Thankful 2010 - Part I

• 11/10 - A sense of humor. I love laughing, and things that make me laugh. (we rented the movie Grown-Ups. I giggled through pretty much the entire thing)
  
• 11/9 - Technology that allows us to talk, with video, to my parents who are literally half-way around the world.
• 11/8 - A charmer of a daughter who makes me smile - a lot. (It gets her out of heaps of trouble)
  
• 11/7 - A new clutch in my husband's car. Even if it cost more than we planned, the car will run well again for a little bit longer now.
• 11/6 - Getting to spend the afternoon and evening hanging out in the kitchen with my family, canning applesauce. Also, making some serious craft project progress.
• 11/5 - The chance to have breakfast with a friend.
• 11/4 - Good friends who offer help that makes my life easier. (I did not want to drive 30 miles late at night to take my husband's car to "the shop")
  
• 11/3 - The good feeling I get when I work out.
• 11/2 - Being able to live so close to a Temple (and babysitters who allow us to attend)
  
• 11/1 - A King size capacity washing machine. (because we had an all night mega-puker)
  

Today I'm Thankful For... 2010

Good Grief!! Is it seriously November again? For real? Okay, I'm really stuck back in like August, or maybe September. It's not supposed to be November already in my world.

No, I don't have all (or really any) of my Christmas shopping done. I haven't even pulled the Christmas music out (yep, I'm one of those people) A few years ago, this wouldn't have been me at all. I guess that is what three kids, and a crazy life does for you.

Not complaining though, just reflecting on the fact that I have changed a little. Hopefully in some good ways too... Anyway -

One thing that hasn't changed yet is my "Thankful" series (found here and here).

It's taken me a few days to get it up and running, but you will find the current entries on my right-hand sidebar - and a post with them every 10 days from now until the end of the year.

It seems to me like there has been a lot of talk about gratitude lately, (I'm sure it's the time of the year) but its always a good reminder for me to go back and see how many good things I have in my life. It makes the crappy things seem a lot more bearable.

So feel free to join me - just blog about something you're thankful for everyday from now until the end of the year. (Be sure to leave me a comment to so I can follow along!) Have a great day.

Tiered Skirt

So, I talked my mom into leaving her serger with me while she was gone. I've had it since August, and finally figured it out enough to finish a project with it. I love this little tiered skirt that I made for Baby Sister. So cute. I actually can't wait to make her another one (and maybe even one for me too). I used the tutorial found here.


Sorry the pictures aren't great. She wasn't being very cooperative, but it is much cuter in real life.

Happy Halloween

Happy belated Halloween from Snow White, a Pirate, and a Vampire (complete with "scary vampire face")

I hope you all had a wonderful, safe Halloween.

Mission

Some of you might remember this post, where I mentioned that my parents were going to be serving a mission in Indonesia. Well, (obviously I'm behind on my blogging - but) they finally made it to Indonesia last week. Just in time for an earthquake, tsunami, and volcano eruption.

They earthquake and tsunami happened right before they got there, and the volcano actually erupted while they were in the air, on their way there.

Because of their calling as the humanitarian coordinators for the area, they have obviously been very busy since their arrival a week ago, but we got to talk to them on Monday (skype is so cool) and they are really happy and doing great. It is so amazing to hear about their experiences there.

Which brings me to their blog. I don't know how many of you out there will be interested (I know some of you will be, though) but my Mom has set up a blog where they will be posting about their mission experiences, pictures, etc. I will also be adding the e-mails that they send to us, and things that we get from during calls and whatnot. You can check it out here:

http://melvinandmuriel.blogspot.com/

Baby Shower Crafts

Earlier in the month (October, that is. Is it seriously already November?) I got to help out with some decorations for a special baby shower.


Samantha Grace was just adopted. Her family has waited a very long time for her to join their family. Adoption is such an amazing blessing.



I was really excited to make blocks and a banner for her, and I am very happy with how they turned out.

Quick Update on Our Crazy Life

Well, it's been a few days - so here's what we've been up to.

The Van: After driving (and complaining about it) the rental van for 5 days I ended up in a fender bender with it. Yeah, I know - right (that car sucked). Anyway, I got a replacement van that I've liked a lot more (actually drives good, not scary) and hopefully will have my car back (yay!) today or tomorrow.

Last Weekend: Last weekend after soccer we took the kiddos (and went with some friends) to a corn maze. It was my kids' first time - they loved it. (Hopefully I'll get off my lazy butt and unload my camera so I can put up the cute pictures I got) Speaking of lazy butts...

Me: Still sore. Still seeing chiropractor. Went to the doctor today for some muscle relaxers so I can actually sleep at night. I have good days, and less than good days, otherwise doing pretty good.

This Weekend: Grandma and Grandpa 'Tano are coming to visit (yay!) The boys can hardly contain themselves and it will be really nice to have some visitors to break up the monotony of our normal lives.

