Thanksgiving with the Stocks

We thought that we were going to have to spend Thanksgiving alone this year. Surely, no one was going to make the long trip here to Missouri. At the last minute Chris's sister, Marci called and said they were coming to Missouri to look at real estate in the Kansas City area and would like to spend Thanksgiving with us. We were thrilled! We had a wonderful homemade Thanksgiving! They only stayed Thanksgiving day and that night but it was sure nice to spend it with family! Thanks so much, Stocks! We love you. These pictures are taken on our large round bails of hay.

Days with Eli

Since both Adam and Annika are in school all day, I have lots of one-on-one time with Eli. He cracks me up daily with the things he comes up with. His favorite activity is to jump on the tramp so everyday he says, "Mom, the tramp is waiting." One day when it was raining hard he said, "Mom, lets go jump on the tramp." I said, "Eli, its raining." He said, "No Mom, its only raining on the house, not on the tramp." I chuckled. Another morning it snowed a thin blanket on the ground and later melted. When Eli went out and saw that the snow had melted he came stomping back in and cursed me for melting the snow. I calmly explained to him where the snow comes from and that the sun melts it. He finally accepted the truth, Mom doesn't control the snow. So I laughed when I found this:
4 YEARS OF AGE ~ My Mommy can do anything!
8 YEARS OF AGE ~ My Mom knows a lot! A whole lot!
12 YEARS OF AGE ~ My Mother doesn't really know quite everything.
14 YEARS OF AGE ~ Naturally, Mother doesn't know that, either.
16 YEARS OF AGE ~ Mother? She's hopelessly old-fashioned.
18 YEARS OF AGE ~ That old woman? She's way out of date!
25 YEARS OF AGE ~ Well, she might know a little bit about it.
35 YEARS OF AGE ~ Before we decide, let's get Mom's opinion.
45 YEARS OF AGE ~ Wonder what Mom would have thought about it?
65 YEARS OF AGE ~ Wish I could talk it over with Mom.
Eli and I love being together everyday. We jump, play, interact with the animals, and explore our land together. It is so much fun being a Mom!

Mothers of Preschoolers

I joined a community organization here called, "MOPS," which stands for Mothers of Preschoolers. This is a nationwide organization run by local chapters. I was introduced to this program from the other moms in my ward. They are also involved in this group. There are only 3 other LDS moms in addition to myself that live in this area so we have a unique opportunity to meet other moms from all different religious or cultural backgrounds. MOPS mission statement is: "MOPS EXISTS TO ENCOURAGE, EQUIP, AND DEVELOP EVERY MOTHER OF PRESCHOOLERS TO REALIZE HER POTENTIAL AS A WOMAN, MOTHER, AND LEADER IN THE NAME OF JESUS CHRIST." It is held once a month at the Church of Christ building. All the moms meet together to socialize and every month there is a different agenda. Last month, we talked about cooking and demonstrated recipes and then made a "take-n-bake" Lasagna. While the moms are meeting there are classes with teachers held for the kids according to their age (0-5). Then there is a playgroup also held once a month, where we go to a park or to the the local community center's gym and let the kids run and play. It has been a great experience to be involved in this group. I also joined the Steering Committee, which plans the meetings. I am over "Publicity," which means I am in charge of writing the newsletter every month. I even got to travel to Osage Beach for a leadership training meeting, which is a very pretty part of Missouri.

