The Importance of Toast

The big program day finally arrived and everything went very well. If you heard a huge sigh of relief, it was probably me. I was so relieved that I’m sure my “phew” could be heard around the world. Our practice last week didn’t give me a lot of confidence, but the kids were excellent. Inevitably there is one child who won’t say their part or get overly excited to be at the microphone and talk as loudly as they can while almost swallowing the microphone, but all of our children said their parts nicely and the whole thing went very smoothly. We did have a slight incident. I was sitting next to the podium so I could help the kids with their parts, Aiden took this as an invitation to come and talk to me whenever the mood hit. If I hadn’t been up there I’m sure he would have been fine but as it was it was a convenient way to not have to stay in his seat. The first time he came up and whispered something I couldn’t understand so I sent him back to his chair. A minute later he came back to tell me something I still couldn’t understand (at least he was being quiet) so I sternly told him to go back to his seat. Now he was crying as he sat back down. I thought it was because I had sent him back to his seat. When he came back a third time I finally understood what he said to me. I asked him what the problem was and he said, “You said you would make me some toast before we came to church and I didn’t get any.” I wanted to shout, "ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?! This is the moment you need to discuss this?" After promising to make him some toast when we got home the rest of the meeting went on without further tragedy. Chris said Dalin was being pretty funny, because he could see me on the stand but he just couldn’t figure out how to get to me. Even in his moments of muckus, that kid can be pretty dang cute.

The Every Day

My everyday has been a little more hectic than usual which is why I haven’t written for a while. That and our primary program that I am in charge of is this Sunday and that is pretty much all I can think about. I think it has scrambled my brain or something because it seems like I cannot complete a thought. A couple of Sundays ago I started walking down the hall at church like three times only to forget what my purpose was. Needless to say I am looking forward to about 10:15 on Sunday morning when it will all be over.

Chris came home from California last Sunday and we are happy to have him here again. He still hasn’t taken his test so he is still in study mode, but it is much better than me being here by myself. He got home a few minutes before the kids and I came home from church, so it was a nice surprise for the kids to walk in and see him. When Dalin saw him he ran towards Chris, so Chris sat down on the floor to give him a hug. Then Dalin stopped and turned like he was going to run away, but instead he backed up so he could sit down on Chris’s lap. It was very cute. Dalin was Chris’s buddy for the rest of the day, which was a good break for me.

We are getting ready for Halloween, and despite my promise to myself that I wouldn’t, I am making costumes again this year. It started because Kaylee wants to be Tinkerbelle, and not only were the costumes like $20, but I couldn’t really find her size. It hasn’t been too bad though, and I’m not making myself nearly as crazy as I have in years past. Ashton is going to be a cowgirl so all I have to do is get a hat and make her a vest. Aiden is going to be Buzz Lightyear and I did buy that costume but we are making a jet pack, and Dalin is going to be Woody, so I just have to find a yellow shirt and make him a vest as well. The party season starts tomorrow though so I have to get everything done tonight. Wish me luck.

I am still fixing up the house to sell, but I am not sure the house I looked at is the one for us. I not in a super hurry any more to get our house on the market, but if that house is still for sell when we are ready then maybe it is meant to be. For now that idea is on the back burner.

To Buy or Not to Buy

Yesterday I was able to see the inside of the house I mentioned in my last post. There is quite a bit of work that needs to be done, but it’s not trashed like some of the bank owned houses I seen. I think it’s doable, but Chris is in San Jose this week and he hasn’t even seen the house, so we won’t be doing anything yet. This house started out at $319,000 in March and now it’s down to $264,900. I think it’s the third time they’ve lowered the price, but my agent said we could probably even offer $15,000 less than that. It would be a good deal for us, but it makes me very worried about selling my house because it’s definitely not a seller’s market. I have tried to do a little project everyday to get the house ready to sell, as a matter of fact I should be doing something right now since Dalin is napping but this is more fun. It is a very daunting task. It’s mostly cosmetic (cleaning, painting, and purging of useless clutter) but it seems like there is so much. Chris has some days off so maybe it will be better when I’m not doing it al myself, but I have to admit some of the excitement is gone. I’ll keep you posted.

