I was trying out

a slideshow. I only put a few pics on and they're old. But now I know how to do it, I'll get some more on there.

Here is a quote

from the newsletter they sent out to the women at church. They had a short paragraph introducing me.

"Kirsten loves to exercise-running and swimming. Although she is tall and looks like a basketball player, it is something she doesn't enjoy doing."

Tall? I am 5'5" and my 13 year old daughter is taller than I am!!

One of the perks

of working for Marshall's brother is that he lets us use his jazz tickets sometimes. We got to go to the Buck's game Saturday night. The kids' friends from Idaho were down here for a wedding and Marshall's brother was kind enough to get tickets for them as well. He had a suite and Nicole and her boyfriend had the other tickets for the suite. It was fun to visit with them and to watch the game. Samantha, Amy and Scott were so excited to see their friends, and Heidi, David and Tyler were able to go as well.

We also had a swim meet Saturday morning here in American Fork. They swam great, improving on where they left off last year, which was amazing. It'll be fun to see how much they improve after taking so much time off. Amy won all of her heats and was pretty excited about that, and Samantha was surprised to come in 4th in the 100 breast. Scott was the funniest. As soon as he is done swimming he asks what place he came in. Before his 25 backstroke I told him he had to stay on his back until he touched the wall. So he swam down and touched the wall and then he just sort of stayed there, floating on his back and touching the wall. My mom was at that end and she told him he could get out and he said "Oma, I still have to do something." and he just stayed there. My mom asked the official if he would help him get out. I forgot to explain to him that after he touched the wall he could then turn over and get out of the pool!!
I don't have any pics because I video taped it, but I'll have to get something for next time.

And we're back!

in Utah, that is. That's right. We've moved yet again. Just one day after they made changes to Marshall's job that would require A LOT more traveling, his brother called from Salt Lake and asked if Marshall would help him with his new business, a wholesale wheel company. And you know how crazy Marshall is: His brother called on Thursday, we prayed A LOT and by the next evening decided it was the right thing to do, Marshall flew home from Harlingen, Texas on Saturday, hired 8 immigrants off the side of the road to load for us and Sunday morning we started the drive to Utah with two 26 foot u-hauls each pulling a car trailer behind it. We arrived in Orem Monday night. Now I have to pause here and give Marshall some credit. I tried to talk him into waiting until after Christmas to move, but because we left when we did we had really good road conditions. Had we left even a day later, we would have been screwed. So, we made it safe and sound, and spent the few days before Christmas looking for a place to live. On Christmas Eve we did our Christmas shopping (because we hadn't actually done any yet) and signed a lease for a house in American Fork. After a wonderful Christmas Eve spent with my family, complete with the traditional German feast and Bingo, which David kept winning, we were able to open gifts Christmas morning with all my family and enjoy brunch and watching the 6th Harry Potter. Then we decided to drive the U-hauls to our house and unload our cars so we could drive them and not my mom's brand new VW Tiquan that is so fun to drive, and at the same time show everyone our house. Well, of course when 2 huge u-haul's pull up in front of your house, the neighbor's notice. One came over and offered to help us move in. We told him we weren't really moving in and to just enjoy Christmas with his family. So he went back home and 5 minutes later came back with 4 or 5 other men from church. They had the u-haul's unloaded in 3 hours. Insane! But it was so nice to get started. Of course, all their wives hate me now so I don't know if i will be welcomed at church with open arms!! The swimming pool is about 3 minutes away and we got all 3 kids signed back up for swim team. They have an awesome team here so we're pretty excited about that. Scott's coach is an old friend of mine that I swam with in high school. She went on to swim at BYU. We're going to get together twice a week and see if we can still swim (doubtful at this point). Scott and Amy are in school and Samantha is having to wait until Monday when the new semester starts. She has enjoyed being home with me and going to lunch with Heidi and to lunch with my mom. Plus we got to go to our good friends the Ockey's for New Year's Eve. We had A LOT of yummy food, watched Julie and Julia, watched Spencer light off flares at midnight that were so bright you couldn't look directly at them without burning your retina, and banged pots and pans to ring in the New Year. Samantha has especially loved being so close to her BFF Hanna. They even got to go to the mall on Saturday for a few hours by themselves. So, in closing, we are very excited and happy to be back. I enjoyed the short time we were in Texas, but this is really home.