The Great Blog Catch-up: American Edition

We are in Europe now and enjoying as much as we can without a car and with the wettest Spring they have had in over 500 years.  It has rained almost every day since we arrived almost 3 weeks ago.  Many towns are under water and being evacuated.   We are not one of them, thankfully. 

Now, when we last left off, Rob was about to leave...and so was I!

We left together in the truck, loaded down with two motorcycles and all the guns and ammo Rob couldn't take with him to Germany.  He decided to take the round about way to Idaho, via Texas.  Now you are right, if you are scratching your head and saying, "that's not really on the way to Idaho!"  Not only is it not on the way, it's way out of the way!  He effectively doubled his drive.  But there was an important reason for that.  We were going to run the first ever Army Marathon in Fort Hood, Texas!  After what happened at the Boston Marathon just a week or so before, I was a little nervous!

We made it down alright and the next day we went to the expo.  We realize real quick that this wasn't going to be your average marathon!  This was definitely a starter marathon!  It was kind of hard to even find the expo, first of all.  Most of the area was for a Ham expo.  I said, "I want some Ham!"  And then I realized there was more to that sign.  It said Ham Radio expo.  Well, that's why all those goofy cars with huge antenna's were hanging around!

We ran around the rest of the day and then met the rest of our team for dinner that night.  Afterwards we got all ready for the race, except I had forgotten my shoes in the truck.  Rob said, "We'll just get them when we leave tomorrow morning."

I got all ready the next day and then sent Rob to get the shoes.  No shoes!  We searched the room.  No shoes!  We searched both again.  Still, no shoes!  We ran to a few of the places we thought they might have fallen out at, but never did find them.  We just barely got the team to the starting line before the gun went off.  And there I was stuck with everyone's stuff- in running clothes, a number pinned onto my shirt and flip flops.

 I instantly went from marathon participant to support staff!  I ran around and cheered everyone on while I tried not to cry too hard.  It is not often that you really want to be in pain and get upset because you aren't.  I can only remember crying one other time, because I wasn't in pain and that was when I was more than a week overdue with my 4th child!

Rob's friend from work and his brother did awesome and ran faster than they had planned.  Our friend and running partner, Dave, ran a better time than he did his first marathon.  Rob got a bad cramp around mile 18 and barely made it in- hobbling.

 Needless to say, he got his worst time.  He says he still isn't a hundred percent back after that marathon.  But I think the fact that he has finished 5 different marathons is a statement of how amazing he truly is!

The Team

I had to buy new shoes before I could run again.  Besides the entry fee, the trip down, the flight home and the hotels, that was just one more expense to make that the most expensive marathon, I never ran!

Rob drove to Idaho and visited his family and mine for all of us.  The kids stayed in school while I became the taxi driver.  We lived on post in temporary housing, which made for about 60 miles a day driving to and from 3 different schools, seminary, soccer, YM/YW, scouts, etc.  Rob stopped by on his way over to Germany for a couple days to pick up the van and take it to Virginia to port.  Thankfully, Rob had a friend that loaned us his car so that we could still drive our 60 miles a day.  It seemed like a very long month as we finished up school,

I volunteered in Max's class, so I could take lots of pictures without the teacher getting upset!

 soccer

On three the yell was Go Max!  Mostly because Max was going - away!

 and Emma went to Mormon Prom.

 I love that she had so many friends that wanted to be there to get her all ready!

Super dooper cute!  The lady (Karen) who was taking pictures with me, said, "It's like the have their own language. 

I'm so glad it all went well, though. I was so scared every time I got into that borrowed car.  Scared that we would wreck it or someone would scratch it or something bad would happen.  I am so thankful it didn't.  Thank you to all those who helped us in our last couple months in Ohio!  We loved living there. 

Some of our many friends in Ohio.  These were the ladies that helped me learn to quilt better!  For some reason I can't find the pictures of the friends I went out to lunches with or the big party they had for us where they took a group photo and framed it for us!  Loved them all, though!

We loved the families we met there!

  We will miss you all!

Transition

We are in transition!  All our stuff is gone.  We have given up the house keys and now we are in temporary living until the 20th of May.  Rob leaves tomorrow.  Things are crazy and complicated.  We put 65 miles on the car, already today, running everyone to and from school and Emma still has to take the car to ref a soccer game and we have to pick up Sam from a track meet!  Transitions sure aren't cheap!
Relationships are transitioning as well!  Since Rob is leaving, it's like we are all leaving, at least in the minds of lots of people.  Sam was released as Deacon's quorum advisor.  I was told to just hang out and enjoy, but I am not released- I just don't do anything!  At work, I got tired of everyone asking, "You're still here?  I thought you left."  So I turned in my resignation earlier than I was planning to and just stopped going.  I always hate this disconnect time!
Poor Emma has had high school "friend" drama as well, that will probably change a few relationships.  Oh well, we are in the middle of transition anyway, right?!

First, Second and Third

This is the first known picture of the these two friends.

This is the second Master's degree for Robert, but definitely the hardest.  In his first Master's degree he didn't have to write a thesis.  For this one he had to do 86 credit hours and write an entire book- over 90 pages.  This was the happiest day of his life from the last 3 years!

Congratulations to Rob on his Master's in Nuclear Engineering!

Rocket science is for those who dropped out of Nuclear Engineering!

This was our third and final Easter egg hunt with our Ohio Family!

