Facebook and the Death of a Blog......

So my last blog update was sometime in 2009.... most likely the same time a friend named LaRae sent me an invite to join Facebook. Wait, isn't she the same person who made me start a blog? Why, yes she was. Unfortunately the draw of finding old friends, seeing what everyone was doing in 1 sentence, and flipping through pictures was enough to get me hooked. Sorry fellow bloggers, I am a facebooker now - you can blame LaRae :)

Commencement

Idaho is definitely a little strange. Here, Prom is no big deal - in fact it is a Semi-formal event. Haley says no one even goes. Who knew???

It's all about Commencement. Commencement is the "BIG" dance here. Formal dresses, updo's, suits or tuxedos, that's what Commencement is all about! Since Haley is 16 she was actually able to go! So here is the story....

Step 1 - The Invitation
For those of you who have had the pleasure of seeing Napolean Dynamite - the whole "Build her a cake or something" is not a joke - it is a total Utah/Idaho thing. The kids really do try and ask in a unique and unusual way. You can't just call up a girl and ask her, you have to do something. Since Haley's date was her long time boyfriend, a huge dramatic invitation was not necessary, but he did however make her a poster and put it in the fridge before she got home from work. Of course when she got home she was hungry so she opened the fridge and there it was. And, yes - she said yes.

Step 2 - The Dress
Oh my gosh - this was an ordeal. So Haley has made it perfectly clear on more that 1 occasion that she hates dances. So of course Chris was afraid to ask her to go to this one, until I asked him if he was going to. He said he wanted to, but was afraid Haley would not want to go. I told him to ask anyway (see step 1). Needles to say, by the time he asked her it was only a week and a half before the dance. Saturday morning we woke up and headed to Rexburg, hoping that they would (a) have something modest - after all it is where BYU Idaho is and (b) have something unique that every other girl in Idaho Falls did not have. 2 hours and 3 stores later we drove back to Idaho Falls. 3 hours and 5 stores later Haley was in tears. NOTHING...we found NOTHING. Everything was either too small, too big, strapless, or $600. We quit for the day and promised her we would resume the search on Monday, even if it meant driving 3.5 hours to Salt Lake. I checked online and found a store in Blackfoot (20 miles south of IF). I called on Monday and she said she only had Wedding dresses, but that a new store had opened across the street that had really cute dresses. We left immediately after she got home from school. SCORE! We found a cute dress and it could be easily altered to be modest - and it was only $299 (I can't believe I was excited about that).
Trying it on just after picking it up from the seamstress. She added the sash and the straps.

Step 3 - The "Day Date"
Not sure if this is an Idaho thing too - but everyone goes on a day date. Usually something adventurous. Haleys was paintball. I think she had a good time - she only got nailed once - in the ankle - has a bit of a bruise!

Step 4 - The UpDo
So after paintball - it was off to a quick lunch and then home to hop in the shower and then off to the hair dressers. She went with a pretty clip we bought for her hair and 5 or 6 photos she found online of cute updo's. The lady in front of her spent 30 minutes complaining about her hair so Haley's appointment started 30 minutes late. To no avail, her hair dresser was an expert and got it finished in time.


Step 5 - The Ridiculous Amount of Pictures
Chris picked her up at 6:00 - posed for pictures, went straight to the school - posed for pictures, headed to dinner with 7 other couples at one of their homes - posed for pictures, and so on. Dinner was prime rib - when I drove up to take pictures there it smelled heavenly - we had McDonalds for dinner :(



Step 6 - The Dance
She's there now - I hope she is having fun. She just texted me and said she lost her voice (she was a little stuffy when she left this evening). My daughter is so pretty!

Bye Bye Children - Hello Teenagers

It's official. I am old. I have no more children, only Teenagers. Reagan turned 13 on April 26th! Here present was a new digital camera (believe me her 2 gig card is probably almost full) and her food choices for the day included Jamba Juice for Breakfast, Red Lobster for Lunch, and Cafe Rio for Dinner - their official grand opening was her birthday!

I feel pretty darn old now. When someone asks me if I have children I can officially say "No, I have teenagers"!


Self portrait taken with new camera.

New Job

I got a new job! Like 25 people interviewed and I got it! I am pretty excited but it has been a ton of work.

We have a brand new community in Ammon (suburb of Idaho Falls) and it is the first Master Planned community around here. I am especially excited because this is the kind of neighborhood that we are used to living in and have missed living in something like it (parks, walking trails, tennis courts, pool, clubhouse, etc).

The neighborhood is called Hawks Landing and you can check it out at www.myhawkslanding.com. Anyways, the neighborhood is split up into 3 types of homes - Mansion Twin Homes (town homes or duplexes depending on where you are from), Parkview Homes (homes that have small yards but are all separated by parks and open space), and Grandview Homes (1/4 to 3/4 acre lots around the outside of the community). Destination Homes out of Utah (www.destinationhomes.com) bought all of the Parkview and Mansion Twin Home Lots and are building approximately 200 homes. I was hired by Destination Homes to sell those 200 homes.

I started the new job on April 6 and it has been kinda crazy since! Back and forth to Utah for training, following up on tons of leads, and getting ready for our Grand Opening Celebration on May 16th is what has been consuming my time! Hopefully once we get open, life will return to a more normal pace!

Despite what you hear on the news, there are still great places to buy a home and home sales are still going strong here in Idaho - in fact we sold just as many homes in Bonneville County this April as we did last April! Now that is exciting!

Blogger Slacker

I am officially a blogger slacker. It's been like 3 months since I have blogged anything. Much has happened so I will try and get a few posts in for anyone who still actually reads this. At least I will have a record for my posterity even if everyone else has lost interest.

Oh My Gosh - I Have a 16 Year Old!

It's so hard to believe that it has been 16 years since that little girl was born. I wish I could remember every little step of how she has come to be the young lady she is today. I was thinking the other day that it must have been so hard for mothers in the olden days - no camera's, no blogs, no video cameras, how did they capture the memories of their children? How sad it is that these kids have to grow up. Why can't they just stay little forever. I would be content to have a 2 year old for the rest of my life. (I say that now most likely because I can't really remember what life was like when she was 2).

None the less, we are so very proud of her at the ripe old age of 16! She has grown into a beautiful young woman - both inside and out. She is a 4.0 honor student aspiring to be the Valedictorian, has a job and works hard to be a great employee, sets her own budget and saves her money, cooks, cleans, runs errands whenever asked, and is just an all around good girl. I long for the past, but also can't wait for the future to see what kind of grown-up she will become. We love you Haley!

PS. To explain the picture - her first date as an official "16 year old" was dinner at Johnny Carinos and the movie "Coraline" in 3D (hence the beautiful glasses). She also got flowers from her Aunt Julie and us, and we made a trip to Salt Lake to buy her the one and only pair of $250 jeans that she will ever own (as long as I am paying).

Will Winter Ever End?

Ok - I've had enough snow. We had a lovely white Christmas, a white New Years, and now I am ready for the snow to melt but it just keeps coming. This has been, by far, the most snow we have seen since we moved here. The storms just keep rolling in and they are so close together that the snow doesn't have time to melt so it just keeps piling up. I think our front yard has over a foot right now. I am hoping for an early spring - unlike last year when our kids were snowed out of girls camp - THE FIRST WEEK IN JUNE! At least I was able to get some cute snow pictures of the girls. But I am ready for the snow to melt and the tulips to bloom now!