Part Three -- I'd Rather be Busy than Bored

The long-awaited part 3 to our mini-series of May -- and I'm getting it done before the end of June (although barely)! To say that so much has been happening would be a bit of an understatement. So, I'll finish up with May and perhaps if I have time I'll do some catching-up to the present as a little lagniappe for all of y'all.

But first, Memorial Day weekend. As I mentioned before, we decided to get the heck out of dodge for the weekend to allow the house to stay clean and to have some fun with my family. We headed up to Sarah's house and aside from multiple threats to the children that we would have to leave if their behaviour didn't improve, we managed to have quite a fabulous time. And since they only live about 45 minutes away from Kirtland, OH we decided to take advantage of the proximity and make our trip even more fabulous. We also thought it might be nice for my family to have a little break from us (and the madness that inevitably follows whenever my kids are around) on the Sunday afternoon while we packed in a little more bonding time for us.



It was really neat to see the Kirtland temple. We didn't actually take a tour of the inside because apparently that costs money and we didn't have any cash on us. Not to mention Ethan is our resident rule and commandment enforcer and probably would have freaked out if we were spending money on the Sabbath anyway. We walked around the visitor center and took a few snapshots in front and these were the best we came away with. Please note the extreme looks of happiness on all of their faces.






After the temple excursion, we drove over to Old Historic Kirtland (at least that's what I think it was called) which IS actually owned by our church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) and watched a short film and then went on a tour of the Newel K. Whitney store with a bigger group of people. Here's where things got a little messy. As I have discovered again and again, my children are spirited (a more in-depth post on this may or may not be forthcoming). And they don't do well when a.) they're off their regular schedule (which -- let's face it -- has been this entire summer), b.) they're not getting enough sleep (like when we've been spending a couple of nights away from home), c.) they're hungry (which is most often right at the end of the day before dinner time), and d.) they're hot (which is basically whenever we're outside these days).

There's nothing quite as fun as dealing with a melting down Grace in public. Let me just tell you. I can't decide which I love more -- the looks I get from other people who think I'm a terrible parent who can't teach their kid how to behave or the complete and total lack of control I feel when nothing I say or do will stop the storm of emotions in its track when one of the kids has had enough. To say that Grace had had enough while on the tour is an understatement. In retrospect, we really should have just picked up and left before we even started in the store. It was a super hot day, we'd already been out and about for a few hours, it was the end of the day, everyone was tired and hungry, and Grace was already showing signs of deterioration (see picture below). In the end though, it was my stubbornness that probably brought everything to a head. So, yes. It was mostly my fault. I had never been to Kirtland before and I really wanted to hear about everything. Ethan was interested as well, and when I finally had to pick Grace up practically kicking and screaming while in the School of the Prophets to physically remove her and her distractions from the room, he threw a pretty big fit himself. On the plus side, Scott was already outside with the baby so there were 2 less people making an embarrassing exit than there could have been. On the down side, Scott was outside with the baby and unable to help haul the remaining 3 children out of the building with as little distraction as possible. Fun times!






Once we were back at Sarah's house the peace was quickly restored once dinner was served and the rest of the vacation up there went fairly smoothly (minus one near-midnight incident of almost leaving to go home because of how abominably the kids were behaving while trying -- and failing -- to get them to go to sleep at bedtime). An attempt to go to a water park was made, a Memorial Day barbecue was had, and lots of cousin bonding was done. All-in-all it was a really fun trip and we thank Sarah and Andrew for letting us come up.

Sophie, Grace, and Eleanor

Having a little barbecue picnic

Granny Nanny with some of her girlie bugs -- Grace, Eleanor, and Jane

Once home there were only 2 days left of school and on the last day for Grace, all the preschool classes had a picnic at the park. Here is a picture of Grace with her two teachers from this year -- Miss Eileen (on the left) and Miss Tracey (on the right). They have been so kind to her and Grace has loved her preschool experience. I have loved it as well.



During the first few days of Summer Vacation, Ethan helped us all out by creating our summer schedule. Here it is for Monday through Friday. I'm pretty sure he left nothing out. Hahahaha. I'm not quite sure how closely we'll be able to follow this considering we'll be nomads here in just a little bit, but we've tried our best while it's lasted.

