New Kitchen - Part 2

I sat down to think about what we've done since I last posted, and turns out we've pretty much just focused on the house. I hardly have any other pictures. We're so exciting. But the house... is getting SO close! More rain this weekend has put a damper on things, or I would say for sure we will be done by the end of the week. Chloe has moved into her room! We sort of have a family room back, and the guest room is getting cleared out. She got carpet this past week and it really pulled things together. I still have to do her closet -- the contractor just wanted to put up a bar and standard shelf. I said, "No, thank you. I can do something much more fun." And I really want a project of my own. I know Brandon will end up saving me, but at least I'm going to try. She also is getting some built-in bookshelves, and I'll let Brandon help with that.

My countertops came on Tuesday. The contractor was more anxious for them than I was. They were probably holding him up a bit, but I thought there was still plenty to do. They installed my sink along with the counters, and then Ted got right to work on the backsplash, outlets, faucet, and disposal. Brandon has been working like crazy on his floors. This is his pet project. We really loved the way they looked after putting the tung oil on, but we weren't convinced it would stay looking that nice. The floor we did in Centerville ended up turning darker, but this floor seemed to be getting lighter over time. He went ahead with the original plan and stained it. He had played around with different combinations for so long, but I'm sure he could spend a few more years doing that to perfect it. He spent the last couple days putting the finish on. After the first coat he was pretty frustrated. He ended up sanding it off and starting over. We camped out on Thursday night to avoid the fumes in our house, and then we went to work with Brandon on Friday to keep us out of the house. We had fun hanging out in Orem for the day. But rain was forecasted and we needed the yard mowed, so we came home a little early. I got the lawn mowed just in time and Brandon was able to get another coat on. Then it started pouring for the next 24 hours. We nixed our plans to camp out on Friday night. We were able to rescue all our things from the tent, but I'm sure the tent is a muddy mess. Chloe was super excited because we just moved our campout into her new room. The fumes didn't seem to seep into it, and it's large enough for all of us to sprawl out. No campfire, but it was a fun treat.

Yesterday I spent the morning shopping with the girls. Our kitchen is getting a new system. I've thought about this for so long (like everything I do, I way overthink things) but we bought new dishes. A different color for each person. Now no more guessing or blaming someone who doesn't clean up their dishes. And on top of that, they are cute!

I've been keeping a photo diary of the project on my google+ page, but I know most of you hate it over there so I'll post a few of the latest photos here.

A is for Aquarium & Apples

It's a new month. Must be feeling that pull to get some journaling recorded.

My girls came back from Grandma's. Boy, was that different having them home. I think it was really good for them to be gone during that crazy time, because it sure hasn't been easy trying to squeeze 4 of us into this mess. Chloe was only home for 6 days and then she was off on another adventure to California. Lark moved to Huntington Beach, so Chloe got to tag along to help with the move. It would have been fun for Sophie to go to, but she was already missing me pretty bad after two weeks away and she definitely needed a break from her sister for a bit.

Sophie invited her friends to come down and go to the aquarium with us. We had to fit one more activity in before school started up. We scheduled it for the same day that Chloe left for California, so she was able to come with us for a little bit and then my parents just picked her up at the aquarium. After spending all the time we could with the sharks and otters and penguins, we went and got some lunch and brought it to our house to eat. They got to see our mess and what our little world on the south end of the valley is like. We are really grateful for good friends and the fun time we were able to have together.

Sophie was scared to death to walk across this "tight rope" bridge they had. It was good to watch her face her fears, and see a little positive peer pressure in action!

And see how happy she is that she made it?

I'm just throwing this in to show what we do with most of our time. Sometimes I find it hard to blog about the everyday stuff because it just seems so rote. But here is Sophie thrilled (as always) to be doing her math. After having such a messed up schedule the last couple months, we finally got back in our groove...

For about a week. And then we had to work hard on the house. I had decided to do all the painting myself, so it was time to work on that. We had several days of pure exhaustion. Painting isn't too rough, but we were under a bit of a time crunch since our contractor was waiting on us.

Brandon started his new job this month. He now works for FamilySearch in Orem. I'm pretty stoked about what he gets to work on, and I have lots of advice for him, but he's back to commuting and I'm back to no car.

