Happy Birthday to You!!!

You’re older than me-eeee!  You’re older than me-eee!!

Secret Prayer

I’ve been doing a lot of that lately.  Except that it’s been more like blatantly obvious prayer.  But it’s still a secret when it’s in my heart, right?

The home-buying thing is on pause. 

I want to talk about it, I have talked about it, but I feel like to continue to talk about it would be wrong.  Kind of like when Honey and I broke up three weeks before the wedding.  It’s hard to explain why, but you yourself understand the reason and that’s all that matters.

Whatever happens, I’ll be ok.  Just don’t ask why if it ends up not happening because I don’t have a publicly satisfying explanation.

The end.

We Got It Goin’ On

The downside of me being busier and more active in life is that I’m too freaking tired to write anything at the end of the day, and too lazy to get up early and do it! 

Remember about… 3-ish months ago when all my church friends encouraged me to call one of their husbands (who is a real estate agent) to get us going on buying a home?  I may not have talked about it here, but it happened.  Honey and I have been under the (well-deserved) impression that in no uncertain terms would we ever be able to afford a home here in California.  Seriously.  Unless Grandma finally wins the lottery, go Grandma!, how could a family of five on a public school teacher’s income buy a house even in the worst of neighborhoods that wasn’t in a Death Valley-esque desert country?

I’ll tell you how… THE REAL ESTATE MARKET CRASHED, and but good!

We still can’t afford much.  We have found a perfect first home for us, and a perfect mortgage program, now the question is… can we get it for our perfect price?  We hope so.  We think so.  We’re praying for it to be so.

The one thing that we can’t figure our way around is this:  The house is in pre-foreclosure, meaning the owner can’t make the changes we need made before moving in.  It’s been heavily smoked in, meaning the carpet has GOT to go, and the walls need repainting.  I am so allergic and so sensitive to the smoke, I can’t spend more than 5 minutes in it without starting to cough.  There’s also some water damage in one of the bathrooms.  So how will we get the money to do all that?  Any current homeowners out there have a solution or advice on the issue?

The yard is so huge… and you all know what a rarity that is these days.  It’s also 95% finished.  There’s a patio that we need to finish bricking in, or end it where it is and grass the rest of it.  There’s a fenced-off garden area, and it’s already been hedged & borders placed in so I can have flowers or bushes right up next to the house.  It’s not much bigger than our apartment, only 1180 sq. feet vs. the 1000 sq. feet we’re in now, but did I mention it has a freaking huge yard???  The kitchen is on the small side as well, but just add that to my list of improvements to make down the road.  OH!  One of the other HUGE bonuses in addidtion to the yard, it’s literally 3 blocks (two down and one over) from Honey’s school!

 Well, it’s time to get my groove on for the day.  Wednesday is grocery day.  Plus the Bishop’s wife had her hip replaced so I’m taking dinner over after my Relay for Life meeting and my therapsit appointment, but before Cub Scouts and the Ensign group meeting tonight.  I wanted to impress them (HA!) with my cooking, but it’s going to be more like my re-heating.  We’re having meatball subs & salad.

Toodles!

SallyGirl Trivia Time!

I decided to share some of my secrets with you.  Ok, they’re not exactly secrets to most of you, but I thought it was time for a refresher course!

• Those thongs on my feet in the header photo (yes, I said thongs, because that’s what they were back then!)?  They have a Mickey Mouse head on top of them.
• I have naturally curly hair.
• I really don’t shop at Wal-Mart.  Ever.  Not even in a desperate moment in the middle of the night, because Food4Less is also open 24/7 and so is my Kaiser pharmacy.
• Once, I was so concerned with making sure I got the fat-free, sugar-free part right at the Bux that I forgot to say “DECAF!!!!” until I got home and had already drank half the cup.
• On the unfortunate occasion that I have to take all three of the Herdmans with me on Grocery Day, S never fails to point out the Sally Beauty Supply store and tell me that’s where they bought me.  For free.
• On occasion, ok, pretty much all of my senior year, I may have skipped 5th period science.
• I know where all the good stuff at Disneyland is.
• I looooooooove Steven Tyler!
• Me & Drew Barrymore are the same age!!!
• I’m having an ethical dilemma about wanting to make CDs for the goodie bags at my birthday bash.
• I’m having a serious foodie dilemma about wanting to have coconut cake, a lemon pudding/lava-type cake, or white cupcakes for my birthday bash dessert.
• My mom tried to trick me into thinking that butterbeans are not lima beans so I would eat them, and it’s just not true.  They’re the same.  Even if they aren’t, they look and taste it, and that’s all that matters!
• Speaking of parents that lie… when I was a young’n I was sick with something.  So mom & dad chopped up some baby tylenol or some other uncoated children’s remedy and put it in a cherry slurpee.  I’m traumatized for life in all things cherry-flavor!!!
• Also in the lying parents department…. I told my kids I have Santa’s phone number, and when they’re old enough I’ll give it to them.  It’s my way of gently telling them the whole truth.  I’m his secretary.
• I know you’d never figure this out on your own, but I have an addictive personality.

Well, the Herdmans are calling.  I have one last batch of Valentines to put together.  Of course they can do it themselves, but then what kind of mom would I be?

BWAHAHAHAHA!!!!

I Skipped Church And Now I Can’t Stop Thinking About Stuff

Despite feeling worse for having done it, I didn’t want to get ready for church today so I didn’t go.  Now I’m home, alone, and wishing I had gone.  It’s not that I didn’t want to go to church, I just didn’t want to go then.  Now I’m feeling really sad I didn’t go.  Not guilty, just sad.  I know I would have been enriched by having been there. 

What leads us to make poor decisions like this?  To knowingly choose the wrong?

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

I keep thinking about moving back to Utah.  Sort of.  That wasn’t right to say.  But I keep thinking about what I (and our families) might be missing by not being there.  I feel that I’ve opened my heart and honest-to-goodness told Heavenly Father that if that’s what He wants us to do, I will willingly go.  But we are compelled to stay.  We know we are right to be here, where we are, and to make it our home.  But how do we, okay ME, wrestle with these feelings of wanting/needing to be closer to my family home?  I miss my sister.  I want to be closer to her kids.  I want to know and love my brother the way I have with her.  I want our children to go places we went in our youth.  I want our boys to be close to their grandparents, to benefit from their knowledge and experience.  I want us to be closer to Honey’s family, too.

Maybe these are the latter days, because my desire to be close to my family is stronger than ever before.  To gather us all safely in, make sure we’re all taken care of.  To know and love each other so well that when one is gone, it will be noticed but not noticeable because we all step in and keep going until the grand reunion.

Man, I really need to stop watching Ken Burns documentaries on the Shakers….

More About Me (Who It’s All About)

I need to get back on track with my birthday party plans.  Good gobstoppers, it’s less than three months away!  I sent out the “Save the Date” evite.  Now I’m working on the goodie bags.  I suppose I should be on the lookout for said bags.  I want to put a homemade CD in there… but what else?  A frisbee, probably.  I like frisbee.  And some bubbles.  And a pack of my favorite gum (Orbitz Sweetmint).  I probably could include some of my Sunshine In A Jar, but these are goodie bags, not goodie iceboxes!

What’s something small that reminds you of me that I could include?

Want To Hear Something Funny?

Yeah, me too.  I used to think that August was the biggest waste of time, but now I know it’s January.  Seriously, how much winter does one actually need?  I’m all for the moisture, but that can take place overnight!  There’s no need to sully up my days with gloomy skies and freezing temps!

 Somebody needs to find that groundhog and learn him some manners.