Sweet Tooth Fairy

Jane turned 12 yesterday.

Eek.

She was just 6 when I met her. 

I think I'm going to complain about this whole growing up business for the next ten years.

I have pictures of her opening her presents, but they're on my camera and it's clear across the room, so I'm not going to get out of bed to post them tonight.

Yes, I am that lazy.

Today we had ever so much fun going to Lowe's and having the kids help spread mulch in the front yard and then going to rugby. They had two games today and Zane primarily played in the second one, but he was out there in the sun for both so he is as red as a lobster.

After rugby (we won, by the way) we let Jane choose where to have dinner, seeing that she's all grown up and 12 now. She chose Noodles and Co.

I hate that place, but it's not my birthday now, is it?

Afterwards we hit the Sweet Tooth Fairy.

They have one in Murray now and we'd never been to that location.

It's in the center by Barnes and Noble and Best Buy on State Street- next to Coldstone and Quiznos.

If you've never been there-- GO.

GO TODAY.

So good.

BEST

CUPCAKES

IN

UTAH

I'm not kidding.

Go forth and cupcake thyself.

Kate and I had toasted coconut cupcakes.

I pretended I wasn't on Weight Watchers and enjoyed mine completely.

Roe had a Samoa cupcake. 

Lobster Zane had a cookies and cream cupcake. 

After having a bite of mine, he told me he was getting the coconut one next time. his was delicious, but mine was deliciouser.

Yes, that is a word when we're talking about cupcakes like these.

 Emma and Grey had Strawberry shortcake cupcakes.

Yeah, they have an actual chocolate dipped strawberry on top.

I KNOW.

Jane had a 'dirt' cupcake with crushed oreos and a gummy worm.

She dropped it on the floor though.

When we got in line to buy her a new one, they just replaced it for free. That was really nice of them, they didn't have to do that and it just goes to show that not only do they make the best cupcakes in the world, but they have the nicest staff.

I realized it is another thing I'll miss when we leave Utah. I know there will be all sorts of amazing diet breakers in NYC (coughcoughDoughnut Plant) but this place will be hard to beat.

Seriously....

GO THERE.

http://www.thesweettoothfairy.com/

Eyesore No More

Yesterday Matt stayed home from work to work on some of the projects we need to finish before we put the house on the market. He finished the baseboards and trim in the kitchen and spent hours doing the tile in the master bedroom. That room still has a good weekend's worth of work needed before it will be ready.

Ugh.

I swear, in our next house I'm fine with a few cosmetic projects but no more houses where every single room needs an overhaul. 

Zane is on spring break and even though I only asked him to help me with one thing, he came out and spent the whole afternoon working on the front yard with me.

I am so thankful that he did that.

I'm too lazy to pull up any 'before' pictures, but the planters in the front were full of weeds and little else. We had the two rosebushes and then a sparse hedge thing on the other side and some iris plants that we got from Paige and Brian, but I didn't clean them up properly last year so they had a ton of dead leaves. We had stumps from 4 ugly black widow infested juniper trees I hacked down the week we moved in. The brick wall looked like an Englishman's teeth, it was a mess and the bricks were going every which way.

We had the ugliest yard on the street.

 Now we just have the ugliest grass.

And I'm leaving the grass, we live in a desert after all.

 Matt took the jeep and pull out the stumps, we pulled all of the grass and weeds and planted new ugly juniper trees and bushes.

I hate junipers, but they grow well and stay green and since I'm moving anyway- bring on the junipers.

We planted some bulbs for some ground cover that should grow in the shade, cleaned up the iris plants  and leveled the ground and got that brick wall lined up and straight.

Today I'll add a billion tons of mulch and call it done.

It looks SO much better.

The roses and hedge will fill out in the next month and the flowers will bloom soon.

I'm running on complete empty right now with all I have to get finished, I want to have the house ready to put on the market as soon as Matt gets back from the UK in 2 weeks, but we will see. 

In the meantime, getting the planter areas cleaned out and replanted was a huge one to take off the 'to do' list.

It's still not what I'd call 'curb appeal' but at least it's no so ugly that people won't come inside.

JCW's

About once a month we try to meet up with everyone in American Fork and got to JCW's. The kids have fun playing with cousins and I get my baby fix taken care of.

JCW's is a place I will miss when we move.

When I moved to Utah from Arizona, there wasn't much I missed. 

I miss the Mesa temple and ho the grounds smell like lemons in the spring and you can hear the cicadas buzzing all summer long. I miss Rally's in Tempe. I miss the sunsets and wearing shorts in February. I have a few friends I miss, but thanks to Facebook, I am actually more connected to them now than I was when I lived nearby.

