So, I decided to do some indoor "to do" items today. Ava's been going through my drawers for tshirts, because she ran out of leggings, and jammies, and refuses to be in anything that isn't made for comfort. This prompted my resolution to climb the laundry mountain. Now, to be fair, I wasn't too far behind. After folding a few loads, I went into her room, and discovered that her drawers were empty, because most of the clothes were shoved under her bed....next to an old pull up. AWESOME. So even though I know she hasn't worn these, the scent of old urine is necessitating a cycle or two through the washer, with maybe a tsp of vinegar just to be sure the odor is abolished. It's been nice not to be doing hard labor. Seriously, I want to be one of those awesome women on HGTV that conquers the house in a 30 minute segment, however, it's just not so. So today, I rejoice in my 75 degree, temperature controlled environment, even if it means many trips up and down the stairs toting baskets of clothing.

Never Ending To Dos....

We are getting ready to sell the house again. This time, however, we will be leaving and then staging. There is a list that seems never ending in cost and energy to do before we are ready though. But, the upside is that when we're all done, the house should be perfect for the new owners.
Yesterday I power washed the fence. I spent the first...oh 2 hours not realizing I was using the power washer wrong, and only harnessing like 1/2 the power. Yeah. Dumb moment for Deb. Thankfully, Chris came home to check on me, and fixed the problem, and then 2 hours later, the fence was done. I'm sunburned, despite the sunscreen I sprayed on myself.
We also have been working on removing the morning glory. oh morning glory...how truly NOT glorious you are. We've also been cleaning up the rock RV pad and digging up dirt to smooth it out.
Next up is power raking, reseeding and weed n feed for the yard, along with some new flowers to color up the yard.
We'll throw up a fence in a couple of weeks too.
Once we move out, we'll do the inside work. We are hiring out the roof repairs, tile job and putting in a closet in the basement room. I don't even want to see the invoice or bid for that. I just don't. But we both feel that this is the right move for us.

Learning Station

Just over a month ago, Ava graduated from her first year of preschool with Miss Eve. Ava loved going to her class every Tuesday and Thursday. She learned-beyond just ABCs and writing her name, that listening, and sharing and singing are all vital elements in life. Sadly, we missed registration for the 11-12 year, and so she won't be going back. She misses school so much, and often asks if Miss Eve will come to her birthday party. I miss her preschool too. She's so bored. I have her enrolled to go to Bravo preschool in the fall, but as time goes on, I fear that it will be something we won't be able to fit into the budget. It's 3 days a week and about $100 a month. They really do need scholarships for this stuff. I mean, her Bravo teacher said she was ready for kindergarten, but due to being born in December, she has another year of preschool. Emotionally, she is probably in need of the extra time. Academically, however, she is so ready. It's frustrating. The hardest part is knowing that as a parent, I'm completely unprepared for her being this smart. Seriously. I didn't study early childhood education. I have no idea. So we do workbooks, and worksheets, and read books and sing, but I'm just scared that I'm not offering her what she needs. I knew there'd be drawbacks to marrying such an incredibly brilliant man---really smart kids. Any ideas on what you've been doing to keep your kids brains going during the summer?

I was looking for the perfect funny to describe what I've been feeling the past few days. I'm working very hard to keep my life away from
where, sadly, I have been many many times before. We have spent the past month really working hard to declutter our lives, and get organized. Now, it's my task to keep it that way. I realized today, that since Simon is up at 6:30, I should probably take advantage of that. Making the bed, folding the laundry, and emptying the dishwasher are much easier to do with only 1 kid awake. Especially when that kid only desires to drink his chocolate milk while watching netflix. (seriously, he may need a 12 step program.) Last night, it took me almost 3 hours to do what my mom could have done in probably 20 minutes. by the end of my day the energy is not there, so I really need to start doing the stuff I hate most, first. The exhausting part, mentally, is knowing that by cleaning the house first, it's bound to get destroyed the moment child #2 joins the fun and she and Simon begin "playing." However, I am starting to put more of the "clean up" jobs in her list of "to do." So, hopefully it'll be routine before I lose the ability to bed over. So here's to a day of laundry, grocery shopping, where the hell is the vacuum, has anyone seen the sun screen, no you're not going outside naked, seriously, put your pants back on kid, man i'm starving-can you pass the bag of bread this way please.....

