This is SO Awesome!

Brooke has been VERY concerned about her BIG BIRTHDAY #6 this year.
It is a unicorn and pony theme, of course.
She picked out her perfect pony idea from off the internet – which we duplicated – and it was quite involved – we cut out a template, got pink cake spray to spray over the template and the decorate over it.

Some recent conversations about this process

“Mom that paper your drawing on has two lines. (I was eyeballing an enlargement of a coloring book picture and had to do it in two steps)

" It just doesn’t look very good. "

ME: “We are just going to spray the part we cut out, no one will see it. I am putting this piece of paper over the cake to spray (as I show her).

Brooke says dubiously, “I don’t think anyone will want to eat paper, “

Me, “No one will eat paper, we spray where the hole is.”

Brooke: Do you stay in the lines when you color?”

“Yes”

“Well, Mandy and Evie’s mom doesn’t.”

As I am cutting the template out, “Are you a good cutter?”

Me, “I would hope so, I have had 31 years to get it right.”

“I am too,”



(As I am taping parts of the template that need reinforcing) “Why are you taping that?”

“So this will be sturdy.”

“Sturdy? That wouldn’t be very good.”

Me: “I said STURDY not DIRTY.”

Brooke with a nervous giggle, “Oh, sometimes I don’t know what I’m talking about.”

It was Brooke’s turn for family prayers, “ Thank you that we can make my cake tomorrow”

“Thank you that we can spray the cake pink,”

“Thank you that I can help my mom do the cake tomorrow.”

So as we made and frosted the pony masterpiece today she said at least 9 times like a 13 year old, "This is SO awesome!"

Building a house - pics

Here it is. I finally got myself organized enough to compile and combine my pictures to post on the progress of our house.

We are finally LETTING ourselves get excited. We were always EXCITED* (with an asterisk) because of the uncertainty of selling our other house, the impact and uncertainty of the bankruptcy of our builder, the craziness of the housing market and economy, living with Brian's parents for 6 months.

So even though most of the time it still seems like some far away idea since we don't get to see it much (70 minutes away) the pictures prove to us that it is actually a reality. I will post some inside ones soon.

You know this economy is tight when...

When ARIANNA HUFFINGTON buys your "cheapest price" book listed on amazon.

What book did she buy? A book on Godesses of all things.

I went to the post office today and the mail clerk Bob looked at the address and name and said, "Mailing to the rich and famous are we?"

I even checked out her profile on amazon - "just launched."
I guess thats what you have to resort to when your rich and famous on a financial diet.

So who is she exactly, my cute husband asks?

Here is Wikipedia's answer:

Arianna Huffington (born Arianna Stassinopoulos, 15 July 1950) is an American author and syndicated columnist. She is perhaps best known as founder of The Huffington Post.
In 2003 she ran as an independent candidate in the California recall election.

Godess books indeed!!

LAUNCHING OF NEW BLOG

So I am launching a blog based on being fit, trim, healthy, beautiful, etc - focused on moms. It will be based on the exercises and techniques and tips I teach with supreme emphasis on moms.

I will also address questions I get asked by the women I teach, coach and train.

It will address questions on posture, pelvic floor, nutrition, back aches, myths, books, exercises specific for moms. We have to take care of ourselves so we have the strength to keep giving to others.

The blog address is listed on my blog and called

BEAUTIFUL AFTER THE BELLY

http://www.beautifulafterthebelly.blogspot.com/

My sister has encouraged me to do this for awhile because I eat breathe and drink this stuff, as well as teach and train 4 times a week. I am a certified Personal Trainer, certified Maternal Fitness trainer, and am A.M.A. accredited in Nutrition.

So it is my passion and I will love to explore all sorts of topics and discussions.

I would love for you to follow along and post your comments along the way!
(Lets hope it goes better than my one-post "Lost" blog, which no one as far as I know ever visited.)

Babies Battle Bumblingly over Box

Kylie and her cousin Kaiya (Tami and Kevin's daughter) are destined to be great friends. But whose to say great friends can't have a bit of competition now and then.....

WE WON A TRIP...BUT....

What a time to win a free trip through Funjet Vacations on the radio to Puerto Vallarta Mexico!!

