I'm Back!

So I'm very aware of how long it's been since I've blogged. Life has been so crazy here! I literally feel like every day I get up and am busy constantly, then when it's time to go to bed, I look around and try to figure out what I did all day. So here's what we've been up to:

We had painters working in our house that we had to fire a couple weeks ago. Having them gone made my life easier. While they were here, they were showing up at 8am. I didn't want to unpack anything for fear they'd paint whatever was out (and they actually did) so the kids and I played outside for a week while they were here. We didn't want to leave the house, leaving strange men in it with all our stuff. If you refer to the pictures below, you'll see that our backyard isn't exactly a childs delight (full of very painful thorn weeds and rocks) so we pretty much hung out on the patio or front yard. We did plant some tomatoes, beans, lettuce, spinache, cucumbers & cantaloupe. So far we haven't seen lettuce or spinache but everything else seems to be moving right along including many many weeds that have been waiting years for some water and miracle grow.

After 2 weeks of living here & having men working here, we finally fired them (they did a horrible job and the contractor kept yelling at us). While the work isn't done, I was able to start unpacking, hung clothes in the closet and hooked up my Mac. A week or 2 of many boxes, kids messes etc, still trying to make my way through. This week has been my first week where I actually feel like we live here. Things are put away enough that I feel like they have a place and we know where that place is. My office still has boxes but the rest of the house is mostly box free. (We won't talk about the garage)

While this week is feeling better, Matt & I do have to give talks on Sunday. Pioneer Day! No pressure! We've been to our ward for 2 weeks. (The first 2 weeks living here I was sick, that dang thing lasted forever!) The ward has been soooo welcoming! Everytime someone here's our name they say, "Oh you're the Egberts! We've been waiting for you!" It's like we're super stars!! hahahaha Really though, we've never received this kind of welcome. I was extended a calling this week (can't say it yet though) and the bishopric member kept talking about how excited they are to have us in the ward. My only comment was I hope we can live up to the hype. Our talks on Sunday will be the first test to see how we are I guess. Again, no pressure! There's a Pioneer Day fireside on Sunday night that Matt is narrating and they've asked me to say the opening prayer, it's for 2nd and 3rd ward. It feels like they've been waiting so long and they're asking us to do everything all at once. Hahaha, so if you're in the area, come to the Egbert show on Sunday! It's great to feel so needed and wanted in the ward though.

Well today I'm hoping to have the Social Worker come over and check out our house. It's not quite certification ready but hopefully very soon. We have so many projects we're working on, it feels like it's taking forever. But honestly I feel so busy right now I don't know how I'd handle 2 more kids right now. I suppose once I'm settled a little more it'll be better.

I will post pictures soon of our "blue room". We love the way it turned out (mostly though it's not quite done).

Sick & Moving

Not a good combination is it? Well that's what I'm dealing with right now. Not fun! I'm achy and yucky all over. Got most everything packed today with the exception of what's left, of course. We got some really exciting new yesterday (NOT). Found out our house won't be done for us to move into on Saturday. Okay so that's fun! We're having all the popcorn removed from the ceilings, then ceilings textured & painted. Oh yeah and we're having lights put in the ceilings since the only ceiling lights are in the kitchen, hall and bathrooms.

Well luckily we still have this house we're in for another couple of days so we'll be camping out here until Monday when our lease is up. After that we're probably hotel bound until the house is done. It won't be bad though, the upstairs should be done by Tuesday so we can get moved in there, hopefully the downstairs will be done by Thursday or Friday of next week. I'm really excited for this to be done. In a couple of weeks when things are getting unpacked and we're getting settled, this hickup will be a distant memory.

Hooray for moving!!!

Good-bye to 3rd Ward & YW

For some reason moving from 3rd ward is really hard for me. We've moved plenty of times, this is 8th move & 5th ward in the almost 13 yrs we've been married. Yes I'm ready to settle down and stop moving! But this time it's really hard. I think it must be because after we moved to 3rd ward, they combined 4th ward (our previous ward) into 3rd so all our friends came with us. (Michael thinks they all moved because we did.) So we've essentially had the same people in our ward since we moved here almost 8 yrs ago. Now we're leaving them permanently for a whole new ward (with a few people from our previous 4th ward). I'm also sad to be leaving my calling as YW president. I was shocked to get that calling and thought they were joking. But over the last 1 1/2 yrs of being in there I have really loved it. I'll miss the girls and leaders I worked with. I've made really good friends.

But you know what? I'm only moving across the street. Literally across that big street of Broadway is our house and our new ward where we'll find lots of new friends. Now we'll have friends on all sides of town, North South East and West. We look forward to having friends over now that we have room and look forward to working on "our" house.

Here it is, we just found out from a neighbor yesterday that this house has been vacant for 4 yrs! The neighbor has been having their lawn service take care of the yard so it doesn't look bad. What a nice neighbor!

This is the entry way, front door on the right (standing open). Behind that is our office (or 1 of 5 bedrooms) with the dining room and kitchen behind that.

Family room just off the kitchen.

Self explanatory...

Dining room

Downstairs bathroom

Anyone want to make me curtains? They're only 17' tall... come on, it'll be fun!

Backyard, I'm excited to get back there and plant some vegies before the  season's over.

So there's a few pictures of our house. We closed on it yesterday after several weeks of waiting for the final deed to come in. We're very excited to be done with that process and look forward to getting into it. Our move date is Sat June 25th. It feels great to actually know when we're moving and know that the house is ours!

