lemonade, lemonade, lemonade

Since I finished reading "Life As We Knew It" (see book blog for review) I have been really concerned about what was in, or more importantly NOT in, my pantry. In this book a 16 year old girl writes about how her family survives 10 months after a meteor hits the moon and sends it off orbit and chaos ensues.

So Garry and I have decided to stock up whenever we see hot smoking deals at the grocery store.

This week it was lemonade! We got those cannisters of Country Time lemonade that usually sell for $2.50 at Target or WalMart for $1 each at Smith's. We bought 20 of them.

I'm happy that we've started, but lemonade might not be that practical. It has been predicted that near "the end" it will be a year without rainbows, which is a year without rain, which is a year without water. Not sure what we can do with lemonade when there's no water. Maybe we can trade with people who do have water!

There Must Be Ducks. . .SOMEWHERE!

On Sunday we went up to Daybreak with my sister's family to feed the ducks at the lake. We could not find any ducks. Maybe Molly's cat scared them away?

Emma found flowers. . .but no ducks.

Zach had bread. . .but no ducks.

We found two ducks that did not want anything to do with our bread. We wasted all of the bread on them and walked further down and found hungry ducks! Woops!

Okay, But What Is It?

I am overwhelmed by my three girls. Some parts of the day are harder than others. I am especially overwhelmed when we first get home. Upon entering the door, someone wants something RIGHT NOW! Emma wants to go play with a neighbor, Macey wants something to eat or drink and Molly wants to watch Team Umizoomi. RIGHT NOW. Meanwhile, I need to find a Molly-proof place to put the shopping bags, the diaper bag and am usually dying to use the restroom.

The other day their whining started early. We were still in the van driving back from Salt Lake when the requests started -- something to eat, somewhere to go, and just a general WWWAAAHHHHH!!! from Molly.

I told the girls, "Hey! Enough! We're not even home yet. You girls need to CHILL OUT."

Macey answered in her little voice, "Okay, Mama!" Then I heard her whisper softly to Emma, "What's chill out?"

Man, I love that kid.

Today I Bought A House

Today I bought a house.

A Fight To The Finish

Would you believe me if I told you that we are supposed to buy Esperanza tomorrow? Two weeks ago we hit a hic-up when we had to switch title companies. The paperwork had to start all over again. In addition, the lawyers for the new title company had to look everything over and then the primary bank had to okay everything for the last time. They finally approved the house to be sold and told us we had 48 hours to close. Isn't that nice that Bank of America finally found some urgency?

We might have been able to close tonight, but in true "nothing can ever be easy -- ever" form, we had the cash wired to my Wachovia account for closing. I went to Wells Fargo since they were supposed to be part of each other now and asked for a cashiers check. They could not give me one. They have not "absorbed" Wachovia in Maryland yet. So the money was stuck in a Wachovia account. I could not even wire the money out because all wire requests have to be made in person. The money was stuck.

I had all three kids terrorizing Wells Fargo and I refused to budge until something was worked out because when I had called the 1-800 number and asked if I could get a cashiers check from a Wells Fargo branch they said SURE! After all, they were merged. No problem. Apparently there was a problem.

I had to open an account at Wells Fargo and deposit a check. They agreed to not put a hold on it and I have to hope it clears tonight. Then I can pick up the cashiers check in the morning, a few minutes before we are supposed to close at 10. It took an hour to find a solution and in the meantime my kids devoured 16 free suckers.

Oh, I hope we can close tomorrow! But I would not be surprised if something happens.

The Luck Of The Draw

There is a lot of construction going on right now in South Jordan and therefore it should not be a surprise that we are losing cable service and phone service and internet service A LOT. This week alone they were all down three times and once for a seven hour stretch.

When Garry called to complain, we got free HBO for a year. I told my sister who has suffered through the same outages and she had her husband call. He was told that the outages "were not their fault" -- rather the fault of the construction crews -- and he was given a $4.95 credit.

It's all in the luck of the draw and last night as we watched Harry Potter and Mamma Mia (yes, I know we have both on DVD) we felt lucky indeed.