All expense paid, air travel, meals, hotel, etc.....BUT

since we are scrimping and saving for our downpayment, we can't afford the $197 per person taxes and surcharges to go.

So sadness.

We won a trip to Cancun on the same radio station 3 years ago from the same radio station. I am starting to wonder if I am the only one who enters these things. I go online to http://www.wlsam.com/ and enter all their contests. It is the only way we get to go to concerts and vacations and stuff since our budget is tight.

So alas, Puerto Vallarta, another year perhaps!

Presenting Kylie's Top Ten

Kyli is now 8 1/ 2 months. I FINALLY have done the whole picture editing and flash drive to the laptop thing to get these up.

She has some definite quirks that we find adorable.

Top 10 QUIRKS that we love:

10) She crawls straight for the fireplace and chows down when really sneaky, on the ashes and wood chips. We find her mouth, lips and teeth BLACK frequently when the SAFETY pillows blocking her way are removed.

9) She can babble, but chooses instead to sound like a dog in heat, or an injured defensive raccoon….we can’t decide which is more accurate. It resembles a growling grunting sound, that if it came out of another species, would frighten the living daylights out of any human.

8)Kyli is BELOW the charts on weight, since she has been crawling, so we are on "PLAN 21" – the goal to triple the birthweight (7 lbs) before she turns 1. She has been loving the generous helpings of baby appropriate food we put in front of her as finger food.

7) When she crawls, she goes pretty fast. However, if you tell her to go find “Grandma or Grandpa” she gets a burst and crawls at her baby lightening speed to go find them.

6) Kylie is a full fledged stalker, as her Grandpa calls her. She will follow the person of her choice for up to 30 minutes. She is like a faithful little puppy who wouldn’t dream of being parted from her master.

5) She has other puppy-like traits. She will put a shirt of toy in her mouth, and crawl quickly in the direction of the person she is stalking. Its like she is playing a one sided game of “catch.” We love this about her and think it is crazy and adorable. Oddly enough, her sister Brooke did the same thing.

4) Kylie sounds just like the "AFLAC duck" in the commercials. It sounds like “Heh-heh-heh-heh-heh-heh-heh” but in a quacking tone and timbre. Brian’s mom thinks we would make a fortune if we would get her dressed up cute and submit this into AFLAC as a marketing campaign.

3) Kylie is extremely flirtatious and laugh and smiles and flutters her big long black eyelashes and everyone with whom she wants attention. We are in trouble in about 12 years…

2)Kylie’s favorite toy, oddly, is a set of kids binoculars that fold up into a circle and are bright yellow with a bee on them. There is a long string around them which can be worn as a necklace by the child. She loves to carefully study it and analyze it and then suddenly, without warning, SHOVE it into her mouth with great intensity.

1) Kylie HATES her baths. Its almost the only time we see her cry. And she’s always #1 in our book!!

I'm the Cussedest Woman I Know

In honor of the book I just read for book club, that I LOVED ("These is My Words" )I had to start out by saying my new favorite quote, because I feel like I am the only parent in Brooke's kindergarten class that doesn't regularly come, as she informs me a couple of times each week.

So I am feeling the guilt everytime she looks at me with those sad eyes and asks "All the other moms come to my kindergarten class, why don't you come?

In my mind I have had good reasons, but really it comes down to I just have to make time for it.

Now that I am released as Primary President (as of this week) I really do feel like I have a little more time to do stuff like that.

And now that Brian's bowling season is over - cut short at the very end with an AMAZING AWESOME 13-1 season, just to come up short for sectionals and not make it to state - Brian will be home sooner than 8:00 each night and ALL DAY every Saturday.

(Although I DID have to peel him off the couch Saturday from his post sucky sectionals blues, as he was in his depths of despair depression, coupled with the fact that we were stuck watching TWELVE kids for our babysitting co-op and watching some horribly happy "How to Be a Ballerina" show. He showed restraint but let out his frustration while burying his head in a pillow and hitting it now and again.)

So, being the CUSSEDEST (isn't that the BEST word?) woman I know, I will have to make a more valiant effort to be present at the IN place to be - Brooke's kindergarten class!

The WORST VACATION EVER?!?!?!

