Save the World, or Save MY Stuff?

I love the world. I really do. That's why over the past several months it has kind of hit home to me how important it is for me to do my part (with some definite help from my semi-hippie sister). I diligently recycle, I never litter, I try not to waste too much water, I try to support good causes. That's why, on my latest shopping excursion I bought all the Eco-Happy cleaning products I could find. I figured this would be just another way of helping out my fellow man and keeping our world beautiful. A week or so has gone by and here are the results. This is one of my nice glasses. See how it's white? It's not supposed to be white. It's actually supposed to be crystal clear. It was crystal clear a week ago. I have had equally less-than-stellar results from the laundry soap, and the all-purpose cleaner as well. So here's question #1... How much do the little fishies and bugs in the sea really hate phosphate? It can't be that bad can it? Surely not bad enough for me to have to drink from cloudy glasses and wear stained clothing? Question #2 (though it breaks my heart to ask it)... Do I save the world, or do I save my stuff?

Lessons They've Taught Me

I started thinking about what a different person I am today than I was 7 years and 9 months ago. I have learned so much from my girls. Each one of them is different and has been able to teach me different lessons in life. Sometimes I look at them and I know that I still have so much to learn from the way they live their lives and they way they view our world.

Khursten
1.) Life isn't serious all the time, and I don't have to be either. Laughing is fun. Being silly is even funner. Making faces at the dinner table and making up crazy songs can be one of the best parts of life.
2.) Life is about expression. When you're sad, cry. When you're happy, laugh. When you're excited, for heaven's sake, jump for joy!
3.) Words aren't always necessary. Disappointment or praise doesn't always need to be vocalized. Sometimes a hug or a stern look can go so much further.

Allie
1.) Love yourself. God made you the way you are, and you are wonderful. There is no need for awkwardness or shyness. If you are true to yourself, you will always be loved.
2.) Stop and smell the roses. Notice the beauty all around you. Everything in this world of ours is wonderful in it's own way. If you look closely enough, you will can even find beauty in a big slimy snail. Don't judge a book by it's cover. Always give people or ideas a chance to grow on you. Look past what you see on the outside and you will have a chance learn so much more.
3.) Patience is a virtue. Even though I may be exhausted or busy, it's always worth my time if I will just listen. Sometimes a ten-minute story with 37 twirling breaks and 24 cartwheels thrown in for good measure, can still be a good story. Distractions are a necessary part of life. It's how we react to them and adapt to them that really matters.

Audrey
1.) People are special. It's important to make them feel special too. Hugs and kisses are a necessity. Sometimes just sitting next to someone you love can make you feel like the luckiest person on Earth.
2.) Ask and you shall receive. You will never where your limits lie if you don't push them every once in a while. You may end up getting much more out of life than you ever imagined possible if you just ask for the things you want.
3.) Your imagination can take you anywhere. We are here to learn and explore. Life isn't always what you see... it's what you believe it to be.

I am so thankful that my Heavenly Father gave me 3 beautiful, spunky, little girls to help shape my world. Without them, I wouldn't be the woman I am today. I love you girls.

More House Pics

I know most of you probably don't really care, but we went out to our new house today and I got some more pics. It's almost done! (just still really dusty) There are like 50 pictures, but hey... we're excited!

A Glimpse

My parents got Khursten her very own digital camera for her birthday. She was snap happy last night, taking pictures of everything she could. Here's a page I made of her first experience with a camera.

Hooray!

Ryan got some very good news today! Click here to find out all about it.

Happy Birthday Khursten

Khursi Belle,
I can't believe you're seven! You're getting so big. I can remember your first birthday party. Your bald little head and your huge, blue eyes. At the age of 3 you finally started getting hair, and your eyes turned from blue to green. You have really grown up. I've loved having you home this summer. You're so fun to talk girl talk with. Here are my 5 favorite things about you:
5.) You have such a tender heart. You really allow yourself to feel things. You're not afraid to let your true emotions show. I can pretty much guarantee you'll cry at any movie we take you to see.
4.) You have a great sense of humor. You've recently begun making

up your own jokes, and I've gotta say... you're pretty funny.
3.) You're not a girly-girl. Sure, you like your dresses and bows, but you're not afraid to get right in there and play hard. Dirt and bugs don't scare you off. In the summer after a hard day's play, you always leave a ring around the bathtub.
2.) You're a great big sister. You are aways inventing games to play with your sisters. You always let them play along with you. (even Audrey)
1.) You're a beautiful girl with a great spirit and you're always willing to help when we need you.

