Home For Sale

We have decided - after much deliberation - to sell our home.  We have loved living in our 1950s-built neighborhood and we can only hope we'll find neighbors as wonderful wherever we end up as we have had here.  It has been a difficult decision for us.  I'll give some details below for those who may be interested.

Reasons to stay are as follows:

• We love our neighbors.  This truly is a uniquely kind and caring neighborhood filled with nonjudgmental people.  I love that there are families in every age group, including elderly, middle-age, lots of kids and newlyweds.
• We have spent the past 6 years making this house our home.  We've made lots of wonderful memories here.  It is hard to leave a home you love, even when you feel it's time.
• We have completely redone the kitchen (complete with all possible upgrades) and both bathrooms (they're finally done and now we're leaving!).
• We've painted every room in the house at least once.
• We overhauled the basement, complete with large closet, crown moulding, paint, carpeting and all new doors.
• We added an extra-large porch onto the front of the house so we could expand our dining room out several feet and still have a larger porch with room for rockers.  We put in super deep footings so we could extend the roof to cover the large porch.  We don't believe we'll be able to increase the price of the house by the amount it would cost to finish this process, so we'll just leave it as an extra large porch and it will be ready for the new owners, should they decide they'd like a large dining room.
• Just last summer we built raised, square-foot gardening boxes and filled them with super amazing soil. 
• We converted part of our extra-large garage into a bedroom (aka "bonus" room) for my dad.
• We love our established yard, complete with large shade trees, climbing ivy, large outdoor patio and great snowboarding and sledding hills.

Reasons to leave are as follows:

• We are outgrowing our house.  We've added a child and a grandparent to our household and the other three kids have grown a lot in the past 6 years!  And they (we) are only getting bigger!
• We need more common areas - such as a large family room, and an office/sewing area.  I want my kids to want to have their friends at our house.  To encourage this, I want a nice family room with enough room for friends, games, etc.
• Ashlie, our oldest child, is going into junior high next year.  Olivia is just one year behind her.  If we're going to make a move, I think it is best to do it before they establish hard-to-lose friendships in junior and senior high schools. 
• I have really missed sidewalks.  Our neighborhood doesn't have sidewalks and we are on the benches of the mountain here in Bountiful.  I hate that my kids (especially the younger ones) can't ride their bikes without going out into the roads and onto a hill.
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We found one home that we loved and it even had a little "cottage" that my dad could have lived in, but our offer wasn't as high as the one they accepted, so we lost it.  I found another one I fell in love with, but Rob wasn't as enthusiastic.  And so we'll keep looking.

Pictures

Rob is such a great dad.  He spends time almost every night playing games with the kids or helping them with projects, etc.  He is really wonderful!  Here he is, helping Alex with his first erector set.

 Avery LOVES his daddy!  He doesn't like Rob to go to work every day and often tries to convince him to stay home.

 Olivia is so good at taking care of Avery.  Having her at home with me during the day this year has been so nice.  She frequently helps with Avery and has learned some great babysitting skills.  Here she is, reading one of my favorite children's books (The Monster At the End of This Book) to him. 

 Ashlie and Olivia are good friends.  It is so nice to have such a good friend to grow up with.  They like to slide down the stairs in Ashlie's slippery sleeping bag and land on pillows.

 Avery is trying to hold Olivia in this picture.  These two love their "feety" jammies!

 Alex, reading.

 Avery and Olivia

 Sometimes I find that Ashlie and Olivia have fallen asleep together in one of their beds.  They both love to snuggle and giggle together and are so lucky to have each other.

 What could be more fun than taking turns playing DS with your brother/sister?

 Ashlie can almost always be found with her nose inside a book!  I love that she loves to read!

Olivia and Avery drew a city on the driveway, including this school house.  So cute!

They're so cute when they're sleeping!

I have always loved pictures of my sleeping babies.  They are just so darn cute (and QUIET) when they're asleep! 

 At what age is it no longer kosher to take pictures of one's children sleeping?  :)  I've still got time, right?

Alex hates his bed.  We are unsure of the reason and I don't think he even knows.  Regardless of the reason(s), he ends up sleeping in one of the following places every night: on the floor by my bed, on the couch in the family room, on the recliner, or on any other piece of carpet not in his bedroom.

Olivia's Cell

Last week Olivia created a representation of an animal cell out of various foods.  The graham cracker crust is the cell membrane, the grape Jello is the cytoplasm, she used Gobstoppers to create a nucleus, mints for vacuoles, broken pieces of spaghetti for chromosomes, sunflower seeds are mitochondria.

She had a fun time creating this cell and learning to make Jello!

Our New Paint Color

I have been wanting to re-paint the family room for some time now.  And by "I", I mean that I wanted someone else to paint the family room for me!  Well, as luck would have it, my dad was willing to fix the ceiling cracks and repaint the family room last month!  Yay!!!  I love the color we ended up with; it just feels so much more friendly and happy than the color we used to have.  I still haven't bought the fabric for new curtains, but wanted to post the pictures of the painting project before too long had passed.  Thanks, Dad!

