Church stuff, for the record

Here is some church stuff, just for my record keeping purposes.  Last Sunday I was released as the Relief Society Weekday Meetings Coordinator.  I think I had the longest title of anyone at church.  Or at least the number one title that no one can remember the name of.  Anyway, I was the person who was in charge of all the R.S. activities, or Enrichment, or Homemaking as it was formerly called.  (I wonder if it will have another new name in a few years.)  I have had that calling for two years now and was on the committee before that.

Along with the release, I was called to be the Ward Choir Director.  If I am to be honest, I'm not super thrilled about this one.  But I will do it and I will do my best.  I also currently serve as the Organist and have had that calling for almost three years.  This leaves poor Nate to fend for himself with three kids on the bench for the first half of sacrament meeting.  He does a great job.

A month or two (maybe three?) ago, Nate was released from being the Sunday School President.  He had had that calling since we were made a ward.  He was then called to be the Assistant Varsity Scout Leader.  He teaches lessons every other week and goes to mutual on Wednesday nights.  I guess they also have a lot of campouts, which he is super excited (not) about.  Let's face it, some people really like to camp, and then there's us.  I'm good with a house.  And a bed.  And a toilet.  Nate feels the same way about life.

Today we got a new bishopric.  It's been almost five years since we were divided off from another ward and became a brand new ward.  So today was the day for our setup to change a bit.  You want to know what is kind of funny?  Our "original" Relief Society president from five years ago is still in her calling.  How often does the RS President outlast the Bishop?  I would say that in our times today, that has to be pretty rare.  I think that being the RS President for five years in and of itself has to be rare.

As for other church news, my post a few weeks ago about having five wards in our building was a little misinformed.  We did have five wards in our building for about four months at the end of last year.  They started at 7:30 and ran every two hours with the last block being from 3:30-6:30.  They decided not to do that again this year because it was just too hard on the earliest and latest wards.  So this year, one of the wards is renting an elementary school to meet in on Sundays.  I'm sure this happens a lot, maybe in other countries, where the LDS population is small.  It was a little surprising to hear about this kind of thing right here where there are stakes and temples all over the place.  But I guess the school charges quite a lot to let them rent it on Sundays.  Because of the high cost, they don't rent enough rooms for everyone to have a classroom, so some of the classes are held in the hallways.  (This is an unconfirmed rumor... I should ask someone in that ward if it is true...)  But I do know for sure that people in that ward do not like it.  And I can imagine.  That would be... different.  The hope right now if for the new stake center to be finished around November.  I sure hope so for that other ward's sake.  I feel so bad that they have gotten kicked out of the building!

I think that is it for my church updates!

Um, we just bought a....

House.  Yes, a house.  Yes, another one.

My story starts about a week ago when I had absolutely no intention of buying anything more expensive than groceries.  Our house is small.  About 1100 sq ft small and there are five of us in it.  It's not horrible, but we are getting a little cramped.  Nate and I have just assumed that qualifying for a second house on top of law school loans was just not possible.  But about a week ago I started wondering, what if?  It doesn't hurt anything to just speak with a lender and see if there is any possibility.

So I did.  I knew that regardless of what they said, we could afford both houses.  Especially because we will find a renter for the house we are living in now.  I just didn't know how they would factor in our large student loans.  Anyway, right off it looked like we were in good shape to qualify for an FHA loan.  So I started looking at the local MLS site.  That was somewhat discouraging because there wasn't really anything that matched what I was wanting.

But then, last Friday morning something new popped up.  It is in our neighborhood, just three streets over from us.  It is the largest model of house in our development, and seemed perfect.  So I called a friend, got the name of her realtor, and was looking at the house a few hours later.  I loved it. 

Saturday, I took Nate and the kids over to see it.  They loved it too.  I guess to say that the kids loved it is a huge understatement, though.  This house is double the size of ours so they enjoying being able to actually run around.

Saturday night we decided to try to get the house.  Our realtors told us that a house that size, in such good condition, and at such a good price was not going to last long.  It was hard to wait out Sunday knowing that we couldn't do anything about our descision until Monday. 

