Photo Updates, In Reverse Chronological Order

So I figured out how to upload photos on my computer even though I don't have the cord.  Turns out Wyatt's Leapster has the same type of cord as my Nikon.  Hooray!  Voila!  Now I have pictures to share.

Since I have a bunch of pics from before the move that hadn't been uploaded, I'm going to start w/ the most recent pic and then go back in time, hopefully with a minimum of commentary on my part.  Or else this is going to take me forever to write (and, by extension, forever for you to read.)

The first picture.  The new house!

I really like the color of the cement board (it isn't vinyl siding--our first house with cement board).  I also like the white accent.  We didn't get to choose our color palette since the house was a spec and the colors were already chosen by the builder, but I did get to choose if I wanted red or a lighter beige in the roof peaks.  I thought red would be fun--a number of the houses have colorful accents--and I didn't know if I wanted a brown-and-beige house.  But now I'm a little unsure about the "red" since it has a decidedly purplish cast.  I thought it would be a more brownish-red.  It's so hard to tell from paint chips!  But apparently this is the red that is used on other houses in the neighborhood. So.  I either have to decide that I like it or see about having the roof peaks repainted in the lighter beige color.  What do you think?  Forrest says we should let it grow on us and that it will all look nice once the landscaping's in and the front door is on.  I suppose time will tell, as it always does.

This is also the first time I've had a house with the garage on the left hand side, and that's throwing me off a little too.  Perhaps because we read left to right, I generally "read" a house left to right, and I don't like starting with the garage.  But I'll get used to this too, I'm sure.  But now I sound like a big whiner, and I don't want to, because I really really love the inside of the house.  It's going to be a great space and fit our family really well.  I wanted to take pics of the inside, but when we went over with the camera they'd taped off everything in order to paint.  So those pictures are forthcoming.

A few other quick moving updates: 1. We went to church today and it was really good.  It seems like a very nice ward--big!--and the kids were very friendly to Ethan, Elise and Jonas when they went to class. (I'm sure the nursery kids were friendly to Wyatt, too, but it's harder to get reliable intel from a 3 year old.)  2. My hair likes Minnesota, I think.  It's shinier and easier to tame.  The humidity maybe?  3. After two days of listening to Phineas and Ferb blasting on the Disney channel in the main kitchen/family room area, we broke down and bought a smallish TV from Sam's Club so the kids can have a TV in their room.  It's for my sanity, people.  And the kids' sanity, too.  It's hard to come up with stuff to do all day when you're in a 3 bedroom apartment and have no friends.  Hence, Phineas and Ferb.  This too shall pass, yes?

Okay, now another picture.  I'm not doing so hot on the short commentary thing, I realize.

This is Ethan, smiling in front of his birthday cake on Friday.  Doesn't he look old all of a sudden?  It's because he's 14 and heading to HIGH SCHOOL!  And yes, that's the apartment kitchen in the background.  Haven't taken any other pics yet because I want to get the joint put together first.  Almost there.

Ethan spent his birthday at the "Raptor Roundup"--a daylong event for incoming freshman at his high school.  He strode in there surrounded by a bunch of other 9th graders without knowing a soul and did just fine.  He said lunch was a little long--they gave them a whole hour, which is a long time if you don't know anybody--but overall he had a good day.  He's a self-possessed kid and I know he'll be able to take all of this in stride, even if there are a few bumps in the road along the way.  We spent that evening eating at Buffalo Wild Wings, since Ethan loves a good chicken wing, and had a fun meal together.  Happy Birthday Ethan!  We love you.

Here are a couple pictures of the kids last Sunday night, spending one last evening with their cousins at Grandma's house.  Even the big girls dressed up (beautifully).

Wyatt now thinks he wants to be a police man when he grows up.  Mainly so he'll have increased access to guns.  Perhaps this is why he's decided against the ninja route; ninja weaponry is so old-fashioned.

Last Saturday, Forrest and Tony and Peter participated in the Jordanelle Triathlon.  Isn't this a hunky picture of three good lookin' guys?

They even looked good after they finished, which is an even more impressive feat:

All three of them did an excellent job and it was fun to go and cheer them on.  Here's Forrest looking downright pleasant after emerging from the swim, making it look easier than it actually is:

Those people behind him are all the people he beat. :-)

And here's Jonas and Reagan, hiding in the tippy top of a tree while they wait for their dads at the finish line:

Speaking of trees, the weekend before the Jordanelle Tri, we took the kids on one last trip up into the mountains.  We found a nice spot just off of Strawberry Reservoir and pitched our tent.

Grandma and Grandpa came up and joined us for s'more cooking.

And here's some s'more dancing:

Some adolescent tree sitting (right back atcha!):

And some pre-K fantasy gunplay.  Because wherever you find Wyatt, you'll find fantasy gunplay.  Even in the woods, he's able to find a left over tent spike and turn it into a firearm.  (At least I've gotten him to pretend to be killing "robots" instead of "bad guys.")

And finally, a few pictures Elise took of her time at girls' camp.  I can't believe she's already doing the whole girls' camp thing!  And doing it much better than I did.  I wasn't much of a girls' camp fan.  Preferred Youth Conference, where both boys and electricity were available in abundance.  But Elise had a great time, even though it rained buckets and buckets.  Here's all the cute girls in the ward:

And here's cute Elise:

And now (whew!) we are finally caught up.  I'll take more pictures of the beautiful greenishness of Minnesota, the apartment, and the inside of the house here soon.  Love you all!  Miss you!

