Top 20 ways to move in a week and (mostly)survive!

This post is for Suziepetunia. She is one of my closest friends and is more like a sister than just a friend. We met briefly 8 years ago, but then 6 years ago became running partners and a lifelong friendship began. In March of this year, her husband was offered a great, exciting job opportunity, but the bummer for me is that the job is in another state. We had recently become next door neighbors and were enjoying the time together. I thought we would be next door for a couple of more years. I was very disappointed, but excited for them to have a new adventure. Her husband has already started his new job, so much of the packing and moving would be done by her- this week! They had a pod delivered to her house last Friday and the fun started! Taylor helped her over the weekend and then had to go do that work thing! She made a list of which area she would pack each day. She was very methodical about it and I was impressed with her optimism. :-)
Here are some of the highlights that made the move successful:

20. Let your neighbor's husband and your husband play Tetris with the boxes to get as much space out of that tiny pod. Finish with the beloved mattress!


19. Pass on some of your unwanteds to your good friend!
18. Somehow in the middle of all this, help your son earn his green belt!(figuring out that a good friend who also happened to be a 2nd grade teacher could help him write his reports! Thanks Trina!)

17. Find your son's DS that has been missing for 9 months and be able to laugh at the irony that it was found in its correctly labeled bin- where it should have bin!
16. Allow your husband to give away your perishables by first attempting to auction it off!

15. Let your neighbors light a big fire with your stuff you are throwing out! (wish I had a better picture- it was too awesome to take my eyes off to get the camera)

14. Have your kids help! (Even if they sometimes put boxes on their head.)

13. Give your 12 year old the label maker and she will have fun!

12. Go running 5 of the 6 days you are moving even if you are exhausted. Some of those runs will end up being walks, but they will all be worth it.

11. On the last run, do your most favorite(hard) run and take lots of silly pictures! (Spencer, you can see the view is much better on a clear day! Wish we had your mad photography skills to capture this! We had to ask random strangers driving by!)

10. Follow your list and when your packing for the day is done- celebrate with your friends and kids! Go bowling followed by Sonic (Although 10 kids under 10 really was a little crazy!) Enjoy having just 1 kid to get ready because another good friend (Ranell) had your other kids for a few hours.

9. On a beautiful day, even when your list isn't done yet, join your good friend at the pool (without your kids!) and get a break! Then let your kids come and swim while you get back to packing!

8. Let people take your kids and have members of the ward help you when you are about to have a mental breakdown when you realize how much you have left to do.

7. Stay up until 1am going through clothes and loading the truck with your best friend, and find things to laugh about. Such as boxes in boxes and bags of bags. Maybe you won't get these jokes later, but it helped us to survive!

6. Enjoy the meals brought by many good friends who love you. (Even share them with your neighbor!)

5. Get rid of your guilt by taking pictures of some of the sentimental items that you are throwing away.

4. If in doubt, throw it out. (Especially at the end!)
3. Find out how much you are loved by having a party on your own property the night before you leave and have over 100 people show up.

2. Have help from great family members who show up to help finish things off.

1. Let your neighbor do the fun stuff and take your kids to the Balloon Festival while you finish off the last of the cleaning!

I could go on and on about my friendship with Sarah. Very shortly after beginning to run with her, I wrote this post about her on her 30th birthday. We were instant friends. Spending hours a week running and talking sure cements a friendship. She has seen me at my best and worst and loves and accepts me as I am. She was there through an ADHD diagnosis, the loss of my father, my frustrations with my weaknesses, and all the fun stuff in between. We have some great memories that I will always cherish. Our families became entwined as our friendship grew. Living next door these last 8 months has allowed us to have even more experiences and makes it that much harder to lose them. I know we will keep in touch and I do look forward to hearing more about her new life with her family. I am just so grateful I had these last 6 years with her. The memory that sticks out to me that shows her dedication and love as a friend is when she offered to come with me to California to watch Bryce while I was at my dad's funeral. It was the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me and I don't know if she knows how much it meant to me. That is one of the hardest, most awkward times to be around someone and she was willing to do it. Taylor took time off work also so she could be there. I knew then how special her friendship was. We were pregnant at the same time and had Bryce and Alice 6 weeks apart. That was also a special time to share. There are so many more memories I could share. I feel lucky to be her friend.
Good luck in this big step, Giles Family. We love you and will miss you so much. Sarah, I still look forward to many, many more years of friendship and memories, even if many of them will be long distance. You are amazing! There are great things ahead for you- I just know it!
(PS This started as a top 10, but there was too much to share! This process was not easy by any means, but with a good friend it is always more enjoyable. It was like a big slumber party without the frozen panties!)

