I win!

Thank you, Tannie.

Terms of this award: List 10 things about yourself, thank the person who gave you this award and pass it on to 10 wonderful bloggers.


10 things about me...

1. I haven't had bangs since elementary school and I never will again because I have a large cowlick on my hairline that makes bangs look really stupid. Jane has the same cowlick. Sorry.

2. My favorite book of all time is Pride and Prejudice. I own four unique copies and have read it more than a dozen times. You can read me almost any sentence out of the book and I can tell you what's happening in the story.

3. I never untie my shoes. I always just slip them on and off. Too much effort otherwise.

4. I own 11 complete sets of movie trilogies. Back to the Future, Bourne, Lord of the Rings, Spiderman, X-Men, Shrek, The Mummy, Ocean's 11-13, Pirates of the Caribbean, Star Wars 1-3 and 4-6. That does not include movie series that are longer than three films, of which I also own several complete sets.

5. I enjoy watching tv series on dvd. I have already watched all of Stargate and Scrubs. I am currently working through MASH, Star Trek Voyager, The Office, and Stargate again. (This is what I do when I don't have a husband.)

6. I am excited to have colored walls in my new house. White is boring.

7. I walked into my dining room the other day, looking for a book so I could look something up. I was all the way into the room before I realized I was looking at a blank wall. All my books are packed. Duh.

8. My favorite car I ever owned was a 1989 Ford Probe. Picture to come soon.

9. I'm not a big dessert person. I don't often like cake, I really don't like pie, and cookies are hit and miss. I'm getting better with ice cream, and I do enjoy ice cream cake. But, my hands-down, no contest, all time favorite dessert item is Rice Krispie Treats.

10. The thing I will miss most about teaching is feeling super organized and in control. I've never been able to manage that at home. I will also miss corny fifth-grader jokes.


10 people I tag...

1. Britta B.
2. Liz N.
3. Jamie Y.
4. Kate F.
5. Lacey H.
6. Molly S.
7. Gentri G.
8. Jess A.
9. Leslie C.
10. Rebecca M.

Home is...where?

[insert self pity here]

We're almost done with Week 16. It has been four months since Chris first started his job in Salt Lake. It's been hard, and I believe that at the moment, it's just getting harder.

Chris and I don't live together anymore. It used to be that he stayed as a guest at Lisa and Christian's house during the week, then came home on weekends. Now, he has moved into our new house and is living there while we remodel. While being a generally good arrangement, it makes everything more confusing...

When the girls and I go to Salt Lake, it's like we're visiting Chris at the house we will eventually live in. When he comes to Logan, it's like he's visiting us at a house he used to live in. None of us ever go home. Even Jane refers to going to "Mommy's house" and "Daddy's house". That makes me sad.

They say home is where your heart is...so during the week, my home is in Salt Lake and Chris's home is in Logan, so neither of us are home. I've also heard that home is where you store your underwear...in which case, we definitely don't live together right now. Sigh.

I've mentioned this before, but I haven't been doing well with cooking meals lately. After spending all day at school, I come home mostly to worry about making sure the girls are clean, happy, and not attacking each other until it's time for bed, then I pack. I'm too worn out between working all day and single parenting to get much else done.

Here is my fridge this afternoon before I went grocery shopping.


Here is my fridge this evening after I went grocery shopping.


Yeah. I also bought a loaf of bread. And a box of goldfish crackers. At least Megan is still drinking formula, so I know she's good, and Jane gets two real meals at day care every day.

I'm not looking for pity, nor am I really looking for extra help. I do greatly appreciate still receiving one meal a week from the ward--that's the only complete dinner I get most weeks!--and going to Tannie's house (thank you!) occasionally for always excellent dinners, too. And I'm not trying to story-top anyone, or compare situations. My dad says that your trials will fill up your space. When you have a bigger trial, your space grows a bit. Your space stays that big, so next time, your trial doesn't seem quite as bad because you've experienced something bigger before.

This is my biggest trial in my life thus far. While I know there are worse things out there, right now, my space is filled. Someday, something won't seem so bad because I've been here and done this. Tonight, I just needed to get it out so I can hopefully move on a bit closer to the end.

I need my husband back. We need each other.

five more weeks

find the humor in the moment

Out the front door this morning...

and the back...


The girls dressed accordingly.


You wear Christmas clothes when it's snowing, right?

The grass is greener...

...when you mow the lawn.

The lawn at our new house hadn't been mowed in seven or eight months. It was long. Notice that Chris's feet are missing.


Seriously. We measured 19 1/2 inches.


There is a definite difference after using Chris's new toy.


Front yard before:


Front yard after:


Jane, Megan and I went down to Salt Lake for the weekend to help Chris with the house. Well, I helped with the house. Megan hung out on the floor, against my better judgment (yuk).


And Jane hung out at Grandma's house. She gets in less trouble there...mostly because no one really cares what she does.

Mowing the lawn isn't the only yardwork that's happened since we bought the house (April 15th was the official day of ownership, by the way. Tax day.). Chase recently bought a new chainsaw, which obviously just had to be used.

Both trees in the middle of the front yard were dead. Or at least half dead.



They had to go.


So did the stump. Poor grass, though...


There was a matching tree in the backyard that also just had to go.


Luckily, there was one tree of this same variety that actually thrived in the yard, and I believe it looks very nice.


