try this

here some pic for hannah home coming and christmas eve

Temple Square

Last Saturday we had a ward activity and we went and saw the lights at Temple Square. It was my first time seeing them, despite having been in Utah for 4 winters now, and it was very beautiful. It was kind of rushed though because we also watched the Joseph Smith movie, I would have liked more time to actually look at the lights. There was a Nativity on in the reflection pool and it was pretty. Love you all and Merry Christmas!

It's Done!

Finals are done and I am still alive. This morning I took my last 2 finals. Taking 7 finals in one week is rough and it will be the same next semester. Having finals scheduled at 7am is really hard when I work in the evenings. But I'm done!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah, I'm finished for this semester!

I just finished the 2nd part to my accounting exam. I'm finished with school for 2 weeks! Hooray! Then next semester I will have Bus 110, which will be a night class and hopefully I'll have News Writing online. I'm on the wait list for that class though, so if I don't make it in I have enrolled in a physical geography class as a back up, but I'd rather take that one in a different semester so I don't have two classes that I have to go to campus for.

Hooray!

I just wanted to shout out that I finished my econ exam about 10 minutes ago. I only got 2 wrong out of 30. That's the best I've done on one of this professor's exams all semester. Now I'm officially finished with that class! One down and one to go. Wish me luck!

Getting into the Christmas Spirit

Yesterday we set up the Christmas Tree while listening to Christmas music. We had a lot of fun and enjoyed a cup of hot chocolate. And after that we really got into the Christmas spirit by watching an episode of the A-Team.

It's been a while since I've had a chance to post. This passed weekend was so much fun. It was great to see Kari, Eric and Noah and to hang out with Kurt, Heather, Mom, Dad and Jim. I so happy to be by family again. I can't wait for Christmas. Then the kids and Charlie had a snow day on Monday to top it all off. It was fun to extend their Thanksgiving break for one more day.

We bought Charlie a new car. It's a 2006 black, two door-hatch-back Focus. He loves it and we are so pleased that he doesn't have to drive around a mini-van anymore. It saves lots of gas that way. We sold our Windstar to Mom and Dad, who sold their car to Sabrina, who gave us her car as a trade-in for our Focus. It was a weird transaction, but it worked out best for everyone. We all ended up with better cars than we had before.

Alexis and Makayla had a Christmas program at school last night. I've added some pictures of them. Makayla was so excited because she was able to finally show us her dances she's been working on. She did great and looked so cute. Alexis sang in the choir and then had a special quartet that she performed in. She did great, although she didn't smile a whole lot while she was singing. I think she was just nervous.

Next Tuesday Merrit, Makayla and Chelsea will be performing for their grade levels. Merrit and Makayla both have speaking parts in a little skit for that night. Makayla is Rudolph and she has been asked to wear brown clothes as her costume. It reminded me of a skit I did when I was little and my mom went out of her way to dye me some clothes so I could have brown clothes to be a reindeer and then everyone else wore black clothes. I love mom for that. She is so good at going the extra mile.

My finals start next week. I've been trying to study for them, but every time I try to read the chapters I'm suppose to know I fall asleep. I'm pretty frustrated with myself. I can't wait to be finished with my classes for a few weeks. I need the break. I haven't signed up for next semester yet. I hope to do that today.

This is Makayla's tap outfit. This is Lexi singing in the quartet.

This is Makayla dancing her ballet. This is her in her ballet outfit.
One of the moms bought flowers for all the dancers because her daughter was one of them. I thought it was really nice of her. And Makayla loved getting the flower. I would've had more pictures of her actually dancing and Lexi singing in the choir, but I forgot that I had a nighttime setting on the camera until the very end of Makayla's ballet. The pictures I tried to take before that were too black to see anything. I was so mad at myself for not remembering sooner. But Charlie was able to video record all their performance. I just can't post those here.

No House!

We found out Saturday that the house we thought we were going to buy is a no go now. Our realator tried to get the gas turned on so we could have an inspection and we found out that there is not meter. Where did it go? Who knows. With no gas coming into the house we would not know if the furance or water heater works. With that you have to plan that they are no good. So we offered to much money and backed out. Now we are looking again. The market is not flooded there like it is here. I just hope we find something soon because I want to be with Dad.

