One Month Rundown

I always forget that blogger loads things added last to the top, so indulge my pregnant rantings.

This is the stove top after I spray painted it black. Such a dumb thing to be proud of, but I am so happy it's not yellow now. I'm pretty sure that could only be said by a pregnant woman.

Speaking of pregnancy, this has gone by fast. It's probably because we've moved and stuff but I also think having two kiddos keeps you busy and not thinking about pregnancy every second. I kinda like it.

After (I haven't figured out how to switch pics around with our new computer)

...and before:

Yes that is miralax in both pictures. Not for me:)

And this is a random picture. Cody helped me paint a bird house and we drilled it right to the tree out front of our house. And a few other things of note: The dirt behind the tree on the side of our house is visible after 8 bags of leaves I raked. I'm pretty sure that's never been raked before.

And then, the white trash house off to the side: Ah! I worry they'll see this post even though I've never talked to them:) I don't know those neighbors, but they have had more than their fair share of drunken parties at 3 in the morning...drugs may be involved?...kind of puts a damper on our position in the neighborhood, but the neighbors on the other side are cool.

It takes me about a month to figure things out in a new place. Here's what I think of Edmond vs. Pullman so far.

Having talked to people who live here, it seems like the majority of people are here because they want to be. That sounds strange, but in some places it seems like people are there because of work or school or some other reason that placed them there. But most people here just love the area and never want to leave. Edmond itself is a beautiful city. The neighborhoods are all named, as I've said before. Except ours. We live on one of about 5 streets in the ghetto:) But we are the only one in the city. The rest of it is filled with huge nice homes and shops and parks and good stuff.

Edmond: everything is far away. A trip to the grocery store: 15 minute drive min. The park 15 min. The pool 15 min...you get the idea. Everything is a drive. You can drive around Pullman in 10.

Speaking of driving: the speed limit everywhere is 45 mph. Pullman is 25 and you WILL get pulled over for driving faster. I tend to drive like a grandmother here. A cop actually followed me to my house the first time I drove and I think it's because I was going so slow. But I thought it was mean since I get anxiety around cops, having been (wrongfully) arrested.

Weather: it's about 10 degrees hotter than normal here this month, so for instance today it will be 103, and humid. But I will never complain about the heat. I will complain about the cold. The thing I didn't expect is that it also makes you home bound because it is too hot to go to the park, or anything outside- although swimming is always fun. I actually completely enjoy getting in the water when it's 100 degrees outside!

There is so much to do around here! Yes, it's all a drive, but so many choices!!

Beau had another show with his vet clinic in OKC so Merideth and Afton joined us at the science museum. It's huge. We have a pass from Pullman for the science center there which is nice. We spent hours there and had so much FUN!!

Gymnastics:

Fish aquariums. Right at the kids eye level.

Space stuff, of course:)

Cody's personal favorite: the trains.

He also thought the robot "Auto" was pretty cool. They had a show where they blow things up that was pretty cool to him too.

A flight training machine. or something.



Merideth came...we didn't just steal her child. I never seem to get pictures of her!

As it seems like with every woman I know, she's pregnant too, and due three weeks after me!

A Room in Our House

First, I wanted to point out these guys. They are the knobs for all the cupboards in the kitchen. At first they creeped me out, but they've grown on me and now they kind of add to the weird, vintage-ness (oldness) of the house.

The best quality of our house is the AC. Yesterday was a record breaking 105 degrees but we didn't feel a thing due to the amazing coolness in our home. Thank you AC.

And not to complain too much...but that little white contraption in the picture...that's our "dishwasher." It holds 4 salad plates, three cups and several utensils. I'm not sure it's worth the work of loading and hooking up to the kitchen sink and running for 1 1/2 hours. By that time I could wash those little plates and forks and the rest of the dishes that don't fit in it without the sink being out of commission. Who invented those and why aren't they bigger? Oh wait, there ARE bigger ones, just not in our house. It's good for me and I will really appreciate dishwashers one day when we have one.

Other noteworthy things in the picture - the wood paneling. Not sure what decade that is from, but I would LOVE to change it somehow. Maybe it's the nesting, but then I have always wanted to fix up an old house. Maybe prime and paint it.

Those little cupboards, props to my parents for their gift, hold our food since we have no pantry. Thanks again mom and dad. And last but not least, the antique light fixture. It's cute enough, but I want to update it by about 30 years.

There you have it. Our "dining room."

OKC Zoo and Cute Cody

Some good friends of ours from Utah State went to Colorado State for vet school when we went to WSU. We haven't seen them since then, but they went to Texas and he works with his clinic at shows in OK City...so we got to see them this last weekend! We went to the zoo one day.

