Some of our year in photos

Some of my favorite pics from this year!

My 10 favorite things about my new house

I know it has been 4 weeks since we blogged, but we moved. The list of the 10 favorite things about our new house:

1. Windows - lots of them and they are really big. Sunlight is wonderful.
2. Nice blinds over said windows - so I don't feel like I am in a fishbowl at night.
3. My own bath tub - I don't have to share it with anyone but Paul, and he hasn't even gotten in it yet. And it is nice and deep for a really nice soak.
4. My own sink in the bathroom - we both get our own sink! It has shaved 10 minutes off our getting ready for church time.
5. I can see the television from the kitchen so I know if the kids are turning off the wii or whatever program they are not supposed to be watching and start their homework.
6. A big master bedroom - there is room for all my stuff and all my Anne of Green Gables and Little House books.
7. A walk in closet - my sweaters aren't all squished into a little sorter and might actually look decent when I want to wear them.
8. Each child has his/her own room - they can't blame their mess or lack thereof on anyone else.
9. An office space for the computer and shelves for my cookbooks - I used to try to shove them all in a cupboard and never could find the one I wanted. Now even my paperwork will be organized (hopefully by this time tomorrow).
10. Bigger kitchen/more cupboards - I can stand in one place and whip up a batch of cookies without feeling like I'm going to trip over my child that is setting the table.

Paul's "Tour of Not Italy"

Shelly is resting right now so I get to do this. (Sorry if I get a little weird). We sign the papers Tuesday, so we thought that you needed a tour of the house before it gets official. If I sound like a tour guide, just remember that I grew up in Southern California, with all of the tours that go on around there.

Upon approaching the home we have a lovely view of this charming, two-story estate. (It is bigger on the inside than it looks from the outside.) Note the two-car garage and small porch that are ready for use as soon as we are able. Also, for our convenience, automatic sprinklers hooked to (we are pretty certain) secondary water (yea).

While approaching the front door, notice the beautiful flowers surrounding a small seating area. There are two different water spigots there. One for culinary water and the other for secondary. The flowers are even better in real life.

Just to the right of the front entrance is the living room. Notice the (cough) lovely red walls. My favorite color may be red, but even this is too much. We will paint it just before we move in. Great crown moulding though.

As you go upstairs , look up and notice the great chandelier. There is a small chandelier at the landing as well. The lighting fixtures in this house are great. There is also plenty of natural light during the day, so it is great. (Now how to change all of those bulbs.) There are just two fixtures in the kitchen that we will change.


Now for the master suite. To the left you see the bedroom. Note the vaulted ceilings and the ceiling fan with the light. There are two levels of lights that can be turned on and off. The walk in closet is to the right of the picture. In the right picture you see the master bath. Shelly is really excited about the soaking tub and separate (and much larger than we have now) shower. I am happy about them as well. We are both excited to each have our own sink so that we are not bumping into each other.

Now for the younger boys rooms. Jaredd's is on the left and will stay pretty much as is. He loves yellow and, for now, will have a Pooh Bear room. He also has the largest window of all the rooms and a small vaulted ceiling. The the right is Aaron's room. We will be painting the blue portion under the chair railing green and taking down the "Jimmy Neutron" stickers on the wall. Both boys are thrilled to have their own rooms. The boys will share a full bathroom that is just across from Jaredd's room.

As you go downstairs, you will run into Robbie's room, literally. He will have one wall that is a curtain (orange, of course). Eventually, we will build a wall there and give him a fully enclosed room. As you turn left, you will notice the downstairs family room/Shelly's work room. Just a great space for a pool table or a foosball table. We will see after the current (until next Friday) house sells.

Last room pictured inside the house is Amy's. The walls will get painted from a turquiose to something called "Ice Ballet" (of course). She is thrilled that she will still get her own room, and that it is not too much smaller than her current room. She is not entirely happy that she still has to share a bathroom, but at least it is only with Rob.

Last picture to post is the back of the house. No deck, but some great potential for it. The lot is 0.15 acre (much smaller) but we can work with is. Just a note, our dog and cat are bewildered by everthing that is going on, and may have to get along after we move.

