twins

the twins today each had a jumprope and said let's go fishing-- yeah, Danel- yet's go fishing-- yeah-- let's go fishing!
 we took all the kids to the psrk and played b-ball-- it was pretty fun, the twins walked around the court and played with the v- ball while the others of us played-- eventually they took off walking together toward the playground-- I just love being around them-- but watch out when they are tired andyou try to turn off thetv that you turned on togive yourself a little extra time making dinner!

wow!

We are actually under contract with our house which is a HUGE blessing-- I think the Lord has been watching out for us all along, but it has been a tough couple of years.

Anyway, we are set to close tomorrow!!  We are taking a pretty big hit because of all the damage that happened to the house this past year, but we are out of time and money to fix it up, and we figure that pretty much everybody lost money on their houses so it's our turn now too.  We will still have a pretty good chunk of change from when we were rich and put a lot of money on that house, so we'll be able to put in a fence and yard in our new house and have a really good financial cushion.  Hopefully we'll be able to save most of it and live within our means on the salary of my husband's new job which is also a huge blessing!  He's still working for the LDS church, but no longer as an employee-  he is vendor status and gets to work from home.  It has been so nice.  He also got a bit of a raise which helps too.  We are very thankful to finally have a break and to be close to the end of a very difficult period in our lives.  Yay!!

We are so dang busy though.  We had the Pinewood Derby tonight in which the boys did just fine-- not dead last like last year. We have a fun family Halloween party Sat. and I have to make a warm furry costume for a certain boy.  We have a pumkin land field trip scheduled tomorrow-- the girls are supposed to start b-ball on Sat.  I really want them to play, but it just may be pushing it too far because they have quite a few choir concerts coming up.  We had a doctor appt. this  week too and vision therapy for #5,  And lots of good schooling goin on-- I'm just not sure when to get to my deep cleaning and when to get my shopping done-- there are so many good things to do-- it's hard to prioritize and balance everything just right.  These are really good problems to have and I'm really glad that these are the problems I'm dealing with right now.  Life is good!

Hubris

Hubris is a word I never had even an idea tht it existed until about 7 years ago when I finally learned some Greek history.  Merriam- Webster describes it as exaggerated pride or self- confidence.  I like to think of it as arrogance and ignorance mixed together.  One example I think of is aperson who has just learned to play a song on the piano telling a concert pianist how their song was pretty good, but they might want to pay closer attention to how they sit on the bench or use the pedal.  Another example of hubris would be a sub contractor such as an electrician, plumber or mason telling the general contractor how to manage the whole project or how they need to be sure to include " such and such" in the general plans.  There sure seem to be a lot of people who know how and what other people should be and do in their lives.  I think these people are very hubristic-- they speak without knowing all the details, they judge others based on their own limited experience.  I think hubristic people are very dangerous.  They think they know how things should be.  They think they are good people who would never do anything wrong.  They are unteachable and stuck, and they don't even know it.  They are not nice to be around.  They are usually mostly interested in themselves or in how others can validate their long held views and opinions, and they will do just about anything to make it appear that their idea is right regardless of how it may make others feel.  I hope I am not that way.  I'm glad I know the meaning of the word, and I'm glad I can recognize this charactoeristic in others so tht I can stay away from those people and know how to manage being around them when I have to be.  I hope I will recognize it in myself.  Extreme arrogance often brought on by extreme ignorance.  Education is a good thing usually-- some people are so stuck that even with an education they can't or won't see it.  This is definitely something I will teach my kids-- be teachable, learn from others, listen, postpone judgement until you have all the details,  don't be afraid to be wrong and admit it, love people, show compassion and mercy, it's OK to not understand things and it's OK to say I don't know, give others the benefit of the doubt, don't let others bring you down or tell you how things are and try to put you in a place so that they can run you over, stand up for yourself without being overbearing and be willing to change your mind and admit your mistakes.  Don't be hubristic!!!!

