A Despicable Halloween

There are a lot of "best parts" about having a family, and one of the best has to be Halloween - at least while our children are young enough to go along with a family costume scheme. For the last couple of years, we've let Teagan choose her costume and we plan around that, in order to minimize fighting. (Note, I said "minimize" and not "eliminate.") This year, she wanted to be Edith from Despicable Me. And a perfect fit she is.

So we settled on the rest of us being a minion, Gru and Dr. Nefario to Teagan's Edith.

Brandon's job allows and encourages him to dress up for Halloween, but without the three of us, he'd be a little hard to place, so we did a little Googling and found a costume that was equally easy and hilarious. If you grew up in the 90s. He said most of his patients got the reference. (Wilson from Home Improvement if it's lost on you.)

But we showed up to the ward Trunk or Treat in full Despicable Me regalia, for better or worse, and were received by either laughter, puzzled faces or awkward glances. If people were familiar with the movie, they chuckled...and asked me where I got my goggles. (Amazon, if you're wondering.)

Mason made a great minion - never stopped running around, mumbling jibberish and getting into all sorts of mischief.

It was more than a little adorable to watch them follow Gru around all night.

We were ever so glad we went to the Trunk or Treat before Halloween, because there was a torrential downpour on the big night and we (very timidly and skeptically) asked Teagan if she'd rather stay home and help hand out candy. And much to our surprise, she agreed enthusiastically. Some braved the storm, and we rewarded them with candy, but it was a whole lot nicer being warm and dry. And not in a bald cap.
Love this wee family 'o' mine and hope this tradition can carry on for another few years.

I'm a Haw-ntie!

My sister had a baby! I'm too excited to think of anything wittier than that. 

Mia Victoria Vega, their little miracle, was born on July 2nd and I am thrilled for their sweet little family! Kristina was a champion and my mum, sister and Pablo's mum were able to be in the delivery room with her, which warms my heart because my poor Mum has missed out on both of my C-sections because they only allow one person in the room.

I've got 13 nieces and nephews on Brandon's side, and while I love them all very much, there's something very special about your very own sister having a baby. And not just because I know what's coming for her and that a few years down the road I might get a chance to sit back and smile when she's going through what we're going through at the moment. 

Pablo and Kristina will be fantastic parents and I am so happy for them! I can't wait to meet this adorable little bundle in August!

(Forgot to publish this a while ago!)

We Bought A Zoo!

Technically, we bought a house, but as soon as we move in it will become a zoo.

After a really frustrating experience looking for houses in the city where Brandon is working, we decided to open ourselves to the idea of looking 15 minutes down the road where his parents and two siblings live. It's across the Washington/Idaho border, so we will be paying income tax in Idaho, but housing is significantly cheaper than Washington and we found an amazing house.

The first time we were looking for a house in Las Vegas, we both remember walking in the front door and having a feeling about the house...the 5th house we'd looked at. After months of searching here and seeing "meh" houses that we sold before we'd finished walking through them, I began to feel concerned that we wouldn't find that "perfect" house and we'd have to pay out the nose for something that was just okay.

 Enter my sister-in-law, who notified me at 10:00 on a Friday night early in March that a house I'd been coveting since moving here had come up for sale. Why would you covet it before it came on the market, you ask? Well, we walk by it nearly every day as it's on the same street we live on now. You may think me creepy, but I'd stroll a little slower whenever we passed it, in awe of how cool it was and how beautifully it was decorated. So, we looked up photos online and saw the parts of the house that no amount of creepy lingering would allow me to see and were in love. There was another house that looked great too and so Brandon called (a miracle in itself) to schedule appointments. We didn't have a realtor at this point because we'd decided earlier that day to look on this side of the state line, which requires a different license. Brandon left messages and heard back from the other house that it already had 3 offers on it - seriously, it's madness here this year! And the mailbox for THE house was full. Bummer. My sister-in-law then called us to see if we'd gotten in and we said we couldn't get through and sighed a big sigh. Ever so clever, she found another number for the listing agent and got us an appointment in the afternoon. So the three of us (and some friends from the ward who happened to be driving by and have also drooled over the house from afar - seriously, it's cool) went and looked and loved it. We found out that we were the 5th showing that day and there were more lined up for the next day. We had very little hope. We talked about and it prayed about it and decided to put in an offer. We called the agent Shawn & Annie had used to buy there house a few months ago and told her the situation. Must have been a nice surprise as a realtor to hear that you could skip the super annoying part of searching for a house and just get straight to the purchasing. She was wonderful and stayed up late writing an offer and coaching us on how to proceed. The next day she told us that she had clients looking at the house the next day and that they put in an offer as well. An idea had come to me (through the Spirit, I'm sure) to mention that our living arrangements were such that they could take their time and we could close in months instead of weeks. We knew they had children in school and thought they might like to finish out the school year in the house and wanted our offer to be appealing. A happy side effect is that the longer they take, the longer we live rent free ;) They accepted our offer and after just a little back and forth after the inspection, we reached a happy agreement and scheduled to close on May 4th. Star Wars Day of all days. The date ended up being the 1st instead, but it's still one we can remember. 

