In a Large Nutshell

I have a blog? Who knew. So much has been happening and some of it worth blogging about but lately I would rather stalk/read facebook updates or catch up on blogs. I don't even put status updates on my facebook page so my blog shouldn't feel too neglected.

I just checked and my last post was almost 2 months ago. Sorry Jeff for leaving you in the dark about our life. Jeff is my brother on a mission for the LDS church. He can read blogs so I thought my posts could count as my letters to him. Guess that means I am a terrible letter writer too. Just ask my sister, Emily. I don't think she received one letter from me the whole 18 months she was gone. I do love them and I hope I show it in other ways.

So here is my life in a 5 minute nutshell:

1. I have an alarm on my phone set for 10 PM because I am trying to go to bed earlier. Every night it chimes and instead of heading to my room I dismiss the reminder and still go to bed at 11:30. That alarm just went off.
2. I am reading Lord of the Rings and have had to re-check it out from the library two times (that is like 9 weeks that I have had the book) because I keep doing other things. I do like the story but I keep telling myself to just finish this one task then I can have some me time. I keep doing that until the kids come home or I waste my free time reading facebook or dumb internet articles.
3. My sister, Calee, and her husband were finally able to get an offer accepted to buy a home. I am their real estate agent and the market has been crazy. I think they were getting tired of looking at homes. I was worried we wouldn't find anything before the new baby came.
4. We still don't have a name for this little boy. I am feeling very round. By the end of the night I dread having to bend over to pick up the house and hate the stairs almost as much. The good thing is that in the morning I feel great and can get a lot accomplished. My only other complaint is that I can't stand clothing bottoms. My pants/skirts/garments are always sliding down because there are no more hips/waist. This is another reason I hate bending over because I always have to adjust when I stand back up. And no, I have not resorted to going around the house wearing nothing on my lower half.
5. The girls are almost done with another year of school (2 more weeks left). Both played soccer and the season is almost over too. They each have one more game. Braden was sad we didn't sign him up but he wasn't ready last fall. We told him next fall. The girls were both taking gymnastics and piano. Kelsey had a meltdown and want to quit everything. So we let her give up gymnastics. I am not sure what to do with her as she grows up. She can be so happy and nice but also the most negative, grudge holding girl. If you make her do something, she will hate it no matter what.
6. We are finishing the basement. It will be so nice to have it done. The sheet rock will go up next week. Once finished each child will have their own room, there will be a play room to house the mountains of toys, a family room to help alleviate the sound and chaos that abound in the main part of the house right now and there will be a second washer and dryer so Macy and Braden can do their own laundry. The laundry is what Braden is excited for. He even says they are going to wash their own clothes. Here's to hoping for the best. If you couldn't tell, the kids decided that it will be Macy and Braden in the basement. Originally it was going to be Kelsey and Macy. Not sure what happened but it doesn't bother me either way.
7. I am trying my hand at gardening again. It is going better than my attempts in AZ. The spinach did get burnt by Utah's crazy weather of one or two days of crazy warm weather followed by some really cold and rainy days. Everything else (peas, lettuce, carrots, green onion) seems to look good but only time will tell. The kids and I started some seeds inside (tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, basil). I hope to get those in the ground tomorrow or Saturday along with some store bought plants (spaghetti squash, zucchini, watermelon and pumpkin). I had to wait to put these plants in because I had to do some major work on a flower bed to make more room and I went out of town.
8. Speaking of out of town, last week I spent 5 days in San Diego. It was wonderful. Brian had a conference for work and I joined him. The conference was only 2 1/2 days but we extended our stay so we could vacation and count it as our anniversary. Brian was pretty much booked those 2 1/2 days so I vacationed myself. I thought I would do tons of lounging but instead I pulled a Brian was going non-stop. I wish I had been able to log the miles I walked because I know it was a lot. I walked all over the gas lamp district and Old Town. The next day I rented a car and went all around Balboa Park (I still did not see it all and I only made it to 1 of the 15 museums). That same day I hit Coronado. I took a snooze on the beach and tried to get my pregnant body comfortable on the sand so I could read my book. I determined the only way to get that done was with a lounge chair and I didn't have one so I walked around Coronado. It was nice to do whatever I wanted but by the end I was grateful to have someone to vacation with regularly. I was ready to start carrying on conversations with myself. There were so many things I saw and wanted to share them with someone. I even dined by myself because Brian's boss is a networking fool (which is a really good thing) and he had events booked for Brian and himself all night. He wanted to introduce Brian to people so that deals could be made. Brian wouldn't come back to the hotel until 10 PM at night. Once Brian was free, we went to: the USS Midway, Little Italy for dinner, a Padres game (as we were trying to buy tickets someone gave us $50 seats for free), traveled up to La Jolla to sit on the beach, saw Point Loma light house, and drove up to Del Mar. It was an action packed few days. I am so happy I was able to share some of it with Brian.
9. I am finishing this post and it is now 10:50. So again the alarm thing didn't work.

