Filthy Furry Critters

I HATE CATS!!! I am sorry if I offend any of you who like the filthy furry critters, but after this week any inclination to acknowledge the slightest redeeming feature of the species was utterly extinguished in my soul.

The previous owners of our house owned cats. I didn’t think much of that fact except that I was glad they didn’t come as part of the deal. The first day we arrived here as I was hanging some clothes in the girls’ closet I picked some trash up off the floor to throw in the garbage. It must have been a hairball because I had an immediate allergic reaction. After that experience I slowed our move-in process a little in order to get the carpets deep cleaned before we moved anything upstairs. I thought that would take care of the cat problem. This week I became sick. I was feeling worse and worse physically to the point where I would send the girls to play while I was in bed. I thought it was dehydration. I was very careful to hydrate. Then I decided it was a bug Kate brought home in her backpack. I even took some cold medicine, which I never do. That didn’t help either. Then I realized the it was the dratted cats! I girded my loins and spent the most miserable Friday of my life scrubbing the floors and baseboards of this house. My eyes were swollen and running, my airways were congested, my throat was sore, and I was sneezing constantly. I swept, then vacuumed, then scrubbed on my hands and knees and then steam cleaned every inch of floor in this house. I moved every piece of furniture and every box. The place was sparkling when I finished! I still felt miserable for a few days as things cleared out of my system, but it is now getting better. I’ll take a spider, a mouse, a roach, maybe even a scorpion, but don’t you dare let a cat in my house!

We are getting closer to being settled. We only have a handful of boxes left to unpack. Kate is doing great is school. Josh is doing great at work. I found a playgroup for Jane and a group of moms interested in doing a preschool co-op. It will take us a few weeks to get that up and running, but I need a few weeks to be ready. Josh and I received callings at church. I am teaching the 13 &14-year-old Sunday School class and Josh is the counselor in the Sunday School presidency. I guess that makes him my boss, but my job is definitely more fun.

We had a great day yesterday weeding the yard, swimming in the community pool, and doing our part to keep Home Depot in business. This home ownership thing is fun, but it comes with a lot of baggage. We wish you were all around to teach us what we should know.

The quote of the week comes from Jane. We were getting in the car after church and Jane was lamenting her fate. She said, “Dad, it’s so hot it’s like jumping into a fire!” The “hot Sunday car” of my childhood is the fiery furnace here in Texas.

Moving

I sent my little Kate off to Kindergarten this week. [sniff, sniff]. She, of course, did great. She looked so cute with her hair braided, wearing her school clothes, and carrying her blue backpack that matched her eyes. We walked together to the school the first day. She went right in to class with no hesitation, which is exactly how I wanted it to be. Little did she know, however, how her mama’s heart was aching as she walked away from the school without her little one. Suddenly I realized how quickly these years will pass.

Kate seems to be thriving in school. She is excited to go. She has a good teacher. She has become friends with the other children. She tells me all about the routine and the rules and tells me when I am doing things wrong with her lunch or her notebook or her clothes. She teaches Jane new songs and cheers and now in addition to their Indian and bad guy games they play “coach.” Kate thinks she is big stuff walking to school with her backpack. No one can help carry the backpack. It is a symbol that she is a big kid and she goes to school.

Thursday was “a little bit sad.” At breakfast Jane said, “Kate, remember we were playing Pocahontas?” Kate replied, “I can’t, Jane. I have to go to school.” I almost withdrew her on the spot! After we returned home from dropping Kate off and I started unpacking boxes Jane came in and said, “Mom, I miss Kate.” We all miss Kate! It is exciting to see her take this step of independence, but we miss her just the same.

The other big news of the week is that we are in our house! We spent the first two days cleaning up the previous owner’s dirt. Then our pods arrived and we have spent the rest of the week creating messes of our own. The kitchen is now functional and the beds are made. Other than that, we are a work in progress. It’s exciting and overwhelming and discouraging and exhausting, but mostly just exciting!

I have one story from our bachelor pad that I have to write down before I gladly close that chapter of our lives. The bachelor pad was a furnished apartment and decorating was interesting. For one thing, there were mirrors everywhere. Jane Austen fans, I felt like we were renting from Sir Walter Elliot (Persuasion). The most distracting of the mirrors were those surrounding the kitchen table. I would find the girls watching themselves in the mirror when I was trying to talk to them. They would answer me but they were watching themselves in the mirror. One evening we were eating and I said, “We are certainly not going to have mirrors around our kitchen table in our new house.” Josh replied, “Oh? I like mirrors. It makes it look like there is lots and lots of food!” Quintessential Josh.

Love you all! If you are bored this week, call me. I’ll be unpacking boxes!

Up, Down, Up, Down, UP!!!

What a week! I feel like we have been riding a rollercoaster but came off flying!

