May 2010 archive
Is the house the money pit or am I?
Just askin’.
We just spent money on a house. Then we spent money on fixing up that house. Then we found out we were pregnant and needed to buy some stuff for a baby since I just got rid of it all before we moved. So we spent money. Then we spent more money on the house. Then I killed my washer and had to pay a repair man to fix it. Then I washed my 6 month old fabulous cell phone on accident and had to buy a new phone which I am still waiting for in the mail. Then I paid painters to come remove wallpaper and paint my house. Then our garage door spring broke so we paid someone to come fix it so we could rescue our car from the garage and having a working garage door is real convenient. Then… Hmmm… what could be next? Wait! Don’t tell me- let it be a surprise.
Did I really need to spend so much money on everything? Maybe not. In the grand scheme of things, we haven’t spent THAT much, but still I wonder: Is the house the money pit or am I? I suspect it is really me!
Posted by Ily on May 14, 2010 | Filed under: Family News | 4 comments
The Dining Room transformation
Well, we finally removed wallpaper in the dining room. I am not in love with the wall color I picked yet, it is rather Murdock vs Elmo’s World-esque. I can assure you I won’t be painting it again anytime soon though. It will grow on me. Right now the room has a rather fiesta like feel to it. Enjoy the pictures!
Ily
This is a picture of the old decor of our dining room in our 1975 house we just bought. This room was used as a family room by the previous owners. We decided we liked the space/room adjacent to the kitchen for a dining room instead.
... See my Tabblo>
Posted by Ily on May 14, 2010 | Filed under: Family News | 1 comment
One car family
****************Short version*******************************************
We have become a one car family once again. The spring and cables that allow the garage door go up on Bryan’s side gave up the ghost and his car is trapped in the garage. It sure looks cute in there, but it isn’t very helpful.
****************Long Version*************
Once upon a time we were a one car family. When we first got married, we had no need for two cars. When we bought our first house, we made sure it was close enough to work (1 mile- so nice) so that we would not need two cars.
Then Bryan got was asked to work with the scouts at church and he needed a car once a month to go on camp outs with. We were blessed to have the means to have two cars at that time. It was a nice luxury to have both cars. After he was released from that responsibility, his car hardly ever was driven. It also ended up needing lots of repairs, especially the more we did not drive it. It was costing too much to own a car that was driven at most 15 miles a week (that is a generous estimate) so we decided to go back to being a one car family. It worked for us at the time.
Bryan got a new job a year ago where he needed to commute 75 miles to work and 75 miles back… So we got him a car. He only stayed at that job for about 6 months before we decided we just aren’t a commuting family so he found a job in Utah where we could live closer to work. We have thought about how Bryan’s car now drives him 2 miles to work and two miles home plus occasional runs to sports games and practices and maybe it just isn’t worth having the second car yet once again. Instead of selling it though, we renewed the tags and are using it to putter around town.
But today, our house decided for us that we need to be a one car family this week. Bryan tried to drive the kids to school this morning only to find that the garage door spring is broken and he can’t get his car out of the garage. That darn wood garage door is too heavy to lift so his car is stuck looking pretty in the garage. We are sharing our one available car yet once again. I kinda chuckle that we had been thinking about maybe going back to being a one car family and now we are forced to do it for a few days. Having two cars is a luxury I will miss these next few days, but it won’t be too bad I am guessing. Driving Bryan the two miles to and from work will not be a huge burden by any means. He could even ride his bike there (except that hill coming home honestly could make him pass out).
This may be the only day I ever say that I am glad we have three separate garage doors rather than a double door and a single door. I can at least still park in the garage. Though I am afraid to now that my van might get stuck in the garage too. The likelihood of those parts in both of those doors we currently use being the same age and mine being about to break also is pretty big!
- Update *************************
The door is fixed and the verdict is that we are not ready to be a one car family again. And in case you were interested, we liked Affordable Garage Doors service here in Salt Lake. They did a great job.
Posted by Ily on May 13, 2010 | Filed under: Family News | 1 comment
Just thinking out loud a bit
Bear with me here as I share my random musings of the day.
