It's Been Way Too Long!

Wow. Where does the time go? It's been almost a month since my last Blog post. I feel like such a slacker. I could use the excuse that it is the Holiday season - but I have barely even started my Christmas shopping, so that really does not work. We did get our Christmas tree up (the day after Thanksgiving) and have enjoyed how festive it makes the house feel. So what's been occupying my time? Let's see...

1. Work. It is slower than usual, but there is still work to be done. The real estate market has taken a hit here (although no where near as bad as places like Vegas and California) so things are a little slow. I have had extra projects to work on though, as we have a new developer in town who has developed Eastern Idaho's first New Urban Community. I have been helping him with marketing and other things so that has taken some of my time. I am excited for the comminuty to get up and going. We are even considering moving there instead of building our home. You can check out the community at www.myhawkslanding.com

2. Family. My sister Beckie has been taking care of our nephew Malachi (my brother Seth's son - Seth passed away in January of this year). Malachi is just 14 months old and quite a handful. Well Beckie had to have surgery on her foot so Malachi is up here with Julie and I. We have him on the weekends and Julie has him during the week. Seeing as my baby is 12, having a 1 year old around has been quite a bit of work. How soon you forget the gross dirty diapers, crying in the night, drooling, and getting into everything. He is darling, but quite exhausting!


3. Church. My new calling requires that I teach a lesson about once a month. We have 1 other advisor besides myself, plus the YW president, then the monthly combined lessons, so I end up having to only teach about once a month with the current rotation. THANK GOODNESS! Wow - teaching to 5-year-olds was so easy. They do not care if you leave something out of the lesson or forget to show a picture. They were impressed with silly little games or even just coloring. I started preparing my lesson for Young Women's 3 weeks ago. My kids think I am crazy. I am not really nervous, I just want to make sure I am overly prepared. The lesson is on Avoiding Crisis Living. I really liked the topic and took quite a bit of my lesson from the book "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens", by Sean Covey. It has a wonderful time management matrix that really illustrates how we spend our time and how to avoid being a procrastinator. I have read the original book "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" by Stephen Covey and have often applied the principals found there to my personal life. Hopefully the girls will find it useful. I was able to get 2009 Planners donated from a local title company - enough so that I could give one to each girl. I covered them in scrapbook paper and made them really cute. I included some scripture references that applied to the lesson to the inside cover - along with the time matrix. I hope they will use them to schedule their lives! I would be lost without some sort of planner!



So that is why I have not blogged in a month. I will try and be better about it and will add it to my list of New Years Resolutions!

An Unlikely Champion

Haley's High school had a dismal football team. For the past few years their football team had not won a game. In fact, up until this season, they had lost 23 games in a row. Since they only play about 8 games a year, this means that they had not won a game in YEARS. An not only were they loosing - they were getting KILLED. Most games we lost BADLY.

This season our football team got a brand new coach. He told the team that the only thing they needed to do was "believe". He brought in a new offensive strategy. We ran the ball on almost every play. The offensive line was so unique - you could hardly tell who had the ball. From the stands, with a birds eye view, it took a good 15 seconds to figure out which player was running with the ball - I can imagine it was even harder for the other team to figure it out.

So this season started out the same as the last. We lost our first game. Trounced 30 to 6. No big surprise. The new offense did not make a difference. We all figured this season would be like all of the rest. We do have quite a great fan base though - and even when our team was loosing, the stands were always filled with supportive parents, friends, fans, and classmates.

After the first loss, the coach was not concerned. He told the team that as long as they believed that they could win, it would happen. The second game we played our in-town rival, Idaho Falls HS, and low and behold we won. Not only did we win, we won big! 39 to 14 and every single touchdown we scored, we did by rushing - no passes. The new offensive strategy worked.

The third game - same thing, and the forth, fifth, and sixth. We were on a roll. We finished out the regular 8 game season with a record of 7 wins and 1 loss. We were heading to playoffs - for the first time in a very long time.

We sailed through the playoffs - winning most games by a very large margin. We were headed to the state championship game. A team that had not won in years was playing for the state championship. The students, family, and fans were all so excited! Last night was the big game - played at Holt Arena down in Pocatello.

What a game - Hillcrest won by a score of 55 to 35. It was close at times - tied 28 to 28 near the end of the third quarter, us up by 5 with 7 minutes left. Then our explosive offense - who just needed to "believe" took over and again, lead us to a huge victory.

Imagine that - a team that had not seen the left side of a win-loss column in almost 3 years, brought home the schools first ever championship title. I guess you can get anything as long as you "BELIEVE".

The Things We Do For Our Kids

When I was 15 there was no way in the world that my mother would have (a) let me stay up until 3:00 in the morning on a school night or (b) waited in line for hours to get into a movie. Times have changed and I feel like the kids these days have so much more power over their parents and I am guilty of letting it happen!

Never the less, after reading the book 4 times (all 4 of them in the series 4 times each in fact), I knew Haley would not be able to wait until this afternoon to see Twilight - not that she gave me an option. Was it all worth it? Not sure, Haley was pretty darn disappointed last night when we got back out to the car at 2:58am.

