Update from my sabbatical

Today after church a new friend told me she'd found my blogs and had been reading up on our lives.  I chuckled as we drove home because I realized she may know me/us better than most of the people from church just from reading my blog!  Hah. 

Then I wondered, 'just what in the heck have I blogged about recently?', and then I got home and checked (just before falling into a sleep coma) and realized that I've blogged about nothing for almost three months.  How is that possible? 

Then the thunder woke me up.   Awesome, house shaking thunder.  Which I'm very disappointed, that it hasn't accompanied any rain yet.  But since it is Fast Sunday, and since dinner isn't for another 30 minutes here's my 3 month catch up. 

• Spring break (while daddy worked) in Tarpon Springs, Florida.  Such a unique place - a complete Greek fishing village.  We enjoyed sight-seeing, taking a boat tour to Anchiote Island, our first Deep Sea Fishing (it was amazing) excursion where our youngest cleaned up on the fishing, and a little Easter dress shopping. 

• Easter - with our traditional taquitos and trifle.  And yes, Easter was back to back with a birthday - totally not fair on the parents!  
• 3 birthdays (happy birthday us). 
• Oh, I hit the big 40.  Now I can complain when my body starts falling apart - there's a reason to pin it to.  :)
• That living healthy challenge - I lost 20# between January and April.  Go me.  
• 2 straight weeks of house guests/company.  4 different families came to visit us.  We loved spending time with them - but would thank the airlines to kindly space out their amazing pricing better through out the year so we can enjoy everyone one at a time.  
• 3 Disney trips - one for my birthday with my parents, one as a chaperone to my daughter's school's chorus group (chaperoning 12 kids and dealing with a bus that forgot to pick us up made for a long day!), once with two women who I work with at church just for fun - and it WAS fun...
• 2 weeks where I sort of started to grieve and really struggled with a deep depression.  Very unlike me, but whoa was I in a funk.  I think it was the first time I really had to maybe begin my post miscarriage grieving process, when I finally had a window when I wasn't running crazy everywhere.  Regardless, I'm glad to be re-surfacing after that.  It was pretty miserable.  
• 1 crazy week of organizing a string group to play for my daughter's school, the last cub scout pack meeting of the year pot-luck, organizing a community & ward bike ride/run/walk, taking care of sharing time at the last minute, family and their in laws for dinner, planning Memorial Day activities for the ward breakfast, my daughter's birthday, party, and last day of school all on the same day.   

And NOW.... it is summer.  We went to the beach yesterday - a friend said he'd teach us how to surf.  But the water was all wrong, so we enjoyed the sand and the sun and watching colonies of tiny mussels or clams or something burrow into the water and re-surface over and over again.  We helped a friend move, and then took our kids to a Chinese buffet (because we love our kids, and they love Chinese buffets), and because today was Fast Sunday.  We enjoyed church, and naps after church, and I have enjoyed my absolution of having caught up on my blog in a mere 20 minutes, and thus highlighting our most recent, and previously undisclosed adventures.

Our summer plans you may ask?  Well.... they mostly involve bike rides, children bowling for free, swimming in our pool, and as much stress as we can avoid, oh, and don't call on Tuesdays.  They are our lesson days - mine and the girls'.  I'll be teaching alot that day with 6 new students, and fitting in lots of playing during the rest of the week.  

21 on the ACT

Our daughter was identified as brilliant.  Well, they noticed that she aced the state mandated tests last year.  So, she was offered an opportunity to take the ACT - just as a practice if she'd like.  To get her ready - you know for when she takes it in 4 or 5 years. 

She really is brilliant.  She scored a 21.  Her English and Reading were way above first year college student scores.  The question is - what happens now?  

Her math and science were low - but understandably.  She hasn't even had algebra yet, and had never heard of most of the science stuff.  

Here's what I found online from the Princeton review about acceptable ACT scores: 

The Higher, the Better

The national average for the new SAT is 1500. For the ACT, it's between 20 and 21. If you are close to these averages you will likely be accepted into a considerable number of colleges and universities (as long as you have decent grades), but may not be considered at more selective schools.

We knew she was a smarty pants.  The school kind of gasped and sputtered when we told them.... 

Moving on

A little heartbroken, but it has been a week, and we are slowly beginning to heal.
What is the hardest part of a miscarriage?

Maybe the part when I don't know what to say.
Some people know.  I haven't kept it a secret, but then I didn't announce it on FB either.
Phone calls about cub scouts - people with needs, and having no desire to meet any of those needs, rather than just curling up in a ball and letting everything go on without me. I wish it were like that.
People who do know who don't know what to say.  I could just keep going.

