29th Birthday!

Yes, Im 29 today!

Today is a day that i kinda have been dreading. I knew that my first birthday without my mom was going to be hard. I need her right now amongst all the mess in my life. Mom was always the constant in my life and when life was crazy with big decisions she was always there with a calm voice, giving advice and helping me through it. I miss her today!

The stress kept building:

my kids were watching TV at 1:00 in the afternoon,
I was scrolling through houses we cant afford,
kids fighting over tv, its my birthday,
im supposed to be happy,
husbands gone
...then I snapped!

Im not one to totally fall of my rocker but I was DONE with everything!!

It was a hard, hard day. My kids were all crying, I was crying...it was me. I had let my family get to backwards that we were watching tv at 1:00 on a Sat. afternoon. C'mon that doesn't fly at our house. I was always on the computer getting sucked in to finding the perfect house even though we cant move there till July-Aug.

That was the first part of my day now to the second half

After my fall-out I regrouped and started to study for my talk in sacrament mtg for the next Sun. along with Sharing time for Junior/Senior. I gathered my stuff and went outside under the shade of our tree by Myself. I read an amazing talk that totally hit me. It was titled "Finding Strength in Challenging Times" by Allen F. Packer. What an amazing talk. Later that night Darin took me out to dinner at Tucanos where I got a free meal. Before dinner we drove out to the airport and talked for a bit then gave me the sweetest card ever along with Paul Cardall CD. Love that man!!

A day that started out really horrible ended really great! Not the birthday I thought it was going to be but definitely one that I won't every forget.

Buy or Rent??

Now that we have and offer we are constantly looking for houses in Seattle. Some may think that sounds fun but when housing prices are $300-350,000 for the same size house that we have now, its rather depressing. What to do...trying to figure out all the logistics of everything is exhausting but at least I can relax on my house cleaning, picking up contantly. Im not that way by nature so it takes effort for me to constantly clean and get the kids to clean up EVERythinG in sight all the time. For now we have decided to buy to take advantage of the low interest rates but we will see if Darins work does what they say they will do.

OFFER!

My life has been a roller coaster the last month and to say the least a little STRESSFull!! So now Im playing catch-up and going back! So, Im fudging on the date so I can pretend that I posted right when it happened!!

While I was out of town visiting my sister Melanie, helping her with her new baby we had an offer come in. My awesome husband cleaned house and cooked dinner, while my amazing friend, Alyssa watched my two little kiddos. I believe it was May 4th, and after 4 showings in one day a glorious offer came in that evening! It was bittersweet because it all was starting to feel real. Ive known that we were going to move since February but not until August so I pushed it away because it was easier to face. But when the weather started to warm and now the offer came in on our home it is 50% exciting but also 50% scary and sad as well.

We were really happy with the offer we did get and feel that moving to seattle must be right for us.

Keldon David Cain

The sweetest little boy was born on Friday, May 1st. Isn't he the cutest! Melanie had her first baby last week and I was there to help bring him into this world. What an experience that was! Her husband, Chris and I helped Melanie through her labor and gladly celebrated when it was all over. I was able to spend 5 days with Melanie and tried to fill my mothers absence. That was really hard to do. How can I fill such large shoes? When I had all three of my kids, my mom would come for about 4 days to help out with the kids and take care of me. It was such a fun time that we got to spend with eachother.
Visiting Melanie was similar but when two sisters get together with very little sleep and lots of sugar, silliness starts to set in. We shared a lot of laughs intermixed with cooking and of coarse some naps. I tried to help with dishes and a little cleaning but I constantly had to ask myself "What would mom be doing right now if she were here?" I knew what Sherri would do, thats easy, but what would mom do? We shared a few tears together but also felt that she was near, especially while in the hospital. We miss you mother...

Seattle Gardening

This is what Im going to plant in Seattle. They have a bunch of different plants up there. Basically everything that we CANT grow here. Rhodies, Azaleas, Fuchsias, Impatients. I want to find a little house where i can experiment on some of these fun plants. We sold some of these at the plant sale when I was in high school but I remember them not doing very well cause it was too windy then always got too hot!

Sweet Briar



Fuchsia (Mrs. Popple)

Favorite Trees

I love spring! I love it when I see brand new tulips poking their way through the ground. I love it when the bare naked trees get their blossoms. Winter is so blah, and ugly and its such a blessing to have spring, new life and beauty! I have a few favorite trees that I watch on my way home every time I go out. I notice these beautiful trees and always swear Im going to figure out what kind they are so I can someday grow my own.

I have this dream of someday having a huge yard with trees and shrubs everywhere. A pool with flowers and lush green grass. A huge swing set for the kiddos and my garden by the fence. The house I kind of imagine was the home where we took our first swimming lessons. The yard was gorgeous! I can see this home in my head and someday I hope that maybe I will be in one home long enough to work toward something like that but maybe on a smaller scale. to make it come true. But until then I like to collect my favorite trees and shrubs so I know what I like.

Here are just a few of my favorites:


Sensation Maple (this tree has amazing fall color, a mixture of yellow, reds and orange) It get really big too!


Spring Snow Crabapple (these trees are in front of the Meridian Winco and are a globe shape.


Canadian Red Chokecherry (these have white,fragrent, conie blossoms and the leaves turn a red color in the summer


Plum (there are lots of varieties but have pretty pink blossoms in the spring

Babies Galore!

All of my friends are expecting this spring. My sister in law started the prego craze with her baby boy, which was born on April 15th.

Next is Melanie, Im guessing his birthday will be May 1st (cause babies are meant to be born in May, right Mel!)

Then, its Marne's surprise baby in the middle of May...will it be a boy or girl??

Okay, then I believe we have a little break until Maren is due July 3rd.

