Not Dead... I repeat: NOT DEAD!

No people... we are not dead.

A girl doesn't blog for a few weeks and everyone jumps to such horrible conclusions!

Sheesh!

I have been experiencing some technical difficulties with uploading pictures etc. I tried to start posting again and after fighting with the computer for a few hours I gave up. I just said "To Heck with it... When we have our own place with our computer up and running I will be a marathon blogger and catch up on everything that has happened."

But I guess not posting was making certain people anxious about our well being so I thought I would do a word-only (BORING!) update on our family.

SOMETHING is better than NOTHING I suppose.

Would COLOR help keep your interest? I'll give it a shot. It'll probably be a pretty boring post... when you are so far behind it's hard to tell all the cute details... oh well.. here goes:

Corey:

Corey's favorite color is GREEN. Did you know that? I think it has to do with the whole Irish thing.

Corey has been quite the busy bee.

He is doing some freelance editing for a company called Publication Services. They have a lot of work and need editors, but they are not currently hiring full time. He has edited 2 books for them and is working on a third. We are thrilled that he is getting experience in his chosen field and relieved to find that he is loving the work so much (we thought he would of course, but man that would have been a real kick-in-the-pants to find out that he actually hated it!)

He is also doing everything humanly possible to find a full time job. The market is pretty bad right now and pretty much every place of business that he has inquired at has told him they are not hiring. He continues to press onward and upward though, and we're confident that something will turn up soon. If it doesn't it isn't due to lack of effort, that much I can assure you.

Corey met with an advisor from his Graduate Program a while back and was pleased to learn of the different tracks within the Literary Master Degree. He will be specializing in Editing and Writing. I think actually that's what I should be calling the program: A Masters in Editing and Writing. We have also had the chance to go and visit Campus in Charleston. It is a charming city with an adorable campus. One of the buildings is called the Castle Building because... well it looks like a castle (you probably could have figured that out on your own huh?) We have also been hearing a lot about the quality of the program and the school and we are very happy with everything we have heard.

Besides looking for a job and doing freelance editing he is loving all the time he gets to spend with me and the boys. It's been downright luxurious. Getting to know the ward and starting to get involved has been great too. Corey's parents have been involved with preparations for Scout Camp and Ed volunteered Corey to go if he doesn't have a full time job yet. It's next weekend and he is really excited about going. He loves the scout thing, being outdoors, and being with the youth and the other way cool leaders that will be there. It will be great to spend some time with his dad, and I think that his brother Travis is going too.

This weekend he got called to be the Second Counselor in the Sunday School Presidency. They decided to give us callings even though we're not sure how long we are going to be in the ward. He's pretty stoked about it having never served in that part of the church before. He also gets to work with Brother McConkie (yes... of the Bruce R. McConkie family- he's a nephew or something) who is the President, and he knows he will learn a lot from him. There are so many good people in this ward and stake. We are really loving getting to know them.

Ashlee:

I don't currently have a favorite color, but as a girl it was purple so I will use that.

I got a calling this week too! Laurel Advisor! Yay! I am really glad that they are giving us callings. I may not want to leave this ward now. Young Women's is too wonderful. I loved being in the Presidency in our Murray Ward, and I am super excited to have the responsibility of teaching now. I only got to teach once every 4 months as a Presidency Member, but as an advisor I will teach every week but Fast Sunday. Yay! Corey's dad got to set both Corey and I apart (he's in the Bishopric) and that was really neat too.

I have loved spending my days as a full time wife and mommy. Having so much uninterrupted time with the boys has been just what the doctor ordered. I am soaking it all up and loving it. We go to the park, play outside, run errands, etc. It's been great. Our schedule is still a little different than what it will be when we have our own place, but in the mean time it's going really well and we are loving all the time we get to spend with Ed and Cindy.

Living with Ed and Cindy has been a great opportunity for me to get to know them better, especially Cindy. Cindy and I run errands together, cook together every night, and spend a lot of time talking and being with the boys. Maybe my favorite thing that we have done together was to go through picture boxes. First we went through Corey's box and I got to see all of his darling pictures from baby (OOOOH!!!! He was CUUUUTE!!!! and we could see Alaster in him SO SO SO MUCH!) to high school. She told me stories about him and his brothers, and also about his disposition as a baby/child (very much the BABY of the family, happy, happy happy, and SO sweet!). Then on another night we went through the Family Box. It had pictures of Ed and Cindy when they were young, extended family photos, their wedding pictures etc. I learned a lot about Corey's family and I really appreciated the time Cindy spent to do that with me.

It also inspired me to do something! I am going to start a Family Journal. It will be dedicated only to writing the things that I learn from people about our extended family. I want to write down things I learned about Cindy's childhood and her parents, stories she told me of Ed etc. I will also put in there things that I have learned from my Gram and Papa. Last summer Papa taught me a lot about our heritage and I want to have a dedicated place to record those things. I have such a bad memory!

All in all I am happy. I think Illinois is beautiful and I can't wait to show it to you with some of the pictures we have been taking. We've seen a lot and had a lot of fun. I also feel like I am growing a lot as a person. I have learned a lot in my personal studies and I feel like the Spirit has been with me in abundance since we left. I still miss everyone in Utah... thank you for your posts about us leaving HERE, HERE and HERE. Each one of them made me us SO happy. Also thanks for the phone calls, text messages and well wishes. It makes the separation anxiety a bit easier.

There is so much more to tell. I know that felt like a really long post but it doesn't even scratch the surface! We've been here a month! I promise to write about the boys tomorrow or the next day. I know it is them that ya'll really care about anyway. Then hopefully we will be in our own place soon and I can start posting pictures and telling the FUN things. Yay!