Right as we walked up a woman grabbed us and got us in free because she worked there and was just going for the day. Love that!

It's a way cool zoo. There was even a baby elephant. They had the biggest snakes I've ever seen. Cody was of course loving that. It was around 95 degrees=HOT.

Afton is Cody's age, just three months younger and now he is her boyfriend:)

This is his impression of the chimps who were chillin in the hot afternoon.

Today we were doing some yard work out front. I got out the clippers to trim some branches. Cody wanted to try. Next thing I know he cut a huge portion of a rose bush. I reprimanded him a little and told him to ask me to cut anything down. I turned around to throw some stuff away and turned back around and he had cut down a TREE. The entire tree. It wasn't defiant, just pure excitement over using the clippers. I got after him a little and he felt SOOO bad. But really- pretty funny.

OK Reality

My parents made the LOOOOOONG two day drive here with us. We made it late Monday night and looked at our house. To say it was disappointing would be accurate! We looked at other apartments online that night. But we decided to clean it and fix it up and see. It's so much better now! My parents are amazing. They put in 12 to 14 hour days cleaning, working, moving, doing yard work. (Gobs and gobs of cat hair and dust everywhere.) Basically moved us in in 4 days. The owner also put in a new sink and toilet and fixed things up nice. I'm pretty sure we would have been moving in still next year about the time we move out if it wasn't for my parents. THANK YOU thank you thank you. The day of their flight it was cancelled because of a bomb threat at the airport and it was closed. Crazy. They flew out the next day.

This is us fixing up the yard.

Oklahoma so far:

Today is was hot and sunny, like every day. At around noon it stayed that way, but hailed. They don't say "rain" for the weather when it rains. It's "thunderstorms," because it is and they are intense. But it has been in the mid 90s the last couple days.

The humidity is stifling and it's apparently not bad this year.

People in our ward kept looking confused when they would ask where we lived and I would tell them the roads around us. While I probably got them wrong, I finally also realized it's because all the neighborhoods here, or neighborhood estates, are named...except ours. We live in a little ghetto just north of the main town:) Edmond is a super nice town.

Our house layout is basically exactly like our apartment in Pullman. It makes it feel like home, but the trim is dark brown and for some reason I love that so much more.

One of the first days out exploring we found the cutest museum for kids (it's free, even better!) They have a play store, garden, trains, dress ups, art tables, and a play jail inside. Cody and Macey got in the jail and I asked them what they did. Cody said: "I hit someone." Age appropriate and sweet.

Macey said, "I killed someone." Wha?

Between States

Our stay at Utah went from two to three weeks due to some changes with housing in Oklahoma. We enjoyed our time there!! There were a few nice days that we spent playing outside. Here are the kids at the castle park.

One of the MANY times we ate out...this time without kids. The way it should be (for me to really enjoy it:)) But then again, good prepared food with no clean up should always be enjoyed.

Ben's parents threw a graduation party for Ben at the "farm." Cute Jessi gave rides to all the kids for I'm pretty sure 2 hours straight. What a saint.

The grad

The mostly eaten cake.

Macey sat on my dad's lap with her eyes closed while my mom spooned her cake. For some reason this hit me as funny simply because it is so Macey.

Micah turned FIVE while we were there. They had potato sack races, face painting and fun! Micah is so cute with Macey, she treats her like her own little baby! Macey adores her.

Hogle Zoo now has DINOSAURS throughout the park. Cody loved it. He also loved the snakes.

Cody, grandpa, grandma and Clayton went fishing. We even got to cook up some of their catch. For some reason Cody loves fish, which is a good thing!

One of Macey's favorite people is Ryan. It is so funny.

Ben and I, thanks to the good graces of Ben's parents, took a little getaway to Midway for a stay. We also got to go to the temple-Bountiful which was perfect since we were married there seven years ago. It's so nice to have grandparents to babysit and literally have a 15 minute drive to the temple.

Hmmm, what else. Ben got to see Sam and go golfing with him one day. Which started a short lived addiction to g0lfing the couple weeks we were there.

Back on the Map

Graduation and moving was exciting and crazy. Saturday night was graduation and then we pulled out Sunday morning, off to Utah for a stopover before we headed to OK.

Goodbye house. We knew we were lucky to live there, but now that we're here...BOY were we lucky. Good friends and good neighbors surrounded us.

Goodbye cougars.

Graduation pics...we did it! (Okay Ben did, but I did too.)