The hardest part of my miscarriage has been layers.
Not knowing what to expect - at all.
Having a crappy doctor who has been super crappy.
Having my husband stay home from work for three days, to nurse his bronchitis and a sinus infection.
Wanting to be babied, but having a sick husband who wants to be babied, and kids who still need lunches and rides and to get to school.
The whole world continuing to spin and not knowing the depth of my pain while I wish that time would stand still.

That probably sums most of it up.  And adding insult to injury, blood draws every other day to make sure that my pregnancy hormones are diminishing back down to zero.  Slap to the face that one.

There's my rant.  Thanks for your indulgence.  I try not to pity party, but if I can't now, I'm not sure when I could.

On the bright side, (I find a new doctor) I don't think the doctor can be quite so hasty in slapping that big red INFERTILITY diagnosis stamp across my name anymore.  We did it without the reproductive endocrinologist's help.  Worst doctor ever.

Also, not knowing what to expect, I was surprised that that's all it was.  I was down for one day (mostly from fear), and then up for a bike ride and most normal functioning (except for a few naps and taking it a little easier than normal) the next day.  I've had way worse before - was surprised that that was a miscarriage.

Sinus infection and bronchitis are almost better. Kids are resilient, and I once again have the post Sunday bomb awaiting me with open arms.  Dishes to do, and laundry to fold and put away.  I've got a bright new week ahead of me.

 

Story with an unfortunate ending

I've been waiting for this post for a couple of weeks.  Unfortunately, the ending of this story looks like it is taking a much different path than what we'd hoped and anticipated.

A couple of months ago, I went to an endocrinologist to try and figure out what is going on with my homrones.  After some minor tests, they did a test where they injected me with a dye, and watched where the dye went. They wanted to see if I had any blockage.  Nope. 

They did find some polyps on my uterus though.  And said they'll need to be removed.  So, I was waiting for somethings to happen so that I could schedule the polyps removal surgery.  They didn't happen, and didn't happen.  So the dr. office did some blood work, and said - just wait a little longer...any time soon.  

It still didn't happen, so I took a home pregnancy test.  It was positive. 

The dr. did a pregnancy test.  It was positive.  Two days later they did another to confirm an increase in the hcg.  There was an increase, but only of 30 (it should have almost doubled).  

The dr. put me on some other drugs because my iron is low and my progesterone was too and told me to have more blood work done on Sat. 

The labs were closed on Sat.  

I went to the lab this morning at 6am.  They gave me the result after 30 minutes.  Instead of doubling and tripling, a number that was at 358 dropped to 70.  

I'm devastated.  Waiting for a miscarriage now. 

I know that this will pass.  It was so out of the blue - we were afraid to hope.  

Our youngest daughter is completely devastated.  We cry together.  

We know that we will heal and that life will move on.  But for this week, I'm so very sad.  

Several days ago, I let go of the steering wheel and asked Heavenly Father to take over, and have been praying to be able to accept His will.  I'm oddly comforted, because I know that He is aware of my pain.  As I was reading my scriptures last week, I came across 2 Nephi 10 in the Book of Mormon.  There were several verses which seemed to be written for me.  One verse said, why should we let our heads hang down... another said, lift up your head, and be of good cheer.  If ever I needed to hear words of love and comfort from my Heavenly Father, it has been during this time.  

   

Pretzels and Eternal Marriage

I've been having trouble sleeping.  This morning I was up at 3:00 am.  I should be tired.  I did some cleaning in the kitchen.  Looked at some cool recipes on pinterest, and then went back to bed at 5 hoping to at least get 30 more minutes before my morning walk.

No such luck.  So, I walked for an hour, made breakfast (well, two of us had oatmeal - the other two wanted cold cereal).  It was one of those days when for whatever reason, we actually had time to read scriptures in the morning at breakfast (we normally read at night before bed).  My husband got out the door to work on time (miracle), and lunches were made and kids were ready early today too.  I wish I could take any of the credit.  Time just seemed to slow down a little bit this morning.

One of the perks though was that I had planned to make a church visit this morning, but got a text cancelling our visit.  As such - I postponed my shower (I knew there was a reason why I didn't shower right away this morning) and I was able to get in my 10 mile bike ride this morning.  And I'm stoked because I can ride 10 miles in 58 minutes!  Yes - slow for some, but that's fast for me!  And it was - as always at this time of year...beautiful, crisp, fall like weather.  And a bonus because I'm eating sugar today (my once a week day sugar day).

So yesterday, my friend had her day off from work and we usually try to go shopping, cook something new, or hang out a little bit at least together.  We accompanied each other to some appointments, then went to Hollerbach's Willow Tree Cafe in Sanford, Florida.  If you like German food - this place is for you. If you love really big pretzels - this place is for you.  If you love live German bands on the weekend - with German food and really big pretzels - this place is REALLY for you.

