Out with the old, in with the new

This past weekend I participated in my first yard sale with three other sisters in my ward. We had a LOT of stuff to sell, and still do in fact, but we also sold a lot of stuff. Between the four of us, we made almost $600! I made the least amount, mostly because I had the least amount of stuff to sell, but that's ok. I got rid of about 1/3 of my stuff! The garage sale is being continued this weekend, so for any of you who read this and want to come down between 7-11am to Provo, please do and buy my stuff! :) Anyway, last week after the first exhaustive round of yard sale-ing, Doug and I took our earnings and bought bunk beds for the girls off KSL. I think we got them for a steal! We paid $125 for these solid wood, detachable bunk beds (so they could become two twin beds) in prime condition in Sandy. Sweet! We bought mattresses at Sam's Club and put them together all in one night. The girls love them. Evelynn is so proud to sleep on the top bunk, and Eloise loves the concept of her "big girl bed" even though she is having a little bit of a rough time transitioning to it from her "baby crib." We're getting more and more successful every night though, so that's good. I now have an old bed and mattress to sell at this weeks garage sale, though I doubt anyone would buy the mattress since we got it for free and it's a little bit, well a lot a bit, junky. Anyway, here's pictures of the new beauty! The only draw back now is that the girls have about a 3' x 9' space in their room to maneuver around, so they definitely can't play in there unless it's on their bed (which has been the happy case thus far, but not forever I'm sure). We are so out growing this wonderful little house! Hopefully we can hang on a while longer.... especially with our next addition only 8 hot week away!

At least she had no trouble adjusting to the new bed. It only took one time bonking her head on the ceiling for her to learn not to stand up, but that's all. :)

We got the beds finished at 10 pm, so poor Eloise was begging to go to sleep by the end of it.

Because BYU is so awesome

Doug saw this in his town meeting a few days ago. Last night on You tube it had about 2,000 views, and this morning it has over 110,000. BYU library rocks. Enjoy!

Cats out of the bag....

Many of you who interact with me directly might have noticed that there seems to be a distinct lack of packing or concern about moving lately in my house. You might have written it off to pregnancy exhaustion (which I seem to have a LOT of. For example: The past 4 days I have been exhausted, even if I got a nap. I just couldn't seem to shake it no matter what time I went to bed, woke up, or what I did during the day. Today I took a nap while Eloise was sleeping and Evelynn was watching a movie. I woke up 2 HOURS LATER much to my dismay since we had shopping plans for this afternoon. Eloise was still sleeping, Evelynn was adeptly navigating netflix movies, and here I was asleep at 2:40 in the afternoon. I got up, got ready, made my list, woke up Eloise at 3:30 [you know there's going to be repercussions for that tonight], went shopping, made dinner, sat down and announced that I was still exhausted! Dear me. Only 9 1/2 more weeks till this baby comes out [I have it on good authority with my OB that this child WILL be on time, end of story] and then maybe I can get some more restful rest.....) which is partially true. But the real reason there has not been much packing going on, except for the de-junking for the yard sale on Saturday, is because we're not moving anymore! Yes, you read that right. Now, before you all start panicking about Doug's rejection to the school or some huge disaster or whatever, rest assured that we are now staying in Provo for the next 3-5 years for a very good reason attached to a very big blessing. Let me explain.

Doug graduated from BYU with his BS in Political Science and a minor in Landscape Management a year ago. His current job at BYU had kind of implied that when this happened he would get a pay raise since he would have an honest to goodness degree in something, where as before he did not. He's being doing the work of someone who was being paid more than him, so we figured he'd be a shoe in for a raise, which we would then be able to save towards grad school the next year. Well, this never happened. Things got complicated at the library for a number of reasons I won't go into, but to say the least I felt like we kind of got pushed to the sidelines in favor of bigger issues. It made our decision to leave the comfort of Provo and strike out into the unknown of Kansas much easier for us, and so we applied, got into, and started to make the preparations needed for grad school in August. About mid June Doug's boss walked into his office with his co-worker Janet and handed him a slip of paper. Doug asked him what it was and he said it was the pay raise the administration was going to give Doug. I will not tell you how much it was, but lets just say it was shocking enough that Janet was stunned, as was his boss which did not know this was coming down the pipe. Doug, as you can imagine, was also floored. It amounted to about the same amount of money that Doug would have been making after his grad program in three years, minus the debt. Doug called to tell me the news, and my first response (right after I could grasp the concept) was anger. Call me weird, but it was! I felt like I had been yanked around, manipulated, and then handed this offer that threw all my plans and hard work out the window in 3 minutes flat! As you can imagine, I soon got over this feeling and fell into one of sorrow and regret, because this meant we would probably not be moving to Kansas as planned. I had been excited to be closer to my family, to start a new adventure, and for Doug to start his career in something he really liked. But it seemed silly to leave the paycheck, insurance, and comforts of Provo to go into debt, poverty, and uncertainty in Kansas. Plus, BYU employees are offered the chance of having free schooling, even for Masters programs, if they do them through BYU. So our options now included education with debt, or education without debt. Hmm.....

