Christmas is Coming

We have enjoyed some really fun Christmas events this month.  First, our ward Christmas party.  We really packed in the fun for that event.  It was a big dinner, followed by a fabulous nativity production put on by the primary and then Santa came.  It was a lot of fun for everyone and very well organized.  The greatest thing is that I was not involved in planning or carrying out any of the details.  It has been a long time since I have been able to relax at an activity like that.

There was an adults only party the following week with amazing appetizers and a white elephant gift exchange that was out of control funny.  I died laughing at presents like a

 stuffed blowfish, a leg lamp (a miniature of the one from the Christmas Story,) a deer head with antlers and all (the elders ended up taking it home for a tie rack,) and many other silly things.  I ended up with some tiger slippers and a feather sticker for my car.  Good times.

The kids also had their piano recital this month.  They did really well.  Our third child played Jingle Bells (with chords and all), her older siblings played duets with me, Joy to the World and O Come, O Come Emmanuel.  Richard missed the whole thing because the littlest were pills and decided to make noise.  Next time we will get a babysitter.

We are now looking forward to Christmas and having our dad home for two whole weeks.  We plan on partying hard!

The Pasta Master

Most of you have probably not had the chance to taste Richard's amazing pasta.  On occasion he will don an apron and come in the kitchen to work his magic.  Last Sunday was one of those days and his pasta was amazing.  He has all of these little techniques that he teaches me as he goes.  I usually don't adopt them into my own cooking because I am more about efficiency than taste (as sad as it is to admit.)

When we were first married my favorite thing that he would make was this soup that was a lot like what he would eat in Romania on his mission.  To die for!  You eat it with sour cream on top.  Some day my life may slow down enough to saute the mushrooms on low, but for now, I'll let Richard be the Pasta Master.

September 2008 email

Wow, life has really picked up in these past few weeks as we have settled into a routine.  Our kids love their teachers and their new school.  It is fun to be in a small school where there is a lot of personal attention and a fun community feeling.  ALL of the kids teachers are REALLY nice and the kids are all very happy and well challenged in school.  The best part is that they have very minimal homework.  I feel like shouting, hallelujah, somebody gets it, kids need to play after school.

Richard is really settling in now with his new classes and new curriculum.  He has been putting in some insane hours at work.  The first two weeks he would leave at six and not come home until eight.  Unfortunately though he caught something last week and he has been coughing and getting a fever every night for the past week.  That slowed him down.  The poor guy is absolutely wasted.  I hope he gets over this one soon.

I started coaching little kids gymnastics at the YMCA this week.  It is two mornings a week for a total of three hours and in exchange, I get a full family membership there.  It is great because Joseph is in the class and Rachel gets to go into the child watch for free.  It is a lot of fun to be teaching again, even if it is only for a few hours.  I am excited to play volleyball that they offer adults on Wed. nights.  Lots of fun!!

Mark is in flag football and last night they had the opening jamboree.  It was fun for the kids because they got to play on Roseburg high school's turf field under the lights.  Mark was so hyped and Richard was all about letting him know that he was standing on the very place where his dad had made a great tackle and a touchdown run.  Oh the glory days. Mark's amazing plays in his game included a perfectly executed route catching the ball for a five yard gain and a "tackle" (flag pull) to stop the other team from scoring on the last play of the game.  We can't get enough of this stuff...obviously.

Katy is trying out a new dance studio this week.  The one she is in doesn't focus on ballet and we found one that does and it looks really good.  It is hard to be in a new community and have to find all of these things for your kids to participate in and hope they don't overlap in your schedule.  I feel like I have been really blessed and led to the right places.

Laura started piano last week with the older two and she is so great.  She loves to practice and she has a great sense of what to do, probably from watching the older two for so long.  She also does some gymnastics at the YMCA in an older class taught by the college gymnasts.  She loves it and it gives her something to be proud of.

