We Moved

It was touch and go from February on, but we got our house and moved in the end of May!  It has been a whirlwind of so many emotions.  Stressful.  Nervous the contract wouldn't go through!  Happy.  Excited.  Sad.  Only a bit of sad.  And very fleeting.  I mean, we created three years of memories in our other house, but I can truly say it never felt like our home.  Since it was a rental and we knew it was temporary, we never put any love into that house to make it ours.  THIS house on the other hand?  We loved it the moment we stepped foot into it.  It needed lots of care and we certainly were on the receiving end of lots of blessings!  The tenants that were living here before TRASHED this place.  It stunk like cigarettes.  There were stains all over the already worn out carpet.  The ceilings were stained from the smoke.  The flooring was dated.  The yard was covered in trash---which took me a couple hours to pick up--smashed beer bottles, lego toys, an XBOX controller???, smashed Christmas ornaments, socks and other random clothing, sports equipment, outdoor games, glass, glass, and more glass, the list goes on and on.  On the plus side, we inherited five baseballs, three soccer balls, a horse-shoe game, and a bocci ball set).  

Here are the blessings that came:  At one point the owner's ex-wife (they are going through a divorce and have to liquidate everything) decided that she did not want to sell to us (we have a rent-to-own contract and she did not want to rent to us for a year---no wonder with their last tenants!---she just wanted to sell).  Well, with having the house empty for a few months (they live in Australia), there was a leak that wrecked the kitchen floors, and since they were old, they couldn't match them, so their insurance covered brand new hardwood for the entire floor!  Wow!  This also hurried along the process of finally moving our contract forward.  Yay!  The house would be ours after all!  They also made a claim on their roof for hail damage so we now have a brand new roof.  Doug came in and helped Joe paint for a week, including ceilings, which I didn't think he would have time to do, but he made time, bless his heart.  Joe got a bonus, so we were able to use that money to get brand new carpet!  We weren't planning on that for another year or so, so this was AWESOME to be able to do this before moving everything in.  The Young Women came over and washed our blinds (we have a millions blinds and they all stunk like smoke).   And even on a busy weekend we had friends from our ward come over and help us move.  I was so worried it would be just me and Joe, but people came to save the day, bring us meals, and help us clean, too.  It was amazing.  I was overwhelmed by the generosity of others and it made me feel like I need to make sure I pay it forward!  Thank you peeps!

And here is the front entrance to our house with old paint and old carpet. 

And here is Joe working his painting magic.  Hours upon hours of magic.  Didn't see him all week.

There always seemed to be endless amounts of work to do on the other house, but we had help!  Or were they a hinderance?

Jane, figuring out that mops don't taste that good.

 Moving is the worst.  We hope that we will never have to move again and can call this our forever home.  Zoe came home from school one day only to find there were no kitchen chairs, so she improvised.  No one can keep this girl away from crafting.

I think the hardest part about packing is that you still have to be a Mom/taxi/secretary extraordinaire.  I managed to make dinner and THEN realized I had already packed the spatulas....  Eye roll.  We ate out a bit that final week.

And now we're here, two weeks later, almost unpacked.  This week we get to start thinking about landscaping, which for the first time in my life sounds exciting.  I've always wanted raspberry bushes and a bit of a garden.  We'll see how far we get this Summer!  I've been online lots this past month just trying to get ideas and trying to feel out how much time I want to be out in the yard making sure I don't kill things.  My neighbour and friend, Lynne Karch, gave me some tomato plants and some potted flowers as a gift and I haven't killed them yet, so that is giving me some hope!  Looking forward to creating some forever-memories in our new home!  I just thought about our first Christmas here and I can't wait!

Day Two

Jane's new pool.

A little gun-shy on hanging pictures but we are getting closer!  My favourite is being able to snip flowers from our lilac bush.  Our house smells amazing!

Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day Joe!  Yesterday was Father's Day and I think we did it up right!  We've decided to make this more about the kids serving the parents on Mother's/Father's Day (directed/encouraged by the other parent) and they did a good job.  The kids each had a cute little gift, card, or craft from school and then they each decided on a service coupon as something a little extra.  We filled up a vase with Dina-Sours and put the coupons on sticks like flowers.  Zoe couldn't decide on just ONE service so she wrote down a few: Daddy daughter bike ride, massage, and head scratch.  Ellie has committed herself to a ONE HOUR massage.  We shall see how long that lasts.  Noah has a back scratch in mind and like the smart boy he is, he did NOT put down a timeline.  Haha!  Jackson has plans to take Dad out on a slurpee date, slurpees on Jax.  We had Stake Conference this past weekend so we needed to eat breakfast, do presents and be ready for church all before ten.  Ask me if we were late.  Jackson wanted to make Joe breakfast so he made him an omelette, AND bacon, and I make pancakes for everyone else.  It was chaos.  But only the best kind and we all survived it.  Joe got to have an afternoon nap, which doesn't usually get to happen on regular Sundays with bishopric meetings and 1 o'clock church, so I'd consider that a win.  I told Joe that the kids really wanted to use the fire pit so we should do hotdogs (since it was meant to be planned by the kids), ...to which he politely responded, "why don't we save that for FHE and I can cook?"  Haha!  I guess I should have known better that Joe would want a man's meal on his special day.  So we had steak and mashed potatoes.  All of the kids helped in some way to prepare the meal.  Ellie will tell you she did most of the work by the way she was SO TIRED from working in the kitchen all day.  Haha!  It was actually lovely having all the kids helping in the kitchen once I got over that it would take twice as long to prepare anything.  A great time to chat.

 

 

We went around the kitchen table and each said one thing we love about Dad (I said he was very hard-working and he works so hard so he can provide for us.  And there were lots of other nice things said, "funny, strong, smart, he gives donkey rides, etc").  And then we decided to take the letters from his name and come up with something that was all about Dad: 

J: Jolly. 
O: Outstanding
S: Super human muscles
E: Especially strong/funny (there were many options for this one)

....and then we got to Zoe and without hesitation she blurted out:

P: PIG!

We all laughed so hard!  Bless that Zoe of ours.

While dinner was cooking, we got to use our front/side yard as a family for the first time and passed a baseball around.  Every day Joe and I look at each other and say, "I love this house."  This was one of those times!  We ended off our day with home-made slurpees/snow cones and a walk.  Happy Father's Day Joe!  We are so blessed to have you in our lives.

Concert Time

 I did a concert.  I almost didn't.  It is so much more work to prepare for a show being a Mom of five.  The reason I said yes is because I often allow myself to be in last place.  I mean.  That just happens when you have children with schedules, so on a whim I committed.  For me.  And I'm glad I did.  It meant finding a time to get together with Ben, and then leading up to that I needed to practice guitar for a few weeks to get my callouses back as well as sing MY songs not only to strengthen my chest voice, but to remember my lyrics.  Gosh.  I have a lot of songs with a high bellowing chest-vocal!  Choir must work a different part of my voice because my chest-voice was not up to par.  It's okay for a few songs in a row, but they wanted me to sing for a whole hour!  WHICH I used to be able to fill easily when I was a touring musician.   Haha!  This is one of the reasons why I invited my friend Ben Grunewald to be my back up guitarist/vocalist extraordinaire so he could take a few songs just him.  Which was a solid idea.  My voice totally needed a rest!  Haha!  Ben as a solo vocalist made a really great back up singer.  If that makes sense.  Most back up singers are just okay because guitar is their main instrument, not their voice.  But Ben is good at both.  It was a good time and was made to be very causal because it was raining off and on ALL day.  Which meant very poor attendance.  It was an outdoor Father's Day Food Truck Frenzy Festival.  The idea was great and I'm sure it was well attended the following day because it was sunny.  But my day was not.  So.  Boo.  BUT what I WILL say is that it didn't rain one speck while I was there; set up, performance, and even eating some food-truck food afterwards.  In fact, it was even mostly sunny and pleasant.  I didn't even need the jacket I brought.  The moment we got back in the car to head home it started to rain.  That was my biggest worry that day, so I'm grateful for that tender mercy!!!  I know that sounds dumb.  But to me it was a big deal.  Also, it was a big deal to have Joe come and bring the kids to watch and support me.  Jackson came up to me after my set and said, "Mom, you're a really good musician."  Cool Mom points!  The boys have just started taking an interest in the guitar this past week with hearing me practice so much, so they know how hard it is on their fingers and changing chords and all that.  It was also a big deal to have Sarah and her fam come along with Alysha!  They were my cheering squad in a big empty park!  And honestly, I was okay with that.  It made for a lot less pressure and a more fun experience. 