Well, if you determined the best and worst vacation by how many things go right or wrong, we would be in BIG TROUBLE for this vacation!!!

It started out innocently enough - I left with the kids Sunday Afternoon (to be joined by Brian later) to drive the 3 1/2 hours down to my parents house.

Tyler had a MAJOR and SERIOUS asthma attack the 2nd night there. His immune system was down from being sick, and then he came in contact with lots of DUST and CATS - both of which he is allergic to at my parents house - does not end well. (He has not been treated yet for cats and dust through NAET.) After giving him the albuteral emergency stash for 2 hours straight - burning fever, rapid shallow breathing - at 5 AM I was TOTALLY freaking out. I was told if it was like that to call 911. Finally he improved enough where I was comfortable NOT to have to call them. That DARN CATS - they will never get any love from me!

Tyler's sickness got passed to Brooke, Kylianne, and I. Thoughout the whole house ALL WEEK all you could hear was hacking, barking coughs.

AND my best and only BRA with me - BREAKS! Safety pins are a PAINFULLY sharp replacement.

I had a HORRIBLE eye infection - but STUPID ME - I forgot my back-up glasses. And with a Perscription of -9 (yes, thats right NEGATIVE 9) that is DEBILITATING. I couldn't just not see anything all day, so I kept wearing my contacts - my eye got more and more red, and bloodshot, and weepy so I gave up. By the 3rd day my mom gave me a pair of my dads glasses - they looked really cute I'm sure - but they were just a DROP in the bucket. I could still see nothing. Joking - as an option - I put on my brother's glasses ON TOP of my dads glasses - and it was the perfect perscription. My dad is -5 and my brother is -4.

But then....I had to go everything looking like a mad raving TOTAL lunatic. My dad was doing his annual Christmas vacation cleaning on my teeth and his receptionist walks in and sees me - wearing TWO pairs of glasses, one on top of the other, no makeup because of the eye infection, a RED PUFFY eye, uncoiffed hair (I couldn't really see it to COIF it - I felt like I was seeing life through a fish tank). I could just HEAR her thoughts - " What has HAPPENED to that girl the last year - YIKES?!?!?!?


When we went to go see "Valkerie" I thought to myself that it was awfully cold in the theatre. I wore a winter coat and furry hood the whole movie. I keep the teeth chattering shivering all night - even with EIGHT blankets - until I woke up drenched in sweat and with a NEW PRESENT - a STYE on my eye!!! WHAT IN THE WORLD IS WRONG WITH ME.

So the vision is gone, the well being is gone, and then the VOICE completely disappeared. LARYNGITIS my wintertime friend latched onto me BIGTIME.

No biggy - I just had to go to be at 10 pm New Years.

But then on the way home from my parents (yes we DID forget to say a prayer before we left) Brian noticed something awry. The car was making weird noises. Luckily we were right by an exit - a good 2 3/4 hours into the trip. We made it onto the offramp BARELY before our TIRE BLEW. IT WAS VERY DARK ...and...Well - we had no flashlight so Brian used his cell phone for a light. My cell phone was dead because I refuse to take my cell phone charger our of the charging station at home. Well, he got the jack on the car, and took the tire off, and then....

THE JACK COLLASPED. There was this FREAKY CRUNCHING and LURCHING noise, and then the minivan shifted its weight in an eery way. My first thought was that it crushed Brian. I rushed out of the minivan in the blustery cold night and found Brian throwing out Mormon curse words (FETCH) - PHEW he was not crushed and he was alive. The minivan did fall on his cell phone and CRUSHED it, so we could not call a tow truck or the police. And of course no one stopped.

So Brian ran to a gas station as we sat in a freakishly lopsided car right next to a huge ravine. We said lots of prayers - especially for what seemed like would be an expensive axle repair with no way to get home before Monday.

It seemed like forever before Brian came back. He said we needed to get out of the car right away. We ran with the kids all the way down the off ramp into the city and into a McDonalds gas station. They had refused to let Brian used the phone even after explaining the situation but a GOOD SAMARITAN eating there let him use the phone. The kids cried as we ran in the dark, windy, cold night, but we got there as Brian raced back to the car to meet the tow truck. Brian's dad was also on his way to come get us.

