Starting out. February 2019

Oh goodness, February 2019.
Being brand new in Houston, we decided to try some activities that we have never done before. Moses and Heber started soccer with the Texas Heat Wave. It took a LOT of convincing, but they are finally ok with this idea. They both were really nervous that they would have to be in front of a bunch a people and wouldn't know the rules of the game! We assured them that this would not be the case. After I bought their cleats and shin guards and soccer balls, they were much more excited. And to see Gretel prance around in her leotard and tights is just so much girly fun!

The kids, more obviously, are missing our dear ones in Wisconsin. One Monday Gretel came into my room to cry for 30 min about missing her friend Audrey Mackrory and that same Wednesday Moses came to me in tears about missing Nathan Mackrory. It's rough trying to make new connections when your other connections were so strong and good.

After finding out that I am pregnant with baby #5, I enjoyed a peaceful 4 weeks of the excitement of zero symptoms! I hoped that this time I wouldn't get sick, or wouldn't feel so tired. But alas, the very day that I hit 8 weeks pregnant, I woke up and puked. I felt awful. But something told me that this was partly something more than just my normal pregnancy stuff. I had an appointment with a Doctor and really wanted to go, so I could see the little gummy bear growing inside me. While we were there, I suspected I was coming down with something bad. The wee baby looked so small, but the heartbeat was strong and there is only one baby..that kinda stung since we were hoping for twins.

After my appointment, it hit. A full fever of 102*F all day. The next day was terrible. I didn't move- for hours! And Zakary had to admit that he had never seen me like that before. My kids were SO AWESOME! They played super well together and they would come check on me occasionally. Finally, Moses called Zak and asked him to come home cuz Mom was super sick. Zak did and took me straight to urgent care. It was a bit of a pain to be there, but they confirmed that I had INFLUENZA A and BRONCHITIS! Geez! The next day Zakary stayed home. I was feeling less sick (taking Tamiflu) but still so exhausted. I'm scared that all those hours of fever may have injured our baby. The ward here has been SO generous and brought in a few meals for us. We are feeling very grateful.

As soon as I felt "on the mend" from the Influenza, the pregnancy puking started right up! We haven't told the kids about the pregnancy, but I have been sick right in front of them several times. We made a scavenger hunt that would lead them all around the house and finally to a "letter" from the baby with the ultrasound pictures. After a fun bike ride at Deussen Park, we came home to the hunt. The kids totally loved it and were very excited about the baby. Heber even said that this was the best surprise he could ever want. Moses was a little disappointed that there is only one baby. (He has prayed for twins for a year.) But, immediately started making plans of holding the baby all day and feeding it.

We joined a choir set to perform "The Lamb of God". I feel a bit confused most of the time about the music, it is really complex. But I really want us to get involved and get to know the community. The conductor is really fun and engaging!

The rain!! It just keeps coming!! Our backyard is a flooded swamp and the kids so desperately want to play outside. That has been a really hard part of our move here. The lack of yard. I have to remind myself that we would be in knee deep snow and frigid temps if we were back in Wisconsin. We finally put up our trampoline. I insisted that we put it up on the Lake Land. It is public land just sitting behind our lot. It is very well hidden, yet a perfect place for us to romp and play. We just need to do a little landscaping on it. With the tramp up, at least when it is NOT raining, there is a place for the kids to play that is out of the swamp.

February 2019 had some significant ups and downs. Getting to know the Ward here has been really fantastic. Missing our home in Wisconsin and getting so terribly sick has been rough. I'm sure this is normal and to be expected for such a huge move.

 Heber is especially enjoying soccer! He seems to come alive out there! 

 We discovered a few ponds nearby that are home to several species of ducks, turtles, fish, and herons. It has been a bit of heaven to go there with a loaf of old bread!

The best is that the heron will stand just a few feet from us and snatch a fish right out of the water!! 

 Even the turtles come over for a piece of bread! Lydia's throws don't quite get the bread into the water though. Guess her bread will be for the ants. 

Moses giving mom a snuggle while she was in a raging fever. 

We moved to Houston! January 2019

Well, I am a little at a loss as to what to say. It appears that I completely dropped this blog.. for a good, 3.5 YEARS! Not one entry. And, I can't really say that I know why. Just life, I guess. But today, I saw a friend's blog about her cute family and I was inspired to start again. What I really want is a great way to document my family's life and over and over again it seems that blogging is the best. Especially because you can print the blogs into a book.. at least, that is what I remember and that is what I am hoping for.

So, here we are with a fresh start! My goal is to write once per month about the "happenings".

January 2019:

We started the year out still in Utah for the Christmas til New Years holiday. We love our time in Utah with both sides of our family right in Farmington. On New Years Day we packed up all the stuff, which includes all that Santa brought, including a bike for Heber, all our winter clothes and boots, and the clothes and food that was going to make us comfortable for the road. AHHHH! It is so much stuff! Good thing Zakary built us a hitch caboose to hold even MORE STUFF.

