Cleaning Time

Our stuff is on a truck and our apartment is clean and empty. It's done.

Thanks to my brother Isaac and my sister-in-law Falisha (and Falisha's younger brother) the cleaning went much faster than it otherwise would have. Thanks guys!

Gastropod

The kids and I have spent a lot of time outside the past two days (because our stuff was being packed and then loaded into a truck and we had to be far away). Today we searched for creatures. This was the coolest one we found. That's Cooper's shoe in the background.

Have you ever seen a snail so small?

Boxers

Today was the big day. The movers were set to arrive at eight this morning. As of last night, we were not ready.

Thanks to Bryan staying up until three in the wee hours of the morning (I was in bed, curled up into a little ball with what I can only assume was food poisoning) and an actual arrival time of nine, we were mostly ready when they got to work.

Ninety-six boxes later (not counting all of our flip top bins full of decorations and kids clothes and shoes) our stuff is ready to be loaded on to a moving van.

It's hard to believe this is finally happening.

Point and Click

Sometimes Peter gets a hold of my phone. Because I have a password on it, he can't do anything other than take pictures. But boy, does he taken advantage of that. I often find his handiwork in my photo gallery. Today I found this.

It's kind of picturesque actually.

The Golden Spike

In spite of the busyness of preparing to move, we've still been checking things off our to-do list. We marked a few off this week, including visiting Promontory Summit, the site where Union Pacific and Central Pacific joined their lines, thus making it possible for people (and supplies) to ride from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

The kids thought it was neat (and we had the added bonus of having Bryan's dad, the family train aficionado, with us), but it was insanely hot that day. Phoebe and I went back into the visitor's center early because we were wilting.

Mustachioed

You're Getting Sleepy, Very Sleepy

The boys finished their dental work beautifully. Peter only got nervous at the moment they pulled his tooth. I held his hand and he expressed surprise that he didn't feel any pain when they extracted it.

While Peter was being worked on, Cooper was watching a movie in the lobby, waiting for his sedation medication to take effect. At one point he tried to stand up and almost fell over. Then he walked into a wall while trying to come give me a hug. In other words, the medicine worked.

The dentist and his assistants worked quickly and finished with Cooper faster than they had anticipated. They reported that it had gone perfectly. I went in to help with recovery. I made an interesting discovery: Cooper is grumpy when he's coming off of meds. He was hungry and thirsty and kept biting his numb lip. I had to hold his lip away so he could eat an Otter Pop.

He also insisted that he could walk on his own as we left the dentist. He couldn't, but that didn't deter him from demanding the opportunity.

He's feeling much happier now and can even walk well enough to pass a sobriety test.

I'm so glad that the dental work is over.

Always Willing to Share

Cooper and I both had a chance to share at church yesterday. 

Cooper spoke in Primary. Bryan helped Cooper write his talk and then aided in the the delivery of it. I sat and watched as Cooper said his talk, grinned, and licked the microphone every chance he got. Here's his talk:

I have a family here on earth. I love them very much. The Proclamation on the Family says that the Family is ordained of God. That means Heavenly Father gave us our families.

Families can have moms and dads, brothers and sisters. Families should read the scriptures, go to church, and go to the temple. My family helps me clean my room, read books and play. Families should work together, eat together, and say prayers together.

3 Nephi 18:21 says

Pray in your families unto the Father, always in my name, that your wives and your children may be blessed.

The biggest blessing families can have is to be together forever. I know that families can be together forever because Jesus helps us return to Heavenly Father. I love my family, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

His diction was cleaner this time than it has been in the past, so I think most people understood the majority of what he said.

At nine o'clock yesterday morning I got a call asking if I would do a last minute musical number for Relief Society. The woman who asked is sort of an LDS celebrity (but I'm not name-dropping and therefore keeping her anonymous) and she's really sweet. I knew the song and didn't want to say no to this person that I looked up to while I was growing up. So I sang today. It went pretty well, and it was nice to get to sing one more time for this ward before we move.

