An Overdue Update

Wow. Look at that. It's been exactly three years since we've had an update on the James & Jess Family. And boy have a ton of things happened in that time. I'm pretty sure most of the family already knows this, but heck, I'll write it down for posterity anyways. If you'd like more details, you can read my personal blog (that one is private so send me your email for an invite to read it).

During the past three years:
After living in Los Alamos we visited Alaska and my family for a month.
Then James, Katie and I moved to Springville while James did his Masters degree at BYU.
I started up a Videography business in June 2011 specializing in weddings, especially LDS weddings.
James graduated with a Masters in Physics in June 2012.
We have a son named Lynn Alexander; he was born on May 25, 2012.

We lived in La Spezia Italy with our children (Lynn was two weeks old when we got there) from June to August 2012. James was doing an internship with NATO there. It was awesome. Hard, but worthwhile. We saw many amazing cities, such as Rome, Florence, Pisa, Naples, Venice and many small cities around La Spezia. And we ate a ton of yummy food, like gelato, prosciutto, pancetta, pizza, pasta, cheeses, and pesto.

We moved across the country right after living in Italy and are living in Pennsylvania now while James is working on his PhD in Acoustics at Penn State University.
We visited Washington DC a week ago. James had a conference and we tagged along. We're looking forward to being able to visit many more places on the East Coast while we're living here for the next three to four years.
I am currently building a Photography business, Larkspur Photo. James is helping me build my new website here. But until it's all finished my portfolio is on my Videography blog here.
The kids are growing lots and lots. We love to go to the park and Katie loves Nursery.

State College is a nice area: it's very green, a little humid, and not too hot. The winter was mostly mild. I do miss the West Coast mountains though - there are only lots of rolling hills over here. But the valley we live in protects us from most of the rotten weather that has hit the East coast in the last year, such as Hurricane Sandy. It only rained and was a little windy when it hit our area.
Well, that's about it for the major points of our last three years. Hopefully it won't be another three years before I post about our little family again, but I guess we'll see.

What up with the Weeks

Hello y'all!
This is just a little update as to what has happened in our summer, not anything big but it still seems really busy.
I, Milinda, am working for Pickleville playhouse again this summer. Designing lights for their Melodrama and the sound tech for the Musical. I've found designing to be a little frustrating actually. It's hard to have a director come and rework everything that you jsut spent hours putting together. I guess this is something that I'll have to deal with in this profession.
So that is what occupies my evenings... all of my evenings. I'm also working in Pickleville's box office in the mornings and afternoons, and on those days off, Kelly and I have a job cleaning dorm rooms after the EFY kids leave... goodie! ;-)
Kelly went out to GA for his two week military training, and still didn't get to wrestle an alligator... yes its on his to do list. It was hot and humid, but the day spent at the beach was fun fo him once they had finished all the military stuff.
I was just called as the primary choruster in our little married student ward. The primary has about 5 kids total and they are all little bundles of energy. Today was my first time actually directing the children... and it feels more like herding them. I have yet to figure out how to get them to sing the words... its not that they are mute little children... they just don't have much interest in the actual music.
But that's us this summer!

Los Alamos Adventure

James, Katie and I are living in Los Alamos, New Mexico for most of this summer while James does his internship at Los Alamos National Labs. We've already been here for seven weeks and have five more to go. James mostly just works while I do errands or stay at home and play with our baby. We do a lot more of the fun stuff on the weekends, which have been a lot of fun so far. We've visited the nearby Bandelier National Monument twice (see my blog) to see the ancient Pueblo ruins and to hike the Upper Frijoles Falls trail. We went and saw the Tinsley Ellis blues rock band at Ashley Pond as part of the Summer Concert in the Park Series, and we hope we'll go to another one sometime while we're still here (they have them every Friday evening). We hiked (and got lost on) a trail that goes behind our house and around the nearby golf course. There are lots of hiking trails around here; people really enjoy the outdoors in this city. We have nice neighbors; our landlord lives on the North side of us with his wife (they're an older retired couple that have their grandkids over to play a lot) and a young couple lives on the south side of our apartment (they have a baby girl that is 8 months old). We've done some things with our ward, which is very friendly. They had an activity that was a 5K run/walk, breakfast and clothing swap (all at the same time). We didn't make it early enough to do the run, but we did the other two things and got Katie a few cute outfits. We've also went to a barbeque at a family in our ward's house for Memorial day. It's really nice how you can find friends in many areas of the world just by going to Church. James and I also gave a talk on this last Sunday and we're singing in the choir. Katie is growing a lot and is almost 3 months old. She laughs, coos, sucks on her fist and loves to look at everything. She's rolled over from her tummy to her back, but she only did it one day and hasn't tried since (she's a funny girl). We're having fun here and hope to do lots more fun stuff while we're still here.