A few weeks ago I was feeling desperate for an activity that our family could all do together. We just don't get out and have fun together on our weekends like we used to. Sure, there's still plenty of recreation going on, but it's just different -- and a lot of times it's not just the 4 of us. I miss that. So... I had gotten an email about an apple harvest at Wasatch Mountain State Park. I picked a Saturday that Brandon wouldn't have to spend working on his gospel doctrine lesson and booked us a reservation. Then I realized it was the same day that Swiss Days was going on in Midway -- just down the street from the state park. What perfect timing! Only Brandon didn't exactly have time to do both, so he ended up staying home and working on the house and yard. We still had a good time picking apples. Then we went and stood in line for nearly an hour to get on the shuttle bus to Swiss Days. It wasn't too bad -- we thought we were going to get poured on, but it just drizzled a bit. Sure beat the heat I had to deal with the last time I went. I actually bought something this year -- some wrapping paper to justify our time we spent, but it was really just about spending time with my girls.

On the way home I had a scary experience. I needed to do my grocery shopping for the week while I had a car, and driving through Orem I saw a Winco. My friend had just told me they had a good bulk foods section, so I decided to stop and try them out. We spent an hour doing all our shopping, went to check out, but after the girls had put some of the food up on the conveyor belt I noticed a sign that said they don't accept credit cards. I shop pretty exclusively with my card, but I didn't think it would be a big deal. Then I remembered my debit card had just expired (I had called the bank just two days before to get a new one, but I had to go in to a branch (and that's a little hard to do right now) so I still don't have one. I thought, "I'll just write a check," but when I went to get my checkbook it wasn't in my purse. It is always in my purse. So I went and talked to the checker. She said she could just bag the food up and hold it for me until I could come pick it up, but I don't live near Orem and Brandon wouldn't be going until Tuesday. It wasn't a big deal, but I was extremely embarrassed to have to put all that food back (or just leave it for someone else to do), and overwhelmed at the thought of having to spend another hour to go and do my shopping at a different store. I finally realize I did have a little cash with me, so we ended up just prioritizing what I needed and had the checker watch the total carefully. We just cut it off where we had to. I've always been blessed to have the money to buy the things we need, so this was a bit of a reality check for me to see what it felt like for people who can't. Then when we went to the parking lot, the people parked right next to me had dropped a bag that had some dried beans in it. They were sitting there picking up every last one of those beans off the ground.

For our 5th Sunday yesterday we watched the video about John Rowe Moyle in our combined meeting. The youth were shown the same movie in their class. This man would walk 22 miles to get to his job to work on the Salt Lake temple. Then after an accident that claimed one of his legs, he made a wooden peg and went right back to walking 22 miles (one way) to complete his assignment. It's a great story, but to follow up with the lesson, for their activity on Wednesday the youth are all going to be walking to the temple. Yes, I know only in Utah (right?), and our temple is only 4.2 miles away, but I think the message is the same. I'm really excited for the kids to get to have this experience.

Reunions * Acting Part 2 * Rain!

What a crazy month this has been. One of the benefits of homeschooling is that I can plan my activities whenever I choose, but unfortunately I still live in a society where everybody else is trying to cram everything into the few short summer months. And having two holidays in July doesn't help either. So... I put my simple life on hold, and we went crazy for a bit.

I didn't have time to post about the Nicholls' Family Reunion. Luckily I could just post those photos on FaceBook so that the people who really care about seeing them could. We went to Laramie on Friday, the 18th, and just stayed at a campground there. We met some Amish people also staying there, and I was proud of myself for being courageous enough to talk to them. But, I'm going to be honest here, I was a little embarrassed to run my blow dryer around them, so I waited until they were gone. That's kind of silly, isn't it? They are from the same town as my mother, and she raised us to be well aware of Amish culture. So, Saturday we went to Grandma Rosemary's in the morning. It was nice to have some extra time to just visit with her. I had been translating some letters that her father wrote, and sharing them with my girls so I was able to have her tell them some stories about her family and my kids had a good reference point. I got a platter from Rosemary's "flea market" that belonged to her mother. When I told Sophie whose it was she was impressed. That's some of the cool part about sharing family history with your kids. After the reunion we went over to Cheyenne where we were able to camp in Nicole's backyard. The girls and their cousin, Cora, were awesome at setting up the tent. Brandon had a little buddy to play with, and I got to sit around and do nothing. Awww!

