Hey Yall!!! Haven't done this in a while, so just listen up!

Today's the first day of school! Yea!!! Bella, Rowan, and Cortana all go to the same school and started off pretty well. We dropped Ro off first since his class room is closest to car pool. He was excited and a little nervous. Tana was next, and she didn't cry at all! She wouldn't talk to her teachers though. While I was getting Tana settled Nick took Bella to her class. She's in a portable and she was excited. She has a friend from kindergarten and first grade in her class again. After getting everyone in class with all their stuff and making sure their lunches were taken care of. Zxenna, Nick, and I headed home. Nick has another out of town meeting coming up which made his morning schedule great for helping me. Thanks a ton honey! Now lets see how the rest of the day will be. See Nick's Facebook for pictures.

Working Out by Nick

For the last 6 months I have been working in our Cincinnati office. The office building has a fitness center on the bottom floor so I have been going down during lunch as much as possible, typically 3 to 4 times a week. My goal was to loose some weight and become healthier.

Well today was my last workout before moving back to Jacksonville and so I decided to hit it hard. After doing the typical sit-ups, curls, and such I decided to try something harder. I did 1 full and part of a second bench press at 300 lbs.

I then put as much weight as I could on the leg press and did a set of that, 600 lbs. I then did another exercise we call the bear thrust and after maxing out the weight on the machine, I had my workout buddy Scott (165 lbs) climb on top of the weights and I lifted him. We stopped after one because we didn’t want to break the machine.

So my goal to loose weight didn’t work. I have gained another 10 lbs or so. I have lost a little fat as my pants are looser in some areas. My shirts and certain other parts of my pants are now tighter due to the muscle gain.

2 months in to a 6 month sentence

Alright everyone, we've been here for 2 months now. We're settled. We love our ward. It's a good one. We love our apartment. AND we love the snow. Life is about adaptation for us right now so here are a couple of pictures of us adapting.

Where we are now!

A lot has changed since Bella’s first day of school (see previous blog entry). For starters Bella is no longer in school, but let me back up and tell the entire story.

On October 2nd my boss called me into her office. Turns out that there was a need for an engineer in Cincinnati Ohio at my level, starting in a few months, December or later. I was identified as someone who might be able to fill this position (by the way incase you, the reader, haven’t figured it out, this is Nick telling the story). So I told my boss that I would be ok with the transfer if they really needed me. She said I should consult with my wife about it before I made a decision. By the way, I knew my wife would be ok with it, and sure enough, she was.

Then on October 6th (aka Rowan’s Birthday) my boss called me into her office again. She said, pack your bags you are going to Cincy (that is what the locals call it) tomorrow! I fainted, then got up and said, ok. So the next day I was in Cincy. It was just an interview type trip to see the Cincy crew and have them evaluate me.

So I return home a few days later and that is the end of that. I didn’t hear anything back for a few weeks so I figured they found someone else. Which was totally ok with me, I didn’t want to go through the hassle of moving my family to Ohio. Then all of a sudden they called and said they wanted me up there by Nov 1st, about two weeks away. Again I fainted. They eventually changed the start date to Dec 1st which was good.

So we spent a very busy month getting ready to move. The home repairs, cleaning, and packing were interrupted by a week long visit to Cincy to find a place to live and other various problems, mostly sickness. We did get to have a great Thanksgiving feast on Sunday before we left. My sister hosted and the entire family was there (except for my brother, who will get worked into this story somehow…).

On November 21st the U-Haul was packed up, then more on the 22nd, and then more on the 23rd. We the drove to Atlanta and stayed the night at my brothers (told you I would work him in). We then drove some more on the 24th, finally arriving in Cincy. We actually live in one of the many townships that surround Cincy. We live in Mason, which is north-east of Cincy.

So here we are; snow living people in the great north. Bella had to be pulled out of school, family and friends left behind, home had to prepped, callings released, phone shut off, and the other multitude of things that happen during a move.

We are all settled in and learning how to cope the north. The second week up here, it snowed! On the following Saturday I cleaned the cars and had the Windex freeze on the windshield. We haven’t made many friends yet, but we have met some wonderfully nice people at church. One family invited us for thanksgiving; which was super awesome because (per the above) we had just moved in and had no groceries or other Thanksgiving plans.

Right now the story is that I will be there temporarily for six months. Originally they said it would be a year to 18 months. It may be extended after six months, but right now I should be back home in Jacksonville in June. We will see!

That’s all I have to say about that.

Bels first week of school!

It went off without a hitch. She was excited to go everyday. We were never late. Whoo hoo! That'll probably never happen again. She had fun!!! And I cleaned! I actually kept up with the house pretty good. Ask Nic if you don't believe me! Speaking of , he was great this week too. Ecspecially since he got the kids all day on saturday so I could go to the temple. I have one awesome husband. (If you see the rotten husband anywhere don't tell him I said that.):)hehe

And this week looks like it'll be great too! booya monday!

First Day of School!

Well it finally happened, our baby started school. It is hard to believe she is old enough to go but she is. Bella is in Voluntary Pre-K (VPK) at a local Baptist School. She is in a class with about 20 kids, two of which are in her Primary class at church.

So the first day of school comes and goes with no problems. Our shy Bella went right into class with no crying or fussing. Normally she cries and fusses when she goes into her Primary class on Sunday's. So it started good.

Later that evening I asked Bella how school was and she went through all the activities she did: playing, coloring, reading, etc. Later that night (I was still excited)so I asked her more about school, trying to get some more details.

So there we were, just the two of us and she is telling me of her day, and she turns to me and puts on those huge puppy eyes. She said she was on the playground and she wanted one of the other children to see-saw with her, but she wouldn't. Her bottom lip quivered and she turned up the puppy eyes and just melted my heart. I then had the fun of trying to explain to her about playing and not taking it personally, making friends, etc.

Quite a first day! Second was more of the same, I will know tonight about the third. Hopefully Peg will be posting some pics soon!