That is it for pictures. Shelly said that she forgot to get a picture of the kitchen/eating area/upstairs family room. Next time maybe.

The New House

It must be ours. When we drove over there tonight, this was what was on the front lawn. Yeah!

Here it is. We know it is dark, it was just after sunset, so we couldn't get too great of a picture.

But isn't she lovely. The windows you can see are the living room on the main floor and Jaredd's room on the second floor.
When we got home, here is how Jaredd spent our entire date. Sound asleep in a faceplant on our bed. He hasn't been feeling too well the last couple of days and just couldn't stay awake during dinner. He slept for two hours before we woke him up to go to bed.

To Shave It or Not to Shave It? That is the Question

Here's the question of the day. Paul's rebellous goatee is now grown, should he keep it or shave it? Your vote may or may not influence his decision in the end, but it will be fun to see what you think. By the way, I think he looks like a Briney (Paul's sister's family) from the front and his brother Jim from the side. Notice the snow on his chin. I guess that's what 16 years, four kids and moving will do to you.

Oh the Changes That Happen

I have taken over the blog for one night (I don't think that I could get away with too much more than that). I had to rebel a little bit today. They asked me to speak in church, so I wore my BYU shirt and tie. I have not shaved since Wednesday, so I shaved all but a goatee (like three of the former EQPs in the ward have done) and told the Ward that I was very happy with it all. (even the Stake Presidency thought it was funny). Now that every one knows I have become a "free agent" they are all asking what my new calling is. I have to tell them that I will see what our new Bishop has for me. Yes, we signed papers for the new home. We are moving without having the house sold (yet). Talk about ulcers for cheap! I will just say that it is truly a leap of faith. After signing and putting our initials on something like 2,000 papers (okay, 20) and feeling as if my blood was being drained from my body slowly, I felt a peaceful feeling. It was okay. Now the stress of changing our address in somewhere around 50 places, getting new carpet in the old house, and moving can set in. Really, if you know anyone that would like a good home, fresh paint, new carpet, great shade trees, big backyard, wonderful neighbours, etc. let them know. we can get you in touch with our agent and work it out. (Now that I don't have to plug for Home Teaching to get done, I have to plug for something.) We hope that you are all well and having a great week. Something tells me that I won't get this opportunity very often. TTFN Paul (the not so cute one)

A Move in the Future?

Anybody looking for a nice, freshened up house in Layton? It looks like we have decided to list our house at the end of the month and try to move on to different things. Bigger and better is not really where we are headed, just more suited for our current needs, like a smaller yard, but a great room rather than a basement family room. We have found a house we like, but who knows if it will be around when ours sells. But there are other options, so we are going to list it and try. I think one of the "final straws" was Paul being released as the Elder's Quorum President. Maybe the Lord is telling us it is okay to go. So we are painting, carpeting, fixing the small things that you never get around to, and listing it. Wish us luck.

Vacation

Our vacation was wonderful! I highly recommend Disney Cruises. If you love Disney, you can see characters and shop for Disney stuff. If you don't, it still is amazingly clean (no lint on the coin changer machine in the laundry room clean) and clean (all the plays are rated G and the movies are PG13 or better). In order to not have too long of a blog, I will do a few pictures at a time.

Our ship.

Amy, being "kidnapped" by Trevis, one of our servers.

The service staff follows you on your rotation from restaurant, so you have the same wonderful staff every night. Trevis would bring our drink orders for dinner right when we sat down, we didn't even have to order after a couple of nights.

Our Family in the Atrium with Grandma V...

and Mickey Mickey loves Grandma at our character breakfast.

Everyone gets a morning to have a character breakfast, Mickey, Minnie, Chip and Dale, Donald Pluto and Goofy all come around for pictures. No lines to wait in.

Jaredd and Amy in the Mickey pool.

There were three guest pools on the ship, the Mickey pool and Goofy pools for families and a quiet pool just for adults (although Amy did get in with her cousins). The Mickey pool even has a waterslide, held up by Mickey's hand. Jaredd's favorite part was all you can eat chicken and fries (or burgers or hot dogs or just plain fries) from about 11 a.m. until 11 p.m. The other kids enjoyed all you can eat soft serve ice cream and fruit from Goofy's galley.

