This is my life?

I know it has been forever since I have posted anything so please don't hyperventilate as you gasp in shock to see actual words here. You would think nothing has happened in the two months or so that I last posted but you would be wrong or maybe you are right. I suppose it depends on your point of view.
We did actually move in to our new house :) We thought it would never come due to closing getting pushed off due to lack of paperwork. I'm guessing there needs to be a certain poundage of paper and the title company had not killed enough trees yet to meet the standard. Once they finally got up to speed we were able to sign our lives away along with our first born (sorry, Cora, but we had to do what we had to do j/k).
Turns out that signing was the easy part. We actually had to move all of our stuff, most of which was in storage. We successfully managed the feat of transferring all our possessions into our new house where it now sits in the garage. It seems we've lived out of boxes for so long that I am used to everything just being boxed up and have rebelled against actually unpacking. Why clutter my nice house when the garage works as a perfect storage unit? Sadly, not everyone shared my views. Some members of this family feel they should have easier access to their belongings. Looks like we will eventually have to unpack the rest of our stuff then, sigh.
We also had a yard sale a few weeks after moving in. Cora and Miranda missed their yard sale fundraiser for band because we were originally supposed to be moving the day of the sale but were unaware of the dead tree requirement by the title company. Anyways, since we had apparently been saving all kinds of things for just this event we had to stage our own yard sale. Now, none of us had actually put on our own yard sale. I was unaware of the "yard sale rules". I had planned the sale to start at 9:30am so I wouldn't have to get up incredibly early. Apparently, this goes against the "rules". As I was in our driveway around 8am deciding how we would set up we had one woman arrive and proceed to chew me out because we were not ready yet. Is she unable to read the time I so carefully put on all the signs and ads? I was informed that we were starting way too late and everyone would be all done perusing yard sales. She then, along with some other opportunists, attempted to go in our garage to see what we had. Nothing like shooing people away and having to repeat, "no, the lawn mower is not for sale" while trying to set up for the actual sale. I'm going to assume that those who are frequent yard sale attendees do not know how to tell time. Aside from all that, we did fairly well and earned the girls some money for their band trip. If you know anyone who wants a cherry wood computer armoire or window AC units, let me know.
Heather had her yearly EEG at the end of October. It came back this time showing no seizure activity!!! This is what we have been waiting for. In January, she will be two years seizure free and we can start taking her off her meds. It's quite likely that she has "grown" out of the seizures and will never have to worry about them again. It still isn't a guarantee but we are hoping :)
Halloween has, of course, come and gone. I so enjoy looking for costumes at the last minute for a young woman activity. This job would be so much easier if retailers didn't believe that all women and girls want to be slutty skanks for Halloween. We ended up buying getting costumes meant for men (which meant they were too large) and one cape. I think I spent less on my first wedding dress AND I had more fabric. The kids had a good time anyhow and we froze out trick or treating. Good times :)
Ah, and lest I forget, I won tickets to New Moon for the opening night :) I had originally planned to go see it a few weeks after opening but who can pass up free tickets right? I never win anything so the fact I won these really made me smile, and not just cause I'd get to see Edward and Jacob on the big screen ;). Since I only had two tickets and three daughters that wanted to see it, I took my friend Amber. I figure I will go again and take the kids. I always have so much fun with Amber and listening to the comments of the guys behind us was great :). We need to do more things together because I feel like a kid again when we are together. Looks like Eclipse will be out in June and I can hardly wait for that one too!

The Manor of Opinion

We finally have the stucco on, lighting, and garage door.

We have a nice red front door.

This is a shot of the master bath.

The master bathtub

another shot of the master bath

The kitchen

This is our kitchen. We are so excited to have a dishwasher!


It's been lots of fun watching the house be built. We are getting very excited to be able to move in. Just two more weeks and we can!

Family Fun

I am glad to say I finally got a close up of Cora!!!! She really does exist!

We went up to Bridal Veil Falls today with the family. Just a few pictures we took up there. It was sprinkling just a tad.

















Ok, I was trying to get Cora on this video since she was determined to not have her picture taken. I was not successful....but I did get a good shot of the other people up there lol.

Animal Farm

We took some pictures of some animals that live nearby. We used to live nearer to them at one time. It was fun seeing them all the time. The pigs were cracking us up. The lighter colored one kept running around in circles reminding me of Wilbur in Charlotte's Web.






These are some snails out in front of our house earlier this spring. I'm telling you I certainly feel like them some days :)