{Sample Monday schedule: brekfast, brush teeth, scriptrue time, chore time, nap time/play time, snack time, go to the ymca, lunch time, nap time and reading time, library time, pool time, quick pick up time, dinner time, book of mormon stories, brush teeth, bed time.

Exhausting, don't you think? And each day of the week is supposed to have a different afternoon activity. Monday is Library Day, Tuesday is Art Day, Wednesday is Park Day, Thursday is Music Day, and Friday is Movie Day. Oh and we also need to be getting ready to move in a couple of weeks. I bet you all wish you lived at my house. Hahahahaha.}

Perhaps the highlight of the summer so far occurred during a recent trip to the Salvation Army for some summer wardrobe pieces. Wednesdays are family day which means 50% off on pretty much all children's clothes and with 3 kids needing outfitting that equals some pretty good savings. Technically you could argue that Sophie didn't really need "new" clothes seeing as to how she has all of Grace (and Hannah's) hand-me-downs, but Sophie really loves to shop and she really loves dresses, so I took some pity on her and bought her a couple of things as well. Once we got home and I gave the clothes all a good washing, the kids could hardly wait to put them on. Here they are in their favorite outfits highlighting: an old-school lacoste shirt on Ethan, a rainbow colored bias-cut skirt from Gymboree for Grace, and a 2-in-1, shirt-jumper combo on Sophie that she couldn't wait to put on (and wouldn't take off for a few days straight).






And now a brief interlude as I give you the story of Puppy -- Lost and Found:


Once upon a time there was a little girl named Grace and she loved her little pink puppy junk more than all the others combined. They were practically inseparable except for when they were and a few months ago puppy got lost and she couldn't find him. It wasn't such a big deal at first because, after all, Grace had LOTS and LOTS of other junks but whenever she was especially tired or upset or distraught she would cry and cry for Puppy and this tugged on her mother's heart strings more than you would think. After searching high and low and after spring cleaning and organizing the whole entire house, her mother thought for sure that she'd find the little junk, but at the end of it all, there was still no Puppy to be found. Her mother racked her brain to think of when it possibly could have gotten lost and where it possibly could have been left but this was to no avail. Finally, after quite a few months, they were reading a story in the Friend magazine one Saturday morning about a little boy who lost something very important to him and then said a prayer to help him find it. When he finished his prayer he looked under his bed and lo and behold -- there was his special box.

After reading the story, her mother convinced Grace that perhaps if THEY said a prayer then Puppy would be found as well. Grace took a little time, but eventually gave in and knelt down and offered a quick prayer that "Puppy would be found." Now this put the mother in a bit of a pickle. On the one hand she wanted Grace to learn that Heavenly Father really does answer prayers -- because He does. But on the other hand she also knew that He doesn't always answer prayers right away or in the way we want them to be answered. Luckily, all was well 2 days later when she learned that she should have had more faith in a child's prayer. As she was putting clothes away in her son's room the thought came to her mind that she had never technically organized this room -- all of that had been left up to Ethan. Another thought came to check under HIS bed and after a quick look the long lost Puppy was finally found and brought down to Grace who was so happy she wanted to cry (but didn't because her mother foolishly tried to comfort her).

The End.

Puppy -- tucked in and dolled up next to Grace at bedtime.

Well, that's about it folks. The irony is that I thought I was going to be so on top of things with my update on May, and now June's over and there's plenty more to document about that as well -- such as: our house-hunting trip in St. Louis, Ethan's birthday celebration, keeping our house clean 24/7, and navigating the rocky waters of bedtime enforcement (as I type at 10:09 PM, 3 out of 4 children are STILL awake. AAAAAHHHHHHHHH!). Hopefully I'll be able to get a blog post up about all of that soon, but I wouldn't hold my breath considering we have the following on the docket: Scott's parents get back from their mission tomorrow and we're all going to Indiana for the 4th of July weekend, the week after that our moving trucks get here and we will need to be all ready to go, I'm flying my sister Amy up to help me drive down to New Orleans to visit for a week while Scott is working and we can't get into our new house yet, (we just might try and go to a beach while we're down there although we'll have to see what the oil spill is doing to those grand plans), we'll drive up to St. Louis just in time to unload and unpack and then repack for our trip out to Utah for a Family Reunion at the Aspen Grove Family camp, and then finally, FINALLY we'll be back home for good to settle in to our new city and get the kids (KIDS???) ready to start school the next week. Now I know you all REALLY wish you were hanging with us this summer. Hahahaha.

