free at last

FREE AT LAST, FREE AT LAST, THANK GOODNESS I AM FREE AT LAST.
It has been way too long but I finally have my brace off.   To backtrack I hurt my hand while trying to move and put away my whole house by myself.  Scott kept telling me to wait for him to get home from work but as you all know I am NOT a patient person in that regard.  I just couldn't fathom "waisting" all that time.  Plus everyone knows I CAN DO ANYTHING right?  apparently not.  With all the lifting and moving of big heavy things I noticed it was hurting.  I went to urgent care a week later who referred me to a specialist that I saw a week after that and he told me I created some stress fractures in my palm which is actually an easy heal but I also tore the ligament? tendon? (I forget which) the one that runs from my wrist to my thumb.  Long story short he said " QUIT USING YOUR HAND!!"  the more I use it the longer its going to take to heal and soft tissue takes longer to heal.  So he put me in a more restricting  brace and told me to treat it like a cast.

Basically I had no use of my hand for 4- 6weeks.  Can I tell you how hard that was for me?  It meant I had to ask for help with things and we all know how hard that is for me. 
So we are marking this day as a day of freedom. . . . For me.
and hopefully I have learned my lesson on patience.  When I don't wait patiently for help I will be forced to be patient.

Deseret Industries

One of the great things about moving to Utah is Deseret Industries. Better known as DI.. Moving to this new house there is a lot of furniture I need because we didn't move any living room furniture with us, and this house has 2 living rooms. So, what's a girl on a budget do? .. You guessed it. D.I.


red couch $40/ storage ottoman on wheels $12

 I love D.I. Its like a treasure hunt for me.  Sometimes you go and find nothing, other times you hit the jackpot. Don't forget the wheeling and dealing. Everything is negotiable! There are a few things a novice D.I. shopper needs to know.
1. which D.I. has the best stuff (the one in Sandy is my favorite)
2. If you want to deal you can't be wearing nice clothes. You don't have to look homeless, just don't wear anything nice or fancy
3. The best day to go.  Usually Monday after they have had time to bring out everything from garage sale drop offs. Saturday late afternoon early evening is good too.


couch $20

4. Don't get discouraged if you don't find anything the first day.  You just have to get lucky.
5. Keep an open eye.  Somethings at first site can be quite tacky, but with a little paint or new fabric they can be great. So look at the shapes and sturdiness of the object.  Somethings just need a little glue or screws.
Here are some of the treasures I found there.  Most were in great condition some (the dresser) needed a little paint.  The dresser was a really ugly yellow/gold with brass handles.  I painted it a cute green apple with silver handles. (It goes in Peters room) The Banana chairs I know are ugly but we had some when I was little and we LOVED them!!!  It turns out my kids love them just as much as I did.
I also got all those little things you need with a new house at an amazing deal.
Scott doesn't really care for things bought at thrift stores.(He grew up quite poor and everything he owned was from garage sales or thrift stores.)  He tells me that he would prefer not to know where it came from and then he likes them
So hurray for D.I. this is really going to help my Christmas shopping.


dresser $20/ toy bin $5




banana chairs $2



cute ottoman for Ellies room $12



something fun for Peter $5



New House

The good new is that we finally moved into our new house, and I am proud to admit it is 99% put away and organized.  The house is more space than we need , however it is a possible buy out so I thought it would be great not to have to move again, and we couldn't beat the location.  It is right between the payson and Sandy offices. 

 

The house comes with a lot of extras. Extra rooms, extra space, an extra kitchen and even extra kids. apparently the whole neighborhood lives at this house.  Everyday there are kids knocking on the door to see if we can play. Its nice that there are built in friends here and my kids don't have to go looking for them.  Its also nice that I can keep an eye on everything they are doing.  We did have to put up a sign that say "The stringhams can't play until this sign is removed"

because one day I came out of my room in the morning and found 7 kids that weren't mine playing in the house.  Another extra is pets. All the neighbors have pets so the kids get their fill and don't ask for one of their own. My favorite extra is land.  This house is on a half acre so there is a great backyard!!!  You know me I love a great back yard. 

The bad new is with all this moving I broke my hand.  With all the moving of  boxes and heavy lifting and me trying to do it all myself. (I know its a flaw of mine) I created a few stress fractures. 

It all started with me smashing my hand while trying to carry a box a little too heavy for me, then me ignoring the pain and continuing to use it.  After a week of it not getting any better I finally went into urgent care where I was x-rayed and told the good news.  Now I have to go see the orthopedic specialist to make sure I didn't do any permanent damage.  Hopefully I get to stick with the brace and don't need a cast.  the Dr. instructed me to stop using my hand, but I am finding that almost impossible to do.

