irielife.net

{mosimage} Rachel’s almost 4-and-a-half months old now. She’s can’t quite sit up yet, but she really
wants to be able to, so now we prop her up wherever we can. The couch,
where we took this video, is one of her favorite spots because she can
watch her brother and sisters play.
Click on the picture to play the video (or right click and select “Save
As” to save it to your hard drive).
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An aside: I was the last to post back in July – I assume that no one has posted because we were all just at home together. However, a promise is a promise and I want to put you all on notice that mom will probably start considering me to be more reliable than the rest of you and will, therefore, begin to consider me the favorite.

well, in a few hours it will officially be another Friday night – that finds me sitting in the stands watching the Springville red white and blue tear up the field and rack up the touchdowns… all that pigskin is only one of the many perks of dating the coach. I get in free, I know the players, and I get to hang out with the coaches� wives… did you catch the gray area there? players, wives. yeah, everywhere I go in Springville, or anywhere in the valley these days, everyone either assumes I am a high school student or Andrew’s wife. It’s classic. Apparently there is no gray area wherein I get to be 21 and dating.

In other news…(Click ‘Read More’)
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I decided a while before moving out here that I didn’t want living in Provo to be about dating. I renewed this resolve a month or so ago when I enrolled in summer session at BYU. However, just minutes after walking into my soccer class, my dreams of living in studious solitude flew right back out the practice facility door, as I had a date with my instructor. Yep, I think it’s official that I have the strangest life ever.
That was about a month ago. Three nights later, disaster struck my social life.

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{mosimage}Rachel
turned one month old today. We took some video of Rachel yesterday
while she was awake and happy. You can view it by clicking on the
picture of Rachel at the left. Some of the video is a bit shaky — I
had to shoot it while Seth scaled my back trying to get the camera.
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We had the wonderful opportunity to live close enough to Washington, D.C. to be able to participate in the funeral ceremonies for President Reagan.
On Wednesday, June 9, 2004, we decided to take the kids to the funeral procession down Constitution Avenue. We hesitated all day, wondering if we really wanted to do battle with all the traffic, heat, and human congestion. We decided to brave it and we are so happy we did.

Click on the picture above to view the video (it’s very large — about 40 mb, but worth watching). We also posted pictures in the photo section of the site.

We arrived in DC via subway and we were early enough to get “seats” right at the front of the parade route on Constitution Avenue. We were right near 7th and Constitution, right in front of the IRS building. There are 3.5 foot tall planter boxes that line Constitution Avenue. We staked out on of the boxes and put all three kids up on top. This allowed them to see over the heads of all the tall people lining the procession route. It became quite a balancing act (literally) to keep Seth, Allie, and Camryn all balanced up on top of the box. Seth mostly wanted to test his mortality (and the patience of the people in front of us) by hurling himself off the planter box (the video gets a bit shaky at times as a result). He did get excited once the procession actually started, however.

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Well…this may not be the best forum to announce our news, but we need to let people know so that they don’t ask us anymore how the adoption process is going. We were rejected by LDS family services.

Admin note: Click ‘Read More’…You definitely need to read the rest!
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As most of you know — but we still wanted to do a blog entry anyway — Rachel finally joined our family on May 20, 2004. It has taken us so long to get the news out because we had a very hard time deciding on a name. We were ourselves tired of referring to her as “the baby”, so we waited until the name was finalized to publish our announcement. Interestingly, as I write this, Rachel is almost 2 weeks old and we still only call her by her name about 40% of the time.

The baby hadn’t moved at all for most of the day on the 19th and so we called the doctor for advice. He asked us to come in, so we made it down to Hopkins around 8 pm. Of course, once we got to the hospital the baby started moving. Nevertheless, because Susie was already almost a week overdue and scheduled for induction 36 hours later, they decided to go ahead an induce Susie while we were already there. After about 3 hours of labor, Rachel Anne Jones was born at 2:59 am on Thursday, May 20, 2004. She weighed in at 8 lbs, 1.8 oz and she was 20 inches long. We feel so grateful and so happy to have the blessing of another child in our family.