Up: Kate is registered for Kindergarten. Her school is darling—Purefoy Elementary School. We get to go to “Meet the Teacher” night this Thursday to, yes, meet the teacher, her classmates, and tour the school. We went school supply shopping and ordered a backpack and a few school clothes. Why do I still get so excited over new crayons and school clothes?

Down: I had to drive out to the school three times this week before I remembered all the right forms and documents. If anyone has seen my brain, let me know.

Up: The clouds came! I have decided that clouds rolling into Texas is what sunshine breaking through the clouds is to the rest of the world. We ran outside, danced around, went to the playground, and delighted in the cooler temperature.

Down: The walls of the bachelor pad are closing in on me. I have really tried to make the best out of this situation. I have made some really good salt & pepper dinners. I have scrubbed this place until it is shining. I don’t pay attention to the layer of slime on the bottom of the pool or freak out when I have to scoop bananas, bread, cigarette butts, and bugs out of the pool before we jump in. But, I’m ready to move on! Sunnies don’t like idly existing in limbo!

Up: Kate jumped into the swimming pool. This may not seem like a great accomplishment without knowing the background. I put the girls in swimming lessons this summer so they would be comfortable with water when we made the move to Dallas. The first day Kate jumped off the diving board without any hesitation. The next day she would have none of it! For the next week she could not get up the courage to jump in, even from the side. Being the sensitive mother that I am, I started getting a little frustrated. I offered her rewards. I even pushed her in once. Then as I was talking to her one day, she looked up at me with a certain expression and I realized that my constant nagging had hurt her. She was doing great with the swimming. Why did I care so much about jumping off the side? I mended my ways and shifted the focus to what she was doing well. This week she said, “Mom, can I jump off the side?” She jumped 5 or 6 times. Then I had her jump in and swim to me. Before we got out she was jumping in and swimming to the stairs. Good things kids can excel in spite of their parents.

Big Down: The appraisal on our house came in really low. On top of that, it was a very sloppy appraisal. Our realtor was having a fit. A low appraisal is one thing, but a sloppy low appraisal is another. You all know how well I do with sloppy. Anyway, the bank said they would only lend us the amount of the appraisal which left us having to come up with a significant bit of cash, not something we are floating in just now. We tried to get the bank to redo the appraisal. No luck. I tried to keep my chin up as I saw our house, Kate’s school, and reprieve from life in the bachelor pad slipping away.

Flying: Thanks to the efforts of our realtor and, mostly, unexplainable blessings from Above, the sellers ended up coming down to the amount of the appraisal—lower than our original offer. We had to give up the BBQ, the rug, the patio furniture and the curtains, but, hey, I’ll take it! We electronically signed the amended document last evening while sitting on a pile of cardboard boxes in Home Depot. Then we looked at each other with a mixture of relief, gratitude, disbelief and excitement and kissed—right there in public!

Here’s hoping for a gentle landing this week!

Interesting Read

p.s. This is a well timed article from the Wall Street Journal that sums up the appraisal situation we found ourselves: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904006104576500170808091148.html?mod=googlenews_wsj)

Print, Sign, Scan

Have you read the news? That hot, miserable, drought-ridden land they are talking about reaching record breaking temperatures…yeah, that’s where I live. Fun stuff. On the bright side, though, the tortilla selection in the grocery store is amazing!

My dad called me one day this week to give me information on keeping cool and told me about the warning signs of dehydration and heat stroke. That night just after I put the girls down for the night our power went out. It was around 8:30 p.m. The temperature inside our house was 78, the temperature outside was 100. Suddenly, that phone call wasn’t just a dad’s ice storm warning. We moved the girls out of the closet, changed them into the coolest clothing we could find, and started making plans to spend the night at Josh’s office if it continued to get hotter. Kate was so scared. She felt her way over to me in the dark, cuddled up close and said, “Mom, can we say a prayer?” Her sincere plea must have gone straight to the heart of Heavenly Father because minutes after she returned to bed all the lights came back on and our AC started up.

Not a lot is going on here beyond working toward closing on our house. That, however, has kept us mighty busy. Who knew buying a house was such a complicated process!

Yesterday we went out to the Katy trail again. I ran while Kate rode along next to me on her bike. Jane was on her skuut and Josh was walking along with her. After Kate and I went out and back, I stayed with the girls in a shady spot and we let Josh go run on his own for a bit. Jane was collecting rocks, one of her favorite pass times. Soon the rock collection evolved into arranging the rocks into designs. By the time Josh got back the three of us had made a great big sunshine out of rocks. The girls finished it off with a crooked smiley face and we left it there next to the path to make people smile. I don’t think there are a lot of children in downtown Dallas. You should have heard the comments from people as they came by our creation. Jane left saying, “I’m an artist!”