I'll leave you with a picture of my little artists hard at work on an oil pastel drawing of our house. Don't they all look so cooperative and manageable here?

Part Two -- A Whole Lot of House

Welcome back ladies and gentlemen! Please join me while I take you on a tour of -- Our House. Thanks to some VERY kind friends here in Cincinnati, I was able to get rid of almost all of my children for an entire week as I worked to make our house PERFECTO (which just carries so much more weight and importance than plain old perfect, don't you think?) Over the course of the last month, my children have become very familiar with the word perfecto and all that it entails. While the repairmen, the painters, and the yard people were busy doing their jobs, I was as busy as the proverbial bee in setting my house in order. The spring cleaning and organizing that we accomplished prior to our moving news definitely helped in getting things ready on time. Bear with me as I lovingly showcase all our hard work.

But first -- here is a shot of the sweet little Sugar Pop. She just didn't get enough attention in the last post. This precious little lamb endured being handed off from person to person and house to house with nary a complaint nor cry for almost 2 weeks straight. I just love her. If only they were all so easy. Hahahaha. (For the record I love the others, too.) The painting lady told me on two separate occasions that I'm doing "a helluva job," so it must be true. Hahahaha. That's always good to know and nice to hear.




Our tour begins with a view from the front. Changes include new light fixtures (which you probably can't see from this picture), a replaced front column (which you shouldn't be able to distinguish from the rest), freshly painted pillars, soffits, and eaves, and a newly black door and shutters.




Once inside you'll see a straight shot through to the Kitchen with the Living Room off to the left, and the Family Room off to the right. The whole main floor was neutralized with "Antique Bone" by Ralph Lauren. Although I'm pretty sure we didn't pay for the name brand paint but used the color code in a generic base instead.



A couple of views of the Living Room -- first from the front hall and next from the Dining Room:




And a couple of views of the Dining Room -- first from the Living Room and then from the Kitchen:

(the accent color on top is "Baked Brie" -- a Behr color I think)

The kitchen is next and stars new paint on the walls as well as a fresh coat of paint on the cabinets. Redoing the cabinets and countertops was most definitely not in the budget, so we made do with re-facing the cabinets and replacing the old appliances.





The Family Room is next and once again the main improvement was the newly neutral paint on the wall. If only we had chosen this paint color in the first place we could have saved ourselves a whole lot of money when we painted it ourselves :( First is a view from the Kitchen and then one from the Front Hall:

(the french doors also received a fresh coat of paint)

While we're in the Family Room we'll give you a quick peek at the Back Porch, the Back Yard, and the Laundry Room/Mud Room that connects the Family Room to the Garage. (Do you like how I'm making all these categories Proper Nouns and thus capitalizing them? Hahahaha)

(We were able to save a little bit of money by me painting this baby all by myself. Let's just say it took over 3 hours and was extremely labor-intensive.)

Next up on our tour are the Upstairs Rooms. (hahaha) First we have the Master Suite featuring Antique Bone wall paint, the first bed skirt I've ever bought in my life, and our brand-new duvet cover and shams that I got on sale at Pottery Barn and LOVE. Seriously, every time I look at them it makes me happy. If that makes me a shallow person then so be it. But after 8 years of marriage and never having "real" bedding I figured it was a worthwhile purchase:



Jane's room is next as we make our way down the Hall. There's really nothing super exciting or special about her room other than the fact that it is actually clean and not housing diaper boxes full of outgrown and soon-to-be-grown-into clothes:

(it even has vacuum lines on the ground!)

