hard time adjusting to things if they don't go how they're supposed to.

Anyways, it was great to go to the temple with Rob and the kids. Rob went through a session with his parents (to correlate with Mandy going through the temple for the first time. She was in UT, we were in OH), and I took care of the kids on the temple grounds. Elijah has been BEGGING to go to the temple, and how do you tell a 5-year-old no? You don't. You take them to the temple!

Funny enough, for all his wanting to go (and he really wanted to go, cause a friend offered to watch the kids for us so we could go through together, and I mentioned this to Elijah and he said NO! He wanted to go to the temple), he had a really short attention span while we were there. He liked sitting inside and being in the garden area, but he was just your typical spazzy 5-year-old most of the time, too.

While we were there, we had some adventures like Teancom falling in the stream (he was far enough away that by the time I could have reached him, he could have been in big trouble if he hadn't gotten himself out) and saying, "I choked." Great. And Elijah saying he had to go potty and then running off in an odd direction and out of sight. I found him inside the temple waiting room (which was the OPPOSITE direction of the way he started running, of course), with a temple worker helping him go potty.

It was a wonderful night, but when Rob got out of the temple, I said, "Rob, you just got a dose of spirituality. The kids are YOURS."

April and Service

At our church, the women's group focused on Service for the month of April. April isn't over yet, but I have spent a good amount of time and energy this month on service stuff. It's been fun and interesting and I've learned a lot about service and what it is and isn't.

As part of my service efforts, I learned how to make bread. No, I never knew how to make bread before. Rob and I made 3 different recipes, all of which are very good, and I can now say that I can make bread! Hurray for me!

Losing Weight

Rob and his family are doing the 12 week Health and Fitness Challenge that Rob and I did a year ago with my sister-in-law. It's great to be back in the swing of healthy living. Our motivation this time is to be in shape enough to enjoy Yellowstone at the higher elevation, and to be able to hike Mt. Timpanogas when we're in Utah. I'm excited about that! I've never hiked it before.

And after almost 2 weeks of the challenge, Rob has already lost 7 or 8 lbs. He is now at the lowest he's been since our first year of marriage. And total weight loss, from his peak, is 70 lbs. He hopes to be able to lose another 15 lbs. during this challenge to put him actually below what he weighed when we got married. One thing I love about Rob: he has shown he can do it when he puts his heart into it. So, hurray for Rob!

And that's our update from this end. Hope you're all doing well and that life is as good to you as it has been for us.

Wedding Pictures

We were married on December 21st at the River Jordan Temple in Utah. It was SO COLD on that day, but it was beautiful. And really, who cares about the weather anyway? We got married!!! Happiness.



This is one of my VERY favorite wedding pictures. Technically it's probably a horrid picture, but I love it, love it, love it.

Me "dodging" Rob's kisses:

Me and Rob with our parents. My parents on the left. His on the right.

Thacker family, with parents and grandparents. Grandpa & Grandma D on the left. V & C on the right, with Grandma Thacker, beside them.

Thacker family: Rob's siblings and their spouses, and Rob's parents. L to R: M & K, G, me and Rob, C & V, P (in front), B, D & C (holding M).

The T family: my siblings and their spouses. B was missing because X was born the day before, so B & J were at the hospital. L to R: J, C, K, M & J, me and Rob, L, C, J.

December 21, 2000 – We Finally Got Married!!

December 21, 2000 – We Finally Got Married!!

Okay, so 2 months doesn’t seem like a long engagement, but it had been a long time for me. A very stressful, long time at that. I was tired and worn out, but happy to be getting married to Rob!

The sealing ceremony was at 10 a.m. or somewhere around that time. Rob and I got to drive down to the temple together, which was fun. We had to do some paperwork and then we met for a minute with the sealer. He was a nice man. He worked making glass eyes and I remember him saying that it would be hard to make a glass eye to replace mine because my eyes were so pretty. It was cute for him to say.

