A New Park

I guess one of the fun things about moving to a new area is discovering new parks and play areas.  This one is right across the street from one of our neighborhood pools, and it is definitely one of the funner ones that we will likely go to often once it cools down.  Swings, a teeter totter, a great bike/scooter/rollarblade path, a great climber, and a huge field.  The kids had a great time too-even the older ones-so that is a good sign!  

 See what I mean?  Totally worth it!

 Mid jump from a swing....

 And then we just walked to the pool.  Great times!

 Coincidentally, this would be the last time he would wear a floatie-ever.  He spent about 30 minutes floatie-less today, near the end of our swim, and did so well, I officially retired it.  Yea for kids who know how to swim!

 These brothers are such good friends.  Don't get me wrong, they know how to get after each other.  But they love each other, and it shows.

Crazy Boys!

 These pictures totally make me want school to roll around  I love hanging out with all the kids, as they are all special.  But time goes by so fast, and my two little babies are not babies anymore, and I am so aware of that every day! I am looking forward to my time with these boys once all the kids return to school.  Who wouldn't want to hang out with this all day?

Father's Day 2016

Happy Fathers Day!  Today was an extra special day for us for a really simple reason: it was our first official meal, as a family, all together at our kitchen table.  Sounds silly, I know.  But we have spent the last 7 years with no family meals.  Our kitchen was so small, the kids all had places to sit (usually) and Jared and I would either be standing, or sitting in the family room away from the kids.  One of our biggest goals for our new house was to have a kitchen bit enough to have our whole family sit at the table together. We are so happy to say we have achieved that, and while we have all sat together before this day, this was our first real sit-down meal, and what better way to celebrate than Father's Day?

 As is tradition, we had a full breakfast spread before church with the works-waffles, eggs, bacon, sausage, OJ, and fruit.  The kids each colored a letter in the word "Daddy" that we posted on the wall-our sole wall hanging! The kids all shared their lovely cards with Jared and he opened the couple of gifts we got for him.  It was a wonderful Father's Day as a family, and so wonderful to just chat with each other around the breakfast table.

 Pre-church pictures as a family!

 Opening cards with Dad-these kids love Jared.  Even Karianna, who is sometimes too cool to act like she is having fun, couldn't help but crack a smile when Jared read her card out loud and improvised just a bit. ;)

Jared is such a wonderful Dad, always doing what needs to be done to support his family. He is the best at making the kids laugh and finding fun outlets in the house.  He is a good contrast to my occasionally strict approach to parenting.  I am so grateful to have such a wonderful partner in this adventure called parenting.  Happy Father's Day!

RUSH, a BEAUTIFUL Dancer, and a CRAZY Day!

Can I just say, I almost titled this post "Parenting Fail"?  

Tonight was almost a disaster.  The day has been crazy.  School is out, we are packing up all the odds and ends, closing out rooms, setting up kids to sleep on the couches, and running loads of boxes to the new house.  We moved a load over at the crack of dawn this morning and another load during naps. I knew I had to quit packing around 4 to get Sara ready for her dance recital.  It was going to be tight-I needed to get her ready, get the other kids ready to be dropped off at the Lautenschlagers' house for babysitting duty, and then meet up with Jared to get decent seats at Skyline.  I was proud of the fact that we were basically on time as Jared hurried the other kids out to the van and I hurried Sara and Karianna to the little car to head to skyline.  Sara looked just adorable in her sparkle-y blue outfit and bright red lipstick.  We were primed to arrive about 45 minutes early so I could get good seats-ideal, right?

Well, I had a funny feeling as the girls got buckled in.  On a lark, I pulled out my paperwork for both girls' call times for recital days.  That's when i realized my massive mistake.  Sara's recital was tomorrow.  KARIANNA'S recital was tonight!  I literally screamed. I sat there, staring at this paper in horror for about 15 seconds when I went into hyper mode (which does not equate good-mom-mode, just for the record).  I yelled for Karianna to get into her costume, while yelling at Jared to wait for Sara so she could join the other kids for babysitting duty.  I pulled Sara's outfit off, got her back into her play clothes, and sent her to the van in full make up and hair-at least she would look pretty for the Lautenschlagers, right?  Oh, i was kicking myself mentally this whole time. I am sure I was not very nice to Jared as he hurried Sara to the car, telling me he would head straight to skyline after dropping the kids off and save seats.  Karianna was on the ball, and was in her full costume by the time I ran back in.  She had even pulled her hair into a pony so I could get it sprayed and pulled into a bun.  We did that at lighning speed, grabbed my make up bag, and ran out to the car.  This all happened in 10 minutes.  So crazy, given that for dress rehearsal, it took us about 45 minutes to get her ready.  Granted, she had no make up on.

