So Long, Cleveland

June 1 marked our last day in Cleveland Heights. We had been sleeping on an air mattress for 2 nights, and before that just on sleeping bags. I called my aunt Ginger to see if we could come stay with her for a few days, so after a tearful goodbye to the Barnum's who left for Dallas that morning, we made our way over to Warren.

We already miss having these great friends just down the street!

Addie & Sydney "holding" Spencer

We said a quick goodbye to our house, then got in our packed rental car.

We had this thing filled to the brim.

Good thing we only have one kid! I had to laugh when I got in the car and saw Sydney squished between all of this luggage. On our drive, Spencer would try to point things out to her and she would say, "I can't see!" because her window view was blocked by suitcases.

The Waiting Game

From all accounts, it seemed like the only thing delaying our tickets to Okinawa was Sydney's passport. It finally arrived in the mail last Thursday, but of course another delay has come up. Apparently Sydney and I were supposed to be put into some system, but no one ever did that when we did our overseas screening. So now all of our stuff is packed and gone, our car is sold, our rent contract is up, and we just here waiting for the Navy to tell us what's going on.

We went down to Columbus this weekend to see my family before we leave. We got to crash the Gusty's Memorial Day festivities, starting with a parade in Grandview. Pat made bags for all the kids to put their candy in- they all got a ton!!

I think Sydney was in heaven. The candy would literally get thrown to her feet, and she would just pick it up and put it in her bag. And what fun would it be to get all that candy if you didn't get to snitch a few pieces during the parade?

There were lots of loud cars, firetrucks, and drums that passed by. Sydney wasn't really a fan of the loud noises, and she kept plugging her ears.

She also does this whenever a motorcycle drives by or when I flush an industrial style toilet in a store/restaurant. I wonder how she'll do with fireworks this year?

We also enjoyed the talent of Master Yang's students. Shauna told me that every year Master Yang is escorted in a car like a king while his peon students walk around him and show off their karate skills. When they passed by we started chanting, "Break a board!!" and his crew totally delivered:

All of the kids after the parade, looking festive in red, white, and blue.

That afternoon we enjoyed getting stuffed at the Gusty's annual Memorial Day picnic, then headed to a park that night for James' Star Wars themed birthday party. Somehow I didn't get pictures of the kids having a war with light sabers, or James in his Darth Vader costume, or everyone singing Happy Birthday, but I did snap a shot of little Benji doing his "squeeze face" after eating a chocolate cupcake.

Love it. He gets cuter every time I see him.

Shauna, Me, & Wendy

It was so nice to be together with my whole family again, and sad and kind of surreal to say goodbye. We have had so much fun living near them for the past 4 years!

Ouch!!

My poor little Sydney had a terrible fall this evening when she was running around on the sidewalk outside. Spencer, Becky, Geoff and I were sitting in the Barnum's yard when I saw her go down and heard her forehead pound the pavement. When I picked her up, I expected the gravelly looking forehead wound, but she had blood all over her upper lip too. Turns out there was a pretty good sized upside-down V shaped cut there too, and it was pretty wide right below her septum. We had Geoff text an oral surgeon in our ward to come take a look at it when he got off work since we thought that maybe she needed stitches, but decided against it when we thought about what a horrible experience it would be (for me and her!).

We came right home to clean off her face, then gave her some Tylenol, apple juice, and a piece of candy.

We can't find a Band-Aid that will fit/stay on that upper lip, not even those little butterfly things. I bought some liquid band-aid stuff, but it stinks pretty bad and she didn't want it to come near her face. We then read on the label that inhalation can be harmful or even fatal- of course her cut has to be right under her nose.

Luckily she was in good spirits for the rest of the evening. I think the popsicle she got at the Barnum's house may have had something to do with it. Please bless her face heals quickly!

Graduation

Today was busy, busy, busy! I was expecting campus to be crazy with traffic, no parking, and terrible weather. Turns out we didn't hit any traffic, and we found some nice free covered parking spots without a problem. We did have to make a bit of a trek in the rain, but I was so happy that the first two things went smoothly that I didn't care as much about the weather.

We started off the afternoon with a luncheon at the Thwing dining hall. This was only the second time we've had both sets of our parents with us; the other time was when we got married almost 6 years ago!

Spencer & his preceptor Dr. Defilippo (aka Dr. D.