too tired to blog

called to serve-the little children

It catches me off guard all the time how much time has passed. Seriously, I still remember the night, in my apartment back in PA, when I woke in a panic. I had just had the weirdest dream. I was on the floor playing with a beautiful curly hair-blonde toddler. She had the biggest, blue eyes, and cute dimples. Her name was Ava. We were laughing and then the door opened, and I said, "Welcome home honey". As the man's face came into view, my entire self fought my sub-conscious and woke me with a start, as I recognized him as a missionary that had been teaching my friends. I decided right then, that I would no longer be talking to that guy, as I was TOTALLY creeped out, a decision that was easily kept, since he was transferred within a couple of days. I moved back home to be with my sister before she left on her mission, and started thinking about going on a mission myself. I go to my home ward, only to discover that he'd been transferred to my parents ward. Again, totally weirded out. I remember walking up to him and saying "If you end up in my singles ward, I'm going inactive." I'm sure he thought it was a really random comment, as I had never told him of my freaky dream. I didn't see him after that. A year later, when he went home, he began to email me, and I was taking missionary prep classes. My 21st birthday was only a month away, and my papers were nearly done. I had been a ward missionary for months, and wanted nothing more than to serve a mission. We began calling each other, and he became my best friend. He asked me to come out for a visit, and told me that he was falling in love with me. I put the date out about a month, figuring by then he'd lose interest. But the end of June came, and I found myself panicked. WHAT THE HECK HAD I BEEN THINKING? Sure I'd known him for a few months while he was on a mission, but I was about to spend a WEEK 2,000 miles from home with his family. What if they were total freaks? What if they hated me? What if I had to come to terms with the idea that he meant more to me than I was ready for?
I'm pretty sure that my little girl had so much to do with me getting out of my own way. I was never going to be the girl that fell for the missionary. I was definitely not going to move to UTAH ever. But here we are almost 6 years later, and I'm happier than I could have ever imagined. I know our life is never how we plan it to be, but somehow it's better than I could have etched myself. I cried the night I realized I wasn't going to be going on my mission that year. I cried when I told him I accept his proposal. And sometimes, when I hear a home coming talk from a sister, I still cry. But I turn to see this little girl, the little girl that visited me often in my dreams while we were engaged, to keep me temple worthy, and to remind me that she was waiting for me, and her daddy, and I realize that I had a greater, and much longer mission that the Lord had been preparing me for.

How do I not love you?

Seriously.

Sarcastic Journalist-

I love to read the entries of the sarcastic journalist on babygaga.com

Being pregnant with twins is amazing, and I swear puts every symptom about 2 weeks ahead of schedule. So many hormones. Lately, I've been emotionally unstable. Seriously. I'm pretty sure I beat Simon this week in tantrums and it's only Tuesday. My poor kids. Anyway, I've been thinking about doing water aerobics. Every day I've been walking a mile. (1/2 mile each way to holt) with my kids at the minimum. Seriously, it kicks my butt. The energy is just not there. That's why this article today really had me rollin. I'm 13 weeks 3 days

Just enough energy to FREAK OUT

“They” say that your energy should start coming back during the second trimester. For me, having “energy” meant having the ability to get off the couch and make it to the kitchen to get the cookies instead of asking someone else to do it for me.

After a first trimester where rearranging the pillow behind my head seemed like too much effort, I would take any type of energy I could. That’s why, at 15 weeks, I joined a gym.

Getting anything done at the gym often took more effort than the activity I planned on doing. First I’d have to pee about five times, just to make sure I had it all out. Then, I’d weigh myself. I’d have a sip of water. Oh wait, I’d have to pee again.

Eventually, I’d make it to the workout area or the pool, depending on what activity I had planned for that day. Once there, I’d have my hormonal freakout because either the TVs were tuned to the “wrong” station or annoying children were playing in my swim lane.

At one point, I actually had to give myself a “time out” so I wouldn’t cause permanent damage to the young boys playing Marco Polo.

Sure, exercise can produce “endorphins” that might help with all the pregnancy “hormones,” but dealing with all the wahoos at the gym sure cancelled them out.

I guess I love you, baby that's that

I was feeling kind of blue today, what with the never ending flooding at our home + predicted 80 degree days being a 60 something degree day + having to be in the office and my house a constant chaos due to losing 600 square feet of space....I really could go on, because whining is my #1 trait...

but then something awesome happened

I got a text that said...TURN AROUND. and suddenly, this guy was in my office


and he said, let's OSAKA. Now, I'm not supposed to be eating raw fish at the moment, but I told myself that "smoked salmon" is better than raw Redsnapper and ordered the philly roll.
Oh man. Now, I've become a huge fan of Nigiri sushi lately, but this roll was so divine. A lot of die hard sushi eaters hate rolls that are fully of added things like avacado, cream cheese, cucumber, tempura etc, but I'm a lover of all kinds.

We then had mango and strawberry mochi ice cream. I couldn't find an awesome enough photo to put on here. but trust me in that it is truly heavenly.

This week may have been hard, and long...but today I had a great, unexpected lunch date with my love, and tomorrow I get to watch a production of Les Mis live in Salt Lake with my mom and sis and nana.

And while Colm Wilkinson will not be our Jean Valjean, I will be in awe, all the same. *disclaimer, I would just like to add that Colm Wilkinson is my all time favorite portray-er of Jean Valjean.* Things are looking up...