Happy Resurrection!

We are now entering the final stages of baby prep, which means that the kid will probably hang on in there for another 2 weeks, making all of our lives as uncomfortable and difficult for as long as possible. Jarom and Lix have been busy getting his room ready, which means changing what used to be my room into a nursery. When you don’t have a person occupying one of the rooms in the house it tends to be a collection point for all manner of things that you don’t really need or use, but you maybe don’t want to get rid of either. So the past few weeks have been a giveaway spree as Jarom has cleaned out the attic and gone through all the stuff that we don’t need. He got rid of several lamps, a whole bunch of old wedding presents that still hadn’t been used, a bookshelf and its corresponding books, including an especially painful delivery of Alixa’s treasured “Twilight” collection to the local library. But there is a lot more space now, and I am pretty sure Lix wasn’t ever going to read those books again anyway. And after much prodding and correction, Jenna has stopped calling the new baby brother Horsey and has returned to Bo. So that’s a plus.

Playing with Kenna's new AWESOME kitchen set

Jarom’s nesting phase hasn’t just been limited to the indoors. He also noticed, by himself and without any prompting from his wife, that the Crape Myrtle and Dogwood trees in the front yard needed to be pruned. So he swung by the Home Depot, got some pruning shears, watched a Youtube video and got to clipping. I don’t think they look any better right now, but much like every lesson you learned from your parents, apparently it’ll be good for them later.

Hanging out at the Children's Museum

While he was out in the yard working, he happened to catch a glimpse of the state inspection sticker on his car and remembered that they are good for one year, followed by the memory of moving to Richmond exactly one year and 2 months ago. So it was off to Midas to get that little oversight corrected. But as often happens at the auto repair shop, things are never as simple as you might hope. I guess after 120,000 miles sometimes the muffler needs to be replaced because it has rusted a hole in itself. No big deal, throw down a hundred bucks or so and get it taken care of. Well, not exactly. You see, Jarom’s parents lovingly bestowed upon him a luxury car, the likes of which he could never afford on his own, and for which he and his family are forever thankful. But this type of snootymobile can not be bothered with your standard, run-of-the-mill muffler. No, no, it needs the special $550 muffler that also cures cancer and has to be specially ordered from the manufacturer, and we all know how renowned manufacturers are for their discount pricing. But in a few days the part will arrive and Jarom will once again be driving a legally certified vehicle around the state of Virginia.

In their Easter dresses, pre-hunt

This past weekend the Winns of Richmond celebrated Easter. What’s that you say, Easter isn’t for another two weeks? Are you sure? Well, what’s done is done. Due to upcoming travel plans for the Nate Winn family and upcoming family expansion plans for the Jarom Winn family, they decided to hold their easter egg hunt a little early. They figured the kids don’t know what day Jesus came back to life anyway, so no big deal. Alixa and Kenz “hid” some eggs and assorted other dollar store treats out in the yard while Jarom and Nate played on Kenna’s new kitchen set, and then it was off to the races to see who could collect more loot. Much to Alixa’s surprise, Jenna seemed to be the more aggressive gatherer. But both girls had a lovely time and the adults sat around in the nice weather and chatted for a while afterwards. It is a nice time of year here in Richmond.

Savoring the fruits of their labor

The other cool thing that has been happening around here is Jarom’s long distance participation in an old friend’s conversion process. Carrie Fitzpatrick (now Fisher) was a friend of Jarom’s at good old AI dupOnt high and for about 8 years afterwards had been lost. But the miracle of facebook brought her back a few years ago, and they have emailed each other sporadically since then. Then a couple months ago he finds out that Carrie is getting divorced and has been hanging out with (and for a time, dating one) a bunch of mormon folks. Not long after, she started meeting the missionaries and wouldn’t you know it, she got baptized this past weekend. Now if you were to ask high school Jarom to provide the odds on each of his friends being baptized into the LDS church later in their lives, and you put $1 down on Carrie Fitzpatrick, you would now be very wealthy. And Carrie would tell you the exact same thing. But she did go with Jarom to seminary once, and I guess Sister Rice brought her A game that morning, because I doubt there has ever been a person more excited about joining the church than Carrie is. And it has been very cool for Jarom to be able to talk to her and listen to the changes that she is making and the excitement she has for her family’s future. It has also caused him to look back at some other people from his high school days and wonder what they may have become. I guess you never really know what sort of stuff is possible.

Hopefully, the next post will have a baby weight to go with it.

In case the first video wasn't enough for you. Notice that the documenters outnumber the documentees 1.5 to 1.