Good bye house

Good bye house.  We have had some great times in you.  Lots of fun parties, and then good naps afterwards. Such a great yard to spend the day in playing kickball and teaching my children how to share  and play catch.  It was really fun to paint you with colors and pictures that made my children happy.  You were a wonderful place to call home, where children learned the value of work, the enjoyment of cooking and the safety of HOME.  We will miss you house. May your new family enjoy you as we did.

To have a house or Not,....NOT

We arrived safely to our destination. I was just so glad to have it all over with. Or was it. We had done all our research on the Internet about out new house. We would be renting until we knew better what we were going to do. I had my sister go check things out for me, everything sounded good so we sent a security check to hold the house for us.
We got to the house and found it was not what it was supposed to be. It boasted over 3000 square feet. Only half of it was finished. It boasted 4 good bedrooms. The master was fine, one of the bedrooms would only have room for the crib, and the second and third would definitely NOT fit the bunk beds. They told my sister that a vinyl fence was being put up in the backyard to separate the horses. not true. There was a hair salon in the garage that I didn't know about but they told my sister it was being torn out. They told me the landlady would be working in it a couple of times a month. That wouldn't be horrible except for the fact that she is CRAZY and not the good kind of crazy. SO what's a family to do? We walked away and asked for our deposit back. Luckily we didn't sign any papers yet.
---ADD MORE STRESS HERE----
So now we are homeless. Luckily we have wonderful family that has been so kind and generous to us. I feel so bad about mooching. Hopeful it is not for long.

trash

Well we finally did it. We loaded all our stuff and headed out to Utah. By the way I seriously underestimated how much stuff I have. I loaded a 8x8x16 pod FULL, a 6x12 trailer FULL and I still had more junk. We had to rent another 6x12 trailer filled that to the gills and stuffed our cars to the max. Scott, Ellie, and William took the first trailer half way to Cedar City to Tracie's house while I cleaned and packed the last of the house. Scott came back the next day without the kids. (apparently they wanted to stay at cousins, I don't blame them.)After that it was a mad exhausting dash to finish it all.
We were doing the last of the cleaning at 11pm, the next day was trash day and everyone had their trash cans out on the street. I reasoned that the trash gets picked up around 7am so it would not be a problem for me to put my overflow trash in my surrounding neighbors cans. I woke up early in the morning only to find that 1 of my neighbors was not willing to share his can and took out the trash I put in his can and dumped it in my front yard. I was sooooo mad steam was coming out of my ears. I didn't fill his can to the top, I still left room for one more bag of trash just in case.
WHATEVER just add it to the list of things that stink about moving.

Boxes

One thing that goes hand in hand with moving is boxes. I find myself consumed with finding boxes. Always having my eye out for the free cardboard as I drive by places of business and their dumpsters. Asking every sales clerk if they have any extra boxes. I refuse to pay for something that I can get for free. Can you believe they sell for $2 a box?
(Luckily here in California they are big on recycling and have dumpsters specifically for recyclables.)
In my quest to gather these paper masterpieces I hit the jackpot at a local shopping center. No sooner had I pulled up my car and started breaking down and loading boxes than another gentleman pulls up along side me and starts to gather boxes as fast as humanly possible. I felt like saying "Are you serious? I found these you go find your own." But being the bigger person I let him have the rest of the hoard and headed onto the next dumpster almost equally rewarding. When 1 min later guess who's back intruding on my find? You guessed it the same guy. Come on man get your own I was here first. This time I didn't back down but raced him to the bottom of the dumpster.
In the meantime I seemed to catch the eye of a security guy who thought I might be up to something so he decided to tail me.
Too much heat for me I decided to head to another shopping center and who should follow me? The security guard. It's not like I'm a criminal is it?
Realizing this neighborhood is too much work I drove across the street but apparently those dumpsters were already taken. (What is it with everyone looking for boxes) Sooo I drove quite a ways down the street passing up 3 shopping centers before I turned onto another road and found my next little gem. Lots of good sized clean boxes. I start breaking down and loading boxes when I get yet another visitor.
Who knew boxes were such a hot commodity?
Now that my garage is full of brown containers I think my dumpster diving days are over. But I'm sure my eyes will stray every time I pass a dumpster.

moving

Well it is 98.9% official we are moving. We can't say 100% because Scott hasn't met with the IDA (Intermountain Dental Board) yet. They still have to "approve" him and he has to go visit the practice and make sure it is what they said it was. We are excited but quite stressed. We need to be in Utah by July 1st and that means we need a renter for July 1st. The problem is that there are so many houses to rent right now that it is hard to compete with the prices. We lowered our asking price but it still seems to be a little high for most people. We are already going to have to shell out some extra cash each month to keep this place a float so we really can't afford to go any lower. I keep telling myself that all we need it 1. 1 person to want the house, so we are praying for a miracle. I have faith, it'll happen right? All I know is that the Lord has not let me down yet so as long as I am doing my part it should happen.