Holy Cow, fun for me to be surrounded by all these sweet lil babies.


Can't wait to fill in for my mom and be there with Melanie for her first. What a beautiful thing it is to have your first. Its forever etched in your brain and a day and experience that you will never forget.

Beautiful Home for Sale

My life right now is trying to keep my house clean and picked up. I have dejunked and brought a TON of stuff out to the garage for our soon to be garage sale. What a aha moment that is....the less junk you have to manage in your home the easier it is to keep clean. It really hasn't been too bad. We have had 2-3 showings a week so when you have a showing every other day the house doesn't have time to get really messy. C'mon isn't this house cute!! It will sell, right?

Jumping UP and Down!!

Hi Sherri,

I know you mentioned earlier that you would like Nicole’s dresses that she outgrew. Well, I went through all her clothes and I have two garbage bags full of girl clothes. Would you like them for Chelsea? I am just going to donate them so they are yours if you want them!

Beckie

This is the email that I recieved from a friend in my ward. Now, wouldn't you be jumping up and down too! We couldn't wait to get home to sneak a look into the bags. In fact, I couldn't figure out why chelsea was hiding behind the seat but asked "honey, what are you doing?" She revealed her naked legs and with a smirk she sheepishly said "I want to wear this!" She picked out a really cute, teal polka dot skirt which she is still in love with.

After we got home and started really looking through stuff I about passed out from my adrenaline rush. I was literally screaming!! My kids thought I was wierd.
Talk about prayers being answered. We are losing TONS of money on our house but now I don't have to buy ANY clothes for Chels and we are set for Seattle. Oh, I will probably just have to buy one thing...a umbrella and some galoshes :)

Going Short

Wanted to show my sister my new hair cut! Pictures don't do it justice but you get the picture.

Also, I am planning on going to help Melanie with her new baby next week. She is 37 weeks and more than ready to have baby Keldon. She is so cute and pregnant. I wish my mom could see her. She would've been so proud of her. I am also trying to plan meals for my family while Im gone so they can have some comfort food while their mommy is away. Darin has been asking for some cinnamon rolls lately. That is really funny because when we were first married and a little later I would make yummy stuff and he would eat it because it was there but now he is to the point where he is asking. I knew that I could show him what was good!! I always pull a line from my mom and say "They're not very good! You wouldn't like'em. They are pretty nasty, you better just go have a cookie instead." I remember the first few times I heard those phrases. I believed her and then realized that she was pullin' my leg so that her and my dad could have more of the good stuff.
I do the same thing now to my kids but they don't fall for it anymore either. They know whats good!

Off To Seattle!

Sherri suggested I post to her blog. She hasn't touched it for some time now, and rightfully so, as both of us have been through a whirlwind the past 2-3 months.

Yes, it is true. We are officially victims of the recession. Of course, you never think it will happen to you, until it does. Many of us feel we are immune to the economic woes of today. However, it seems that the economic problems are affecting everyone in some way or another. For some, it is small things. For others, much larger things. For us, it means a change of place we call home (or at least for the time being).



As many may know already, the company I work for has decided to close our Boise facility in an effort to trim budget costs. However, we are fortunate to have been offered an opportunity to transfer to the Seattle, WA area. Thankfully not right in the heart of Seattle (not that there is anything wrong with Seattle), but rather 40 miles north of Seattle, close to Everett. I consider myself somewhat of a city person now, but just not Seattle city! It's a bit too big for me.

My company has an office in Lynnwood, WA, and they felt it made sense to consolidate our division to a single location. Therefore, we will be making the journey to Seattle before the summer is through.

Yes, we definitely don't want to go, and we definitely will miss our family and friends here in Boise, but that doesn't mean we have to stay up there. We told ourselves we will try it out for a couple of years and see how we like it. Then if things don't work out, we will look at making our way back here to the place we love.

Now the hard part. We are trying to sell our house. And anyone who knows anything about the housing market right now knows that not only is it difficult to sell a house right now, but you can't make nearly what you could have made on it had you sold it 2 or 3 years ago. So that will be a hard pill for us to swallow. Knowing how much we will lose on our house makes us queezy to say the least.

Anyway, we are looking forward to a new adventure. One that will hopefully bring us some new friends and relationships we will have for a lifetime.

Pray for us! We will need all the help we can get!

Love this Duvet Cover

i am getting the itch to redo my bedroom. so I am looking for a brown/blue color combo. I am loving this bed but can't have it cause its like $350 just for the duvet cover. But now I know what I like.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAVIS!

DAVIS IS 2 YEARS OLD! whoa, that went to fast!

With school out on Friday and being Davis's birthday we had to do something FUN! It was actually kind of a wild day. I made a fun car cake (my first attempt at this kind of cake) thank you Marne. I thought I did a pretty fantastic job myself. Carson told me while I was decorating, "Mom, you don't even need to take a class, you're already good at this!" They were already picking the kind of cake they wanted for their birthdays!
At about 4:00 we met Daddy for dinner at Baja Fresh but we just about didn't make it without a accident. On Eagle Rd I had to slam on my brakes and veer off to the right to miss the car in front of me. In doing so, the car cake made its way off the seat smashing it way into the floor. Luckily the saranwrap held it on and only smushed the front end of the car. I guess its better for the cake to be smashed rather than our van. The kids were pretty upset about it. They kept getting mad at the driver in front of us.

Two Short Years Ago

Just minutes old

Love at first sight

Love this Quote

"Our realization of what is most important in life goes hand in hand with gratitude for our blessings...........Brothers and sisters, my sincere prayer is that we may adapt to the changes in our lives, that we may realize what is most important, that we may express our gratitude always and thus find joy in the journey." President Monson


Thanks Melanie for the great quote!