When I think of paper cuts I think "the worst.". And when I think of "the worst" I think of paper cuts. Don't they make you want to squint your eyes shut and protect every tender vulnerable inch of your fingers and hands??? (I don't know if i've had one on any other body part... have you?) I got one yesterday. It was the worst!! I usually immediately grab hold of the poor unsuspecting spot and hold it tight until I can bear to look and see the damage that's been done. There are certain tasks that I take great care and caution in because I fear the dreaded paper cut (the worst!!) so much, but yesterday I guess I had my guard down in my great rush.
Someone once (elementary school?) talked about paper cut torture between your fingers - that super tender and sensitive valley!! Oh the inhumanity!!! It could give one nightmares to think of that!!
Maybe this tablet keyboard could get second place for being "the worst" since it doesn't know how to do a front end quote mark... Or maybe it's just me... : )
Sometimes BYU football losing to Notre dame is the worst, too... Ask will... : )
Also: if you are somewhere where everyone else is quiet and would appreciate your silence as well, don't talk! Don't even whisper!! I can still hear you and every word you're saying, as quiet as you think you're being... As hard as I try to tune you out, I can't! You're just making me crazy!! You're also starting to compete with that paper cut!
The opposite of "the worst" I guess, would be "the best." And while not for us, today we became secret keepers for the exciting, joyous news of "the best" for a friend!!!!! : )
This may be far too much for you, : ), but I do like to tell will he's "the best." Like 5 minutes ago when he finished his picture organizing project on the computer for all our pictures!
Welp, here's to hoping for more "the best" for all of us, and nary a paper cut!
Ash and Will
We are a happy family! : )
Saturday, November 23, 2013
Thursday, November 21, 2013
tuity fruity - like the broken candy sticks at chuck e cheese for 5 tickets
I know that it's supposed to be "fru-i-shun", but I always want it to be "fru-tay-shun.". I keep hearing it lately and I can't help but think of fruit.
I like fruit. But sometimes you just need mint chocolate cookies and pumpkin squares. And an episode of too cute.
But we can't always have what we want. So then we resort to nova.
One more day, then thanksgiving break!!
I like fruit. But sometimes you just need mint chocolate cookies and pumpkin squares. And an episode of too cute.
But we can't always have what we want. So then we resort to nova.
One more day, then thanksgiving break!!
Monday, November 11, 2013
halloween 2013
did you notice that the title rhymes without even trying??
anyway, after requesting my family share their halloween dinners, etc from this year, it's about time that i get things together and share about ours. i guess sometimes it just seems so hard to upload pictures? maybe that's why the current pictures on the camera go back to girls' camp in july.... oops? time to upload/save on the computer so we can move on to the next set of fun!
i guess we didn't take pictures of all our decorations like in some years past, but i didn't feel like anything was that earth shattering. i did, however, take a picture of my new favorite decorations. i got a fall vinyl table cloth that is too big, but we decided to keep it. then, weeks, after originally seeing them in a different target, i found the napkin holders that i should have bought the first time around! it was early september, though, and i was making myself "just look" and go back later. i decided i didn't want things to sell out, so i went back to our own target where they didn't even have them... wah. but when they showed up weeks later, i made it happen, and it looks so good on the table cloth : ) i didn't do the skeleton fabric on the table this year, i just couldn't figure out where to put it.... i found the spiderweb bandanna at hobby lobby a few years ago.
three saturdays before halloween we went to a friend's halloween party. i didn't even think about taking our own camera, but she took some pictures and shared them on facebook. we wore our costumes from last year - thank goodness they still fit! : )
two saturdays before halloween we went to a carpool party where there wasn't anything halloweeny, i don't think... just food, kids, and watching the new star trek movie since parts of it were filmed in the NIF at the lab that will and another of the guys does work for. and no one took any pictures... i don't think : ) the kids who wanted to watched brave. we still haven't seen brave, but it was much more fun, i'm sure, to hear the guys call out things like "there it is!", "can you believe they let them ____!", etc as we could see parts of the facility in the movie. even i've seen the facility in real life at last year's lab family days! so that was cool to recognize some things.
one saturday before halloween was the ward halloween party. they had soups, chilis, desserts, rolls, cornbread(!), potatoes, carnival games "for the kids", and a trunk or treat complete with a trunk contest. we had a good time eating, talking with people, and handing out candy. those kids go around and around until you pretend you're out of candy! well, most of the ones going around without parents. i didn't think it was necessary to keep handing out all 285 lolipops... call us the scrooges of halloween! we handed out several seconds, thirds, etc, then let our cauldron run low. i mean, what if we actually got a trick or treater??? we'd need something! and now we have lolipops for school and cub scouts! (we weren't even close to stingy, really.) notice our efforts on decorating the trunk!
i guess it was the friday before halloween we made jack-o-lantern cheeseburgers! team effort - will is the man of the grill, but he likes me to do just about anything that involves the cutting board. not bad for a first time effort, especially considering i carved with a regular big knife. we'll try again next year!
i put way too much time, energy, and grief into a costume idea. while many teachers were going to be minions from despicable me, i just didn't feel like it. i also didn't have good ideas to execute it. well, that didn't involve buying something that i'd likely never wear again, like overalls? come halloween i saw several different good ideas that i could have done, but oh well. instead i bought a cheap tshirt at michaels and pieces of felt. i cut strips and fringed them, then used a hot glue gun to glue them to the shirt. i was a pinata! i also glued them to two cones and those to a headband - i was lucky i could salvage my cheap melting headband from winco. i guess the hot glue pushed it to its limit! it was a well insulated costume for the morning, and i was impressed with myself that i wore the headband all day! well, until after school at least. it was "easy" in the sense that i knew exactly what to buy, exactly what steps to take, and i understood it. i wasn't trying to piece something else together which sounded so much harder to me. i guess we never took a picture of me in it, but i do have a hard copy print that a parent gave me. (if i still know where it is?) don't worry, it's now in the fall/halloween box for years to come! eventually we'll have a costume box, but for now all the decorations, costumes, etc fit into one big plastic tub. we probably should aim to keep it that way as long as possible!
