This time it's for real I just feel it...

So we were going to take our house off the market the last day of August. We'll procrastination payed off this time. A couple stopped by the house on the first day of September and of course we hadn't officially taken the house off the market. After looking at the house which was very mess from fall organizing they said they wanted to buy the house. They met with our realtor because they didn't have a realtor they liked. They made an offer. While we were deciding on this offer we had 4 or 5 showings on labor day. One of those showings offered us our asking price and we took it. We are really excited and they are too. We didn't want any backing out so before we made our decision we called the couple and told them all about the house and it's quirks. The couple didn't seem to mind and we started to really see that this offer was solid.
A week or so later we started looking for a home to move to. I called my brother Paul who mentioned a home in his neighborhood for sale. I like what he told me so I made a call. The home was under contract but the buyer was not looking like he would qualify. I continued looking and started reviewing my saved house ad's at KSL.com. I opened up an ad and remembered telling Joe a few months ago when we had the other offer on the house that I had found the home for us. I remembered really feeling something for this home. I looked down at the realtor and it was the same one on the home Paul had suggested. It was the same house in fact. I really got excited and called the Realtor and told him I wanted to come see the house. Joe and I went and saw the house the next day and Joe fell in Love!!! We looked at several other homes that day but we had found our house. We put an offer in that afternoon. We are so excited to move, I got a little nervous after we put our offer in so the next day we went to see another house in the same neighborhood but all I could see was the view of the school across the street and the feeling of being home the first home had for me. It is perfect for us and we are so happy to finally be moving. We feel so blessed, and to think we had given up. Wow, what a miracle!

School Begins and Summer Ends

We have had a wonderful and fun summer with one terrifying experience. Which kind of made the rest of the summer a bit less fun but I worked through my paranoya eventually and we did some pretty fun things. It was crazy what happened really. I'll tell you about it first so I can end on a happy note. It happened on July 7th I think. We just got back from the Oquirre Mt temple open house. We were going to have a showing for our house so we quickly cleaned the house and went for icecream. We decided to go to the park across the street from our house on Scott Ave while we waited. It was about 4:00pm. I was tired and did not want to go to the hot playground so I told the kids to stay close by in the shade, and not go to the playground. The park was empty except a large moterhome parked in half of the only shaded spot so when I drove up I went past the moterhome to the small patch of remaining shade. As I was getting Miri out of her car seat on the passenger side of the van I overheard a conversation the lady in the moterhome was having on her cellphone. Some strange things were said so I decided to grab my purse as was doing so when very clearly I heard the lady on the cellphone say "It looks like we have a hit, there's a lady with her four kids but you'll have to hurry fast."
I realized the danger of my situation and acted as quickly as possible. I pushed miri back into the car shut the door yell to the other kids in my angry serious voice to come here now!! The rest is pretty blurry but the kids were in the car I backed out and speed out of the driveway praying again and again that we would get out of there safe. I had forgotten my cell phone and the potential buyers where still at the house so I drove to my mother in law's house about 10 min away. She drove in her driveway right in front of me. I told her what had happened and asked to borrow her phone. I called the police. When the police got to the park of course they were gone.
Do you feel like your reading one of those annoying chain E-mails that you wonder if it's fact or fiction? I wonder if people think I'm a little off of my rocker when I tell them but I keep telling anyone who hasn't heard. Many of my associates and friends are parents and what seemed like a safe place to be could have turned really bad.
So this experience put a damper on our summer but we still did fun things. I stuck to being around where there were lots of people and helpers. No more solo trips to the park and no more going places if the kids were not in there listening moods. Some of the fun things we did are as follows: We had 2 family reunions, went to the park a few times, went to San Francisco, Fat Cats, the Movie theater, the ward camp out, hikes almost every week and more that I can't remember right now.
It was a fun summer but the kids are glad to be back in school. The kids are really liking their teachers and mom is enjoying the little bit of time to bond with Miri and do all the other stuff that gets put off during the summer months.

