Monday

Today was a better day. Thanks for all the nice comments and encouragement everyone! I just need to buck up and move on.
So today was a good day. I got to hang out with Anna for a few hours. I also got some essentials done.
Steve had 6 interviews with the Church today and he said it went quite well. They asked some pretty tough mind twisters that he told me about and I could not figure out. But he did pretty good with them. We are really hoping he gets an offer! We think they'll let us know next week. Please pray for us!
I got sick of Becca screaming bloody murder every time I brushed her hair. Blythe got her haircut last week and it turned out so cute that I decided to cut Becca's hair. I have always cut everyone's hair in the family. Steve insists on it. But I am not that good at it. I'm pretty comfortable with Steve and Jonah's hair and doing trims on the girls. But this haircut was out of my league and it got a little out of hand. I went a few inches shorter than I had meant to. It will be a lot easier to brush, but I regret going so short. I even had to get the clippers out for it. Yikes. It was a bit stressful. Tell me what you think. Honestly.

Soliciting Friends

I am having a little bit of a hard time adjusting to our new area. I remember this happening when we moved to Idaho 7 years ago too. Our new ward is not the most friendly and I am not the best about meeting new people.
This is kind of a tough time for our family. We have so many things that we are dealing with and I need a friend! What I really could use is a good therapist, but unfortunately money is one of those things we are dealing with.
When I was a little girl, I remember going door to door in search of a friend. I would knock, then clasp my hands behind my back and rock back and forth on my heels in a little happy dance. When the door opened, I would ask in a really cute voice "Do you have any kids that can come out and play?" I didn't know any of the people and I had no problem doing this. I don't ever remember really making any friends doing this. But I still walked away with an ego completely unscathed.
Should I try that now?

Normal Occurrences

I am going to the bathroom and Becca barges in. I ask for some privacy please. Becca says "Ok" and walks in and shuts the door.
Typical.

I tried to post a funny YouTube video on my blog last night and for some reason it never showed up. Weird. I just wanted to change the mood. Just so you all know, I am not really mad about the house thing now. I've cooled off and things aren't as bad as I had originally thought. We did a little research. The house is still for sale but if it sells our contract transfers to the new owners. If they want us out, we have to agree with it and be compensated. We'll just be rolling with the punches.
Have a great weekend!

No flippin way!!!!

Tonight our Bishopric was supposed to come over to visit with us. So I worked really hard getting the house all cleaned up and things unpacked so that our house was presentable. The doorbell rings and it's two men in suits; but not the Bishopric. It was 2 realtors coming to inform us that the owners of our home we are renting here have decided to list the house for sale! We have been here for a total of SIX days! I can't believe the nerve of the owner to not even give us an indication of their intentions until 6 days after we move in. The thought of moving again completely overwhelms me. There is already a for sale sign in the yard and everything. We are supposed to keep the house in viewing order so that people can come and invade our privacy at various times and decide whether or not we are going to be kicked out so they can purchase it. I just hope it doesn't sell anytime soon.
I CAN'T BELIEVE OUR LUCK!

Becca turns 5!

I love this shot of her.
Today Becca turned 5. I am so completely enjoying her right now. She has been at the best phase. I think I would be perfectly content if I spent the rest of my life with my little Becca frozen at this age. She makes me incredibly happy and I love her to pieces!
Today she and I had a Mommy Date to celebrate. She got her photos taken and we went to Build a Bear. Very fun.

