Tis the Season to be Jolly--Months 4-5

The holiday season has come and gone!  We have done our best to party it up as much as possible.  We have squeezed a lot into the last two months of the year.

We had our first snow of the year!  It didn't last long, but we were able to enjoy how pretty it makes everything and how much fun a snowman is!  Do you wanna build a snowman?

November was unusually warm.  The kids continued their normal routines.  Deagan was finally able to play hockey again—from his broken arm.  He really enjoys it and loves going to practices.  Danyon has passed a level in swimming and is now in Junior level 2.  He really enjoys that and asks everyday if it is a swimming day.  Dyllan is also enjoying her swimming.  Dane continues his saxophone and has enjoyed freeing up his schedule a bit to concentrate on homework. 

All the kids did really well in their semester end piano recital.  Deagan played Ode to Joy and Robin Hood.  One was a duet with Dan, but Dan didn’t find out he was doing the duet until about 5 minutes before we left for the recital.  Deagan forgot to tell him.  They both did great!  Dyllan also did a duet with Dan.  They played Star Wars and 10 Little Indians.  Dan was forewarned about this one and was ready to play.  Dane played  Edelweiss, Come Follow Me, and Serenade.

For Thanksgiving, we invited 16 people, making it a total of 22 people for dinner on Thanksgiving.  We loved it!  Everyone pitched in and we had a great time!  One family ended up having a baby the day before Thanksgiving, so the mom was in the hospital.  The dad and kids still came and even showed up with pie.  It made the dinner overwhelming for their family, but we enjoyed having everyone one here.  Liz and Csaba drove out from Utah to spend some time with us.  We loved seeing them and spending time with them. 

We were less impressed with the Black Friday deals this year.  We were expecting big things since we haven’t been in the country for the last two.  We did get our poinsettias for $o.99, which we loved, but did not find much else worth shopping for on Friday.  It seems that since stores were open on Thursday, most shoppers were already done by Friday.  It was a quiet day.  We decorated for Christmas over that weekend.  It took a long time to get everything up—3 days.  Now that we know where all the new stuff goes, it should go quicker next year.   We also spent time visiting with Liz and Csaba and watched movies.

That weekend, we had to replace the submersible pump.  It had been on its last legs for a few months.  It finally went out.  The back-up pump also has a hole in the pvc pipe and was having a hard time keeping up.  Dan got it all fixed up, after much worry, and bailing of water by the kids.  Then, two days later, our water heater broke.  We are having to replace a ton of stuff.  Since returning from Austria, we have replaced the dishwasher, the microwave, the carpets, the paint—inside and outside, the submersible pump, most of the plumbing in the hot tub, and the water heater.  Grandpa also had to fix the fireplace and change several light bulbs.  Maybe we should have moved into a new house.

It seems like things never slowed down.  I was called into Young Womens.  A few weeks later, I was asked to speak in Sacrament meeting.  I thought that we could relax for a while after that.  However, I was wrong.  Dan and I were asked to do the Ward Christmas party with one other couple.  The problem was, we only had 3 weeks to get it all planned, decorated, cooked, and done.  Thanks to lots of help from other people, we were able to get it all done!  The party turned out great!  We had a Polar Express party.  Guests would arrive at the ticket booth, then board the Polar Express.  The conductor ensured that they arrived in one piece.  Then people could visit Santa at the North Pole.  After that, we had a nice ham and mashed potato dinner served to everyone at the north pole.  Kids were able to make crafts in Santa’s workshop.  We had a small program with music, a spiritual message on the true meaning of Christmas, and a Mormon message Christmas video, all while people enjoyed trays of cookies and a hot chocolate bar.  It was a ton of work, but it really went well and, I think, everyone had a great time.

December brought more fun.  It seems like we couldn’t focus on anything else but the party, but we still managed to squeeze in some fun things.  Dane had his band concert.  We enjoyed hearing the holiday songs. 

He is in both the Jazz band and the Symphony band this year.  We were able to continue to do our usual Christmas activities most days.  

We had a couple of firsts.  We went to the Festival of Trees in Indianapolis.  They have several trees on display.  They also had crafts for the kids to do, and we even found Santa in the elevator!  Another big surprise for us was that they had a whole room full of Indiana authors, all with copies of their books.  We were able to pick up a few children's books and have them autographed by the authors.  It was a fun time.  Another first, was the German Christmas market in downtown Indianapolis.  We got all dressed up in our Austrian finest, and found this to be a dud. They only had about 6 vendors, and nothing from Germany.  We'll wait a few years before we try that one again.  

