A decent snow storm, finally

On March 6th it snowed A LOT!  School was canceled for three days and we loved it. I mentioned to Lee that it had been awhile since we had received a lot of snow.  It snowed in Missouri some, not a lot though and it snowed a little bit last year in Virginia.  Our last time we were somewhere with lots of snow was Christmas in Ely, Nevada 2005!

It was great snow.  Nice and thick!


Lee tried to drive out to head to his office.  It was unsuccessful.  Later he got the van out and drove around so that he could come in and park the van a different way without backing up.  (If that makes sense.) A trip that should have taken a couple of minutes turned into 45 minutes!  He got stuck twice!  I had no clue where he was.


After the van was stuck Lee headed off on his bike to work.  The advantages of living near work!  The power was off at work so he posted a sign and came home.  It was great having him home.


Two branches snapped off one of the trees.  I never heard it break.  Shanna came inside and said the tree broke.  Thankfully no one was hurt because Elden was on the other side of the tree and Shanna was up on the deck!


Our power was out for nine hours.  Thankfully I have my handy dandy portable stove.  For some reason I really wanted one while I was in high school my senior year.  My mom got it for me for Christmas.  I even took it to college with me. It was nice being able to cook things!  It was fun making fudge (it's been years, literally, since we've made fudge!), popcorn and hot chocolate. 


Before our power came back on the thermostat read 59.  Pretty chilly in a house. In the morning almost all of the kids were snuggled up on the couch. Whoever wasn't on the couch I told to get on and of course snapped a picture.


Later that day we noticed that the realtor sign in front of the house we are buying had an updated status!  I wasn't kidding when I said it was right across the street from us!


It was fun seeing "Contract Pending"!


I was surprised by how quickly the snow melted.  It's pretty mild here, which I like.  But I am glad we get to experience the "seasons" too.  I loved having a nice snowfall!

For a house update:  after TWO weeks, the contract finally came back signed by all four people. We couldn't really move forward until the contract was signed.  When my sister had her offer accepted on a place the contract was done that same night! Oh well. It's here now.  I went to the bank on Friday and signed a bunch of stuff.  Since Lee was at work he still needed to sign the papers.  I was about 15-20 minutes from home.  I was going to pick up the kids at school, which would require me to be there at 3:20 (normally they ride the bus, so that morning I wrote notes for each of them stating that they would be walkers).  I was still at the bank at 2:55ish and called the school telling them that my kids couldn't be walkers and they had to ride the bus home. That would get them home at about 3:34, which gave me some extra time.  I left the bank at 3:17 and I was getting antsy driving home.  I wasn't sure if I would beat the bus or not.  Thankfully I did meet the bus.  As soon as the kids got off the bus, I had them get in the van.  We went straight to Walmart in Harrisonburg so Lee could sign the papers.  Then we drove back to the bank, handed the papers in and then drove back to Harrisonburg to play at a park.  Anyway, it was kind of crazy!  Friday night and Saturday we signed a couple more papers and talked to our realtor.  Because I don't want Lee taking time off of work, I have been doing the bulk of the house stuff.  Next time I'll have him take time off!

We are REALLY hoping we can close next week on Thursday or Friday. I am SO excited to close. As of right now I am not nervous AND it couldn't happen soon enough! We had a home inspection on Thursday and there are things we want the sellers to fix. (Overall the house is in good condition!) We'll find out Monday what they will fix/repair.  The home appraisal still needs to be done, including a termite inspection and we need to finalize things with getting hazard insurance.  And of course, the loan has to be approved. It should go through okay...hopefully! Right now things are going well with the loan. I think I am mentally prepared to have a mortgage.  I was nervous about it for awhile, mainly with Lee being self-employed. It will be our biggest debt yet and I can't wait to pay it off!  Some of my sisters are doing a contest--who will be first in doing the following: pay off all debts, house included, have a six month emergency fund, a three month supply of food and a year supply of food staples.  I will be an official contestant as soon as we close on our house!  Game on!

