Sold!

I think I mentioned in my last post that we were selling our house.  Selling our house so that we can rent while we build a new house on the same lot as our barn.  Well, the first people who looked at it gave us a full price offer.  Our house is under contract.  One day of being listed.  And no, we didn't ask too little.  I don't think we could have gotten much more.  Just the right time with the right people I guess.

Yes, this is a good thing.  But I wasn't really prepared to have it sell so fast.  Holy cow.  That just doesn't happen.  So we've been scrambling to get our loan figured out, finish up our plans, and find a place to live while we build.  You'll be happy to know that we do have a place to live while we're building, and no, its not our trailer.  Jake wanted us to live in the trailer, or some other small cheap apartment to save money, but I put my foot down on this one.  You have to pick your battles and this was one worth fighting.  Jake wisely knew to give up on the trailer and let me have my way.  We're going to be able to rent the house our friends are moving out of in a couple of months.  Its a couple blocks away, the elementary school is literally in the back yard, and we're still close to all of our friends.  Perfect I think.

Now I'm trying to wrap my brain around moving.  Packing boxes.  Ugh.  Jake says I have mad moving skills.  I'm pretty intimidated with this move though.  We have lots more stuff than we did last time we moved.  I suppose I'll tackle it like a do everything else - a little at a time until its done.

I'm calling this year the "Year of Change".  It seems like everything is up in the air.  Selling our house, living in a rental, building a new house, having a baby.  And on top of everything else they just split our ward.  Too much change.  We are going to be pros at change by the end of the year…

PS - Couldn't resist throwing the baby comment in there.  Its a lie, a joke, whatever.  We're not having more kids.  That is all.

What's Up?

I'm sure all two of you have been dying to know where we've been.  Why in the world have I not updated my blog for so long?  Well, the suspense is over.  But by the time I'm done you'll probably wish I'd stayed away.  The reason I do this blog (no offense) is not for my two readers.  Nope.  Its because I'm awful awful awful at all things scrapbook, photo, etc.  This is the one way I document the happenings in our family.  That said, I decided that this post is going to really tell it like it is.  Give you a look into our life and why in the world I haven't had a spare second for the blog.  I want to remember how life really is, not just a few highlights.  I know, you're so excited.  Here goes….

I have to start with Jake's work, Jorgenson Builders, because it tends to dominate things around here.  I'm not complaining (Jake), its just how it is.  If any of you have your own business you understand.  Anyway, back in October Jake moved his office from Heber to our front room.  This was to be for a "few months".  Well, they just moved out yesterday.  Almost 6 months later.  That's right folks, for 6 months I had people working in my front room.  They would get here at 8:00am.  Yes, right in the middle of getting the kids off to school and all of the chaos involved.  The employees loved it.  They especially loved it when the kids got home from school and had friends over.  Oh yes, they got lots of quality work done.  Here's an example of how its been… I was talking to Sage about stranger danger.  At one point she said she would run home as fast as she could.  Then she said, "but what do I do if you're not home, and Dad's not home, and Kristine and James aren't there?"  Yep, part of the family.  Awesomeness.

Not a great picture of the barn, but you get the idea

I know, you're wondering why having people in my front room kept me busy.  Let me explain.  I left the house most of the day so I didn't have to be here.  Just kidding.  They moved into our front room so the company could save money while we build a barn/shop/office thing.  Why did this take 6 months?  Two reasons:  Jake is Jake and likes things done with super high quality.  How does he get this high quality?  He does it himself or has his carpenters do it.  So what were we doing at night?  Working on the barn.  What did we do every Saturday?  Work on the barn.  Jake works hard, so we work hard with him.  This is not just any barn, its Jake's barn - so its really nice…cedar siding, wood windows (never do wood windows, they take forever to paint and stain - did I mention we painted the office area? never again), radiant heat, stained trim, custom doors.  Its awesome, especially now that its done.

