Birthdays-n-such

Adam woke up this morning for seminary got into the car and immediately yelled "ugh!". I thought he was going to say he forgot something important then he blurted, Obama is president to which I reminded him, "not yet". I saw a pole that said 90% of Germans wanted Obama for our president, so it is not surprising Sven wanted Obama to be the next president. We have one person in our house happy with the results of the election. 

 

I woke up the morning after Halloween to find two candy bars smashed on the carpet of the girl’s bedroom and tons of tiny candy wrappers on their floor. I immediately took the candy and dumped it into one big bowl. Only Renae howled. She begged and pleaded to have her candy back. We will see how they treat their candy next year. Although I let Adam and Kayleigh keep their candy, on the strict word that if it became a problem they would loose theirs too. So far Kayleigh has kept hers from ending up on the floor and hasn't gone on a candy feast eating nothing but candy yet (as far as I have seen). Adam left his on the floor in his room and Madeline has been breaking into his room to steal his candy. Allison then finds her way into Sven and Adam’s room and plays with everything she sees and ate the last 2 of Sven’s tic-tacs. Sven is very gracious and does not get mad. We bought some old lockers from DI to give the kids a place to put their things that Allison and Madeline cannot get into and hope that solves some of this problem.

 

Kayleigh was so excited for Halloween to be over so that she could start playing her Christmas music with out people looking at her strange. She went to the library and checked out about 6 christmas cd's of music and has been listening to them night and day. Kayleigh was recommended into the Honor Choir from her school. It is a combined choir of only the best students in choir from all of Las Vegas. Las Vegas is all within one school district. There are about 20 or more high schools in the district and many more middle schools that all send their best students to this choir. She spent the whole day today practicing Saturday and 4 hours Friday evening. We were very proud of her. This was her first time singing the Alto part and it was a challenge for her.

 

Allison can climb out of her crib now. We are thinking of getting a bed for her and Kayleigh to share. Allison is speaking more and more everyday. Lately she has been pounding on my arm and grunting while she points. If you don’t respond she will pound again and begin to grunt louder and get mad. So I get up and follow her. She gets into everything and can even climb on the counters. Nothing is safe from her destruction anymore. She loves the walks we take every morning to take the girls to school. Sven and Adam are the only ones in the family to ride a bus this year to school. It was exactly opposite last year.

 

Sven posted some pictures of our Halloween adventures on his picasa web site http://picasaweb.google.com/SvenBrunsHH . Our camera does not work very well and so most of our pictures we have is what Sven took with his camera. He also rode his bike around the neighborhood and took pictures which I think you will be interested in. There is also pictures of our birthdays there somewhere. We had the missionaries over for dinner on my birthday and I made a pumpkin crunch cake. We ate it hot out of the oven and the candles melted as we were singing happy birthday. The next day I made a pumpkin pie for Mike's birthday and the only candles we had, because our candles were totally melted from the day before were the one's I had bought for Maddie and Sven's birthdays in October. So Mike was 61 for his birthday this year.

 

 

