The Good. The Bad. The Ugly.

The week has been one for the record books (aka journaling purposes!) A quick rundown of the events:

1. As mentioned from a previous post, the sticky situation with our Landlord was him thinking of selling the home. We for sure have the home until the end of our contract in June. Within 2 days of notifying us of this decision, he had a real estate agent picked out and they were knocking at our door ready to get pictures and get a sign out front. The house showings started right away and they were daily- not what I signed up for. Keeping a home in "showable" condition with 3 kids is not the easiest task. After coming home from church on Sunday at 2pm to 3 messages from the real estate office wanting to show the house at 4pm, I was not very happy. I called the real estate agent explaining that I would show the home twice a week. He said they couldn't do that, but they would abide by a 24 hour notice instead. On Monday, I got the call that our Landlord's accepted an offer and no more house showings were needed. The home was on the market for one week! Unheard of for this poor state of Michigan! The reason for such a fast sell is because the owners are pretty much dumping the home and moving on with their lives in another state.

2. I have been dealing with some light-headedness since last Wednesday. It came and went for the first few days, but became pretty constant on Sunday. Monday I went to a clinic and got some tests done. Feeling like I was on cloud 9 and going to faint 24/7 was not easy to handle when I still had to be mommy. Nothing inclusive came back except for dehydration... drink more liquids. Just that simple. I guess Mommy should at least think about herself once in a while and give herself a drink! I've been on the mend and have been feeling better just in time for...

3. Getting my wisdom teeth out! I have been avoiding this teenage "rite of passage" of getting your wisdom teeth taken out for way too long. I think of Jacob in the Book of Mormon as he stated, "Oh be wise, what can I say more?" Getting your wisdom teeth out nowadays is not as bad as it once was. I was put asleep and was in and out of the office in 30 minutes. I came home and slept and stayed in bed all day. I had Tyler as my doctor, Makenzie as my nurse, and my 2 cute boys as visitors. Besides looking like a chipmunk still and being a little sore, life continues.

4. This whole week it has snowed on and off, making it well over a foot, if not close to two feet, of snow outside. Shoveling snow has been the least of my priorities this week and Tyler's too. I have stayed inside with Gavin, who has been fighting a cold all week, while the other two played and threw snowballs at me through the screen door. The kids have gone out several times to play on the "mountains" of snow and help shovel. At one point Makenzie, who was wearing her play makeup that made her look like a clown, came in needing to go to the bathroom. Well, she didn't make it since she had so many layers to peel off. I couldn't help but laugh at the chaos that was ensuing around me while I was trying to make dinner!


"I'm gonna get you!"


5. Luckily we had a sweet teenage girl knock on our door yesterday taking pity on us and asked to shovel our driveway for work. It was the best $20 spent in a long time! Poor med students can't afford those fancy machines called snow blowers or let's just say we choose not to spend money on one YET. Hopefully she doesn't come knocking on our door anymore because really we can't afford it. She just got lucky!

6. Tyler lost his iphone for a full 12 hours. Oh the devastation, the horror, the worry! We looked high and low. The next day Tyler joked with the kids, "Whoever can find Daddy's phone, gets to play with it all day! (Such a treat for them!)" Makenzie said, "I know where it is at! It's in my room by my bookshelf. I took it last night and hid it from you! I played a trick on you!" Just like that and it was found! (She really did not get to play it all day because it ran out of battery for not being charged the night before. She did carry it around in her backpack like it was her phone though!)

7. Last, but not least, we ended the week off with plans to go to the temple. We each took our turn in the temple while the other watched the kids at the church next door. On the way home we saw a young couple walking on the side of the highway in the cold, wintery weather. After hearing an inspirational talk from our Stake President last week, we couldn't help but make our way back around and pick them up to give them a ride home. After we were back on the road for about 10 minutes, we passed a diesel which seemed to be quite loud. Once we passed it and the noise was still there, we realized it was coming from us. We had a flat tire!!! We pulled over and then started the arduous task of changing it. With Tyler in his church suit, the kids tired and hungry, the weather wet and cold, and 2 hitchhikers with us.... can you just see the picture? It was the first time we had to use the spare with our van and let's just say it was not the easiest task to do, plus the jack didn't work either. Luckily we have friends that treat us like family. They have come to our rescue before and they did not disappoint once again! They helped us on our merry way. We got the kids home and fed and our hitchhikers to their destination (with a Book of Mormon in hand).