Right now it's snowing again!  We'll see if school is canceled again or not.  They like to cancel school around here.

Slime

Last school year Cal made "slime" at school.  He wanted to make it at home and eventually we did.  Several days ago someone mentioned making it again  and we did.  The kids enjoyed playing with it. I found the "recipe" online. I liked my first recipe better, but this one worked too. Click through the pages to see all the directions: http://chemistry.about.com/od/chemistryactivities/ss/slimerecipe.htm













Haley was in on the action for a little bit.  There she is in the background enjoying a book.


Cal recently went on a field trip to a local bank.  He brought home a small bag of shredded money.  He kept it in the fridge for a little while (great place for money, right?!) and then for some reason wanted to put it in the slime.




Yep, I found little pieces of shredded money for a few days!

Baby Shower

My friend is expecting her fourth child, and two of my friends and I threw a shower for her.  We were able to have the shower at her mom's home and a lot of her family was there that weekend--the timing worked out great!  For myself, I do not like babyshowers.  I feel so awkward at them. Good thing Elden's shower was a COMPLETE surprise because if someone would have asked me, I would have said no. (But I must say, I felt very loved that all my friends would think of me and throw me a shower for Elden.)  Though I admit, I am glad I never have to have another baby shower!  But going to them?  I LOVE attending baby showers!  I enjoyed helping out with this one for my friend. We had a great time.

The shower was somewhat of a surprise....


Some yummy food!

There was a great turn out too!






Aren't these ladies beautiful??


Their pose reminded me of when my friend Teresa and I posed at my baby shower for my twins back in 2007....


I was looking through a few of my shower pictures for my girls and also found this one.  Look at my belly!  It was March 17.  I didn't have Shanna and Haley for another month and a half....May 2nd. 

It was a fun night...congrats Sunny!

End of February

The end of February was pretty eventful.  The regular days seemed to pass very slowly as we were waiting to hear from the bank about getting the go-ahead to put in an offer.  It was nice to have some other things to focus on.  The last weekend of February we headed up to Maryland.  Darrell and his family came down too.  We all met up at Lois' and swapped going to the temple on Saturday. Cal had some money he earned from working and from getting good grades.  He was going to save it and actually held onto it for a few weeks.  But he and Clark came up with the idea to have a Wii party at Lois'--which of course in their minds included having treats.  Cal spent a lot of his money on treats!  Here is his loot.  I was never good at saving money when I was little.  Lee grew up having to save 50% of all he earned and our kids have to do the same.  At least Cal didn't spend ALL his money on candy, ha ha.


Saturday evening our family drove up to Darrell's to spend Sunday with them.  That Sunday was special because Joseph, Darrell's oldest received the Aaronic Priesthood. In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints we believe that worthy men and young men can use the power of God-the priesthood-to bless others and his family.  There are two levels of priesthoods, the Aaronic and the Melchizedek. This power of God to bless and help others isn't just for the leaders in the church, but it's available to all worthy young men and men in the church.  If you would like more information on it, just let me know.  It was so neat being there. I was so proud of Joseph.  What a righteous young man.  It made me realize even more that what is most important is that my children follow Christ, choose the right, keep their covenants and be good people.  Sometimes I feel like my kids should be more involved with different activities, mainly with trying to get Clark to be in some sort of sport (right now only Clark is in cub scouts and taking piano lessons). Other than that my other kids aren't doing "anything".  Anyway, it was good for me to again be reminded of what matters most. The cute young man standing between me and Clark in the following picture is Joseph.  This picture was taken last September at Jessie's baptism.  (I forgot to bring my camera!)


A few days later we attended the Blue and Gold Banquet for Cub Scouts.  I thought they did a nice job decorating.  After setting up and taking down for several activities, you understand what kind of work goes behind events like this!


A cake from a bakery...still fun to see all decorated...








Here the boys were doing a skit.  It was hard to hear what they were talking about and it wasn't super quiet. I was very impressed though because after the skit Shanna asked me something about it.  I was so surprised because her question clearly showed that she was listening and following what was going on.  I guess I shouldn't have been surprised but I was very impressed with all the noise and distractions that a 5 year-old caught what was going on.  Guess I shouldn't be surprised!


