7802 S. 26th St

I've been thinking a lot about good byes. How does one really say good bye? I don't like them. Honestly they make me feel quite uncomfortable. Its not that I don't care about the loved ones being left behind...I think most can probably relate. Its just weird.

After 32 years in Arizona - its time to leave. We're leaving Friday (tomorrow) morning to spend the week in Salt Lake with my sister while Pat finishes packing up and clearing out. While I've lived lots of places in my life where I've shared in and hold many dear memories, it will be the strangest to leave this little house in South Phoenix. You may say, "Its just a little house. What's the big deal?" I'll tell you...
Pat and I were married here...in this very backyard. This was where we eloped. For those who didn't see our wedding announcement might not know how truly bratty we are...here was the picture.


Yes, we're sticking out our tongues. Wording on announcement: "what do you mean you missed the wedding of Jessica and Patrick? Hhhmmm...love us anyway! Adventurous, I know. Pardon the distraction...moving on...
And this is where 2 months later we had our PWG (post wedding gathering.) We had all three baby blessings here in our family room that was filled with friends and family.
I could go on and on but its really not necessary.
I didn't get to say good bye to everyone that I wanted to see. And I didn't get to do everything that I wanted to do. But that's the way it goes, I guess. How do you say good bye to 32 years? My way seems to have been to just be in denial about it and act like its not really happening. While it seems to work for me - it probably makes me look like a big snob who just doesn't care enough. I do, really. Its just been crazy. *SIGH* I'll say that I'm so grateful for BlogWorld. So I can still keep in touch with everyone. And still feel like I am a part of what's going on.
THANK YOU! To Danya and Kimberly for putting together a dessert farewell party for us tonight. It was so nice to see so many people who came to see us off. We have loved our ward, and our friends, etc...
Enough for now. When I get the pictures from Danya - I'll post them. What will I do without my personal photographer? Good Grief!
Its almost 11pm and I still have soooo much to do. Tis the life of a mom!
Cheers!

Artist

To pass the time of being stuck indoors - because its too wicked hot to go outside - we've had lots of art time.



Lane asked me to draw a turtle and then he copied it to draw his own. Pretty good, considering what he had to work with. I didn't know he could draw so well. I really ought to give in to his begging for more art time. I am usually too lazy and don't want to deal with the clean up. Not so much from Lane but from Kyle who thinks he's just as big.
I'll try to be nicer and let this budding artist bloom. Maybe in the future we'll try to pretend that we wear clothes around here and dress him before the photo! But then maybe he wouldn't be a true artist...nevermind.

Mom

Its not that I'm late in giving a tribute to my mom...I was waiting to multi-task! We just celebrated Mother's Day and tomorrow is my mom's Birthday.
Maybe this doesn't sound too unfamiliar to a few of you. When I was living those glorious, lovely teenage years, my mother and I didn't see eye to eye. And I thought she was crazy. Well, she's still crazy but now I understand what a wonderful thing that is. Anyway, you remember when you were a delightful teenager and you would say things like, "I'm never going to do ______ like my mom does!" Or, "I can't believe that you would say_____, how embarrassing!" Etc. And then you find yourself doing and saying those exact same things? You don't even notice that its happening, just one day you realize how much you are like your mom. And if your like me, you are grateful to have inherited those traits and values. But lets talk about an inherited trait that I'm still learning to understand. Was it necessary to be this similar?
My mom was married in June. In April, her first child was born. When this first child was a month away from her 4th birthday, my mother welcomed her 4th child into this world. And no, there were no multiples.
I was married in December. In October my first child was born. In September - a month from when my first child has his 4th birthday - I will welcome my 4th baby. And again, no multiples!
I dearly love my mom and consider her to be one of my closest friends. Someday I hope to have her energy, spirit, unwaivering faith and devotion and kindness. My mom can be counted on for anything, anytime. She is such a source of strength to her family and those around her. And did I mention loud and fun. Its never dull when she is around. She can make any situation something to celebrate. Maybe there are some that think she is a little crazy - but I think that is an attribute to strive for. I have learned so much from her in my short life and I still have so much more. I'm so happy to be moving closer to her so I can be with her more often. Sure we'll be 5 hours away - but that's much easier that 2 1/2 days! Thank you, mom for all you have done for me, all you have suffered and endured for me, and all the love, patience and kindness you still show to me everyday!
Don't misunderstand and think that I am in despair and full of regret. I love my 3 (almost 4) babies very much. They are each such a blessing in so many ways. Heavenly Father obviously knows something about Pat and I that we don't...yet. But we are so very grateful and feel extremely blessed to welcome these babies to our home. Even though it wasn't our idea to have so many babies in such a short amount of time, that's the path that was given to us and we will do our best to live up to the expectations and responsibilities that come our way. How blessed I am to have such a supportive and giving husband - but let's save that for another post!
Back to mom - You did it. You had 4 babies right away and then still had 2 more! You are an amazing woman, mother and friend and I love you! And even though I inherited the fertility genes that give us beautiful babies but makes us crazy - I can only hope and pray that my crazy will be the same as yours. And continue to find myself more like you. Someone to be admired!
Thanks mom! I hope you have a wonderful birthday! We love you!