We headed out around noon, hoping that all the drunks and crazies had made it safely off the roads and we were off to a new life. The weather was great until New Mexico. The fog plus snow plus tiny farmer roads (which were the biggest roads for our route) made for a wheel gripping good time. We made it to Alburquerque and the next morning the place was covered in a good 8 inches of snow. My kids (and I) were totally disappointed. We were all so tired of cold and snow that we thought for sure this far south we would be free. Apparently, according to several guests and a manager at the Holiday Inn Express, Alburquerque had not had this much snow in 13 years AND they only had 4 snow plows for the entire city. 2 of which were dedicated for the Airport. There was nearly no cars out. Being from Wisconsin AND from Utah, no snow was going to stop our trip to our new home, so off we went. The good old Honda Odyssey drove like a champ, blasting right through the drifts and piles. We did run out of windshield washer fluid and stopped to get some.. guess it was a popular product that day, since they were all out. We eventually did find some and then felt much safer.. at least we could see!

We drove all day and finally arrived in Houston at 10 pm. The air was mild and THAT was a welcome feeling. The kids love hotels- in fact, Gretel told me today that hotels are her favorite place. Houston hotels don't have indoor pools though, so that was a sad discovery. The next morning, Zakary left early to be to the new house before the moving trucks arrived. The kids and I slept and slept and slept. Poor things were totally exhausted after all the Christmas fun and endless road trips. By 11am, we needed to check out, but our moving trucks hadn't arrived, so Zak came back to pick us up. By the time we got back to the house, the moving trucks had come, dropped off our two trailers AND driven over the main waterline going to the neighbors house and water was going EVERYWHERE! What a way to meet the neighbors!

Sadly, Uncle Jacob Welch was very sick at Christmas, and the kids and I caught it the day we were unloading the trucks! We had fevers, coughing, crying.. and members of the Ward were trying to be kind and inviting the kids to come play while we worked, or they were coming over to help and I was struggling to keep our germs to ourselves. I can't even remember all the people who came to help us. It's sad, but true. I was so sick and trying so hard to keep my kids feeling half alive that I didn't notice much else. All the while, Zakary is having a great time meeting all the great Ward members and neighbors and making new friends. People brought us dinner, we had the painters here to patch some walls, we lived a few days without a fridge or washer and dryer til that finally arrived. The internet guy came and the security system guy...all while we were too sick to really make eye contact. Good thing it was a pretty quick illness and we were able to attend Church on the first time of the new 2 hour schedule. The ward was warm, and kind, and inviting. My kids each enjoyed primary and we took a bike ride around the neighborhood afterward. It's a great feeling to play outside, in the warm air, in JANUARY!

The broken water line from the moving truck. It was going to cost $4-5000!

Glad it wasn't our fault!

This is what we call the Lake Land. It's directly behind our house, giving us the feel a giant yard!

Riding his new bike in JANUARY!! Unheard of in his lifetime! 

In an effort to feel "normal" again, we dove right in to homeschool. 

Gretel and Moses especially miss their dear best friends from Wisconsin. We have daily tears. 

We decided to put Gretel in Dance!! She pranced around for hours in her new "gear". 

Moses is especially excited about the prospect of seeing new wildlife. 

January 21 we found out that Stapp Baby Number 5 is on the way!! 

Lydia is convinced that all her owies are "super hurting"-- she says, "I need a bandaid!" There have been boxes of bandaids used up and wrappers and used bandaids are found everywhere. This time, she might have really been hurt. 

Family, every two weeks, Matthew and Megan's turn! June 14-18

This year we have been SO SO SO blessed and feel so so so loved!! Living out in Wisconsin has been a wonderful change for us. Our marriage is better, our children are doing awesome and Miller Electric treats Zak really well. Can't go a minute without mentioning how stellar our Ward is, too!

BUT, being away from extended family can be hard. It stinks when there are fun things going on and we won't be there. It is also tough when you know getting a babysitter is an option, but a loving Aunt or Uncle would have been an easier choice. We are learning to ask for help and loving this choice to be far away.

This spring has been abundant with family and love! Now, it is Matthew and Megan's turn to visit and they are staying five whole days! I love when Matthew and Megan visit because they are very calm and sweet and give me a new perspective on parenting and marriage. They treat each other with lots of kindness and patience. I really admire that about them. Last year when they came for Gretel's Blessing, I was able to see them just love on Gretel and it made me feel so much better about the love that I could offer her.

This year, we get to play a lot more!! Well, Gretel and I get to play a lot more! Zakary just barely arrived from his Military Training in California. I am sure his is exhausted, but he loves family so much. He jumped right in and we went for a hike up Mosquito Hill. It really is the only hill around for miles. You gotta climb it!

