15,000

Yay! Hip Hip Hooray!
Another blog milestone could happen today!!
Are you my 15,000th visitor?
(Your visitor # is in the small box at the bottom of the right column.)

The Beginning: a 5-Year Plan

(Out with the Old, In with the New: PART 1)

After Kanyon was born in February 2007, we officially became a family of 6 living in a 2-bedroom house. Using the bonus room we had previously added to the house, we rearranged bedrooms multiple times to accomodate everyone's growing stages. It quickly became apparant that we couldn't live forever in the old single-wide. Of course, that was never the plan--to live there forever. We bought the old single-wide in October 2002 for $2,200. The purchase was the cheapest and best way for us to live in Salmon. It was cheaper than paying rent, and it was better than living with family. We figured we could use the house as a starter house, until we could afford a permanent one. However, less than 6 months after buying the 2-bedroom house, we discovered we were pregnant with twins. So, we grew out of the house much quicker than we anticipated, thus the reason for the room addition in 2004.
A few months after he was born, Kanyon grew out of his cradle, and he had to move out of our master bedroom because there wasn't enough room for a crib. This change began the bedroom shuffle, and also became the beginning of the end of our stay in that home. Josh and I sat down that spring and came up with a 5-year, debt-free plan: the first four years would be dedicated to paying off all our debts--the multiple credit cards, the truck, the van, the trailer, etc., and the fifth year would be the saving up year--we'd save all our money to put a down payment on a home.

We decided that we wanted to buy a brand new double-wide manufactured home in the future. After building that 10x14 bonus room onto our house, we knew we couldn't work together to build an entire house without a divorce included. So, every year, Josh and I would go to different manufactured home lots and look around at the houses on display for sale. We wanted to get a feel for what we liked, what we didn't like, and what we really wanted in a home so that we'd be ready when we could financially afford one. In the casual search for a house, we found one that we loved, and we kept the floor plan layout and looked at it whenever we needed a reminder to stick with our goal of paying off debt!

Last year, we were right on track in year 2 of the 5-year plan. We paid off the van, a credit card, and were close to paying off some more debt as well. In September, we looked at a manufactured home lot in Idaho Falls. They had a special sale, so we thought we'd check out what they had. It was a home lot we'd never been to before, and the stop there was supposed to be like every other home sales lot visit: get out of the car, walk around homes, pick up floor plans, leave. But this time, things ended up different than planned. We found a house that we really liked. A LOT. The layout of the home was different than the other floor plan that we'd become attached to years earlier, but I could imagine our family living there. The double-wide had a simple floor plan that flowed well and felt spacious. The 2,026 sq. ft. home had 4 bedrooms, 2 baths, a family room, and a living room. The kitchen connects the living spaces and has a nice long bar and lots of cabinets, the dining room is just off the kitchen and is next to the mudroom, and the master bedroom suite was complete with a retreat and walk-in closets and an attached bathroom. All for a reduced price of $95,900. We told the salesman we would discuss our options, and get back with him. With the $8,000 rebate offered by the government for new home-buyers, we wanted to take advantage of both the home sale and the government rebate, but there was no way we could financially afford it at the time. We weighed all our options, and told the salesman it just wouldn't work out.

In October, a month later, the home sales office dropped their prices again in an effort to clear off the lot models to make way for the coming new year's models. Our home's price dropped considerably! Right after that, the government decided to extend the special rebate offer from November 30 to April 30. We both felt really good about the deal this time, since we knew we could afford the house in the spring. So, we told the salesman we wanted the house for sure. In November, we put a deposit down on the house, and officially started the process of purchasing it. Little did we know then the long ordeal that was to come in the pursuit of finding financing for the new home.

to be continued...

out with the old, in with the new

This is our family on a typical evening:This is exactly what you'd see if you were to come visit us in the evening: all of us in the living room--Josh reading his newspaper and watching the television simultaneously, me on the laptop (see where I was sitting?), Ammon reading a book and also watching TV simultaneously, and Jonah, Micah, & Kanyon playing on the floor.

For the past 7.5 years, we have lived in approximately 900 sq. ft. of living space, and we are accustomed to living on top of each other. We bought this 40-year-old, single-wide, 2-bedroom, 1-bath mobile home back in October 2002. And for the most part, this house has been good to us. While living here, we brought home three babies from the hospital, we added a bonus room on to the living room, we got new furniture, we purchased new windows and appliances and flooring, we painted and rearranged and remodeled, and we established a home for our growing family of boys. But the time has come to bid this old house farewell.