We signed our life away yesterday and spent almost all our money in one place. We were incredibly blessed to be able to sell our first home and without spending anything on improvements, come away with a profit. We bought at the right time and sold when the market was changing for the better. If we'd sold now instead, it would be have been more lucrative but not having a mortgage payment for the last 6 months has really helped us save. We're very grateful to Heavenly Father for His hand in our lives, guiding us to make these decisions and to have the timing work so much in our favour. And to Brandon's parents who've allowed us to turn their lives upside down for almost 10 months. Mason was a baby when we moved in and now he's an incredibly active toddler who can't keep his chubby hands out of anything. That being said, we haven't quite worn out our welcome here yet and will take a few weeks to clean, paint, fix, etc. Our situation couldn't be more ideal, as we can see the house from where we live now and can just pop over quickly to check on things and chip away at the to-do list a little at a time. (Yes, we are living 4 doors down from my in-laws, but it's a much better situation than Everybody Loves Raymond - trust me.) We are extremely excited to have a home that we can call and make our own and I can't wait to see our stuff again. It's going to be like Christmas! 

We signed at 9:00 in the morning in hopes that the loan would fund that day and we'd be able to get keys. We waited all day for a call - longest day ever - and of course, when I went to the bathroom at 4:00 I missed the call we'd been holding our breath for. We rushed to the office to pick up a key and took the kids right over to see it. Teagan was really excited. She was most excited about the pirate ship. In the neighbours' backyard. Great. And Mason was just beside himself with so much room to run around. The backyard is gigantic and has a sprawling field behind it - one of the main reasons we bought the place - but isn't fenced on either side. We tried to take the kids outside and they both ran in opposite directions. So we will be introducing ourselves to the neighbours and promptly erecting a fence. "Good fences make good neighbours" Annie quoted to me and I'm sure our new ones will agree.

The Before

We were smitten with the house as soon as we walked in. The way The Jameses had it decorated was flawless and when we saw it empty for the first time - scratches and holes in the walls, handprints and smudges and dents - it caught me off guard and I wondered what we'd done. But minutes later, it felt like home as we let go of the images of how they had the house set up and imagined what we would do with the home to make it ours. But we made sure to save some of the "Before" photos because it's fun to see the differences.

Where Are They Now? (Brandon and Michelle Edition)

You may think I've abandoned the blog. While that isn't entirely true, I will admit to severe neglect. It's nigh impossible for me to use the computer (or do anything, for that matter) while the kids are awake and when they are asleep, I have so many demands on that infinitesimal chunk of time at the end of the day that I am entirely overwhelmed and end up collapsing on the couch instead of accomplishing the squillion things I have littering my To Do list. I've taken to Instagram and Facebook to help me keep up with recording the happenings of our wee family lately. I plan to sit down once a month and catch up on the handful of exciting things that warrant more than a small paragraph or caption. It's a hard truth that the more you have going on to write about, the less time you have to write about it. But I aim to try. Not please. Try.

If you've become lost as to where we are and what we are doing, we are currently in the process of buying a house. We had been looking in Pullman, Washington, where Brandon is working (and enjoying his job immensely, which is such a welcome relief.) The market this year is as competitive as they've ever seen it and we felt really deflated after seeing what was out there and having them snatched out from under us before we'd finished looking at it. It's more expensive than Vegas (like everywhere else) and we'd be getting a lot less for a money, particularly when it came to a backyard. There are hills everywhere and none of the houses we saw had a particularly great outdoor space. Frustrated, we started to look online in Moscow - Brandon's hometown, just 15 minutes down the road but on the other side of the Washington/Idaho border. Before I say too much about it and jinx the transaction, I'll just say that we are hoping to close early next month. Hopefully more details to follow.

