August and September

August and September were busy months. We moved at the end of August as I wrote in my last blog and this time I have pictures.

Front yard


Back yard. The kids have so much fun here. It's huge!



Our living room. We love our new couches.


My fridge finally gets to be inside and we bought a new stove because the other one was breaking.


This is the computer/kids' tv room. They spend a lot of time in here watching tv.


The boys' very untidy beds in their bedroom


This is Stacey's very untidy bed. She loves having her own room.


Our bed is almost dwarfed in our bedroom. We also have a huge walk-in closet and our own bathroom with a jetted tub.


One thing I've not told most of you is that Stacey was baptized on Saturday, September 26th. If I didn't tell you before, I'm sorry. It was extremely short notice as we had to kind of force our records to our new ward and get her in to see the bishop. Jason baptized her and she said the water was freezing. She stood on her tiptoes for a while when she first got into the water. Jason confirmed her on Sunday in our sacrament meeting, so now she is a full fledged member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Otherwise, we have been enjoying the new house. The kids are well settled in at home, church and school. I am now only 3 minutes away from the emergency services campus of school and I'm taking EMT Intermediate. I'm really enjoying it. We've done IV's which were not all that different from blood drawing and we will soon learn how to put tubes in people's throats. I'm excited. I've turned in my application for the paramedic program and I'm praying hard that they will accept me.
Jason is enjoying his job. The company is growing quickly, so there are days when he has to go next door and get Travis to calm down because he gets way too stressed about the fact that they are going so quickly and having a difficult time keeping up with the demand.

The Move

I'm sorry I'm a little late to announce our move. We signed the lease and started to move on August 21. We have a house with four bedrooms and two bathrooms. We live in Provo now. I am only about 2 minutes away from the building I go to for school, which is quite nice for me. Stacey and Jayden have the Gollahers next door to walk to school with. They started school on Tuesday last week and have so far enjoyed it. I've been unpacking, organizing, and cleaning all week. We are mostly moved in except the few things left at my Mom's that I still need to pick up. We're almost done. It's been a long, tiring process and I have to admit that it's been wonderful to have our own space, even if it means finding out that we have entirely too many toys.
Stacey is very excited to finally have her own room. The boys are still sharing, but they don't seem to mind it. Kail loves the big, fenced back yard that he can go in whenever he wants. He also has the youngest Gollaher, Ashton to play with too. I don't have any pictures yet, but if anyone wants them, just let me know.

Family fun with the Gollahers

Yesterday we went to Hogle Zoo and Millcreek canyon with our good family friends the Gollahers (pronounced Golliers). It was a fairly nice day. Temps were in the upper 80's and there was very little breeze, which would have helped with the heat when we were outside in the blazing sun all day. The kids had a lot of fun together. We even got to be there for the baby elephant, Zuri's birthday celebration.

Jayden is waiting patiently on Jason's shoulders for Zuri to come out from her bath.

We stood and watched her play for a good 10 minutes.

Then the kids went on the carousel. Kail was not too pleased to be on there, but he went with Jason.

Trevin (Gollaher) and Stacey having some fun.

Kail's grumpy look.

Trevin, Jayden, Braden, Jason and Kail looking at lizards, snakes, turtles, and spiders.

They have a train ride at Hogle Zoo where we got to see buffalo and some other animals they don't have a walking path to. They were pretty. That's Travis' excited smile.

After the train, we went and had some very yummy lunch at Rubio's Mexican Grill. The kids enjoyed it as well. Even the youngest Gollaher made a very big mess. Then it was off to Smith's for some hot dogs and s'more makings and on to the canyon. We drove as far up as we could before we had to turn around and were able to find an empty picnic area.

This was a very pretty picture of a mountain from the parking lot in Millcreek canyon.

Trevin, Braden, Jayden and Kail actually stopping for a moment to get a picture.

We were right next to the creek and the kids had a blast playing in the very cold water just at the edge. Stacey ventured once or twice, but that was enough for her.

Summer semester

Well, today was officially my last day for the summer semester. I had a total for 4 classes; physiology, fire behavior and combustion, personal health and wellness, and emergency services capstone. I finished physiology back in June and got a C in that class. Today I took my final for my health class and got a 92%, without studying! So, for that class I'll probably be looking at an A- for a final grade. Yesterday I wrote a 10 page paper for my capstone on code of ethics and got my grade this morning, 100%! I was so excited. I will probably get an A in that class as well. The only other class I am wondering about is my fire behavior and combustion grades. I've done everything that needed to be done, but the instructor has only graded 4 assignments since the beginning of the semester in May, so I have no idea what I'll be getting in that class.
I'm really excited to have done so well in my classes and just wanted to share it with everyone else.

