What We've Been Up To

Barrett:

She’s spending this whole week at her Time to Blossom young women’s conference. They’re staying at the Mesa Hilton and she’s bunking up with her cousin, Sydney, and a couple of other girls they just met at the conference. Four girls to a room, one counselor for 8 girls. Her other cousin, Kiersten, is also there with a friend and they are all having a ball. It’s kind of like EFY, but without the boys, and it’s for girls turning 12 this year up to 16. They’re having speakers/classes/activities on etiquette, body image, goal setting, self esteem, spirituality, friendships/peers, reaching their potential, and so much more. They have had a dress up party, multi-course meals, fashion show, pajama party, devotionals… What a great experience for her! I’ve been talking to her each night and she says she’s having lots of fun, but is so tired by the end of each day. They’re pretty much going non-stop from 7:00 am – 11:00pm every day. We miss her tons and are looking forward to her end-of-conference program tomorrow that we get to attend.

Afton:

She’s still taking electric guitar lessons. She’s still so dang cute and obedient and good to the core. She has also stepped up this week to help even more since Barrett’s been gone. She even babysat for me for an hour while I went visiting teaching down the street. That’s a new one for her but she did great. She’s been hanging out with Grandma Cindy on the days I’m working, being a great helper there too. Grandma and Grandpa have been doing tons of work in their backyard, uprooting and replanting trees, re-staining their deck, and basically giving the whole yard a make-over. It’s looking fabulous (but then again, I thought it looked fabulous before). Tomorrow night we’re having our ward daddy daughter swim party over there. My mom says there’s nothing like a party to get you motivated to work on the projects that have been on your to-do list for too long. I’m so thankful that they agreed to let us party there tomorrow. Anyway, Afty is looking forward to that tomorrow night too – spending time with her dad and all the other girls in the ward.

She’s been swimming a lot this summer – pretty much every day – and also busy working on crafts. Yesterday she and the kids took a field trip out to Hobby Lobby with Grandma and stocked up on some cool projects. Our Afty is always so crafty and inventive. I think she has a little me in her, kicked up a notch. To her dismay, she hasn’t been having much luck arranging play dates with friends (everyone’s schedules are so different), but she’s still been enjoying the time off and enjoying the flexibility of summer. She’s looking forward to our upcoming family summer vacations to the cabin, Park City for the 4th, and of course, the annual beach camping trip in July! Hooray for summer!

Rowan:

She’s been our little shadow lately. Every time either Ryan or I need to go somewhere, she asks to come. I think she enjoys the one-on-one time a lot. She went with Ryan to the Eagle Court of Honor on Sunday night, helped with me my visiting teaching on Tuesday, and has run all my errands with me. Grandma Cindy says she’s been a real helper around her place, too. She’s also been lovin’ her library finds and her Polly Pockets lately. Rowan loved having all the Brown cousins over on Monday night for a Father’s Day FHE pizza/swim party. We ate and swam and visited and watched the little movie I made in honor of the men in our lives. We got to meet our new little niece/cousin, Eva (Lacey’s new baby) on Monday night too. I held her for a long time and loved every minute of it!

On the not-so-exciting front, our little Miss Rowan has been complaining every day for the past two weeks about her vision. She says things are blurry, that her eyes are bugging her, and that “something is broken in my head” because I can’t see things clear. I asked her if she noticed this at all during school, but she said no, it just started this summer. So I made an appointment with the eye doctor and she’s going in to be checked in two weeks. She is frustrated that she has to wait so long. Me too, actually. But it’s better than the six week lead time with the first doctor I booked. Holy cow. I hope it’s just a growth spurt or something and that she doesn’t need glasses. We’ll see. Maybe she does. My SIL’s speculated that maybe she just “wants” glasses. Really? Would a kid make that up every day because they want glasses? I guess it’s possible, but seems crazy to me.

Easton:

Easton is growing up too fast. He’s already counting down to his fifth birthday. Every day he makes me smile and surprises me with some new word or phrase added to his ever-growing vocabulary. I had him tested for early entrance into kindergarten last week (he misses the cut-off by 19 days with a Sept 19th birthday). We got the letter on Friday letting us know that he passed and is recommended for early entrance. Yahoo!!! I was so bummed that Mesa Schools had to cancel their early learner kindergarten program with the budget cuts (all three of my girls went to that since they all have fall birthdays). So I went down to the registration office in early May to sign him up for the paid equivalent of early learner kindergarten (called KinderPrep). But much to my dismay, the gal told me that I was the only one in the whole dang school district who had signed up and that they would likely be cancelling that program too. What?? So I was facing another year of preschool and not excited about that. Easton’s ready for more. He’s catching onto everything so quick and I know he’s super smart already.