In other goings on, Yes Chris is gone for a week again for certification training. It’s easier than the first time he went on one of these trips, but by no means would I ever want to do it by myself all the time. I miss being able to go somewhere by myself. The kids are really good and they are really helping me out.

I have a couple of funny kid stories to tell since it’s been a while. We were in the car the other day and I can’t remember what the question was that Aiden asked, but Ashton was explaining the answer to him and I was helping. When we were done Aiden said, “I understood better when mom said it Ashton, because you were speaking professional, and you know I don’t understand professional.

Dalin has definitely come to the right family because he is muckus personified. I was doing some work in the front yard on Saturday and he was outside with me, doing a really good job of staying in the yard. I was trying to finish up today and I figured he would be alright out there with me. We were only out there a minute when I looked up and he was on his way down the sidewalk. A few minutes later he thought it was a fun game to run into the street and laugh at me when I would get him and tell him no. Needless to say I didn’t get much yard work done today.

Houses

I go through phases where I really want to move and I will spend hours on the internet looking at houses for sale. I am in that phase right now, and I think Chris just puts up with my excitement because nothing usually comes of it, so I am sharing with you people of the World Wide Web. I actually think the internet is a facilitator of my insanity because I can look at hundreds of homes without leaving my room. I guess there are worse obsessions.

There is a house for sale that is in the area we want to live in and in our price range. The kids wouldn’t even have to change schools. Unfortunately for me I start looking at my own home and I get a little overwhelmed by everything we would have to do to get it ready to sell. Not to mention the fact that the housing market has slowed way down so it could take months to even sell our house. The house I want is bank owned, so I have gone to look in the windows, but you never know what could be lurking in there. It looks like someone bought it to fix up but they ran out of money or something because the walls look like they have new paint and the baseboards look new, but there is no flooring. It is twice the size of our current home and it would be wonderful to actually have some space. We could even have a guest room doesn't kick Aiden out of his bed. I called to set up an appointment to see the inside and I am anxiously awaiting the call back.

The funny thing is that it is in the same neighborhood Chris’s parents lived in when they lived here, and it is actually the same floor plan. The even funnier thing is that I think when Chris’s parents moved they offered to let us take over the payments for their house, but for the life of me I just can’t recall we turned them down. Now nine years later we could get the same kind of house for only double the monthly payment. Ahh, life lessons!

Kaylee's brush with celebrity

Last week Marc Brown, the author of the Arthur books and co-producer of the Arthur show on PBS, came to town and Chris was nice enough to take Kaylee and Ashton to see him. Mr. Brown’s sister(the inspiration for the character of D.W.) was there as well. At one point while waiting in the two hour line to get Mr. Brown’s autograph, Kaylee decided she had to go to the bathroom. While she was in there who should she run into but D.W. herself! (I don’t remember her real name.) Anyway they talked about how big the crowd was and other small talk which was surprising for me to hear because she is usually pretty shy. It was really very cool for her, and they finally got their books autographed.

Last month I was called to be the first counselor in the primary presidency. I was enjoying the job as secretary, but its okay. I feel like I’m getting to know the kids better, but I feel like I am far from being comfortable in my calling. One of my responsibilities is the sacrament primary program which will be the end of this month. I’m a little stressed out because with general conference this weekend, we only have a couple of weeks to practice, but I’m hoping the angelic faces of the kids overshadow our lack of practices.

In other news

Yes I know it’s not all about me, so here’s what’s been going on with the rest of my family. Kaylee tested and got into the G.A.T.E. program. She had her first meeting yesterday and she was happy to see that her best friend from first grade and her best friend from second grade were both there. She is really excited. Also she taught herself to ride a bike last week. She said, “You know I really think a kid my age should know how to ride a bike.” Our backyard isn’t very big, but I think that helped her have the confidence to try. Now she and her brother and sister will ride around in circles for hours.