I'm keeping busy with the kids and scouring the sales rack for deals on things for a new house. I have overestimated my painting skills and have plans to paint no less than 8 pieces of furniture for the new house. Which means I will paint none of them. There aren't that many hours in a day. I'm also making plans for Brandon to become a master carpenter under the tutelage of his father, who is currently building a bed for one of his grandchildren. I mentioned a small drying rack for the laundry room and I might as well have asked for a ladder to the moon. He will grow to love it, I'm convinced. Actually, no one's convinced, but if I say it often enough...

Our pending home purchase would mean that our callings may be a little more permanent than we anticipated - Brandon as Elder's Quorum Secretary and me as Young Women's 2nd Councilor. I am enjoying my calling immensely - I've always wanted to serve in Young Women's and the Beehives are the perfect group to start with, as they are still excited about everything we do. It's time consuming and stressful at times, but I have a fantastic group of girls and a great support system to help with kids when necessary. 

Like I said, Brandon is really enjoying his work. He has good working relationships with everyone at the clinic and has made a good impression on his employers. They're really good people and I'm happy that he has found a good fit. They were kind enough to give him a merit-based raise and even kinder to increase that raise based on the fact that our insurance rates are rising. So the increase will cover the insurance and give us extra. Add that to the fact that we have been able to save over the last few months living with Brandon's parents and our mortgage payment should be nearly identical to what we were paying in Las Vegas and we are definitely feeling the blessings of tithing. Paying the Lord first is the wisest investment decision we can make and I am so grateful for the blessings that Heavenly Father has poured out upon us and that we are taken care of and always have enough.

Speaking of having enough, we have both reached what we call our Fat Thresholds. Meaning, we've complained until this point but we've reached the point that can't take it anymore and need to lose weight. Brandon is running with his brother Shawn, training for a 10K and I am eating less - see aforementioned collapsing on the couch at the end of every long day. I kept thinking I could exercise after the kids were in bed, but that's the absolute last thing I want to do with that precious time. So I'm being more careful with what I eat and have dropped about 5 pounds. The nice thing about me being short, is that after just a few more pounds, my weight loss should show. That also works in reverse and makes weight gain immediately noticeable on my short frame. I'm going to try to make it work for me. Not like the treadmill.

We are still very much in love and can't believe we'll be celebrating 9 years of marriage later this year. It's still just the four of us and we are talking about adding more. While it took us 18 months and a year to have Teagan and Mason respectively, I've heard way too many stories about couples struggling to conceive and then being surprised the next time with immediate results. So it's best to wait until we are absitively, posolutely ready. And these two keep me hopping - see the Little Richardses blog for more details on why I really should be thinner.

Well done, Dunder Mifflin.

Last night, we closed an 8 year chapter in our lives and finally finished watching 'The Office', a 9 season long mockumentary about the employees of a paper company. I'm embarrassed to admit that I shed a few tears. The finale was really well done and tugged at your heartstrings, but more than that, it was the end of an era for Brandon and I. We were late starting The Office, so it was only fitting that we were more than a year late for the end. 

We saw an episode shortly after we were married at a friend's Christmas party - the Yankee Swap episode where at the last minute a Secret Santa is changed to a White Elephant. If that doesn't mean anything to you, essentially people had bought gifts for specific people and when they showed up to work, the boss found out that he wasn't going to get anything as nice as what he'd brought, so he turned it into a free for all where people open a random gift and others have the opportunity to steal. It was hilarious, but I didn't think much of it until a few months later.

I was traveling from Provo to Salt Lake several times a week in the winter semester of 2007 for an internship at Richter 7. I was very fortunate to have a friend and mentor there who told me about an express bus that would get us there in record time and save us money. (Shannon was my favourite part about working there.) While we were sitting on the bus together, fighting sleep as it was still dark outside, she really introduced me to The Office. We sat, side by side, watching on Shannon's iPod (revolutionary back then) sharing earbuds between us and giggling hysterically at the back of the bus, raising eyebrows and annoying other commuters, I'm sure. It got to be the best part of my day.

