I guess they're okay

I got a phone call on Sunday from a woman we go to church with basically telling me that my kids are great. She sat behind Grace at the church's Primary Program (children's Sunday School) and told me that all the other kids in Grace's class were being "little monkeys" but that Grace was "an angel". She then went on for a bit telling me how great my girls were. It made me happy because what parent doesn't want to hear from a relative stranger that their kids are fabulous? Ryan and I often wonder what we have done to make our kids, well, good. I've come to the conclusion that it's just how they were made. I don't think I'm that great of a parent. For the most part I just stumble along hoping I'm doing something right.

My kids have been extra adorable lately, each doing things that make me think I'll keep them around for good. We're taking care of Nana's dogs while she is in Dallas. Hanna loves the dogs and she loves being responsible for them. I don't like the dogs and don't want to be responsible for them, so it's perfect! Yesterday morning Hanna was over feeding them and when she came home she said, "Melly had an accident but don't worry, I cleaned it up." Melly, the 200lb Golden Retriever, pooped on the floor and my nine year old cleaned it up! Without being asked! Jealous?

Today Grace was the spotlight kid in her second grade class. She was allowed to bring a baby picture plus two things that are special to her to show the class. Her blankie and her ukulele were what she chose to bring. Grace practiced in her room off and on Saturday and Sunday so she'd be ready to "play" her ukulele. Since I work across the hall from her room I was able to secretly watch her while she performed for her class. What is cuter than a little girl singing "I Loved My Rooster" while playing the ukulele? Nothing.

Success!

Grace was finally able to master a backbend on Saturday. I love that at the end of the video she says "dernit" which says to me that we have lived in Utah too long. Also this giggle/laugh thing I do has got to go.


Grace doing a back bend from sheavf on Vimeo.

Let's get it together Shea

Yesterday morning I thought I had it all together because I got up at 7:30 which gives me plenty of time to get everyone ready for the day. To my surprise, I was the only one up. Usually the girls get up at seven but they will sometimes have a rare morning of sleeping in. The getting up at seven doesn't bother me because I've trained them to do everything themselves. I get up at eight and yell from my bedroom, "Have you done what you need to do?" I know, vote me mother of the year. So I'm up at 7:30 and the first thing I do since no one is up is head to the computer to check my important emails and blogs. Suddenly it is eight and I am still sitting here in my underwear. This normally wouldn't be a problem except since Ryan's mom is away this week, we are looking after her dog so I have to unlock her front door to allow the girls to take care of her. That's right, the girls take care of her. I'm not really the dogs biggest fan and they like feeling responsible for her. I finish getting them over there and by now it's 8:15. I get in and out of the shower quickly and start drying my hair. Oh surprise! My favourite visitor (you know what I'm talking about) just happens to show up so that adds another few minutes to my schedule. By now I'm officially running late so I decide to do the fast makeup, light foundation, bronzer and mascara. I walk into the bedroom and pick up my clothes from yesterday which are still on the floor. Convenient! Hanna walks in and tells me the dog had an accident but that she cleaned it up. Sigh, perfect child. I tell her to wash her hands. I now remember that Grace was kicked in the face at recess yesterday and upon inspection see that she has a nasty purple mark under her eye. There is something about it that doesn't look right but I can't really place it since I haven't had or seen a lot of black eyes in my life. I'm back in the bedroom straightening my hair when I hear Hanna say, "That's marker on your face!" I take Grace into the bathroom to inspect the "black eye" and realize that this really does not look right. I start washing it gently and purple is coming off on the washcloth. I then look at her finger and it's purple too. This isn't a black eye. It's purple marker! She was colouring with markers last night and accidentally rubbed her sore eye with her finger that had marker on it. I was ready to take pictures and blog about this eye! I rush to get us all to school/work within seconds of the bell ringing. I decide to decompress at the book fair by buying books for the kids. Whew!

