Oklahoma - Week 3

8-19-07 to 8-25-07

I guess we should first start off in saying that we are okay, we didn't have any flooding in our little area from the "tropical storm" (it really was an inland Hurricane). The storm was actually quite exciting, we just thought it was a normal Oklahoma rainstorm. The storm was a remnant of Hurricane Erin. Usually they die down once they hit the land, but this one picked up again. Apparently it was quite the phenomenon, we enjoyed the crazy rain and the awesome lightning storm. We did get a little gift from the storm, we had a "pond" in our backyard for a while.

This was taken about two days after the storm. The previous owners of the home had an above ground swimming pool that left a perfect collection area for the water. We'll tell you more about our swimming adventures in just a moment. :)

We have some great news! ... No, we're not pregnant, but we did sell our house in Lehi. This has been a topic of great concern for us and rest assured it was always in the forefront of our prayers. Just a few days ago, we received a call from an agent who was looking for a place for her step-daughter, who really liked the area, the problem was that they wanted to do a lease-option, meaning that basically they "rent-to-own" the house. We really felt like this was an answer to our prayers and a way to make our financial burden a little lighter. Of course, it would be nice to just sell it immediately, but the renter wants to be able to purchase it in about 6 months and now with some rent coming in, we'll be able to take care of both places for a while with more ease. And worst case scenario is that if they don't buy the house within the two year designated time period, we were at least able to rent it for that time and possibly sell it for more down the road.

And here, we'll throw in some pictures that of course you're all dying to see.

The Kitchen has made some good progress this week. We were able to put up all the sheet rock for the walls and ceiling. Bro. Gipson from our ward was teaching me (Morgan) "the apprentice" how to tape, mud , and sand so that our finished walls would look nice. Needless to say, I don't really care much for the mudding part. I'm not really very good at it. I basically put on the entire first application of the mudding. Luckily, Bro. Gipson was able to come over and really help with the finishing touches for the second application of mud. Taping is easy of course, and I didn't mind sanding at all. I'm just glad that my friend McKay (from Huntsman Cancer Hospital) gave me a perfect farewell gift to protect my head while playing in the mud and the sand. It's really come in handy...too bad the hat is being damaged in the process.

As you can see, the final coats of primer and paint have been applied and we've begun building the cabinets. Half of our cabinet order is still in the shipping process, so we'll have to build those cabinets when they arrive. It's all really starting to come together now.

Annie has a friend from High school named Jessica. Jessica married John who works for the FAA. They live in Syracuse; however, John must come here to Oklahoma City for training sessions several times a year for a handful of days each time. This time they were here for 10 days and Annie received an email from Jessica when they arrived to Oklahoma. We had dinner with them one night and later in the week we met up with them for swimming at their hotel. We had lots of fun and Logan was just loving the water as usual. He really seems right at home even when the water is a little bit cold. Here are some photos.

As one might tell, it was my (Morgan's) first time applying sunblock to the BUDDY. I think I got a little carried away.

As always, Annie loves buying baby clothes. We always remember to pick up "airplane" outfits so that Logan will be able to bond with Grandpa Goodman. In order to even things out, we had to make sure he had outfits that enabled him to bond with Grandpa Hadlock (aka Pappa Beard).

We love you all and miss you too. In just one week, there's so much to do.

We hope all is well, and before we go, we hope this will bring a smile to you

Peek-A-Boo!

Oklahoma - Week 2

Howdy Ya'll,

Since the recent move to Oklahoma, we've decided to start a family blog to keep "ya'll" posted of our little adventures here in the midwest. The actual move went well, it was a very long drive, but we made in in about 2 1/2 days. Logan was a very good traveler, he had a little bit of rough time going through Parley's Canyon on the very first night, but after we made it through that little part of our journey, he did just fine.

We arrived on Sundy August 5th and were able to get everything out of the moving truck with a little help from parents and our aunt and uncle who live here as well. The house, which Morgan led us to believe was in shambles, was actually in really good condition. The previous owners had fixed a lot of the problems and put up some new paint and carpet and boy did it make a difference. The place has felt like home from the beginning. And we're probably paying less for our mortgage than for your car payment.

