Lessons in Selling a Home

First off, thanks for all the diaper bag thoughts.  I've been looking through pages and pages of different materials (so many cute choices!) and thinking about how to best incorporate pockets and maybe a few other things.  I'm planning on doing a mock-up for practice and then if that works I'll buy the fabric and get going on it. :)

Now.  Selling a house is not fun.  I'm sure lots of you know this. We've done it twice before and twice before we sold within a week. (We can attribute that to impeccable timing as the St. George market was really heating up then.)  It's been about 6 weeks.  We've had some people come.  One came twice.  One submitted an offer.  Wish we could have taken it, but it was too low.  I feel like I'm on pins and needles all day everyday waiting for our agent to call with an offer, appointments, feedback or just some random bit of business that needs dealing with.  It is an all consuming venture.  It's starting to wear on both Jeff and I some.  It's boring around our house.  At least half of our stuff is packed away in storage.  If we don't faithfully attend the library at least every week/week and a half, we're in trouble.  Thankfully the fall line-up is starting.  Sadly one of our favorites has ended, leaving us only 1 network show.  USA's season is over till November which is happily only one more month.  Anyway.  Despite this report of the doom and gloom of selling a house (and we haven't even touched the market issue), there have been lots of positive things I've seen.  And here they are in no particular order:

1.  The house is always clean.  I am just now realizing how small our house is for the stuff we have.  And how we are lacking sufficient storage (or maybe just organizational skills) to manage.

2.  If the house isn't clean, it can be sparkling in about an hour.  Without extra help.  INCLUDING: mopping and vacuuming all 1924 sq ft.

3.  The kids play with their toys more.  They only have a few things left out.

4.  Lyndsi reads more.  See explanation of #3.

5.  The kids play board games together.  See #3 again.  This one has been particularly fun.  I enjoy watching them play together.

6.  I hate to harp on the cleaning thing, but MY CRAFT ROOM IS CLEAN!  It's so much more pleasant to work in there on crafts now.  Glad I thought this room through when packing up.  I was sure to leave out a few things of the different crafts I enjoy doing the most.  There are lots of things I wish I had access to, but overall, the room is delightful to work in and easy to pick up.  It makes me really look forward to having a bigger and more fully dedicated space for my hobbies.

7.  I attend the temple more regularly.  Part of this has to do with all three kids being at school at the same time for at least a few hours a week.  But, I have enjoyed going while I have this brief opportunity before the baby comes.

8.  I pray more frequently.  Honestly, I have been surprised at what a spiritual journey this has been.  I need someone to talk to that can help me not get to anxious and to plead for help and guidance.  This is something I've been working on for a long time, but am finally now getting consistent with.

9.  I am learning to follow the spirit with more exactness.  I started noticing if I had a feeling to get the house clean and vacuumed in the morning and I followed through, usually by early afternoon our agent was on the phone scheduling appointments with me.  This lesson has started overflowing into other areas and I try to work harder on following through with thoughts that come to me.

10.  I have learned to appreciate my current house more fully.  It really is a great little house.  Especially with the new carpet.  So many great things and so many hard things have happened here.  It will be hard to leave, but it's time.  I really hope a special family/couple/person gets this house.  It has been our home, our haven and our safe harbor for 5 years.  We have struggled, laughed, rejoiced and grown while here.  It will always be a very special place for us.

Diaper bags: HELP!!!

I feel SO out of this whole baby thing.  I went to pick up a few sundries (I like that word) at Target yesterday and swung by the baby aisle to see about stocking up on a few essentials.  It felt wrong.  I don't have a baby.  Why am I buying teeny tiny diapers and other diapering items?  It was weird.  (Don't get me wrong-I am SO excited for this baby.  It's just been a long time!)  So diapers led me to think about diaper bags.  I'd like a new one, but really can't stomach the store prices.  Ugh.  That's what I get for being a
DIY-fer.  I saw this cute bag on Make It and Love It.  I'm thinking of making it for our new diaper bag.   From the instructions, it looks like there are no pockets/pouches. 

Here's where I need help. What things have you LOVED about your diaper bags (past or present) and what things did you find unnecessary or useless?  Also, if you have any other diaper bag recommendations/suggestions, please send them this way. 

While you think and post, I'll go work on Halloween costumes. 

Misery Loves Company

Lyndsi is not a reader (yet).  But, she dutifully puts in her 30 minutes a day for school and so she can earn a prize from Mom and Dad.  (Hey-I am not above such tactics to get her reading.)  School doesn't start til about 9, so she had some time to kill this morning.  I suggested she get her reading done which she did without too much complaint.  I didn't think too much about it until I went to straighten up her room a few hours later and found this:

Misery loves company? Maybe.  I prefer to think of it as a little early morning reading party.  It was so cute and so precious to me.  My little non-reader-encouraging all her little "friends" to read. I loved it so much in fact that when I made her bed I set up the thing again almost like she had it before.

I love these little treasures of mommyhood.