On top of being a laborer for the company I'm attempting to take over marketing for the business.  I was given the choice between doing the books or marketing.  I believe I chose well.  Come to find out, marketing is kind of complex.  And the busier we get the more there is for me to do.  I'm trying to find my inner marketer though because this will be the perfect job when all the kiddos are in school.  If any of you know anything about marketing I would love to learn.

sisters minus one

see, didn't tell you about this either - cousins!

No, I haven't forgotten about the kids.  Of course not.  They've been busy too.  Zack had ski lessons every Saturday December through February.  So we would go to ski lessons, then work on the barn.  I'm secretly glad for the ski lessons because it forced us to get out of the barn.  (Forgot to mention that Jake broke his finger in the middle of all this - don't worry, he's fine).  Anyway, Zack is a good little skier.  Better than I am.  He really enjoys it too.  In fact, all of my kids are loving skiing.  Makes me so happy.  We actually had one day where all of us were up on the mountain together.  Best day ever.  We even got to go skiing with our cousins this year.  So fun.

Zack, Ethan, Marcus, Megan

All the skiing cousins!

Kate did her first piano festival and got all superiors.  She's amazing.  She was so excited and really loves playing the piano.  Sage is like a tornado.  She gets more out in 5 minutes than most people do in a day.  But she's so happy and fun that we love her anyway.  She's gotten sneaking snacks down to an art…all the way to shutting the cupboard and putting away the stool so there are no signs of the occurrence.

Kate's first piano festival

Had to include Sage - I thought I was done with strollers

Ok, enough already.  In case you think I wrote too much…I didn't say anything about my trip to Vegas with Jake and no kids, my girls' trip to St George, Zack's science project (horrible), or the fact that now that I don't have anyone working in my front room our house is for sale.  Nope we haven't been busy at all.  Good times I tell you.

PS - I know you're all super busy too, so thanks for reading this novel!

PPS - Now that I'm caught up (or as caught up as I'm going to be) my goal is to stay on top of this little blog.

The Routine

People are creatures of habit.  Spjutes especially are creatures of habit.  Sometimes I get off the phone with one of my sisters and I have to giggle.  We all, without discussing it with each other, do things very similarly in our homes.

First, a little background.  My mom was all about routine.  How did she have six kids so close together?  Routine.  How did she get so much done in small amounts of time?  Routine.  We had our morning chores.  We had our afternoon chores.  We had weekend chores.  There were family night charts, chore charts, and dish charts.  That's right, we each had a part to doing the dishes.  And it rotated…set the table, clear the table, rinse the dishes, load the dishwasher, wash the big dishes.  We were a finely oiled machine.  Orchestrated by my mom of course.  We even had a breakfast routine.  My sister wrote a great post about it on her blog.  Basically on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday we had mush (hot oatmeal with raisins).  How she forced this down our throats three days a week I will never understand because I've tried with my kids and its not happening.  Anyway, on Tuesdays and Thursdays we had pancakes.  Those were great days.  On Mondays Mom did laundry.  I'm sure she had a day for bathrooms.  On the weekends we were each assigned a room to clean.  When we weeded the mountain there was a map drawn with specific zones we were to do each day.  Routine I tell you.

My sisters and I seem to be continuing the tradition.  I am definitely a creature of routine.  Too much so at times I'm sure, but it keeps me sane.  I also have a breakfast rotation.  I totally get why Mom did it.  You don't have to wonder what to make for breakfast, you just have to figure out what day it is.  I also have a cleaning routine.  It's awesome.  By having a routine I know everything at least gets done once a week (except dusting - for some reason I hate dusting so it is left out of my routine).  How do my sisters fit into this?  Well, I usually end up talking to one of them on Monday.   Why?  Because we call each other while we're folding laundry.  Yes, we all fold laundry on Monday.  My sister April mentioned she had just finished mopping her floor today when I talked to her while folding laundry.  What did I just finish doing?  That's right, mopping the floor.  I'm sure if we ever really talked about it we'd find even more things that we do the same.

