Florida Outcasts

Church, Family Stuff and Friends for 20 Years

2012-01-30T14:11:00.006-07:00

Last night I took Erin to her baptism preview. My thoughts on this are, Do I really have a kid that is old enough to be baptized? and What a special and important decision to make as a young child. It got me thinking about baptism as I felt the spirit and the truthfulness of the gospel. It made me wonder if I had done enough to help my children understand what this really means. Have I even done anything? While they were talking about baptism Erin leaned over and asked what immersion meant and then on the way home she asked what you do if you make more mistakes after all your sins are washed away. After I got baptized I clearly remember sitting up straight and trying my best to be perfect from then on. It was quite the responsibility. That obviously didn't last too long. I realized the effort was just too much. Anyway, I explained that the purpose of the sacrament is to renew that covenant, repent and start again, every week. I think Erin was relieved about that. Then she told me I could stop talking now. I've got some more teaching to do though. I want her to really understand this and I want it to be her decision, not just because that's what her parents told her to do. And she is understanding so much more lately. It is an exciting year, that's for sure.

We also went to the temple for a family sealing session on Saturday. My mom had done a whole bunch of work finding names and everyone has been doing the work for these people. It was so special to be there with some aunts and uncles, cousins, siblings, and parents to do this work for our ancestors. I can't take any credit for it, but it was special to be a part of it. The temple worker mentioned that he would give anything to have this many of his family members in the temple together. I have a great family!

The next day was another family event up at Jared's parents' house. His younger brother turned 12 and got the Aaronic Priesthood. His dad, 5 of his brothers and 1 brother in law stood in the circle. Things like that are always cool things to see. Love big families!

This week Marissa has been so much better. I have tried to understand her emotions more instead of automatically get mad when she whines or ignores me. Dang it, I hope my kids come out without needing too much therapy. This week Connor had a rough time. He had a few days with a slight fever and then a few where he refused to eat and several where he could not be calmed down for anything. Typical every now and then, I'm sure, but frustrating nonetheless. He seems a little better the last couple of days. Who wants to be next? I feel like the kids know when one kid is having a hard time so they decide to behave until it's their turn. I guess that's a good thing because I really don't think I could handle two or more kids acting up at the same time.

Maybe that was the reason my older kids were so helpful this week. On Saturday we all spent almost three hours cleaning the house and Erin and Alex did a ton of work willingly and without complaining. How did I get such awesome kids? They single-handedly cleaned the bathrooms, picked up and organized the playroom, cleaned their rooms and did the laundry. Yes, laundry. (It's got to be because our laundry room is so great, it's magnetic.) And Erin mopped the whole main floor for the first time by herself. Why don't I ever get pictures of these things? I overheard Alex telling Erin, "We love to do our jobs because we are trying to be more helpful, right Erin?" It sure is a light at the end of the tunnel to see that my kids can do stuff like this on their own.

There are some really, really nice people in the neighborhood. I feel like there are so many to get to know and they all have kids the same ages as my kids. A couple of ladies came over today with their kids for lunch and a play date. While they were here, three other neighbors asked their kids to play today too. Crazy. I have to get in the loop. My kids will love it. And I will too.

So, I've been thinking about life next year because preschool and kindergarten sign-ups are next week. I'm having a dilemma about whether to put Alex in morning kindergarten or afternoon. Either way I will have to go to the bus stop three times. If he did afternoon then Erin and Alex could walk home together, which would be nice. But if Marissa has a morning preschool, having Alex home in the morning might be a dumb idea. Any suggestions???

Lastly, I love my friends. I love all my friends, but right now I'm talking about the ones from high school. This is a picture of our last get together. The thumbs down is to commemorate the time Cheryl and I ruined Jana's wedding pictures by doing the exact same thing (because we were still single).

Who knew that 20 years later we'd still be friends? I never actually thought I would be able to say that I'd been friends with someone for 20 years. I mean, that's like what my parents say not what I should be saying. Twenty years?! We had a lot of good times being band geeks in high school, playing bumper cars in the high school parking lot and getting kicked out of a good share of restaurants. And who can forget the time Marinda and I had no choice but to rescue Jana from the liquor store in California when we were 16. How were two innocent Utah girls supposed to know you could buy chips in a store like that? But, that is how our friendship began.

I don't know where this was taken (probably Green River?), or how many years ago. Judging from the Girbaud shorts I'm wearing, around 1995. Just look how young we all look (and don't mind the "rat" on my face--I have no idea what that is about)

I guess after high school I thought I would move on and make new college friends. And I did. I loved my college roommates. Those were some of the best days of my life. But after a few years of seeing my high school friends in the summers, writing letters (like actual letters with stamps) with Cheryl for a couple of years, and serving three missions between all of us, Jana, Cheryl and I became roommates at BYU. Good times. After I got married and moved to Florida, we still remained great friends. There are just certain people that you can be yourself with, laugh with (and at) and tell your problems to without any reservation. That's the kind of friends these are. The kind that you can have fun with pulling out pink and white animal crackers every time you come to an intersection to determine which way to go, and just figuring out where you end up. Or rolling down the biggest hill you can find while acting out The Princess Bride. Or dressing up as old ladies to take pictures at a completely packed bowling alley just because we thought it would be funny. Now that I'm back in Utah, we have a girls' night out once a month with Jana, Cheryl, Marinda, Cara (who is finally back in the loop after a divorce and remarriage-yay!) and Jenn, when she can make it (dumb night job!). I love these outings! I love these friends! I don't have to start over or get to know anyone. It' just a bunch of good friends that have known each other for about 20 years now. And, there'll probably be another good 20 or 40 more!

This Week

2012-01-22T18:53:00.005-07:00

Every week I've been trying to focus on one Christlike attribute and talk about it with the kids. This week was patience. When I started telling them about patience and thinking of examples, all I got were blank stares about the subject, like they just couldn't comprehend this one. It was then that I realized that I am the one who needs to work on patience, not them. I ran across the scripture in Mosiah about how we should be like a child, and one of a child's attributes is patience. I think in a lot of ways that is true. I tried really hard this week to be more patient, and did okay for a good while. By the end of the week I definitely didn't show the patience I should have, especially with Marissa. She has been testing my patience so much lately. I cannot even tell you how frustrating this child is to me right now. I try to show her more love when she isn't frustrating me. I hope this is only a phase that has an end somewhere in the near future.

We have been working on a lot of projects lately. Even though there are so many of them and that they are a lot of work, we are so happy to have projects. We love being able to do things around the house after not being able to for so long. There's the curtains I'm making, the furniture I'm refinishing and the girls' bedroom that is 98% done, as well as shelves to build, new outlets to wire and a utility sink to put in the basement next to my painting room (ohhh--that'll be a dream come true for me). Sometimes I feel like I just go from one thing to the next without actually finishing the first thing. I blame it on being a mom and always getting distracted. That, and having too many ideas rumbling around in my head. It's been so great to have a third car garage to be able to work on things in there. And to think we were considering not getting the third car part. Totally worth the extra money. There is no, and I mean no extra space in the two car part. When we first organized the garage, we lined everything up on the walls the way we did in Florida. Then when we pulled the van in, I realized that we couldn't even get by the freezer, let alone open it. That was also when I realized that we didn't have to fit everything in the garage anymore because we have a basement. The bunk bed is well underway, even though time is sometimes an issue as well as the coldness that usually dissuades us from going out there. Every time we work on it I have to keep reminding Jared about all the fun we are having by building a bunk bed instead of buying one. I think deep down he agrees with me. Good thing I'm here to make him do stuff like that with me. (Good thing he's here to make sure it gets done right. Example: compare my 8th grade shop projects with his sturdy high school furniture projects that we still use.)

I was talking to someone else who just built a townhouse about how it's hard to even hang pictures on the wall because you are ruining your perfect house. The first week we lived here I felt so paranoid about getting marks on the walls and scratches on the floor. We ended up getting some really big, long scratches on the nice wood floor. The floor people came to fix another scratch, covered the newly made scratches with a stain pen and then told me to embrace the scratches. Since that time I have done a few things: 1. I put felt on the bottom of all our chairs and furniture, 2. I bought a stain pen (and have started using it) and 3. I came to the realization that this house is to be lived in and can now embrace the little things that happen to it. In less than a month of living here I found pen, pencil, marker, crayon, green paint, purple paint, a quarter sized dent and black scuff marks on the walls. The carpet has been peed on, pooped on, painted on and thrown up on. This is what I call embracing the fact that we actually live in this house. And I just don't worry about it as much any more. I still haven't gotten around to hanging anything more than a clock on the wall, but that is not because I'm worried about putting holes in the perfectly good wall. I'm way over that.

We've been getting Bountiful Baskets quite a bit lately. We love it. It's a co-op where you pay $15 for a basket of various types of fruits and vegetables. You never know what you will get, but that is part of the beauty of it. Would I have ever bought eggplant or brussels sprouts? I'm going to say no. But it forces me to plan meals around the vegetables we get and forces us all to eat more healthy. I feel like I don't spend as much at the grocery store when we have so many other good things to eat. I've been trying to put out a variety of vegetables for the kids and let them choose two or three of whatever they want. That way they aren't forced to eat the thing that makes them throw up, but are still eating vegetables. Maybe everyone else has children that eat vegetables, but for us, this is a big breakthrough. We watched them eat broccoli, cauliflower, radishes, cucumbers, celery, and (get this)... lettuce. I don't think my kids have ever eaten lettuce before. No joke. They say your taste buds change every 7 years, so I should never give up trying to feed my kids good stuff. Here's all I know. I have hated, like couldn't stand, shrimp and onions my whole life. Until this year. I not only ate shrimp on various occasions without gagging, I actually liked it. And I've been finding myself cutting up a lot of onions and putting them in my food lately. What is that all about? Could this mean I might actually like cow stomach if I tried it 15 years after my mission? Yeah, okay, not going to happen.

At the beginning of the year, we had a family home evening where we all wrote some new years resolutions. Erin's goals were great: help her siblings, read more books, follow God and don't lie. Actually, "don't lie" was number one. Really? For some reason it hadn't crossed my mind that she needed to stop her lying habit. I actually didn't know she ever lied. She must be good at it. But, I am impressed that she recognized it and made a goal to do better. That's got to be a good quality. Anyway, I thought that was kind of funny. I felt somewhat uninspired about my goals this year. I did so well last year and completed all three of my goals. Yeah, I have some this year, but they are not as good as last year's. Save a certain amount of money, be more generous, do morning devotionals with the kids, go to the temple every month, keep up the blog(s) and work on projects. Exercise should be on there, but I've been feeling so frustrated with my rotated pelvis issue that makes me feel like I will never be able to run or do things I love like that again. Ugh.

Anyway, I have so much to be grateful for. Like, what would I do without heat in the winter? I am so aware of how reliable and hard working a furnace is right now. And hot water, and cars that work, and kids that are healthy, and good friends, and the Atonement. So many blessings to count, so little time. Here's to being more grateful (and more patient) next week.

Christmas 2011

2012-01-09T21:55:00.006-07:00

All right, so I finally can add pictures again. I've been meaning to document the fact that Christmas, indeed, did come this year. No Christmas card or letter based on the fact that there was not a suitable picture of the family, or anyone of late. Merry (belated) Christmas to all anyway. I'm hoping things will be luckier next year in this department for our family.

Lights
We drove through the Thanksgiving Point Festival of Lights and now we know, we don't ever have to waste 8 bucks to see that again. Most of the lights you could see from the road anyway.

We went to see the lights at Temple Square. It was cold, but not snowy. I scrounged up enough cold weather clothes and spent a good 30 minutes trying to convince the kids that they were going to want to wear them. "No, really... it's going to be cold," I would say. They kept rolling their eyes at that ridiculous notion and coming downstairs in things like capris and flimsy shoes, that is until we got out of the car and they felt the cold, night air. Turns out, I was right this time.

The lights were beautiful. I forgot the stroller--a dumb move--but at least everyone was warm. Also, we waited in line for over an hour for some food. I guess we weren't the only ones with the same idea for FHE that night. I tried to take some pictures and here's how it went:

Erin was happy the whole time...
...and smiled for every picture. They make a cute couple, eh?
Connor was not into pictures until we started tickling him. Then his face lit up like the lights. He could not have been cuter all bundled up. I don't think he could put his arms down all the way either. I just want to eat this one up!
Marissa didn't run from the camera, but she made it a point to only make faces.
Can you tell which one of my kids doesn't like getting their picture taken right now? Wow, he's going to think he had a miserable childhood when he looks back at this one. Alex is actually a content, happy child until you try to take a picture of him. "No, I hate getting my picture taken!" It seems like there is always one child going through a picture strike phase at any given moment, making it entirely impossible to take any form of good family photography. Am I the only one with this problem?

The Decor
We got our annual family Christmas ornament. Love that tradition. This is a cute one.We hung our stockings on the banister which had been primed at this point. The banister was the perfect length for our family too. How did that work out? Is this a sign that I should stop having kids? These stockings are way cheap. In fact, they came from our ward Christmas party in Florida--back where the primary is so small that every child gets a full stocking with their own coloring book, crayons, candy. (Here we were lucky to get a candy cane). Anyway, as it ended up, we had 3 blues, 2 purples and 1 red from Erin's school at one point. I think Erin liked being unique. My goal is to make cute stockings one year, preferably before the kids move out.Since we moved into our house in the middle of December, we didn't end up getting a tree until a week before Christmas. We went to Lowe's and could barely find the tree place because they were almost all gone. There were a total of three trees to chose from. We got a discount because it was so late in the season. This was literally the driest, most unhealthy specimen of a Christmas tree ever. Even the lady checking us out remarked how light the tree was (bad sign). It just had to last a week. The day after Christmas we took it down and bought a fake one. We still don't know what to do with the tree. I think it is still blowing around in our back yard. That'll probably be our last real tree. Just look how sad and saggy the thing is? Presents
On Christmas morning the kids got up and opened their stockings. We also went through all the toys that didn't have batteries and left them out for Santa to fix. We hardly had any time because church was at 9:00. The one day you want church at 1:00 is Christmas. Now we really do have 1:00 church. This picture also shows the first rug I bought and then later exchanged for another one. It was the softest rug ever. It looked silvery on one side and black on the other, but I didn't know that when I bought it. I really wanted gray, and I wasn't loving it. Be honest, it looks like a giant, dead muskrat on the floor. I don't think I've ever bought the right rug on the first try. The bad thing was that this store didn't have a return policy, you could only exchange it. What was I thinking? I was so stressed by that! But I finally found one I like--that is much less dead-animal-hide-ish too.After stockings we had a quick pancake breakfast. Here they are dressed for church. It was my dream to have all four kids lined up at an island bar on bar stools. They love eating breakfast and lunch here. But, it only seats four, giving me yet another indication that I can't have any more kids. Think how many fights it would create? Also seen in this picture, another example of how utterly impossible it is for all four of them to smile at the same time. We made it to church mid sacrament, as in we missed the bread. Oh well. It was Christmas after all.