One of our AMAZING desserts! It tasted as good as it looks!

Cabo San Lucas from our stateroom. Beautiful water despite the opressing heat.

Paul and "Watermelon Man." (Who is scarier?)

Jaredd and our head server Andrea (who Jaredd wishes were his fiancee).

She was the sweetest to him. Not only did she arrange for special dairy free desserts for him every night, she would cut his meat and dote all over him. No wonder why he fell in love.

More to come.

Bring on the rest of summer because I'm blogging May, June & early July

Since Paul is helping me, I can put photos on the blog.

We had Aaron have his birthday today since we will be camping on Tuesday. He loves frogs, so I made him a frog cake. It is "iced" with candy melts and filled with frosting and marshmellos. Yummy. Happy 9th birthday Aaron.

Caramel playing in the water, her favorite summer activity.

We went to the Bees game on Monday night with Grandpa and Grandma G., Meggan, Daniel and Michelle and their kids, and Heather and Trever, Ava and Terry. The kids had a blast and the Bees won.

Jaredd was so happy he got to meet Bumble.

And now long over due pics of the recital (I'm still waiting on some from my friends, and the professional ones look great). Ask us to show you the DVD.

The boys in some of their recital costumes. Rob had a tap and a tumbling costume as well and Aaron had a tumbling costume after tap.

Amy's class warming up. She is second from the back.

We've had a great summer so far and we know the best is yet to come. Camping, trek and Mexico!

Summer Update

1. My van is back. All better. And his insurance company paid for it all (except the stuff that went wrong on the way down to the repair shop that there was no way to "prove" was caused by the accident) including the rental without a fight. Yeah.
2. Summer is here. The kids have been pretty good. Amy is away at girls camp. Summer dance classes have begun with tumbling and tap for the boys and ballet for Amy. We have been slowly making Amy clothes for trek. Her bloomers and skirt are done, so we still need to finish a blouse, apron and bonnet. Rob and I have been piecing him a quilt top. Yesterday we did some much needed deep cleaning in the kitchen. Slower lazier days.
3. The new school building is up. The roof is on and windows are going in, so the inside can begin to be sheet rocked. As soon as I get back from LA is August, helping with furnishings (desks, chairs, bookcases, textbooks, etc.) will be my life until school starts.
4. Only 34 days to go until we leave for LA. We are all so excited to go on our cruise. The kids and I will stay the extra week and Paul will fly home for a week of work and then back to LA to drive us home (my back only lets me drive for about an hour at a time).
All in all it has been a great summer so far. And the best is yet to come.

Picture Day!!!

I am finally sitting down after being on my feet all day long. Today was the first picture day at the studio. Tommorrow is the second. I don't have to go in until 4:oo p.m. Thank you Erene (my boss). I survived! Tomorrow should be easier for me because the kids will only be there for a little while. I think that I will survive and will recover enough for the recital.

OUCH!

The pictures say it all. Thursday morning on the way home from kindergarten pickup after waiting for a Frontrunner train, a 16 year old young man decided that I was not starting fast enough. It sounded like an explosion with the crunching and the glass breaking. Since he was in a large Ford 350 truck, jacked up, the tailgate took all the force. Fortunately, only my van is really hurt, not me or Jaredd or his friend Hunter. So I am grateful for booster seats, driving a larger vehicle, and that I am an experienced enough driver not to start going right after the garbage truck in front of me started or I would have ran into it. I don't know yet how his insurance is going to play this out yet, but a van is only a van and money is only money, so I am truly grateful today.

P.S. Windy, I know you tagged me, but it will have to wait until June. It is recital month!!!

Today is the big day! I will finally not look like white trash. (Whether or not I am is yet to be determined.) NO more temporary crown. No more everything tasting like metal. No more not eating Genette's yummy salads at parties because the spinach gets stuck in the gap in my teeth. No more chewing really slowly on one side of my mouth and then my jaw still aching when I'm done. YEAH! Now I just have to get through the dentist anxiety and pain from them yanking on my jaw, but YEAH YEAH YEAH.

Yuck I'm sick!

