The Big Weekend

This past Wednesday my mom came into town in wednesday night and by Thursday at 5:30 am Brent and I were headed to the airport to fly out to TN for the weekend.  Oh how I wished that we were flying off to a tropical destination, where we would bask in the Sun and sand, and drink Margaritas by the water, but we were off on another mission.  One that was fun, but not so relaxing.  We had our funding already lined up and had researched homes and schools on line for weeks in advance.  On day one being Thursday, we arrived in TN at 9:30 am, we were with the realtor by 11:30 and looking at homes before 1.  We looked at 12 homes that day!!! Yes!  12!  Some were a quick look, others I stood there and drew detailed floor plans of them.  We found that in new builds you have to be careful, as some builders really cut corners, we are pretty sharp now on identifying a good/bad builder.  We found that one of our favorites on line, was a smoker, so we didn't even look.  :0(  After a long day of looking, we went to the hotel and looked them over, and looked at what we needed to see on Friday.  Met Peggy (realtor) at 10 and were back out looking at houses in no time.  We saw about 9 more homes, narrowed the search to 2 favorites and took them home to look over and pray about.  On Sat. Morning we put a bid in on this home.

Ain't she a beauty?  Too bad it was a crumby day, and not sunny.  That is Peggy's van in the drive way, and yes, I was born in a barn.  (I ran out to take the picture and left the door open. )  LOL!
Here is Brent waving from the deck.  The part of the house that is Vinyl is the Fireplace.  We're told they didn't do brick there because it is easier to get in behind the fireplace if something goes wrong if there is Vinyl back there.

Anyone who knows me, knows that I am Kitchen picky.  I really had a hard time with the kitchens, there are not a lot of eat in kitchens now a days, so we found this that has a spot for the kids on the other side of the sink, or even a little table in the kitchen, but the Dining room will be used for when all 6 of us sit down.  
This is the Great room.  This will serve the purpose that our basement play room serves right now.  The kids are going to love this space.  It is so fun!  All 4 of the 5 bedrooms in the house feed off of this great room.  Liza will have a bathroom all to her self and Alex and Tori/Katie will share a Jack and Jill style bathroom.  Ah, it will be wonderful.  We have enough room to split Tori and Katie, but they are looking forward to sharing a room, so we'll see how  long I get to keep my craft room  :o)
Just had to throw in a picture of my beautiful light fixture (this is in the Mast bathroom.  Nice eh?)

This is looking down the stairs at the front door.  Hard wood floors in the entry, hall and dining room.  Carpet  everywhere else.  
This fabulous little park I can see from my back windows, so i can keep and eye on the kids as they play.  It is in such a quiet subdivision that is mandated by law to have sidewalks, so when all the homes are done being built the kids will be able to ride around the block  without getting off the sidewalk.  For now, the center area where the park is located has the sidewalk done all the way around, so the kids can ride over there.  (YIPEE FOR SIDEWALKS)

Just hours before we left on Sunday evening, papers were signed, the bid was accepted, pictures were taken, windows measured for window coverings, the sold sign was up, and lock box was taken off the door.  YIPEE!!  What a weekend.  We are pooped, but feel like we accomplished a ton!  May post more later.  SO there you have it. :-)  I would post a floor plan, but the blog isn't locked and I don't want some creep to know his way around my house!  Notice that I didn't say where in TN, nor did I say a subdivision, and I Photo shopped the front of the house so you can't tell the address.  (tricky eh.?)  Email me if you want any of that info.  :-)  TTFN

Cuteness and craziness

Today katie was climbing around on my lap and I said to her "what do I look like to you?" with out missing a beat she said "pretty."  AWWWW.  What a doll.

The house hit the market last Saturday.   Phewf what a job!  It doesn't look good tho.  The market isn't moving very quickly and there are some nice homes out there to compete with.  :-(  I love our house, I just hope someone else out there will love it too.   So here is a list of things that are TA DONE!

-painted all cupboards in bathrooms

-replaced lighting and vanities in 2 bathrooms

-painted:  2 bathrooms, living room, hall, 2 stairwells,  and family room.

-took 3 truck loads of stuff to storage (thanks again Cari)

-endless bags of trash to the curb

-one trip to the dump (still needed)

-mulch in flower beds

-disassembled and got rid of 1 crib and 1 toddler bed

-patch painted kitchen

-cleaned out pantry and all cabinets

-painted front door, then found out that HOA is not going to like that.... oops.

