The biggest news is no news-

So yesterday we made the decision NOT to come home for the summer. It wasn't fun. I actually thought I wouldn't be able to do it. But now that we have pulled the trigger it feels right. I still have trepidations about entertaining the kids all summer but I think I can do it, if as usual I organize the crap out of it. Here is a copy of the letter we sent out to everyone on facebook, just in case you were ask WHY!?

"We are sorry to let you know that we won't be able to come home this summer. I know we made some great plans together when we saw you last, and we wish we could make everything happen and make everyone happy, but we've decided that it is best if we take this summer off. Over the years we have always come home no matter what, we think you know how much you mean to us that we have made that happen in the past. But now, its time for us to be practical for once. Jason has limits on his time in the States for tax reasons, and so for us to have more time as a family it is more realistic to spend our vacation days here. The good news is by doing that we will have more opportunities next summer, financially, and with tax days. We hope that you can support us. We would also like to encourage you to come to visit Ireland. Start today, put a few dollars in a jar, save a few vacation days. We want to share this with you. It is rare that you could visit a foreign country and have free room and board plus a tour guide who loves you! Please use missing us this summer as a catalyst to coming here! Anytime all year, we will have room for you."

Part of us just wants to break the cycle of always visiting people, and maybe give some motivation for someone coming this way. Maybe it could be you! We'll miss everyone really bad I'm sure. It's lonely here sometimes but maybe a slow summer is just what the doctor ordered!

I'm a bad bad blogger

Hello my friends. I know I'm no good at this. I am doing interesting things and thinking deep thoughts, but I am just not great at getting on here to report it all. So here are a few things I've been thinking of or doing in April and May. I also want to say for the record that Blogger's interface sucks. I hate this tiny little window and how crappy it is to add pictures. Any tips??

• Alex turned 6. Notice the awesome Yoda cake I made! I thought I would save a few bucks and have the party at home but having 8 6 year olds over was crazy! We played games but I also made the mistake of making it 3 hours. There is no game long enough. You are welcome parents- hope you enjoyed your afternoon!
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• We went to Austin Texas. Jason was traveling a ton in March and early April so we were excited to tag along with him as part of our Easter break. We made sure everyone got to see all of our friends and it was fun to see what dad does when he travels. He really does work the whole time. We also got to see the sun and swim everyday. It had been a LONG time since we had done that.
• Then we went to Hawaii. We get home leave tickets to America every year and the company said anywhere in America so.......tada Hawaii! It was all kind of last minute cause the powers that be said if you are going to go, go now, the end of the year will be nuts. So we sold some stock to afford it and went. 10 days in Maui. It was pretty amazing. But the best part is that we were just our family for 10 whole days. The kids did GREAT with all the travel. The only hiccups we had were with a grumpy old dude that told the kids to shut up on the beach, and we missed our flight out of Hawaii. I am proud to say we handled both situations pretty well. My favorite part was the road to Hana. Google it, it's pretty cool.
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  Then it was our anniversary and Jason and I went to Scotland for the weekend. We went to Edinburgh. I had bought the tickets months ahead of time so they were dirt cheap. We didn't make any plans but Jason was able to use his points to stay at the Sheraton. We only had to pay for our rental car and food. We had so much fun wandering around and being alone! We pretended we were young and carefree and were able to relax and be our true selves. The good news is we still enjoy each others company. We also had the privilege of speaking to a group of young single adults about the joys of marriage. It was fun!
• This past week Jason had all of his Texas team over and combined with his Ireland team they had a busy week of meetings and Irish fun- meaning castles, boats, and pubs. HE is doing really well at work and is still really enjoying it despite being at work a lot. He is getting ready to go to India next month!
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• Now things have calmed down and are pretty routine. I realize I haven't spoken of our routine very much, but it's all school music lessons play dates groceries church stuff and the occasional village occasion. For instance Kat's class just had their first communion and we all went to support them and then attended the parties afterwards. (She wore her baptism dress so that she could be honored too) I've also started to volunteer with Age Action- a group that supports seniors. I am tutoring them in computers.
• Lastly I have just been thinking about life in general and how important it is to live it to the fullest and with the best attitude. One of my personal heroes, Lowell Wright, whom we met and worked with in Russia, is about to pass away. Last year we made sure we went to see him before we moved to Ireland. We had the most perfect goodbye. We attended the temple together and talked about Sacred things. The Wrights absolutely know how much we love them, and so I have no regrets about not being there right now in his last moments. His faith in meeting death is amazing and I hope I can face my trials that way.

So I hope that gives you just enough to not give up on me completely. I would like to say I will get better but I don't know. For now my priority is documenting our lives on Shutterfly in books so by the time I am done with that I am worn out from reporting! Forgive me and keep in touch!