One thing I want to add is that while I was figuring out my set list and practicing leading up to this concert, I started practicing, "Thanks For the Memories" which is a love song I wrote for Joe when we were engaged and just about to start our lives together.  Joe always teases me that I never write love songs for him and they are always sad-songs.  Haha!  Not true!  Now, fourteen years later I can see how far we've come and the memories we've built and it's a pretty amazing feeling.  We are in a good place.  Yes, I bawled.  In my living room.  By myself.

Happiest of Mothers Days

 Man.  Mother's Day just keeps getting better and better.  In Zoe's kindergarten class all the Moms were invited for "Mother's Day Tea" where the kids served us their home-made treats and drinks and then they each went around in a circle and presented these super cute drawings of their Mom and why they love them.  Zoe said that she loves when we bake chocolate chip cookies together.  I have a feeling that some of these kids were like, "Hmm?  What did I most recently do with my Mom?  Oh!  Cookies.  That's what I'll put!"  Haha!  It was SO cute!  And I love her drawing of me.  I can tell she put a lot of love and effort into it, which is what she does with any piece of artwork anyway!

This special card is from Ellie.  Holy smokes, my kids are little artists.  I love it.

On Mother's Day, Joe sent me out of the house, so I went for a walk by myself by the river which is basically my favourite place to be.  And we have 1 o'clock church, so I had time for it.  When I came home, each kid presented me with some sort of treat/card and two coupons each!  The girls both gave me massage coupons which I used that very day (and almost feel asleep to), and my favourite from the boys was going on a long walk with me.  That Noah sure is a man of few words.  It was like pulling teeth trying to get him to open up and talk to me about anything!  Haha!  But he DID hold my hand at one point because he thought I might like it.  A yummy sweaty-boy hand.  It was so sweet.

Jackson on the other hand poured his soul out to me on our walk.  And when he said he would take me on a long walk, he meant it.  Each time I was like, "do you want to keep going this way?  Or take this route heading back?" he kept saying he wanted to keep going, which made my Mama-heart melt.  On this walk I learned that Jackson is very sensitive and worries.  A lot.  He worries about being OCD and that it hinders him in some areas.  I think he is "particular" and a "perfectionist" but not in a debilitating way.  It is something to keep an eye on.  He really worries about being perfect and told me about one instance where he made a mistake and hurt his friend's feelings.  It was actually a really good conversation to have about learning how to make mistakes and THEN doing what's necessary to make it all better (ei: apologizing, etc).  That kid needs to learn that this whole life is about making mistakes and then knowing how to keep getting up from those and letting go.  Man.  I'm still learning how to do that.  It's hard to teach when you stink at that sort of thing yourself!  I loved how much Jackson opened up to me.  He's a good kid.  We also talked about the church a bit.  Three of my siblings have left the church and that's their choice.  I told Jackson that right now since he is a kid and I am his Mom, he goes to church.  But one day he is going to have to make the decision to choose God.  Not once or twice but over and over and over again.  He will need to learn how to commit and then recommit himself to God.  Right now is the time to figure out if God answers prayers, is He there for him and how?  And to write these things down and remember the feelings he has felt while trying to gain and regain a testimony of God and Jesus Christ and the Book of Mormon.  Jackson is a very intellectual kid so it needs to make sense to him, and sometimes the concept of faith is tricky.  Heck, it's hard for me as a grown woman!  I am hoping that by encouraging him to recognize, remember and write down his experiences throughout his life that that will be enough to help him to hold on to that rod.  Life is not going to get easier.  I didn't know how strong I needed to be until my siblings started to leave the church.  It sucks.  A lot.  I have also learned how to be super chill about it.  They are not my responsibility.  But my son is.  How Joe and I raise him (and all of our kids) is totally on us.  I hope we can be enough.

 It was bright.

I think this was my happiest of Mother's Days yet.

Double-Digits Noah!