Joseph is getting more intense as he gets older.  His latest fun is making castles with the blocks.  He will disappear for a while then run out and scream that I have to come look at his castle.  I, of course, gush about how great it is and he will jump around, flexing his arms, and say, "oh yeah baby."  The other thing he loves to do is shoot hoops in our new basketball hoop.  One day I heard him yelling to someone that he was playing basketball.  I went out to see who he was talking to and saw that he was looking at the sky.  I said, "Joe, who are you talking to?"  He said, "The guys in the airplane."  Sure enough, there was one up there.  Silly boy.

Rachel is my sweet little cutie who can wear ponytails now.  She is a doll and still talks in gibberish, or is it the Adamic language?  She gives the greatest hugs still. We were looking at baby photos and she actually looks like me.  I love her all the more now.

That is the low down.  No progress on the house hunt.  We are actually not going to look for a while because we just feel right about waiting for now.  Luckily we really like our rental house and neighborhood.  We still are loving having a dishwasher, but we have stopped enjoying the air conditioner because of our first bill.  Ouch.

August 2008 email

Hey family, how are things with all of you.  We have been doing so much that I thought I should give you all another update. 

First of all, Richard and I both have callings now.  I am teaching the 11yr. olds in primary (my first primary calling) and Richard is teaching Gospel Doctrine.  We are both really excited about our teaching opportunities.  On the Sunday I was called to be in the primary I was also filling in for a friend leading music in Sacrament meeting.  When I went to report to the primary I got roped into leading the music there too because their chorister was gone.  It was a full day of leading but luckily I know how and can serve that way confidently (thanks to Mom.)  It takes a lot of work to do that much leading though (especially if you are like me and have to flex while leading to keep the arms from jiggling.)  I am glad I get to sit and watch someone else lead from now on. 

We got to join Mark for his first Cub Scout activity here.  We went up to a family's home (which is in the middle of their 50 acres, or was it 80?)  We went on a very long hike, learned all kinds of things about the plants and animals around us, and had a lesson in a pretty grove of trees about Joseph Smith.  It was really neat.  Then we had a great lunch, watched one of the scout leaders free a bunny that he had rescued and raised, played around in the trees, had a water balloon fight and used a huge sling to shoot water balloons.  Oh and we also watched the boys get their awards.  The scout leaders are retired men and women who just love to teach and play with these boys.  It was just about one of the best days ever. 

Two weeks ago we went to the Douglas county fair.  It was so much fun.  The kids really loved all the shows, looking at the animals, and going on rides.  We gave them all a small amount of money to spend as they chose.  It was very entertaining to watch them decide how to spend it.  Face painting or cotton candy.  Two rides and a treat or three rides.  In the end everyone was pretty happy with their decisions and there was no whining.  Hallelujah for that.  One of the shows was a magic show and Laura got to be a helper on the stage.  It was really funny to watch her up there giggling at the silly magician.

Just after the fair we went to a Baughman reunion at Lake of the Woods (a 2 hr. drive from here near Medford.)  It was a ton of fun.  The weather was hot so we spent the bulk of both days in the water.  It was so much fun because they put in a dock and there were a couple of blow up boats available to the kids so there was a never ending flow of little people to and from the dock, taxied by an older sibling or cousin.  I loved watching the little people and visiting with my fun family.  All but two siblings were there, which is pretty amazing!  Also, all of my extended family was there except for one cousin.  It was a lot of fun to see everyone. 

We have been really busy getting our school preparation done.  First of all there was the shopping.  The kids loved that.  We got all the school supplies on their lists, bought new shoes and a few other clothing items to add to what we bought earlier this summer.  Then there was Richard's classroom.  That is still a work in progress, but it is looking great.  He has some fun bulletin boards and great high tech equipment that the school supplied for him (like a Smart board and Elmo if you know what those are.)  Last has been the week long schedule adjustment.  We are still in the midst of that.  We are going to bed early and getting up at six to make the first week of school better for everyone.  It is so hard to adjust, but I am happy we are doing it now and not next week. 
I also started exercising this week.  I am sore.