Quick update

Just thought I'd let you guys know where we are with the house. We are actually in limbo right now. We have everything lined up on our side, but we never got the title work from the seller's title company. So yesterday we finally got ahold of someone at the auction house who knows what's going on and is aware that it's not our fault that we can't close by tomorrow. We are hoping that she will be able to extend the closing date out for us so we can still buy the house. If she can't, we will get our deposit back and we guess the house will go back up for auction again. So we'll let you know when we hear more. Thanks for your prayers. Keep it up :).

My Class

So Monday is my last day in JR Smith Elementary in Heber. I'm going to miss my second grade class so much, I have fallen in love with them in such a short time. The kids are just so cute and so much fun, well most of the time anyway. I have learned so much and have had a great time. Yes, I still want to be a teacher. I am still trying to decide if I want to do student teaching or an internship, I still have some time to decide. Hope you all have a great thanksgiving. Love you!! The picture is of my class and Madeline Reber (my teaching partner).

THANKSGIVING

OK, so my parents are going to be out of town for Thanksgiving so, the family is all invited to come to our house. Of course, even if my parents were in town everyone could still come over. I don't know what time yet, we will have to discuss it with mom first.

Check out the house we bought

This is the house we bought at auction last week. We are waiting to hear from the bank whether or not they accept our bid, so until then we can't go forward with any mortgage stuff. I hate waiting. I wish they'd just let us know already!

Alright, to walk you through the pictures, so you know what you are looking at, first we start with the master bedroom which is on the main level. Then we move into the master bath. Don't you just love the built in jacuzzi tub? (not! we will actually be taking that out eventually) Then we move into the family room. The fireplace is a see through into the living room on the other side. The next room is a random smaller room off of the master and the family room, next to the dining room. We had contemplated making this another bedroom so everyone could have their own room, but Makayla and Chelsea want to share so we aren't going to worry about it. We'll probably just make this an extension of the family room. The next room is the dining room, the one with Makayla in the picture. Don't you just love that wall paper? (yuck!) We'd like to build the wall back between the dining room and that random room and put a pocket door there. We'd also like to put in a door wall off the dining room with some nice french doors and build a deck off the back of the house (of course this is way in the future). The next room is the kitchen. Whoever designed it sucked because that half wall is right in the middle of the room and totally cuts it up. We will definitely be changing the set-up of the kitchen as soon as we can. What's weird is that they actually used marble counter top too with particle board cupboards. I have no idea why you would use such expensive stuff with crap cupboards like they have. Next we have the another random room off the other side of the kitchen. We'd probably use this one as a pantry/den. Then there is the bathroom off the garage. There is a stand up shower in there with really nice tile, it just needs to be grouted and the there are laundry hook-ups in this bathroom too so we won't have to have the laundry in the basement (yeah!). Then the picture of Chelsea is the living room and the stairs lead to the upper floor. There are four bedrooms upstairs. I'm sorry that two of the bedrooms turned out dark. They really aren't that nice to look at anyway. The bathroom upstairs needs a lot of work. The floor, toilet and sink are all new, but the tub look like it might fall through the floor. So we'll have to address that issue at some point. We aren't sure how quick though if the other bathrooms function well enough. The last picture is of the view down the hall, to the bedrooms, from the top of the stairs. There are two bedrooms on the front of the house and two on the back, with the bathroom in the middle of the two in the back. I hope I've described it well enough. I will enjoy comparing these pictures to the new pictures as we fix the house. I think it will look so much nicer once we're finished with it.

Bonfire pictures

Here are my pictures from the bonfire.
http://picasaweb.google.com/hillaryahicks/BonfireAtTheHicks110108#

We won the house!