After church they opened their presents. The only thing that Alex said he wanted was a scooter, which naturally meant that all three of the older kids had to get one. They have a blast riding those things around in the unfinished basement and haven't as of yet broken any bones doing it. But we'll give that some time. They are constantly running into the wall or each other. Also, you know how the only red stocking was Erin's? This day the only outfit that wasn't red was hers. This was because I completely failed on the Christmas outfits this year. I ended up buying what you see at a consignment shop. Lame, but whatever. I should have bought those cute red dresses when I saw them instead of trying to find them again the week before Christmas. I did try, sort of.Erin had been saying she wanted a new jewelry box for months. I think she got one two years ago, but it was quickly ruined by some sibling or other. Erin was so specific too. It had to be pink, wooden, with fairies on it and a twirling fairy inside with music playing. I felt so proud to find it. The other thing she started asking for was an American Girl doll (thanks go to her best friend in Florida who has one, otherwise she wouldn't even know what they are). I told Jared how much they were and he brought me back to reality. "There is no way I am spending $100 on a doll!" he told me. Oh yeah. I ended up researching knock offs and got the cutest one I could find. You really can't tell them apart, unless you collect them (and believe me, that will not be us). When she opened it, instead of reading the brand of doll on the box, she exclaimed, "An American Girl doll!" She loves that doll! If anyone tells her it's not real, they are dead meat.Alex is so hard to shop for. If Erin is super specific, Alex is the complete opposite--totally non-descriptive in what he wants. "Just boy stuff. I don't really care what I get." He is happy with anything, but he isn't into any one thing. That's what makes it hard. He ended up getting the batman cave Trio set and Marble Works. My parents got them the Toy Story Lego set. Way awesome. (I'm not sure if Alex's picture strike is over here or not, but my guess is that it was temporary due to me maybe threatening to take all his presents away or something along those lines.)Jared had the most fun with marble works.For a long while Marissa kept asking for a baby doll with a baba. After I had already bought one, we unpacked some things from storage and she found her old baby doll with a baba. "I don't actually need one anymore," she informed me. That's when she decided she wanted a spydenscope instead, whatever that was. "Marissa, did you ask Santa for that?" I asked her. "No, but he's going to get it for me," she kept telling me. Great. I tried my best to figure out what exactly a spydenscope was and got her a cheap telescope. Maybe I was way off, but what else could I have done? Update on the spydenscope: something inside it is now dislodged rendering it even more useless than it was before. Another update: the kids just informed me it's actually a "spotting scope", you know, like to spot the moon, and I still have no idea what they are talking about. The other thing she got was a play toaster, hot chocolate maker (because we don't drink coffee), and a cool blender that actually sort of works. She kept trying different things out in it and was really mad when raw carrots didn't work. Update on that gift: the top of the blender is now completely melted due to one of Connor's new obsessions, putting random items in the oven. And yes, this was the best picture I got of her all day.I didn't catch what Connor wanted, due to the fact that he still speaks Chinese. But there are three things in life that Connor loves: balls, tools and vacuums. Seriously, even as a little baby he loved the vacuum. Weird kid. He wouldn't sit still for a picture, but he got a tool set, a toy vacuum and lots of balls. I couldn't even find them all because he'd thrown them all over the house. I think he ended up getting 8 of them. Excessive? Maybe, but that kid loves to play ball. I may have to donate some to the nursery as there is only one in the entire nursery room.Connor with his safety goggles. Love this kid!Jared and I did a good job of avoiding the camera this year, though it was my intention to get a family shot. We both got a potato masher in our stockings (since we fill each others). This was only because every time Jared went to mash potatoes he asked me if we had one and the answer has always been the same for 9 years, "No, we don't have one." Now we have two. Jared got new work clothes, a Kelly Kettle and a new set of keys, after losing his downtown somewhere. I got a new set of Pyrex dishes with lids that I love, a muffin tin and a new blog book. It was a good Christmas. The best present of all was our new house, but Jared was smart to get me something other than just that:)

Family
We spent Christmas Eve with Jared's family where the kids acted out a stellar performance of the Nativity. Marissa was a sheep, Alex was a shepherd, our doll Dot played baby Jesus, and Erin was an angel with her cousin Rebecca. They sang and spoke and did a great job.

On Christmas night we went to my parents' house where we had another great family dinner with everyone. What a blessing it was to celebrate our Savior's birth through song, family and a wonderful spirit that is always present around that time of year. Merry (very belated) Christmas!

A Post, Finally

2012-01-08T23:04:00.004-07:00

So, it's January. Huh. I have felt somewhat uninspired lately to blog, probably because I always feel like I need to put pictures with it and I've been having issues with that lately. But Jared had another blog book printed up for me for Christmas and it is a great family journal. And I just made it a goal to blog here once a week. Watch out.

First, the weather has been so beautiful--warm (for winter), sunny, mild. It certainly makes me happy to see the sun, even though we will probably be in for some serious drought issues if we don't get some snow soon. It sure is nice to be "warm" for our first winter back.

We've had some great family get togethers lately. This morning we got together for Jared's neice's baby blessing and tonight we had family home evening with my side of the family. I have to say, I love being close to our families! What a blessing. We had a house warming party with Jared's family on New Year's Eve day. There were 33 people here and the house fit everyone perfectly. When the kids got too loud, we sent them upstairs or downstairs. I love having a separation! Toys stay upstairs and food stays downstairs--for the most part anyway. In our house in Florida the kids' bedrooms were right by the front door so you were always tripping over toys, in the entry way. This house has been so much easier to keep clean, or at least the parts that people see. Am I really not as messy as I thought? Our bedroom stays clean due to our big walk in closet. What a concept. And the laundry...

Hands down, the best part of this house is the laundry room. I may have said it before, but it still holds true. I love it enough to make it it's own paragraph, and a long one at that. It's not by any means huge, maybe 8' x 8', but it is so incredibly functional. The original plan from the model was the same size but not at all as useful. There was a counter across the back wall with a corner by the washer that was completely unusable. Then, the door took up the only other wall making that area unusable too. To top it off, when our friends across the street got their washer inside their laundry room, they couldn't even open one of the drawers in the cabinet. What we did instead was move the door to the middle of the room and move the counter to the wall where the open door was. Then we made it a pocket door so that you could still access the counter on one side and the washer/dryer on the other. The wall opposite the door is for baskets and there's still room for a garbage can and shelf on that side. The kids are getting a hang of sorting into three colors so it goes from the baskets to the washer right there. Folding laundry is a joy. The sun streams through the window as I fold and I honestly think the words, "I love this room" whenever I do. Each child has their own basket to put away, but I can leave them there until night time and it doesn't look messy like it would on my bed or in the family room. It belongs there. Laundry never comes downstairs. It's right between the kids' rooms and right across from the bathroom. I can even keep an eye on kids in the bath while I fold.

Wow, sorry about that ramble. I really do enjoy doing laundry now that I have this room.

We finally finished painting our banister. Wow. That was rough. I can't tell you how much time it took. After de-glossing, sanding, wiping, priming, and then putting the first coat on by hand and having it drip down each baluster, and then sanding the drips off, we finally came to the (correct) conclusion that we needed to use a paint sprayer. We toyed with renting one, but in the end, we bought one. It worked so great! The banister is still not perfect, but it looks a lot more professional that it would have with a brush. And I love it so much more white than the natural wood color that didn't match anything. Oh, and there were so many spots that were so hard to get to! Ugh, it probably would have been worth the extra $700 they wanted for them to do it. But, I got a paint gun out of it. Awesome! No regrets there.

We were really careful to cover things with plastic and hold cardboard up behind the banister as we sprayed, but the next morning I woke up to find little white specks all over the nice, new wood floor. I was a bit panicked, thinking it was paint and that we had surely ruined our new house, but luckily it was just dust. Phew. This is what prompted the next change in our house. It's known as "Mommy's Office". It's ghetto, but we stapled up some plastic in part of the unfinished basement to create a room just for painting. Granted, it's probably not as exciting for the average human, but to me, this ranks right up there next to say, the laundry room. My very own enclosed place to inhale as many fumes as I want while fulfilling my raging inner desire to create! I'm weird. I've already painted two things down there, and yes, it was everything I had always dreamed of. Now we just need to install a utility sink in the basement so that our kitchen sink doesn't get so, you know, painty.

I've been working on the girls' room and trying to make it cute, since I never seemed to focus on that before and doggone-it, if there's any time my kids are going to want a girly room, it's probably now. I made a quilt for Erin, gave her the blue desk I painted, redid a chair I found on the side of the road in Florida, painted my old mirror pink, put up one of those canopies around her bed, made a pillow and hung some homemade (slightly uneven) purple sequined curtains. Now she wants the whole room purple with butterfies on the wall. Hopefully the whole thing will be done by the end of this week. I will post pictures of everything when I can.

Amidst the girl room project, Alex noticed that the boy room was not getting any attention whatsoever. He, in fact, is sleeping on a mattress on the floor. I suppose I can understand the inequality of it all. I promised him that he would get a bunk bed in January. I had been looking for bunk beds for a while, but either they were lame and cheap or they were cool and off the charts expensive. So, I did what any borderline insane mother would do, I hauled the kids and two cars down to Lowes to buy $250 worth of wood to build him an awesome castle bed, complete with a slide. I am probably about 4 times more excited than he is. Wouldn't you have loved something like that as a kid? Getting the wood home was a challenge in itself, hence the need to take two cars. We pulled all the car seats and seats out of the mini-van and still had to tie some 4' x 8' pieces of wood on the top of the car. It reminded me of the time we puzzled our new vanity and 8' x 10' shed into the van, and still managed to bring two car seats and a double stroller home in the same trip. What makes us think that anything will fit in the mini-van anyway? Our next car will be a truck. We started on the first tower on Saturday. Fun times, I tell you, fun times. I'm actually not sure which is more crazy, building our computer desk in the garage in Florida in the middle of summer or building this bunk bed in our garage in Utah in the middle of winter.

Jared loves his new job. It's been a great change for his career. He's also been playing racquetball every Thursday and has found some good tournaments to play in. Good news, they're not on Sunday in Utah. Go figure. Bad news about Utah, every resident living in Utah county is at Costco, Walmart or Smith's on Saturday night so as to keep the next day holy. I should talk, I was there too. The kids have been getting to know the neighbor kids and we have done a couple of things with a few of the neighbors too. I'd been debating about whether to put Alex into preschool, but in the end I decided to do a little home preschool with him and Marissa during Connor's nap. I actually love the time with them. And it saves me money (so I can buy stuff like paint sprayers instead). I am still getting used to taking Erin to the bus stop. I've been late a few times. Strict schedule. It's an extra 35 minutes that she is gone too. I struggle with her being gone so long and then still having to do homework. She does enjoy school though. The ward is still overwhelmingly gigantic, and growing. They handed out the list for primary today. Yep, 200 kids, 40 teachers, 20 classes, 2 full primaries, and 100 of them are ages 3-5. No joke. My kids weren't even on the list yet. The hallway feels strangely like moving livestock around. The bishop invites people to sit in the choir seats on the stand because the place all the way to the back of the gym is entirely full. So weird. I feel very lost and not at all needed in the ward, but since I know so many of my immediate neighbors, it makes it somehow okay.

Okay, Jared actually has to go to work now... it's 12:15 am. Every few months they have to go in in the middle of the night to test something or other. The good news is, he'll be home before sunrise... (and then will sleep the rest of the day). But, whether he knows it or not, tomorrow will be a good bunk bed building day, don't you think?

Moved in, sort of.

2011-12-13T09:43:00.003-07:00

Hi. So we have a house. Closing was last week and everything went as smoothly as it could have. It was so nice working with the relocation people at Jared's new job. What a blessing! They even gave us a bonus check for using their people to both buy and sell our homes. We spent a few days last week doing little things around the house that still aren't done yet (putting the hardware on the cabinets up, installing the garage door opener and painting the banister). All things we could have had them do but we were trying to save money and do it ourselves. I tell you, a person can really get to know a banister when they spend as much time with it as I did last week. I deglossed it, sanded it, wiped it down, taped and then spent another 4 hours priming it. I still have two more coats. What was I thinking? I just have to remind myself that they were going to charge us $700 to paint it white. I am doing it for around $50.

Friday we threw stuff in boxes and moved everything over on Saturday morning. I cannot even believe how many people showed up to help us move. It was incredible. I couldn't even count because they were constantly moving, but I would guess at least 25-30 people, mostly from our old ward, some from our new ward and also some of both of our families. We started just after 8:30 and had the truck ready by 9:15. We took another truck to the storage unit and loaded that up by about 10:15. By 11:30 everything was in our new house, including our washer and dryer on the second level and our piano--safe and sound. We are so very grateful for everyone's help! It made the move so easy.

Blinds are ordered but not here yet. That's a little awkward, considering our shower has a great view--from both sides of the windows. We were planning to shower in the kids' bathroom on Sunday morning until I realized we had no shower curtain. Instead we opted to tape newspaper to the window and shower in our bathroom. Finding socks and church clothes was another story. I almost gave up all together.

I've gotten the kitchen and laundry rooms pretty much up and running, as well as the kids' clothes. Everything else in the house is a disaster. I don't even know where to begin (which is why I'm writing this). It's either write or snuggle up in a blanket with some hot chocolate, watch the snow fall and think about how Erin brought absolutely no snow clothes to school today. They are around here somewhere.

So far I love the house! The laundry room might be my favorite part. That's weird, right? It's my dream to have three separate baskets so that the kids can separate the laundry by color. Think how easy that would be. It's only a dream right now, but the baskets are in place. I love that it's upstairs right between the kids' rooms and across from the bathroom. Easy access and no excuses for not putting clothes in there.

I love the play room and the kids do to. They have loved playing with things they haven't seen for 6 months. It's a huge mess, but it keeps them occupied while I unpack. I love that the kitchen is so functional and exactly our style. I love the huge pantry. I love that we have a place for our computers. I'm sure there will be more to love, like the garage and such, but right now they are too disastrous to enjoy.

It seems like there are so many things to buy when you get to a new house. Today I just realized that we need to add "shovel" to the list. I think it's finally winter. The day we were moving was beautiful and warm, I mean for December. Yet another thing to be grateful for. I might post pictures of the new house sometime. Just don't hold your breath. Now back to unpacking...

Connor!

2011-12-01T21:02:00.005-07:00

I'm writing this because I want to remember Connor at this age. This baby is so cute and pleasant to be around. He turned one the week before we moved to Utah. He was not even walking then. We were so nervous about him falling down the stairs at that age. He quickly learned to walk and do stairs. Now he runs everywhere. He doesn't really bend his knees yet so you'll see him running down the hall with his legs going in circles beside him. It's quite entertaining.

Turns out, I don't have too many pictures of him, or anyone lately. Gotta do better about that. Here's one of his cute smile.He still drinks bottles, which is the longest any of my kids have been on bottles. He loves them and will not have anything to do with sippy cups. He will throw it at your head if you try to give him one. He also throws his dinner plate, fork and cup off his high chair when he is done with it. Sitting next to him is known as the splash zone. He loves to snuggle with you while drinking his bottle. I love this time with him. I love looking at his little baby features and being snuggly with him. He's such a sweet boy.
Oh, I almost forgot. He also puts his finger on his belly button when he drinks his bottle, just like Marissa does when she sucks her thumb. Funny.

