Tuesday was date night for Brandon and I. We got to go watch the live event for the film "Monumental." The film was good, everyone should go see it, but I'm not sure it was worth the hype to get to attend the live event. Most of the theaters around here sold out and had to add an extra showing. After viewing the film they returned to some live footage, but shortly afterwards the feed went out. I'm still not sure whose end it was on, but we didn't get to see it all. A bunch of people cleared out right after it went out. We held out hope that it would come back on eventually, but after a while even we gave up. Oh well. It was still a great film to watch!
Wednesday we felt like we had another date! The girls now have activity days together (they don't split them up in our ward, even though we have 3x the number of children in our primary). I like that just because it makes it easier on me to send them off together, and only have to worry about two activities per month. And they plan their activities months in advance! I have my calendar all filled in and know exactly what to expect. So, the point being, the girls went off to their activity, which they have in the evenings (another change I should have mentioned), so Brandon and I got to hang out together alone. We made cookies! How terrible was that, especially when I knew that their activity was on nutrition and exercise. Oh, I am a very bad mom.
To back track a wee bit, yesterday morning I took the girls to see the Utah Shakespeare Festival's traveling production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream." It was really good. As expected, only a few minutes into it Chloe was telling me she was bored. But then just a few minutes more and she was laughing! We laughed our heads off through the whole thing. They did a really great job. Sophie impressed me because she knew all the characters. We have a book that she's read, but I was still surprised that she could pick out who was who on stage.
Today I took the day off -- or rather it was given to me. I have been feeling extremely tired lately, so Brandon told me to sleep in and he'd take care of breakfast. Then I made the mistake of telling him all the things I needed to get done today, and he jumped in and offered to do them for me. When I resisted, he went and told the girls that he was going to take them grocery shopping tonight -- got them all excited, and then told them to make sure that I didn't go do it today. Chloe did most of the laundry for me, and she even made bread (I did have to come rescue her at one point). She's been a big help getting this house in order. She even started unpacking some boxes I didn't want unpacked, but that's ok; I'll take all the help I can get.
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Vacation
The other day we were driving around and the girls asked me about our next family vacation. I told them it was going to have to wait until next year because it's a more expensive trip so I need to save up two years for it. So they asked me if we could go to Cabela's instead! What? You mean to tell me that I plan and take my family on great trips, when they are just as happy and content to go to Cabela's? So, yesterday morning we took a trip to Cabela's. (FYI: we now live right behind Cabela's).
After our exciting "vacation" we came home and had lunch, and then we drove up to Logan for my sister-in-laws baby shower. My girls were supposed to plan it, but once the whole move came up there was no way I could put any effort into helping them with that. We bailed and just had it at "Golden Corral" (my family's new favorite place to gather -- um, can I clarify, my extended family's). It was good to all get together, and let Melanie open some gifts. I locked my keys in my car right when we got to Lark's, but after letting me panic for 2 seconds Brandon finally admitted he had his on him. That was nice, but then at the restaurant Melanie locked her keys in her car! Luckily she had her windows cracked, and we had some kids with skinny arms and found some tools to help out.
Sorry for my lack of photos lately. I will work on getting the camera out soon!
After our exciting "vacation" we came home and had lunch, and then we drove up to Logan for my sister-in-laws baby shower. My girls were supposed to plan it, but once the whole move came up there was no way I could put any effort into helping them with that. We bailed and just had it at "Golden Corral" (my family's new favorite place to gather -- um, can I clarify, my extended family's). It was good to all get together, and let Melanie open some gifts. I locked my keys in my car right when we got to Lark's, but after letting me panic for 2 seconds Brandon finally admitted he had his on him. That was nice, but then at the restaurant Melanie locked her keys in her car! Luckily she had her windows cracked, and we had some kids with skinny arms and found some tools to help out.
Sorry for my lack of photos lately. I will work on getting the camera out soon!
Moving In
I think I owe you a post. I'm pretty sure you are aware of what we've been up to, but just in case you missed my last post I'll catch you up to speed. So, after being really disappointed in the available options in the rental department, we did find one place we really liked. It's certainly not the perfect house for us, but we're just renting and we really wanted a place over being homeless. We filled out an application the very night we looked at it and sent it back, only to have to sit and wait a couple days to find out their decision. During our waiting period Sophie wondered if it might help us if she sent the owner an email. I told her to go ahead. She's so stinkin' cute; who can say no to her? Anyway, after lots of prayers we found out we got the house. And to clarify, when we came to sign the papers the owner had brought a friend along. He told his friend that the email from Sophie was what put us over the top. Yeah for cute kids!
