November Happenings

So You Think You Can Dance Trip 2010
Wow this has been a month packed with FUN stuff! It all started with my trip to Utah for the So You Think You Can Dance concert that I went to with Jann, Cami, and Cami's husband Jake. It was so so fun!! I love spending time with Cami and Jann and so even though it was a quick trip it was in every way wonderful. Love you guys!! And of course the concert was amazing as always (this was our 4th SYTYCD concert)! Our fellow SYTYCD gal Corinne couldn't make the trip this year - we missed you Corinne!! I also got to spend time with my family which was lovely. It was a great trip!!

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1
Jenny and Matt threw the most awesome Harry Potter Party for the opening of #7 Part 1! The decorations, treats, trivia game, everything were so cool!! Adrian and I dressed up as Lupin and Tonks again which was so fun! Seriously, I can't get enough of dressing up like Tonks! This time I was helped out by my friend Tracy who lent me a Jacob Twilight shirt, because honestly don't you think Tonks is a Team Jacob sort of girl! After the party we went to the midnight showing of HP and it was great! Horribly sad and all, but great!! I really liked it and I think my favorite part was the cute little scene were Harry tries to cheer up Hermione with the dancing - wasn't that so real and sweet! Also the 7 Harrys and animation for The Tale of the 3 Brothers were also favorites. I didn't love the stuff that came out of the horcrux or the way the ending was bleak and sad, but I guess that's how the first half of the book was so I'm okay with it. I'll probably see this one in the theater lots, well until Eclipse comes out on DVD.


Jenny's Surprise Party
Jenny is turning 30 soon! I wanted to throw her a party to make her 30th bday special. So I worked with Matt and a couple of her friends to plan a surprise party for her. We had it last night and, though Jenny had some suspicions right before the party, she was surprised. The ruse was that since Matt didn't get to go to the midnight showing of Harry Potter we (Jenny, Matt, Adrian and I) were all going to go on a double date to see it Sat. night. So we had Jenny buy her and Matt tickets thinking that would help her think we were really going to the movie and they came over to our house to pick us up. (Adrian and Matt really did go to see Harry Potter during the party so those tickets Jenny bought didn't go to waste.) Jenny and Matt came to the door and SURPRISE!! And that is how it worked out. I had everyone (a bunch of Jenny's friends) come over a half hour before they were to arrive and we all waited in my family room and when they came to the door we popped out. It was really FUN! Balloons, streamers, chocolate fountain, red velvet cheesecake... Oh it was neat. We all chatted and munched and I think everyone had a good time. Happy happy birthday Jenny!!

So there you go. So far November has been crazy busy, but wonderful. During this thankful season I feel so grateful to have wonderful friends and family in my life that lift me up and make me smile everyday.

Halloween 2010

We had some great Halloween times this past week. Adrian and I were Lupin and Tonks from Harry Potter and Sophie, Ben and Nina were Hermione, Draco, and Hedwig. It was so fun to dress up! We went to the Trunk or Treat, a couples Halloween party, and on the real night of Halloween we watched Ghost Busters as a family and pigged out on candy and fresh roasted pumpkin seeds - yum! After the kids went to bed, Adrian and I watched Arsenic and Old Lace and pigged out some more on candy followed by some serious Pepto Bismol. Great movie, bummer on the icky tummies. Darn you fun size Snickers! Hope your Halloween was awesome!!

Prom Times

I gotta post about the PROM I went to last weekend! Who would've thought Adrian and I would get to go to prom! Jenny and Matt and a group of friends from their ward decided to throw a prom and we were invited too. It was uber fun!

The prom experience started with a trip to the salon with Jenny. We both got up-dos and it was the first time I have ever had an up-do. It was awesome! And wow not a hair moved that whole day - there was more hairspray than hair in my up-do!

We got a corsage and boutonniere for the occasion and it even matched my dress, which was a formal borrowed from Jenny. We had Sophie take the ubiquitous putting on the corsage and boutonniere pictures and then off we went to the dance. It was at a community center clubhouse and one of Jenny and Matt's friends DJed. Neither Adrian or I are dancers, but we did shake it and it was so lovely to get to dance with my sweetheart. I was at a loss during the Macarena. I really didn't know that people including my husband knew how to do that dance! Like he really knew how to do it - I could tell he'd had some practice! We requested our song, "There is a Light that Never Goes Out" by The Smiths and I delighted in Adrian singing it to me in the cheesiest way possible as we danced. I love my man. It was such a great night and I think fun times were had by all.

