Day 59 – { sold! }

“Step into my parlor” said the spider to the fly. . . .

A huge blessing that we have received in the past few weeks is the sale of our house. It was listed on Friday 5/3. Three showings were scheduled for Sunday 5/5. (That ended up being quite the adventure, since our van broke down the night before and it was Fast Sunday, so we were stuck with no way to get us all out of the house at once and no way to provide dinner. . .until our sweet friends the Nielsens rescued us. :) Less than an hour after we got back in the house that Sunday, our realtor called saying we had received a full-price offer.

 

Now that we have passed successfully through the inspection and the appraisal (well, the appraisal just happened Friday and we haven’t heard yet, but we think it’s okay), we are considering this house SOLD.

See my sweet friend Laurie? She talked us into the black garage door and picked out those lovely ironwork dealies that make it look like we are stylish and classy. haha! More about Laurie later – she is amazing and super nice.

Such a relief to only have shown it on one day! I took photos just before vacating the house, and want to share them on here. The ones the realtors took for the listing turned out hideous and this will just help me feel better.

NOTE: our house has never looked like this the whole time we have lived here and let’s face it, it will never look this clean and decorated again, but I still want to show it because it makes me happy and it’s my blog.

the ‘entryway’

 

See those pansies on the ottoman?

Minutes before vacating the house, Exacto discovered that Rosebud had picked an armful of pansies from the front yard. He told her, "Rosebud, you're supposed to leave those there! Why did you pick those?"

Rosebud, calmly: "For my wedding."

 

 

Onward into the kitchen. . . .

Here’s where Laurie really made miracles happen. She painted the walls, helped me for nearly a week with sanding and painting the cabinets, sanding and painting the dining set, then came again and helped me decorate with pretty stuff. Without her help, I would probably still be working on the kitchen. She was IN. credible.

If you detect some craftiness in her smile it’s because we got sneaky and used gorilla tape to stick those platters/plates to the wall because the realtor was coming to take pictures and we hadn’t found plate hangers in time. Hey, it worked!

 

Shall we head upstairs for a bit?

I love our realtor for letting us keep some of our pictures of the Savior on the wall.

Here we have the master bedroom, pre-Euro monsters.

Now that I learned how to paint kitchen cabinets, I’m itching to paint that left bedside table. . . . We’ll see if the itch lasts after we get to Colorahdo.

 

And the boys’ bedroom. Yes, all three sleep here (see the trundle? the poor dears are packed like sardines).

 

And Rosebud’s room. . . .

(She has outgrown that crib-day-bed situation but we shall have to wait till Colorado-land to buy her new bed.)

Not pictured are the garage or closets. I know, you’ll just have to get over the disappointment. :)

This whole experience of preparing and then selling the house was filled with tender mercies for us, including generous help from several friends besides Laurie. I wish I could tell you about every single little miracle that happened! So grateful! It brings me hope as we face the next step that currently seems almost desperately daunting--finding a place to rent on the other end. . . .

Dear Mom,

It was quite a week. We had two wonderful band concerts, DC’s last professional symphony performance,  a court of honor (where Exacto received 4 merit badges and the On My Honor award and Fluffy received Tenderfoot rank), the house inspection and appraisal AND Fluffy’s 12th birthday!

I wish I had time to upload some photos and even video clips of the band concerts, but this is one of those times where the post will be “simple.”

One of my favorite parts of the week was seeing my first live armadillo walk across the road. I had just been saying the night before how sad it was that I had lived in the South this long and never once seen an armadillo that wasn’t roadkill (‘cept in the zoo). The Very Next Morning, lo and behold. . . .:) It was like a smile from Heavenly Father.

Flickr

 

But my MOST favorite part of the week was celebrating Fluffy’s birthday. He is such a good, sweet, funny boy. Now young man, I guess. sigh.

 

He gave his first talk in Sacrament Meeting this past Sunday, on the Priesthood and how it has blessed his life and our family’s. He prepared it 100% on his own and did such a great job.