if you're having trouble sleeping, let me suggest halloween with first graders! i will admit that that day took it out of me! i was so drained by the end of the day! after the morning parade, getting through the day, and party with parents/grandparents/siblings in the afternoon, by pick-up after school it took all i had to stand there and wait for all of the rest of them to get picked up. all i wanted was to curl up in a little ball under the desk. when i got back to the room i didn't even know where to start and didn't want to! i honestly cannot remember halloween at amelia three years ago. when i saw some old pictures i could remember the morning parade, but i really can't remember anything else about the day. have i pushed it from my memory? or was this year somehow that much harder?? : ) it was nice to hear this last week that a parent who was there, and is in the classroom fairly frequently thought that halloween went well. what a relief! it felt like crazytown to me! anyway, by the time we got home that evening, i knew that i just couldn't make the halloween dinner. while i talked nonstop for a while about my day will made a frozen pizza. we watched the charlie brown great pumpkin special and vegged while not minding that we didn't have to get up and answer the door for a single trick or treater. no more lolipops down for the count! believe it or not, the kids seemed great the day before and the day after halloween. so... file that away for later! : )
two days later, november 2 we had a marathon day organizing and going through boxes. we finally have all the stuff in the file cabinet, got rid of lots of stuff, and have a room that looks like we could get it ready for a child! all of this was to make us feel better about how things looked/were organized before our home visit... if that ever happensssssssss! that evening i made our halloween dinner!!! i didn't want to not do it, but at that point i was done with halloween. i'm glad we did! i learned how to make a pot pie (yay!!) and now we have some good sized ramekins for all sorts of yummy things later. when i went shopping for things for the dinner i was planning to just get the small disposable tins winco has. but they were out!!! clean out!!!! i was so disappointed! i didn't want to make one big one, i wanted personal ones! a friend offered ramekins, but i decided it was just a good excuse to get some. i got lucky at raley's when i did find a second one behind some smaller ramekins, even though it was dusty! anyway, now the unveiling you've all been waiting for! : )
it was fun! it was so much food! i only ate half my pot pie. the clot was a maraschino cherry. and yes, apparently we were matching... : )
i didn't buy the cherries special. i just happened to see the jar back there as i was getting other things out, and it wasn't a problem because i had to rush and type up/alter last year's menu moments before we ate. i thought will had seen me put a cherry in each glass before filling them. so it was fun when he asked if there really were clots in there... hehe : ) several of the things i already had names for, but there were some i just had to think of on the spot... i had known "yummy mummy" for a days, though : ) and now that i have the jack-o-lantern face cutters, next year's jack-o-lantern cheeseburgers will be easier! it will also be much easier cutting through cheese with them... it gave me a red mark/bruise on the base of my palm that's finally almost all gone now to cut through the sweet potatoes/yams(???) with them.
we were full and it was getting late, so we saved dessert for the next day. we made the spiders in the graveyard, and even though will consented to let his spider have legs for the picture, he let me eat them as he doesn't like pretzels... we still need to make the pumpkin smoothie!! maybe i was less excited because while i do want to try the recipe, it clearly has the lamest name on the whole menu.... i was trying to hurry at the time, but i wish i had included some half-clever something with it... oh well. it's still pumpkin season.
Monday, November 4, 2013
dilemma
i am two thirds (?) of the way through my second of three bottles of medication that i'm supposed to take twice a day. i feel like we're starting to make (at least some) headway, so i'm motivated to keep taking it, but it's a big fat pain! the directions on the prescription say that i can't have eaten two hours before, or an hour after taking it. in the beginning i took my morning one right when i woke up, then got ready, and just made sure it was an hour before i had breakfast. this proved disastrous as these cute little blue pills make me feel very sick about 20-30 minutes later if i don't have food in me. it took me a while to realize the correlation and i spent many mornings feeling like i was dying, needing to lay down, crying, feeling like i was going to throw up, dizzy, etc. in short, it was not fun at all. once i figured that out, i decided on school days i'd just have to take it at recess (if i can remember!), and on non school days i eat breakfast, then figure out the timing after that. i must burn more calories at school, or it's just barely been long enough by recess, that some days i do still start to feel sick. it goes away after a little bit, or after i've eaten something. at night, though, it's a great way to eliminate snacking after dinner/before bed. i've gotten more used to it all after 2-3 months, but they're still a hassle.
now, the real dilemma!!
once upon a time we moved into this cute little house almost 6 months ago (what????!). we moved in in the lovely temperate month of may when we could dress almost any way we wanted and were always comfy at night. then along came summer and it got hot. then it got hotter and hotter. we had days over 100 and felt it as we were too cheap to run the AC all the time : ) i'm not saying we never ran it, because we're not that dumb. we noticed that unlike the apartment there weren't others to shield our ground level apartment or big trees to give shade. we got by opening windows at night and running fans constantly. then it started to cool off and it was delightful as we turned off the fans, opened the windows less and less, and got pretty comfortable again.
then it happened!!
it started to get cold!!! we're still cheap and it's easy to put on more layers, so so far we've run the heater less than the AC (days between now). yes, i know that november just started, and i know that it's snowing in utah, but for a few weeks now we've been feeling sorry for ourselves as it's dipped down into the 60s, and even the 50s over night!! we discovered we weren't sleeping very well at night because we kept getting cold, so we've been adding blankets and comforters over the weeks to achieve optimal cozy temperatures at night. we've also been piecing together the realization over the last several weeks that our cute little house's insulation is not very good at all.
now, back to the pill. the prescription label also instructs to take with "plenty of water".... that's helpful. i've always told myself that a full glass of water could be considered plenty.
here's the real real dilemma!!
we drink well water that is very hard and has quite a taste to it. almost six months in i can tolerate it, but i don't like it. the first night i could hardly stand to wet my toothbrush with it. now i still make a face when i drink it and usually have to force myself to drink much. we try to keep a good supply in the fridge, because the chill takes the edge off the taste. and when you're really thirsty, it's fine enough.
the last thing i want when i'm already in slippers, a sweatshirt, and wrapped in blanket wondering if i should go dig out gloves is to have to drink a full glass of water from the fridge to feel like i've done my "plenty of water" duty for each single pill!!!
i guess the good news is the school pays for a little filtered water machine (whatever you'd call that) that i think tastes good that i can fill my water bottle up at so i can drink "plenty of water" at school.