                             

We like the really big pretzels. :)
If you aren't into sausage - might I recommend the pretzels?

On a more serious note - I've had some things running through my head lately.  I've been asked to speak in church on Sunday (kind of like giving the sermon since there is no paid clergy in our church).  I was asked to speak about President Monson's talk on Temples from the October 2012 general conference.  Here's a link to the talk I will be referencing my remarks from: http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2011/04/the-holy-temple-a-beacon-to-the-world?lang=eng&query=temple,+(name%3a%22Thomas+S.+Monson%22)  So.

On top of speaking in church on Sunday and thinking about temples, yesterday, one of my best friends in the world contacted me and told me that she and her husband will be sealed together for eternity this fall in an LDS temple (actually, her husband told me, but she confirmed it).  I spoke with her last night - and I am so excited for them - and so sad that I won't be there with them.

As I was collecting my thoughts on how to post my thoughts about this, I wasn't sure how to explain how important temples are to the Mormon faith.  Here's a wonderful link (if you aren't familiar with our faith)that clarifies our beliefs about marriage and temples - which they explain much better than I do.  http://www.ldschurchtemples.com/mormon/marriage/ 

In thinking about my talk, and my friend, I recalled that over 10 years ago, I was asked to be the Relief Society President of our small mountain branch in Colorado.  This means a religious leader over all of the women who lived in our geographic area - to assist with needs, mobilize the troops, and help care and watch over everyone.  Many of the women in our church spoke Spanish, and many didn't speak English.  There was a huge cultural gap and it was quite a challenge.

When I received the list of ladies that I was responsible for the watch care of - there were so many that I didn't know, and had never met, much less heard of.  I started going through the lists, and made phone calls introducing myself, and asking if I could come and visit and meet these ladies.  Sometimes I didn't have a phone number, so I would find an address and stop by their home.  Sometimes people yelled at me and asked me to never call again.  Sometimes people had moved or numbers were disconnected.  I worked so hard, as did the ladies who worked with me.  Sometimes, a tenure is long, sometimes it is short.  Almost exactly a year later, I was released from this calling (my responsibilities), and given other opportunities to serve.  I felt a loss and wondered why I hadn't been given more time.

In reflection this morning, I realized that in that small window of a year, I made an eternal impact on three women and their families.  My best friend who will be going to the temple soon, where she will make eternal covenants with Heavenly Father, and then be sealed to her husband.  Another very close friend who hadn't responded to me at the time, but I later met, and became a very close friend to, came back to the church after many years away.  After a time, her husband was baptized and her family was later sealed.  This was at least five years after my service as RS president.  Another friend who had been away from the church for almost fifty years slowly made her way back over an eight year span, and has gone through the temple again.  I love and cherish these women.  I can now stand back in hindsight and see that my efforts had an impact on their lives and on the eternities in that short year that I loved and served them as their leader.

I don't understand a lot of things.  Especially about life and people.  But, I love that I can look back and understand things differently, and know that I may have made a difference in someone's life.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Here are our daughter's personalized cards (who doesn't want a picture of her handing them a sucker?) that she's sharing with her class this year.  Next year, we'll do them at Costco with some of their card templates, but they turned out pretty cute anyways.  

And of course....what Valentine's day would be complete without the homemade caramels for the school teachers to add a little more sweetness to their day?  We've been doing caramels for teachers Since 2005 - almost 10 years!  Here's a link to the recipe.  http://triedandtruefavoriterecipes.blogspot.com/2009/03/caramels.html

Wishing everyone a very sweet day full of thoughtful kindness and gestures.  

Life's random ramblings

I've been trying to bike at least twice a week, and just got back from today's ride.  It was beautiful - while the news reports snow and cold weather throughout the nation - I love living in Florida right now.  It feels like fall.  I can wear a light sweater (cause I have lots of them and can finally get away with wearing them at this time of the year).  The air is crisp, leaves carpet the bike path, and I'm not sweating as profusely as I will be in a couple more months.  While I was a little low on energy and lethargic, I did my full 10 miles.  Our youngest went with me last Saturday and she did great - I couldn't believe she could go that distance, but she's a trooper.  Here's a section of our bike path:
 

Our oldest daughter had her first cross country track meet yesterday.  She came in 5th of all of the girls.  I was pretty surprised, since she had told us that she was at the back of the practices and not great, and was just doing it for the fun of hanging out with her friends.  While her best friend cleaned house and came in first, I was just shocked and thrilled to see our daughter so close to the front, and am very excited about her upcoming track meets!  She must take after her daddy.  :)

Our youngest daughter has started gymnastics again.  She's spending 6 hours a week working out with a team, and seems to really be enjoying it more than she was enjoying the ballet she was taking.  Needless to say - between getting the two of them where they need to go - flute, piano, gymnastics, and track, and my music lessons, and primary calling, we've been trying to keep up.