Only Joseph and Max were able to participate this time, 

although Emma filled and hid the eggs with the rest of the young women.

Both Joseph and Max were in the last group to find eggs, too- the Senior Primary!

Say WHAT?  

Our little family is certainly growing up!

BTW- all of these pictures (except the graduation photos) were taken on Manual- I'm getting better!

What We've been Up to

Our dryer broke- 3 months before move date- not cool!  We can't bring it with us- it's the wrong voltage.  It's 20 years old.  We figured it would die sometime soon, but not just before moving!  We were hanging things from everywhere and even used some of Sam's paracord to make drying lines down in the basement.  It really wasn't that bad, but we decided to see if it wasn't just the thermostat or the heating element.  We ordered both from Amazon for under $25 and it fixed it!  Still don't know if it was the heating element or the thermostat, but they are both new now and everything is working great.  Someone gets it all spanking new when we leave in 3 months!

Speaking of paracord.  Sam decided to make a business.  He is making those cord bracelets and turning a tidy profit from it, too.  One of his friends decided that he wanted to do it too.  His parents got him all kind of colors, so he is doing better than Sam right now.  I told Sam he needed to get some fun colors, but both him and Rob were like, why?  Now they know why!  Rob had just got him tan and black.  Super!!  Since then,  I have bought him orange, blue and green- we are looking at glow in the dark.

Sam is also doing a trail drive with the scouts and is making lego robots currently.

Rob and I are busy training for another marathon. 

I thought I was done with marathons for awhile.  In fact, I really wanted to do a triathlon this spring instead.  But then I saw an ad on Facebook for the Army marathon.  Well, I know that the Army doesn't have a marathon (just the Marines and the Air Force.)  I looked it up and behold, it is the inaugural year for the Army marathon down in Ft. Hood, Texas!  I knew Rob would have to do it when I told him!  We only have 12 weeks to train.  We did 10 last week and 12 miles this week.  I was sore on Saturday, but better by Sunday morning.  It's going to be hard, but I think we can do it.

We are in the midst of moving madness.  We just cleaned out the toys,

 we've cleaned out our closets a couple of times, we are going through files and making sure we have  decent wardrobes to start out with.  We are also doing passports

 and physicals and scheduling pick ups for household goods, baggage goods, storage.  We are scheduling car drop-offs and figuring out what to do with our truck and motorcycles and trampoline and food storage and baby grand piano.  It's enough to keep one hopping!

And then there was a Date

Oh, it was all planned before the sweet 16 birthday party! 

 She actually had two other guys who talked about taking her out, as well, but something got in the way for both of them.  One is in show choir and they are busy, busy right now and the other one's double date fell through.  I am sure she will have plenty of opportunities, though!

Rob just missed the send off and I was at work, but Joseph got out the machete and wielded it in front of the young man, just for good measure.

They headed to a mall and did a scavenger hunt with the other couple they were double dating with.

Emma and her date, Payton, won.

The other guy said, "100 points for the first couple back to the house."  They decided to let the loosing team have those points, so they climbed a big pile of snow and rolled down it a couple times.  Then they leisurely made their way back to Sam's house.  Amazingly enough, Sam and Karissa still hadn't made it back.  They had forgotten where they had put the car!  Ha ha!  They finally realized they had walked out the wrong side of the mall to get to it and made their way home.  Then they all made pizza 

and cupcakes and played Compatibility, which Emma and Payton also won.  Poor Sam and Karissa.  Sam's mom came visiting teaching the other day and told me that Sam was not used to loosing, so that was a hard date for him.  Guess he better go with Emma next time!

Sweet Sixteen

Sweet 16 and never been kissed!

  It was true and ;therefore, this little princess got a cash reward from her Daddy!  She had to give some of it back for damaging the bumper of our car, but Rob said he would hold it for her until she can make it to 16 1/2 without being kissed.  Her and Sam were talking about how long they could go, getting money every 6 months, but we told them that eventually they had to kiss around a little- to weed out the bad kissers!

She also got her (traditional) first real piece of jewelry- we got her one of those bead bracelets with a few beads on it-  a couple with garnets for January, a soccer ball, a pearl for her 16th birthday, a princess bead and a couple pretty blue ones.  Grandma and Grandpa Keck also got her a treasure box that actually opens and has "jewels" inside.  All the girls were excited about that one!

We set up a Candy bar

and a photo booth.

Sam and Max did some photo bombing! 

The girls danced

and played 

and did ice cream cake

and presents,

then we got out the glow necklaces, 

Emma's crown and sash

and went cosmic bowling on base.  There was almost no one there when we arrived, but about 1/2 hour into it a youth group showed up and took the rest of the lanes.  We did M&M bowling on one lane and regular bowling on the other.  I found the M&M bowling on the Dating Diva's website.  You have to bowl a certain way, depending on what color of M&M you blindly pick.  There was granny style, 

bowl with the opposite hand,

your date gets to bowl for you, backwards

and roll it with your foot.

Besides the lights, they were playing fun songs, so the girls dances at the bowling alley too. 

It was a really fun night. 

Emma has been asked out for this coming Saturday and talked to about going out with two other guys- one that turns 16, today.  He gave her a snowflake necklace on her birthday, so we had to run and get him something for his birthday as well.  Craziness may in sue- but we are hoping that she keeps her head on her shoulders as well as she has done thus far!

Happy Sweet 16, Princess!