Some happenings here

So here is a boring post for you. But I guess there isn't anything fun on my mind right now.
I am listening to the final saga of Bella and Edward while I am working on unpacking and setting up our new home. Boy is it NUTS! I wont ruin it for those of you who haven't gotten around to it yet. (Sigh...can't wait to finish it and then have a good therapy session with another finisher.)
Well, to the other things on my mind.
Our move was a bit stressful. We spent well over a week packing like mad. We would get up super early in the morning, and stay up super late in the evening (or sometimes into the next morning,) working our butts off. But we made it and it would have never have happened if we hadn't have had the many people that came and helped us out with it all. We had thought we could do it ourselves, but we were (to put it simply) STUPID! We hired some moving company here to help us unload our truck and it was money I was perfectly happy handing over to them when it was all said and done.
I also had 7 ladies come over and help me clean up our house before we listed it for sale. I was shocked and profoundly grateful! Thank you Elli, Megan, Pam, Kindra, Heather, Marilyn, and Connie!!!!!!!! You know I love you all don't you? They were amazing and the house really cleaned up well. Especially after the carpet cleaner came the next day. He worked a miracle on our carpets! For only about $159 and in less than an hour he made our carpets look almost new. I swear he was one of the three Nephites. Only an immortal could have worked a miracle like that.
Here's some shots of our house that Amy took. She's our realtor and also one of the most wonderful cousins a girl could have.


Bonus Room

Living Room

The kitchen

Another view

So there it is. Get the word out people. We want this house to sell asap. The market totally stinks right now so we'll have to take a loss on it. Hopefully the loss isn't too painful. We ended up asking less for it than we had originally planned. We are hoping we won't have to keep dropping it.

Another thing on our minds is Steve's unemployment status. Being the extremely smart and talented guy he is, I honestly am not really worried. He has already had some new leads since we've been here. In getting our Internet set-up and phone service too, he got in conversations with those people who both caught on to how smart he is. He was inquiring about specifics of their services and they asked him for his resume. He also has a day of interviews scheduled with the Church on Monday. So we are really praying things fall into place quite soon.

Finally, there is a boat load of little things I need to take care of as soon as possible. Getting a drivers license is done! I had to get that so I could get out of jury duty in Idaho and my gym membership there too. Also I've been working on our health insurance and finding doctors and such. And there is so much more. I wont go into all the boring details.

So hopefully that gives you guys a sufficient update to satisfy all those fans out there. I'll try to give you a more fun post later. But don't count on it. It's hard to be creative when you've got my "to- do list".

Out of the Office

Yeah, I've been "Out of the office" lately and this is a post just to let you know that we officially have internet now! Just got put up tonight. We are in our new home and we are good and busy. I am now relaxing to an evening of playing catch-up to all your blogs. (64 new feeds to read.) I'll be enjoying that. I am gonna apologize ahead of time for not commenting on your blogs. I want you to know that I'll be reading them though. I just don't have the time to comment. I'll be sure to start up again soon. Be waiting for a new post here coming soon.
Laters.

This past week

We had a busy week and I thought I'd tell you about it.
We have been packing ourselves ragged. On Wednesday our moving truck arrived. We've been gradually filling it and we are running out of space. We were hoping to get all the work done by yesterday but there is still a few more hours of work left to do. The truck is supposed to be picked up tomorrow. Today we are enjoying the much needed rest though! Tomorrow will be an entirely different story.
My book club was supposed to meet this week. My friend Megan is in it and she told me that we were going to have our little book club meet at Olive Garden this month since I am moving away. (There are 6 of us in the group.) She picked me up and took me there and to my surprise there were 12 friends there! I was really touched by that and I had such a great time. I got a really sweet gift from Robyn too.
So to the topic of friends. I consider anyone that I would feel comfortable calling up and asking to go out a “friend”. Not that I do that. I get too busy. But I WOULD do that. That's the point. Up until the last couple of years I haven't really made friends. I've kept a few old ones, but not really made new ones. Steve is such a wonderful friend to me that I guess I didn't ever feel the need. And now that I am moving away, I find that for the first time in my married life I've got about 20 people that I can honestly call my “friends”. All right here in town too ---where we will no longer be. Some from church, some from dance, and a couple of neighbors.
At this point I can let the cat out of the bag and tell you where we are because I want to tell you some of the things I will miss about Boise Idaho.
1- My friends and our family.
2- Our baby boy's grave.
3-The awesome library system. Boise has the best libraries and programs I have ever seen. I have gone to the library almost weekly for the past 6 years. And I've relished tons of great free reading. My children love the library too. Celeste is a book worm through and through.
4- The nice drivers. There are so many nice, polite drivers in Boise. Of course rude Californians have invaded our turf and tainted our good record, but for the most part Boise has the nicest drivers of any city I've lived in. (I was one of those rude Californians years back, but was converted to being a nice driver in a hurry.)
5- The great family programs and activities there are to offer. There are so many fun things to do as a family here! We started a family tradition 5 years ago called “Family Fun Day”. On Saturdays we take our kids out to do something fun as a family. And it hasn't been hard to find something each week all those years. We've got some favorites that we've done repeatedly. We've made many great memories! But I am excited to move where we are going because I think there will be a lot of new material to cover for our FFD's.

