We did it!

Well, after what seemed like a gazillion appraisals and countless delays, we FINALLY closed on our house! We were able to move in as scheduled this past Saturday and rent from the sellers until we closed. I was so blown away by how much help we had Saturday morning. Good thing I had so much to do because if I stopped to think about it even for a second I would get all choked up. Driving the U-Haul MYSELF to our house pretty much took my mind off it! I’ve never really been on the receiving end of such service and I can’t even describe how it feels. To know that we have such great friends here just really touches me. So I have to say thank you to each and every person who showed up to help us: Joel, Mike C., Mike & Jessica, Jonathan, Joe Miller, Ray Miller, Brandon Miller, (none of whom are related, coincidentally), Drew & Megan, Spencer M., Marty M., Casey, Devin, Nick, Jason G., Matt B., Jim, Steve, and Ryan. Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU! We seriously could not have done it without you. And a HUGE thank you to all who called or emailed offering to help watch Summer, help clean, help pack, etc. You know who you are, and even if I didn’t take you up on your offer, please know it meant the world to me that you even took the time and offered.

Derrick’s mom also decided to come the day before we moved and help get things ready. I pretty much just passed her Summer and said, “See me at bedtime!” It was so nice of her to come and it was a huge help.

So, we are all moved in and almost completely unpacked. Almost. We love it so far, even though it’s taking some time to get used to living in a new space. As a “Welcome Home” present to us, our kitchen sink clogged. Ok, well, I put a bunch of rice in the disposal apparently is a huge no-no. Who knew? Luckily, we are blessed to know a super awesome handy guy who came to our rescue and <strike>made a huge mess</strike> fixed it for us. I have a feeling that won’t be the last house call Greg makes for us.

Now comes the fun part: painting! I have lots of projects already on my list and can’t wait to get started!

Food storage

The past couple months I've started to get more interested in obtaining a year's supply of food, as our church encourages. One of the biggest struggles we've had is lack of space. Now that we'll be in a home (hopefully....we were supposed to close today but the appraisal didn't go through and now we're just waiting to see if the 3rd one gets passed) we will have plenty of space to store it. It's daunting at first just getting started, but like all things, you just have to start.

Luckily, Emergency Essentials has a blog, and both make it easy to start! They are even giving away two $10 gift cards! Go here for one(or click the button below) and and here for the other.

I used their analyzer to see how many days I could feed my family with our current "storage" and it said only 6.66 days. Yikes! Better start adding to our storage so we won't starve!!

Rock on

We're seriously debating scrapping the costume we bought for Summer this year in lieu of making her a rocker chick.


I mean, she already blasts her music 24/7 and has begged for black nail polish.

Me no likey packing

Packing is in full force here. I hate it. I hate the scratchiness of the cardboard boxes. I hate how loud the tape is. I hate all of it with the passion of a thousand fiery suns. The only good part is that I went through everything a couple months ago and purged like crazy so now I don’t have to sort, I can just pack. Oh, and the thought that once it’s all over we’ll be in our very own home!!

I used to be somewhat of a packrat. I kept everything. I held sentimental value to the little things. Then I got overwhelmed with all the crap I was accumulating. So I got rid of a lot of it. Now I’m torn. There are things I know I should keep for posterity’s sake but just don’t feel like keeping. Like diplomas, tassels, pictures, etc. Shouldn’t I want to keep these things?? I spent years earning them! Maybe I was so sick of packing last night it seemed easier to just to pitch it. And then there’s things I’ve had for 10+ years that I honestly don’t need, but then I think, heck, I’ve had it this long, why get rid of it now?? Then I have flashes of being on A&E’s Hoarders and snap out of it. I’ve resolved that it’s okay to hold on to some things from the past. One box of mementos is not going to take up too much space in our basement, and it is fun to look through it every once in awhile and reminisce.

This blog is all over the place. Sorry.

In the meantime, I’m trying to pick paint colors, which is really hard. It’s just paint! Why is it tormenting my soul like this?

Oh, and then I got a speeding ticket coming home from work the other night. Crying didn’t work. 48 in a 25. Construction zone. Honestly, it didn’t even occur to me that it was a construction zone because it’s been a construction zone for like EVER. And even though Mr. Police Officer was kind enough to reduce the citation for me, I still cried the whole way home. I hate getting in trouble.

Apple-y sweet and fun to eat!

