The Definition of Friends

I know these pictures are blurry, but I took these the night we moved.  These are of a few of the many people who helped us clean and finish packing.  I am so grateful to them.  

Thank you Angela, Kim, Shamarie, Taylor, Ashley, Josh, Caleb, Marlene, Renee, Emily, Rakelle, Steve, Stacia, Sydnee, Carly, Audrey, Michelle, Arli, Beck, and I know there were more, I was just so overwhelmed I don't remember who right now.  But thank you!

Morgan Lately

We never let Morgan get on the pool cover until the last week we were there.  She saw the new owner's kid run across it and there was no stopping her after that.  

She got to try her first snow cone at a neighborhood party (for the neighborhood next to ours).  She loved it!

Sometimes she doesn't listen to daddy so she has to go to time out.  How cute is this!

Late, But Memorable

It's been a week and a half, but Tom took Morgan to Utah to visit family and I stayed home all by myself (something every mom/wife should try, in my opinion).  I completed tons of projects, watch tons of Medium episodes, went to lunch with the girls, had girls night out at the water park, dinner and karaoke followed by ice cream and Just Dance at my house, ate a whole box of Reeses Puffs cereal, one corn dog, and no fruits or veggies.  It was a great few days.  But by the end I was missing my little family and I'm glad they came home when they did.

About the karaoke thing... it's not me.  BUT, Angela dared me (okay, offered me $2) and I can't pass up a dare so I picked a Britney Spears song that I thought I knew and started singing.  It turns out that I didn't know the song so well.  Ha!

While they were at Tom's mom's house, they slept in the guest bed.  Tom snores (and I sleep next to a fan) so he would wake Morgan up every time he fell asleep and she would start screaming, "hold me, hold me" because it scared her.  Hahaha!  Love them.  I'm sorry they had some rough nights, but it was so good for me.

Five Zero Zero Zero Zero

Or $50,000.

Isn't it funny how people's money always seems to be the elephant in the room?  Well, I like elephants in rooms.  It's not like I'll tell you how much we make (although I'm sure you're dying to know -- ha!), but I will tell you that a check for fifty thousand dollars written out to Tom and Kelli Rich was delivered to us on Tuesday.

Why?  Because someone is paying us that amount to move out of our house by the 24th of August.

It started in November when Tom decided to take a leap of faith and start his own business.  We didn't know where we would be so we decided to sell our house.  We sent it out to my broker's list for a few weeks but never actually put it on the MLS because we decided that we didn't need to sell because we could stay here.

Then a few months ago this family called my broker and asked if we would still be interested in selling our house.  They came over to look at it and made us an offer that was more than what we paid for it.  We talked about it and decided that we would sell so that we could pay off our student loans (the only debt we have left).  We used to be in debt somewhere around $1.5 million, which will be another post entirely and I'll tell you the whole story.

So they offer.  We accept.  The closing date was supposed to be July 15 but they had some financial issues and asked to extend to Sept. 1 and that was fine.  Then it got closer and closer and I told my broker that I would not pack one box until after closing and I wanted two weeks to get out.  He told that family and they asked if they could give us $50,000 to be out by August 24th so their kids could be ready for school.  They also asked for up to 6 months to close on the house and they would pay rent every month until they close.  But get this... if they don't close, we keep the house and the $50k.  It's a good deal for us either way.  And, either way, with the 50 grand and our savings, we will [most likely] be able to pay off the student loans.

There you go.  A peek into our finances.  The goal is to be debt free and we are SO close (relatively speaking, of course)!

