Counting our Blessings:
1. WE CLOSED ON OUR NEW HOUSE THURSDAY!
and moved in that night. Friday morning I was actually walking around squealing spontaneously and singing away. Truly delighted by the fairly basic, though spacious, 4 walls. The singing sounded great because an empty house has a great echo, akin to the sound of shower singing, but even better. The concrete floors added to the amplified effect. No, concrete is not the new trend, it is the deal we worked out with the builder. They left out their worthless standard flooring in the first floor of the house so that we could have Home Depot come Monday to put in floors beautiful, laminate wood floors, at a decent cost. We have carpeting upstairs. The house is basically empty because when I say, "move in" it means we took all the stuff that fit in 1 Honda pilot and about 8 suitcases, plus all the junk we accumulated in 4 months, then added all the stuff I bought new for the house, and deposited it in the loft. We have scheduled the movers (yes a professional moving company that packed our whole house in Utah and then will move everything in for us, woo hoo) to bring the rest of our belongings on Monday, Oct. 8th.
2. Taking on a new, 20 year loan.
After a nightmare I had that our house ending up costing $800,000, the reality of signing for new home actually felt calm and "right" and added to the confirmation that this is where we are supposed to be.
3. Premier Pools dug a really big hole in our yard Monday.
4. Dave LOVES his job. Watch out! He knows alot about the precious resource, water, and tends to get a little preachy about supply and demand, waste, etc. :) (if you want to know why he knows so much about water, when his job is working to open a new underground copper mine, you will have to call and ask him.)
5. I like my new job okay.
Long story short: When I have too much time, I get depressed, stir crazy, and very dissatisfied with life. I got a job as a part time reading aide at Canyon Rim Elementary (about 8 minutes from my house). I really like it when I actually get to teach the kids but when I just do busy work, or wander around a room keeping wiggly little boys on task, not so much.
(Long story long: at first I took a job as an instructional assistant which meant assisting generally in different classrooms throughout the morning and occasionally with the kids. There was also an option of office assistant/ copy girl. Both had my busy brain reeling and searching for some meaning to those long, 4 hours. So the day after I took the job, I told the school that I just couldn't do it and that I was going to be a substitute teacher, to work more with the kids. They called me that afternoon and offered me the reading aide. I really want to love it, and it has potential. My time is precious and I will keep it if it works well with my personality and if that going to work EVERY DAY doesn't put me behind with my other pursuits as mom, homemaker, neighbor, visiting teacher, . . . the list goes on).
6. Seth's team finally won a soccer game.
They lost the first 2. Seth has had a really hard time going from competition soccer in Utah (called "club" soccer in Arizona) to recreational soccer here. The "club" teams play alot on Sundays so we didn't want to pursue that route. Seths team has progressively gotten better and he was so satisfied to assist with all 3 goals his team made.
Seth's sweet tooth has finally caught up with him. See the picture below.
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| dont know why this is posting sideway. See "sumo wrestling" for the real story on seths shirt. |
7. James -
Hmmmm, James had an average week. He doesn't know how he is going to survive until our pool is finished. This boy has swam every day since we moved here. During one homework session, James was banned from my presence due to his drastically negative attitude, but then rallied to once again complete a fabulous, and beautifully penned book report. I don't blame him for despising Book Reports but my comments of "get-over-it because you have many more to write in your life" didn't help the situation.
Tonight James also caught a toad. Well Levi (the dog) really found the toad and James found a new passion. The cardboard box home will hopefully last the night.
8. Peter -
Since we moved in, only 2 days ago, Peter has already disappeared too many times, to be found at the neighbors. We have been going to our ward since we moved here so he already knows where the closest Mormons live.
Peter worked diligently (once we convinced him he had to) to haul in a palette of laminate flooring boxes. Although murmuring the entire time, he was pleased at his work when we pointed out the nice accomplishment.