The last couple of weeks have been filled with hard times, blessing, fun times and inspiring thoughts. We've had sickness off and on and are all sick and down for the day. I'm the healthiest of the bunch so I can play nurse mommy. Some highlights of the last few months are:
We had another offer. Then it fell through. O'well.
Joe got a promotion. We are so excited to pay off our bills and actually get some savings going. We hope now to be able to afford getting a decent house after selling our current home. Ha ha ha...some day right.
We went to the airshow at HAFB. It was a lot of fun and I found myself getting gitty as I looked up at those amazing air crafts, and pondered the skills of the pilots. I felt a real child like rush of awe, almost like I was gazing up at a kind of miracle. WOW . Really WOW.
I began walking with some friends in the morning 2 weeks ago. I feel great and can't believe the difference it's made on my ability to control my emotions. Those endorphins are amazing. Also I registered at facebook but still haven't figured it out much maybe when the summer is up and I have 3 kids in school. Wow that will be weird.
We started Sorenson Summer school this past week. Each kid taking a turn on the sick bed while the rest of us had school. The kid's really liked it and Miri even got into it. She now knows the the Q says "Qwaaa". Our activity was suppose to be going to a quarry yesterday but of course we were too sick to go. Maybe next time.
I better go find out what the kids are doing. In spite of being sick it's been a great week. Besides the airshow we went to the park and we also went to the movie theater.

Sad News for us the buyers withdrew their offer. Their realtor said it was not the house but the location...big surprise. O well it was a good trial run and we are optimistic again after being sad for a day or two. The kids are out of school today so I best be going. Hope all is well for everyone out there.

Bye Bye House....

So it's 11:30pm Monday Night and I couldn't wait to tell everyone our exciting news....We have an accepted offer on our house!!! So I guess we are moving, if all goes well. Wow I've lived here for ten plus years and the change will be big, but welcomed...except one thing leaving the friends and family that are so close. We won't be going too far, Davis county is still on my mind but it won't be the same. The kid's don't know yet so I think we will tell them tomorrow and we will have to celebrate with slurpee's or something. Of course it might fall through, these things can do that but I'm rewarding myself with a little excitement now anyway. I guess my patience on Friday must have payed off. Chuckle. Chuckle. We are so blessed and I am so grateful. Now to maintain patients through the move...the next miracle I suppose. I guess I better be going to bed or at least lay down on my pillow and dream of fun times tomorrow.

Have a great Green day.

Julia

Miracles and Miri

I started Friday morning finishing a puzzle while I listened to scriptures and then the ensign via the Internet. I was feeling pretty happy so when my Brother in Law called and asked if I could watch my Nephew for the day I said sure bring it on. I continued listening to the ensign and began cleaning out the storage room which was out of control and was in great need of organization. The storage room was strung out into piles, and I was getting rid of a lot of stuff while I was sorting so I was in a good place. Then Miri happened!

I can't remember exactly the order of the events but it went something like this. She destroyed my puzzle so I put her in the tub to give her something fun to do. While taking her bath she pored all the shampoo and conditioner out into the tub with her, but it was cheap shampoo and conditioner so I told myself "no big deal". Then the phone rang and it was our Realtor. When I was talking to the Realtor who was informing me of a showing of our very messy house in just 2 hours Miri managed to pull all the newly washed towels off the hooks and put them in the soapy water filled tub with her. If I had know that this was just the beginning of Miri's 2 year old rampage for the day I may have called the realtor back and said I couldn't show the house. I suppose that's one of life's beauties, by not knowing the future we sometime reach a higher level of our potential than we would by knowing.

I got off the phone with the Realtor and looked around me. I knew that getting the house clean would be a true miracle. The bigger miracle would be if I could keep my cool through it all. Most the time when there is a showing I become really stressed and grumpy. I turn into a kind of monster and so do my children of course(Monkey see Monkey do). I decided a while back that I needed to learn to control my temper through these showings before I should expect the Lord to bless us with the selling of our house.