P.S. I hope you enjoy the new blog layout!

The Newest Esplin

Baby Kathryn Renee Esplin was born on Saturday at 11:14AM.
I've written down the birth story on my blog for those who are interested.
We all love little Katie:

News!

So, many of you know our exciting news by now, but in case some of you don't or forgot a few details here it is again.
We (James and Jessica) are going to have a baby! I'm due at the end of March 2010. I've only had one ultrasound so far, at 12 weeks, but everything is looking good and healthy. The baby actually measured a week ahead of the original April 3rd due date and had a strong heartbeat at 170bpm. I go in for my next appointment on Monday and we're excited to get to see our little baby again. We told all of our immediate family this weekend and everybody was really excited. I'm happy to say I'm no longer in the morning sickness stage, that lasted all of August and most of September. I'm starting to show a little bit, I'm certainly not fitting well into regular jeans anymore. And sometimes I think I can feel the baby moving around, although it just feels like tiny bubbles popping in my abdomen so I'm not sure yet if it's the baby or just indigestion :).
We'll let you know more as we learn more about our little baby.

Justin is in Lufkin, Texas and going well.
Tana passed her praxis test so she can now be a certified teacher.
School started today.
Tana is teaching 4 music classes in the High School and running the district Elementary Music program.
Kendrick is a Sr. in High School.
Shane is now in High School in the 9th grade.
Trent is in the 5th grade in the newly remodeled Elementary School.
Bryce is in the 2nd grade in the same school as Trent, the same school I went to when I was in the 1st and 2nd grade.

I have no idea if you are even getting these emails i'm sending becuase I don't get one back ha ha! this is my thrd email (I didn't write one last week) This week has been good, we speak solomente espanol now. Es muy bien, perro no se espanol y me es muy dificil. Pienso it will get mas facil. Nesecito mas cartas! ha ha, chiste, perro they are nice. Gracias por la paqueta! La pictura was very shocking to me. I laughed a little. Hope shane is doing well though. I know what that can be like.
It´s still tough here. that´s something i don´t ever expect to change really. it´s good for me though. Mi companero es muy bien tambien perro no pienso el comprenda espanol. Tratamos y se que hablaremos espanol mediante nuestro trabajar diligencia y mediante el espíritu santo y la ayuda de Dios. The work is great, the food bearable, the days are long, and the weeks are short. I never remember if weve eaten lunch or dinner or anything. I´m just trying to work hard all the time. Planning and goals are important. No pensaba metas fui importante. They really are. One of the 12 said he feels quite certain that unless we learn to master making goals and planning to achieve them, we can reach a ripe old age and look back to see that we did absolutely nothing with our life. Make one goal a day and one a week and make them happen! It´s a wonderful feeling. One quote for you I heard and really like ¿why do you do what you do, when you know what you know? I miss you all a lot, I really do. More and more i see how important family is. It´s nice to hear from you all and to know how things are going.
It seems crazy that the summer vacation is already half over for you all. It seems like it just started. How´s work goin for everyone? how´s life on the farm? Kendrick lookin at college? does dad have his speakers in the car yet? did mom like her day at the spa? Tell me more tell me more, like deos he have a car, tell me more tell me more! giggle. how are the cows, the horses? time goes so so fast here. faster than i ever thought possible.
I have kinda a more serious question for dad. how did your mission go? do you feel you were successful? there are constrasting emphasis here about baptism. i don´t mean to pry, but i just want to know what your views are. Also! did you know an Elder Richardson on your mission? we have a teacher who is an absolute stud whose dad served in Finland and i think it wouldvé been about the same time you did! his son is a big guy and played BYU foot ball for 2 years and at snow for 2 years so the dad may be the same.
always be happy, in studying faith more i´ve seen it´s hard to be grumpy and have faith at the same time. it´s hard to be anything but happy with the gospel. It´s a beautiful day! make the most of it!
I´ve had the chance to sing in 2 devotionals here now and play the piano for zone meeting and sacrament and such. i´m glad mom gave me that kick to get me started with all that. the fireworks for stadium of fire were great! we all got to stay out late and watch them, we we´re all singing and having a great time ha ha. Sand volleyball is still way way fun, we´re gettin pretty darn good ha ha! The work is amazing, i miss you all a lot though. I miss all the things i left behind, but not for a moment have i regretted it. this is amazing beyond belief. Kendrick, get ready now! in all honesty what are you waiting for? just do it.
Love you all and I look forward to hearing from you!
Love
Elder Esplin
¡Ánim0