First Halloween in Vegas

In Nevada all the school children get a day off on Halloween. They call it Nevada Day. By noon today I was ready to get the children out of the house and do something. All morning long I had been thinking about where I could take the kids that is fun yet not too expensive just to save my own sanity and the house. Most days the only thing that will get the kids to finish their chores is the lure to do something fun. But it cannot be too far into the future even 3 to 4 hours is too long. I have to tell them we are leaving ASAP and if they don't hurry they will get left behind. It is a trick I have learned always works to get them to work fast. We drove around doing a few errands then went to the bowling alley. This is the first time Anne and Renae have bowled with bumpers. They loved it. We got two lanes and Adam, Kayleigh and Sven bowled in the other lane by themselves. Allison even rolled quite a few balls down the lane for mom. She was so cute as she squatted in front of the lane bobbing up and down then clapping her hands after they hit the pins. At four we drove, more like crawled to the Town Center Mall like everyone else in Las Vegas. We walked around for a while gathering candy from the stores we passed. Most of the stores candy were gone. The crowd of people was amazing. I was very afraid we would loose Maddie who was so excited to get more candy she was running ahead and just about got lost a few times. In the Center of the mall they have a playground for the kids with a band playing. They were letting the kids get up and sing Karaoke, which they dubbed Scaryoke. I was surprised when Anne stood in line to get her name on the list to sing. She didn't seem intimidated at all. I was very excited to hear her sing, but the waiting list to sing was too long and we had to go. Sven took a good picture of himself with "Jack Sparrow". We drove to the church for the annual Trunk or Treat. We were a few minutes late. They were serving chili and fresh scones with butter, honey and powdered sugar in the back of the parking lot, it was so yummy. They also had homemade root beer which I had not had in many years. The kids ran around gathering candy, and Mom was much more relaxed to let them roam where I knew they were safe. There were at least two wards represented so there were quite a few people. This is the first year we did not hand out candy from our house. The kids had fun and were thoroughly worn out by the end of the day, but before we went to bed we watched "Its the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown", we laughed the whole time. Definitely, we will skip the mall next year.

Allison

I cannot believe how fast Allison has grown up. She is sitting on my lap right now and has just discovered the electric pencil sharpener. At first she was enjoying writing with the pencil and now that is old stuff to sharpening it. Anyway I was excited to see that Allison's pencil grip has already developed. She will be 18 months old by the end of next week. That means NURSERY! I am excited to actually listen to a Sunday School lesson instead of walking the halls tending to a very active toddler. It is a funny thing to be excited about a good pencil grip, but that is one of the developmental delays along with a speech delay that both Madeline and Anne suffer from. Maddie's delay has been linked to an underdeveloped left brain that has also been the source of her seizures. Both had a terrible time developing a correct pencil grip and ended up needing some therapy to help them with it. I decided to begin recording the words that Allison is beginning to say. Here are some of words we have heard her say recently: bathtub, diaper, stinky, what's this, what is it, hello, hi, bye, eat, uh-oh, thank you, mommy, dada, poopoo, hat, bubbles, this, burp, numnum. I am sure there are more than that we have failed to record. I guess diaper changes seem to occupy a very important part of her day. She can tell me when she is stinky which is very different from Anne and Maddie who could not speak until almost 3 years of age. I have had many people comment that Allison is also very quiet, that she doesn't cry a lot. But I have noticed that she screams instead! She is not shy, and is very strong willed and very active!

Finnaly here

Well it has been about a month in Las Vegas and everything has been okay. At school I am in Chour and National Junior Honor Society. I am in advanced chour and we get to do a lot of the traveling and singing at things like festival and thing like that. I am on the Media commite in NJHS. I got to make a poster for our pop tab program at school.My schools name is Molasky Junior Middle School. I got a part in our school play, Big Bad, the trial of the big bad wolf. I am the fairy godmother who is a lawyer. I have 76 lines and have the next to most lines in the whole play. I read Twilight, New Moon and Eclipse; it has become my favorite book and I cant wait till the movie comes out. I still have not read Breaking Dawn and so desperatly want to read it. Twilight is a romance bettween a human girl,Bella, and a vampire, Edward. It was written by an Lds lady named Stephanie Meyer. She is very talented and really descriptive and can write very well. I amreading the Choronicals of Narnia while I wait for Breaking Dawn to become available.I am on book five, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. My moters freind Stephanie is coming to visit this weekend and the next weekend my grandma Losee is coming to visit. I am so exited!

Life....

Had to get a new bank account. After using the same bank for about 10 years I feel like I am back in the 50's using a bank that has very little online services. Just wish my old bank had a branch here in Las Vegas, but we will figure out how to do it anyway. I just can't give up the ease of online banking.