Did I mention that we are losing access to our church?  We are being displaced to another chapel for the next 6-8 months during renovations to our building.  As such, I've been trying to figure out where to hold cub scout meetings, activity days meetings, pack meetings and everything else.  We've just cleaned out our closets, and figured out which rooms the classes will be in in our temporary new building, and it will be interesting to see how things go this Sunday at the different chapel.  I figure as long as I plan on chaos, anything other will be a welcome surprise.


I am very excited though for tomorrow.  My primary presidency is totally cashing in on the perks on living in Florida.  Our secretary has been working at Disney for 15 years, and offered to take our presidency to Disney for the day tomorrow to find our "inner children".  It should be really fun, to hang out with these ladies, and relax - without trying to solve ward and world problems, or plan the ward Christmas party etc.  Our husbands have stepped up, and are helping us to step away.  I'm hoping my feet can handle it.  Disney without kids, with 4 grown women will be interesting.  Gotta remember my Dramamine - these ladies may have a little wild in them!  We may not leave until the park closes down...Oh, and the new Neverland is open!

Finally - it is STRAWBERRY season again!  Headed out with some friends this weekend to pick strawberries to our heart's content, zipline, hayride, picnic, hang out by the fire, and consume fresh strawberry shakes or strawberry shortcake.  I'm using my sugar day at the strawberry farm this weekend.
Last year we came home and made 20 pints of fresh strawberry jam. It was SO amazingly good that we ran through it in a matter of months.  We'll have to double or triple our batch this year.

So...it is Friday Eve, looking forward to a weekend full of Disney, Strawberries, and a church re-location.  Can't wait!!  Bring it.

 

Who knew?

Here are some nifty tips I learned this morning:
Did you know that:
Adding cinnamon to your diet can increase your metabolism by 20%? Just ingest 1/4 t. - 1 t. a day!
Eating kiwi helps burn 39% more fat when you are exercising?
Ice in water makes your body work harder (to heat up the water) and increases metabolism?
Tomatoes, green peppers, and spinach contain chromium which boosts the way fat is burned?
Sunlight increases metabolism?

So they say... 

January 14, 2013

Wow.
It has been a while.
I need to be much more diligent.
We had a great Christmas.
A really nice new year.  Which brings up a point. I'm just wondering if we are drawn to the pyromaniacs, or if they are drawn to us?
It seems no matter where we live, we tend to celebrate new years eve every year with friends who LOVE fireworks.  Especially the illegal ones which send you scurrying into your home into hiding when you hear the sirens in the distance.  Sound familiar to anyone?
Why do my friends all have "connections", or a "Chinese" business partner who supplies them with rockin fireworks?  Where are our connections and Chinese business partners?

I guess we'll just have to settle for friends that love fire and have connections.
Nonetheless - we enjoyed watching fireworks that should have been in a park while we rested on blankets looking up at the night sky.  Instead, we enjoyed them from a friend's front lawn, on his neighborhood street.

We got two kittens for Christmas.
We've been very busy naming them.
Everyday we all feel compelled to come up with at least 2 names (per person) per day per cat.
Yes - the kittens seem to be very confused and don't seem to know how to respond.
And thus, we hone our debate skills each night at dinner as we discuss options.  I think the kittens have just decided that they own the place, and are indifferent to our desires to name and dominate them.

Someone was very diligent about feeding them and watering them and cleaning out their liter box for a week or so...and so it goes.

The kids went back to school and so we got the garage cleaned out and organized last week. Now all of the crap that was in the garage (for good reason) is in the hall and in the spare room (aka room of requirement).

Just when we thought things were finally calming down, we found out that finally, the permits have come through and the church remodel is beginning.  As such, I've been up to my eyebrows trying to figure out where we'll be holding cub scouts and activity days.  I also got to learn how to prepare 9 classes and a nursery for a new year with lesson schedules, new books, trainings, curriculums etc. and try to figure which teachers to put with each class.  It seems that there's always something exciting and consuming just waiting around the corner everytime I think that finally, things are slowing down.

The girls are keeping busy.  Our oldest is still in track - practicing 3 days a week, with meets starting on top of that, and keeping busy with her flute and piano as well.  Phew!

Our youngest is involved with an early morning chorus group and performances.  They are working on an audition tape so that they can perform at Disney this spring!  She's been auditioning for a gymnastics class, and officially enrolled today - leaving her short ballet career behind.