So, for the next two months, our evenings will be anything but typical! This weekend, we are moving out of the old house to make room for the new house. And until the new house is done, we will be living in our camping trailer in the backyard!

We started this journey 6 months ago, and it's been an emotional roller-coaster ride thus far! But we are truly excited for this big change in our lives and we anticipate the day when we can finally be in our new home! I will be blogging about this whole 'out with the old, in with the new' home process from beginning to end over the next few months. We've been working towards this goal for years, and I don't want to forget a thing!

FHE Leftovers

Two Monday nights a month, Josh is gone to school board meetings. He's been on the school board now for 2 years. Even though he's gone, we still hold Family Home Evenings without him. He misses a lot of good ones, but we are so grateful for his efforts in the school district and we completely support him in his endeavors.

One Monday night in April, I didn't feel like planning an entire FHE and directing it alone. Instead, I told the boys to each pick a game that we could all play. Jonah picked Memory, Micah picked CandyLand, and Ammon picked Blokus. We played them together one at a time. The games were our entire FHE (except the dessert, of course!).

The next morning, after Ammon went to school, the other boys got the same games out again and started playing them and making up their own rules as they went. After I got out of the shower, I found them just like this:
This photo makes me smile. It's a photo that captures life in a single moment of time. A moment that filled me with hope and optimism and love and gratitude. Sometimes I don't know if I'm a good enough mother, if I'm doing justice for the job, if I'm filling the role properly. But seeing them play with the FHE games, well, it was like eating leftovers, when the food is even more delicious the second time around after having time to soak up the flavors. Even if my FHE wasn't the best planned or most prepared or inspirational, we played together, we laughed together, we had fun together, and I felt happiness. When I saw my boys playing together the next morning, I knew that they had felt that good feeling and wanted to carry it over to the day after! That moment in time of seeing my boys play with the "FHE leftovers" definitely gave me a sense of fulfillment in my calling as their mother, and I felt even more joy while they played the second time around!

Living in Cardboard Boxes

A family friend gave us some giant cardboard boxes.

For the boys, it felt like Christmas morning; they were SO happy!

They played 'fort' in the boxes during the day, and they slept in their boxes for 3 nights.

The boxes were so huge that they took up all the floor space in the boys' room.

Which meant the boys were bringing their toys to the living room to play with, and I was constantly tripping over everything!

On the 4th day, I informed the boys that we are not homeless, and it was time to get rid of the cardboard houses they had created.

It was a sad day for them.

But I was happy to have the space reclaimed and the ability to provide a real roof over their heads once again!

Earth Day 2010

Micah and Jonah HAND-made their T-shirts at Kindergarten to celebrate the occasion!

from Pain to Popular

On Sunday, April 18, Ammon was in an accident.

We had just returned from our first camping trip of the year. Josh and I were cleaning out the trailer and putting things away in the house. The boys ran down to Grandma's backyard and started playing with Grandpa. Grandpa was swinging Ammon around and around on the "May Pole" (aka Giant Stride Swing). He got it swinging really fast, and Ammon knew he was starting to slip, so he yelled for Grandpa to STOP, but Grandpa couldn't stop it fast enough, and Ammon went flying through the air. He landed on his wrist and instantly felt pain.

(To give you an idea of what the swing looks like, these photos are of Josh pushing around the boys on it in Sept. 2008).

Ever since Ammon was in the rockslide accident over Labor Day weekend in 2007, he has become a bit of a hypochondriac. Ammon was crying about his wrist, and he said it really hurt. We knew it hurt, but we didn't know to what extent. We didn't want to make a bigger deal out of it, but we also didn't want to ignore it. We gave him ice to put on it, he took some ibuprofen, and he chilled out on the couch for a while. He had a big homework assignment due the next day, so he had to work on his report later that afternoon. By evening, he was still favoring his left wrist, but it didn't seem to be in excruciating pain, so we figured it was probably just sprained.

That night, he couldn't sleep. He said it ached, and he couldn't get comfortable. He was up multiple times throughout the night. My rule is if the pain is enough to keep you awake at night, then it's bad enough to see a Dr. He took more ibuprofen, took some tylenol, said some prayers, and finally fell asleep. First thing the next morning (Monday), I called the clinic to make an appointment.

