On Becoming a Permanent Utahn

I found my new favorite grocery store yesterday. It’s called Sunflower Farmers Market, and contrary to how it might sound, it’s neither outside nor temporary. It’s a real live grocery store with tons of cheap, yummy produce and bread and fresh salmon.

But here’s the best part. Remember my favorite kind of candy, which I have to buy online in bulk because it doesn’t exist in the state of Utah? The Sunflower Farmers Market sells sour strawberry belts! Now I can live in Utah for the rest of my life.

Fortunately

We spent last week in Yosemite with my family, hiking, riding bikes, river rafting, and checking out all of the cool wild animals.


One afternoon as we were strolling around the park, a squirrel came up to check us out. My five-year-old nephew, Jacob, threw a piece of bark at the little guy and hit him right in the belly. His mom reprimanded him for trying to hurt the squirrel, but finished her lecture with, “Fortunately the bark was soft, so you didn’t hurt him.” Jacob answered, “Fortunately I GOT that guy!”

Closing #2

We closed on the newer, cuter house yesterday. I'm really excited about this kitchen:


It makes me think I'll have to start making dinner more than once a month, though. Anybody know any good recipes for beginners?

Now we just have to wait and see if it actually records this time. Wish me luck!

Easy Breezy

Ben and I celebrated our six year wedding anniversary this weekend. And when I say celebrated, I actually mean observed. We decided not to give each other presents this year because no matter how cool the present I receive is, it’s not worth picking out and spending money on the present I give. I’m selfish and Ben is indifferent, so it works out perfectly.

In honor of our easy anniversary, I’ve decided to tell the Internet the secret to our easy marriage. The feminist in me is a little embarrassed, but my mom is the one who shared it with me and she has more feminism in her than I have, so here goes…

When I found out I was pregnant with Liam, I was pretty stressed about how my easy life and perfect marriage were going to change. Ben and I were pretty independent—not the type to ask each other for help. One night on the phone with my mom I voiced my concerns about how stay-at-home moms and working dads scheduled evening diaper changes, baths, meals, etc. Were we supposed to take turns? Make a job chart? How would we make sure we’re each doing our share of the work without having to ask each other for help? (Did I mention that I’m selfish?)

My mom’s response was this: Instead of planning on doing 50% of the work when Ben’s home, plan on doing 100%. Then, when Ben helps out, you’ll always be grateful.

This advice has made my marriage so easy. I plan on doing everything myself, which means I never have to ask for help, and I’m always pleasantly surprised when Ben steps in to help. I plan on doing 100% of the work, and I only end up doing 60%.

See? Piece of cake. I dare you to try it.

Dance of the Stay-at-Home Mom

Now I know why Tabitha and Napoleon brought a camcorder last time they came over before Ben left for work in the morning. They were stealing our moves to use on So You Think You Can Dance.

The Difference Between a Violin and a Fiddle

I used to dread playing in violin recitals. Every year I would dress in my Sunday best, sit around in a stuffy church for hours waiting for my turn to play, and then butcher my piece in front of hundreds of people.

Now that I’m in charge, recitals are held outside, in casual clothes, and they take no longer than 45 minutes.




And when the recital is over, we move to the trampoline.

The Bright Side

Are you getting tired of my house drama? Here’s the latest:

The bank doesn’t want to sell us our house because it turns out that Mr. Bankruptcy had a second mortgage of $66,000 on it that he promised to pay back before he filed for bankruptcy. They no longer have that deal, so the bank wants to try to sell it for more.

We could probably get a real estate lawyer to push the deal through for us, but we decided to see what’s on the market these days in case there’s something better. We looked at a bunch of houses on Saturday, and after the 11th one I felt like we had just wasted an entire day. We decided to go see one more…

AND TOTALLY FELL IN LOVE WITH IT! Here’s the difference:

House we’ve been fighting for:


New house:


They’re both older homes in similar neighborhoods with great schools, and Mapquest says they’re both exactly 17 minutes from Ben’s work and 30 minutes from Schmath’s goats. We put an offer on the new one Saturday night and got a verbal acceptance a few hours later. I’m trying not to get my hopes up just yet, but let's be honest. This could turn out to be the greatest of all blessings in disguise.

In Limbo

I packed up my car earlier this week with the intention of moving some clutter from our old house to our new house. The new house hadn’t recorded yet (we had no keys), but it was sure to happen by Tuesday so I wasn’t worried.

I took one of the twin beds out of the guest room, shoving the box springs under the other twin and the mattress into the newly emptied closet, the contents of which were sitting in my car.

Now it’s Friday and my car is still packed up, and the house isn’t going to record anytime soon. Our realtor is even more frustrated than we are. He spends hours on the phone with different people from the bank, not making any progress. Because of our weird bankruptcy situation, nobody knows how to process our paperwork. Apparently there’s still a possibility of us not getting the house, even though we already closed on it and we’re paying $30/day in interest.

Now I need to go to Costco, but there’s no room for food in my car and no room for clutter in my house. I’m afraid I’m going to have to set up that second bed again, just for the closet space.

Shiloh's Lonely World

The latest issue of Life & Style Weekly was on display as I was checking out at the grocery store tonight, and cute little Shiloh was staring back at me with this caption: “She’s surrounded by so many siblings—and there are even more to come. Why does Shiloh feel so left out?”


What the…? First of all, how do they know she’s feeling left out? I would love to see a copy of that interview. And secondly, isn’t she like two? Who cares if she feels left out? Two-year-olds don’t have real feelings. Get a real story, Life & Style.

Mike Crowley Is My New Best Friend

Several years ago, my band had a gig in Las Vegas. We spent one of our nights there at a jam session while our husbands went to the strip and gambled. Mike Crowley taught Ben how to play a fun little game called Roulette.

Fast forward to last month, when Ben’s boss, Craig, took us to Vegas. I loaned Craig $30 so he could tip the limo driver, and he paid me back with a $5 bill and a $25 chip. Ben and I promptly took our chip to the Roulette table and set it on black. Five seconds later we had two $25 chips, which we immediately cashed out.

But that's not the only reason that Mike Crowley is my new best friend. We closed on our house today! The house we thought we could no longer have! The house that prompted this post, where Mike Crowley left a comment and taught us how to work the system!

Mike, because of you we are not just $25 richer. We also have the house we really wanted and we only had to wait four extra weeks. Thank you!