Hayes Happenings

The last few months seemed to have a lot going on in our family.

• David had a change in jobs.  He now works for a CPA firm in Castleton called Gauthier & Kimmerling.  His bosses are nicer and everyone has been friendly, so it's been a positive change.

• The two of us had my parents watch the kids while we took a temple trip to Louisville in early May.  I read Conference talks out loud and we also chatted a lot on the way there and back.  It was a lovely day to be together!

David loves to take my picture...

Our couple selfie is "in your face" because we were using a real camera.  No smartphones for us!

•  I mentioned back in March how I put together the "60 Years of Memories" for my Dad's birthday.  Well, I did the same thing for my mom!  She celebrated her 60th in May with a surprise party that we threw for her!  It was a lot of work gathering all those memories from friends and family (I also formatted, printed, and placed in envelopes), but it was a wonderful project that I was grateful and happy to be a part of.

• We gathered with family at the Hayes' grandparent's house for Memorial Day, as Adam, Jen, Ethan, and Caeley moved back to the states from serving and living in South Africa.  Great to see them and have them with us again!  We went back for another visit on Father's Day as well.

Eli found and took down a nest

Clara loves playing with this doll

Clara swinging with Caeley

Ethan helping Eli on the stilts

Riding on Grandma's house swing

Eli really wanted to go fishing!  Gotta take that boy sometime.

• A family in our ward moved to Florida in early June.  I had become friends with the mom through playgroups and serving as her visiting teacher.  They lived in the ward for 5 years and were so involved and well-loved, so I knew they had to have a special send-off!  Another lady who they are good friends with offered to have a party, but their move came up fast with an early sell, so there wasn't time.  I reached out to that lady with the idea to make a memory book, and she graciously offered to help.  I put word out to the ward members to send me their memories/well-wishes to this family, and include a photo of their family.  Several responded that way, but not enough to fill a book!  The family went on vacation, so that week I brought the book with me to church (and one other week also) and passed it around for people to write in.  (I cut and placed colored cardstock cards for people's messages.)  The other lady got all the photos of families printed, and I put the book together.  I had to hand-write several of the messages that were sent via email, but I still think it came together nicely.  I'm glad they received so many sweet thoughts from their Indiana friends, and that they'll have this little reminder of the time they spent here.

• My sister went through a sad and surprising divorce in a matter of 2 1/2 months.  I went down to Greenwood to be with her and help move her stuff out of her house and into my parent's (who luckily lived 5 minutes away).  She and Mom came up a week or two later and we three went out to dinner and ice cream and saw the movie Cinderella.  This sister had been struggling with infertility during the past 4/5 years of their marriage.  They were about a week away from their 2nd IVF attempt when he dropped the bomb on her.  Since her eggs are not in great shape and they had raised money for the IVF, she decided to still do the retrieval and then freeze her eggs, so she could try to get pregnant in the future.  My parents were out of town, so I had the unique opportunity to travel with her down to Evansville for this appointment.  The appointment was early in the morning, so we went down the night before and stayed in a hotel.  We had a nice time together, but it was definitely an emotionally and physically hard experience.  I am so grateful that I could be there for her that day, and pray that someday those eggs will make a beautiful family for her to love.

• Right after my family left from my Grandma's funeral, we spent the following two weeks SICK.  :(  Eli started out with fever/cold for a couple days, then seemed better.  I got a miserable cold, thought I was getting better, then had a fever for a couple days and the congested continued with a bad cough for several days.  David spent a couple crummy days down, and after I thought we were all finally better, I ended up with an ear infection and Clara had a high fever for a couple days.  Phew!  Summer sickness is such a bummer!  I spent forever disinfecting ALL our toys, wiping down doors, handles, switches, everything!  It is SO hard to keep sickness at bay with kids!  Hopefully it will leave us alone now, at least until Fall.  :S

• The same sister (from above) celebrated a birthday last week!  On the day of her birthday she came up and we went out to lunch at Red Robin.  It was a later lunch and the kids were crazy!  I had her pick out a gift at Charming Charlie, and then we went back to my house for a little bit, so I could give the cake I made and sing "Happy Birthday" to her!  We love Becky!