Photo of Shane's Thumb

I have been struggling trying to edit the last post, and decided to try to make a new post for the photo of Shane's trauma.

We just got back from the emergency room with Shane. He has 5 big stitches in his left thumb to hook it back together after trying to cut it off with a hatchet on a YM/YW activity up Nephi canyon. It missed the bone but cut about 1/2 way through the thumb just above the bone. It took out a nice little chunk of the thumbnail. Two of the stitches are through the thumbnail. He has to go back in about a week to get the stitches taken out. The Dr. said that he can't leave them in as long as normal because the thumb nail will grow and start to pull on the stitches.

Letter From Justin

Hello My Dear Family,
So we had a cool experience the other day. One of the Hermanas, Hermana Montague from Heber. She was feeling pretty down so she asked the Branch President for a blessing at district meeting. As we got up to give it to her, she looked at me and asked me to give it. I was shaking, but it went well and it was good for all of us. I beg to tell people to write me ha ha. We live for mail. It's like Christmas everyday at lunch and dinner when I go get mail and the sisters get all their letters and Elder Hansen gets his daily package from his mom. he gets enough candy and food to feed the districk and everything has motivational notes attached to them. If you could send me pictures soon I'd love it. Also I need my container of oil on my key chain and a key ring to put it and my key on.

The MTC is really full. They're running out of stuff from keeping missionaries that are supposed to go but are stuck here on the flu lockdown. We have another district of 12 people (that's big, same as mine) coming to our zone tomorrow.

Also because of the flu, we can't shake hands or give hugs or play soccer or basketball. One of the elders in our zone got out of quarantine on Sunday. I'm not worried at all about getting sick though. I'm being careful.

Pray for me, I need all the help I can get.
Love, Elder Justin Esplin

Justin's First letter

We got a letter from Justin today. He must have written it the first night. It reads:

Hola familia!
First day has been real busy and I'm tired. All the Elders say tomorrow is worse, though. My companion is Elder Clyde and all I can say is Heavenly Father knows what he is doing. He's a lot like Orey and it's not going to be hard being friends with him. Tyler Robinson is in my zone. He's one of my high school buds from Levan and I was surprised to see him. 7 guys in our zone are sick with one in quarantine. Luckily, I'm not in the building that has swine flu though.
I think the food is very good. Our district has 4 sisters which is kinda unusual, I guess. I'm the District Leader too. I have no idea what to do. Hope I can do well.
So far, the best part is feeling the spirit all the time. It's a different feeling to be a missionary. All is well so far and I'm.... (the next sentence was missing, as the envelope came torn)... if not it is:
ELDER JUSTIN LYNN ESPLIN
MTC Mailbox #323
TX-DAL 0803
2005 North 900 East
Provo, UT 84606-1793
I miss ya and I love ya! Write please! And put stuff up on Facebook so others can.
Love,
Elder Justin Esplin

