It’s been a wild ride over here, folks. Ever since our move, it’s been challenging to find the time (or the motivation) to write on the blog. Part of the reason is that there has just been a LOT using up all my brain-energy. And part of it is that I haven’t really had anything to write about. Sure, I still have about 6 Korea adventures to sum up. Plus, I have a few things we’ve done here in Missouri that I’ve wanted to document. But I’m not feeling the same urgent need to fill everyone in on everything right away. And that’s okay. Regardless, I did want to write up another edition of “The Now” where I just give a general rundown of our life lately. Is it the most exciting post in the world? No. But here it is anyway.

The Now: April 2024 Edition

| The Move | from South Korea to Missouri was ROUGH, if I’m being honest. It was -hands down- the hardest move we have ever done. Between us all being sick for the last week we were in Korea, to a really stressful couple weeks in Idaho where we had to purchase two cars, coordinate delivery of our belongings, celebrate Christmas, and try our best to soak in all the family time before beginning the long drive halfway across the country… it was anything but relaxing. Add into it that I was in excruciating pain almost constantly due to a severely bruised rib, and you can see why it was all a little bit of a struggle. And yet, we are so grateful that we got that valuable family time. We played hard and definitely made some core memories along the way.

| Moving In | to our house was anything but smooth. With our oven and garbage disposal breaking, both of our showers leaking through our ceiling, and so many other random things going wrong, we had maintenance at our house more times than I can count. But (for now) we have mostly working appliances (although I think the used replacement oven they gave me is starting to poop out, so we’ll see) and we are settling into our lives here. We’re blessed to live in a really fun community where kids are almost always playing outside on warm days, and it’s getting me really excited about the summer (which is good because initially I wasn’t excited about summer because of two things: ticks and tornadoes).

| And Speaking Of Tornadoes | we had our first real crazy storm since moving here just earlier this week. The wind was nuts and there was definitely plenty of damage around our area. From what I can tell, we didn’t have any tornadoes touch down in our immediate area (although we did hang out in our storm room – aka, a closet under the stairs – while we waited for the storm to pass), but it seems there were some nearby. We were without power for about 12ish hours – which was fine compared to those who spent days with no electricity. The kids got two days off of school because of the power outages, which they weren’t mad about. I’m not eager to have another storm anytime soon and thankfully, the forecast is looking good at least for the next little while.

| Doctors, doctors, and more doctors | have been the theme of our lives since our PCS. We’ve been back in the States for 16 weeks and in that time, we’ve had 23 ER/Doctor/etc. visits. Yes, you read that right – TWENTY THREE. I don’t know about you, but that FEELS a little excessive. And in the midst of those visits, M was also hospitalized twice. Most of the appointments have been for M – who is having some kidney issues. It’s nothing we haven’t experienced before (C and myself both had the same issue that we are SUSPECTING M has), but it’s frustrating and exhausting and scary just the same. Even so, we love her urologist (although we don’t love the two-hour drive to get to her) and we are well on our way to getting some answers. For now, M is on a low-dose antibiotic to hopefully prevent any more kidney infections until she can get some more testing done early next month. Through it all, we’ve been blessed with an amazing church-family who have provided meals, childcare, prayers, and just general support for us. God knew what He was doing when He sent us to this particular ward (church congregation) and I can’t help but feel overwhelmingly grateful.

| I’ve Been Snuggling A Baby | because my bestie (who lives only 7 minutes away) had her sweet 5th baby in February. So you can bet I have been soaking up ALLLLLL the baby snuggles. We now both have 4 girls and 1 boy and honestly, it’s been so fun. Her little one is the sweetest little thing and I just love her! Army is being a butt and taking my bestie and her sweet family away from us AGAIN soon (boo) but I am just so grateful for the time we’ve had to live here by them (for the 3rd time!).

| Public School | for the kids has been going really well. If you’ve been here a while, you may know that we’ve bounced back-and-forth between homeschooling and public school for the last few years. After our experiences with homeschooling in South Korea, I knew it was time to send the kids to public school for a while. Plus, the elementary school by our house is FANTASTIC. C is now in 6th grade which she is STOKED about – although the 40-minute bus ride to her school is less than ideal. Still, she’s embracing the whole thing, making lots of friends, and enjoys taking the bus to the Teen Center near our house a few days a week. Sending the kids back to public school definitely affords us less freedom overall, but it has been such a good change for our family. L struggles with anxiety and occasionally will really struggle with going to school, but she’s been so brave and we’ve been working through it all while finding things that work for her. M and H are toddlers as usual and have been pushing every button I have every single day. Still, I think they are happy to have some time alone with me (and I’m sure H will be even happier when M goes to kindergarten this fall). It’s been a good chance for me to slow down and savor the moments with these cute little toddlers – except during the moments when they are trying to kill me. So all that to say, we’ve been having a great experience with having the kids back at school.

| Church Callings | are keeping us busy. I was called as our ward’s Young Women President (basically I’m over all the girls ages 11-18 in our church congregation) and it’s been an interesting, scary, and rewarding experience. MAYBE I’m getting my footing. I love the girls and I love the other leaders that are serving with me. This is my first time ever working with the Young Women (the last time I was in YW was when I WAS one) and it was definitely way out of my comfort zone. Still, I’m learning a lot and slowly figuring out that nobody needs me to be perfect. Brandon was recently called as Assistant Ward Clerk, but with Easter and General Conference, he hasn’t done a whole lot yet.

| Grad School | for Brandon is going… well? I guess? Truthfully, he hates school. And it’s been a really challenging adjustment for him and our family having him in school again. It doesn’t help that he’s also in school for the Army – so he spends hours during the day in school and then comes home and does his homework for Grad School. He’s about to finish his first year of Grad School and we are ALL ready for him to have a break for the summer. Brandon has been working hard and applying himself to his studies and I’m just so insanely proud of him.

| Wanderings | have been few and far between these days. We did make a trip up to the St. Louis Zoo (post coming eventually), as well as to Uranus Fudge Factory – and it felt good to be out exploring again. Things definitely look a little different around here with two car payments, a husband in Grad School, and the kids in public school again – but I think we are making the best of it. With warmer weather HOPEFULLY coming soon (we were tricked there for a couple weeks), I’m sure we’ll find more ways to get out of the house. The kids and Brandon are especially excited about our Season Passes to Six Flags – so I’m sure we’ll be spending just about every free Saturday over there.

So there you have it: the good, the bad, and the ugly of our lives lately. We’re living in pretty much the middle-of-nowhere Missouri, which presents some challenges for finding things to do. But I’m confident that as we live here longer and keep an open mind, we’ll find ALL the things to love about the area.

’til next time…

Ash