Oh You Lucky People

Oh you lucky people. I have to speak next Sunday but I don't want to write my talk just yet, so I will blog. I have done research but I don't know which way to go. I will ponder a bit more then get to writing. As for now I will give maybe not the latest but certainly the greatest.

First off we moved. Back in May actually and Brian had out the whip to get us unpacked as quickly as possible. Within 2 weeks all boxes were unpacked except for about 3 and most wall hangings were up. The garage, master closet and basement storage were all organized by then. I finally finished hanging things about 2 weeks ago. Brian eventually gave up on trying to get that done when he saw that the whip did not phase me. My excuse was it was summertime and I was having fun while he slaved away at work.

In June we went river rafting on the Snake river and then turned around and drove to Lake Powell. We left for the river on a Thursday. We took my grandma's motor home, which decided to blow 2 tires on our drive. One on the way to Alpine and the other on the way home. We got home on Saturday. Went to church on Sunday and then left for Lake Powell. It was a little crazy, but a lot of fun.At Lake Powell Brian brushed one of Kelsey's loose teeth right out. Luckily he noticed the hole in her mouth before she spit and the tooth was gone forever.

The kids took swim lessons. Kelsey's favorite stroke is the backstroke followed by the butterfly. Macy likes the butterfly too but I am not sure her favorite stroke. I was really impressed at how good they actually were this year. Kelsey is still afraid to swim by herself where she can't touch. Silly girl. Braden on the other hand has no fear. He thinks he is a good swimmer and was hysterical to watch. He loves to gawk and he even likes to gawk underwater. You can see him looking around as he swims. As he waited his turn he would sit on the step with his head underwater. I can't believe how long he could hold his breath. Sometimes he would do the deadman float. The first time he did this it scared me and the teacher because he sat there so long.

This summer our new front porch was broken in with a lemonade stand, rock museum, nail salon, music concerts with the karaoke, photo shoots and many other activities that I am sure had the neighbors laughing. I know the neighbors are excited we moved in at least the thousands of girls that live nearby are.

The girls are back in school already so it has really killed my summer. I feel bad when I am not being responsible and accomplishing things other than reading a book. It is just Braden and I all day. He gets a little bored with me. Luckily he has a little friend around every corner in this neighborhood. One of Braden's favorite things to show his new friends when we first moved in was he dad's tooting spot. He would bring his little buddy into our bedroom and point to Brian's spot in the bed and tell them that was his dad's tooting spot. Then all of them would giggle and laugh. I guess he has passed gas one too many times in that spot in front of Braden.

The other big event was my brother leaving on his mission Aug 1. We all said goodbye and know that he will do good. He may bug a few companions but they will all still like him. His presence was really missed when Emily and Jake were moving into my parents and we were cleaning out the basement. Someone was about to say "Where is Jeff and why isn't he helping?"