Ashton has decided that she really likes the running part of P.E. I wish I could share that passion. She is the fastest girl in her class, but when she comes home she complains about how much her legs and feet hurt. I'm hoping a better pair of shoes will help.

Aiden loves his preschool. When I first told him I was signing him up he said, “That’s okay, I don’t want to go there.” My nephew goes with him and they have a lot of fun

Dalin has learned to bark like a dog and he will say daddy. This term means mom and dad because when I try to get him to say mommy, he looks straight at me and says “adee” as if to say duh, that is what I’m saying. It' fun to watch how much Dalin likes Chris, especially after having Ashton and Aiden who felt like they were attached to my hip when they were his age.

Chris and I do a babysitting exchange with my two brothers and last night was our turn to watch the kids. There are ten kids all together ages 1-8. It’s usually runs pretty smoothly because they all get along really well and just play the whole time, but there is ten of them. The high school football field is at the end of our street and we heard the band playing so we decided to take all the kids down to see if there was a game. The game hadn’t started yet, but it was kind of funny to watch people pass us because I could see them counting how many kids we had. At one point the cheerleaders from the visiting team passed and Ashton and her cousins Emily, Abby and Rachel said hi to them. The cheerleaders said hi back, and that made their night. Ashton was telling anyone who would listen that they actually talked to cheerleaders. It was kind of cute, but I hope she grows out of it.

Reno, San Francisco and the Big 3-0; Bonus Features

This really is going to be the last part of the birthday trip story. You would think that there was adventure enough, but is that all the stories a 30 year old can have? It’s time for bonus stories. We got to the airport about an hour before our flight was supposed to leave and the airport was pretty dead. We went to the desk to check in and the attendant looked at my drivers license and asked if I had a sticker. It took me a second, but then I realized that my license had expired on my birthday. When I flew out it wasn’t a big deal because it was my birthday. He said it wasn’t a big deal, but when he tore up my boarding pass, I got a little worried. He printed up a new boarding pass and sent me to security. I got to go in the “special” security line where they wiped down all of my stuff with the bomb finding wipes and sent me into the air chamber. After a few unexpected puffs, I was finally able to go on my way. Luckily I had checked both of my bags, and I only had my purse and shoes otherwise it would have taken a lot longer. I had the camera amongst my security risks or I would have had Chris take a few pictures. The whole thing made me laugh, but only because there wasn’t very many people in the airport, The funny thing is that I went through the security metal detector thing and after I passed through it I realized that I had my cell phone and some change in my pocket, things which should have set off the alarm. Makes you wonder.

Anyway, aside from the obnoxious girl who thought she had to talk louder than the music playing in her headphones and who wouldn’t sit down and buckle her seatbelt the five times the captain mentioned that the sign was on (the flight attendants had to be in their seats so they couldn't do anything), it was a good trip home. Our flight only had 19 people on it and everyone could have had their own two rows if we had wanted. It was a little turbulent, but we made it home safely and the whole trip was fantastic and I am so glad Chris and I were able to have that time together.

Reno, San Francisco and the Big 3-0; Part III

Okay this story is taking longer to tell than I thought it would so I’m going to try and get done. When we woke up on Saturday it was raining pretty steadily, and we had planned on taking a boat tour of the bay so we were a little disappointed. Luckily the rain had mostly stopped by the time we got downtown. We couldn’t really complain because the weather had been beautiful the whole time we were there so a few sprinkles were okay. We finally got our cable car ride, which we took to Fisherman’s Wharf. We bought tickets for the tour and then we had an hour to wander around pier 39. Because of the rain we didn’t see as many street performers as we had hoped, but it was fun nonetheless. There is an area at the pier that is sectioned off for a bunch of sea lions. They have these wooden slats that they hang out on, and from what I saw, they don’t really do a whole lot. It’s against the law to feed them, so they must have to go out and find food once in a while, but it seemed like a small area for so many animals.