9. Our color scheme (it sounds weird, but we are using colors called Granite Boulder, Squirrel, Silver Frost, and Hazelnut Cream) is turning out stunning. I can just hear my mom groan at the sounds of those drab colors, but it looks awesome. We are adding some color splashes in the days to come. We are painting the entire house inside ourselves, because again, the upgrade charge by the builder to go from 1 color of, now listen, 1 color of FLAT, did you hear that, I said, FLAT paint, to two tone FLAT paint, was so outrageous, even our sales lady asked "you didn't pay the paint upgrade did you?" Well no we didn't. We are the paint upgrade. Satin finish and multi-hued. It took us two days to paint 2 rooms. They are big rooms. But this is a blessing because it is gonna look soooooooooo good.
10. A list of a few more I really need to include:
*General Relief Society Meeting
*inviting your recently converted visiting teacher sister to come and having her actually come
*a wonderful landlord at your rental house
*the ability to work with little sleep
*watching food network shows while doing that work
*wonderful new neighbors who insist on helping you move even though you don't have a ton to move
*so many ward members offering you tables, chairs, mattresses, and even and iron to borrow (when they heard you wouldn't have those things for 10 days) that your phone was ringing all day
*friends for your kids
*dedicated teachers
*Kohls is open late
*Walmart is open late
and more . . . it's been a blessed week
*Dave just reminded me to add that we found THE BEST Mexican restaurant here, after much searching. We have only had time to try it once, last week, but it might be better than most in Utah as well. salivating just thinking about it.
And now for a few moments, keeping things real
1. Should you get mad a a kid for reading too much? Because if there ever was a kid inspired that feeling, its Seth. He is apparently the 2nd fastest reader in his class, did the 4th best on his geography of the Middle East test, and according to his teacher, is one of her "Math Kids". But man he is infuriating when he wont put a book down for anything, at it happens all day, every day!
2. Because I am so indecisive, we have hardly any lights in our new house. Most of our rooms have celling fans with lights that we were supposed to choose and install ourselves. If I ever finish this tonight I will force myself to order them, pronto.
3. A clear glass shower. This presents several negative scenarios.
4. Going scorpion hunting for family night and finding ZERO scorpions.
5. Having another of the boys recreational wrestling matches turn nearly fatal (not really nearly fatal Mom Stanley, it just sounds like it from any other room in the house). Tonight's version was imitation sumo wrestling. James and Seth stuffed pillows in their shirts and this was supposed to soften the blow. Funny how these matches come up so often since we have a NO WRESTLING OR EVEN TOUCHING EACH OTHER/NO SITTING BY EACH OTHER rule in force. It really all ends badly when Peter doesn't let up, and the kid is like a squid! Powerful, powerful tentacles.
6. Not being able to see any mountains from my back porch. There are mountains here. Cool, craggy looking ones. But they are too far away to see from sitting on our porch. I try to console myself with the balmy cool mornings eating breakfast on the porch. Dave refuses to eat inside. Finally the nights are even cooling down. 85 degrees is quite heavenly actually.
7. Peter is really struggling with his academic classes in high school. He is happy, and likes the big school. He finally went to a football game Friday night, homecoming, we won, and he had a wonderful time. Now we just need him to take learning seriously. We don't know what else to try, so prayer please anyone?
8. Peter and James have pimples.
9. Second night in new house, first clogged toilet. I won't say who (but it wasn't me). And of course we didn't pack a plunger in the "must-haves" we brought from Utah. Fun.
10. (i could go on and on): We don't have a sharp knife yet. That goes on the "things we can't live with for 9 days list) and I will be buying one tomorrow. When I planned dinner I didn't think about this fact. Turns out a butter knife does not cut french bread so we had torn garlic bread with our frozen lasagna. It was different.
11. Bonus - I had to do recess duty for AN HOUR on Friday at the school I am working at. This is most unpleasant. My feet are already killing from being on them for most of the 4 hours straight.
Overall, blessed, and I guess we will try again this week.
