Never. Again.

I am not even MOVING yet and I am sick of it. I am sick of thinking about moving and how it's going to work and when it's going to happen. I am sick of wondering where stuff will go and how many people will actually show up to help us move. I wouldn't call myself "worried" about it...because I'm quite certain that we can make it happen, but I am sick of it not happening yet.

And after this, I am Never. Moving. Again.

Hopefully.

What’s been happening around these here parts…

1. Somebody had a birthday. Celebrations included coffee, purchasing airline tickets to visit a friend in Arizona in January, Thai food for dinner, purchasing new dishes on a Black Friday online sale, and Thanksgiving Eve Church Service. Thanks to everyone who called and sent birthday messages! I had a good and blessed day.

2. Pre-birthday celebrations with the Kindergarteners included these awesome teepee cupcakes:

I found them on Pinterest. Fell in love. I showed them to the teacher I worked for and begged her to make them in class. She discovered they were not so kid-friendly in regards to construction, so she made them for my birthday treats for school. LOVED THEM!

3. Thanksgiving. Relaxing morning drinking coffee, watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, making sweet potato casserole and chocolate chip pie and acorns!

Yes, acorns. Donut holes dipped in generic Nutella, dipped in sprinkles or toffee bits, and pretzel sticks as stems. Good work, Sarah B!

Bethany made turkey feather napkins to help decorate the table!

Then dinner at my mom’s with my grandma and one aunt & uncle, some Skype, some game-time, and just enjoying each other’s company.

Sarah took almost all the Thanksgiving pictures! We should have probably taken an actual picture with everyone looking at the camera, but we didn’t think of it.

These two are such good friends…I LOVE that.

4. Packing: yes, we’ve been packing. Have no clue when we’ll move as we are completely at the mercy of the USDA approval of our buyer’s loan. We will likely have only a few days notice prior to moving. Aack! Just praying that it goes smoothly, on a weekend, and before Christmas!

5. Crafting. Yes, we’re still creating Christmas crafts. Pictures of finished projects will be posted in about a month.

Slumber Party Time

This past weekend Becca was finally able to have her birthday slumber party with her friends. I only allow two at a time at this age and because of the size of our house. When we move, I’m going to probably have to give in to bigger slumber parties, I think.

Her two current BFF’s came over after school and they had a lot of fun. One girl doesn’t do so well with sleeping over yet, so her dad ended up picking her up at 10:30, but that was OK. They had finished their games, their painting project, dinner, presents, and a movie by that time. Becca and her remaining friend were asleep before 11:00 and slept until a bit after 6:00…not too bad for 9 year olds sleeping on a sofa bed together!

When Becca & I chose this art palette cake, I was feeling very energetic and creative. When I made the cake, after an entire week of subbing…well, let’s just say I was feeling less energetic and creative. They still loved it, though. I mean, what 9-year-old girl in her right mind would not appreciate a chocolate cake with globs of frosting?

Here’s Becca & her nearest & dearest friend in all the earth after pancakes on Saturday morning, showing off the craft they made at the party:

They are two peas in a pod. That is for. sure.

Wondering what we’re up to?

First off, the winners are: Mother Superior and Tamara! It was easy, I know. Tamara – your prize is your little D fabric swatch. You know what I’m talking about. Mother Superior, I haven’t decided on your prize yet. Whatcha want?

Second, I strangely don’t have much to blog about. Every day is consumed with whatever is going on that day + Christmas crafting + packing. Since I can’t show pictures of the Christmas crafting, here’s what the beginning stages of packing looks like:

I’ve packed a dozen boxes and the girls are complaining: “The house looks so empty!” Oh….kay….

I think they’re in for a bit of a shock.

Still no closing date. Appraisal on our current house today. Things just keep moving forward and we just keep walking forward in faith.

Conferences

Last night Ed & I attended Parent/Teacher Conferences for all 4 of the girls. I love conferences. I love that when we sit down with the teachers, they are prepared and ready to talk to us about our daughters. I love that they ask our perceptions of how things are going for each daughter so far that year. I love that these teachers care about more than the grade on the paper. I love it that when teachers have had more than one of our girls, they ask how the older one, whom they no longer teach, is doing. I love that they listen and appreciate what we say. I love that they give fair, honest, and insightful opinions of how each girl is doing, how they could improve, and how to build on what is already going well for them.

