Merrit now

Thought you might like to see how well Merrit is healing. We are amazed at how well he looks now.

Baby and Car

Well, my sister Lisa had her baby yesterday. The doctor broke her water at 4pm with her being 5 centimeters dialated. Then at 4:39pm little Jacob Fox made his appearance. I swear, us Mendenhall women really get them here fast. They are both doing well and he weighed in at 6lb 13oz. I don't know why she has such little peanuts and I have big buddas :)

On another note, our Van is really starting to drive me crazy. Earlier in the month we had to spend over $200 because of battery issues, which involved us having to get it towed. Now we are having ignition problems. It has been having issues for a while, but today it has finally decided not to turn at all. After I pick Les up from work (since I too had to work today, I had to take him in this morning) I am going to hope and pray that it will start so that we can take it in ourselves and not have to get it towed again. Sigh....... The joys of adulthood!!!!!!!

Easter Egg hunt

On a lighter note, we were still able to have our Easter egg hunt which the kids were so excited about. Check out our video clips:

With all the snow that fell the night before (we had about 3-4 inches), we had to have the hunt in the barn.

Spring Break

Well, we had quite the vacation this time. It wasn't what we planned on, but we are still happy to have been able to visit with so many friends and family. We arrived in Michigan early Friday morning, the 21st. We were invited to have dinner with some friends that had been in the Flint ward, but moved to Howell just before we moved to Wisconsin. Before we left, it had started to snow. It hadn't been snowing for very long and hadn't accumulated much so we decided to go to dinner. We've driven in snow before, after all. So we were getting onto I-96 to go to Howell and as Charlie was accelerating to get on the highway, he lost control and the back end of the van slid forward making us slide sideways down the highway. Before he could gain control again, a Dodge Ram hit the backside of the van right by the back driver's side tire. That hit pushed us into the Ranger that was on our other side. So we hit their front end with the back passenger side tire. Then we kind of pinched the Ranger into the median and we both stopped. Merrit hit his head on something and was bleeding and swelled up pretty bad and Makayla had hit her head on something and had a bump. We called 911 and someone who witnessed stopped and called Onstar. She was very concerned and was a great comfort to the kids. She was God sent. So the ambulence arrived and took Merrit, Makayla and I to the hospital (I was O.K. though, just going for the kids) and Charlie stayed to tie things up with the police. No one in the other vehicles was hurt and they were both able to drive their trucks away. We had to have ours towed. Charlie also got a ticket because it was his fault. It was the scariest things that has ever happened to me!!! I'm just so thankful that no one was seriously injured. It could've been so much worse. Merrit's face and head are healing well. He has a green colored black eye right now. I'm going to take him to the doctor here to get him checked out again. A friend of mine's dad is a nurse and he told me that close head injuries can take up to 90 days to show signs so I need to keep an eye on Merrit to make sure nothing happens. I don't feel like it will, but I figure it's better to be safe.

So we spent the rest of our vacation looking for a new van to take us home. My parents let us borrow their van to get around in while we looked. I was thankful to have had the whole week to look. If the accident had happened any closer to the time we had to leave it would've made searching a lot more stressful. I was so disappointed in the vans we looked at, mostly because they just aren't as big as the Aerostars are. We almost went with a Safari because they are still on the big side of mini vans, but in the end, my parents offered us their van (Windstar) at a very good price that we couldn't refuse. So we bought that one and were able to squish everything we had into it. Let me tell you that was a little miracle in itself. The windstar is so much smaller than the aerostar! But we fit, thank goodness. It got super good gas mileage on the way home yesterday too, which was nice. It was probably better that we bought my parents' van anyway because we put over 1000 miles on it while we borrowed it last week. We couldn't believe it, but with all the driving we did to visit people, it added up.

Here are some pictures of our van and Merrit's face. We still aren't sure what he hit his head on. At first we thought it was the window next to him because it was busted out, but the side of his head that was actually next to the window was not touched, it was the other side of his head that was injured. I think he hit the back of Jaxson's car seat, which was right in front of him, but we aren't sure and probably never will be - not that it matters. I'm just so thankful that he wasn't more seriously hurt. These ones are him in the emergency room just after the accident:

These ones are Wednesday, the 26th, five days after the accident:


He looks so much better now, even compared to the pictures above, but I don't have pictures of him that are current.