I left early to go shopping at a store because it was closing soon.  I took one of my kids with me.  I should have taken more.  Lee had to do a short presentation and a couple of our kids were up running around by Lee while he was talking.  Ugh.  So embarrassing! Sometimes I wonder about my kids' behavior, but then sometimes sadly I react to my kids, just like a kid.  Then I realize even though at times they are not good listeners, I am not a good teacher either.  Thankfully I can try to be better again, and again, and again and again........

Valentine Date

For our Valentine's date Lee surprised me by taking me to a high school production of Thoroughly Modern Millie.  Lee and I enjoy going to plays and concerts.  We just haven't gone to these types of events for awhile! Can't wait to go to more too. Anyway, I grew up watching the movie with Julie Andrews and had always liked it.  Though be forewarned, I haven't watched that movie in years, and recently one of my sisters told me that it actually isn't a movie I would like to watch now.  So as an adult, I am not going to watch it (I am pretty picky with movies), and am not recommending anyone watching it either.  Kind of funny how when you're a kid you miss stuff (which is a good thing).  Like E.T. for example.  I remember watching it when I was little and thought it was fun.  Then when Lee and I watched it back in 2004, we had to turn it off.  There was so much swearing!  I'll stop beating the point to death. On to the play....

WOW.  The play was amazing!  SO incredibly good.  The high schoolers were fantastic.  The sound and lighting and costumes and singing and acting were amazing.  One young woman from our ward was in this play, and did such a great job. I guess the high school musicals around here are normally fantastic.  We will have to go to our local high school's play next year and check out some other ones!  Thanks Lee!  It was perfect!  The play ended around 10:30 and we didn't tell our babysitter what time we were going to be home AND we were 30 minutes away.  We decided to just head home, first stopping to get frostys.  No matter how the movie is, the play version that the high schoolers performed I DO recommend.  It was very fun.  And I enjoyed hearing a couple of songs that I recognized from the movie in the play. 

Going once, going twice....sold. Almost.

In my very limited experience on making an offer on a home, I have realized I am not good at countering!  Friday afternoon we put in an offer on the house across the street from us.  On Monday we received a counter offer that wasn't really exciting to us.  We countered, they stood firm, we took it.  Our realtor must think we're crazy!  Two times after we told her a counter, Lee called her back right away trying to change it.  The first time was too late--she had already contacted the other realtor.  And she reassured us by telling us that she thought our first counter offer was good and to wait and see what they said.  The second time around countering, she hadn't reached the realtor yet and we decided to go with their firm counter. (Instead of our second counter.)

So, I guess we're buying a house! Sadly after all this excitement we can't even move in! Just for the main, obvious reasons....we have to wait for the bank appraisal, lock in a loan (and hopefully getting approved for a loan!) do a home inspection, then close. And anything else in between. We are thinking about setting a closing date the end of March.  That should give us enough time to complete some projects before actually moving.  I think Elden and I will be spending a lot of time in this house while the kids are at school.

I will be posting pictures sometime...maybe after the loan is approved.  There is a still a chance they will turn us down.  Hopefully not though.

Though pictures are more exciting, here are a few things we'd like to do right away:

*Refinish the wood floors (which are covered with brand-new carpet. But carpet under a dining room table is not going to work!)

*Install a dishwasher and disposal...the house lacks both (no fridge either)

*Paint lots of walls

*Possibly replace this beast....okay, so here is one picture for you....I am not sure if I want to keep it.  And I have no clue if it even works! But hey, it has double ovens! I bet this was a splurge back in the day...


I keep looking at the for sale sign across the street, waiting for them to put up some sign stating that it's under contract.  I just checked online and it reads that it's under contract on there--yay!  Not that that changes anything...it's just fun to see. Watch for lots of before and after photos in the coming months.  We are excited to start fixing it up right away. Hopefully we're better at reno's than negotiating!