He saw an NP (Nurse Practicioner) that morning because she was the only one with an open schedule. He had X-Rays taken, and she determined that it was just sprained. She wrapped it in a bandage, and sent him back to school. He went back to school and went to lunch recess. A half hour later, she called us back saying he needed to come back to the clinic and that he shouldn't play roughly outdoors in the meantime. When we went to pick him up, he was already outside playing football with his friends!!! After picking him up and taking him back to the clinic, she said the wrist bone had been chipped. She then put a splint on it, wrapped it tightly again, and made an appointment for him to see the Orthopedic Surgeon for Thursday morning (3 days away). He had pains in his wrist over the next few days, but only at bedtime. We continued to give him ibuprofen, and he seemed to be okay. The wrist wasn't swollen or looked out of place, and we had no idea what to expect for Thursday. When he saw the Orthopedic Surgeon on Thursday, the Dr. diagnosed it totally different than what the NP had told us. Ammon had broken his wrist--not sprained it, not chipped it, BROKEN it!! He broke his left wrist at the growth plate, which slightly shifted the bone. Ammon received a permanent cast, choosing the color red:

For the first week, he wore red clothes every day to match his cast! Wearing a cast in elementary school automatically makes you popular. His red cast was quickly filled with many signatures! He has to wear the cast for 5 weeks before having it removed. So far, each follow-up X-ray has showed that it hasn't shifted anymore, and it's setting properly. For having a broken bone, the wrist isn't so bad; the Pros outnumber the Cons...

PROS: He got to be done with piano lessons a month early, he's received a lot of attention, he can still write, and he can still participate in P.E. games, and he can use it as an excuse to not do things he doesn't want to do!

CONS: He can't play golf, he can't get the cast wet, and he has a hard time sleeping comfortably at night.

When I took Ammon to his last follow-up appointment, I had all four boys with me. When the Orthopedic Surgeon came into the room, he looked around the room at all the boys, looked me straight in the eye, and said "I'm sure I'll be seeing you again in the future"! And he's probably right!

Karaoke

I love singing Karaoke.

Absolutely LOVE it!!!

The last time I did it was exactly 2 years ago...Why has it been so long?

Because in Salmon, the only place to karaoke now is at a local bar.

I don't mind singing in a bar, mostly because I sound good compared to all the drunks who get up and stagger through a song. And also, since they're all drunk, they think I sound great, too!!!

I just didn't like coming home smelling like I had smoked a pack of cigarettes. I didn't like how the smell permeated my hair, stung my eyes, dried my throat, and stunk up my clothes.

Well, that, and the fact that all my karaoke friends moved away, so I quit going because nobody's willing to go with me anymore!!

BUT, I still LOVE karaoke, and I would go in a heartbeat if it was in a different environment and/or I had somebody to go with!!!

Whenever I would go, I ALWAYS sang "Total Eclipse of the Heart" by Bonnie Tyler, because that's MY song. I've performed it every time I've gone!!!

After hearing Rachel sing that same song on GLEE the other night, I was having doubts that I would ever sing it again. Rachel can nail every song she performs; she is fabulous! And she truly did amazing on that song. Great for Rachel. Bad for Kala. (I have self-confidence issues and inferior feelings occasionally)

But, last night, I felt redeemed. For some reason, I was up late watching TV. Maya Rudolph and Jimmy Fallon sang karaoke to the tune of "Total Eclipse of the Heart" on his Late, Late Show. And they butchered it. It was hilariously awful. Bad for Maya and Jimmy. GREAT for Kala!!!

So, once again, I'm ready to belt out the lyrics to "Total Eclipse of the Heart"!!!

That is, if I ever karaoke again!!!

a fun party & a not-fun day

I just completed another ward party this past week (I'm the ward activities person), in honor of Cinco de Mayo. We had a "FIESTA"! But it didn't feel like May--when I left the party, snow was coming down hard, and I was thinking about the last Ward Party I did back in December when I was hoping for snow, but there was none. And I was thinking about what a breeze the "FIESTA" was in comparison to the December party "Dreamin' of a White Christmas", due to many unforseen problems that unfolded on that day...

Because December is such a busy month, I chose to have the party on the 10th, so there would still be 2 weeks to do things before Christmas (I choose the dates for the parties months before they actually happen). In the middle of November, I learned that Josh would be gone for 3 nights in December on an all-expense-paid work trip to Alabama. It just so happened that the days he would be gone also coincided with the day of my ward party, the biggest ward party of every year with 200 always attending. I knew that I would be stressed out in his absence, but I also knew that I couldn't force him to stay home on my behalf. So....off he went.

Those 3 nights that he was gone also happened to be THE coldest nights of the year, with temperatures reaching below the -20 degree mark. It was so difficult for me to keep the house warm, and I was waking up in the night stoking the fire multiple times to keep us all from freezing.

