We've Moved!!

I've been pretty busy over the past 3 weeks getting packed, and then trying to unpack and get everything settled into the new house. It's been really fun to have Mark home all day long to just help out with the house, get decorations up, and just to hang out. He starts his Judicial Fellowship the beginning of September, so the move to Springfield has come and gone, but not without any hitches. Let me describe some of the events of this recent move.

• Mark kind of got lost on the way home from the rental place.We had three guys help us load the truck, and one girl come to play with Canon while we worked...which was all very helpful. However, it took over 3 hours to get fully loaded... and Mark forgot that they hid his bike behind a bush and didn't get it loaded into the truck. So now we have to wait for a friend to bring it out here for us.
• We couldn't get our Comcast Internet hooked up right away because the previous tenants never cancelled their account... so we had to fax Comcast a copy of our lease to prove that we lived at the residence. However, we still hadn't gotten a copy from the Realtor yet... and it took 3 phone calls to get them to drop off a copy. After 5 days we were finally able to get Internet hooked up.
• Within a couple days I noticed that a small diamond from my wedding ring was missing. Don't really know when it was lost, but with everything we'd done over the past few days, there was no finding such a small stone. So we took it to a jeweler to get fixed.
• My kitchen took FOREVER to figure out where to put things because I had only 1 drawer. Count them... it... ONE!! We made several trips to Walmart, Target, and Lowes for things we needed around the house. We settled on stacking two end tables we got from Target with baskets to allow for more drawer space for kitchen stuff (even though we put them in the dining room). Once we got those put together, the kitchen went a lot more smoothly.
• Our bed's box-spring wouldn't fit up the stairs to get it to the bedroom. So we slept with the mattress on the floor for a few days until we could figure out what to do about the bed. Mark decided to buy 2x10's and place the boards across the bed frame. Honestly, we found these strong boards to be much more comfortable than the box spring was. Oh, the irony!
• Canon's room was the only room in the house that didn't have any window coverings, so he'd wake up to the sunlight and not want to go back to sleep, and I DID NOT like to be woken up at 5:30am and then fight the kid to go back to sleep. It also had a green-house effect in the afternoons and got really hot in there. We went to buy a shade at Target and found a cute curtain that cost only a couple bucks more than the shade. When we got it home we discovered it was only ONE curtain. So we had to buy a second curtain, which turned out to be more expensive than we anticipated at first. But, once we bought curtains, and the land-lady installed window shades, it has been much nicer. Canon sleeps much better now.
• I've been wanting to repaint Canon's dresser because the drawers have been sticking and the paint was peeling. The professional at the hardware store told me that I need to strip it before painting it. That ended up being a disaster (mainly because I didn't really do it right). We would have to go buy some more stripper, then an electric sander because it was just too much for me to do by hand, and then the paint/stain...not to mention the time it would take to do all that. I was waiting to finish his room because I needed a place to put his clothes, so we just gave up and bought a new cheap dresser from Walmart.
• We still don't have TV hooked up because the earliest install date for DirectTV is August 25th. Hopefully they'll have a cancellation in our area soon because we'd like to be able to watch something on TV. We missed the finale of So You Think You Can Dance though! BUMMER!
• We're responsible for watering the lawn, but the previous tenants seemed to never do it. In fact, much of the grass looks dead... and we figured out why. When Mark tried to water for the first time, he found that the water to the outside faucets was turned OFF. He had to figure out how to turn it back on... and then he went onto Craigslist to find a cheap lawnmower because the house didn't come with one.

All in all, we know that there are always interesting things to deal with when you move, but it's really been a fun change for us. I absolutely love being in a house, and I'm looking forward to getting to know some people. We had the sister missionaries over for dinner on Thursday, but that just made us realize how much we miss entertaining. We want to have people over, but we just don't know anyone around here yet. Mark and I miss having friends. :)

If you're interested, here are some videos that tour the house so you can see it, but keep in mind that not everything is in its place just yet. We're still trying to get some things organized. I tried to get it all into one movie, but Blogger was having troubles uploading it, so here it is broken up.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Bathroom:

Part 3:

Canon's Room:

Part 4:

Our New Place, and Our Current Place

This week I spent a lot of time online looking for a new place to live in Western, MA. Thursday I drove out there with Canon and looked at 3 apartments. On Saturday, Mark came with us that time and we saw about 10 places... and it was totally worth it. We put down a security deposit on this...

It actually has a lot of storage space with a full basement, 3 bedrooms, a dining room, and even...

a backyard...

and a driveway!! No more street parking for this grocery-shoppin' mama!!

We were super excited about this place and talking about it the whole drive home. Then, once we got home, this is what we found.

Remember when our apartment got water damage from the foundation leaking into our bedroom last summer? Well, that was nothing compared to this. Canon's entire floor was soaked, as was his closet (which we use as our storage closet for all our boxes of books and other treasures), into the hallway, the coat closet, and even our bedroom's closet.

Walking on the carpets, water would pool around your foot. Mark said that he went into Canon's room and jumped around...and the floor SPLASHED. Who needs to go outside when it rains in order to play in the puddles?