We had a few days to resume our routine before heading out again -- this time a mini-Bateman reunion. For Pioneer Day we went up to Star Valley. My dad reserved a guard station cabin for a couple days, and several brought tents to set up. The first night I froze to death, so the second night I moved into the cabin -- smart idea! We donated our tent to Lark so she could have an aunt party, and the girls all slept with her. On Friday most of us hiked up to Bailey Lake. Only a few made it all the way, but we did a good 8-9 miles. The girls had their grandma along to make it fun, but Brandon said they are now in trouble because we have proof that they can easily hike 8 miles. Then Saturday we packed up and headed home. Well, two of us. The girls convinced me that they needed more grandma time (and with our house under construction I'm glad to have them out of here), so they have been with her for the last two weeks.

I guess somebody must have gone to Bluff and noticed my amazing abilities at being an extra (or maybe not), but I got selected to be another extra in a Studio C skit. At first I thought I shouldn't do it because the girls would be so bummed about not getting to come with me, but then I found out no extra family members were allowed to be brought, so I was glad I agreed. I just hung out at a park with some of the cast (Natalie, Adam, Whitney, & Stacy) for like 4 hours. My acting part took a whole 5 minutes, but the rest of the time was just hanging out with the cast, listening to their hilarious stories. I actually got a speaking part this time, so you'll have to look for me in Season 5 this fall! [I don't know the name of the episode I'll be in].

It has been raining like crazy here. Not a typical summer for this area, for sure. I would normally welcome the moisture and cooler temperatures, but it's been causing a little trouble with us not having a roof! Our contractor spent yesterday working on a problem spot that was causing it to pour in our bathroom, but as soon as he got that taken care of the old kitchen area started to fall apart. It's plaster, so it's not crumbling, but I'm sure there will be extra work involved there. In spite of the rain, things are still moving along. We should have windows by the end of the week, the flooring has arrived and Brandon's started to try out different stains to see what he likes, and our dishwasher showed up -- way earlier than I was hoping for. They were supposed to call me to schedule delivery, but I just got a phone call that they were on their way (they blamed it on the new guy). Oh boy! At least it's a smaller appliance, so I made room for it.

So, crazy life makes for lots of blogging. Maybe that's a good trade off?? Who knows.

New Kitchen Update

This is my photo diary of our home addition. I took a couple more today that show what a mess our kitchen currently is in, but I'm too tired to upload them. It's been a lot of fun watching the progress -- until yesterday when the kitchen was torn apart. Now it's getting hard. We're washing dishes in the bathtub and have almost no room to walk around, everything is scattered between the bathroom and living room (although I must say I did a pretty good job of finding spots for everything without making my house look like a disaster). At least we still have the stove hooked up and can use it, we're not cooking outside yet! Anyway, I'm sure this is a fairly boring post, but it's just for my record.

Sophie = Twelve

The day is still young, but I'm on a blogging roll so I'm going to post about this girl's birthday while I can. She was terrified that with Chloe at girls camp that she wouldn't be able to open her gifts until evening, but since those plans all changed (did you read my previous post?) we were able to do it first thing this morning. I was a little worried because she didn't ask for anything. She thought I would be able to come up with something better than she could pick out, so she left it up to me this year. That's a lot of pressure! All my great ideas fell through, so I was left panicking at the last minute. I gave her a coupon to take her to a Jessica Day George book signing (if we can find one), and that made her day. She is sure a simple girl and easy to make happy. I am sure grateful for her. I made some blueberry scones for breakfast, and she was able to open presents while they cooled.

We are going to get an ice cream cake as soon as I can get ready and she chose Olive Garden for her birthday dinner. She has learned to love eggplant as much as I do, and she's finally gotten smart enough to just order her own.

Turning twelve is not very fun for Sophie. She doesn't like this growing up stuff. She would prefer to stay my little girl forever. She is still a hoot, finds any opportunity to make people laugh. She especially loves to tease her dad. She is still writing her novel. Her computer isn't working right now, so she hasn't worked on it much lately, but she loves to write. She is working hard to show she's responsible enough to own a bunny. We'll see if she gets there -- the excitement is already starting to wear off, and she keeps talking about better uses of her money. I think a pet would do her some good (me, not so much, but this is about her). She plays the piano a lot lately, working really hard on flats and sharps. She has a tendency to just skip over them. I think she's a bit tone def, as it doesn't seem to affect her, but she's trying. We are so blessed to have her in our lives. This would be a very dull house without her.



