The Woods Family Website

My week at work was pretty intense.  I was involved in the hiring process for a position at ALMACO. Normally, this isn’t a huge deal, but the interviews were quite lengthy and required me to keep my schedule clear for most of the day. As a result, things were pretty slow in between interviews making the days arduous. I think they went well overall, and I’m glad I had an opportunity to contribute to the decision. This is just one of the many reasons I enjoy working where I do; I love wearing different hats.

Tuesday we did BW3s and haircuts after work. The kids and I were overdue. We’ve been going to SportClips and while they aren’t the best in the world it’s quick and not too expensive. We still are having trouble finding someone to cut Isaac’s hair well. This lady does better than anyone has to date, but there’s still room for improvement.

On Wednesday, we surprised Aaron with a new bike. He’s needed one for awhile now, and we’ve been holding off. With his most recent growth spurt it was unavoidable. Aaron now has a new Schwinn that he’s absolutely in love with. Convenient for us, because we recently told him he would have to curb his video game playing. Not because he’s been playing too much, but because he’s been asking to play too much. Anyway, immediately following our trip to Toys-R-Us, we met Jeff and Melissa at Chuck E. Cheese. Both of the boys played until well past their bed time and were still awake by the time we got home. It made for an interesting evening, but once they calmed down the

Thursday we put together the bike and played outside. We took pictures with Candice’s new camera to share with everyone.

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Lisa Lofthus-Holter died yesterday (1-1-09) morning as a result of her brain tumor returning.  Lisa was Candice’s maid of honor in the wedding and dear friend.
She will be missed.  Please keep the Lofthus and Holter families in your prayers.

Lisa and Chris at their wedding in Aug. 2007

Here’s a link to Lisa’s journal:

http://www.caringbridge.org/cb/viewJournal.do?method=executeInit

And another to some of the back story:
http://www.caringbridge.org/cb/viewMyStory.do?method=executeInit

There will be two benefits in January.  One on the 9th and one on the 25th.  More information can be found here.
http://www.myspace.com/holterbenefit

With the selling of our home in Fort Dodge, we’re now on the hunt for a home in Ankeny, Iowa.  We selected Ankeny for a couple of reasons, mainly being the school system is much better than others in the greater Des Moines area.  Link  As far as the actual home goes, we want to find a house that allows us to stay in it for awhile.  The initial investment might be a stretch for us, but we don’t want to have to move in a few years when the kids get to be teenagers and want their own space.

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Well I know I haven’t updated in quite some time, and I certainly haven’t put any pictures of Isaac’s birthday up…   Here’s an attempt to update everyone on what has been going on.

The summer went really fast.  Living in Des Moines has been a great experience, but a huge burden in it’s own right.  There is so much to do here, and so many people to spend time with that juggling our nights and weekends has been a challenge.  This summer we really tried to see everyone and do all of those things that you HAVE to do each summer.  We really enjoyed hanging out with everyone and having our friends (Jeff and Melissa) move back has been awesome.

From a housing perspective, we lived with my parents all summer long.  A couple of weeks ago, I talked to our Realtor and discussed the likelihood of our house selling.  The situation in Fort Dodge looked grim so I did some research and learned we could rent our house even though we got an FHA loan.  So, with the plan to rent in mind, and the understanding that we’d need a few months to get the house ready to rent, I leased an apartment for 6 months.

We have moved.  We’re living in an apartment on Park Ave, west of Fluer drive.  We’ve got everything but the back room and garage cleared out from our house in FD.  Once we get those things and the storage unit emptied, we’re ready to go.  The last piece of the puzzle is to get things situated in the new apartment, and start living with the space we’ve got.

On that note, last night we got an offer for the house.  Great timing right?  Well, it’s not all peaches and cream… what they offered would leave us with a short sale (meaning we’d lose money).  Gotta love the economy.  We buy a nice house in a great neighborhood in FD, live there for 5 years, pay our mortgage every month, and end up having to pay someone to take it…  The upside is we’ll be able to get out of the monthly payments and can eventually buy the house.  The downside is the short sale will require we use the little money we’ve saved up for a down payment.

Considering all of that, I’m very thankful we’re doing as well as we are.  Not everyone is fairing as well as we are in this current crisis.  I know we’re in God’s hands with this one, and I trust he’ll lead us in the right direction when the time is right.