 Noah turned ten a few weeks ago and he has been looking forward to this day since Christmas.  On his Christmas wish list he said he wanted a bunch of virtual reality stuff and I had to tell them that Santa could not spend that much on one kid and then not as much on another, BUT I DID tell him that for his birthday he could invite some friends to go with him to a Virtual Reality Arcade.  And he remembered.  So, that is exactly what he did.  Directly after school, all of these sweaty boys scooted home together, crammed donuts into their faces, opened presents in record time, and then were off!  Joe took them (and Jackson--he paid for himself) to the VR-cade in Calgary and then they stopped for pizza afterwards.  Easiest birthday ever.  Noah got lots of money and his plans are to spend it on XBOX bucks.  Possibly a new baseball glove.  I'm sure he could do both!

L-R: Baron Bateman, Branson Hill, Noah, Joe, Jackson Lawrence, Ethan Johnson.

Noah's one request was to have an Angel Food cake but because we were in the middle of moving I just did not have my crap together and could not find a pre-made one at my one stop to Safeway, so I picked up donuts for a cake instead.   My parents came to visit that weekend and heard about that, so we had a little family gathering party with my parents at Lions Campground park by the river and they brought him an angel food cake (along with a set of award-winning books---good thing too because he is always looking for good books to read before bed!). 

Noah, you are such a good kid.  I'm not sure why, but you have been showering me with LOTS of love lately and I don't deserve it because I have been a massive BEAR with the stress of moving.  I feel like the worse I am that day, the kinder and more gentle you are to me.  I've been getting lots of hugs and "I love you's."  Maybe I should be a bear more often!  Haha!  I think you see that I need a little extra love to melt my heart, and it works Noah.  It works like a charm.  You have been taking Vyvanse for your ADD since the beginning of the year and the past month or so it has been really kicking your butt.  One of the side-effects is lack of appetite and lack and sleeping.  Sometimes you bring home your lunch bag from school and only the snack has been touched, and ever since our Fairmont trip you have been struggling to be able to fall asleep before midnight most nights.  It hurts my heart to see you struggling this way because through it all you still remain my tender and sweet child.  Although, I'm sure the surge of tears that comes after a challenging day at school or church or baseball-fails are being heightened quite a bit by this lack of sleep.  I am hoping we can get a handle on it soon so you can get into a rhythm of your new normal.  Today I kept you home from school because you have had night after night after night of missed sleep!  So, I kept you home with me and you are napping right now.  Much needed!  You are also so great with Jane.  I wish I could keep you home every day to entertain her!  Today has been especially nice!  Aside from playing Fortnight on the XBOX every spare moment you have, Baseball is your life these days, which means it's my life.  Two practices a week and a game each Saturday.  And I LOVE IT!  It is so fun watching you play and cheering you on.  I just wrote a post about this, but I am especially proud of you for pitching even though it's high-pressure!  You are working through it and you do an amazing job!  Coach keeps putting you on to pitch, so that's got to mean something!  Actually, I know it means something because I've seen you strike people out with your pitching!  Way to go Noah!  I love you and I know this will be a great year for you!  In school you are learning about puberty right now and apparently for boys it's between the ages 10-18 that one can hit puberty and you are pretty certain you are seeing the signs of it already!  The only signs I've seen are the two really stinky boys that come home from school each day!  Time to start showering more than once a week!

I love you Noah!  Happy Birthday!