We went to the auction today to try to buy that house we put an offer on. We won the bid. We are pretty excited! Now we just have to get the paper work going for a mortgage because the closing deadline is Nov. 26th. We have to wait 7 to 10 business days for the bank to approve our bid and then we can close. We are hoping to get as much paper work finished as we can before we hear back from the bank so it won't take as long to close once we hear whether or not they accept the bid. Chances are good that they will accept, but we still have to wait. Then we have to pray that the house appraises for what we need the mortgage for which is $67,200. We actually bid $64,000, but there was a 5% auction fee tacked on top of that. So we are hoping to be new home owners by the day after Thanksgiving. This month will probably be a whirlwind of paperwork and stuff. Keep us in your prayers, please. :D

pics from kim 11-1-08

click link to see pics

all the pic i took to night 11-1-08

nov 1st

JR Smith Elementary

I started my practicum on Wednesday and I am in a 2nd grade class at JR Smith Elementary in Heber. I car pool with 5 other girls who go to the same school. We take my car everyday because it has 6 seatbelts and everyone chips in for gas, this is cheaper than driving two cars up. It takes about 30-40 minutes to get to Heber by driving through the canyon, but it will be worse once it starts to snow here. I just love my students already, things have gone well the first three days but I know that things won't always be this good, I will have hard days. Starting on Monday I will be teaching guided reading everyday and I am excited for it. Some of the things the teacher had me do today was grade papers, give spelling tests, and teach the math lesson. I can't wait to see what the next three weeks have in store for me.

WAY TO GO SPARTANS

Blessings

So I was stressing out a lot because the heat in my car wasn't working. I had no idea how I was going to afford to get it fixed. Cody (Jen Spencer's husband) came over to take a look at it and wasn't sure what was wrong with it but told me that I needed to get more antifreeze put into it. So I put the antifreeze in it yesterday before I went to go get it looked at. Lo and behold all it needed was some antifreeze and a new cap. It cost me about $20 to get it fixed. The Lord definitely gave me a huge old blessing. Now I can stress about more important things. Love you all!!!

A few 7th pictures

I actually have about 8 picture files on my computer, so here are just a few of the pictures. This picture is of Jess and Alysha enjoying cake at my birthday party. This next one is of me and Parker at a Tiger's game. I don't recall if it was the summer of 06 or 07.

The next picture is from the mission and I only had about 2 months left. My companion Sis Griffin was determined that I should marry Elder Potter (the one on the far right), she is still determined to this day. Next is a nice close up of Shelby and the last picture is of me and my "daughter" Sis Stott in my very last area on the mission. Those were some really good times. Love you all!!!!!

7th picture

Sorry it has taken me so long to do this. Since we are using my parents computer and I am on the one upstairs right now I don't have much to chose from. My dad had their hard drive pretty much wiped due to virus problem a couple of weeks ago so, there were actually only 7 pictures in the my pictures folder. And the 7th one happened to by a picture of our wedding day.
Oh to look like that again :)

The house

http://www.flinthomes.net/cgi-bin/homesearch/hsh
This is a link for you to check out the house we want to buy. I hope it works.

What's new...

Charlie starts teaching this Thursday. He went today to shadow the teacher he is taking over for. She is going to be the math intervention person for K-6 in the district once Charlie takes over. He wants to see how she runs her classes and get the book(s) so he can start preparing. He is going to try to keep the classes structured as close to what she does as possible since the kids are already so far into the school year. He might be able to change to more of his own style after the semester changes, if he gets new classes then. We still aren't very sure how it will work out quite yet.

I will be sending the paper work to our realtor this morning so she can turn in our offer on the house I mentioned earlier. We want to get the ball rolling and see how willing the bank is to work with us. I'll keep you posted.

We had a surprise party for one of my good friends at our house on Friday night. She had no idea until she walked up to our house and saw the balloons we'd hung for decorations through the front window. Charlie had wanted to hang something over the window so she wouldn't see them, but we didn't. Now I wish we would've. It was a fun party. Not many people came, but it was probably better that way. I love planning things like parties. I haven't given a surprise party since my senior year in high school. It was fun planning it and trying to keep it a secret.

