The Bennett Family

Our refrigerator came yesterday. It's set up, plugged in, and cold! Who would have thought that simply having a refrigerator could bring you so much happiness? There are a lot of things we take for granted because they are always there; the past month with no refrigerator has definitely helped Joey and me to remember that.

We also received our check from Whirlpool yesterday. They offered to give us $150 for the rather significant inconvenience they put us through by failing to deliver our fridge in a timely manner. I cashed that today which reminds me to be thankful for small-town banks. We only have one major bank here in Ridgecrest (it's a Bank of America) so we do most of our finances online, but it is nice to have one locally.

One really cool thing about the fridge situation is that they let us keep the shelves we had before in addition to the new shelves. Because the old refrigerator has to be salvaged they didn't need the shelves back. A few of them are being put to good use and making our shiny new refrigerator work in the best way possible for us.

The other really cool thing was that the delivery guy helped us figure out why the valve behind our fridge (that isn't connected to our fridge at all) was leaking. Apparently it just needed to be plugged. While that is most certainly something I wish I knew before it caused the water damage that's been done, I'm glad that we know about it now and not later. It's crazy that the fix is such a little fix.

Isn't it nice what happens when you have your mom write really mean emails to companies who don't treat you right? No, seriously, my mom's email was very professional but to the point, and it definitely helped. Yay for moms!

One of the greatest advantages (and sometimes disadvantages) about where we live is our distance from family. We were able to go to Las Vegas for two weekends in a row - once to see my little nephew blessed, and the other to see my brother baptized. Both of these were once in a lifetime occasions that I am glad we were able to see.

Carter William Idland was blessed on 12 October by his bishop. He looked so cute in his litte white outfit. This followed a great weekend spent with my dad and his wife in Las Vegas.

It was also the first time I've ever had sushi (not at the blessing, of course, but the night before at a sushi buffet). I was surprised by how good it was. Now I want Joey to take me back.... and he will... after I get down to my goal weight.

This last weekend we went back to see my brother baptized. I really felt the spirit while I was there. I was sitting next to my sister-in-law during the baptism, so I got to look at cute little Carter while holding cute little Lorelei. It's amazing how great it felt to be around my family after being so far away for so long.

After the baptism, Joey and I took Tyler and Nicole out to dinner. We went to McDonald's because I'd been craving that and Nicole likes the Monopoly game that they are doing right now. We spent a few hours just talking, which was great. I'm really glad that we made that trip.

Yesterday, in a McDonald's in Las Vegas a half-mile from where my brother Tyler and his wife Nicole live (along with new baby Carter), Lorelei said her first word.

"Da-da." Joey and I looked at each other, as though it were a fluke and we were trying to see if the other person heard it.  Since then, she has said it several more times, probably since she gets such great attention when she does.

In other news, I have finally seen the teeth that she's teething on... the middle two teeth on the bottom, with promises of more soon. They haven't broken the surface, but they are noticeable.

And in still better news, she met her cousins this weekend. She got to meet (and take pictures with) John, Caleb, and Madison (who are really mine and Joey's cousins) on Saturday and then her newest cousin Carter on Sunday. Cute babies all around!

This morning, at about 10 minutes after midnight, my sister-in-law Nicole gave birth to Carter William Idland. Carter was 7 lb 4 oz and 20 1/2 inches. After many trials and tribulations, both mom and baby are doing fine. I'm also told that my brother is ecstatic to be a daddy (and he'll make a good one!).

When John was born in December, Joey came home and proudly proclaimed, "I'm a cousin again!" Since then, we've welcomed our own Lorelei, but more recently been made cousins again twice over... with Caleb coming to Brian and Jenny a few weeks ago, and Madison to Bruce and Becky yesterday.

Congrats, you guys... we're so happy for all of you, and so excited to meet our new cousins!

After being asked by several people, I have finally put the time in to post some pictures. Since I'm still not 100% ready to do it the fast and easy way, it took the better part of the day... but the pictures are here. I believe there are around 90 different pictures in all.

It'll probably be about a month until I do this again, so I hope this will help tide everyone over until then.

Our house is finally actually our house! It feels so weird to think that I own the place in which I live. I had a hard time even realizing what it meant when our agent called to tell me. Joey had the same reaction; all he could say was "Cool." We're both pretty ecstatic about that (and about not having to deal with realty issues anymore).

In other news, my grade for my last college class posted tonight. Surprise, surprise, it was an A! So it turns out that I earned perfect grades in my last two classes, both of which I was dreading. College is really over! My degree should post to the system soon, and then the university should be sending it in the mail sometime in September (summer school technically ends in August, and the degrees mail a month after that).

Congrats to us! This is a day that we can really celebrate.