We love you so much Khursten.

We're having our families over tonight for a birthday dinner and cake and ice cream. I'll post the pictures tomorrow.

Ornery Furnace Guy

Today we are having our furnace replaced. I've been all smiles about this whole process, let me tell you. But today when the world's orneriest furnace guy showed up... He's downstairs working right now, but so far he's snapped at my girls for getting in his way, gone off on a 45 minute rampage because the furnace he brought out was dented, and chastised me for my lack of regular furnace maintenance. Sure do love this whole process.

I'm in a Rock Band?

Some very good friends of ours that we hadn't seen in way too long, invited us over tonight for a rousing game of Rock Band. Do you know this game? If not, I think you need to find someone who owns it and play it! We had so much fun! I've always thought of myself as a person who has a certain amount of rhythm. This proved to be completely false. I have NO rhythm at all. I absolutely sucked. Slightly embarrassing, but not enough to make me stop playing. I started out on the drums and after earning a 93% on my second try, I became overly arrogant and was convinced that I could pretty much rock the game. Let me just say that after that one 93%, my highest score was in the low 70's. I even tried switching to the bass, but that only proved worse for me. If we are ever graced with another invitation, I am going to just own my suckiness and have fun. No more insecure apologies. You get what you get with me. Who am I kidding anyway? If I was actually as awesome as I think I should be I'd be rockin' out in a real band. Who knows, maybe next time I could even take a turn as the singer. Well... maybe not. Quick props to my uncle Jean-Paul who actually does play the drums in a wicked awesome band, Clutch. I have found new respect for you, my friend. It definitely takes some serious talent. Thanks guys for showing us such a fun time!

Christian Michael Clifford

Happy birthday Christian, and welcome to this crazy world. You couldn't have been born to a better family.

My good friend Tamara just called. She finally had her baby today at about 1:00 this afternoon! He was 9 lbs, 8 oz and 22" long. (Tamara, I hope you don't mind me totally blog-lifting this picture from you.) Congratulations Clifford Family. We wish you well!

There's only One Lagoon!

Yesterday we took Allie & Khursten to Lagoon for the first time. Going into this adventure, I was a little worried about how the girls would handle things. You see... their dad didn't really do the roller-coaster thing as a child. He decided early on that it just wasn't going to be worth the obvious risk he would be putting himself at to ride on one. As a matter of fact, Ryan never stepped foot onto a roller coaster until our Honeymoon. It's sad, but it's true. At the ripe old age of 19, Ryan experienced, for the first time, the thrill of the ride. Here's documented proof of Ryan's first roller coaster ever. Doesn't he look like he's having fun?

After his first rocky ride, Ryan has slowly come to 'tolerate' roller coasters. He still doesn't get quite the thrill that I do.

After only about 2 min. in the park, I realized my fears were unfounded. The girls undoubtedly inherited my theme-park genes and not their dad's. They ran from ride to ride checking height requirements and jumping with joy. What little troopers they were. The only tears I saw from them was when Khursten was on the Jet Star 2. That ride promptly earned it's place as Khursten's least favorite ride. Other than that, they were great. I can't wait until they're a few years older and want to do all the rides. (Of course by then, they probably won't want to do those rides with mom)

My sisters and their families came with us yesterday too. I was really hoping to find an equal amongst them who would seek the thrill and ride all the 'scary' rides with me. Alas, it was not so. Can it be that most adults my age simply cease to enjoy such things? I decided I need to go back with a girlfriend who likes to have fun. On my next trip, the following phrases will be forbidden: "I get motion sickness", "I don't do heights", "We might get wet if we go on that...", "Spinning is no good for me." If you think you could enjoy a trip to Lagoon without uttering one of this phrases, give me a call. I'm up for a return visit anytime.

As for Ryan, he found the adventure to be well worth his time even though he doesn't really love the rides (what a trooper he was). It wasn't until the ride home that it really hit him just how important this day was to Khursten and Allie. The talked the whole way home about which rides were their favorites and who was the bravest. All in all I'd say it was a pretty great day.

My favorite quote for the day was from Khursten, "Lagoon has everything a kid could want. There's rides, stuffed animals, and you can even throw a ball and break plates."

