I made it out of there.

I've haven't driven to Rexburg in five days and it's been bliss. I have a love/hate relationship with the snow building, for obvious reasons to anyone who has been inside that building. I have spent a good 35-45 hours per week there for 14 weeks straight, and am happy to have 25 days away from some of those weirdly-awesome fellow classmates who occasionally have a higher maturity level than me. I do miss the Tres Amigos paninis that were only 2.99, but I do not miss the random faculty and students playing their brass instruments for each other or the drama students acting out various scenes in the Fish Bowl. Wierdos.

The main thing I learned Fall 2012:  Don't take 12 credits for 3 semesters when you're first starting out your education because soon you find that you will have to take 19-21 credits every subsequent semester to graduate before your catalog expires. If that happens (you don't finish by July 2013), you will have to take all the music lit classes, which are sequential, requiring you to postpone your graduation for an additional 3 semesters.

So, I maxed out my credits this semester. I knew after the first day of school that this was borderline impossible. In fact, after applying to be accepted as a Music Major, I was called into a meeting with the Dean of Arts and the Music Department Chair because they both agreed that this credit load was not possible. They then explained to me that my Musicianship class for 2 credits was really the workload of 6 credits, and that my Music 101 class for 2 was really the workload of 4, etc. etc. and that I had actually signed up for more like 29 credits. Their exact words: "This is a kiss of death."
I smiled and told them I am desperate to finish by July and that I would prove them wrong. They raised their eyebrows then reluctantly signed my application all contingent upon my final grades.

After risking several mental breakdowns, driving a little over 6700 miles in 14 weeks, spending between 36-45 hours per week in the Snow building, sleeping less than 6 hours each night, and crying on average four times per week, my final grades are as follows:

FAM160: A
REL301: A
SCI203: A
MUS161D: A
SCI206: A
MUS101: A
MUS165A: B+
MUS172: A
MUS334: A

GPA: 3.93

Now I can spend every second with my kids and family watching movies and drinking the large box of assorted hot chocolate mixes we just bought at Sam's and make up for time lost.

And clean our bathroom for the first time in about, oh say, 14 weeks.

Final Composition

I know I'm just a beginner at this, but I've had to submit many short "hymn-like" songs such as this one this semester as I'm just learning all of the rules with composition in tonal music. I just turned this piece in today for my final and feel somewhat content with it. I wanted to write a song to teach my kids the days of the week. It was fun listening to my class sight sing it in solfege this morning!

Here were the requirements:
1. One of each diatonic triad (in inversion or root position)
2. One neighbor or passing 6/4
3. A cadential 6/4
4. A suspension, appoggiatura, and escape tone
5. A dominant seventh chord
6. A supertonic seventh chord
7. A parallel or contrasting period

You can also view it a little better by following this link.

Hectic, Insane, Frugal, Fabulous.

I know what you're thinking. The title of this post sounds like a Taylor Swift song.

Life has been going well for us here on 6th Street. While we technically have our long couch covered in 4 loads of unfolded laundry and a living room floor with some throw pillows, books, a couple of children-sized coats, a Nerf sword, and a Snow White dress scattered about, life is still great.

Dustin applied to several schools over the past two months and got in everywhere he applied. Plus, thanks to an excellent GPA from his undergrad, he never needed to take the GMAT or GRE or whatever it was suppose to be. Each school is requiring some prerequisite courses prior to starting. And because our children are getting older and we want to be as stable as possible, Dustin turned down BYU and Boise State and is still choosing between UofI (Idaho Falls campus) and Idaho State University. He's getting his Master's in civil engineering focusing on structural engineering. It totally fits him. The timing seems almost too perfect, actually.

Dust is still on the Ucon Volunteer Fire Department. He hopes he can be a volunteer firefighter for his entire working life. And for serious. It's pretty awesome having a husband who is a firefighter. Like, a real certified one that drives the big trucks and wears the red suspenders and knows all the codes on the radios. He has some pretty roudy friends there and gets a whole bunch of Pepsi everytime he goes to the firehouse.

Dustin's company just made their maintenance division a separate company called Mr. Maintenance. So, Dustin is now Mr. Manager and has a small crew of blue-collored men and a new office/shop and even drives a 2011 creepy white van without windows. He's on his last week of inspections (900+ units) and stays busy. I don't think he has worked less than 10 hours a day in three months. My favorite quote from him lately is, "You see? If you take care of a paint brush, it will take care of you."