We're Heeee-eeere

I'm sitting at Forrest's computer.  It's right under a vent in the ceiling and cold air is shooting down onto my head most unpleasantly, but I'm not sure if I want to close the vent (make the room stuffy?) or leave it open and suffer a bit whilst on the computer.

And yes--we're in our apartment!  In Minnesota!  We made it.  The plan ride was pretty smooth--smoother, I'm sure, than Forrest and Darrin's jaunt across the country pulling a boat filled with toiletries and medication and flammable cleaning liquids and plastic tubs full of clothes and a road bike and one ridiculously yowly cat whom, I'm told, yowled pretty much constantly from Monday to Wednesday. 

Do you say "whom" when referring to a cat?

Anyway, good plane ride.  Had a connection in Denver that made me a little nervous because time was tight, but (amazingly!) the gate we had to get to was directly adjacent to the gate where we arrived.  (From which we arrived?  Where we arrived from?  Whom?)  Wyatt even decided to take a little nap from Denver to Minneapolis and I got to read my book.  Belong to Me by Marisa de los Santos, given to me by she of impeccable literary taste, Ms. Darlene Young.  (Loving it Darlene.  Thank you.)

Then Forrest picked us up from the airport and whisked us off to drive past the kids' schools and past our new house.  It's going to be a great house, and it was really fun to see how much progress has been made: exterior all done (colors a little different from what I was expecting, but I think I'll like it); cabinets in (love them!); primer on the walls (a little darker than I was expecting--just like the exterior of the house--but it's primer, not paint).  As soon as I figure out where I stashed my camera I'll take some pictures.  Then I'll have to figure out how to upload them because I think the movers took the box I'd painstakingly packed full of all the cords that connect things to the computer. Sigh.  Things I also don't have on hand: hangers, extra towels (they said there would be towels here, but there are, like, four), Wyatt's box of Trio blocks (where ARE they?), and a laundry hamper for the kids' bathroom.

And speaking of the kids' bathroom, the temp housing is quite nice.  Pretty spacious, for an apartment.  But the hot water doesn't get very hot and the phone just rang and the person on the other end asked for "Tuwahn" (I'm spelling this phonetically) and the bed is small.  So it's not exactly home.  But it's definitely doable for six weeks; in fact, it's kinda like an adventure.  Right?  An adventure!

Today we're heading out for Elise's middle school open house.  As soon as I have pictures, I'll upload them.  And thank you to all of you for all your help and love as we got ready to move.  Mom and Dad, especially--thanks so much for letting us hang out at your place!  There's nothing like Grandma and Grandpa's house.

We love you all.  Miss you already.

Crazy Town

So we're moving.  Have you heard?  The movers are coming tomorrow.  Eek!  I'm trying to separate the stuff we'll need for the next week while we stay at Mom and Dad's from the stuff we'll need for the next six weeks while we're in temp furnished housing before the house is built from the stuff that the movers are going to pack away and lock up in storage until it's time to move into the house.  My brain hurts.  And we have so many clothes.  So, so many clothes.

I keep wanting to blog about:

-How we went camping up at Strawberry last weekend

and

-The Irreantum fiction / creative nonfiction contest committee meeting/party (cause it really is too much fun to be called a "meeting") that we had at my house last night and how much it made me miss the loss of my Utah-based literary community

and

-Elise going to girls' camp and braving thunderstorms aplenty

and

-How we're selling/donating/junking so much stuff and how good it makes me feel to declutter and downsize

but

I don't have time.

I might once the movers are all done on Friday and we're safely ensconced at my Mom and Dad's house, but I don't know yet.

So until then . . .

More Summer Fun

Here are some more shots of last week with the fam.  First, big thanks to Andrea for emailing me some of her great shots!

The almost-fourth graders, digging their way to China.  They're so cute together.  Might they be mad that I say they're cute together?  But they are.

A sunset ride on the boat.  The water was gorgeous.  I love riding on the boat just before nightfall.

So I took this one (and some of the others) but hadn't uploaded yet because it was on my phone.  I'm sure you can tell it was a phone picture--dang graininess--but this shot of the boys asleep a few minutes after they'd settled in to watch cartoons was too cute to miss.

The cousins also had fun at Grandma's house while the guys went golfing.  Andi had always wanted to take a pyramid shot.  And now she got one!

On Saturday, Grandma treated all the girls to tea-time at the Grand America hotel.  It was SO MUCH FUN.  Finger sandwiches, gorgeous desserts, little teapots full of hot chocolate and plum tea (I was the only one who ordered tea--herbal!--as the waitress noted no less than three times.  And I kinda regretted not getting the hot chocolate.  Mormons!)  There was a harpist in her functional black dress, and the bathrooms were so beautiful we had to take a trip to go check them out.  I'm sure the girls won't forget this any time soon.