Anybody know how to tell the difference between a sinus infection and a bad cold? I would have probably give up and go to the doctor, but I've already been down to Salt Lake twice with Robbie and his sprained(?) foot or maybe it has a cyst on it. He is in a boot cast now, last weekend he was in a splint and couldn't walk. The short of it is I don't want to drive to Salt Lake again. Maybe the warm weekend will fix me. Here's hoping!

Food Cravings

I have been food crazy lately with trying to lose any weight at all and then the mouth pain, so I wanted to ask what is your favorite food? But not just one food but categorize them into the following...
1. Entree- It would have to be pizza but fish would be a close second
2. Treat you can't put down until the whole bowl is gone-jelly beans and candy corn
3. Salty food-Baked Lays Sour Cream and Cheddar
4. Dessert - Strawberry Rhubarb pie
5. Staple food(s) you couldn't live without- Jello. I love, love, love jello. And also any good chocolate. Mrs. Cavanaughs and Dove are my favorites. I have also had a weird obsession with mint lately.
6. Food you would never eat again if you could - Brussel Sprouts and Swiss Chard
7. What you always order at restaurants- The chicken tortilla soup and fried zucchini at Red Robin and a pork salad at Cafe Rio
8. Food you wouldn't eat as a child, but now you like- spinach (because now I eat it raw) and asparagus.
9. What did you eat today- Baked apple oatmeal for breakfast, Easy mac and jello for lunch, and we will have canadian bacon and pineapple pizza with cheesecake for dinner.

Let me know what you like. Then when you come to my house, you might have a chance at eating something good.

Conference Next Week

Is anyone else still not used to the idea that Pres. Monson is the prophet? I hope that it really hits me after conference next week. I watched most of the Young Women's meeting and I just kept looking for President Hinckley. But I loved the pictures of President Monson at the Jazz game last night.

Gratitude and not so much gratitude

I took some inspiration from my friend Windy and I am going to write about things that I am thankful for. But since I am not yet as perfected as she, I will also add some things I am not thankful for.
1. I am thankful for a nice warm shower on a cold spring morning.
2. I am thankful that I work at a dance studio and for an amazing boss. I get to wear basically whatever I want from exercise wear to business wear. I also get to bring my children when I need to (most every day because of their dance/tumbling schedules). I also have a very flexible schedule. So if I need to cut out early to go to a school play or pack meeting, I usually can. And I got to go home early yesterday when my mouth hurt. Which brings me to...
3. I am grateful for computers, email and digital media. I was able to email myself the files I needed so that I could do a lot of work last night lying in my bed with my laptop while I was on my painkillers for my mouth.
4. I am grateful for friends. It was nice to get a phone call thanking me for cookies that I ran over to a neighbors and she brings me the most delicious bread ever all of the time.
5. I am grateful that I got a phone call that I didn't have to pick up Jaredd from school this morning since my friend/carpool partner was already at the school. So I could take the aforementioned shower rather than try to fit that in before I go to work in an hour.
6. I am grateful for a husband who loves me. He stayed home from work yesterday because I had to get a crown on my tooth. I hate to have work done on my teeth. And he brought me a raspberry shake from Arctic Circle for lunch and chicken nuggets and fries at 10:20 p.m. so that I would have some calories yesterday. Then he ate most of the nuggets for me when it hurt too much to chew them.
7. I am grateful that I am almost caught up on my laundry.
8. I am grateful that Robbie will not have tumbling Thursday nights until 8:45 p.m. next year. Then maybe he will not be so grumpy/mean on Friday mornings. Mondays at 4:15 is much nicer.
9. I am grateful for instant rice, microwavable foods, crockpots, refrigerators and freezers. If I had to go out everyday and pick, grow, kill, clean, bake, etcetera all my own food everyday, I would starve. Dinner is so much easier now days.