Then we were in the sealing room surrounded by family and love. I had been waiting for this moment for a long time and there was nothing anti-climactic about it. It was everything I hoped it would be. The sealer told lots of insights about the endowment ceremony, most of which was over my head because I had just received mine the day before and it’s a lot of information to take in at once (or even twice or ten times). He gave us some good advice about not going into debt and being patient with money. And then he sealed us for time and all eternity. Rob’s dad and my dad were the witnesses and they got to sign their names very officially on the marriage license.

I had been praying ever since we got engaged that Ruben would be at the sealing ceremony. I think I probably expected to physically see him there. And I didn’t physically see him, but I felt his presence and I felt how pleased he was with me. There is a line said in the sealing ceremony that indicates that angels are watching the ceremony. I knew that Ruben was one of those angels. This brought me happiness and peace.

We walked out of the temple that day companions for eternity. I couldn’t have been happier. I thought back on the revelation I’d had about my wedding day. About the happiness I’d felt in that vision that I couldn’t duplicate for all I tried. I felt that happiness and joy on my wedding day. It was cold as cold can get that day, but my heart was full of gladness and warmth. I knew it was the Spirit testifying to me that I had done the right thing and married a good man.

Rob: I knew I had married my best friend. I was excited for our life together. I would do it again. She is the love of my life for all eternity.


Well, that’s the story. The rest of the details fall under our marriage, not our courting and engagement. Being married to Rob is everything I hoped it would be and more.

written Spring 2006

December 20, 2000 – Went Through the Temple and X is Born!

December 20, 2000 – Went Through the Temple and X is Born!

To this day B will tell you that I was “difficult” when I got married. Which actually stems from the fact that I think I stepped on his toes a little when I planned my wedding for a day after his first baby was due: December 20th. I figured it would work out well because my parents were already going to be out in Utah for Christmas. Kill two birds with one stone, I thought. Well, B informed me that this was “stealing his spotlight,” as he said. I told him that was a little stupid and he said it was just something I should think about. So I cleared it with the boss: his wife. She said she thought B was being silly and that I should do the wedding whenever. … B was not the only one with complaints about when we planned our wedding. Grandma D also let it be known that we had been completely inconsiderate about the timing of our wedding. They had a trip they had to be on and probably had to rearrange things to be there. I was a little offended. We had tried hard to find a good time for everyone, but as you find out over time, it is impossible to please everyone.

So plans went on. And as it turns out, the morning I was to get out my Endowment, X (B and J's son) was born. So B was not there for the Endowment session. I don’t remember if B was there for the wedding ceremony, but I think he might not have been. Obviously his priority lay at the time with his wife and newborn son. This was fine, and the way it should be.

We had some mishaps getting to the temple that day. I gave my mom and dad directions to the wrong Grandma’s house on the way to get Rob. So this caused us a little delay as we had to cut back across town. Then, on the way to the Mount Tempanogas Temple, there was a traffic jam on the freeway. So Rob took us winding around town to get there. I remember asking, “Does Satan always make it this difficult to get to the temple?” And Rob said, “Not if we surprise him.”

It was lovely to get out my endowment with my mom as my escort. Rob’s Grandpa D was the officiator. It was a little scary at first to not know what was going on, and we had some funny wardrobe mishaps, but it was well worth it. Rob got to take me through the veil and then we were united with our families in the Celestial Room. It was a wonderful sight. And a comforting one. Something about the clothes Rob was wearing, that I had never seen before, was familiar to me. Then I remembered that I would have seen Ruben in his temple clothes after he died. And I was grateful to have had that experience to make the moment in the Celestial Room feel very peaceful: like coming home.

Rob: The experience of taking my soon-to-be-wife through the veil was probably one of the greatest experiences of my life. It was indescribable to be on the other side and hear her voice and see her in that way. I am so grateful I married her in the temple. I am so grateful our marriage is eternal. I look forward to someday sharing that with her again.

written Spring 2006