Knocking one out.

I have so much to do, but sat down at the computer for a few necessary tasks, and am drawn to hurry up and post a few important things that may get lost in all the shuffle around here.

So I'm knocking one out today.

Please excuse any typos and grammatical errors.

Mar attended her first prom.
I say first with the assumption that she will attend others, but I've also learned in my many years of mothering that there is the possibility this could be her only. For now I'll say it's her first.

Mar is pretty low-maintenance. Once she had been asked to prom, she came home and tried on a couple prom dresses that were hanging in Shi's closet. She ended up wearing Lex's (throwback here and here), and didn't once have the expectation of shopping for her own. This was a tender mercy for me, because we are crazy people with how much we have going on.
Ain't nobody got time to shop for prom dresses.

I told Mar we DID experience a prom shoe miracle...

She needed a pair of flats since her date was on the shorter side, so we literally found them in 10 minutes. That was a miracle. (Also a line from The Fiddler on the Roof.) I had to hem the dress a bit, however, which I had estimated would take me 30 minutes, but ended up taking 2 hours. I won't bore you with the details, just let it be known that the stress about did me in. Things I've learned: DON'T WAIT UNTIL THE DAY OF, 30 MINUTES BEFORE THE DRESS IS NEEDED, TO DO ALTERATIONS OF ANY KIND.

Love her. I'm so glad she had a great time.


The following night Mar was performing at the Rockies game with her choir.
Another stress-filled day, as Bill and I went car shopping for her while she worked until 4pm.
We cut our timing close (as always) and realized that we needed to print the tickets before we picked Mar up at work on our way to drive to the game, but we could not figure out how to print the darn things. I may have melted down... again. Billy-my-hero calmed me down (without saying "calm down," which would have be disastrous), and we were only slightly late to the field. Fortunately, Mar was not nearly as stressed as her mama.

Here's the performance:

It had actually been snowing like crazy that morning, but it had warmed up a bit by game time.

It was, however, on the chillier side, especially once the sun started setting. Mar was still tempted by the snow cone haha.

I just snapped this picture to remember what our evening ritual is like... these days will be gone too fast. Mar usually comes in and chills on our bed and looks at her phone for a while before we read scriptures and pray. I love those moments.

Sunday was the day we've been anticipating (some one of us for over 5 years haha).
Bill was released as the Bishop of our ward.
We met as a family for a few minutes before sacrament meeting in his office.

Gosh. Bittersweet for Bill, definitely all sweet for me.
Mar said she can hardly remember what life was like "before."
I'm hoping she'll get the best of both of us for the next couple years before she's gone, baby, gone.

After the meeting block that day, our dear neighbor had planned a Linger Longer for the ward.

I really do love these people and will miss them so much!
I'm grateful for social media, though. Such a great way to keep up with friends we don't get to see regularly.

While all that was going on, Shi was here:

We like to keep things exciting at all times.
Earlier in the week Shi had a reaction to a medication she was taking, so she had gone to an InstaCare for medication to counteract the severe allergies she was experiencing. Just when she thought things were improving, late Saturday night (aka early Sunday morning) she was stung by a wasp TWICE. She again had a major allergic reaction and started feeling her throat tighten, so just as we were leaving to church, she was heading to the ER. The good news is: things are improving. At least I haven't heard otherwise (feeling like a bad mom right now, as I neglected to check in on her yesterday).


On Monday, Mar got her car. Can I hear a hallelujah??

Bill and I had shopped and shopped on Saturday, and brought many Carfax reports and pictures to Mar. I told her I would take her out of school Monday morning to test drive a couple of the cars she liked the best. She picked this little baby.

It was the car Bill and I were leaning towards, too, so we're all happy campers.
Mar is paying for half, so our deal is that once it's paid for, it's all hers.
I don't know if our older kids will feel gypped (they shouldn't... we paid for the cars they drove, so they didn't get to keep them once they were married), but I feel good about it. Not to mention I am ecstatic about Mar being able to get herself around. It's been crazy trying to pack up one home, work endlessly on another, and be on a strict time schedule in order to get Mar where she needs to be. It's been especially crazy because her ride up to this point, Mace, is a senior, and it's that time of year where seniors have very different schedules than everyone else, requiring Mar's mama to be doing the school run most days. Not any more.

The only stress now is parking.
Mar does not have a permit to park in the school lots (only juniors and seniors can have a permit), so she has to arrive early enough to get a spot across the street at the park. There are about 50 spots available (they can't use the front row of parking or they'll get ticketed), and they are in high demand.

We attended Mar's guitar show last night...
I will post the video as soon as I can. She did an excellent job.

We are gearing up to head to Utah for Tay's BYU graduation and Evie's baby blessing.
It should be a wonderful weekend!