First Days of School 2010

Time for written and visual documentation of the first days of school for my kiddos this year. Whew, summer went by so fast! I can't believe Sophie and Ben have been in school for well over a month now. They are all enjoying school and preschool. Sophie feels especially grown up at middle school and Ben is actually loving being in school all day as a first grader (here kindergarten is only half-day). Nina comes home from preschool in such a cheerful mood - she loves Miss Stacey so much!

Sophie, 6th grade

Ben, 1st grade


Nina, preschool

Mom, aren't you glad I finally put pictures on my blog!!:)

Birthday Weekend

I had the best birthday weekend!! Adrian and I went on a date last Friday night to the King Tut exhibit which was awesome! I got to see one of my favorite ancient works of art, a statue of the Pharaoh Akhenaten and the audio tour of the exhibit was narrated by Harrison Ford. How cool is that?! Then on Saturday we went, with Jenny and her family, to the BYU vs. Air Force game in Colorado Springs. Sadly the Cougars didn't do so well, but it was still lots of fun. When we got home I was shocked to see my garage doors covered with hearts and a happy birthday sign. I was heart-attacked by some wonderfully kind friends who made me feel so loved. Then there was the family party on Sunday with cake (delicious peanut butter chocolate cake!) and ice cream and presents and cards. I was spoiled. Thank you thank you to my husband, family, and sweet friends who made my birthday special! I'm a lucky girl and you made me feel much better about turning 33!:)

Mockingjay

First Things First
Hello! I could be blogging about so so many things right now. Like more about unpacking and getting settled in our house. Or I could write about the fabulous time I had at BYU Education Week (I really must another day, because it was awesome!!) or the scary fact that I now have a child in preschool, a child in elementary school, and a child in middle school. None of which ride a bus. I am responsible to get these 3 children to and from school everyday!! 3 different drop off times. 3 different pick up times. What has happened to my life?? But luckily I am part of 2 carpools. I am already insane right now, but I am telling you I would be institutionalize-able if it weren't for my middle school and preschool carpool. But this week I am the driver for both carpools and of course also taking Ben to and from the elementary school. So yes, this week I will probably lose it. Any time now. Wait for it. No, actually right now I'm okay. Check back with me on Friday. So while I'm okay instead of writing in more depth about those probably more important things I'm going to write about Mockingjay. Mockingjay!!! You should probably stop reading now if you haven't read it yet or ever plan on it.

***SPOILER ALERT****
Getting the Book and My Tizzy Fit
Despite my loathing of series-books (except for HP *said in a reverent tone*) I really couldn't wait for Mockingjay to come out. More like I REALLY COULDN'T WAIT TO FIND OUT WHAT THE CRUD HAPPENED TO PEETA. Sorry about that. It's just that I hated the way Catching Fire ended. I wanted to stomp up and down on that book because of the way it leaves you hanging. It was awful. So. I got Mockingjay the day it came out. I just had to have the final book in my hands. Did I plan on reading it that day? No. But I HAD to know I had it on the first day possible. Crazy. Then I made myself wait to read it. I needed to finish my book club book (Zookeeper's Wife - very good, but not a page turner) and continue to clothe, feed, and run carpools for my children. I knew once I started Mockingjay I wouldn't stop till I finished it. So Friday evening the conditions were perfect. I was waiting for Sophie at her piano lesson and I started reading and guess what, no Peeta! He was off being tortured by the capitol and I was left alone with Katniss and freaking Gale (can you tell I'm Team Peeta) in oh-so-scifi-District 13. I threw a little private tizzy-fit and stopped reading. Darn it, but I wanted Peeta back in the story. Well my little tizzy fit lasted about a day and then I decided I can't have everything that I want and that I would stick it out and pay attention to the story line rather than be all disgruntled. I'm glad I sorted myself out because when I picked the book back up I was riveted. I couldn't put it down. Whoa, what a ride Mockingjay was! It has taken me a few days just to collect my thoughts and decide exactly what I thought about this book. It makes you think and that's a good thing, right?!

