Sweet Easter reminders

My little posers.  The only posing I did was to tell Bree where to kneel, and tell Declan and Kael they needed to put their hands on their sisters shoulders- to keep them from running away.  And to tell Anya to quit holding her dress up princess style.

Friday was a beautiful spring day, and I took the kids to the little lakes above our house to take some pictures.  While I was chasing them around, a gal ran by jogging and exclaimed at them and asked if she could help.  My first reaction was to decline-  feeling slightly embarrassed, and worried I was interrupting her jog.  But she looked genuinely happy to help.  I gave her an out and told her I didn't want to stop her workout, but she insisted and came over to helped me wrangle.  It made quite a difference, and I don't think I could have gotten what I did without her help.  Mostly she just kept a really curious cat from distracting the kids.  He kept coming over and scaring Declan away, so she finally just held the cat!  When she left we wished each other a Happy Easter. I was grateful for the help, and so grateful to live right next to such a pretty place. Every Easter we've gone driving in search of anything near and decent to shoot by, and in our last neighborhood it has been so futile and disappointing, I've ended up just shooting on our lawn. This was so fun. But most of all I was grateful to be the mom of these five monkeys.

I hadn't been able to find the Fresca I meant to marinate our chicken in, (I've moved our kitchen around every day since we moved in, and I still have five boxes to unpack :b) our microwave was broken, (We thought it sounded unnaturally quiet!  The fan was jammed.) and the repairmen weren't coming until the next day.  It was dinnertime by the time we finished shooting, so I thought it was a good night to go out to eat.  Zach was going to be at work until 8, so we were on our own as usual.

We don't really know what's around here, so we ended up driving around disagreeing on where to go until we saw an IHOP. I love the food at that restaurant, but I was not happy about the fact that I could have just stayed home and made pancakes and eggs for a tenth the cost, and just hadn't thought of it.

I reluctantly ordered three kids meals that looked like they'd be easy to split up (my kids never eat all their food if we eat out- I wasn't in the mood to pay for extra pancakes.) The waiter went over our order, "So three kids meals, and nothing for you?"   I just shook my head and smiled, thinking I would just heat up some leftovers in the oven after I got the boys to bed.  After he left I leaned my elbows on the table and tried to rub the tension out of my head from getting all the kids dressed in their Sunday best, from the normal chaos of shoot, re-dressing everyone, and the disorganized drive to the restaurant.

The table behind me was occupied by a family of five, with kids about my kids' ages.  Declan pointed at their "baby" who was his age, and we all giggled.  After we ate, the usher-dude came up to our table with our check, which turned out to be a receipt.  The family had paid for our meal, and asked him to pass along the salutation of a Happy Easter.  I gasped and blushed, imagining the scene they must have thought they witnessed:  a single stressed-out mom, trying to save money by not eating anything.  I was thoroughly embarrassed, but tried just to appear grateful for the usher and kids' sake. He left, and the girls all exclaimed at the generosity of the gesture, and wondered why the family did that.  I explained that the family had done it to express their love for Christ and their fellowman, and might have been making a special effort because it was Easter.  I flippantly suggested we find someone and pay for their meal, and all the kids pounced on the idea.  Unfortunately, the only other people in the restaurant were on their way out, and we had to go soon.

It was so sweet to have ventured out for one of the first times in our new area and to have encountered such nice people.  I was grateful for the example they were to my kids, and to me.

This time last year- March

The kids were just as determined to go swimming last March as they were this one. I gave them permission to swim, thinking their own bodies would tell them it was too cold, since they wouldn't listen to me.

They squealed and cringed, but persevered.

Victory!!

This March has been just as ridiculous:

And just as fun.  Okay, a lot more fun.

Back to last year.  I finally figured out how to make these beautimous delectables that I'd been craving for over a decade.  Arancini.   I think they are mostly a Sicilian thing.  And I love them.  Risotto, panchetta, (I just cubed some ham) and a yummy mozzarella center.

The girls got into facial masks and home-spa evenings.


I tried encouraging Declan to wean with no success.

 These two became partners in crime.  Our poor couch went from needing a touch-up to needing a professional cleaning.  And a month after the professional cleaning, it needs another professional cleaning.  They are so brutal on that poor couch. Declan uses it as a napkin.

Standing in "Someday"

About 12 years ago we started hearing it: "It'll all be worth it someday."  The frequency we've gotten it has increased each year as people have watched us struggle with some odd problem or another.

Yesterday the house was recorded, and today became the "someday" I'm sure people meant.