And the song was one that my dear friend's mom wrote (I'm pretty sure you know who you are) so it felt even more personal. I do wish I'd have known that I was singing when I ate breakfast this morning, perhaps then I wouldn't have eaten a big bowl of cottage cheese. Pesky phlegm-inducing dairy products...

In Charge

Peter: (during dinner tonight) You know, sometimes I think I'm in charge.

Me: I know.

Pearly Whites

Heredity is a funny thing. I often look at the kids and attribute various characteristics to me or to Bryan or to another close family member. Peter has the bridge of my nose, but the tip of Bryan's. Cooper has Bryan's dark eyelashes and brown eyes, but my eye shape. Phoebe has my face shape, but Bryan's eye shape. They are all combinations, variations.

At the dentist we learned that this extends to their teeth. Cooper went yesterday and we got some bad news. We knew he had a cavity (because we could see it), but now we know that he has nine cavities. Two of them are so bad he'll need crowns. I'm a faithful tooth-brusher, even with my kids. Apparently that wasn't the problem. The holes in Cooper's pearly-whites come from a lack of flossing. Flossing? Really? For my five-year-old? Maybe that makes me sound lazy, but brushing by itself is a battle some nights. He'll have everything taken care of next week. I hope he still has kind feelings about the dentist when it's all done.

Peter and Phoebe went in today. After Cooper's diagnosis, I was nervous. But guess what? Phoebe's teeth are perfect. She even let them clean, examine, and x-ray her teeth without any fuss at all. They were shocked that it was her first visit.

Peter did have two small cavities, but considering it's been two years since he saw a dentist (pesky lack of dental insurance), that's not bad at all. He'll get them filled and have his permanent teeth sealed next week. The biggest bummer we learned about his teeth was that he lost a lower canine prematurely (last summer, and nothing has grown in yet) and now several of his adult teeth have grown in at a slight angle. The dentist recommended pulling the other lower canine to give the teeth room to shift back.

So why all the talk of heredity? Bryan has beautiful straight teeth. Straight teeth that are riddled with fillings. He has soft enamel and is seriously prone to holes, which I've written about in the past. I did have cavities as a child, but that was due to too much apple juice consumption. I think that Cooper may have gotten Bryan's teeth. And I have very strong teeth that were naturally horrendously crooked. I had teeth growing behind other teeth... it wasn't pretty. Peter seems to have my strong, crooked teeth, which means that braces are probably in his future. I even had to have four teeth extracted because my mouth was too small and there wasn't room for all of them.

Heredity is a funny thing.

Macs

We now have one dentist visit (for Cooper) and the consult visits to the allergist under our belts. After those two long visits were over Bryan announced to the kids that we would be getting a fun lunch. We pulled up to the McDonald's drive-thru (because we were going by the kids' definition of fun, not ours) and Bryan turned around and started asking what the kids wanted.

Bryan: Peter, what do you want to eat?

Peter: I want a Big Mac.

Bryan: Phoebe, what do you want to eat?

Phoebe: I want a Little Mac.

Bryan: Cooper, what do you want to eat?

Cooper: I want a Daddy Mac.

Nice.

Big Shots

So it turns out that our Utah bucket list that I wrote about yesterday mostly contains doctor visits. That's not quite as exciting as I was hoping for.

While Bryan was in school we were on the student health plan. It's... adequate. However, it does not cover immunizations. Our summer interim insurance does. Yesterday I took Cooper and Phoebe to the doctor and they are both now caught up on their shots.

Cooper just needed a few to be ready for kindergarten, so while it wasn't fun, he recovered quickly. Phoebe was really behind. Even with combinations, she needed five shots. And she got them all.

The nurse felt so bad after Phoebe's screams and tears (she was inconsolable for a good five minutes) that the kids were sent home with three lollipops each. I administered medicine to help ease pain and they were in good spirits by bedtime.