Coming Right Along

We drove up to the new house again tonight. Things are really moving. They had finished the stucco on the outside and gotten rid of all of the scaffolding. Inside they've finished the kitchen flooring, the paint, the electrical, oooh and the granite countertops! It's looking so great! 3 weeks is starting to feel like forever away. We also met the Elders Quorum Presidency tonight. They were very nice. They told us where and when the ward meets. I think we're going to sneak up there on Sunday. Here's the latest shot from the outside.

I Went Back

This morning I finally went back to the gym. I had full intentions of going to the circuit class, but wimped out at the last minute. I decided I wasn't quite ready for that. I was watching them from the treadmill and DANG! I can't believe I ever did any of that. No wonder I always felt like a lame-O. Those ladies are CRAZY! I think until I move I'm going to stick with the treadmill and the weight machines. I feel like I know enough now to give myself a decent workout. And can I just say that I'm so glad I had my surgery? Working out today reaffirmed my decision. It was so nice! I'm feeling good! I'm feeling optimistic! Don't we just love those endorphins?

Food

A little known fact about me... I LOVE food. It's true. I hate to say it, but it's just the way it is. I love the flavors, the textures and the smells. After a hard day of crying babies, sometimes all I need is a really great meal. (I know this is unhealthy... hence my efforts at the gym. That balances out my love of food, right?) The bad part is that I am also the world's most finicky eater. When all my friends talked about having uncontrollable cravings during pregnancy, I felt a little sad that I wasn't experiencing such comical happenings as well. Then it occurred to me that food cravings are just a normal state of being for me. That is why I didn't notice them as out-of-the-ordinary while I was carrying each of my three children. What happens is that at about 4:00 in the afternoon a certain food will pop into my head. This is what I must eat for dinner. Try as I might, nothing else will satisfy my current need. (Things get a little dicey when all I want is a Kneaders chicken salad croissant sandwich and they are out of croissants) This also makes it incredibly difficult to plan a menu for a week or a month like most of my friends do. If I have something planned for the day, come 4:00, chances are I'll want something completely different. And if I don't eat what I'm craving, and instead try to buy myself off with something else... it literally makes me sick to my stomach. This usually leads to me dumping out whatever's in the crock pot and running to the nearest Taco Bell instead. I have made countless promises (empty promises) to Ryan to try and curb my fickle appetite, and go the much more frugal route of cooking dinners (and actually eating what I cook instead of dumping it out). The on-going deal is that if I can cook 5 nights out of the week, then he will pick something up for us once a week. Last week I rededicated myself to my cooking efforts. I think I did pretty well. But then yesterday started a new week. I drove past a billboard for the Wendy's bacon cheeseburger. Mmmm mmm mmm. Ryan was not impressed that I wanted to use my out-to-eat meal on Monday. He didn't believe I would cook as promised the rest of the week. But after an hour of begging and basically selling my soul to him, I finally convinced him to take a chance on me and off to Wendy's we went. I ordered my nice, juicy bacon cheeseburger. I was so excited. When we got home I delved into the bag and dug around for my burger. Then I dug some more. Wait! Where's my burger? My delicious bacon cheeseburger that I sold my soul to eat? Where are you, burger? Wait a minute!... what's this? A jr. bacon cheeseburger? Noooooooooooo! So 4 bites later my wimpy little jr. bacon cheeseburger was gone and I was left completely unsatisfied. As a single tear ran down my cheek, it occurred to me that food is a fickle mistress that will always let you down.

6 Weeks Away Can Make Me Say, "Hmmm... Do I really Want to Go Back?"

Tomorrow it will be 6 weeks since my surgery and I have gotten the go-ahead to go back to the gym. A few weeks ago I was feeling very anxious to go back. Now I'm thinking, "Really? Is that what I want?" I know I miss working out so much because I began to rely on it for my daily dose of endorphins and socialization. Now I know that if I start again, I will only be able to go for about 3 weeks and then we're moving anyway. I'm not going to want to drive 30 min. to my favorite gym. I'll have to buy a new membership somewhere else anyway. It's just that I'm remembering how hard it was last year when I started going every day. I was the lame-o of all the classes. I had just barely gotten myself to the point where I wasn't completely embarrassed to be me. Now, over the past 6 weeks, my body has atrophied once again. All the muscles I was starting to build have turned back into the fat I know and love so well. Doing 30 sets of stairs sounds like a very daunting task. Woe is me.

Summer is Here! Hooray!