We had trouble with watching the Grinch in the hot tub, as we had so much rain that our projector would have been ruined.  So we improvised and just sat in the hot tub first, then went up and watched the Grinch.  Everyone had fun shopping for their siblings.  Mom and Dad were here for Christmas.  We really enjoyed having them.  We were able to carol, have a cookie party, and make lots and lots of cookies and candy.  There wasn’t much time to relax and enjoy the candle glow and it did seem weird to be out in t-shirts instead of coats and mittens, but Christmas came anyway.  Christmas Eve was one of my most favorite yet.  The kids opened a new puzzle and worked on that during the day.  Mom, dad, and I were able to bake breakfast rolls for the neighbors and ourselves and we managed to get everything ready for the dinner a couple of hours early.  I decided that this year, we would eat an early dinner—5:00pm, so that we would have time to enjoy Christmas Eve.  It worked really well.  We were able to eat, clean up, have a recital, read the Christmas story, read The Night Before Christmas, and write Christmas cards to Christ.  We were able to open our new ornaments and get treats out for Santa—all without a rush.  It was so much fun.  Dan and I even managed to watch a Christmas movie before bed.

Christmas was wonderful.  We had a great time opening presents and just spending a relaxing day together.  It seemed like about a day after Christmas, I was finally relaxed enough to contemplate Christmas and the gift of our Savior.  I was finally ready to celebrate Christmas! 

During the break, we thought it would be fun to rent the ice rink and play some hockey for an hour.  We invited some friends to join us.  We played a small hockey scrimmage at one end of the ice and the rest of the ice was set up for regular skating.  We all had a great time.  I got to actually try playing hockey.  It was fun.  Danyon got to try to skate for the first time.  He would rather sit on his 5 gallon bucket and be given a ride on the ice than learn how to skate.  Dan even left him on his belly on the ice for a few minutes to see if he would try to get up.  It didn’t work.  Danyon was happy enough to just lay on his belly on the ice and wait for someone to come and pick him up.  Dan is hoping for a change of heart before next year when he can officially start hockey.  After we skated for the hour, we had a tail gate hot chocolate party in the parking lot.  We had a great time with friends and hope to make this a new tradition.

Our New Year’s Eve plans were pretty low key.  We went to a friend’s house and just hung out, played games, and ate chips and dip until midnight.  We had a great time.  We cheered, kissed, and hugged, then went home.  Once we were at home, we jumped off our furniture to jump into the new year and we waltzed.  After that, we promptly went to bed.

It seems that ever since, I have been a slave driver.  We have been taking down Christmas decorations and lights and cleaning the house for two days.  It has taken a while, but we are now ready to start a new semester.  We are ready to tackle new classes, all our activities, and our new diets.

Here’s to 2016!!  We are excited to see what adventures lie ahead.  Bring it on!!!

Happy Halloween!!!!--Month 3

This month has been really busy with a ton of fun stuff and a touch of some not so fun stuff, but that's life!  Since we feel that writing this blog has become a family history of sorts, we have decided that it is important for the kids to help in writing their family story.  So, we let each of the kids pick a couple of events that we wanted to cover in our story, and let them write.

Just before completing our boot camp, Dan started having pain in his shin.  His shin would swell up and he had a ton of pain, walking, sitting, or doing anything with his leg.  He tried to take it easy for a couple of days.  Even after staying off of it for almost a week, he still was having a ton of trouble with his shin.  He decided to go into urgent care to see if they could take an x-ray.  After hours of waiting in urgent care, he was told that he probably had a stress fracture in his shin and that he should stay off of it.  It was depressing news to hear.  Getting back in shape would have to wait. 