maybe i should plug my nose??? send hand warmers to the (cheap) wimps in california!! : )
now, the real dilemma!!
once upon a time we moved into this cute little house almost 6 months ago (what????!). we moved in in the lovely temperate month of may when we could dress almost any way we wanted and were always comfy at night. then along came summer and it got hot. then it got hotter and hotter. we had days over 100 and felt it as we were too cheap to run the AC all the time : ) i'm not saying we never ran it, because we're not that dumb. we noticed that unlike the apartment there weren't others to shield our ground level apartment or big trees to give shade. we got by opening windows at night and running fans constantly. then it started to cool off and it was delightful as we turned off the fans, opened the windows less and less, and got pretty comfortable again.
then it happened!!
it started to get cold!!! we're still cheap and it's easy to put on more layers, so so far we've run the heater less than the AC (days between now). yes, i know that november just started, and i know that it's snowing in utah, but for a few weeks now we've been feeling sorry for ourselves as it's dipped down into the 60s, and even the 50s over night!! we discovered we weren't sleeping very well at night because we kept getting cold, so we've been adding blankets and comforters over the weeks to achieve optimal cozy temperatures at night. we've also been piecing together the realization over the last several weeks that our cute little house's insulation is not very good at all.
now, back to the pill. the prescription label also instructs to take with "plenty of water".... that's helpful. i've always told myself that a full glass of water could be considered plenty.
here's the real real dilemma!!
we drink well water that is very hard and has quite a taste to it. almost six months in i can tolerate it, but i don't like it. the first night i could hardly stand to wet my toothbrush with it. now i still make a face when i drink it and usually have to force myself to drink much. we try to keep a good supply in the fridge, because the chill takes the edge off the taste. and when you're really thirsty, it's fine enough.
the last thing i want when i'm already in slippers, a sweatshirt, and wrapped in blanket wondering if i should go dig out gloves is to have to drink a full glass of water from the fridge to feel like i've done my "plenty of water" duty for each single pill!!!
i guess the good news is the school pays for a little filtered water machine (whatever you'd call that) that i think tastes good that i can fill my water bottle up at so i can drink "plenty of water" at school.
maybe i should plug my nose??? send hand warmers to the (cheap) wimps in california!! : )
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
haircut day
sometimes life just isn't fair.
like the time i closed my explorer browser (which i had been using to override the "chrome nanny" site blocker that blocks us out of facebook, pinterest, etc after 30 minutes each day which is good for us so long as we don't override with explorer or other devices... : ) and somehow ACCIDENTALLY closed my chrome browser as well!!!!!!!!! all who-knows-how-many-or-which tabs!!! i'm sure when will finds out he'll tell me (or think : ) serves me right, because it always bothers him that i have so many tabs open at once. but, really, i need them!!! please tell me there's someone else out there that really feels the need to keep tabs open! it's so i am reminded of things - ideas for school, recipes, things to show will, etc. it doesn't matter that i have pinterest to save and organize, or many files of downloaded documents of school ideas, or can print recipes and put them in the binder, or email myself links, or goodness sakes: MAKE A BOOKMARK!!!!!!!!!!! will is always reminding me that i can make bookmarks. he gave me tutorial once, and to my credit, i did bookmark something and put it in the category of "to show will", but i think that only happened once. he comes home from work and asks me if he can close all my tabs.... haha. well, seriously, there's a reason i left it open! so i am forced to quickly prioritize so i can tell him some he can close. that in itself is a fantastic exercise for the girl whose indecisiveness is borderline handicapping. so that's that. to be honest i had already gone through and closed ones i really didn't need anymore. the ones still up were there for a reason! this time it was school... but i think i remember how to get back to those things. but the thing i have to be ok with is that i'm not going to remember the others and my life is still going to go on. i hope.
anyway. happy belated christopher columbus day to all you bigtime fans of the nina, pinta, and the santa maria! by now you've probably all hummed a few bars of my chris columbus song to yourselves. right? : ) we celebrated yesterday by both having a day off. it was one of my typical mondays off. will was forced to use his day-after-Easter holiday yesterday because of the government shutdown. : / the lab contracts for the government, and the lab (like the rest of us) doesn't have endless funds, so they've dipped into just about all they can until the budget is resolved for the next fiscal year. today he went to do "training" stuff, and can again tomorrow, but he can't do any real work because of the account the money is from. if it goes beyond that he'll be forced to take a couple more holidays. so as lame and unfair as that is, we really enjoyed having a day off together! our celebrations included sleeping in, and BOTH of us getting haircuts!! do we get some kind of award for that? i mean really, when was the last time 100% of your family got haircuts on the same day? i cut will's out on the back porch. it was perfect timing for our neighbors to walk by on the crest/side of the irrigation ditch. he didn't want to cut mine, so i went to a place. ok, i didn't ask this time, but he hasn't wanted to in the past. i just got a trim. i was delighted that she understood my hopes, dreams, and aspirations for my hair and really gave me a good trim. if you're one that is having a hard time understanding how a hair trim can result in such happy feelings, just know that you win some and you lose some, and yesterday i won!!! other highlights, in case you need ideas for yourself for next year, were making crockpot lasagna and putting out halloween decorations (finally!). oh! and we made ganache because we needed to use up some cream... : ) what was the ganache for? our fingers. and graham crackers. and whatever else we want. because we can.
well my friends, i guess this has been another exciting look into our lives! what's that? you want the real dish? ok, fine, i'll tell you. today was the second day i didn't wash my hair, and i'm thinking of going a third tomorrow! i proceeded with my plan today thinking i wasn't going anywhere or seeing anyone. well then i played taxi for some kids in the ward after school... oh well : ) (i know some of you have done the math to determine i went with "dirty" hair for my trim yesterday... i know who you are : )
stay cool. H.A.N.S. (have a nice summer!! xoxo heart heart heart!! english with you was the best!!!!!)