Another great Jane moment this week came in the middle of one of her polly pocket games. The polly pockets have saved us while we are in this one bedroom apartment. The girls play with them non-stop. Jane came up to me and asked me to help her get a dress on one of the dolls, which is a normal occurrence. But this time she said, “The Fairy Godmother couldn’t get the sleeve in, but YOU can do it, Mom!” Nice to know that where fairy godmothers fail, mothers take over!

Have a happy week.

p.s. With any luck I'll have my computer back in two weeks and I can finally post some pictures!

Under Contract

Last summer I heard about a century ride (100 miles on a bike) here in Texas that I immediately decided I needed to participate in sometime. It’s called the “Hotter Than Hell Hundred.” Yesterday I went running at about 11:00 a.m. on a path running through the center of Dallas. I now have a greater appreciation for the name of that race! It’s not just a great slogan for a free t-shirt.

We are doing well in Dallas. The girls have recovered some sleep. The bachelor pad is livable. We have started exploring, especially activities related to water. And, most of all, it is great to be together again! The girls relish every moment with their Dad. Whenever he comes in they run to tackle him, beg him to tell them “Kate and Jane stories”, or show him their new tricks. Yesterday we had a fun day doing only things we wanted to do. We exercised, we swam, we read, we watched a movie, and we even spent some time doing nothing. Josh stopped in his tracks at one point and said, “This is the first weekend I haven’t been looking for a car or looking for a house since I came to Dallas.” I think we are all ready to get back to some semblance of a normal life.

The biggest news of the week is that we have a house under contract! 11450 Tenison Ln (yes, it’s a shame it isn’t Tennyson), Frisco, TX. The closing date is August 18^th, two days before Kate starts school. The inspection is done. We still have a million hurdles to jump, but we are starting to get really excited. I have tried to stay emotionally removed during the whole house hunting process. After the inspection, however, we met one of the next door neighbors and I couldn’t help but get a little excited. We attended the ward today. The girls went right into their classes and were happy the whole time. The adult lessons were great and we met a lot of nice people. I think we are going to like it here.

Kate is swimming like a little fish now. She goes all over the pool, can grab onto the wall, and loves to dive and get rings. Her stroke is evolving from a doggy paddle to freestyle. We are still somewhere in between. Her imagination is in full swing, which is helping out a lot in our itty bitty living space. The other day as we were driving she said, “I think when my hair gets long I’ll hook it on one of the clouds and fly through the sky.”

Jane is back to her cute self. We just plain wore her out over the last few weeks. She loves playing polly pockets in her secret hide out, riding her skuut , and reading stories. I am still amazed at how well she expresses herself. It is fun to have a window into her mind through her running commentary on life. We were in a restaurant the other day and behind us was a couple on a date. I was trying to get her to stop looking over the edge of the booth when she turned around, looked at me inquiringly and asked, “How did they go just the mommy and daddy?” What a novel idea that parents could have a life outside of their children. J

All is well here just as long as our air conditioner keeps working.

Woodfords Reunited

I’m not sure who decided to time our move to Dallas so as to arrive right when the summer heat was at its peak. I’ll have to check with the planning committee on that one. When I opened the car door at our first gas stop in Texas and felt the heat engulf me, I almost turned around on the spot to drive back to Island Park! I had packed a picnic lunch in my naivety. We found a Dairy Queen, ate our picnic INSIDE, and then ordered ice cream to thank them for the use of their air conditioner. This is no place for a summer picnic! I looked at Kate as we were waiting for our ice cream and said, “How are we going to live here, Kate? I think we are going to melt in this heat.” She calmly looked around and replied, “Look at all these other people, Mom. They live here and they didn’t melt. We’ll be alright.” In spite of the heat that would fry your eyeballs if you forgot to blink, we made it to Texas and are grateful to be together as a family again.