Now that we had a place to live it was a mad dash to get my entire house packed up in a matter of days. This was on Tuesday, the 6th that we found out we got the place. Thursday night my brother showed up to crash at our place. We had left the guest room in place for them. I took them to the airport Friday morning, and we babysat Archer for 3 days. Saturday morning the girls decided on top of everything else we had to do that they should have a garage sale to help get rid of some stuff they didn't want anymore. Then it was time for me to ditch the family so I could go shoot a wedding. I was actually grateful for the chance to get a break from packing for a bit.
Sunday night Archer's parents came to pick him up, and my parents arrived. They stayed overnight so they could help out. They were a big help in packing, and my dad helped Brandon with a lot of the big, heavy stuff. The Relief Society also wanted to help out, but I really wasn't ready for them. Hindsight I wish I would have asked them to wait a day, and come help me clean AFTER everything was moved out. Oh well. They were still a big help. Brandon and I left that afternoon to go pick up the truck. The Relief Society President came back to watch the girls while we were gone, but they ditched her and went over to a friend's house. Poor lady! At least she was there to guard all our stuff that was just sitting out on the lawn and driveway. By 5:00 we had neighbors showing up to help load the truck. I had asked my fellow vegetarian friend to bring us dinner, knowing I wouldn't be in a position to take care of it and knowing she was the only person I dared let bring us food. She was so nice, and brought some delicious dinner that Brandon didn't get to enjoy for quite a while. It was a very long night, but we got the truck stuffed to capacity. Not everything fit. Yes, I was having anxiety attacks through this whole moving process. Am I a minimalist or not? I sure felt like quite the hypocrite! I threw out quite a bit moving, but I'm still going through things as I'm unpacking trying to decide what else can go.
We spent the night in our house Monday night, in sleeping bags on the floor. Then we got up bright and early Tuesday morning to take the truck to our new home. We had hired movers to help us unload. That was much quicker than loading. And we had one neighbor who stopped by and offered to help. He may have regretted his offer, but we put him to work. After unloading we drove back to Centerville to clean and fill the van with another load. I had coupons to a free movie that I had been trying to use up before we left, but there just wasn't time. Sophie had an activity day, so I sent her to that, Brandon took a load back to the new house while Chloe and I went and saw "The Lorax." I felt bad going to the movies while there was so much work to be done, but it was a much needed break and fun to get to hang out with Chloe. So then... after the show and activity, the girls wanted to go hang out with their friends one last chance. They were so gracious to have them over so much! They fed them dinner and kept them all night, while Brandon and I had to take one more load down. It was pretty late by the time we got back, but we were able to get the last of our stuff and finally head "home."
We did have to make one more trip back on Saturday to take care of some stuff for our new tenant, and I remembered a few things I had left. Brandon stayed home one more day from work that Wednesday to help get things unpacked, and put our house in a more livable state. I'm so glad he did, because ever since then things have been moving at a much slower pace. I'm back to cooking every meal, making bread, cleaning house, taking showers - you know, life! On top of trying to get boxes unpacked, it just doesn't happen very quickly. Especially when I'm trying to unpack carefully and really evaluate the need of everything, and knowing that I'm going to have to repack it all in a short time (whatever that may be).
Now that we had a place to live it was a mad dash to get my entire house packed up in a matter of days. This was on Tuesday, the 6th that we found out we got the place. Thursday night my brother showed up to crash at our place. We had left the guest room in place for them. I took them to the airport Friday morning, and we babysat Archer for 3 days. Saturday morning the girls decided on top of everything else we had to do that they should have a garage sale to help get rid of some stuff they didn't want anymore. Then it was time for me to ditch the family so I could go shoot a wedding. I was actually grateful for the chance to get a break from packing for a bit.
Sunday night Archer's parents came to pick him up, and my parents arrived. They stayed overnight so they could help out. They were a big help in packing, and my dad helped Brandon with a lot of the big, heavy stuff. The Relief Society also wanted to help out, but I really wasn't ready for them. Hindsight I wish I would have asked them to wait a day, and come help me clean AFTER everything was moved out. Oh well. They were still a big help. Brandon and I left that afternoon to go pick up the truck. The Relief Society President came back to watch the girls while we were gone, but they ditched her and went over to a friend's house. Poor lady! At least she was there to guard all our stuff that was just sitting out on the lawn and driveway. By 5:00 we had neighbors showing up to help load the truck. I had asked my fellow vegetarian friend to bring us dinner, knowing I wouldn't be in a position to take care of it and knowing she was the only person I dared let bring us food. She was so nice, and brought some delicious dinner that Brandon didn't get to enjoy for quite a while. It was a very long night, but we got the truck stuffed to capacity. Not everything fit. Yes, I was having anxiety attacks through this whole moving process. Am I a minimalist or not? I sure felt like quite the hypocrite! I threw out quite a bit moving, but I'm still going through things as I'm unpacking trying to decide what else can go.