ok, obviously it's time to go fold laundry : )
like the time i closed my explorer browser (which i had been using to override the "chrome nanny" site blocker that blocks us out of facebook, pinterest, etc after 30 minutes each day which is good for us so long as we don't override with explorer or other devices... : ) and somehow ACCIDENTALLY closed my chrome browser as well!!!!!!!!! all who-knows-how-many-or-which tabs!!! i'm sure when will finds out he'll tell me (or think : ) serves me right, because it always bothers him that i have so many tabs open at once. but, really, i need them!!! please tell me there's someone else out there that really feels the need to keep tabs open! it's so i am reminded of things - ideas for school, recipes, things to show will, etc. it doesn't matter that i have pinterest to save and organize, or many files of downloaded documents of school ideas, or can print recipes and put them in the binder, or email myself links, or goodness sakes: MAKE A BOOKMARK!!!!!!!!!!! will is always reminding me that i can make bookmarks. he gave me tutorial once, and to my credit, i did bookmark something and put it in the category of "to show will", but i think that only happened once. he comes home from work and asks me if he can close all my tabs.... haha. well, seriously, there's a reason i left it open! so i am forced to quickly prioritize so i can tell him some he can close. that in itself is a fantastic exercise for the girl whose indecisiveness is borderline handicapping. so that's that. to be honest i had already gone through and closed ones i really didn't need anymore. the ones still up were there for a reason! this time it was school... but i think i remember how to get back to those things. but the thing i have to be ok with is that i'm not going to remember the others and my life is still going to go on. i hope.
anyway. happy belated christopher columbus day to all you bigtime fans of the nina, pinta, and the santa maria! by now you've probably all hummed a few bars of my chris columbus song to yourselves. right? : ) we celebrated yesterday by both having a day off. it was one of my typical mondays off. will was forced to use his day-after-Easter holiday yesterday because of the government shutdown. : / the lab contracts for the government, and the lab (like the rest of us) doesn't have endless funds, so they've dipped into just about all they can until the budget is resolved for the next fiscal year. today he went to do "training" stuff, and can again tomorrow, but he can't do any real work because of the account the money is from. if it goes beyond that he'll be forced to take a couple more holidays. so as lame and unfair as that is, we really enjoyed having a day off together! our celebrations included sleeping in, and BOTH of us getting haircuts!! do we get some kind of award for that? i mean really, when was the last time 100% of your family got haircuts on the same day? i cut will's out on the back porch. it was perfect timing for our neighbors to walk by on the crest/side of the irrigation ditch. he didn't want to cut mine, so i went to a place. ok, i didn't ask this time, but he hasn't wanted to in the past. i just got a trim. i was delighted that she understood my hopes, dreams, and aspirations for my hair and really gave me a good trim. if you're one that is having a hard time understanding how a hair trim can result in such happy feelings, just know that you win some and you lose some, and yesterday i won!!! other highlights, in case you need ideas for yourself for next year, were making crockpot lasagna and putting out halloween decorations (finally!). oh! and we made ganache because we needed to use up some cream... : ) what was the ganache for? our fingers. and graham crackers. and whatever else we want. because we can.
well my friends, i guess this has been another exciting look into our lives! what's that? you want the real dish? ok, fine, i'll tell you. today was the second day i didn't wash my hair, and i'm thinking of going a third tomorrow! i proceeded with my plan today thinking i wasn't going anywhere or seeing anyone. well then i played taxi for some kids in the ward after school... oh well : ) (i know some of you have done the math to determine i went with "dirty" hair for my trim yesterday... i know who you are : )
stay cool. H.A.N.S. (have a nice summer!! xoxo heart heart heart!! english with you was the best!!!!!)
ok, obviously it's time to go fold laundry : )
Monday, September 9, 2013
the best things in life are free
that, or food.... : ) (i like free and i like food!)
like the time almost two months ago that we got free food at ikea and we're still happy about it : ) ha
we went to ikea with a few specific purchases to make, so we knew we'd be spending a medium piggy bank's worth. we had to pinch ourselves to make sure we weren't dreaming (and honestly we had to read the sign a few times including out loud) when we saw the sign saying that if you spent at least x dollars then you could eat in the restaurant for free! what joy! what rapture! free lunch!!! we had just spent the morning in a first aid/cpr class and this was better than surprise-donuts-in-seminary kind of good!!
all you had to do was save your receipt from the restaurant, then they'd deduct that amount from your total purchase downstairs (so long as you spent x). so we went happily through the line: i'll take one of those, and one of those, i guess i'll try that, one of those? sure! why not?! it would have been easy to get carried away, but we kept decently under control. it was good : ) and free : ) and then we were able to walk some of it off as we trekked through the whole store.
i had just gotten into the walking boot a few days before, and did still need the crutches for a few days, but i felt free, full of good food, and we were in ikea!! life was good : )
we went with a plan, but not exactly a plan to get it home... ha. luckily for us we could lift the boxes together (even with my lame foot), and even luckier, we were able to fit it all in the car......... with the back seat down and a box sticking out a back passenger window.... go to ikea with a plan, people : ) or a truck! we made it home ok and deposited our boxes on the floor until further notice.
we put together the smaller shelves 3ish weeks ago. then we just put together the bigger shelves this last saturday. (life has been a little busy, that's all) how nice to have a reminder of our free lunch now standing in our home : )
may you all have your own delightful free food experiences!
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
mayzilla
well well well.... if we thought that march was a beast (which we did : ), then it really just proved to be a training ground for may... of sorts. things weren't exactly the same, but we could sum may up with "crazy" or "wow".... those surprises spice things up a bit, too!
may 1-5 i traveled to utah for a fun trip to byu women's conference. while i was there we found out that "some things" (just easier for now) were approved in the adoption realm. this meant that we could move forward with our move to a house - i guess that crazy idea really began in april. though they were hoping we could move in may 1, our lease began may 15. this gave us some time to pack some things up and get a little organized. we couldn't finagle our way out of giving a full 30 day notice to the apartments, so technically we had that up to last saturday... but we wanted out, so of course we were coming over here starting the 15th! we moved most of our stuff with the truck and all the big furniture on saturday the 18th.
this is where i need to pause and pay tribute to the elders' quorum and Aaronic Priesthood moving service. we asked for help starting at 8:30 am. we were nervous about who/how many would actually show up. the week before or so i tried to publicize and verbally commit/guilt trip people into coming. the day before i sent out an email reminder giving one last plea - but of course a very fun sounding plea! the missionaries showed up right at 8:30, and others soon arrived after. there were 10 "grown up" men, 8 "young men", and 4 primary boys (movers in training) in addition to will and i. and you can probably guess how helpful i really was heaving things into the truck : ) this little army showed up, packed the truck full, offered their vehicles for the remaining things that wouldn't quite fit in the truck, drove over and unloaded things into the new house (where we directed them to) INCLUDING THE PIANO all by 10:30. 2 hours and we were DONE!!!