I have become a food nazi as my friends roped me into a healthy living challenge (since they said it would be easy since I do most of it anyways).  As such, I'm even more diligent about my morning walks, and adding either biking, weights, or swimming to my routine each morning.  I've cut out sugar, and am trying to use mostly fresh ingredients.  My family hasn't died...yet.

I did discover lemon grass last week.  I'm officially in love.
I even went looking for more today.
I was so thrilled - I found four lemongrass plants.  Can't wait to plant them, and be able to grow my own lemongrass.  

Right Now

Right now it is 41* outside, and headed towards the high 20's.  
I've just covered the 2 pineapple plants and chia plants and snake plants and flower plants and palm plant with sheets so that they'll stay cozy tonight.  Kind of crazy since yesterday we were swimming.  :)

Our oldest daughter is sitting on the fireplace reading a book - next to a fire.  Our youngest is sitting on the couch listening to her daddy read her a story.  And my husband just saw that I started blogging so he is calling the family together for scriptures - after this chapter ends - I have a small reprieve!

We just did a bit of shopping - kids for a few last friends.  While my husband and I hoped to find a few other things, the kids were sticking to us like glue.
We came home and traveled through a couple of neighborhoods - enjoying all of the Christmas lights as we went.

The kids are out of school for two weeks.
Christmas packages have been sent.  (Except for yours Julie - I'm still working on it)
Yawn - a little more shopping tomorrow morning, then the annual drive around looking at lights with some friends in their 15 passenger van after dessert.

My yawns are becoming more insistent.  And scriptures are calling my name.

12-12-12

Yesterday was our anniversary.  Yep - on 12 -12-12.  How cool is that?  Too bad it wasn't our 12th anniversary.  Anyways - I married a pretty amazing man.

Just thought I should document it.

I will begin blogging soon.  The primary is in charge of the ward Christmas party.  Tomorrow.
That's about all I've been thinking about and doing - once this party is over, our family will be able to start thinking about Christmas and working on all of those projects on the "To Do" list.

In the meantime, today, I'll be making these:

Yep - that's my proto-type.  Totally adorable candy cane themed centerpieces with flowers in them - with candy scattered all around.  They'll be placed on a snowflake (made by one of the primary children), on top of a red square of paper, on top of the white table cloth.  Yes - it is a candy cane decorative theme.

We spent this morning hanging white lights across the church gym.  Zigging across - with coffee filter snow flakes attached, then zagging back again.  Phew.  Melinda, Gail, and Kyle saved us - it would have never gotten done without them.  But it does look pretty dang cool!
Thank goodness for eyebolts (already there) and zip ties.  :)

Our recent ramblings

The boxes are slowly moving out.  Slowly.
The garage is halfway habitable for our car.  Which is nice.
In the house we might have 3 boxes yet to go through and get organized.  They are the ones full of misc. papers.  Always seems there's so much to do, yet so little time to do it.

We spent Thanksgiving on our first road trip since moving to Florida.
My husband had to do some work in Atlanta, Georgia and so we decided to take the whole family with him, and THEN head to our Thanksgiving festivities.

As such, we enjoyed an 8 hour drive to Atlanta.  It wasn't too bad.
The next morning after dropping my husband off at work, there in the parking lot, our car battery died.
Lovely.
We have AAA, but haven't ever used it, and were discussing cancelling it.
Nope.

Carlos came and figured out our battery was dead, and then installed a new battery.  Cool.
The girls and I hit the mall for a while where we comparison shopped running shoes for our daughter who is beginning track cross country season.

Picked my husband back up, and headed to another town north of Atlanta.  Calhoun, Georgia.  We enjoyed doing some pre-shopping in the outlet stores.  Then, the next day while dad was at work, we hung out in the outlet stores, and then the girls got pedicures.  Definitely some fun pampering.

Then, we headed out of town for a 3 hour drive to my sister's house to celebrate Thanksgiving.
We planned to go out to eat, but didn't realize that she lived in a college town and everyone had gone home for the holidays.  We called at least 10 restaurants before we found one that was still open.

The next day we did some cooking, and we ran to the store before heading over to help my sister with the cooking.  Unfortunately, our tire blew while we were driving.  Luckily, we were super close to the condo we were staying in.

Lucky us - we got 4 new tires.  Merry Christmas.  I guess though, that we should acknowledge that our tires got us through at least one season in Colorado, and an additional almost 17 months in Florida.  And my neighbor said that the Florida UV is just torture on tires.  Anyways, we've got new ones now.  Our car should be happy and not seek attention for the next 4 years.

Thanksgiving was lovely with 5 of the siblings and my parents all together.  The cousins yucked it up, and my sister presented us with a thoroughly southern home cooked Thanksgiving.  Smoked pork, smoked briskett, smoked and baked turkey, collard greens, corn puff, cheesy beans (for my husband), potatos, rolls, cranberry salad, and pies.  I was surprised that I enjoyed the collard greens and corn puff.  Fun to try new things anyways.

