Summer Time!

We are enjoying summer in the Pacific Northwest very, very much. For those of you in Kansas City enjoying the 100+ temperatures and high humidity, I will try not to mention the 75 - 85 degree weather with a light breeze and hardly any humidity. I would hate to make you feel jealous! (Or maybe I should so you will come visit me!)

We absolutely adore our neighborhood here in Portland. The sense of community and giving without expecting anything in return is almost unreal. I can hardly believe it at times. I am so thankful for the community that I have here. I have met some of the most happy and genuine people. They make me happy. That's right, you know who you are ;)

So far this summer we have been to the zoo, Detroit Lake, Salem, Silver Falls, blackberry picking, and a lot of time outside getting messy with Clara's "frins." We look forward to visiting Bend, the coast and fitting in as many family activities as we can before Matt starts school.

That's right! Matt is starting school...again. This is it. We promise! Matt begins the Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine program at the National College of Natural Medicine (http://www.ncnm.edu/) at the beginning of September. We are all really excited about this decision and feel like it is a really great fit for our family. I hope to go back to school when the kids are a bit older to get a degree in nutrition. We look forward to working together and helping people be healthier.

And big news for the kids as well! Clara is fully potty trained. She trained herself of course. In the middle of finger painting she shouted, "Mommy! Poop!" So we got down from painting. She went on her potty chair and that was that. She has not had a dirty or wet diaper since then. Our budget thanks her greatly!

And little "Shoney Man," as Clara calls him, has broke two teeth on the bottom, is getting better at sleeping, and is pushing himself up on his hands and knees now! Big guy! And he jabbers constantly, something about, "blah, blah, blah, blah, blah."

My kiddos are cute. I enjoy them very much.

The Last Few Months

Well, as you know, I am a sporadic blogger. Thus, making this blog another "catch up" blog!

We moved. Again. Yes, I know we move a lot. Let's just call it adventurous! I have felt with each move that we were always one step closer to where we are really supposed to be. I am feeling that more and more now that we are in Portland. We landed in the sweetest little community of Portland called St. John's. I have never come across such a great community and everyone I have met has been incredible. This community has welcomed us in like we are family. It is quite refreshing.

While we were in Klamath Falls, Matt took the first job he could get his hands on as we were desperate for some income. He got the glorified position of Car Salesman. Woohoo! This job unfortunately meant working 70+ hours a week and was not worth the very little income it was bringing in. While we were there we had Matthew Sterling Hicks Jr. on January 24th at 9:06am. He was 8lbs 14oz and 22" long. I got to have my sweet little boy at home and I am incredibly thankful for that experience. It really was beautiful.

Sterling's Birthday

June 2012 (Clara: 2yrs, Sterling: 4 1/2 months)

Matt was allowed to have only 3 days off of work to be home to help me with the kiddos and was working long hours after that. It was really hard on us. So, Matt started looking for other jobs. He was offered a position with normal business hours and a better salary in Portland. He currently works for Zone's Inc. in IT sales. It isn't his dream job, but it is a much better situation for our family and we moved to an incredible city because of it.

So, here we are. And I think we are going to be here a while. We really love it here. Come visit us! It is a beautiful place to be.

A Tour of Our Home!

Master Bath

Master Bedroom

Kids Bedroom

Laundry Room

Hall Bathroom

View of dining area, garage door and stairwell from the hallway.

View of dining area and kitchen from the front door.

The greatest kitchen I have ever had!

View of dining area, front door, garage door and stairwell from the kitchen.

Our Home!

Stairwell to the basement, hall bath on right.

Very large basement with room for lots of guests!

Full bathroom in basement.

View of hallway where the hall bath, laundry room, master bed, kids room and Emily's room are.

Time to catch up!

As my last post was on packing.... I think I have a little catching up to do! Our drive to Oregon was more eventful than we had hoped or planned for. The day before we moved we found out that our car needed some major work done on it so we had to rent a car for the day while our car was in the shop. That was our first setback. We left at 3am the next morning so that we could make it to the northern side of LA before rush hour and we could make it to our new home early afternoon and start unloading the moving van. We did make it to the other side of LA.... and then the moving van overheated! Emily, my sister-in-law, and Clara and I drove 20 miles to the nearest town and brought gallons of water back to Matt and his dad to at least get the truck to a parts store so they could fix it. We finally got back on the road and drove until lunch time. After we stopped for a bite to eat we started to pull onto the highway and the car decided to stall. We had to have our car towed to the nearest mechanic. After several more hours of waiting we got back on the road and made it to our new home by midnight. Such a long day! We all passed out on the floors for some much needed rest. I woke up before everyone else the next morning and headed to the grocery store to find something for us to eat for breakfast. On my way back home the car felt really strange. It was pulling hard to the passenger side of the road. As soon as I pulled into our neighborhood I felt a big KLUNK! I got out of the car to find that the axle, that the mechanic worked on the day before we moved, had come completely off of the car! I couldn't help but imagine what would have happened if the axle had come off while we were driving 65 through the mountains in the dark. We had the car towed...Again! And we were without the car for over a week.

So without a car we had plenty of time for unpacking and settling in! The owner of the house we are renting has been absolutely wonderful. He knew we were without a car and let us borrow his truck for two days and he also invited us up to his property to cut down a fresh christmas tree! We are now settled, Matt has a full time job and we are going to take a year to establish residency here in OR before he starts school. In establishing residency we will save $12,000 a year on tuition. Worth the wait if you ask me! Next on our to do list.... HAVE A BABY!!