Finally, I want to tell you about our last FFD in Idaho. Last night we went to the Twin Falls Temple Open House. It was such a special experience. Jonah was surprisingly calm the entire time in the temple. All of our children were. If you know me, you know I have a little obsession with temples. I love the Spirit I feel there and all the life changing experiences I've had in those beautiful edifices. The peace and comfort I feel there is not to be matched anywhere else. (This was the 28th temple I have seen in person.)
Afterwards we went to see Shoshone Falls. I thought it was impressive! We were so glad we took a break from the move to go down there. It was the best FFD ever.

Some of my beautiful Young Women came too. I love these girls!

A few stragglers

So I got a couple of more questions after I posted the last revealing post about myself. You were all surprised by my honesty hu? Me too...a little.
So apparently when Shed asked "Bunch or Fold", he really meant to ask what kind of Toilet Paper wiping technique I use. So with that I have to give you one more shocking confession. (Read this part imagining the "Jaws" theme song playing in the background;because I guess I am pretty much a serial killer according to Jenny.) I FOLD my toilet paper! (That part should have been read with derision too.) And just as a little bonus, I've included a picture of my favorite kind of toilet paper. Unsolicited by Charmin too. Love those guys.

Memzy asked what my favorite kind of ice cream was. You know, I don't eat ice cream very much. I would rather widen my hips with candy like Twix bars. And I don't really have a favorite per say. But if I had to choose one, it would likely be something like this:


Anna asked what my favorite childhood memory was. And since she asked, I ripped off a picture from my childhood from her blog. Thanks Anna.
This is a photo of the kids in my family in 1982. Which would have made me about 4 years old depending on the month. Andy must have been a baby and Molly and Sam weren't born yet. So I thought about this question and really had a tough time coming up with a favorite! I am grateful to Anna for asking me though because it was quite a happy, nostalgic feeling thinking through some great childhood memories. I'll have to share some of them sometime. I have to say that I had a BLAST with my siblings growing up. It was like a party growing up with them. I loved remembering all the crazy things Tim and Shed did. However, the memory I choose to share today is this one though. When I was 11 my Dad picked me up from school and took me out to lunch. Just me and him. With 8 kids in the family, that made me feel very special. He not only took me to lunch, he took me to the fanciest, most expensive restaurant in town; The Bistro. It was so nice! Then he just wanted to talk with me about my life for a long time. I was convinced I was his favorite. And I have never forgotten that. That is why I get a babysitter now and then and take one of my children out on a "Mommy Date" so that they all have a chance to feel special and like they are my favorite. Because in their own ways, they are.

Your answers

Great questions guys! Some are pretty hard to answer though.

Shed asked: "Bunch or fold?"
Are you talking about laundry in general or underwear specifically? It makes a difference.

Jenny asked the following questions: "How have you changed most in the last five years?"
I know a lot more about myself now. These past five years have included some really awesome experiences and some really tough ones too. I've learned a lot from both. So my biggest personal changes are in how I cope with everything and how I take care of myself.

"If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live?"Top requirement would have to be with my family and people I care most about, near me.
Next, I would love to be somewhere beautiful. Giant mountains and lots of trees are always very appealing to me.


"If your house was on fire and you could only save one of your cousins (during a sleepover with all your cousins, lets say), who would you save?"
This picture really creates that dramatic effect doesn't it? This one is definitely gonna break some hearts. So I will apologize up front for that.
Jenny underestimates me. I know I can save at least three of my cousins. I would grab Jenny in my left arm, Sara in my right arm, and have Amy sit on my shoulders and run. No problem.