And my not so grateful list:

1. I am not grateful for my trip to the dentist. It seems that because my old dentist has opened a new office in Draper, he left new dentists in charge of his old office, so my last few fillings have been sub par. Hence the new dentist's office and the crown. And another filling to be replaced in another 6 months or so.
2. I am not grateful for my parents not getting me braces as a child. Our dentist felt that since they were bottom teeth, they didn't matter because no one would see them. Except that left me with crossed teeth on the bottom that are very hard to clean and floss. So now I probably need to get braces (fortunately the new removable shield type) for the health of my teeth. And our insurance doesn't cover braces for adults, just gives you a "discount". There goes my tax refund.
3. I am not grateful for Cub Scout leaders that do not understand the word budget. Since I am the Primary counselor over Cub Scouts, I had the fun duty of telling them today that they have already spent about 75% of their budget for the year and they can not cover all of the pinewood derby cars, scout camp fees, etc. out of the budget. I only hope they can cover awards for the rest of the year. AAAAAH
I guess I should finish with one more thing that I am grateful for. When I was in 6th grade, one of my teachers went around the room and told all of the kids if they were optimists or pessimists. When he came to me, he said, "Shelly, I don't think you are an optimist or a pessimist. I think you look at both sides of things and then decide which viewpoint is the most logical to take." I am forever grateful to this teacher for this insight into why I cannot make just a gratitude list, but have some things from both viewpoints.

New look

New colors for spring.

Random Thoughts from the Weekend

More semi random thoughts for over the weekend - some serious, some not so much...
1. I am way too addicted to Easter candy. The Easter bunny bought 13 bags of candy, plus extras like peeps for my 4 kids. Aaugh! Every year I think I've done better, but this is the worst yet.
2. Isn't spring nice. I love that the flowers are starting to grow. I love that the bad weather only lasts for a little while. I love that if I want to I can usually leave my coat in the car and run into a store without freezing. I LOVE SPRING!
3. Animals are really weird. The dog is crazy. She loves cookies and other baked goods. I have had to hide stuff up high from her all weekend. The cat is nuts. She walks around saying "Mamy mood" or Amy food all day long. I swear it is true. Plus Nemo the fish is freaking out because we cleaned his bowl this weekend. He makes me dizzy just watching him.
4. I have really cute and generally nice kids. We had a family dentist appointment at a new dentist last Friday, and I wouldn't have even know they were in the office if I hadn't brought them. They were so quiet. I guess years of hard work might just pay off. Then yesterday while I was catching a short nap (a necessity after primary) while the ham was in the oven, they cleaned out the whole basement pantry. It would have been a huge job by myself. Now all the food is neat and I can see what I have. What a nice Easter gift.
5. Did I mention that I love spring. The sun is shining and the kids can play outside. Go spring.
6. My primary president gave a great example of repentance yesterday. She showed a filthy plate and asked if the kids would want to eat off it. Then she talked about if she had rinsed it off right away and then washed it how much easier it would be. And she talked about the atonement and the resurrection. It was a neat sharing time.
7. I forgot how much easier it is to get things done when my kids don't have classes after school, or even school and I don't have to go to work. My house is starting to get clean. But today is back to dance and school starts on Wednesday so it won't last.
8. Work is starting to really busy up for the recital. Plus registration needs to be done before next Monday. That means schedules, registration forms, class signup sheets, finding the other alphabet organizer, finishing the class placement lists, all done by me. And I'm only supposed to work 5 hours this week. I think I might have to work late or a few extra days.
This is now a really long post. So I think I'm done with randomness for the day.

A Great Weekend

I know that I haven't blogged since February. And there have been so many things to talk about. I am now 38. It was a good day. Primary sang to me in both Jr. and Sr. Paul came home early from his meetings so we could open my presents - Mrs. Cavanaughs chocolates, 101 Dalmations, a new Disney Cricut cartridge, Celine Dion album. Amy made me a cute cake(which I will add a picture to this if Paul will show me how later) and she made dinner.

The only bad thing was the change to daylight savings time. I couldn't sleep Saturday night from all the excitement of the weekend until the clock said 3. But I had a great nap. But I am not a big fan of time changes.

Allison's wedding was beautiful. She looked amazing (like she would look any other way). The temple ceremony was very special and spiritual. Leesha got to get into the temple after she left her recommend in Georgia. I got to spend some time with my big sister while waiting to see if she would and at Costco. We all had a happy cry at the wedding breakfast. The reception was nice and fun without being overdone. I hope Genette and Glen and Alli and Jake and his parents enjoyed it as much as we all did. If you want to see pictures look at Heather's blog (http://www.treverandheather.blogspot.com/).

