Past week happenings (and some little miracles, too)

Sunday (Sept 11th):  Chanon spoke in church (he was supposed to speak on Aug 28th with ME, but I was long-winded and took all the time).  The Bishopric forgot to tell him WHEN he was speaking and he got a call before church to make sure he was going to be there.  SURPRISE!  He did a great job (fortunately he'd already had his talk written).  Also, the Youth and Leaders sang an arrangement of "I Know That My Redeemer Lives" (which involved Dean and Emily), and I was the accompanist.  I also taught my first YW lesson today!  (p.s.....Chanon and I finally got callings, which are jobs at church for anyone reading this who is not LDS.......Chanon is the membership clerk, and I am the Assistant Mia Maid Advisor in the Young Women's organization).

Monday (Sept 12th):  Chanon and I wasted a lot of gas and spent the morning on a wild goose chase trying to find out where we were supposed to go to get Idaho Driver's Licenses, and register our vehicles.  First we took a wrong turn and drove for a while (my fault...which actually ended up being the "right" way later).  We did see some nice scenery, though.  I finally said, "I think we went the wrong way", so we turned around and got on the right road.  We drove down the right road too far, though because we couldn't find the address of the location we were looking for.  On the website it said it was going to be a Sheriff's office.  We turned around AGAIN, and found the address, but there was no sheriff's office....only an insurance office.  Evidently the location was changed but no one bothered to update the website!  We finally found the right building (they moved driver license stuff to the MVD.  Imagine that).......only to discover that the MVD office was closed on MONDAYS!!!!!!!!  Chanon had specifically taken the day off so we could get this stuff taken care of, and we couldn't afford for him to take another day off.  Fortunately for us there were some cleaning ladies there, who just happened to be cleaning the front windows, who said we could drive to a small town about 20 minutes away and take care of everything there.  
     So, we hopped back in the car and headed to the little Podunk Idaho town (can't even remember what it was called) on the road we had originally started out on earlier (we should have just kept going and not turned around...would've saved a lot of time).  We found the MVD office in the little town, which I must say was reminiscent of "Mayberry", and we got our new Idaho licenses. (This caused me to panic a little...I didn't want to give up my Arizona license, but we had to surrender them).  I'm a little irritated that here in Idaho you have to renew your license every 4 to 8 years.  They also charge $30 for a 4 year renewal, and $50-something for an 8 year renewal.  Registration is a LOT less in Idaho than Arizona, though, and in the end it's still cheaper here.  
     Anyway, back to the story.  We got our licenses, but by the time we had gotten there originally, it was 11:30.  Lunch hour was Noon to 1:00, and boy do they take their lunch hour seriously, so we were told we'd have to come back after lunch to take care of the registration!!!!  I also discovered that I had forgotten to grab the title to our van, so we had to drive all the way back home to get the title.  We also grabbed a quick bite to eat, and then headed back immediately so we could get there as close to 1:00 as possible (they had informed us that they are very busy on Monday afternoons due to the Nampa/Caldwell MVD office being closed on Mondays...we of course didn't have all afternoon to wait in line since we'd have kids getting out of school at 2:30).  This whole day was craziness, but we were sure grateful to those cleaning ladies at the Nampa/Caldwell MVD who helped us get to a MVD office that was actually open!  If they hadn't been cleaning the windows we would've been "up a creek"!!!!  I hope all that rambling made sense.

Monday also marked  one year since my Dad's passing.  I can't believe it has already been a year!!!!

Tuesday (Sept 13th):  Amy and her science partner worked on a science fair experiment at our house.  They built a paper-mache (how the heck do you spell that?!!) volcano.  Why didn't they use salt dough instead? Because Amy's partner said salt dough would be "too easy".  O.K.....!!!!  Easier maybe, but more sturdy and a lot less messy!!!!!  I had flour paste all over my kitchen.  Lovely.

Wednesday (September 14th):  I had a rehearsal for a music group I am now part of....three vocalists and me (the pianist/accompanist).  One of the vocalists is the song-writer...LOVE her music, and they sound great!


Our house officially rented on this day!  (Took long enough).  The tenant signed the lease today and will move in on October 1st.  This is miraculous because it means we'll have money to cover our bills now.  Every time it looks as though we're not going to have enough money, something happens and money comes from an unexpected source.  Miracles!


Dean, Emily and I had mutual in the evening.  It was a service activity, and we went to the Church Orchard to pick peaches for the Welfare program.  I did take pictures...........on my phone.  I cancelled my mobile email, though, so I texted the pictures to a friend and I'll post them as soon as she emails them to me.

Thursday (September 15th):  My brother, Sterling, married the greatest girl today...Carlie Brown.  Unfortunately, I had to miss it because I didn't have the money to make the trip.  Nor could Dean and Emily miss school due to the school's very strict absence policy (you lose credit if you miss 6 times in a Semester!  I sure hope they don't ever get really sick).