We also hoofed it over to temple square to see the new miniature temple cutout, which was really cool.  The weather, however, was NOT cool, and we were all pretty sweaty when we got to the car.  Elise grew out of her shoes along the way, too.  I tell the truth!  She could no longer put her shoes on after she took them off in the car.  We drove to Target on the way home to get her friend a birthday present, and Elise walked in barefooted, headed straight for the shoe aisle, and picked a pair of flip flops.  Women's, size 8 1/2.  Yes, it's true: we now wear the same shoe size.  How tall is this girl going to be???

Then on Saturday night we headed over to Karla's to celebrate Grandma Ranquist's birthday.  It was so much fun to see everybody, especially before we go, and check out Karla's gorgeous new kitchen.  (Seriously, those blue built-ins?  To die for!)  The back yard at Aunt Karla and Uncle Richard's is a grandkids' paradise, and they all had a great time scampering around till late into the night.

(Thanks to Andi again for the picture.  And for the next one.)

Grandma Ranquist with all the (present) grandkids.  Just missing: Amy, Abby, Adam, Jessica, Drake and Jonathan. And geez, Andrew, you really are freakishly tall.  Just in case you forgot.

It was such a great week.  It melted away a lot of my stress and it was so nice just to hang with family and have FUN.  It made me sad, though, too--to be leaving all these people I love.  (We also went up to Darrin and Katie's for a Wilkey FHE on Sunday night--no pictures, though--and got to hug and talk to dozens of Wilkeys, which was also fun and sad.)

My only consolation is that I know when you're gone, then the times that you do spend together are even more intensely fun, e.g., we wouldn't have done a lot of this stuff if Andrew and Andi hadn't come to town. Now we just have to figure out how to coordinate all our family vacations so all the Sweat kids are in town at the same time.  And leg wrestle over who gets to stay in Grandma and Grandpa's basement.

Summer Fun

In the midst of house showings and paperwork, we have been able to have a little fun around here.

First, a little anniversary celebration.  Forrest and I went up to Deer Valley to hear our very favorite four-times-married singer/songwriter.  (Note: As much as I love Ben, and as much as I love "The Luckiest," a bit of the shine wore off when I heard he left his third wife, for whom he wrote "The Luckiest," for his yoga instructor.  Sigh.)

ANYWAY, Ben Folds might be a musical genius, but Forrest and I are way better at staying married, as our 18 years of marital togetherness attests.  Here we are, smiling in the cheap seats on the grass, waiting for Ben and the symphony orchestra to get started:

Here's a shot of the amphitheater:

It was a gorgeous night.  Gorgeous! And other than the drunk guy behind us who kept shouting in a voice of unearthly volume, "Play 'Mess,' Ben!  Play 'Mess!'"--and seriously, this guy wasn't deterred by ANYTHING, not the people around him yelling for him to shut up, not the notion that the Utah Symphony Orchestra probably wasn't prepared to play requests--it was a wonderful concert.  We've never been to a concert at Deer Valley before, but I highly recommend it.  Bring a picnic.  Take in the amazing scenery.  Ignore the drunk people.  It's a good time.

We also just returned home from our fun-filled trip to Pineview with the extended family.  Andrew and Andrea are in town (hooray! so glad we got to see them again before we leave!), so everybody but Amy and Dave spent three days in condos by the lake.  The one and only bad thing about the trip was missing Amy and Dave and their kids, but I can understand that a two-week old baby makes family vacations of this sort pretty difficult.  Do they make life jackets for 2 week old babies?  Hopefully we'll be able to do something like this again soon, with everybody included.

The weather was great, despite dire prognostications the weekend before we left.  We had a few sprinkles, and some storms that came through at night after we were all snuggled tight in our beds, but during the day the sky was blue and the water was warm and the lake was surprisingly calm. 

I wish I'd taken more close-up pictures, but I kept forgetting my camera.  Or remembering my camera but not wanting to get up and actually unzip it from its case.  But I did get a few.  Here's a taste:

Forrest.  Sweet jump.  Green mountains in the background.  Face lit by the sun.  One of my better pictures of the trip, if I do say so.

Wyatt, bobbing with his cousins out in the lake.  Wyatt would have bobbed out there all day long if we let him.  He loved every minute of it.  Oh, and not to interrupt the narrative flow, but if you click to enlarge the picture you'll notice that Wyatt's haircut is looking a little funky.  About an hour before we left, we found him under the kitchen table with a pair of safety scissors doing this:

Never had a child take a pair of scissors to his own head before, but I suppose it's a parenting moment that all of us should have a turn enjoying.  I'm just glad he's not a girl.  And that I'm old enough now (tired enough?) that having a kid with a weird haircut doesn't phase me.  Much.  But back to the trip!

Each of the kids had a lot of fun out on the boat. 

 Ethan showed a lot of skill and is becoming quite adept.  He jumped the wake and did a switch move.  He even had a wicked wipe out, which is what all real wake boarders must endure.

 Jonas took some time away from creating an amazing hideout in the sand with his cousin Brandon and did a little knee boarding. 

 Elise got up on skis AND on the wake board.  She's really improving, too, and has the best attitude about trying and trying again if she doesn't get up right away.  By the end of the trip, though, she was popping right up on the wake board, and even crossed the wake.