Today was our inaugural apple picking outing. Even though it was cold, and I was tired (I worked a 7am shift this morning), we had a grand old time. We all bundled up and headed to the local apple orchard and picked ourselves some Honeycrisps and a few other varieties. But mostly Honeycrisps because let’s be real, they are really the only true apple variety this time of year. And we got a bag full of them for ten bones. And we ate one while we picked.

 

Summer happily hung on Dad while we meandered though the orchards trying to avoid the icy drafts. I’m super excited to make apple crisp and apple pie and apple dumplings (a la Our Best Bites….they call for Mountain Dew…this could quite possibly be the world’s most perfect food!)

 

 

BABY GAP!

I've entered Summer in the Gap Casting Call. If you have a minute, would you vote for her?? You can vote every day for her to be the "Fan Favorite." I'll put the link at the very top of my blog on the left to make it easy for you! :) Aren't I so nice??

VOTE FOR SUMMER!

Snack attack flashback

For reasons unknown to me, yesterday while packing I had a memory flashback of two of my favorite things to eat when I was but a wee child growing up in the 80’s. Actually, I probably do know why they popped into my mind…my entire childhood was practically spent packing and moving. No wonder I was having flashbacks of random things.

Anyway, does anyone remember these??

I loved these cookies and begged my mom to buy them for me. What kid wouldn’t love cookies with laughing little faces on them?? Plus, there were prizes inside! Ah, the good old days where you got cool prizes in your cereal boxes. My favorite prize of all time was a multicolored crayon thing. It was long and had individual layers of colors. C’mon, I’m not the only one who loved these, am I? I searched for a picture of what I’m remembering but couldn’t find one. This is the closest I could find…

Man, I love crayons.

And remember this cereal??

 

If you’re family was a hippie, organic-eating-only family, you-got-Lucky-Charms-only-on-your-birthday-and-in-your-stocking, (sad!) then you for sure wouldn’t find these in your cabinet. But in my house, sugared cereal ran supreme. And these fun, brightly colored circus-shaped marshmallow bits were my fave. He’s proof that clowns don’t have to be scary. They can be delicious.

Anyone else have any favorites from their childhood?

PSA

If you have read my blog for awhile, you know I am very pro-vaccines. I should like to think I’m preaching to the choir, but I know many of my readers feel the complete opposite.

With the widespread occurrence of various flu strains going around, please, please, please get your flu shot! Make sure your children get theirs. Summer and I both got ours at her appointment last week. She got a poke, but I was able to get the mist. Awesome!

If you do wind up getting the flu this year, and I ask if you got your flu shot and you say “no”, I will feel ZERO sorry for you. ZERO. I’ll hand you a tissue, and then I’ll say “I told you so.”

You may say, “I did get my flu shot and I still got the flu!” Well, that’s the way it goes. These things are not 100% accurate. But if you had the opportunity to do something to prevent getting it at all, wouldn’t you take it??

200,000 people each year will be hospitalized due to the seasonal flu, and 36,000 will die from it.

On top of the seasonal flu vaccine, we now have a vaccine for H1N1, or Swine Flu.

I’ll make it easy for you and outline who should be getting these vaccines, per the CDC:

• Pregnant women
• Household contacts and caregivers for children younger than 6 months of age
• Healthcare and emergency medical services personnel
• All persons between 6 months through 24 years of age
• 6 months through 18 years because there have been many cases of H1N1 (Swine) flu in children and they are in close contact with each other in school and day care settings, which increases the likelihood of disease spread.
• Young adults 19 through 24 years of age because there have been many cases of H1N1 (Swine) flu in these healthy young adults and they often live, work, and study in close proximity, and they are a frequently mobile population.
• Persons aged 25 through 64 years who have health conditions associated with higher risk of medical complications from influenza.

As a medical professional, I feel very strongly about this. I see the kids that get admitted from the flu, and it isn’t pretty. Especially when it could have been prevented.

And as always, make sure you are practicing rigorous hand hygiene, using sanitizer and washing often!! There’s really no such thing as washing your hands too much!

9 months!

My sweet little girl turned 9 months old yesterday! She’s officially been outside of me longer than inside!

She had her 9 month appointment the other day and here are her stats:

Weight: 14 lb 13 oz.—2% for weight

Length: 25.5”—4% for length

Still a shrinky dink, but at least she’s consistent.

She has sprouted two little teeth on the bottom, which caused her ZERO pain or discomfort, which meant ZERO pain and discomfort for me. And so far, I haven’t been bitten. Yet.