We bought tickets back a the beginning of November. At the time we purchased them, the theater was offering 5 showings - 4 at 12:01 and because those had sold out, they opened up a 12:30 showing. That is the one we got tickets to. So Haley and her cousin Rachael decided at about 8:30 last night that we should head to the theater because they knew there would be a line. We have done this before for Pirates and Harry Potter and there are people who line up pretty early. So we go there at 8:40 or so and the line was already around the side of the building. I guess people had started lining up at 6 - CRAZY.

All 3 local news crews were there and it was quite cold and windy. The manager of the theater walked by and I was able to grab her and ask her what the plan was. She said as the previous movies ended and they emptied the individual theaters, she would begin calling out theater numbers and lining them up 1 at a time and let those people into their proper theater. Little did I know at the time, but they had opened 7 additional 12:30 showings - hence the giant lines!

So at about 9:30 the anchor lady from the Local News 8 crew came over and told Haley and Rachael the she wanted to interview them in a few minutes if they were still in line. They had been trying to get on camera all night. Of course, not 2 minutes later they called our theater number so we had to go inside.

What a waste of time that was. We were in there by 9:45 with about 30 other people, all alone with this cheesy music/news ad that was on about a 15 minute loop. We must have heard it 10 times before the previews finally started. So the theater is basically empty until 11:00 when all of the smart people (who probably waited at home and took a nap) started showing up. They, of course, would have been able to walk right into the theater (since the line did not exist any more because all 12 showings had been seated at this point) and grab a seat. It did make me a bit angry when the really late people started showing up around midnight and expected everyone to move around so they could sit together. Get there early like the rest of us and be torchured by the stupid music/news loop if you want to be able to pick your seat!

So at about 12:40 when the previews still had not started, the manager came in with a mega phone. I thought, oh crap - if there is something wrong with this movies projector and they make us move to another theater I will be so mad. We always sit in the very top row, right in the middle in every movie we go see - that way no one can kick the back of our chairs. If they were going to make us move, we would be the last ones out of the theater and would have the crappiest seats in a new theater. Luckily, that was not the announcement. She said that they were having a bit of trouble with the film. Because they had so many showings, they were having to string the film across all 8 projectors and it had broken a few times. Sure enough, if you looked up into that little projection room, you could see the film coming into our projector from across the room and heading out to another projector. I had no idea they could do that.

Finally at about 12:45 the previews started - the whole theater erupted with applause. At this point, I was really wondering how I was going to stay awake. I was more worried about how Dave was going to stay awake since he usually falls asleep during movies that start at 7. Poor Reagan was just about asleep. Haley and Rachael had both taken little cat naps and were now wide awake - much too excited to even think of sleeping.

So how was it? Well there were obviously differing opinions. I really enjoyed it. I have read the book (only once mind you), and thought they did a pretty good job with the movie. Now maybe it wasn't exact - but do movies EVER follow the books exactly? The movie Running Man comes to my mind. I was a huge Stephen King fan growing up. The Running Man was one of my favorites. Absolutely loved it. When they announced a movie for it, I was thrilled! Unfortunately, the book and the movie had almost NOTHING in common. I was so disappointed after I saw the movie, that I stopped even try to see movies based on books. I just knew they would be ruined.

Haley, on the other hand, was pretty mad. I am not sure what she did not like since she went straight into bed when we got home and woke up by herself this morning and left for school before I was awake. Rachael had mixed feelings. She said on the way home last night that there were things she liked and did not like about it. She was totally infatuated with the actor that played Edward Cullen (Haley thought they should have cast someone else) so that may be why she liked it more than Haley. Hopefully, Haley's disappointment at the movie and her huge lack of sleep (besides the fact that she is a normal, somewhat hormonal teenager) will not cause her to be completely unbearable this afternoon!

As I said, the things we as parents put ourselves through for our kids is ridiculous - when did the kids start to rule the world?

New Calling!

So I was called into the First Counselors office on Sunday morning before church. We all know what that means. I was called to be the Laurel Advisor in Young Womens. I was very excited since, as I was getting ready to go in, I had convinced myself that they were going to call me to be the primary chorister - a calling I have no talent for, nor any desire to learn. When he said Young Womens, I was thrilled! I held it together and didn't even cry until Sacrament Meeting, when I saw the faces of some of the kids in my class. Ugh - I never thought about the fact that I would have to say goodbye to them. My joy turned into pure sadness and I cried pretty much the rest of church - all through Sacrament Meeting and most of the way through Primary Opening Exercises and Singing Time. I finally pulled it together enough to teach my last lesson. I am going to miss those kids so much! On the up side, Haley will be a Laurel in February, and many of her friends are already Laurels, so I am really looking forward to having the new challenge! I guess I will take the sad with the happy....

I recommend...

For those of you who are Glenn Beck fans, you probably already know about his new DVD "An Unlikely Mormon. The Conversion Story of Glenn Beck". I purchased it for Dave for our anniversary. He is a huge Glenn Beck fan and has been listening to his radio program for over 5 years now. More recently, Glenn had a show on a cable news network and is now switching to FOX come January.