tender mercies for sure.
did i mention we woke up a little nervous? i feel like i hardly did anything! i pointed out to the youth where the treats, snacks, and water were, and i directed traffic, and i really did carry some things... : )
but i can't express how thankful we were that so many took the time to come help us. it would have taken will and i all day long and then some. and there are things that, honestly, i CANNOT lift. the piano is it's own category entirely! : )
i will say, however, that it was really important to us that no one do any packing or cleaning. we're big kids and we can do that ourselves. if someone wanted to offer to come help with that part, that's their own grave to dig... but in my opinion, the worst "moves" are where you show up and half the house isn't packed yet.... so if you only get one thing out of reading this monster-long post, know that NO ONE wants to show up to help you pack or clean unless they tell you that specifically. have it all packed, then the muscles and packing brains can work quickly, efficiently, and they'll still be your friends when it's all over. (which was important to us : )
good thing the move went so fast. as we walked down the ramp from the porch when we were done (and ready to return the truck then go get started on cleaning the apartment) my cramps started... tmi, sorry : ) we had to go buy more ibuprofen, then it was time to let the cleaning games begin! we had no family in the area to pressure into helping us clean this time (pressuring family is a little different : ), though we considered flying jeanette out when we remembered how well she did in utah... (shout out! : ) we wore ourselves out cleaning all day saturday, and were especially excited for our day of rest on sunday. there were, of course the other fun details like our fridge that was supposed to be delivered that day and wasn't and the landlord came to fix the dishwasher.
we ate discount (old) sandwiches we found at winco laaaate that night for dinner sitting on the floor in the apartment. the next day for breakfast we had leftover fruit and granola bars. some new neighbors invited us over for lunch. and we were so smart to get everything we needed to make dinner sunday.... nevermind we have no idea where the can opener is.... : ) hahaha luckily after so many different customer service reps, waiting on hold, etc, etc, will was able to get them to say they'd deliver the fridge the next day. so monday we were able to get all the fridge stuff out of the apartment plus some other things.
will took the afternoon off on monday (i already had it off) and we went up for our next appointment with the adoption agency. that was exciting, but we were going to need the internet for the next steps and the internet wasn't scheduled to come until friday... so we lived for a week with just our phones and 3g (i know, poor us.. : ) and couldn't move forward with any adoption stuff... we had plenty of other stuff to keep us busy, though!
monday evening we cleaned more and took more odds and ends to the house. tuesday evening we cleaned more (and will went on visits) and took the rest of the odds and ends to the house. we felt like we had done a pretty good job cleaning and were all done.
wednesday was will's birthday!!!! before he was home from work i went to have our "initial" check out check. she was happy with and impressed with our cleaning job!! though, we forgot to clean out (wipe out?) the dishwasher.... who knew? : ) ha she said she wouldn't charge us, but it was going to bother me if i didn't go back and take care of it.
starting sunday we noticed our shower didn't drain properly... that meant a lot of back and forth with our landlord neighbors. that led to the "clogged" toilet too... we're on a well. and a septic tank (oops? : ) goooooood toooooo knooooooow. and we don't have a garbage disposal...
anyway, wednesday was one thing to another and i had to squeeze in making a birthday cake. good thing i'd already shopped and wrapped!! well at this point we're still living out of boxes because we haven't had a chance to unpack things yet. so.... good luck finding a cake pan! a 9x13 had to do.... and since the kitchenaid sounded too overwhelming i mixed up that chocolate frosting by hand, baby! it only took a little while... : ) hehe.... i also had no plan for decorating or making it look like a birthday cake. luckily i knew where some m&ms were (keep track of the essentials, you know?) and i thought it was smart to spell out "happy birthday will" with a 28 on it in m&ms. yeah, maybe if i had all afternoon!! ha so by the time that was done it was pretty late - we'd already been to red robin (where they brought me the wrong burger, and i guess it was important enough to have them fix it, AND will was gypped out of his free birthday sundae... that i've gotten twice now at that location... : ) anyway, the cake said happy birthday, but anyone's guess was as good as mine as to where those darn candles might be! so i still sang, of course, and made will pretend he was blowing out candles for a picture (with boxes in the background, naturally : ) all in all, a good birthday! or as good as you can get in the midst of a move!
OBVIOUSLY WE'RE 3 MONTHS PAST WHERE THIS POST LAST LEFT OFF.... I WILL "FINISH" IT WITH WHAT ELSE WE CRAMMED INTO MAY, BUT DON'T EXPECT AS MANY DETAILS (OR AS MUCH WIT... WAH : ) ok, i guess i remembered more than i thought i would.
is it still august????? though, i will say it does feel like it was JUST barely august 1. ok, so will had a fantastic birthday, i like to think : ). i mean, when we eat burgers, fries, cake, there are presents, and i make an even bigger deal about will than usual : ) what can go wrong???
so the next day i worked at monticello and preschool. i went straight from preschool out to have a job interview at a different district. it sounded easier to just be dressed up all day. yeah, until i discover that there's a painting kids' hands at preschool project and somehow i'm the chosen one to do it!! so i'm painting hands, kneeling on the hard floor in my skirt, trying to get the kids to twist their arms around because our class had to be the one on the top of the paper (and having them dive over right side up (i know what i mean : ) just wasn't going to work - we did try! : ). so it's stressful and i'm sweating!!! not a good combo preceding a job interview! somehow i lived through it all. the job interview was fine enough, but i knew i left feeling like either way and probably not. then i go straight to the train station, get will, then we go home to change. we had to put on our spirit gear and head to stockton for the byu baseball game!! byu comes to the area, we go. too fun not to! and we love byu : ) it would have been too easy to just sit and watch the game. we played phone tag back and forth with our landlord during it about the shower/toilet/septic line clog (wooo! : ) we'll admit, we aren't really baseball lovers, but it was still plenty fun for us!