Bugs

Okay, a word about bugs here in Missouri. They are to inflict and torment man. Okay, well at least some of them are. There is a insect here called "chiggers" Quoting from Ohio State University's webpage, "Probably no creature on earth can cause as much torment for its size than the tiny chigger. Chiggers do not burrow into the skin, but insert their mouthparts in a skin pore or hair follicle. Their bites produce small, reddish welts on the skin accompanied by intense itching as irritating as acute cases of poison ivory or poison sumac. These symptoms often are the only way of learning that an outdoor area is infested since chiggers are so small that most cannot be seen without a magnifying glass. Chiggers feed on a wide variety of snakes, turtles, birds, and small mammals as well as humans."
Fortunately, most chiggers die when it freezes so we don't have to worry much about them again until the Spring. But when we first got here our kids were like magnets for them. All of them especially Eli and Adam were covered in them and they itch them like crazy! When they itch them they brake open and become sores. I tell them to stop itching them and they of course don't. I then told them that if they continue to scratch them open they will be left with sores that will scar. I asked Adam if he wants scars? He said, "Mom, when I am an adult, I will grow hair and no one will know they're there." After my initial reaction of complete shock, I chuckled and was grateful he had a good attitude about it. I just hope he keeps that attitude. So this is a picture of Eli's legs. The other picture is thousands of lady bugs. In the fall, hundreds of thousands of lady bugs come indoors to find warm places. This is in our milk barn, I was amazed at how many there were. There were also hundreds in our house. Fortunately, they don't bite or cause any damage indoors. They're just a nuisance.

A short visit from the bunnies

We had a very short visit with six new bunnies our rabbit had. We have 1 female and 2 male rabbits. Unfortunately, we did not realize she was pregnant. Since then we have learned much about rabbits. Their gestation period is only 31 days and they ovulate with each intercourse. So maybe more than you wanted to know but it is very important to know this information because that means we could be having bunnies every 31 days. Now we understand the standing joke about rabbits. I guess it is true. So one morning Chris found six new bunnies that were born in the night. It was a very cold night and when he found them they were exposed and the Mama was not caring for them like she should. This is our fault we needed to separate them and give her a nesting box. Which we have now done. Two of the six didn't make it through the night and the other four were barely hanging on. We separated the Mama and hoped for the best. The other four died before the day was done. The kids were very excited and sad when the were gone. We learned a great lesson and will keep them separated until the Spring, when the weather gets warmer. They sure were cute. So tiny with cute floppy ears.

Halloween Pictures

Yes, Chris was dressed up for Halloween. Many people at the party were hesitant to ask if he was dressed up or not? Adam designed his costume. He was the "spirit of BYU" If you want more details, ask him. Annika was Snow White and Eli was whatever he wanted to be just as long as he wore his black cape he was happy!

Sept. 30

Today is my birthday, I made it to 33. I hope I am wiser than I was a year ago. I feel happy and healthy and full of life. Sadly, I was unable to celebrate it with my family and friends in Utah. However, I was able to invite some new friends from our ward in Nevada to celebrate it with us, the Crim's. They also have 3 children, two boys and a girl. Chris made waffles, hashbrowns and omelets! Then my friend Shellie surprised me with a homemade Dutch cake and I made homemade ice cream. It was a nice day! My new calling is in the primary teaching the 8 & 9 year olds. All the kids in the primary sang to me and I shared a treat with them. It was a good day. Thanks to everyone who remembered me and wished me happy birthday.
Stacy

I painted our front room

I painted our front room. It took me 3 days. The paneling grooves took long to paint. I happy with the results. It feels very warm and comfortable. Although our new house is very small, I am very happy with it. I am able to keep up on the cleaning much easier so I have more time to do other things. Downsizing and simplifing my house has been a unexpected nice blessing.

Friday, Sept 28

Today was the most beautiful morning! I had to take pictures to try to capture it. These pictures are outside on my front porch. It was misty with a light fog. I thought it was just beautiful. I love this place and I am enjoying the serenity and beauty daily.

Monday, Sept. 24

Well, we got rid of our first rooster last Monday, Sept. 24. One of the elder sister missionaries serving here, who is from Cache Valley, Utah volunteered to help us learn how to butcher and skin our chickens, she has many years of experience. We have 4 roosters and we don't need that many roosters. They are somewhat aggressive, they have pecked at all of us at some point in time. Aunie is scared of them. We planned to take care of all three of them Oct. 1st. However, last Monday when Chris and the boys were out feeding the chickens early in the morning, one of the roosters pecked Eli so Chris kicked the rooster and injured its foot. So, Sister Eskelsen came that same day to butcher him. These are pictures of the event. She is coming back today to teach Chris how to butcher and skin the other 2 roosters today. Though this is not my favorite part of the farm, I am grateful for the meat and I made great, healthy chicken noodle soup and plan to make nutrient dense broth out of other chickens in the future.

