July - The First Part

Checking out the new experiences in the new house, one of which was this cute little frog. So cute I thought. I'd better take a picture before he leaves, I thought. Skip to 4 days ago when I'm mowing the lawn trying to stop for frogs scattering all over the lawn and realizing I'll never get finished if I do so I chose to keep my eyes far in front and not down; then edging around the house watching little frogs fly everywhere. I may have cried. Hopefully the plague of frogs will end soon. 

The first thing I did was the kitchen. All the boxes I unpacked. 

To make the kitchen look like: 

Then I looked at the plethora of boxes in the main living area and separated the books from the mix. At this point I began to understand the pull to go digital. But there's something about real physical books. Even if you have to get your family to lug them upstairs for you. I suggested we each take 1 box upstairs every hour. Don suggested we just do it all right then. He won. And boy were we tired. 

Luckily mom came over and helped us empty the boxes and put all the books on the shelves. And look! I have an extra shelf for more books! 

The day after we moved in we had an electrical issue. I therefore show you this picture of our beautiful grass we purchased and lovingly watered that was looking so wonderful. 

After the electrical issue. My heart was sick. I had no idea they would have to dig down to fix it otherwise I would have gone out and rolled up the sod (they just laid it just over a week ago). 

But I didn't know and they cut through our beautiful expensive sod and my heart was sad. But good news, the electrical people say our builders should fix it for us. Who knows what the builders think about that, but we're holding onto the dream. 

It had been over a year since Rebekah and I got our hair cut so we scheduled an appointment. Look at her beautiful hair. Love the color. And so much of it!

Love this girl.

Our hair dresser gave Rebekah what she called "space buns." 

The time Rebekah was playing at attacking me but my leg is still longer then her arm reach. Wonder how long that will last?

We unpacked the bread maker which meant homemade pizza for dinner. 

Rebekah has a friend that lives "6 houses down" and they are both into Minecraft. They spoke on the phone about building a city. Rebekah drew this map as they talked and then sent it over to her. Got to love technology. 

No garden this year but my mother in law has my back and found me zucchini. 

That sweatshirt I wanted? Don has my back and bought it for me. Then he didn't even make me wait until my birthday. Good man. 

Was going through my photos on my phone and saw this. Crazy girl.

Speaking of craziness:

Such a mess, but she loved it. 

Rebekah asked for orange zucchini bread. 

Which turned out great. 

Oh, and I forgot to post a picture of Rebekah's blue room, Frozen bedspread, and chandelier. Fit for a princess. 

July The Move & the 4th

I started the day by discovering that I can wear my daughter's shoes. Impressive and good to log for future use. 

We moved a few things over on Thursday. By Thursday evening it looked like this. Ironically I thought this was bad. I had no idea. After the move on Saturday.... well, this was nothing. 

Thursday was painting day. We had told Rebekah should could choose her room color. She was going with all these really dark colors but we finally talked her into this lighter blue if she could use the darker blue as an accent. So here we are painting. 

It wouldn't have gotten done without mom's help. She's incredible. 

At this point I remember it's our anniversary and I didn't even get a picture, so I pulled Rebekah out of the house to take a picture of the biggest anniversary present I've ever gotten. 

Moving is somewhat stressful though, so went I saw these at the dollar store I had to pause. Also, it's crazy that m&ms know why we eat multiple bags of chocolate and therefore advertises as such. And speaking of needing emotional support, apparently on Friday when we tried to move some things on our own with the help of mom and Frank I was overly worried and emotional and was therefore asked to go on other errands while they finished. I was fired. One errand sent me to Menards where I ran into a friend. Fired and a blessing! And then I went to get myself some frozen custard. So I believe I sufficiently embraced my firing.

The next few days was moving madness. Rebekah helped out with moving items from the shed with the help of the tractor. 

We had movers to help us on Friday but they called back a few days before the move with a much higher quote. So Don told them to move someone else and we would do it ourselves. I sent out some feelers trying to find some help but had no positive responses. However, the day of the move people came and it was such a blessing! One guy I swear was the hulk or something. He was picking up things I couldn't even push around the house. And we got most everything over. It was so busy I didn't get pictures of the process but got pictures of the aftermath. 

So cluttered and so crazy.