We spent time at the state park hiking around on Friday (after getting new tires), and then had a post Thanksgiving Thanksgiving leftovers meal, and after breakfast the next morning all together we all hit the road and went our separate ways.  Luckily we had an uneventful ride home.
I will throw in some photos once I get them all transferred over.

While preparing for Christmas, our primary is in charge of the ward Christmas party (just finished the primary program), and I'm having my first Florida piano recital in just over a week as well.  Trying to catch our breath - holding it until January I think.  :) Hopefully I can get what we need to get accomplished before Christmas. If you are on my gift list, it may be late.  Just know that.

My exciting news (for me at least) is that today I picked up a light fixture to attach to our ceiling fan, and got it all attached and we now have light in our family room!  Hooray!  I love it. It needed it the most.

Band audition

Our daughter auditioned a couple of weeks ago for an all county band.  While she didn't make this one, she had a great experience and now knows what to expect.  She had to do all 7 scales, in order, in under 2.5 minutes (2 for state), then her chromatic scale, then perform a prepared piece, and also sight read music that she'd never seen before in front of a judge.  

It's ours! (and the bank's of course) and Halloween pics

How negligent I've been.
I guess I can blame it on not having decent internet, and on moving.
Needless to say - we officially moved last weekend. More of that at the end - after some Halloween pictures.

Our Irish/Trinidadian/English friends joined us for the feet of meet and potato ghosties.  And then the annual donut competition: (notice the cool pineapple plans in the background)
:)




Here's our little medusa - snakes and all (it was a pretty quick do all ratted up, although we did it in twisties with pipe cleaners at the church party on Friday)...and her BFF of course.

Here's our Halloween ballerina.  Her costume is actually one that was retired from the stage.  Her ballet school sells their retired costumes each year - we think she looks pretty good!  Very fluffy!


 
We closed at 9:00 am on Friday, and started moving our stuff around 12:00.
So many people from our church came and helped us out...both on Friday and on Sunday.
They have all been so very kind and giving of their time and talents and resources (like Patti who brought us Sunday dinner).  Muahh!  A huge kiss and hug to all of them!
(And everyone far away who sent positive moving vibes as well).





We had our ward Halloween party on Friday night, then moved the rest of it all on Saturday, then the ward primary program on Sunday (the first one that I was ever in charge of).  It was nice to come home and relax on Sunday and heave a big sigh of relief, and then take a nap.  :)

Monday was spent at the old house - cleaning.  Then Tuesday morning, and then we returned the keys, and I taught lessons all day.

A friend helped me with a bit of unpacking on Wed, and we got one of the kid's rooms closer to order, we also had our traditional feet of meat Halloween meal, and then Thursday I hung out for 4 hours with the internet repairman.  Meetings all day today (we are in charge of the ward Christmas party in a few weeks), and I'm still trying to figure out when I can get the rest of this stuff organized.

But, at least I'm not house shopping!  On to a new phase of our lives.  Settling, gardening, and learning to maintain a pool, and Florida home.

Yay us!

Yes, Caterina - photos to come...once I get everything into order :)
Here's a teaser of the master bath though...
And the pool and back yard...

34 hours to go

Really  - we have ALL of the luck!
34 hours to go until we (hopefully) become Floridian land owners.
That is, unless Sandy gets in our way.
You see, she's a tropical storm headed our way.
Which pretty much means - if there's anything to cause us just a little more home settling discomfort, we seem to be able to find it. Needless to say - at this point, we hope that the gusty winds will be all that we see of Sandy, but I'm betting we may see some rain as well.  Hopefully not.

On the bright side..
Here's our new kitchen - I can't wait to cook again!

We are almost there.
Almost out of the home that is 82* by 10:00 am, and into something we can call home.
With a pool, and a hot tub.  Guess what we'll be doing that first evening? Yep - sleeping like logs in our air conditioned house!  (Did I mention we haven't had AC for two weeks?)

Yesterday I drove for two hours to get boxes for food storage (the perfectly sized ones).  Glad that I got there the one day a week they are open!

Today, I pulled up our bed and filled 20 boxes with #10 cans.  Let's see - 6 per box, 20 boxes - yep.  120 cans were boxed up today as I sweated in our sweltering up stairs.

Cleaned out the linen closet. Almost finished cleaning out the master closet. Cleaned out the fridge.
Ate lunch with a friend cause all of my food is boxed up or used up.
Set up new accounts, and shopped services.

I can hear my bed calling my name.