The house seems to be in a constant mess...I clean like mad then I turn around and clean again. That's the way it is when you have a house full. Actually if the kids did not help out with their chores I could not keep up. Yet, I think it is good for the kids to learn to hold up their share of the work.

I am missing having health insurance. Mike is working as a temporary hire right now and will not get insurance for maybe 6 months. I had to pay 122 dollars for a prescription yesterday... ouch.

Here we are!

Whoa, we did it. We live in Las Vegas now. I cannot believe it. After 12 years in Ohio. We have been here for almost two weeks now. I have gotten lost on more than one occasion, but I think I am getting to know the area more each day. This morning I went driving around just to see where things were. Then I searched online for a discount bakery and I have found just one in all of Las Vegas. I cannot believe that, I am going to search some more. There is no Aldi here, and groceries seem to be a bit more expensive, probably because I am used to Aldi prices back home in Ohio.

I just finished building my pantry under the stairs again. This will be the third time and I think it gets better each time I build it. If I move anymore I think I will take up a business making shelves under stairs.:) I was finally able to unpack the boxes of food storage. Every time I made a meal up until now I had to fish through boxes of canned goods to find what I needed. Now I need to get my closet unpacked. I am glad that Dad and Susan helped me get rid of all the junk I left behind and that I chose to leave it behind instead of getting a bigger truck. If feels good to not have all that extra stuff. You can never know how much of a burden your stuff gives you until you get rid of it and give yourself room to breath and just enjoy the space.

Seminary for Adam and Sven is in the morning before school. There is a church right next to the school. Seminary gets over just before school starts so they have just enough time to walk to school.

Madeline went to bed early one evening so I put her down together with Allison in Kayleigh's room. When Kayleigh got home from the Library with Dad she picked Maddie up and put her into her own bed. Then she came down with her pillow in hand. It was soaked with spit like she had had a seizure. I had been forgetting to give Madeline her seizure medicine for about 3 or 4 days because I have been so busy unpacking and getting the house together. I realize now that Madeline probably has been having seizures more than I know, but because they have been happening when she sleeps I haven't known until she had her big one just before we left Ohio. I am glad that it happened before we left Ohio, even thought it seemed like more than I could bear at the time. We are still without insurance here in Las Vegas and if it had happened here we would be in trouble. I am trying to be more faithful giving Maddie her medicine now.

The kids started school and had no school supplies they had to bring to school, and no fees! Yeah Nevada! I am not looking forward to registering the cars. I am sure they are very expensive. Mike gets his first paycheck today, and it should be just enough to pay rent. Last Friday morning the A/C went out and the Landlord's home warranty company would not come until Monday evening to fix it and not unless we agreed to pay the 55 dollar deductible (which we should not have to pay). We were not very happy and we let the property manager know. Tuesday the property manager called to say that the owner felt really bad that we had to go without A/C for the whole weekend and is going to take 300 dollars off our rent next month! Mike and I were discussing just the day before how we were going to pay rent with a paycheck that is smaller than the rent itself even before taxes. It is proof to us that our Heavenly Father is watching out for us and blesses us if we obey. It took a lot of faith to come to Nevada without a current income, but by the time I showed up with the truck full of our things Mike had a job! The very next day was Mike's first day on the job! I know that the Lord was just waiting for us to get enough faith to follow the promptings of the Holy Ghost so he could bless us.

Many thanks to all of the wonderful family, and church members who have helped us pack, load, and unload the truck. It just about made me cry to see all the people who cared helping pack the truck when I came home from the hospital with Madeline. When we arrived in Las Vegas I had to immediately leave to fly the girls from Ohio and left the truck for Mike, Adam, Sven, and Maddie to unload the best they could, but with Mike's job just starting he was gone all day. Sven and Adam spent hours and hours unloading half the truck by themselves over two days. After I arrived back in Vegas, Mike made a phone call and within half an hour at least 5 men were here helping unload the truck and had it empty in less than 2 hours. Sven, Adam,and I were all amazed. Since then the Elders quorum president and Relief Society president have come to visit.