We're sad for the adventure we're leaving behind but excited for what our future holds. Come visit us friends and family!

4 Little Eggs becomes...? Little Eggs

We are re-entering the world of fostering. This is something we didn't expect to do. In fact I've once again been shown that if I say "I won't do that again", I will in fact do it again. But within the last couple of months (along the same timing as getting our house) Matt & I have both felt very strongly that we need to adopt again. We came to this realization separately but when we talked about it we felt we needed to move on it right away. I've been torn with sharing this information (as in the whole process) but decided I would so others can see what our "pregnancy" is like.

I called a foster agency "Angels" the Monday after we decided to adopt. We decided on Friday night on our date so you could say it was a little rushed. After talking to the social worker she sent out paperwork. She told us that normally if someone decided on Friday night that they wanted to adopt, then called on Monday morning, they had make them wait a while and learn more about the process. But she said since we've been through it before we understand that this isn't a fun thing and people don't just sign up for the heck of it. It's really hard work. So she let us move forward.

Here's a few things we have to do:

1. Complete and return signed application: This was about 8 pages long and had many detailed questions like how we were raised, style of parenting we're used to, how we would react in certain situations etc.
2. MMPI Testing: This is a psychology test. Pretty much to make sure we're not crazy. (lol) This one had me really nervous because when it came back she said we needed to talk about some things and scheduled us for a week later! I was stressing...which apparently was the problem. She said the test shows we're stressed. LOL. Well we talked about how we take on stuff and follow through, we basically live our lives keeping busy, that's just how we are. What I wanted to say was, "We're in the middle of buying a house, we have our own business & our receptionist just put in her notice, Matt just finished running Healthy Kids Day & Mormon Helping Hands Day, I'm Young Women's President and have Girls Camp & Trek coming up, I've just pulled my son out of his school and put him in a new one with only 2 months left in the year, we're in the middle of baseball and ballet season AND I CAN'T HAVE A GLASS OF WINE BEFORE TAKING YOUR STRESS TEST!!! However, I kept my cool and she allowed us to continue with the training. Whew!
3. CPR/First Aid, training (1 full day), physical with TB test, Live Scan, Criminal Record, Homework assignment of reading 3 articles on childhood behaviors and writing a report, and a home inspection where we have to lock up all chemicals, sharp knives or basically anything that says "Keep out of reach of children". Have you ever looked at what's in your house and what has that label on it? You should try it.

Well we're almost done with the process. Today we had out TB test done. While I was there the lady started asking me about kids, because everyone thinks it's odd to foster I guess. She asked if I have any kids of my own. This is something that really bugs me but I know that people don't mean it in a bad way. They just don't know how to be nosy in a polite way. hahaha So I told her yes, I have 2 kids. Because I do, and they are my own. Just because we adopted them doesn't make them not ours. It makes them as much ours as if I'd given birth.

When she asked me that I thought, here we go again. Here we go with all the comments from strangers who think it's their business to comment on my children. The "they don't look anything like you, they must look like their dad", or "they don't look anything alike" I suppose implying that I have 3 baby daddies or something.  I have many stories like these and I might humor you all one day and share them. I would like to write them down. However now I have my husband coming home any minute and hungry kids so I'd better get started on dinner. 

By Friday we should be able to turn in the last of our paperwork then we'll just wait to get into our new house before getting the certified.  
I will keep you posted on our progress.

Leave Me Alone!

So today I had 45... count them...For-ty Five... minutes to myself without the kids. I've had sick kids all week... but who's counting? I asked Matt to come home for lunch so I could have a much needed mental break. I went to JoAnn's since it's new in town and I've hadn't gone yet. I didn't have much time but had fun looking while I could. I was getting a few things for Aliyahs cowgirl outfit for the parade tomorrow.

As I was checking out I walked past all the candy bars. Not usually such a temptation but today I was by myself, and hungry with no lunch. I grabbed my favorite, the Dark Chocolate Milky Way. So I'm at the counter checking out and the girl says, "hard to pass by the candy isn't it?" I said something like yes I've got no kids and it sounds really good. Then she goes on..."I'm only 10 lbs overweight, as I sit in the corner eating a bag of candy" she says. "Then before you know it I need to lose 15 lbs and on and on. And I just want to keep eating more and more and then I'll die."

REALLY?! Can't I just eat a candy bar without the checkout girl (who's thin and young) judging me and telling me I'll eventually die from eating candy? Hahahaha this was so funny and yet so weird. Not exactly a saleswoman that's for sure, and she kinda ruined the candy bar for me...until I started eating it and stopped thinking about how it would kill me.

Aliyah's Tea Party with Jester

 This was so cute, I had to capture it. Aliyah kept running things outside so I went to see what was going on. Why, it's a tea party! With Jester! How cute is that?

She definitely knows how to make him happy. He's such a good sport with her, just eating a piece at a time from the spoon and leaving the "big" bowl alone. Sometimes when she feeds him, instead of dumping a scoop in his dish she throws him a piece at a time... and he just deals with it.

Fun with Grandpa Egbert/Mothers Day

My Mother's Day treat from Angie... they were so good!!

Looking for tadpoles/frogs

Look at the tadpoles/frogs Michael caught! We have a couple at home that are almost competely frogs.

 It was super windy on Mother's Day so we decided to take the kites out. Plus it gave Matt a  break from all day kitchen duty.(heehee)

Grandpa & Aliyah flying kites

Me

Grandpa "dive bombing" the kite

Aliyah & I

Michael, Matt layed on the ground for this shot

Someones tired from all the running around.