Leavin' On a Jet Plane

On Saturday the kids and I sent Kimball to Morocco.  I don't know if it was a jet plane or not, but how can you go wrong with John Denver?  He had to report in at 9:30 am, but didn't take off until 5 pm.  Gotta love the military.  

Since he left I've gotten a couple emails from him.  Apparently Morocco is really hot and humid.  Who'd have thought Africa would be warm in the summertime?    Is it their summertime?  They could be heading into winter for all I know.  Either way, its hot.  He says its pretty neat though.  The place they're keeping everyone is kind of like a hotel in a touristy area.  Complete with swimming pools so he's not exactly roughing it.  He hasn't gone into much detail about what his days are like, but he says his job there is really interesting.

He can't call or Skype, but he usually gets to check his email a few times throughout the day so if you want to drop him a line I'm sure he'd love to hear from everyone. 

So far the kids and I are doing fine.  He's supposed to get back at the beginning of June so its nothing like Basic Training or OCS when he was gone for months at a time.  Unless Kimball's lying Morocco is a very safe place to be at the moment especially where they're keeping him and he'll be back in just a few weeks so it really feels more like a great experience he gets to have free of charge, plus he gets to put to use a little of the training he's been getting the last couple of years.  That's how it seems to me at least.  

After dropping Kimball off the kids and I, and my Aunt Ranee headed up to Morgan to go to a rodeo!  My dad was taking pictures of the whole thing so I went to help with the sales end and my aunt went to watch my kids.  It was such a great day.  It was the perfect distraction for me and the kids right after leaving Kimball.  I was so busy all day I didn't have a chance to miss Kimball or feel sorry for myself.  And the kids loved the rodeo.  Between the dirt, horses, and cows they had a ball.  I can't believe my Aunt came all that way to watch my kids.  I was feeling sentimental I guess and didn't want to leave them with a baby-sitter all day right after sending Kimball off.  I don't know if it mattered to them much, but it made me happy to see them having such a great time.

The kids got extra lucky.  It turns out I had a distant cousin at the rodeo (I should have guessed...they're all over Utah) and he let Kaden and Jo ride his horse!  They had such big smiles, and Jocilyn was extra excited because just a few hours before I had told her she wouldn't be able to ride the horses which completely broke her heart. 

When I woke up that day I expected to be so depressed, so imagine my surprise to find its one I hope I always remember because of how great it turned out to be!  Don't get me wrong. I miss Kimball like crazy especially at night.  Which is why I'm writing this so late.  I'm not sure, but I think the fact that I'm always missing him makes the times when I have extra reason to be happy even more welcome than normal.  Does that make any sense?  Maybe it is time to head to bed.  I'll try to keep everyone posted on what news I hear from Kimball.  Of course I don't exactly have the best record with staying up to date, but we'll see how it goes.

Happy Easter

We had a great Easter this year!  It was very simple, just dying eggs, eating candy and of course a yummy dinner with family here in Rexburg.  The kids were so excited to be coloring eggs.  They both love eating a hard boiled egg so they spent the whole time talking about how great it would be to "hatch" them all.  Kaden had a hard time waiting.  I think he dropped half the eggs I gave him.  The poor kid has the slipperiest fingers I've ever seen!  We had a great time.

You'll have to excuse the nakedness.  That's how we roll at our house when it comes to food coloring.

In case you're wondering what Kimball is concentrating so hard on let me show you...

Its a Love Egg, Awww!

 Just before church I ran the kids outside to get some pics of them dolled up in their new Easter clothes.  We were rushing through the whole thing because I didn't want to be late, but I knew if it didn't happen in the first few minutes of wearing the clothes there would be a huge likelihood of stains, blood or some other mess that just wouldn't look right for an Easter memory.

I cannot believe how grown up Kaden is becoming.  He's such a cutie, pictures like this catch me off guard.  He looks like a handsome kid not my little guy.

Here's Jocilyn in one of her few cooperative photos.  Kaden taught her how fun it is to be silly for the camera and it really caught on.

Case in point.

This is what happened when I asked them to hug.  It turned into a tackle-fest.  My kids... got to love them!

I shouldn't like this photo.  Kaden is taking her to the ground and Jocilyn is holding on for dear life.  But I love it.  I'm pretending its a loving embrace between a brother and sister on Easter morning.  I guess things are all in the eye of the beholder right?  Wink, wink!