Leaving Ohio

I am a little sad about leaving Ohio, but I am exited obout having more people my age. I wont be the only one my age in class that actually comes to class. Like last week I was the only person that came to class. It was just me and Sister Hinsonin the class. We talked about temple marriges and the time before that we talked about endowments. My school in Las Vegas is called Molaski. We live so close to the school that I have to walk. It is just over a half mile. I havent looked at on the computer so I have no idea what it lookes like and when my mother was in Las Vegas last week she didnt get to look at it. Mom wants to leave on the 14th of August, the day after Sven comes to stay with us. I cant believe we have to leave so soon. It is only like a week and a half. Mom wants to go to Bomerang Bay at Kings Island and ride some of the rides before we leave.

7945 Turtle Island

Mike and I left for Las Vegas in his car on the 26th of July. We drove to Oklahoma and stayed with Mike and Laura. We attended church with them the next morning and Laura cooked a wonderful meal for us after church. We drove to Albuquerque that evening then finished the trip to Las Vegas the next day. We arrived at George's house in Henderon on Monday evening. We unloaded our stuff and headed out to see a house we had thought to rent. When we got there we found it already rented out. So we began the weeklong search for a house to rent. We drove all around Las Vegas looking at the area and looking at houses in Mike's un-airconditioned car. We had to stop several times just to cool off. By the end of our first day searching (Tuesday) it was so hot in the car the computer would not work and shut down due to the heat. Wednesday Mike spent the morning putting in applications for work at several different locations. One was from a paper we picked up for free from the grocery store the day before. We went out that evening to see a house in the south west. It was large and the rent was much cheaper than typical rentals that size. It was dirty but we were not afraid of a little cleaning, but we thought it funny that they wanted a 350 dollar cleaning deposit in that condition. We left that place thinking we were going to sign a contract, but first we stopped at RITI to talk to Mike's future boss and had planned to go to the office to sign a rental contract. He warned us of landlords that are defaulting on their mortgage and never tell their renters until they get locked out of their house. They loose their security deposit and cleaning deposit. He showed us how to find out if the property we wanted to rent is in default or not. So we went home first and discovered that the property was in default, no wonder they wanted a cleaning deposit, it meant more money in their pocket that they knew we would never see. So we began our search again Thursday, and found a property at the end of a culdesac. When we first walked in we were astounded at how clean and nice the place was (after seeing the other property) and found out that this landlord did not require a cleaning deposit! I went Friday morning at 9 to submit our application to rent this property. We went back at 1 to check up on our application and found another woman wanting the same house. I got nervous. This was my last day and did not have time to start looking all over once again. Luckily because I had submitted our appication first we got the house! I had planned on enrolling the kids in school before I left but because we did not get a house until late Friday it was too late to do any school enrollment which is fine as long as it gets done before the 21st. I had forgotten to bring the kids records anyway.

Mike got a call from the company, Nevada Color Litho, we found in the paper for an interview Thursday, but already had an interview scheduled for a credit union at the same time so they compromised on a phone interview the next morning. Friday morning's interview went well and they wanted to interview him in person then next day. Saturday! Mike's Saturday interview went well and they told him they would contact him by Tuesday to let him know if he got the job or not. It would be Tuesday only because they would be out of the office on Monday. Wow! What a change from Ohio. Mike waited weeks for just a chance to be interviewed then weeks again to find out if he got the job just to hear that they found someone else! For 5 unsuccessful months he applied for jobs in Ohio and we are in Nevada less than 3 days and already had an interview! It is an answer to prayer and confirmation that our promptings of the Holy Ghost guiding us to move to Las Vegas is what is best for our family. The kids are excited to move and see our new house!