Actual Book Review
I guess this book makes it clear that Suzanne Collins is no warm fuzzy young adult fiction writer. Nope. Mockingjay was violent, intense, and disturbing. Things were not neatly wrapped up as so many current writers (*cough*stepheniemeyer*cough*) like to end their multiple book series (*cough*breakingdawn*cough*). At some points I thought the violence was a little much. Yeah, my limit was reached at the end with the children and the parachutes and all the death. That was too much. But overall I really liked it. A lot.

The characters were written with depth. I'm glad we got to understand the back-stories of Finnick, Haymitch, and Gale and Katniss. I liked the stuff thrown in about Katniss' father. That little tune he sang was uber creepy. I liked that we got to see many character's underlying agenda. Gale turned out to be twisted Mr. GI Joe with some deep Capitol hatred. Plutarch didn't end up being the revolutionary leader I thought he was going to be at the end of Catching Fire. No he was a total media-mogul type just wanting to exploit anyone he could for "good TV". That's what I loved - that I was surprised all the time by Mockingjay. Nothing ever happened that I thought would happen other than Peeta and Katniss ending up together. Even that was different then I thought it would be. I love the unpredictability.

And then there was good meaty stuff. I was just talking with a friend about the great symbolism with President Snow always having those flowers around to cover the his real scent of blood/covering his real intentions and agenda at all times. And Coin who was "two-sided" being corrupted by power just like Snow. When they talked about having a Hunger Games again at the end there I knew Katniss was going to take Coin out and she did! That was a great twist. So no Mockingjay wasn't Hamlet, but it was a complex story that made you think a little deeper than your standard young adult fiction and that was refreshing.

Okay, so now I'll talk about how I was totally traumatized in addition to liking it. Was anyone expecting Finnick to die like that?? Man, it was awful. I had to reread that twice just to make sure there was no loop-hole for him. Death by mutant lizard people. Not cool. Finnick was my very favorite side character and he just barely got to be with Annie and they just got married... Then he died. And Prim. Oh that scene made me nauseous. The children and the parachutes and Gale's strategy and Coin putting Prim there. It was all so horrible. I almost couldn't handle it. And then of course I was completely traumatized by Peeta finally coming back and then trying to KILL Katniss. What the?? That was unexpected. But I loved the part were he got to talk about what a dork Katniss was never picking between him and Gale. That needed to be said and it was clever how Collins made that happen. So I was okay with Peeta's story line even though he was gone, then all wrong, then psycho-killer, then back to being sweet Peeta. I liked the honest approach for the ending. I agree that with what happened in this book those characters would be sad broken people at the end just trying to eke out some kind of life and it was fitting for them to end up in the ruins of District 12. It felt real and I appreciated that. Would I have liked a couple chapters at the end on Peeta and Katniss living again and falling in love again? Yeah, that would have been nice, but then that would have been tied up a little too neatly and this was so not a neatly tied up kind of book.

So there you go. I liked it. I recommend this series to anyone who is ready for some gritty-action stuff. I still think I like Hunger Games the best, but I'm so happy that I wasn't totally let down by a end-of-the-series-book again. It was good.

Jenni's Hunger Games Cast
One of my favorite parts about starting a book is casting the characters. So here's my own little IMDB version of the Hunger Games Series (the other characters are just kinda random people in my head, but these one's are identifiable):

Katniss - Avril Lavigne with mousy brown hair (I know, kind a weird, but it worked for me)

Peeta - Pacey from Dawson's Creek, aka Joshua Jackson

Gale - Riley from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, aka Marc Blucas

Coin - Sigorny Weaver

Finnick - Robert Pattinson (can you see why I had such a problem with him dying?!)

Johanna - Scary Spice (hee hee)

President Snow - Bill Nighy (not the science guy, the one from Love Actually and Underworld)

The Move

Not many people outside our family and our friends here in CO know, but we have moved. And we are SO happy with our new house. Yep, we moved a little less than 2 years after buying our old house. Honestly I didn't post about it all before now on the blog because I didn't want to jinx it if you know what I mean. And it's weird to people why we would move so soon (almost 2 years) after buying our house. The short answer to why we moved is that we wanted a different house, enough that we went through the enormous ordeal it is to sell a house, buy another one and move all our stuff. Tons of work. Tons of stress. And yes all that considered we wanted a different house that much. So we staged our house, put in on the market, went under contract 5 days later, found our new wonderful house, and moved a month and a half after putting the house on the market. Whew. It was fast. The closings were a nightmare that I'm trying to block out, but it was worth it. We love our new house.