We've been waiting so long, but it appears summer has finally arrived in our cold little state. That means time for the wading pool. I made a rule that it had to be at least 80 degrees before the girls could go swimming, and we finally hit that mark today. It was long over-due. After 4 hours of swimming and three applications of sunscreen, I'd say they had a pretty good day.

New House Scrapbook Page

Knock on Wood

Wow! What a roller coaster. After bump after bump, we finally signed all the paperwork on what will be our new home (knock on wood). The contracts had the right address on them this time. That was very nice to see. ;) I guess there's always the chance that tomorrow I could be posting yet another retraction, but I'm feeling good.

We had a rough patch this week when, after our inspection, our furnace was condemned. (That's right... condemned!) And of course after our furnace was condemned, we received an addendum from our buyers requesting a new furnace before they will purchase the home. I guess I can't really blame them there.

After our make-up session with Lorraine at Woodside, she convinced the builder to give us any one of their 17 spec homes at their 'bottom line'. I am guessing bottom line is kind of like their cost. I don't really know... I could just be making that up. Oh ... and a quick side note to any of you out there who are thinking about building a brand new home. The 'bottom line' prices were on average between $60K and $80K less than the listed purchase prices. I was shocked that there was so much mark-up! I guess that's the nature of the business though. We were able to get a much better house (than the one Lorraine thought she was selling us) for the same cost. I am feeling really good about this house.

I am still singing praises to Craig Collette, because I honestly believe that this guy worked harder than any other agent would have to get us such a screamin' deal. We are walking into this deal for quite a tidy sum under asking price. I can't really get too upset about that.

Here are some pictures of our house-to-be. Ryan and I took the girls out to see it last night. It was the first time they had a chance to see it. It was so fun watching them run around all excited staking claim on their new bedrooms. Khursten tried to claim the master. I had to put the kibosh on that one. Sorry Khursi.

Here's the front of the home. What color will it be? It's kind of a mystery. We got to see an 8x10 picture of all of the color swatches laid out next to each other, but it was definately pretty hard to get a really great idea. What a fun little surprise we'll have when we open our door for the first time!

Here's looking in at the kitchen from the family room. They upgraded to some gorgeous knotty alder cabinets. I absolutely love the color. It's probably not something I would have chosen myself because I would have thought they were too dark, but once I see them all set up I love them!

Here's the backyard. We'll be on a corner lot so the whole yard will be fenced in before we move in. That's a huge bonus! The girls were super bummed when they found out the huge mountains of dirt weren't included with the price of the house. Allie's exact quote was, "Ohhhh! That was the best part of the whole backyard!" (I wish I knew how to type the voice inflections. Picture the whiny tone that all girls master by the age of 3)

Here's looking down our street. I'm so excited to meet all of our new neighbors. We had a chance to meet one neighbor last night. I asked him if there are a lot of kids in the neighborhood and he told me that was a huge understatement. Yay! Friends for my girls!

So there you have it. Our new house. I'm just crossing my fingers this time. We were thinking maybe we'd go up and sneak into the sacrament meeting on Sunday. We could maybe get a sneak preview of our new ward. I'll have to let you know what we find out.

p.s. It has suddenly occurred to me that I probably want to think about packing. So... if any of you have recently moved and find yourself with a whole trundle of boxes you need to give away...

The Great Fruit Draw-Off

Here's what happens when you're forced to wait outside for an hour while someone appraises your house. In an attempt to entertain the kids we began a drawing contest. It was Allie versus Mom with Khursten as the judge. Khursten called out a piece of fruit and we both gave it our best attempt.

Mom's Contest Entries

Khursten and Allie told me I was the best artist in the whole, wide world. Ahhhh... kids are so easy to impress. Maybe I should take them to a museum and show them what good art really is. Nah! I like that they think I'm great. (Audrey helped me with the apple) When we were all through, the girls decided it looked like a delicious picnic so Allie drew an ant to eat it all up)

Allie's Contest Entries

You may note a few additional pieces of fruit that weren't even in the contest. She said she was earning extra credit. My favorite are the cherries on the vine. (third item in)

And here we have the Jordan River Temple. (Thrown in for good measure)