We spent the night in our house Monday night, in sleeping bags on the floor. Then we got up bright and early Tuesday morning to take the truck to our new home. We had hired movers to help us unload. That was much quicker than loading. And we had one neighbor who stopped by and offered to help. He may have regretted his offer, but we put him to work. After unloading we drove back to Centerville to clean and fill the van with another load. I had coupons to a free movie that I had been trying to use up before we left, but there just wasn't time. Sophie had an activity day, so I sent her to that, Brandon took a load back to the new house while Chloe and I went and saw "The Lorax." I felt bad going to the movies while there was so much work to be done, but it was a much needed break and fun to get to hang out with Chloe. So then... after the show and activity, the girls wanted to go hang out with their friends one last chance. They were so gracious to have them over so much! They fed them dinner and kept them all night, while Brandon and I had to take one more load down. It was pretty late by the time we got back, but we were able to get the last of our stuff and finally head "home."
We did have to make one more trip back on Saturday to take care of some stuff for our new tenant, and I remembered a few things I had left. Brandon stayed home one more day from work that Wednesday to help get things unpacked, and put our house in a more livable state. I'm so glad he did, because ever since then things have been moving at a much slower pace. I'm back to cooking every meal, making bread, cleaning house, taking showers - you know, life! On top of trying to get boxes unpacked, it just doesn't happen very quickly. Especially when I'm trying to unpack carefully and really evaluate the need of everything, and knowing that I'm going to have to repack it all in a short time (whatever that may be).
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Moving On
Dear Sunday, how I welcome this day of rest. But at the same time it's hard to relax when there's so much to be done. Remember those projects I told you I was working on. We moved our bedroom down into the basement and converted it into a master suite. It is really quite nice and gives the house a completely different feel. This allowed us to move Chloe into our old room and give the girls each their own space. Sophie wanted an owl room, so she got a new bedspread and lamp, and we bought some matching decals to put up on the wall. But the colors in her room already coordinated so we didn't need to make any changes there. Chloe finally got her space room. We painted the ceiling a dark blue, the walls a light blue and put up a small molding between the two. Then we moved the space fan into that room (just traded them). I ordered a couple posters, a constellation wall mural and a vinyl rocket. It was going to be very cool.
But just hours after getting all the furniture moved in we got a phone call asking if we would be willing to rent the house out. That was our intention, but due to reasons I won't go into detail here, it had to be put on hold. Now we had someone that wanted our house, so we figured we better take him up. It was quite interesting to watch him look around at my house and love it so much, especially after so many people had come through who only had things to complain about. I really wonder how much moving the bedrooms around changed things. If we hadn't done that would it have been less appealing to him? Perhaps, but we know all things happen on the Lord's time -- and this apparently was the time he had in store for us. So, with packages still in the mail (we've only received one of them), we're moving on. Oh, and don't forget my super cute address labels I just got. At least they were free, but they will never get used.
We've spent the weekend looking for a place to go. Friday was a really disappointing day, but yesterday we found a couple that would work for us. So now we just wait and see if we get picked.
Add this to everything that was already planned! Friday I had organized a homeschool field trip to Hale Centre Theatre. I got a really good turn out (I had 150 people sign up). Sophie told me I must plan cool field trips. She's right. This coming weekend we're babysitting my nephew, on top of a 3+ hour wedding photo shoot I have to do (I'm going to see if I can sneak out of there early!). Then there's a baby shower I'm supposed to be planning for my sister-in-law, and I'm going on a trip with my husband.
Maybe I should just hire movers?
But just hours after getting all the furniture moved in we got a phone call asking if we would be willing to rent the house out. That was our intention, but due to reasons I won't go into detail here, it had to be put on hold. Now we had someone that wanted our house, so we figured we better take him up. It was quite interesting to watch him look around at my house and love it so much, especially after so many people had come through who only had things to complain about. I really wonder how much moving the bedrooms around changed things. If we hadn't done that would it have been less appealing to him? Perhaps, but we know all things happen on the Lord's time -- and this apparently was the time he had in store for us. So, with packages still in the mail (we've only received one of them), we're moving on. Oh, and don't forget my super cute address labels I just got. At least they were free, but they will never get used.
We've spent the weekend looking for a place to go. Friday was a really disappointing day, but yesterday we found a couple that would work for us. So now we just wait and see if we get picked.
Add this to everything that was already planned! Friday I had organized a homeschool field trip to Hale Centre Theatre. I got a really good turn out (I had 150 people sign up). Sophie told me I must plan cool field trips. She's right. This coming weekend we're babysitting my nephew, on top of a 3+ hour wedding photo shoot I have to do (I'm going to see if I can sneak out of there early!). Then there's a baby shower I'm supposed to be planning for my sister-in-law, and I'm going on a trip with my husband.
Maybe I should just hire movers?
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