The kids, especially Kylie, were hungry. We bunkered down in a handicap stall while I pumped to get some milk for Kylie, as here crying filled the bathroom. She has been in here carseat for 9 hours straight by that point - and she was NO HAPPY camper.

LUCKILY our prayer for the axle worked - it was fine. Brian and the tower got the donut on the car and Brians dad followed him in the van.

Its a good thing we didn't stay for one more day (LOVE YA MOM AND DAD) because who know what the HECK else would have happened!?!

Welcome 2009!

Well, it has been an interesting year. We had a great Christmas.

Brian and I did our "12 days of Christmas" for each other again. We just gave each other random stocking stuffer type of things. Brian got me the CD of Twilight which I LOVE. I got him the "Perfect Push-Up" things. I love them. Brian thinks we need to revamp the format for next year and have the items in a stocking and the other person can pick which one. Whereas now we just give each other whatever we want anytime during the day.

We went to our annual "Do it Yourself Messiah" at the Civic Opera House in Chicago. Its a volunteer orchestra and paid conductor, concertmaster, and soloists. It is so fun. Everyone sits in sections when they come in - Sop, Alto, Tenor, and Bass. I sat in the Sop/alto section and just happened to be in an area with no other sops which made things more challenging. We went with my sister Tami and her husband Kevin.

We are vacationing here at my parents house where somehow everyone in the family is suddenly sick. Its the worst to be SICK during vacation. After taking IBProfen I have been taking advantage of watching the "Wasted Spaces" marathon on DIY Network while Brian has been reading "New Moon." He was not looking forward, in his words, of reading about how much Bella misses Edward so when he saw those BLANK PAGES he was relieved.

We did our annual gingerbread houses last night with my parents, my brother Brent, and our kids. At Brooke's request we made a HORSE STABLE out of graham crackers and candy. At Tyler's request, Brian and he made a train and tracks out of graham crackers and candy. My dad got ambitious and did the Saint Louis Arch with wire, foil, graham crackers and candy.

We all as a family decided NOT to go bowling here in the small-town bowling alley, which Brian claims is the worst lanes he has ever seen. There was also bottles and cans of beer in every nook, cranny and counterspace, and a fresh crew of motorcycle Harley Davidson Posse looking to shake things up. So as much as we loved that atmosphere, we decided to leave and went to the theatre and saw Valkerie. Very interesting story.

Welcome in 2009!

OUR BUILDER GOES BANKRUPT

So, our house got this far and we get a fun call from our builders saying that they got word that morning they are going under.

They wanted to let us know before we heard it on the news and read it in the paper.

Kimball Hill Homes is pretty big in Chicago with Communites all over the burbs.

They assured us that they will still build our home since they ground has broken. Any contracts with UNBROKEN ground will not get a house. They are delivering our home 5 months pretty much from today - so we made their 6 month delivery projection.

However, there are still question marks - they have like 11 disclaimers - in the event that they can't get time from their creditors, their builders don't walk out early, their staff stays in tact, they prices negotiated on building materials, and the manufacturing companies they have contracts with don't fall through...then it will get done.

So - everything we do seems like one big leap of faith after another. Will we sell our house in this HORRIFIC housing marker? (we got REALLY lucky) Will we have enough for a downpayment ?(by the skin of our teeth we think) Will the house get done as projected? It looks like now - its a yes - keep your fingers crossed for us!

So long term - we will have LOTS of empty lots near our house, including right next door and across the street.

Kimball Hill Homes is waiting for someone to buy them out, or to buy their assets. I guess we will hold on to our seats for this roller coaster ride which is our lives! The trick is, as P. Hinckley would say, to enjoy the ride.

6 months ALREADY!!!!!

Kylianne Angel, very properly named, just turned 6 MONTHS. It feels like it should be 6 WEEKS, though. It has gone, of course, too fast already.

She is the only of our children that looks like one of her parents, in my opinion. She is the spitting image of Brian's baby pics.

She has BEAUTIFUL eyes and LONG LUSCIOUS eyelashes. (I am always glad when girls can inhereit an eyelash advantage).