Grrr

In case you haven't heard we found out that Kimball did not pass the bar this time around.  He missed the pass rate by 0.2%.  Yup, that's right!  He needed a 280 to pass and received a 279.4.  It took us a couple days to heal up and accept what happened, but when we found out how close he came to passing we went through the process all over again.  0.2%... it still hurts a little talking about it.  I guess two months of studying just wasn't quite enough to make up for three years of post law-school life. 

Not to worry though.  Kimball is working hard again to retake the bar in July.  Despite how I may sound I'm actually really hopeful right now.  I'm more confident than before that he will pass this time around.  Three months has got to be enough time to cover that 0.2% of knowledge he needed the first time right?!  And despite how it may seem it doesn't set us off course that much from our plan.  Because Kimball was already going to Morocco he wouldn't have been able to take a job for a few months anyways.  Which means we'll only be about 3 or 4 months behind where we wanted to be.  In the long run that is hardly anytime at all. (Someone pointed this out to me the first day or two when we found out the results.  I'm embarrassed to say I don't remember who it was, but looking at it from this angle has made a huge difference for me.  Thank you whoever it was.)

The job in AZ is still what we're hoping for, though its a little less likely at this point.  Either way Kimball's been looking into lots of other positions that could be available so I think we'll be just fine.

Jocilyn's 3rd Birthday

My little girl turned three last week!  I really can't believe it, but that doesn't seem to matter.  She's still a sassy, flirty, pint-sized three-year-old princess.

We've been in Utah visiting my family for a little bit so we celebrated by going to McDonald's with a bunch of the cousins.  I think she had a great time.  I was a little too busy keeping the nuggets and fries stalked up to really tell.  Which reminds me; big thanks to my dad for supplying the photos, I wasn't going to get to them.

She loved opening presents.  And thanks to all her cute cousins I'd say her summer wardrobe is pretty complete for the next couple years. (Let's face it she'll probably be wearing the same size next summer as she is this summer.)

I also made cupcakes.  They were supposed to be purple, but they turned out kind of grey instead.  Now I know to be extra careful with the blue food coloring.  Regardless they had sprinkles so she seemed happy grey or no.

I absolutely love my little Jocilyn.  She keeps me busy.  She's constantly sneaking into something or trying to work her way around the rules.  But is still very sweet and kind.

Her favorite activities are probably play-doh and painting.  Its amazing!  She can sit and paint for an entire hour completely absorbed in her project.  She really loves to focus in on what she's working on and she's set for quite a while.

She also loves playing house.  She rotates between being the mom or the baby.  But I think Jo really loves being pampered and coddled so most of the time she's the baby.  Poor thing, hope she grows out of that soon!

She is certainly loved.  Her squeaky little voice and take charge attitude are an essential part of our family.  I'm so grateful to have her and cannot wait to see the adventures she has planned for us.

Hello...Anyone Out There?

In case anyone out there still checks my blog on occasion I thought I should give an update on my little family.  And incase no one checks it after six months of nothing I guess its more of a journal anyway so its still been on my to-do list.

I have an apology to make right up front.  I don't have any photos to put up.  As you'll soon understand we've been moving around a lot the last little while and on one of those moves my everyday camera was accidentaly put in storage which has about 90% of the photos I've taken of my family.  So be prepared for a lengthy post with no cute photos to spice things up.

Utah
The last update I gave Kimball and I were still in Utah waiting to go to a TDY training in October of 2010.  At the beginning of July 2010 we got a call asking if we could start at the end of that month instead.  Since we were pretty much sitting around waiting to do this training anyway we decided to go for it.  Two weeks later we were packed and on our way to Sierra Vista, AZ.

Arizona
We had such a great time down there.  You might think summertime in Arizona would be the worst thing in the world (I know that's what I expected), but it was really nice.  Sierra Vista has a really high elevation so the temp. only gets about as hot as a Utah summer would.  Plus the monsoon season lasts most of the summer.  A typical day usually involved a warm morning spent at the park, then down for a nap.  Right about then the clouds would come rolling in and we'd have a down pour for a few hours.  Most days the rain only lasted long enough to cool things off and we'd go swimming when Kimball got back from work.  If this sounds a little too perfect it probably is a little unrealistic, but this is how it was in my mind.  I really truly absolutely loved being there! 