July 24

In my last post I said we'd be trying to head out to Salt Lake, and we did. But we did not go to Liberty Park because there were a whole lot of people there and not much going on. So, since we were in Salt Lake we went over to the Gateway Mall. We had to go to the Apple store for Jason to look at the iPad because he wants one. Then we took the kids to the Discovery Children's Museum. They had a blast.

Jayden playing with the water toys.

Stacey climbed the rock wall. Neither of the boys wanted anything to do with that.

Kail found the vacuum in the little house and started to vacuum. He even made his own noises. It was really cute. He makes his own noises at home with the real vacuums too.

They had so much fun. We were there so long that Jason and I got bored. We had to finally drag the kids out because we didn't want to be in there anymore. It was crazy, but they had fun and that's all that mattered.

On a different note, my grandpa is in the hospital. He went in for a doctor appointment on Thursday where they found fluid in his lungs and his ECG was unusual. So they sent him over to a different part of the hospital his doctor is in after they drained the fluid out of one of his lungs. There was a complication when they did the draining that caused a small tear in his lung which caused that lung to collapse. During the move from his doctor's office to the other part of the hospital his doctor sent him to, grandpa was in so much pain from the collapses lung and his back that he fainted. Grandpa also has a problem with his back that makes it so he cannot sit up straight.

I did not go see him until last night. He was awake from Thursday to Saturday, but he was in a lot of pain. Saturday night he was having problems and they had to put him on a respirator. He is mildly sedated and restrained so that he does not attempt to pull the many tubes he's connected to out. It was a sad sight, especially when he used to be so vibrant and active. We are praying that he does better.

Plans

So, as it has been a fairly slow summer for news, I'll just give a little more. I am enrolled in the EMT intermediate course for the fall, so I actually have something to do next semester. I am still in search of people to write reference letters for me, but I hope that won't be too much of an effort. Jason is enjoying his new job. He gets up at 3 in the morning, does his work from one of our home computers, goes back to sleep when he done and then goes into the office at 8 or 9. He likes the fact that he can work from home for the early morning part. Getting up and being to work that early was killing him.
Stacey and Jayden are doing what they always do, playing with their friends. They are getting quite tan too. Jayden has a funny tan on his forehead and I don't have any idea why. It looks like he's got two circles on the left and right part of his forehead, but the middle was protected somehow. It's not that noticeable if you're not looking for it, but it's still interesting.
Kail is loving the fact that Stacey can take him to the park. Sometimes people will go outside with him and let him ride his bike on the driveway. He's really funny though because he will go to the park for about 5 minutes and then want to come home because he's hot. Just like his daddy.
Today is the 24th of July and all those who have lived in Utah or have family or friends know that it is Pioneer day. We were thinking of going up to Liberty Park in Salt Lake to see if they still do the carnival type thing they did when I was a kid. Hopefully we will find what he are looking for and have a really good time doing. If we do, I'll post pictures and update.
We are also looking for a place to live now. We've found a few possibles, but we'll have to see. That is another update that will be coming.

Just a quick note

For those who are not on facebook or don't go on there very often, I am updating you on my CPAT test results yesterday.
Plain and simple, I failed. The very first event one takes part in is a 3 minutes with a 20 second warm up stair climb with 75 pounds added on. I made in through the 20 second warm up and then made it to a minute and 35 seconds. I lost my concentration and faltered quickly at that point. What I'm most upset about is the fact that I could have done it had I been able to concentrate on anything other than my legs burning. Once I lost focus of everything else but my legs, I lost my balance and my spot in the fire academy. What I said to Jason after I spent my grieving and anger period telling Jason all about it was I should have told those administering the test to talk to me about anything except what I was doing at the moment. But that was long after the fact and I cannot take it back.
So, instead of moping about the fact that I failed I will begin to train at the school with the equipment so that I may attempt the fire academy about next fall. My plans for this fall are to become an EMT at the intermediate level. I am currently and EMT at the basic level and the intermediate will give me more practice for the paramedic program I still plan to attend in January. As I have yet to turn in my application for that, I don't know if I've been accepted. I will fill you in on that progress.
As for now, I will just finish my courses I have now and enjoy my summer with my kids and Jason.