Enough Travelogue, Time to Catch Up!

I really wanted to get our Europe trip all documented before I blogged about anything else, but I realized that there were more important things to document in the meantime.  So Europe is on hold for a bit.

1. My communication skills have been terrible!  Case in point:  My brother and his wife and kids (who live in Australia) just found out that I was pregnant and my due date is in two and a half WEEKS!  We are expecting another girl, so I guess we do things in groups.  Four boys followed by three girls. The due date is Sep. 11--An easy date to remember.
2. In March, the tip of Ada's finger was pinched off in the hinge side of our bedroom door and sewed back on again.  I would put pics up that the doctor took right before surgery, but you might get queasy.  After a couple of months of healing, it looks AWESOME!  It's pretty much totally back to normal now.  Hooray for modern medicine (and health insurance--the surgery would have cost $15 K without it!)
3. I was released from being the Relief Society President at church about 2 months ago.  I cried for a while afterwards because I grew to love that calling and the special spirit that comes with it.
4. Joe's brother Jeff came home from his mission in Argentina and our kids had a blast spending 6 weeks with him before he left to attend school in Rexburg. 
5. Joe's sister Angela just got married on August 12th in Salt Lake City.  We made the trek down there with my very pregnant body because I HAD to be at the wedding.  It was so much fun!  We hauled our trailer along with us and stayed at RV parks along the way. My mother-in-law, Janet, has an identical twin named Jean and we spent some time at her house and played with all of her ponies, goats, rabbits, and other animals.  She looks and talks a lot like Janet, so for a while Ada kept calling her "other Grandma".  After the wedding, we went to Malad, Idaho for the reception (where Phil, the groom, is from).  His family ranch cattle and have a cabin up on the mountain where they keep the cows in the summer and they let us stay there overnight.  The next day the kids had a blast playing on the tree swing, herding grasshoppers, and exploring a cave full of rat poop.  We then drove to Rexburg, sand spent a couple of days with cousins before driving to Yellowstone on the way home.  We saw "Old Faithful" and a few other hotsprings and geysers.  Whenever we talk about it, Ada still reminds us that the place smelled like boiled eggs (because of all of the sulfur in the air).  Someday we'll explore more of it.  Oh yes, and on the way to Utah, we stopped in Boise overnight (to give my pregnant legs a break) and were able to visit for a while with the VanOrmers, friends from our law school days.  It was so fun to catch up in real life, instead of through blogs.
6. We've been redoing our kitchen over the past 4 months or so.  It's pretty much done, but needs some paint and a little bit more trim work done.  It has been a fun but tiring  process.  I don't think I could ever get through building a house from scratch.  Too many decisions all at once!
7. Grant and Joseph just turned 13 and received pocket knives from their dad for their b-day. This past week Grant sliced his finger open while trying to cut through an otter pop wrapper with his new knife..  It cut deep and he needed four stitches.  He's the only boy in our family who has escaped needing stitches all these years.  Now he's been initiated into the "club".

I would put pictures up, but if I did, this post might never make it to the blogosphere before the baby comes, so I"ll have to add those another day.