And as evidence that I actually engage in water sports myself, a shot of me in all my skirted-swimsuit glory, skiing away.  And yes, I'm the only remaining child (or in-law!!) of Barbara and Dennis to have NOT gotten up on a wake board, since Drew managed to pull his 6 ft. 6 inch self out of the water and have a sweet run.  But I am not ashamed.  I like my skis.  And I'm almost 40.  Wake boarding is no longer de rigeur.  And I also say things like "de rigeur," and how many people do you know who say things like that and even SKI?  Exactly.

I wish I had more pictures of the rest of the family.  I'll have to steal some from Cindy and/or Andi and/or my mom, who did a better job than I did documenting things.  But we had a ball.  Such a fun break in the middle of a stressful summer.  Thanks mom and dad!

And Now, the Move

First, the good news.  Here's the house that we're buying.

Lo, the very one.  Obviously not move-in ready, but will be (we hope) by the end of Sept.  Here's a pic of a model home across town that's the same style.  Ours will have different colors in the exterior--darker tans and browns with a reddish-brown accent color in the triangles of cedar shakes on the roof peaks.

The two best things about the house are, first, the layout.

Don't mind my scribbles.  (The notations about room size have to do w/ the sizes of the rooms we have in our house right now so I could compare.)  The layout of this house is almost exactly like the house we left behind in MN, just a bit bigger.  I love the upstairs: there's a loft (hooray!), and this house has the "jack and jill" bathroom layout, so the boys will be able to share a full bath, and Elise will get a 3/4 bath with her room.  Needless to say, she's very excited about this.  (And so am I.  Maybe now the kids will stop using our shower!)  And I'm glad we have the loft, because for now our basement won't be finished.  The kids need somewhere they can watch iCarly that's far enough out of Mom's earshot that it doesn't drive her to drink.  I also like that the kitchen's a little bigger than the house we have now.  We don't have a dining room anymore . . . but that's probably okay.  We hardly use the one we have in this house anyway, and we needed to ditch the completely thrashed dining room table we've been eating on for the last 8 years.  Now we'll start using the nice dining room table and can thrash it.

The other thing I like about this house is the neighborhood.  It's an HOA like the one we're in now, so there are a couple of swimming pools and tennis courts.  But it's also in Minnesota, which means the surroundings are exceptionally green and lovely.  Here's a picture of the homes that are across the street from ours (the spendy ones with walkout basements--ours is a not nearly as spendy a house, with one measly window in the basement).  There are a few ponds like these and beautiful stands of trees and gardens, all connected by walking/biking paths:

When Forrest and I were looking at the neighborhood, as we walked along the path a couple of snowy egrets landed in the pond, a little bunny hopped across the trail, a hawk circled overhead, etc. etc.  It made me feel like saying "Alright, already!  We get it!  Minnesota is a natural wonderland!"  It really is, though.  Wouldn't have been surprised if a deer had poked her head out from behind a stand of pine trees.

The kids will all be attending excellent schools.  Ethan's high school is brand new and gorgeous.  A few pics I took with my phone, to help get him excited:

The football stadium, ringed in Minnesota green and farmland.

The lunch room, with its floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the aforementioned Minnesota green and farmland.

The ward is surprisingly big (extended out into the overflow, two nurseries, a good number of youth).  In fact, we found out that an LDS family with a boy in 9th grade, a girl in 7th grade, and a boy in 3rd grade--almost the same as ours!--live in our very neighborhood, just one street over.  We had to drive for almost 10 minutes to reach the nearest LDS family in our old ward, so that's pretty cool.

So . . . even though we swore we wouldn't be buying another new house, this seems to be the best house for us.  Great schools, good ward, lovely neighborhood, and a nice new house to enjoy.  With the basement unfinished, it's not quite as big or functional as the house we have now, and I really really hoped we could find a house with the same size and functionality as the house we're already in that was 1. in our price range and 2. looked nice inside, but such a house was nowhere to be found.  At least during the five days we were looking.  But this house is a great option.  I just have the tiniest stomach ache over the thought of putting in a yard and finishing the basement (AGAIN!!!!!) when I'd hoped our extra money could go to other things.  The truth is, though, even if we'd bought a previously owned home, we would have been putting money into it anyway to upgrade or remodel.

So there you have it.  Moving is expensive, even when you have a great relo package.  And I am excited about our house for lots of reasons.  I'll just miss the one we're leaving.

Which is a great segue into part two of this post.  The bad news part.  Which is that moving kind of sucks.   And I'm not even talking about all the sad goodbyes and anxiety-producing unknowns.  The paperwork alone is killing me!   I feel like I have a flock of ducks I'm trying to keep in a row.  And not cute little yellow baby ducks.  Obnoxious midsized honking teenaged ducks, complete with a mouthful of those menacing-looking tiny duck teeth.  These ducks are:

-The people who apparently want to give us loans for our new house, but also want us to locate, fill out, then fax 916 pages worth of information.  IMMEDIATELY, please.

-The people who apparently want to buy our house, and even give us offers for our house, but then realize that (doh!) the military wants them to live on base, so they actually can't buy our house, so never mind that offer thingie.  But they would like to buy our house. Just can't.  (So maybe in this scenario it's actually the military who gets to be one of the angry teenage ducks.)