Along with being sweet, he is also a rough kid. He does have a habit of hitting people, which usually means Marissa gets the brunt of it. A couple of months ago I said, "When is Connor going to start to talk?" and then Marissa said, "When is Connor going to start to be nice?" We have been working on being soft, and he has now started stroking someone's head softly right after he hits them. It's a step in the right direction anyway.

Connor talks all the time, it's just in a language that nobody can understand. He has started to say some words. He says "ma-ma" when he wants milk, or "ba-ba" for bottle. When he looks in the mirror he says "Ca" or "Da", both meaning Connor I think. When he is referring to me, he says "ma-MA?" like a question. It is so cute. Yesterday when he saw grandpa he looked at me and said, "Bompa". He says "toe" for toast, "ch" for cheese, and shoe and sock. And he's getting good at pointing to all of his body parts, including sputtering his lips when you ask about those. He yells a hearty "AYE!" (meaning hi) to anyone that comes home or whenever we pick up Erin from school. He is starting to say the animal sounds as well. My favorite is his growl. He will repeat "wow" and "cool" when he is watching cool videos that Jared shows the kids on the computer. His favorite word by far is "ba" which of course means ball.

This boy loves, I mean LOVES balls. I guess if you have enough kids, you are bound to get a ball lover. He has the amazing ability to find a ball in any room in anyone's house. If there is a ball in the house, he will find it. If there are two, he will have one in each hand. Literally, there is no other toy he would rather play with than a ball and he could probably be happy with a ball for quite some time. He gets pretty frustrated in nursery when they blow "balls" for him to play with and then they all pop. How is that fun? You don't even get to throw it? A while back he started really getting into his throws by putting one leg back, bending his knees and winding up like a pitcher would. Then he says "go" before he throws it to you. It is so cute to see on a baby. I don't know how he thought of doing it, but I think he has a lot of natural athletic ability. I feel like all we have to get him for Christmas is balls and he will be a happy kid.

(Not the best picture, but it's the only one I have of his throwing stance)

He loves to say prayers. He will fold his arms, bow his head and mumble for as long as he thinks the prayer should be. Another funny thing he started doing is raising his hand whenever someone asks a question. "Who had fun today?" and he'll raise his hand with everyone else. "Who wants to change Connor's diaper?" and he'll be the only one to eagerly raise his hand. As long as you say "Who wants to..." excitedly like a question, he will raise his hand. He always wants to be part of things and do whatever the other kids are doing.

He loves to brush his teeth and play in the toilet, sometimes at the same time. One week I found three toothbrushes in the toilet three days in a row. He likes to dump out all the hair stuff or my makeup, and has learned to unload and load the dishwasher, although he almost always does the opposite of what I am trying to do. We often find dirty spoons in the clean drawer. So he is pretty much a typical 18 month old. He also loves to empty my wallet of all cards. I still haven't found my credit card that he lost at my parents' house.

He has recently started liking to read books. He will get the book he wants, grab your thumb with one hand and place the book in your hand to tell you that you need to read him the book. If you stop reading, he will do it again. He's pretty good at communicating without words like that. He will also get a cup out and place it in your hand telling you that he wants water.

He is happy and sweet and will be 18 months next week. I think I really like this age. Old enough to walk, feed himself and get his own diapers out, but young enough to not be defiant. I love that kid! We started taking him to nursery a couple of months ago and just stayed there with him because he wasn't official yet. This week we can finally leave him. He does well sitting and holding props for singing time. I think we will all enjoy nursery (as long as we don't get called as the leaders).

Keep being your sweet, lovable, ball lovin' self, Connor. We all love you!

House, Ward and Christmas

2011-11-29T15:58:00.004-07:00

Our new house is almost done, as in the cleaning lady was there wiping dust from the floor today (right before the inspector tracked dirt through it). Our final walk-through is on Friday and we close next Tuesday. Overall, I am extremely happy with our builder. They were doing so well until about three weeks ago. Then there were a series of things that weren't right. The island was put in the wrong spot (by two feet), the big bowl of the sink was put on the wrong side (requiring a new piece of granite cut--ouch!), they poured the patio in the wrong spot, they poured the steps in the front one foot too short, the light switches weren't the ones we chose... stuff like that. But, to our builder's credit, they had each one of these things fixed to the way we wanted it. Really, it wasn't their fault that the concrete people didn't read the plans and that the granite people did it wrong. I would recommend this builder to anyone (McArthur Homes). It's looking great now. We are so excited to move into it.

We started going to our new ward two Sundays ago and it felt like home. Funny enough, we knew more people in that ward than we ever knew in the ward we've been going to for five months. All our fault, I'm sure, but it was so nice to go to a ward on the first Sunday and be greeted by the 14 neighbors that we've met over the course of visiting our new house on a daily basis. Other people in the ward were super friendly as well, including one of my cousins. I'm not sure if I'm nice enough to be in a ward like this, but there's always the chance that I could start being nice. I've definitely given it some thought, anyway.

This is just too awesome not to write about. The names of my three neighbors (across the street, next door and right behind us) are: Bobbi, Brandi, and Bendi. Seriously. Isn't that great? All very nice people, by the way.

Our first day was also the primary program, which meant that even though we were a few minutes early, we were still in the very back of the second cultural hall. It is a huge ward with a huge primary, so add a bunch of grandparents into the mix and you get nearly as many people as stake conference. They laid wood over the armrests of the choir seats and crammed three kids to a seat up on the stand, and there were still kids sitting in the congregation. They all looked like they were the same age, between three and five, and there were hundreds of them. They came up and repeated something together 6 at a time, because there would never have been enough time to have everyone speak--and it still ran over 20 minutes. This is a huge change for us coming from a primary of 25-30 kids. There will be no shortage of friends for the kiddos.

There are 4 nurseries, 5 Sunbeam classes (five!), 2 classes for every other age until Valiant 8, 1 Valiant 9 class, 1 combined 10-11 class and 2 deacons passing the sacrament. Crazy! Erin, who is in CTR 6, is in senior primary because there isn't enough rooms for all those classes. I don't know how there are enough rooms as it is. Probably the lack of youth. So that's our new ward. We'll be happy to finally belong again.

Since we are so focused on moving, I haven't been thinking about Christmas much. When I do think about it, I can't think of a single thing that we need. Over half of our stuff has been in storage for 6 months so unpacking it all will feel like Christmas already. Why would we then give our kids more stuff that they don't need two weeks later? I started feeling really strongly about wanting to find places that we could serve as a family or give gifts to for Christmas, instead of giving presents to ourselves. We have been so, so very blessed. When we sprung this idea on our kids, I'm not sure they really understood until we showed them two contrasting videos. The first was of people in the Dominican Republic who didn't have food or a change of clothes. One kid got his first ball when he was like 12. He had never even had one before. It made us all realize what we have and that we have more than enough to give. The second video was a scene of Walmart on Black Friday where a mob of greedy shoppers were fighting over $2 waffle irons. It was sad to see what materialism and greed did to people, even punching each other over such a ridiculous item. I think my kids understood more about the true meaning of Christmas. At least I hope. I know I don't want to fall prey to that, even though it is such a human tendency to want more and more.

Yesterday was one of the best days of shopping I've ever had. I took all four kids to the store to pick out presents for kids their own age (for the giving tree) and then had them each pick out hats, gloves and socks for another drive that we found out about. I've always done the giving tree in the past, but this year, it just felt so different because that's all we were doing. We are not buying gifts for ourselves at all this year, just homemade stuff. Okay, Santa might come, but nothing from the parents. I felt so good thinking about the kids that would receive these gifts and about finding more opportunities to serve this year. I think this was/is one of the main things that Jared and I have been missing lately. I saw this quote on a blog recently, “Never will you feel better about yourself, until you forget about yourself.” It is so very true.

Happy holiday season!

Halloween and Such

2011-11-14T11:41:00.011-07:00

I realize I have not been writing a lot lately. This in part is because our life is pretty uneventful and boring, and in part because I've been extremely uninspired. I know there is much to be grateful for, but I have had way too many not good days lately. I feel stressed out about little things that I should be able to handle. I feel trapped in the in between stage of moving, like I'm paralyzed and not able to do anything (like projects and such). I don't have a calling or friends in the ward, which is understandable considering we were never going to be here long. I don't do a whole lot except keep the family alive, which is not exactly life-fulfilling, entirely. I just feel like there is something missing right now. I really hope I can find purpose and belonging in our new house and ward. I hope I can find friends there. Really, just one... one good friend is all I need.

We are going to our new ward for the first time next week. I'm looking forward to the change, and also looking forward to not being called Melissa Brown anymore. She arrived in this ward the same week I did, has four kids about the same ages as mine and I guess looks similar to me. I think people have called me Melissa Brown like 15 times, no joke. And people don't call her my name, it's one directional and so annoying. Just had to get that off my chest.

We did have Halloween. I had such a great idea for family costumes, but Erin refused to cooperate and Jared and I had no place to wear them anyway. Maybe next year. Instead Erin was a rainbow fairy (she loves the Rainbow Magic Fairy books), and everyone else got to be whatever happened to be in their size at the thrift store. I think they were all happy about their costumes and looked cute.Poor little Dumbo. I don't know whose idea it was to put those hoods and baby costumes, but I have never had a kid that didn't act like they were being tortured whenever one was put on. He was cute anyway. He was much happier once he found the football, and the hood was off.

Marissa as Rapunzel Alex loved being Batman. Look at those muscles!I told him not to put his underwear on the outside of his costume...And Erin.She insisted on the rainbow wings.After trick or treating

Oh, and here are the pictures from Disneyland... Okay, not really. It was at the ward Halloween party where they took pictures in front of a green screen.

We managed to carve a couple of pumpkins. Nothing too exciting, but a tradition nonetheless.

The happy girl pumpkin.

The scary boy pumpkin.All lit up.

On to Thanksgiving. I know I should be thinking of more things to be thankful for every day. There is so much when I stop and think about it. My family is one of the greatest blessings. Each of the kids' unique personalities brings joy into my life. We have been so blessed with good health and safety. I cannot tell you how many blessings we have received in the past year that have led us to find a new job, move to Utah, sell our house, and build a new house. The blessings are countless. We have been blessed financially through the relocation package and other means. It's been a blessing to live in the basement apartment and to build the relationship with the cousins upstairs. I am grateful to have both of our extended families so close and for the relationships our kids can have with their grandparents and all of them. I am grateful for the mercy of Heavenly Father, for repentance and peace amidst challenging times. I am grateful for the plan of salvation, for what Christ did for us.

And now, all of a sudden, I feel much better.

Happy Fall!

2011-10-27T09:46:00.011-06:00

First, the good news... we have seasons! Look at these amazing colors.
I have been practicing with the different settings on my camera. I definitely know a lot more about photography than I did four weeks ago, but it made me want to take another class and get a better lens. You hear that Santa?
Now for the bad news... we have seasons. I told myself that I wouldn't complain about the cold when I got to Utah because I was so sick of the humid Florida summers, but I have since changed my mind. Holy flippin' heck! It is so cold!!! I woke up this morning and it was 30 degrees outside. Our thin Florida blood is not adjusting very well. I am wearing the only sweater I can find, am wrapped up in a blanket and I still have this uncomfortable feeling of never completely being able to warm up. It's the same feeling I had when I arrived in southern Argentina in the dead of winter, made worse coming from summer here. Our heater had to be turned off at night so we woke up to a frozen, tiled apartment at 6:30 every morning. I honestly never thought I would thaw out. I did though, in Florida.

I went out last night and bought everyone a coat. It had to be done. And I'm realizing that this is only the beginning. We all need new clothes for winter. Alex had one pair of pants (which isn't actually that much of a problem because he wears the same thing every day whether he has a drawer full or not). I seem to recall a box of winter clothes that we used for our visits to Utah, but it is safely tucked away somewhere in the storage unit. As well as one of my brown shoes that were going to be my winter shoes. Yeah, I have just one. These flip flops aren't cutting it anymore. Ugh, I am no good at buying clothes. Will someone be my personal shopper?

I can't wait to get into our new house. I am so grateful to have this basement apartment to live in and for the cheap rent, but we just don't feel quite settled here either. It will be so nice to have a garage so we don't freeze on the way to the car. Looking forward to that. You would think that if you were able to live 5 months without all the things in the storage unit, that probably means you don't actually need all that stuff. That may be true with some of it, but if I had a nickel for every time I said, "Oh, it's in the storage unit", I'd have at least enough money to pay for all the teeth my daughter keeps losing. (Lousy tooth fairy... apparently she's having trouble finding our new location.)

Anyway, last week was beautiful. It was warm for fall but there was also a crispness in the air. Just perfect. We went up the canyon to take pictures of the leaves. I didn't want to go in the morning because I hadn't done laundry in a while and couldn't find anything for the kids to wear (don't look too closely at Connor's attire--I pulled it from the dirty clothes). But my brother's family wanted us to take their pictures, so we went. We found this beautiful spot. Aren't the leaves amazing?My brother's family's pictures turned out great. They are like models. Ours? It is impossible to get one of everyone looking good. They sort of reflected our day and life a little. Erin threw up just minutes before from being car sick, which is why she is wearing the gray bands (only we put them on too late), Alex was mad about something, like not getting a pancake right then, Marissa was just being a stinker in most of the pictures and not smiling, and Connor was just plain tired.

I love Connor in this one. Okay, so I photoshopped Marissa's face in the first family picture because I wanted one where everyone looked good (ha--don't look too close).This is what Marissa really looked like. Stone faced.This one makes me laugh. Mad Alex, squirmy Connor, Marissa completing the circuit (thumb in mouth, finger on belly button). So typical!Cute Erin. And feeling much better here.The best one of Alex.Marissa being silly but refusing to smile......and here, smiling but refusing to look at meThis is what Connor looked like up the canyon. Tired child.My solution, photoshop a picture we took later that day into the fall background.This is the original. We decided to go through the drive through and eat at our new house. Looking back, it was a dumb idea. There was white dust all over the place and no place to sit. Go figure.Oh, I forgot to mention... Jared and I are actually models too.

Sick

2011-10-19T14:30:00.004-06:00

For the last week we have been sick on and off. Some sort of stomach bug (for the second time since we got to Utah and third time this year!). Some of us have thrown up and all of us have experienced it in the other direction. I know, this blog has some quality content. Alex was on his death bed last Thursday. He only moved once all day, and that was when I carried him to the bathroom. I'll spare you all the other disgusting details. I am hoping we are on the end of this one.

But even in our sickened state, we have been blessed with many tender mercies. Jared was in a racquetball tournament last week and he won his first two games. This meant that he was gone the next night as well. Even though I would have liked to see him win, it was a blessing to our family that he didn't so that he could be there for us the next day when we really needed him. Since it has not been continuous, I have noticed that we have felt perfectly fine when we really needed to, like when we sang in the choir and during my photography class, and probably most importantly, the day we had to do stuff for our new house.