finally it was friday. i only worked half day (no preschool). that was perfect to schedule comcast's "installation" and sears' delivery. i also was expecting two different presurgery phone call appointments that afternoon. (it was tuesday afternoon in the midst of moving, birthdays, end of school year, etc that i got a call about the option to move up my surgery to the very next thursday - the 30th.) soooo..... i had myself set up for quite the afternoon. now my track record for "people" who give you a delivery, etc window is that they may arrive in it, but usually they'll arrive in the last 5 minutes or so... so, naturally, i was pretty impressed when comcast showed up right about 2! long story short, it's a good thing they did because he was there at least the next two hours!! right away i was nervous and unsure if he knew what he was really doing... eventually some of his buddies came over to help him (thank goodness!) so he's out there on a ladder hooking something up, wants to run something around the outside of the house (which one of his pals was able to snake through something under the house), testing this or that.
not too long after comcast arrived, sears showed up. the nice thing was they were very nice, respectful, and seemed to know exactly what they were doing. i probably was happier to see them anyway since they were bringing our washer and dryer!!!
let me back up, we were already skeptical of what comcast was doing because we had been given misinformation already (mabye?). they were going to send someone to drive by to see if we could have whatever hooked up. whatever it was, we clarified that they weren't going to need permission from the landlord. they said no. imagine our surprise and horror when the landlord called to say someone from comcast was out, dug a line, AND hit into something while digging..... that's a really nice way to move in next door to your landlord and make fast friends : ) luckily nothing was really damaged, but definite evidence of being dug into.
so i'm watching him either on the porch or out the window the whole time (when i'm not with sears). then i get my first surgery call. went fine (start taking vitamin d3, among other instructions). then the other guy calls. he's mostly friendly. takes a while because he's having computer issues, but it's fine, really. except for at this point somehow my phone battery is low enough that i have to plug it in while talking... still trying to watch out the window... ha. that's when we have the whole d3 question narrated in some other post earlier this summer...
it was a busy enough afternoon... then i think we went to the temple that night. so says my calendar... yes, i do remember now (because once again we made a stop at the target in dublin on the way home!)
saturday morning, may 25. our friend, annie (shout out : ) took some pictures of us that we can potentially use as part of our adoption profile. we were looking for something a little nicer than our point and shoot selfies that we've been trying to perfect. she wouldn't accept payment, as she said it was for a good cause (how nice! : ), but we paid her back by sneaking her a cold stone gift card at her graduation party that night with her other graduation gift : ) ha we felt clever... haha : ) it was too convenient that we'd also get to go use will's birthday coupon to get ourselves ice cream on our shopping outing that afternoon!
thank goodness for our day of rest on sunday! we felt good about working on adoption stuff that day since we'd been so busy, and it was important stuff for our family. we were really looking forward to it that day. and then our username/password didn't work... wah : ( so i had to wait until tuesday (because of the holiday) to call and get that figured out...
monday was memorial day (engagement anniversary! : ). we went to the stake park clean up at a park that had had an event the day before. we walked around picking up trash then got a donut! we didn't mind : ) the rest of the day must have been when we unpacked the bulk of the kitchen stuff (because, honestly, it's so painful to try and live out of boxes, especially in the kitchen!). and we barbecued something? (grilled, excuse me : ) oh, and that must be the day we picked some cherries, i pitted them using the borrowed cherry pitter (no, i didn't crack it, that was already there, apparently. thank goodness!!), and we spread them out on cookie sheets for freezing. great news: the cookie sheets were too wide for the new freezer... after all that work! we still had the apartment (and keys), so we went and put them into the apartment freezer for a day or two. we were able to use those stacking cooling racks to make a few layers - genius!! (thanks for those cool cooling racks for a wedding gift, one of will's cousins!)
tuesday i called LDSFS (hereafter ldsfs, because i'm lazy : ) to get the username/password figured out. i also got a call telling me what time my surgery would be on thursday. it was my last day of preschool - weird to think about not being with heather the next year. (also knowing julie was moving and still having no idea what was going to happen was weird.) after preschool i had to go have my presurgery pregnancy test (c'mon people, let's get serious here... as nice a surprise as it would have been : ) (and i will admit i did fantasize a little about the potential freak chance : ) then i had to race home because my wheelchair (for post surgery) was to be delivered. well that was a time the "delivery people" were early! luckily they just left the thing on the porch. then i had a few minutes to breathe, but not many before my visiting teachers came.
wednesday was my last day at monticello. i said goodbye to some people - because i was losing my job at the end of the year. sat around doing nothing... and who knows what else to fill the 4 hours : ) that evening was preschool graduation. they were cute. it was fun. i lamented once more that being my last working day with miss heather. i feel like i should write and ode to miss heather, or something. i learned so much from her and truly loved working every day with her. she was a good example, fun to talk with, and made me feel good. now, she tells me how much i taught her and how much good i did for her, which i do appreciate, but she's probably just being nice again. : ) she's awesome and so good at what she does. really! it was one of my favorite years of teaching to date, and so far she's been the best teaching match for me! **i do now refer all my preschool friends to her : )** back to graduation. it was also just that bittersweet feeling of sending another batch off to the next grade, in this case, kindergarten!
thursday, may 30 i drove myself for the last time for weeks. we went to the hospital, got all checked in, and the fun of the next few weeks and months began. (see other post).
it felt, in a way, like we went from going 100 miles per hour to a screeching halt. but post-surgery there were all sorts of other things that made us feel busy. and then throughout the summer we really did do quite a bit, but that's for another post. seriously, though, may had a lot going on, then all of a sudden i was in bed or on the couch for two weeks straight doing a whole lot of not very much : )
so... may kept us on our toes. don't you think for one moment that we sit around eating brownies and watching tv all the time. that's just sometimes... : ) with just the two of us we run a pretty busy schedule. it keeps us off the streets and out of trouble, i guess!
may 1-5 i traveled to utah for a fun trip to byu women's conference. while i was there we found out that "some things" (just easier for now) were approved in the adoption realm. this meant that we could move forward with our move to a house - i guess that crazy idea really began in april. though they were hoping we could move in may 1, our lease began may 15. this gave us some time to pack some things up and get a little organized. we couldn't finagle our way out of giving a full 30 day notice to the apartments, so technically we had that up to last saturday... but we wanted out, so of course we were coming over here starting the 15th! we moved most of our stuff with the truck and all the big furniture on saturday the 18th.