He is always one to try to help me feel better when  I get stressed out.

His sense of humor takes me by surprise almost every time still – it reminds me of his Daddy’s.

He received the “Outstanding Trombone Student” award at his band concert Monday. This was impressive because his band is gargantuan (47 clarinets, they said at the concert) and he is one of nearly 20 trombone players. :)

He has a pure, very real love of the gospel and a strong testimony already. Oh, how I hope he continues to grow it and that he will prepare well for missionary service and a lifetime of loving the Lord.

Anyway, I Love that son of mine. I know you do, too. Thank you for the amazing quilt you are making for him – he loved seeing the pictures!

And now, things are really wrapping up for us here. I have 4 days left actually here in Arkansas, with our trip to Spain and Germany in the middle of them. I am SO EXCITED and still can hardly believe it’s really going to happen.

Can’t wait to see you tomorrow! I love you!

~Michelle

Dear Mom,

Happy Mother’s Day! I am forever grateful for your influence in my life, not to mention giving me life in the first place. How blessed I am to be your daughter!

I love how you look in this photo from your last visit here when we were facetiming with Baby Austin. (Hummer’s expression is a little alarming, however. :o)

This is the first part of your Mother’s Day gift this year. I’m glad that you enjoyed receiving my journal every week last year by email but I really miss my handwritten one. And so I thought maybe this year if I gave you a blog post for every week—especially one with pictures—then maybe you would enjoy that, too.

So that is my plan. It may sometimes be late or very simple, but hopefully I will write to you every week on average here.

So, how has your special day been? Hopefully I’ll get to talk to you later on, when you’re home from church.

We have had a most excellent week here in Arkansas.

Monday our realtors came over and ‘splained the contract to us. We feel super blessed to have received such a good offer so soon after listing the house. As long as everything goes through with the inspection and appraisal. . . . Also, Rosebud discovered a great new use for Mardi Gras beads – voila, infant carrier! :0)

 

The catmint, spirea, and irises are all in bloom. The irises are hand-me-downs. The ones on the far left are from the Hendersons, who planted them with the other flowers when Benjamin died. The rest are from our sweet neighbor Thelma. I wish we could take them all with us. . . .

 

 

We loved having Exacto home with us for a couple of mornings this week. He even gave Rosebud an impromptu horn lesson, during which they worked on So This Is Love. :o)

 

And since it is Mother’s Day and my sweet DC is making dinner, I shall attempt to share a video as well. . . .

 

When my friend Laurie and the realtor were helping me stage the house for showing, Laurie prescribed Euro pillows for our bed. The realtor enthusiastically seconded that, and I knew that I could never be happy until I had them. I would feel like our bed was hopelessly underdressed. haha

 

 

And so, here is our bed fully clothed! It has taken us some time to get used to the fact that they take up roughly HALF of the bed’s surface area and also to moving ALL THOSE PILLOWS every morning and every night, but ya know, I think I like them. (Do you and Dad have Euro pillows on your Rush Grush bed? :o)

 

 

It was the highlight of the week. Just kidding, actually the highlight of this week was Exacto passing his Eagle Board of Review! YIPPEE!

 

Super proud of this boy. I wish so much that you could be here for his Court of Honor! He has worked so hard and done many grownup things that he never would have done without Scouting. I am glad for your wonderful example of supporting the program – I have such fond memories of your den leader years. :o)

 

And here we have a lovely photo of the boys burning 9 years’ worth of our taxes and bank statements that I realized are completely unnecessary to move to Colorado. Way more fun than a shredder! Especially later when we pulled out the giant marshmallows. Note Ruby licking Fluffy’s feet – she is quite maternal sometimes (meaning in a canine way – I don’t usually lick my puppies’ feet). 