They finished the framing last week and gave us a couple of days to do whatever we wanted within the walls before they put the drywall up. This only left us Friday night and Saturday all day. We spent hours over there wiring for an intercom system, surround sound system, some extra cable and cat5 wires, and installing a pipe from the attic to the basement for future wires. We also added some extra insulation around the laundry room and master bedroom and put extra bracing behind towel racks, toilet paper roll holders and behind doorknobs--'cause you know, we have kids. We tried to think of everything since this was our only chance to do anything. We also put some bracing in the ceilings of the kids' bedrooms to add swings. Yep, I'm really going to do it.

The point is, none of us were at all sick those two days. The other point is that the drywall is just about finished now so don't try to tell us we should have done something else, because we can't now. One more point... they did our 4 point inspection last week (framing, plumbing, electrical and HVAC) and only two minor things needed to be corrected: one bolt in the garage and one staple that didn't make it into the stud. The guy told me it was the best inspection he's had on any house he's ever built. So that makes me feel good. Especially since they did a bunch of stuff in the pouring rain. Just a bit disconcerting, I tell you. But it's looking good now and the sun is shining.

Okay, so the truth is, Jared did the majority of the work, with the help of his brother. I am grateful that he is so handy and that we aren't doing the rest of the work to build the house. I was attempting to help and watch our kids. Totally not a fun day. It was a construction zone, so there were hazards all over the place. The only fun place was the big pile of dirt in front of the house where they got so completely filthy! I'm sure we left a great impression on our new neighbors by leaving four small children alone out front in a pile of construction debris and dirt. At one point I came out and Connor was face down on the pile eating the dirt and Marissa was all the way to the top of our neighbors' scaffolding! So glad that day is over.

How I miss our friends and babysitters in Florida. I am so excited to get into our new ward and make some friends. The ward we are in now is a good ward, but it is hard to get to know people when you live in a basement and when we all know we won't be here for long. Less than two months now!

Alex turns 5!

2011-10-11T13:50:00.000-06:00

My due date for Alex fell right smack in the middle of the semester, October 2nd (2006). I had a big midterm on the 5th and my teacher was anything but lenient. It was a stressful class (and the only one of architecture school that I ever got a B in--still bitter about that) and I had to make it to that midterm. It made the fact that I was overdue much more bearable, despite the fact that I was fat and uncomfortable. After my midterm I was ready to have the baby, but he didn't come.

The Sunday after your due date is not the best day to go to church pregnant, but I did anyway. Somehow I made it through all the inquiries. Believe you me, I wanted to have him more than anyone else, and I was getting frustrated. Because Erin was a c-section and I wanted to have a VBAC, I was going to the Miami Maternity Center to have my baby. I loved their approach to having babies--midwives, no drugs, a bedroom type environment but with modern medicine at their fingertips if needed. Because I was going there, I had to wait for my body to go into labor naturally. I did everything I could think of to have the baby, but I sincerely don't think anything worked. The next Monday I took Castor oil, which left me feeling very sick, but gave me no contractions. I picked my mom up from the airport, mowed the lawn and then went to our friends' Canadian Thanksgiving dinner as pregnant and frustrated as could be.

That night (Oct. 10th) around 2:30 I woke up with contractions. The first two were kind of uncomfortable, but then I remembered to breath and things got better. I went into the birthing center around 6:00 am and had contractions all day. It was even kind of fun hanging out with Jared, the midwives and my friend Jen who was there to give me support. I was fine between contractions. I sat in the tub for a while and then my contractions stopped. I got out and they got going a little but then I stalled again when I was at 8 cm. They broke my water, but I still didn't progress, for two hours. It was so frustrating and I was so tired. I was sure I would have to be taken to the hospital to have another c-section, and I was about ready to give up and go. The midwife even said that this was the point that the hospital would tell me I needed one. Dumb Florida hospitals. I owe a successful VBAC to my midwife, Sheri. Upon her examination, she found that even though the water had been broken, the bag was too strong and was not allowing the baby to descend any further. She worked with all her might to get the bag around his head (she even broke a sweat doing it). Once she did that, I went from an 8 to a 10 in less than 30 minutes and was ready to push.

I felt so much better at this point. I got in the birthing jacuzzi and pushed for 30 minutes. When he finally came out I laid him on my chest and he snuggled right up to me. I will never forget that moment because he was so cuddly and calm, and he didn't cry at all. I felt like I bonded with him as soon as he was born, an experience that I did not have with all of my children. It was a mixture of amazement that I had actually had a successful VBAC without drugs, and pure joy to meet this special child. That unforgettable moment was interrupted by the tub filling up with blood because I began to hemorrhage and both the baby and me being whisked out as quickly as possible.

The next thing I remember about Alex was his weighing on the other side of the room. "9 pound 6 ounces!" the midwife announced, to which my friend immediately said, "Holy cow, Laura!" Nobody expected him to be that big. He only wore newborn clothes for a week, and that was because I squished him into them. He looked like a 3 month old from the start. A sturdy, healthy baby boy. Alex was born.

Now I can hardly believe that he is turning five! He is a quiet child, sweet and gentle. He brings a special calmness to our home. He genuinely cares about other people. I will often see him helping his sister onto the swing or getting her shoes out. He will always be the one to come to me if someone is in trouble and needs my help. He is not mean or mischievous, but kind and honest by nature.

He has a special relationship with Erin. He loves her and she loves him. They are always buddies. My friend commented that it was interesting when they shared the front seat of an airplane ride instead of fighting over it. But this is how it's always been. They are always together, and prefer it that way. Whenever he gets a treat, he always gets one for Erin too. I'm not sure how he thinks of it, but he always does. They have shared a room for almost four years and have loved being together. He loves Marissa and Connor too, but you can just see something special between Erin and him.Alex is a deep thinker. He will take time to process what he has heard and then never forgets it. You can tell that the wheels are turning in his head a lot. He is a smart kid. A few weeks ago we were talking about singing the alphabet backwards, and so he just busted out with half of it right then and there. Now he has the backwards alphabet mastered (you try, it's harder than you think). I think it would be so funny next year when he goes to kindergarten if he sang that when they ask if he knows the alphabet.

He is still cuddly and sweet, just like the day he was born. I cannot imagine our family without him in the middle.

For his birthday he wanted a crayon cake, and this would be my professional cake making at its finest. I find that if you squint it actually looks pretty good.Here they are "helping".He wanted to go to Trafalga where we rode the merry go round, rocked climbed and played laser tag. Alex loved the laser tag and did it twice. Erin hated it! Apparently people kept shooting her. The poor girl had to hide in a corner until the warfare was done. Rock climbing was a big hit too. Erin, Alex and Marissa made it to the very top a couple of times. Yes, Marissa too. All these people were staring at this tiny child climb up a few stories with no fear. Amazing!
Ha, ha... can you tell I am taking a photography class? This was after one class and I had not figured anything out yet. That's why it's all fuzzy. Hopefully I can learn something.

All day Alex kept saying that it was his birthday so he didn't have to do any jobs, or it was his birthday so people had to be nice to him. As it turns out, he actually does help out a lot around here and I sure noticed when he had a day off.
We had cake and presents at 8:30 pm, which is always a good time to pump kids full of sugar. Grandma and grandpa came, as well as the upstairs cousins. He totally cleaned out on the presents this year, partly because his primary teacher gave him some awesome stuff, Zoobmobiles and art supplies. He also got Lego's, a puzzle, a boat and a dog money bank. Lucky kid!
I love my boy Alex and can't wait to see what this next year brings for him. Happy Birthday!

I Like Houses (like a lot)

2011-09-28T21:52:00.005-06:00

I am not sure exactly when my obsession with houses and architecture began. My earliest memory has to be in the third grade when we were assigned to make a model of our house. I don't remember that much about it, except that my dad was the parent in charge of helping me, and that he was pretty gung ho about it too. We got out a cardboard box and began making some rough measurements. I think I remember my dad leaving the room and me cutting the top of the box to create to roof line, and then him coming back to see that my third grade cut was much lower than it should have been. And pretty crooked to be sure. But we worked with it and made a pretty good replica of our Wisconsin house. We even painted it white and had little shutters. I remember taking my house to the school library to get my picture taken with it, and then it appearing in our small town, Middleton newspaper. That was my first model.
I remember going out on Sunday afternoons to look at open houses. I could not have been more excited to go see each house to examine every detail, pick out my room and imagine what my life would be like in each home. I still remember one of the houses we looked at. Weird. I was probably only 8 or 9.

I remember one Christmas getting a dollhouse that either my parents or Santa painted, wallpapered and furnished. I still remember the first time I saw it in the corner of the dining room across from the piano. I loved imagining that I was the one living there. I loved that there were three stories and an attic and stairs that you could really go up, I mean if you were 6 inches tall.

I played with that dollhouse for years. Not in the normal way that girls play with dollhouses though. For me, it was about the house, the floor plan, the arrangement of furniture, the expansions that I would add on with blocks marking out walls, and when I ran out of blocks, pencils. This whole game involved a pile of Fischer Price people, a pile of furniture, me, my sister Emily, the basement, blocks, pencils and of course the big doll house, and was known lovingly as "douse" (doll+house... get it?). Whenever one of us thought of the brilliant idea to play douse, which was probably almost daily and which was never, in my recollection, ever cleaned up, we would look at the other one and say, "Krem-La Douse?" (which meant Emily-Laura, downstairs, doll house... want to play?). Then we'd put our arms around each other and float down the stairs to our half of the basement, which was never enough space for my creative mind. My poor brother taught violin lessons on the other half and would have to shove his kid sisters' embarrassing mess of pencils and such to the other side so he could be professional. Anyway, from this point, douse went something like this: we'd separate all the people and furniture and take turns picking. Then we'd name them, assign them ages and design their houses. This was the best part because I would imagine them going down penciled hallways, into living rooms and bedrooms. Once I was done designing everything, I was done playing. Poor Emily, though. All that set-up was just a formality so that she could actually play with the little people, and I was done. Of course, I did play douse until I was 12 or 13. The point is, it was always about the house, about the architecture.

I remember drawing floor plans of houses on graph paper. I remember really bad ones in the beginning, and then filling books of them whenever I was bored. I used to draw perspectives of my dream bedroom, with each exciting detail like where the fish tank would go, the drawers for my clothes, the built in shelving unit lining one wall and the carpeted corner where I kept my kittens. Cool dream, right? Kittens...

Then there was the architectural drafting class that I took as a senior in high school. Fourth period, right before lunch and right by the lunchroom. My friends would come in and have to pry me from my drafting table so that we all could eat. I loved that class! I loved architecture. I always have.

I still remember the first Parade of Homes that I went to. It was near my house and I was around 12. There were 7 houses in a row that we spent our afternoon walking through. I could think of nothing better than that! I still remember some of those homes. I went to the Parade of Homes every year that I lived in Utah, and some years that I was just visiting. So important is the Parade of Homes that I dragged four children through 20+ homes this year (you know they liked it). And I still look through Parade of Homes books from years past at all the floor plans.

What I really don't know is when I started walking through houses that were in the process of being built. I remember one night hanging out with my friends and there being a framed house next door. Somehow I convinced my friends to walk through it with me, even though it was really dark. There was some kind of thrill that we found creeping through someone else's house, imagining what each space would look like. Then going down the unsteady stairs to a dark basement because I needed to know what that would look like too. I remember that house specifically because my friends thought I was crazy. But I told them that I did it all the time, so it must have started before then.

Now, more than ever, I love going through houses, finished or not. Sure, it may be illegal. Call it trespassing if you must. But I love it, and I just can't resist it. I live in a city that is chock full of fields that are in some stage of being developed. There are holes being dug every day, there's foundations being poured, and plywood being formed into houses all over the place. There are 7 in our new neighborhood and on the way to Erin's school I can count at least 6 that I pass four times a day. I finally walked through four tonight, till it got too dark. I love the smell of fresh 2x4's and sawdust. I love the smell of drywall and mud. I love to imagine the spaces and the furniture, just like in douse. You see, I just love houses.

And our house is one of them. The framing began last week and they already have everything up to the trusses. These builders are incredible. This is where it finally takes shape. Now it's our house that smells like wood and has nails and sawdust littered all over the place. It's our house that we can walk around and imagine ourselves living there, because we actually will be. It's really happening. Every day we'd drive by and see something new that's been done, but I would never actually see anyone working on it. I was starting to wonder if it was elves, or maybe illegal immigrants that had to work in the middle of the night so as to not be deported. But today I actually met the framers (neither elves nor illegals). This is the fifth house just like ours that they've framed, so they are getting pretty good at it. I am really impressed by how well they are following the plans because we've made a bunch of changes. Every detail is there. Tomorrow, we'll have plywood on the roof. Cool.

foundation wallsour pile of dirt in the back yard
with window wells and dirt filled in to the foundation
preparing the basement floor for concrete
...and the framing begins in the basement supporting the floor aboveground level, and yes, we will be able to see in our neighbor's windows
(I am kind of bummed that we didn't get day 2, 3 or 4 of the framing showing the first and second floors. So it jumps from the one wall picture above to the picture below.)
the machine putting the trusses up with most of the trusses up

Did I mention that I like houses?

Passing Out

2011-09-26T16:14:00.002-06:00

Few things are as scary to parents as seeing their child faint and crumple to the ground. We've experienced this many times. Alex had the tendency to pass out when he was between the ages of 1 and 3. When he got hurt he would let out a huge cry, then take a long break, forget to breath, and then he would pass out. I hated it. But he seems to have outgrown it, thankfully.

Now, it's Marissa. Hers is less of a forgetting to breath problem and more of a response to getting hurt problem. The problem is that she gets hurt a lot. Like almost daily. She is brave and daring and only three, so she falls, trips and injures herself frequently. When this happens there is a very good chance that she will pass out. Just her body's way of dealing with pain. Usually she lets out a cry, but not her normal cry, her "I'm going to pass out" cry. The one that Jared and I have come to recognize and instinctively know to come running. Then she loses consciousness for about 20 seconds, while we urge her to please wake up. When she does, she is usually pale and weak for a little bit, and sometimes she wets her pants while she is out. More often than not she is ready just minutes later to be the daredevil that she was before.

In the last 10 days she has passed out six times, that I can recall. Once she fell down the stairs, once her fingers got pinched in the door, once she got stepped on, once she tripped on something. One of the worst of these times was when she got hit in the mouth with a mop handle while she was standing on the couch. It wasn't so bad until she passed out, fell onto the mop and hit her head on the floor. That's what makes me most nervous. It's not so much the passing out, it's what might happen to her after she does. What if she's in the bathtub or the pool? What if she's on the sidewalk and cracks her head open? What if she's at the top of the stairs and tumbles all the way down? What if I'm not around? I don't like it. Is it any wonder that I've been praying for angels to watch over my children lately?

I looked up why kids pass out and this is what I found:

What causes the “common faint” is actually a kind of reflex that is theoretically hard-wired into all humans, and, in fact, many mammals. When we use the word “reflex”, we refer to an automatic reaction by the body to a particular stimulus.

In this instance, the automatic reaction is a sudden drop in heart rate or blood pressure, as mentioned above. The provocative stimulus most commonly is an exaggerated and sudden adrenalin effect on the heart due to any of a variety of events:

Posture-related pooling of the circulating blood volume while sitting or standing for prolonged periods
Unexpected minor trauma; the sight of blood or injury (“blood/injury syncope”)
Even listening to a discussion of frightening or graphic subjects

In her case, it's the unexpected minor trauma that triggers this response, which seems to be fairly common. So common that it was evidently passed on from her parents.