On top of the weather we had a lot of great company too.  Kimball's sister Stephanie lives in Sierra Vista so we got to play with her family quite a bit.  As if that weren't enough his brother Danny was doing TDY there, the same time we were.  At least every weekend we were getting together with someone or everyone to play.  It was great!  It was so nice spending time with part of Kimball's family.  With so many brothers and sisters all over the country there are a few we don't get to see more than once a year at the reunion.  Having six months to get to know them and there kids was perfect!

While we were in Arizona Kimball started talking to his brother-in-law's brother (still with me here?) about a job as a lawyer.  He works as a civilian attorney for the military down there and thought some spots would be openning up that Kimball would fit into really well.  Before he could qualify he'd have to pass the bar first though.  So just after Thanksgiving Kimball registered to take the Idaho Bar Exam in February.  Before you have a chance to ask; yes, the job we're hoping for is in Arizona, but because its a federal position it doesn't matter what state he takes the bar in.  And since we registered later than normal we'd already missed most the deadlines for other states.

Idaho
Because he only had a couple of months to prepare, Kimball had to quit his job as a banker.  We were both sad to see this job go.  It had security, health insurance, a paycheck, and room to grow.  But with only two months to prep for the Bar Kimball had to study full time if he was going to be ready.  And we both agreed that this was the direction we wanted to go.

Thankfully Kimball's dad offered to let us move into their home in Idaho while they spent the winter down south.  So right after Christmas we packed up everything from Arizona and made the trip up to Rexburg, Idaho.  I have to say, going from a warm Arizona winter to windy, bitter, cold Rexburg isn't very fair.  I love Rexburg, I really do.  This is where I graduated, not to mention met my future husband, but seriously going from 60-70 degrees to negative whatever is just ridiculous!  At least spring is trying to show its face now and then.  It snowed yesterday, but its sunny today so it looks like things are starting to defrost.

One advantage to being back in Rexburg is more family.  Kimball's brother Bryan lives here with his family and his brother Ammon is here with his for a little while as well.  I'm glad Kaden and Jocilyn are getting a chance to meet and get to know so many of their cousins.  They've always been close to the ones on the Patterson side, but don't know many of the Jones Family, so that's been a really good thing.

The Bar 
Late February Kimball drove up to Boise and took the bar exam.  Between the two of us I don't know who was more nervous.  I know he wished he could have had an extra couple weeks to prepare, but you take what you get right?  In case you don't know the test is a real beast.  It takes place over two days involving 12 hours of test taking.  One day for multiple choice questions and another for essay questions.  Kimball thinks he probably passed, but is still pretty nervous.  We wont find out until April 14th so we have a few more weeks of waiting still.  If he passed then he can start applying for jobs as a lawyer particularly the one in Arizona.  If he didn't...well, the next test date is in July.

Morocco?
Most of Kimball's family has already heard some version of this part, but due to a small misunderstanding and a ridiculous round of telephone we have a few things to clear up.  Yes, Kimball will be going to Morocco for about 3 weeks with the National Guard.  No, he is not there yet.  And absolutely NO, he is not planning to bring his family with him and stay long term. 

Basically what's going on is some guy who is based in Morocco is going on leave for about 3 weeks in May and they need someone to fill his position while he's gone.  Kimball actually volunteered for this.  Can't say I blame him.  I was a little jealous when he first told me about it.  Though I'm less excited for him now that Lybia's become the mess it's become.  Kimball's still excited.  He's been training for a long time and is excited to get some experience behind him.  The timing works out good too.  He's been looking for a job to fill the time until he can work as an attorney, but its been hard to find much.

I'm not sure yet where the kids and I will go when he leaves.  It depends on what's going on at the time:  Did Kimball pass the bar?   Has he found a job in the meantime, and where is that job?  We have a few things to figure out before I'll really know what's going on.

Until then I feel kind of like the little engine that could.  "I think I can, I think I can."  That said I know all this waiting is a lot harder on Kimball.  But we're trying to enjoy things as they come and hopefully though our plans haven't really panned out before, we've finally found the right plan that will let us move on to the next part of our life.  I'll be sure to keep you posted at least every six months or so. (ha! ha!)