Moving

Moving

As you know, a few months ago Laren took a job in Utah. The kids and I have stayed here in Colorado with Laren coming home just every other weekend. We have been trying to sell our house, to no avail. Laren and I recently made the decision to move the kids and I to Utah to be all together as a family and we will continue to try and sell our house in this crazy market.

So, I've been busy, busy, busy with getting things ready for Christmas, mailing packages, getting the kids withdrawn from school here and getting ready to move. We are scrambling to find a rental over there. Blogging has taken a backseat to all of the above, but I just wanted you to know that I haven't given up on it or you, I just haven't had time for it!

Hopefully I can sit down and do a more detailed post soon. But in the meantime, MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone!!

Coming Home

After 3 sick kids and another with pink eye this last week. Look who's coming home tonight!

The House

The House

So many of my friends and family have been asking us if we have had any "bites" on the house yet. The answer is, unfortunately, no, we haven't! We have went for long periods of time where we have no showings at all and then the showings seem to crop up in clusters.

So, I've been trying to ignore the fact that the house hasn't sold yet, and I'm trying to focus on other stuff. Stuff that I can have control over. One of those things has been Christmas shopping. It brightens everything to think about this special time of year that we have to celebrate our Savior and participate in giving to others.

Another thing I've been doing here and there is staging my house. Yes, we've had it decorated, etc... but some things I've just let be because of time and money (my excuse for almost anything!). So I've kind allowed myself some fun and time and expense lately of buying a few more things to stage our house.



One of those things was this little nightstand I got on Craigslist for $10. For the almost 15 years of our marriage, most of our furniture has been made up of stuff like

this white dresser that we got that is basically junk furniture. But that is all we could afford at the time. And when we could start affording more, we got another vehicle, or moved into a bigger house or added another child to the family, instead of upgrading the furniture. Not all of the furniture we have is "junk" furniture. It's mainly just the dressers now.

And today, after some painting projects the past 2 days, I spent the morning and early afternoon baking cookies for our Card Group cookie exchange tonight. After I was done baking, I cleaned up my cookie mess. But I didn't bother with the aftermath of the hurricane that builds when you don't focus on cleaning the house for 2 days to paint furniture.

And this morning we awoke to a steady and accumulating snowfall. The first real one we've had so far this year in Denver. And I thought to myself that I really needed to clean my house, mainly taking care of all that laundry and vacuuming . But I decided after all my cookie work I would sit down and check my Facebook for a few minutes.

I did that and then my oldest daughter came home from school. We chatted and then I headed out to get my 3 middle children from school. The roads were slippery and the unshoveled sidewalks at the school made a quick trip into a lengthier one. We were all home and sitting in the family room. I was attempting to read some books to Tyler after assigning chores to those who didn't have homework and was receiving lots of backlash about it.

Just a few moments later the doorbell rang. Kyle went to get it and someone started to open the door. I heard a lady asking, "If your Mom is here, so I can show the house?" I put the books down and ran to the door. I told her that I was unaware a showing was scheduled and that I would be happy to show my house but that I needed some time. I asked if they had any other homes they wanted to see nearby so they could come back to ours.

She said, "No, that she didn't mind the mess." That was the "Looker," not the agent. I said if you could just give me five minutes to tidy up then they could come and see it. They finally agreed to wait in their cars for 5 minutes.

In the meantime I had all the kids but Tyler quick at work cleaning and bickering. After 5 minutes, the doorbell rang again. It was the "looker". She said they would look at a couple of other houses and come back. Relieved I closed the door. My kids and I spun through the house like we've never done before, placing all sorts of things in all the wrong places, like a pair of gloves in the kitchen cupboard. Desperate times call for desperate measures!

We didn't have it perfect, but it would have to do. The Agent and her Lookers came just as we were leaving. I'm sure that nothing will come of the showing, because that just seems to be the market right now. But I'm proud of the kids and the way they helped me in a pinch!

And as for why I didn't know about the showing sooner, I'm debating getting rid of T-mobile asap, because all of the showings go to my cell phone and it doesn't ring half the time in the house. And for the life of me, I cannot figure out why all the Lookers want to come on the days you least expect them, like the day after Thanksgiving, or the snowiest day of the year so far?

Decorating the Tree

Decorating the Tree

Tonight the kids and I put on the Christmas Music and got out the ornaments and decorated the tree. Oh the fun memories brought about by Christmases past when we found an ornament Kayla painted in Joy School 8 years ago, or an ornament Kyle's nursery teacher made and gave to him 6 years ago, or that Rilyn or Alyssa made at school. Tyler was cute enough to come and ask me if his cute paper ornament could go on the tree - of course it could!

Rilyn was sad that Dad could not be there to decorate the tree with us. She wanted to know if it was okay to do it without him. I assured her that he gave us special permission. While we decorated, we did our part in adding to the holiday cheer by consuming our share and then some of sugar cookies and Jelly Belly flavored candy canes. Unfortunately, I didn' t get any pictures of us decorating because I was videoing it for Dad. Maybe one of these days I will figure out how to upload the video from the video camera to the blog?

Decorating the tree, what a great start to a fun month!