Hockey started!  Deagan was on the ice three times a week.  He would play and skate and he loved every minute of it.  He was so excited to go to every practice.  He was even practicing hockey in the basement on the days when he didn't have practice.  Then at the end of practice one day, they were playing "Sharks and Minnows".  A whole group of boys happened to land on Deagan at one end.  He didn't notice anything then, but a couple of minutes later, while coming off the ice, Deagan fell and landed on the same arm again.  It hurt a whole lot.  He was almost crying when he got to the locker room.  Mom helped him get his gear off and then checked out his arm.  She felt like she better take him in to urgent care.  (Yes, the second time someone in our family was there that day).  It ended up being a buckle fracture.  They put him in a splint for 2 weeks.  No more hockey until further notice.  Deagan was upset that he couldn't play.  After two weeks, we went in again to have another x-ray.  The doctor put Deagan in a full cast--which was disappointing, but it will only be for 2 more weeks.  A whole month without hockey is killing Deagan!

The very next day after breaking his arm, Deagan and Dyllan ran in the Liger mile race.  We had been planning on and training for this race for weeks.  Deagan and Dyllan had been training with Dane after his cross country meets.  Deagan was not going to let a broken arm get in the way of his run.  He ran before Dyllan.  He got a good start, and even with a hurt arm, was able to come in 5th at 6 minutes 42 seconds.  He was running with 3rd and 4th graders, so he did really well.  We would have liked to have seen what he could have done without a broken arm.  As for Dyllan, here is her rendition:
"Mom, please wait here and see how I am doing at the end", I said.  I walked over to the start line.  A man said, "OK 5th and 6th girls, this is a short, fun, race so can go as slow as you want, but there will be no shoving or pushing.  So, ON YOUR MARKS, GET SET, GO!"  I was off into the race.  I could hear the crowd cheering.  I knew I was off to a great start.  I passed two girls who quit running because talking was more important, apparently.  I ran faster than the wind and gave it all my might.  I was almost finished.  Just a little more.  My heart was pounding.  I drowned out all noise and ran.  Just one more step.  YES!!  I finished.  I was thirsty and ready for a rest as they cut off my timer chip.  I got 9 minutes 30 seconds.  Yes!  3 minutes faster than the last time!  I walked forward and received a dark blue ribbon.  "Next time, I might be in first,"  I said to myself.

We were lucky enough to have mom and dad drive over for a visit.  It took them 2 days to get here.  They said that the drive wasn't too bad--except for Kansas.  We were excited to see them as we hadn't seen them for a year.  They got here, and that was when the fun started!  My birthday was the very next day!

The sun rises.  Beep, beep, beep goes Dane's alarm clock.  Mom walks into the room.  "Wake up, Dyllan".  I open one eye and yell, "Happy Birthday!"  "Thank you, dear."  I got up and got dressed.  I got out the door and the whole day all I could think of was mom's birthday.  Mom's birthday.  Mom's birthday.  OH!!  I wish my mind could get off the subject, but no.  The thought just kept dancing and prancing through my head.  But, soon the day ended and it was time for presents.  Yes, she had been opening them all day.  She had 40 of them all together.  Each had a reason that we love her and a gift to correspond with it.  We all made mom a great dinner.  The Murphys came over and brought cupcakes for mom.  Dad bought an ice cream cake that said "Happy Birthday, Allynn".  They were all yummy.  Then it was time for bed.

The headless horseman

Then, the kids had Fall Break at school.  They had both Thursday and Friday off of school.  We wish that Dan had it off of work, but we weren't that lucky.  Thursday, we started off the day with looking at pictures from mom and dad's trips to Europe.  It was fun to see the places we had visited, and fun to see the places we haven't!  Then we watched "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow".  The kids enjoyed it.  We ate popcorn from our pumpkin popcorn containers.  We also watched "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown".  Watching Charlie Brown is a yearly tradition for our family.  That evening, we went to Conner Prairie (Conner Scary, during the month of October).  They had shows for the kids to watch.  They saw a chemistry show and a magic show.  There was also a marionette show of the "Legend of Sleepy Hollow".  We walked around the grounds and onto a scarecrow trail--where some of the scarecrows come alive!!  We weren't too frightened by these, as there was a group ahead of us that came across the live ones first.  By the time we got there, we knew what to expect.  After that, we found the screen where Disney's "Icabod Crane" was playing.  We watched most of that--until it was time for us to get in line for our hay ride.  The hay ride is the big event of the night.  Everyone wants to go on the hayride.  We were loaded into wagons that had a soft straw in the bottom.  We didn't sit on bales of hay.  We sat right down in the wagon.  Then we went for the scariest ride of our lives.  The trail was decorated with tombstones, lights, sounds, and other scary stuff.  We took our ride in the black of night, but luckily it was a full moon.  We had the light of the moon to guide our wagon masters way.  Then, all of sudden, we saw the headless horseman!  He came riding up to our wagon and along side of it, wanted to get all the heads in the wagon!  We barely escaped, and were on our way again.  Then later, there he was again---the headless horseman, himself!!!  He galloped along our wagon again, trying to get the kids heads.  Luckily, we lost him on the covered bridge.  It was a pretty cool ride.  A definite highlight of the season.