She sleeps from 9:30 P.M. to 7 A.M. at night. I take it for granted sometimes, but I am LOVING this!

She is extremely good natured with all the pokings, prodings, teasings, hoverings, emotional smotherings she gets from her two other siblings. She takes it in stride and pretty much basks in the attention.

She really shows impatience if we take too long to feed her the oatmeal, greenbeans, rice, or milk. She squeals as if to say, "CHOP CHOP and get that spoon in my MOUTH!"

She is not sitting, doesn't seem interested. She does crawl. She is not superfast, but she can get across the room in about 7 minutes. Less if there is something dangerously intriguing lurking a few feet away.

We managed to break her of her finger-sucking habit, which I was worried about. We switched her over to a pacifier, which is more familiar territory for me.

She still nurses, but I pump for 5/6 of her feeding and give it to her with a bottle. Its MUCH fast for both of us, AND she likes to look around. I would much rather her look around with a BOTTLE than totally EXPOSE me in front of people!

She laughs and coos at everything we say or do.

She is extremely ticklish and loves to be tickled and lifted in the air. I do upward push ups with her for strength training. She loves it, and seeing her face is MUCH more rewarding than looking at the floor.

Tyler calls her "COWEE", Brooke calls her "Keeli" , I call her "Kyli" normally and "Kylianne" in those rare moments when she is crying, Brian calls her "Kyli" Grandpa calls her "Boo Boo."

WE feel so lucky that such a cute little soul is part of our family!

Potty Training Fiascoes

Ok, not really FIASCOES per se,
more like...things that make me laugh.

Tyler first of all has been doing awesome - and he SHOULD as I have waited so darn LONG to potty train the kid. He is 3+ - and my motivation is that he has to start preschool soon.

So, after he has some urinating vicotories, he goes to the kitchen to find Grandma Wayne (we are living with Brian's parents currently).

"Look, Grandma, its ORANGE" he ventured as he showed her his anatomy.

He pauses for a minute and adds matter of factly as he looks at his anatomy closer, "Its SMALL!!!"

Grandma and I just chuckled about the cute observations of a "potty-goer in training."

Hopefully he will keep these verbal comparison observations to a very, VERY small elite group of kin (as I share it with the blogosphere.)

FACE BOOK FAUX PAUS!

OK - so I consider myself fairly computer savvy - so how could this happen???? First of all, upon joining face book, I accidentally invited my whole address book like 4 times.

But that is not the embarrassing part…

Included in my contacts were:

Harrison Powley - my BYU 304 semi-crusty Music History teacher (probably in his mid 60s). - That probably looks REALLY bad…. (not to mention I graduated 6 years ago!)

A really creepy guy named Vic who was one of my business contacts 4 years ago. I REALLY don’t want to give any impression of RECONNECTING - YIKES!

The T.A. from my music history class from BYU- I probably have only talked with her in person about 3 times...about assignments no less. She must think I am REALLY desperate for friends!! HELLLOOOO!!!

Good Things Utah (the TV show about 1400 miles from me)

Somebody I met on a Baby Center Bulletin about 6 years ago - somehow she ended up on my contact list and I never deleted her. I probably exchanged online comments with her 3 times about diapers or something. She must ALSO think I am very hard pressed for FRIENDS! (because I am PRETTY DARN sure I made a such a big impression on her that she put me in HER contact list!)

The former Primary Chorister from my parents ward in Jacksonville, IL that no longer lives there. I probably have only talked with her about 2 times. I really have NO idea why she is on my CONTACT list…but she is probably confused as to why I invited her to face book… maybe she'll give me a highly anticipated PITY reply.

My current MORTAGE LENDER named Carol is on my CONTACT list and was invited to be friends with me 4 times on fact book. WHOOPS! I mean, she is nice and all….but I didn’t want to send her a FACEBOOK invite! Can you see how DESPERATE this might seem if you didn’t know??????

The REALTOR that we had for 4 weeks and CANCELLED our contract with because she wasn’t getting the job done got no less than FOUR INVITATIONS from me to be a friend on face book.

Some girl named Jessica that is a RECEPTIONIST at a Storage Unit Facility that we decided NOT to go with ALSO got FOUR INVITATIONS to be friends with me on my face book page - I mean REALLY!!!!

