The past few weeks... (Finally!)

Whew! What a whirl wind the past few weeks have been!

On May 26th, Logan graduated from the Cardinal Criminal Justice Academy in Roanoke, Va. We were so happy to be able to have his parents (as well as Nanna and Papa) there to celebrate with us! It was a nice ceremony, pretty short and sweet, and we were so proud of him! He received an award for being an "Iron Man" (receiving 100% on his physical test, which he did numerous times). After the graduation ceremony we drove up to Smith Mountain Lake, a retirement/resort area about 45 minutes from Roanoke, where we stayed in a house for three days to just sit back and relax. It was loads of fun! Logan and I took Tommy swimming in the lake, and we had some exciting adventures with the fish near one of the shopping centers (they were HUGE and very used to eating popcorn...) Tommy and Jack slept really well the whole trip, which made Mommy happy!

(Pictures will be in a separate post)

Sadly, Nanna and Grandma Rae Rae (my mom and Logan's mom, respectively) both got sick the last day we were at the lake! Still not sure how that happened, because it wasn't food poisoning, but it wasn't too fun for them. Logan ended up getting sick too, but not until just before he started work...luckily, the Lord seemed to be sustaining him, because he'd be fine at work, and then come home and sleep for hours, and his fever would go up, etc...he seems to be doing better now, but it wasn't a fun way to start out.

Other than the illness, he's doing well in Lexington. He's pretty happy to be done with school and moving on to the "real thing." He'll spend three weeks with a FTO (field training officer) on the evening shift, then he'll switch to a new FTO on the night shift, then three weeks later switch to another FTO on the day shift. At the end of those three weeks, he'll be ready to be on his own! Hopefully he'll be on the day shift, because that was his original shift he was hired for, but there's a possibility the new police chief might change the way the shifts work, so we'll have to see what happens when August rolls around.

Logan's parents stayed for 10 days, and we had fun playing with them, and working on some small house projects (I FINALLY painted my living room, and I actually like the color! It's getting so close...) Logan's mom also had the opportunity to do some family history work while she was out here, since she has some family dating back to the 1700s in Rockbridge county. Small world! Logan's dad took a ton of pictures while they were here (and I didn't) and I was hoping to get copies, but sadly he realized when he went to download them that he didn't have the right cable...sad...but he's going to send them later. It's always nice to have them come and visit us, and the boys certainly enjoyed getting to know them better!

In other news...

I have decided to become a Lia Sophia advisor! Lia Sophia is a fabulous jewelry company owned by the same family that owns Remington shavers (not that the two things are very related...). It's the type of business where you do parties and people can actually see examples of the product, as well as order items out of the catalog. I was hesitant to start up initially, because I wasn't sure how interested I would be in selling jewelry, but excitement is contagious! It really is a great product (and has a fabulous warranty...100% replacement on broken items, which is invaluable when you have toddler who likes to play with necklaces and/or earrings), plus wearing it makes me feel "girly" (which my husband likes). I love the energy of the parties, and the ability I'll have to run my own business from home! I'll keep you posted of how I progress, but if you'd like to take a look at the type of jewelry Lia Sophia produces, check out their website. And if you'd like to buy some pieces, let me know and I'll hook you up with some fabulous hostess perks...

And one last piece of small news: Logan and I bought three rosebushes a few weeks ago, which Dad helped me plant. We weren't expecting much out of them this year, but they've already started blooming! Each bush has bloomed at least once, which makes me happy. It's nice to look out the window and see a splash of color :-)

Great talk!

I remember hearing this talk by President Monson the year before I got married. The line that struck me the most was "Remember that ofttimes the wisdom of God appears as foolishness to men, but the greatest single lesson we can learn in mortality is that when God speaks and a man obeys, that man will always be right."

When I was searching lds.org for the text of the talk, I discovered that President Monson has been saying that for years! Must be true, eh?

LDS.org - Liahona Article - Constant Truths for Changing Times

No Booster

My boys were eating breakfast this morning and making some funny faces:

Then I realized...Tommy wasn't sitting in his booster seat! For the past few months he's sat on this green booster on a kitchen chair, but this morning he sat in a regular seat--and he was fine!

Logan had informed me on Sunday that Tommy was 2ft, 11.5" tall, but until this moment I didn't realize it meant my little boy was growing up!

A Grand Adventure

Ever since Logan began staying 4 days a week down in Roanoke for the police academy, he's been talking about having the rest of us come down and stay with him for a night. For the past five months he's stayed at the same hotel (the staff knows him by sight), and he gets pretty lonely and bored not having the rest of us around. Due to work and other scheduling conflicts we'd never made it down, but on Tuesday night we decided it was now or never! He graduates in a week and a half (yay!), and so time was running out.

It was a blast! Tommy was so excited to be at a hotel (it was a Comfort Inn), and was giddy most o of the night. Both boys were very excited to see their Daddy, and were crawling all over him most of the time. We ate at an IHOP near the hotel (another fun outing for the kids...and parents), and then the boys got to take a bath, which they LOVE doing. The hotel gives Logan a little rubber ducky every week, which he usually brings home, and Tommy kept talking about it and Jack was splashing every which way. I wish I'd had my camera to get pictures, but it was great fun!

Getting to sleep was a little tricky, since everyone had so much energy, but both boys did end up falling asleep once the lights went off. Tommy really liked the continental breakfast the next morning, too!

I have to admit, I still get pretty excited when I get to stay in a hotel. It is a grand adventure, after all.

Growing up

The boys are growing up so fast, and I don't take nearly enough photos of it! Here are some of the latest:

Tommy likes water

He likes water a LOT

Jack and his new towel (Thank you, Christy!)

Jack and his cheerios (he's moved on to animal crackers lately)

My happy boy!

Modern Convenience

Hot Water.

It's really something that you don't realize is important...until it's not there. On Thursday night, I noticed that the boy's bath wasn't heating up. I assumed it was because I had recently run the washing machine, and just hadn't allowed the hot water heater enough time to recover. No biggie--it was warm, and the boys were fine. Later that night I went to wash a dish, and realized that the water seemed very cold...and it wasn't getting any warmer.

Uh oh.

It turns out that our water heater had died. Dead as a doornail. The pilot light wouldn't stay lit, and there was no piece that could be replaced to fix it. Looking online, it turns out that the water heater installed in our house frequently has this problem, and most people didn't keep it past two years or so (we've lived here for four years, and are unsure when it was purchased). Saturday Logan went to Home Depot and picked up our new (rather unexpected) water heater, and then he and my Dad had the fun task of installing it. Don't you just love little unexpected hiccups like this?

When Logan and I first got married and we moved into the house, our gas got shut off due to an error, and we were without hot water for three days. We have funny stories of boiling water to take showers and whatnot, but the stories are funnier to tell than to live. Hot water really is a "luxury", but I forget that in my day-to-day use of it. It seems weird to think that throughout most of history, people had to boil water themselves, taking a long time to do so, and had to think out ahead of time how much they would need to accomplish their task. I just turn on a faucet.

Such a little thing--but, boy! do I miss it when it's not there.

Finally!

My new kitchen floor was finally installed! After two years of waiting (and having a lumpy, icky floor), everything now looks so pretty!

Our kitchen has come a long way in the past two years. Some comparison shots:

Before

After