A happy day swimming!

We finally got to use our swimming pool yesterday. We may not get to use it much more this season. The weather was warm and sunny, in the 80's. The pool's temperature was around 80 degrees. It was cool but still enjoyable. So far we had not used the pool because of bad weather or because we had other things going on and didn't have time. The kids loved playing in the pool for all of the reasons that kids love that kind of stuff. We also had some visitors, old friends that Chris knew from Mesa named MaryLou & Kenny Glass. Chad Wilcock, MaryLou's son, and his 4 kids were there too. MaryLou and her family relocated to Missouri many years ago. We stayed in touch and MaryLou and Kenny gave Chris and I a place to stay while we were doing the job search, etc. Yesterday they came to visit us and enjoy the pool and hot tub with us. They were our second visitors on the farm who stuck around for any length of time. This past Monday we had the sister missionaries, our first guests, over for dinner. We are now accustomed to entertaining visitors so just let us know when you are coming.

New animals on the farm

I wanted to share pictures of the new animals on our farm. We are housing six horses that belong to the first counselor in our bishopric for the fall/winter season. They are beautiful to look at. They run and play and eat all day. Here are some pictures of them.

Here is a picture of the buckskin. She is a mare. There are five mares and one stallion. They come and talk to us over the fence. They are friendly.

We found this turtle in our yard. We put him in a box for a few days and then released him back into the yard. The kids had fun with him while we cared for him.


Here is our new dog. He showed up on our property yesterday and adopted us. That seems to be a trend around here, we either find animals or someone gives them to us. We are really starting to utilize this farm's potential! There's plenty of room, so the more the merrier! We have not chosen a name for him yet. We also see squirrels all day running up trees or drinking from our water in our bird bath dish.



This is our cat, staying her distance from the dog...




This is the cat and the dog checking each other out but keeping their distance. I'm happy to say, they are now friends.

We finally made it!

It feels like it has taken forever, but we are finally here and living our dream on a small farm. We couldn't be happier! The move went pretty smooth. We arrived here in Milo, August 31 and closed on our house the same day, YEAH. We walked around the property that night and many days since and have felt so extremely blessed! It feels like we found our piece of heaven on earth.

The ward here is great! It's wonderful to have instant friends. We received lots of help from our ward unloading our trailer. The ward consists of approximately 100 active people living in about a 50 mile radius. There are around 23,000 people also living in that same radius so we have a lot of opportunities to share the gospel. There have recently been 9 new members join the church in our area. We have already had the opportunity to assist the sister missionaries teaching the gospel to a young family who is investigating the church. They have a son around Adam's age and Adam also came with us to help in the discussion. It went great! The spirit was strong, and both Chris and I missed our missionary days. It truly is a great and marvelous work.

The kids are so excited to be here also! They run around all day and have lots to do. We adopted two new cats with the farm. We did not know they were included with the farm until the day we got here. They are outside barn cats. The kids love all the animals here! We have 2 cats, 3 bunnies, 20 chickens, and we are temporarily housing 6 horses for the winter. We are now just looking for our family cow. We have lots of options here for good milking cows, we are just waiting for the right time. We first have to clean up the milking barn, where the chickens currently occupy. In the meantime we have found another family farm close to us that raise and milk goats. So we are currently buying goat milk from them until we can set up shop for our cow.

Adam and Annika started school this week. They are adjusting well, especially Aunie. Kindergarten is all day here, from 8am-3pm. So I was worried how she would do. She has pleasantly surprised me. Both Adam and Annika have great attitudes about school and even about getting up at such an early hour. This week they road the bus to and from school. So that means the bus picks them up at our house at 6:40am sharp. They never complained and the ran to the bus with smiles on their face. Aunie was especially excited to ride a bus. Chris starts his job next Monday so he will drop them off at school in the morning and the bus will take them home. Adam has homework every night and he takes it very seriously. Also, Adam is soo excited that he gets to start cub scouts! You can start cub scouts if you are in 2nd grade here. So he already started last Wednesday.

