The End

Friday--the last day of Spring Break--go big or...well we stayed home anyway so that doesn't work.  Nevertheless, I wanted to do one last super fun thing.  Originally we had debated between going to a Charlotte Knight's game and going camping.  But we debated too long and missed the tickets to the game, and after walking all day at the zoo Thursday, I couldn't bring myself to pack for camping.  So we brainstormed and found this deal: $25 for family of five to roller skate (rental included) and a pizza with a pitcher of soda.  Sold.

It was our best worst idea yet.  First let me say, the kids had a blast, in fact, they liked it so much they want to add it to our summer bucket list.  Next let me say, I was surprised they liked it.  And last let me brag about Rex a bit.  Rex stood on his skates for a maxium of 20 seconds before falling, but he refused to give up.  Everytime he fell, he got right back up.  And he fell hard.  He looked like he was trying to walk on water, up, down, up, down.  I almost wanted to tell him to quit and that we'd just go home and watch a movie.  It was hard to stand back and watch him fail, and fail, and fail, and try to stay postive.  I was just waiting for him to burst into tears of frustration all the while wondering how I would make it better.  But he just kept getting up and trying again.  He did cry for just a minute when they did some races and he was too embarrassed to race.   Greg and I didn't race either so he dried his eyes and went back out.  And then I almost starting crying because I was so proud of him and his perservence.

Alice on the other hand, was happy just to let Greg drag her around the rink. His back was pretty sore by the end of our adventure.  And Henry should have been left at home.  We put skates on him and he managed ok.  Unlike Rex's skates, Alice and Henry's wheels were screwed in so tight they barely turned at all.  We did, after the first 20 minutes of so, realize Rex's skates were actually broken so we got him different skates and had the wheels tightened up, but he still struggled.  Back to Henry: on the carpet he did ok, but he kept trying to crawl, which is not a good idea when everyone else has skates on too.

Anyway, we survived--phsycially and just barely emotionally, just barely.  And I guess we'll be going back over the summer--maybe without Henry though so each of the older kids can have some one-on-one attention.

Of course, Rex made a friend while Greg was with Alice and I was with Henry.

Part 2: Fun and Free Spring Break

Thursday was zoo day.  And it was, you guessed it, FREE!  How did I manage such an awesome deal?  Well, Grandma paid that's how.  Grandma Libby bought a grandparents' zoo pass a few months back so we finally took her up on her offer to go to the zoo.  And then I packed lunches because 1. I don't like fast food, 2. it's faster and easier to pack a lunch than it is to find a place to eat, figure what my kids will eat, order, wait, and then eat, 3. it's healthier, 4. we can eat when we want and have a cooler full of snacks with us the whole time.

We went to the Ashboro Zoo, and let me tell you friends, it was fun.

I grew up going to the Oakland Zoo every Spring Break.  Now I know Oakland is no San Diego, but it's pretty good and I've been disappointed by every zoo since.  Until now.  Ashboro held it's own.  It was, as many warned, a lot of walking but with my sit and stand stroller, that was no problem for the kids and we'll just say I got my work out it.  And I was really happy the whole time and even the hour and a half drive there and back didn't seem bad.  I just love walking.

We started in Africa (the zoo is divided into two parts and you have to take a tram between the two).  We spent most of the day in Africa.

Beginning of the day picture

I don't remember what animal this is but Henry was super confused about the glass and the animals and why he couldn't touch them.

We watched the chimpanzes forever because they had a baby!  It was so adorable--just tumbling around like Henry.  Seriously though, he looked a lot like Henry trying to go stuff.

 Grandma even paid for us to go to Dinosaur Land, which was a little scarey at first because the dinosaurs moved.

Rex is pretending to get eaten by this guy's head.  Henry, again, very confused as to what is going on.

Rex by the T-Rex looking fierce

Henry looking interested and cute.

Of course, the traditional flamigos picutre.

Rex really wanted to see the elephants but by the time we go to the elephants, he was more interested in playing a game about elephants so I took a picture of Alice instead.

Henry and his naps--he was supposed to take his morning nap in the car on the way to the zoo, but Alice and Rex were both so loud and excited that he couldn't fall asleep.  He finally passed out around 1 or 2 for about 45 minutes.  Poor baby.

 After lunch we headed to North America, and Henry saw this:

 And then he cried and cried when we didn't go to the wading pool and went to look at the seals instead.  So we went to the wading pool and Rex was mad that I didn't bring his bathing suit and Alice tried to go in naked because she also didn't have a bathing suit, but Henry he was like

 And then we went home.  I mean we walked forever to the entrance then waited forever for the shuttle to the parking lot, then took the shuttle to the parking lot and then drove home in silence.  Nothing like a day of walking to knock the kids out.  But I would say it was one of the highlights of Spring Break.  Guess I'll have to add zoo to the list of my favorite places.