-The other people who apparently want to maybe buy our house and call 30 minutes before they want to see our house, necessitating much scrambling and scrubbing and short-tempered Mom remarks ("Seriously, you call this a MADE bed?") and then spend 60 seconds in the house and never return our agent's phone calls.  I do realize that this is the reality of life when one is selling one's house, yet it remains annoying nevertheless.

-The people who apparently want to build our house, but who also need us to fill out and then FedEx an additional 916 pages worth of information.  Oh, and they would like $10,000, too.  And our firstborn child. If it's not too much trouble.

-The people who run the high schools and junior highs and elementary schools and preschools who also require paperwork and immunization records and birth certificates.  And the choosing of classes.  And the taking of placement tests.  All this is understandable.  I mean, you can't just pull up the first day of school and kick your kids through the front door.  But still--lists and appointments and copies of copies.  Hoops for jumping.  Etc.  Plus, who in her right mind has a kid in high school, a kid in junior high, a kid in elementary school, and a kid in preschool?  Exactly.

-Finding temporary housing for the month of Sept.  (I'm ruining the parallelism by not beginning this paragraph with "The people who," but that's because Forrest and I are "the people who" in this scenario.  "The people who" can't seem to buy existing homes.)  Anyway, temporary housing during the month of Sept., then hope hope hoping our house will be done on time.  Driving the kids to each of their schools every day then picking them up.  I remember it being a pain when we moved here, and all the kids went to the SAME SCHOOL!

And did I mention I'm supposed to be keeping the house spotlessly clean?

And did I mention that my exercise regimen has gone completely out the window?  (Be that as it may.) 

So, while I'm grateful that things are going as smoothly as I can expect them to go (and they really are), and while I know that we're exceedingly lucky to be able to get help with this move and have a lovely new house (leaving aside the fact that we already HAVE a lovely new house--and yes, I'm leaving that aside! I am!), I'm kinda in free floating anxiety land right now.  If you didn't notice.

But it will all work out.  It will be for our good.  Of this I'm (strangely) certain.  It's this calm certainty that reassures me and gets me through the days where I'm madly faxing pages of bank statements and trying to figure out how to transfer Elise's orthodontia and cleaning up cat vomit on the carpet just minutes before a showing.

I know He never said "I never said it would be easy," Mormon needlecraft asserting otherwise notwithstanding.  I get the sentiment, though.  It isn't easy.  But I do have faith that it'll be worth it.

Real Life Stuff

Forrest and I just got back from our house hunting trip and we found a house we think will work for us.  But before I get to that, there are a few more things to catch up on.  Too many things!  So I'll be brief.  Or at least try.

First we have Jonas's Pinewood Derby.  Jonas and Dad worked on the car and made a really cool patriotic model, weighted with a silver dollar and a quarter.  Here's our cool track (well, not our track, but the track of the guy who goes around and does these things all over the SL Valley for a living):

And here's Jonas with his friends, celebrating at the end of the race.

And here they are posing the way their moms wanted them to pose:

Jonas's car was a solidly average performer, but he was a great sport and had a lot of fun.  That's what Pinewood Derbies are about, right?  (That and watching 38-year-old engineers get this glazed competitive look in their eyes, wandering around with a tubes of graphite clutched in their sweaty palms.)

The middle kids (you know, Jonas and Elise?) had their last few days of school to celebrate.  Here are some pictures of the revelry at field day:

More shots of Jonas and his buddies.  He's going to miss these guys!

Jonas leaping small styrofoam obstacles in a single bound!

Elise and her friend Ashlyn.

Cooling off!

Which brings us to the actual last day of school.  I make all the kids gather on the front porch for a "just off the bus" shot, much to Ethan's 8th grade mortification.  Hey, it's a tradition!!

Makes me a little sad that this will be our last last-day-of-school shot on this particular porch.  Sniff.  Both Elise and Jonas came home with good report cards and smiles on their faces.  And Elise looks particularly fetching because we crimped her hair in preparation for the 6th grade dance.  No boys and girls actually danced with each other of course, but isn't that the point of 6th grade dances?  To bop around in a sweaty clump of girlfriends and wonder what it will be like when you actually DO dance with a real boy?

We kicked off our real summer by having Tony and Cindy's kids with us for a few days over the 4th of July weekend.  Here they all are in the family room, kickin back:

We went swimming, went to a neighborhood 4th of July bash, lit fireworks (sorry, forgot to take pictures!), went to church, and hung out at Grandma and Grandpa Sweat's empty house, eating pizza and making incredible messes with Grandma's stash of glitter and stickers and glue sticks and poster paint.  (Grandma and Grandpa were at Amy's house in celebrating the advent of Carly June--more on that later).  The cousins had a great time together.  It was particularly fun since they don't have much more time to hang out in a casual cousinly way (sniff, again!).  

And then, Carly June was born!  Here she is, in all her cuteness.  I haven't met her yet (of course) and probably won't meet her for a while (I'll refrain from sniffing again, but you get the point), but here she is.  Nieces are the best.

Good job, Amy!  You keep making gorgeous kids.

And I just got a call from my real estate agent & we have a showing from 9-10 tomorrow, so I'd better get tidying.  I have lots more news on the move and the house we think we're buying, etc etc  . . .  but you're gonna have to wait.  I know; you're on pins and needles.  You hang on every word I write, yes?  And by "you," I mean my mom. :-)

Over and out, at least for today.