And that my friends has been our week... The Good. The Bad. The Ugly. (No pity needed... just a few laughs and prayers that next week will be better!)

Birthday Boys!

We had some fun birthday celebrations this week!



Jordan has been working on holding up three fingers. He holds up his four fingers and that darn pinky doesn't want to stay down. It is so funny to watch him think and work to get it right! He has been so excited for his train birthday, except he didn't even eat a piece of his cake! Teaches me to ever make him a cake! He was too excited to open presents. Luckily he made up for it and had some cake the next day. I've mentioned it before, but for those who don't know, Jordan missed sharing his Daddy's birthday by 20 minutes. I'm glad to keep them on separate days.


We had candles that we never used last year, so he is 27, plus one! You do the math. We got him an ice cream cake with his favorite blizzard flavors. The kids were SOOO excited to get him the game of "Operation" so that he can play it with them (so fitting for a soon-to-be doctor!) Hey the game said for ages 6 and up.... so that includes Tyler (even though our kids aren't even 6 yet-- who follows the age recommendations anyway?) Don't worry, Tyler got his golf clubs he's been wanting as his real present!

Baby Mozart

My kids have loved having the piano around. Even Gavin takes his turn at it. I have put the letter notes on pieces of tape for each key and then wrote out the music for several songs. Makenzie and Jordan diligently "practice" and play often. I'm quite surprised at how well Jordan does. If I'm out of the room, I can't tell who is playing.

The story of our lives...

Do you ever think what it would be like living someone else's life?

Or... you are just glad you are not living in their shoes?


The story of our lives includes...

having a husband away from home A LOT,
always having to plan for the future,
and moving all over the country.

I feel like we barely start making ourselves at home before we have to start thinking about where to move to next AND we still have so many more moves to make in the next 10 years. This year will be a year of traveling and decision making for the future. Tyler has decided to chase his dreams of becoming an ENT Doc (Ear, Nose, and Throat). We have Plan A, B, C, and D laid out. So hopefully it will become a reality... no matter how long it takes! He is making a 4 week trip home to Cedar City in April to do a rotation with the ENT he worked for before we moved for medical school. Unfortunately, I will be staying in Michigan with the kids (sniff.. sniff), since it was an unexpected trip.

Over the last two weeks, we have found ourselves in a sticky situation with our Landlord, which is causing us to move out at the end of our lease in June. Luckily we have found another home already from ward members who will be moving out about the same time. I think it is a blessing in disguise, but an unforeseen move nonetheless!

I will be coming to Utah with the kids in July and August while Tyler takes another board exam and then heads off with the Army to do 3 very LONG months of work with them. He will be rotating at 3 hospitals where we will be looking at calling home for the next move in 2011. Home may be Honolulu, Hawaii, Tacoma, Washington, or San Antonio, Texas (or somewhere else that I don't know about yet). I am for sure making a visit to Hawaii while he is there in August!

I will find my way back with the kids to Michigan around September, just in time for Makenzie to start school. I will survive being a single mom until October when Tyler gets back from his Army rotations. We will know in December where we will be heading to next.

Yeah, I know, a lot of you are saying, "I'm glad I'm not in her shoes!" But this is my life.... and I love it. It's exciting...it's adventurous... it makes visiting home and family that much sweeter! I am the first to admit that it can be hard at times. But what life isn't, when you are young and trying to get an education and building a promising future for your family? We continue to have the church as our ROCK. We continue to meet families who are and have been in "our shoes." It has been amazing to come in contact with so many people from all different backgrounds and learn so much from them. I also love being able to see the sights of all the areas. My mom says I have the "Bales wander-lust" blood in me, which is in reference to my dad always wanting to travel and go go go.

So hopefully you can keep up with us on our foot race as we go go go. Thank goodness for blogging!

Who needs a sister?

It was bound to happen....
Makenzie convinced Jordan to dress up with her. It lasted about 2.5 seconds.... enough time to snap a picture.




I went upstairs for a few minutes and guess who got it next... Poor little guy doesn't know what hit him. He loves it when his sister plays with him.

6 Months Already???