Jared has an interesting history with passing out. He was able to watch my entire c-section--the blood gushing, my uterus being pulled out of my body and then getting stitched up on the outside of my stomach--and he was absolutely fine, no problems. But then he'll do something like stub his toe or pinch his finger and he will pass out. One time we were at Burger King where he bit his tongue and passed out. It's true, you can't make this stuff up. It's not that these events are that painful, it's just his body's response to minor trauma.

His best passing out story occurred in one of his college labs. In an attempt to raise his chair up his finger got pinched between the armrest and the table. He laid his head on the table, passed out, and proceeded to slide off the table because the chair was, unfortunately, a rolling one. At that point, his head hit the hard floor and he split his eye-brow open. The next thing he knew, his teacher, security, the paramedics, and others were crowded around him as he regained consciousness. He rode in a police car instead of an ambulance because he knew that would cost lots of money, and got the cut stitched up nice and neat.

The story doesn't end there though. A couple of years later he was taking a math class and joined a study group with some girls. The story came out in a study session, and one of the girls exclaimed, "That was you?!" Evidently, because he rode in the police car, the story made it into "Police Beat" in the Daily Universe and had become one of her (and her roommates') favorite story. She had actually saved the clip because she found it to be so funny! And Jared knew nothing about the story until then. (It kind of makes me wonder if I ever made it into Police Beat without ever knowing about it... i.e. getting caught by the cops for trespassing at the mental hospital. How would I know that beautiful lake was part of the mental hospital anyway? It's not like I hopped over any fence that wasn't already halfway down. It was just a good place to read my scriptures.)

Here's the other funny part. Jared spent a good amount of time yesterday and today searching through hundreds of Police Beats from 1998 to 1999 trying to find the article, and he actually found it! Here is the link, it's under MEDICAL, not INDECENT EXPOSURE, in case you are wondering. There are some pretty funny ones, I have to say. This is what his said:

A 22-year-old student was sliding in a chair in 1130 CB when he smashed his finger against a desk and went unconscious on Nov. 9. As he went unconscious, he fell and suffered a cut above his eye from the fall. He was treated at the Student Health Center and released.

He assures me that he was not sliding in the chair. Those reporters obviously didn't know the whole story.

I can't blame all the passing out genetics on him, though. Evidently, I used to do something similar as a child. I've passed out giving blood many times and once in the temple while doing sealings. Great place to pass out, by the way. They had juice, cookies and other snacks in the back room for just such incidents. And most recently I've passed out a lot while throwing up. Yes, while, which equates to an even more disgusting mess than it ever would have been. And this is what you get for reading all the way to the end of this blog entry.

We're hoping Erin and Connor escape the same fate that we've all endured. Here's to hoping!

Homeless!

2011-09-20T12:17:00.003-06:00

I've been waiting to write this post for a long time, and now that it's here, it doesn't seem quite real. We finally closed on our house in Florida, I mean I'm pretty sure we did. I wasn't there. There were so many snags along the way that made the whole process pretty stressful, especially not being there.

For the first month on the market, there wasn't enough interest at the price we had set, so we lowered our price by $10,000 and got an offer the next day. We went back and forth with four or so counteroffers and were all happy with the outcome, even though it was less than we wanted.

Then we thought the deal would fall through with a low appraisal, but they still wanted the house. We were losing even more money than we had thought, but just wanted to get rid of it.

Then there was the inspection which found evidence of termite damage, which we had never seen before. That's not something you want to hear. I don't know about you, but when I hear "termite damage" I panic just like I do when I see a house that has to be tented, like the whole house will be eaten away from the bottom up . Luckily it was relatively minor, about $250 worth.

Then there was a water leak notice from the city, which left us baffled as to where it was or how bad it was. For all we knew there was 6 inches of water throughout the house. If only we had been there! That one turned out to be an outside leak, I think, that would be taken care of by the buyers.

Then there was "an exposed nail in the roof", which would have taken Jared about 15 minutes to cover with tar. But oh yeah, we weren't there. That one was only $50 to fix with a contractor. Duh.

Then there was the whole air conditioning fiasco. Blast that air conditioner! We had it replaced about 6 years ago, so you wouldn't think it would have any problems. But alas, it had problems. Not always, just in the last couple of years. It would still be blowing cold air, just not very strongly sometimes. On really hot days, which are plentiful in Florida, it just couldn't keep up. We had several people come out to "fix" it, only to find it was not actually fixed. I hated summers the last couple of years. I loathed that air conditioner! Is it dumb that the air conditioner is one main reason why I wanted to move? Yeah, probably. Anyway, before we left, we decided to pay for a $500 home warranty because we knew the AC would have problems. And it did. The people came out and "fixed" it three or four more times throughout this process and still, I am not convinced that it is fixed. I just hoped that the buyers would not get scared off by this. But the warranty is good for the owner for the next year. If I were them, I would get the whole thing replaced for free. So glad we got that warranty!

Is this making our house sound like a total dump?

Yeah, probably.

It is a 27 year old house so things are bound to happen. But it really was/is a good house. No, really.

Where was I...

Then there was the violation from our HOA which said that our garbage can was left in plain view. The garbage can that the city delivered and left in the middle of the driveway. Yeah, that one.

Then there was the other violation from our HOA stating that our weeds were out of control and we couldn't close with a violation on our house. We'd been having a lawn company come mow our yard, but nobody was weeding, so I can imagine how bad they were--which is kind of a bummer because I just planted tons of stuff right before I left. Gratefully, two of my good friends went over in the sweltering, sticky heat to pull weeds for a few hours. Now that is true friendship! I'm so grateful for them. They said it looked great when they were done, but again, we wouldn't know.

The inspector would though. I talked to him the next day and he said that yes, the weeds were indeed gone, but that they had pulled out some of the plants, so we were given yet another HOA violation. Ridiculous! Especially since it was in a 10 inch strip that never had any plants from the time we moved in until the month before we left. And we never had a violation before. This stuff would have been so much easier if we had been there. I called my friend and she planted $10 worth of flowers so we could close the next day.

But did we close the next day? No. We kept signing extension after extension because of their bank not processing the loan. One of the worst parts about it was that in the contract it stated that they had to have a loan commitment within a certain time, and if they didn't get it from the bank, it was not their fault and could walk away with all $5000 of their earnest money. So even though they had done everything they were supposed to, the bank would not give us the loan commitment letter. The best the bank gave us was an approval letter, and in it was the phrase "this is not a loan commitment". We weren't sure if we should just string this out, paying our mortgage again and again with the chance that they could leave the table at any time, or if we should put it back on the market. We felt so vulnerable about the situation, but were amazed and comforted that the buyers still really wanted the house.

This is longer than a birth story...

After they had passed the original close date, we found out about the small leak in the roof, which caused us even more stress. I was imagining water dripping into the house, moldy drywall breaking off the wall, thousands of dollars of damage and basically a deal gone bad. If only we had been there! How could you trust a contractor to come fix your problem if you don't even know how extensive the problem is? Luckily, it was not that bad. Just one nail that had allowed water in slowly over time. Thank goodness. The buyer almost did walk away until they found out how minor it was.

It was stressful until the very last minute, when they hadn't gotten the closing funds wired to them yet on the day of closing, and finally when we found out that they thought we had not paid off our second mortgage (which we had--months ago), 15 minutes before the end of the day. It is still hard for me to really believe that the closing actually happened, that we don't own a house in Florida anymore, that we will actually get money from it instead of constantly pouring money into it, that we are indeed... homeless. At last! I keep imagining that we will find out something else that has gone wrong or caved in or broken or leaked or overgrown. But the new owners have the keys. It's their house now. It's their air conditioner and water leak and roof repair. I have no idea who these people are, but I imagine they will have a happy life in the house that we were so happy in for 8 years.

It was truly no small miracle that it finally, amazingly closed. I have felt the hand of the Lord in the whole process moving to Utah. I have felt comforted, especially a week and a half ago when I was in the temple. I know that Heavenly Father knows the beginning from the end. He can see it so clearly, even though it is impossible for us to. I feel like He just needs us to show a little faith and hold on until His purposes are fulfilled, and that He can give us real comfort in the mean time. I have been praying and praying for this to happen the way it is supposed to happen, and feel such gratitude that it finally did. I also feel so grateful that Jared's new job paid for all of our closing costs. We would have owed them a little money if it hadn't been for that.

Now we can focus on the down payment for the new house and watch it be built relieved in knowing that we can move in with only one mortgage, for the home we will actually be living in.

I've never been so happy to be HOMELESS! (Jared keeps informing me that people that rent are not actually considered homeless people, but I still like to say it.)

What do I do all day?

2011-09-08T13:22:00.003-06:00

What to write? Life is about the same as it was two weeks ago, with a few exceptions. Our home sale in Florida was about to go through and then we got some bad news, then some more bad news, and then some really bad news. As of right now, we still own a home in Florida that is still under contract, but may probably fall through. It is totally stressing me out! We keep extending the closing date because they still haven't been able to get their loan, even though they are approved and it's been over 30 days. The most recent issue may be a leak in the roof, which was just replaced less than three years ago. So frustrating to not be there.

Update on the house (since I wrote that last week): we've extended the contract for the fourth time due to their bank not processing the loan. The buyers have met every condition, are a good credit risk and still very much want the house. It's just a lack of employees and restructuring at Bank of America that is costing us money every day. We found out they have begun the finalization but it will take 5 days. A lesson is patience and perseverance and faith, I suppose. Our Realtor says that all the banks are experiencing delays and most of his closings are like ours right now, so putting it back on the market would probably not help matters. Oh, and the leak is minor; it's only $300 to fix and the buyers still want the house. Just holding my breath that it will go through and praying for a miracle.

So... to combat the stress, I started doing p90x. (Brace yourself for the infomercial). I'm on week three and I absolutely love it! My goals are to feel better and to fit into my pants again, without a muffin-top. I feel so much better since I started it. It is without a doubt time consuming--an average of an hour and 15 minutes a day for 6 days a week. Sometimes I feel a little neglectful as a mother doing something for myself for so long, while my 3 year old overcooks her own burrito and boredom ensues (this only happens when the kids upstairs aren't around); but then again, I used to spend the same amount of time at the gym and not feel guilty about that. Anyway, I like it because there is a different work out every day and because it doesn't hurt my lower back like running does. I feel like I am getting stronger, and slightly less muffin-top-y. Erin even said that my legs looked skinnier than before. I knew I liked that child. Truthfully, I don't feel any skinnier, but I feel stronger, more toned and happier (those endorphins!). Seriously, these are amazing DVD's. There is also a nutritional guide that I've been trying to follow--i.e. right now I am enjoying a steak, artichoke, and tomato salad and avoiding processed food and overall crap. Why is that so hard? Exercising makes me motivated to eat better, so I have to keep this up.

Oh, you are also supposed to take before (and after) pictures which were totally embarrassing. Jared keeps threatening to post them on the blog, but don't get your hopes up. That will not be happening!

The other day my 16 year old sister in law asked me what I did all day. A perfectly valid question. Ummmm.... yeah, good question. I must have rambled off something like "pack lunches, do dishes, clean up, make dinner, do laundry, go grocery shopping, read to the kids, mow the lawn..." Wow, that's kind of a monotonous, thankless existence once you think about it. Really, that is what I do all day and no matter how much I have done, it is never done. So if you are wondering if I have time to exercise, the answer is yes. All that other stuff will be there when I'm done.

One last thing, I started using coupons and I think I've been giving it a good, at least semi-concerted effort. My conclusion? NOT WORTH IT! I know lots of people do it and save all sorts of money, but here's my experience: Tuesday morning, a supposedly good day to shop with coupons since Walmart has double coupons up to a dollar. I get online figuring out what I want and which coupons apply and print some out and get interrupted by six different kids 15 times and can't find what I want and have trouble with the printer and can't believe how not easy this "easy" program is and get completely frustrated. Take Erin to school, but since I'm still not done getting the coupons together, I wait another hour to go. Load three kids in the car, then the cart and begin one of my all time top ten worst shopping days ever. Connor was ready for a nap (self-explanatory), Marissa was whiny, kids kept getting out of the cart and I was frazzled the whole time trying to match the right product with the right lousy coupon. In the end, I save seven bucks. Seven! Isn't my own sanity and time worth my than that? My new goal: don't ever go shopping with three or more children again. Ever.

Okay, one other last thing. I emailed Erin's teacher to see if I could start volunteering, which by the way, is welcomed and needed at this school. Last year it seemed like her teacher kept blowing me off when I asked, so I never even went into her classroom. Weird. Anyway, she emailed back and this is what she said at the end:

P.S. Erin is absolutely darling! She is always such a wonderful little girl and I think she is adjusting well to Fox Hollow. She's very smart and has made many friends in the class. I'm glad she's in our classroom!

Can someone tell me why I started crying when I read this? Isn't it exactly what you want your child's teacher to say? I'm so glad Erin is enjoying school here. Starting a new school in a new state is never easy. (Flashback from moving to Utah in 5th grade and only making one friend who ended up being a shoplifter, in my presence no less. Cringe!) Thankfully, no shoplifting friends for my kids... yet.

My Wife is Amazing

2011-09-04T18:29:00.000-06:00

So although this is our "Family" blog, in reality this is Laura space to share with the world her thoughts, joys, sorrows, activities (personal and family), and in some instances to simply vent. Although I can claim some credit in setting it up for her and teach her how to use it, it really is her space. But...I hope she doesn't mind if I hijack it for a post about her.

Maybe a mother's day, Birthday or anniversary would have been a good 'time' to post this...but why wait for such an excuse when I can simply surprise her?

Nine years ago I asked her to marry me... I have been so blessed that she said yes. We now have 4 beautiful children, and she has shown time after time what an amazing mother she is. She takes the time to read with them, play with them, and takes care of their every need. She manages our household so very well, working so hard to keep it clean and making it a sacred place. She dislikes cooking but does it anyway, putting us first. She has a vision for our home, and does so very well at implementing that vision. I am always glad to be home after a day of work.

She has a degree in Music because it was "easy" and she didn't "know what else to do" (her words). She loves to use this gift to teach our children how to play the piano. They are developing a love of music, and it is fun to listen to them as they practice the songs they have learned.

She also has a love of Architecture, and has spent countless hours of effort getting a second degree in it. She has a keen eye for what looks good, and loves to walk through any home she can just to see what it looks like (she doesn't forget any of the floor-plans that she sees). Because of her we are now in the process of building a beautiful home that will be a perfect fit for our growing family. In the mean time she has made our temporary housing into a home where we can enjoy life as it comes at us.

More recently she has been "rescuing" old discarded furniture. Somehow she sees in these pieces of refuse a vision of a better future. I have seen it so many times in the last year that I no longer question what she wants to do, but simply question if we have the room to store whatever it is that she has rescued. Perhaps when our new home is complete I won't need to even ask this question...