I don't miss much else.

When I leave Utah, I will miss the mountain view we have everywhere we go. I'll miss cold cereal picnics out at Saltair and I'll miss being surrounded by reminders of my faith everywhere I go. 

I will miss Utah raspberry shakes and even more I will miss our fun family times like we had last week. 

I'll miss these  beasties probably the most of all.

Sunnie Bunny

Last week was my baby sister Sunnie's birthday.

(I wish...this cake had tasted good.)

Her real name is Allison, but she goes by Sunnie. 

(Eh, this was Lisa's birthday, but you get the picture. Also, check out that awesome rainbow unicorn sweatshirt Lisa was rocking. I miss the 80's)

Or Sunnie Bunny. 

Or Sunbun. 

Or Shut Up you Made My Guy Die On Super Mario.

Okay, only Lisa called her the last one.

We did call her Rambo Baby for awhile when she was two. 

Her fiancee had to work and I suggested she bring over the kids for a pizza and then surprised her with a birthday cake and present. It wasn't anything fancy, but she wasn't expecting it and I think it helped her feel better about not being with her sweetie on her special day.

She has another special day coming up in May when she and Chad get married and their two itty bitty families, become one, bigger but still itty bitty family.

I remember Sunnie as a baby, so sweet.

 I would rock her for hours and when she had trouble sleeping as an infant I'd walk her bassinet up and down the hallway for hours and sing:

When you hear the wolf howl have no fear

Romulus and Remus dropped no tear

When you hear the wolf howl near and dear

Mama is coming, Mama is here

Do you remember that Sunniebun, my Baby Bunting Sister?

It just wasn't that long ago, you were still a child, so small with your hand in mine like the pit of a peach.

1993, with baby Parker 

I watch my Romy Allison, the child I named for you as she grows, wild as dandelions and I'm happy in the knowledge that she has the world at her feet and she knows it.

 I am also very aware, as I've watched you grow, that my little sprite of a child will grow up, too.

I'm still getting use to you being big, Sunbun.

Tee-ball..... like a boss

I've been having my own little personal weird-out lately.

Time is passing too quickly. I feel like it's all on fast forward and it scares me. The days use to drag on and now, they run through my hands like seawater. 

This growing up business is for the birds.

The Excitement Never Ends...Zzzzzz......

Another reason my blog has been slacking lately is because I've just been super boring in recent weeks.

Some might say I'm super boring every week, but I'm going to assume those people gave up on my blog years ago and are now leading exciting lives that I'd envy if I could muster the energy. 

Everyone is at church, but I'm hiding out here at home with a bad headache.

I think I overdid it yesterday between Rugby, a trip to Utah County, the three younger kids being on something and squabbling ALL DAY  and trying to finish up about 10 jobs around the house.

Matt is back from NYC.

We celebrated by having the new Doritos Tacos from Taco Bell. 

We're complete fancypantses.

I didn't let myself focus on how much I missed him until he got home. I put on my brave face and just pushed ahead, but once he got home, I struggled - not with him being here but the knowledge that he's just going to be heading back out there again very soon and for a longer time when he goes again.  

I love Utah, I love living here, but with him being there more and more, I'm itching to just go. Home is where your sweetheart is and we are all feeling that pull. Transition periods are the worst. It's that countdown, those moments before impact that I deal with the most poorly. I can take my feet nailed to the ground or zipping through the atmosphere, but that time just before liftoff are almost impossible for me.

 Hurry up and wait is just the worst.

We have the family room nearly finished. It had caramel colored walls that I loved, but it made the room darker. It's a huge room, so the darker was fine, but I want the room as big and bright as possible when we put it on the market. The kids have ruined the carpet up there and I think we're going to lay a cheap laminate and take the decent parts of the carpet and just patch up here the stupid dog chewed things up in the other upstairs rooms. 

(Please ignore the blankets from the slumber party in here every single weekend)

Check out our exercise equipment we've used probably 10 times in 3 years....

(the bottom half of that wall still only has it's first coat and the trim needs to be done)

The lighter color makes a huge difference and the room looks as massive as it did when we first bought the house. When we first moved here, the walls were light lavender with red and black carpet. So gross. 

Now I just have 2 million more things to finish. New deck, tile in the bathroom, baseboards and a deep cleaning in the bathrooms. We need to get the yard spruced up, but I think once we finish all of that we're just going to let the house be whatever it is and get it on the market. 

Maybe our new neighbors will show up and help make the yard more appealing when the time comes......

Ghosts of Moves Past

It's only Tuesday?

My sweet husband has been out of town. 

In a few months, that same place will just be referred to as "at work."