So I decided to have him tested for kindergarten. I have no idea what the test was all about since they don’t let parents come in, but there was a seven page application/ questionnaire I had to fill out ahead of time and then he spent about 20-30 minutes in with the teacher. I’m glad that he passed. He came out of the room all smiles. I was worried he’d be a little shy with the new face. I was wrong. Maybe he charmed her to death with his gorgeous blue eyes and irresistible smile. Either way, he passed. But… since I really don’t want him to be the youngest kid in his class for the rest of his school years (socially, educationally, athletically), and because I don’t want him to feel some sort of stigma about being held back if I send him to all-day kindergarten at Hale two years in a row (when all his buddies would be moving up), we decided to sign him up for half day kindergarten at Hermosa Vista (which is just about as close as our home school, Hale) and treat it as “Early Learner Kindergarten” just like all three of his sisters. I think half day will be good for our little man. Then, next year, he’ll start the normal routine of all day kindergarten at Hale. My girls are kinda bummed that he won’t be going to Hale with them this year, though. They adore our little guy and would love having him at their school. One more year, girls.

Ryan:

He survived scout camp last week and is back to the grind at RMB Properties. I’m sure this week has been crazy busy trying to catch up with all the voice mails and emails and jumping back into the deals. I tried to keep things afloat on the work front while he was gone. He had no cell reception unless he hiked up to the top of Inspiration Point on the mountain and stood next to the huge metal cross, which he did once every day to check in with me. I love him for that. So needless to say, the voice mails piled up. We’re in the middle of rehab on our latest fixer upper and getting ready to close on another one, hopefully tomorrow.

One deal blew up while he was gone, but may still close in a week or so. We’re waiting on some new POA from the seller’s wife who flew the coup and went to Mexico and swears she’s leaving her husband and doesn’t care what happens to the house and yada yada yada…Such a soap opera. Everyone was claiming that there was no way to reach her and the deal was going to tank until we offered $500 to her in exchange for the POA. Miraculously, they found her and she was happy to oblige for $500, but needed the money upfront in order to catch a bus to go to a place to pick up a package to sign and send back. Hmmm… I don’t think so. We’ll do an even exchange. Anyway, it’s still in limbo. We were all ready to close on the house (Ryan has been working on this deal since last October – it’s a short sale so it takes forever), we’d already signed with title, funded, bound the insurance, ordered the utilities – all the day before Ryan left. Then when I called title last Monday to confirm it recorded, she laid the bomb on me. Super fun stuff.

Enough work update…sorry, I digress.

We’re excited to celebrate Father’s Day this weekend with Ryan and our dads. We’ve got dinner out with the Browns (adults only) Saturday night, then my cousin, Matt’s missionary farewell and dinner with the Goodman/Teeples crew after on Sunday. Lots of family time for sure.

Me:

I did the single mom thing last week with Ryan gone. I had high hopes of accomplishing all kinds of projects and such while he was gone. I don’t know why I thought I’d have more free time with two less hands in the pot, but clearly I was delusional. Really, I just worked through the week and juggled the business and took care of our precious kiddos and the house and the errands and went to Park City for a long day and the week flew by. Oh ya – and I thought I’d finish my book while Ry was gone, too. I’m reading The Host by Stephenie Meier. But it stood neglected all week long. Just like my projects. I picked it up again yesterday at lunch and now I can’t wait to finish it. Oh, and I totally spaced it and forgot to pick up our Ward Emergency Preparedness Books that I ordered up from Staples to be ready for our Sunday combined lesson with the men and women. I felt sick when Brother Pulver called me on Sunday morning an hour before church to make sure I had them. Seriously, sick. That is soooooo not like me. I can’t believe I forgot to pick them up! Thankfully, in the end, it all turned out OK (except for the notch off the responsibility block that kills me). After apologizing profusely, I scrambled and got the summary pages printed for handouts for the lesson (which is all we needed) and told Bro. Pulver that the full books with the specific exhibits for each type of emergency would have to get handed out next Sunday. Still, I felt so bad. Am I losing my marbles?????

Other than that, this week has been filled with the usual: kids, house, running, work, work, work, church calling stuff, etc. After work yesterday, I trekked all through Costco wearing my high heels that I’d worn all day (so stupid of me – I should have planned ahead and brought flip flops with me), then proceeded to unload the car full of supplies at RMB, then unloaded the rest of the groceries at our house. I was ready to toss those stupid shoes into oblivion. I was smoking hot, starving, and totally wiped out. And a little crabby. Yes, maybe just a little crabby…Yesterday morning’s too dang hot run combined with not enough sleep and 12 hours in heels took a bite out of me. Thankfully, I recovered last night, though, and feel 100% better today. I even bought donuts this morning at Bosa on my way home from the temple. I love donuts. And the kids loved me.

So that’s us this week in a more than a nutshell. Maybe a bucket full of nutshells. I’m sure that someday when I go back and read my hard bound published blog (if I ever print it into a book), I’ll be glad I documented the day to day of our lives. I think.