Last sign of being an Adult

It seems that there are four signs of being an adult:
First, have a good job. Which both of us have.
Second, get married. Which we did.
Third, have a baby.... Well, this one is still coming but S is getting much bigger, so that will be soon.
Fourth, have a mortgage. Which we now have.

Everything went great on our house. When we went to the mortgage company we told them we had three weeks to get things done. They did it in two. We were able to get the keys on Wednesday evening and have been trying to get things ready to move in on Aug. 2nd. J had Thursday off for Pioneer Day and we spent the whole day evaluating where we would start.

As thing progress we will keep everyone up to date.

Latest update

Since our blog has gone the longest without updating of anyone in the family, I'll take a crack at it. Someday maybe we'll get better at short entries more often.

The baby is getting bigger and bigger. She feels enormous already, at least to me. Our midwife estimated that she is about 6 lbs. She is getting crowded, and is wiggling around more than kicking, but boy can she wiggle. I don't seem to have much energy, but I am trying to work slowly at the house and school stuff. We have enough clothes now, I think, but still need to do some shopping for a whole list of stuff, from a car seat to baby thermometer. Jim's countdown is now at 46 days.

Finally, we have made an offer on a house, that is NOT a short sale, and it has been ACCEPTED. If all goes well, we will be moving in around the 28th of July.

The realtor who will be working on selling the condo we are in came by yesterday, and encouraged us in our ongoing project to box up extra stuff and put it in storage (which is the garage of Aunt Betty and Uncle Blake's condo here in town). I have nearly finished going through the bathroom and bedroom - pretty much all my clothes can go, since I have about 10 articles of clothing that fit now anyway :) A whole trunk full of bags of clothes also went to the DI. This morning I am having a go at "minimalizing" the living room - removing all the extra stuff that doesn't actually need to be there. It is interesting to see how much stuff can be removed and still have a functional room. It is amazing how much clutter we live with.


For the 4th of July we went to Leeds where Jim's sister has an enormous above ground pool in her back yard. Here are a few pictures of us there:

The Sunday before last Jim gave a fireside to two college stakes. Someone really liked his star presentation up at scout camp, and asked him to do it for the institute. Unfortunately, he didn't remember in detail what he said, so he sort of had to make it up again from the list of scriptures he had used. Not having the stars themselves actually available while he talked, he used a projector and a computer program called Stellarium, which shows you the night sky at the location and time you are right now, and let's you zoom in on things, remove the atmosphere, speed up time, show constellations, and so on. (If you are interested, it is free to download from the internet.) He focused on Alma 30:42-43 ("all things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator") and Moses 1:37-39 ("And the Lord God spake unto Moses, saying: The heavens, they are many, and they cannot be numbered unto man; but they are numbered unto me, for they are mine"). I think it went quite well - and now someone else wants him to do it somewhere else.


Our vacation this summer was to visit Mom and Dad in Bountiful, while Jim attended a computer conference one week in SLC and I attended a chemistry conference the next week in Park City. I got some great ideas about inquiry-based labs and active learning lectures. I also saw some demonstrations of online homework systems, and as our student base is about to increase dramatically, I am seriously looking into it. I was surprised at the sophistication of the programs, allowing students to draw structures for answers, and giving hints based on what mistakes they make. Fortunately we also had some time to spend with Mom and Dad. Here are a few pictures of us at Mueller Park:

The Gerbils have packed themselves up and are ready to go, too!