Lisa had come up on Monday prior to the birth, and we are so grateful she did. She was a lifesaver. She fed, clothed, entertained, comforted, and otherwise took care of Allie, Camryn, and Seth while Susie and I took turns trying to sleep. Rachel, moreso than any of our other kids, has no sense of responsibility when it comes to sleeping. Thank heaven for the swing and car seat (thanks family!!!), which are Rachel’s favorite places to sleep, if only for short periods of time.

It has been both fun and interesting to watch each of the kids react to the new baby. I would love to know how they assimilate what they see in the world around them with what they actually know about how things work based on their life experience so far…

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i’ve been planning for weeks to post the promised update on Josh and me… after my trip to Oregon and all that followed. unfortunately, I didn’t think I could say enough about how much fun I had (a lot), how trying out for EOU’s soccer team went (I was offered a position), and how amazed I was by Josh (he can be impressive when he wants)… and then after I decided I could say enough (I just did) I didn’t think it right to post news where there should be a birth announcement – who could compete with that? (see album of 43 pictures in JB & Susie’s Photos). Anyway, now I can only offer news on my latest plans as a single girl in search of a fulfilling career or a life, on my neat but considerably different roommates, and on my latest exploits around Provo…

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I went home for lunch while Sally and the Baby were taking a nap and started to clean when the new branch president came over for a surprise visit. Well, I keep water running in the sink all the time to keep rinsing the dishes (No dishwasher) and forgot to turn it off (very dumb). We also had the washing machine running (very noisy)

So, when the doorbell rang (very loud) I assumed that Sally would hear it in the back even with the bedroom door (very thin) closed. So, I let the missionaries in and invited them to sit down. I of course had frozen pizza (very cheap)in the oven (very smelly) and of course had to share (very selfish) when it came out. However, before lunch could come out, in the middle of conversation, the sink (very full) began to overfill (very wet) and the washing machine – which feeds into the sink drain – started to gurgle (very rude) and spit water everywhere (very messy).

So, with all this going on in the front room (very small) I failed to hear (very deaf) that Sally had turned on the shower and was in the back taking a shower and that the baby (very hungry) had woken up and was making noise (very cranky) in the back room. So, Sally finished her shower (also very wet) and went to pick up the baby. My assumption (very stupid) that Sally had heard the doorbell (very loud) was of course incorrect (very wrong) and she came (very undressed) into the front room (very embarassed) to deliver the baby.

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Note from JB: This is in response to an email I sent Dad, asking him where he got toner cartridges

I use a local guy who runs a toner shop from his garage. Do you have old toner cartridges to fill? Do you want send them?

My last two 6P toner cartridges came from Costco.

Speaking of toner cartridges, I just sold our old Laserjet III, along with 4 full toner cartridges, for $100. See what a knack for business I have? Let’s see: printer alone is worth at least $50. Each cartridge is worth $50. Sum: $50 + 4x($50) == $250, plus the Jones-business-profit-factor of minus $150 = selling price of $100.

No wonder my kids are all going to MBA school: it takes a lot of training to overcome the Jones-business-profit-factor defect. It is all about learning to reverse the polarity of the profit multiplier. It is all about learning not to feel guilty for actually charging people for skill or knowledge that seems as obvious and free as air.

In today’s climate of high-profile public apologies, I would like to offer you, my children, mine: I hereby apologize for my Jones-business-profit-factor deficiency, and wish to set, hereafter, a better example.

In the future, all calls home for advice or comfort, will require a $10 fee. Your mom and I accept Pay-Pal or Visa. We may be reached through our family-help website. In the event we are busy, we have outsourced our parental advice to India. Rahib’s English is a little stiff, so speak slowly.

Love,

Dad
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