Paul's new Job

We are happy to announce (finally) that Paul has a job at the Social Security office here in Tucson, AZ. It has been a long road, but we know that the Lord has blessed us along the way to always have enough and now he's given Paul this awesome job that is very secure in this time of uncertainty. He started yesterday (Monday) and even though he still isn't quite sure exactly what all his job entails, he said he is very excited about it. There were several other people who started yesterday as well, and they all came to a consensus that about half of what was said comepletely went over their heads. I guess there are alot of rules and regulations that you have to go over whenever you start a government job. And Paul had to take an oath in front of the flag that he will uphold the Constitution, so they really take working for the government very seriously.

As a sort of last hurrah before starting his job, we went and visited my in-laws in Palm Desert. We had lots of fun swimming in the pool and hanging out with Jill and her three kids. James loves being around them and always wants to follow the twins around (they are nearly 3) and do what they're doing. It's so much fun having so many cousins for James to play with. He loves people!

Our Day at the Park

We brought James to the park the other day and let him go down the slide for the first time. He wasn't sure whether he liked it the first time down the slide, but after climbing back up the stairs and standing at the top of the slide, he knew that this was something he had to do again...and again...and again. I think he went down the slide 20 times before he started looking for something bigger and better. I took him down the big slide a few times and he really seemed to enjoy that as well. We tried the swings, but they had some weird swings that I'd never seen before. They had the normal ones for older kids and then they had some that looked like a captain's seat, but it didn't have anything to secure them with, so we didn't really want him to try it. He wasn't sure what to make of the wood chips. He would pick them up and look at them, but I think the texture deterred him from actually trying to put it in his mouth. Always curious, he decided that after he'd had enough of investigating the wood chips, he would see what all the rest of the playground was about. So he tried to climb up several things--including the slide--that were way to hard for him. When he started throwing a tantrum because he couldn't do it, I knew it was time to say goodbye to the park for the day. We're excited about bringing him back and letting him try the slide again.

Happy Birthday James!

James celebrated his first birthday last Wednesday. We didn't do anything really big for his birthday, but he did get a few presents and we had cake--which he did not enjoy at all. I thought he would love a chocolate cake, but when I put it on his tray, he just played with it. And even when I put some in his mouth, thinking he would see how good it was and gobble it all up, he just spit it all out and threw it on the ground. It was disappointing. Hopefully next year will be better. Oh well.

He did enjoy his pool toy that we got for his birthday. It's warm enough down here in Arizona that we could go swimming...sort of. The pool isn't heated so even though it's 85 degrees down here, it's still pretty cold water. So we just soaked in the warm hot tub for a while and only dipped our feet in the pool itself. It is getting warmer each day, though, so it shouldn't be too long before we're swimming in the pool itself.

Grandma and Grandpa Hunter got him the cute church clothes. Thanks! And surprisingly enough, he didn't suck on the tie (even though he loves to suck on Daddy's ties).

Car Crash

Paul, James and I were travelling to Las Vegas so that we could catch a cheap flight to Idaho to visit my family. On the way, we stopped off to get a little In N Out Burger. While Paul had his head out the window at the drive thru, ordering our food, an 18 year-old kid, hit us from behind. His excuse was that he had tried to put his car in park and it just kept going. From the look of the pictures, I think that he should have actually tried stopping first, before he tried putting it in park. It's a little obvious with the damage of the car that it was hit with a little more force than a car just rolling forward because it wasn't put into park properly. Oh well. We didn't get to go to Idaho, but luckily for Paul and me, we stopped at the In N Out Burger that is not too far from my sister's house. So we stayed the weekend with her instead and went to the beach. That was loads of fun. My sister, Belinda, and I were very brave (for it being the last day in February) and we got in up to our necks...well I did anyway, she didn't quite make it that far. The tide was going out, so it was all we could do sometimes to not be swept out with the waves. We were shell-seeking for Belinda's kids. They were so excited with each new shell that we brought up. Probably the best part was Bekah (Belinda's 8 year-old daughter) screaming at the top of her lungs each time she saw a big wave coming. I actually appreciated it because sometimes I wasn't being terribly observant and a wave would hit me from behind and I'd almost do a face-plant. It was great, though. And really warm when we got out of the frigid water.