Grace and Sophie's room is next and the main thing you'll notice is that the hideously dark "Snow White's Song" pink pepto-bismol wall color is gone! It took 2 coats of paint to cover it, but I think it was well worth it. After sleeping on a mattress on top of a box spring on the floor for the last 2 years, I finally splurged and got Grace a "real" bed. Lucky for me it was on half-off clearance at The Salvation Army and I only paid 20 bucks. Sophie's bed was a bit munchkin-sized in the last post's picture (due to no box spring), so I neatly solved that problem by spending 8 dollars on risers for her bed rather than another 25 or so dollars for a box spring at the thrift store. You can hardly even tell they don't match, right? With the beds made up this way, making their room perfecto should be a piece of cake. After all, they merely sleep on top of the bed and cover themselves with their blankets each night and fold it back at the foot of the bed each morning:

Ethan's Room is the last stop on our tour of the Upstairs. His was the only bedroom we didn't repaint. The color on his walls is pale enough not to be obnoxious, so "Bibbity Bobbity Blue" stayed. The main pain of getting his room ready was making up the bedding on those darn bunk beds! One bed-wetting instance later and Ethan has been sentenced to wearing an Underjam every night until we move. He's not so very happy about this. But he also doesn't want to do the laundry and make up the bed himself either, so he has agreed to the plan. Hahaha.

(one of these days we'll get around to buying him a real dresser -- the plastic one has seen better days for sure.)

For the last portion of the tour we'll head on down to the Basement where -- for the first time since we've moved here -- it is completely and totally cleaned, organized, and set up in an efficient manner. Here is the view on the right as you come down the stairs:

A close-up of the desk area -- this was previously upstairs on the main floor in the Family Room where the bench is now:




Another angle of the Basement so that you can see the TV viewing area:

And the back corner of the Basement houses the "Home Gym." Hahahaha. Unfortunately for me and my Weight Watchers Lifetime Membership goals, that treadmill has not been seeing a whole lot of action lately. It's all good though because as it turns out working and cleaning non-stop all day long for weeks at a time is pretty good exercise in its own right. Cleaning and organizing the Basement alone took me about 3 hours of high-intensity work!




As we come down the stairs on the right the kids' Toy Area/Play Area is highlighted. Please ooh and aah over the shelves of labeled storage bins -- these are the fruit of my spring cleaning labors. The definition of organized? A place for everything and everything in its place. We now have a place for EVERYTHING we own. Just about.

(After 2 years of laying in piles on the Basement floor, I have even organized all of MY junk. The sewing, quilting, and crafting supplies have never been so easy to find!)

(Game and Puzzle shelf with Dress-up Bin and Miscellaneous Toy Bin underneath.)

Well, folks! That's basically it. I figured no one really wanted to see pictures of the bathrooms (because toilets are not all that attractive) so I skipped those, but other than that the house was represented in its entirety. This house has been such a wonderful blessing to live in and we're really going to miss it. The irony is that we got such a steal on it because of the market when we bought it 2 years ago, but things have gone so much more downhill since then that whoever buys it NOW will get an even bigger steal. Here's to hoping it sells quickly.

It was a HUGE ordeal getting everything ready to go to list it so quickly but now that it's done, it hasn't been quite as bad maintaining everything as I thought it would be. To preserve the perfection as much as possible we try to vacate the premises OFTEN. Our first such outing? Memorial Day weekend with the fam! After one final wipe down and sweep out we locked up the house on a Friday afternoon, listed the house, and headed out of town to visit my sister Sarah up in Akron. My mom and Amy and Jacob were also en route from New Orleans and the result was a fun and fabulous time marred only slightly by the occasional (and not so occasional) meltdown and misbehaving from the kids. The funniest comment of the whole weekend, however, came while we were dining as a family at McDonald's before hitting the road on Friday night. After an oh-so-delicious dinner of a Hamburger Happy Meal I was contemplating the decision of whether or not I should do dessert. Scott was going to order the kids some ice cream cones and asked if I wanted a caramel sundae with nuts -- which is my absolute favorite treat. As I was waffling back and forth Ethan wisely counseled me that if I was over 28 (Weight Watchers) points for the day then I shouldn't do it. Hahahaha. He is a bit intrigued by my tracking and the number of "points" I use everyday. I guess I should feel embarrassed to say that I went ahead and got the sundae, anyway, but I kind of consider it 8 points well-spent. Hahaha.

Stay tuned for the concluding segment of our mini-series which will cover Memorial Day weekend, the end of school, and the beginning of our summer vacation. I know you can't wait. It's all coming up in Part Three: I'd Rather be Busy than Bored.