They both woke up much earlier than usual. And they both hurt. Cooper limped because the injection site was sore. And poor Phoebe flat out refused to walk until almost noon. We had to carry her. When she finally did stand, she hobbled. Her steps were tiny and so slow. I tried to massage the injection sites on her legs, but that led to more screaming. She was still unable (or unwilling because anything more caused pain) to do much more than shuffle at bedtime.

I told her that we would need to walk more tomorrow to exercise her muscles. She said no.

Still coming this week (for all three kids): the Allergist and the Dentist!

Countdown

We went to the library last Wednesday. I had finished scanning our books and had just pulled off the receipt so I would know when everything needed to be returned. I looked at the date and saw July 31, 2013.

That's the day we're moving.

Well hello ton of bricks, so nice of you to drop down on me.

I knew it was coming up, but it wasn't until that moment that I realized just how quickly. I'm going to stop whittling away at our Utah bucket list and start knocking stuff out.

Walking the Plank

For Family Home Evening on Monday we talked about how important it is to listen at church. Bryan started by having everyone share one thing they learned from their classes the day before.

Phoebe said she learned about snacks, which is probably the highlight of nursery for her. Peter learned about being a missionary. Bryan and I both learned about ordinances. And Cooper said he learned about saving people. When we dug a little deeper we discovered that Cooper learned about saving people from pirates.

We both thought he was telling us a tale. Our children are known for their excellent imaginations, so this was not out of the realm of possibility. We moved on with the lesson.

In preparation to move, I've been sorting through piles and piles of papers. These include papers from school, papers from church, art projects from home. I've photographed and discarded many and saved a few. It was during this project that I came across Cooper's paper from church on Sunday.

Need a closer look at the words?

I guess he wasn't spinning a yarn after all.

Can You Tie It In a Bow?

I had a "well, duh" kind of epiphany last week. Phoebe found a ribbon and brought it to me. I asked if I could put it in her hair. Phoebe has uber-fine hair, like me. That means I can't do much with it because it slips through my fingers like sand. But a ponytail? That I can handle, though it never looks terribly polished.

I tied a bow around her ponytail and witnessed a transformation. She changed from, "Gee, that poor girl's hair is kind of all over the place, why doesn't someone brush it?" to "Oh how sweet! Her hair looks darling."

Seriously, who knew one ribbon could have such power?

To the Sea

Jumping back in time a bit, on our last full day in Oregon we drove to the coast. We passed through the town where The Goonies was filmed and landed in Seaside, Oregon. Phoebe kept telling us that she needed her swim suit to go to the beach; we kept telling her that this was not that kind of beach. when we finally got out of the car and were almost blown away by the wind, she finally believed us.

We found shells on the beach.

We found a good touristy photo-op.

We went to a tiny little aquarium that was kind of sad. We didn't take any pictures there. I guess the Monterey Bay Aquarium has ruined us for other aquariums.

Then we drove south and visited the Tillamook Chesse Factory. Not only were the cheese samples delicious, they had the best sugar-free ice cream I've ever tasted. I heard the full-sugar stuff was pretty good too.

It was a good day.

Girl Power

During church on Sunday Phoebe motioned toward the hymnal and said she wanted "that."

I pointed to it and said, "Do you want the hymn book?" She said yes, but sadly couldn't have it because she'd been irreverent.

A few minutes later she asked, "Mommy, can I have the human book?"

She took it one step further later in the meeting when she asked for the book again.

I prompted her to call it by its name and asked, "Do you want the hymn book?"

She set her face in an indignant expression and said, "No! I want a HER book."

My little feminist...

Stadium of Fire

For the night of the 4th of July we got to cross off one of the big items on our Utah bucket list. Thanks to Bryan's brother, we went to Stadium of Fire. Dallin had access to discounted tickets and he and his wife treated us as birthday gifts to me and Bryan. We had never been, but had wanted to for quite some time.

Stadium of Fire is a huge concert and fireworks show that the city of Provo puts on every year at the BYU stadium. During the show, the organizer told the crowd that it was the largest stadium fireworks show in the country. This year the headliner was Kelly Clarkson.