Our tour went under the Golden Gate Bridge and around Alcatraz a couple of times and over to the Bay Bridge. It was interesting to hear some of the stories, and to get to see the view of the city from the bay. The construction of the Golden Gate Bridge is amazing, even more so when you think that it was done 70 years ago. They had worked on the project for four and a half years before there were any fatalities, which is amazing, because I recently found out that when construction companies bid on jobs they allot an amount for fatalities, at least in Las Vegas. We also found out that some of the guards at Alcatraz lived there with their families and their children would take a ferry to school everyday. I don’t think that is an environment I would want to raise me kids in, but one of the guards stories pointed out, at least you knew who was good and who was bad on that island and you couldn’t say the same for the main land. The tour was fun, but pretty cold for us desert dwellers.

After the tour we were going to take the cable car to Chinatown and walk around before we had to get to the airport. On our way we were stopped by a guy trying to get us to go listen to a 90 min. presentation. He didn’t tell us what is was for, but we figured it was for a timeshare. We told him we only had about an hour be fore we had to go and he said that was fine, “you can just watch the 20 min. video and tell them you aren’t interested.” We could get $150 cash card so we figured why not. We get to the presentation and there is no video and when we tell the guy that we have to leave by 4:00 (about an hour and 40 min from when we sat down) he said that definitely wouldn’t be enough time and usually it can take 4-6 hours. What the?!? He decided to do us the “favor” of trying to get through it quickly because he knew this was something we were really going to want. This wasn’t our first time at the races and we knew there wasn’t anything he could say that would sell us, but we wanted to get some souvenirs so we listened to him for a while. About 40 min. into the spiel (double the amount the guy on the street said we had to give him) I asked what the upfront cost would be. He pointed to a number that he had previously written down that was $2,500. I told him there was no way we would be able to put that much down today to which he replied, “Then why did you come up here, you knew what it was about.” Duh, we were there for what everyone else was there for, the free gift. We told him as much and he said, “You said you were willing to listen to a 90 min. presentation, so basically you’re just stealing.” I was done. This guy was starting to get rude and I told him I didn’t want to waste his time and I was ready to leave without the money. Chris asked what we needed to do to get the gift cards, so the guy continued to talk about how over 40 years we would be spending over $90,000 and wasn’t $2,500 a small price to pay to save a lot of money over the years. I told him we weren’t spending $90,000 that day so $2,500 still seemed like a hefty amount. He again told us we knew what we were coming to. The burden is on the sales people to change our minds, nobody goes ready to hand over a check. He told that it was just sad that we needed the $150 so much and he just seemed to get more and more agitated. At one point he asked, “How are your kids going to feel when their friends tell them about the great vacations they went on and your kids just have to stay home.” I just started shaking my head and said you have got to be kidding me. I was actually laughing, because I could not believe those words actually came out of his mouth. That line would make me laugh for the rest of the day. I told him that I honestly never remember being jealous of my friends vacations when I was growing up. He didn’t seem to believe me and asked where I went to school. So after insinuating that we were bad parents by not purchasing this time share, commenting on how he spent $4500 a month for his 600 square foot apartment and still managed to pay for this vacation plan (a gibe at how we managed our finances) and throwing in another “I just think it’s sad”, Chris said, “look I don’t appreciate you judging her.” (because the guy was talking mainly to me). His response, “I already have.” Then he walked off to get the person who would give us the gift cards. We were furious! This single guy with no kids has no idea what it takes to take a family of six on vacation, even if we had a timeshare and he is trying to judge us! We got a little checklist before the presentation of what these people would do for us. Among them were “treat you with respect” and “no high pressure sales tactics”. We met with his manager and went down the check list and he had failed every point on the list. Chris even said, “He’s lucky I’m not the fighting kind, otherwise I would have been over the table.” I thought it was sweet he would fight for me. The manager seemed appalled at the way we were treated and apologized. She also told us that was the second complaint she had received on that guy that day. We did finally get our money, but I tell you I feel like it was hard earned.

We were still going to try and make it to Chinatown, but it took forever to even get on the trolley, and then were packed in like tuna, so we decided it would be safer just to get the car and go to the airport