For Those of You Dying To Know

Here's a quick update on the house situation. My realtor Craig tried to go around this Lorraine lady (mistake gal). Come to find out, if you want a deal to be made, Lorraine's the gal you need to talk to. We decided to go back up there last night and have a little chat. When we walked through the door, Lorraine started out very defensively saying that she knew we were trying to go over her head and how it wasn't her fault and blah blah blah. I swallowed my pride and rehearsed verbatim a speech that Craig had prepared for me. I told Lorraine that as far as I was concerned it didn't matter who made the mistake, one had been made, but we were still interested in making something work with her, no hard feelings, we'd like to move on. After I said this she started crying and told us that she had had the most terrible weekend and she just felt sick about what happened. The she came over and hugged me. If any of you know me... I'm not really a hugger, but we hugged it out and now everything's fine. (I think. Ryan remained very silent during this portion of the meeting)

We asked Lorraine if there was anything with a similar floor plan that she could show us that we could get down to the price we had arranged before on the WRONG house. She showed us a different home that was very similar, but it only had 4 bedrooms upstairs instead of the 5. It still had all of the fancy upgrades. It was in a different phase and wouldn't have access to all the amenities (or an HOA which I was actually not stoked about to begin with) She told us that we could put an offer in on it, but she was expecting another one this morning and she knew the builder would accept the highest offer. She kind of kept reiterating to us that she's offering a price she wouldn't offer to anyone else because she's trying to work with us after what happened. We went ahead and put an offer in just for the heck of it. Who knows, right? There was also another house with the same floor plan (the 4 bedroom house) that wasn't quite done being built that we may try to keep as our back-up plan.

The sad truth is that we're not going to get quite as big of a steal of a deal as we originally thought, but if we're going to keep looking in that neighborhood for at least a little while to see if we can find a good fit for us. We may have to give up the 3-car garage that I was uber stoked about, but I'm feeling good that something will work out. I know that after this whole rollercoaster of emotion is finally over, we will end up happy. I keep telling myself that maybe the ward in that other phase would have been a terrible fit for me and this whole thing was meant to be. It could happen, right?

If It Sounds Too Good To Be True...

Well, OK. This is the world's biggest retraction post. I guess I jumped the gun on my post yesterday. I was so excited, but I should have waited another day. We went down today to sign a little bit more paperwork and the building agent pulled a ginormous juky. She somehow swapped houses on us. The whole deal that we worked out was for the wrong house. I don't know how she did that! I am really very angry, but I guess I can't do anything about it. We faxed her over an offer with a specific address on it, but somehow she got it in her mind that it was for a completely different home. When she went to the builder to work our deal she gave him all the information for this other house. It's not a house we really want. It's actually a few hundred sq. ft. bigger, but the floor plan is funky. Plus, it doesn't have all the fabulous upgrades like the tile, granite counter tops, stainless steel appliances, 3rd car garage. To me it feels like a classic bait and switch. She gets us in with the home of our dreams, and then she pulls a switcheroo and tries to sell us on something we don't even want. Our realtor believes it to be an honest mistake. Even if that's the case, it's a pretty big mistake to make. The thing that makes me the maddest is that we went down there on Thursday and gave her a deposit. She probably could have done a better job communicating with us then! I was pretty much livid when we left. I didn't want to blow up at her so all I said was, "This makes me really frustrated. When we faxed over our offer it had the address of the house we wanted. I don't see how a mistake like this could be made." Her response only made me feel worse, "Well... I wasn't working the day the offer came through." Say WHAT?!?! I guess if you're looking for an excuse, anything will do.
What we're looking at now is that she's going to go back to the builder and try to correct her mistake and work out a deal on the right house. I'm not holding my breath though. They weren't really willing to budge one penny lower than what they were offering us on the WRONG house. I can't imagine they'd make the same deal for the right house that is a little bit better. Woe is me. I'm going to take a day to mourn and then I'll try my best to get over it. :(

Audrey's 1st Hair Cut

It was way overdue. Audrey desperately needed a hair cut. I was clinging on to the hope that her hair would keep growing in all cute and curly, but the longer her hair got, the more apparent it became that the curls just weren't happening anymore. The half straight / half curly look wasn't doing much for her. Here's the new look. I tried to get some pictures, but she saw the camera and said, "No mom. Put it back." ( I didn't even know she knew how to say that.) So these pictures are me following her around trying to get a good shot.

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House Hunting is Hard

Here's my quick gripe about this week. House hunting! Arghh.... We were out for almost 12 hours on Monday and we're going out again tonight. We're seeing lots of stuff we like, we just need to narrow it down.