We were able to see Glenn live in a benefit he did here in Idaho Falls for a family in need. His daughter goes to college up at BYU Idaho and in his travels here, he met a family that was in desperate need of help. The family consisted of a healthy mother, father and 3 sons in wheelchairs, and a sister that died a few years ago. The mother is trying to take care of everyone and work full time and the house they lived in was not handicapped accessible. Glenn did a fundraiser show and donated all proceeds from ticket sales to the family so that they could build a new, handicap accessible home. The show was wonderful.

We knew bits and pieces of his Glenn's conversion story through his radio program. He talked about it every now and again. But in this new DVD he really opens up about where his life has been, and where it is now. He is a recovering alcoholic and drug user, divorced, and from a very broken family - yet he has completely turned his life around and is one of the most successful radio talk show hosts - third only to Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity.

I highly recommend this DVD - especially if you have non member friends who are investigating the church. It is uplifting, real, and moving.

Ward Split

Sooooo.... It was NOT as traumatic as I thought it would be. They took about 150 members from our ward and combined them with 200 members from an adjacent ward, and created a new ward. Our entire Bishopric stayed in tact. We lost a few teachers from primary and a leader or two from RS and YW, but that was about it. I did loose my visiting teaching companion, but all of the ladies we visited are still in our ward. All 8 of the kids in my primary class are still in our ward. And NO, I have not gotten a new calling yet! They filled the position of Primary second counselor that was left vacant last week, but that was the only announcement they made. I am assuming now that the ward was officially split we will have a bunch of new callings next week. We do get to go to a new building - which is great because it is within walking distance of our house (not so great in the winter - but wonderful in the summer). Well I guess I will keep everyone posted on any new news!

Rumor Has It....

That our Ward is being split this weekend. Dave and I got called into the Bishop's office this weekend. I was thinking we were finally being released from our calling (I have been in Primary as a teacher for almost 5 years and am looking forward to a change - Dave joined me about 2 years ago after serving as Elders Quorum Secretary for 2 years). I LOVE my current CTR 6 class - I have had them since they were Sunbeams, just moved up with them each year, but I was looking forward to a change. Anyways, as we sat and talked with the Second Counselor (he is over Primary), I realized we were NOT getting released. In fact, he asked us if we had any musical talents - to which I quickly replied "NO!". Anyways he said he was doing some fact finding and was not making any changes at the moment. All of this happened just prior to Sacrament Meeting.

Haley was really sick on Sunday so after the interview we headed back home and then just went to the last half of church. What a day to miss Sacrament Meeting! The entire Primary Presidency was released. They called a partial new presidency but they did not fill the position of Primary Second Counselor, Choirister, or Piano player (hense the earlier questions from the Second counselor I assume) and they announced that we all need to be at the Stake Center at 9am next Sunday to hear the announcement of the new ward boundaries. Apparently they are taking 2 wards and making them into 3 wards. UGH! So I guess maybe sometime this week I will get a new calling! I would really like to be in Young Women's so I could be with my girls, but anything with the exception of Primary Teacher or Nursery Leader would really be fine! Guess we will have to wait a week to find out!

Haley Got a Job!

Can you believe Haley is old enough to get a job? She worked for her dad a little bit this summer - but that does not count because she did not have to interview for it. Last week she decided she wanted to get a job - a real job. She and her cousin Rachael headed out and collected applications at any place that would hire 15 year olds. She only ended up turning in 1 application, to a place called Craigo's Pizza. She got a call the next day for an interview. She was hired during her interview Wednesday and started training tonight. She was only supposed to work until 7, but I guess they said she was doing such a great job, they kept her until 8:30. She ended up getting $17 in tips too - which was completely unexpected (it is a buffet so there really are no waitresses - just kids who bring scones to the table). Her manager said that they usually do not get that much money in tips so that made her happy.

She said yesterday that she was terrified to go to work today. Once she got home tonight I could tell her fears had faded and that she was pretty proud of herself for doing such a good job. Next week she works Monday, Wednesday and Friday nights. Unfortunately she has to work on Halloween, but she is too old to trick-or-treat anyway. Good job Buggie - we are so proud of you!

First Snow!

Can you believe that it is only the beginning of October and it is already snowing? It was over 70 degrees last week, and today we get this! I do love how beautiful and quiet it is when it snows like this, but I am just not ready for winter yet.... we just started fall.... :(

Homecoming Duchess

Our Haley was voted Homecoming Duchess this year! The kids in each grade nominate 5 or 6 kids and then they vote on the nominees. The Seniors with the most votes are named King and Queen, the Juniors are Prince and Princess, Sophomores are Duke and Duchess and the Freshmen are Lord and Lady. Haley received the most votes for the Sophomores and was crowned Duchess. Her very best friend (also known as a boyfriend) Chris, was the Duke.

Her "Duchess" duties made for a long day today. The pep assembly was at 11:00 this morning at the school where the winners were announced (we were notified on Monday that she was the winner - but it was to be kept a secret until they announced the winners today). Each winner had someone escort them through the sword line. Haley had her cousin Seth escort her. Chris had his second cousin as his escort - who was completely adorable by the way!