Good Bye Home

Well after 10 months we can officially say good bye to our home in Phoenix. It is a bitter sweet farewell. I loved that house even though I complained and said some mean things about it. Now that I look back I realized there were some other things going on that made me curse items I was unhappy about. I am sad to see it go. On the other hand I am over-joyed. I feel like I can move on. (Of course that is not happening fast enough in my mind, I mean it closed on Thursday so shouldn't I be in a permanent residence by now?) I wouldn't recommend the route we had to take because it wasn't pleasant. I sometimes feel bad for having to short sell it, but that is done and over with.

So long large living space,

so long open kitchen,

so long refreshing pool,

so long palm trees,

so long bright sun,

so long great neighbors,

and keep growing little orange tree (maybe someone else will know how to get you to grow big and blossom).

Some other good new this week. I got my car back from the repair shop. It looks as good as new and I am so happy to have it back. The sun has also been peeking through trying to warm it up a little. How I love to see the sun! And Brian and I bought a new mattress. I have owned the old mattress for 14 years and it was starting to do the taco thing. Now we have to figure out what to do with the old set. Give it away for free on KSL.com or take it to the dump? I feel bad for giving it away because it is dirty and worn, but Brian's brother said you can't imagine what people will take for free.

The Good and Bad of Life

I am going to make this quick because I have already wasted too much on the computer and I haven't even got to my original goal.

So I have finally hit the "bruised hips" phase of pregnancy. Every morning I hate waking up because I am still tired from turning over every hour because my hips start to feel as if they are bruising. However, I like to get up because I am tired of having my hips feel bruised. I don't know if anyone else experiences this, but I hate it. I just want to sleep. I have also hit the point where I feel that either an advancement in age or a third pregnancy is taking it's toll on me. I feel a lot more worn out at the end of the day and after an hour of picking up the house I am breathing heavy. There could be other factors that play in to this problem such as I have two kids that can create ginormous messes and it requires a lot of squatting and bending over to clean. I do a lot of crawling these days to minimize such actions. My hips are also ache a lot more. I am only five years older than when I was pregnant with my first, but I feel like an old woman some days. It makes me dread getting older. With Kelsey I taught water aerobics almost every night and maybe that is why I didn't notice the hips as much then. I am also at the point where I don't think there is much more room for baby boy. It seems that he pokes out every where. The only solution my body has is to get bigger. Not that exciting if you ask me.

So this is turning into not so quick, but I have to remember this stuff. Last night Macy gave her first family home evening lesson. She was so excited to prepare and give it. She did get upset when I wouldn't let her type on the computer to prepare. (We were out of time and she doesn't know how to spell anyways. I will make time for that another day.) She colored and cut out pictures of the story of the Good Samaritan. She then told us the story and asked us how we could show kindness to others. I think she liked doing it and maybe it will help give her courage to give talks in primary.

Last but not least, an update about our future. Sometimes I should keep my mouth shut before things are finalized. If anyone knows me, I am sure you never know if my plans are for sure. We have hit a huge obstacle in our original plans to move closer to family. It might even be bigger than actually finding a job (maybe not). The stumbling block is our home. Of course we purchased it at the height of the market. This has created problems in every scenario we have played out. We can't rent it because of the huge losses we will take over the years. We can't sell it because nobody will give us what we owe on it. So we are stuck. How come trials have to be so difficult? The silver lining to losing Brian's job was we could just go back home. Well that silver lining has faded a little because it has become so difficult to do. It feels awful to feel imprisoned by your home (one that seems to depreciate every day). It is even difficult to take a job in another state not occupied by our family because of the burden of our home. The worst part is we feel like we have done everything we could possibly do right. We purchased a home we could afford. We did a conventional loan. We saved money for a rainy day. We put money down when purchasing. We don't even qualify for a loan modification because we are current in our payments (and maybe because he isn't unemployed yet). In April they still might not do it because we do have some money saved up. So for the time being we are going to stay put, and look for a job anywhere and everywhere. Don't forget that my plans always change and evolve so next week you could see the for sale sign out in front of our house and we could be moving to a tent in the woods.

Since networking can be key, Brian is looking for something in high tech, health care, or real estate/construction. His background has been in finance, operations, and project management. If he reads this, he might have to correct me on this.

