Just Breathe!

Take a couple seconds to adjust.......I know you are completely shocked, as am I. You mean she isn't dead?

No, not dead, just crazy busy! Let me sum up what I have been doing the past ummm 8 months.

First of all you have to note the last post date, Sept. 30, 2009. What most of you may not know is Seth started with a new company (Part time) the beginning of Sept. and by this time, it was getting pretty busy at our house. I was helping him get things going and that took most of my free time. I'm not complaining, because I am very happy with what we are doing. Yep, I signed up and got licensed as well in October. It has become our business and between that, kids, housework, yard work, callings, etc. we are so busy, I can't find time to sleep, let alone find some free time to blog.

So let me apologize by saying I have no idea what is going on with any of you either because I haven't even taken the time to see what everyone else is up to. I check my email every day and send out only those things that are necessary but other than that, facebook and blogging have been put on the back, back, back, burner. I want to try to keep it up to date but with school being out in a few weeks and the busyness of summer around the corner, that may not go very well.

But thought I would let you know we are alive and well, just busy as ever! Here's a picture to prove it.

Seth and I with my brother Ryan and his wife Keri receiving a promotion!

Conversation with Mitch

So today as I was sitting at Lunch with Mitchell, he says to me "Mom, can I call Connor to see if he can go on a bike ride with me?" I can't for the life of me think of another Connor but my nephew, who lives 400 miles away. So I tell him "I don't know any Connor." His reply is this "yeah, he's my friend." I ask if he is a friend at church, he says no. I tell him "okay, call him!" thinking he is pretending and will pretend to call his friend Connor. But he says "I don't know his number. Then he says "oh, yeah I do. It's 1......(pause).......5.......6.....7." So I repeat, "His number is 1567?" And he says yes. Then I tell him again that I don't know who he is talking about. Then he says "We went there with Grandma." I finally realize who he is talking about, so I ask him "Can he ride his bike here? or is it too far?" He thinks about that for a minute and says "No, it's too far." Then I say "He is in school right now and cannot ride bikes with you." Then he says "No he is not. He did all his work and his Mom came and picked him up." I say "No! He is still in school. Do you want to call him later when he get's out of school?" He sadly looks at me with his head down and says "Yeah."

We have many funny conversations like this one. Once while driving in the car he says "WHOAH! There is brains under my fingernail." He had smashed his finger in a door the week before and his fingernail was falling off.

We had a fun day yesterday on his 4th Birthday. He is a funny kid and I love being home with him. He is my little buddy.

Kyah's Baptism

Kyah turned 8 the end of May and was baptized on 6/6/09. What an awesome day. Her cousin is only 5 days older than her and they were baptized on the same day. Here are some pictures we took at the temple that day.

This is the second double baptism we have done together. Porter has a cousin (from the same family) who is 10 days older than he is. They were baptized the same day as well. Last time we joined their stake baptism, so this time they joined ours. Our stake baptism was crazy. There were about 12 kids baptized that night, 6 of which were from our ward alone.

I am grateful for a great husband who keeps himself worthy to hold the priesthood.

My House!

Here are some pictures of my house! We put it up for sale in March and at the end of this month, we are taking it off. We'll try again in the spring.

If you haven't seen my house clean (it isn't that often). Here's what it looks like.

I'm Alive!

What a crazy 4 months it has been. My goal is to get my blog updated with what we have been doing the past 4 months. It may be a few posts but this is what has taken up most of my time lately.

READING!!! Who knew I would love to read and be totally board when I don't have a book to read. Here's my story:

In June we found out we were expecting number 6. Things were going great, in fact a little too great. I wasn't sick, didn't really feel pregnant at all much. A little tired, but I could handle it. I kept thinking, "I feel way too good". The dr. said the uterus was growing and things were fine. About a week later I had the very strong feeling that things were not fine. I was very nervous about it and had Seth give me a blessing. In the blessing, while I was hoping to hear and feel that the baby would be fine, instead, I felt like I would be okay and I would get through this. I knew then that there was no baby. I had a teary couple days and then when I got home from a reunion, I called the dr. and had an ultra sound ASAP. I was right, there was a sac but no baby. It's called a blighted ovum. Then next day I had a D and C.

While I was recovering, I watched so many movies I was sick of it, so when Sunday rolled around and I was staying home, I noticed a set of books my friend Jenn had brought over about 6 months before. She told me I couldn't return them until I read them. I was not a reader. The other reason it had taken me so long to read these books was it was the "Twilight" series.

There was SOOO much talk and excitement about these books and the movie that had come out that I was NOT interested in them AT ALL. I thought that I might like them but didn't want to read them because everyone was telling me I NEEDED to. I am sort of a rebel that way.

But with things sort of calm with Twilight, I thought, "Maybe now I can read them." So that Sunday I started reading. And by the time my family was home from church, I was hooked. I read the first book in two days. Seth was SHOCKED. My kids were saying things like "I have never seen Mom read." Or "Mom is reading AGAIN?!" Needless to say, I finished all 4 books in about 2-3 weeks. Then I read on stepheniemeyer.com her partial draft of "Midnight Sun."

I took a break for a while so my family and my house could recover. But I found myself board again and I wanted to read more. But what? Another friend let me barrow "The Hunger Games".

I read it in two and a half days. I wanted to savor it longer but I still found myself staying up until 4 a.m. reading. I loved it so much I bought it and "Catching Fire". Seth is now reading the first book and I am half way through the second.