Kidney Stones = No Fun

I am a day past my "star wars" treatment for my kidney stone. They took a little laser and blasted the bugger to pieces and drug them out of there. I guess it was big enough that they didn't want to wait, it was too big to "pass" naturally, plus since I was bleeding, the chance for infection was getting fairly great. All I know is that I hurt more now than I did before, and that a general anesthetic makes me throw up -- for hours. I am very grateful for pain killers.
In two weeks I get to get the stint out, which is a unnatural little tube they left up there because the procedure left a tear in some natural little tube. I am not sure which one. I also get to have a series of tests to see if they can tell why this happened and if my diet has anything to do with it.
The bad news for all of you is that we previously had no family history for kidney stones. We do now. So drink lots and lots and lots of fluids.

Beginning of the term

I'm back from NYC! I'll be slowing posting stories and pics on my other blog, but I thought I'd put a little update on this one. James and I are both attending Spring term. He's taking E&M and Classical Mechanics, both very nerdy classes :P... And I'm taking Floral Design and Senior English. And I got a job! It'll only last for spring term, but it's something. I've had Norah, the floral design teacher, before this term for a plant class so I felt comfortable asking her after class if she knew of any jobs. I was hoping for a referral to a wholesaler or a floral shop, but I got something even better for my situation. She needed one more floral design TA, and even though I'll be taking the class at the same time I'll be a TA for it, she gave me the position. So basically I'm learning everything I could possibly learn from this class, especially the design labs because I'm teaching as I'm learning. It's been pretty exciting so far. We made Mother's Day bouquets in our four labs this week and it was really fun giving the students my opinion on color schemes and assisting them in design techniques I had just learned in lecture.

P.S. Happy Mother's Day!!

End of the semester

So I've put a list of blogs of our extend family members below. If you know of anybody else in the family that has a blog, please comment the url below.

As to news, James and I are finally done with finals for this semester! Yay! I leave for NYC on Saturday, bright and early at 6am. I'll be back on Thurs. night, with plenty to blog about. We both start Spring term on Tues, but I'll obviously be missing a few days. When I get back I'll be taking senior English and Floral design. I'll also be looking for a summer job since I didn't get the greenhouse job :( Oh well. James will be working as a TA and a research assistant again.

I asked James if he had anything to add to our update, and he said no. We're boring. So there you have it. Nothing else is new. For now. Just wait til I get back!

Look!
I've posted!
Like the Blog min~ mostly I just wanted to post something so not much is happening other than I got an 'A' on my Statics test! Went from the lowest score in the class on the first test, middle of the class on the second, to the second to highest on the most recent one. Bring on the Final!

E-mails

ok if I've set this up correctly than you should receive an e-mail notification about this blog.
If you'd rather not know when someone posts something let me know and I'll take you off the e-mail list.

But btw it is a FAMILY blog- so more than just me has to post.

-min

Milinda's Summer Theater

So my news for the upcoming summer is this-
I have been cast at the Pickleville Playhouse, a Dinner Theater in Bear Lake, and it's turning out to be a blast so far. I'm in the Mello-Drama called, "The Hanging of El'Bandito" opening the 12th of June and running until early September. Check out the site for specific dates.
http://www.picklevilleplayhouse.com/bearlake.html

I'm not sure what the deal is with Comp. Tickets yet, but I'll try and do what I can. I know the tickets are a little pricy, but I hear that the BBQ is amazing!
I'm also most likely going to be running tech for the other show, "Annie Get Your Gun" , and posibly doing a lighting design for one or both shows. I'm really excited!

As a day job I'll be working as a carpenter building the sets for the Lyric Theater, which is basically the USU Summer Theater in Logan.
I'm gonna be busy!

-min

In the Beginning

Well here it is the Esplin Family Blog... kinda strange but Dad said go for it so I did. This is to not only keep in touch with each other but to let the rest of the extended family and friends know what we are up to.
Have Fun!

-min