On top of THAT, Dustin is currently outside in the 26 degree temperatures sanding our new dining room table. I'm sure you all can remember our old one... it was 20$ from the RC Willeyscratch and dent room in Las Vegas. That thing is crap and was probably a hazard to the safety and well-being of our children. It was so wobbley that sometimes if I pushed in a chair too hard I quickly took a couple steps back just in case that was the time it finally collapsed. And really, after moving it roughly 7 times or so, it's done suprizingly well. In the end, it will become doll furniture. Dustin picked up an old maple wood table in his parent's back garage that was being used as a shelf for bird seed and is just finishing sanding all the scratches out of it. It's my Christmas present.

Lillie and Jack are the highlight of our days here. I taught Lillie the word "diaphragm" a few weeks ago and everytime she gets the hiccups she's been annoucing "My diaphragm is going crazy!" Which is always good for a laugh. Today when my mom told her on the phone that she was coming to visit, Lillie said, "That's fantastic, Grandma!" then proceded to tell her how much Jack bugs her.

Jack calls the microwave the "Microphone" and frosted flakes "snowflakes." He's in a very egocentric phase and often runs past me mischeiviously covering his eyes with his somewhat chubby hands thinking I can't see him because he can't see me. He's also up every morning before the sun rises and runs into our room and jumps on us saying, "Get up, Mommy and Daddy! Time for cereal!"

And unfortunatly, I have nothing new to report on. Same-ol for this full-time voice student and mother of 2. Thankfully I have only 4 weeks left of school for this semester. I actually enjoy all my classes (besides one of them) but just wish there could be 5 more hours everyday to complete all of the assignments and spend time with my family. I found out last week that I am only 11 credits away to double majoring with a BS of Music and a BS of Social Work. I am also only 9 credits away from a BA in Vocal Performance. My minor could also either be Marriage Studies or Science Foundations (I have 20+ credits for both). I had no idea how much I would enjoy my science courses and I even registered for a robotics class next semester just for the heck of it. I'll graduate this Spring with a BS of Music and a minor in Marriage Studies. I hopefully can go back as a non-matriculating student to finish the last 3 classes for the BS of Social Work and maybe even take more composition classes.

So, life is dramatic and busy and frugal and really, really fun. We even found a fool-proof recipe for homemade bread and have made four loaves in the past week or so. When I went grocery shopping, I splurged and bought the 6$ peppered bacon and ingrediants to make a cheese ball... just because. Today Jack and I played Candyland and I won every time and Jack didn't even care. And on Friday I'm going out with a friend to see Edward and Bella's vampire child on the big screen.

Hectic and insane? No doubt about it.
Wonderful and fabulous? Definitely.

A Message from 1985

Bruce R. McConkie's final testimony in 1985.

Divine Direction

I keep a pretty consistent hand-written journal. I suppose you could say that my blog is my journal also, but nobody ever really writes EVERYTHING on a blog when you know people will be reading it. Plus, I'm a fan of my handwritten journals. I can tell what sort of mood I'm in just glancing at each entry. My handwriting is all sorts of wack, and it's even more crazy and sharp-like when I'm upset or being dramatic about something. In the end, once or twice a year I'll sit down with an old journal and read back on past entries. I really like going back to as close to 1 year, then 2 years, then 3 years ago, and so on from that days current date and read exactly what was going on year by year (Wierd? Well, maybe.). There have been great times of sorrow and confusion, only to learn the WHY of it all a year or two or seven down the road. My journals have been a great resource for me, especially when I'm seeking more faith or more strength to just get through whatever the new battle is. I can better see the divine direction in my life.

So.... let's be honest.

This semester has been pretty rough. I've never been the roller-coaster emotional crier until about 11 days ago... I don't think I've gone one day without crying since then. Actually, I'm starting to annoy myself from all of it. I attribute this to midterms in general, but really, I feel that this could also be because I feel like I've completely neglected my children and husband lately, I just received an additional calling that I feel very intimidated and unqualified for, and the fact that 11 days ago my pregnancy test had only 1 line, for the millionth time in a row.

I cried in my voice lesson, I cried in the car listening to every Taylor Swift song (the current CD), and I cried to Dustin each night in bed knowing that the next day would be just as overwhelming.

So, back to the title thing. Divine direction.

My sister watched Lillie and Jack on Tuesday so I could go to the temple, it had been a few weeks. I got there pretty early and was able to spend some time alone listening to the kind Sister playing the organ. BTW-I hope she knows how much her simple calling of playing the organ meant to me. She was even exemplifying excellent musicianship skills with her phrasing and musicality and played all the really, really good hymns. I cried again. It felt so, just, good to be there. I hope heaven feels just like that. I prayed for strength, I prayed for my husband and sweet little's, I prayed to have more time with my family, I prayed to have all my studying and learning reflected on my exams, I prayed to be inspired in my callings, I prayed for another baby. I prayed for help.