That night we were invited to my friend Victoria's house for dinner and 4th of July fun. I use to teach Victoria's daughter violin and Rebekah use to play with Ella and Laney so we knew them well. Also, her husband is the Bishop of the ward now. 

We had dinner and good conversation. Complete with campfire. 

Rebekah was in her element with all the girls to play with. 

Then we actually stayed for fireworks. And Rebekah didn't freak out! It was wonderful!  

Last Week of June

We've noticed many people wading in Falls Creak. Rebekah wanted a turn. So on a bike ride to the house we stopped by and let it happen. Right after we get back on the bikes we pass a sign that states swimming and wading is off limits. And yet people are always in there. Crazy. 

Definitely a pretty place though. 

Speaking of pretty places, mom finished her puzzle. Man I love that place! 

We got sod on our yard. Turns out it's quite the yard. Here I thought that was one area where we downsized. 

And bushes with pretty pink flowers. 

And these evergreen bushes too.... 

All together it looks like this. However, I wanted the front to look less circular. So I found some left over sod and made it more of a straight line. I also wanted to move the bush closest to the bottom back towards the house a few inches, but I haven't done that yet. 

Then we closed. The agent working with us said we got the award for the smallest mortgage payment. Yay us. The mortgage office was close to the temple so we stopped by. Been way to long since I've been inside this place. 

When we got back to the house our sale's rep bought us pizza from Papa Johns. 

Rebekah was loving it! First dinner in the new house. 

Don was also loving the back stretch capabilities in the new house: 

June Books

This is a book about author's journey with cancer. Have to admit it was a tough read considering my personal experience loosing someone with cancer, but it had insightful parts and was well worth the read.

Middle grade fantasy fiction that includes magical people / creatures and focuses on acceptance, inclusion, and all that stuff. It also highlights a gay relationship between the two caretakers. Have to admit I didn't care too much for the book itself. Although I agree with inclusion and loving our neighbors / respecting their choices etc, I didn't like the book in general and felt it was a bit over the top. 

This story follows a Polish family that gets relocated to Siberia; their experiences in the Russian camp and so forth. It's a good read. Interesting side note: while reading one of the early chapters that spoke of their time in Russia I remembered my elementary school teacher reading the class a story about a girl who wanted so badly to wash her hair. She and her family sometimes cleaned their hands with the hard clay soil so she thought she could do the same with her hair and tried to use the soil only to have it harden and become impossible to come out. I remember that vividly. I continued reading to discover a few chapters further that exact part happens - it was the same book! It's amazing what the mind remembers - I had no idea when I started the book but my mind found it familiar enough and was able to connect the story. Crazy. 

Middle grade fiction, spanning two life times, about a girl and her family who relocate to Scotland. It addresses friends, peer pressure, and also includes a quick introduction to WWII (through the journals of the second main character) especially England's effort to relocate the children out of the city. Highly recommendable.

This was a hard read. Not sure if it was Nixon, the era, or just the author's bias, but it was not pleasant. I'll plan to read another book on Nixon to find out if basically the U.S. was a mess through the late 60's early 70's and it's amazing we are all alive and sane at all as the author suggests.  

This was a hard read as well but because I'm not familiar with the era, the names and places, and so forth. Brand new information is sometimes hard to put into context for me and so I need to read more. But it's definitely my lack of knowledge not the author's writing style. 

Another of those life during WWII, dual time period novels; but this one I actually enjoyed more than most. It focused less on the Jewish expulsion and more on the people in Paris and what the war / pointing fingers / suspicions did to them. Highly recommendable. 

It's pretty interesting, starting with how they originally got to North America (which I don't fully agree with) and ended with the different tribes / areas and how they lived. 

Middle grade fiction. Main character has autism; cannot speak, and cannot control her body. It's based on the author's friend who lived the story she wrote. A good, well written introduction for kids. 

Book that follows a large family with many cases of schizophrenia, includes the effect of the disease on the individual and on the family. It's actually quite frightening to read. However, it's interesting to see how the treatment for the disease has progressed. 

Everything you wanted to know about the Arthur legend from middle ages to current times. It's pretty interesting but I found the professor extremely hard to listen too. 

Historical fiction novel concerning Italy during WWII. Main characters are two boys (one Jewish) and one girl. I was hoping for more insight into WWII in Italy but this was overly long and more love triangle than historical fiction. The author attempts to wax poetic but in my opinion falls short and ends up sounding like she's trying too hard.