After the assembly, we had to get her into her dress and head over to a church parking lot a few miles away where the parade would start. Each couple rode on a convertible and threw candy to all of the elementary school kids who line the streets to watch the parade. It was FREEZING today of course - its been in the 70's until this week - we are even supposed to get snow this weekend!



Once the parade was over we headed home to start doing her hair for the football game this evening. It took about 2 hours to get it all curled and now I am not sure why we bothered - by the time we got home it was almost completely straight again - good old Brackett curl.



At the football game, they again rode on the back of the convertibles onto the field at half time. Dave and I got to escort her through the swords as they read a brief paragraph she had written about herself. It was even more freezing than it was today and she was a trooper and made it through the half time show with no coat. We stayed and watched the rest of the game (we won - yeah!) and then got MOSTLY defrosted on the way home in the car. Next time we will definitely remember to bring blankets and wear more clothes!



The Homecoming Dance is tomorrow night. She is NOT going - for 2 reasons. The first is that she says "I don't dance - so I don't go to dances", and the second is that she is not 16, and therefore can not date yet. It seems kind of a waste to spend so much money on a dress for her to wear for a total of about an hour - but she looked beautiful. Hopefully this will be one of her very happy High School memories!

Canada is Gorgeous in the Fall!

We just got back from a wonderful 4-day weekend in Edmonton. We have been there several times before, but our trip has always been during the summer months. With Dave's crazy work schedule, this year a summer vacation was just not possible. The kids were out of school on Thursday & Friday, so we left right as school got out on Wednesday and headed up for the long weekend.

Boy did I need the vacation. It was very nice just to spend some alone time with the family. No instant messaging, limited texting (no service in many of the areas), no emails (I did not check them the whole time we were gone!) and on top of that, I turned off my cell phone.

We spent the majority of our time at the West Edmonton Mall. For those of you who have never been there, I would HIGHLY recommend it! It is huge, and has an indoor amusement park, indoor water park, mini golf course, 2 theaters including 1 IMAX, and countless stores and restaraunts.

On the way home we drove through Cardston, Alberta - which is a very small town just on the Canadian side of the border. It was settled by early Mormon pioneers who migrated up there and built the first Canadian Temple. We met a friend there for lunch (a guy that Dave works with is actually from there and was there on vacation also), and then headed to Waterton Lakes National Park. It was beautiful! The leaves were all changing and it looked so gorgeous.


In the park there is a cute little tourist town. We stopped just for a minute and noticed that there were deer wandering around town. It was really weird - they must have been almost tame. They let you get really close to them before scurring away. Reagan, of course, thought that she would be able to get them eat right out of her hands, but that was not happening!



It was so wonderful to be able to spend time as a family and I am grateful for the chance to get away (the shopping wasn't bad either!)

It's Potato Time!

Yeah - the trucks are rolling, the equipment out, the dirt turned, and potatoes are being harvested! I was visiting teaching night before last and the lady whom we were teaching asked if we had gleaned any potatoes yet (for those of you who are not familiar with the term - it means take what you can use, and applies to not just potato harvesting). Yikes! I hurried and gave the lesson and was out the door so I could get some good harvesting in before sundown. I called my sister Julie and told her to hurry and bring a bucket or box for us to use.

For those of you who do not live in Idaho, the harvesting of potatoes is all done by machinery. About 3 weeks before harvest, they kill the plants (some farmers just roll over them with heavy equipment - others spray them with a chemical that kills the above ground part of the plant, others wait for the first freeze). This process actually sets the skins on the potatoes. If they skipped this step, the skins would come right off. Once the skins are set, large machinery comes through and "digs" the rows of potatoes up. This same piece of equipment has a conveyor belt. As the potatoes move up the belt, the dirt and vines are shaken off and then the potatoes are dropped into a huge truck that rolls along side the harvester. Click here to watch a short video of an actual Idaho potato harvest.

I explain all of this for a reason. The trucks only make one pass over each row, and they have to turn corners with a machine that has zero turning radius. Tons of potatoes are left on the ground - especially at the corners. The farmers are more than willing to let the average Joe go in after the machinery is done and get as many potatoes as you can find. Otherwise, they rot in the ground. So needless to say in just under 30 minutes, Julie and I were able to get a good size tote full of potatoes.

Potatoes on the ground after the truck has run through the field

We decided it would be great fun to take her 3 little boys out yesterday after school for their first potato harvest. At first we were met with quite a bit of opposition to the idea - they were just too busy playing with friends. But after my assurance that it would be fun, they reluctantly got in the car. Once we hit the fields, they were off having the time of their lives. They compared it to an Easter egg hunt - with the coveted prize not being the most brightly colored egg - but the biggest potato. Let me tell you we found some WHOPPERS. Nothing like these ever make it to the stores. You could feed an entire family on 1 potato!

Bryan, my nephew & his HUGE potato

The potatoes are "California Whites", which the farmer explained to us are strictly a "processing" potato. They do not kill the plant to set the skins on these ones. They are meant for the processors who make them into french fries, dried potato flakes, frozen hash browns, etc. They are not good for baked potatoes, but they make excellent mashed or au gratin potatoes. The russets are being harvested later this week so we will head out and get some of those also. Believe me when I tell you there is NOTHING like fresh potatoes.