Oh lots of stuff

We've had a busy weekend. Lisa and Miranda had their sophomore orientation Friday. Nothing like being surrounded by teenagers to remind you of how old you are :) It was fun watching all of them "posing" for each other, attempting to look cool etc. A few boys had the polo shirts with the collars turned up just like we did back in the 80's. I was quick to point this out to my two who have been making disparaging comments about the lack of style we had in the 80's. They were grossed out and swore to never do that with THEIR collars. I told them that at least shoulder pads didn't seem to be coming back although a lot of other things are. They thought I meant shoulder pads like for football lol. Too funny. We probably looked that way back then though. I know I was awful tough looking with my shoulder pads and shiny silver suit like jacket.
Anyhow, I got tired just watching all the enthusiasm exhibited by the student body officers. Were we all really that hyper back in the day? I like to think I was so very reserved at all times. They split everyone into groups and various student body officers took us on a tour of the school. Some of the new sophomores looked nervous, others excited and others looked like they were heading for dropping out already. Interesting how you can tell by looking at most of them what "group" they will fall into. The drop outs had parents that looked very much like they had been drop outs too. But who knows, there were there for the orientation so I could be wrong about their dedication.
Saturday all the marching band parents were able to meet the new director. You'd think the band had a plague with all the leadership jumping ship at the last minute. They lost their band director, drumline director and I believe the color guard director as well this summer. The new teacher seems very on top of things and I believe will do an awesome job.
We attended our new ward for the second time this Sunday only to find out that in two weeks they will be splitting the ward. I'm sure all the people I've met will end up being in a different ward from myself.
We, and when I say we I mostly mean me and Hector, are anxious for school to begin. I know everyone is so eager to learn new things and do homework and get up early again. They live for that sort of thing. If I was more proactive, I would make them do it all summer just so they could experience the joy year round.

What do my wondering eyes see?

I'm thinking Santa lives at Wal-Mart. I have seen him there many times. Maybe he is attempting to be incognito. He has the white hair, beard and mustache and wears a red shirt over his jolly belly. He was wearing overalls today. I have seen him wearing different types of pants but he always has the red shirt. It even has long sleeves no matter the season. I wonder where he is hiding the elves?

Once upon a time....

Once again I find myself attempting to come up with something witty and profound that will leave it's mark on future generations. I thought of paintball but while leaving a mark it has already been done and it's not particularly witty. Maybe a poptart that says something like "run naked, it'll add color to your cheeks". It could burn you and give you the witty saying all at once :) But I digress. What you really want to hear about is my day.
It was oh so exciting. So exciting I don't know where to begin. Well maybe I do. I'll begin at 5am when my alarm went off and I thought it could not possibly be time to awaken yet?!! Sadly, it was :( So I found myself getting ready for work. I had to drive Hector to work also since I had to give him a ride home yesterday due to his being ill and not trusting that he wouldn't pass out while driving. Then I was off to work only to receive a text later in the morning from a child thanking me for waking them up early so they could get to band on time. I did not even know I had awakened any children for that. I must have a secret super power that I am not even aware of. As I was thinking how wonderful I was this child let me know that I had NOT awakened them but they had to awaken all on their own. They even got extra sleep as a result. Now you can see what a great mom I am :).
Work was the usual only slower. I did get to meet with Hector for a little break in the morning. I had to pick up some books from the bookstore. This is because last week I was informed by two kids that they were supposed to be reading certain books over the summer for honors English. Naturally, they don't let me in on this until right before school is to start. Fortunately, the library carries only one copy of each of the books and they were all checked out and on hold for the next few years. This always makes life more exciting :)
I did get to leave work early only to spend it gently persuading children to do their chores then taking one back to the high school to correct a schedule gone awry. One child had already corrected their schedule and another decided to live with what she was randomly assigned. We spent quality time in the hot counseling office awaiting our turn along with several other children and parents. One counselor was so eager to help he closed the main door so no more children could get in. I am sure it was because he wanted more quality time with those remaining.
So far that has been my day. Try to hold in your enthusiasm. You will just make others jealous because they are not reading about my super star life.

4th of July

Here's a few pictures from the 4th of July. We had my parents over for a bbq. We always end up making way too much food.

ahh, good times, good times

Some old (and I mean OLD) friends and I got together last month also. My awesome friend Julie had come down in June for her birthday and she, Tara, Amber and I decided we wanted to get as many of our old friends from our old young adult ward together as possible. This was the result. Some live out of state so could not make it but it was great seeing all the old gang again. I think our kids thought we were all weird acting like kids too :0

Family

We had a family get together sometime this summer. I can't remember when exactly. Most of my family showed up. It was fun to see everyone and the cousins love seeing each other. At least I think so...

We only put 15 candles on rather than 30 so they'd each have 15 to blow out.

We put reeses pieces on the cake. It was delicious! I am no baker but the cake did taste yummy :)

They both wanted some anime DVD. It's an interesting show....

The twins turned 15 last month also. I can't believe they are that old already! I still remember thinking that I would be lucky to survive having twins lol. They are awesome girls though and I would not have them any other way.

As of today...

Here's what it looks like as of today. They are starting the stucco. All the sheet rock is done inside. It's starting to look like a real house ;)

Here's the next steps. We were so excited to see it framed. Made a huge difference.

Foundation

As you can guess, this is the foundation. It totally didn't look big enough for the floor plan we'd chosen at this point.

A little of everything

These are a couple of pictures of when we went to the air show at Hill Air Force Base. Don't the kids look so excited?

Here's a couple of Heather's field trip to This is the Place monument. They got to pull hand carts. Fortunately, they were empty. I personally think the adults should have gotten in them and had the kids pull them around :)

This is Heather and some of her friends from school. She's going to miss them this next year since she will be in a new school.

Here's Gina at her last concert of the year this past school year. Love how the flutes are up front where they can be seen. I can never see anyone else because they are always in the back.