Friday, we spent the day grocery shopping.  Dad spent all of his free time working on little projects around the house that we haven't been able to get to yet.  It is so nice to have pictures hung and shelves hung.  It was great to get all the light bulbs changed.  Dad did every kind of job.  It was awesome to have a handy man around for a little while.  That night, some friends invited us to go out to dinner with them to a place called Bonges Tavern.  It is a little bar, in a very tiny town (about 12 houses), about 25 minutes away.  We were told that this place is awesome.  People drive from miles around to go to this place.  Since there are only about 12 tables, the wait to get in can be upwards of 3 hours.  People will drive here and tailgate in the parking lot, waiting to get in.  It is worth the wait!!  The bar does not have a set menu.  The waitress tells you what the chef is cooking that day.  We enjoyed mushrooms, prime rib, lamb chops, and molten vanilla sugar cake for dessert.  The food was stunning, and the company with friends--even better!

On Saturday, Dyllan woke up and to her surprise, Dad and Dane had brought Jack's Donuts home.  They are her favorite!  Even though the Jack's Donuts were there, we still had to go on a walk in Brown County.  It is about an hour and a half drive from our house.  Grandpa pointed out all the pumpkin patches on the way there.  About ten minutes from arriving, Dane and Dyllan heard a small voice from the back of the van saying, "I have to go pee!"  Dyllan turned around to see Danyon with tears in his eyes saying again, "I have to go pee!"  Dan drove off the road into a rock parking lot.  It was Danyon's first time peeing standing up, and he had a hard time with it.  Ten minutes later, we found ourselves in the beautiful Brown County State Park.  The fall leaves had turned and it was beautiful.  We found our way to trail number 7.  We walked and walked around a lake with beautiful trees on both sides.  We walked and walked until we saw a tree with a hole in it's trunk, big enough to have Danyon's whole body fit inside.  It was cool.  We kept on walking up and down and soon reached a fallen tree.  We sat on it like we did the trains in the salt mines and took pictures.  We kept on walking while the clouds darkened.  We finally finished the hike and found a picnic table.  We got our lunch out.  Just after we started, it started to rain.  We moved our picnic to the van.  The rain wasn't letting up, so after our lunch, we drove around the rest of the park and decided to head home.

The whole rest of the next week, we spent all of our free time working on costumes.  Dad did his projects while mom and I sewed.  Dad also spent some time smoking a brisket and some pork.  It was really good.  We also had a scary meal of Jack-o-lantern chicken pot pie and some witches brew in blood streaked glasses.  Thanks to dad who bought the vitamin B2 which works best for glowing and the black light to make it all glow.


On late Wednesday night, Csaba came to visit. He was checking out Bloomington as a possible place to start and finish graduate school. He got here late Wednesday night, and left Friday morning. On Thursday Csaba spent 2 hours practicing before a lesson. He spent the rest of the day playing and didn't come home until late. The next morning he left Indiana.  It was great to get to see him and to spend time visiting with him.

The Halloween party at the church was fun.  We dressed up as Harry Potter. Dane was Draco, Dyllan was Hermione, Deagan was Harry Potter and Danyon was an owl. I was Professor McGonnagal, Dan was Hagrid, Grandpa was Dumbledore, and Grandma was Luna Lovegood. For the party Dyllan decorated the back of the car, Dan and Grandpa made corn bread and two pots of chili, and the rest of us got our costumes on. At the party there were fun games and great bowls of chili. Mom's chili won third place in the contest. After we finished at the party we went home and went to bed, as it was very late, and we were very tired.

