Homeless? Not us!

So Turnberry Village Apartments in Macomb, IL is the complex we went to see at Christmas and decided to move into when we move back to the Midwest this summer. Now Turnberry is refusing to take us as tenants. We go from just earning too much for the subsidized housing to earning not enough and they are worried we will not be able to make the rent.

Prayers are answered though. We have called around to many different places and we have had no luck. Out of all that we called there was only one possibility that had a few negative reviews. On Wednesday, June 4th Jon found four more places for me to call. One was an old, 2 bedroom home that is roomy. There is a small laundry area off the kitchen. It has a large enough kitchen that we could eat-in there plus a dinning room we could use as a playroom. There is a living room, Master bedroom, a second bedroom and a bathroom. The tenant who is in it now is using the Living Room for a bedroom and the Dinning room for the Living room. So it is a potentially 3 bedroom home. There is a deck just off the kitchen through the laundry room and an unfinished basement for minimal storage.

We asked Dad & Sally Robbins to make a trip to Macomb to check it out for us. They said it is a good deal. It is the only house on the block, thus has a big yard. There is no fence, but the road is not a busy one and it would take a little while for the girls to make it to the road. It is in a quiet part of town and should be nice. So we decided to take it. It works out well because she is looking for someone to move-in the first part of July, and that is when we will arrive in Macomb. Now we’ll have room for people to come visit and a place for the girls to play that is out of the way. Our future landlord is mailing us the contract and a floor plan.

We are excited to know that we will have a place to call home when we arrive and an address to give to the movers so we don’t have to move it ourselves.

Happenings in May

Last month started off kind of slow, but it didn’t take long for it to pick up. Close to the middle of May, Eliza got steady enough at sitting (or gracefully enough at falling) that I can leave her sitting up on carpet and walk away. Not long after that she became quite good at army crawling to get where she wants to go. She uses her right leg/foot while dragging her body and left leg.

Jon had enough vacation days to take an extra three days off for Memorial Day weekend. So, we left the Friday before and headed up to Utah to see the Aagard grandparents. While we were packing to leave, Eliza got hungry and so I made her some rice cereal with carrots. I sat the cereal down on Eliza’s tray to answer the phone without thinking. When I came back, she had tried to feed herself then grabbed the bowl and threw it on the floor. She then played in the mess and tried to eat any she could get in her mouth.

We had made a few plans for our long weekend, but most fell though. We decided to spend the whole time at the Aagard ranch and probably stayed too long. We were going to go camping up Chicken Creek but it was cold and rainy. We did get in a nice drive up the Nebo loop to 8000 feet where they had the road closed. We also went on a short hike with Maren up Chicken Creek, leaving Eliza with grandma.

Maren has a lot of fun with the animals on grandpa’s farm. She felt confident enough and enjoyed it enough to wander off to feed the animals herself without looking back to see if anyone would go with her. She would go from the dog to the chickens, chickens to the goat, goat to the horse, and then stop and try to catch the cat on the way. Grandpa Aagard had an alfalfa field that has been invaded with dandelions. Helping to spread the dandelion seeds was another favorite part of Maren’s visit. We had a great time at the farm.

Maren is getting so big and uses her words so well that most people can understand her most of the time. One of the phrases she hung on to this month was “can I come?” We would pull into a parking space and she would ask if she could come; as if we were going to leave her in the car. She must think it is a special treat to come inside when running errands. A more recent phrase is “Please! Please now! Please!” This came out of no where that we can find, but each pleading lasts and lasts. We aren’t parents who give in after a firm “no,” so it’s not like she thinks that if she pleads, she’ll get what she wants. Eliza has recently added the “DA” consonant – vowel sounds to her vocal gibberish. It is so much fun to watch them grow.

Since Christmas we have planned on moving into Turnberry Village apartments in Macomb, IL when Jon gets out of the AirForce. We have done everything we can do to get in, but they recently have put us off again on letting us sign a lease. For two full months now they have requested more and more information, hinted at getting everything finalized, but always put us off. Now down to less than a month before arriving in Macomb we are a little nervous. Especially since we have called every apartment rental business listed on the internet all but two are full, don’t rent to families, or are way out of our price range. We know it will work out, but it is a little nerve wracking.

April 2008

In about a month the movers will come pack up our things and we will be without for hopefully only 4 weeks. The challenge now is to try and decide what we can live without for that long, make sure we have enough room to bring the stuff we can not live without, and figure out what we can get rid of.

Eliza is eating graham crackers and cheerios. She is sitting up on her own for about one minute before falling over. Eliza is very observant. She is a happy girl that loves attention and gives the biggest toothless grins you can find anywhere. Seventy-five percent of the time Eliza smiles with her mouth wide open and her arms and legs flailing. She is now able to play with the toys on the exersaucer and jump high in the jumper. She is becoming very interactive. The other day I put her in the tub and she would twist, roll, and wiggle to get out of my grasp. She thoroughly enjoyed splashing about and only cried when I took the wash cloth away to get her out.

Maren is a fun toddler. Her new favorite phrase is “Yes sir.” She picked it up off “The Jungle Book” and also the idea that you scratch your back by rubbing up against a tree. She says “Yes Sir” to disagree. (Ex: Mom – “it’s time for sleep.” Maren- “I want to stay awake, Yes sir.” Or “Make me a picture, Yes sir.” means “help me put this puzzle together now please”) She also calls the living room / kitchen area her home. For some reason “home” does not include bedrooms or bathrooms. So when I am putting her down for a nap she sometimes will say “I want to go home” instead of “I want to stay awake.” She loves to look for bugs then follow them while saying “he’s kind of cute” and “hi little guy.” When she looses them she says “they had to go home to see their family.”
Whenever Maren is awake and Eliza is just waking up. Maren will hear Eliza and shout “I get it!” And she takes off running for Eliza to get her up. Maren is starting to ask Eliza to stand up and proceeding to help her. She has never gotten her off the ground but it will only be a matter of time. Maren Loves to hold Eliza, but gets tired of it quickly. Right after the following picture was taken, with only a split second of warning, Maren dumped Eliza off onto the floor. Luckily there were no tears.

Two Sundays ago during Sacrament Meeting Maren was playing with Daddy’s shoe laces. She was going to tie them for him. After she had tried all she knew how to do, she asked for help. When Jon had completed tying his shoe Maren clapped her hands and said “Good job tying your shoe. You did it!”

Saturday, April 26th, Jon was taking Maren somewhere in his truck. She asked for a wipe. Jon gave one to her and she stuck it down her shirt to wipe. After a few seconds she turned to Jon so proud of herself and said “my tummy all clean!”

Wednesday, April 29th, Eliza had not been acting like her usually happy self, so I took her to the doctor to find out she has another ear infection. Why is it Maren has never had an ear infection but Eliza has had two in the same ear?

Thursday, May 1st was an exciting day. Jon attended his College of the Air Force Graduation. Besides getting his Mental Health of Applied Science Associates Degree he was one of four to receive the Pitsenbarger Award which is like a grant. It is $500 of free money. Now instead of paying $700 for our lap top computer it’s like we only paid $200. Congratulations, Jon!