So even though Mom's not here, and we all miss her like mad, she's here more than we realize.  Most everything we do, all the little day to day things that we spend most of our time doing, we got from her.  That makes me happy.  Somehow laundry doesn't seem quite as bad when I think of Mom doing it, on Mondays, for years and years.  I bet she's gotten a good laugh on the other side, watching us all do laundry at the same time, miles apart.  Routine.

The Cat Did NOT Come Back

You may remember that we got a cat a couple of months ago.  Spjutes are not known to be animal lovers.  Don't think that I've gone soft.  This cat was purchased purely out of need for a mouser.  It was to be an outdoor cat that just did his own thing, like most cats do.  There are tons of cats in our neighborhood who just roam and do their own thing, so I thought this would be easy peasy.  Wrong.  Orea (the cat) was more like a dog than a cat.  When we would go on walks it would follow us.  It let the kids hold it and drag it around all the time.  It did not want to be outside.  It wanted to be a member of our family.  The rest of the family was ok with this.  Me?  Not so much.  Not exactly what I signed up for.  You know all the stories about people trying to get rid of their cats?  They take them miles away into the mountains, thinking there's no way the cat will make its way back.  What happens?  A few days later the cat comes strolling in.  Oreo was apparently born without this instinct.  She would follow one of us down the street and not be able to make it back home.  Seriously?  Our neighbors had to keep bringing her back.  Over and over.  For the love.

I was about to take her to the shelter.  She was a great cat, but not a good fit for our family.  One day, when Oreo was missing, I found out from a friend that one of the family's down the street had her.  She said their little girl had spent hours holding her outside.  That night they showed up at our door with Oreo.  I asked them if they wanted to keep her and they got so excited!  They even offered to pay for her.  Are you kidding?!! I was ready to pay them to take her.  I loaded them up with all of the cat stuff and sent them on their way.  Haven't seen her since.  I could not have dreamed up a better solution to the cat problem.  Seriously the best day EVER!

Christmas!

So cute!

Wagon ride

The Christmas Bus

Temple Square

Cute girls!

Best nativity ever

Holy cow.  Life has been crazy.  I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels this way.  I meant to keep up on Christmas posts, but here I am…Christmas is over and I haven't posted a thing.  So now you get a not so brief description with too many pictures.  Oh well.

One of the highlights of the season was the Christmas bus ride.  This has become a tradition and my kids love it.  How could you not love riding in your own school bus while singing carols and drinking hot chocolate?  Every kid's dream come true.  Don't forget that the bus drops you off at temple square so you can see all of the lights.  Amazingness for sure.

The Saturday before Christmas Jake decided to break his pinky.  He was drilling and the drill caught and swung around, catching his finger.  Not amazing.  Poor guy.  Everyone needs both hands, but especially a general contractor.  He's counting the hours until he can get back to work.

Christmas Eve was great fun as usual.  Yummy food, good company, and an awesome nativity.  This year we finally spent Christmas Day at our house.  It was so great.  We've always ended up at family's in the past in an effort to make it to both family's celebrations.  This year we decided we're going to have to start taking turns so we can be at home.  It was great.  The kids were extra excited this year.  They were awake at 6:15 and finally got us out of bed a little before 7:00.  So fun.  They were so excited for everything and spent the next two days playing with new toys.  Awesomeness.

The best present, I have to say, was mine.  Jake surprised me with a baby grand piano.  What?!!  We went and played around on some, but I thought it was hopefully in the cards for next year.  I didn't even think of it for this year.  He had the kids bring me my stocking and in it was the receipt for the piano.  So excited.  Best Christmas bonus ever.  I can't wait to get it.  Why do I not have it?  Well, my front room/piano room is currently an office while Jake builds his company barn.  So I've cracked the whip and told Jake the barn is now his number one priority.  Yes, Jake is the best husband ever.  No, he doesn't ever need to get me another gift.