So here is my question for you...I know people who say it takes them 45 minutes to put their makeup on. I just can't fathom how makeup application could take this long. When I'm trying to look "fancy" I think it might take me a grand total of 5-7 minutes. When I'm hurrying like I was this morning, it took me 1 minute. So how long does it take you to put makeup on and what are your favourite makeup items that you couldn't live without? Mine are, Clinique's (I use all Clinique because I like getting free makeup at Bonus Time) Almost Makeup, mascara and bronzer.

Meet Stella Revelyn

That's the name the girls came up with, Stella Revelyn. Revelyn is a combination of their two middle names, Ruita and Evelyn. Of course the first thing that jumped into my mind when I heard this name was "Renesme" the vampire baby from Breaking Dawn. WORST. NAME. EVER! Needless to say, we will not be calling it Stella Revelyn but the naming kept the girls occupied on the long drive home after buying the scooter. It's a 2003, 150 cc, two stroke, Stella scooter. Since Ryan was a teenager he has wanted a Vespa type scooter and if this is his big dream, then I'm all for making it come true. It's cheap! I just went outside to find Ryan cleaning his scooter and when I passed by him he did a little happy dance. Who knew?


Action shot

My attempt to look sesksy. I posted this one because I knew Amanda would like the orb next to my head. There is also an orb in Ryan's picture. Spooky.

Can you relate?

I'm usually a pretty relaxed person and it takes a lot to get me worked up. I'm not one to get offended if you don't wave to me when I pass you driving to school, unless it's done over and over even when I make a huge effort to give you the big cheesy wave and smile. I feel a tangent coming. There is this one woman who I pass quite often when I'm walking or driving the kids to school. If I happen to be looking when she drives by I always give her a wave but she hardly ever waves back. Whatever, this person and I are never going to be BFFs so I don't let it get to me. Lately I've been treating it like an experiment. I wave and then I watch her reaction. I actually laughed out loud the other day when it happened while I was walking the kids to school. It looked like it physically pained her to raise her hand in a wave.

"Good grief, Shea is waving at me again. Come on hand, move on up there. Ahh there you go. Whew! I'm glad that's over."

This could be all in my mind which is very likely. Okay back on track. Even then, I'm not offended but just find it amusing. Lately I've been thinking about things people have done that have honestly left me feeling bad. There haven't been a lot over the years but I find it hard to let go of things when I really am hurt. I had an experience after Evie was born that was fairly upsetting. Basically it was that my church appointed "caretakers" did nothing. I've had a couple of years to think about this and I realize that maybe they didn't know what to do. They felt awkward and chose to do nothing. I understand because I've done plenty of "nothing" in my life. I still think they had a great opportunity to serve and blew it but I'm over it now. It's definitely taught me to be more aware of those I'm responsible for and I try to help out when needed. The thing is, I got over it. It took me awhile but I know that holding grudges only hurts me. So I was wondering if anyone else has had times in their lives where they've found it hard to let something go?

Why don't we have matching camouflage outfits?

With soccer and work, it's hard for me to get on here. Although, with how my job has been going lately I could probably spend the majority of my day blogging and no one would be the wiser. I subbed on my days off which I don't really mind doing but it just makes the week seem super busy. Plus we are soccer coaches and had two games this week. Ryan does the coaching but I still watch both girls play which basically takes all night.

We also had an offer on our house that fell through on Monday. Looking back, I don't know why we ever thought the camouflage couple would buy our house. We were their eighth offer since February and they'd backed out on all of them. I'm still feeling bummed about it because the thought of selling your house when you're building another house is very appealing. Ryan's mom (next door) has a MIL apartment so we don't even have to worry about a place to live until our house is built.

On Tuesday, Karen, Angela (my realtor) and I went to to the Ivory Homes design center in Lehi to have an orientation. It's very overwhelming to pick out every little thing in your house. When we built this house we didn't have a lot of choices so it didn't seem as difficult. On the way home Angela ran out of gas on the freeway and we had to push her mini-van to a gas station. Karen steered because she had to pee and those who know her know she has very limited bladder control. She has had five kids. Luckily we ran out right at an exit and about halfway up the exit, two nice young men came and helped us. Mysteriously, when we went to thank them, they had disappeared. No, that didn't happen.