Laura is definitely what I would call "socially gifted." She has great friends and really is a good friend herself. She can be a bit on the quiet and shy side but if you stop and actually listen you will find an amazing sense of humor, understanding and quality of conversation that is very engaging.

Her testimony of the restored gospel is something I have always looked up to and is one of the many qualities that drew me to her. She is loving and patient (especially with me), standing beside me in so many ways. Why she ever decided to marry me will be forever clouded in mystery!

Laura - you are every-bit the woman of my dreams. I truly do appreciate who you are and the sweet spirit that you bring into our home. You are an exceptional woman.

I love you, and just wanted to say thank you for being my wife!

Your devoted husband

PS - You are also gorgeous ... need I say more?

No Sleep

2011-08-24T11:31:00.000-06:00

Today was the first day of second grade for Erin. I cannot believe she is so old, and also that I still have three kids at home. New state, new school, new teacher, all new friends--that's a lot of new. I always thought it was normal to feel a little apprehensive and jittery before a big day like this in an unknown environment, but this has not been the case with Erin at all. She could not have been more excited to start. I am so happy that she has always liked school and hope that it will be a good year for her.
Because of overcrowding, they divided the classes up into "early birds" and "later gators" and stagger their class times. I could not decide whether I wanted to have more time with her in the morning or more time after school, but in the end we went with the later 9:15-3:30 time. Is it weird that I want her home more? Maybe I'm selfish, but I'm sure this will be a good schedule. This morning she was up and ready long before 8:00 and could not understand why I would sign her up for the late class. Again, selfish reasons. I felt it would be easier for me to get all the kids up, dressed and fed by 9:15 rather than 8:00. And it certainly was. We had a leisurely morning with reading time, piano time, be like Christ time... and we were still almost 15 minutes early. Yep, I think this time will work out great.It is a little weird that Alex is not in school yet. Last year, the preschool he was going to go to discontinued their program, so that fell through, and this year we had him all signed up for 15 hours of preschool a week in Florida, and now he still has nothing. Compared with Erin's two years of preschool and her being the youngest in her class versus him being the oldest and getting no school. Totally different experiences. And he keeps asking when he's going to be starting school. I feel a little conflicted about preschool for him. It probably wouldn't matter either way, but I don't really think he will gain too much from it. We may sign him up after we move, but for now I think it is nice to do a little reading and writing with him and Marissa at home, and call it good. What can I say, I'm selfish and want to spend more time with them.

I could not sleep last night, even though I was tired. My brain would not turn off. Thoughts about selling our house in Florida, and being stuck with payments for several more months, and all the unknowns are indeed stressful. The good news yesterday was that the people who were going to buy our house still want it, and enough to come up with $3000 more themselves for closing costs. We will still be losing more than originally thought, but not as much. What a huge blessing! We should be closing on Monday, but the deal is not done yet. There is still a hurricane that could possibly hit before then. I will feel so relieved when we are finally homeless.

My poor brain kept jumping from Florida house worries to our new house here. As in I would go through the new house in my head arranging furniture, painting walls, building shelves, finishing the basement, and landscaping the yard. I'm very excited for the new house. Yesterday when we checked on our hole we didn't expect anything to be done, but to our surprise, all the footings were poured... and all in the right places too, which is a good sign.

(Yes, I realize I'm in a weird position. For some reason I was thinking I would barely be in the picture.)

Okay, this is probably really boring for normal people, but I find these construction pictures really exciting. Maybe it dates back to my first Materials and Methods class where I dragged Erin around in her baby car seat to countless construction sites taking pictures for my final project. Maybe it dates back to my history of walking through unfinished houses, which is still a favorite hobby. I just love this stuff! And it's even more exciting when it's our own home that we've studied and agonized over. See that footing in the middle on the right? That's the load bearing wall that we had moved to make two bedrooms instead of one. (Yeah, I'm a geek.)
I don't know if I mentioned this before, but we are extremely close to our neighbors (as you can see in the previous picture). One of our neighbors just put in a fence and our hole only left one foot or so between it and the fence. Crazy! Of course some of it will get filled in and we will have 5 feet on one side and 6 feet on the other, to the fences that is. Both of our neighbors oriented their houses as close as possible to our house, so it will be pretty tight. We would have had more room if it hadn't been for our third car garage. One of our neighbors came out to talk to us and we absolutely love them, so I suppose it's okay being close.

People probably think we are crazy for wanting something this tight; this was one of the issues we considered when looking for a house. But here's our logic (besides liking the location and the plan): 1. We had a fairly big yard in Florida and never did anything with it--meaning we do not actually like a lot of yard work, so a smaller yard is a plus, 2. We could have bought a bigger yard with a smaller house that we didn't like as much, or a bigger house with a plan we love on a smaller lot (obviously, I like houses more), and 3. This neighborhood is a close knit community, due in part to their proximity to each other, and we love the idea of being part of this kind of community. These people have ice cream socials and BBQ's that the entire neighborhood goes to. This only happened once in Florida and that was after hurricane Wilma. So in a sense, assuming we like most of our neighbors, we are looking forward to being close to people and having less yard work. Lest you think we only have a patch of grass to call our own, we will still have a backyard with a patio, room for a garden, some grass and a future play set that will no doubt be amazing--it is in my head anyway. Designing the play set, another reason why I couldn't sleep!

My Life of Crime and A Hole

2011-08-18T17:21:00.008-06:00

This is not meant to be my complaining blog, but... THOSE STINKIN' LOUSY NO GOOD LEHI COPS!!! And by "those" I mean the one that pulled me over and gave me a ticket for going the same 40 MPH as the 4 cars in front of me on a main road marked at 30 MPH, previously unknown to me. I'm new here, remember? I guess you have a better chance of not getting pulled over as a modestly-dressed-white-mom-driving-a-mini-van-full-of-kids in South Florida than you do in Lehi, Utah, where, let's face it, you are one in a thousand (or so). The drawbacks of living in a low crime area, you're the one they are after. The only time Jared or I have ever gotten pulled over was in Utah. Go figure, and welcome to Utah.

Just having a bad week, I guess. I wallowed about the ticket for more than an hour, but I'm over it. (That last paragraph helped quite a bit, actually). I wallowed mostly at the library where they denied me a card due to my not bringing mail from our current address. What a waste of a trip, and what a sour, cranky mom I was (am). Connor kept handing me a board book called "I Am Happy," in which he was no doubt trying to tell me, without words, to buck up. Or that he himself is a truly happy child despite his mother's issues.

The external stresses have caused me to feel pretty cranky and on edge lately, and the poor kiddos are the victims of my rage. The whining of a certain child has been particularly nerve-grating lately. Her whining makes my mood worse, and I'm sure my mood has allowed her whining to escalate. I need a drink... Just joking. It just felt like the right thing to say.

But since this is not a complaining blog, not exclusively anyway... good news, we have a hole! Our house, that is. We've been driving by for weeks now hoping for some action, but up till now our lot has only been a good place to store a pile of our neighbor's dirt. Yesterday we saw that they had actually begun our house. It seems as though 5:00 came and they just went home, 3/4 of the way through. Today it looks like they finished the digging (but no camera today). Pretty exciting. Now when we drive by at 3 MPH multiple times a day, sure, we are still stalkers, but at least our neighbors have a hole to put to our faces. We haven't been to the ward yet, but it is evident that there is no shortage of families exactly like us. "Yeah, there's 20 kids in that circle alone ages 3-7," someone informed us today. Talk about completely different from Florida. I hope that's a good thing. Our kids will never get any homework done with so many kids around.

We were so excited to see our hole that we all jumped out of the car and began walking around it and snapping pictures, and then I realized that we had left Connor in the car (no worries, the doors were still open). He was just happy as can be sucking his bottle.Here are some pictures of what happens here every day:

Marissa and her twin cousin, Kayla, dress like princesses on a regular basis. Sometimes on the swings, sometimes holding dolls, sometimes holding swords, usually sticky with whatever they've eaten and almost always together. So cute!
Alex and his buddy, Jacob, are always busy with something: catching bugs, sword fighting, jumping out windows, eating popsicles out of both of their freezers, and this day, making a birthday cake out of Trios. There is never a dull moment with them, or any of them come to think of it.Erin and her slightly older girl cousin, Rebekah playing out of the same piano book together. These two seem to always have a plan: cutting up jeans and sewing miniature quilts, designing elaborate bug homes, acting out David and Goliath for FHE and thinking up fun games on the trampoline.I can't forget that Erin reads to the kids every day, all on her own. No doubt they've all come to the realization that their mom has gotten too lazy for that.And then there is Connor, constantly moving and getting into everything, as any 14 month old should, adding to the lovely chaos around him. It's just a matter of time before the cousin half a year younger than him will be gallivanting around with him too. This one shows him preparing to beat someone with the broom while coloring parts of his body green with this open marker. He's pretty talented. Question: When did this kid get to be so big?
One can't forget Jared's presence in the house. There seems to be quite a fly problem here due to a mink farm in the proximity (not to mention the smell). It was becoming more than Jared could handle, as in he used to catch them in his bare hands and slam them hard to their death. So he purchased an electrified fly swatter that he uses inside daily, usually around dinner time, and sometimes outside when he runs out of them in here. He seems to have a little too much fun electrocuting flies, especially when it makes a big popping sound.None of me because, 1- I already posted the no bangs picture last time and 2- do you really want to see what I looked like after my run-in with the law and the library nazi today? Yeah, me neither.

I Showed Charity

2011-08-16T13:11:00.002-06:00

I haven't blogged for a while. I had a really bad day yesterday, but on the bright side, I just found some dental floss (almost completely pulled out of its container), but dental floss none the less after running out a few days ago. See? Life is good.

On another bright side... I have been trying to focus on different Christlike attribute lately, but you just never know if anything you do ever sinks in with the kids. One night at dinner I had given Marissa some corn and when I looked back and it was gone. "What happened to the corn on the cob that you had Marissa?" I asked. "I gave it to Alex because he wanted one just like mine. I showed charity." That made us laugh so hard. What 3 year old says that? I'm glad she caught on to something.

Moving to Utah has been good. It is a good place to live in so many ways, like seeing three temples at the same time. I have no doubt that we were inspired to come here. But, this move hasn't come without a couple of snags. Mostly just one... selling our house. What an annoying pain to sell a house from so far away. We got an offer about a month ago and we were all happy with the agreement, but the appraisal came back $6000 less than what they had offered. This means that they can only get financing for that amount and still need $5000 back, which we are pretty sure we don't want to do. What makes everyone mad is that the appraisal was very subjective, rating our house's condition much lower than it should have been valued. So you know, all the painting, new bathrooms, new roof, repairs, landscaping, etc. we did meant nothing to this one appraiser--he thinks our house is one level above complete and utter crap. Thanks. Both realtors tried to get the appraisal appealed and we just found out that it was denied. We are stuck with this appraisal for 6 months. So we either lose a lot more money with this deal or we put it back on the market and lose more money having to pay for the mortgage, power, water and lawn care for another month or two, or possibly more. There is no way to win, it seems. It is pretty likely that our house will now be back on the market. You are more than welcome to pray for a miracle that it will sell soon.

We have not been able to save any money since we got here, which we need to do for our down payment. Understandably so, considering we are still paying for a house there and paying for rent and living expenses here on a lower salary. We will be okay once we get rid of that house, I think. One good thing, I guess, is that they haven't even started digging for our new house yet-- meaning it we be longer before we are in it, but we will have more time to save money. I am trying to figure out what this all means, like what I'm supposed to learn from this. Maybe I need to be humbled. Maybe I am supposed to become more thrifty. You know, shop at DI and garage sales. Or eat Ramon noodles and use coupons. It's not really something I've ever worried about before, but I guess I could give it a go. I attended a Grocery Smarts class the other day and figure I could give that a try. And no new school clothes for Erin this year, or for anyone else for that matter. Don't worry, she never did care much about new clothes. Is it just my kids or do they just wear the old ones anyway leaving the new ones untouched? So frustrating.

Which leads me to my next point. None of my clothes have been fitting me lately, and for the record, I stopped eating ice cream every day. No, I am not pregnant (that I am aware of--always have to add that caveat). I just haven't found a very good way to exercise here yet. The biking is fun, but I don't feel like it's really exercise. There are no gyms close by that have child care. Let me rephrase that, there are none that have reasonably priced child care. And there are no gyms for miles with racquetball. Tennis club, yes. Racquetball, no where to be found. These people don't know what they are missing! Maybe they'll build one someday, but it's a bummer for both Jared and me, not that we could pay for a gym membership right now anyway. And I can't run because of my back/pelvis issue, which is the most depressing thing of all because I have always loved to run. My newest idea is those P90X DVD's, which I found for cheap on KSL. What do you think? Am I crazy? Is it really going to work for me? Will I be all gung ho for three days and then fizzle out? I figure that will be cheaper that buying all new clothes, and I will probably feel better. I have to do something with this aging body of mine.

Last week was our ninth anniversary and we didn't have money to do much. We left our kids up at Jared's parents' house while we went to dinner at Brick Oven in Provo (more on that later). Since we were already at BYU, we decided to walk around campus. Every time we saw something that made us remember something we had to share our memory. It was so much fun! What's with all the new buildings that weren't there 15 years ago anyway? We were both there at the same time but never knew each other until we were done, yet many of the places we lived were really close together. Neither of us were ready to get married earlier, so it was meant to be that we never met. We would not trade those amazing BYU memories being free and single for anything. Going away to school was one of the best times of my life. But I am so glad to be married to Jared now. He is patient, kind, athletic, easy going, hard working, smart, handy, computer savvy, a good listener and absolutely perfect for me, just to name a few of his good qualities.

The next morning we went to the temple to do sealings and had a great time remembering our own sealing ceremony. After that we went to Jada's funeral where we got to see so many people that we dearly love. It is still sad to think that such a bright and amazing girl is no longer here, but it was a beautiful tribute to her life and gave me the reassurance that the plan of salvation is real. We will see those we love again, as long as we also live the right way. It still amazes me how one 14 year old could draw such a huge crowd of people in Utah when she never even lived here. So many people that lived in Florida and have since moved drove in from all over the west for this event, and as many people as possibly could flew in as well. It was a comfort to see all the old Florida faces that I love. It truly felt like the comfortable home I've known for so long. Thank you Jada, for continuing to make a difference in so many lives.

Since so many people were coming in for the funeral, a bunch of us got together the night before for dinner--at Brick Oven, remember? It was great to talk with them again. It really felt like not much had changed and that we were just a bunch of Floridians going out to eat. I realized that I felt an extra connection to most of them because I read their blogs. It makes me feel a little ambivalent about my blog. On the one hand, I feel so inadequate when I compare my long, mostly insignificant blabberings with some of their interesting and eloquent writings. But by the same token, because of the connection I feel with others, it makes me want to continue to write without comparing with anyone else.