16 Years

(written yesterday)
That's how long it's been since I broke my neck. August 8, 1995 was the date. I don't know if it was "in memory of," but my arms were aching today. They get that way when they're cold and they ached for a long time after the accident. I know it seems weird that my arms would hurt, but I broke C5-6 and that is where the nerves for the arms come out of the spinal cord. I still can't do a normal push-up but I'm really blessed to be able to lift Morgan over my head to play with her. I'm blessed to be able to walk and run. It was such a close call (one millimeter, they said). I was almost a quadriplegic. And I'm not saying that people who are paralyzed are not blessed. When I was paralyzed and working so hard to be able to walk again, my goals changed. I went from needing to make the basketball team to focusing all my efforts on walking.  I was the same headstrong person with aspirations.  The focus just changed.  And when I hear people say they would rather die than be paralyzed, I say they are wrong.  Their focus would change and it would be hard, but the feeling of success and progress would be the same.

Yum!

Great news! I have the pizza dough recipe from the swim/pizza party.
1 cup luke warm wate
1 tablespoon yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2-3 cups flour

If you make it in a mixer, put the water and yeast in first. If in a bread machine, water and yeast last.

Kelly brought it already made. I think she made it in a mixer and she said you don't have to let it rise. She rolled it pretty thin (like a few centimeters) and put the toppings on and baked at 350 for (I want to say) 10 minutes.

Hope ya'll enjoy!

The Things I Do For My Hubs

Camping... unless it includes room service and a private bathroom, I'm not a big fan (and haven't been since the 20th century). Problem: Tom likes camping. We have been 1 time since we've known each other and it was way before we had Morgan. Solution: ward camp out invitation -- accepted!

Here we are in the car. Great picture, right? My teeth are big, which reminds me that my friend's little brother used to say I had Mr. Wilson teeth from Dennis the Menace when he puts Chiclets in his dentures. I'm not complaining. I like my teeth. The picture just brought back a memory. We camped somewhere in the mountains about an hour away and we were close to a river. Morgan couldn't resist getting in the water in her clothes.Besides camping and all the comforts that come with that, I experienced the worst 5 minutes of my life when we didn't watch Morgan for like 30 seconds and she wandered off. We and half of the ward were running around the campground searching for her and yelling her name. Finally I found her in some bushes looking longingly at this swamp of child-drowning water. At least she was okay. Phew.

I love our ward and the people in it so I am glad we got to hang out with them. Maybe next time it could be just an evening thing.

New DIY Blog

If you keep up on my blog you have probably noticed that I like Do It Yourself projects and I post quite a few of them. Well, it seems like I'm always doing a project so I decided to start a blog to dedicate to my projects. It's called The Turquoise Piano and the URL is theturquoisepiano.blogspot.com.

I am hoping to grow the site so I can get sponsors. Seriously, paint gets expensive. If you wouldn't mind, would you please go to the blog and follow it? You do that by clicking the "join this site" tab under "Followers" on the right column.

Thanks and I love you! Here are the before/after pics. The whole story is posted on The Turquoise Piano.

Before After

Here are a couple of helpers while they were dancing on the new painted cement floor.

My Big Girl

Wow, I have some things to catch up on.

First is Morgan. We finally had her two year well baby exam and she has grown! She is now in the 25th percentile for both weight and height (until now she has been in the sub 10th in both). She talks so well that the doctor said to her, "I'm talking to you like I talk to a four year old because you talk so well." So it's not just her mom that is bias. She's brilliant! :)

She is forming sentences when she speaks. Today she was swimming in the pool and she threw a flower into the deeper part and said to me, "I can't reach it."

The sentence she says the most is, "Where's [insert word] go?" which I realize isn't correct, but it sure is cute.

We were at my parents' house last week to remodel their basement (see post on my new blog theturquoisepiano.blogspot.com) and we took a break for a 24th of July ward party and parade, which included the town fire truck. My mom had bonnets for the little girls to wear and told me to bring a pioneer dress for Morgan.

I was so busy working on my mom's house and Morgan was so patient with me most of the time. By the end of the trip she was a momma's girl, but she did very well. I appreciate her.

One last thing I want to remember was one of the last days late at night. She was downstairs with us and she asked, "where's mommy go?" I was right there and I said, "Morgan, where did mommy go?" And she replied, "mommy busy." It broke my heart and I took a break to be with her.