Wow… words can’t describe how awesome this weekend was.  I didn’t realize how much I missed being together as a family (Candice, me, and the kids).  I mean, I feel lonely pretty often without them with me, but I had so much fun I didn’t want the time to pass.  We met up in Ames on Friday night because Cameron (Candice’s youngest brother) was in town to see Marcus.  We got a chance to chit-chat and enjoy Cameron’s company before we headed back up to Fort Dodge.  That night was pretty tame; we put the kids to bed and called it a night.  The next day was absolutely gorgeous.  The sun was shining and there was a nice breeze.  We got the kids dressed early that morning and spent as much time outside as humanly possible.  I got a chance to clean up my car and the boys played outside all afternoon.  Around 5 PM, John brought over his two nephews and his niece to play.  The kids were a lot of fun to have around.  I got a feeling of what it’d be like to have a large family.  Candice did too, and mentioned that we should consider having 5 kids… yeah right!  We grilled out, had a few beverages, and let the kids play until it got late.  John had to drag the kids out… they wanted to stay the night.  Sunday was pretty lazy.  Candice helped me with the laundry and we vegged for most of the morning.  In the afternoon they packed up and headed out.  It was painful to see them go, but hopefully we won’t be doing the long distance thing for much longer.

So last weekend Candice and I switched cell phone providers.  I had been with US cellular for around 10 years and after a long stint with them, we decided it was time to move on.  About a month ago Candice announced she’d had enough with her phone and once our contract was up we’d both get iPhones.  Well, as it turns out, she wasn’t as excited about it as I was, and the discount she gets at AT&T only applies if she gets a different type of phone.  Therefore, Candice got a nice new Blackberry Curve.  She’s enjoying her new phone.  I think she’s finally understanding the hype of PDA phones and taking to them quickly.  I’ve even recieved a couple of on-the-fly pictures she’s sent to me.

I, on the other hand, was still stuck on getting the iPhone.   It’s a technical marvel that I never thought I’d get to use.  I’m really grateful that we were able to get it.  The phone is really easy to setup.  Connect to iTunes and away you go.  The phone is really intuitive as well.  Once I figured out where the “on” button was, the rest was just a matter of finding my way around.  Nothing was overly difficult or painful.   I am considering adding a whole review section on my techy purchases for people to see, but for now I’ll keep the review-ish talk to a minimum.  Just know after a week of owning the phone… iLove my iPhone.

At the end of 2007 we made a trip to Aiken, SC. It was a much over due journey. Candice’s parents had moved down there in June, so we all were missing each other. Candice’s brothers (Curtis, Marcus and Cameron) were coming down also. It was quite the Rosenow get together.

Our adventure there was quite an experience. Think along the lines of blizzard conditions, driving under 25mph on the interstate, and short trip up to the cities that took us over 5 hours to make! Once we actually made it to the hotel the rest of our trip was a dream. We shopped at the Mall of America before our flight in the afternoon and casually got to the airport. Our flight was on time, the kids had a nap, and things went really well. There was a spill on the plane (I got soaked in Coca-Cola), but really everything else about the trip was great.

We arrived on Christmas Eve and turned in early. When we woke, Santa had visited, and the kids were pretty riled up! Aaron was a real sport and took the time to hand out all the present. Then both boys tore through present after present. We spent the rest of the day in the house, leisurely enjoying our gifts, playing games, and ended it all with a fantastic Christmas feast.

The rest of the week, we had a casual agenda. We shopped in Augusta, went to a famous horse stable in Aiken, ate out a few times, cooked and played at home more, enjoyed a Russian or two, and just hung out together. Our time was up much sooner than anyone wanted, but we had to return.

Our trip back was a bit more dramatic. Isaac wouldn’t relax enough to sleep until about an hour after we were on the plane. Aaron was also tired and cranky… Candice and I vowed to never make the kids ride hours in a car AND hours on a plane again. The money we saved we paid for in tears and screams… the kids that is… not us.

We arrived back in Minneapolis with snow on the car and a long road ahead of us. About 4 hours later, we arrived at home. Glad to be there, but already missing Grandma and Poppa Rosenow.