Monday morning came.  We had to switch our lender because the first one I contacted was in no particular hurry to get us a preapproval, which was required to be submitted with the offer.  The lender our realtor sent us to was awesome and got things done so quickly.  So Monday morning at about 10:00 I met with the realtor to submit an offer.  Unfortunately, the seller had already gotten one bid on the house, so we knew we were going to have to submit a better offer than we might have started with.  Thanks to email and scanners, we were able to sign everything; me at the office and Nate at work miles away.  The offer was submitted by 11:30.

Mid afternoon, I get a call from my realtor.  The seller had received a 3rd offer!  Good grief, what happened to this being a buyer's market?  We were now in the middle of a seller's market for sure.  We were told that everyone was to submit their absolute best offer and they would take the best one.  Our original offer was actually for $2,000 more than the asking price but we had asked for the seller to pay our closing costs.  We didn't want to go any higher on the price, and we were also afraid that if we did, the appraisal might come in too low and mess everything up.  So we kept our bid at the same number but dropped the closing costs and said we would pay them.

We then got to sit and wait.  This morning, Nate and I were both pretty convinced that we didn't get the house.  But then the realtor called mid afternoon to tell us that the seller accepted our offer!

Here are the details of our house:  Two stories, 2300 sq ft, 4 bedrooms (1 downstairs, master and 2 more upstairs), 3 full baths, great room downstairs, loft upstairs, newly painted (a color that I love), brand new oven, microwave, dishwasher and lighting fixtures, $132,000 (it was listed at 129,900).  Our current small house has a higher mortgage balance by more than a few thousand dollars.  (But it would only sell for about $70,000, which is why we will rent it out.)  Our monthly payments will be almost identical  (the new house has to have mortgage insurance, or the payment would be less).  Now we just need to find a renter!  We should be in our new house in about a month!

Here are a few pictures.  Pictures of the bedrooms are boring, so I didn't include those.  But the master has a large bathroom with a big walk in closet.  Oh, and I will have a laundry room now.  Currently, my washer and dryer are in the garage.


View from in front of the entryway.




Upstairs loft.


Pictures, obviously, don't do it justice.  We are EXCITED!!!

Kelton is 4!

Today is Kelton's fourth birthday!  We started off our birthday festivites this past weekend because we had family in town for my neice Emily's baptism.  My parents were here and also Rob's whole family.  So after the baptism on Saturday, we had a family dinner and then we all sang happy birthday to Kelton (which he thoroughly did not enjoy) and ate cake.  This year his request was a Spiderman cake.

He also got to open his present from Grandma and Grandpa Burgess--a Nerf gun and darts.  He absolutely loves it.  (So does his daddy.)

This morning, Kelton got to open the rest of his presents.  The only thing he had asked for was a "Star Wars guy."  He was excited about all his presents and had fun playing with them today.

Oh, and since today was MLK day, we had everyone home today, Nate included.  So this afternoon we went into town and went to the zoo.  (We have to get as much use as possible out of our membership.)  The kids had a lot of fun, just like always.  I love how you can see everything important in an hour.

After the zoo, we took the kids to the mall so they could play in the play area.  For some reason, they think that is just about the funnest thing in the world.  Then we picked up a couple of Cinnabuns (compliments of a groupon I had) and headed out to eat dinner at Taco Bell--Kelton's choice.  When we got home, we opened up one of the Cinnabuns and stuck in some candles and sang happy birthday to Kelton.  I think he was still traumatized by everyone singing the other night and that's why he put his fingers in his ears.

Here are a few things about Kelton:

He is a very sweet boy and loves to just sit with his daddy when he is home.

The first words out of his mouth every morning are "Can you get me breakfast?"  These are usually uttered while half asleep.

I think he loves his sister Natalie more than anything in the world.  He wants to be wherever she is and do whatever she is doing.

In a large group setting, he does not like to be the center of attention.  This is why he did not like being sung happy birthday to.  You could tell he was trying to be small and disappear the whole time we were singing.

