Happy Birthday Lane!!!

Me and Lane

Dad trying for his "Lane picture face"

Jann

Chad, Cameron, and Shane

Lane and his birthday cake

FHE

So, we had a lovely family home evening Monday night. I gave the lesson on the 2000 stripling warriors and Shane helped by reading the scriptures and holding up the pictures for the story. I'm glad that Shane is getting these lessons because we were pretty inconsistent at having them when we were kids.
Then we all went to Leatherby's. I have gone there twice this trip to get my hot fudge sunday fix.

Mom, Lane, Shane, Jann, Dad, Me

Jann, Me, Melynda, Mom, Lane, Shane

Mom and Lane

Beautiful day...

Monday was a gorgeous day.
I went and watched Shane and his friend at the park and was reminded just how much I love the mountains. They are just so majestic.

we have accepted an offer on our house!

So, we didn't really make any money on our house. But I count myself lucky that we've been able to get it under contract this quickly in this type of market. Plus....Michigan's housing market is a buyer's market to the extreme that I have never heard of so we are in a good place. Sigh, relief.

just hanging out

Family shin dig

Sunday was great. Lane gave an awesome talk on the atonement and then we had family over for the now traditional Joe Morley's barbecue sandwiches.

Mom and Lane

Lane and Dom

Shaun and Chad

Melynda and David's friend Kelsey

Shane and his "fort" in the backyard

Shantal, Kristi, and Marsha

Nicole, Jann, Lynne', and Dustin

Shannon, Camille, Alisha, Sherlin, Brian, and Keith's arms

Brian and Keith

Brian, Shannon (isn't she cute), Dale, Camille, and their baby Brayden

Grandpa and Grandma Losee, Bob and Lynne'

Lots of family

Lane's wall

While putting together Lane's room we did some deep cleaning and then decided to paint an accent wall. So off to Home Depot we went and Lane picked out this awesome chocolate color. Looks pretty good, huh?

Normalizing...

Now it's interesting to see everyone settle down and find their new "normal life" groove.

Shaners has been hanging on Lane for the past 24 hours. It's funny to see him have a favorite person for the moment. Lane has been having a hard time with "normal" clothes. Apparently the current style of jeans is tighter than when he left so it's been a challenge (Melynda and Mom had gone shopping to get him some current clothing, as the selection he owned was slim.) He says that he has gotten so used to slacks that those are what he is most comfortable in.

Daddy. I just liked this picture.

Ohh, he is just so cute. I hope he keeps incorporating these good habits as he creates a new routine.

My Lane is Home!!!

I am so glad that everything went well and that he made it back in one piece. Here are some pictures from the airport.

Shaners holding the sign that Nakita made.

Mom, Shaun, Dad, and Jann looking at the top of the escalator, waiting for Lane.

The first look at Missionary Lane returning.

Boyz hug.

The Boyz.
Shaun just got back from Equador, Chad just got back from Michigan, Lane just getting back from Dallas, and then Cameron just back from Ohio (and Shane).

Mom, Lane, Dad

Mom, Shane, Melynda, Lane, Me, Dad, Jann

Melynda showing off her latest piercing

Shaners helping with the luggage

Some people are scum....

So, I flew Frontier from Detroit through Denver to Salt Lake on Tuesday. Everything seemed all good and nice, Mom was able to pick me up right when I got my luggage and it was a beautiful day outside. Unfortunately, that night when I opened my luggage I found that an airport employee had stolen things. I had brought our Wii with me so that everyone could have fun playing with it, and I was excited because Lane had never played one. Well, you guessed it, the Wii, the two remotes, and all of the games were what was stolen out of my bag. There is some irony in the fact that the aforementioned scumbag airport employee left the guitar (making it impossible to play the Guitar Hero they stole) and they left the sensor that sits on top of the TV that makes playing with the regular remotes possible. Hey, nobody ever claimed all thiefs are smart.

So, several things came out of this.
1) I love my husband. I was dreading telling him that his beloved video game system was gone, but he responded with a "hey, it's only money" and a "just as long as you make it home safe to me". Aahh cute, almost made me want to cry again. (Yes, I had been so stinking angry that I, Carmen-the-broken-person-who-doesn't-cry-at-sad-things had had tears running down my splotchy face).
2) We are a carry on only family from now on when it comes to traveling. In hind sight Curt did mention that I should carry on the Wii, but I was already carrying on the laptop plus it's so nice to not have to mess with the overhead bin plus I am a small person and trying to get everything manhandled through security is a pain....oh well, we will deal with that particular pain in the future.
and 3) Frontier (and probably all other airlines) have a stupid policy. They will cover up to $3000 worth of luggage if it is destroyed while under their care, but do you think that they will cover a couple hundred dollars worth of stuff that one of their employees stole while under their care? No. Electronics are specifically excluded from any coverage (Along with a long list of other items, including what they call "designer clothes items". Ha, I bet that they can stretch that description to include all items of clothing). Lame, I know.

oh yeah!!!

We just got two round trip plane tickets to Orlando for under $310, and that's after tax!!!
No, we're not going right this minute, we're going in June for Jeff and Alison's wedding.

Michigan Drivers License

I got my new drivers license in the mail today, which means I can now fly to Utah next Tuesday without those particular problems!

I have to say though, they are way more flimsy than Utah's. It feels like a library card.

Oh, and I started my job today and I am loving having a purpose/somewhere to be during the day.

Can I pretty please start my job yet?

I am so bored.
I had a teacher once that said truly intelligent people are never bored. That was in early middle school and I made a goal that I would never be bored because I wanted to be intelligent. So I found outlets...I made improvements to my mom's house, I read a lot, I learned to do well on my own and be self entertaining, I got a job just as soon as I was old enough, and then got one or two more.
But this having weeks of time on my hands is killing me. Sitting inside my apartment all I really want to do is sand down all the walls and re-texture them; plus I rip out the kitchen cabinets in my mind every time I walk by/into that room. I really want to go to the library, so once I get my MI drivers license I'm all over that. Hmmmm, maybe they will take the electric bill we just got as proof that we live here. I may have to try that.
I'm so very glad that I start my job on Monday.

Yesterday I spent a couple hours driving around to check out possible areas we want to live in. I am getting pretty good at this not-getting-lost-even-without-my-mountains-to-reference thing. Sorry, no pictures. It was snowy and most neighborhoods were not plowed, so I needed all of my faculties to drive. Today I think that I will go spend a couple hours at IKEA.

And since I cannot go two posts in a row without pictures, here are some mission pics of Lane...who comes home in less than two weeks...woo hoo!

Kudos to Chris at the Utah DMV...

...for doing her job promptly and for making my day just that much better.

For, you see, I lost my Utah drivers license on my recent trip to Florida (causing a traumatic scene in the airport when the realization hit, I am just NOT that irresponsible! p.s. apparently I am, because the license is indeed gone). Thus, when going to the Michigan SOS, which is their department for drivers licenses, I needed a faxed confirmation that my license there was in good standing (otherwise I would have to take drivers ed, take the test, ect other unpleasant things). The people at the Michigan SOS were so very helpful (shocking, yes?) and then Chris who answered the phone at the Utah DMV actually...wait for it...faxed the needed confirmation right while I was on the phone with her instead of telling me she would get to it____ (this afternoon, tomorrow, next week, some other time frame) thus causing another trip across town to the SOS. How wonderful.

On another note, it is warm enough here to be raining at the moment. I am going to be happy about that right now and ignore the fact that it's supposed to turn to snow tonight and tomorrow.