And LAST but not least, the JEWLER that we bought our wedding ring from in PROVO named Renee (male) also received the FOUR HIGHLY SOUGHT AFTER INVITATIONS from me to be a friend on face book.

If ANY of these people said YES - I think I will just DIE OF HUMILIATION!!!!!

FROM THE MOUTH OF MY BABES

Tyler: Mom, I’m a smart guy. (couldn’t say it any better myself.)
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Tyler: Every day, coming out of his nap, he opens the door, hold our both hands and puts his legs in a wide stance and proclaims, “I’M AWAKE!!!!!”
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Tyler: Approaches mom while table is being set for dinner and starts crying, “What’s wrong?” says mom. “I’M HUNGRY!” (HELLLLOOOOOO! - this happens almost every single night)
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Tyler: says to mom while his sister is at school., “Where’s my Brookie?”
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Tyler: (the following happens every night) Hearing Kylianne cry at night, I come to check on her and hear Tyler tell me, “Mom, Kyli want the TOYS!” I look in the crib at the CRYING Kylianne, and see FOUR (sometimes more) different animals on her chest.
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Tyler: Today as Kyli woke from her nap I came in to find Tyler’s very special blanket that he puts over his face at night (weird I know) alarmingly on top of Kyli’s face during her nap. Tyler had heard her crying and gave her his most prized possession in just the way HE likes it. So while it was an adorable gesture, it was also not a very safe gesture. Note to self: Handle this one carefully.


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Brooke: (referencing her teacher) “Mrs Worman is SO BEAUTIFUL?

“What makes you say that?”

Thinks for a minute, and says matter of factly, “Mmm, because she has nice clothes.”

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Brooke: Commenting while the school bus is pulling away and a little girl is waving goodbye at her, Brooke says happily, “ I sat by Grace today. She is my BEST FRIEND.”

Knowing she has a cousin in the same grade on the same bus at the very least I say, “How many best friends do you HAVE?"

Matter of Factly Brooke says, “Mmmm, about 20.”

TIRED OF FEELING POOR!!

VENT:
Sometimes I feel like we are the only ones,

but sometimes I feel SO POOR!!!

We are as middle class as they come, so why is it we have no extra money?

I feel totally strapped for money sometimes, but we are not the what the world would see as needy.

Case and point: After being thrashed by the extremely low price sale of our current house, we have to live with our beloved in laws for 6 months (bless their hearts) to save enough money for a downpayment on the house we are building. We are required to leave our washer and dryer in our current house, which means we will have NADA in our new house. Since every spare cent will go towards downpayment we will not have money to buy a washer and dryer. *SIGH OF STRESS* (Also , we are still college STUDENTS believe it or not. Brian is getting a 2nd Masters right now to work toward education administration).

A new family in our ward have a spare washer and dryer and offered them to anyone in the ward that needs it. It was seriously an answer to a prayer.

However, she tells us, " I was expecting to give it to a needier family."

We were a little stunned - at this point we cant even afford to go on a real date. Our date night was going on a walk last night for 1 1/2 hours. So this comment smarted a little.

What constitutes "needy" anyway? Do we HAVE to live in the ghetto to qualify????? SHEESH!

SAYING GOODBYE!!!

So – the deal is done. Our house is sold. It did not happen the way we expected…at all.

If someone had told me during the first 4 weeks our house was on the market without any showings that we would have 11 showings in 1 week, I would have thought it IMPOSSIBLE!

We thought me met the buyers for our house at park – the couple we called “the miracle couple.” I still think they are, but not because they are the ones that bought our house.

We were offered 7K below our asking price by a (totally different)“dream couple” according to our realtor. They are Iraq war vets (we found out later) and had their financing all ready and wanted an immediate move in date because their last deal fell through on the sellor’s fault. Which means of course, there was no contingency. We did not want them to by the house we wanted our miracle couple to by the house.

So we played hardball and informed our realtor “NOPE, we are not taking anything less than full asking price. It is what it is – we just can’t, financially.”

Our realtor laughs nervously and approaches the reply with, “ I REALLY don’t think that’s your best strategy.”

Since we didn’t care if they bought it or not, our replay again was, “It is what it is.”

