A Hard Working Husband and A Welcoming Ward

I am so glad I married a man who is not afraid of hard work and knows how to work hard.

This weekend we spent ALL of Saturday organizing the garage, which was no small task. I now can park in it, yeah! I helped for a bit, until there were so many boxes in the house that someone needed to be inside to unpack them. ( I had my house all box free, decorated and looking good; the addition of more boxes to go through made me want to cry. I was ready to chuck it all!)

He worked from sun up to sun down and past to get the garage cleaned out and do some things I needed help with in the house. And no complaining about it either; he just did it. He did complain about being sore today; I was too! Among other things, we hauled the treadmill all the way up two flights of stairs, moved big furniture around, took everything out of the garage and went through it, either trashing or yard sale-ing a lot of it, before putting it back in a way that allowed for me to park inside.

Then he helped with hanging things I was uncomfortable doing on my own, going through boxes, and all with a good attitude.

Really, he is amazing and I am so glad he is mine!

Also, we went to our new ward last week, and loved it. Everyone was so nice, so many people welcomed us and said hi, and Jason and I had an interesting experience in sacrament meeting. During the meeting, I found myself looking around for familiar faces, then caught myself and remembered we were here for the first time!

I felt so comfortable, so familiar, so RIGHT in that meeting. Like home. It brought tears to my eyes after feeling so without roots for the last 6 months. I missed feeling home. I couldn't tell you why I felt like that, I just did.

On the way home, I told Jason about my feeling, and he said he felt the same way! We both pondered if that meant we were finally where we are going to stay. I sure hope so.

Today was our second week there, and they read our records. When we stood while they were reading our names, I smiled back and the sea of people smiling at us, and felt it again. Home. As we walked our kids to class, the teachers remembered their names. People again introduced themselves, welcomed us, and said they were glad we were here.

We enjoyed the ward we just came from. The people were nice, kind, and treated our kids great. We never got welcomed quite this way, though. We never felt home. We felt like we visited for 6 months, and won't be remembered in a couple of weeks. I know this happens in wards with lots of turnover, and I'm not upset about it, but what a difference here!

I hope this means we will get to stay longer than 6 months, that is our sincere prayer. We are really liking the neighborhood and the house. We will, of course, go were we are led by the spirit, and if we end up moving again in 6 months we will do it faithfully. But we would love to stay.

Home. What a beautiful word.

Ninnyisms

Corrine often sits in her booster chair with her feet tucked under her, resulting in the uncomfortable tingly feeling that accompanies them falling asleep. She put it very adorably the other day:

"Mommy, my foots are going for nap!"

You know you've been a mom a long time when...

You pick up your toddler of the squishy bottom, and feel wetness on your side.

Instead of thinking: EWWW! I need to change my shirt!

You think: Eh. It'll dry. Spray on a little body spray and I'm all good. It's not worth the effort and extra laundry to change. I'm not going anywhere anyway. Oh. Wait. I am going out on a date with hubby later, but he won't mind.

Side note: If this was SOME OTHER CHILDREN'S pee, I would surely be grossed out. Would probably hold my shirt away from my skin until I could change. It is only my own child's pee that I would wear around all day.

Conversely, you know you have been a mother a long time when the smallest amount of apple juice ( the stickiest substance known to man when applied to a kitchen floor) is spilled and you go ballistic. Little droplets go EVERYWHERE. Seriously, everywhere. How does that even happen? Chair legs, table legs, cabinet doors, walls, blinds, kickboards, everywhere.

The state of the kitchen floor is apparently more important than my own hygiene. Here's to motherhood!

What did they just say?

So have you ever overheard your children pretend playing, and hear yourself in what they say and the way they say it?

And it isn't a particularly flattering rendition?

Seeing yourself reflected back at you through your children can be a very rewarding and very humbling experience.

Rewarding when you see them do something well that you have taught them, or they follow your example.

Humbling when you hear your critical tone when they talk to a sibling.

I never learned as much about myself until I became a mother, and I believe that this is a good kind of learning.

I am just sorry my poor children are having to live the experience of me learning on them!

On a side note, we are in our new house and I am busy busy busy unpacking and reorganizing and purging excess. And we have a lot of excess. We are going to have a massive yard sale!

Daddy Daughter Dance

Last week, Jason got the opportunity to take Payden and Ava to the school Daddy Daughter dance. The girls were so excited, and had a great time with their daddy. They all came home all smiles and full of stories. What fun!

Valentines Day 2011

Since Valentines day fell on a Monday this year, I decided to make it a fun family night. Jason and I had our Valentines day out on Friday, so it worked out great. For Valentines breakfast, I always make the girls pancakes that tell them how I feel!

YUM!



During the day, I had Corrine do an activity with conversation hearts. I colored hearts the same color as the candies, and she sorted them out on the correct hearts. Then we counted how many there were of each color. She really like this. I thought for while that she might be color blind, because other than orange, she can't remember the names to any colors. All my other girls had it down by now. She sorts great though, so she can't be color blind. She is just having a harder time learning the names of the colors!

Getting to eat them after was fun too!

For dinner, I went all out. I made a special dessert in the morning, then at when the girls came home from school I gave them construction paper and free decorating reign. I decorated the table, and prepared a fancy dinner.

We had rib eye steaks, shrimp scampi, homemade biscuits ( the girls favorite) in heart shapes, roasted red potatoes and roasted broccoli and grilled orange peppers. It was a lot of work for Monday night dinner, especially with the added work of decorating, getting dressed up, and planning a Valentine FHE, but it was a labor of love. I hope the girls remember it!