this is where i need to pause and pay tribute to the elders' quorum and Aaronic Priesthood moving service. we asked for help starting at 8:30 am. we were nervous about who/how many would actually show up. the week before or so i tried to publicize and verbally commit/guilt trip people into coming. the day before i sent out an email reminder giving one last plea - but of course a very fun sounding plea! the missionaries showed up right at 8:30, and others soon arrived after. there were 10 "grown up" men, 8 "young men", and 4 primary boys (movers in training) in addition to will and i. and you can probably guess how helpful i really was heaving things into the truck : ) this little army showed up, packed the truck full, offered their vehicles for the remaining things that wouldn't quite fit in the truck, drove over and unloaded things into the new house (where we directed them to) INCLUDING THE PIANO all by 10:30. 2 hours and we were DONE!!!
tender mercies for sure.
did i mention we woke up a little nervous? i feel like i hardly did anything! i pointed out to the youth where the treats, snacks, and water were, and i directed traffic, and i really did carry some things... : )
but i can't express how thankful we were that so many took the time to come help us. it would have taken will and i all day long and then some. and there are things that, honestly, i CANNOT lift. the piano is it's own category entirely! : )
i will say, however, that it was really important to us that no one do any packing or cleaning. we're big kids and we can do that ourselves. if someone wanted to offer to come help with that part, that's their own grave to dig... but in my opinion, the worst "moves" are where you show up and half the house isn't packed yet.... so if you only get one thing out of reading this monster-long post, know that NO ONE wants to show up to help you pack or clean unless they tell you that specifically. have it all packed, then the muscles and packing brains can work quickly, efficiently, and they'll still be your friends when it's all over. (which was important to us : )
good thing the move went so fast. as we walked down the ramp from the porch when we were done (and ready to return the truck then go get started on cleaning the apartment) my cramps started... tmi, sorry : ) we had to go buy more ibuprofen, then it was time to let the cleaning games begin! we had no family in the area to pressure into helping us clean this time (pressuring family is a little different : ), though we considered flying jeanette out when we remembered how well she did in utah... (shout out! : ) we wore ourselves out cleaning all day saturday, and were especially excited for our day of rest on sunday. there were, of course the other fun details like our fridge that was supposed to be delivered that day and wasn't and the landlord came to fix the dishwasher.
we ate discount (old) sandwiches we found at winco laaaate that night for dinner sitting on the floor in the apartment. the next day for breakfast we had leftover fruit and granola bars. some new neighbors invited us over for lunch. and we were so smart to get everything we needed to make dinner sunday.... nevermind we have no idea where the can opener is.... : ) hahaha luckily after so many different customer service reps, waiting on hold, etc, etc, will was able to get them to say they'd deliver the fridge the next day. so monday we were able to get all the fridge stuff out of the apartment plus some other things.
will took the afternoon off on monday (i already had it off) and we went up for our next appointment with the adoption agency. that was exciting, but we were going to need the internet for the next steps and the internet wasn't scheduled to come until friday... so we lived for a week with just our phones and 3g (i know, poor us.. : ) and couldn't move forward with any adoption stuff... we had plenty of other stuff to keep us busy, though!
monday evening we cleaned more and took more odds and ends to the house. tuesday evening we cleaned more (and will went on visits) and took the rest of the odds and ends to the house. we felt like we had done a pretty good job cleaning and were all done.
wednesday was will's birthday!!!! before he was home from work i went to have our "initial" check out check. she was happy with and impressed with our cleaning job!! though, we forgot to clean out (wipe out?) the dishwasher.... who knew? : ) ha she said she wouldn't charge us, but it was going to bother me if i didn't go back and take care of it.
starting sunday we noticed our shower didn't drain properly... that meant a lot of back and forth with our landlord neighbors. that led to the "clogged" toilet too... we're on a well. and a septic tank (oops? : ) goooooood toooooo knooooooow. and we don't have a garbage disposal...
anyway, wednesday was one thing to another and i had to squeeze in making a birthday cake. good thing i'd already shopped and wrapped!! well at this point we're still living out of boxes because we haven't had a chance to unpack things yet. so.... good luck finding a cake pan! a 9x13 had to do.... and since the kitchenaid sounded too overwhelming i mixed up that chocolate frosting by hand, baby! it only took a little while... : ) hehe.... i also had no plan for decorating or making it look like a birthday cake. luckily i knew where some m&ms were (keep track of the essentials, you know?) and i thought it was smart to spell out "happy birthday will" with a 28 on it in m&ms. yeah, maybe if i had all afternoon!! ha so by the time that was done it was pretty late - we'd already been to red robin (where they brought me the wrong burger, and i guess it was important enough to have them fix it, AND will was gypped out of his free birthday sundae... that i've gotten twice now at that location... : ) anyway, the cake said happy birthday, but anyone's guess was as good as mine as to where those darn candles might be! so i still sang, of course, and made will pretend he was blowing out candles for a picture (with boxes in the background, naturally : ) all in all, a good birthday! or as good as you can get in the midst of a move!
OBVIOUSLY WE'RE 3 MONTHS PAST WHERE THIS POST LAST LEFT OFF.... I WILL "FINISH" IT WITH WHAT ELSE WE CRAMMED INTO MAY, BUT DON'T EXPECT AS MANY DETAILS (OR AS MUCH WIT... WAH : ) ok, i guess i remembered more than i thought i would.
is it still august????? though, i will say it does feel like it was JUST barely august 1. ok, so will had a fantastic birthday, i like to think : ). i mean, when we eat burgers, fries, cake, there are presents, and i make an even bigger deal about will than usual : ) what can go wrong???
so the next day i worked at monticello and preschool. i went straight from preschool out to have a job interview at a different district. it sounded easier to just be dressed up all day. yeah, until i discover that there's a painting kids' hands at preschool project and somehow i'm the chosen one to do it!! so i'm painting hands, kneeling on the hard floor in my skirt, trying to get the kids to twist their arms around because our class had to be the one on the top of the paper (and having them dive over right side up (i know what i mean : ) just wasn't going to work - we did try! : ). so it's stressful and i'm sweating!!! not a good combo preceding a job interview! somehow i lived through it all. the job interview was fine enough, but i knew i left feeling like either way and probably not. then i go straight to the train station, get will, then we go home to change. we had to put on our spirit gear and head to stockton for the byu baseball game!! byu comes to the area, we go. too fun not to! and we love byu : ) it would have been too easy to just sit and watch the game. we played phone tag back and forth with our landlord during it about the shower/toilet/septic line clog (wooo! : ) we'll admit, we aren't really baseball lovers, but it was still plenty fun for us!