Little did we know he would call back in no less than 20 minutes to say they accepted the bid…IF we cleaned the gutters, left the washer and dryer, trimmed a gigantic tree limb, and fixed a portion of the roof professionally.

WHATEVER!! Well, we did concede on the first two, but again, we didn’t care if they bought our house because we really wanted that other couple to buy the house. We said absolutely not on the other two. We were actually trying to unhinge them to back off. Well, again in 20 minutes they accepted the offer.

Well, we had this perfectly good offer, albeit the VERY HIGH realtor’s commission, or we had this cuter than cute couple that we found at the park who were waiting to hear if she got a job to make their decision final, even though their financing was totally in order without it. They wanted to cover their bases.

So what else could we do? We gave the “park miracle couple” until 10 AM the next morning to tell us one way or the other. They sent a cute email saying they couldn’t decide that quickly and wished us the best of luck. Here is part of the miracle - If it had not been for them, we would NEVER have had the nerve to ask for full price, or to negotiate NOT doing a couple of pricey things to the house.

So that is that – we move out of here QUICK. November 8^th – for a closing date of November 15^th. The house we are building hasn’t even broken ground yet. But that is JUST fine because we will be essentially broke after selling this cute house of ours (because of the horrible housing market.) Brian’s parents have graciously offered to let us live there and save some money.

Still I see the miracle in it all – In a buyers market we sold the house in 1 ½ months – and out of the house 2 weeks later. That is 2 months exactly from the date we bought our “house to be built.” AND we got full asking price…before the end of October – no contingency. This was exactly my prayer!!! I am SOOOOO grateful I must say!

TOP 10 realities about selling a house with 3 small kids

1. You learn quickly how far back you have to stuff things under the couch for them not to be seen (in our house – we keep diapers and wipes under the couch for convenience)
2. You learn that with 3 kids you must literally RUN while cleaning the house to get everything done in time – running shoes and exercise outfit a MUST!
3. You browse the Weekly Mortgage Analysis like the Weekly Target Ads
4. You stop making regular dinners because people always want to see the house during dinnertime. Snacks in the car can suffice if they have to.
5. When the kids get home from school, you put their backpack right in the minivan, along with all the other things that don’t exactly have a PLACE for.
6. If you run out of time and realize that the kids bedding is soiled, you spray a bunch of febreeze, grit your teeth, make the bed as is, and vow to change it as soon as you get home.
7. Sweeping outside actually becomes a regular chore
8. If someone makes an appointment and doesn’t show, after all that effort, you begin thinking of very colorful names to call those people.
9. After constantly removing Shampoo and soap from sight in the bathroom for showings, you find yourself bathing frequently with soap and shampoo stashed away in a far off closet – and you grit your teeth and bathe soapless and shampooless….or you have with a very wet floor..
10. If you run out of time to clean and the prospective buyers are on there way, you find that hampers and washers and dryers can hide just about anything.

8

8 TV Shows I love to watch:
Well, these are shows I WATCH, not that I really LOVE all of them. I put them in order of what's on right now. I got through Thursday, I think.

1. Dancing with the Stars
2. The Office
3. Heroes
4. Desperate Housewives (I know, I got hooked)
5. Extreme Home Makeover
6. Brothers and Sisters
7. SNL (only now that they are doing political satire do I think it worthy of being watched. It wasn’t funny before)
8. I will put one I stopped watching – Oprah. It wasn’t doing it for me anymore.

8 Favorite Restaurants:

1. Any Brazillian Grill (if we happen to have hundreds of dollars to burn)
2. Cafe Rio (sniff . . . alas, only on trips to Utah)
3. Red Lobster – Can we say COCONUT SHRIMP?!?
4. Texas Roadhouse – the BEST ribs – YUM!
5. The Melting Pot – REALLY expensive – but 3 straight hours of good eating!
6. Cheesecake Factory (man, salads there are good times)
7. This really good Mexican place in Saint George Utah right up on the side of the mini-mountain. Hermitas? Man that place is good!
8. Emerals restaurant – I would love to go when I am not full.