How to have a fun and (mostly) free Spring Break

Step 1: Spend day number one of spring break being sick.  I had planned to go to the park and have a picnic and bike ride with the kids, but Alice woke up with a slight fever so I decided we should stay home.  Which is ok.  I think sometimes I get so stir crazy that I drag my kids out of the house to have fun dang-it when they would just as well as have fun at home, but now that I've been dragging them out every day they are having a hard time entertaining themselves at home.  Oops.

That was Friday.  Saturday was General Conference.  Sunday was Easter and more Conference.

Step 2: Spend an entire day cleaning.  Monday is cleaning day and I don't care if it's Spring Break the toilets still got peed in (and worse) all last week and need to be cleaned.  So I cleaned the house while my kids watched TV.  I told them they could watch as much TV as they wanted for one day and then that was it.  So they vegged and I cleaned because I can't handel their whinning when I try to make them clean with me, sorry future-spouses.

Step 3: Do free stuff.

When we first moved to Charlotte and I was bored out of my mind, I found the Duke Energy Explorium, but never went because it was 40 minutes away.  I decided it was time.  Rex has been learning about electricty with Greg the last little bit so I thought it would be a good extenstion.  Though to be honest, I was very concerned that I'd drive 40 minutes out to the Explorium with four kids (my 3 and one of Alice's friends), and it would be the lamest thing on the planet.  It wasn't.  It wasn't the coolest thing either, but we were entertained for about an hour before we had a picnic lunch and had to get home for nap time.  I'd give it 7 stars.  My dad would think it's cool so maybe next time he comes, we'll go again.

They has one of those static balls.

 And a turbine you could turn to see how electricity is generated.

 And hard hats, which we all struggled with.

 especially Henry.

Step 4: Have rich friends.  Side rant: I hate "how to make a million meals for only $10!' blog posts because those ladies always shop sales and stock up, so unless I live in their same area and have the same grocery stores with the same sales AND I manage to get to the store before those hoarders, I'm not going to be able to make a million meals for only $10.  So this is a stab at them.  Should I explain my lame, abstract joke some more?  Not really all that funny to begin with, that's cool. Let's move on then.

One of Rex's friends/ our neighbor turned 6 over the break and had a birthday party.  In exchange for driving a car load of six years to an indoor trampoline park, my neighbor paid for me, Rex, and Alice to get in--I think I got the better deal. I was a littler nervous at first that Alice might be too little and that she might get run over and I was lot nervous because I had not planned on actually jumping so did not prepare appropriately (catch my drift ladies who've had children?).  Anyway, worked out fine on both counts and I'm now planning several return trips--one as a family and one as a group date with aforementioned neighbor and whoever else wants to join us.

Alice let me do her hair in meatballs as she calls them.  Isn't she adorable?

 So there's a climbing wall that you can climb to the top of and then climb over and jump.  It didn't look too bad from the bottom so I tried to get the birthday boy to do it.  He refused so I said I'd do it so show him how.  Bad idea.  Climbing up and over was no problem.

But then I remembered why I hate roller coasters--I hate falling.  I was probably only 10 feet up, something lame like that, but as you can see the two walls aren't very far apart and I was afraid my leg or arm would get stuck on the side as I fell and I'd rip off an appendage.  But after going over the top, there's no way to get back or to get down without just jumping.  So I stood there for a while trying to figure out how to get out of this predicament, while refusing to jump.  Eventually I figured out a way to lower myself a few feet and then jumped the last 6 or so.  I felt whimmpy then and I do still as I write this,  but I just really hate falling.

 The kids had a ton of fun and starting asking if we could go back before we even got out the door.

And we'll leave and fun and free adventures here for today.  So far for Spring break I've spent $0 and it's been 4 days (not counting Saturday and Sunday) except for gas money.  You should try to be like me and turn in later for the last half of Spring break and how I managed to save money in ways that probably won't be possible for you unless you are me, which you're not because I am me.

Provo House: The Final Chapter

It's been over a month.  I'm ready to talk about it.  OK, not really, but I will anyway.

We sold our house in Provo.

It was rough going.

We lost money on the house every month.  Every. Single. Month. since we moved out almost 4 years ago.  But I couldn't let it go.  It was my first house.  My first baby.  That's a little dramatic, but I don't think you understand how much I loved that house.  It had it's flaws and I didn't plan on living in it forever, but it was stolen away from me too early.  Really, it was more like the high school boyfriend that you know you're going to have to break up with after senior year because you're going to go to different colleges but you want to at least hold onto it until graduation, but then in the middle of sophomore year you move and you try to keep the long distance thing going but it just doesn't work out.  And then you have to evict a tenet, who then sues you, and you have the other tenet complain about every little thing (I kid you not, she called to complain about finding 3 big spiders one day--Greg told her to kill them) and you finally hire a real tax accountant and she looks at your taxes and says, "There is no reason for you to keep this house.  Sell it."  And then you list it.  And it feels good.  The long-distance boyfriend/house has been so abusive for so long, you decide to end it.  But first you have to find him/it a new girlfriend/owner.  And you still really love the house and know it's an amazing place to live in the middle of up and coming downtown Provo so you ask a lot, but it's worth a lot, just not from 2000 miles away. And so you wait.  And wait.

