HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KELLI!!!

So it’s only 8 at night and we’re already enjoying the fact that we just hit daylight savings time. Fell back the hour, got an additional hour of sleep last night, and now the kids are in bed before 8! That is of course except for Collin who is our regular night owl regardless of what time of year it is :) (I wrote this last night … and little did I know that they would be up at 4:30 this morning! Geez maun … name that movie :)

By the calendar we are 5 ½ weeks away from returning to the States. A lot of people have been asking if we excited to go back, and most of the time we give the politically correct response that there are a lot of mixed emotions, which is the truth. But, the fact that it’s somewhat imminent gives a sense of urgency to wanting everything done and over with. Just considering that, yes, we are excited to be going home. We do have a lot of good friends that we’ve made here (and good friends that we knew in the States that are now here in Oz), so there are many ties that we are leaving behind. The beauty of technology and such, though, is that we can keep in touch and enjoy one another’s experiences even from far away. The obvious draw back to the States is the chance to see and spend time with family again. I watch a lot of the families here who have Sunday dinners together, grandparents playing with their grandchildren, and just a lot of family time that we don’t have the opportunity for. Although we’ve thoroughly enjoyed moving around and having heaps of new experiences, we feel good about it being time to settle down. Speaking of which, there was talk of a job offer last week and an interview this week, so hopefully that ‘little’ piece of the puzzle will soon be in place.

The kids are more or less unaware of the stress their parents are going through right now. They are continuing with their usual routines which is good. Of course, after this week we go into school holidays (2 weeks in between terms) and that’s where things can get a little hairy! But, Collin and Savannah will be in holiday swim lessons which gets rid of all excess energy and helps to keep them manageable during the day. Hunter on the other hand...there’s little to no hope with that kid.

So while we’re on the little monster, let’s share a few. The other day he got a hold of this mini flashlight that takes one AA battery. He figured out how to open it up and then amused himself by taking it apart and then putting it back together … then stuffing pieces down his onesie and then pulling them out again just to start over. Well, during one cycle he got the battery in backwards and it heated it up so that it was very hot to the touch. He took the flashlight apart and as before, stuffed it all down his shirt, only this time it wasn’t quite so pleasant. The hot battery ended up giving him burn blisters on his tummy. OUCH!!! He has also started throwing everything he can get his hand on. He’s got an awesome arm! But that’s neither here nor there … it’s the fact that he throws things against the windows, computer and TV that is the problem … did I mention his brother and sister as well? And what’s worse is that he has this little smirk on his face as he’s doing it. He gets punished but it doesn’t matter and he keeps on doing it knowing full well that it’s wrong. He’s a motor mouth as well. Now that he’s started talking he repeats pretty much everything he hears. Some things don’t exactly come out quite right. The other day Kelli said she needed to take her pre-natal pill. Hunter, being the gracious kid that he his, offered to get it for her. His response though came out, “I want to get your poo!” The other thing he does funny right now is use the letter ‘b’ for everything. It’s not a vacuum, it’s a bacuum. It’s not a ‘very high’, it’s ‘berry high’. Just a little quirky thing he’s going through.

Collin’s a goof as usual. Today we were at the pond and he went and collected some rocks for Hunter so he could have some fun as well. When Collin laid the rocks in front of Hunter, Hunter got all excited and as Collin walked away he put his hands in the air and said, “It was my pleasure!” Where did he get that from? Grandpa Jones said it reminded him of Little Rascals and that fits the bill perfectly! He’s our little Alfa Alfa :) The other night I was wearing some slippers around the house, which I normally don’t do because it’s so stinking hot. Collin noticed the change in attire and asked why I was wearing flippers around the house.

Savannah has some quirks as well. Today for some reason she was talking about the difference between kids and adults and she called the adults, ‘BADults’. Nice to be in THAT category, eh? We were also trying to fix some kites that Grandma Whetstone sent them and we had to resort to duct tape. Savannah soon learned the miraculous wonder of duct tape and lovingly started referring to it as ‘duckling’ tape.

The past two weeks have been quite entertaining, needless to say. The processing of our move is coming along very well all things considered. We did get our flight itinerary back to the States and that’s going to be a nightmare. Economy class all the way, and we start at 8 in the morning 0f 16 May from Canberra to Sydney (we fly to Canberra from Adelaide the day before to do some outprocessing at the Embassy.) We then board the international flight in Sydney around 1:45 pm (16 May) and arrive in Los Angeles around 10 in the morning (still 16 May). We then have to fly to Denver, yes Denver, getting in around 4 pm (you guessed it, 16 May) and then finally board a plane to Salt Lake City and get in around 7 pm (16 May!!) It will be the longest day of our lives … literally and figuratively. (In case you're not a time zone expert, that's 27 hours of travel.) The government has to fly us through Denver because we are on United out of Sydney (unfortunately …) and thus have to fly to Denver because there aren’t any flights out of LAX to SLC during the day. We could fly to San Francisco from Sydney, but United doesn’t have a government contract for that route, so we’re stuck with the monster long itinerary. At least it’s all paid for, but it’s going to be CRAZY!!!

And a big happy 31^st birthday to Kelli!! She had her pumpkin-type cake and the kids couldn’t resist throwing a Shrek cake topping on top. The kids love birthdays and right now they just can’t get enough of them … good thing, too!

And one last happy moment … Collin the other night came into our room because he’d had some nightmares. Being the sympathetic Dad, I just pulled him in bed with us and rolled the other way. He couldn’t sleep so he kept talking Kelli’s ear off. I was half in and half out of sleep as she tried everything to get him back to sleep (think about happy thoughts … cars, balls, friends …prayers) Nothing worked. Finally after quite a long time of hoping he would go back to sleep Kelli suggested I give him a blessing. So, more than half asleep I sat up in bed, gave him more or less a 3 sentence blessing and went straight back to sleep. Kelli the next morning said that after the blessing he rolled over, curled up against her back and went straight to sleep. Pretty cool, eh?

OH, and we had a Huntsman visit us the other day -- a 5-legged one at that!