I got around to sharing more episodes with Brandon and we really got into the show. Halloween costumes, quotes and inside jokes - we loved it. And since we had been watching since the first year of our marriage, to be sitting almost 8 years later, viewing the very last episode they'd ever make, it brought back a flurry of emotions and reminded me how time marches on. It seemed like yesterday that we were dressing up as Dwight and Angela for our married student ward's Halloween party, but lifetimes away at the same time - I blame the children.

We've been putting off watching the Psych finale for the same reason and only just finished White Collar - the only 3 shows we've really gotten into as a couple. I can't handle things coming to an end! On to find another show to break my heart 9 years down the road.

The White Whale.

I've never read Moby Dick (thought I bought it from the library for 10c because I feel like it looks distinguished on my bookshelf) but I imagine that many of the adjectives that Herman Melville used to describe the great white whale could easily have applied to me at the pool today. In fact, if anyone at the aquatics center had been reading the novel, I ran the risk of being harpooned. I'm not all that comfortable in a bathing suit in the middle of summer. Ask me to squeeze into one seven months too early (and a week after Christmas to boot) and I am so far out of my comfort zone I can't even see it anymore. But, my kids love to swim (Mason loved it, in spite of his face at first) and it was a fun way to spend a morning, so I rallied. And it officially kicked off my 2015 diet.

Teagan got to practice the skills she learned at swim lessons (and some skills she didn't learn there, like blowing in one end of a pool noodle and spraying someone with the other) and is so comfortable in the water it's almost scary. She swims like a little fish and I got to employ the skill I learned from her swim lessons: determining between a four year old swimming and a four year old drowning. They look eerily similar. There were several instances during swim lessons where I wanted to reach in and grab her and "save" her, but her instructor (who I will admit, knows a lot more than I do) thought she was okay, and lo and behold, she had been swimming. It's a tricky lesson to learn! We jumped in, we rocked the boat, we We had pruney fingers and toes, Teagan had distinct goggle marks for a while and Mason took a decent nap. It was a win. 

Dancing into the New Year

I've been serving in Young Women's for a while now and during one of our meetings, it came up that our ward needed chaperones for the New Year's dance. I matched the enthusiasm of the other women there and hemmed and hawed, saying I might be able to do it. I wouldn't admit it there, but I'll confess here that I was actually excited about the opportunity to go back in time. I loved Stake Dances as a youth, and was looking forward to feeling young again. I roped Brandon into coming with me - he's a good sport. Right there in my rope was Grandpa, who agreed to stay home with sleeping children instead of painting the town red. 

It was a superhero theme, so naturally Brandon wore his Captain America shirt and I his Thor shirt. (He's really just an XL kid.) Years ago, I made the grave mistake of downplaying Captain America's awesomeness and have regretted it ever since. This was after the first movie came out, and besides his obvious honour and integrity, I didn't see much special about his powers. Anytime Marvel superheroes come up in conversation anywhere (you'd be surprised how often it happens!) Brandon labels me anti-American because I don't gush as much about Steve Rogers as I do Thor. But we set our differences aside and manned one of the exits of the dance, side by side. With a whole couch in between us - got to set an example for those young people!

This guy right here is the hottest date I've ever had to a New Year's Dance. (Don't tell him the category isn't exactly brimming with candidates.) Ah, memories.

 

My having a date was a whole lot different than my experiences as a youth at Stake Dances. My hanging out next to the food table at every opporuntity was not. Perhaps there's a correlation there?

We spied on our nephews, Jacob and Jaxon, who are perpetually 5 in my mind but look like 14 year old boys who are taller than me. Both danced every slow dance and asked and were asked by a variety of young women, and I was so proud to see them being so kind to girls who reminded me of me way back when - trying to look like it wasn't a big deal that no one had asked them to dance halfway into the song, but making themselves painfully available.
The balloons dropped at midnight, and I glanced at my phone to see how close we were to real time and caught a glimpse of my two babies and couldn't help but smile. Sometimes I miss my younger days and wish I could relive them, but when I think about where I am now and the little (and big) people I have in my life, I'm perfectly happy living in the present. It's a gift, after all.

My handsome date even asked me for a spin or two on the dance floor and it was so much fun. We hardly knew any of the songs (I haven't listened to the radio in years - but if Sesame Street had come on, I'd know every word) and our dance moves gave away our age, but we had a ball. 

There was a couple no younger than 70 cutting a rug all night while they chaperoned and I made Brandon promise that we'd be that couple in 40 years. If we can stay up this late again!