Life is great and we have meet many wonderful people here and have also had unique opportunities. Missouri is a well kept secret. The lifestyle here is much more laid back and pleasant. The nature is beautiful. We miss our friends and family and encourage all who have a desire for this kind of lifestyle to follow us here. We have 23 acres and are willing to share with others.

Stacy

Moved Out

I wish I had a bunch of pictures of the empty house in Orem, but suffice it to say that we have officially moved out. Heck we don't even have a key to the place anymore. I want to thank all of you who were so helpful to us in the moving time. That includes those of you who watched our children to those of you who helped us clean to those of you who risked life and limb to get that huge trailer loaded. We could not have done it without you.

Currently we are staying with Stacy's folks for a couple of days. We have a couple of things to do on Monday, like close on the Orem house and then we will be leaving for Milo first thing in the AM on Tuesday. the enthusiasm about out new adventure has never dimmed. The kids are very excited to get on with things too. We will really miss Utah and all of the people that we really care about. Utah will always be home for Stacy and I.

Besides people there are a few things that I will really miss about living in Utah. One is the chance to fish in the mountain streams that I really love. The streams and Rivers in MO are just not as fast and do not flow like they do here. Good stream fishing for trout is at least a couple of hours drive from where we live. Another thing is just having big mountains nearby. Missouri, from what I have seen, in spite of all of it's natural beauty just does not have these huge, majestic mountains along with the vistas and the snow capped peaks. I will miss the mountains of the West. They have become my good friends and I love them. The third thing that I will miss is the opportunity to see a lot of BYU football in the fall. It is ironic that we land in MO just one day before BYU football season begins. That all by itself is enough to make me goofy. I am hoping to see 5 or maybe 6 games this year if I am lucky. All of you who know me know that I am completely serious about this little "no Cougar football" issue. I am hoping that I will stay busy with Farm, Family and adjusting that I will not have too much time to miss these other things that I love.

Well, that is my too bits for today. I hope that each of you knows how much you mean to us. We are all excited for what lies ahead but will carry with us wonderful memories of you who are such a great part of our lives.

Chris

A new week

This is a good time for an update. This past week was full of a lot of business and things to get done. We did a lot of paperwork and so forth so I could get hired and get my Missouri Social Work license. We did a lot of things to get loans closed on our Orem home and our Milo home. We reserved our moving van and we did a lot of packing!! It is really starting to sink in that we are so close to moving. Each day I think of the changes in our lives that are about to happen and there is joy and saddness and excitement. Most of all though I am impressed about how calm we feel about the decision.

There are a few dates that we want people to be aware of.

22nd- Moving party (loading the truck) at our house at 5:30 PM.

24th- Last day in Orem.

27th- Last day in Utah :(

28th- leave early morning for Missouri.

30th- Arrive in Milo

31st- Moving in Party (unloading the truck) at the new farm.


We really appreciate the help that we have had from family and friends. Any additional help will be appreciated. Our phones will be active for a while. (Stacy 623-3046; Chris 755-4531).

We love you all, Chris and Stacy

Missouri, here we come!

Wow what a month!

This is my first attempt at blogging. Stacy has done all of the other entries so far. I want to add my perspective to what she has already written. This has been a truly amazing summer for us. We started out thinking that the whole summer would be spent starting the process of building a farm from scratch in eastern Utah. Instead we have spent the whole summer trying hard to find the right job and the right place to live and have our farm and raise our family. In any event, things seem to be working out alright.