The girls liked our fancy dinner with candlelight and champagne glasses. (Only one broke!) We all got dressed up for the occasion.

After dinner, we had some Valentine activities. To start, we played a game where you had one minute to get as many conversation hearts out of the bowl as possible using chopsticks. This was a lot of fun!

Everyone could play!

Those of us sitting out played cheerleader for the ones playing.

Then we had a scripture chase where you had to find the words heart or love in the page number I called out. When you found it ,you got a conversation heart! The older girls really liked that, and Ava helped Daddy. She is getting to be such a good reader she spotted some before Daddy! Ninny just sat in front of me eating hearts!

Then we did a fun family photo where we took turns trying to hold up one person. That was pretty funny!

Then we did a family trivia game where everyone wrote down 5 things we didn't think anyone knew about us. Some crushes were made known!

Then we got to have our yummy dessert, chocolate pots de creme. They were very good.

Then we gave the girls their presents; they each got a cute pair of Valentine pj bottoms and a box of candy. The older girls got jewelry and the younger ones got a stuffed animal.

It was a really fun night, and I am so glad we got to enjoy it as a family!

The Good and the Bad- learning not to have fear

After looking for a while, not finding much that suited our purpose ( a home we would be able to rent to own, building a down payment with a portion of our rent while we saved up) we finally found a home that we liked.

We have been looking forward to this for so long. From the moment we found out we had to move to Utah, we started looking to purchase a home. But not being able to sell our house in Idaho, then not being able to refi and take money out for a down payment ( because the market is so low our house won't appraise for what it needs to) put a kabosh on that. So we started looking outside the box, at rent to own options.

It will take us almost a year to save up a down payment, the majority of which will come from me working Saturdays. (YUCK.) But I will gladly do it to get into a home. Enter in our new house we found. SO EXCITED!

It is a nice home, on a golf course in a nice neighborhood, big enough for us and has a nice layout. Good schools.

After a weeks worth of negotiations, during which I feared often ( will this work? why are they so willing to work with us? is there something wrong with the house we don't know about? why am I not receiving confirmation that this is right?) we settled on an agreement that would allow us to rent the home, a portion of our rent goes toward down, the sellers will pay closing and a portion of the down, we can have our pets, and a bunch of other stuff that we worked out. The only thing that bothered me was that owner would only sign a 6 month rental term, at the end of which she would extend it if we still wanted to buy. She wanted to be able to put the home on the market if we didn't want to buy, which is understandable. She was also building in an out for us if we decided we didn't like the home. This is what made us worry there was something wrong with the home, but the market here is just so bad we think she is welcome to any legitimate offer. Plus we get to try the home out for 6 months. That is a definite bonus.

But I really didn't want to move again in 6 months. The uncertainty about it made my stomach have knots. This is where my fear really kicked in, the fear of the UNKNOWN. We have a purchase agreement that protects us, but sometimes those fall through. Would we have to move AGAIN in 6 months? As I was pondering (worrying) about this, I remembered where fear comes from, and its not from God.

Fear comes from the adversary.

As soon as I accepted this well known fact, I received the confirmation that I was waiting for, that this was the house for us and everything would work out. I couldn't wait to tell Jason, I felt so much better. We signed the lease and paid the non refundable deposit yesterday.

Yesterday evening, we got the Syracuse Islander, a little small town news publication, in the mail.

On the top of the front page was the report about the new interstate they are considering building. They proposed 3 options, two of which didn't bother us in the least.

The third option puts the interstate directly in the back yard of the house we were so excited to purchase.

Have you ever driven along the interstate and looked at the houses whose backyards butted up against the road and wondered how they lived like that?

That would be us.

I spent the whole night in a state of disbelief.

What are the odds, that of all the houses, we would pick this one, and that on the very day we pay the deposit ( remember, non refundable) we find this out?

I have to admit, I was pretty discouraged.

I kept wondering, WHY? But more than that, I started worrying. Will we be able to learn which option they choose before we purchase? Should we walk away now and forfeit our deposit? Moving again in 6 months now looked like a definite possibility; worries abounded.

I was not oblivious to the blessing that we found this out before we purchased, but I was so discouraged that the blessing was overshadowed a bit.

After some thinking and praying, we have come to the following conclusion; we will continue on with our plans, moving in on the first weekend in March. It doesn't make much sense to forfeit our deposit. Hopefully in the next 6 months they will settle on a location for the interstate and we will be able to make a decision. If not, we will probably back out anyway, not wanting to take the risk. If they do decide to put a interstate in that property's back yard, the owner will have a harder time selling ( I feel so sorry for her) and we can probably rent for longer, while we continue to save up for a down. We won't get the portion of our rent towards our down, that was understandably just for this home purchase. But maybe we won't have to move right away, she will probably still appreciate getting rent while she figures out what to do herself.

And if the location is different, we will purchase the home.

Back to my question, WHY? I don't know, maybe there is no reason. But I think I am supposed to learn to not fear. Even in the face of such distressing options, we are supposed to have faith that things will turn out for the good for us. I have much experience that this is true, and yet I still default to fear when something like this happens.

If this is a lesson for me, or even if its not, I am going to make the best of it. I will try my hardest not to get bogged down in discouragement, to have faith. No matter the outcome, we will be ok. And with my limited, earthly perspective, I can't see what Heavenly Father has in store for us. Certainly it is probably better that anything I could plan.

So I will remember that, to not fear. To have faith. Regardless of where they build this interstate. We will end up where we are supposed to be. We will eventually get a home.

FAITH!