As we drove to skyline, Karianna applied powder, blush, and a bit of eye shadow.  Once we got there, we rushed to the back of the auditorium with about 10 minutes to spare before the show started.  In retrospect, she was just fine, as her group wasn't going until about 2/3s of the way into the show.  I was just so upset at myself for this massive mix-up, and super worried that this would totally throw Karianna off.  I tried to be outwardly calm so she would be calm, and I think it worked okay.  Once she checked in, we stood out in the hall and I quickly applied her eyeliner, mascara and red lips.  She looked beautiful, and as I bid her good luck, I was amazed we had gotten there in time.  I ran in to the auditorium with about 2 minutes to spare and found jared sitting with his mom.  I was so embarrassed.  I wanted to cry, but couldn't let myself in front of Jared's mom.  I convinced myself there was nothing left to do but just enjoy the show. 

So I did.

The various groups were just lovely, and I swear, I could see Karianna in every single dance....her natural talent just lends itself to being really good in this area.  I am so glad we put her into dance, and it is something we need to keep up....it would be a travesty to waste all of her talent. When Karianna's group got up to do their number, it was literally magical.  All my massive anxiety wiped away as I watched her dance-I couldn't stop smiling.  She was just beautiful-so graceful, so fluid, and so talented.  She had a little solo moment where she runs up to the front of the stage, pulls her leg all the way up to her ear, and does a small spin before letting her leg down in a slow release-only she could do that, as the dancer novice in a group of girls who all participated in the company numbers.  So proud of this girl!  

I wish Karianna could have been in more numbers, but for her first foray in dance, I thought it was brilliant.  Despite my parenting fail, she wasn't frazzled at all, and performed so wonderfully.  Jared had to take off right after her number to get the kids, so I met her afterwards to give her huge congratulations and take a couple of pictures, as the rush before hand didn't allow me too.  She was stoic, as she typically is these days for pictures. ;) but doesn't she still look beautiful?

What a night.  The best take away though is the fact that I have a spectacularly talented daughter who is going to excel so much in dance over the next few years-of that, we will make sure. Great job tonight Nana!  I'm sorry I was so loopy, and you were just brilliant!

PS.  We got home around 10:30 after stopping for McDonalds, and-you guessed it-Jared and I loaded up a vanload of boxes and headed to the new house.  We didn't get home until about 1am, when we packed up the last load of boxes from the house that we will take over with the moving van tomorrow morning).  did I get any sleep tonight?  About an hour.  Moving Day is upon us. 

8 Hours

I knew it would happen.  It was honestly inevitable: our move was bound to have problems.  Sigh.  Problems started yesterday and today was therefor a long day trying to resolve said problems.  Rather than rant and rave, I'll just make a list of the things that have gone wrong in the last 48 hours.

