Is It Naptime Yet

Both:
You’re both enjoying the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I was not thrilled to let you watch such violence, you haven’t even seen more than one Harry Potter film. You are both loving it and are way excited to see The Hobbit in December.

The day Sleepy died you both talked about how creepy it would be if you heard gnawing on the bars or the wheel turning. I think you freaked yourselves out because you decided to sleep together in Eden’s bed.

Lilah:

Unloading the dishwasher with no help from a parent. You used the step-stool to put things in the cupboard. I’m feeling that you have a new job.

Life is really hard when you’re getting older. Drama is very prevalent in our lives nowadays.

We found Sleepy passed away on the morning of Friday, November 16. He was around 2 years old. We got him just a week before Thanksgiving in 2010. You were pretty sad on Thursday, when it was pretty apparent he would die soon.

Deciding to freeze Sleepy so we can bury him in our new house’s yard. (Yes, I have a dead hamster in my freezer. He’s in box in a ziploc bag. )

You made a sandwich and could not find the twist-tie for the lunch meat. You found it when you ate your sandwich.

Getting upset and wanting to be alone. I think you’re wanting your own space, but know you’re going to continue to share a room.

Loving Faith Hill’s Christmas CD. You said you like the “original” Christmas music. (You meant traditional.) You and Eden love making up dances to go with each song.

Eden:

Being the only girl in your book-club class. The teachers always worry, but you never seem to mind. (Last term you were the only girl in recorder.)

“Pleease”, you like to say it in an, “I’m so cute, but I’m still whining” kind of way. It’s grating on your mother’s nerves, and I’m trying to have you just say please like a normal person.

Asking if you could pick out the color of carpet for your room. You wanted a lilac color, and while it’s pretty, it’s not gonna happen. I told you it had to be neutral and you said, “Maybe light blue. That’s pretty neutral.”

Losing your seventh tooth. You put the tooth on the fair side of the bed and I suggested you should put it closer to the edge. You replied that the Tooth Fairy would just fly over you.

Doing the “I’m watching you” hand movement to your daddy and me. You were watching to see who was picking on Lilah and spanking her while she played Wii fit. Your daddy started it.

Jon:

Telling a group of adults that it wasn’t polite to have one person hold the place for three families and arguing with them in line when they got defensive and argued that it was fine.

The cockroaches. Oh, the cockroaches. You disturbed their home in the compost in preparation of moving. We then got cockroaches in the house. I sprayed by the back door and we got a cockroach graveyard.

Spaghetti.

Jonathan: Yeah, but websites apparently don’t sell driers. I looked.
me: Really?
Jonathan: Unless it’s called something other than a drier.
me: Dryer.
Jonathan: Ah!

I mix up left and right, you apparently mix up yellow and blue. As in you say blue when you mean yellow and vise versa.

Being proud that I said no to making rolls, but would buy them, so I would be less stressed. I said yes to making pies though….

Helping me write the ice breakers for my talk. Suggesting that I could make it memorable by singing the whole thing.

Packing books. It’s good that you have nearly half the books packed, it’s just bad that most of them are in the middle of my living room floor and will have no where to go until at least the middle of the December.

Me:
We saw Shelly Berkley at our polling place. I mentioned I wanted to shake her hand so I could see her up close. Jon didn’t think that was very nice.

Going crazy over house stuff. I’m a little stressed to say the least.(We’re closing in December now and that’s going to affect our move date. Banks.)

Today we signed papers for a house. It’s been a long time since we put an offer in, and it looks like we will have a second home by the end of the week! Then we’ll have to rip out all the floors to our second home, paint nearly every wall, and put it all back together again so we can move into our second home and have it become our primary home.

I’m exhausted just thinking about it.

We are so excited to have the space, but the work ahead is daunting. We’re not fixer uppers, yet we bought quite the fixer upper. Over the coming years we’ll also have to remodel the kitchen, and both bathrooms. I am looking forward to doing everything just the way we want it, even if it takes time. That is the one benefit of having to fix it up, we get to fix it to our tastes.

The girls are excited at the possibility of new pets, chickens, and building a tree house in the back yard.
Jon is excited for his library, more garden area, and building a tree house in the back yard. He’ll also be able to bike or skateboard to work.
I’m excited to have a sewing room, a school room, and more room in general. The house isn’t huge, but it is twice the space of what we have now and big enough that we can finally have more than 2 people over at a time. I wish it had a slightly more friendly floor plan for entertaining, but in actuality we won’t be having lots of people over all the time, so the house will do it’s job nicely for our regular needs. I’m happy that we’ll have space for family to stay when they visit and that we’ll be close to my sister Carolyn. She’s the best babysitter, and aunt.

So that’s the big news for us. We are finally moving, and if Jon has his way, it will be our final move.

I’m not one to always welcome change. It can be fun and exciting, but then it can be really sad.

I have a lot of friends and family going through change right now, including us. All this change means we will probably see these people less, and have to work harder at keeping in touch. Our lives will still meet, but not as much. It’s wonderful to see all these new experiences happen, but so sad to know we’ll all be moving on to new chapters in our lives, and consequently, will not be as much a part of one another’s lives.

