The Marriage License Dance

When I looked up the marriage license info for James back in July, I understood the website to say that all he needed in her absence was Melissa's ID and the forms filled out. It didn't specify which forms, so I assumed it was the form everyone fills out to apply for a license. SO James remembered today that he had not taken care of that yet and called me to check on locations. I called a couple of the locations to verify hours and actually talked to a real person at one of them. I found out that Melissa needs to complete an "Absent Applicant" form. I actually saw the absentee form in July but the note accompanying it said it was only to be used by Military personnel or incarcerated persons. Anyhow… we do need this form even though Melissa is neither military nor incarcerated. It must be notarized and the ID presented to the notary has to be sent with the form to James for him to present with the application – original copy only. Unfortunately her DL is already in Texas so we had to 'overnight' her license back to Rexburg. [I put overnight in quotes because Rexburg is so special that overnight service takes 2 days.] Then she will have to send it back with the completed form. Blaaah!! Good thing we still have more than a week to get this accomplished. It took numerous phone calls to the city offices, to James and to Melissa and 6 emails from me to Melissa and 5 from her to me. But hopefully we all now understand what is required and the process is in motion.

Life Changes on a Whim

On Friday, Bill and I were looking forward to a nice empty nest come September. That afternoon I remembered how quiet and sometimes boring an empty nest is. I have been resisting the impulse all summer, but on Friday afternoon I picked up the phone and called YFU. Ummm.., I said, school starts on Monday and I know it is short notice, but if you guys still have kids that need a home, we MIGHT be interested. Well, they were definitely interested in us! As a returning host family we already have a lot of the paperwork on file and they still had 20 unplaced students, some of whom were scheduled to arrive in 4 or 5 days. They told us about 2 of the boys - we wanted a boy - and gave us an access code to their website where we could look at all 20 profiles. By Saturday afternoon we had discussed it, chosen a student and faxed the forms to the YFU office. Sunday we had our home visit (think mad cleaning spree to make the house half-way presentable) and Monday the YFU rep got the school's OK. So he arrives at 430PM on Wednesday!! His name is Se-Won Ha from Korea. Isn't he cute!

James

When James turned 4 years old, we gave him a new pint-sized 2 wheeled bike with training wheels. He loved it! He rode it all the time trying to keep up with the kids next door. Soon one training wheel broke off. He kept going, learning to balance on 3 wheels. When the other training wheel broke off, he barely noticed. I was amazed to see this little 4 year old darting around on 2 wheels!

When James was 7 or 8 he got some cool new tennis shoes. I had to go outside to watch him run. "See how fast I can run in my new shoes, Mom!" When he was in High School his A-string broke. We replaced it with a really good quality cello string and it was "Mom, see how much better I can play on my new A-string!"

Now he is getting married in just 2 short weeks. Wow!

My Kids

James with his fiance, Melissa.
Emma (right) with two of our exchange students, Laerke Buch from Denmark and Barbara Klonk from Germany.

Loren and Sarah
Steve at the lake.

Sarah, Stephen, Bill, Mary, Emma with James in the chair in New Hampshire.

Day One

Day One: Life is complicated. Too much going on. My house to make presentable. Last minute...yes it is the last minute now... wedding preparations. School starting soon for me as well as for my kids. Insurance stuff, car stuff... I hope having a forum will help me to be more organized. Or at least it can be a substitute journal since I have never been too good at journal keeping.