Finally in November, after listing the house in April, we got a good offer. We jumped through all sorts of hoops.  But the offer fell through, twice.  In January, we got a second offer.  This time I refused to jump hoops until the buyers had real skin in the game.  They retracted their offer a week later.  Later that day we got a third offer.  A pretty good one.  Not as good as the first, not as bad as the second.  We jumped through a few hoops, waited some more, and then one day the money from the sell of the house showed up in our account.  And life went on.  I bought sparkling cider to celebrate selling the house when we got the first offer, but by the time the house actually sold, I just didn't care anymore.  Nothing.  No feeling at all.  Not relief that it was gone.  Not eleation that we got a chunck of change.  Not even sadness.  Nothing.

And it was strange to feel nothing.  I was prepared to feel a storm of emtions.  I even thought I might cry because I really did love that house.  But nothing.

And then the new girlfriend/owner called to ask a few questions about the house.  Not cool.  I was over the house.  We had had our time together, but to call and remind me of all the reasons why I loved that house and love Provo and on Rex's birthday even.  It sent me into a fit of nostalia blinding my vision and fogging my mind as I tried to wrangle Rex and three friends into the bowling alley.

It's been a month now.  I'm still glad we sold the house.  It was a good decision.  I learned a lot about prayer and faith and patience as the house sat unsold and losing money month after month.  More importantly (is it ok for something to be more important than learning about prayer?), I don't dread my phone ringing anymore. Because if it is the tenets, I get to tell them I don't care.  The realtor doesn't want to talk to me any more either, so I know it's not him.  It's probably just my mom.  It's usually my mom.  And since I'm not 16 anymore, I don't dread my mom calling (not that I ever did actually--my mom is pretty cool).  I paid the bills this week in 15 minutes.  That's down from the hour or two it used to take.  I didn't have to account for or call or arranage anyone to fix anything in the house.  We only have like 3 bills to pay now.  Three!  House, utilities, internet, phone, health insurance...ok more than three, but no repair bills.  And so I'm free.  A great burden of stress and worry is off my shoulders.

But I still miss Provo every day.  And probably will for the rest of life.  And then, when I die, I will move back to Provo.  And it will be glorious.  Probably even into that house to be honest, because I love it that much.

And then there was Easter

It's been constant holiday holidays over here since the (un)official start of the holiday season--October 1.  This, of course, is by design.  January is a rough month, the house just feels so empty without all the extra holiday decorations.  I have managed this year to keep holiday decorations up, until now.  Mind you, Easter is still up but it's the last one for a while.  And I'm a little sad.  

And so onto the last of the holidays.

We started on Palm Sunday with semi-matching outfits since Easter was on Conference Sunday.

Getting a picture of every body proved to be a little trickier than I thought it would.

Monday we talked about revelation and temples (we celebrate what is being referred to as "Holy Week" on Pinterest--though for the record, we've been doing a week-long Christ-centered Easter since before it was cool.)  This week, I printed a picture from the last week of the Savoir's live to put up each day--or a picture to represent what he did or taught.  For example, on Monday he cleansed the temple, so I put up a picture of the Mt. Timpanogos Temple.

Tuesday we learned about the Parable of the Lost Sheep and played Find the Sheep--like Find the Thimble that we used to play with Grandpa Dick, only with a sheep instead of a thimble.

Wednesday we had an "EASTER" egg hunt, where the kids, really Rex because everyone fell asleep early, found eggs with symbols of the Atonement and Resurrection in them.

Thursday we learned about Passover by watching Prince of Egypt, which is terrifying by the way.  If you're Rex and Alice that is.

Friday my mother-in-law had a last minute birthday party for my brother-in-law, which Greg and Rex went to while I stayed home with sick Alice and too-tired Henry.  We went to bed early.

Saturday we dyed eggs with whipped cream and food coloring, which was a popular method on Pinterest this year.  FAIL.  It was messy; the eggs had to dry over night; and the kids didn't like it.  Rex asked if we could do just regular eggs next year.

Sunday morning the kids found their Easter baskets, ate candy for breakfast, then the family came over from brunch and since I spent most of the day Saturday getting ready, I'm posting pictures of that too.  Remember, this blog is about me patting my own back and making other people feel bad for not being as cool as I am.

These were a complete waste of my time.  I knew they were when I was making them.  But Rex was the only kid of the six that even opened his.

It was a bit chaotic--according to two of the Young Women who also came.  There were a lot of people in our regular sized house.

After the Sunday morning session, we had an egg hunt with the cousins.

After the Sunday afternoon session, we went on a hike through the back side of the property where we live, put the kids to bed, and I cleaned up on Monday.

And now, with no holidays to do too much for, I'm trying to catch up on other stuff--like bill paying.  Yuck.