Vancouver, Wa

I suppose I forgot to mention that we are moving to Vancouver. Why? You ask. There are many reasons. It will be nice to finally leave the Phoenix oven. Especially to be closer to family for when Pat leaves for weeks at a time to India or China, Germany, Spain, all of those lovely places that I don't get to go to! Grumble, grumble, grumble...
 Oh, and my parents live in Spokane, Wa which is about a 5 hour drive east. I can totally toss my kids in the car and go hang out with her when Pat takes off. So nice.
Mostly, we are crazy crowded in this house. I love my little Nora Suzanne but I need her and her crib to move out of our room! She has no where else to go...poor Nora.
I'll have to write to explain more later. Right now, for some reason, my kids think that they need to be paid attention to. Like its lunch time or something. Sheesh!

Its true - we received an offer - countered a couple of times - and its sold! In three weeks! We can't believe it. I'm pretty sure that it was a combination of the colored coordinated, organized spice jar rack and the "Trader Joe" like pantry. The inspection happened yesterday and our fingers are crossed that everything continues on and the buyers don't change their minds and run away.

If everything goes well and according to plan - our close date is JUNE 11th! I'm so in denial of reality! Guess we better hurry and find a house. No worries, right? HA! Let's not talk about how I've lived here for 32 years and how I'm supposed to be able to say goodbye to everyone and everything. Our how I will terribly miss my two brothers and all of our impromptu get togethers...I will address that later. For now, we'll just work on a plan of some sort to figure out how to make all of this chaos happen!

Cheers to moving!

Three Little Monkeys...and a Preschooler

Here are the crazies in the tree at their Great Grandparents house. We were there on Saturday night for their 60th Anniversary. Uncle Bob from Chicago came into town for the occasion. Lane was quite taken with him. Probably cause we told him that he worked with trains. We had a nice time visiting. And everyone congregated at our house Monday night for one more party. Can you believe that Grandma and pa have lived in AZ for 19 years (I think that's what they said) and they've never eaten burritos? It was a momentous and delicious occasion.




Here is the awaited picture of Lane and his friend Cameron at the Preschool graduation. The only one that turned out. That's not true...there were pictures that included fingers up the nose, yawning and the crying/pouting episode talked of in the previous post...but I think the mere mentioning of them will be torture enough in future times. Cheers Danya!



p.s. we have 1, possibly 2 offers on our house. we'll know more tomorrow. hopefully better than the last one. fingers crossed!

A few random things

We did get an offer on our house. They wanted us to go down $21,500. We gave them a counter offer that we thought was more reasonable and they rejected it. That's fine. Its only been 2 weeks. We're not that desperate!

Lane had a little performance at his preschool for the kids that were graduating to Kindergarten. I know I'm a party pooper cause...give me a break! Caps and gowns for 4 year olds?! Good grief. Even though Lane was not among the graduates, his class had prepared a couple of songs for the ceremony. So we endured. Good thing it was only an hour. Poor little Lane face. He takes after his silly mom. I was so painfully shy, for so many years. He made it through the first song just fine. Super cute and signing along. Doing all the actions. (Which is probably more than I would have done at that age.) I had a feeling that he shouldn't see me. But Kyle was yelling, "Hi, Lane! Over here, Lane!" so of course, he saw me. And as soon as he did, he started pouting and crying. Just stood there putting on his own show while all the other kids sang and danced. I understand the shy part - I just don't understand why seeing me triggered it. From now on if he ever has a performance, am I going to have to hide for him to be able to participate? Neat! As long as someone is there to take pictures. Speaking of pictures. Our camera is a fossil (according to Pat.) So we didn't get any good pictures. Which would be super sad except that my good friend Danya's little boy was standing right next to Lane. I'm hoping that I can get a few good shots from her. Not only does she have a nicer camera - she also takes better pictures. No pressure, Danya. But you better have some cute pics of my shy little Lane face!

Other news...does anyone see anything wrong with this picture?

That's how we found Kyle sleeping one night. The next night, he was right in front of the door and we couldn't even open it. So that's where he stayed. The night ofter that - he was asleep in the closet. I don't know. He's a crazy kid. Ever since then? He's been in his bed. Maybe he just needed to mix it up a little bit. Break away from the routine. Now he's waiting until he thinks of the next best place to fall sleep.

Nora, Nora, Nora

So, we're back to square one with her food situation. That girl can't handle anything. I thought she was doing fine for while. But now she has all of the "I'm allergic!" symptoms. I'll spare the details. You'll thank me. So, I forgot that even though the two skin tests that she had showed she wasn't allergic to corn doesn't mean that she can actually eat it. I gave her cheerios a few days in a row cause there's no wheat or soy. But there is Corn starch. She got so, so sick! Poor thing. Then I remembered the G.I. telling us that corn is one of the triggers for the E.E. that she has. So we have to stay away from all corn. That's why she wasn't able to handle the Neocate formula that the docs thought should be okay. Because it has corn oil in it. Elecare doesn't. If they had done a culture while they were doing her upper GI, a corn allergy probably would have shown up. Doesn't matter. We'll just try to figure out how to stay away from soy, wheat and corn. UGH! Also, I found that she loves rice cakes. Mostly cause she can bite it and be big. Eating the same thing as her brothers. They are made on equipment shared with soy. Our allergist didn't think that was a problem since she doesn't have anaphylactic reactions. But even after taking away all other foods (except the rice cakes) she still is quite symptomatic. Unless I can find rice cakes that don't share any equipment with basically anything else, I have to take away her new love. So, add to it that she can't have any dairy or fruit or most veggies (so far)...its a wonder that she weighs 20lbs. But she's happy and walking everywhere. Such a good sport.

Phew! Tired of reading? Enough update for now.