 

Rosebud is growing so fast. Just this week I came to terms with the fact that she can no longer wear size 3T. She is so smart and funny and beautiful and I know you agree and are just as biased as I am. :o)

 

 

Other notable events this week: DC took his finals and our internet was out for two days. Unfortunately that coincided, at least for his Anatomy & Physiology final. He went to the public library to take it there, and their internet was down. He ended up taking it at our neighbor’s house!

My week was spent largely on the dadgum garage and all its accumulated stuff from 9 years. I can’t post a picture because it’s still not done. (Wish I had done a before and after. . . )

And last night, I watched DC perform with the symphony as a professional player for the last time. The ASO did a wonderful pops program with Cirque de la Symphonie. We invited our beloved friends the Nielsens to come with us. It was so fun! They have been like our family here – we’ve even done Christmas Eve together and Sunday dinners. We are really going to miss them!

 

 

Maybe I can add some photos of the symphony after Kelly Hicks put them on facebook. . .

And today has been a lovely Mother’s Day for me. The Sweet Ones brought me an amazing breakfast in bed.

See, those Euro pillows come in mighty handy!

Three of us spoke in Sacrament Meeting, and the other three of us sang with the Primary (Fluffy’s last time, Rosebud’s first :o). We visited Benjamin’s grave after church.

I hope that you have had a wonderful day, too. I miss you so much and can’t wait to see you in just a week and a half!

Love from your daughter,

Michelle

Day 58 – { acceptance }

Three days after my last post, on March 15, 2013, we received two letters in the mail, one from Colorado State and one from Central Arkansas. I resigned myself to the first being a rejection letter and hoped that the second was not. I decided to open the “bad news” first.

I read the first paragraph and did not see the words “regret to inform you”  or “unfortunately”. I read it again. It began to dawn on me that this was not a rejection letter. I read it again, then ran into the kitchen screaming for DC.

He came downstairs thinking there was a giant spider to be reckoned with. I could hardly speak because I was shrieking and laughing and crying at the same time. It was miraculously, unbelievably true: he had been accepted to Colorado State University’s prestigious occupational therapy program. (We nearly didn’t even apply to it because we thought the chances were so slim.)

We know this was an answer to prayers and fasting. We are so, so grateful!



After the euphoria settled down a little (it took a few days, I think :0), we crunched the numbers and saw that to move to Fort Collins and go to CSU would be a bit more expensive than staying here and going to UCA (if he is admitted there, too). We took about a week discussing all the pros and cons and talking to our children and asking pretty much anyone who would listen what they thought was best.

Last Saturday we went to the Memphis Temple. Exacto was super sweet to watch his siblings here at home so that DC and I could be in the temple together. We felt peace about accepting the spot at Colorado State, and announced it to our children over Reese’s Klondike bars when we got home. :o)

Now that the decision is made, it feels like moving a mountain by shovel to work out all the details with selling the house, getting his additional prereq’s taken care of, finding a place to live there by early May in order to get residency for next summer, etc., all with the looming knowledge that the salary will be stopping in a few months. Lead, Kindly Light is quickly becoming our daily theme song.

It breaks my heart to leave Arkansas. It feels way, way out of my comfort zone, which is so funny to me because our first year here I felt like a outsider that would never belong or like it here. But nine years and lots of wonderful, loving friends have firmly rooted a big ol’ chunk of my heart right here in central Arkansas. I can hardly stand to think about the actual leaving. If my family would just move here. . . .if the symphony would suddenly just double his income and move all concerts to weekdays during the day (haha). . . .:o)

I know that Heavenly Father answered our prayers, and that we are meant to be there in Colorado for the next two years. I am so grateful.

what’s going on with OT school applications

Here’s an update on what has been happening with DC’s planned career change to occupational therapy.

 

December / January – He finished applying, which was a surprisingly grueling and expensive process. He applied to 7 schools: 2 in the West (UNM, CSU), 4 in the East (VCU, Kean in NJ, East Carolina in NC, Sacred Heart in CT), and 1 here (UCA).