Peter does not like fireworks, he never has. They're too loud and he's not a big fan of things that burn. When we told the kids we would be going, Cooper and Phoebe were excited, Peter was terrified.

He sat and worried all through the welcome and opening dance number, he continued through the color guard and the National Anthem. The opening act of Carly Rae Jepsen didn't assuage his fears, nor did the performance from Cirque du Soleil. But when Kelly Clarkson broke into song, he forgot about the fireworks. I think she's gained a new fan.

Seriously though, she put on a great show. Granted, I don't have anything to compare it to. If you don't count shows of the choir and band variety, this was my first concert. It only took me thirty-three years to get to one. The whole crowd danced and sang along, but no one danced quite as much as Phoebe. She was feeling it. That girl has dancing in her soul.

Cooper enjoyed it too, but by the time the fireworks started he leaned over and asked if it was bedtime yet. Considering it didn't even start until an hour past bedtime, I don't blame him for being tired.

Peter handled the fireworks, mostly. He didn't start to fret until after they'd been going on for some time. Cooper snuggled against me and watched the lights explode over our heads. And Phoebe? About a quarter of the way through she nodded off. I knew she was good at sleeping through the boys' din, but that night she exhibited true powers of blocking out noise.

We got home around 11:30, Phoebe still asleep and the boys dragging. Cooper put himself to bed without being prompted, the first time in his life that has happened. Peter finally submitted to sleep sometime after 12:30. We warned Dallin and Melody, who were staying at our house that night, that everyone would wake up at seven, regardless of what time they'd gone to sleep.

But guess what!? We were wrong! Phoebe was the first one up (and I was a close second due to her insistent calls) and she didn't rouse until 9:20! I call that an Independence Day miracle.

Thank you Dallin and Melody!

 Red, white, and blue

 Uncle Dallin, Aunt Melody, and Peter at the stadium

 Oh, look! Cooper's there too!

 Proof Phoebe and I were there

Phoebe starting to dance

Proof that Bryan was there and that Peter was nervous

Colonial Days

For our Independence Day we went to a recreated colonial village. It was awesome.

We learned about bread baking, the creation of the flag, and helped work an actual printing press. The weather was hot and the kids were grumpy about being at a park but not playing at the playground, but we still got to do a few cool things.

We tried on costumes.

Cooper got to see where his name came from.

Oh, and more costumes.

We also had a fun evening, but that post will have to wait for another day.

What did you do to celebrate?

Fireworks

Happy Independence Day!

It's So Much Fun Not Knowin' Where You're Goin'

In addition to finding a new place to live, Bryan took a few hours one day and met his new boss. The kids and I had the choice of either sitting in the parking structure for an undetermined amount of time or waiting around the hotel. We chose the latter.

We had done enough driving over the last few days that I had a vague idea of my surroundings, so I decided the kids and I would take a walk. It was raining (shocking, being in the rain forest of the Northwest, I know), but we donned our raincoats and braved the elements.

Really, the brave part came from just walking and wandering and not really knowing where we were. I've written before about my sense of direction, so we could have ended up anywhere. Luckily, I started us heading the right way and soon we came to a green belt, possibly meant for local business people to enjoy during breaks and lunch hours. We wandered around that for a bit and found a small amphitheatre. The boys took the opportunity to run around the performance space. Phoebe felt that it was the perfect spot to put on a show. So she did.

After that we kept walking, but not back in the direction from which we came. By my calculations Bryan was probably finishing his meeting and would no doubt be willing to pick us up wherever we landed.  I was right on both counts.

Soon the children started to complain that they were tired. They had walked too far, shouldn't we turn back? I realized that this was the first real physical activity they'd had in days since they'd been stuck in a vehicle for so long. Their usual boundless energy had been curtailed by hours of sitting.

Luckily, just as the whining had grown intense, Bryan called to ask where we were. We were near an intersection and a store (double win for the girl who can't find her way out of a paper bag), so I was able to give him our location. He swooped over and rescued the children from additional exercise.

By the way, if you know the origin of the title of this post, I will give you a prize.