"What is the biggest secret you have that you would never ever want anyone to ever know? Ever." I absolutely cannot answer that in the way you are all wishing. But I will tell you this... I do have ONE secret that I have NEVER told ANYONE EVER. Not even Steve. And I will never ever tell anyone either. I've held on to this one for many years and I doubt there is anything that would get it out of me. Water boarding may not even work. But just so you know, it is a secret that I do not believe will affect my final judgment.

Tim asked: "What is your favorite Michael Jackson song and why?"
Thriller. The music video is classic. The best part is the dead people dancing. The choreographer deserved a Nobel Peace Prize for that one.

He also asks: "What was the '#2 too personal on your most heartbreaking' post?" Tim was referring to my "Top Two's" post. I really hesitate to answer that one. There are a couple of things that came to mind and it's tough to decide which one would have been #2. I'll tell you both. Well, here goes. This is big. Ok. Well, many of you know already being family and all; I have Bi-polar disorder. I was diagnosed about 11 years ago. It is something I am always struggling with and has at times been more than I can bear. I swing from being manic, (which I usually don't mind as long as I don't humiliate myself or get too reckless,) to being very depressed. Sometimes swinging between the two a few times in one day. Most of the time I swing up and down, but not to the high or low extremes. A handful of times the depression has gotten way lower than your average Brooke Shields type. I have had some pretty bad crashes. When I crash I suffer from this terrible self-loathing. A couple of years ago I crashed way too low. I hated myself deeply. I wanted to end my life and tried to do so. I don't know how close I came to it, but there was a space of time that I was unconscious and in the ICU as a result. The recovery from that was like climbing Mt. Everest. It took at least a few months. And I don't know if I will ever be the same again. The other thing will likely sound pretty lame after that, but it was really truly heartbreaking to me. Not to mention it took me a lot longer to get over than the experience I just shared. Like a death almost. It was a breakup with a guy. This obviously was before Steve came around! And I don't need to name names because it wasn't a mean breakup or anything like that and I have/had no hard feelings towards him. Just loved him a lot and had a tough time letting go. I hope it wasn't as hard on him as it was on me. Of course it doesn't hurt my little heart anymore.

Emily asked: "What was your most embarrassing moment?" Thanks for lightening the mood Emily! Although you will soon wish you hadn't asked.
If I could answer the last question, I can answer this one too. Although if you are a guy, PLEASE don't read on because only a girl can understand or even stand reading it. It's gross. It's a typical story you'd read in "Teen Magazine's Most Embarrassing Moments" section. Do they still have that? I haven't looked in that magazine since I was a teeny bopper myself.
Here goes. I was a cheerleader in High School. We had this big championship football game at the College Stadium that sat thousands and thousands of people. I cheered the whole game being as obnoxious as can be. Kicking my leg to my head and acting like I really knew the rules to football. In reality my knowledge of football barely reached beyond what a touchdown was. It wasn't until the end of the game and I was going home that I realized I had started my period sometime during the game...As evidenced by the blood dripping down my legs. Nasty. I warned you. Beat that one if you can.
(I'm the one standing on the left.)

Jennifer asked: "I want to know what your favorite style of dance is? And why you chose to pursue a degree in dance?"I have done almost every kind of dance you know of. I guess I was best at ballet, but I had more fun in jazz and tap class. My favorite style of dance now is contemporary. I did contemporary at the Pennsylvania Ballet and in College too. But my teachers were psycho or something. It wasn't hard for me, but I hated all the improv, "act like a tree", subjective dancing. When I see a good contemporary dance these days, I LOVE it! (Mia Michaels is amazing!) I also chose to pursue a dance degree probably because it was the easiest thing for me to do and I couldn't have imagined a career in anything else at the time. Having the dance director at the school beg me to come helped too. (This is me in my 4th year of "The Nutcracker" I was the "Rose" in "Waltz of the Flowers" among some other parts. It's hard to tell, but I am wearing the short tutu in the middle of all the girls wearing the long tutus.)

Any more questions people? I liked having something interesting to write about. Thanks!