Happy Birthday, Great Grandma!

Yesterday was Garry's grandma's birthday! He threw together a fun, quick little party for her, complete with flowers and a cake and balloons. The girls love their great-grandma, cake, and balloons, and so they were so excited to share this evening with her! It was pure perfection!

Macey's Dance Show!

Macey had her first dance show! She has been taking lessons at Black Diamond since we moved here and before that she had lessons for several months in Maryland. Since she has seen her cousins' dance shows, she was excited for her own! Garry and I were a little concerned over how much make-up to pile on this little girl, but her teacher told me that just when I thought I was done to add more, much more. So, I did. She's a little diva. I was saving the body glitter for the night of the show and on the way home from the dress rehearsal all I heard about was the girls with the body glitter. . .

Here's her action shot! She did a ballet number to "I Feel Pretty" and this tap number was to "Lollipop".

Garry got her a dozen purple roses. They matched her dress. Way cute. Emma thought that the roses were for me but when we were waiting in the auditorium Macey told me that she was sorry but she was sure Dad got the roses for HER.

We're really grateful for all of the family that came to her little show. Garry's grandparents came as well as his brother and his family. My sister's whole family came. Macey had a great time!

Here she is with cousin Chloe and Emma. Emma's great-grandma gave her a bag of M&Ms which I thought was great because it's hard when your little sister is getting all of the attention.

After the show we went out for ice cream and, yes, my nephew Zach and my brother-in-law finished all of this. And I'm pretty sure my nephew went home and ate again immediately.

I'm Taking You With Me!

Today I was feeling sorry for myself and so I went to the grocery store and got a few caffinated drinks (you know, the hard stuff) and two chocolate bars. It's been another week and we still have not closed on the house. We had to switch title companies (see post below for those exciting details) and the paperwork took a long time. They sent the final HUD form to the bank for final approval. When that's done, hopefully we'll be ready to go.

I am trying to find peace in a few things:

(1) chocolate;

(2) my Mom has promised me that things will be better next week;

(3) if we are languishing in limbo, we are in a beautiful home while we are in limbo and not in the apartment;

(4) all of my favorite things I will take with me even if we have to move.

I gave Molly a hug this morning and realized that things are fine. If the banks cannot reach an agreement and we have to move again, I'm taking my kids with me. And Garry. And my fabulous Samsung dryer. And that's all that matters.

I Do That?

I am blessed (and a little cursed) with a brand new Samsung washer. It is a thing of beauty, but I must admit that I prefer my Samsung dryer. It sings a little song when I turn it on and when it is done with a load. Because it is so large, I can do a lot of laundry at once. Which is great! But that means that it is easy to put off laundry and when it's time to put laundry away there's a lot to put away.

I was facing a mountain of laundry this week. I divided it up: mine, Garry's, Molly's and the big girls. I got through the girls, put mine aside for another morning, and set Garry's over to his side of the bed.

At night he came upstairs and looked at his pile.

"What did I do this time?" he asked.

When I asked him what he meant, he said that I always put his laundry away unless I am mad at him. Then I make him do it himself.

He didn't do anything wrong, I was just overwhelmed and all the adults had to fend for themselves. But I think it's funny that I unconsciously do that and even funnier that he noticed a pattern!

This Is The Place!

We had a great time at This Is The Place Monument & State Park. We went thinking that it was just a big statue with train rides nearby (that's all it used to be. . .) and found this little village to explore! Here are the girls with a statue of Brigham Young and Joseph Smith.

There were pony rides! Molly was fascinated. . .if not a little scared. Macey is on the horse behind us.

There was a petting area with lambs and goats and baby chicks. The girls were also able to see pigs and cows.

We took two train rides!

The girls dug for gold and found two gold nuggets! Wahoo!

Can you imagine walking from Illinois to Salt Lake pulling one of these? Can you imagine putting everything you own into this little square?

On our way out, the girls tried out a wagon. Giddy-up, imaginary horsey!

We had a great time!