It Is Official

It is official, HAWAII HERE I COME! We have finally set the dates and bought the airline tickets and I will be in Hawaii from May 6-13. I will be going with my roommates Jamie and Kristen and with our future roommate Victoria. I am really excited to be going! I am also excited to see my mission companion Kaala while I am there. The only thing that I am worried about is that Jamie will try to fit sooo much things in that there will be time to relax. But all in all I am looking forward to the trip.

Lexi and the math competition

The math competition was on Tuesday. They wouldn't allow parents to come to the competition portion but did allow us to come to the awards ceremony at the end. So I didn't get to see how well they did, but I got to see them not receive an award. They awarded the top 10 individuals and then the top 4 teams with plaques. Lexi nor her team won anything. Her teacher said she saw their test answers and that they were in the thick of things and actually did very well, just not well enough to win. At least they weren't in the bottom portion. I thought this was a statewide competition, but it turned out to be only the Milwaukee, Racine and Kenosha counties. There was still quite a few teams there, though I don't know how many. Lexi said she had a good time. It was a good experience for her. Here's a picture of the kids she went with from her school.

Spring Break

So, what is everyone doing for Spring Break? Ya'll should come on down and see us!!!! I am sure it would be a good ole time.

School Schedule

I'm not sure how to explain this all, but in the second semester of the el ed program we have something called cohorts. They randomly assign us to our cohort groups and we will stay in these groups till we are done with school. We know what school district we teach in based on what cohort we are in. I found out yesterday that I am in the Wasatch Cohort, and to my understanding it is a pretty good distance from Provo. Well anyway, we are assigned the classes that we must take and the time. Cohorts start the second half of the semester in the fall and I will basically be in school from 7am to 4pm. Next semester is going to be very crazy! I'm sorry if this is confusimg to you, it is a bit confusing to me also. I'm not exactly sure what I have gotten myself into.

Brett Favre to RETIRE!

I know the whole world must be in mourning just like we are here in Wisconsin. Favre was the highlight of the whole world, even if you didn't watch football. Oh wait, let me pinch myself and come back to reality. It's really hard to do that here when ALL you hear about is Brett Favre. The people here are treating it like he's dead or something. It's really a strange world. The local ABC station did a spur-of-the-moment tribute to him lastnight during prime time TV. I mean come on, the world will move on, football world will move on, even the Packers will move on. Besides, now the Lions have a better chance of winning their division, right:)?!?!?

A Great Time!

Time Out for Women was this passed weekend. I drove down with the lady who invited me. We went Friday night and came home and then went back on Saturday morning. We figured it saved us hotel stay, but I don't know how worth it that was because we didn't get home until about 11:30 pm and then had to leave at about 6:45 am in order to get back there for the beginning. It was hard to stay awake at some points on Saturday for lack of sleep. I'd probably go for the hotel stay next time. The conference was very good. I was surprised because the one that my mom and I went to in Toledo last year really didn't stick out to me as being all that special. I don't know if the speakers were just that much better, or if I'm at a point in my life that I needed it more now than I did then, but this one was better. I'm so glad I got to go. The points that stuck out to me the most were these:
I need to make more time for just Charlie and I, even overnights, without the kids
I need to teach my kids to govern themselves more, I even bought a book that will help me with this
I need to incorporate service into our family culture
I need to slow down and treat people like they are humans - for example, not yell at someone who has just cut me off, but try to put myself in their shoes and not get so worked up about their actions or don't be so impatient with people in check-out lines at the store because I'm not really in that big of a hurry, am I?
And finally, if I feel like I'm not feeling the spirit or receiving inspiration, what am I NOT doing to keep me from feeling those things? I think this one is pretty important because it's easy to get out of the habit of reading the scriptures and saying your prayers but those things help us to stay spiritually connected.
So overall, I got a lot out of this weekend that will help me improve many aspects of my life.

We received a new bishopbric yesterday. Our previous bishop has served for almost six years. They called his 1st councelor to be the new bishop and the young men's president is the new 1st councelor and the 2nd councelor also came out of the young men's program, but I'm not sure what his old calling was. Needless to say, there will be some other major changes in the ward in the next couple of weeks, but Charlie and I feel pretty confident that we are safe in our callings. It's pretty exciting to be a part of such changes. I'm looking forward to see what comes about because of them. The new bishop is such a great guy. His wife is just outstanding. She is the one that invited me to Time Out and is one of the ones in the ward that I would actually consider my friend (which is saying a lot because I don't really feel befriended by many yet, although I am trying).

New posts!!!

Hello everyone!!!! I hope that everyone is doing really good. I just wanted to say that I posted some new stuff on my blog so, check it out if you want.