Happenings

After tucking the kids in bed and me lying down for a minute-- my 5 yob came in and asked me if I would like to hear him count to 300!!!  -- so cute and funny-- I told him I would love to hear him count to 300 -- tomorrow!!

My 11 almost 12 yog (in less than 2 weeks) has been telling me all the funny things she watched on AFV and in whatever book she's reading.  I keep thinking this is just the price to pay so she'll want to talk to me all the time especially when she's older and it really matters.  I'm glad she likes to tell me things.

My 13 yog won the city recreation league volleyball tournament.  This was her first year playing, she had an excellent coach and loves volleyball now.  It was a day of nail- biting close games-- so glad they won and that she held her own and did well.

My 8 and 10 yob cleaned their room and continued doing extra jobs to be able to play more minutes of Minecraft-- so awesome.  My house is looking better than usual!

I made some more natural yeast 100% wheat bread-- it is so yummy.  I can hardly believe how busy Fridays are.  The Primary Program is tomorrow-- so glad to be done with that.  Life is good. I think I need more sleep though

What a Day!!

 This is what I wrote to one of my online mom's support groups:

What a day!!! I gave 3 baths for nasty poopy diapers and one poo accident-- tried to start potty training yesterday cause I didn't want to spend $40 on diapers at Costco so I spent $60 on underwear and a potty seat and treats instead-- but it didn't work!! One twin wouldn't even sit on the potty and the other one was so sweet about it and the older kids sat with him, but he was kind of scared of the potty and didn't really get it. We'll keep trying-- I'm so tired of changing so many nasty diapers!! My son's b-day is tomorrow so my mom came down- a couple hours earlier than expected so we didn't get all our school work and cleaning done-- it was nice to see her though-- also we had a new friend start coming to our Greek class so that took longer than usual. I had a chance to get some cleaning done but the baby was fussing which he usually doesn't do-- so I gave up and laid down with him for a lovely nap-- I have some weird cold that makes me snore at night and I'm not as rested in the morning as I should be- now I have to decide whether to do some dishes-- there aren't many or quit and go to bed because I'm tired and it takes me a long time to get going but I could fall asleep in a minute-- and we have to be to a co-op I'm not ready for at 10 am and pass out a few flyers for primary hopefully before we go. Have I taken on too much?

Overall life is good-- I'm glad I have beautiful children whose diapers I can change and a great house where we are all comfortable and our messes are much more easily contained.  I really will miss these days, because they are so full and rich.  My kids tell me all sorts of interesting things about movies and Minecraft and other things.  I have good friends from church, homeschooling and blogs.  It will be weird to not have so much to do-- I will miss it-- so I guess I'll keep overscheduling myself and keep trying to do the impossible-- I may not make it, but I'll come closer than if I hadn't tried!

 

 

Sweet kids

I think age tw is my favorite age- they are still willing to do most of what I teel them to, they want to be around me all the time and they start to talk and express themselves and they can run around and they are still so small and cute.  These are some of the most remembered sayings from my kids at that age.

#1  My tummy's hot-- meant that she was hungry
#2  I not cute-- I Enonnyn
#3  I can't remember anything specific except that he threw a football perfectly and pretended to shoot me with a compass since there were no boy toys in the house at that time- now that's all we have!
#4   Ready to wiiiiiiiipe!
#5  In response to whoever answered his question when he didn't want them to --- I'm taaaalking to mooooomy or I'm taaaaalking to Daddy.
#6  I want you mommy, I want you  Matha peaks and tar twek -- that space
#7  oooooh danks, mommy --- no way, uh huh- then he'll repeat whatever it is

