My Side of the Story

The title of this blog is H Squared and I realized I have a long way to go to make sure that title is true. Hyrum has done a wonderful job of chronicling our adventure but without him here for the summer I thought I probably ought to add a few words from Austin.

Hannah and I spent the first six weeks of our family separation at Hyrum's parent's house in Allen. We broke it up a bit for a trip to Provo and my weekend in California--more on that later. My youngest brother entered the Missionary Training Center (MTC) in Provo, Utah so my mom invited Hannah and I out to see him off. He's headed to Denver Colorado to serve a two year mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He'll spend about 9 weeks in the MTC learning Spanish. All my sibling were with us except my second brother who is in Mexico serving a mission. It was fun to hang out with my family and see them. They're a little further away than Hyrum's parents so we don't get to see them nearly as often. We spent time with Nathan and Emily and of course Adam. We spent one day in Salt Lake with my Aunt Julye and her family. The Saturday we were there the adults went to the temple and enjoyed an endowment session. It was pretty special to be there with my parents and siblings.

While in Allen, Hannah had a great time playing with all of Grandma and Grandpa Wright's toys. Here is Hannah with one of her favorites, the Tent.

We spent a lot of time swimming and I spent a lot of time sewing. Since Hyrum and I got married I told him I would make him a Texas Flag quilt. Well I had been working on it and shortly before we left for Utah I realized that I could have it done before I went to California and give it to him for Father's Day. I spent every moment I could working on it. We spent Memorial Day weekend with the family and Nate, Margaret, and Josh joined us. It was great to see them. Mostly we just hung out. I helped with what Mom would let me, which generally meant washing dishes and making dinner once a week.

It was great to have family around and a little break from Hannah. She and Rachel are best buds. Hannah had a great time bonding with her cousins, Samantha and Josh, since she saw both of them over the course of the six weeks.

Then Father's Day weekend, I flew to "sunny" California, only to find out that that means southern California to spent the weekend with Hyrum. Hannah hung out with Grandma and Grandpa Wright. Hyrum loved his quilt. We spent another week with the Wrights and then it was homebound while they had their vacations. We went to Allen again for a week July 12-18. We had to come home because Hyrum joined us in Austin, for which we were so happy. While he was coming home for school work we had a great time seeing him. It was so fun to hear Hannah's giggles while her dad played with her on the floor. I'm not so good at that right now. Monday afternoon we spent some time at the pool. It was nice to share that with Hyrum.

Tuesday we put Hyrum on a plane to Portland to present a paper at OSCON. We loved having him home and look forward to this weekend when we get to see him again, even if it is brief. Then we'll have just four more weeks without him. At this point we're counting the weeks for so many reasons. About 7 weeks until the new baby is due and four until Hyrum is home for good. The summer has gone by fast and we're glad for that.

There have been some hard moments but we sure have learned a lot. I've figured out I can do this but that I'm really glad I have Hyrum to help me. We're also really glad that we have family around to help out too. We're grateful for good friends and neighbors that have helped get Hannah and I out of the house even though the weather is miserable. One of the best things is that Hannah and I get to enjoy some good time together before little brother arrives. There are blessings in trials, that's for sure.