8 Things That Happened Yesterday:
(not very exciting since it was Sunday, but hey – this is what went down)

1. Cleaned the house like a maniac after church to get ready for two showings
2. Went to Brian’s brother’s house and family with parents to spend the day – keep the kids away from the house while we had the showings.
3. I showed the miracle family (see previous post) the house at 5 – was so nervous I was shaking.
4. We – at my bro in laws - did the Sunday Crossword Puzzle “Dan in Real Life” Style (almost)
5. Practiced the Primary Program with the Primary Kids
6. Took a disappointingly cold bath
7. Watched my Sunday shows while I read the paper
8. Ate some really good white chili soup that my sister in law made

8 Things I'm Looking Forward To:

1. The Day AFTER the Ward Halloween Party the Primary is in charge of.
2. Getting a house contract signed with the miracle family
3. The digging of the foundation of our new house
4. Thanksgiving
5. Twilight the movie to come out
6. Getting negotiations with Julie Tupler finished to an agreement we are happy with.
7. Our cruise to the Bahamas in March or April (going to those time share things DO pay off!)
8. Saving some money as we live with my in-laws.

8 Things On My WishList:

1. A really good Camera
2. Hardwood floors
3. Some good regular shoes to wear this winter
4. Some Chocolate fudge protein bars and Omega 3’s
5. Getting rest of my allergies treated with NAET – I have to wait til next calendar year with insurance
6. A big container of Cashews – HEAVEN!
7. Some REALLY good chocolate
8. Finished Basement

8 People I'm tagging:

1. You
2. you
3. you
4. you
5. you
6. you
7. you
8. you

TOO PERSONAL? WHO CARES?!?!?

READ AT YOUR OWN RISK:

So some people may think this is too personal to share on a blog. Well, if you can’t put what you want to share on a blog, what freedom DO you have?

So I think what happened today was a miracle. Plain and Simple.

Let me say first of all – the housing market SUCKS more than you can ever know unless you have your house up on the market. We have already switched realtor’s after 4 weeks with ZILCH. We have already lowered the price 20K – OUCH!! Now it is lower than we paid – OUCH AGAIN!! So before today – only 1 person had come to look at our house, and the realtor of those people won’t call our realtor for feedback. Like I said – SUCKS!!

The stats are in - for Northern IL you can expect your house to be on the market 10 - 12 months AVERAGE - NO CAN DO!!!!!

So after working my hand and heart to the bones with my calling (can I say that? Oh well) – preparing for the Primary turned Ward Halloween Party, and "doing what we should" type of thing - I felt fully confident that my specific prayer pleading "CONTRACT ON OUR HOUSE BY THE END OF THE MONTH" (seemingly impossible) would be filled. I just had no idea how that heck that would happen.

Do we have a contract – NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But here is what happened:

After taking Kyli for shots, voting early, and doing visiting teaching, I went to the park with the kids. A girl was there with her mom, and her son. She was asking about apartments. I asked, “Are you looking to rent or to buy?” One question led to another and soon we exchanged phone numbers and information.

They have no realtor but were just driving around and after NO LUCK the mom suggested, “Why don’t we go to the park. People always know about stuff at the park.” So there they were waiting for divine intervention, and there was I waiting for the same. She ended the conversation by telling me she thought this was Destiny that she met me. It sounds so HOKEY when I type it. But it was a cool moment.

When do you want to move in? “Nov. 1^st” She says. UM – can we say answer to the “CONTRACT BY THE END OF THE MONTH” Prayer? Can we get ANY CLOSER???

She and her husband are living with her parents while they look for a house – can we say “NO CONTINGENCY!!!”

Can we say – SAVING MONEY WITHOUT GOING THROUGH A REALTOR? Let’s put it this way – we were going to have to PAY out of pocket to leave this place – all our equity – SE VA! NO MORE! - that is if we go through a realtor….after having the price butchered.

So they are coming Sunday. Keep fingers crossed. We may walk out of here with a smidgeon left for part of a teensy weensy down payment on the house we’re building (along with money saved by living at our beloved in-laws…again)

SO DO MIRACLES HAPPEN? UM – to ME after no sign of ANY life in the housing market – and to go to GOLDEN CONTACT – YEAH, they do!!!!!! Even amidst economic turnmoil everywhere you look!