Halloween day was fun for us.  Dad, Mom, Dan, and I went to the temple in the morning.  It was awesome.  The temple is so beautiful!  We went out to lunch with Mom and Dad.  Then we got home to carve our Halloween pumpkins.  We started cutting the top off and taking out all the seeds and guts of the pumpkin.  We each carved different pumpkins.  They were all fun.  Dyllan made a witch on a broom.  Dane carved a skull with a hood on.  Deagan carved a skeleton with horns.  Danyon's pumpkin was a bat with a tomb stone.  We put in a strobe light and light them up for our trick-or-treaters.  Dane went to a friends house to watch movies and opted out of trick or treating.  Dyllan, Deagan, and Danyon had a great time.  Danyon has decided that he loves Halloween and trick or treating.  Dan and I were able to take them out while mom and dad stayed at home to hand out candy. Our house looked pretty scary with our strobe light pumpkins and our fog machine.  It looked great!  It was a good night.  It got a little windy towards the end, and started to rain just as we arrived home.  We had tons of candy left over and with all the stuff that the kids got and the trunk or treat and from trick or treating, we will be eating candy until June!

Dancing through life feels more like trudging through life sometimes---Month 2

We have been living life one day at a time this month.  It seems like so much has to happen everyday and there are not enough hours to get it all done.  Dan and I started a six week boot camp class.  It starts at 5:15am every Tuesday and Thursday.  This has curtailed several of our late night plans of laying on the couch, watching T.V., as we are in bed by 9:00 or 10:00 every Monday and Wednesday.  It is very early to get up, and the workout is even harder.  However, with just adding 2 days a week of exercise, Dan has managed to lose a few pounds, and I haven't lost much, but my body has been slimming down and toning up a bit.  If we added exercise to 5 days a week, we might do even better.  I'm just not getting up that early everyday.  One thing that has hurt our weight loss, is that we have found an incredible doughnut shop--not too far from our house.  It is called Jack's doughnuts and we have been three times since we found it 3 weeks ago.  It is that good.


Dan's travel schedule has been under control, but he has several early morning meetings that keep him on his toes.  As far as travel goes, he drove down to Nashville, Tennessee, to speak at a Dietician's conference.  The conference went well, but it was over a weekend, so we didn't get to see him much that week.  It seems like we just need one more full weekend to work on the house to get everything finished up, but we can't seem to get one with nothing planned.  Two days after returning home from Nashville, Dan headed back for more work meetings.  He spent most of last week there.  He did have some fun experiences though.  He went to the Grand Ole Opry and saw Alan Jackson!  He said it was a great concert and great night!  He also got to tour the Country Music Hall of Fame.  He got to see the display from Ian and Silvia Tyson.  They are a famous old country duet from Canada.  They reminded him of home.  His group also got a private tour of the RCA Studio B.  It is
managed by Chett Atkins  Elvis recorded over 266 songs there.  Everyone who is Anyone in country music has recorded there.  His highlight was that the original Steinway, built in 1945, that was used on all the recordings from Studio B, is still there on display.  It has a big "Do not touch" sign on it.  But because they were a private tour, they took the sign off the piano and asked if anyone played the piano.  Both Dan and his boss raised their hands, and they both got a chance to play on the piano, where many greats, including Elvis Presley, had recorded.  They also had on display, the piano that was used to record The Browns "Three Bells".  They had actually put steel-headed tacks on the hammers to create the sound that you hear in that classic song.  Dan even got to play a chord or two on that piano. 

Although we said that we would be totally relocated and done by the end of September, that has been a pipe dream.  Our relocation people in Vienna have been a nightmare to work with.  We don't have any of the closure information for our apartment in Vienna.  Although we were supposed to be completely done by September 30, with the hand over of the apartment, we are not done.  We still haven't even been informed on anything over there.  We don't know how much we will be required to pay, what expenses they are actually going to reimburse, or what has been done or not.  They were supposed to close all of our accounts by the end of August, but we have received two bills from the phone company and an insurance company for our service in September.  So, they didn't actually close out our accounts over there.  This has become a huge frustration and the company has hinted that it might be several months before we can get this fully reconciled.  I told Dan to tell them that as per the relocation companies request, our bank accounts will close by the middle of November.  I figure that, that is long enough for them to figure things out.  Whatever doesn't get taken care of by that point, we will not be responsible for.  If we no longer have Euros to pay the bills, I don't think that we should be responsible to pay.  I feel like three months should be long enough to figure out the final bills. 