Bottom line is we're now staying in Provo for at least 3 years, maybe 5 depending on what program Doug decides to do. It was sad to say goodbye to the Landscape Architecture degree, at least for now, but maybe we'll be back someday, or maybe we'll get there another way. A lot of things that almost happened and didn't have manifest themselves to us as amazing blessings. For example, I did not apply to several subsidized housing complexes in Kansas like I was going to do that very week we got the raise, thereby saving us several hundred dollars. I also did not yet call the moving van company and get a van, saving more money. Doug was also delayed a few times from getting the laptop and equipment he needed to buy, saving us a few thousand dollars. We now can keep our insurance plan for the baby, our dental plan for the family, our flex spending for medical expenses, all that jazz, which will save us thousands of dollars in debt. It has been a blessing in so many ways it's amazing. Plus we get to stay with our lovely ward and amazing neighbors, and all the wonderful family we love and enjoy in Utah. My parents got over the disappointment of us not moving closer faster than expected, and Doug's parent's are overjoyed we're staying within driving distance. Doug's sister Kristen is starting school this fall and it'll be nice for her and for us to be close during the transition. It all seems to have worked out so perfectly, almost too perfectly, aside from the fact that we won't be getting the degree we originally wanted. It's a good thing Doug is talented in so many ways that this won't set him back much at all. :) I can not tell you how blessed I feel. The Lord really does watch over our family, and I don't always think we deserve all the blessings we receive from Him. So for all of you Utah folk, it seems you'll have the joy of interacting with me for a while longer, so lucky you!

June/July Marathon Update

Holy Cabooses we've had a busy couple of weeks! The amount of pictures represented here are only a SMALL fraction of the shots taken, and I wasn't even the one who took most of them! If I ever get a hold of any of the others taken (cough cough, Mom!) I'll post them here. Here's a list of our activities as far as I can remember, and not in chronological order, and then the picture explanations will come after.

* Mom, Dad, Lizzy, and Mark arrived Sunday night on the 27th. That started the festivities! After a joyous welcome and dinner, things settled... as much as they would for about 2 weeks. :)

* Dad went golfing with Mark and Jesse... often. It wasn't everyday, but that was only because we had to give Jesse time to go to work and we had other activities planned. Turns out Jesse is very good. Poor Dad and Mark are "limited" by their clubs. :)

* Dad and I went running several times. It was nice because the weather has been amazing in the mornings. 50's, clear, light breeze. Can't get much better running weather. Dad, Mark and I also participated in the Provo Freedom 5K Run this year, and we all did awesome! Mark did his own little "I'm a 17 yr old boy and can do anything" run and got 27:54, that that's with no prior training or even a warm up. Stinker. Dad ran a 30:39, which was 2 minutes faster than last year when he ran, and he didn't stop once! Well, I didn't let him stop at least. :) His first two miles he paced himself at 9:30 minute miles, which is fantastic. The only thing that ruined this pace was the monster hill that comprises the last 3/4 mile of the race. But even with that he did excellent. My friend Sam Anderson also ran the race with us and she took 4 minutes off her time, so she's a total rock star as well. I finished the race. Go me!

* Mom and I went to aerobics with my stake a few times, and Mom got to see what Zumba dancing is supposed to look like. There is a large amount of Latino women who attend our stake Zumba, and they put all us white girls to shame. There is one pregnant lady (who is due very very soon, I swear!) who can shake it, and you know that there is a definite advantage of being born with the right kind of genetics. :)

* We visited a LOT of family. Grandma and Grandpa Holt came down to Provo for dinner once, we ate dinner with Grandma/pa Showalter one night, went to a wedding reception for my cousin on my Dad's side and had a family reunion with all of them, and then had a family reunion at Wildwood in Provo canyon another night. Holy family and a half.

* As I mentioned before, we took a LOT of pictures. We had pictures at the wedding, a family photo shoot with my Dad's family, more family pictures at Wildwood, the pictures that I took, pictures that Doug took, and pictures that my mom took on her new iPhone (which probably will make up about 50% of the pictures taken, professional ones included). The professional shoot with my Dad's family should be really cute. My aunt Shirard, who also took my wedding pictures, was kind enough to offer her talent for this, and we are a pretty goofy family. I can't wait to see them!

* As mentioned, my mom got a new iPhone while she was here. She loves it. It was amazing how fast it became a "necessary" part of her life as a grandma since it could not only take pictures but also video. :) Doug and I were feeling a little left out of the smart phone world (well, to be honest Doug was. I didn't care much) but I handily solved that problem by watering my phone with an opened water bottle on the way to aerobics, thereby making it necessary for me to cash in my upgrade for a new phone. Turns out that Verizon was running a 2 for 1 sale on Droid phones, and our upgrade let us get 2 phones for $50. So we had to get one for me and much to Doug's delight, one for him as well. I must admit, I was skeptical of the use I would get out of this phone, but I LOVE it! Doug loves his more, but that's ok. ;)

* Doug and I got to go on a LONG date Friday afternoon/evening. We went to lunch, shopping, to get our phones (which actually took about 2 hours longer than it should have due to the massive amount of people also getting phones on the 4th of July weekend) and then to the play 110 Degrees in the Shade with my parents. Doug's cousin Laurel was in and hooked us up with discounted tickets so we could see Audra McDonald live at the Hale Center Theater. If you don't know who she is, please see this link and this link to educate yourself. She was absolutely spectacular and we loved the play. THANK YOU SO STINKING MUCH LAUREL!! (if you ever read this)

* We went to Seven Peaks one evening with the whole family. It was fun for the girls to have lots of options for co-riders on the slides instead of just daddy, or me who can't go down them.