1. We were meant to pick up our keys bright and early Wednesday morning.  We got a call very last minute saying we needed to move that appointment with our landlord to late afternoon.  That meant we couldn't move the bedframes and mattresses that were already packed into the van into the house in order to move another load of boxes that night.  Oh well.
2. We drove to the house as planned late afternoon only to find the landlord was not there.  We waited about 20 minutes before calling her.  After going through a stream of people, we finally reached her to find out she attempted to call our home number to tell us she was stuck on the other side of town in an emergency with another house.  Why she called the home number when she knows we were likely on the road, I don't know.  She tried to direct us to a lockbox on the side of the house so we could at least move stuff in as we had planned.  The key in said lockbox did not work; apparently, the cleaning crew had put the wrong key in.  Out of luck.  We drove back home with new plans to meet the landlord at 7:30am the next morning before Jared had to get to work-plan was to walk through together, get that load of stuff in the van unpacked, and he would take it back to the house in order to meet us down there around lunchtime with another load.  
3. Got to the house at 7:30 this morning-brought James with us.  We had arranged to have the power, water, gas, and internet turned on that day, so I had to be there for a while.  I brought James to make things easier at home.  We brought my laptop and a couple of camping chairs as well as a pillow and a blanket.  Upon arriving to the house, we found the landlord there, and took that as a good sign.  That feeling didn't last.  The landlord quickly told us the key she had brought didn't work either-no way to get into the house.  The two garage openers didn't have working batteries.  We were stuck outside.  She had called a locksmith to come change the lock out entirely, but he was 40 minutes out.  Sigh.  We waited around, but Jared had to leave to get back to work.  Sigh again.  I decided to keep the van and told Jared I would just unload the mattresses and frames myself, just loading them into the garage.  He took off, and the locksmith got there shortly thereafter to change out the lock.  We got in the house, just way later than I thought.
4. The landlord gave me all the paperwork, answered a few of my questions, and though she was nice, she had to leave very quickly, and left me to do the walkthrough on my own.  I would have preferred to do it with her to get any last minute things fixed, but oh well.  She did say that because of a snafu with the water, the carpet cleaners didn't shampoo the carpets, and she had scheduled them to come back today.  I told her I would call as soon as the water was on so they could come over.  Definitely annoyed that they didn't have that done, but at least she had them scheduled to come out. She left.
5. The walk-through began, I became more and more dismayed with each room I went into.  Nail holes still in the walls.  Light fixtures not working.  plates on some of the plugs not on.  Both bathrooms were gross-totally needed to be cleaned, and that was frustrating since she said they already had a cleaning crew out.  The counters in the kitchen were covered in some filmy stuff.  Yardwork in both yards not done.  Fridge didn't look cleaned out at all.  The bathtub and shower were the worst-hair still in both, and terrible deposits of hard water and rust stains.  I admit it-I started to cry.  I took a billion pictures, called Jared, and cried some more.  We were supposed to officially move in on Saturday, and I was all of the sudden completely out of my comfort zone.  
6. I got proactive.  I called the landlord to report that the house flat out needed to be re-cleaned.  I gave her specific examples-she agreed and arranged to have the cleaning crew come back out.  I told her the yardwork wasn't done at all, there were cat feces in the backyard and cigarettes.  Apparently, the past tenant never smoked in the house, but smoked a ton in the backyard.  She arranged for the yardwork to get done next weekend.  I told her I was extremely worried about the cat smell in the house.  She assured me the shampooing of the carpets would take care of that.  I told her about the cosmetic issues that were not fixed in the home.  She said she would get her handyman out there today to fix things. I told her that we really were disappointed this was not done before 6/1, given that our lease started yesterday. She told me she would deduct 4 days of rent from our first month.  I appreciated how she worked to meet my needs.....though I sure do with this could have been taken care of over the last 2 weeks. Triple sigh.
7. Once I got off that phone call, I was calmer, thank heavens.  James and I settled in for the long haul as we waited for all the utility people to get there.  We set up camping chairs in the kitchen and he started watching movies and playing games on the tablet, and I got out my computer.  Thankfully the internet guy came very, very quickly, so I was able to work as we waited for everyone else.  The SRP folks also came out quickly and got that set up; the gas guy was next, showed me how to get that set up and headed out.  Water guys came out close to noon, and I immediately called the landlord to confirm the carpet cleaners could come.  Things were moving along.
8. I took James out for a quick lunch break at a very gross jack in the box down the road, and we got back moments before the carpet cleaners arrived.  They did their thing, and that's when I noticed the house was getting really hot-86 downstairs.  i wondered if that was due to the humidity from the carpet cleaning, and though I tried to adjust it, it was on some weird schedule, and I couldn't figure it out.  Frustrating.
9. The carpet cleaners did a great job, which was awesome.  We only had to wait for the handyman and the cleaning crew. They got there around 2, at which point I was starting to really drag.  James, bless his heart, was doing so awesome, and I am SO glad I brought him to hang out with me. That was probably the sole bright spot of the day. The handyman started fixing a handful of small things, measured one window to replace the blinds that didn't work, and spent a loooooong time changing out the front door lock.  He actually didn't finish that, so he ended up taking my keys with him so he could finish the next day. I didn't love that, but didn't know what else to do.  I kept the garage openers once he replaced the batteries, so at least we had that as a point of entry.  The cleaning lady worked until about 4:30, and she was at least nice-we chatted for a good while.  I took James out to get a snack at Frys and once we got back around 5, I let her know we would need to head back to Mesa, so she could call it quits.  She was just about done mopping anyway, so it was good timing.
10. James and I finally left the house around 5.  A lot of stuff got done, but man, we were beat-James fell asleep in the car. I did manage to get all the mattresses and stuff unloaded on my own-not easy, but I did it.  Jared and I would end up loading boxes in the van around 10pm that night, and we actually drove back to the house to unpack them into the correct rooms.  i was so tired, but it was helpful to show Jared the house since he had not been in it since the last tenant moved out.  I was honestly still dismayed that after two cleanings, the shower still looked gross and the bathtub not much better.  I just vowed to clean those two things out myself so I knew they were done well.  