I'm feeling kind of pissy today about people looking at our house who love our house but are unsure about the yard. Listen dorks, the yard is what is great about this house. It's why rich people pay $200,000 for a lot up on the bench. The trees, the view, the privacy, those are good things. If you want a big generic expanse of grass that you'll never use and have to water all the time, feel free to rip out the trees and put it in. As it is now, I can jump on my trampoline naked and no one would ever see. Which would you rather look out your window and see, Mt. Timpanogas and Utah Lake or the side of your neighbors house? I'm getting too worked up. Van Fleet out!

Take a virtual tour of our house plan. Ours will be a little different but you get the idea.

Lucca Craftsman

Girl cousins

I was sorting through iPhoto and found this picture from the summer. Grace, Beth and Hanna are hanging out at the Lethbridge river bottoms. I think it's cute that both Grace and Beth are missing their front teeth. I'm glad that my kids have cousins their own age. Due to both families being reproductively challenged, there are only four total grandchildren but it's cool that they are all the same age. I'll blog more about it tomorrow but our house did not sell and it's making me sad.

*p.s. buy our pool table!*

Please buy our pool table

Our house might have sold but there is one big problem, our pool table. When we were building this house, Ryan's grandma and grandpa gave us the pool table as a gift. It had been in their family since the 70's and they had it re-felted and moved to our home for us. Ryan even designed a special room in the basement just for it. The sad truth is, we just don't use it much. We know we are holding onto it for sentimental reasons but now that our house might be selling and we have no where to put this table until our new house is built, we realize that we have to sell it. Ryan went to Quality Billiards in Salt Lake where it was made and they told him to ask $1200 for it. It's a great table and I really like the design of it. It's been covered the entire 6 years it's been in our house. You'd have to pay to move it which can be around $500 but there might be better deals out there.

Quality Billiards 8-foot Over Sized Pool Table
• 1-inch single slate table
• New felt
• Includes balls and cues
*click to enlarge pictures*

I wish my child was a genius

I was reading Mimi Smartypants today and it's obvious that their daughter, who was adopted from China, is a genius. This kid is smart with a capital s. She is in a gifted kindergarten that sounds fabulous and you can tell that she belongs there. I just think it would be super cool to have a kid that was that gifted. My kids are plenty smart and I marvel and some of the things they are able to accomplish but I don't think they would be labeled "genius". I admit I want a "genius" because it would make me look good. Freakanomics says intelligence is inherited so that would mean Ryan or I are also super smart and you all know it is me. I was in the enrichment program in my elementary school which I think was a fancy name for the gifted program. To this day I don't know why I was in there. Everyone in there did much better academically than me but we had to take an IQ-like test for it so I sometimes wonder if I have this super amazing IQ but lack the gumption to do anything with it. Or maybe there was some sort of mix-up with the test results and some poor smart kid never reached their full potential.

If you are Canadian, it is your duty to purchase these for your baby!

Helloyaya Maple Leaf Leather Infant Shoes

Here it goes!