After lunch, we headed next door to the Church of the Covenant for the commencement ceremony.

Spencer & Justin in their highly attractive velvet robes. It was already hot in the church, and I'm sure all the grads were sweating bullets with their gowns on.

Spencer, Me, & Sydney

Barbara, Spencer, & Jared braving the rain for a quick picture.

Spencer with his best buds Trent and Geoff.

Mom, Sydney, & Dad waiting for the ceremony to start.

I was so grateful to have so much help from our parents to entertain Sydney, whose most frequent saying this weekend has been, "I want somestin." (i.e. I want something.) I think she had about 3 pieces of gum and a good 1,500 calories of pure garbage that day to keep her quiet and happy during the ceremony (somehow food was always more appealing than the stickers, crayons, and books that I brought for her).

It's official, Spencer is a Dr.!

After graduation, Spencer was superseded into the Navy as a Lieutenant.

Taking the Oath of Office.

Then we took one last picture with the Heaton's before heading home. We are going to miss them so much!

Saying Goodbye

The morning after the Heaton's packed up their moving truck, we got together with a few families at a yummy restaurant for breakfast as one last hurrah before graduation.

Jack, Stacey, Anderson, & Justin Heaton

Adam & Hollie Hurst (not pictured: baby Henry)

Brittany, Janie, Pete, Max, & Jackson Mecham

Then a few days ago we had a BBQ with our neighbors, the Barnum's and the Welch's. They will also be graduating from dental school and moving away in the next few weeks.

Macie, Geoff, Trent, Cole, & Spencer

Macie, Becky, Laura, Addie, Me, & Sydney

Cole, Jake, Addie, Sydney, & Macie.

I can only hope that we make friends as good as these in Okinawa. I'm going to miss getting together with them for holidays, birthdays, game nights, movies, and just sunny days when the kids are playing outside. I don't necessarily think I'm going to miss Cleveland all that much, but it makes me sad to think that we will be leaving all of the wonderful friends we have made here! We wish you all the best and hope our paths cross again someday!

In Full Bloom

I feel like spring has *finally* arrived here now that all of the pretty trees on our street have flowers and leaves and my phlox have bloomed. Today was definitely one of the nicest days we've had so far- like there was no question that I'd be putting on shorts instead of jeans or even capris this morning.

We went outside to play, and it didn't take long for me to get downright HOT! Sydney is always asking to play with the spray bottle we use for ironing, so I thought today would be a good time to let her have it.

For a good 20 minutes, she was spraying the flowers, rocks, grass, our house, and, on upon my request, my feet.

I think that sprayer will be quite a fun toy this summer. Why fill up a squirt gun every 5 seconds when you can have a $1 spray bottle that holds way more water?

The Best of April

We found out in mid-April that Spencer passed his clinical boards, the WREBS!! That was the last big hurdle to becoming a bona fide dentist, now we're just counting down to graduation on May 15.

There was a community Easter egg hunt on April 15, and I thought it was hilarious. It was originally supposed to take place in a nearby park, but it was moved indoors because of rain. They basically laid a billion eggs all over the floor in the community center, did a countdown, and the kids just got whatever they could until the eggs were all gone.

Sydney & Addie patiently waiting for the "egg hunt" to start.

It was broken down into age groups, so Sydney (and all the other kids we were with) was able to get a ton of eggs.

I was cracking up at her method of picking them up. She reminded me of Gus Gus from Cinderella... not content to get just one or two at a time. Instead, she would try to pick up like four, then drop them and have to start all over again.

Even with that she still ended up with full basket! The whole event was literally all said and done within 3 minutes, but she had a blast.

We spent most of Easter weekend in Columbus, where I got to do a girls' day with my Mom and sisters. We shopped, ate, went to the temple, then shopped and ate some more. Then on Saturday we got together with the rest of our family members at my parents house, where we got to color Easter eggs with cousins.

We thought it was supposed to rain all weekend, but the weather was beautiful. However, it was kind of a mud hole since it had rained quite a bit the night before. Thank goodness we had our rain boots when we did the egg hunt outside!

Sydney ate all of the candy from the eggs she found in about 5 seconds (typical).

We drove back on Saturday afternoon so we could go to Spencer's Senior Dinner. He won an award for something along the lines of "Most Promising Pediatric Dentist." When he walked up to get his award, I was desperately trying to get my camera, only to find that my batteries were dead :(