He still takes a nap and will even ask for it from time to time if I don't get around to it soon enough.

He loves to watch movies.  He has recently discovered Thomas the Train, but really, he will watch anything.

For lunch he often requests "peanut butter and honey on my sandwich."  If I say, "a peanut butter and honey sandwich?" he says no, and corrects me.  Right now, this is his most requested lunch.

He loves juice (apple or V Fusion).  And raw vegetables like broccoli and cucumbers and carrots.  And I have finally realized after this birthday that he does not really like frosting.

Sometimes when I go to check on the kids before I go to bed, Kelton will stir.  He will keep his eyes closed, but he always smiles at me and whispers "I love you."

Encore, anyone?

THIS, I was not involved in at all.  This was all the big sister.  About an hour later when I tried to get Kelton to take the dress off, he adamantly told me "no."  When I took the dress off Damon, he started crying, but that was only because he had to put down the crown in his hand (so I could get the sleeves off) and he thought I wasn't going to give it back.  I repeatedly had to tell Kelton to stop twirling.  (Because if a boy is going to wear a dress, he should at least be manly about it.)  He wouldn't listen.

I feel pretty, oh so pretty

And so I won't be in trouble with the attorney (aka, father) of these two cute little girls boys...

*Disclaimer:  This was not my doing.  This resulted as a fight over the "diamond" tiara, which Kelton picked up off the floor and Damon had previously claimed as his own.  In an attempt to keep said tiara, Kelton did some quick thinking and lead his brother to a place where another tiara could be found.  Both boys were happy as could be.  I will plead guilty to aiding the parties involved, since they lack the manual dexterity to properly place the tiaras on their heads.  My failure to do so would have resulted in a riot.  I plead innocent to all other charges that may be brought against me.

Hello? Hello?

This was cracking me up this morning.  You would think he has a mom who multitasks or something.

I think all kids around this age find phones and pretend like they are talking on them.  However, I have never had a child who cradles the phone.  What made it even funnier was that if he wasn't doing something (like climbing up the chair in the last picture) he had to have his arm up in the air in order to make the phone stay.

What a silly little boy he is!  He got a much needed haircut yesterday.  After I finished, he couldn't stop smiling at himself in the mirror.  Such a handsome little thing.

Church stuff

I finally got around to doing a few posts.  I've been too lazy busy before now to do it.  But I have some time today, due to a new church schedule.  I know I probably won't remember this forever, so I thought I would document it, because it is a bit unusual.  We were made a stake over a year ago and we have just continued to grow.  When we moved here six years ago, there were only two wards.  We now have five, and from what I hear, we actually need six.  The holdup?  We only have one building and we just can't fit six wards in it each Sunday.  So yes, that means we have five wards in one, somewhat small, building.  I am in charge of all the RS Meetings (activities during the week) and I won't even go into detail about what problems this causes when it comes to trying to schedule the building.  But five wards in one building makes for some great church times.  We got lucky--in my opinion.  We go at 8:00 a.m.  It is early, especially since I play the organ and have to be there even earlier, but it's nice with kids as far as meals and naptimes.  Then the other wards start in two hour increments after us:  10:00, 12:00.... ending up with the last ward starting at 4:00 p.m.  I got home from church at 11:20 this morning.  We've had the whole day to ourselves.  I just glanced at my clock and realized that it is 3:47.  I'm seeing dinner and bedtime on the horizon.  The last ward hasn't even started yet.  Yuck.  Some of them won't arrive back at their homes until my children are in bed.  So, are you enjoying your new church time this year?  If not... just keep in mind that you could be going from 4:00-7:00 p.m.!

Oh, and by the way, in case you were wondering... we do have two more church buildings that are planned or very newly underway.  But it will still be a while.