This is my dad's super awesome power sander for sheetrocking.  He and his dad developed it years ago and with a duct tape repair on the hose now and then it still works!  If I understand correctly, it sands the drywall or repaired part of the wall, then collects the majority of the dust in that handy canvas bag.  He says that as far as he knows it's the only one like it in the world.  My dad learned the art of sheet rocking and wall repair from his father, whom he worked with and for every day after school when he was a teenager.

More Pictures

A classic toy...

Avery, pretending to be Olivia's "baby". 

 Isn't he cute? 

Look at these handsome boys before church!  This is the first time Avery has worn a tie and he LOVED it.  I couldn't get Alex to give me a normal smile, but at least the picture captures who he really is!

And here are my beautiful girls before church on the same day.

Avery took a nap with me the other day and he just looked so cute with his blankie and Mario, so I risked waking him so I could get a picture.

Avery on his favorite warm-weather toy

Alex hates that we have no sidewalks in our neighborhood.  I really wish we had sidewalks and/or didn't live on a hill.  These factors make me really worry about the kids riding their bikes.

 Olivia on her scooter.  She likes to make roads with sidewalk chalk on the driveway.

Avery

Ashlie

Last week my mom, my sister Aubrey,and I took the kids to the church parking lot to ride bikes.  The kids had a ball playing outside after being cooped up indoors all winter.  (And I had fun riding Alex's scooter.)

 

Just for fun

Just the Girls

Olivia has adopted this fun bandana hair-do because it's simple and keeps her bangs out of her face.  To Olivia and I, our hair is just a pain.  We don't really take any joy from fixing our hair, so we keep it simple!

Ashlie, on the other hand, is always changing her hair style.  Within one day she will change her hair style multiple times.  I can pretty much count on her hair looking different when I pick her up from school than it was when she was dropped off.  She likes to express herself through her hair and clothing styles.

Tragedy in Japan

I can hardly stop watching the video clips available on the Internet of the devastation in Japan.  The estimated death toll rises each day and the circumstances for those still living worsens as the hours tick on without loved ones being located and shortages of basic necessities.

 

The newscasters keep saying that most people couldn't even imagine such destruction being possible from a tsunami and earthquakes.  I think it strikes me as particularly disturbing because, a) my brother and his family live just a short distance from Sendai (in Yamagata), and b) Japan is a highly developed, industrialized country - like the United States.

 If a natural disaster can cause this degree of devastation in Japan it can create as big a problem anywhere in the world.   The nuclear reactors had 3 backup safety systems and all 3 failed at one of the nuclear power plants.  It's a good reminder that God is in charge; nothing humans do to prevent disaster will work without God's consent.

In one of the news clips I watched, the reporter talked about how the people were being kind and courteous to each other, even while stuck in an evacuation center without adequate resources and among many, many other people of all ages.  Considering the level of anger many American's have just from inconsiderate drivers or having to wait in line for 15 minutes or listening to a crying child, I can't imagine that in the United States people would be as courteous or patient.  Japan's altruistic society - where the needs of the group are more important than individuals' needs - has certainly helped make being stuck together in close quarters in horrific circumstances a bit more bearable.   

The damage in Japan is a distinct reminder that our belongings are temporary.  Whether they are taken away while we yet live or we die and leave them behind, our "stuff" can be gone with no warning.  It just doesn't matter now who had the nicest homes or cars or clothes last week, because those things are gone.  Now what matters is having loved ones nearby and safe and having a knowledge that Heavenly Father is mindful of each person and faith that He knows what He is doing.  As it says in the book of Matthew: "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal".

I wish I could go to Japan and help somehow.  I wish I could listen to the people talk about what's on their minds or I could help clear out debris and help people salvage what is left of their belongings.  Most of all I wish I could convey to them my knowledge that their loved ones that have died are with their Heavenly Father and that they can see them again.  But here I sit in my nice home, surrounded by everyone I love, feeling helpless and saddened that the Japanese people are suffering such great losses.

I realize that it is a blessing to me and all of us who watch from the safety of our family rooms because we can learn from the destruction in Japan without having to experience it directly.  So I'll hold my loved ones a little closer.  I'll try not to offend or take offense.  I'll try to remember that my stuff isn't what matters.  I'll try to help ease the burdens of those around me.  And most of all I'll be grateful for my testimony that Christ died for us so we might return to live with Him - whenever we are called Home.  I appreciate the gospel in my life and the peace it gives me.  And I'm grateful that these "things" can never be taken from me.

 

"And now, my brethren, I desire that ye shall plant this word in your hearts, and as it beginneth to swell even so nourish it by your faith. And behold, it will become a tree, springing up in you unto everlasting life. And then may God grant unto you that your burdens may be light, through the joy of his Son. And even all this can ye do if ye will. Amen."  - Alma 33:23 (The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ)