Spelling Lessons

We have an old chair that we have been using as a desk chair. One day last week I noticed some letters written in pen on the back of the chair…hmmmm, very interesting.

It reminded me of a funny story my mom told about my brother when he was little and learning to write his name. His name is Terry.

Mom came in and noticed that someone had written Terry on her dresser with a permanent marker (which, my entire life, she called a magic marker). She asked the obvious question “ Who wrote on my dresser?” Of course all the “not me’s“ began to shout but she already knew who it was and had an idea of how to get a confession from a very young boy.

“Who wrote t-A-r-r-y on mommy’s dresser” she asked.

My brother immediately stepped forward to correct this horrible wrong “that does not say T-a-r-r-y, it says T-E-R-R-Y!” and then the look of shock. He had just confessed to the crime. Too funny.

I think I know the culprit in my little crime here…our markings say
R-Y-L-I-E.

Today while Tori and I were out having a little shopping date she asked me about a story I had told her about my mom. When I was a teen my mom would hide my bra and then sing Boo-laa-boo-laa ( a song that you sing to find things the louder you sing the closer you are…softer means you are getting farther away)to help me find it. Sometimes it was before school, sometimes it was while I was getting ready for a date, sometimes it was, well, whenever she wanted to really. Sounds mean right? But remember, I knew how to play too, paybacks were part of the fun.

So, Tori says “Didn’t Lala used to hide your bra and make you look for it?"

I said “Yep, that’s what you call funny, F-U-N-N-Y”!

She said “that’s what you call funny, D-U-M-B, see that,that was like kids spell love T-I-M-E.” (I had been talking about that phrase a lot around here, because I was preparing a talk for sacrament meeting about strengthening families...)

She was right. That was exactly the point, it was about L-O-V-E and T-I-M-E. It is one of my fondest memories.

The funny part is that my mom was a horrible speller. She would have laughed out loud to hear that she was helping anyone with their spelling lessons.

Thanks mom. You left quite a legacy. I- L-O-V-E- Y-O-U

Grateful

This past week or so I have heard stories and witnessed so much sadness. It has touched me to the core of my soul and I could not go a day longer without expressing some gratitude. It is in a list form, so I warn you that if you do not like lists you may want to skip this one, it may get out of hand. Remember that it is in absolutely random order except for the first three…

I am grateful for-

The gospel of Jesus Christ

My amazing and crazy-good-looking husband

My darling, brilliant,lovely,inspiring,inquisitive,and beautiful little girls

Utah

My parents, all four of them

Friends, who are now family

Homeschool

Being trusted with the challenges and the miracles of autism

Breathing

My body (even though I am pretty sure it’s not the one I asked for)

Having enough

Music

Family

Inspiration

Mountains

Lightning bugs

All things Omaha

American History

Fall Colors in Pennsylvania

NYC

Violins

People who change your direction in life without even knowing

That certain song that is like magic

Yankee Candles

Walking around Zorinski Lake

My MP3 player

My scriptures

Teaching the Marriage and Family class at church

Zaneel

The internet

Baked Potato soup

Disney World

President Thomas S. Monson and his Counselors

General Conference

Christmas

Thanksgiving

Halloween and home-made costumes (thanks, mom)

Muffins for breakfast

Chocolate milk

Soap

Funny stuff

Popsicles

Ticonderoga brand pencils

Crayons

A good love story

Being a mom

Freckles on cheeks

Puppies

Science experiments in my kitchen

Gummy bears

Mary Kay make-up

Books

Birthdays

Kittens and their fluffy little whiskers

Europe

Wicked-The Musical

I could go on forever, but I will stop here. Have a great and GRATEFUL day.

Randomness

Lots of randomness today...

1. We are still in just about the same spot as we were a few weeks ago with our house. The guy was responding for a couple weeks and we jumped through a few more hoops and then he stopped again so the bank is going around him...Where have I heard that before? We'll see. And to those who asked it is in Eagle Mountain.

2. As far as the toilet paper thing is concerned, yes, I like it a certain way I like it to go over the top. Rich will change it to tease me and one day I said 'why do you like the toilet paper this way I can never find the end' ? He said 'Me either. I do it because it means I love you'.

So now it is our secret message...

3. We celebrated the first day of autumn in our usual way, but since we no longer live near an apple picking place we don’t make homemade apple sauce. I guess we could but to me it is not the same if we don’t pick the apples ourselves. Sad.

We had homemade baked potato soup and rolls, pumpkin pudding (that was a new addition, courtesy of Paige) and pumpkin cookies. We then had FHE followed by the annual “fall fashion frenzy” where we go through our fall totes and try on last year’s fall clothes to see what fits who and what new things we need to get. Then we finished out the night with a rousing concert on Rock Band. Good times at the Gilmores!

4. We made homemade rock candy for science the other day and I am happy to report it is going well! We also planted terrariums that day ( it was a busy science experiment day…) and they are also working well. We also put out bird seed for our two winged friends, and sadly, we have not had any takers. And lastly and certainly most disgustingly, we put left over chicken bones in vinegar (Tori is studying bones in science) to see what will happen.

So now on my kitchen counter I have these four beautiful jars with colored sugar crystals growing up a stick and one really ugly jar with chicken bones floating in vinegar. Ahhhh, the joys of homeschooling.

5. The kids are in the Highland children’s choir and love it. I am very excited to hear the Christmas concert.

6. Paigie crashed on her bike the other day. Her bike is WAY too small for her and we meant to get her a new one at the beginning of the summer. When she came in crying and all boogered up we both said ‘that’s it, this child needs a new bike’ so we spent the better half of Saturday finding her just the right bigger (and more beautiful) bike. She LOVES it and been riding that new bike more the last few days then she has ever ridden the old bike. Interesting huh?

While we were hunting we figured out that she has never had her very own bike. Poor middle child.

7. I have resigned myself to the fact that perhaps the fridge thing just won’t work out and I will have to figure out my own organization after all. Bummer.

8. Rich had a meeting yesterday with the presiding bishop and he was reminded how cool it is to work where he does. Whew…we needed the reminder.

9. Every Monday I say I am going to start walking again. By Wednesday (when nothing is happening) I determine that I need recommit to the next Monday (that organized part of myself thinks I can only start on Monday). So I am posting it so I will be accountable to someone. I never lie to others, but for some reason I am okay with lying to myself. Wish me luck.

10. I am reading Parenting with Love and Logic. These folks are on to something.

11. I meant to stop at ten, but I thought of something else...I am reading (or trying to, rather) Breaking Dawn. I don't enjoy it. Someone tell me that it gets better so I can finish the book. I think I am the only one on the face of the planet that can't seem to finish. I am stuck at the part where they know the Volturi are coming and Alice takes off. Some one help me...

Calling all toilet paper put-er on-ers

Am I the only person in the universe that can put the toilet paper roll on the thing, or just the only person in this house?

Just wondering.

You don't need a MAID, just the right refrigerator

I don’t like to watch television all that much. I usually end up offended by the barrage of unnecessary images that assault my poor unwitting senses. But, occasionally there is a useful item advertised that I wonder (aloud sometimes) how did I ever live without that?

Well, folks, that moment arrived once more.

I consider myself pretty organized, but I sometimes wonder what I could do to get myself more organized. I often hear my children shouting to me “Mommy where is the…(fill in the blank here)” we always follow that up with “If you put things back where you found it, we would always know right where it is when we need it again". They love that speech, by the way.

Even my husband, bless his darling heart, will ask me “Babe, do you know where the (fill in your choice of electronic gadget, gizmo, cord or thingy) is…”? Okay, that is hysterical on so many levels I don’t even know where to begin and I am quite sure I haven't enough room to type the reasons out, but I think we are all aware that I am not the type to know where those would be(or even what they are come to think of it). I always say “Well , the last time I used it ….” He laughs and rolls his eyes and continues the search.

The other day I heard a commercial, it was so familiar to me that it immediately caught my attention…there were children shouting “mom where’s the…” and the announcer said something like 'when you need to know where things are you need the KENMORE ELITE FRIDGE' —Who knew that the answer to my (and I believe the age old) dilemma was a refrigerator. Did I ever dare to dream that it was that simple? No. Did I even equate organization with a certain brand of refrigerator? No. Have I been struggling all this time for no good reason? YES! And unless you have this particular model of fridge, so have you.

Did you know that because it has the freezer on the bottom and both the fridge doors open at the same time it has a place for absolutely everything? You can store all your food in there , even big cakes and something like forty bottles of soda all at the same time. There's plenty of room for all the produce you could dream of possesing at once and all the condiments too! And best of all, You will NEVER have to look for anything ever again.

I feel really terrible now. I have a great fridge that I love. I won’t be in the market for a new one for a good 10 years,hopefully . Does that mean I will never be organized?

The questions that begs asking is this- If I bought one for just the organizational qualities it possesses would it still have the same effect over my entire house if I just used it for a dresser or bookcase?


If so then sign me up.

The REST of the Story....

I have debated, and debated whether I wanted to post this or not. I have mentioned about getting a new house a couple times and people are asking about it so I guess it is time to come clean.

Unfortunately, like all Beckie stories, there’s the short version (which I call the Swiss cheese version---full of holes and some interesting parts are missing) or the long version (which I call the boring, but complete version). I am not sure how to tell both, and personally never opt for the Swiss cheese version, so I will go with the long and if youd’ve preferred the Swiss cheese version you can skip to the end and avoid the boring parts.

We moved to Utah. That part is indisputable. We were not thrilled to be here. That part is disputable, depending on the day. It was a huge sacrifice to leave Omaha and we did not necessarily want to go. We were not even looking to leave, but there was no question we were supposed to go for some reason. I knew it would be hard for the first year (under the circumstances) which I was okay with...I left Omaha chanting “I can do anything for a year”…

As it turns out, a year is a long time… When we got here things were not exactly the way we expected. I cannot go into details about that, but those of you who know me well know the battle we encountered when we got here. You know the pain and the heartache we witnessed (and felt). You know we felt disillusioned (and still do about some things) you know we did all that was required of us and then ultimately had to let the Lord bear the burden for us and go about our lives (which we are still trying to do).


Anyway, We love Utah and love being with our family we have just felt lost. We knew we had to just "forget ourselves and get to work" to find what the Lord had intended for us to do here. We have been getting really involved in our ward (which I was scared to do since we knew we were leaving soon). We teach the Marriage and Family class, I am also the activity day’s leader and Rich is the Media specialist (which means he goes into people’s homes and sets up their computers to help with internet safety). We are hopping all the time. We have made some very real connections with people here and find ourselves getting more attached with each passing week.

We have been looking at houses, lots and lots of really great houses. There has been nothing wrong with most of them they were just not our home. This just added to the angst we felt in leaving our home in Omaha.

Interesting (and very important) side note, at some point during all this Rich’s old employer expressed an interest in him returning to Omaha (of course AFTER our house sold). I cannot even tell you the elation that I felt at the prospect of returning HOME. After many conversations (and a long few weeks) everyone involved agreed that it would not be financially rewarding for anyone involved to make it happen. It is for the best really, that would have been like giving the kid having a massive tantrum in the store the candy they had been crying about…


Anyway, one day while searching I found an interesting prospect and sent Rich to check it out on his way to get a hair cut ...he came right home and got me to look and, well, WE FELL IN LOVE. It is a short sale, which means it is in the step before foreclosure. It is not even completely finished. There is no carpet yet, some electric work needs to be done,the yard is unfinished etc… We put an offer on it but let me interject here , the word SHORT SALE has absolutely nothing to do with the length of the process for acquiring one of these homes, we have been back and forth and back and forth for over a month.

The seller accepted our offer the very next day and then we had to work with the bank. The bank accepted our offer eventually (after several counter offers and negotiations...) and then the seller refused to sign the papers because the bank will come after him for the balance…then he said he would, he just needed to talk it over with his wife…the bank gave him till noon Friday and then they were moving forward without him. That’s where we are at. It is now Monday way past noon on Friday, and no word from him. The bank is moving forward (I am certain that will mean some sort of a wait on our part) and I am glad cause I am at my “hurry up and wait” limit.

We have been blessed for certain. There have been so many obstacles with this process it has been crazy ( believe it or not, this is still shorter than the entire story...). We have felt like this is THE house from the first glance. I have continued my prayer that as we move forward if at any point we are supposed to stop that the Lord will stop us, but until that moment arrives, we are going to press forward.

There have been times that it felt like the door had been closed, only to have a huge window open that was better (and easier to use) than the door. Things we think will be bad work out great, things we thought were good turn out better than we had anticipated. It has been an interesting ride that’s for sure. I haven't wanted to say anything 'till I knew something for sure, but I guess its as close to that point as it will get.

For those of you skipping ahead, we put an offer on a house, its looking good. That’s all I know… (see, isn’t the l-o-n-g version lots better?)


I have tons more photos, but you guessed it, they are on the camera...maybe I will remember to have Rich show me how to do it AGAIN when he gets home...