Final Inspection

The city came over today and inspected the shed! We passed with flying colors. No problems. But it almost was a disaster. We mistakenly thought that as long as we build within the guidelines the city set we did not need a permit. We began digging the foundation and had the floor built and placed when our neighbor came outside to trim his trees in the back yard. We chatted with him about the shed placement and he told us that he read in the newspaper this week that you have to get a permit for everything now! So before doing anything more we went to the city offices and found out that we cannot build in the easement we have in the back yard due to the utility boxes. So we took the floor off and re-dug the foundation again but outside of the easement and the city came by for the initial placement inspection and approved the spot! yeah! So we put the floor back on and found out that the foundation was too big. So we pulled the floor back off again which was no easy task because it weighed close to 200 pounds and was huge and bulky. Then we leveled the ground again for the foundation pillars. I felt like we were going nowhere fast! It had been more than a week. After the floor was properly placed the walls went up in a day and a half and the roof in another day and a half. After the roof went on Grandma, Grandpa showed up to lay landscape fabric in the back yard and spread mulch. Grandma went and bought paint for the shed to match the house and Kayleigh, Anne, and Renae got into the act painting it. Allison found a paint brush and painted herself. Mike Snider helped shingle the roof a little yesterday and his step son Edwin was here today and he and Adam helped me finish putting all the shingles on the roof. His mother showed up just before we were finished and Edwin was excited to put the last shingle on and made his mother wait until he had nailed the last shingle in place! We only have a bit of painting and Grandma and Grandpa are putting lattice work around the foundation pillars to keep the critters out. It looks really nice, too bad we have to leave! As I was on the roof today nailing shingles I was watching the girls play in the newly refurbished back yard. It was then that I realized how wonderful this place is and how much I will miss it when we move to Las Vegas. Kayleigh was so excited, she invited her friend over for a sleep over and they slept in the shed last night.

Vegas job!

Mike has a job in Las Vegas! It should start in 45+/- days. We will not officially know his start date for another month. We have decided to move the first week in August to get established in a house and get the kids enrolled in school.

Anne's thoughts of Las Vegas

I think that going to Las Vegas will change my life a bit because I won't be able to play in the snow a lot. There is snow but on top of the mountains and you cannot play in that snow but you can ski down but I don't know how to ski. It's pretty far but I won't be able to have grass in our yard. You don't have much room for a back yard. If you want to move the Las Vegas think about the soil there around your house instead of grass but I don't want soil around our house. If dad makes the job then I am going to miss snow, grass, and fireworks. Mom said that we might get a tortoise in our house. If someone stops by and says do you want to get a tortoise, you can buy one for.... I don't know how much money you can buy one for....

I bet you the schools will be a lot different and I bet I will have a school that does not wear uniforms and I bet I will have less room in my room. And I bet more of my stuff will be trashed into the garbage. I wish that we could take a plane, I have never rode a plane before and I wonder what it feels like to be in a plane. But if I could see those clouds I would be so amazed at how high up they could go. But if I move to Las Vegas I bet I could meet a lot of new friends, but I will sure miss my other friends, expecially Taylor, Becky, and Katie, and especially my Grandma and Grandpa Arnesen. I hope we get to go to Disney world someday, mommy says its right by Las Vegas. Mommy says it might take 3 or 4 hours to get to Disney World. I might even see snow or grass there. But I hope you enjoyed my little comment and that's all folks.

As dictated by my daughter Anne

The End of Ohio - Begining of Las Vegas

Mike was contacted by a company in Las Vegas today for an interview. He is in the process of getting hired on which he was told could take between 3 to 6 months due to the extensive background checks they have to do. Meanwhile Mike is trying to find another- possible short term - job to pay the bills. It gave us hope and more faith in our decision to move to Las Vegas sooner than later to try to get the kids in school there starting in August. Mike is planning on flying to Las Vegas at the end of July to look for places to live, enroll the kids in school, and look for a job until this other job comes through. We have no guarantees. So we feel very uneasy moving without some sort of a job. There have been many people from the extended family offer their help in Mike's search for a job. It has lifted our spirits and we are very grateful for all the offers we received.