I was determined to make today the day that I wasn't filled with regret and failure because I lost my cool. And that's when the true miracle happened. With the Spiritual strength I had gained from the early morning study I set forth to speed clean my house, take care of my kids (plus one) and all the while being nice and maintaining self control.

I got Miri out of the tub dressed her and put her, Gabriel and Britton in front of a Movie and started the mad dash through the house. After a short while I went to check on the kids and Miri had manged to wet her pants and was running around bottomless. I sent Miri upstairs with the boys to get a pull-up on and some pants, then went back to work. Next thing I knew Gabe came to me telling me Miri, had gotten into a cake and it was all over the upstairs kitchen. I washed Miri off, still bottomless. Aspen had just arrived home, so I then sent Aspen upstairs with Mir to put her in a pull-up and some new pants. I put the boys to work cleaning up the mess. Then went back to work.

Aspen must have gotten distracted because next thing I knew Miri was back downstairs naked and squatting in a box I had pulled from the storage room. The perfect box to fit some clutter in from the upstairs table. I looked at those little blue eyes and I new she was marking her territory. I said something like "uggg I really hope your not peeing in that box," I picked her up and yes there in the box sat a nice little puddle. She looked at me and I actually caught a glimpse of guilt in her eyes I think. I briskly put her on the toilet and rushed to clean up the mess while shouting commands to the other kids to sit on their beds or help clean please.

I was uttering many silent prayers through out this ordeal and it was about that time I remembered that Grandma Coralie wasn't working that day so I sent Aspen to make an SOS call to her. Coralie called back and without hesitation agreed to take my little Miri so I could have some hope of cleaning my house.

Aspen got Miri ready. As for the boys they had mostly stay out of trouble except for some defiant statements from Gabe like "I'm not going to help, and I don't want to sit on my bed" Coralie came at about 40 min before the showing. She was my angel who truly saved me. She offered to take all the kids and I was so relieved.

I decide having Aspen to help clean would be best so she stayed behind. Aspen and I cleaned the rest of the house to a respectable level and I even had time to vacuum the upstairs floors, but not the stairs where a few cake crumbs stilled remained. O' well. I keep my cool better than most showings and felt more happy and successful by the end. It felt like a true Miracle. This day is a great example of the miracles that can come from Spiritual study, prayers, determination, angels (Coralie) and even Miri's.

Life is Beautiful

I suppose sometimes it takes a little convincing for me to see the beauty of life. I have a wonderful husband and children so I kick myself when I feel down and overwhelmed with the tedious task of housekeeper and overwhelming nature of parenting. When I can dedicate my efforts to just one of these elements I walk away feeling moderately successful. However it's the combination that baffles me and I feel time, life slipping away. I personally find housecleaning easier than parenting, because I can see the end result unlike parenting when the end result might not come for many years. As a result I find I focus on the clean house way too much and my kids of course are getting older and I'm missing their growth because my focus is on the dirty floor or misplaced toys.

I came to this discover again recently and I finally decided to do something concrete about it. I choose to start parent dates and weekly family activities independent of FHE. I've talked about it for years but never implemented it. February was my first go at it and I had a wonderful time. Aspen and I attended a gymnastics meet at the UofU. Miri went with Joe and I to McDonald's while the kids were at a primary activity and our car was getting fixed. Then Jeffery and I went to see the "The Tale of Desperado" at the Dollar Theater. Last but not least Gabe and I went to a safety convention at the South Town expo center today. I am loving getting to know my kids away from my other job of housecleaning and on a one on one level. It felt so good and I could just listen and watch them alone and eat up the wonderfulness of their individual person.
The kids seem to be liking it too. Today Jeff was talking to Grandma Coralie in the car about it and said such an eight year old thing. He explained that we were doing dates with mom and then went on to say something like this, "Not the huggy kissy kind of dates but the ones where you go and have fun and do something like a movie" I was laughing so hard inside. Wow they truly do grow up fast.
Life is beautiful.
Julia

January 30th
Today I was practicing spelling words in the car I first started with tree. I said Gabriel what letter do you think tree starts with. Aspen shouted out c-h....I reminded her that she was not Gabriel and Gabriel proceeded to answer with "t" then we sounded out the whole word. Aspen wanted a turn and followed with T-r-e-e, but then replied " that doesn't make sense."