-coaxed Brent into cleaning up his stuff.... LOL

 There are so many more things we could do...  I'm still avoiding a few of them, but eventually right?  It has been a trip and a half.  I told Brent the other night, that this was BY FAR the hardest thing I have ever done.  We have moved like 14 times, and all but one of those moves, I have single handedly packed up and unpacked the whole house.  The only part anyone helped me with was the putting of boxes into a truck and out of a truck.  But the whole taking what you have, assessing it as to weather you keep it, or throw it, and if you keep it, then do you store it or stage it.  And if you are going to store it, then do you REALLY need it.  UHG!  Then the fact that we have moved at least every 2 years in the past and here, we settled in for 4 years.  WOW double the crap accumulated!  Add to that the frosting of the stress of weather or not you are going to get out of your home w/0 paying a fortune.  Oh dear.  But the house looks amazing, and I wish that I could live like this forever.  I think that the experience of  living in a house w/o all that stuff has really been a lesson to me on what we can do with out.  :-)  I have some perfectionistic qualities and I usually harbor them for the sake of my children, so it has been "fun" to let them out, and see my house the way that I LOVE it to be.  :-)  We'll keep everyone posted on what is going on as far as assignments, and showings.  As of today, the house has been on the market 1 week.  We have had 4 showings.  I think that is not too bad in this market.  Hopefully we have one today or tomorrow too.  If not, we're ready when they call.  :-)  The army is supposed to be in touch with us... nothing still.  We'll see.

That's what he said:

This is Alex complaining about homework tonight

"nine words mom?  I wish I only had 6 wrong.  How hard could this possibly ever take!  This is taking me so long because I don't know how to spell!"

Throws book and pencil on the floor. 

Offer from mom, you don't have to do this, you can just be grounded for another week.

"I'd rather spell for 15 hundred years, then that!  Now I have to write all nine words.  Why can't I just fail on the test and not get grounded, how can I get grounded for a stupid test, I don't think school even matters, I think learning how to walk and say things matters, but I don't think school matters, I don't think spelling words is good enough!  (Cries)  Do you want to know what the truth is?  The real truth is... I don't know how to do this!  Now how do I do this.  How can I memorize 15 words."  (Stomps on the words, then cries again.)

"Mommy, I can't do this,  no matter how you make me try 50 thousand times, I can't do it! You don't even care about me don't you?   I don't know how to write, all I can do is sound it out.. not do it the right way.   Now I can't do it, my pencil is broken!  Tell me what to do, it's anything other then the test!  Like a different kind of spelling thing.  What do I do mommy.  Okay. Here is the actual truth, Liza made me cry, that made me forget all of the spelling words except for the "eye/I" ones.  Thats why!"

(goes and gets a new pencil, comes and argues his point some more. breaks the tip off another pencil.  Goes and gets another pencil)

"I have to write 45 words! (at least the boy is good at math) you're making me write 45 words, I thought it would be 20.  Katie!  You don't want to go to school.  I'm telling you, you don't want to go to school... So when anyone tells you about school, you just say "Shhh, I don't like school".

(starts to study words by writing each troubled word 5 times, begins complaining again... I tell him that he needs to zip his mouth and think about the words as he writes them, so that he remembers them...  Ahh, peace at last, the first time in 25 minutes that he hasn't been yelling and whining about how hard this is.)

Alex is my complainer.  He will just go on and on and on!  I love him to bits, I try not to get frustrated with him,  so today I did this to ease my frustrations.  When I read it back to him, he laughed.  What a goof.

So Incredibly Far behind... where do I start?

I've had so many moments that I've thought "I need to blog about that."  But I've been so busy...  'course I had time to write my complainy post :-)  I'll start with my "missionary moments" post.  I have had the pleasure of speaking with others about my church lately, and this makes me SO happy.  A few years ago I got very involved in "fly lady" a home cleaning/organization program.  It brought so much peace and organization to my life that I wanted to share it with everyone I knew.  I found myself telling everyone and their dog about fly lady.  One day it donned on me that I share fly lady with others because of the peace that it brings, and I wanted others to share in that, so why was I so afraid to share with others the main thing that brings peace into my life which is my beliefs.  I decided then and there to open my mouth and share what I have, some people listen out of consideration, and others are genuinely interested.  This past couple of weeks I've had the pleasure of sharing a few words with a few people.  Tori was invited to a birthday party that was scheduled to take place on a Sunday, I emailed the mom and explained that we were sad to miss the party, but we don't allow our children to go to birthday parties on Sundays as this is our day of worship and family time.  She emailed me back a note of understanding, and told me that she too was a religious person.   Come to find out that she is a member of "Church of Christ", this organization also believes in the Book Of Mormon, they are a branch off of the original church that was established by Joseph Smith.  We have had some interesting discussions which I am sure will lead to more, but what in interesting discovery, just for opening my mouth and saying why Tori couldn't make it to the party.  