It's Time!

I have some bright yellow spots peaking out through the green leaves on one of my trees. 

I took it as Mother Nature's cue to pull out the fall stuff.  Bath and Body Works has their wallflowers (and refills) on sale right now.  Sophie and I grabbed a couple of Sweet Cinnamon Pumpkin ones for the upstairs and a Leaves one for downstairs.  We had a hard time choosing from all the delicious fall scents in the store.  I'm anxious to pull out some generic fall decor, but am a tad hesitant with the house up for sale. My blog got "redecorated" though.  I've been scouring my little Walmart's baking aisle for canned pumpkin.  I think I'll have to try Smith's.  Pumpkin rolls are sounding very yummy.  Also, soup has been on the menu twice in a week. The only thing missing is the sweaters.  However, being 7 months prego, I'm ok to forgo sweaters til after the baby comes.  (Mostly because I have no sweaters that fit and don't want to buy any for a month of use.)

So-are you eagerly anticipating the first jump in pile of raked leaves or parading around in your swimsuit and beach towel, refusing to recognize summer is almost gone?

Another 1st Day of School

The last of the three started school this week. Soph is doing Joy School with some friends we met through my book club.  She had her very first day on Tuesday and to say she loved it is understating things.

I was a little worried about her not knowing people very well, but she did great.  Apparently she even sang the songs out loud, something I'm not sure she even does in primary yet.  When I picker her up she talked my ear off for a solid 20 minutes about all that they did and learned that day.  (For you non-joy-schoolers out there, each month has a "joy" and Sept. is the Joy of our bodies.)  The rest of the afternoon was spent listening to her sing all the songs they learned.  My personal favorite was "Hinges" which I have loved since my early days of being a kid in primary.

I'd say all in all it was a success.  I am now more confident to try her in dance or soccer again (which was a miserable failure last year).

In other new:
the house is still for sale
McK and L are back on track
baby is 29 weeks along and doing great
cooler weather has brought on motivation and inspiration
headed to Time Out for Women this weekend with a bunch of wonderful gals I know (and missing the ones who couldn't make it)
still haven't started the freezer paper stencil, but it is happening soon!

Zippety-A and heidi-ho

It's birthday time!!

With all the stress of the house, I decided I would forgo my vow to not have friend parties this year and plan something special for Sophie's 4th birthday.  It seemed like good timing as she's a little older now and has lots of little friends that she loves to play with.  So, she and I planned and shopped and invited.  Sophie picked out a My Little Pony theme and mom took it from there.

We ended up with 9 kids total (including my 3).  A few friends couldn't make it (and we missed you!).  The party started with a coloring activity while everyone arrived.  The kids sat and quietly colored their Pony pictures.  When everyone had arrived, we started with our first game-musical ponies.  The kids each found a pony and quietly went around the circle until the last person got out.  Then quietly we played "pin the tail on the pony," had a pony relay, and a ball toss.  After the last game was quietly played and cleaned up, Grandpa held up the castle pinata.  I handed a few streamers to each kid and the candy flew.  Then was quietly picked up and put in their little individual bags.  Are you catching the quietness here?  It was seriously the quietest party I've ever been to or hosted, especially for 3 and 4 yr olds!  Cute little buggars.  I hoped cake and ice cream would drum up some excitement.  Which it did.  Sort of.  I asked, "Who wants cake and ice cream?!" Seven little bodies were jumping up and down with 7 little arms wiggling in the air and 7 little mouths completely mute. Good thing I can read body language. ;)  Finally they got loud and giggly when Jeff started showing off his "moves" to the My Little Party CD we had going. 

It was a cute little party and all the kids seemed to have a really great time.  It just so happens that they are all super quiet in everyday life, too. 

Sunday was Sophie's actual birthday. To celebrate we had my parents and grandparents over for hot dogs (her favorite)

and then some more family and friends for cake and ice cream and presents.

(My niece Kaylee loved the cupcakes!)

Sophie loved all the attention and presents.  She was a gracious little hostess, always remembering to say thank you.  She loved all the gifts she received over the 2 day celebration (which surprisingly didn't overwhelm mom) and has played nonstop with them. 

First Game of the Season

Warm ups.  Very important.  Gets the team working together and gets those muscles ready to run and kick.

(Especially) for never playing on a soccer team, Jeff did a great job coaching his first game.  I even think he had some fun. :)  It took him a minute and one of the other dads to set up the goal, but we noticed the other team struggled with it too.  He got the kids warmed up and kept them on track during the game. 

Number 9 was my favorite little player.  He made good, long kicks (too bad no team mates were on the other end to receive the ball) and was a fast little runner.  This is one of the few things I've seen him work really hard at without getting frustrated.  I am loving it. 

It was a great game with the score volleying back and forth between us and them.  In the end I think we were down by one.  The kids all played great, listened to Coach and worked hard.  Jeff said they were doing even better in practice last night.  Can't wait for the next game!