Here is where the stress comes in. Scott needs to make enough EXTRA money in a month to cover moving expenses, 1st month rent plus deposit for a new place, AND the extra for our current house. On top of that we planned a vacation for the 3rd week in June and as soon as we get back we need to move the house. Hopefully I can get a lot of the work done before we go on vacation. I know I could cancel the vacation but we need it.

All craziness aside I am still optimistic even if I am a little run down. So Utah ready or not here we come

moving

It is 98.9% official we are moving and oh what stress it is. trying to get everything packed cleaned and ready. Not to mention trying to keep the house clean so I can show it to everyone and their dog who wants to come see it right now. I will be in the middle of taking apart a room when I get a knock at the door. Its someone who wants to see the house. (by the way when I was packing I was not entertaining my kids so they destroyed the other parts of the house.) Needless to say my house is in constant disarray, I'm stressed out, and my kids are feeling neglected and board.
Why are we moving again?

Mothers day

For Mothers day this year Ellie painted this beautiful card for me and gave me a night of free babysitting.

William made this jewelry box for me with a note about how he loves me and that I weigh 400 lbs and am 70 inches tall. It was one of those fill in the blanks.

Brennen and Peter gave me loves, kisses, and laughter.

I am not really a fan of mothers day. It is always a reminder to me of the things that I should be doing better. That and there is at least one of my kids that doesn't get the memo that its mothers day. This year it was William he was being such a spoiled stinker today. It didn't matter how many chores I gave him he just wasn't gonna clean up his act. So at times like this I think that mothers day is a day for me to celebrate my mother not for me to be celebrated.

I remember the worst mother day I had was before I was a mother myself. It was shortly after my rock climbing accident and I had graduated to a walker. I was trying to get dinner ready for my mom but I was having a hard time getting around the kitchen with my back brace and broken legs. My mother seeing my struggle said "Oh Jane, just get out of the kitchen and let me do it." I know it didn't really bother her to help fix her own mothers day dinner but I felt awful. It was the first time I was mad about being an invalid, because I couldn't do for my mom what she definitely deserved. Now thanks to her I am well and doing all kinds of things I feel like I just can't do enough to repay her for what she has done for me. I love you mom. Happy Mothers Day.

keys

Okay so I'm doing a little better. I don't know if its because the sun finally came out or because I found my keys. Funny story about my keys. I lost them. I have been losing a lot of stuff lately. I'm REALLY frustrated with myself for not being organized enough. Well it turns out that it is not all my fault. I have a family, and sometimes my loving family try to help clean up, which I love, however they don't always put stuff where it belongs. So back to the keys. I have been searching for my keys for days. I've totally torn my house, my garage, and both cars apart. I've looked in every nook and cranny. I did a grid search in my backyard. I called everyplace I've been in the last few days. Maybe someone somewhere turned them in. . . No luck. Every hour I ask my family "Where are my keys?!?! Have you seen my keys? Will you help me look for my keys?" Not a lot of help there. Scott says to me "Have you looked in your purse?" What kind of question is that? Of course I looked in my purse. I dumped it out twice! Then I was hit with inspiration. (actually I was thinking of the show modern family when Gloria couldn't find her keys. Her husband gives her a hard time about not putting things where they belong. Turns out they were in his coat pocket the whole time, and he didn't realize it.) So guess where I found my keys. In his coat pocket! I was mad and happy all at the same time.

random mall

Our Mall likes to be involved and give all kinds of opportunities to the community. They often have art shows,Concerts, and random acts. They had a music station where Brennen felt right at home. Him being my music nut. Although I was a little nervous about the type of music he created and then jammed to. Yes he created the music while he was playing it.
they also had a circus in the mall parking lot so here's a teaser show they did in the food court. He used Ellie's shoe for the first thing. He wanted to use Brennen's but he wouldn't give his up. The second was a dollar bill. I thought the shopping cart was impressive. Those things are heavy. We didn't actually go see the circus we just got the free version.