Stay With Your Zoo Buddy!

When we got season passes to the Hogle Zoo, they put on our card that I had five children. So I took my two nieces with me for a free zoo outing! Everyone had a zoo buddy. Emma was with Dannah, Macey was with Samantha, and I stayed with Trouble (Molly). My nieces took their job very seriously and held the girls hands and lifted them up to see all of the animals.

The girls had a great time with their zoo buddies!

Chloe's Dance Show

On Wednesday we went to my niece's dance show over in Sandy. She did a great job and looked beautiful!!

Fifty Percent Ain't Bad!

In my last post I wondered whether anything good could happen on a Monday. Well, one good thing did! After my teaching demo, I was hired to teach Intellectual Property at a small university here in South Jordan, Utah. I am excited. I love teaching. I think that I will be good.

About the house. . .we found out that we will not be able to close on Monday. Under the price agreement, the first mortgage wanted X amount of money and the second mortgage wanted X amount of money. We wanted to make sure that everyone got paid what they wanted and found a legal way to do it.

Our agent was nervous about it. If everything was not on the up and up, she felt that it was fraud. So we had the parties involved talk to their bosses and the Salt Lake Board and everyone signed off on how we were going to pay everyone. Our agent was still nervous and shared her "concerns" with her step-son who worked at the Title Company she had hired. (Without disclosing why we were using that Title Company -- talk about fraud.) So the Title Company came back and said that they would not process our account. Closing was off.

I went postal. My own agent and her step-son had sunk our chance to buy this house. We were looking at foreclosure and having to move because of MY OWN AGENT. She even went so far as to threaten my law license saying I could get reported (by a mysterious person) for participating in mortgage fraud and lose my law license. Yeppers, that's MY OWN AGENT.

Her boss talked to the listing agent's boss and they have clarified that everything is legal. And, I talked to a short-sale specialist who said that they closed a deal exactly like this just last week.

Surprise, surprise, we are switching Title Companies and hope to close sometime next week.

I have a job, I am hopefully getting our house soon. But, for now, fifty percent ain't bad.

Can Dreams Come True On A Monday?

For the next two Mondays, I am going to try to make a lot of dreams come true. Today is the first one. I had a phone interview with Neumont University (a small university here in South Jordan) and today is my teaching demo. I am doing a demo on copyrights. I've practiced in my sleep and twice with Garry as my "student" and hope that things go smoothly.

Next Monday is our closing day for the house. The bank is working on our loan, we have home insurance, and I think that Garry has provided documentation for everything but his blood-type. I have great hopes of actually being a home owner next Monday!

My Favorite Place

This week I had to go to BYU to buy a book from the bookstore. I LOVE being back on campus and so I turned a quick little jaunt into a longer stay. I got the girls some candy corn at the BYU candy counter, some chocolate milk from the little store, and we stopped and had a lot of sugar, just like the good old days.

I wanted the girls to see the Pendalum in the Eyring Building so we ventured over there and then I wanted them to see the statues of Joseph Smith in the Joseph Smith Building, and so we ventured over there. I love that place and am not sure why I was in such a hurry to graduate!

Let's Go Look At Fish!

There is a new aquarium in Sandy, Utah and my sister and I took our kids to check it out! It's called The Living Planet and is just the right size for my little ones. There was lots to see and touch and climb on. Chloe and Macey liked checking out the giant frog sculpture and Emma spent a ton of time touching the sting rays. She LOVED them and came home a little wet.

It's not the Baltimore Aquarium by any means but it was a good size. No dolphin show, but there were Penguins! And the girls were able to watch an Electric Eel get fed. It was interesting because the eel sends out a large amount of voltage to make sure that their food is dead. I'd hate to run into one of those things in the wild at feeding time!

I Laughed So Hard I Cried

I have recently found a funny blog. Please forgive the profanity of the title. I saw this picture on Page 2 and laughed so hard I cried. The caption reads "This is all you need to know." So true. So, again, excuse the profanity and enjoy the laugh. http://shitmykidsruined.tumblr.com/