For the first time, we're living in an area where I'm not disinclined to send my kids to public school. They're going to try it out for a month or two.  We might home school again next year -- Mia is being placed back two grades, and the twins one, (because policy is more important than children)-- but I'm taking a break for now.

Same situation as when we tried the charter at the beginning of the year; Anya is not happy about it, Mia and Bree think it will be fun. And for me, kind of devastating.  I've been crying off and on since I enrolled them day before yesterday.  I've had my babies with me all day every day... always.  There's a reason teachers sometimes refer to their students as "my kids."  Because they get them for more waking hours per day than their parents.  That's.... huge. But we've wanted to try for so long.  It's time to give it a real try.

I think it will be a lot better than our last try with the new charter.  We're more familiar with the structure of this school- it's like what Zach and I grew up with.  There's a lawn outside.  A cafeteria.  An established routine for everything.  And a definite end in two months.  Mia, though enrolled as a 4th grader, will be in the class that has both 4th and 5th graders.  I think that will help.  No uniforms.  There's not a sense of urgency and insecurity among the staff and parents. This is a lot easier situation for me to wrap my head around and jump into than Somerset was.

We somehow made it through to someday without any major catastrophes.  The purple van we got when the twins were born is still kicking, though we gave it permission to die long before we had the ability to replace it. Good Purple Vanny. Our house didn't cave in while we owned it. We all have all our limbs.

 If you can get your family to a place where you aren't worried at the end of every month, and do it without going through 12 years of government defined "poverty," then do it that way.  If you can see yourself as something other than a doctor, do it that way. Any other way. I laughed when one of the people in my LDS Doctor Wives club posted "Help! My husband is giving a presentation to a bunch of high school kids about getting a medical degree.  We want to make it really fun and interesting and we need some ideas." All she ended up getting were a bunch of jokes about how to weed out students and convince them not to go into medicine in the first place.

But we're through the toughest part, we can see our trail head.  Hopefully we will finally settle down, in Utah in just a couple more moves. A hard won blessing not everyone can have- raising their family in the state and area they choose.  We'll be all the more appreciative of it after wanting it and working toward it for so long. Meanwhile we're all the more appreciative of having been able to choose the area we live here.

New house

After that couple made an offer on the house, I started pressuring my realtor to get me out looking at some of the house rentals I'd been seeing.  There were three that were so perfect- on a cul-de-sac, with a pool, and enough space for us inside and for the playground outside.  We almost made it out that day, but he cancelled on me, so by the next day those three were gone.

What was left was less than ideal.  One had a disgusting kitchen with food and grime all over, and melted stovetop handles and broken cabinetry.  One had a gigantic entry and formal living room completely painted gold.  Like.. shiny Aladdin's palace gold. And equally disturbing paint color schemes throughout the rest.  It was huge, and clean, but old and very kid-unfriendly.  There was another that was okay, but only a few houses down from a busy cross street, and had a lot of traffic.

I was disappointed.  My realtor asked if I'd been seeing any new ones, and I remembered one I'd seen the night before that hadn't been on our list.  I finally remembered the street name and he called his office to ask for the info as we drove over,  and then called the property management company as we stood on the front step.  While he was navigating their answering system, the blinds moved, so we popped our heads in and asked the cleaners if we could look.  They didn't speak English, but seemed like it was fine.

It was so nice!!  New carpet, nice kitchen.  Just as nice as the house we're in, but a little more house, a real pool, nicer neighborhood.  No monsters. My realtor commented on my exclamations, "Now THIS is what I want to hear when people are looking at their next house."  Then he got the MLS info from his office and we realized we weren't supposed to look at it until two days later!  He called and talked them into letting me fill out an application, even though they said no at first.  So I went over and spent an hour filling stuff out and doing a mini interview with them.  We were worried we wouldn't qualify, because our monthly salary isn't even close to their requirement.  But we told them we could pay the entire year lease up front with the money from our house, so they let us fill out the application.

I went back on the open house day with the kids.

WAY bigger closets. ;D

They said they'd tell us whether or not we got it Friday, which day I was supposed to drive up to Utah for a wedding. While I was sitting at the St. George McDonald's watching the kids stretch their legs in the play place, they called and said we got it!  I have no idea how lucky we were to sell so quickly or to rent so quickly.  They both seemed to go WAY more easily than we even dreamed.  

We haven't closed on the old house yet, and still haven't even gotten into the new one yet, (we went to try our new keys and the door wouldn't open, even though the key did turn the lock!) so I guess I won't count my chickens, but so far, this has been the exact opposite of our last move. :)

I'll post more pics when I can get in the house, ha.