I have been working on getting the house cleaned up.  It seems like that is a never ending project that stays on the to do list forever--like laundry.  Danyon and I have decorated the house for Halloween.  It is fun to have the Fall decorations up.  The kids are excited to have a "normal" Halloween again.  They want to decorate the car for trunk or treat, but are really excited to go regular trick-or-treating.  I have been slower to work on costumes this year.  I need to get on it.  As the kids have reminded me, only 21 days left!  I was able to go to the new Indianapolis temple this last month.  It was my first time going.  It was beautiful!  I went with the youth group from church.  I have been asked to teach the 16 and 17 year old girls at church, so I will be going to their weekly activities, too.  I went to a lunch bunch with some other women from the church this week.  They go out to lunch once a week.  It was good to meet new people.  I don't know if Danyon and I will go every week, but we will probably try to make it once a month. My afternoons are completely full of taxi duties.  Having family dinner is proving to be a hard task--sometimes we can't sit down together until 7:45 or 8:00, but we are managing.  There isn't a day in the week that we don't have something going on.  It's good to busy, right???

Dane has finished up his cross country season.  He has a rough go with his strained hip flexor.  He seemed to get healed up by the end, and was making some progress.  He did PR (personal record) for his last meet.  He ran it in 11:56.  I think if we had more time, or if he didn't get injured, he would have done even better!  It is weird to not have him in any sports for a few months.  He would like to play soccer and do track and field, but they don't start until spring.  To keep him in shape, I signed him up for piano lessons.  How is that keeping him in shape?  Well, he will have to run to the teachers house--about a mile and a half every week.  It's not enough to keep him in shape, but it is a help!  He is trying out for the Junior All State band in saxophone.  He is just staring to practice the try-out material.  Hopefully, he will be able to participate in that!

Dyllan is doing well.  She is liking her swimming.  It is turning out to be work for the parents, too.  Both Dan and I spent 6 hours each, volunteering at a swim meet yesterday.  It was fun to watch the swimmers, but Dyllan was not in the meet.  In this swim club, we have to put in at least 30 hours of "volunteer" time during the season.  She is studying her states and capitals in school, and is eager to work on school projects.  She is adjusting very well, now.

Deagan is doing well.  He is so excited about hockey.  He loves it.  He has had 3 practices so far, and has been so excited for every single one.  It is fun for Dan to see someone so excited about hockey.  Deagan has spent several hours in the basement on the artificial ice, practicing his shots.  We love his enthusiasm and his willingness to work on it.  The other kids love their sports, but don't always put in the additional practice time.  He is doing better in school.  He has a big book project due this next week.  He has to do some book character analysis, make his character out of a pumpkin, and then do an oral report on it all.  We have been working on that a bit this week. 

Danyon is potty trained!!!!!  No more diapers at our house!!!!  Whooohoooo!!!  That is huge news for us.  We are so excited for him and us!!  He is growing up--I had appointments for all the kids to go to the dentist, but it was Danyon's first.  He did great.  He just sat there and opened his mouth.  He was very relaxed and did what he was told.  He is loving his swimming class.  He asks almost every day if it is his swimming day.  He has so much fun with his friend, Ethan.  He is getting to be a talker.  At the lunch bunch, he talked the ear off of several people.  Some things are hard to understand, but he is getting much more vocabulary now.  My favorite thing to hear him say is, "Dinner's lllleady" (Dinner's Ready).

And We're Baaaack!--The first month

Our last week in Vienna went by really fast.  We were able to get ice cream and lunch with friends for the last time, and get everything out of the apartment, and get everything left packed up.  We went out to Athene, our favorite Greek restaurant, one last time before we left.  We dropped Josh off at our friend Api's house so that he could enjoy his last two weeks in Vienna.  It was sad to go, but everyone had an air of excitement about them for a new beginning.

The flights and return home went off without a hitch.  The kids did really well on all our flights.  The rental cars were ready for us.  We made the drive to our house without getting lost.  We did realize at the airport though, that we had lost a lot of our American social graces.  We were so used to Viennese culture of not making eye contact or talking to anyone, that we must have come off as rude on more than one occasion.  It will take some getting used to, but I think we will fit back in soon.  When we arrived home, our neighbors had a bonfire for us and despite being very tired, we hung out at the fire pit, kickin' back with the neighbors and getting munched by mosquitos.  The most surreal moment for us was when I opened the oven.  I couldn't believe how big it was!  I stood there with my mouth open wide for several moments.  Dyllan and Deagan both thought it was huge, too. 