Fall is, by far, my favorite season..

Fall is by far my favorite time of year. The smell when I step outside, the coolness of the air, the changing leaves - I just can't put my finger on what exactly makes me love it so much, but I do. Each year, there seems to be 1 particular day for me that signals the onset of fall, and today is that day. I can't tell you exactly what brought about the change today, but to me, today is fall.

Fall not only brings changes in my surroundings, but I change too. The meals I cook change, the things I do around the house change, the way I feel changes. Funny how such a small change in your surroundings can change the way you feel about so many things.

So here are a few things that I absolutely LOVE about fall:

• Burning my Pumpkin Pie Gold Canyon Candle
  
• red, gold, and brown leaves
• cool morning and evening air so I can open windows and air out the house
• making "harvest type" deserts (pumpkin, apples)
• digging up fresh Idaho potatoes
  
• Halloween (and the Decor that goes with it)
• driving in the country with the windows down
• Wearing cute sweaters
• Having my husband home for dinner
• Making casseroles
• Breaking out my extensive boot collection
• All my network shows are back on TV
• Cream Soups and Chili
• fresh Utah peaches
  

So now that fall "has arrived" for me, I will have to be careful and not put on 10 pounds with all of the deserts, casseroles, and cream soups!

Dyson's Are NOT GOOD VACUUMS!

So the place we currently live has the "Idaho standard" carpet - that is what I call it since I had never seen it til I moved here. It is just a speckled shag carpet. I thought it was crap carpet. I vacuum 3 to 4 times a week and it still always looked like crap. It got all matted down in the high traffic areas and basically just looked like poo.

So I have a $450 Dyson vacuum that is supposed to be the best vacuum out there. It seems to pick up dirt cause every time I vacuum I have to empty the canister - mostly just fuzz and stuff, but there is some dirt. Dave kept saying it was a crappy vacuum and totally not living up to its name.

So Last night I went to Walmart and bought myself a $139 Eureka vacuum. Right on the front of the box it said "Cleans 60% Better Than Dyson". So I grabbed it and went home. Dave put it together for me and I started vacuuming.

Let me tell you - my carpet is not crappy! It was the vacuum! Just the upstairs yielded an entire bag full of dirt. And it was like the really fine sand type - you could hear it as I was vacuuming. I could not believe how GROSS that was. Me being somewhat of a neat freak - ugh, I thought I would die knowing that all that dirt was in my carpet! And I just had them shampooed 2 months ago, so that is only 2 months worth of dirt!

Now my carpet actually shows footprints after you vacuum and then walk on it. My Dyson is going in the TRASH! Even if this new vacuum only lasts 3 or 4 years, then for the same price as my Dyson, I can by a new vacuum every 4 years and it will be 16 years before I spend the same money!

Labor Day as a Family

It was so nice to sleep in this morning! I think we all rolled out of bed long about 10:30 - which must be some sort of record. The weather turned a bit cold today with a fall storm moving through the area so normal Labor Day activities like going to the river or having a BBQ were out.

We decided have the girls do an outdoor photo shoot in one of the more beautiful areas around. We found some great locations and were able to get some pretty cute pictures of them.

I guess today was the first time I really realized that Haley is no longer a little girl, but has grown into a beautiful young lady. She is quite photogenic and loves to pose for the camera.

Reagan is still my baby and still looks like a little girl, which I hope to keep that way for awhile longer. I am not ready quite yet to have 2 young women.

It was so nice to spend some family time together with Dave around. Tomorrow will be back to work as usual though. The weather is supposed to warm up a bit so we have not officially entered fall... although I can't wait! Fall is by far my most favorite season and there is a distinct feeling and smell in the air when it arrives. I will most certainly post a blog when I feel like it has officially arrived, and will list all of the reasons why I love it!

Thank Goodness School Started

Well last week I had my hardest week yet in my Real Estate Career. I have 3 deals going on all at once, and all 3 of them had major issues. 2 are now done and closed, but I have 1 more that is still a bit tricky, but I hope to have it closed by the end of next week. Thank goodness school started last week so at least I had 1 less thing to worry about.

Reagan absolutely LOVED her first day. She was so happy to start 7th grade (middle school here). She has loved everyday since then too, and has even done her homework without being asked - 2 days in a row!

Haley does not get as excited about school, but was thrilled to have her cousins Seth and Rachael go with her. She can drive this year and since the Volvo has some how seemed to miraculously heal itself (isn't that always the case when you buy a new car the old one is suddenly better), I feel pretty comfortable with her driving her and her cousins to school. They also have open campus so she has been able to leave for lunch too.

My sister finally closed on her house after much fighting with underwriters (man they are buggers these days) and is currently on her way back to Oregon to pick up the rest of their stuff. Her school age kids are here with me until she gets back on Saturday night.

All in all it was quite an eventful summer, but I am so happy that is has come to an end and I can finally get some work done without feeling like I am neglecting my kids. What made it worse was that Dave worked an average of 90 hours a week for the entire summer (starting in mid-may) so I was basically doing it all myself. I know he is glad that work is winding down and I know I certainly am (although I will miss the big fat paychecks) - but it will be great to have him around again!