* We visited Pirate Island and saw Toy Story 3 on evening. The girls did great! Evelynn sat through the whole thing, and since Eloise had lots of laps to rotate through, she was happy. I enjoyed the movie, but it was much more serious than I was expecting.

* Lori, Mom and I went to the Provo Balloon Festival on Friday morning while the boys all went golfing (Doug's second time. Way to go sweetie!) The balloons didn't get to take off that morning due to strong winds about 500 feet up, but it was fun to see them all fill up. They did get to go up on Monday. That was really cool because Dad, Mark and I were waiting for the race to start and just as the national anthem was being sung, about 20 balloons rose into the sky to start their competition right in front of us. It was pretty magical.

* We of course went to the Provo parade on Monday. It's nice living so close to the parade route and also not really caring where we sit. For the last three years we've walked out around 9:20 and found fabulous seats right down the road. The girls really enjoyed 2 hours of the parade, and then we went home because lets face it, the parade is really long and it was getting warm.

* We watched the Stadium of Fire fireworks show from our front yard. Yes, from our front yard! We have this nice little V of trees that leads right to the stadium and we can see all the fireworks perfectly, which means no fighting traffic and we can go straight to bed afterward. It had been a marathon day to begin with (this was the day of the wedding, reception, Kartchner family reunion, pictures, dinner, and lots of driving, so it was nice to be home). Evelynn was super cute during the show. She kept exclaiming "Whoa! Did you see that mom! That was a big one! It's so beautiful! Wow! Look at that one dad! I can't believe it!" It makes being parent so much fun to re-live experiences through your children's eyes. Eloise really enjoyed about 20 minutes of the fireworks, and then she just could not keep it up any longer and she fell very soundly asleep on my lap. Considering she had a one hour nap that day and had woken up at 6:30, she was a trooper for lasting until 10:30.

* Eloise cut the last of her molars these two weeks and had a massive nasty cold, at the same time. I tried my best to keep her full of Tylenol but there was nothing I could do for her nose, which ran freely and generously over all my family, consequently giving her cold to several of us. But we're all feeling better now, thankfully.

* We celebrated my sister Lizzy's birthday a few days early. She's turning 21, and it blows my mind. She's my youngest sister for goodness sakes! How could time slip away from me so suddenly? I made tres leche cake from cooking group and it was a hit. We were actually inundated with treats these past two weeks. One lesson learned was never to send Grandpa to the store for ice cream after FHE. He came back with 2 tubs, ice cream sandwiches, AND fudge pops, which is now all in my freezer, beckoning to me with it's evil siren voice. I'll probably give in tonight....

* We worked on our yard a few nights with the whole family. I'll have to post before and after pictures after we get the landscaping in. Dad spent most of the time fixing mine and Doug's oops with the sprinkler heads, which turned into a nightmare repair. Sorry dad. He made me make a solemn vow not to make him go through this again.... I guess if I can keep him from a sprinkler repair every vacation he takes, I'll be doing much better as a future home buyer. Thanks to everyone for their hard work in the yard, it saved us hours of time! Well, Doug hours of time, because I'm not very good at wielding a shovel right now.

Well, that's all I can remember right now. It was a fun and intense visit, and I love having my family over, but I'll be glad to getting more sleep for my kids and myself. Thank you for coming family and for all your love and generosity!

The view of the balloon festival Friday morning.

I thought the pig balloon was the coolest.

This is an absolutely awful picture of Eloise because she was getting ready to cough right as I took it, but it makes me laugh, so I'm immortalizing it in the blog. :)

Mom and the new iPhone. :)

Sunrise over the mountains, exactly 7:00am. It was cool to watch. That was normally the time the balloons would take off, but because of wind they couldn't. It was still very pretty.

This was the morning of the race. Doug took this shot on his way up to the finish line.

Dad and I finishing strong! Way to go dad! Remember that you only only got passed by one jogging stroller, but that one was being passed off between a husband and wife, so you can't feel too bad, even if it was a double. :)

Post race pic. Doug and I modified this shirt for the race. It now says "I Breed Blue and White" instead of bleed blue and white, and then the tummy says "Born Running."

Parade seats!

Firetrucks going past.

This was way awesome. It's the first firetruck Provo ever had. Still running!

Hurray for BYU float!!!

Lori and Eloise

I thought this picture was funny because no one was looking at the camera, but they were all looking in a different direction. :) So much to see!