Some of her favorites include:

• Playing peek-a-boo
• Drawstrings of any kind. If there is one on your person, she will find it. And then chew it.
• Food of any kind. Pizza, waffles, squash, pasta, yogurt, fruit, Frosty’s…. You name it, she’ll eat it. And she’ll feed herself now! It happened overnight. This past Monday night she couldn’t get the food in her mouth. Tuesday morning, every piece went straight into her trap. It’s really cute to watch.
• Pulling off her socks
• Smiling and laughing
• Her new favorite game is leaning forward into you until your foreheads touch. Then she looks you in the eye until she starts laughing. It’s so funny.

She also says “mama” all the time which of course I love. She doesn’t know what she’s saying (maybe?) but I don’t care. All I know is she’s not saying “dada” yet. :) Her hair is getting SO long in the back, but don’t worry, we won’t be sporting any mullets just yet. She rolled over for me yesterday for the first time, and then did it twice. But no more since then. She still doesn’t crawl, which is ok with me.

She sleeps 12 hours at night, then gets up to eat then goes right back down for another couple hours. She’s a great napper, but is still a champ even if she goes all day without one. (Unlike her mother.)

She’s super nosy (like her mother) and is always craning her neck to see what’s around the corner or just out of her line of vision.

Her little personality is really starting to show, and we just love it. We have had so much fun with her lately and we know it’s only going to get better.

We love you, Bugaboo!

Want this too

I would even take the mini workbox.


Enter this code when you place your order to get $100 off your shipping: 100Writes

(And yes, I'm totally doing these posts to try and win one. )

Need. This.

Make it and Love it is giving away a Workbox and I totally want one. How amazing would this be???

Oooooomaha!

Summer and I went to Omaha this past weekend to see one of my best good friends of all time, Sara. Derrick was supposed to come with us, but went and changed offices at work and had to travel to Tampa. So, we went without him! The drive was long, but Summer did seriously great. And then we decided to stay an extra day. Ahhh, the life of a stay-at-home-part-time-working-mom. Love it.

Where do I begin describe Sara? We met at BYU in Stats 221 (same class I met Derrick). It was the Fall of 2001 and I didn’t know anyone in that class. So I sat in the back. Well, I wound up sitting by other people on the back row who didn’t know anyone, and we all became fast friends. It was a couple months before Sara and I realized we were next door neighbors. How we never saw each other going into our apartments is beyond me. Well, she wound up leaving BYU that December so we only had a couple months to get to know each other but that was all it took.

One reason I love Sara so much is that she is the complete opposite of a high maintenance friend. You know what a high maintenance friend is, right? Someone who nags when you don’t call them. Complains when you can’t get together with them. Makes you feel guilty for not "being a good friend”. We all have one of these friends, right? Somehow I’ve managed to acquire like, 6. What is up with that? Why do I attract them?? Ugh. Anyway, Sara is none of these. It doesn’t matter how much time passes in between our phone calls or emails, she is always there to chat and catch up. We were in each other’s weddings. We just let loose and be ourselves. And she gives me good advices and tells me like it is. I can pretty much guarantee that I will be friends with Sara until the day either of us dies. I just love this girl.

Anyway….she and her hubby Brian showed Summer and I a good time. We ate, went to the Disneyland of pumpkin patches, ate, watched Wolverine, played Wii Fit, ate, had lunch with the funny and beautiful Abby, and shopped. My sides hurt from playing the hula-hoop game on the Wii. Pathetic, I know! But so fun. This pumpkin patch was no ordinary pumpkin patch. It was huuuuge. And it had tons of food stands and attractions and hay rides and racing pigs and petting zoos and haunted houses and it was just nuts. We even panned for Gold. We didn’t find any, but it was fun anyway. And Summer loved everything. She even picked out a little Summer-sized pumpkin to take home.

I was pretty much exhausted the whole time from driving and Summer waking up during the night for unknown reasons, and the drive home sucked so bad because I was so tired, but we finally made it. We even stopped at the World’s Largest Truck Stop in Iowa, and made a little detour through Madison County Iowa and checked out one of their famous covered bridges. You know, like from the movie. The one we stopped at was called Hogback Bridge. They were usually named after the family that lived closest.

All in all, a great trip. The only that thing could have made it better is if Derrick could have come! Thanks Sara and Brian!

Hay ride!

Giant chair! Another mascot picture!! Panning for goldOur treasures!