We got home around midnight to relieve Karianna from her babysitting duties and called it a day.  Such a long day. I am really hopeful all the issues we have to deal with are just done.  I don't think those hopes are going to come true! But I can wish, right?

And this is the guy that made it possible for me to survive the day.  :)  On the docket for tomorrow:  3 loads of boxes to the house, just me and Jared.  How much you wanna bet I'm going to get about 10 more bruises on my legs?  They'll be in good company-I'm already black and blue all over!  Moving is so much fun. :)

T-minus One Week!

Moving Day is happening in exactly 1 week.  Yikes!  I have been packing for months, literally.  It started around Thanksgiving time when I started packing away Halloween/Fall stuff, and I did it in a manner that would make it move-ready.  I did the same thing for Christmas stuff.  Bookshelves, closets, cabinets, and even rooms have slowly gotten packed up in such an organized manner, and despite my preparation, I am feeling so rushed and like I am running out of time!  I'm sure it doesn't help that end-of-school activities have been crazy, the girls are gearing up for dance recitals, the boys just finished soccer, JD's birthday is coming up, and we are down to the jobs that could not be done before this moment.  Fingers crossed the next 7 days go relatively smooth! 

I decided to tackle the toy room today. This is a job I loathe because it is not just a simple "pick up the toys and toss them in a box".  I need them gutted out, organized, placed in bins, and just ready to pick up and transport to the new house.  It is such a huge job. So I posted these pics on FB with a candid comment about keeping me on task-I need this done by tomorrow!  Thankfully, Sara and James have been AMAZING helpers with good attitude to boot.  So glad for helpful kids around now!

 I figured I should take a picture to commemorate how we are going about the packing process.  We moved all the furniture out of the front room and once a box is packed, it goes to the front room.  Very smooth, and it will make it easier for Jared and I to move most of this stuff to the new house on our own.

I did not anticipate catching a stowaway in one of the boxes. ;)

Jordan's Second Grade Celebration

This one is going to make me cry!  This is Janet Cox, Jordan's 2nd grade teacher.

This is the first year we have had Janet as a second grade teacher for one of our kids.  We have always had Mrs. Thede, whom I love.  However, Jordan begged me to have Janet this year as his teacher, and I decided to comply.  I am so grateful I did.  Janet is the kind of teacher I want to be when I grow up.  She absolutely exudes love for her students.  Every word out of her mouth is positive and encouraging.  She balances such a wide array of learning activities and real life experiences into her classroom, and she does it with ease.  She involves her students in every decision that happens in the classroom.  She treats them like adults, and they rise to the occasion.  She is the master of extras, going the extra mile to challenge students at their individual levels. She has high expectations, and I believe that is the very thing that utterly motivated Jordan to excel as much as he did this year.  I could go on and on.  I got to know Janet on a personal level and volunteered in her class every Friday and for several class parties.  She came to Jordan's baptism and only just missed his primary program after falling ill. For some reason, she fawned over me because she knows I work for WGU. She called me "a teacher of teachers", and I kept telling her I would trade my position for her 25 years of experience any day!  I don't think she knows how much I learned from her.  I am so hopeful I can keep in touch even though we won't be at Bush any longer.

A couple of bulletin boards outside Jordan's room....

 Jordan's second grade year was just unbelievably awesome for all the reasons I mentioned above.  His report cards were perfect.  he was the second kiddo in his class to master all his math facts and to move on to multiplication and division--that was way back in September! He got 100% on every single spelling test, and he always had the challenge words.  He told me with confidence that everyone says he and Joshua (his best friend) are the smartest kids in the class-he is so proud of that.  he was the first to finish his 100 book club books, and achieved a reading award in addition to that.  Jordan loves school.  he loves learning, he gets great satisfaction out of being smart, and he had the honor of learning from one of the best teachers I have ever come across (and get this-Janet just completed her gifted certification this year, even after 25 years in the biz!  How amazing to continually challenge oneself!). Jordan is just a wonderful child, we are so proud of his achievements!