Looking for jobs in Nevada now

Yesterday I got the permit from the city to build the shed and found out that I cannot build on the easement. There are two utility boxes in the back yard near where we want to build the shed. So we moved it up 10 feet out of the easement. We are working on getting the foundation pillars in place to set the floor on.

We also found out that DP&L decided not to fill the position Mike interviewed for this week. So he is still looking for a job. We have decided to start applying for jobs in Nevada. I think we have pretty much given up the idea of finding a job in Ohio and realize it is time to move.

Our trip to Minnesota - Fourth of July 2008

We just got back from visiting my sister Andrea and her family in Minnesota over the Fourth of July. We went to the Mall of America and had a scavenger hunt then ordered two whole pizzas to feed 14 and no one got lost. We spent two days at the swim pond. It is a man made lake that is cleaned and treated. They loved playing in the sand. They also had a huge playground for younger kids a little ways away from the beach. On the fourth of July we went camping at Jonathan's sisters house. The girls had a great time playing in their huge yard. We saw the fireworks from the grounds of a golf course and Kayleigh and Leah had the sprinkler turn on them twice during the show. All the kids pitched in weeded the garden in less than two hours, and the kids had fun while they were doing it. Andrea told them that for every icecream bucket they filled with weeds she would give them a dollar and a dime for every grub they killed. When all the weeds were gone the kids began digging for grubs. I have never seen kids so excited over grubs before. Haans earned 4 dollars just for the grubs he found. We didn't imagine that they would find so many. Later that day Jonathan sprayed for grubs. Andrea was super brave and took 9 kids shopping at the super target all by herself so they could spend their money. It was a wonderful visit. Mostly we were glad to have been able to spend time with family and that the kids were healthy.

Mike did not go with us to Minnesota because of his new job at AIDA. We left Saturday at noon and drove all day and arrived at 1:30 am Sunday. Monday morning Mike woke up to find out that the woman who had quit and made the position available for Mike decided she wanted her job back. They let her come back and gave Mike the boot. He immediately called unemployment and reinstated his benefits and found a lead for another job at DP&L. He spent the whole week studying while he was home alone. Yesterday he interviewed and they liked him. They liked him so much that they are going to hire him on directly with benefits and more pay than he was getting at AIDA. At AIDA he was employed through the placement agency and recieved no benefits. The only down side, he has to travel to Dryden road for work every day, where AIDA was in Huber he is thinking about taking the bus, but it is an hour and a half bus ride each way. A bus pass would cost 45 dollars a month and gas probably would cost him that much in a week. UD is close to there and he is thinking of going to school there where he could just take the bus to campus after work. He could spend his time on the bus studying. This is all just ideas right now.

We got home to find that someone had stolen 2 more bikes from our yard. We called the police and made a report. One of our bikes was returned two days later, but we are still missing Edwin and Mike's bike. Mike's bike has been missing since before we left. We did not call the police about Mike's bike because we are really not sure if it was stolen or borrowed and we just cannot remember who borrowed it. The week before our vacation to Minnesota someone got into our van and took out a watermelon I had left in there by mistake. They smashed it in the road in front of our house. A few days before that someone egged our house and spread ketchup on Mike's car. Our tree in the pot in front of our house was uprooted and snaped in half. Then our cars began running awful. We were afraid that someone had done something to our cars. We bought a kit to build our own shed at Lowes. When we get all the lawn equipment out of the garage and into the shed we are going to try to park the cars in the garage. We are also hoping to be able to fit the bikes in the shed. If not we are going to buy locks for each bike and keep them locked to the fence each night. We took the cars into the shop and found out that they both just needed spark plugs and new wires. They are running just fine now, whew!

I am now going to venture to put together the shed in the back yard and will let you know how that turns out.