Heaven can have my soul, but my bones will stay in Utah.

"Wherever you wander, wherever you roam; be healthy, be happy, be glad to come home."


We moved into our house last week, and it has been fabulous! The boys were ecstatic to see all their toys again. Honestly, it was as good as Christmas morning. We woke up after spending the first night in our home to hear Daxton telling Josh "wake up Josh" then they both ran down stairs and were anxiously showing each other the toys they had found. So fun!

Daxton calls it "Momma's house." The first day he was here he kept walking around and saying "I like it. I like momma's house."

The cream of the crop is having a yard again, equipped with a swing set no less! We were out there having a great ol' time, laughing, climbing, swinging-and it was right outside our door! Oh, so wonderful.

The sunshine is like rays of happiness. I have seen more sunshine in the 2 months we've been back than the entire year I was in Belgium (I only wish I was being sarcastic!)

I currently molded myself into the "mormon mom club" and enrolled myself in the white minivan club. Yes, we bought a mini van. I know what you're thinking "Great idea Eggertz', lets buy a car when you have no income." I understand, but we have been checking KSL to see if anything looked promising and found a steal on this Mazda MPV. Turns out it was a steal because the woman NEVER cleaned it. There was food and goo smashed everywhere! I mean really, who feeds their kids go-gurt in the car? (if you feed your kids go-gurt in the car, I apologize if I offended, but really-you should stop that. It's kinda nasty.) But, with a little (okay a lot) of elbow grease, it no longer smells like garbage. Josh will finally ride in it without having to breathe with his hands covering his nose. We figure we can drive it for a couple months, and pocket some cash if we need to sell it to pay for groceries.
Take note of the two air fresheners hanging from the rear view. Sadly, it doesn't help much.

On another note, I know that Utah has a lot of cynicism directed towards it. I myself am guilty of stereotyping Utah to be "this" or "that." I know a lot of people think that Utah's LDS members tend to be complacent with life, and because "everyone" is LDS, no one tries to be better, they just set life to "coast" and cruise through it. However, this is not what I have observed. Everywhere I go people are trying to be the best they can be. Our Sunday school teacher put it best when she said that we are all trying to "lift each other up. I'm up here, so let me help you to get here with me, while other's are still lifting me higher and higher." Does this make sense? I guess my point is that it doesn't get much better than Utah and I love this amazing state. I am so happy to be here!

JOSH
I have to go off on my first born for a minute here. Have you ever had those "brimming" days where you are just so happy and proud of your little ones? Josh has been such a good boy lately. Words can not describe how proud I am of my little man. He has moved 8 times since he was born and has dealt with SO much change....he amazes me. Imagine dropping your 4 year old off at a school that doesn't speak their language, from 8:30 to 3:30. It was heart breaking, but Josh grew and dealt with it. He is such a good kid. He earned his allowance this week and took all 3 dollars to school (unknown to me.) He came home with only 2 dollars and said that he gave Anna one of his dollars because she didn't have any. And here are some Josh quotes to let you into the mind of a 5 year old. Today we were having left-over burgers for lunch and Josh said he didn't like meat because "if you ate more meat, the bears would want to eat you because you have more meat in you" (where do they get this kind of stuff?) He also told me tonight that he is "allergic to the dark, so leave the light on." Josh is so good with his brother and sister. I wish I could take some of the credit, but this boy came straight from heaven this way.

Daxton
I am probably digging my grave by doing so, but lately I lay down with Dax while he is taking his nap. Josh is at school, and Ella is sleeping-so it's our time together, just the two of us. He picks a story, I throw him in my bed (literally, he wants to be thrown) and we read, then I watch him fall asleep. It is the best part of my day. After the story, he puts his hand on my face, tells me "Momma, I love you." "I love you too, Dax." and he always replies "I love you too." Then I watch him fall asleep. Sure I may regret this pattern that is forming when I have something that has to be done during nap time, but I figure they are only little once and I am trying to enjoy every day I have. Oh, he's so cute.

Ella-Bella
She likes Thin Mints-a girl after my own heart. I bought a box of girl scout cookies today and Ella couldn't get enough of them. She totally looked like the kid on "Simpson's"-her face smeared with chocolate, her big belly and large bosoms hanging out....."Don't make me run, I'm full of chocolate."
Ella LOVES, I repeat, LOVES being outside. She is constantly chasing us around the house with shoes in hand, yelling "shoes" in hopes that we will take her outside. I can't wait until it gets warm enough to let my kids run around in diapers and be outside all day long. Oh no, I think I'm white trash. (you're thinking "took you long enough to figure that one out.")

Cam
Cam just finished his 40 page dissertation yesterday, so I am currently reading it (over my head) and checking for grammatical stuff. 'Bout all I am good for is seeing if it needs a comma, or not. Still no job, but we're getting closer with prospects. Keep fingers and toes crossed for us.

Me
Is the hat awesome or what? I bought that one at Disneyland, Paris. It even sings happy birthday to you. It will be a family heirloom.

Well, I need to read Cam's paper, so I better finish this up. I am very happy. I finally figured out how to do my hair (only took 28 years to tame the beast). I went and swam laps with my sister, Shera, yesterday. It was fantastic. Having not exercised in a year and a half, it felt quite nice to get my heart rate up. Combine that with no kids for 2 hours, it felt like I was vacationing or something. I think I might start training for the triathlon. I actually did better swimming than I thought I would, so I might be able to finish the triathlon without dying. Three cheers for toned buttocks-hip, hip, hooray!