(a quick visual to whet your appetite for the tale of Puppy -- Lost & Found)

Part One -- A Little Housekeeping

And now on to our regularly scheduled programming. The next few posts have been in the works for a few weeks now. To prevent information overload I've divided the past month into a 3-part miniseries to recap the events as they've been set in motion. This first segment is entitled "a little housekeeping." So here we go.

The last few weeks have been CRAZY. We found out on May 12th that Scott got the job in St. Louis; a whirlwind of activity ensued as a whole lot of painting, patch-ups, cleaning, and organizing were done; we listed the house a couple weeks later just in time for Memorial Day weekend; and since then we have somehow managed to keep it all (somewhat) clean in the interim. But before all THAT, there was all of THIS going on...

Science Experiments:It's been a while now, but I'm sure you're all dying to find out what happened with Ethan's science experiment. I can safely say that neither a chicken nor a bouncy ball emerged from the eggs. Hahaha. Here is what did happen:

The vinegar (which is an acid) dissolved the egg shell (which is made of calcium carbonate) and left in its place a rubbery alter-ego that, to some degree or another, looked and behaved like a water balloon. It was interesting to note that the three different types of vinegar "cooked" the eggs to varying degrees of "done-ness." Since I am not a real scientist and I don't care enough about this experiment to find out why this is so, I'll simply let the pictures do the talking for the rest of this segment.

Up first -- The Rice Vinegar Egg

The bouncy ball did not make it past the second bounce.


Next -- The White Vinegar Egg

Ethan carefully taking the egg out of the jar.


This one handled a slightly higher drop before bursting.


And finally -- The Balsamic Vinegar Egg

Dropping the ball (it bounced a few times).


And sticking a fork in it.
The yolk had the texture of a not-quite-hard-boiled-egg.

Yard/Bake Sales:
And we're moving on. I believe I mentioned in the last mammoth post that the kids were hounding me to have a yard sale with all the junk that was collected during our spring cleaning frenzy. I finally gave in after I realized that it wouldn't take all that much effort on my part (after all I already had bags of stuff ready to go to Goodwill), and that it would really make the kids happy. But of course, nothing is THAT simple, and those greedy little opportunists quickly seized upon my moment of weakness and began clamoring for a Bake Sale as well. Two dozen peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, three dozen oatmeal scotchies, and four dozen cupcakes later we were all set. Luckily for me there was no fighting over who was going to sell what. In a rare moment of agreement Grace claimed sale of the cupcakes and Ethan eagerly took over the cookies.

The Saturday morning of the Yard/Bake sale dawned rosy and bright. After being postponed for about 3 weekends in a row, the kids were FINALLY able to fulfill all their hopes and dreams. Ethan helped Scott post signs around town, Grace and Sophie "helped" me set up shop in our driveway, and sweet little Jane gamely hung out in the Jumperoo while all the hustle and bustle went on around her. {for the record -- Jane wins the super champ award for the last month of life}.

Four hours later and it was all over. By some providential stroke of luck, Ethan and Grace each "earned" exactly 4 dollars with their baked goods. I'm not quite sure how this happened -- seeing as to how the cupcakes were a much hotter commodity than the cookies -- but I was there the whole time and to the best of my knowledge there was no money laundering involved. Funniest line of the day? -- Grace screaming "I don't want to tithe!" while running into the house after we told the kids that they would be able to pay tithing on their money at church the next day. Hahahahaha. A mini life lesson was learned after I broke it down for her and showed her what a tiny amount of tithing she would have to pay compared to what she got to keep. After all 10% of four dollars is not all that much. Oh and another thing that is not all the much? The $23.75 we made off of our Yard Sale that day. Hahahahahaha. Oh well, next time we'll try and create some better publicity. All that really mattered was that all the leftover junk was swiftly loaded up when the sale was over and taken directly to Goodwill. Go was not passed and $200 was not collected. Hahaha. (Everyone loves a good Monopoly joke, right? RIGHT?? hahaha).

Getting set-up

Grace moody about something.

How can you NOT want to support this Bake Sale? Hahahaha.

And Goodwill-bound.