We have been welcomed home by several friends and neighbors.  We have had several lunch and dinner invitations and four cookie deliveries.  It has been so fun reacquainting with old friends.  Everyone has been very patient with our stress level and the fact that we were like zombies for the first week and a half. 

Our cats arrived home on the same evening as we did.  They got a better flight and better connection than we did, but they were still harried when they got home.  We sent them straight to the basement with their food and litter box to hang out for the evening.  I wasn't about to have them pee on my carpet in our house, just because they were mad.  The next day, they were remembering things that I didn't even remember.  They both kept meowing and heading for the laundry room.  They both wanted to be fed in there.  I thought that I had only fed them in the laundry room when Marco broke his leg.  But, I guess that I did put their food in there full time, because they both remembered that, that is where I fed them.  I think they are happy to be home.  They made themselves at home right away, and so far . . . no pee except for in the box!!!

The first several days were so stressful.  We had to buy school supplies, get carpet ordered, find painters, get kids ready for school, buy two cars, etc.  We were staying in a hotel at night but spending time at the house during the day. 

We have been working on several house projects.  We got new carpet.  We love the new carpet!  It is so much softer than the old one and the color is so much better.  It is a brown color, but not too dark.  It really changes the look of the house and makes it seem so much warmer than the white carpet did.  I did the touch up paint on all the walls.  We had a crew come in and do all the paint of the trim and doors.  The crew also painted the entire exterior of the house.  I restained the outside deck.  Dan has spent several hours fixing the hot tub.  Although we drained it and blew out the lines before we left, while we were gone, condensation filled the tub up part way and then it froze in the lines causing them to burst two manifolds and along the main hard plumbed pipes.  It has been a mess to fix and several hours, but right now, we have a hot tub that holds water!!  It should be ready for use tomorrow!  We have gone through all of the stuff that we left in the storage room here and organized it all. 

The kids started at each of their respective schools.  We have three kids in school and three schools that they are attending, with three different start times.  That was tricky to handle while living at the hotel.  It was a big stress.  The kids were tired and scatter brained.  They sometimes left everything at the house that they needed at the hotel, or left everything at the hotel that they needed for school.  Both Dane and Dyllan are required to have ipads at school and remembering to charge them everyday was a bit difficult.  We couldn't find any of our American plugs to charge them with.

We finally got our sea shipment on Friday the 28th of August.  Having our stuff here and being able to live in the house has made a huge difference.  We have been working every hour of every day trying to take care of the mess that the movers left.  They unpacked our boxes and just dumped everything in a pile.  We had piles up to our thighs in every room.  We are not looking forward to doing it all again with our permanent storage stuff.  We are very much looking forward to having a washing machine and dryer again though.  We have used the laundry mat and used the kindness of our neighbors to borrow theirs, but we would really like to have all of our stuff here.

Dan has been under a ton of stress with his new job.  He has been trying to make his family happy (and be there for all of the important stuff) as well as learn and start a whole new job at work.  He has already traveled to Kansas City, Chicago, South Bend, and Dallas.  He is worn thin, but has kept a happy face--even if we do fall asleep by 10:00pm every night.  He researched and bought two new cars for us.  I got a Toyota Sienna.  He got a Volkswagon Passat.  One night, I went to pick up Dan at the airport.  We decided to stop by the house before heading to the hotel because we had some painters there when I left.  We just wanted to lock up the house.  When we arrived, it was 11:30pm and the painters were still there.  They had another hour of work to do that night.  (They were trying to get everything done according to our schedule of when we were getting the new carpet in).  Since we had some time to kill, we decided to take Dan's new car out for a spin.  I had never been in it.  So, off we went.  We drove a few blocks and noticed a car behind us.  We didn't take much notice until we got to a roundabout and headed straight back the way we came.  On the roundabout, we realized that the car behind us was a police car.  Dan was headed back home.  The police car tailed us all the way to the neighborhood.  When Dan turned on his signal light to turn into the neighborhood, the police car turned on his lights and pulled Dan over.  Dan realized that the police car had called in for backup, as there were at least two patrol cars and maybe three.  When the police officer came to my window, he informed us that we had been pulled over because Dan had failed to signal for 200 feet before changing lanes.  Needless to say, he had nothing on us, but wanted to see what we were up to.  We explained that we were just out test driving our new car and he let us go--without a ticket.  I guess it is nice to know that the police are working so hard in our neighborhoods!  Rhonda says I need to be more careful about who I hang out with that late at night!

