Prom Phase 1= Asking The Girl

Madsen and some friends decided to go to the Apex Prom together. Two of the boys attend Panther Creek High so they had to ask Apex girls. All 4 boys had girls in mind. They wanted to ask them in creative ways so the planning started. The first boy used one of his t-shirts and wrote on it "wash me to reveal your date. Will you go to prom with..." then there were a bunch of boy names. All but one were written in washable marker. THE one was in Sharpie so it did not wash off. They left it in a wrapped box on her porch. Cute, she said yes. Madsen had all sorts of ideas. What he ended up doing was funny. He printed out "if you go to prom with me we can be M & M (they have matching initials) What do you say?" He put 1 word in Easter eggs filled with m&m's. Then he had a paper saying "follow the chalk line to bring me your answer." He painted YES on a water bottle and NO on the fire hydrant at the end of her drive way. They used side walk chalk to draw a line and he was up the street a bit with a big jar of m's for her. She brought him the water bottle. Fun idea, right? His Eagle project was the next day... he painted fire hydrants. The remaining boys asked their girls the next days. Now the asking is over and Madsen gets to go to Prom with the cutest girl in our ward! Phase 2 is all their planning. Dinner, cars, where to take pictures- houses and outdoors, after prom activity... he did get his tux rented today. Phase 3 may need to be the job he gets to pay for all this!

Perspective and Streaking

Back in high school when I weighed about 115 pounds, a girl on my basketball team said that she weighed 150. I was shocked! She did not look fat, but oh my goodness! 150 pounds? My head was screaming how obese that is. I could not imagine weighing that much. Fast forward 20 plus years and not only can imagine it, but I am it. And most shocking of all, I think I am the only person on the planet who thinks I am even a little bit fat. I guess back then I was just really skinny. My sisters and I are going to go streaking together. Before you all get sick to your stomachs at the mental picture this phrase just created, it is not what you think! It will be a consecutive days (streak) of running contest. We will see who is the best streaker. The big problem with this streak is that Tam is making us start counting today! It is FRIDAY! You can not start something on Friday! Make me crazy, I tell you! The only saving grace of starting this streak on Friday is that it is February 1, and who does not love the first of the month to start something? Oh, and it is not quite totally unbearable because I have been exercising 4-5 days a week for the last 4 weeks so I am not all the way starting something on a Friday. I am on day 19 of Jillian Micheals 30 day Shred program. I have not shredded that much. Oh well. Tomorrow will be my last day of work out 2. I am afraid of work out 3. But, if it does not kill me, it will make me stronger, right? So, today was day one and counting. Before I know it I will weigh 115 again. Yeah right.

The Guy In Her Brain

Waverly woke up at 4:30 this morning because "the guy in her brain was stomping so loud!" I have no idea what she is talking about. She has been bouncing off the walls and making me crazy ever since. And, she keeps talking about the stomping guy in her brain. She asks me if I can hear him going, "stomp, stomp, stomp" In the car she said, " does my brain have feet? Maybe it is my brain feet stomping." I don't know if I should be worried about this for any number of reasons...
Mostly I just hope the guy stops stomping in her brain so she will be normal and sleep! 

The Million Dollar Quartet

Matt and I recently attended the musical The Million Dollar Quartet. It is the story of one night in 1955, when the owner of Sun Records had Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis together at the studio. Sun Records was the label that started the careers for these four men. It was fun, well done and interesting. The actors were incredibly talented musicians. They were not faking the music. They sounded a lot like the famous men they were portraying. I would recommend going to see it if it comes to a city near you. Any way, we had 4 tickets so we invited a young couple in our ward to go with us. After the show, the young man with us said, "was that your generation of music?" What??? Did you miss the whole 1955 thing? How old do you think we are? Matt kind of laughed and said no, we are more of the '80's and 90's generation of music. So, I realize that we were teenagers in the decade that these people were born. We seem really old to them because we have teenage kids and have been married for a long time compared to their 2 years, but really?