Typical Woodford style, our arrival in town was our best impression of a Texas tornado. Leading up to the two day drive, the girls had two days of cousin fest extraordinaire at Grandma Shelly’s house. While they were in heaven playing bear, making forts, baking cookies, digging in the sand, and running through sprinklers with 14 cousins, I, with much help from Alan, filled our last storage pod with all the things we have been storing at my parents house since were married and packed up our suitcases with the essentials to get us through the next few weeks. We were all exhausted as we crawled in the car to make the two day drive to our new home. Kate cried all the way to Provo. My mom took pity on me and accompanied me on the drive. Otherwise, I would have cried all the way to Moab. I don’t know what I would have done without her help. It softened the departure and having an extra pair of hands proved invaluable when the polly pocket carriage needed to be fixed 20 times and the sippy cups slipped out of reach. Driving with children is not a one man job. We drove all day to Albuquerque, had dinner at a local restaurant per our new tradition, and went for a swim. The next morning we got up early and drove into Dallas. That sounds so easy, but those are two long days of driving with little ones. We arrived late Thursday with just enough time to sweep the floor, bathe the girls, eat dinner, and flop into our makeshift beds. My mom flew back to Salt Lake early Friday morning. We went house hunting into the early afternoon, put in an offer on a house, and drove to the Hyatt Lost Pines Resort near Austin for the BCG Summer retreat. Saturday we did pony rides in the morning, followed by breakfast, a wagon ride and an afternoon at the pool. Saturday night the girls went to Kids’ Camp while Josh and I attended a BCG dinner. Sunday morning we slept in, dropped in to see our nearest kin (Jon, Laura, Christian, and Grace) who were gracious enough to receive us and make us feel welcome although we had not called in advance, and then went to see the LaPierres, our dear friends from Virginia. We arrived back in Dallas around 10 at which point Jane had a complete melt down. I think we were all near maxed out, but Jane hit her limit and let everyone within a ten mile radius know about it. I have never seen her quite like that before. I think I’ll have to check with the planning committee again. We may have overdone it!

We had our first taste of celebrity while at the BCG retreat. The dinner on Saturday night was a costume party. Josh and I went as Woody and Jesse from Toy Story. Our friends the Paulsens lent us the costumes, and if I do say so myself, we looked pretty amazing. We certainly have the right physique going. The awards that night for costumes went to two crazy nutters who came as Avatars and painted their entire bodies with bright blue acrylic paint, and a woman dressed in an outrageous lady gaga costume. We were sadly overlooked. However, when we went to pick up the girls from Kids’ camp, it was another story. Children came running up to give us hugs and high fives. We were asked to pose for pictures. Everywhere we walked we would hear, “Woody!” “Jesse!”. The girls thought it was pretty big stuff to have such famous parents. We went to get an ice cream cone with the girls and perfected our, “Howdy” with a wink, smile, and tilt of the hat to all of our adoring fans. It was pretty fun, but I must say one evening of celebrity was enough for me.

After Jane’s melt down Sunday night, I decided the next couple of days I should be in recovery mode with the girls. All we did yesterday was make a quick trip to Target to pick up a few items non-essential to a bachelor pad and essential for anywhere I am willing to live like a scrub brush and toilet cleaner. I let the girls retreat into imaginary land and I spent the day scrubbing this disgusting lair until it was shining. The girls were grateful not to be dragged anywhere. This morning we went for a quick bike ride down the Katy Trail, a running path that winds through Dallas. I just wanted to get the girls out for a few minutes. When we finished, we were all dripping with sweat. We came back and jumped in the swimming pool to cool off. Jane is taking another monster nap today, as she did yesterday. I think the planning committee may have finally gotten something right.

We are still in negotiations on a home. I’m trying to stay emotionally unattached and let Mr. A Plus in Negotiations handle things. We are making the most of the bachelor pad. The girls sleep in the nest we made in the closet. They have made a play room, which they call their secret club house, out of another closet. We will do okay here for a bit, but I would like to have some place set before Kate starts school on August 22^nd. Here’s hoping!

Josh is doing great at work. He loves the work itself and his work schedule on his current project is much better than the first project. The only problem is that while we have been recovering the last couple of days from our Texas tornado weekend, he was running a workshop, giving a presentation, doing all his normal work and handling all the negotiations on our house. Maybe we will let him sleep in on Saturday!

Have a wonderful week.

Xoxo,

Sunny

p.s. I feel like I need to include an acknowledgments section to this letter to thank so many of you who have helped us out over the last couple of weeks.

Shannon – Thank you for hauling your whole family down to Salt Lake to give Kate and Jane a last chance to play with their cousins before leaving Utah. It made the goodbye harder, but the leadup to the goodbye infinitely more fun.

Alan – Thank you for helping me load up yet another pod. With any luck it will be the last one we do for a while. I still owe you a scooter dinner next time we are together.

Michele—Thank you for pretending like two days of driving was the best thing you could think of to fill up your time. You are loved, appreciated, and missed!

Narda—Thank you for inviting us over for dinner at such a busy time and for playing ball with the girls. We loved being with you.

Jon & Laura—Thanks for welcoming us into your home unannounced and reminding us that although we left family behind we also have family here to welcome us to Texas.

Grace—Thank you for giving os the polly pokits. We love plaing with them. we evin mad a secrit hid aot with the polly pokits. (from Kate) I think you may have saved us with that sweet gift! (from Sunny)

Josh & Amy—We loved taking credit for your creativity with the Woody and Jesse costumes. Thank you for sharing them, for mailing them, and for saving our hides. What great friends you always have been and continually are!

Lisa & Bryce—Thank you for welcoming us into your home, feeding us, putting up with our tired girls and lifting our hearts as always. We are so happy to be living close to you again.