My friend Amy, from high school, I'm happy to report, got married on Saturday. She is that last of my friends from high school to tie the knot. I'm so happy she finally was able to. She's been with her, now, husband for about 8 years. It's about time they finally made it official. She was beautiful and the wedding was nice. Most of my friends made it to the reception. It was fun to catch up with them. My friend, Carolyn, is expecting her first baby on the 24th of this month. She's having a boy but won't tell anyone what the name they've picked out is yet. I'm happy for her. It's nice that my friends from high school are finally catching up to where Charlie and I are in life; being married with kids. But, we still really don't have that much in common and don't really hang out together all that much. I'm not really that sad about it though.

We had a full weekend, and it's not going to get any better for the rest of this month. We're holding on to the seat of our pants and hoping to make it

Tag You're It

This is an idea my sister, Jana, just did on our family blog because we were kind of in a posting slump so I thought I'd try it on our blog too. Go to your My Pictures on your computer and find the 7th picture listed on it. Post it in a new posting and tell us about it. Here are mine. I have multiple because we have lots of folders of pictures on our My Pictures and so I picked the first picture in the 7th folder, then I picked the 7th picture in the 7th folder, then I picked the 7th single picture on the My Pictures. Enjoy!

This is Makayla in the giant bubble exibit at the Ann Arbor Hands on Museum. We went there with my brother Kurt and his wife, Heather and my sister, Kari and her husband, Eric last August. Kari and Eric had come into town to visit so we went to this museum for something to do while they were here. Kurt and Heather are in the background of this picture.

This is Jaxson playing the giant pipe organ exhibit at the Ann Arbor Hands on Museum on that same trip.

This is my nephew, Harvey. He is my brother, Kurt's son. His first birthday is Oct. 25th. He just learned how to walk about two weeks ago. He's a cutie!

Charlie has a job!

I just thought I'd post, for Hannah's sake, that Charlie finally has a job. He'll be working at Beecher High school. We aren't sure when he will acutally start because he has to be officially hired by the school board, but the school offered the job and he accepted. The school board is more of a formality, but until that is taken care of he can't actually start working. We are excited for him to have a job, but not very excited about the school that he'll be working for. It's a pretty rough, inner city school, with some rough students. It's also going to be for 7th and 8th grade math. Charlie doesn't really like middle school either, but he thinks he has a good chance of getting into the high school next year. They have a pretty high turn over rate for teachers because the school is so rough. I'm for sure going to be getting him pepper spray to carry and I joke that I might have to get him a tazer gun as well. I know the Lord will watch over him. Now we can move on to buying a house. We have one picked out. Now we just have to get a mortgage for it which might be trickier said than done.

Birthday Fun!

I had a real good birthday! I had class at 8am which wasn't so much fun, but my friend made cupcakes and the class sang to me. After class I came home and did nothing since it was my birthday. I went out to dinner with a small group of friends at the Olive Garden. My roommate Jamie bought me dinner and got me a $20 gift card for Walmart. My other roommates Victoria and Kristen bought cake and ice cream and also got me a &20 gift card. I invited people over for cake and ice cream at 9pm and about 20 people showed up. I had a lot of fun but I was also glad to see them go because I was ready for bed.

For Logan!

So I have decided to start a new tradition for the family. Since I can not be with you, you will all see me sing to you on your birthday. Here is the site for Logan's song. http://FreeGabMail.com/AV/Viewer.html?SID=cCxN27u5H297T265

For Mother!

Happy birthday Mom! I made this little video for you. I love you so very much!!!! http://FreeGabMail.com/AV/Viewer.html?SID=TtH3mgSAjRWhmdN1

Update for us

I haven't posted in a little bit so I thought I'd throw some news on since I have a few extra minutes. Charlie had an interview for a JV wrestling coach position at Swartz Creek high today. The varsity coach did the interview and seemed to like Charlie. We think he might get this job. It would be nice. We're still holding our breath for a math position at Hamady high school. He hasn't been able to start subbing yet because the company that handles all the subbing positions for Genesee county is dragging their feet getting all his information together and available for schools to use. We aren't happy about it, but there really isn't much we can do now. He has submitted everything they have asked of him. Now we just wait.

My classes are going pretty well. I've been able to handle the work load pretty well. I don't feel overwhelmed at all (I was nervous I would).