Random funny picture -- later in the day I looked out the kitchen window to check on the kids and this was the scene I saw: All three sitting stock-still and staring into our neighbor's backyard. A little disconcerting, no? With a bit of follow-up I discovered they were actually being entranced by the mesmerizing act of a tree being chopped down.

Class Plays:
The closing weeks of school held a host of activities for our little scholar. First on the docket was that class play alluded to in a previous post. Luckily for me, Ethan accepted my idea for his "simple dog costume" -- I had him turn his black skeleton jammies inside out, glued two black socks to a headband for ears, and told him I'd be there beforehand to blacken his nose with eyeliner. A lovely idea in theory. Of course, getting anywhere on TIME these days is an unattainable feat, so what happened in reality is that we BARELY made it to the school on time and (because we have awesome luck) Ethan's group was the first to perform. Oh well. He didn't look much like a dog (I actually heard a parent behind me asking a friend what animal he was supposed to be when it was his turn to speak) but I don't think he realized it and that's all that matters, right? Hahaha. What we all realized, however, was that being in a stuffy cafeteria on a blazing hot day in an un-air-conditioned school might be construed as torture. I don't do well when I'm hot.

Waiting for the play to start.

Enjoying his part.

The Gingerbread Man group.

(No seriously, this is possibly the lamest costume creation I've ever come up with.)

Research Projects:
Also tied in with Ethan's end of the year festivities was his first ever Research Project! His assigned animal was the Eagle and after checking a stack of books out from the library I helped him set up some categories of information he wanted to find out (such as where they live, what they eat, what they look like, etc.), helped him read through some of the books to find answers, and then let him write his facts down and organize them into the right category. Throughout the whole entire process he was VERY concerned about plagiarism -- apparently his teacher had a big talking to them about it at the beginning of the assignment -- and that was one of the main concerns that fed into the several melt-downs he experienced before the project was done. All-in-all I think it was a very successful beginning to his academic career. Hahaha. To be honest, Ethan is my mini-me. He reminds me so much of myself sometimes, it's scary! I remember freaking out over the stupidest stuff when I was kid that wasn't even a big deal. Not that I'm saying plagiarism isn't a big deal. But you know what I mean.

Along with the report they had to create a visual aid. After several attempts to dissuade him from making a diorama (what is it with elementary school and dioramas?) I finally helped him to see the light of day and convinced him to create a poster instead (much easier and cheaper, not to mention he could do it ALL BY HIMSELF -- always a perk when it comes to school projects). He wrote the report all by himself and I merely typed it up for him when done. Here are the results:

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Ethan's Report on Bald Eagles

Bald eagles live in really big nests. They can be six feet across. Bald eagles live by rivers and in tall trees. Eagles’ nests are called “aeries.” Bald eagles’ eggs are white and sometimes they have spots. The eggs are pretty much three inches long. The mother will lay two or three eggs at a time. Baby eagles are called eaglets. Usually only the strongest eaglet will survive because they will kill the other birds that hatch. They are covered with soft fluffy grayish-white feathers called down when they are born. There are 59 different types of eagles. There is the boot eagle because its feet look like boots. There is the golden eagle too. It’s called the golden eagle because it is goldish. The bald eagle is just one of the types. The bald eagle is a bird that is a member of the sea and fish eagle group. The bald eagle is not really bald it is really just a brown bird with white feathers on his head. Its body is blackish-brownish. Its head, neck and tail are white. Its feet and beak are yellow. Eagles usually weigh between 7 and 12 pounds. Eagles can grow up to be 3 feet tall. The bald eagle eats fish, small mammals, water birds, and dead animals. Sometimes the bald eagle hunts in pairs. The bald eagles mostly eat fish. Eagles have large wings and can glide through the air a very good distance. When the eagle soars, the feathers of its long wings spread out just like fingers and then they bend up at the tips. They usually live to be 25 years old. The bald eagle used to be endangered -- this means that there weren't that many left. In 1963 there were less than 1,000 bald eagles left in the world. In 2007 there were like 20,000. So they are not endangered anymore. Eagle feathers are hollow and very light. The bald eagle is the symbol of the United States of America. The end.

The end indeed.

Coming up next time on the miniseries of May!

Part Two: A Whole Lot of House
(and here's a sneak peak):

It's the mama bear's bed and the baby bear's bed. But which one is Goldilocks??