Of course, the morning of the ward party, I woke up to find the water pipes had frozen. So, I had no flushing toilets, no shower taken, nothing could be washed. I didn't have time to go under the house and try to heat up the pipes because I had so many preparations to take care of & direct for the party: tables had to be put up, table covers taped on, decorations to hang, food to cook, kids gift bags to make. I put a hat on to cover my yucky hair, and I went to spend the day at the church.
I was tired from waking up all night stoking the stove and tending to Kanyon's needs, I was stressed because I hadn't taken a shower and I had so much to do, I was overwhelmed with all that needed to be done, and I was just plain ornery. Of course, since Josh was gone, I ended up taking Kanyon with me for most of the day and he didn't like having to be tagging along with me doing all my preparations. He was unhappy, screaming, head-banging, and throwing tantrums constantly. So that really helped my mood as well.

All the tables got put up and covered and set (with only a few problems--not enough tables were set out, the tablecover tape was missing, the kitchen didn't have enough plates in stock). The centerpieces were mini snowman bags and mini marshmallows. All the decorations got put out and hung (with only one problem--the stage curtain wouldn't shut). On the walls were cut-out snowflakes the primary made, along the back wall was paper plates with the theme "Dreamin' of a White Christmas" painted on them, along the front of the stage was a paper-link chain, and snowman paper lanterns were hung from the stage curtains. All that was left was the food. I had left 3 giant cans of green beans in my car that I had to cook, and they got frozen due to the low temperatures outside. By the time they started to thaw in the slow-cookers, they looked more like French-Style green beans. But they weren't thawing fast enough, and when it was time to eat, we were still trying to cook them--taking them little by little (the church only had small pans) to the stove to heat up faster. I ran to the grocery store and got the cooked, sliced ham and the donuts and hurried back to the church. The dinner was delicious; we ate ham, potatoes au gratin, green beans, jell-o salads, and donuts. There were 6 missionaries serving from our ward at that time, and I asked every member to bring something small to send in a package to each of them from our ward themed "Dreamin' of a White Christmas". Ideas for items were: mini marshmallows, hot cocoa packets, snowman stickers, snowman ornaments, snow window clings, snowman chocolates/Christmas candy, etc. The packages also included the snowflakes cut out by the children that were on the walls at the party. After dinner, the children all made two crafts. The first was a tri-fold snowman card that they colored on to send to the missionaries.

The second craft was a snowman ornament that they created to take home to hang on their own Christmas trees.The final event for the evening was a program. It went pretty well (with only a few problems--the microphone quit working half-way through, the actors forgot a few cues). The children's book "Snowmen at Christmas" was narrated while youth portraying snowmen acted out the scenes. The YM/YW, Primary, and Snowmen also sang songs throughout the narration that went along with the story, like "White Christmas", "Snowflakes Falling" (to the tune of "Popcorn Popping"), "Falling Snow", "Jingle Bell Rock", "Joy to the World", and "Once there was a Snowman".

The party, from an outsider's view, was a success. It was well-attended, and everyone there had a good time. After the party ended, I cleaned up while my in-laws took the boys home and tried to thaw out the frozen water pipes. By the time I got home after 9:00, there was still no water. I was exhausted and frustrated.

Where Josh was at, he couldn't get cell phone reception, so he wasn't answering my phone calls. But he could get internet, so I messaged him, hoping he would check his email/facebook. My father-in-law couldn't figure out where the pipes were frozen at, and he needed to talk to Josh about it. By the time Josh discovered I was trying to get a hold of him, he was mad at me for waiting all day to tackle the water situation. I tried to convey to him that I hadn't been home all day, and we yelled and fought over the phone. I finally gave Edward (my FIL) the phone, and just sat and bawled. I wanted to use the toilet. I wanted to take a shower--I felt so sweaty and dirty and yucky. I just wanted to go to bed. I was mad at Josh, because while I was living in freezing temperatures, trying to heat the house, living without water, taking care of the children, and running a ward party, he was golfing and getting fed home-cooked 4-course meals, and relaxing in 60 degree weather. I couldn't understand why HE had ANY reason to be mad at ME!

Thankfully, Edward got my toilet running that night, and by mid-morning the next day, the rest of the water came on. The following day, the below freezing temperatures were gone, Josh came home, and all was well once again!!!

May Day

Today is the first day of May, or as I like to call it, "May Day". As a child, I remember many times on this day plucking lilacs from their trees and leaving them on people's doorsteps. Those are happy memories. I want to do that right now. But, due to the late frost, there are no lilacs in bloom in Salmon just yet.

May has officially arrived, and I should be outside enjoying the beauties of spring.
Instead, I'm inside the house, and my head and heart are feeling like the dead of winter.