And last, I showed up to dinner with no bangs. You cannot imagine how exposed and self conscious I felt. I kept telling myself that it's not that bad and why should anyone else care anyway? But despite all my insecurities, I did it. The one last thing I feel most self conscious about. I'm grateful that nobody said anything. And I'm grateful that Jared is supportive of however I look. And Erin. She gives me courage to wear my hair like this. Alex thinks I only look good with no bangs when I smile, but otherwise it's a no go. When I saw the picture of it on my friend's blog, it was weird. I am still not used to it. But then I realized that men walk around almost completely bald and nobody thinks anything of it. Right? Here's the picture... cringe.
Look at all these great people though. And here's the link to Jada's older sister Bridian's incredible blog, where I got the picture, in case you want a good read.

Blue Desk Has Lost the Blues

2011-08-04T22:53:00.008-06:00

Sooo... ya know how I used to pick up old furniture off the side of the road in Florida? And you know how I was so sad about not having bulk pick up anymore to feed my habit? (side note: a few days before our moving truck came I saw an awesome dresser on the side of the road, but I resisted--mostly for Jared's sake. I could have so easily just loaded on with everything else.) Well... we were outside working on our car a couple of weeks ago and the neighbors two doors down were having a garage sale. We went over and that's when I saw my next project. They said that this one wasn't even for sale and that some other neighbors had brought it over in case anyone wanted to take it. This was a good find, yes indeed.

The funny thing is that we were talking to the home owners about that show Hoarders and how crazy all those people are for filling up their houses with junk. "Yeah, I totally agree. Crazy people. I'll take the desk." The junky, broken, warped outcast of a desk. It did take some convincing to get Jared to see my vision. "This will be perfect in Erin's room, don't you think?" was my reasoning. "But you have like three unfinished projects in the storage unit already, and where would be put this one?" was Jared's point of view. All valid arguments, I will agree. But in the end, he was the one helping me carry the thing home. Thanks again, honey. I don't think he regrets it now. I love how this one turned out.

Before

After

I had to scrape off all the warped veneer and sand down the wood underneath. I still have to fix the inside of one of the drawers, but I couldn't wait to share this one. I already knew I wanted to do something this blue color and distress it to reveal its character and lines. The hardware was spray painted in ORB (oil rubbed bronze). The more I work on a piece, the more I love it. You don't notice all the fabulous details until you sit with it for a few hours. Why do I love that anyway? There is no way I could have built something this cool, especially in the amount of time I spent refinishing it. I mean, just look at those legs? And to think, somebody was going to throw it away.After I painted it blue, Erin loved it. But when I started distressing it she was visibly upset. I was ruining the perfectly good paint job. She wanted it to look new. And also, she wanted the hardware blue to boot. Good grief. Yes, it will be her desk, but in the end, I was going to do what I wanted. This may be my favorite project yet, even if Erin thinks it looks ratty.

One more because a pudding faced Marissa wanted to be in the picture

Another funny thing. I used the rub on polyurethane and didn't have any gloves. The stuff gets all over your hands and doesn't come off with soap for days, FYI. That's when I brilliantly decided to try peanut butter. It worked like a charm. Next time, I'll use gloves, but peanut butter is a good second best, in case you are wondering.

Right now it has a spot right by our front door and will be great for a mail drop and to keep pens and pencils, and it gives us a pop of color in here. Here's a shot of where we live with the desk in the corner.Now, if only I could find more pieces like this for free on the side of the road...

(furniture donations gladly accepted)

Good Clean Fun

2011-08-03T08:02:00.002-06:00

I feel like I should capture some of the craziness (and fun) that has occurred this summer so that I don't forget it all.

On being an adult: I will just start by saying that sometimes I wish I didn't have to deal with all the responsibilities involved in moving to a new state. My kids don't know how good they have it, not being adults that is. I needed to get new car insurance, because it is way cheaper and because I live here. But to do this I had to register the cars here which involved two trips to get safety and emissions for both cars and a trip down to the DMV with all the kids. And I had to get a Utah driver's license, which involved going to a different license agency, where they sent me to another location to get my birth certificate because mine is in the storage unit (I have everyone else's by not mine) and yet another location to get my marriage license--with all four kids. I forgot the snacks I packed for them (translation: long day with cranky kids) and I still don't have my license! Oh, and you also need two forms of proof of address which was a little tricky since we have no utilities here and a bunch of other things were only in Jared's name. Good thing I have that secret credit card only in my name (just kidding-it's not secret, but it is in my name). Also on the agenda yesterday was going to the bank with my sister-in-law and all 10 kids to get something notarized saying that we live with them so that Erin can get signed up for school. The kids weren't that bad, all things considered, but I'm pretty sure the bank will need to order some more suckers after our visit. And there are things to deal with involving the inspection of our home in Florida (water leak, termite spot treatment, A/C, one nail exposed in the roof--what's with that one?). Totally not fun to deal with all this when we are not even there. See how annoying it is to be an adult sometimes? I'm done complaining. This will all be taken care of soon.

On living near family: It is great! It has definitely been a shock just how busy family things can be and will probably take some getting used to, but I love being more involved with family. We've had a birthday thing on Monday, another one for a 2 year old niece the day before, BBQ's with grandparents, FHE with my brother's family, an extended family reunion for Jared's mom's family, my uncle's 90th birthday celebration, splash park with the sisters-in-law and kids, dinner for a sister-in-law who was visiting, the aviary with all the cousins on the Evans side, party up the canyon with cousins and grandparents, another campfire up the canyon with the family we live with, visit to my aunt's house, sleepovers and grandparents' house, outings with my mom and sister... so yeah, it's pretty busy. And let's not forget that we see family every day. We love living here with the cousins. Just think, nobody has to ask to go play with friends because they are always around. Everyone has gotten along really well too, which has been so good to see.

CousinsMore cousins

Even more cousinsThe cousins we live with (most of them)Look, everyone has someone to play with. Lucky kids!

On living in 900 sq ft: Not bad at all. We actually had less until yesterday because there was a water leak and some mold issues in one of the bedrooms. They came to install the carpet last week and found another puddle of water which came from our washer this time. We got that fixed and had to wait another week for the carpet. So 3 kids have been sharing a small room and Connor has been with us for a month. And the dressers have been in the living area. Now that we have that third bedroom, it feels so roomy. The bad thing about a small space is how messy it can get. Remember how messy four kids was in our house if Florida? Same mess, smaller space. But the good thing is that it is pretty easy to get it clean again. And only one bathroom to clean. It is kind of like living in a small apartment with 6 roommates in college. A little bigger than Heritage Halls and a little smaller than King Henry.

You may wonder if I like having all these kids around. The answer is yes. I have always liked to be around people, not that I've always been a kid person. But I like company, I guess, so it doesn't bother me at all that there are 6 or 7 kids running through the house all the time (for the most part anyway). Living here sometimes makes me feel a little bit like a polygamist. I mean besides having our own husbands and all, which admittedly is the most important part about polygamy. But there are always lots of kids around and they are not all mine, but we are somehow all related. And there's another wife upstairs.

On milestones: Connor started walking all the time about three weeks ago and running a couple weeks later. We were at the cell phone store and he ran out the door behind someone leaving with a charger in his hand. That was an interesting "where's my child?" moment. Glad I noticed before he wandered into the parking lot. He has also mastered stairs, up and down. A great point to get to. Marissa is about 85% potty trained. Yay! She is in underwear all the time but has had a few accidents, including poop. But it is definitely time and she is doing a lot better than before. Alex is learning how to ride a bike with no training wheels. I think if we spent more time practicing he would get it by the end of the summer. Erin is learning to roller skate. Jared is getting used to getting up way earlier than he used to, and doing a fabulous job of it. Me? Not so much. I usually drag myself out of bed long enough to pack a lunch for the man and kiss him goodbye. My milestone is starting to ride a road bike. I've gone out a couple of times with my friend on one of her bikes. It seems pretty fun and maybe like something I could get into.

Connor walking

On Kid Camp and No TV: Kid camp goes pretty well on the days we are here. They usually do about half the things on the list, but it's better than nothing. We were given a little TV before we moved here but haven't used it once. The kids are completely happy playing outside all day and reading books rather than TV. I love it! Jared and I have been indulging in our two newest addictions: watching episodes of Monk on Hulu and eating ice cream every night. Seriously one of the best shows there is. Funny, captivating, clean. What's not to love?

On other fun things we've done: Pioneer Day parade, fair and fireworks. Do you believe these people give you Pioneer Day off? Extra holiday, sweet!

The Third Annual Lehi Foam Day. The firemen spray foam all over a field and you just play in it. Then they wash you off with the water hoses. Marissa did not want to "go in the clouds" after I showed her a video of what it was--as in she wouldn't even get in the car with us. We left her at home with the upstairs neighbors to take a nap instead. It was really fun though, good clean fun.Oh, and how could I forget Dress Like a Cow day at Chic-fil-a? $32 worth of food for free just for putting on a few spots, ears, nose and a tail. I still can't believe certain people wouldn't do this (i.e. Jared). No pictures, but next year, our costumes will be even better. Thank goodness I have Cheryl to do dumb stuff like this with me.

Last, one of the top reasons for living in Utah, the Parade of Homes. I debated not going for about 5 minutes, due to the dragging kids along with me part, but decided in the end that I love it too much to not go. Turns out, my kids do love the Parade of Homes too. Poor Connor and Marissa by the end of each day... they are both so tired and I end up carrying them more than I want to. I figure I do enough things that are just for the kids, like parks and museums, that I can do something that I really love too. I don't think I will ever get tired of looking at homes, including my friends' homes. Yep, I'm the kind of annoying friend who will ask to see the rest of your house. Sorry, I like houses--a lot. One of the most awesome homes this year was a replica of the house from "Up". So fun. Loved it! They even had the old man outside and gave out balloons.

Good Clean Fun!

When the Living is Easy

2011-07-26T23:13:00.000-06:00

(Okay, I actually wrote this a week and a half ago, so it's a little out dated... but I'm just going to post it anyway.)

This week, and the last couple of weeks, have been really busy. I finally feel like we belong here. Yes, in fact, I know this is where we are supposed to be. We moved down to Lehi into Jared's brother's basement and have been digging ourselves out of a mess of boxes, furniture and packing material ever since. Mostly me, because Jared has been getting up to speed at his new job and trying to get used to the commute. There is way more traffic here than there used to be, by the way, not that we are helping any by moving back. Anyway, it has been a little like Christmas, in a way. Because we didn't pack ourselves, we get to unpack all these mysterious boxes with unknown items in them. Great fun. Granted, it's all our stuff, used and worn, but it's still exciting. "Hey, it's our rice maker!" "Yay, we have silverware!" "Oh, it's... a container of baby food... wrapped in 4 pieces of paper." And our baby doesn't eat baby food any more. Totally my fault on that one. Should've gone through things better.

After unpacking all the boxes I realized that we were definitely missing a few things, like plates and bowls, the can opener, cheese grater, peeler, etc. Luckily, we found that box, marked wrong, in the front of our storage unit. There's more that we are missing (like all the piano books--we have a piano but no books), but for the most part, we have everything we need. It is great to be able to sleep in our own sheets, and use our own dishes. So comforting. I am happy organizing this place, even though we will have to undo it all in a few months. It's got a kitchen, bathroom, three smallish bedrooms and its' own laundry room. Really, everything we need. It even has a clubhouse, which is actually the pantry under the stairs that the kids have called as theirs, partly anyway. I even put one of them in there for quiet time the other day and there were no complaints (think Harry Potter's room under the stairs, only more fun).

Our front door opens onto the back yard where there are usually at least 6-8 kids roaming about at any given moment. There are 10 kids living here, which has been a dream for them all I think. They all have someone around their same age to play with. They disappear on me all the time and spend hours on the trampoline, on the play sets, or catching bugs. What a fun back yard! The weather is perfect for the kids to play out there without getting too hot and the grass is so soft on the feet. I laid down in it for a while today. I never realized what a luxury this grass was until I had crab grass for 9 years. We even have a view of the mountains from our basement windows because it is on a hill. This place will be great for us until our house is built, and it just may be one of the best summers of our kids' lives.

In a matter of 8 days our kids have seen and played with every one of their cousins but one, their one year old cousin who is in Maryland--7 on one side and 13 on the other. How they love their cousins. Oh, we love their parents too, it's just great to see our kids with instant friends. Family get togethers are great because we don't have to do anything for our kids--they totally entertain themselves.

Next week, all of the out of state relatives will be gone, and we will be almost all the way settled. I really hope to get into a routine of some kind, so that I can feel like I am doing something for my kids, as opposed to sending them outside to catch bugs for 12 hours. The plan is to do 7 things every morning/day and to call it "Kid Camp" (totally stole your idea Lamar, but my kids named it). It will include: 1. Post-its (with their daily chores), 2. Be Like Christ (talk about a Christ-like attribute, one per week), 3. Reading, 4. Writing, 5. Math, 6. Piano and 7. Exercise (which should be easy with the yard and trampoline and such). This is Kid Camp, and I intended to do all of these things as well, until Marissa informed me out of the blue that I am not allowed at Kid Camp because I am not a kid. Little does she realize that Kid Camp is just a spiffy name for mom making the kids do things they wouldn't normally do. You know, like learn and stuff. Boring. We will see how this goes. After all the daily things are done, we will try to go out somewhere or do something fun... or, they can just catch bugs for the rest of the day and we will call it good.

Thursday was a good day. Jared and I finished picking out everything for our new house and got the final total. We are one more meeting and a construction deposit away from seeing our house get built. Very exciting. The more I drive by the neighborhood and look around, the more I feel like this is home. Beautiful, mountainous home. And one with nobody else's fingernails in the carpet either. The same day we got an offer on our house in Florida. We had lowered the price again the night before, and the offer's not exactly what we wanted, but it's an offer and we are very happy to not have to worry about it so much anymore. Hey, I guess anything will sell at the right price, right? We decided not to respond until Monday to see if there is any more activity this weekend with the lowered price. I think there were two showings scheduled. So, this is all very good news. It makes me feel better knowing exactly how much 20% will be and knowing that with this sale we should be able to hack it. I feel extremely blessed indeed!

Take a Pitcher

2011-07-06T20:34:00.003-06:00

I just feel like writing... something. First, we are experiencing a bit of culture shock. I am at least. And I'm not talking about seeing a church on every corner either. It's the accent. I grew up here, so it really shouldn't be weird to me, but come on--if you "fill" like taking a "pitcher" of me, I just might start crying. I don't mean to offend anyone that may actually say "pitcher" instead of "picture", but we have heard several people say it since we got here and frankly, it's kind of weirding me out. On the bright side, since I spent half my growing up years here and did pick up some "Utahn", I can now say "bolth" again freely, not that I ever learned how to say that one right anyway, and "freeway" instead of "highway" without getting made fun of. Just please, pleeease don't let me pick up "pitcher" and "fill", to name a few.

On a positive note, there have been some pleasant changes as well. One was when Jared went in for his first day of work, they handed him a paper with his salary on it and it was more than what they had told him. It was actually the amount that he had asked for when he got the offer, but they told him they couldn't raise the salary. Instead, they gave him a sweet relocation package to make up for it. So not only did we get the relocation package, but we got the amount we wanted as well. First day on the job and he already got a raise. Sweet! Although, he hasn't had a raise since...