 Jordan's reading trophy and his "Believe" art that Janet stitched and framed herself-she did that for each kid!

 Arg, I wish I had checked and snapped another shot to avoid eyes closed!  Oh well-I'm leaving it in!

Sara's First Grade Celebration

Sara had her first grade celebration this afternoon, and it was just so super-sweet, and the first time I really sat down and realized how much i am going to miss Barbara Bush.  Our kids have been here for 6 years now, since Karianna was in 1st grade, and I absolutely love our K-2 teachers.  They pour in so much time, effort, extras, and love for these kids, and as a teacher, I adore them. I worry so much the kids won't have this same environment, experience, and support from a new school.  Thinking about this nearly gives me a panic attack, so lets get back to the celebratory things!

I have spent a lot of time volunteering in Ms. Cawood's room this year, and just love her style and how much she loves Sara.  Sara got her 1st grade scrapbook today, as well as a reading award and her 100 books club award.  Sara has just had an exceptional year.  Nothing ever seemed hard for her in 1st grade.  She made leaps and bounds in kinder, and was in a great place for a young first grader in August, but she absolutely astounded me with her capabilities this year.  She is such a fantastic reader, never flinching with any story she read.  She picked up her math facts quickly, and I never had to help her study for a spelling test-and she always got 100%.  She just excelled with Ms. Cawood's loving and energetic style, and I am just so grateful she had 2 wonderful years at Bush between Mrs. Davis and Ms. Cawood.  I am going to miss these two wonderful educators! 

 Can you see Sara's top tooth just hanging there?  It refuses to come out!

A Compelling Comparison

This pictures says it all.  Jared has been on a journey since around November to lose weight and get healthy.  He has made such huge strides in fitness and eating, it is really incredible: started at 251, now he is just under 180, for a total loss of over 70 pounds.  70.  That number blows my mind.  He essentially lost a Karianna.  He started at size 40-42 pants, and just bought 34's again.  It seemed time for a new swimsuit too, and as you can see, the comparison is drastic.  I am so proud of Jared for all his work.  He would say he is at an interesting time in his "transformation".  He has lost pretty much all the weight he wanted to lose, and now he wants to transition to muscle sculpting.  That's going to take a different regimen, which he is still trying to determine, and that is bound to be tricky with our impending move. Nonethless, his progress and commitment is amazing, and he has been inspirational in my book.

On a slightly different note.  I don't talk much about this, but Jared said I should, so I decided to share here.  I got extremely frustrated with some health issues back in December, mostly connected to daily digestion/stomach issues that I have had since i was a teenager.  I was too embarrassed about it to talk to anyone, and the symptoms I was experiencing have gotten way worse in the last year.  It was affecting numerous aspects of my life.  December 6th,  I hit a huge low in many ways, spent a few weeks extremely depressed, and finally decided enough was enough.  I changed my entire diet.  I carefully determined which foods I was having a weird reaction to-it was a lot.  I was eating essentially four things that didn't upset my stomach.  I went to my primary care doctor, my OB, an allergist, and a gastroenterologist.  I found out my horomones were fine, my bloodwork was fine, I am deficient in vitamin B, I am allergic to corn, and most importantly, I have IBS.  I was afraid of the latter, as I feel like that is such a general umbrella term....but more knowledge is better than none.  I did a lot of research, started taking meds for IBS, further refined my diet to nix all corn, and started trying out some other foods to widen the variety of my diet.  I started working out extremely regularly, and gave up Dr. Pepper (both of those were back in December-haven't had soda of any kind since the end of November actually).  I also started reading books on self-compassion and doing meditations to resolve some other personal issues.

My life changed significantly as a result.  Things are not perfect yet-I still think there is one other issues I need to resolve, which will happen over summer and hopefully fix the problems with my hair falling out.  But overall, I am so happy with what my changes have brought.  I lost 26 pounds I didn't even realize I had to lose.  I have better muscle tone than I have had in a long time, and I can run 3 miles without feeling terribly winded.  I feel better about myself.  I no longer have severe stomach aches every night.  My kids are seeing me eat healthy. Jared and I are working together on this amazing journey towards a healthier lifestyle. I don't have migraines as often, which is amazing because they were getting so bad (I suspect they were related to my IBS). Overall--a better way of living.  I am excited for both Jared and I to continue finding awesome outlets for healthy living.

That is all. :)