 

January – He was invited to interview at Sacred Heart, and we flew him out there. He had a great time at the school, it went well, he spent the night in Laguardia airport, and came home. A few days later we had an acceptance letter from them in the mail, with a hand-drawn smiley face on the envelope! :0) This was very happy and exciting.

They wanted an answer asap along with a deposit, and so we sat down and crunched the numbers, finding that Sacred Heart would be the most expensive option out of all 7 schools. We rested on his laurels, waiting to give our answer because we just didn’t know if we should commit until we heard back from the other less expensive options.

He was rejected by East Carolina, due to their not receiving his graduate school transcripts from FSU by their “firm deadline.” (This was a bit irritating, considering how much we spent on their dadgum application fees and we had little control over when FSU sent the transcripts, which by the way WERE received by the time they sent the rejection letter. grrr.)

 

February – I was waiting for Exacto outside seminary one early morning, and as is my current habit, studying the scriptures while I watch the sun rise. :0) I was reading a talk by Pres. Eyring from the last conference and pondering our situation with the graduate school choices. Wondering where on earth we will be living in a few months. I received a very clear impression that we would not be near family and that it was okay. I am grateful for the Spirit helping me feel that that is okay, because without that, just in my normal Michelle mind and heart, that is NOT okay. But really I felt super peaceful and that all will be well.

A few days later he was invited to interview at UNM, which is located only 4 hours from my parents’ house and about 20 minutes from my sister’s! Interesting, no? Well, of course it would be silly not to try, even though I was pretty darn sure it wasn’t going to happen. We flew him out there, he had a great time at the school, it went well, he spent the night at my sweet sister’s family’s house, and came home. A few weeks later, we still hadn’t heard.

Meanwhile we had to give an answer to Sacred Heart and we gave an ambiguous no.

We finished February having not heard a thing from any of the other 4 schools.

 

March – He was rejected by UNM via email.   gulp.

As of this writing, we have only heard from one more school, VCU, who informed us yesterday that he is on their short waiting list.

He is working super hard on his 16 credits of pre-requisites for this semester and keeping a stiff upper lip (he probably even knows the medical term for the upper lip. :).

 

My lip is sagging a little. Prayers are appreciated!

How to alphabetize your boards on Pinterest

I realize that this is a FWP, but I just wasted the last 40 minutes of my life figuring out how to do this, and I want to share because I care about you.  Truly. :0)

Because see, every time I need to go to something I pinned, I have to comb through my 283 dadgum boards trying to find the right one (if remember which one I pinned it to.) And I have agonized and stayed up nights with the tormented question of why. Why doesn’t Pinterest automatically alphabetize my boards?

So today I had had enough of the time-wasting mining for that pin I vaguely remember pinning (never mind about the fact that quite possibly Pinterest is a glorious time waster to begin with) and I decided it was high time to figure out how to rearrange my boards myself. Surely someone had done it and shared on Google.

Kind of.  I found out you basically have to do it by hand, but it is possible, and through trial and error, I think I found the least tedious way. At least until Pinterest improves its irritating interface. (is it still called alliteration if all the words start with a vowel?)

So here is how you do it.

1. Go to your main “boards” page. See this little icon, next to “Edit Profile”?

 

2. Click on it to “Rearrange Boards”. Now it will look like this:

 

3. Now sigh and begin dragging around your boards, using those great alphabetizing skills you learned in grade school. If you have tons, like I do, you will very soon find that you have to scroll up and down a gazillion times. Unless you do this nifty trick that Exacto taught me. . . .

4. To zoom out the view on your browser, hit Ctrl and – at the same time (to zoom back in, do Ctrl and +).

After a few handy clicks, my boards all fit on one screen and I could still (barely) read all the names. Like so (except bigger, of course).

 

Here is the NUMBER ONE TIP I will give you to save your time and sweat at this back-breaking labor! Pay attention now.

