Arkanwhere?

Where to start? Some of you may know that my family and I moved out here to the big TN just over two years ago so that my husband, Chad, could finish his engineering degree. Two years have mysteriously flown by, consumed by Little League, working at Vandy, TONS of family birthday parties, two weddings (and a funeral, hehe), three new nieces, one new nephew, one little [happy] accident of our own, trips to Rock City and long drives around TN, a few showings of our house, my parent's never ending remodel, etc. etc. A few months ago it finally hit us that there is life beyond school at MTSU, and we didn't really know what that entailed.

Chad started putting in applications at various companies, but then the rejection emails came a-rolling in. He started getting really discouraged, but finally, Friday he got a call from a company called CLEAResults. They are based in TX but have many other locations. He did three phone interviews yesterday in which they fanned the flames of his ego by telling him the he's the best candidate they've seen. They are checking his references and background now and the official job offer should be coming any day.

The funny thing is they want him for a position in Little Rock, Arkansas. Huh? I really never saw Arkansas coming! The nice thing is that it is only five hours from where we are now, so it is not another cross country move. The sad thing is we know nothing about Arkansas other than that Bill Clinton hails from there (and we aren't super thrilled about that), although you could say that we have been there before, but only when passing through on our move to TN.

The solution we have come up with is for Chad to go to an Extended Stay hotel initially and then perhaps rent a small apartment while I hole up here in TN crossing my fingers, toes, and eyeballs in the hopes that our house sells soon. Chad will be able to finish up the classes he is taking now with the cooperation of his professors and will be able to commute back here on the weekends, and I can of course drive the five hours there. This is a huge blessing given the current shape of the economy and I can't help but feel that it will be quite an adventure, though I am pretty overwhelmed at the moment! I am channeling my inner Scarlett, telling myself to "think about it tomorrow", or at least after my brother's wedding on Friday!

Deep breath. No worries!

Busy Bees

Monday morning I got a call (at 8:30) from the temp agency I work for saying that they had a job for me and could I be there in like, an hour? I scurried around, jumped into my dungarees (shout out to Nancy Drew), threw the laundry I had been sorting into the washer, and I was on my way to Smyrna (about fifteen miles from Murfreesboro). Chad was left to fend for himself with Kade and Trevor. He did pretty well...didn't accomplish much other than feeding the boys McDonald's for lunch and getting them off to my sister's in time for his 3:00 class.

Yesterday was a different (and funny) story. Chad decided a little before noon that he would go and work on my brother's apartment (aka the detached garage at my parent's house that they are turning into an apartment so he can go to school and live rent free) because he didn't want to have to spend all day Saturday there, and he needed to do some electrical and framing before the rest of the guys got in there anyway. My mom thinks it was mostly because Kade was driving him nuts and he wanted her to watch him, but I like to try to believe that out of the goodness of his heart he wanted to help out. Anyway, so he's over there, working away, and around 3:45 my dad says, "When does Blake get home?" Chad had no idea (probably because he didn't pay attention when I explained the schedule to him), so he asks my sister, Karen, if she knew. She told him that she thought he got off the bus around 3:45. I am sure by now you can see where I am going with this!

So, he ran into the house, asked my mom to watch Kade and Trevor, didn't really give her a chance to refuse, and drove 90 to get home in time. When he got home Blake was sitting on the front porch, wondering why we didn't love him enough to be home when he got there (I am sure). Chad apologized and told him that if something like that ever happens again he should go to one of our neighbor's houses, or better yet, we could make a key and leave it somewhere so he could let himself in. Without missing a beat, Blake looks at him and says, "Or you could just get me a cell phone Dad." Riiiiiighhht. Gotta love the fact that he never misses an opportunity.

I have so much more to write, but I am stinkin tired and STILL haven't finished my laundry! Hasta Manana! (You will have to use your imagination for the accent marks).

September 11

Yes, I know it is the 12th, but I have spent so much time in the sun lately I think my brain is a little fried and I wanted to blog about 911...so deal with it!

But seriously, I remember September 11, 2001 pretty vividly. I was seven+ months pregnant with Blake and Chad was scheduled to fly down to So. Cal for work. He had just been promoted and this was the first time he'd be traveling to do builder training seminars. On the night of the 10th I remember crying and telling him not to go, that something bad was going to happen. He blew it off as just the pregnant hormones (although crying about not wanting to be left alone was a departure from the norm, even for my crazy hormones!). The next morning we were driving up to Elk Grove to drop me off at work, then Chad would continue on to the airport. We were listening to a radio station that plays a lot of pranks on it's audience and jokes around quite a bit. They started saying that a plane had just hit the World Trade Center and sounded pretty upset...we thought it was pretty poor taste to joke about something like that, so we switched channels. Every channel we turned to was talking about it. I just remember feeling so empty, so devastated. Never one to miss the moment however, I looked at Chad and said something along the lines of, "I told you so." Needless to say, he didn't end up flying out that day.