I want to go read now but please leave a comment and give me some ideas of what book to read next. I don't want to be board.

Memorial Weekend

We had a great weekend.  We spend it with Seth's sister Stephanie and the family in Yakima.  The drive was a bit long (Ella screamed the last 1.5 hours) but well worth it.     We went to visit Seth's Mom's grave.  She died 3.5 years ago and it has been along time since we visited the cemetery.  Here are the pictures of our Memorial Day.

While the flowers were being prepared we gathered around and told a few stories of Grandma.

We washed off the headstone and put fresh flowers next to it.  For those who don't know my Seth's brother Russ carved her headstone.  He did a great job.

Flowers for Grandma King.  The kids all said "We love you Grandma!"

The cemetery was filled with flags.  It was an awesome sight to see.  I thought I would get a picture with the kids standing in front of some.  They wouldn't hold still long enough though so this was the best I got.

Aubrey saw the older kids saluting she started doing it also.  So cute!

We stopped to visit my Grandma on the way home!  Ella wasn't too excited about it all.

What a fun weekend.  Thanks Steph and Wade!

Dipping my feet...and getting deeper and deeper!

I am not talking about swimming, that, I love.  No I am talking about couponing.  

My good friend, Monica, has been couponing for a while and has put together an awesome website for the rest of us who don't know what we are doing. 

 With Seth's birthday last week (I'll post pictures later),  we wanted to eat out.  Well thanks to FabuLESSlyFrugal.com, we were able to find a great deal at Restaruant.com.  We got a $25 gift certificate to a local restaurant for only $3 - that's 70% off.  The one stipulation was we had to spend at least $50 (most restaruants are $35 minimum).  We went with my brother and his wife and put it all on one ticket.  Then we split the rest between the two of us.  We got drinks (which are not included in the $50 minimum) so with tip we each paid about $22.  The cool part was we spent about as much as we would have if we didn't have the certificate but we ate what we wanted too and did't have to worry about how much it was going to cost.  It was great.  Usually when we go out we buy something big enough we can share to save some money.  It was so nice to order what I wanted and still know I was saving money.

So check out FabuLesslyFrugal.com for other deals like this one and for 4 DAYS ONLY at Restaurant.com you can get a $25 gift certificate for only $2- that's 80% off.  Key word: LUCKY.  Offer ends Thursday, April 30, 2009.  And the best part is you can purchase the certificate for a restaurant in YOUR city, it's not just the Boise area.  Also, you can buy it today and you have a year to use it.  For a walk through of how to do this go HERE.

Ready or not, here we go!

Well I didn't think this day would ever get here.  I was trying to get to this point a year ago and when I was working all alone it didn't work.  So when Seth finally said, "I think we should get our house ready to sell", I jumped all over that.  That was just before Christmas.  We set a goal to get it on the "market" in the spring.  So after some major cleaning, de-cluttering, and lots of practice and talks with the kids about how this is going to work, I think we are there.  We still have a few places to "fix" but ready or not here we go!

As of now, we have no idea where we will be.  We have some plans though, assuming these plans coincide with the Lord's plans.

1. We don't want to leave Boise.  Seth still has a great job and he has no plans on leaving that job.  So we will stay here for now.

2.  We love our Stake and we want to stay in the Stake boundaries.

3.  My kids are finally in the school I want them to be in.  At the beginning of the school year Kyah was accepted into the Magnet School in our boundaries.  They only take kids by lottery so it's hard to get into.  Once one child gets in, they start the next school year draw with sibling preferences drawn first. (So if you have a child already in the school and you want to put your other children in to say 4th grade and Kindergarten, they fill the classes with those who are already in the school.  Then if there are any open seats they put the kids who have siblings already in the school into a hat and draw out the names).  If all those are drawn then they take those who have applied (without siblings already in the school) and draw from those names.  Last year we were put on a waiting list by number.  I don't know if they are doing it that way this year or not.  Anyway, long story I know, I got a letter on Friday saying both Porter and Naomi had been accepted to attend that school for next year.  The amazing part is we knew of 3 kids (with siblings who got in this year) who were all trying to get into the 4th grade classes.  From what I have heard Porter was the only one who got in, of the three.  The other thing about this school is it is very small.  They only have 2 teachers per grade. (The school they are leaving, though not a bad school at all, had 4-6 teachers per grade.  In kindergarten alone there were 8 different classes; 4 A.M. and 4 P.M.)  The magnet school offers extra classes as well; art, dance, music, instruments, martial arts, etc.  Kyah has a keyboard class as one of her daily classes.  She has picked up on some little songs on the keyboard and loves it.  Anyway, I finally just got my kids into the school I want so we will be staying in those boundaries as well.

4.  We love our ward.  We both feel like we need to stay in our callings.  This is a little more challenging and narrows our options quite a bit.  There are not many places to build (with a private builder and not a cookie-cutter home) in the ward boundaries.  And the older homes are not quite big enough for what we are looking for.  

For now we have said we are not going to even look until we know weather we can sell our house right now anyway.  So if you know of anyone who wants to buy a great 3 BR 2.5 Bath home in a great neighborhood for a great price, send them my way!  (When it is actually listed and on the market I'll add a link to the listing.)

We know that whatever works out is what is supposed to be and if it doesn't then that's what is supposed to be too. (I just have to keep reminding myself of that.)