In Sunday school we discussed if you can still make mistakes and sin even if you are keeping the commandments. I have decided you can definitely make mistakes. Some really big ones even. I do not claim to be perfect at keeping the commandments, but I am not too terrible. And boy did I make a HUGE mistake that I hate paying for. I washed my cell phone by accident in the washer this last week. The power button died on my cell phone thanks to it’s bath, so now how do I end phone calls? Also, how do I turn it on again after it has died when the battery runs out- which it does really fast now that I gave it an accidental bath? So now I had to go and buy a new cell phone which is $$$ I could have spent elsewhere, like on home repair and upgrading. Ouch.
We brought the rain with us to Utah. All spring it has been wet either with rain or really wet snow. Today I saw something I never thought I would see in Utah… Grounds keepers mowing the school lawn in the rain. Yes, we mowed in the rain all the time in the NW. It was normal to see. It was annoying, but necessary to do so your grass would not be knee deep by the time the rain finally stopped. So I thought I was getting away from the rain by moving to the desert but apparently not. Maybe this means we will have a very mild summer like we had back in the NW? Doubt it, but I can be hopeful, I am pregnant and all and due in August so I can wish.
One thing I will miss about my little boys when they are all grown up is the cowboy outfit. Many mornings over the years I have seen the fancy red snap up shirt and wrangler jeans and cowboy boots and cowboy hat that were given to us by my grandparents who lived on a ranch at the time be put on by my boys. I have marveled that they would actually be seen in public in that get up even. Each of them has taken a turn wearing it. They would wear it to school, preschool, the store, to play in… It is so cute I am glad to have one more boy to see wear the cowboy outfit. **** Reece this morning put on the cowboy outfit and said to me: “Mom, we need rope to go with my cowboy outfit. Why don’t we have rope?” I don’t plan to give you rope Reece because you or one of your brothers will likely get strangled, but I sure think it is adorable how you want to be an authentic cowboy.
Lastly, Why am I so darn scentsitive? Yes, that is right, I misspelled the word so that I could emphasize that scents bug me. I recently switched laundry soap to a HE laundry soap because we have a HE washer and after the repair guy came to fix the washer he reprimanded me for not using HE soap. Dang it, but I can’t find one that is unscented. For some reason the fragrance is driving me NUTS! Also, for some reason air fresheners are making me go nutty too. Anytime anyone sprays an air freshener in the house I just about go crazy because the smell bothers me so much. I can’t even handle the smell of food in the crockpot all day. It could be a pregnancy thing, but if this is permanent, I am in for a life of misery being bothered by good and bad odors.
Posted by Ily on May 11, 2010 | Filed under: Family News | 4 comments
Sweet Stuff and a happy Mother's Day
This weekend was a really nice weekend. Mother’s Day weekend has to be best with little kids around. It is so cute to see my kids actually be sweet instead of cranky or bickering. This was an amazingly mostly bicker free weekend too. I loved it.
Without much ado, I will tell you about the sweet stuff:
Friday Micah asked which side of the bed I sleep on right now (we switch occasionally since we are too lazy to rotate the mattress every month… we still do it, just not as often) so he could sneak into my room and leave my Mother’s Day present on my pillow.
Saturday he asked to stay up late so he could surprise me and put my gift on my night stand after I went to bed… No he can’t stay up late, but he CAN sneak in in the morning to do that… and it was so cute the next morning when he snuck in. What a sweet boy!
Reece proudly handed me his little gift that he made me for Mother’s Day in preschool as soon as he jumped into the car. He then told me all about how he got to use green ink (his FAVORITE COLOR and he lets you know all about it) to make hand prints on his little gift and then he gave me an in depth description of how he washed his hands after and how the green magically came off. He was beaming, it was so cute!