It was a great weekend!!!

Response to Heather's Tag

I guess I will give it a stab since I might not remember that long ago soon.

20 Years ago:

I was still in high school, waiting to see if I got into BYU and trying to figure out how I could afford it if I did. My mom had just had Meggan and really didn't have a lot of time to do my senior stuff, so I was trying to do all that. I was crazy busy with 3 AP classes and Laytones.

10 Years ago:

I was finally trying to finish unpacking from my December move into this house. I had just been called as Homemaking Leader and was still getting over Mono and the surgery on the back of my leg to remove the weird nerve bundle. Amy was only 4 and Rob was learning to crawl. Ariel, Cinderella, and Belle were often in my house.

5 years ago:

I was teaching primary and piano. Aaron (Bob) was in Joy School and Rob and Amy were still going to Crestview. Jaredd was crawling all over the place and we had just moved into the basement.

1 year ago:

We were still hoping for approval on changing the charter to add a Jr. High. Jaredd was home with me all the time most days. I was still getting used to working part time and trying to learn everything about the computers so I could get the recital stuff done.

1 month ago:

It was pack meeting. Aaron got his Wolf award. Robbie ended up crying because they made him take his car he built apart. We got McDonalds on the way home because I spent all afternoon helping to get ready for pack meeting. It was a really slippery night with snow and frozen rain.

Yesterday:

I was crazy busy with the skirt, work, Thursdays (tumbling for all three boys, ballet and jazz for Amy, presidency meeting at our house for Paul). I made 40 way chicken for dinner with biscuits and Jello with fruit in it. I drove the carpools, went to the bank and three stores.

Today:

I finished one of Amy's legwarmers, Aaron stayed home "sick" from school, finished Amy's skirt, made Robbie a 1/2 birthday cake, drove carpools, went to two stores (both with Jaredd), took Robbie to tumbling and stayed to watch. We got Wendy's for dinner because I haven't finished the dishes from last night. I started a new cross stitch while waiting for Robbie. I helped out Erene at work for a while. I played wii with Paul for exercise after dinner. I had three asthma attacks. I watched the IKEA video with the guy that lives in IKEA. A busy but somewhat fun day.

Random Thoughts while sewing

These are a short composite of some of my random thoughts while sewing a skirt for Amy for Allison's wedding/Easter.

Why when you sew around the bottom of a skirt do you get dizzy? You are going in a straight line.

Why when you use math to figure out if you bought enough trim, it still doesn't work out?

Why does Josh Groban sing so well? He is my favorite sewing music.

Why is green, yellow, and orange popular now? They were when I was little many eons ago.

Why did my doctor tell me I was young and then say I might have to make some changes when I am 40 (the next time I have to have a physical) all in the same sentence?

Why is sewing so discouraging and yet I enjoy it all at the same time?

Why would a kid ever want to stay home from school? His mom is boring.

Why do I only ever manage to celebrate Rob's 1/2 birthday. I get four times the opportunity for everyone else.

Why do I have such strange random thoughts while I am sewing. Would I sew better/faster/easier if I didn't?

Amy's Birthday

I am officially old. Amy is no longer 13. Which makes me even older. Her friends are now just going home from her party. We are really tired. And a random question. Why do kids feel the need to constantly text when they are doing something else? It's rude and I don't think that they can really enjoy what is going on around them when they are so busy with their phones. But I think that Amy had a great time with the non-texters and is happy to be 14. We gave her lots of clothes and a new used computer and new printer. The boys got her some Tinkerbell bags. I hope she'll like 14.

A quote from Pres. Hinkley from conference last year.

"There is no other event in human history as significant as the atoning sacrifice of our divine Redeemer. None else compares with it. Without it life would be meaningless. It would be a dead-end journey.
With it we are assured of eternal life. Death is not the end, but rather a passing on to a more glorious existence. "

I know that he is now in that glorious existence.

Okay, I'm finally trying to do this. I read Heather's and Malauna's all the time and now Windy's so I thought that I would try this. But don't actually count on me to remember to update this more than occasionally, especially during recital time. But welcome to my blog and wish me luck.

Shelly