The management had sent men over to the apartment to wet-vac all the carpets... AT 10:30PM. I wasn't too excited about waking Canon up so often that night, but we would rather that they get it all cleaned up sooner rather than later. We had to pull out all the stuff out of all those closets and the bedroom... this is what my living room and kitchen looked like.

I was super stressed about it all day. I didn't want to go home after church because I didn't want to be in the apartment, with all the huge fans blowing, and the dehumidifier making all the loud noise. I didn't want to be in a place where I couldn't even think about putting my baby down to play. He would HATE being in the play pen all day and not be able to crawl around. Luckily I am blessed with a husband who let me just nap while the baby did... in the only place that seemed to give refuge to the horrible mess. When I woke up, the apartment looked like this!

There's actually space for Canon to play, my kitchen is totally open... the hallways are a little narrower, but they're workable. Everything that we need to be able to get to is accessible. I no longer feel like I don't have my apartment anymore.

Mark is the BEST HUSBAND EVER!!

Independence Day

On Saturday July 3rd the three of us hung out with our friends, the Tylers. We spent the hot, hot day waiting in line to enter the "Oval" to watch the Boston Pops Concert featuring Toby Keith. It was a really fun day with too little time of babies sleeping, lots of sunscreen, and many of these baby smiles.

Even when it was super hot, Canon usually looked like this...

and this...

and this...

The large family group sitting next to us gave us a couple of glow-sticks for Canon. I think he thoroughly enjoyed them.

We had pretty good seats, and apparently the camera man thought so too!!

When Canon saw this confetti....

He looked like this...

Overall, I think it was a great day!

One thing that we didn't get a picture of was how we loaded the stroller on the way back to the T. Normally when we know Canon is not going to be in a car we don't really bother to strap him into his car seat in the stroller. However, this time I did strap him in, almost instinctively. Apparently the stroller was top-heavy because as we were going down a ramp on the sidewalk, somehow the flipped over... practically upside-down... in the middle of the intersection. Canon only had a look of "what just happened?" shock, but he didn't cry or anything. I think he just thought it was an interesting ride. Phew, that was a close one!!

New Stake Center

This might not be terribly interesting to you, but think it's pretty cool! As some of you may know, the LDS Ward that Mark and I have been attending over the past 3 years have been meeting in an old rented "Tank and Boiler" building in Cambridge. The ceilings were high open rafters; the air conditioning was really loud and dripped on those of us who had classes in the little room off of the "chapel" area; the mother's room had one chair in a shower stall and the other chair (which was practically impossible to stand up from with a sleeping baby without pushing the cushion off by mistake)... don't get me wrong, it was a building that holds lots of fond memories.

However, on June 27th the Cambridge Stake dedicated a brand new building for our stake center. It's about a block away from the old tank and boiler building, and it now houses about 5-6 wards/branches, including ours. It is a very beautiful building, and the Mothers' Room has 4 NEW rocking chairs that don't force our legs to get all intertwined with one another! :) We actually now have a place for the guys to play basketball again (which we haven't had since the Longfellow Chapel burned down). We had a week of festivities leading up to the dedication, and the hundreds/thousands of Saints in the area participated in this glorious fun!

Mark wanted to play in the basketball tournament, but he couldn't get a team together in time. So the only extra event we ended up attending was the free Jon Schmidt concert. I thought it was a blast, and Canon was screaming with excitement through most of it. I think he likes music!! The dedication took place on June 27th, and it was a very nice meeting. People talked about the growth of the Church in the Boston/Cambridge area over the past century, and I always find it so inspiring.

One of my favorite parts of the dedication was that the person assigned to give the invocation wasn't the one who gave it. All of a sudden I look up and see Mitt Romney at the podium saying the prayer. When he finished his rather poetic prayer he walked down the aisle and sat down RIGHT BEHIND US. He even smiled at Canon when he was being all cute. I couldn't help but go up to him after the meeting to talk to him for a little bit...which was a bit embarrassing to me since I couldn't really think of much intelligent to say. :0P He looked over at Mark and said, "This little guy looks like this guy over here. Are you the Dad?" gesturing in Mark's direction. Yeah, we spoke to Mitt Romney, and I thought it was awesome that he was there at the dedication.

NOT Moving to Utah

It's official! Mark was offered that 10-month judicial clerkship in Springfield, MA, and we've decided that we're going to take it. Being a "judicial fellow" for these 10 months will be a really good move for his career, and in fact, it would be really risky to not take this opportunity. This is the first offer he's gotten for a real paid position since he started searching 2 years ago. Sure, he's had internships and a grant and stuff... but this will be the first time that Mark will be the one supporting our family, and I think we're all pretty stoked about that!