Here is the video collage I made of her first twelve years. Sorry it's so long, but I just couldn't cut it down anymore. It originally started out at over 36 minutes! I did much cutting to get it to this.

Girls Camp

Chloe had a most interesting girls camp this year. I dropped her off on Tuesday morning. I took this photo of her, bright and happy, all ready to go camping!

This is a photo someone took with her camera while at camp -- just moments before it started to rain.

Wednesday night at about 11:00 I got a phone call, "Mom I need you to pick me up at the church in 15 minutes." I had a hard time hearing what she was trying to tell me, but I did get something about a flood and rain. In my jammies I went and got her, and about 1/2 of her stuff. Several things were in a trailer that they weren't going to unload that night. They told us to meet back at the church at 2:00 the next day, and they would go back to the campground to take the tents down and get the remaining stuff. Well, at 1:00 Brandon called me. "Did you get the text?" No, so he reads it to me. They needed Chloe dropped off at someone's house at 1:00. Thanks for the notice! I ran her over there. They had the tents there and they kids were going to help clean them. It was a good thing she went. Her leader told her they could cross this off in Personal Progress for either Good Works or Choice & Accountability -- because she pointed out that they had a choice to come, and some did not. I'm glad we got the text and made it :)

They were supposed to meet at the church at 2:00 and the stake would finish up some camp stuff there. Just after 2:00 Chloe comes through the door, with all the rest of her stuff, dumps it on the floor and tells me she needs to get to the church. Her leader couldn't take her because she had something to do. I dropped her off, again, and left. I knew they were planning to feed them dinner at Bishop's house at 6:00, but I didn't know if she would be home again in between. Nope, we didn't see her until 9:00 that night. It was a crazy day! And I bet a camp that she will not soon forget.

4th of July - 2014

Tradition carried on this year - we made it up to Bloomington again to celebrate my grandma's birthday with her. 97 years old this year (if you're keeping track). We did break tradition and only she rode in the parade. All the rest of us got to enjoy it from the sidelines. We also got some cousins to join us, which made it more exciting.

After the parade we went on a hike to Bloomington Lake. I haven't been there in ages. The drive was a little slow going, but the hike was really nice. Hanging out at the lake was fun, until I realized that we were not going to make it back in time for dinner that had been planned at 5:00. My greatest petpeeve (maybe fear??) is being late (probably a little beyond reasonable), but the fact that someone actually went to the effort to organize the dinner and pick a time really made me want to support them. We were late, I apologized, and everything worked out alright.

I took advantage of everyone sitting down to eat to get some good shots. Uncle Bill was awesome and went to the extra effort of getting us veggie burgers. I really try hard not to be a pain with our eating habits, but it's always appreciated when people want to help us out.

And look at this -- I got everyone together for a group picture (well, our side of the family). I have decided it's going to be easier to just disown my eldest brother than to get him into a family shot. We'll just pretend he's not in the family anymore, does that work?

Then to top off the holiday, Sophie won an essay contest she entered. We have a bunch of the Professor Noggin's trivia card games. The girls really enjoy them. Sophie loves to enter contests (she could make it a full-time hobby), but I've tried to reign her in a bit and find more worthwhile things to do with her time. I told her she could enter this one because it required work (writing the essay), and the winner wasn't chosen at random, so she really had to try hard. The hardest part was that it had to be less than 100 words. When she first sat down and wrote it, it was very lengthy. She spent some time choosing what to cut out. The topic was "What does the 4th of July mean to me?" This is what she wrote:

Every year my family goes up to my great grandma’s. Her birthday is on the fourth of July. We hang out with family members until it is time for the parade. For many years we watched the parade until one year it was decided that we would be in the parade. The first time we rode in the parade my grandpa hooked his trailer to his truck and we decorated the trailer. Last year my grandpa was able to fix up his dad’s wagon that we get to ride in. It’s smaller and bumpy. And later we enjoy fireworks.