Happy Mother's Day

Well, I am almost caught up! I have a trip to Utah where I was able to meet my new beautiful niece- but I didn't have my camera! So, I need to get Shelly's pics and then I will update those!

For now, I just want to talk about how grateful I am for my 3 munchkins who teach me how to be a mother. I learn so much from them every day. I am grateful that they were sent to me and that Heavenly Father trusts me to be their mom. They are all 3 sweet, special kids with unique personalities. I hope they know how much I love each one of them.

I made a big decision this week to quit my job at the YMCA. I have been there for 9 years (part time.) I started working in Child Watch, and then teaching Kids Gym and the Special Needs group, and then for the last 3 years I have been in Fitness, as a personal fitness instructor, running coach, 8 Weeks to Wellness teacher and most recently a personal trainer. I love it and I love helping others with their fitness goals.

However, I feel right now, the place I need to give my focus is with my kids. Emily will be going to first grade and I want to be able to use this last bit of time with her. I am thoroughly enjoying the stage that Bryce is in and helping encourage his love of reading. Dallin continues to amaze me with his maturity, and I don't want to miss out on time with him now that he is in school all day. They are the most important thing to me and I look forward to this extra time with them. I will miss the Y, but I am excited to just be "mom" for a while! I will go back to the Y when I feel the time is right. I am grateful that they were so supportive of my decision.

Tulip Festival 2011

Tulips are my favorite flower and I look forward to their (short) season each year. One of my favorite places to visit is the Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival. We had not been able to get there, but I finally decided on Thursday just to up and go! I am so glad I did! We left Dallin since he wasn't home from school yet (and didn't want to go anyway!) and grabbed Alice from next door. I love watching kids play when there are no screens around! Their favorite part was the ducky races. They could have stayed there for hours. I was grateful that we got there late enough that the bounce houses were closed! :-)

Easter 2011

Easter is one of my favorite holidays and I try to keep it as non commercial as possible! This year we did an Easter Egg Hunt that happened to be honoring our good friend Liam Juassi. He is such an inspiration to us. The good news is he has been cancer free! Woo Hoo! Here is a link to his story.

We also did a primary activity that was a scripture scavenger hunt. There was no candy involved and I think the kids got the spiritual message we were going for!

Our Sunday tradition has been with the Christensens and the Ramos families for the last 9 Easters! We usually have a brunch, but now that we are in 3 different wards, we couldn't meet until 5pm. Catherine is an amazing host and we each bring food. The kids look forward to it all year. We started with 3 kids and now have 10 between us!

PS

They put the baskets on their head. pretending to be bucket zombies from my favorite game Plants v. Zombies!

Kids Happenings

Bryce and Emily finished soccer and I think they both loved it! Bryce kept a running tally of all the goals he made and gave us the update each game. I believe he finished with 13 goals! Emily was pretty excited to make her first goal at the end of the season. It was great watching her get more and more confident.

Dallin and Emily both took big steps in April. Dallin auditioned for a local talent show with a rendition of Beethoven's 5th. He practiced every day and I was very proud of his dedication. When he watched some of the audition tapes, he turned to me and said, "Mom, I am okay if I don't get picked." I thought it was very humble of him to recognize that he wasn't the best! I was still happy for his effort and the learning experience.

Emily auditioned for the local production of "Sound of Music." She sang "Defying Gravity" from Wicked. I was proud of her for getting on that big stage and not getting nervous! She did not make it either, but she had fun.

Now Dallin has started baseball and we are enjoying the new season. The kids and I watch in the rain and Jeff is helping to coach.

Here is Dallin's You Tube video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7To9CMv-FKc

Here is the link to Emily's You Tube video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGO5Z2zWGZQ

Country Life Update

I feel like life is one big experiment right now! We have no idea what we are doing with all this property, but we sure love it! We had 9 chickens between us and the Giles, and unfortunately, we had an attack that left us with 7 piles of feathers. Dallin was the one who found them and was really upset about it. The next day we lost number 8, and the last chicken held on for a couple more weeks. We need to figure out soon what was killing off our chickens because we have 7 chicks in the garage! The kids have loved watching them grow! They are so big now! If we don't figure out a solution soon, we are just raising coyote bait! Any suggestions?

The kids will play outside for hours, which I love! The main reason I have always wanted a big backyard was so that we could play catch with our kids. That is a sweet memory I have with my own dad and it is great watching it come true with my kids! We are getting the garden ready and I have been adding color to our yard. Jeff did some new bark dust which looks really nice. Come join us anytime!