Baptism and Blessing

My husband had the great pleasure of baptizing our 8 yr. old and blessing the 2 month old.  It was a crazy time especially since we decided to hold the 8 yr. olds b-day party the day before. it was just crazy getting the house, food and everybody ready.  It all worked out.  We didn't get to do everything we would have liked- like extra deep cleaning and haircuts- but it turned out to be a very nice day.  It was a stake baptism which I don't like because they have to be really efficient and the focus seems to go away from the children to the process and where everybody is supposed to go, but this one was O.K. - there were 2 other boys being baptized from our ward and our bishop did a great job of making us all feel valued and loved.  The mothers also got to say a few words at the end and then the other families were excused and we blessed the little baby. It was very sweet to me as a mother.  I loved it.  I think #4 was happy and #8 was happy as usual- slept most of the time.  I've got him here on my lap now-- so sweet- growing so very fast.  I can't believe it!!

The house saga continues!!

O.K.-- so we finally got our old house all cleaned out and up on the market.  We have put all our money on that house so we have a tiny payment, but we cannot access that money unless we get an additional loan with the house as collateral and the house just keeps getting destroyed. And we are all out of money to be able to fix it and be able to sell it for the best price possible.  After a month at the suggestion of our realtor we lowered the price and we were ecstatic to hear that we got an offer that week!!  However, those people walked through and found water in the basement!!  We redid the basement, put in new carpet and walls and paint just 2 1/2 years ago-- and there was water????  We've never had water down there in the 8 yrs. we lived there!!!!  This worried the buyer a little and we had to tear out that nice carpet because it was ruined!!  So we don't have an offer anymore and we had to lower the price again!!!  The good news is that it is not the foundation-- it probably came in through one of the windows because my husband overwatered an area out there because it didn't get enough after we moved out.  We just can't win at real estate.  Oh well, life goes on and my husband has some good future prospects.  We thought we might have gotten out of losing a bunch of money from the real estate bubble, but we didn't.  Hopefully the house will sell and we can just count our losses and move on.  We'll see!!

Good News

We have a bit of a break-- the people still want our house but at a lower price because of the water.  We should be done with it soon.  We are definitely losing money on the transaction, but it won't break us and it just is what the market dictates.  Yay!!!

Everyone is doing pretty well and I've gotten the 2 older boys to practice the piano everyday and they are both playing the ukelele-- I'm learning with them.  It's pretty fun-- even if my teen daughter doesn't think so.

I'm also glad that things seem to be working out the way we thought they would in spite of the wild storms, weird markets, neverending paperwork, and I gotta go-- I have an appt. at 7:12 p.m.!

A Series of Unfortunate Events

I feel like we are characters in this series.  We lowered the price of our house substantially and immediately got an offer.  Then the buyers found water in the basement which has NEVER happened in the 8 years we lived there.  The pad is completely soaked but there is no sign of water anywhere else- the walls and ceiling are dry. That carpet was only 2 years old. Weird-- we really needed that house to sell to be able to afford this one.  We'll wait and see what happens.

Then church was CRAZY!!  Our ward is so big and growing weekly-- there were quite a few people who had to sit in the foyer it was so crowded- it takes about 30 min. to pass the sacrament to everybody--  we tried to figure out the seating for our primary program-- we have so many kids-- the chapel was practically full of our kids-- most the classes have 10-15 kids in them and there are 2 of every class except Sunbeams has 3 classes-- anyway-- it was CRAZY and nobody will be able to see the kids in the program because there will be nowhere to sit and there are so many kids that it is just impossible to get them all in a place where they can be seen.  Anyway- the worst of it is that after I picked up one of my 2 year old twins from nursery, he took off ahead of me and I couldn't call him back, get his attention or follow him because the hall was packed FULL of people I couldn't get around. My girls came up and I sent them after him, they came right back and had not seen him at all.  I told them to keep circling the church and I went outside-- a teenage girl was carrying him up the outside steps and told me she had found him in the MIDDLE OF THE ROAD outside.  There are just too many people for that building.  We are awaiting a split, but it keeps getting put off.  I'm not sure it's safe to take my little ones until the split happens. 

What's next?