Voila! The House

So we're up and running.  House on the market this very day. Click here for the online tour.

I know only 11 people read this blog, but if any of you want to live here, it's for sale! Tell your friends! 

And, yeah, I forgot to move the ironing board from behind the armoire in the bedroom.  And the green walls look even greener, esp in Wyatt's room and the bathroom.  But overall I think the tour looks really nice (thanks Merilee and the Obeo lady who came and took pictures!).  At least there's not a vaguely stunned looking 4 year old Middle Eastern child laying in the middle of the room with his legs in the air, as I just saw in a picture from a house in MN I was looking at online.

Seriously.  No children in the photos, oh ye who want to sell a house.  Or cereal bowls with milk in them.  Or turned over chairs in the middle of the kitchen.  (Saw all those things.)  So I suppose a glimpse of an ironing board isn't gonna kill me.

But I might have to repaint the bathroom and Wyatt's bedroom.  Or not.

Whew.

The Past Two Weeks, In Summary

1.  I cleaned by hind end off.  Literally.  Lost it somewhere in the bags of junk I hauled out of the basement.

2.  Stayed home while Forrest ran Ragnar with his awesome team.  His group consisted of a bunch of Iron Men, a former BYU Quarterback, my favorite almost-not-a-Western-Region-Sales-Manager-anymore, and a half dozen women who DO NOT THREATEN ME. :-)  See for yourself:

They came in 16th out of 659 coed teams.  Pretty darn impressive!  And then Forrest came home and cleaned and cleaned and cleaned right along w/ me.  Who knew so much messiness lurks inside these four walls?  Seriously, though, once you start looking at your light switches, they're ALL SMUDGED.  All of them.

Entropy!

3.  Got the house all tricked out for our photo tour.  Once it's up I'll have to post a link to the listing so you can see my house more gloriously cleansed than it has ever been in, lo, its 4 years of existence.

And why don't I have a link to my photo tour, you ask?  Because we STILL HAVEN'T GOTTEN THE APPRAISALS BACK.  We were told we'd get them back by Friday (definitely!), but of course, no dice.  So I got an email this morning saying that they'd received them, but needed to "review them" before they could call us and give us the number.  So, you know, I'm blogging while I wait.  It is now 12:29, so 1:29 in Relo Company Land.  How long does it take to review an appraisal?  How should I interpret this?  For those of you not in the know: the relo company will buy our house if it doesn't sell in the next two months, but they will buy it for the averaged price of two appraisals, and in this market, all the distressed properties are really bringing me down!  Also, we can only list our house for a certain percentage above the appraised price. Once we get the number we know what we can list our house for.  And once we know the number, we know if I need to have terrible-housing-market-induced panic attacks for the next two months if our house doesn't sell and we need to take the relo offer.  So, c'mon appraisal!  I have enough to worry about.

Seriously.  Call me.**

4.  Finished and submitted my final grades for the final creative writing class I'll teach at the BYU SL Center.  Man, I'm going to miss that job.  It was a privilege.  Perfect job for me.  Ah, well.

5.  Attended the Segullah staff retreat and writers' conference.  Had a blast.  Talked and talked and talked and cried and laughed my head off and learned and grew and felt really, really grateful that I get to be a part of such a fabulous community.  So, yes, we did stay up WAAAAYYY to late on Friday night, which I knew was going to happen, because with so many interesting people to talk to, who wants to go to sleep?  I got about 4 hours, but some folks (you know who you are) got NONE.  Then we put on our first ever community writing conference on Saturday.  Over sixty attendees, awesome sessions, great food, good times.  Puts the AML conferences to shame.  Our posters alone--pure gorgeousness!  Little gourmet cupcakes with lunch.  Handouts with information from each session given to each attendee in a lovely folder with a colorful Segullah sticker on the front, complete with notebook and pen.  Not to mention the intelligence and passion of the presenters and all the great learning that occurred. That's what happens when you have a few dozen committed, creative, take charge women.  (At our staff retreat we asked how many of us were oldest kids, and I swear 70% of the hands went up.  Hilarious.)  Anyway, I loved it.  Only drawback was the A/C being on the fritz (thought I might pass out while I taught my session), but everything else went super-smooth.  So thanks, my friends!

5.  Came home late Saturday night.  Dragged my sorry, tired behind out of bed and went to church.  Came home and crashed, sleeping like a rock for 3 1/2 hours before heading to my mom's for dinner (thanks mom!).  Then (sigh) could NOT fall asleep.  Tossed and turned.  That's what happens when one takes a 3 1/2 hour nap, even if one only got 4 hours of sleep the night before.

6.  Looked at houses online. Prepped for our house hunting trip.  Both stressed and excited, about all of it.  Let's see what July brings us!

**Appraisals in.  We're going to be okay.  Not the best best BEST appraisal we could have received, but good good GOOD enough that we're not faced with the prospect of coming up with $20,000 to cover our behinds.  So I'm truly grateful and relieved.  Now I just have to get in house-showing mode, which means get the house clean by 10 a.m. then LEAVE for the day!