The kids are doing great. They just started after school programs this week. Lexi and Merrit are in a ceramics class together and Makayla and Chelsea have an arts and craft class on Mondays. Lexi does the robotics club on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Merrit has the chess club and Makayla does dance on Thursdays. I have Chelsea on a waiting list for the young authors' club for Thursdays. They love the chance to stay after school and do something fun. I love them staying too, except that I have to go pick them up. Lexi's robotics club is going to be something great for her I think. They are planning on going to competitions later this year. It's going to be a great experience for her.

Fireside

I was invited to attend a fireside tonight by my fried Lexee. Elder Oaks' grandson is a member of her singles ward, so Elder and Sister Oaks spoke tonight. Sister Oaks was the main speaker, and let me tell you, she is a very funny lady. She talked about how we need to know and have a testimony of these five things: 1) that we have a Heavenly Father 2) the Atonement 3)Joseph Smith 4) the Book of Mormon 5) a living prophet. Her talk was really good and her stories were dang funny. Of course surviving single life also came up, she didn't get married until she was 52. So there is still hope for me. Elder Oaks only spoke for about 10 minutes but his words were powerful. I also had the opportunity to shake the hands of Elder and Sister Oaks. I am so glad that Lexee invited me to attend to tonight and that I was able to feel of the spirit so strongly. Tonight was a good night!

Hillary go ahead and take of the link to my blog because I deleted it since it wouldn't work for my school assignments. And to the rest of the family I say hello and I love you very much!!!!!

Canning

I should be doing an accounting quiz right now, but I don't feel like it. I'll do it tomorrow. I'd like to share with you my first time experience I had last week. Charlie and I canned for the first time together and for me it was my first time canning (that I can remember, I think I may have canned with Mom once, but I'm not sure). Charlie's parents brought us a bushel of tomatos from their garden. So we used the ones Mom and Dad had given us from their garden and canned them. We don't have a pressure cooker, so we hot wate bathed them. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, just time consuming. We felt like this is a skill we should learn to do especially as food prices keep going up. We actually got 18 quart size jars. We would've had 19 but one of the cans didn't seal. I thought that was a pretty good ratio for our first time. Maybe next year we'll expand our horizons to include pickles or apples or something like that. Well, I was going to post a picture of our cans, but my converter drive isn't working. I'll have to look for my camera cable tomorrow and post the pictures later. I joked with Charlie that I was becoming a "Molly Mormon" because I've canned now. It's funny how you do things when you get older that you never thought you would do (at least I have).

Just Playing

My new web cam takes pictures and I am just playing with it and trying to figure out how it all works. It is a pretty cool cam so far because you can edit the pictures that you take, thus my colored hair in the one picture. Enjoy and I hope that you get a good laugh.

Hello Family!

So I made a quick video for you all check it out! Love you!!!!!

New Posts

Just wanted to let everyone know that I have a ton of new posts on my blog. So, please come check them out.

Cub scout camp

I forgot to mention that Merrit and I went to scout camp this passed Friday and Saturday. It was a scout camp, but we invited families to come so we could slide through the loop hole that the church has about cub scouts having overnights. We went to an Oakland county park by Clarkston. It was pretty nice. We had rain Friday night for about an hour. It wasn't too hard of a rain so it didn't get any of our gear wet. Merrit had a blast, like I knew he would. I had an O.K. time. I don't really like camping and the weather was pretty hot and sticky on Saturday so that made it worse. I would've sent Charlie but I'm still the Welbos leader for our ward so I kind of felt obligated to go. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures so I'll have to try to get some from the cub scout leader. She tooks lots (she's better than me).

