We Are Still Alive

We are thriving. I stole away for a moment so I could borrow a friends Internet to announce that BEN PASSED HIS DOCTORAL DEFENSE TODAY!!! He will soon be "Dr. Ben!" Look out Phil!

Kids are all great though E and B are in especially tricky phases. Good thing S and G still sleep a lot.

It's in the 100's this week. Makes me glad that I'm a home-body.

Loves!

They're here!!!

Our beautiful sons - Samuel Hollis and Gabriel William were born on March 2nd, in the wee small hours of the morning. They weighed 6 lbs, 13 oz and 6 lbs 8 oz respectively. Our valiant doctor was down to his last attempt to guide Gabriel into a headdown position when things finally worked, so delivery was as smooth as could be and recovery is going great.

Thanks to help from family and friends, we are settling in just fine. We'll see how we do after Easter when we're on our own again! Thanks for all of your well wishes and prayers on our behalf!

We've made it (almost = )!

Well, we've made it to week 32!!! Only 4-5 more and they wouldn't stop the babies from coming. Then the real craziness starts! `; }
Elisabeth and Benjo are as fantastic as ever. Here is a photo of Benjo riding our vaccum.

I don't know if we'll ever have Internet again (well for a year or so), so sorry for the very sporadic posts.

The Season

The kids and I are visiting my folks this week. I completely swore off going anywhere after our move, but my resolve weakened with the arrival of December. My father mentioned snow (which ironically I'm not even that fond of), and the pining began. My third trimester starts with January, so I won't be going anywhere for a while after that. The more I pondered it, the more I decided that we'd come up. I love the feeling in my mom's house. I don't understand why I'm so drawn here, but I love it. Chasing Benjo around is pretty nuts. This place is so not mommy with small kid friendly, but it's home.

We were sad to leave our Christmas tree behind as it was quite the family endeavor this year. We misplaced our sophisticated-looking origami tree in the move, so Ben got a terribly fake 3' tree for ten bucks. We decorated it with some ornaments that I've had tucked away for years. About 12 years ago, Mom decided that I needed the sci-fi ornaments from Hallmark, so Lt. Commander Data, Dr. McCoy, Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, Yoda, C3PO, and R2D2 mill around the olive wood nativity ornament in the center of our tree. I had some wavy gold ribbon from the free bin in Wymount and some tinsel with stars that I removed to place around on the tree. That finished the tree off pretty nicely. Initially, I felt a bit heretical and un-Christ centered for having such a tree - especially when we plugged the lights in and heard Darth say, "The force is strong with you Luke, but you are not a Jedi yet." But, when I started thinking in terms of the Plan of Salvation, the Savior's central roll in that, and the dark/light side world in which we live, it seemed metaphorically a better fit than the the refined, coordinated tree I usually envision. So, we have a hot Star Wars tree.

It's nice to have Internet access again. I've come to see it as a necessity, but our finances have forced me to more carefully distinguish true necessities and luxuries. Our life-imposed visual media fast has forced us to evaluate how we spend our time. We enjoy playing more games, getting more sleep, and reading a little more. It's actually kind of good for me not to have the distraction. My children need me right now more than ever and we're just trying to gear up and brace ourselves for the arrival of the twins. But oh how I've missed Google!!!

Disruption

We don't have Internet service yet. Sorry, I probably won't post for a long time. Sorry for the anticlimactic blog!

Mean Witch

This is the earliest I've ever finished a Halloween costume! E has wanted to be a "mean witch" for the past three months. I kept waiting for her mind to change, but she is my determined little woman. I'm trying every chance I can get to encourage her independent decision making (since it's such a struggle for me). To be honest, I was really releaved that she wanted to be something out of the norm from our daily enactments of princess stories and Charlotte's Web. But, I also feared that she would change her mind as soon as I went to the effort of making a costume.

After testing her resolve in numerous ways, we finally buckled down to design/assemble her costume yesterday. I was trying to compensate for neglecting her with reading and packing. She was a great little helper. Still not sure the motivation behind her choice, but isn't she cute?!?! She wore the dress all day ; ).

Out of Commission

Our (new) computer is dying so we must send it away to the hospital. I do NOT recommend Gateways. (We have already returned another one.) Sorry if I don't respond/post for a while.

Sorry for the Suspense!

It's been a nutzo month:

• Ben resigns.
• We go "home" to interview.
• Jobs offer... Offer from Job W (for wilderness) is 9K higher than offer from Job L (for LDS). Interesting thing is that the benefit package from Job L makes up for the gap.
• We lean toward L (which re-enters as a contender by offering a location closer to family - a given for Job W but unheard of for new-comers to Company L).
• Job W (knowing that they are loosing us) comes back with 10K more. L's benefits don't fill the now 19K gap!
• We pray, deliberate (for the fourth time), and bid adieu to thoughts of living "comfortably."
• We sign on with Company L - which appears to be better for Ben professionally and for our long-term goals.
• I cry - Me: Can't we have it all - the right job and the right pay? God: No, the other is dirt in the proverbial conference bucket. Me: Shucks
• I start to get over it.
• We pack.
• We move - at month's end.

I try to keep our whereabouts off of this blog, so I hesitate to say where we are moving. Let's just say we've gone a very circuitous route to end up 400 miles or so from where we began! We won't see much of the snow though. You can guess our whereabouts through "comments." I won't post your guesses but will respond via email. Sorry for the hassle.

Thanks for your prayers - though I may need them now more than ever as this is not a place of fond memories for me. Guess I'm going to get rid of some baggage. More than anything, we are grateful to have a stable job doing what Ben was meant to do.

PS In an effort to "unwind" in all of this, we've become addicts of The Office. But shhhh, we're still on Season 2! We love TV on DVD... now we have power over what/when we watch!

Limbo

Well, we've had a great interview trip and have been able to visit with all of the grandparents and several "aunties" and "uncles". Life is good. But we don't yet have any answers. I feel as confused as ever, but we'll just wait to see what the final offers are and what feels right then (hopefully something will).
My brother got lost for several dark hours on the Alaskan tundra on his caribou hunt this weekend. I'm very grateful to have him home (especially since he was hauling oodles of raw meat and was a prime bear target). He relayed that the experience caused him to reflect on the uncertain aspects of his life and what he wants. I wonder... will he propose? ; ) Just teasing Ry. No pressure!