Reece has often told us that he has a brother Sam. Sometimes he means it in reference to a good little friend of his who we spent lots of time with in WA, sometimes he meant it to be a little boy we did preschool with in WA, and for a while, he wanted to name our baby boy Sam. Well, there is this nice little boy on Micah’s soccer team named Sam and when Reece heard his name at the game this weekend, he ran up and hugged him oh so sweetly and patted him on the head… Sam’s response was: “That was weird.” Our response was to laugh whole heartedly. I guess Reece thinks all boys named Sam are his brother? It was cute, and funny, and gave us a good laugh.
When opening my Mother’s Day presents Reece was so sad to be empty-handed (remember how he already gave me mine?) that he went and found a punch balloon he had been playing with to give me that had lost it’s string. He said “It is kinda broken, but it IS green Mom!” Ahh, as long as it is green, it is the perfect gift from him.
Isaac gave me a recipe book that his class put together for their mothers for the holiday. When he asked what my favorite meal for dinner on Mother’s Day would be I wishfully said yellow curry with chicken from a Thai restaurant and his face lit up when he remembered there was a Thai dish recipe in the cookbook that his friend put in. We glanced at the ingredients and decided that we just don’t keep Galanga root and 4 cans of coconut milk plus other rare ingredients for here on hand so we decided that something else might be better for dinner that night. He was so excited to try at least! Not much gets that kid excited, nor does he particularly enjoy cooking for others, so I was very thrilled he even showed any signs of enthusiasm for making someone else happy by cooking them their favorite meal.
On Saturday night we babysat my friend Jandy’s kids so they could go out on a date and she happens to have a baby. My boys all loved the baby and had fun toting him around and making him smile and playing with him. It was cute to see them actually enjoy babies and be so nice to someone else. Isaac is most especially a baby lover. He will make a wife so happy some day by how he treats their kids.
And to not leave out Bryan, he was so awesome to take the 3 boys to a pro soccer game (Real Salt Lake) and leave me a quiet afternoon. He is the best husband ever! I got to read a book, take a nap, and enjoy silence in the car for a short drive to pick up pizza for dinner. It was heavenly! Plus he thoughtfully got a me a new pair of earrings for Mother’s Day- Maybe he was a bit embarrassed that I was wearing a mismatched pair for the last year since they were the ONLY two earrings I owned that did not make my ears inflamed? What a good man for tactfully addressing that need. He also got me a new set of pots for which I am extremely grateful. Our old pots were incompatible with our flat top electric stove. I am excited about them and he may start getting better quality of food here soon. All are made happy by that present.
Someone asked me how I survive with only boys and I just think “They are so dang sweet I wouldn’t trade them for the world!” I would gladly have a girl someday, but since I have no desire to be pregnant again, I will be grateful to have 3, soon 4, fabulous boys any day! I may need a girl dog sometime though. Just so I am not the only female in the house forever.
Posted by Ily on May 10, 2010 | Filed under: Family News | 1 comment
More pictures of house updates- finally
As budget and energy allow, we have been upgrading our house that was built in 1975. If you read a few months back, you would know the previous owners were older and the wife really liked pink and frilly stuff. I actually like pink, but not in the more permanent places like counters and floors. Also, it appears that in an effort to make the house more sell-able, they got rid of all the frilly flowery window coverings leaving us with nothing in the windows. I now have curtains of some sort in all of the bedrooms and living room instead of sheets pinned to the walls. So this is just a bit of documentation by me to show you what we have been up to in updating our house and making it more our style.
When we first moved in there was no light fixture over the stairs. Since the empty space with wires hanging down provided the only light in the front room other than sunlight, we found that it was kinda important to have a light there until we could find our lamps. ... See my Tabblo>
Posted by Ily on May 3, 2010 | Filed under: Family News | 1 comment
Road Show Pictures
The road show took up the majority of my time in February and March. Here are some pictures that are proof that it happened. This entry is mainly for me to remember it by since you won’t be nearly as interested in seeing these kids in pictures as I am. Hopefully I can get the video of it up on the blog sometime.
For a Stake Activity each ward was asked to present a 10 minute road show based on the theme Disney Do-overs. Our youth picked Lion King to re-tell. These pictures document our final production. ... See my Tabblo>
Posted by Ily on May 3, 2010 | Filed under: Family News | 2 comments