So I was at church yesterday and was talking to a sister in our ward who is a professor at U of M Flint. I just asked her, in passing, when her classes were going to begin. She said that it was this coming Wednesday. That blew my mind because, although I've been officially accepted to U of M, I haven't signed up for any classes yet. So I took myself to campus today and jumped through all the hoops I needed in order to get signed up for two online classes. I am so thankful that I was even able to get in them being that is sooooo late to be signing up for classes. I had to get an override for one of the classes, but it worked out. I really wanted online classes because I don't know if Charlie will be home during the day or not (I really still hope he gets a job and won't be). I know I won't be able to get my whole bachelors degree off campus, but I'd like to take as many classes that way as I can. It just makes things easier for my kids. It was interesting going to U of M campus. I've never been there and had no idea where to go or what I needed to do. It was almost like I had just graduated high school again, at least I felt that way. I'm glad to have that over with. Now I just have to get financial aid squared away so I can see if I'll need loans and how much I might need.

The kids start school on Sept. 2nd (which is when I thought my classes would start, I just assumed). They are excited. Charlie and I blocked out today, tomorrow and Wednesday so we could do a little family vacation before school starts. Because I had to sign up for classes today we didn't get to do exactly what we had planned, but we went up to Birch Run and Frankenmuth for the afternoon and evening and did some fun stuff. They have an indoor mirror maze that we did. It was neat and very confusing, but I'm not sure it was worth the money we paid. Then we walked around downtown Frankenmuth for a bit. What a cute little town. There is a flat-bottom river boat there that goes a ways down the Cass River. The captain does a little tour and history of the town. It takes about 50 minutes. We did that. Everyone but Lexi thought it was neat. Then we got a quick bite to eat and went to see the movie Fly Me To The Moon. It's a computer animated movie that is totally in 3D. It was neat to watch, but the story line was not all that amazing (it is a kids' movie though). We had fun and hope to do some more tomorrow. We originally had planned on going to the COSI museum in Columbus. We decided not to to save gas money and we wanted to be a little closer to home just in case Charlie was called for an interview. He put in an app for a job at Corunna and one at Chesaning. We hope they call this week. So we think we're going to do Potter Park Zoo in Lansing tomorrow and maybe even Binder Zoo in Battle Creek too. We'll see how the day plays out. Here are some pictures of us on the boat in Frankenmuth.

Our famliy's new edition

No, we aren't expecting a baby, but we have added to our family. They are called velveteen lops and we bought them last weekend. The kids just adore them and I'm afraid they run the risk of being loved to death.

Charlie built them their hutch. They are sisters. The one on the left is named Bell and the other is May. They look very much alike, but Bell has more white on her shoulders and May's white stripe on her forhead is longer than Bell's. Makayla got to name May. She's wanted a girl bunny named May for several months now (because May is her birth month). I got to name the other one. We think some day we might get enough for all our kids to have their own bunny. But we wanted to start out with only two until we get the hang of taking care of them.

Another Fun Weekend

On Saturday I went to Lagoon with a bunch of friends from the ward. Lagoon is like Michigan Adventure, so I had a lot of fun, but it isn't Cedar Point. We got there at 5 pm because after that it is 2 for 1 price and we stayed until 11 when the park closed. The first ride we went on was Rattle Snake Rapids and everyone got really wet except for me, and I was okay with that. Everyone thought that I should have gotten more wet so there were about 5 people who were trying to give me hugs and get me more wet, but they did not succeed to well. We rode most of the coasters and had a real good time.

Jaxson time

Here is Jaxson helping Daddy with the lawn. Jaxson has an extreme fascination with the lawn mowers!

Happy Birthday Chelsea

Yesterday was Chelsea's 5th birthday. I can't believe it! She's so excited to go to kindergarten in the fall (and I'm excited for her to go too).

Weekend Fun

I had a good time this weekend! On Saturday the apartment complex had a summer shindig, and it was actually a lot of fun. There was pizza there and dancing and swimming. I was kind of making a fool of myself while dancing, but it was a good time. I also had a sleepover that night with my friends Lexee and Ambrey, I love those girls! Church was good today. I spent time getting to know some people in the ward better at break the fast today and last night at the shindig.

Happy Birthday tomorrow Makayla!!!!

Chelsea in her pillow

Chelsea was mad that I made her lay down for "quiet time" but I think she was able to make herself comfortable anyway. This was her, inside her pillowcase, sleeping at quiet time last week, Wednesday. I thought it was so funny I just couldn't resist taking a picture. Plus, she likes to see pictures of herself on the blog.