Getting closer every day

We are getting closer.  Not there yet, but this week has been full of fun packing (in a non air conditioned house).  Wed. I finished the final touches of packing up the kitchen, Friday I picked up more boxes and 100% finished our storage room, then  my husband put together the wardrobe boxes and we got most of the clothes into the boxes, and our closet cleaned out, and the bathroom packed, and the garage ready to go.
Our youngest was assigned to shred important documents and rid us of several boxes of old documents.

My husband commented, 'this is fun, it's kind of like camping' in reference to our meals.  Since I boxed the kitchen early, we've been subsisting on whatever I can find in the fridge and freezer, and some dried goods I thought would be simple to make (rice a roni anyone?)  At least this camping trip has our own beds.

We took a break on Saturday afternoon and headed to Magic Kingdom.  Our kids wanted to try the crazy tea cups ride - we did it once and the older people in our family got sick.  The younger two loved it, and went on it another 8 times until their hands were red and sore.  Then we bolted over to the Epcot Center where we got to watch Survivor in concert.  The kids weren't too thrilled, until they started recognizing some of the songs.  They analyzed the boring songs for bass line progressions and time signatures.  :)

Keeping our fingers crossed for closing on Friday and then moving right afterwards...  should be an exciting week!

And we're moving...we hope

Fingers, toes and everything in between - crossed.
Yep, we are hoping to close and move on the 26th.  It's been a roller coaster.  The appraisal came in $32,500 less than the agreed upon purchase price.  Guess in the end, the appraiser did us a favor, but we were sweating bullets last week when it came in.  Our realtor said his reaction would have been to cancel the contract and look for a new contract, and hope for a better appraisal.
Fortunately, the sellers agreed to the lower price (except they wouldn't pay any of our costs that they'd previously agreed to) and so by Thursday last week we were looking at business as usual.
Friday night around midnight I got a message from our loan officer to let us know that the loan program (that we specifically went through her to get) may not be available.  GRRRR... we'll see what this week brings.

So - last week, we packed.  The week before that, I packed.  This week, guess what?  We are packing.  And getting a little closer each day.

And getting excited as we hope everything goes through.
We plan to close on the 26th in the morning, and then start moving right away.  As in immediately.  Spend the 27th moving still more, and then we will have the primary program on the 28th.  Clean, clean, organize and unpack on the 29, 30, & 31st and be out of our rental.  That's the plan.

Happy packing me!

Blessed - Consider the lilies of the field...

My husband and I were talking yesterday about life.  I just keep thinking that things are supposed to get easier at some point.  He thinks that maybe 'that's life'...just the ups and downs all the time, and trying to work through them.  Maybe he's right, and maybe he isn't.

These flowers are probably my all time favorite flower - Calla lilies...last night during scriptures, we read in the Book of Mormon, the section where Christ has just come to visit the Americas, and was preaching messages which were very similar to the messages he taught in Jerusalem.  Here's one of my favorite passages - we read it last night and it gave me peace.  It is found in 3 Nephi 13:26-34, and says...
 "Behold the fowls of the air, for they sow not, neither do they reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them.  Are ye not much better than they?  Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?  And why take ye thought for raiment?  Consider the lilies of the field how they grow; they toll not, neither do they spin; And yet I say unto you, that even Solomon, in all his glory, was not arrayed like one of these.  Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, even so will he clothe you, if you are not of little faith.  Therefore take no though, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?  For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.  But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.  Take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself"

I love these verses because they teach me that Heavenly Father knows what I need (right now - like a house), and things will work out - I just need to put my faith and trust in Him, and things really do work out.
Today I saw that happening.  I've been very blessed today.  Today my walking partner went to do some service in the temple - like she does every Friday.  I asked her to pray for us today - because things have been a little rough.  Suddenly - part way through the day, everything just started to shift.  In an amazing way.  Really.

First off, I started working on some primary stuff, and made a phone call to ask for some feedback, and ended up a short while later meeting with two amazing women, and I got a lot off of my plate and sorted through some major stuff this morning with these ladies.  Yes, we sorted through the primary program AND the ward Christmas party that we are in charge of.  More on my plate, but we made a huge dent in my mental list and worries.  (Which is good since I'm moving in a month)

My activities for 2013 and our primary budget started to round themselves out, and things I've been stressing about getting done are finally moving from that back burner to the mid to center of the stove finally (and hopefully off of the stove into my 'done' pile!)

This afternoon, I got a call from our renters in Colorado.  Back in the beginning of the month our renters told us that because of a lost job and that things were pretty iffy.  We said we'd work with them.  Then, last week, they told us they were moving out.  So - I've been frantically trying to get our Co. house posted all over the place and take care of adds, and set up showings, and put together contracts and figure everything out.
While we did find renters, they weren't able to move in until mid November - which was still difficult for us and I was starting to work on utilities and a vacant house for a month and a half...so not joyful during this uber stressful time.