Tonight is Friday, and in just 3 hours I was able to complete four classes worth of homework and write out our ward's Christmas Program in it's entirety. I even went through music and felt inspired on which songs to have the choir sing, solos to have performed, even speakers to say certain parts in between. I passed all of my exams this week with A's, and I was able to spend some time with just the kids after school today and took my family on a "family date" to Leo's Place. Dana even made us dinner one night "just because" not knowing how sometimes getting home at 6:15 and tucking the kids into bed at 7 can be really sad for me, especially when that tiny amount of time to spend together is spent making dinner. AND Tomorrow night Dustin and I have the night to ourselves. As of right now, the tightness in my shoulders is alleviated and I'm at some kind of content and peace.
I'm in gratitude of this help and comfort that took me 4 days to notice. This will be one of those journal entries that I can look back on oneday when life seems difficult and unfair and dramatic and overwhelming and just hard... and know that if I just ask for help, it will come.

Excuse me while I go to bed now and cry.

Interrupting Chicken and Other Stories

I spend a great amount of time each day reading books to my children. I decided to share some of my favorites with all-a-y'all. It was difficult to narrow these down to five, but I think I might share more favorites later. Run to your library or find them on Amazon. They're awesome. And your kids will be smart.

Happy Reading!

I hate your Iphone 5

Ok. Seriously. How the crap did I ever survive without a cell phone?

As of today, I have gone exactly 6 days without a working cell phone.
You heard me right--SIX DAYS.
I AM FREAKING OUT. I have resorted to e-mailing. Yes, e-mailing. (And don't think that's the last time I'll repeat the same statement in a dramatic way.)
Don't worry friends--I should be getting my replacement phone tomorrow.

The past 6 days have reminded me of a time of long, long ago (give or take 7 years) of what it was like to pre-plan everything. Instead of playing our schedules hour-by-hour via text messages and short phone conversations, Dustin and I have had to have real sit-down meetings early in the morning about what we are doing that day, when we would be home, what we would have for dinner, blah, blah and blah. I have to wait for HOURS to tell Dustin anything. That alone is insane. After this I feel like I can do anything.

So, apparently I've been spoiled and have grown accustom to this lifestyle.

Do you remember what it used to be like? For someone who used to have strong anti-cell phone views, I am feeling quite humbled. Because really, I might die if that phone doesn't come tomorrow.

BUT. I am still anti-Iphone. Fun fact: If you feel you need to narrate your life all day long via your awesome new iphone5, then you don't really have one.
But seriously, can I borrow your phone?

*disclaimer: I understand not every iphone5 owner acts in such obnoxious, self-centered, pompous ways.

Tres Anos

Not sure where the time went, but our little Jack Sprat turned 3 today.

And because no Birthday blog post can go without a little motherly-bragging...

Jack is fully potty trained, knows the alphabet (but hasn't quite developed those fine motor skills to write them legibly), can count to 27, sits long enough to read a 20 minute story, loves enchiladas, eggs, and PB&J sandwiches, can get undressed and can put his underwear, pants, shoes and socks and coat on, knows how to spell his and Lillie's name and recognizes them on paper, knows almost every nursery rhyme by heart, all the favorite Primary songs (including many of the article of faith songs) can ride a bike super fast (still with training wheels), combines 5-9 word phrases, sleeps for 10 hours a night, loves the color blue, loves taking baths, and is excellent at imaginary play. Jack weighs 33 pounds (60% for everything) and as of today, sits in a high-back booster seat. He's bashful and sweet, but can be animated and silly. Jack loves coloring, painting, gluing things, using scissors while supervised, or making any kind of craft. He also loves helping me make dinner. On a typical day you can find Jack reading books, riding his bike, playing with chalk, pretending to be a pirate, animal, or superhero, doing puzzles, and asking to pet every dog that walks by. He's Lillie's shadow and best friend. I think his other best friend would be his Grandma Julie. He's tender-hearted and all-boy. Jack wanted a Spiderman Birthday and specifically wanted two of his Nursery friends to come. All he wants for his Birthday is "a Spiderman Barbie."

We love you, Jack! Now please, please stop growing up.