Why I Haven't Posted in a While

Mainly because it's been a whirwindy couple of weeks:  Forrest received a job offer, we thought and prayed and talked and cried and worried and finally found a measure of peace and assurance, and then decided to accept it.  This means that Fuller is going to be moving us back to the Land of 10,000 Lakes sometime in mid-August, and that we've all been spending the last few days frantically readying our house to put on the market and dealing with all the conflicting emotions that such a life change brings about. 

So, in a nutshell: yes, we feel strongly this is the right thing to do, but it's still going to be challenging for lots of reasons, and we're going to miss so many things about Utah that it makes my stomach hurt just thinking about it, so I try not to.  And yes, there's a lot to look forward to in MN--we did really love it there--and this move will allow Forrest some new opportunities for growth, and we have faith that it will allow the rest of us new opportunities for growth as well.  The kids are doing quite well with the news, all things considered.  

And me?  I alternate between panicked and peaceful, at least a dozen times a day.  Stay tuned.

We love all of you.

Whassup

First:  The picture above and the picture below are a couple of shots I took in our back yard on May 24th.  Yes--MAY 24th!  I wanted to post them for posterity, just in case we forget that it can snow like gangbusters in Utah a few days before Memorial Day.

Today it's officially beautiful outside, blue sky and seventies.  Isn't weather weird?

And speaking of Memorial Day, I figured I'd give a general update of the members of the fam, illustrated by photos taken during a Memorial Day baseball game at the park by Grandma and Grandpa's house.  (And a few other pictures thrown in for good measure, too.  I know you all like my pictures.  Yes?)

So here we go. Kids first.  How about Jonas first?  He  never gets to go first!

Jonas:

First big piece of Jonas news:  He got glasses!  They just arrived today, and he's been excited.  Who'd have thought that a child of mine--me, the girl who hid in the equipment closet in 6th grade rather than get her eyes tested in order to avoid the dreaded "studious look"--would be so thrilled about nearsightedness!  He looks handsome, though, don't you think?  A few weeks back, he mentioned that he couldn't read some captions on television, and I thought, "Uh oh!"  And, yep, his vision was 20/100.  But now he can see the leaves on the trees!  So exciting.  And maybe he'll get even awesomer (yes, I'm saying that's a word) at baseball.

(Jonas going for the catch at our family baseball game on Memorial Day).

And speaking of baseball, his team has had a rough season.  Only one win, and that was when we were in St. George.  But Jonas has been able to play some fun positions--shortstop and second base--and, as his father is wont to say, he "has learned a lot from the experience."  His soccer team, alas, has only won one game, too . . . so, yes, this has been the season of learning a lot.  Jonas almost always has a good attitude about it, though.  And he's a kickin' goalie.

Elise

 (Now that's the face of a girl who's dead serious about getting a hit.)

Elise has had a fun couple of weeks.  She got to go to SPACE CAMP, a really cool activity for 6th graders.  She applied to be the ambassador and was so excited to get that job.  (I'm not really sure what an ambassador does--it had something to do with negotiating with aliens--but it was one of the "important" jobs, I've been told, so she was pretty psyched.)  I hear she did a great job and avoided most alien-related catastrophes.

The other cool event in Elise's life is her new calling as first counselor in the Beehive presidency.  Elise has really loved Young Womens, and I know she'll do a great job in her new calling.  Oh, and she got tickets to the Justin Bieber concert that's coming to SLC (screeeeeeeeeeaaaaammm!)  Her first real concert.  I know I say this a lot, but it IS hard to believe how fast she's growing, both inside and out.

Wyatt

The Wy-man had a big milestone event last week, too.  First trip to the dentist!

(Isn't it nice to have a handy cell-phone camera for shots such as this?)

He was pretty happy about the whole thing until the nice lady started cleaning his teeth and using the sucky thing to get all the spit, and I felt bad as the poor guy looked up at me with panic in his eyes and mumbled (cause who can talk with a sucky thing in your mouth), "Mom!  What IS this?"  The dentist gave him a clean bill of dental health, and he was pretty eager to hop out of that chair and go pick a prize from the prize basket for his trouble.

He also plays a pretty mean game of baseball, too:

Ethan

(He was batting left-handed against the girls, for fairness' sake.  So hard to be so manly.)

Ethan had a really big day today.  Last day of 8th grade!  (Okay, well, tomorrow is officially the last day, but apparently "no one" is going.)  I'm happy to say that Ethan's finishing up his 8th grade year with a 4.0--which is all the more impressive considering he's done homework like, I don't know, four times?  Either South Jordan Middle School is way too easy, or Ethan is a super speed demon student.  Eh, it's probably a combination of the two.  But he's had a great year and I'm proud of him.  He's also getting his Life Scout on Sunday (the last step before his Eagle).  Good kid?  Yes, good kid.

He also just wrapped up his flag football season and had a great time.  I love how laid back and fun flag football is--none of the crazy competitive stuff that gives me a stomach ache.  Ethan got to play quarterback a few times, and he had a number of killer interceptions.  Fun all around.

Forrest

(Forrest & Wyatt, ready to run to second base.)