One change is bittersweet. A friend of our teaches Science Saturday at the Natural History Museum. I suppose really, she taught there and then became our friend. Jon first took Eden and Lilah to the activities while I had Wizard of Oz rehearsal, way back in 2009. They made a friendship, and she even came to the play Wizard of Oz to see Lilah. We’ve continued to go as a family to the classes, sometimes together, sometimes just one parent with the girls because the other had rehearsal, some big assignment, a lesson to prepare. She came to Cinderella and Seussical, was interested in our family vacations and little things the girls do, and honestly we saw her more than we saw either of our families. We’ve really grown to love this woman, and are sad to see her leave. It’s bittersweet. She’s moving on to a teaching position at a school she enjoys, with students she loves, and with much better benefits than what she was receiving at the museum. She’s completing her masters and moving on. It makes us sad to know we can’t go each Saturday and have a lengthly conversation with her, but I’m happy for this new part of her life.

Another change is my sister Andrea has moved farther away. When she live in Ely, she was just a mere 4 1/2 hours from everywhere, read Las Vegas and Salt Lake City, and we visited her once a year. We also saw her family throughout the year for holidays, or dentists appointments, when they would come to Las Vegas. Now her husband has been transfered to the big city of Elko, and will be 7 1/2 hours from Las Vegas, but still just 4 1/2 from Salt Lake City, where his family is. I’m envious that his parents will be able to enjoy the shorter drive to see them. While I hope to still visit once a year, I know their visits to Las Vegas will be fewer. Elko will be able to provide a lot more for them and they won’t need to go to the even bigger cities. I know I can call Andrea and talk and catch up any time, but I ache that the cousins will see less of one another. I really want Lilah and Eden to know Poppy and Zarina. I guess we’ll have to plan more camping trips together and they’ll need to stock up on chicken thighs.

Then there is the moving of my dear friend Sam. While she’s not moving far from where we are now, it makes me sad to see her go. I suppose it’s just the same manifest of emotions I felt earlier this year at the thought of moving away from her, as we first put an offer on a house. It breaks my heart that we’ll both find new friends to help with last minute babysitting, or ingredients that one or the other might need. I know we’ll keep in touch, and will continue to see one another, but sometimes it’s the little things that strengthen a friendship and being close really helps. It’s the small things that make me grateful that we’ve had each other these past few years.

We’re also experiencing change, but it’s not definite just yet. It’s been 10 months since we put an offer on a house, and while it’s finally moving along, nothing is definite till you have the keys. Some days I think we’re going to be moving, while other days it feels like it’s never going to happen. Today is a day that it feels like it’s never going to happen.

I think it’s interesting that so many people I know are moving and experiencing change in their lives. I am really excited for the changes, but really sad also.

Lilah:

Your journal. You’re writing super creative stories. I love reading them each day we have school.

“Petco where the Pets go. It sounds like it’s where they go to the bathroom.”

While making your costume we sometimes had a hard time agreeing on how it should look. You thanked me several times for my hard work, usually shortly after we disagreed.

You’ve become quite the cuddle bug this month. You’ve also started to tickle me less, because you want me to tickle you more.

Being so excited for Halloween.

Being frustrated at first with orchestra. You’ve learned the music so it’s more enjoyable now.

Practicing every day for your 100 days of practice. It’s something new for us so we’ve had some close calls at missing, but overall you’ve done really well. You’re excelling at cello.

Eden:

Looking so serious during Hocus Pocus. You like the silly witch Sarah the best and even talked about dressing up as her next year for Halloween.

Being scared during Watcher in the Woods. You’d cover your eyes, but you still wanted to finish the movie.

While watching Matilda for Sam, Matilda fell and hit her head. She had to get two stitches. You felt really bad about it, and didn’t want to talk about it. Everyone was worried about Matilda, but more concerned about how you felt, since you were the one “in charge” of her at the time.

Pulling your own tooth! Daddy wouldn’t let me pull your tooth, he said you should. It didn’t work the first night you tried, but came out with just two pulls the second night.

Loving your ruby slippers. You are definitely a shoe person.

Eating lots of candy after we started attending parties. Usually it’s Lilah I have to watch out for, this time it was you.

Lacey:

“Where are my glasses?” I went to pick what I thought they were up off the bed, but I swiped the side that was open and missed.
“No, that’s not them .”
Jon: “Those are your glasses and this just shows how blind you are.”
In my defense, my glasses are lightly colored on the inside of the ear pieces and it kinda looked like they were just creases on the bed.

Carolyn told me Jon’s nick name shows up in her e-mails. So she has to look up “Hunny Bunny” when sending e-mails to Jon. I’ve changed it to his birth name so people don’t get the wrong idea.

Getting information on our house! Still crazy.

Jon:

Being the keeper of all our financial information. You’re doing a great job budgeting and making money for us.

We’ve been watching lots of classic shows from our youth on Netflix. You mentioned how old everyone looked when you were a kid, but how young they look now.

Staying home and handing out candy on Halloween.

Just for the sake of posting something on my blog, I thought I’d put pictures up from Halloween. We did some fun things, but here’s just a few of the girls in their costumes with the pumpkins they carved.

Eden chose to be Dorothy. She used her toy Toto, affectionately re-named Toto after he was Toto for Eden 5 years ago, when she was also Dorothy. (He was called puppy before that, and Lilah “sold” him to Eden.)
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Lilah decided to be a Nazgul, or Ring Wraith from The Lord of the Rings. No one knew what she was, and many didn’t even know once we told them, but she loved it.

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That pumpkin was in big trouble.

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Eden offered to take a picture of me with my pumpkin.

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I love Halloween!

I hope everyone was safe and enjoyed the holiday.