Otherwise, we are still just plugging away. School, work, housework-You know, the usual. Bug has parent/teacher conferences next week, I'm a little nervous to see how things have changed between Kindergarten and 1st grade. The house is still on the market, we had a ton of lookers at first and then the showings have kind of dropped off lately, but we are still hopeful for something to happen soon.

Anyway, I'll be back again soon with some new crafty projects and fall pictures. Until next time...

Sister

Just a couple of recent pictures of our cute now-eighteen-month-old-girl. (Hooray for being nursery age!)

Today - I Feel Like I've Been Hit by a Truck...

...Because I have.

So really this story starts, as usual, with us running late on Sunday morning. Seriously - we have 1:00 church, and yet we still manage to be rushing out the door each week. Anyway - I had the house mostly ready for a showing that was happening after church, but then the kids ate lunch (ie: made a big mess) and I left it for when we got home.

Well, then of course, I get a voicemail halfway through the meetings, and when I check it - it's someone else who wants to see the house, before we were going to get home. So, I decided I would run home really quick during Sunday School, pick up the big mess, and be back before I was even missed.

Moral of the story: Don't skip church. Just let them see your house messy.


As I was heading back to the church, I was stopped at a stop sign when a kid in an old beater truck tried to come around the corner going too fast. He lost control, didn't turn and crashed into me instead.

I'm okay, the teenagers in the truck are okay, that is what matters.

Thankfully, my neighbor (who is also my friend, and happens to be my insurance agent, and goes to church with me) was headed home to pick up something she had forgotten and saw me shortly after the accident happened. She got me back to the church with my car seats to pick up my family.

Thankfully, I was only really a block from home, and didn't have to drive my crunched car very far.

Thankfully, my chiropractor is also in my bishopric and told me to come in first thing in the morning, and to call him if I needed him sooner.

Thankfully, we have really good friends who had already offered to feed us dinner, and who conveniently had two cars at church.

Thankfully, I have zero fault in this accident, and the other driver's insurance will pay for absolutely everything.

Thankfully, I was alone - no kids in the car (a rarity) and I was in my big car, not my husband's little tin can with wheels.

Thankfully, even in a bad situation, I was being watched out for. And I am safe.


I am pretty sore today. I hit my head on the side window at the impact. I went in this morning for some x rays. My neck is pretty messed up, but otherwise nothing too serious. I feel lucky.

My car...is not so lucky. It looks pretty sad. The collision messed up the whole front end, so the driver's side door only opens a little, and the passengers side door (although there isn't much damage over there) won't open at all. The driver's side quarter panel is smashed, and my bumper and grill cover are hanging on by a thread only. The hood has been totally displaced, and the quarter panel on the passengers side has subsequently found a new place to live. Not at all a happy situation.




The insurance company should be coming out to look at it tomorrow. Meanwhile, I have a rental minivan. They tried to give me a sedan, but I put up a stink (have you ever tried to get three car seats in the back of a sedan? Not very easy). Anyway, it isn't even really a cool van, and it didn't take me very long to remember why I love my SUV. It just drives differently.

It's only been a day and I miss it already.

All in all, I'm glad everything is okay. My car should be fixed soon, and I have something to haul the family around in until then. Even if I do feel like a dork in it. I will be seeing the chiropractor quite a bit for the next little while, but the personal injury insurance covers massage (something my regular health insurance doesn't) so there is a small silver lining in all of these storm clouds.

And just for a touch of sheer irony... Somebody stopped by last minute to see the house today - and yeah, it was totally messy.

The House

This post has been a while in the making, it's been a little bit hard to figure out how to write.

So, I'll use pictures.

This is our house:
Here's the front door:

This is what the front door looked like as of 3 weeks ago:

Here's what our yard looked like as of last Friday:

Yep, our house is for sale.

It wasn't a decision that we came to easily or lightly, but it's one that after much prayer and deliberation, we feel good about.

See, we bought our house in August of 2007. For any of you out there that also bought a home in 2007, that is probably all I need to say. But, I will continue.

So, when we bought, the bank got creative with our loan (more than we had any realization of). Now three years later we are stuck in a toxic mortgage with literally no other way out.

Our payments are skyrocketing to an unreasonable amount. We have lost too much value for a traditional refinance (we've tried, and tried) and the "private investor group" (ie: greedy pigs) that own our loan are "unwilling to offer" a loan restructure. Because the loan is privately owned and not backed by Freddie or Fanny, all of the government help out there is unavailable to us.

To put it frankly, we got hosed.

We've been feeling strongly for a while that we need to be focused on getting out of debt. And this will put us one step closer to being able to do it. No, it's not ideal be we've made our peace with it and that is what matters.

We will be renting for a while (I absolutely don't want another mortgage after being burned so badly with this one). We have a few prospects out there, but if anyone near us knows of any good rentals available - please let me know.

So that is where we're at. It's the reason I haven't posted much lately, and it is why my days are filled with paper work, phone calls, and making sure my house is clean while trying to still be a Mom, wife, and all other titles that I fill at this point in my life. My prayers are for things to move quickly, and for a really good outcome. Any other prayers on our behalf (for a good outcome) would be much appreciated.

Thanks...