The kids all did great. Moses fell in love with little Lucy. He was so happy to see that she could TALK! They became fast, sweet friends. Megan amazed me that she had baby Bennett just two months ago and was out doing a road trip to visit family. Her love for family is very strong.

We took them to our favorite, Union Star Cheese Factory in Zittau, Wisconsin. (near Fremont). We arrived exactly on time to see the cheese go from shoebox shapes to door mats to curds. The process is just amazing!

I had never been up to Bay Beach Park, and I felt that our kids were finally at the right age for amusement rides. Each ride is only 25cents so it makes the day totally worthwhile! I had just been hired at Fox Valley Dental and the DDS paid me that day in cash! It was so fun to treat us all to the rides. I think the favorite was the giant slide.

I never knew how much Matthew loved strawberries til I mentioned that we got to the Cuff Farms strawberry fields and pick strawberries! He was all for it and when we got there he was beaming. The tractor ride was nice and long and the boys were in heaven. Out in the field it was hot, but the picking went really well and we ate as much as we wanted. I love the taste of sunshine in the berry!

The last day, we spent at Plamann Pond. For us, it doesn't matter that it is a landlocked manmade beach next to a tiny pond. We want beach, we want sand, we want water. We get it all at Plamann. And it was SO much fun! My boys are getting so brave in the water! Dunking their heads in, holding their breath, pushing out from the shore! Little Lucy loves water and was all giggles and teasing with her splashes. Gretel was all smiles and splashes, too! At the end of the night, we got to tell them all why we love them so much. It makes our life richer to share it with family.

Heber broke his collar bone, June 4.

Preschool is all finished. We had a really great year. I am so grateful that Kristen and Lucy allowed me the opportunity to do a preschool with them. I was able to learn so much! I was excited to see the kids learn and to hear them talk about things later. I loved when Moses told me that a can was a cylinder.

Today we had a closing ceremony to celebrate all that we had learned and to teach the kids about summer and tell them what we loved about them. It was a challenge because the kids all had extra energy cuz they had their moms with them. And each of us moms had our younger baby with us. We read stories, sang, had treats, played outside and gave them a gift. I know Moses and Heber learned so much.

After they all went home, a friend brought over her son for me to babysit. I had agreed to it earlier. The kids were getting crazy at lunch and I was starving, so I sent them upstairs to play until I finished eating. A few minutes later I heard Heber screaming. It is normal for him to be screaming. He is accident prone and highly emotionally driven. So, he was screaming pretty normal for him. I dashed upstairs faster after Moses told me that Heber had fallen from the bunk bed and couldn't get up. When I looked at Heber, I thought, BROKEN BONE. My next thought was, HEBER IS TIRED. I went with my second thought, scooped Heebs up and put him in his bed. He cried and told me he couldn't walk and that his shoulder hurt. I didn't waste any time. I left him to sleep this off. Heber is by far my best sleeper. After only 45 min of sleeping, he was screaming from his bed and I knew something was wrong. He NEVER wakes up after such a short nap. I got him to got to sleep again and I started thinking of what I could do. My dad was coming back around 6pm and I didn't dare go to the ER with three kids, two of which would need me to carry them.

Heber woke up again screaming and I did my best to get him comfortable on the couch and watching TV. My secret weapon is to never let my kids watch TV so that when I really really need them to hold still and be quiet the TV works. He stayed still for 90 min and I was able to call the pediatrician and make sure that if I waited to take him in, that he would still be ok. I suspected he had broke his collar bone. It is the number 1 broken bone for a fall like he did.

At 6pm, Dad arrived and we piled into the cars to head to the ER. The xray confirmed a broken collarbone and Dr. said there is nothing you can do for it. "If the two ends are within the same zip code, they will heal." So we went home with a sling that I vowed I would require him to wear for one week. The pain meds they gave him made him sick that first night. So, I laid on the floor on the camping pad next to his mattress in Moses' bedroom that night. Every time he needed to pee, I was there to lift him from his bed. Every time he wanted to roll over, I was there. And, every time his pain came back, I got him a new dose. 

Within three days, Heber was no longer taking pain meds and was running and playing again. There were still the moments that he would trip and fall in the grass and not be able to get back up, and the moments when he couldn't pull his pants down to pee. For the most part he was doing great. The sling was only a reminder to him to slow down, since it wasn't doing him any good just hanging off his neck behind him. At ten days we had another xray taken and apparently ZERO healing had happened. But, Heebs felt and acted better so we decided he was fine and that it would heal later.

I am forever grateful that my dad was here this week. Geez. One baby chick down and the very next day my Heber takes a fall. We were able to finally enjoy the weekend when my dad took us to the NEW Zoo in Green Bay and out to eat. Thanks, DAD!