In regards to my schooling, we will put it off for now. Getting into a financially stable situation is what we're shooting for, and more debt for school at this time doesn't seem to be the way to go. There are so many factors to consider for when I return to school... having another child (?), daycare (?), where will we be living (?), money, time, who makes the dinner (?)...I think we'll just make that decision once we get there. As for now, I'm relieved to not be going back to school this year. I was getting a little anxious... excited, but nervous about it too! Thank goodness the U of U has allowed me to defer a year without any penalties... and I didn't even have to tell them that I was concerned about my husband's job prospects! :)

I just want to say that the Lord loves us and is watching over us. He's done so much for Mark and me as a couple, and I hope that we can always remember to put our trust in Him. Life often feels so complicated, and there are so many things going on, that it's difficult to know which path to take. I know that Heavenly Father is there for us, and He wants for us to be blessed with good things in our lives. We would feel ungrateful if we did not take this job opportunity when we've been praying for help for so long. We went to the Temple about it this afternoon, and we feel that the Lord is helping us along.

Who knows, maybe He's been setting the stage for this all along. We came to Boston University because Mark was interested in their study-abroad program in China. Mark did alright his first year, but he got just average grades, so he ended up not getting a summer internship when the market crashed. Therefore, he didn't apply for the study-abroad program because he didn't want to be gone during the interview process for the next year. (Which turned out alright because he discovered that he doesn't really enjoy corporate law as much, and that's what he'd be doing with that international law that he was originally working towards.) Even though he received nearly all A's the 2nd and 3rd years of school and graduated cum laude, he still did not have any job offers when he finished. Then, this position opened up to only 2010 BU Law grads who didn't have jobs yet.

It almost seems like Heavenly Father is trying to close all other doors so that we will look down the hall through the door He's opened. Of course, we can choose whether to walk through or not, but when He's holding your hand, why should we fear?

Living in Limbo

Once we feel like we've got a plan, life throws us a curve-ball. Once again, I feel like we're living in limbo, not really knowing what's going to happen. So far Mark doesn't have a job, and I've accepted admission into the University of Utah for their masters program in speech-language pathology. Our plan was for Mark to take the Utah Bar Exam at the end of July, then pack all our stuff up early August and move to Utah, staying with Mark's parents until we can get a place of our own. (We were going to take a Church History Tour Vacation on the way out because most of the stops will be perfect intervals for driving long distances with the baby.) Then I would start my masters program at the University of Utah on August 23rd.

Well, it may happen just like that... but then again... it might not. Mark's interviewing with the superior court system in Western Massachusetts for a 10 month clerkship. It was set-up just for BU Law grads from this year who didn't have jobs. 5 positions are open (I think only 2 are in Western MA and the other 3 are in the Boston area) and we feel that Mark has a pretty good chance. I was nervous about him getting a clerkship outside of Utah because I'm supposed to start school this fall, but then the U of U's welcome letter stated that they're allowing this year's incoming students defer until fall of 2011 if we wanted because more students accepted than they anticipated. So, that works out perfectly. Mark says that if he gets this job, he'll take the Massachusetts Bar Exam in February to make himself more marketable in this area. If he ends up finding a job here in MA with the contacts he makes through this clerkship, then I will apply to a part-time SLP masters program that they have out here in MA. I was looking forward to going to the U of U, but part-time schooling would be more condusive to being a mom once Mark is working.

So, once again, our plans are up in the air. We might be moving to Utah... we might be moving only a couple hours away to Western Massachusetts. Either way, we will be moving out of our apartment in August. Keep us in your prayers! We'd like a job, but we want to do what's right for our family too! I'm nervous about finding a place large enough and inexpensive enough to be comfortable, but I'm getting excited for a change.

Vacationing in Newport Beach, CA

Mark's parents have a timeshare in California, and after 5 years of not being able to join in on the fun Mark and I were finally able to participate in the Dahl Family Vacation. Canon was able to see the Pacific Ocean (3x). He had his first experience with playing in the kiddie pool and in the big pool. We went whale watching and saw tons of playful dolphins, sea lions chillin' on a floating bouey, and 3 whales. We went to Knotsberry Farm with Mark's brother Alex. (Thanks for watching Canon, Mom and Dad!) We also went to an Anaheim Angels baseball game with Mark's parents. (Thanks for watching Canon, Tiffany and Brian!)

It was pretty much a lot of relaxation and good times to just hang out with family. I even got to rest a little bit in the mornings with a mother-in-law who would watch the baby so I could go back to sleep. Yeah, we got spoiled... and we're still not back to Eastern Standard Time. I guess it takes getting up Sunday morning for 9:00am church will just have to do the trick to get us back on track!

Only 7 1/2 months, and Canon already has adoring fans! :) His cousin Megan would play with him every chance that she got. Now, I try not to be the paranoid-type mother, but there were a few times I just HAD to insist she play with Canon on the floor instead of on the couch. It was great to have so many playmates for him though!

Splashing in a pool was a new experience, and Canon wasn't too sure about it at first. It became more fun once he got a beach ball to play with.

Canon has now been to both the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans. This was his first experience with the water. He was happy in this picture, but he DID NOT like the cold, and I think the waves scared him. But he's cute in his swim wear, isn't he?

Whale watching was a new experience for most of us. I had a hard time getting him to look at everything we saw, but I think he did notice the dolphins once. He was so cute on the boat... especially after he sneezed when I was trying to feed him.

The last time Mark and I were in California, the Newport Temple wasn't yet opened. This time we walked the grounds after Church. The landscaping was beautiful, even with the "sticky flowers."

Thanks for an amazing vacation, Mom and Dad!