Don’t wait until you are done to click on the red checkmark!! Or you will be very sorry! Because after you have merrily clicked and moved about 138 boards, your dadgum mouse will suddenly think that you clicked on the board cover and that you want to look at it, and you will go back only to discover to your horror that it did not save all the recent dazzling choreography of boards! 

5. So be smart and click on the red checkmark every few pins to save your work.

That is all.

My charity never faileth!

a little “ketchup”

We had great fun bringing in the New Year, with our traditional epic graham-cracker house decorating and games and time capsule. At midnight the neighbors were treated to a free trombone and air horn duet from the front porch!

(Note Hummer gathering air packets from amazon packages to pop – it was a nice touch, truly.)

 

By this point the neighbors are looking for things to throw at us. . . .

 

The best thing we did during the break was to go to the Memphis Temple. DC and I traded off while the kids played at the neighboring stake center. I love being in the temple! We need to go more often.

 

 

The stocking windfall from Santa led to some epic trading sessions, lasting several hours sometimes, and involving elaborate bartering with coupons for chores, too. The hot item? Lindt dark truffles. Oh, honey, those are good.

 

 

DC and I saw Life of Pi and loved it. The theater was freezing because the heater was broken (they said we could have a refund if it was too cold) and DC dropped his nachos during the opening credits, but we stopped feeling sorry for ourselves pret-ty quickly! Poor Pi.

(Yes, I know the picture below is a little creepy. I forgot my camera that night, and you know how it goes, “Oh, well! Photoshop!” :)

 

Our first Sunday of the new year was bittersweet, a little heavier on the bitter for me. Rosebud went into Primary and is no longer in Nursery with me. She will be the youngest all through her growing up years, probably, with a late December birthday. But she was very ready and happily sat with her class when I dropped her off. (ouch for this mama-heart!)

 

 

Then school started again, and by Tuesday it felt like Christmas break had just been a happy dream. We were grateful to have Hummer's birthday to look forward to right away!

here he is opening a present from Rosebud

pillowcases = cheapskate wrapping paper :)

This was a special one because he turned 9 on the 9th, so we made a big deal of his Golden Birthday. Nana and Grandpa sent 9 gold dollar coins and a $2 bill and he was quite impressed and delighted. Friday evening and Saturday morning we had meals of his choice, which got pretty intense on the calories.

 

new rollerblades!

 

My favorite part was the frosting on his cake. I had used diet soda with the cake mix (strike one) and then burned it in the oven (strike two), but no one even noticed because of the celestial quality frosting I had slathered all over it. (Go here to change your life. )

 

Nine Great Things About Hummer

1. He looks for ways to help and then does them.

2. He has a zany, ever-present sense of humor (note the above picture :).

3. He is reading the Old Testament on his own.

4. He loves texting on his new iPod touch -- his top 2 people to text with? Me and Nana. (I love it!)

5. He's smart as a whip.

6. He never met a stranger, and is usually the first to answer the door or the phone.

7. He thinks deeply about things.

8. He leaves me notes and surprises under my pillow.

9. He is generous, whether it's buying something for a birthday or just sharing candy.

I LOVE THAT BOY.

 

And, on another note, I am apparently having a mid-life crisis. Despite diligent efforts to learn about “real” food and ways to eat fewer processed foods, I succumbed to a diabolical urge at Sam’s the other day. . . .

As you can see, some of us were happier about this than others. . . .

 

Also, Exacto participated in All-Region Band, being the 5th chair French horn in the top 9th grade band. They sounded great!

Whoever plans these things did not take beauty-rest schedules into consideration. . . .

 

I’m trying on a new way to get around to this fun blogging thing more often. I hope you enjoy it! It will mostly be for our faraway family’s sake, but as I get on a roll, I do want to WRITE again.

In the meantime, I have put up a poll for you to state your opinion regarding the “Quotables” I used to update regularly. Please go here and vote real quick. . . .