Well, the visitor count is up from last letter.  After Annette brought her kids then Grandpa Baughman came for a visit on his way to Eagle Point.  After that it was Mom and Serena, Annette and Russ, Laurie and Jay, and finally Grandpa again with Jean. We are pretty lucky the reunion was so close to us.  It has been fun to be closer to family we haven't seen for a while. 

I have to say, for those of you that I haven't talked to recently, I love Roseburg.  I am not just mildly pleased with our situation, I am so excited about it.  I love the beauty of the area, the people that I have met, the schools, the slower pace of life, everything is just as Richard said it would be, maybe even better.  Even the weather is great.  It has only rained two times since we moved here.   Now we just have to find a house (which may take a while.)

Today we are off to new student registration and the kids get to meet their teachers.  They are so excited.  We love you all and want to hear from you so send us a note some time.

Our Move (July 2008 email)

We left after cleaning the house on Thursday (thanks to all the 15 ladies who helped make short work of that!!) and drove to a KOA in Mountain Home, ID (south of Boise.)  We had loaded all our camping stuff in the moving truck so we had just planned to pull out blankets and sleep under the stars.  To our surprise this particular KOA had some tepees.  That was so much fun for the kids.  The next day we drove all the way to Roseburg.  It took 14 hours to make a nine hour trip.  By the end I was sleep deprived, sick of driving and Rachel would not stop crying.  I kept calling Richard on the walkie talkie and telling him I wasn't going to make it, but we eventually did.  We were so blessed that this was such a safe trip and we know Heavenly Father was watching out for  us.
We have been pleasantly surprised at how at home we feel already and how friendly and welcoming the people in the ward and community have been.  Our rental home is 3 bed 2 bath and 1500 sq. ft.  It felt like we were all on top of each other for the first couple of days, but things are settling down.  We have a great big backyard with a ton of fruit trees and a walnut tree so Richard made three swings that hang on the branches and the kids have made a club that has curtains strung up on the trees for the many plays that they have performed.  We also ordered a basketball hoop (which took Richard 5 hours to put together) which has been fun as we realized we can have some pretty good games as a family now that the kids are a little older (I am flattered that the kids have to ask who is better, Mom or Dad.)

After settling in for a couple days we took an excursion to the coast (my big request) and had a great time out there.  It was nice to finally relax and not have the stress of the move.   Our house closed a few days after that and we just feel really blessed at how well things have worked out for us.  Thank you to all of you who prayed for us.  We will miss you all so keep in touch.

C++++

If you have ever seen the classic movie A Christmas Story you'll remember the part where Ralphy finds out that he got a C+ on his theme, "What I want for Christmas."  Tonight I got roped into helping a poor math teacher grade his kids' sorry fraction homework.  Instead of marking off the papers yelling, "Margins, margins, margins!" I found myself saying, "Reduce, reduce, reduce."  

Special thanks to Marc Anthony, Michael Buble, Moby, and Coldplay for getting me through that insane task of grading middle school papers.  There is a reason I am a P.E. teacher and not a classroom teacher.  We grade once a year, not once a day.

Thanksgiving Party

Man, what a great vacation.  We drove up to Seattle to be with my mom, Susie, Annette, and their families, Katy, Reid and Jody and my cousin Eric.  What a party.  Food folks and fun.  That's what I'm talking about.  I will let the pictures do the talking.  The one picture I wish I had was the crew at the movies after Twilight.  That was one movie that I loved watching with my Twilight obsessed family.  In the picture we were all acting like vampires, it was midnight and we were being a little silly.

Polishing silverware with my niece (Annette's little one)

Mom and Susie guarding the turkey.  Ernesto and Mom made the BEST turkey!!

Nephew, Jody (with food in her mouth, really, some people have no class) Eric, Reid, Nephew, My Son, Jillian

Annette and Katy (Aren't they so cute, I want to be like them when I grow up.)

Mom and my youngest

Reid and Richard (after the movie)  Reid was converted and Richard needed to finish what he had started a year ago.

The girls performing their dance.