I kept hearing about the cost of living being lower here, but I don't know, everything seemed affordable enough in Florida. It was all we ever knew. As it turns out, a lot of things are actually cheaper here, like cheese and milk. Today I called to get some rates for car insurance and found out that we can get it for 75% less than in Florida! And our home owner's insurance for a year is just over the amount we were paying for one month! I guess the hurricane risk is a bit lower here. I am so glad I am going this direction and not the other. These people probably think I'm so weird when they tell me the rates because I keep asking if they are mistaken and repeating the numbers. It's a little baffling, to be honest, but a great change. Seriously, these Utah people don't know how good they have it.

Everything has seemed to go really smoothly so far with the move, and I owe almost all of it to the previously mentioned relocation package. It really has been such a blessing! I fill--I mean I feel so spoiled. All of our stuff arrived here on Saturday, and mostly all in one piece. There were four different stickers marking our things to show which place it needed to go and whether the packers boxed it or the mover marked it. Just a little complicated. I was so impressed by how good these people were. We had the best driver and the best helpers. They were amazingly fast. I cannot even imagine trying to pack and move everything ourselves. Our driver said it would have taken at least two U-Hauls. It ended up being 12,500 lbs. I don't know if that sounds like a lot or a little. Sometimes I feel like a hoarder and that I should have dumped half of it, but our driver reassured us that this was actually not a lot of stuff. We put about 1/3 into the basement apartment and 2/3 of into a 10' x 20' storage unit which, I am a little embarrassed to say, is almost completely full. The movers packed it as tight as they do a truck. Yeah, it's probably too much stuff. But, in my defense, there is a lot of food storage, furniture and lawn equipment in there. That's all stuff we want to keep. Plus, I'm sure that a good portion of it is made up of packing material.

The next piece of the puzzle was getting our cars. They arrived yesterday, quite dirty, but other than that, just how we left them--minus the duct tape that was holding on the door handle. Yep, that's the kind of car we drive. I was so happy to see them, and even happier to drive them. You would think I would have liked the brand new SUV rental better than our 12 year old mini-van, but driving it was a source of comfort, I guess. And it was much easier to get the kids in and out of, not to mention the double stroller. They said they were dropping the cars off between 9:00 and 10:00 am and needed $2300 in cash or certified check, neither of which I had or would have by 10:00 am. So, since Jared took the rental car, I walked to the grocery store with the kids to get a certified check because the bank there opened at 10:00. "Do you have an account here?", the nice man asked. "No, but I have this debit card... it's my husband's, because I left my wallet in the rental car... ha...ha... Sooo, that also means I don't have my license. I have a passport though... with my maiden name on it... oh, and also, it's been expired for four years." Looking back, I have no idea why he gave me that check for $2300 when the name on the debit card had absolutely no relation to the name or picture on the passport. It's like these people just expect you to be honest or something. I mean, I was and all. But in case you are someone that's not, this would be a good way to get $2300. Here's a hint though, take four kids with you. It ups your credibility, I can only imagine.

The other day driving back from our weekend at Jared's parents', Marissa said, "I just want to go home." It was at that moment Jared and I realized that this isn't home. I mean, it just doesn't feel like home yet. Not at all. That could have something to do with the fact that we don't actually have a home here yet and are still living out of suitcases. Our routines are all skiwampus and we've been roaming from house to house trying to make sense of this place. I'm sure things will get better once we are more settled in our temporary dwelling.

We've also been having meetings with our builder trying to finalize all of our architectural changes and design decisions, which are extensive. Good grief. They make it sound like this house is so inexpensive until you find out what all the upgrades are. "Oh, you wanted windows and a roof?" Okay, it's not that bad, but the things we want are really adding up. We are trying to limit it to things that we can't change later, like the third car garage, the cold storage and the laundry room drain (yes, that's an upgrade--and we're getting it because it's on the second floor). Even so, we are definitely over budget. And these decisions are hard, like matching floors, cabinets and counter tops while still being economical. It will be done soon and the building process will begin. I feel so good about this home and have never had any second thoughts about it since we made the decision. I love the neighborhood, the plan... everything. Sometimes it seems so arbitrary and random, how you pick a place to live, but I do think God has a hand in these decisions and guides you to the right place. I can only go by my feelings, and I do feel like it is the right place.

All these big changes, and being homeless, have kind of all come crashing down on me lately, and as a result, I think I am manifesting it in being boring and socially awkward. Has time really sapped me of all fun? I used to like fun. I can only blame the stress, so as to convince myself that this phase is temporary. I don't think I idealized Utah in any way, but I am finding it hard to find my place socially. I mean even among family. I don't feel like I fit anywhere yet. I hope I can at some point. About half way through the big family reunion we had on the 4th I just gave up trying. It was a good day for a lot of people, but I guess not really for me. I wished I had been at the 4th of July party that we have gone to for years in Florida, with my friends that I already know I would have fun with. Oh well. Like I said before, there is a lot of good here in Utah and I will find my place, whatever that may be.

The Move

2011-06-27T20:42:00.001-06:00

Well... here we are, in Utah. It's not a vacation, though it sometimes feels like it. This is where we will stay. We aren't going back to our house, or school, or life in Florida. That feels weird. Here's how I can tell we are in Utah. Someone was humming "Follow the Prophet" in Del Taco and it wasn't one of my kids. It has been kind of a whirlwind the past week or so.

First, some pictures of Connor's first birthday. I made rainbow cupcakes--a success, except I should have put the blue on top instead of the pink. Sorry buddy. Also, sorry about the rainbow. I just wanted to try it out. He has been learning new skills left and right. He is taking more and more steps on his own, and just in the last couple of days he has mastered stairs. Thank goodness! Oh, and this kid loves the vacuum. He follows me around when it's on and cries if I turn it off. He'll get in the middle of whatever room I'm vacuuming and just sit there. All my other kids screamed as babies when I turned it on. Funny guy.Last Saturday was a special day... First, I got to sing in the choir for the groundbreaking of the upcoming Fort Lauderdale Temple. I even made it into the church news. See, I'm famous again. I'm the one on the right with the blue top and black skirt, in case you couldn't find me. It was a wonderful experience to get to be there, since most people had to watch from the stake centers. It will be such a blessing to have a temple there and it will always hold a special place in my heart. We would love to come back for the dedication--do you hear that Florida friends? I had a huge humidity headache the rest of the day, freakin' Florida summers!

It was also Erin's birthday. She turned 7, had some ugly but yummy cake pops (which I'm sure I totally made wrong), got some roller skates, a necklace and a boa, and got to go to another friend's birthday party that day--which is almost like having her own, with fewer presents which we don't need. Erin had lots of friends over and sleepovers before we left. She really will miss all of them. (oh, she was in pajamas at the time--busy day)That night there was also a going away party for us, a barbecue and pool fun. I'm a slacker, so no pictures. But thank you everyone, we feel so loved! We had a great time.

On Sunday I handed over my primary secretary binder and responsibilities to the new one, who will do a great job. I don't know why, but I felt the urge to keep doing my calling and to make sure everything was set for the next week before I left. Just one of those things. Also at church we were given two books: one from the primary with everyone's picture and signature, and one from the rest of the ward. It was so touching to think that people would do that for us--I cried. We visited with some friends that night and they took the remaining two propane tanks off our hands.

On Monday, we tried to finish up some things around the house--they are never done by the way--and we tried to pack our suitcases so the movers wouldn't pack stuff we would need. We were definitely not as prepared as we should have been when the packers came a 7 am on the dot the next day. We walked around each room groggily pointing to the things that would go to storage and the things that would go to Jared's brother's basement, where we'll be staying. Then the four of them split up and did their magic, swiftly wrapping and packing everything within our walls. I honestly have no idea if the right things are going to go to the right place. There was no way I could have watched them all. But, I will say, I'm going to put "packer" on my list of jobs I might want to do some day. It seems like it would be a good personal challenge to pack as fast as I could without having to worry about any emotional attachments to things or sorting stuff, and they are not the actual movers who load everything into the hot truck. Not interested in that job. Just the packing part. Granted, I don't smoke, so I may not fit that qualification.

(Last picture of Simon)

We had so many great people help us throughout the move. Some have watched our children and others came over to help clean. I love these people! On Tuesday night, we were over at our friends' house for dinner when we heard the tragic news about our friends the Mortensens. This family had lived in our ward in Plantation for many years and were loved by so many. After a devastating divorce, the mother and 5 of her children were driving to their new home in Las Vegas when they got in a terrible accident. Their 14 year old daughter, Jada, was killed and the others were injured. (The article in the link says that she wasn't wearing her seat belt, but she and her sister were actually double buckled because they didn't have enough seat belts, and the seat belts on both sides broke in the accident). It is just a terrible tragedy that has affected so many people. Jada was one of our baby sitters and an amazing girl. I got to know her when I picked her up for activity days all year a few years ago.

On Wednesday, when the moving truck came and the movers were taking all of our belongings out of our house, we just felt so sullen and sad. It was a strange mix of emotions. We should have been excited about the move, but instead we were sad. So sad. We fasted and prayed for them that day. Many people did. The rest of the family is going to recover physically, and their faith is so strong.

That night I laid in my bed with tears running down my face and with my hands over my heart. It was beating so strong, along with my husband's and children's. But her's isn't. Children should not die before their parents, but she did. It makes me want to cherish my children even more, to hug them and love them as much as this life will allow. Death is not the end, we know, and she is in a good place.

On Wednesday and Thursday night, since we had no furniture, we stayed with our good friends, the Penrods. We stayed up way too late talking and are so grateful for their friendship. Thursday was also a busy day as we finished the cleaning, visited a few people and did some final house things. We realized that all the screws for the hurricane shutters got packed in the truck... oops. We did mention it to them, but never put them aside. We also realized that the part that closes the cat door got packed when 'Crazy Cat Lady' came to pick up our cat door insert. Woops. I have no idea which box that might be in. Sheesh.

And regarding our cats... they are gone. One of our friends offered to take them to the humane society for us. Now if you are a cat lover you would probably be appalled by our decision, but honestly, we couldn't take them with us. We don't even have a house here in Utah and I really think they might have gone crazy--one of them at least. The good thing is that as long as they have good temperaments, they will put them up for adoption until they get adopted--no time limit. Our friend took Simon, because he jumped in the cat carrier just like that. He is so mellow and so friendly. I actually will really miss him. I'm sure he will get adopted. But we could not find the other cat anywhere. I knew he was in the house, but hello? We had no furniture to hide under, and we could not find him. We thought we had looked in every cupboard, but later when I was cleaning the kitchen drawers I opened one and he was in it, not making a sound. Poor traumatized cat. Jared took him in later that day. Just so you know, I didn't cry. It was either because I was too busy to think about it, or because I'm just cold hearted like that. Probably both.

That night we decided to go to the beach to take some pictures one last time before leaving, and to prove that we did actually go to the beach while in Florida. I did not worry about what anyone was wearing and I'd been cleaning all day, but I'm glad we have them. It was a beautiful evening. (upload error--I'll post these pictures later)

On Friday morning we flew out of Florida, and here we are. Three of the kids got sick on the plane--I can't imagine having to drive the whole way with car sickness. Our cars were supposed to get shipped here last week, but as of yet, there is no schedule to get them here. A little annoying. Especially since our family won't fit in a normal size rental car. Hopefully they'll be on their way soon.

The weather couldn't be better. We've spent a lot of time outside at the park, in the back yard, barbecuing. And no humidity headaches for me. So that's hopeful. The kids have already played with two families of cousins and loved it. I am so excited for them to live close. We also took the kids to see the model home of the house we'll be building where they ran around wildly choosing their bedrooms and climbing on things that they shouldn't climb on. Phrases like, "Hey, there's a guitar on the wall," echoed throughout the house. Evidently they don't value standing in the laundry room trying to figure out the best configuration as much as we do. At one point we heard a huge crash and found that Connor had knocked over a gumball machine sending glass and gumballs all over the room. The lesson: decorated models are not Daniels-proof.

Jared started his new job today and our things will be arriving at the end of the week. It will be a while until we are settled. But, here we are... we are Utahns now. Which reminds me, do we have to change the name of our blog?

A Stroll Down Memory Lane

2011-06-16T09:12:00.004-06:00

Moving is so bittersweet. On the one hand, we look forward to change. We need change. We are excited about the prospect of leaving whatever problems we may have had here and facing new challenges, in the hopes that overall, things will turn out the way they are supposed to. Not necessarily a perfect life, but a different one that is just as good or better. A life with less grout to scrub and a place to put the food storage. A life with seasons and family.

On the other hand, all the really good things we have here are coming to an end. Yesterday a wave of emotion caught me as I was driving down Pine Island Rd. as the rain began to pound down on my car. A drive that I have made so many times, yet will no longer be making; and watching the rain that would never be like this in Utah. Our best friends came over the other day as they have so many times before--me talking to the mom like always, about anything and everything, and her three youngest playing with my three oldest, just like they have for years. This, in many ways, is what has lifted me up, kept me sane and gotten me through some of my darkest times. This same scenario, so comfortable and normal, is not going to happen anymore--at least not like this, in this house or even in this state. What will we do without them? And all the other friends we have here? The Fourth of July will not be spent at the Michaud's this year, or New Year's at the Mueller's, or Memorial Day at the park with everyone, or Christmas at the Frahm's, or Thanksgiving at the Penrod's, or camping with the Gay's. We won't have the Hales to love our kids almost as much as we do or the Mills' to play games with. And all the people that have lived here less time than us but who are amazing friends as well. My great visiting teacher, our faithful home teachers and all the moms who I've gotten to know at the park or at baby showers. The Catos, the Richards, the Potts, the Guffeys, the Bradys, the Renshaws, the Kellys, the Hafens and many more that I'm sure I'm forgetting. It's these people that have made our life so rich and enjoyable in Florida.

But this will all end. I will only mow our lawn one more time, after getting to know every bump, tree and sprinkler head. Only once more. We will only make our usual walk a couple more times. Around the block we know so well, and by neighbors that we have always known. And our cats... they, like everything else, will be gone. We've been through a lot together. They were my companions before I knew anyone else here and before I even had a job or kids. While they are just animals, they are our animals... and they will not come with us.

Yesterday, since our TV service has been disconnected, I pulled out some great footage to entertain my children. Not just anything, but my BYU marching band videos. This, like living in Florida, was a good time. A stroll down memory lane. That, I will not deny, was a lot of really geeky, poofy-haired, big glasses wearing, mid-90's band geeks--and I was one of them. I mentioned to the kids about how geeky band geeks were and then proceeded to explain what geeky meant. "But mom," they said, "you were in the band." Yeah, I know. I was a band geek. "Huh?" These kids were literally astonished to even imagine that I was that geeky. They're still so young, aren't they? Tragically, the 1996 video got eaten up by our formerly faithful VCR, which is even more tragic because that was in many ways my best year. I was in my prime that year. But 1994 was also pretty good too. It still amazes me that a whole band could play Festive Overture and Appalachian Springs while marching sideways, forward and backward. Now that's talent. From band camp tan lines, to sliding on the practice field in the snow, to BTR's and really ugly polyester uniforms. I would not trade my 6 years of marching band (three in high school and three in college) for anything. But those days came to an end too, and now all I've got to show for them is two remaining functioning VHS movies, and some really great memories.