I also love it when teachers have their students do things like this before conferences:

Each student had to write a paragraph about their parents and then the parents had to read them all and initial the one they believe is the one their child wrote about them. Ours were pretty obvious…

What is medium? This really made me laugh, but at least she didn’t write that I take naps in my spare time like a few others I read…

Now, leave a comment and guess which child wrote these for us! Maybe there will be a prize for the winners…

iPhone photo dump

Those moments when hauling out/along the big camera is just tough…those moments when I’m feeling lazy…those moments when I want to send a picture or post a picture online immediately…that’s when I use my iPhone to take pictures…

Way back when, this cute girl in the middle had a birthday. And then a while later she had a birthday party. We spent a few hours at a local pottery painting place where these girls giggled and painted and designed travel mugs. Lunch at Milt’s followed by an afternoon of crafts at our house was just what these 3 friends ordered!

Way back when, this girl was VIP of the week in her classroom. The picture-taking episode was her teacher’s first glimpse into the style & flair that is Becca.

Spirit Week at school Day #1: “90210” Huh? What does that mean? Dress like the TV show? I should think not! And if so, which one? But surely not. So, dress like CA? When it’s 40 degrees out? Brrr. So, we went with “fashion” – as high as we get…sunglasses, jewelry, lots of make-up, and boots. Good enough.

Spirit Week, another day: Super Hero. She’s Black Widow. From the Avengers.

One of Becca’s b-day gifts was several rolls of fancy duct tape with some instructions for making different items. We made this tote bag the other day – pretty cute and fun to do!

First high school band concert…in her formal black band gown, which she loved wearing. I’m sure she’ll hate them by the time she’s a Senior, but that’s OK. That concert was the first one I’ve ever missed. It was not a good week at our house…Ed was gone and things were happening with the house. It was a good thing I didn’t end up going because papers did need to be signed on the house and the girls would have gotten to bed way too late, but I don’t plan to miss any more concerts!

I hope you enjoyed this quarterly report from my iPhone camera!

XC 2012 is over

And it ended GREAT!

Last weekend was the District meet. The boys wanted to win the meet, the girls wanted 6th place or higher so they could go to state…

It was a miserable weekend, weather-wise, and Bethany had pneumonia so she had to stay back with my mom because the doctor advised against her riding in a car for 5 hours and standing out in the rain with pneumonia. My dad was gone to visit my grandma, so it was just 4 of us that headed south for the exciting meet!

The starting line…

Coming into the finish line.

Because of the nasty weather, I didn’t take my good camera. These photos were all taken with my phone.

Sarah had a really good race, considering the difficulty of the course, the weather, and the intense pressure the team had put themselves under to do well and place 6th or higher. She was 32 overall and the 3rd LC runner.

Guys & gals waiting to hear the results…

And they did it! They are ON TO STATE!!! Girls placed 6th and boys placed 2nd.

Team dinner at Red Robin after the meet…with all the runners, parents, & fans, we had over 50 people eating together at Red Robin that evening. What a great night!

Then, this past Friday & Saturday was the trip to the State Cross Country meet…all the different divisions are there, (so, big schools, little schools, and everything in between), running at different times. The team headed over early Friday morning (it’s a 5-6 hour trip) and viewed the course. Then they got all dressed up and did some carbo-loading at Olive Garden together. I’ll have to share some of Sarah’s pictures from that later on. The girls & I left town about 11:00, stopped at the American Girl store, and then picked Ed up at Microsoft where he had been attending a conference all week. (That is a story in itself…I got terribly lost trying to find him because my GPS was just a tad confused…)

We arrived at the hotel where the team and the other parents were staying around 7:00. We had a great evening socializing with parents and watching the team goof around and relax together. In the morning, though, the runners all put their game faces on and there was no more socializing. It was all about focusing on the upcoming run.

The hotel just had rooms with 2 double beds, so luck Elise got to sleep on two chairs shoved together. Good thing she’s still little!

Last circle prayer together for this year.

The starting line…25 teams, 140 runners

Sarah looked good, but a little tense near the start of the race.

Coming down the hill

Coming into the finish line! Her stride wasn’t super long and she felt tired, but overall it was a pretty good race. Not her best time, but not her worst. She was 69th overall, 5th for LC. Two of her teammates had their PR’s, so they were ahead of Sarah this time around. Those two girls helped boost their team to 7th place at state! The boys came in 5th!

So proud of our girl!

Dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory on the way home…who is that girl sticking her tongue out at her mother? Surely not MY daughter…

Many thanks to the coaches and Sarah’s teammates for making Sarah’s high school career start off on such a positive note. Without all of them, she could have struggled with “finding her place” in high school. They welcomed her, accepted her, encouraged her, supported her, prayed for her, loved her, entertained her, and lifted her up. I love them all dearly and I know she does too. The veteran parents were supportive of us and our whole family…letting us caravan, giving us prime viewing advice, letting the little girls follow them around at meets, answering emails, and just giving us 100% support all the time. We could not have asked for a better school team experience than what we just finished.

And now what is the high schooler going to do with all her time? Winter training…and stage crew for the musical in January & February. Fun times!