There are a range of bushes down the back wall, which won't look too bad once we trim them back into bushes.


But we cut down the stupid one. Well, cut out. It was already growing down. This is how it looked before we did anything with it.


Unfortunately, it was hiding something less pretty than the grass. Sigh.


In addition to the trees, the front hedges needed a little work.


They were a little high for me, but I couldn't let the guys have all the fun with the power tools.



Yeah for group participation!




This was actually the coolest tree to cut down. It was way, way too close to the corner of the house. Were we to let it grow for a few more years, the roots would pose a serious threat to the foundation of the house.

run away! run away!

Now, instead of having trees in the yard, we have trees in the driveway. Somehow, it's just not the same.


The downside to all of this is that we had not intended to do yardwork on Saturday. We intended to clean the walls inside the house to prepare for painting. That plan was originally thrown off by...


...car repairs. My car, sadly, failed safety inspection last week due to worn out brakes. The rhythm of the day got off to an unplanned start when Chris was outside working on the car and I was inside cleaning. But I didn't start with the walls, I started with what I found most immediately disgusting.



The previous owners owned three HUGE dogs, as we keep hearing from all the neighbors, and we figure they smoked. Not as bad as it could be, but everything is covered with a nasty, sticky yuckiness covered in a layer of dog hair. Hopefully the house doesn't just fall apart when we remove this adhesive that allows the hair to bind the house together...

The appliances were most visibly gross, so I started there. These are my new best friends.

Before:


After:


(get used to before and after shots--I like them, and there is a lot of before in this house that desperately needs an after)

We did get some work done pulling up carpets. Chris is better at it than I am. Good thing I'm good at packing, or I might not have a productive contribution to make to this adventure.


We bought new carpet for the upstairs, tile for the entryway, chose wood laminate for the kitchen, and confirmed all our paint colors. We have a long way to go, but we are still making progress. One day at a time. Or, more accurately, one occasional evening and weekend at a time.

On a small side note, I discovered something about the playhouse out back that I didn't know before.


Those are real drawers and cabinets. How cool is that?

I forgot...

I wanted to post the stats from Megan's six month checkup last week. Yes, she is already six months old!

17 lbs.
53rd percentile

26 in.
62nd percentile

She's not huge, but she's definitely not small. No wonder my arm gets tired when I hold her for too long...

Progress on Two Fronts

Our pile has grown some since we starting packing on Saturday.


I've packed 11 more boxes of games and random kitchen things that we rarely use. Especially now, since I have basically quit cooking anything besides macaroni and cheese, toast, and the occasional hot dog. We need to move just so we can eat real food again...



Most of my packing success is because of this little girl.


I have decided that I'm officially done with waking up with her during the night. The plan to take care of that involves Megan sleeping in the crib in my room, where she can cry all she wants while I sleep on the couch. She always goes to sleep well to begin with, she just wakes up a lot later. The first night I was on the couch, she woke up and cried for an hour and a half, slept for an hour, then cried again for 45 minutes. The second night, she woke up three times but only cried for 20 minutes each time. Last night, she only woke up once. She cried long enough for me to wake up, but not long enough for me to find my cell phone to see what time it was. I call that progress.

Tonight, though, I've been debating whether to tough out the couch for one more night or attempt sleeping in my own bed again. She's already fussed a couple times since I put her bed, though I don't think she's actually woken up at all. But it's enough to make me afraid of waking her up if I went into the room.

Anyway, I've avoided going to bed. I generally just lay awake and listen to Megan cry, so the later I go to bed, the longer I can avoid the unpleasantness...or something like that. Parenting doesn't always bring out the best logic. So, I pack instead. Makes for tired mornings, but productive evenings!

bedhead

Mom: Jane, I'm going to take a shower.

Jane: Yeah, you need to take a shower. Your hair's all messy. You got pillow in it.

Moving Congratulations Outside

We're moving...

Can you tell?

We saved the vast majority of boxes we used when we moved last time, as well as collecting several more from a variety of Arby's stores in Salt Lake. I have also been snagging any empty box left abandoned at school for more than a few moments.


We packed the books last night. Conflicting emotions there...I'm excited to move, excited to be done with this less-than-thrilling time of life, excited to live in our new house...but we are leaving a lot of good things behind. I'll miss Logan. And I don't get to see my books for seven weeks. Sigh.


Anyway, we are up to sixteen boxes. Of books only. And that doesn't count the other bookcase and a half of books I still have at school, nor the random books I keep finding scattered around the house. (You also can't see the fourth bookcase that is in this room in either of the pictures.) By the way, if I loaned you a book that I've forgotten about, will you let me know and get it back to me before we move? Thanks!


Congratulations to me...

I passed the Praxis PLT. I took it on the same day as two of my friends...we all scored within four points of each other. I think that's fairly impressive when there are 200 points possible.

I guess, in the end, it was worth missing Michael and Amanda's reception. Even though I would much rather have gone there.


Outside...

Hooray for spring. Hooray for no snow!



I happened to have my camera with me when I went to pick up the girls from day care sometime last week. They were playing outside, in the sunshine. I couldn't resist.



Apparently Jane is practicing to be a model. She may need to hire a hair stylist, however, if she ever hopes to make any mark on the modeling world.


Megan, on the other hand, just needs some hair.

Six more weeks of school.

Seven more weeks until I get to live in the same city as my husband again.