I think of things I want to write about all the time but I usually don't because I don't feel that I'm a very good writer. I read other women's blogs and I think, "Wow! She is amazing and funny and I wish I could be like her." I've been wanting to write about the Presidential race and the conventions but I stop myself because I think I'm either too ignorant and there is nothing worse than someone blogging about politics when they don't know what they are talking about. I did put my Obama sticker on my car the other day which prompted my neighbour kids to tell my kids that "he was going to come to our houses and take our guns away." I think they also made a disparaging remark about "black people" but both Ryan and I have blocked it out. I don't really see Barack Obama coming to our house to take our guns away because I think he has better things to do but it obviously has some people concerned. I like guns as much as the next person (as long as they aren't shooting at me or being involved in a violent crime) but I'm just not that worried about them being confiscated. NRA members cover your ears when I say this but I think we have bigger things to worry about, like that little ol' war and stuff. When I hear remarks like theirs it makes me feel rebellious and want to plaster "Vote Obama" stickers and signs all over our property. I have felt this way most of my life, but mostly when it comes to politics and ridiculous made up church rules. For example, tell me I have to wear pantyhose to church and I'll never wear them again even if my legs are as white red-headed step child's. I'm not voting for Obama because I feel rebellious but I have to admit that's a nice added bonus. I disagree with McCain and Palin on some very fundamental issues. I think it's great that Palin is a woman who has made it to the top and I have to admit I find her spunk charming. Sadly, spunk and charm are not the reasons I vote for someone. Maybe Palin and I could wrestle a bear together and then grab a couple of beers but when it comes to who I want in the White House, she's not my choice. As for McCain, I'm just so sick of Bush and what he's done that I can't face another four years with a republican president. Also I find his wife very, very scary. I dig the pearls though.

Gary Coleman ran over someone at the bowling alley

Payson hasn't had this much action since "Footloose" was filmed here.

Man run over by former child star in Payson

Which name is worse? Lehi or American Fork?

We are 99% sure we will be building a house in Lehi this year. Loooong story short, we found a lot we loved there and are now in the process of getting qualified (no problem since Ryan has made it his mission to keep our credit rating impeccable) and signing many papers. We put money down on the lot and our offer was accepted this week. This is a big deal for us because we are not usually risk taking people which is mostly good because that's why we have no debt. Our house still isn't sold and we can't afford the new house unless we sell this one. People tell me it's done all the time but it's still scary. We are hoping that we can stay in this home for a long time, like until one of us is dead long. It's close to the freeway so Ryan can hop right on and drive to work in only thirty minutes. I told my brother it's close to Cabela's and he asked me, "If Dad was going to have me running daily errands?" It's also close to the Lehi Roller Mills where Kevin Bacon worked in "Footloose" and where the final dance was held. A friend told me not to buy the girls red cowboy boots. And lastly it's close to much shopping except I won't have any money to spend because it will be paying the mortgage.

Looking west. Nice big trees and Karen thinks she saw a goat in there.

Looking south at the house across the street. Ours will not be that fancy.

The view to the south west.

North east.

Our lot. Hanna is loving that there are horses in "our back yard."

Our house but it will have a three car garage and different exterior colours.

Here is a link to the floor plan. You can click on it to enlarge it.
Home Design

Am I that kind of parent?

Hanna has been having a hard time with school. She has a teacher this year that she just isn't clicking with and this is making it hard for her to be excited about school. Hanna's such a good kid it's almost abnormal. She wants to please and hates getting in trouble. Yesterday Hanna came home very upset because her teacher "yelled" at her. I can't think of anything this child would ever do to warrant being yelled at, so I'm already a bit worked up. I start to question her about it and she breaks down sobbing while trying to get her feelings out. She feels "uncomfortable around new teachers" and just doesn't know this teacher well enough. I finally get that Hanna is scared of this teacher. I think she is a good teacher but she and Hanna just don't work well together. I didn't request anyone this year because I knew they were all good and don't really want to be one of those parents. Hanna had Mr. Craig last year and they are kindred spirits. In fact I know Hanna has a crush on him and once heard her telling Grace she was going to marry him. He's married so I told her it would never work unless she was willing to break up a marriage. I don't know why, but I thought it would be good for her to experience a different teacher and therefor left it up to chance. I'm obviously an idiot. Today I went in early and talked to Mr. Craig and the principal (I cried. Nice.) and Hanna will be transferring to Mr. Craig's class tomorrow. We told her tonight and I could tell she was very happy about this. I'm still worried if I did the right thing. I don't want to be one of those parents who fixes everything for their kids but I know Hanna and I can tell when she is hurting. Being a parent is hard.