Does Everyone Think They Can Negotiate EVERYTHING?

What's with people these days? I just don't get it. When you go to the doctor, do you tell him once he has done whatever it is that he is doing, that you want him to take a 50% pay cut? Do you walk into Nordstroms and find a dress you really like and when they ring it up, tell the sales person that you don't want to pay full price for the dress so could they please take whatever they were supposed to get in commission off the price of the dress? NEVER HAPPENS!

So why to me, more often than not lately. Is my driving all over town (with gas at $4 a gallon), the money I spend to keep my real estate license active, cost for continuing education which I am required to take, monthly office fees, and MY TIME, not worth them money I am compensated as a Real Estate Agent? It's not like I close on a house every day of the week with a 5 or 6 thousand dollar commission on each - if that were the case, everyone would be a real estate agent.

But for some reason, the last 2 buyers I have been working with, are asking me to cut my commission to get them a better deal on an already outstanding deal on a home purchase. Now I realize that a home purchase is a huge expense, and everyone wants to get the best deal they can on it. But the reason they found the house in the first place is because a REAL ESTATE AGENT listed it in the multiple listing service, and then a REAL ESTATE AGENT pulled it up and showed it to them.

This whole system of listing and selling homes is set up to bring buyers and sellers together, who otherwise would not have found eachother. That's why sellers pay commission - so that they can get someone to buy their home. Selling agents pay out tons of money to advertise and promote the homes they list. The buyers don't pay ANYTHING.... No up front costs, no hourly rate, no nothing. We drive them around - sometimes to over 100 different homes over a period of MONTHS.

And it doesn't end there! Once a buyer decides on a house, as an agent, we have to research taxes, utilities, the neighborhood, CC&R's, and whatever other specific questions the buyers have about the property, then we have to negotiate a price (that can take days and even weeks), and it doesn't end there. We have to coordinate inspections, appraisals, title work, make sure paperwork is in order and complete, schedule and attend the final walk through, schedule the closing, attend the closing, help get utilities switched over, and that is just what happens on an "easy closing". The list gets 3 times as long if a problem arises.

So for some reason, people think that all of that time and effort is not worth the paycheck that we get once the deal closes. And again, we get paid NOTHING if the deal doesn't close. And that happens - we get all the way to closing, having completed everything on the list, and the deal falls apart..... weeks of work and no paycheck.

So if I can gain anything from this you-know-what-session, it is that anyone who reads it will have a new appreciation for their real estate agent - and NOT ASK THEM TO CUT THEIR COMMISSION.... we have to feed our families too!

Ever Have one of "Those Days"

I feel like I have had "one of those days" for a whole week! Work has been busy, Dave has been gone, Haley is at Youth Conference, and my HOUSE IS A MESS! I can't even seem to catch up. I think the kids go behind me and mess up everything I do. I get home from work every day and do 3 to 4 loads of laundry, the dishes, and pick up the upstairs. I get home the next day and all of that is undone, and I start all over. I can't wait for school to start! At least if I come home when the kids get home from school I can prevent messes before they start! Maybe then I can catch up! I had everything under control at the beginning of the summer. My house was so clean I had to search for other things to clean! I cleaned out drawers, under couches, organized bookshelves and DVD's, steam cleaned the carpets, cleaned out my closet, and even went downstairs (I hate going in the basement - not sure why) and ultra cleaned the whole family room down there(Reagan would have gotten much better grades last year if she had turned in all of the completed homework I found shoved in various corners in the family room). So the count down begins..... Only 2 weeks til school starts and I can get my life back in order!

Teenagers and Feety Pajamas!

So Haley had her friend Taylor spend the night last night. They slept out on the trampoline (or did not sleep I should say) and then woke up early this morning so that I could take them to Smitty's for breakfast. They wore their feety pajamas! To Smitty's! In Public! You should have seen some of the looks we got. 2 teenage girls wearing feety pajamas to breakfast. Pretty funny. The picture was taken with Haley's camera phone so the quality is not that great - Haley has pink feety pajamas with frogs on them and Taylor's are green with dinosaurs. Ridiculous!

Dinner Ideas Anyone?

Ok so one of the hardest parts of my weekly/monthly duties is coming up with dinner ideas. I usually plan out a whole month at a time so I need almost 30 ideas at a time (which is really alot)! I decided to add my weekly menu to the left of my blog and link any recipes I have gotten online so that anyone who wants to try them can do so. Hopefully friends and family will do the same and add some of their favorites to their blog so I can get some dinner ideas. That way we all don't re-invent the wheel! So if you're making something great at your house, please share!

Finally - Some Family in Idaho!

YEEAAAHHHHH! My sister is finally moving here! She is working on signing an offer right now on a house just 1/2 mile from where I live right now. I am so happy! We will finally have family closer than 4 hours away! Our kids start school on August 21st so they need to be here by then. Haley is absolutely dying with excitement because her very best cousin will be with her in school! They are 7 months apart and very bestest buddies!!

And they always think of the craziest things to do together!

I'm sure the little boys will want to come over lots to jump on the "jumpoline".

They are quite entertaining little guys too!!