After a water aerobics class a few weeks ago, a woman who has always been so friendly to me came up and started asking about out assignment and what we planned to do in our future.  I had prayed the night before for a missionary opportunity.   The spirt whispered to me that this was my chance... (we were no where near that topic) but somehow it worked into the conversation that we are Latter Day Saints.  This woman has had so many brushes with the church that I was astounded.  She had an LDS contractor years ago, who she thought was a wonderfully honest man, she thinks that Mitt Romney is wonderful and should have been president.  She has been to a temple open house, and seen a movie at the visitor center.  She wondered if there was something she could do at the temple with her grandchildren.  She has had the missionaries in her home!  WHAT?  So we chatted, we talked about the Book Of Mormon, I brought her a DVD of "The Testaments."  and a copy of the Book Of Mormon.   I know that the Lord has been preparing her all a long, small and simple things.  I don't know if my placement of the DVD and Book are the final steps in her conversion, or not, but I am so grateful to have been a stepping stone on this woman's journey.  What a blessing!

  2 Saturdays ago I felt very inspired to attend the baptism of a woman and her 3 children (2 of which are in Young Women's)  So inspired that I dressed up all 4 kids and took them even tho Brent was working.  I am so glad that we got to go.  The young women sang after the baptisms and then there were welcomes etc... and then the best part, those who had been baptized bore their testimonies.  Oh how sweet and fresh their hearts were.  The mother, so grateful for a church family who showed so much love to her children, and so grateful for the knowledge that what she was doing was the right thing.  The young girls testimonies were strong and full of faith.  It was so wonderful, there were tears in my eyes the whole time, and my heart was so full!  Then the youngest boy got up there... he is probably 9 yrs old.  He stood in front of a room full of people, like a little man.  He thanked everyone for being there for his family.  He testified that he knew he had done the right thing and then he said with tears in his eyes, (as he hit his chest)  "God is in my heart!" and then he pointed over to where the young women had stood to sing their song and he said, "And them girls,  (swallowed his tears)  they's tellin' it!  In the name of Jesus, AMEN!"  It was one of the sweetest testimonies I have ever heard.  Oh, my friends the gospel is so true.  I truly believe that we have the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ!  There is so much more then just the bible teaches, oh the bible is wonderful, and I believe in it with all my heart too, but there is more..... so so much more.  I am so incredibly grateful for this knowledge that I have!

My testimony has grown so much in the past few years.  I have learned about the atonement in ways that I never imagined.  I always kind of knew, and accepted it, but WOW!  What an amazing gift God has given us!  The Savior really can bare our burdens, and He wants to.  We can turn to the Lord in all things and he will bless and watch over us.  Our prayers are heard and God knows us and the desires of our hearts.  I am grateful to know that my family is sealed together, that if tragedy strikes that we are going to be together in heaven, and all is well.  Today marks 4 years since we lost Brents mom, we miss her terribly but we know that she is busy going about God's work and that she watches over us.  We feel her around sometimes, not as much now as we did years ago, but she is here and she keeps tabs on those grand babies.  We speak of her often and try to keep her memory alive for our kids.  She is missed often, and we are thankful for the knowledge of eternal life.  I wish that we could order dreams, cuz I would order one up for Brent tonight, one where he gets to talk to her and hug her.  He had a hard time in church today....it is so hard to watch tears fall down his strong face, and know that there is a place in him that will be empty until they meet again.  I pray for a tender mercy for him tonight, the dreams help sometimes. 

update on the house.... well it didn't go on the market today... but I told our realtor that I want people in here looking on Saturday.. we'll see.   That's all for now.  I have more stuff, but I am sure that I lost 1/2 the readers about 40 lines ago.  :-)