Eek.

I think that telling people about it has made it easier. 

I thought it would make it worse.

I remember when my family was moving from Jerome, Idaho to the big city of Boise and I told my 5th grade friends that we were moving. They all got mean and I left with all the hurt and sorrow an 11 year old heart can bear. I can look at that now and realize that little girls who are just starting to get flooded with hormones and feelings that make no sense aren't all that great at handling changes in social dynamics, but at the time I cried my little eyes out. 

(Okay, none of the 5th graders in Jerome were this polished, but this post needed pictures)

Even though the circumstances are completely different, I worried that telling people would make them turn mean on me. 

It's interesting-- the things we carry with us from our childhood, things we didn't realize we had packed up and kept with us for so many years until the planets align and all of a sudden, that tiny tidbit of experience comes back and grabs the steering wheel. 

My experiences in 5th grade have nothing to do with my current situation now and yet, everything in my soul says "be careful, people get nasty when you tell them you're moving."

Nobody has been nasty.

Everyone has been supportive, many have been sad, some could not care less.

But nobody has said "I can't be your friend anymore."

Life is constantly giving us opportunities to adjust our expectations and embrace change. 

Now that I have crossed that personal  hurdle,I can move on to what's next.

Matt just called and said he will most likely be taking a business trip to England next month. 

ENGLAND.

Hello new life.

Yeah, it's only Tuesday.

Time to Start Spreading the News.....

So, yeah.....my blogging has suffered in these winter months.

I don't think anyone has really noticed, but I notice.

I do think it's better than when I was blogging 10 times a week, but it's not like my house is any cleaner.

I guess I've just felt weird because I haven't been able to blog about the GIANT HUGE thing that is on my mind 24/7 that makes it difficult for me to live in the moment and fully participate in today.

So, I need to just announce the elephant that lives in the room in my head and get on with life.

We're moving.

Matt's job has transferred him and we will be selling the big gray barn house with the red door that has been our home for 6 years. 

When I first found out I cried and cried for days.

 I LOVE my ward. Holy cow, you have no idea how much I just LOVE this ward. I've been a member of the church my entire life, lived in dozens of wards and this one is special. I have made bonds with people here that will last for eternity, met people here that I KNOW I knew in the pre-existence and they know the same. 

This ward is HOME.  

I will undoubtedly be making many more blog posts about that fact over the next few months.

This is not the post for that. 

This is the post to just put my brave face on, chin up and accept the reality of this.

We are moving. 

Far, far away.

This is the season for Matt to have the career that he walked away from 6 years ago so we could all be close together and form our wacky blended family.  It's been a roller coaster ride and some things worked, some failed miserably but we did manage to make quite the family in that time. We figured out what worked for the 9 of us and we are a pretty awesome family if I don't say so myself. I never did figure out how to keep a tidy enough house with 7 kids running around and I am still kicking myself for getting Zane that horrible dog, but we have made some great memories and there have been way more tears of laughter than tears of sorrow. Way more hugs than slugs and way more happy stories than painful ones.

This has been what has been filling up my brain for the past few weeks and when I sit to blog, the move is what is on my mind, but we weren't ready to announce it to the world until just a couple of days ago. I had some people in my life I needed to tell in private and yesterday I told the last person who needed to hear about it from me, not anyone else.  To those who knew before now, thank you so much for your support and love and keeping this to yourselves while Matt and I figured out how and when to start sharing the news. You know who you are..(Mom, Sarah, Joie, Betty, Deb and my coven of not actually wicked stepmothers support group.)

It feels good to just get it out there.

So......

Where will we be moving to?

Well, Matt is going to be working here:

(Second from the left, the one with the pyramid on top)

Manhattan, his office looks down on Ground Zero/ World Trade Center Plaza. 

We will be finding a commuter town, probably in New Jersey to live in and we'll be packing up and heading East.

There are a million questions still to answer, a million things to do and we don't have all of the answers yet, but he accepted the job and they are hammering down relocation details. 

Now,  does anyone want to buy our house?

I might could even throw in the dog.......

Greetings From Nerdland

Matt and I have started watching a 'new' nerd show.

It's so good and we love it so much.

It's no longer on the air, much to the dismay of fellow dorks everywhere. We're only on episode 5, so we can't complain yet.

 It's not like it's Battlestar Gallactica or Human Target ending.

We're still nursing our wounds over those ones, there's still bitterness, still pain.

Thank Heavens Big Bang Theory is still on. 

I finally felt well enough to head out to Utah county to meet this child....

Have you ever seen a prettier baby?

Beautiful, beautiful girl.

Auntie Chris loves you, so does Uncle Matt.