New Digs

I mentioned last week that we found a place to live. And good news, it's bigger than where we live now. Granted, most things are bigger than where we live now.

I saw a listing for the house two nights before we drove out there. After looking at the pictures I announced to Bryan, "Well, I found our new house." We both filled out applications that night and when Bryan called in the morning we discovered we were the first in line for the property. He made an appointment to see it the following Monday.

We had been counseled by a few different people to look at Vancouver, Washington as well as Portland, Oregon and its suburbs. We drove all day Saturday and then, after going to church, spent most of Sunday driving around getting a feel for the different towns.

Portland is cool, and it knows. It's also dirty in a big city kind of way. Now, we're not talking LA or Paris dirty, just generally rundown. Also, Portland is uber friendly to homeless people. I'm afraid I'm simply not cool enough for Portland. The towns south of Portland were nicer, and the area around the Temple was especially lovely. It reminded me of La Jolla (where the San Diego Temple is located), I just needed to switch out the palm trees for pine. But it was also more expensive down there. And it was a farther commute for Bryan.

Our hotel was actually across the Columbia near Vancouver. I was impressed with how clean and well maintained everything appeared. I did a little research and found that the cost of living is twenty percent lower in Vancouver than it is in Portland. The schools, in general, are rated higher. And that house we found that we had an appointment for? It was on the Washington side of the border.

We saw the house and we liked it. The biggest drawback for me is that the school district has all-day kindergarten. Some people like that; it was almost a deal-breaker for me. Cooper has never done preschool, aside from one semester of Joy School. I'm really concerned about how he's going to handle it.

Other than that, it was nice. It has four bedrooms, two and a half baths, a backyard, a garage, and no registered sex offenders living nearby. Yeah, that's one of the things I check on whenever we move and one reason we're so darn picky. And the ward that we found to attend while we were there is the ward we're moving into.

After we saw the house we spent several hours trying to see other houses, just to have a comparison. Everything we saw was either already rented, looked scary in person, gave us weird vibes (for real), or the property managers wouldn't answer their phones. The one we saw was really and truly the only one we could see.

We took the hint and prayed about the house. Like I said, I was really uncomfortable about the kindergarten thing. But we both felt good about it. So, now we have a place to live.

Want to see a few pictures? In keeping with tradition, I'm not going to show you the front of the house or even tell you exactly (or approximately) where it is, but I'll show you a few shots I pulled off the listing.

Peter has been requesting three things from each prospective domicile for the last three years. This house has all of them.

Number One: Backyard 

Number Two: Fireplace 

(This will be my first fireplace too and I will most likely never turn it on, but it looks pretty.) 

Number Three: Stairs

It also has the things I wanted like a dishwasher and washer/dryer hookups and more than one bathroom. The kitchen is smaller than the one we had in our condo, but at least twice as big (probably more) than our current kitchen.

There are bedrooms upstairs, but they all look similar, so I won't add those pictures. We're both in a bit of shock that we found a place so fast. We have friends that went on house-hunting trips and returned empty-handed. We're very thankful.

When we told the kids we would be living there they were excited. Peter asked if we could have the keys right away so we could go run around the new house. He was disappointed to learn that we wouldn't get them until later. But we did drive by the house everyday we were there, no doubt making our new neighbors nervous and suspicious.

Bridge Over Troubled Water

Oregon has a lot of bridges, did you know? The kids loved them. I had different feelings that I tried to keep to myself.

Have I ever written about my feelings for bridges? They're tall, and skinny, and generally span massive crevasses in the earth. I suppose they wouldn't give me such pause, except for the fact that I have a recurring nightmare about them. In this dream I'm driving and suddenly the car is breaking through the guardrail and flying through the air. Dark, huh?

Bryan knows about my bridge phobia. By the end of the trip, I was handling them much better, especially the wide bridges. But the extra skinny/tall bridges? Well, whenever we went over one Bryan had to speak to me in a soothing voice to tell me we were okay.

The bridges will take some getting used to.