Mom and Daughter Choir Buddies

 Tanis Taylor is my music friend.  Any time there is a trio or quartet, she and I are in it together.  Well, this year she has been my choir friend.  We are in the same ward and have our girls in a children's choir together.  At their Christmas concert there was a women's choir that came and performed and I thought to myself, "that looks fun."  So, I chatted with someone about it afterwards from the choir and apparently there's lots of different choirs you can join in the Philharmonic Foothills area.  So in January I joined the Chamber chorus with Tanis, and the Jazz choir ...by myself.  Both were a totally different experience for me.  Both were challenging in their own ways, but I think if someone were to make me choose, I would choose Chamber.  Chamber rehearsals were only every other week for an hour and Jazz was every week for two, sometimes two and a half hours, and I kind of wish it was the other way around.  I could not get enough of Chamber!  I felt like we were just getting started and then choir was over.  Sad face.  But Jazz was also fun and I love the friends I made.  I tried to challenge myself by auditioning for certain solos and that was hard for me.  I sang my very first real scat solo to "Caravan" last week at our year-end concert and it was a bit nerve-racking!  I also sang as a second soloist in Birdland which was a bit less pressure and such a fun song.  And it was soprano ONE!  My voice has really grown this year as well as my sight-reading.  Oh the sight-reading!  I felt like the worst one there in Chamber.  You have to audition for Chamber AND since there is not a lot of rehearsal time together, you have to just figure it out at home if you don't get it there!  And yes I sure did do a lot of that!  I was only one of TWO second sopranos so we ALL had to know our parts and feel confident.  But the nice thing about being in a choir that everyone had to audition for is that everyone is pretty darn great.  By the time concert-time came, I was feeling good but leading up to it was stressful.  Never have I ever in my life sang harder music than what we learned this year: "Sleep" by Eric Whitaker was prob the easiest one,  "Sonnez Les Cloches," "Feller From Fortune" was my most hated until I finally got all the time changes and then I loved it, and "Bumble Bee" sounds easy and pretty, but it was far from easy!  This is one I spent lots of time at home figuring out.  Anywho, now I love all of the songs and miss choir incredibly.  It's this piece of me that I didn't know I needed in my life.  Something to look forward to in the Fall.

Zoey Taylor and Eleanor.

Zoe wanted to come.  She didn't last.  In her defence it was the LONGEST concert ever.

 Exciting things happened with Ellie that night.  She pulled out a tooth that night!  And her choir sang so well.  It was fun being apart of the same concert night with Ellie.  In Jan since she turned eight, she was able to move up to the older choir group which has way trickier songs and harmonies.  She even learned a song in German!  I was so proud of her.  They also dedicated "A Thousand Years" to the Moms for Mother's Day and it made me cry.  

All I can think of is how much Zoe would love to be in choir next year.  She wouldn't be in Ellie's group because of age, but we shall see what the Fall brings!

Batter Up!

 This is Noah's first year of playing baseball.  And I love it.  It's also his first year playing a sport that no one else in our family is currently playing at the same time.  So one child's practices and games to attend during the season has been relaxing and fun.  I use those words liberally when I have to bring the whole fam and Joe isn't able to come.  Haha!  Usually there is a park nearby, BUT, games are also usually two hours.  So.  Jane.

Noah's coach, Coach Riley Spears,  has got to be the nicest coach I've ever seen.  He's so good with those boys.  He's got Noah pitching and before Noah even knew he was a decent pitcher I asked him if he wanted to pitch.  He said, no.  It's a lot of pressure on those boys to pitch.  But I'm glad his coach got him up there because he has really good hand-eye coordination!  Honestly, I didn't even know his coach was going to have him pitch at all, and then one game he called Noah up to the pitching mound.  Pretty sure Noah didn't know that was going to happen either.  This is the first year where the boys HAVE to pitch (no coaches), so they kind of have to just throw them in there I guess.  He pitched so well his first time!  I will say, I've seen Noah have the highest of victories with pitching as well as the lowest of lows when he gets a few balls in a row or pitches a home-run.  After his last game Noah was close to tears at the end and we were the last ones to be clearing out and his coach came up to him and gave him some words of advice (after reminding him he did a great job and to remember all the good things that happened in the game), "does it help you play a better game when you are frustrated?"  The answer is no.  Obviously.  And ain't that the truth in life even!  Just let it go, move on, and enjoy the process!  Anywho, watching Noah pitch is about the cutest thing I've ever seen.  He talks to himself to get himself pumped up, and nods his head like, "I got this."  One time he even yelled, "charge!" as he was throwing a pitch!  Haha!  Sometimes he points to the batter---which I kind of taught him early on to help him aim and he took it and ran with it and Joe says that was terrible coaching of me, but hey!  It helps him see who he throwing the ball to!  Joe would argue that.  But it is the highlight of the game!  So there.

Here are a few fun pics of a practice game.  Noah usually gets a turn being back-catcher, pitcher, and on one of the bases.  I could not be more proud to watch him excel in this sport.  He loves it, and I love watching him.  Now we all have to watch Sandlot!