But for those of you really wanting the long answers for it all read on:

Making the Decision
After buying our former house we were happy with it. I loved the kitchen. I loved the floor plan. I loved the view. Watching fireworks from the porch on the 4th of July was awesome! BUT there was always the problem of the location. It backed to a huge open field... I don't know if field is the right word actually - more of a big huge open space that is commercial property. We thought that all the wonderful things about the house would make up for the fact that it backed to commercial property, but it didn't. It started to be a constant stress that was added to by neighbors and casual acquaintances asking us if we knew what was going in behind us. Ben had a playdate about 6 months after we bought the house and the mom of his friend asked me what I thought about King Soopers (local grocery store chain) going in behind us. I asked her if she knew for sure and she said yes. Oh my, I started freaking out wondering what we should do. She was wrong at least for now. We called the city and found out the property hadn't been sold and King Soopers was not going in. But that was all I could think about for a long time. It was scary to me and I started to think we had made a mistake. We never knew how much that commercial property would bother us and stress us out until we were in the house and really started contemplating how we would feel about that land being developed. Someday that property will be developed and it isn't zoned for houses, it is zoned for a King Soopers, or a gas station and other businesses, or whatever. Some kind of commercial something. Of course something fantastic like a library could go in too, but what are the chances and it's hard to take a chance like that. Our answer was that we would feel better if we found a different house. It was hard. So about a year after buying the house we were close to selling. We talked to a real estate agent. But at that point it was just too much to think about after so recently moving to CO. So we decided to hold off for a while longer, but at that point we knew we were going to sell someday.

Selling
So this spring we started to feel like it was time. We spent a day driving around looking at houses and even seeing a couple open houses. It felt good. So we found an a great real estate agent, he sent over a stagger and we staged the house, then listed it. The "staging" part was actually a lot of work. We had about 6 showings and we got an offer 5 days after listing. We of course were SO happy, but also stressed to find our "forever house" (a house we can picture ourselves in for a long time) in the time before we'd have to move. But after seeing LOTS of houses we kept coming back to one and it felt like home every time we saw it. So we put in an offer, went through the negotiation process and got our new house under contract. Everything was butterflies and sunshine until the closings.

Closings
At the closing for our former house we found out there was a problem, as in when we were all sitting around the table ready to sign the papers. We were told not to worry that everything would work out and we would close sometime within the day. So we went to our other closing for buying our house and signed everything, but the first closing didn't go through that day. We were assured it would go through the next day. So the next day we loaded everything onto the moving truck expecting to hear that it had all gone through and we could have our keys. That didn't happen. We had to move everything back into the house and were told the deal was probably going to fall through. We would not sell our house, and not be able to get our new house. It was heart breaking. I spent a lot of that day crying. It was horrible. So then we get a call that we should extend the closings through the next day, and we did. The next day we waited all day and no word. Our real estate agent started talking to us about unpacking and getting the house staged for selling again. It was so hard to comprehend. All that packing and and moving just to unpack. Ugh. Then as Adrian was talking to our real estate agent about all of this and my sweet friend Ganelle was at our house delivering a wonderful dinner our agent got a text that the closing was going to go through. The issues with our buyers were resolved and we were going to sell the house and get our new house. It was almost surreal and we were so happy. Adrian got teary and I was overjoyed. So then the next day after that (day 4) we actually closed, funded, and recorded on both houses and got our keys. We kissed the house when we walked into it the first time. The whole ordeal made us appreciate our new wonderful house even more because we realized just how much we loved it and didn't want the deal to fall through. It is our happy house and hopefully we will get to live in it for a long long time.

So there's all the gory details. Nothing seems to ever go completely smoothly, but we feel very grateful that we were able to sell our old house in this economy/real estate market so quickly even if there were hiccups at the end. Hopefully I'll be getting our "we've moved" cards out soon so you'll have our new address. Shoot me an email if you'd like our new address sooner.