Just months before we were asked to leave for Austria in 2012, we were excited to learn that the church that we belong to, had decided to build a temple in Indianapolis.  When we lived here before, we used to have to drive 3 hours to Louisville, Kentucky, just to go to the temple every month.  While we were in Austria, our closest temple was in Frankfurt, Germany--an 8 hour drive.  The location that they chose for the Indianapolis temple was less than a thirty minute drive from our house.  The temple is not a place that we go to every Sunday, but a sacred place that adult members go for more learning and understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  So, we were really excited to find out, as we were preparing to move back, that our temple in Indiana had been completed and was scheduled for dedication the week after we returned.

Dane has been thrown right into things.  He got to be a part of the cultural celebration that was put on by the youth of the church here, in conjunction with the dedication of the Indianapolis temple.  It was neat for him to get to dance in it, and it was neat for us to be able to watch it!  He did a swing dance for the program which focused on the history of Indianapolis and "Gathering to the Light".  It was a nice program and cool to have President Eyring and Elder Ballard here from the quorum of the twelve apostles.  Everyone except for Danyon was able to go to a session of the dedication of the temple.  What an exciting time to just be getting back to Indy!  It has been a spiritual experience for us. 


Dane is in three excellerated classes at school.  He is also on the cross country team.  They practice 5 days a week and have already had their first meet.  Dane didn't do as well as we had hoped, but we will just chalk it up to getting used to the humidity.  Dane has also started taking Saxophone lessons from a teacher at the school.  Those, so far, are going well.  It was a rough first couple of weeks of school, trying to get organized and into a routine, but I think that we are there.  He will just have to keep plugging away at it. 

Dyllan has started off really well in school.  I think that her teachers are perfect for her.  She has already come home with two tests of 100 percent.  Way to go, Dyllan!  She is starting piano lessons and swimming next week.  She would like to try out for the show choir.  We will see how that goes.  I hope that she can keep up the good work.  She has been such a big help around the house, as well.  Dan and I decided to reward her for all of her hard work.  I took her to Disney on Ice--Frozen.  It was a fun date night for just she and I.  We enjoyed the show and had a great time with friends.

Deagan is doing well.  He gets an extra hour of sleep every morning than everyone else.  That seems to help him a lot.  He has been doing much better at home.  His school work is coming along.  He has to work hard in school.  He has told me that he has missed recess about three times to work on assignments that he did not get done.  I think that focusing on his work will be a challenge for him, but easier as we get into a routine.  He will start cub scouts, piano lessons, and hockey very soon.  He is excited to be back.  His teacher is new to the school and we haven't heard anything from her, so I guess things are going well.

Danyon has spent the last little while trying to get rid of his afternoon nap.  He has been very chill with me at the house.  He hung out with me with nothing in the house for two weeks.  He was excited to get some furniture.  He didn't care about his bed, as he rarely sleeps in it anyway.  He is loving the soft carpet.  Without his naps, he is ready for bed at about 7:30 or 8:00.  We have new couches and he loves to spend the afternoon snuggling in a chair reading books.  It hasn't happened as often as I'd like, but I think that once we get all settled with all our stuff, it will be easier to get back into our routines as well. 

Everyone seems to be making the adjustment quite well.  It helps so much to be able to speak the language, know where grocery and hardware stores are, have parking lots, and lived in the exact same house before.  I'd like to say that, that has helped the transition go much smoother, but it hasn't been as fast as I thought.  We have been through every room in the house organizing, hanging pictures and curtains, and cleaning.  I'm frustrated that we will have to do it all again once our permanent storage gets here.  We have already been at it non stop for a week.  But, it will eventually all get here and organized. Then I can start to focus on getting ready for the holidays and returning all the favors that people have done for us.  They say that it is not good to always be looking at things with the attitude of, "I will be happy once . . . "  It seems that we have all had that outlook on life all summer.  We're just waiting for everything to finally be done.  Then we can sit back, relax, take a deep breath, and focus on life again.   We are taking time to enjoy the fun parts of life while we wait, and we are not so naïve to think that everything will be perfect once our storage gets here, but it will be a good feeling knowing that we are all done with the move and we are fully settled and back in Indiana.