finally it was friday. i only worked half day (no preschool). that was perfect to schedule comcast's "installation" and sears' delivery. i also was expecting two different presurgery phone call appointments that afternoon. (it was tuesday afternoon in the midst of moving, birthdays, end of school year, etc that i got a call about the option to move up my surgery to the very next thursday - the 30th.) soooo..... i had myself set up for quite the afternoon. now my track record for "people" who give you a delivery, etc window is that they may arrive in it, but usually they'll arrive in the last 5 minutes or so... so, naturally, i was pretty impressed when comcast showed up right about 2! long story short, it's a good thing they did because he was there at least the next two hours!! right away i was nervous and unsure if he knew what he was really doing... eventually some of his buddies came over to help him (thank goodness!) so he's out there on a ladder hooking something up, wants to run something around the outside of the house (which one of his pals was able to snake through something under the house), testing this or that.
not too long after comcast arrived, sears showed up. the nice thing was they were very nice, respectful, and seemed to know exactly what they were doing. i probably was happier to see them anyway since they were bringing our washer and dryer!!!
let me back up, we were already skeptical of what comcast was doing because we had been given misinformation already (mabye?). they were going to send someone to drive by to see if we could have whatever hooked up. whatever it was, we clarified that they weren't going to need permission from the landlord. they said no. imagine our surprise and horror when the landlord called to say someone from comcast was out, dug a line, AND hit into something while digging..... that's a really nice way to move in next door to your landlord and make fast friends : ) luckily nothing was really damaged, but definite evidence of being dug into.
so i'm watching him either on the porch or out the window the whole time (when i'm not with sears). then i get my first surgery call. went fine (start taking vitamin d3, among other instructions). then the other guy calls. he's mostly friendly. takes a while because he's having computer issues, but it's fine, really. except for at this point somehow my phone battery is low enough that i have to plug it in while talking... still trying to watch out the window... ha. that's when we have the whole d3 question narrated in some other post earlier this summer...
it was a busy enough afternoon... then i think we went to the temple that night. so says my calendar... yes, i do remember now (because once again we made a stop at the target in dublin on the way home!)
saturday morning, may 25. our friend, annie (shout out : ) took some pictures of us that we can potentially use as part of our adoption profile. we were looking for something a little nicer than our point and shoot selfies that we've been trying to perfect. she wouldn't accept payment, as she said it was for a good cause (how nice! : ), but we paid her back by sneaking her a cold stone gift card at her graduation party that night with her other graduation gift : ) ha we felt clever... haha : ) it was too convenient that we'd also get to go use will's birthday coupon to get ourselves ice cream on our shopping outing that afternoon!
thank goodness for our day of rest on sunday! we felt good about working on adoption stuff that day since we'd been so busy, and it was important stuff for our family. we were really looking forward to it that day. and then our username/password didn't work... wah : ( so i had to wait until tuesday (because of the holiday) to call and get that figured out...
monday was memorial day (engagement anniversary! : ). we went to the stake park clean up at a park that had had an event the day before. we walked around picking up trash then got a donut! we didn't mind : ) the rest of the day must have been when we unpacked the bulk of the kitchen stuff (because, honestly, it's so painful to try and live out of boxes, especially in the kitchen!). and we barbecued something? (grilled, excuse me : ) oh, and that must be the day we picked some cherries, i pitted them using the borrowed cherry pitter (no, i didn't crack it, that was already there, apparently. thank goodness!!), and we spread them out on cookie sheets for freezing. great news: the cookie sheets were too wide for the new freezer... after all that work! we still had the apartment (and keys), so we went and put them into the apartment freezer for a day or two. we were able to use those stacking cooling racks to make a few layers - genius!! (thanks for those cool cooling racks for a wedding gift, one of will's cousins!)
tuesday i called LDSFS (hereafter ldsfs, because i'm lazy : ) to get the username/password figured out. i also got a call telling me what time my surgery would be on thursday. it was my last day of preschool - weird to think about not being with heather the next year. (also knowing julie was moving and still having no idea what was going to happen was weird.) after preschool i had to go have my presurgery pregnancy test (c'mon people, let's get serious here... as nice a surprise as it would have been : ) (and i will admit i did fantasize a little about the potential freak chance : ) then i had to race home because my wheelchair (for post surgery) was to be delivered. well that was a time the "delivery people" were early! luckily they just left the thing on the porch. then i had a few minutes to breathe, but not many before my visiting teachers came.
wednesday was my last day at monticello. i said goodbye to some people - because i was losing my job at the end of the year. sat around doing nothing... and who knows what else to fill the 4 hours : ) that evening was preschool graduation. they were cute. it was fun. i lamented once more that being my last working day with miss heather. i feel like i should write and ode to miss heather, or something. i learned so much from her and truly loved working every day with her. she was a good example, fun to talk with, and made me feel good. now, she tells me how much i taught her and how much good i did for her, which i do appreciate, but she's probably just being nice again. : ) she's awesome and so good at what she does. really! it was one of my favorite years of teaching to date, and so far she's been the best teaching match for me! **i do now refer all my preschool friends to her : )** back to graduation. it was also just that bittersweet feeling of sending another batch off to the next grade, in this case, kindergarten!
thursday, may 30 i drove myself for the last time for weeks. we went to the hospital, got all checked in, and the fun of the next few weeks and months began. (see other post).
it felt, in a way, like we went from going 100 miles per hour to a screeching halt. but post-surgery there were all sorts of other things that made us feel busy. and then throughout the summer we really did do quite a bit, but that's for another post. seriously, though, may had a lot going on, then all of a sudden i was in bed or on the couch for two weeks straight doing a whole lot of not very much : )
so... may kept us on our toes. don't you think for one moment that we sit around eating brownies and watching tv all the time. that's just sometimes... : ) with just the two of us we run a pretty busy schedule. it keeps us off the streets and out of trouble, i guess!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)