As we were getting ready to unpack the kitchen items, we decided that there were a few things that we should do to fix up the kitchen a little bit......a couple hours later, the entire kitchen was demolished and we were starting from scratch.....woops. The kitchen has been our fun little project and Morgan has been learning a lot from the ward "handyman" who has been over almost everyday helping out with the project. I'll be soooo glad when the kitchen is done. We currently have our refrigerator in the living room, along with the stove and all of our food and utensils are in the office, making the house a little bit of a tight squeeze at the moment, hopefully we'll be ready to put up cabinets in the next couple weeks and by September we won't have to eat only microwavable food. :)















So, in Oklahoma, they have a fascinating tradition of a monthly "Big Garbage Day" This is the day where everyone piles all their junk onto their front lawns and dumptrucks come by and pick it all up, needless to say the neighborhoods get pretty "trashy" during the few days before Big Garbage Day. Our garbage day is coming up and so the other day Morgan was moving some of our rubbish from the demolition of the kitchen into the front yard. He was wondering what to do with the old water heater and the kerosene heater when all the sudden, his prayers were answered and "Gomer Pile" came rolling along in his pickup truck and hollered, "that yo junk pile Bubba?" with his toothless grin from ear to ear. Morgan noticed the back of his truck loaded with old water heaters and other assorted metal. So, Morgan quickly realized he was collecting scrap metal to take to the city center to be weighed and reimbursed and offered him the water heater and kerosene heater, it turned out he wanted the old sink as well. Morgan helped him load it onto the back of the truck and Gomer drove away with a "Thanks, Bubba." Who's Bubba??

Classes start for Morgan tomorrow (August 20th). He's been up there a couple times now for orientation and other things and is ready to go. Luckily this semester won't be as rough as the later ones and he'll be able to pick up some PRN (per diem, or "on-call") work at the University Hospital and Children's Center here doing X-ray. I'm still working from home as well with my same job, so we're having a pretty good transition so far.

Our little Logan has been a real champ. He's such a blessing in our lives and been such a sweet little boy.















Logan is has just hit the 4 month mark and is smiling, laughing, giggling, and he can almost roll over. He loves it when mommy and daddy cuddle with him or fly him around like and airplane. His smile is enough to melt away any bad day and makes everything seem to work out.

Nola, our aunt who lives here, just had her baby: Brayden Jacob. We are really excited for her and now Logan will have a friend to play with while we're out here. She doesn't live too far from us and we actually ended up in the same ward....coincidence....I don't think so. :) This ward is going to be really good for us. There is a lot of missionary work to be done. Luckily, we aren't the first young couple to move into the ward, but there are only a few of us. There are definitely a lot of substitute grandmas, but don't worry, nothing can compete with the real thing. The bishop interviewed us our first day there and told us that this was not a ward where we'd be sitting on the bench for very long and we'd be put to work quickly. I think they still deciding how many callings to give us, so we'll have to keep you posted on that as well. It's a little bit different being the religious minority out here. I think the closest member to our house is about 5 blocks away. There is definintely a lot of religion out here though, you can't go a block without seeing some sort of church, mosque, or gathering place, why just across the street we're pretty much convinced that a reverend must be starting his own church from his home. A few times a week as we are coming inside for the evening our street is cluttered with cars and the shoutings of Hallelujah, I've been healed! Later, the shoutings turn into babblings and things get a little wild at the house across the street.

Well, this has been quite the long blog. We'll try and keep this updated once a week on Sundays. The next posts probably won't be nearly as long, but there is definitely more adventure to be had. We even got to experience a tornado warning last night...granted it was quite a ways away from where we are in a different county, but still. :) It was quite the storm the last couple days with rain and lighting and without all the mountains, it almost feels like you can see forever. We do miss the mountains a lot, but the change in scenery has been nice too, it's given us another perpective of the grandeur of nature that was created for us. Best wishes to all of you and we hope to see you all real soon. And of course, I couldn't end our blog without some more pictures of the cutest baby boy in the whole wide world.