That same week I came down with bronchitis and tonsilitis and couldn't go to work for several days, so I sat at home watching the footage of what happened that terrible day. I remember crying and watching the workers sift through the ashes of those huge buildings. They played the footage of the planes flying into the buildings over and over. Shortly thereafter people started putting all sorts of patriotic messages on their cars. I put red white and blue ribbons on ours.

It was amazing to see that although the terrorists thought they could beat us down with such horrible acts of violence, the country came together like the Who's of Whoville and showed them that we still cared for one another. One thing that strikes me still is something that Mayor Rudy Guliani said in an interview. He was talking about 911 and the horror he had to deal with immediately afterward. He said that about three days after it happened, he talked to President Bush for the first time (since the attacks). He said that the first thing President Bush said was "How are you?" then, "Is there anything I can do for you?". Imagine being the President of the United States following such a huge disaster, I am sure that he had many important things on his mind, I am sure that he had people right and left telling him what he needed to do, or say, or think. But he took the time to allow his own humanity to surface and reach out to his fellow American and ask what he could do. I don't care if you love or hate Bush, I really admire him for those two sentences. Every time I hear this story I get chills.

I am proud to live in a country where I am free to say what I need to say. I am proud to be able to raise my children in the religion of my choice. I am grateful to have been born to parents who love me and raised me to love my Heavenly Father. I am grateful for a husband who treats me well and views me as his equal. I have seen a lot of this country, and I am amazed at the beauty each region has, be it the "hills of Tennessee" or the Pacific Ocean. I AM PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN!

Too Much Time at WalMart

I think I have been spending too much time at WalMart recently.

This afternoon my sister, Jennifer, and I were driving back from the awesome consignment stores in Franklin and we were discussing how we need to find something to make money since our modeling careers never took off (hehe). I told her that I would like to own a boutique, and she replied that boutiques are hard to run and don't make much money. Then she said that we need to find something to do that actually makes money. From the backseat Trevor piped up, "WalMart makes lots of money!"....Thanks Trev, but I think the Waltons may have cornered the market on that one! I am just glad he left off the part about how the reason they make that money is because we are always there...maybe I should leave him at home more.

September Rush

Or is it still August? Yesterday I went around thinking it was Wednesday and I needed to put the garbage out, I finally figured out in the afternoon that it was Tuesday and was kind of bummed that I'd have to redo Wednesday!

Things have been crazy the past few weeks. We went to Florida in the midst of Tropical Storm Fay (lots of rain), attended our niece's baptism, I got a tetanus shot that left me with a serious bruise and a bad case of the shakes, and took my little bro's engagement photos. Throw in a first day of school and riding the bus for the first time, a few little league games, lots of rounds of frisbee golf, planning my brother's reception and one Relief Society lesson and it makes for an exhausting whirl! Here are the boys with their cousins (left to right) Taea, Trevor, Alexis, Haily (newest Church member holding Kade), and Blake.

David and Amanda at the Sam Davis Home in Smyrna, TN...I am pretty nervous about doing their wedding pictures, but these turned out ok. The wedding is Oct. 3 in the Nashville Temple, followed by a "casual" outdoor reception at my parent's house. Anybody got a ficus tree we can borrow?

Trevor is now on the Dodgers, he plays catcher and loves it...though we are still pretty sure that football is his sport. He and Blake fell in love with boogie boarding while we were in Florida. They were surprisingly good at it, much better than their mother! We also went to Epcot and got totally waterlogged, but it was a lot of fun. All the kids did really well and didn't complain about the rain. We really enjoyed spending time with Chad's side of the family, and got to be the first to hear that Chad's baby sister Megan and her husband, Kevin, are expecting their first baby! We were only the first because we were all at Texas Roadhouse for dinner and there were so many of us they had to put us at two tables...we got to sit at the "kid" table with Megan, Kevin, our nieces Haily and Taea and our boys.

All in all, it is good to be back and to feel the first little bits of Autumn trying to poke it's way into the air, even though it is still hot, the light is taking on a more golden quality and some of the leaves are starting to change. This is my favorite time of the year...I can't wait for fresh apple crisp and all the dead leaves we'll have to rake at my parent's house before the reception!