White Christmas

Yes, we had a white Christmas this year.  We joke that it always snows for Natalie when she comes to Snowflake because she wants it to so badly.  It's funny because it doesn't snow all that much there.  But, in recent years there have been many occasions where it has snowed right at the time we had a trip planned.  This time was a little different.  We got caught in the storm while driving.  We had planned on leaving for Snowflake on Thursday night after Nate got home from work.  After a call from my mother-in-law around lunchtime, informing us that it was starting to snow, we moved up our travel plans and were able to leave by about 2:30 so we could hopefully get there before it got dark and roads got icy.  We started hitting snow in Globe and pretty much had it on the roads the whole way after that.  It was a bit scary, but it wasn't too bad because we ended up driving behind two different snowplows in the worst spots, and our Durango has 4 wheel drive.  Our slightly over four hour drive ended up being closer to six, but we arrived safely.

The next morning we bundled up our kids in their finest Tucson winter wear, which consisted of jeans, an additional long sleeve shirt, normal shoes, and--in the case of my boys--two lightweight jackets and socks for gloves.  However, they didn't care.  They had to be freezing, but they all stayed outside and played for quite a long time.  I might add that my shoes were...flip flops.  I forgot to change my shoes before we left.  It was awesome walking around in snow and slush.  Enough talk, cue the pictures...

This was Damon's first time playing in the snow.  He absolutely loved it.  He wanted to be able to make snowballs like everyone else.   He was excited about the idea of throwing something at his siblings and not getting in trouble.  It was cute to see him try.

All at once that painful cold seemed to hit Damon and he started just crying.  I went to get him to bring him inside.  That made him cry more.  It was funny that the very thing he wanted was what was making him so cold and miserable.

One by one, they all came back inside, completely frozen.  After they came in, I stripped them down and wrapped them in their blankets, which I had put in the dryer.

On to Christmas.  We had a fun Christmas morning opening and playing with gifts.  Natalie and Kelton have enjoyed their "new" DS's (thank you Craigslist for providing them for about $30 each) probably more than anything else. 

This one is from Christmas Eve.  I walked back in after I had put them in bed and found them like this.

I was able to somewhat surprise Nate with a new TV.  I left the TV at home and put an HDMI cable in his stocking.  So... we are no longer the only people on earth with a giant tube TV.  We have finally joined the flat screen revolution.  :)  Nate surprised me with some nice sunglasses.  I've lived in AZ all my life and have never owned a pair.  He also got us tickets to see Wicked when it comes to Phoenix in a few months.  We've never seen it so it should be fun.

So, I know it's January now, but Merry (belated) Christmas to everyone!

Stuff we made in December

Here are some other things we did in December.  Like every year, we made chocolates.  And I can say "we" because I had help this year from Natalie and Kelton.  I was a bit hesitant to let them help, but they wanted to roll the centers into balls and since that is the part I like the least, I figured, why not?  I thought I would have to re-do a lot of them, but I was fine with that.  I was really surprised to find that Natalie was truly helpful.  She was able to get the right amount of dough and roll it into a nice ball.  I handed Kelton peices of dough and he was able to make them into nice balls as well.  They ended up saving me time and it was fun to have the company.

Later on, I did all of the dipping.  While the kids were helpful with the centers, neither is quite old enough to help with the chocolate part.  The chocolates are long gone now, but they were very yummy.

Natalie also helped me make a Christmas gift for her teacher.  We made her a set of calendar blocks.  Natalie did most of the painting and I finished the rest.  Her teacher loves ladybugs, so we incorporated that in the design.  My photography skills need some help... the blocks looked much better in person.

I have been doing a playgroup/preschool co-op for Kelton with a few other moms.  He got to make a gingerbread house at the last one he went to before we stopped for the Christmas break.  He was very excited about it.

A little while ago, Nate and I painted his office.  We did one accent wall that is a darker blue (which doesn't come across in the picture below).  Nate has been wanting to hang some pictures on it.  So I made him some for Christmas.  The photographs are 12"x 12" and are Modpodged onto 1" thick boards (painted black), so they stand out from the wall when hung.  I thought they turned out very nice.  The one on the left is the Sacred Grove, the middle is the Snowflake Temple, and the one on the right is La Coca Falls in Puerto Rico (where Nate served his mission).

Oh, I made these too...didn't they turn out cute?