Until this afternoon - when they called and said that things had worked out, and they decided that they really wanted to stay in our house, and that their employment situation had changed, and that they'll be staying there.  Wooowhoo!  What a load off of my mind!

And finally - with a cherry on top, we've been trying to get a specific loan program - oh yeah, for the house we are going to buy.  (Yes #5 - refer to previous post).

My dad (who is an amazing loan officer) told us about a fantastic loan product - and we fit the criteria.  After dealing with 4 different loan officers who just couldn't understand what we wanted and told us it didn't exist, he suggested that I call someone from his company in our area.  Lo and behold - we found someone.  We started everything up with her, and then the next day got an email telling us she'd switched to another company.  She said she could still do the program, so I've been bustling around, digging through boxes for old tax returns etc.

Then yesterday, she found out she couldn't do the program we wanted.  So, more phone calls for me - trying to figure out where to go, and how to get this product we want.  Finally, this afternoon, the skies started to clear.  Right as I was having the phone conversation with our renter, I got an email from our loan officer, and it looks like they can do the program we want and they've approved us for it already.

Rounding out my evening and gradually clearing skies - we got to go on a date - to the local football game.  My husband enjoyed the game.  I enjoyed the shake with him afterwards....and he even made it through a movie with me.
Sigh - things are looking up.  I'm blessed, and so grateful for today's blessings! 

More house shopping

Number 5.  Maybe it is our lucky number. 

Last week we saw another house (#4) and were ready to put in an offer.  We loved the house, and the setting, but not the schools or distance to our church.  When we contacted our realtor to put in the offer (after agonizing over it) he talked to the agent, and was told that the sellers pulled it off of the market due to health problems.  Grrrr...  so - we've been frantic.  Really trying to find anything in the area we want - we've been making concessions and justifying and rationalizing, but not finding what we want.
However, this beauty - might be the one.  We are keeping our fingers crossed.  It was put on the market last week and we saw it yesterday.  We are putting in an offer tomorrow and keeping our fingers crossed.  It has the right schools and is still fairly close to the church (which is important when early morning seminary kicks in)...

So - while I should be blogging about all of the fun stuff we are doing - really, I've been hanging out with our realtor - I think he's shown me 40 houses.  We get excited and put in an offer, and then for whatever weird reason - we don't get it.  Then, I get to go back to looking for houses and the desperation rises.

Which brings us to this point.  I'm hoping we'll know by Wed., and if that's the case, I can start packing boxes.  Hoping hoping this will be it.  :)

Slap of the wrists

It seems that I got too busy to blog this summer.  I can't believe it has been since July.  Naughty, naughty me.
Our youngest daughter found a ballet workshop during the last two weeks of July - it was pretty intense, but she loved it.  So, after searching for a gymnastics home, we settled with a cheer and tumbling program.  She didn't love it though, and so we looked around and found a classical ballet program.  She's attending twice a week and is enjoying it.  She's hoping to try out to be a mouse in the nutcracker this fall/winter season.  Hmmm
In the meantime...school started during that second week of August - so early!  We spent lots of time shopping and getting all of our school gear back together, and I've spent lots of time running around taking are of lots of things I've put off.  Mostly, I've been hanging out with our realtor.

Meanwhile on the home front - we don't have one.  What I meant to say is that after 11 months of wrangling, and trying to purchase the home that we've been renting, we were told to take a hike by the owner's bank.  As a short sale, we've been at their mercy - waiting and waiting.  Well, they decided to look at the file again just as we got the green light.  They suddenly raised the price $20K.  Our realtor (and theirs) squawked and said they were plain crazy, and asked them to look at it again.  They did.  And then they added another $20K onto the price - elevating it $40K.  Way over price for even a traditional sale - and even more than the owners even paid for it 8 years ago.  Then, they told us to pay it up, or take a hike - by 5 pm.

Hence, my daytime job looking at houses with the realtor.
 
We made an offer on one house last week, but it was rejected by the seller - she was not interested in negotiating anything - it was all or nothing and she was priced high.
So, we are in the midst of another offer and crossing our fingers that we will have a home to live in in the near future.  In the meantime, we have another realtor banging on our door trying to show this home to some new crazies who think they might want to buy this overpriced short sale of a home with no privacy or backyard and an itty bitty kitchen.

The good news is - after agonizing over the house we are currently hoping to get - we found out that the schools are all different schools.  BUT - because our oldest has been fervently praying that even if we move, she wants to continue to go to her school - our kids may still get to finish this year and next at their schools...if I'm willing to drive them to and from.  Guess we will cross that bridge when we get there.

It is almost 7:30 and my house is way too quiet!  Pictures on their way soon.