Over the last few weeks, Forrest has been blessedly home.  The fact that he had a few weeks without traveling was a lifesaver for me while I was in the throes of my ridiculous pneumonia, and his help around the house was invaluable.  He's back on the road again this week, though, and has been super busy w/ work, even when he HAS been home.  It's a hard job, keeping all of us clothed and fed and adorned with glasses and braces and whatnot.  He works his tushie off, and I'm grateful.  (Figuratively.  If he literally worked his tushie off, that would be cause for great distress, obviously.)

In the midst of work-work-working and helping me take care of the house and kids while my immune system limped along, he also did a 20 mile trail race up in the mountains at Camp Williams last weekend.  No pictures of this one since he did it all on his own (there's not really a good place to see him on the trail, and the dang thing started at 6 a.m.)  For the first time in a long time, he was wicked sore the day after.  Usually he's like Megatron  (or as I would assume Megatron would be) and runs miles and miles with nary a physical complaint.  But he felt this one.  He's all set to to Ragnar (a 170-mile team relay race from Logan to Park City) in a couple of weeks, and his team, which includes a former BYU quarterback (who I forget his name) is going to be awesome.  Forrest is one of the weaker runners on the team--and he won't mind me saying that, readily admits it himself--so I'm sure it will be fun to run with so many great athletes.

Moi


I'm finally, FINALLY, feeling better, but I'm still not 100%.  Still have the occasional coughing fit, especially when I laugh, and still can't sing.  I've been surprised how much I've missed singing.  I do most of my singing in the car, of course, but come to find out that I sing in the car A LOT, and when I can't, well, it bums me out.  I suppose I have been able to better approach the gravelly sultriness of Adele, whose song "Hometown Glory" never fails to make my heart jump with happiness every time it comes up on my CD mix.  (Heck, here's a video, just so you can listen to it and agree with me. And since there aren't any pictures of me playing baseball, nor will there ever be.)



Along with mom-stuff, I've been busy teaching my Tues/Thurs class.  Only four students, but they're all great.  Really, it's such a privilege to teach creative writing, especially in a smaller classroom setting like this.  You do get to know each other in a really meaningful way--something that I doubt can happen in a biology or statistics class.  And teaching creative writing has also made it starkly clear how hard life is for so many people.  For all of us, really.  People start telling their stories, and time and time again I'm reminded of the power and sadness and triumph and goodness of individual lives.

I've also been having fun with my Webelos boys.  They're a good group and I truly do like our activities (surprise surprise?), and while doing Webelos doesn't exactly remind me of the power and sadness and triumph and goodness of individual lives, it IS a lot better than I thought it would be.  Mostly cause the kids are so goofy and cute.  What I don't like is all the paperwork and headache-inducing tracking in order to make sure the boys get their rank advancements.  Five boys got their Arrows of Light in May, though, and while I'll miss them, it is a relief to have all that work done and to have the den down to a more manageable size.

I've also been doing a lot of reading.  I read Brady Udall's The Lonely Polygamist so I could interview him for the upcoming issue of Irreantum.  It's quite a novel--not for everybody, though, content-wise, so don't say I didn't tell you.  I interviewed him via email and I think it went well.  It will be published in my co-editor, Jack Harrell's, upcoming issue, which is cool.  I also finished an advance copy of my friend Ally Condie's new YA novel, Matched, which is going to be HUGE, and loved that as well.  (I'm interviewing Ally for my Fall/Winter issue of Irreantum, and reading Matched during the St. George vacation gave me much solace as I coughed my guts out.)  I also read Jack Harrell's (my aforementioned co-editor) new collection of short stories, soon to be published by Signature, and it knocked my socks clean off.  They asked me to give a back of the cover blurb . . . and why is it that writing a back of the cover blurb can be harder than writing a full on review?  But I finally got one finished, and look forward to seeing Jack's book blow the collective socks off of the dozens and dozens of people who read Mormon literary fiction.  (Really, I hope it gets as wide a readership as is humanly possible for a literary short story collection for a Mormon audience, because it's excellent.)  Add to that a few books for fun--both audiobooks and regularbooks--and I've enjoyed some really great reads lately.

And, finally, the Irreantum fiction and essay contests' submission windows have just closed, and we've had our biggest response yet.  Over 90 fiction pieces, over 40 essays.  Although I know that means a ton of reading ahead of me, there's a strange little literary demon inside me that gets truly excited when all the submissions come pouring in.  I guess it makes me feel like I'm doing all this work for something; that there are people out there who are writing the kind of stuff Irreantum publishes, and these people really really really want to get published, and Irreantum is one of the only places where it can happen.  So it makes me glad.

Oh!  And the Segullah Writers Conference is coming up too!  I've been helping out w/ publicity on the conference and it's been stressing me out some.  I'm not sure we're publicizing it like we should be, but I suppose there's only so much we can do.  I hope people come.  Come!  If you live here and you want to come, COME!  It's going to be awesome.

And Oh again!  An essay of mine was published in Segullah's most recent anthology, Dance With Them.   It's a companion anthology to The Mother in Me and focuses on parenting school age and teenage children.  I haven't seen it yet, but the book is on its way and I'm looking forward to reading all the other essays in the collection. 

And that's about it from here.  Quite enough from me, I'm sure.  Now I gotta go clean up the corn dogs I've left moldering on the counter after our highly nutritious dinner.   Corn dogs and bananas.  Mmmm . . . makes your mouth water, doesn't it?