Never forget

It's been 9 years since the attacks on the world trade center and it's crazy to think it was so long ago. Though my memories of that day have faded some, I still remember quite a bit.

My roommate Kirsten turned on the radio as she always did while doing her make-up. It was strange that the music station wasn't playing music and it wasn't commercials. There was some agitated talking. We heard something about a plane crashing into a building and I remember not really understanding what was going on. I was only 19 and really didn't know much about the world outside my comfortable life as a college student. We started to understand that 2 planes had crashed into the world trade center towers and that it likely wasn't an accident. While we were listening a plane also crashed into the Pentagon. I called my brother Mike to find out who had such hatred for the US to do this and it was the first time I remember hearing the name Osama Bin Laden. How naive I was at such an age, thinking no one really had such hatred towards America and Americans. I had no idea about world affairs. I wanted to know it was real and since I did not have a TV in my apartment at college I knocked on peoples doors until I could find a TV so I could see what was happening. It was one of the most surreal things I have ever seen, it seemed to tear at my soul. I had always felt so safe as an American. People weren't dumb enough to attack America any more, right?

My first class of the day was a religion class (I was at BYU-Idaho) and my professor just turned on the news in the class as we sat silently watching. I still remember exactly how I felt and what a scary thing it was to feel like my safety was gone. He turned it off and we read from the Book of Mormon about wars in those times. I can't remember anything that we read but I know that there was some peace in something we read (in fact I probably have it marked, I should find that).

There was a TV in the lounge at my apartment and I watched it constantly for a few days, still shocked and trying to make sense of it all. It felt like the last days. A neighbor of mine had a family member in one of the towers and I remember she could not get through on the phone to anyone to find out if he was okay.

Sometimes I feel like we forget that day. For the first few months afterward it felt like our nation was united. It didn't matter what political party you were affiliated with, or how you felt about abortion, we knew that Americans had been murdered in a political move by al-Qaeda. Our hearts were broken and we felt the weight of the tragedy universally.

Do you still remember?

Cousin Pictures

Dave's parents have a friend across the street who is a professional photographer. We caught up with her the other day and got these pictures of Elijah and his cousins. (They were all born in a 16 day span). Elijah is on the right, Remington (Dave's younger brother's son) is on the left, and Jamison (Dave's older sister's son) is in the middle. Enjoy!









If you live in Houston area and want a good photographer check her out at www.k4photography.com

A home for the Figgins

We are officially under contract for a home. It's quite a scary venture but we're excited. As long as the sellers take care of a couple of issues we found in yesterday's inspection we'll close Sept 30th and move the next 2 days! Moving at the beginning of Oct will cut Dave's drive to work in half which will be really nice. Anyway . . . we're stoked. Here's some pictures of the place.

Dave's New Job

After lots of cell phone minutes and lots of crying on my part, the Lord came through and David has a job. I learned a lot about faith and I think David and I grew as a couple. I learned to be a little more trusting and let go of control a little.

We found out last Tuesday that David was going to have a job. Both Eisenhower High School and Clark Intermediate called on the same day to tell him they were submitting his name to HR and wanted to hire him. He at first was going to take the first person to get him a contract but when Eisenhower called the next day saying they wanted him to start meetings the next day and he could sign something then he just didn't feel good about it. He and I talked it over and I told him to call and talk with the district Fine Arts chair (he'd been talking with him over the past few months about getting a job). He had a good chat and they had him sign a letter of intent securing his position with the district. It was such a relief.

It's taken until today for them to finish his background check and get the paperwork in order (they're swamped and have a new person in HR training) but he signs his contract tonight and I will send out my resignation when he does. I have always wanted to be a stay at home mom and now I will get to. Funny how the thing you want can sometimes be the most scary . . . we'll be fine but I need to start figuring out a cleaning schedule so I can do a better job of keeping house and making dinners. I'll have to grocery shop when Dave gets home until it cools down here because my car's AC sucks if it's over 90 as it always is here. I am just excited to be a homemaker and to raise Elijah. He lights up our lives.

Now it's on to house buying, we're almost ready to make an offer and that will start a new chapter in our lives as real home owning adults!

Elijah Update: I just had to share this picture of Eli. He's such a sweet boy and at this point he rolls over nearly every time I put him on his tummy. So strong! He's also putting his fist in his mouth (some days more adeptly than others) and grabbing his elephant toy on the bouncer. He no longer grabs and shakes his rattle as well as he used to but I think he's just bored with that now.

Sad face

Last night I was trying to help Elijah finish waking up from his nap. So I took his binky and continued doing whatever I was doing. I looked back and he was looking at me with big eyes and his typical sad face, which happens to be the cutest sad face I've ever seen. I happened to catch it on film finally. So here is Eli's sad face.



Isn't that great!