As most of you know, I went to the Nashville Tennessee area this summer to work. I was installing video surveillance systems in a Sam's Club out there. It was not what I had envisioned for my first job out of graduate school. I spent about 6 weeks away from home. It was a great experience. I got to work with my younger brothers Mike (33) and Rick (26). It was fun to work with those guys and to see how all of our parent’s teachings about working hard paid off. There is nothing quite like working with your brothers on a really big project like that. We did really well and got through with the job when we wanted too. I really liked the day to day association with my brothers. It was also nice to see Mike’s kids and wife. I had not spent much time around them in about 6 years.

One of the reasons I went to Tennessee was so that I could be a little closer to Missouri and Arkansas. I have had my eye on those states for quite some time as potential places for us to live and to work. At one time, Stacy and I had decided that we would move to Vernal for a few years and then if we still wanted to, we could look at moving to Missouri or AR, and take our time doing it in 2 or 3 years. I called that our "three year plan". Well things did not work out with the job in Vernal. It was a state job and when the final pay offer came through, the salary that they offered me was way too low to raise a family on. At that point Stacy and I decided that our three year plan might have become a three month plan. I began looking at jobs in those two states with a little more enthusiasm.

During the time that I was studying job possibilities in MO and AR, my brother-in-law Dennis mentioned to me that I might want to consider going to work in Tennessee with Mike just to make a little money to hold me over. I thought that was a great idea. We worked it out so that I could take a week off while I was out there to go to MO and AR and interview for jobs. I worked for two weeks and then took my little road trip. I interviewed with 12 agencies in 6 days. I drove over 2,000 miles in one week and I saw a lot of country. I was impressed not only with the quality of the agencies that I interviewed with, but also with the places that I saw and the people that I met.

The result of my week of interviewing was that I got about 11 job offers. I could not take all of the jobs so I narrowed it down to the three jobs and places that I thought held the most promise for our family. After that, I went back to work in Tennessee for a week and a half. Stacy came out to TN on the 2nd of August and we started yet another road trip with the intention of allowing Stacy to interview with the agencies that were interested in hiring me, looking at real estate in each area, talking to church members in each area and learning about the schools and communities in each area. After that we would decide which area was best for us.

My top three choices were Jonesboro Arkansas, Fort Smith Arkansas, and Nevada (pronounced nev-Ay (like hay)-duh) Missouri. As Stacy and I went to each area, we tried to keep an open mind and open hearts. The short story is that even though each area had things that we loved, we decided that we are going to live in Nevada. That is a very interesting town about 50 miles north of Joplin, MO and about 65 miles south of Kansas City, MO. The schools there are very good; the town is friendly and very faith and family oriented. There is a very small ward there (about 100 active members) and there were many options for homes for us to consider.

Eventually we decided to buy a 23 acre property outside of a town called Milo. It is about 15 minutes from Nevada. It has everything we want in a little farm. It has a huge shop building, a small milking barn, a well plus rural water, a storm shelter, several acres of grass hay, chickens rabbits, fruit and nut trees, good land for a garden, and so on. It also comes with some fun things for the kids, an above ground swimming pool with an elevated deck, a trampoline, a basketball pad and hoop, a big wooden swing set, a Jacuzzi, lots of frogs and so on. The house is a bit small for the size of our family, but it will work for us. It is a double-wide trailer that has three bedrooms and 2 baths and is about 1400 square feet. We anticipate that in a few years, we will have to upgrade the house a little bit and then we will have a new, somewhat bigger house and the existing house can serve as a guest house for when everyone comes to visit us.

We will close on our Utah house on the 24th of August and have to be out of here by the 31st. We hope to close on the Nevada property soon and hope to move around the end of the month. I hope that this helps you guys get a perspective of where we are and what we are doing

I love you all, Chris

Workin' hard & staying busy while we are apart.

It has been 2 weeks since Chris left for Tennessee. Although the separation has not been ideal, it has been less painful than was expected. We must be being blessed. Chris is working hard in Tennessee, working a grave yard shift for the past two weeks. I am staying busy remodeling the other half of our basement, last year we remodeled the mother-in-law apt. in our basement.