The Sketches

Here is a picture of one of my Christmas presents. I don't have them on the wall yet. I am still debating where to hang them.

Faulty planning

2 weeks ago I went to a church luau. Brian was supposed to come but wasn't feeling well that day so we cancelled the babysitter and I left Brian at home with the kids. I had a wonderful time laughing with friends and was in great spirits when I came home. Brian on the other hand was in okay spirits, mainly because he wasn't feeling the best. And secondly just before the kids bedtime, Macy went down the hall and slammed all the doors shut. She slammed the bathroom door so hard that it caused the cabinet drawer closest to the door to open. So what is the problem with this you might ask. Well the bathroom door opens into the room so the basically the door was locked without a key. It could only open a half an inch. The first thought was to remove the knob and stick a hand through to shut the drawer, but the screws to the knob were located on the opposite side. Then he thought about taking the door off the hinges. Problem here too. The hinges are also on the other side of the door. He tried to find something to work for 30 minutes. Then enter me. He shows me the dilemma. I go through the same thought process. Then I start to panic because I am thinking we will have to saw through the door to solve the problem and then we would have buy a new door (of course then I could get new doors on all the rooms). While Brian watched some football, I fiddled around. I got a hanger and contorted it to see if I could somehow use leverage and the new shape to push the drawer closed. (I wish I could draw my mental picture of this tool.) Alas the hanger was not strong enough for the task but it did uncover another evil. A roll of toilet paper had rolled off the counter into the drawer at the start of this fiasco. There was no way the drawer would shut with that in there. I thought we were doomed to one bathroom. Luckily my hanger had grabbed an end of the toilet paper, so I unraveled the whole thing to get it small enough to shut the drawer. We wasted a lot of toilet paper. Then Brian came back with some flimsy 3 foot tall sticks he found in the garage. He slid those under the door, got his hand under as far as it would go (to about his palm) and tried to stand the stick up and then use it to shut the drawer. This may sound simple but you should try this someday. The leverage was against us and the process felt like microscopic surgery without the monitor showing us where to go. Well the sticks were not strong enough so it was time for some more football, but Brian had given me an idea. I had wooden dowels for campfire eclairs from our camping trip. So I tried Brian same trick but with a heavier stick. Finally I got the stick to be straight up in the air and then managed to have it fall the right way and it was big enough to shut the drawer. And so we did not have to break our own door down. This ordeal only took a hour and a half of our night and we can laugh about it now.

Emerging from our Cave

We have crawled back into our cave. I wish it was a cave of wonder or a place to hibernate but it is not. Yesterday I put back up our sunscreens on our windows. The air conditioner was coming on way too much for this time of year. It is amazing the difference they make on the internal temperature of the house, but it also blocks much of the light so my house becomes darker. I really feel like I am in a cave sometimes. I have to use my lights to see anything. I also don't like the sunscreens because I can't see outside the windows very well and my kids still enjoy hanging out outside. With the screens up it makes it easier for them to get do things I would prefer them not to.

Today was the first day of swim lessons for the girls. We go to a neighbors house because she does a wonderful job. Both girls were real excited for the swim lessons and can't wait for grandma to swim with them. Because of this excitement and the way Macy ended the swim season last yeat I thought she would jump right in. Well she was out in the car a half an hour before and ran back to the pool, but the minute she saw the pool she began crying hysterically. She didn't want to put her face in. I had to literally pick her up kicking and screaming and put her in the pool with the teacher. Of course Kelsey saw this and got scared. Eventually Macy calmed down (this lady is good). Kelsey's class was right after Macy's and let's just say that there is a great division in the girls personalities. I can't say Kelsey took right to the water, but she wasn't bothered by it either. When the teacher, Celeste, said kick she didn't do it. When Celeste said kick and big arms, Kelsey just laid flat with her face in the water and one hand flapped. I don't know what to say but that these girls might or might not be a challenge. Who knows how Macy will react tomorrow.