As a side note - Jake just got new skis and bindings.  Really nice ones.  So he told me not to get him anything for Christmas.  I got him something, but not much.  Now I feel really bad.  Definitely not the best wife ever.  But I could never compete with a piano.  He wins for sure (not that its a contest, but you know what I mean).

I Am Not Stressed!!!

I I tried to find a different picture- oh well- Mom and Sage

I actually wrote this last year, but for some reason it got saved as a draft instead of being posted.  So here it is.  Just as applicable this year as last.

This is one of my family's favorite sayings.  We love it.  I am not stressed!!  Where did this come from?  Its not from a movie, or a book, its from my mom.  This is the story as I remember it (my siblings may remember differently).  It was Christmas time and Mom was busy with Christmas stuff just like we all are at this time of year.  I believe it was the year Mom decided to make a loaf of her famous homemade wheat bread for basically everyone in the ward.  Only Mom would have thought about conquering that all by herself.  If I remember right Greg walked in and saw her surrounded by loaves of bread.  Things were a mess and Mom was obviously frazzled.  Greg stated the obvious, "Mom, you look stressed."  Mom immediately said, "I am not stressed!!"  This was hilarious because it was so obviously not true.  Thus the phrase, "I am not stressed" that we now say at moments that have the most stress possible.  It always brings a little smile amidst whatever craziness is happening in the moment.

I love Christmas.  I try really hard not to make it a super stressful season.  But I've decided that the season in and of itself creates stress.  The pressure of trying to make Christmas memories, help your kids feel the Christmas spirit, remind them what Christmas is really about, get the perfect Christmas tree, and a million other things.  Somehow we're supposed do all of this with a smile on our face, Christmas music playing in the background, sweet smiling kids, and a fire in the fireplace.  Its no wonder why I feel stressed.  My desire to make the Christmas season memorable and enjoyable automatically creates stress.  So what's the solution?  Throw your hands in the air and forget trying to make Christmas so perfectly enjoyable?  I don't think so.  I think I need to remember that part of the fun memories that come from the holidays are the imperfect moments.  Let's face it, most of the stories my family loves telling involve imperfect moments.  That's what makes us smile and laugh in the years to come.

The past few years we've had the tradition of cutting down a Christmas tree.  This has been a great tradition, but it definitely hasn't been perfect.  This year Jake wondered why we should cut down a Christmas tree when it always involves stress and never turns out the way we want it to.  I informed him that the funny stories are what make the tradition great.  Where's the fun in having everything perfectly perfect?

So this year when you're running around shouting, "I am not stressed!!" remember that this is what its all about.  The memories of the crazy things we did to make our kids happy.  The memories of the Charlie Brown Christmas trees.  The memories of trying to make 100 loaves of bread.  Its all about the memories.

So yell "I am not stressed" as loud as you can, then make a fist and let it go.  Because this is what traditions are made of...

Non-Thanksgiving

the only picture I took - guess I was having too much fun...

We had our first annual (I hope) sibling non-Thanksgiving party.  It was so great.  All of the family in Utah (Dad, April, and Greg) brought their troops to our house last night for some partying.  Good times were had by all (I think).  We treated everyone to a true redneck party.  We showed them the barn, our trailer, sat around the fire pit, and took the kids for rides on the tractor.  This is what you do for fun in a small town.  Comments were made about how quiet it is here.  And that is why we're here and will never leave (well, that and lots of other great reasons).

Then we ate.  A lot.  Because that's what Spjutes do.  We decided to make all of our Mom favorites.  We had (be ready to drool) chicken rolls, stinky ham, mashed potatoes, crunchy salad, corn, meatloaf, and jello on lettuce leaves.  It was so great.  Just like old times.  My mom was the queen of comfort food.  My kids say I should cook like that all the time.  It was so fun to just hang out, laugh about crazy things we did in the past, and make new memories.  Hopefully we can do this more often:)