Friday, (Sept. 16th):  This day didn't start out to be the most fabulous of days (it involved going over the budget and the paying of bills....which usually isn't a big deal.  UNLESS it appears that there isn't going to be enough money to cover expenses and this was one of those times).  I get really frustrated, for obvious reasons, when I don't think I'm going to have money for food and gasoline.  One of the bills that HAD to be paid was the hospital bill.  Allow me to backtrack a few months to early June, 2011:

Nathan got sick, and then Sarah got sick several days later.  Nathan got better, but Sarah did not and when she started to look a little "bluish" I took her to the doctor.  Turns out she had pneumonia and ended up in the hospital for 3 days.  Flagstaff Medical Center was WONDERFUL!  The doctors and nurses took really good care of Sarah and were so sweet with her.  The problem?  We were between jobs and had no insurance!!!

 Well enough to go home after 3 1/2 days in the hospital!

 In the car ready to go home, and still on oxygen!

I had been in the hospital for three days in December 2009 which resulted in medical bills totaling over $14,000 (we had really good insurance at the time, though, which paid most of it, so it wasn't too big of a deal).  Needless to say, knowing how much MY bills had been a year and a half ago made me extremely worried to get Sarah's bill, and for good reason.  The hospital bill alone ended up being over $15,000.  To try to make a long story short, we ended up on a monthly payment plan through the hospital.  Also, we were told that if we sent in the requested information we might qualify for assistance from the hospital due to our financial circumstances (I, of course, sent in the required info).  As I was preparing to pay the month's installment on Friday, I kept having a feeling I should call the hospital billing department first because I hadn't heard anything from the hospital and it had been a month.  I also didn't get a "bill" from them this month.  I did make the phone call, and found out that the hospital decided to write off and absorb 100% of our bill!  Supposedly a letter was sent out but I never got it.  I burst into tears at the news, of course (the poor lady on the phone probably thought I was psycho!  At least she's going to send me out another letter!  I think I might frame it.).  Another miracle, and the timing made me appreciate it all the more!

Saturday, (Sept. 17th):  It was exactly one year ago on this day that I knew we'd be moving.  The past year has been insane, and scary, but so far it has been worth it!  It has also been very faith promoting, and was a huge growing experience!  Hard to believe sometimes that we actually left Flagstaff, and that I live in Idaho!  I was feeling a little homesick this week, so here's a photo tribute to Flagstaff:

Our house:

 I miss Safeway!  )o:

Last year's Elementary School.......great memories!

 Church building I went to most of my life:

 House I grew up in (until I was 13) on Wayman St (The old "swingy" mailbox is still there, and the light pole. I used to be taller than that pine tree.  Wow!!!!!)

 MEMS...Dean's middle school, and Emily's for one year (it was MY Junior High....East Flagstaff Junior High before the name change)

 Mount Elden

 Grandma's house (and the house I lived in from age 13 to 20):

 Me, Chanon and Dean's 2nd apartment that we lived in for one year...the "Tarrol Apartments" (aka:  "Troll Apts" as my brother's affectionately liked to call it).  I prefer to forget living here!  LoL

 My High School, and also Dean's for 2 years:

 Seminary Building across the street from CHS:

 another view of Mt. Elden:

 Buffalo Park (I logged a whole lotta miles here)!

 Flagstaff Medical Center...births, death, illness, operations, tests, treatments, doctor visits, blood tests .....lots of "fun" memories inside these walls:

 110 E. Dale #6~ Our first apartment for a year after we got married, and the "home" we brought our first-born to!

 Stake Center

 Main Public Library (every Saturday!)

 A "not so great" shot of CHS Cromer Stadium and surrounding practice fields:

 East Flag library branch:

 The Aquaplex:

 Sinagua Middle School (Emily's school for one year):

 NAU!!!!!

 The Dome!

 NAU Speech, Language and Hearing clinic Nathan went to for a couple of years:

NAU Social and Behavioral Sciences Building where my dad taught for many years:

NAU Audrey Auditorium/Music building (recitals, auditions, performances, classes, piano lessons, AMTA Study program, etc.......TONS of memories spanning MANY years!)

Back of Music Bldg/Clifford E. White Theater/Nutcracker Suite in Modern Bare Feet (Emily)

 The Former LDS Institute of Religion Building (where Chanon and I met)...it is not the Institute anymore:

 Little America (I played the piano in the Dining Room, ate 25 cent ice cream cones as often as possible, and Chanon proposed to me here):

 Bushmaster Park (played/came here for many years as a child as well as an adult!)  Gotta love the graffiti:

 Oops... this got out of order......Thomas school playground (Nathan had lots of fun here):

 The Flagstaff Mall (this mall is MUCH better than the one here in Nampa....if THAT tells you anything),
 and the Purina building behind it (I will NEVER forget that smell.  yuck.)

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