My new calling

**This might not mean much to those of you who aren't members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. If you have any questions about what I'm talking about, let me know.

We have now been living in North Carolina for one month. I guess that means that it is about time for us to receive callings in our new ward. Husband hasn't received one yet, but this morning I was called, sustained, and set apart as the second counselor in the Young Women organization.

I am excited but a bit apprehensive. I know almost nothing about this girls and could only call two or three of them by name. The oldest ones are only five years younger than me. From what I have been told, YW callings are the most demanding in this ward. It will be a really good way to get to know people, though! I feel very blessed to have this opportunity. The new president and the other new counselors are wonderful ladies and I am excited to learn from them. I've never been able to work with the Young Women before, so it's a big learning opportunity for me. I think I'll re-do the Personal Progress program, as well.

We will be meeting Tuesday night with the old presidency to get things transitioned over, and Wednesday night is the first activity. Should be fun!

At least it isn't another piano calling like I expected ;)

A few things, once again in list format

1. Baby boy has four teeth. He bites sometimes. I'm working on that.

2. I need to find a family doctor or pediatrician in our new area because it's about time for another well-child visit for Jeric, who turns 9 months old on Wednesday!

3. Speaking of Jeric's age, he has now spent more time out of me than in me (if the length of time from conception to due date is 38 weeks, Jeric was born at 38 weeks and 1 day -- and he is now 38 weeks and 4 days old.)

4. TMI for some/possibly all of you, but I ordered an expensive nursing bra from Bravado the other day -- I hope it fits. It's supposed to be a really good bra, and they have a good return/exchange policy. I have had such a hard time finding a nursing bra that fits, they are all so uncomfortable. I almost always wear a sleep bra, which is pathetic. I'll let you know what I think when it gets here.

5. One night last week, Husband and I went on an impromtu date to the bowling alley. The first game there were people near us and I gutter-balled nearly every other throw. It was lovely, let me tell you. Plus I couldn't find any light balls and the one I was using was way too heavy. Husband won that game, 73-63. The second game I totally schooled him :) 114-63. Amazing for me. When he asked if I wanted to play again, I said I'd rather leave it on a good note.

6. I'll write another post about the last update I have right now.

We moved! :)

Since it's been nearly a month since I posted and a week and a half since our move, I decided today would be a good day to update the blog. Jeric is taking a nap right now so we'll see how far I get before he wakes up. FAIR WARNING: If he's asleep a while or happy after he wakes up, this could be a very long post. If you don't want to read it all, skip to the end for a bulleted list :)

Jeric and I flew from Utah to North Carolina on 30 April. That was a busy day! My father-in-law had flown in the afternoon before and helped us finish getting the moving truck loaded. We all slept on mattresses on the floor that night but woke up before 5am so that Husband and his dad could drive the truck and our car to Cedar City, UT, because Husband had decided last minute that he didn't want to sell the car, after all. Cedar City (3 hours away) was the closest place with a car dolly. The men decided they wanted to get there pretty close to when the place opened at 8am so that they would be sure to get it. And they did. They did 19-hour driving days and arrived at my in-laws' on Sunday evening. They had decided to go the southern warmer route on highway 10 instead of 40, and it's kind of a good thing they did, because otherwise they'd have been in Tennessee during all the flooding. (All of that is so devastating. I can't imagine.)

Back to Jeric and me. After the men left that morning, we went back to sleep on the floor because I couldn't do any cleaning until 10ish when Ruth was coming over with her cleaning supplies - mine had all gone in the truck! She brought breakfast and we cleaned. Didn't get to vaccuum because my neighbors' was broken -- I just picked up the big stuff as best I could. I felt bad that it wasn't completely clean! Just before noon the bishop of the singles' ward we had served in came over with his wife and their truck to take our pile of DI (Deseret Industries, like the Goodwill of Utah) donations. After they left we got in Ruth's car and ran a couple of errands on the way to the airport for our 3:30 flight. It was 2:00 before we got to the airport, which made me a little nervous, but we got through security no problem and made our flight. Security was interesting, though, because I had to take the stroller since I had to take the carseat for the drive. I'd rather have strapped him to me in the Moby, but oh well. There were several other young families on both our flights.

Jeric did GREAT on the planes (we switched planes in Denver). By the time the first flight took off, he was tired and hungry so I nursed him during take off and he went to sleep and didn't wake up until everyone was standing up to leave the plane! Hurrah! On the second flight he played quietly for a long time, which is surprising because he is a squealer. (Ugh.) Then he took a little nap and woke up for the final descent. He got a little fussy because his ears were popping, but no screaming or anything. I just nursed him and he was fine. :) Jaw movement helps a lot with ear pressure.

My parents and sister were waiting for us (we were delayed about 30 minutes) and we stopped to get me some food. Then we started the 2 hour drive to their house, but it took about 3 hours and we didn't arrive until after 3am because Jeric did NOT want to be in his car seat and we kept having to stop and take him out to calm him down - he screamed the first two hours before he finally fell asleep. Poor baby. We were all pretty tired the next day, but we survived :)

We have spent a lot of time with both sets of parents and have seen all our siblings (except Daniel, of course, though we did talk to him on Mother's Day), siblings-in-law, nieces, and nephews. And our own grandparents. It has been a busy time, but we love being close to family.

Unpacking is going very slowly. We are living in Husband's parents' basement for the time being. It has lots of room, but isn't set up as a separate apartment, so we're improvising a bit. I unpack when Jeric lets me.

Speaking of Jeric, he isn't officially hands-and-knees crawling yet, but he scoots around on his backside in a sitting position if he wants something. I think he has been too heavy to support his weight on his hands and knees yet, but he's working on it and can now get to his hands and knees and rock back and forth. More exciting, last night he pulled to a stand! I couldn't believe it. Of course, he has always preferring being held upright in a standing position to being laid down on his tummy or back. I wouldn't be all too surprised if he learns to walk before he crawls. He is growing so fast! Jeric has also communicated with us a little bit (he has waved bye-bye a few times and shows us which toy he wants), so we have started using some signs when talking to him and sooner or later he'll start using them back. Should be fun!

I think that's all, so here is the bulleted-list summary I promised those of you who didn't have time to read the long post, or just didn't want to :)

• We moved away from Utah on 30 April. We miss our friends but love being with family. Jeric and I flew that day, but Husband and his dad drove and arrived the following Sunday evening (2 May).
• Unpacking takes forever.
• Jeric scoots on his backside instead of crawling, and pulled to a stand last night. He may walk before he crawls! We shall see.
• Jeric also communicates by waving bye-bye and grunting to tell us which toy he wants, so we are starting to use baby signs when talking to him. He'll figure out how to use them back eventually.
• The end. :)