January 2008

Wow!!! Another year has come and gone. 2007 was an eventful year for the Barrus Fam. It was one of the hardest that we've had in the 7 or 8 years we've been married, but also one of the best. In March Jess decided to change jobs and started working for an Engineering Company right here in Middleton. He loved the commute (3 minutes, 5 minutes in traffic if he went right before school started). It definately beat the commute of his previous job (30 minutes, or closer to 45 minutes if he got in traffic). We loved having him close by and able to come home for lunch sometimes. Unfortunately he didn't like the company and in October he quit. So, for three weeks he was unemployed. In November he started working temp for an engineering firm about 20-25 minutes from our house. They must have liked him enough to give him a job full-time. He started full-time with them about a week before Christmas. As all of you know, we had a house fire in September that left us homeless. Fortunately our bishop had a rental house that he let us move into that night. And our friends here made sure we had everything that we needed and a lot of extra wants too. Then our friends and family who live far away also sent stuff to help us out. We want to thank all of you for caring and thinking about us, and for all you did to help us out. Your love and support made a difficult time bearable and managable and buoyed us up to endure it. We have now been in our new house about a month and are slowly accumulating stuff to fill it. It's kinda funny that before the fire we had so much stuff and no where to put it. Now, with a bigger house and more and bigger closets and cupboards and not as much stuff, we have lots of empty space. I'm sure it won't take long to fill them up again though. We also got a puppy for the kids in February who they were scared to death of at first, but love it to death now. The night of the fire we left Rees at a friend's house and Cordell was crying and saying that he was going to miss Rees so much. Then, at the rental house, Rees went missing one day and after a day of her being missing, we thought we'd never see her again. Then, the next day, our friends who live about 3 miles from the rental house across the highway (for those of you who know Rachelle, it was her) saw a dog who looked like Rees hanging around their house and finally called us to see if it could be Rees, and we said actually she is missing. It was her, so we got her back. The kids and Jess were very sad that we might lose her, I was just sad that we put so much money into her and it would be wasted if we lost her. Anyways, we also adopted a stray dog that showed up on our porch at the rental house one night. His name is Chester. As if getting a new house and everything in it new, wasn't enough, Jess just got a new truck. His new company has a truck lease where they pay you so much a month to use your truck for jobs. His little Ranger didn't qualify, so his friend helped us find a Dodge Ram 1500 for a good deal. It's nice because it's a 4-door so our whole family can ride in it. It's also nice to have something that can pull our trailers. We had two trailers and nothing to pull them with. Jess said that he just felt tougher driving a tough truck. Well, whatever works. Anyways, 2007 was a year for lots of new things for our family.

Besides changing jobs twice this year and getting a new truck, Jess has enjoyed being young men's president, playing in two softball leagues, playing basketball, and he even joined the YMCA and played some raquetball and did some swimming. I think turning 30 made him feel old, but he can still hold his own in sports. He even hit quite a few home-runs this year, so he was proud of that. One of the highlights for Jess was the opportunity to take the youth on a trek at Martin's Cove. He was involved with the Second Rescue and loved to go back. He's even had other wards here call him for help with their trek. He didn't ever end up going hunting. For those of you who don't know, he was heading hunting the night of the fire, and that kinda changed his plans. That's what he gets for saying that only a death in the family would stop him from going hunting that week. I guess he should have added his house burning down to that list, huh? Anyways, I'm sure he'll get out this year and go.

I've stayed busy staying home with 3 kids being mom, cook, chauffeur and everything else that a mom does. I've enjoyed going to aerobics, except when I'm so sore I can hardly move. I also joined the YMCA to swim and started doing some running and biking. I ran a 5K in May and was training for a triathlon in August. It ended up that our friend planned a raft trip for the same day as the triathlon, so I decided to go rafting instead, which was a blast!! Anyways, I'm starting to train again and hope to do a triathlon this spring or summer. I finally got released from my calling in the cub scouts and got called to be the Primary Secretary. Which has been a fun but challenging calling. I love working with the kids. I've done more shopping the last few months than I think I've done my whole life. I'm so sick of shopping I could puke. It has been fun to get new stuff, but to get so much in so little a time has been overwhelming. The month before Christmas was the craziest of my life. I was trying to get everything ready to move back into the house, get ready for Christmas, and do everything for primary to be ready for the new year. Hopefully my kids didn't feel too neglected.

Cordell is 5 1/2, is in Preschool this year and loves it. He could have gone to Kindergarten this year, but we decided to wait a year and let him be the oldest instead of the youngest. Everyday when I drop him off, I say, "Cordell be a good boy today," and he says, "Mom, I'm always a good boy". His teacher has never told me otherwise so I guess he is. He is learning sign language in preschool and tells me he knows three languages, English, Spanish, and sign language. His Spanish is limited to what he has learned from watching Dora and Diego though. He learned how to ride his bike without training wheels and learned how to swim this summer. His goal this year is to tie his own shoes. We'll see about that one. He played soccer this year, and we decided that soccer is not his thing. He didn't like chasing after a ball that 10 other kids were trying to kick at the same time. So, he wants to try t-ball this year. He is a great older brother and lives up to the oldest child stereotype. He is a great help to me and a joy to have for a son.

Jennifer, almost 4, is our princess. The first of this year when asked her name, she would tell everyone very seriously that her name was princess. We would say isn't it Jennifer, and she would say no, it's Princess. We asked her when she was going to be Jennifer again and she said when she turned three, so on her birthday, she changed her name back to Jennifer. She is always trying to keep up with her older brother. I was trying and trying to get Cordell to memorize a part for a program, and she memorized it before he did. But the competition was good for him because he couldn't be outdone by his little sister and soon after memorized it. She is always trying to know things before Cordell. And she'll say, "I'm smart, I'm smarter than a 5th grader". (If you don't know, there's a game show on TV called Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?) She asks me so many questions every day that I wonder where she gets them all from. She has to know everything. Jennifer is now a sunbeam and is very excited to be in primary. Se is shy with people she doesn't know, but she is a sweetheart.

Landon, 2, is full of personality. He is a handful but he keeps us laughing. When asked what he wanted for Christmas, he would reply, "I want Candy." Only he would say caaannndeee like cookie monster would say coookkkie. He loved Halloween because all he had to do was hold out his bucket and say "Echo Tree" (trick or treat) and people gave him candy. He is a little copycat of his brother and sister and has to do everything that they do. He's a tough little dude, but he also has a very tender heart. He's always trying to help out. Any time I'm cooking he has a chair pulled over and is helping me. He is starting to potty train, and some days does really good. It will be a change to not have one in diapers.