Toilet Trouble

Waverly has been totally traumatized by the toilets here. The lids fall down when you put the seat down, smashing fingers. She has had her thumb smashed and cut twice so far and it has been just too much for her. Now she is afraid to go potty, insists that I go with her to hold the seat up. I have to drag her in there crying and place her on the pot. I am glad that she is not new to potty training because I am sure this would be a huge set back. I am hoping it is short lived and maybe those boys will put the seats down! Poor Princess.

Home Sweet Home

The big move finally happened! We were delayed in closing for a week because the bank paper work was not completed in time. We were very frustrated as we had everything set to go and had to rearrange several things for the new date. But, that week did fly by and we did move in! We closed on Wednesday morning, did not get the key until nearly 5:00 so no truck loads were taken to the house. We did decide to sleep in sleeping bags that first night. Matt and I did bring air mattresses, way to old to sleep on the floor! It was fun. The house was so nice and clean and empty! Matt stayed home from work Thursday and Friday so we got right to work. Several ladies came with trucks to help move things from the small house to the big house. We got all the little stuff out before we got the moving truck on Friday morning. We were so worn out! Friday we got the big truck and headed to the storage unit and started there. We made a trip to Lowes for blinds and did some work at the house. We had requested help from the ward around 6:30 that night. I left to go buy dinner and only one man had arrived. I was a little worried because there is no way we could have done this without more help. When I got back to the little house, there were cars and trucks lining the street and the house was empty of furniture and full of people. It was overwhelming to me to see all those people there to help us. They then headed to the storage unit to get the rest of the stuff and then to the house for the unloading. It was all done in about 3 hours. There is minor damage to the walls up the stairways from the sofa bed but nothing we can't easily repair. Now everything we own (which I am sure is way more junk then we need) is safely under one roof. I have been working endlessly to get things organized. I am almost there! I need to work on Declan and Cannon's bedroom and then some of Madsen and Sully's. They should do it on their own but they are not being very cooperative. Making me crazy! And yes, their room already smells like boy. I guess boy smell is stronger than new house smell. Once all of the boxes that are in the house are emptied, I will start on the things in the garage. The chaos is hard on my brain. We also need to decorate for Christmas, the kids are refusing to skip it this year! I love my house. It is lovely and has so much more space then we had before. We are all looking forward to many many years here!

Single Digits

We are down to single digit days until the big move!
I am so excited I can hardly stand it. I love my house. Love it! It has been fun watching it being built. Every new bit of progress was exciting. Today the sod and landscaping was put in. It looks so pretty. We have our walk through on Friday and then we close on Wednesday. We should have the keys that afternoon and we will start moving things over. Declan asked if we can spend the night in it without stuff just once so that will be the night. We even plan to move stuff on Thanksgiving day. We might eat turkey sandwiches on paper plates.  We will probably have a delayed Thanksgiving Dinner. We have the moving truck on Friday and that will be that! I started packing the little house today but then decided it is kind of a waste of time because most of the stuff here we still use so I will wait until mext Tuesday and then I will pack. We will probably just throw stuff in boxes and drive it over to the house! I am not that concerned about packing for the giant 2 mile trip. There is still work to be done on the house. The stone on the front of the house, carpet, door knobs, garage doors and openers, screen on the porch, staining the stair rails and the porch roof, fixing all the holes in the walls, touch up painting, painting the shutters and front door, pillar and railing for the front porch, gutters... I sure hope it is actually finished by Friday! This whole house project has been a year in the making. Just about as soon as Matt got his new job, I was serious about the house. Started prepping the old house for sale, the sale of that house and the adventure of living in the little house. It seems kind of unreal that it is now just days away. Someday is finally here. There are so many things about this house that we are all looking forward to. So, this year for Thanksgiving we will all be thankful to be in the new house. For the added comfort it will be for our family. For Matt's job that made it all possible.
 I can't wait to make this house my home.