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Thursday, April 30, 2009

Sad

Makenna didn't make dance. My heart is just breaking for her. Her goal was to make cheerleading, dance, or the gymnastics preteam this year. None of them have worked out. My poor little girl is feeling very sad and very discouraged tonight. And so am I.

Dance Tryouts

Makenna is trying out today for the Lyon Locomotion Dance Team at the Middle School. Both she and I are feeling pretty stressed out. I just can't wait for this day to be over!

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Superfishy

A few years ago I became the reluctant owner of a large fish tank and several fish. Long story! Over time all the fish died except Jonathon's "Superfishy." I have to admit that a big part of me was anxiously awaiting its demise and the subsequent removal of that ugly tank from our kitchen counter. Yesterday, the last one finally died. The hard part was telling Jonathon. His face fell and he looked as if he was about to cry. Then suddenly his face brightened up into a big smile and he exclaimed, "Good thing my birthday is coming up next month!" Wonderful.



Friday, April 24, 2009

Memories: The Heber Creeper

I am finally getting around to posting another "Memories" post. The primary purpose of these posts is to allieve some of my guilt over being about 9 years behind in scrapbooking. These are photos of our ride on the Heber Creeper in 2005. We were living in Salt Lake City that year and decided it would be fun to celebrate Matthew's birthday with a train ride. Definitely a fun experience! In these pictures Makenna is 6, Matthew is 5, Jonathon is 2, and Kevin is a little shrimp in my tummy.














Friday, April 17, 2009

Newport Beach


Last weekend we skipped the local Clark County Fair and spent the weekend visiting Jared's family in Newport Beach. We lived in Newport Beach for five years while Jared was in grad school, so it still feels like home. We left Friday morning and returned Sunday night. On Saturday morning Jared's mom took the boys to the dog beach while Jared, Makenna, and I walked around Balboa Island.


When I'm sweltering in the 115 degree summers in Southern Nevada I dream about having a summer home on Balboa Island. Now if I can just scrape together 4 or 5 million dollars...

Easter decorating gone wrong. Is it just me or do these bunnies look like they could use some prozac?

Thank You Kara Jayne!

A month or so ago I learned a valuable lesson: wasting time on the computer can have unexpected rewards. I woke up at about six a.m. one morning, tried unsuccessfully to drag my children out of bed, then plopped down in front of the computer and started browsing through blogs. Lucky me! A fellow Israel study abroad classmate of mine Kara Jayne was celebrating her birthday by giving away home made gifts to the first five people to comment on her blog. I felt guilty jumping in front of closer friends, but not guilty enough to abstain. I left a comment, and Wallaa! Look what came in the mail for me today!




Two fabulous home made necklaces. Aren't they great? Of course these pictures don't even begin to do them justice. Sorry for the glare! The one on the left is actually reversible with a cute floral design on the other side. And the one one the right has four little circles, each engraaved with the name of one of my kids. I love them! Thanks so much Kara Jayne!!!

The catch-on my birthday I'm supposed to give away gifts to the first five commenters. Stay tuned on July 25th.

Thursday, April 9, 2009

My Talented Daughter

Here are some pics of my daughter Makenna practicing for cheerleading tryouts. She is one talented (and flexible) chica! She didn't make it, but I am so proud of her for having the courage to try out. I hope she feels good about all the hard work she put into it. You too Isabella!


Here are a few more pictures just to show off Makenna's flexibility.



Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Water Woes!


As many of you know, for the past couple of years Jared and I have been subdividing an acre off my parents' property so we can build a house on it. It's been a very lengthy, frustrating, and expensive process. One of the last steps in the subdivision process was to buy water for the property. The company handling our property subdivision told us it would be about $20,000. Ouch!
We went over to the water company to see if there was any way we could buy water later so we could include it in our construction loan. After looking over the property map, the water company manager told us there was no way we could link into the water line my parents use. We would need to hook into the main line, which meant drilling under both the highway and the railroad tracks. His rough estimate of the cost-$150,000!
I spent the rest of the day crying. All that time and money down the drain! There are no loans available for property divisions, so we were advised to put in on our credit card and that we could later put it into our construction loan. So now we are stuck with about $11,000 on our credit card. We aren't people who normally carry around credit card debt, so it just makes me sick to my stomach! I try to console myself with the fact that if we had bought a house a couple of years ago it would certainly have depreciated more that $11,000. Still......
I am trying to look on the bright side of the situation. Our new game plan is to buy a house this fall. The great news is that it's a fabulous time to buy and we should be able to get an amazing deal. And no I'm not completely giving up on my dream of a house on the property we were subdividing. I'm still hoping that a way will open up...eventually... But for now we are looking forward to buying a house. Let me know if you know of a great house at a good price!