I then tried to understand where she was coming from by asking a series of questions. She went on to explain that you don't say it tree you say it chee. I was busting up laughing inside, but kept calm and explained to her that no it was defiantly tree. She became very defiant and eventually fell into a complete breakdown.

After much crying and complaining she finally accepted that Mom probably new how to spell tree and then pointed her misery at me by blamed me for not teaching her sooner. She said she wasn't going to say it "Tree" anyway. With a hidden smile I told her she didn't have to and that she can talk how ever she wanted to. I stayed calm and actually had a pretty good parenting moment. She couldn't get calm so when we got to the parking lot of the grocery story I told her I was only taking respectful kids inside the store with me and how she was acting was not respectful. I gave her about a minute to try to calm down but she was too far gone. I calmly turned back on the car and we started to head home.

Gabriel was a great little brother he kept using phrases of encouragement like " come on Aspen stop crying so we can go in the store please. He didn't freak out when we left either. Miri was asleep but woke up from all the screaming and crying. Aspen then began a rampage of how it was everyone else's fault that she was not calming down. I at this point had informed her that I was not going to listen to her until she had calmed down.

Occasionally I would as calmly as I could say to her Aspen I hear you but I'm not listening. I share this with you because her last blame was so funny. She said I won't calm down until Miri holds my hand, Miri who seamed really uncomfortable by Aspen's screaming was pulling her hands back and looking with confusion at Aspen and her rampage. Aspen finally started to use a calm voice and I suggested she ask Miri to hold her hand in a sweet princess voice. She then argued that that would not work. So I turned around and said very sweetly "Miri would you hold my hand please." I think Miri may have only understood part of what I said because she responded by reaching over and touching Aspen's hand. Aspen calmed down and we made it home. Wow what a drive.

The beginning

Today I decided my kids are too cute to not be telling others about their cuteness on a more frequent basis. So before I begin I have a disclaimer... My spelling and grammar are not really great and I often write how I think which is a little disjointed but I guess I've got to start improving somewhere right. So here we go...

The First Post

January 29th

Jeffery wasn't very happy when he got home today. I tried to find out what might be the cause but he just kept saying he was soooooo hungry. He started getting really cranky and among his complaining he says to me, "I really just want to come home to a clean house and food on the table." I didn't know whether to bust up laughing or counter argue. At the time I had already got into the fight mode so I pretty much kept up the argument but looking back it's was pretty funny and laughing may have had a better effect on the situation. Where did he come up with that?

Aspen is a very skilled story teller lately. I will let her video show you. Gabriel has been working through a sneaking problem. Pretty much when Gabe wants something he does whatever he can to get it. He is very determined and even aggressive about it. He's been so cute lately though. He is not allowed to have sweets until he goes 2 days without sneaking. So far he hasn't been able to go even one day. Old habit are hard to break. The biggest cute thing he's been doing is that now he is reminding us he is not allowed to have sugar and then thinking of alternate snacks for himself. He chose Wheaties for breakfast and fish for snacks. He ate halve a bag of Doritos yesterday with a little help from Miri. Miri who potty trained a little before turning two..on her own and with very little help from me is having second thoughts about the whole thing today. She went pee on me today while I was holding her. I didn't say much just changed her and me and asked her to not do it again. No big deal but then every time I mentioned going potty she was very defiant. She also wanted milk in a bottle, which she's been off for at least 6 months and maybe longer. Perhaps the terrible two's have began! Bring it on though because I love this age! I am having fun organizing, and preparing for a new year. My calendar is suppose to be finished tomorrow. I started it in Feb and went to January since the late start. Hopefully next year will be less of a challenge. TTFN

Eskimo Story...

cut a little short because of a dying battery.