I have also stayed busy selling our home. We will have it under contract this week, and anticipated to close by the 15th of August! So we are praying for a miracle that we will find a job and a place to live that fits our criteria VERY SOON! Chris is starting his job hunt Monday, July 16. He has 9 interviews set up with different potential employers. Some in Tennessee, Arkansas and Missouri. He loves what he has seen so far in the Mid-west and has informed me that he is 100% committed to moving to a small rural town. I, on the other hand, still love the idea of moving to a small community and have a farm, however, I will admit I am not excited about moving 20 plus hours away from my family and friends. It will be a great adventure but at a great cost of leaving so many people I love dearly. At the same time however, I know that it will all work out for the best and I look forward to our next few months. Chris is planned to return August 3rd. Less than 3 weeks to go! :)

Goodbye Tridell, Here we come Midwest??

Okay, so we had big summer plans that involved a small town in Utah and a nice piece of land to work hard to build into a home. We were excited for the opportunity to build our dream of a small farm. Well those plans have changed! Call it fate, call it destiny, call it bad luck or good luck, we are no longer moving to Tridell, Utah!

Here is an update:

June 19: Chris gets a call from his potential employer, DCFS in Vernal. They inform him that they can no longer offer him the salary they previously told us they could pay him. So we said, ok how much, their reply was a shocking $12K less a year than previously offered and 20K less a year than when he quit the state in March 06. So in keeping with our family's goals which are to raise our family on one income we declined the offer to work for DCFS in Vernal. Needless to say we were VERY disappointed!

June 20: Chris looks for other job possibilities. He finds that the three other jobs in Utah (Gunnison Prison, Community Mental Health in Central Utah and LDS Social services all put a freeze on hiring new employees. So he begins a new search outside of Utah, which include jobs in Idaho, Missouri, Arkansas, and Tennessee.

June 22: Dennis, (Chris's brother-in-law) tells Chris he has a temporary job for him in Tennessee. It is installing a video surveillance system in a large Department store. He will pay for all of Chris's traveling expenses to get there and he will pay him while he works there. Chris saw this as a great opportunity to get to the midwest and interview with these mental health companies he has been pursuing.

June 28: We decide together Chris is going to Tennessee to work for Dennis and interview with potential employers in the Midwest.

June 30: Chris leaves for Missouri. He will arrive in Tennessee on Monday July 2 and will start the temporary job. He will return the first week of August.

Not like we planed. However, we are learning that life doesn't always work out like you plan. We trust our Heavenly Father and know that all will work out for the best!

Tridell Utah, Here we come!

Hello to all you Thomas Fans!

And thank you for visiting our blog. Technology is an amazing thing! With this fancy blog, first, we intend to keep in touch with those of you who have touched our lives, and two, to keep you all updated with: THE THOMAS' BIG SUMMER ADVENTURE!! It will be very exciting and we know all of you are thinking, why didn't I think of moving out to the country and get me some land and get to work? Don't worry if you are asking yourself this question, we will do all the work, you can just sit in your comfy computer chair and read and watch as our adventure takes off and it will feel as though you are there yourself.

First, we would like to speed everyone up to date. Listing events in chronological order:

April 27, 2007 Chris graduates from BYU! Way to go Chris!

May 4, 2007 Chris passes the Utah State Clinical Licencing Exam! Double way to go Chris! Also, Chris applies for a Clinical Therapist job with DCFS in Vernal, Utah.

May 24, 2007 We receive an offer on our house in Orem. Yeah!

June 8, 2007 Chris receives a job offer with DCFS in Vernal.

June 9, 2007 The buyers of our home contract back out! Huge Bummmer!

June 11, 2007 Chris goes to Tridell to set up a perk test on the land that we would like to buy. The picture above is the 5 arces we want to buy, that is if it passes the perk test. A perk test tells you if you can put a septic tank on the land. The land is beautiful! It has mature trees and a green pasture to move our cow right in.

June 12, 2007 Chris plants a garden in our friend, Julie Elder's garden plot in Tridell. Not as late as the pioneers, we're just thankful we have a garden!!