Maximizing minimalism.

This post is for my mama and children, who are anxious to see progress on our new old place.

Here is a picture of our new old house:

Isn't it cute?

Before you get worried that this move will be {HARD} for me (going from nearly 5000 square feet + ample storage in the crawl space - which isn't included in that large square footage amount - to 2200 square feet finished and 1100 square feet of potential in the basement), rest assured I am fully prepared to dejunk, declutter, donate, and sell a myriad of items that I have collected over the past 29 years of married + family-rearing life. My little inner voice (aka the Holy Ghost) has been whispering to me about the need for such a change, especially now that my family living with me has decreased in numbers, with a high likelihood of an empty nest in 2 years. There are other key factors as well, but I don't have a lot o' time for 'splaining right now... maybe another day. Maybe not.

I am excited about it.

My mom told me she watched the documentary "Minimalism: A Documentary About the Important Things" on Netflix the other day, and that it made her want to dejunk a bit. Me too. (My favorite line, "Love people, use things," sounds very similar to a quote by President Spencer W. Kimball: "Love people, not things; use things, not people.")  

Anyway... that's just a bit of the conversation I've been having with myself lately. I don't think it will be hard. You know what's hard?? All the dang work it's taking just to make this new old place livable. Yesterday I spent a whopping 12.5 hours there, working and sweating away, 7 hours today... and there's still a ton to do. But every day there is progress, which is also part of the conversation I've been having with myself haha.

Here's a quick pictorial:

 Our first day in the house...

 The handles on the drawers were placed in a position by the previous owner that my visually-inclined self could not live with, so it was determined that I would once again paint my kitchen cabinets.
I would NOT want to do it for a living, that's for darn sure.

*Carpet removed from the family room for FHE... a reason to celebrate.*

We don't jump anymore. We've come to the realization that there's so so much still to do. Jumping will have to wait until we are done. Moved in. Swinging on the glider bench on the front porch while we sip lemonade. Then we'll jump hahahahahaha.

Yep, that was behind the refrigerator, which, by the way, we are trying to sell for the low low price of $200. If we can't sell it, we'll have Home Depot haul it away for $18. Either way, it's a win for us {cheesy smile}.

This small little kitchen sure has a whole lot o' cabinets and drawers.

Just as a visual for the dirty state of affairs we were left to deal with... this is what all the blinds looked like:

Yes, that is probably 20% regular dust, 80% pet hair and dander.

Progress... a little every day.
How do you eat an elephant???
One bite at a time.

And this is what happens when you stop by Sonic late at night on your way home from working at your new old house and you get really excited to eat SOMETHING, so you grab your shake from the cup holder a little too fast.

Luckily there was still a little shake to enjoy, even if you had to drive like this for a good 30 minutes.

The past week we have been focusing on painting the walls in the main areas around the wood floor because our floor guy is coming on Thursday to refinish them. I haven't been diligent at taking pictures because, really, who wants to see paint on the wall? Not to mention I DON'T HAVE TIME TO TAKE PICTURES. Tomorrow I will be back at it (while also selling a set of interior French doors). My goal: finish the remaining cabinet doors, paint the ceiling in the powder bath, hall closet, and small hallway, and paint the walls in the powder bath. I have a very specific timeframe because I have to be back home to get Mauri to work after school. She really really needs a car... but we don't have time to shop for one.


Here are a few other random pictures from the past few weeks NOT involving our new old house:

Mar sang a duet in her choir concert.

As I mentioned a few posts back, Shilo came to visit for a few days to spend her last night or two in her old room.

Then we sold her bedroom set.

We participated in an attempt to break a world record.

It was so possible, however it was not successful. Boo.

It was more an exercise in frustration, thanks to poor leadership.

Not my circus, not my monkey.

It still bugged Bill and me that we spent over half a precious day in the attempt, and, had we been in charge (we weren't, just trying to support others) and had formulated a plan of efficient execution, it could have easily been done. Perhaps we will suggest it as a fundraiser at Mar's new school, since we know what NOT to do.

A few of our tulips actually survived the deer feast, and bloomed.

I think we're going to take these bulbs with us to our new old place.

Mar got a prom-posal...

She won't be wearing heels {wink}.

We painted eggs at 11:40pm the evening before Easter.

I may or may not have shed a tear or two over the fact that we are living in a chaotic limbo-ish state and Easter wasn't quite the lovely holiday I would have liked it to be.

It was, however, Bill's last full Sunday as the bishop of our ward.

I think he shed a tear or two, too.

It was a beautiful day... I'm going to miss this view from my old backyard.

I always always love getting snaps and pics of my favorite granddaughters... I love them so much.

More updates to come... I just don't know when. Until then, we'll just keep on keeping on.
That's how we roll.