We will need to work on getting Seth to cut his hair a little more (he SAYS he just cut 4" off - still has a way to go - unless I use him to mop my kitchen floor).

And the best news of all is that it means we will always have really good food! Julie is a great cook and James is the BBQ KING!!! Yeah I am so excited!

Death of a Volvo

So I guess Volvo's don't last FOREVER... I think mine has finally died. With almost 170,000 miles on it I really can't blame it. I have NEVER had a car with that many miles on it in my life. In fact, not even close. I think the highest mileage we have ever hit on a car we have had is about 75,000. It was however nice not having car payments. It's poor life ended on Thursday. Haley drove it up to Rigby to work (luckily it was fine the whole way there) and after she had been working for awhile, Dave got in the car to start it to move it somewhere else, and the computer said that basically EVERYTHING was wrong with it - Engine System Service Required, Transmission System Service Required, Brake System Failure, etc. Dave thinks the computer went bad (and we all know how much those are). So we went out on Thursday night and got a brand new car.

I wasn't all that excited at first cause it has been over 2 years since we have had any car payments and that has been really nice, but after driving in it for the past 2 days, I am loving it more everyday. The new car smell is the best. I wish I could make it stay like that forever!

It is a 2009 Toyota Camry SE - Charcoal paint and a black leather interior. We have never owned a Japanese car before so that is something really new to us. Hopefully what everyone says about reliability will hold true and it will last us forever.

It is the sport model, with traction control, sunroof, spoiler, JBL sound system, V6 engine, Blue tooth (which I tried out today and it was really cool), and it even has a direct IPOD input so we don't have to use the little converter thing which never tunes in quite right. The things I will miss that I have had on my last few cars that this does not have - heated seats, one touch up windows (it has one touch down but not up too) and dual zone climate control. Oh well I will be happy to trade it all for a warranty and better gas mileage!

So last night I stayed up til 11 reading the blog of a lady whom I have never met (she is the sister of a friend of a friend). Just over a month ago, she lost her 14 month old daughter who drown in their hot tub. She writes on her blog every single day. I cried the entire time I read it, woke up at 2:00 in the morning crying, and woke up this morning with huge puffy eyes and a migraine headache. I was crying for her loss, but more than that I was crying because her words have made a profound change in me. Her faith and perserverence are beyond levels that most of us can even begin to understand. But what I realized as I read, was that her Blog actually answered soome of my prayers.

Its a long story, but I have had somewhat of a rocky relationship with my younger daughter Reagan. I seem to loose my patience more easily with her, am quicker to punish her, and often the severity of the punishment does not match the action she was being punished for. This has been going on for quite sometime and has worsened as she has approached her teenage years. My relationship with my own mother was never the best and it still makes me sad to this day that it was never resolved prior to her death - and I still can't understand why she made me feel the way she did. I do not want the same thing for my daughter. Anyways, as far as Reagan goes, she is very different from Haley, and has her own way of doing things. I love that they are so different, but I have never felt that she bonded with me as well as Haley did. I have prayed alot lately for Heavenly Father to help me be a better parent to her and figure out how to create a closeness with her that I felt I was lacking.

So last night as I was reading this amazing blog, I was reminded that I came very closing to loosing Reagan in the exact same way. At the age of 17 months, Reagan got out the front door which was left open by some of Haleys friends who had come over to play. I was at work and David was in the bathroom. When he came into the living room and saw the front door open and no Reagan, he immediately ran outside to look for her. Our condo was surrounded by water features that were not in any way childproof. He ran around the building the way that we usually walked when we left the house, thinking she would naturally go that way. No Reagan. He circled back around, calling her name. No Reagan. Finally he crossed the bridge that ran over the water way to the condo building across the way from us. As he did this, he heard a man calling for help. He ran towards the voice and saw a stranger with our daughter soaking wet and completley ashen. His first reaction was that she was gone. As he took her from this man's arms, she looked at him and started to cry. Complete relief washed over him and he was able to listen to the man's story - which in itself was amazing. This man, a complete stranger to us, was out walking his dog when he saw what he thought was a doll floating in the pond. As he got closer he could see that it was a baby, with just her little nose and mouth above water. He ran and fished her out of the water. The amazing part is, he said he never walked his dog at that time of day. On that particular day, his pregnant wife had a miscarraige in the morning, and he had spent the day in the hospital with her and and missed walking the dog. When they finally got home, she took a nap and he was able to finally walk the dog. And by a miracle, he was right where we needed him to be to save our child. The water where she had fallen in was about 3 feet deep and dark green. In just a few more seconds she would have sunk out of sight and it would have been too late.

Our Hero came over later that afternoon after we had a chance to warm her up and make sure she was ok, and asked if he could take a picture with "the little angel" that he saved that day. To this day, I do not know his name. I feel like I did not thank him enough or do enough for him, but I was in shock. Needless to say we moved away from there within the month. The month after the accident, my mind kept going to the "what if", and it almost drove me crazy. But time heals mosts wounds, and my anxeity over the incident faded over the years.

Now, after reading the blog last night, I made a profound realization. My relationship with my daughter (or lack thereof) is my fault. I almost lost her and by the grace of my Heavenly Father was spared the agony of losing a child - but instead of living every day like it was a gift, I let myself be annoyed, or quick to anger, with anything she did that bothered me in the least bit. I had no patience and I am sure this caused her to not want to develop a close relationship with me. It's my fault, not hers, and I have to be the one to fix it. I realized that this poor woman would give anything to have her daughter back, and I was wasting the time I had with mine being annoyed.

So today is a new day and I am determined to make this work. I took her to the salon today and got her haircut (she has been begging me for weeks), I came up with a solution to a disagreement that we had been having for months (a solution that worked for both of us), and I have not lost my temper once today. Now I realize I can not fix this relationship in just one day, but one day is a good start.

If you want to partake of the faith of one amazing woman, you can read her blog here.

So I Turned 38 Last Week.....

Well, another birthday has gone by - the big 38. As I get closer to 40, I keep thinking I should have everything figured out.... Isn't that what you thought when you were 20 - that by the time you were 40 you would pretty much skate through the rest of your life??? Oh well, live and learn. I guess it is all a journey, and when I am 80 I will probably still be figuring stuff out. I do try to stay young though - and my husband knows just how to keep me feeling that way. For my birthday this year he bought me "Rock Band" for our Wii. (you may think that is funny but for my last anniversary I got the new Mario Galaxy game from Dave). My sister Julie and her family were here for the weekend so Julie, Seth and myself started a band and played for hours. Seth was on drums (he is very good), Julie was the lead singer, and I was on guitar. Now if that does not keep you young!

Are You Ever Really Too Old To Play Princess???

Last night we were watching some friends of ours 3 little girls - the oldest of which is 5. Her favorite thing to do is play princess, and do you think for a second that Haley was not up for getting in on the action?

Last year in Canada, the girls were told that they could each have 1 outfit as we were shopping at the huge mall there. The only thing Haley wanted was a "princess" dress. We found a wedding dress store there in the mall that happened to be selling all of their "try on" dresses for $99 - you would have thought she won the lottery! She got to go into the little dressing room with the lady that worked there and she helped her get into each dress. She brought about 4 in to try on, and when she put on the second one and walked out with the BIGGEST smile on her face, we knew she did not need to try on the others.

She has worn it to do her homework in, for halloween, just to take pictures of herself, and then of course to play princess last night with a 5 year old. So I guess you are never really to old to play princess!

My 90 Day Supply

So about 3 months ago, after hearing it from at least 6 people - I decided that I had better start getting my 3 month supply together. This has always been an issue for me - we got a few things during the Y2K scare (figured if worse came to worse the Wallaces would feed us :0) but have never had food storage. So I decided to finally get on board. For those of you who know me, you know I can't do anything halfway..... so I kinda over did it. Not with the actual purchasing of food (that is still a work in progress) but with the way I went about organizing it.

First off, I wasn't even sure what I was supposed to have for a 90 day supply. I really did not want to just buy a bunch of wheat and beans and stuff I would NEVER use. So I checked the church website, and it recommended just getting 90 days worth of stuff you use right now that you could rotate through easily. So this is where I got a little crazy. I put together a spreadsheet and figured out about 10-12 different dinners (less variety for breakfast and lunch) that we eat often. Then I figured out all of the ingredients for the meals and how much of each I would need to cover 90 days for my whole family. Then I made a separate sheet in my spreadsheet with a list of all of the items I needed to buy and the quantity I needed for each. Then I headed to Walmart (definitely the cheapest place for groceries here in Idaho - and our Walmarts are nice - not like what we saw in Vegas - I would not step foot in there!) and priced out every product on my list.

So then I set a budget of $100 a week to buy food storage items (separate from my grocery budget). Every week I check the sale ads for Smith's and Albertsons, and if an item on my Walmart list is cheaper there, I will go there and buy a bunch of it. I did not limit my storage to food either. I have everything we would need if we could not make it to the store for 3 months. So laundry detergent, shampoo, soap, toothpaste, cleaning supplies, garbage bags etc - it's all on the list.

After that I got a little bit crazy and went ahead and planned out my family's dinner menu for a month at a time making sure to include at least 6 dinners a month that I could make from food storage items. As far as rotation goes (my kids think I am crazy), I have the spreadsheet of everything that is supposed to be in storage posted down right next to the shelves where I store everything and every time we use something from food storage, we put an X in the box next to that item and then I add it to my grocery list for the next week. Since I have my entire menu for the month planned out, I try to only go to the grocery store once a week. I make a list of items I need for the weeks food, then add any used food storage from the week before. It has been working pretty well. I would say I have about 75% of my food storage items purchased. Just a few more weeks and I will be at a full 100%.

For the first time in my married life (that is almost 17 years) - I actually have a supply of food on hand! Feels pretty good.

My First Blog

Ok Larae. If this is yet ANOTHER thing you get me addicted to that is going to cost me a fortune, cause me to start a business, or take up all of my free time - YOU ARE IN BIG TROUBLE. After visiting your blog again to get the recipe for the salad dressing, I decided since I have not actually scrapbooked in 2 years that I should probably start a blog so I can at least get back to taking pictures of my children! Thanks for being a great friend!