Phlegm

Last Friday my tonsils grew to the size of kiwis.
The next day I was congested and had to breath out of my mouth while eating pizza.
Sunday was the Primary Program, and my congestion turned into my head-might-explode with eyes watering and sneezing.
Sunday night I realized my inflamed tonsils were covered in white spots.
Sunday SUPER late night Dustin picked up my Zpac prescription (my last refill).
Monday-Friday I spent 36 hours on campus, took 6 exams, and spent 35 hours doing homework all while getting less than 7 hours of sleep each night due to the above mentioned reasons.
Saturday I found out my bad never-ending cold was a scorching case of bronchitis.
Sunday: Dustin beat me at Monopoly.
Yesterday I found out my bronchitis resulted in laryngitis with blisters on my vocal chords from coughing.

On the downside, I probably passed on this bug to many fellow students thanks to the "zero absence" policy in most of my classes.

On the plus, I've stopped coughing up dime and nickle-sized solidified phlegm. That is a weird word.

A Humid Tent full of Over-Achievers.

We finished.
On Friday right after my physics class, Dana, Dustin, and I drove down to Logan, Utah. We went to the temple, then to the delicious spaghetti buffet, picked up our race packets, then went to bed. We woke up dark and early at 4:35AM, got on one of the buses around 5:30AM, and waited at the start line. Because we were up the canyon, and because it was still really dark and freezing cold, they had some ginormous tents set up with blasting heaters. There were no lights, and when I first walked in the tent housing about 3,000 runners all I could smell was sweat and bad breath mixed with a little bit of excitement (alright, that was cheesy). Left and right people were dousing themselves with Anti-Chaf and deodorant and sunscreen in the darkness. As soon as the sun barely rose, we hustled out of the tent and awaited the gun fire. Some guy wearing a kilt and a huge, long, wooden gun of sorts blasted his weapon and we were off. And, because there were thousands of runners, it was a bit anti-climatic as it took several minutes to actually cross the start line.

Just after the first mile marker, there was a huge poster that read,

"You're Almost There!"

Some of my other favorite posters were the following:

 

"Chuck Norris never ran a marathon."

"Do your feet hurt? Cause you're kicking so much butt."

"If you made it to the start line, you can make it to the finish."

"Hurry up, I'm getting tired from watching you."

"Toenails are overrated."

"Envision the Baconator at the finish line" (Barf.)

"I'm Proud of you, Complete Stranger."

"Pain is temporary, Pride lasts forever."

"Milk was a bad choice."

And to make a long story short, we crossed the finish line.

For me, The first 18 miles were awesome, I felt really strong and energetic. I was keeping up a pace of 8:53 up to that point (a 3:55 min. finish overall). However, because I'm no expert on pacing myself when running 26 miles, after that you could say that I hit a wall. I walked for about 2 minutes at mile marker 19, then I finished running a tad slower. My hardest miles were 18-19, and 23-25. Conquering those miles was the hardest physical task I've ever done. Every thought in my mind was telling me to stop and walk, slow down, run into some bushes and walk back to the car, or fake an injury. The great task of finishing a marathon isn't the physical fitness aspect, it's more so the endurance and power over adversity and internal criticism.
As I turned the last corner and saw the finish chute, it ended up being an emotional experience as I couldn't help but think about all the preparation spent preparing for this one moment. I was a runner in high school and college, but took a bit of a sebaticle after I became Mrs. Erika Miller. I ran my first 5k after that in June of 2009 (when I was pregnant with Jack) and have only made more and more goals from there. It took 3 years to get to this point. Combine those thoughts with thousands of cheering spectators, the announcer yelling out my name, seeing my time of 4:20 and receiving my medal--It made it all worth it.

Dustin had very similar feelings. He's been battling a knee injury in his left knee over the past 7 weeks, and wasn't even sure if his knee was going to allow him to finish. Miraculously, his knee performed perfectly. He said he felt strong through the majority of the run but had difficulty getting through those strenuous miles at the end. When he came around the corner, I couldn't believe how great he looked. Dana and I got all the spectators around us to cheer for him, so all around we could hear loud screams of, "Bring it on in, Dustin!" "Dustin is too legit to quit!" and "You did it, Dustin!" It was neat watching him finish, knowing how much he's trained over the last 15 months or so when he first started running again. Dustin has completed three 5k's, three half marathons, a Ragnar race, a century ride, and a full marathon in just 15 months.

After a nice meal at Ihop, we drove home and are still in the process of recovery. As soon as we can walk again (or get off of a toilet seat for that matter), we'll do it again. Go us!

The artistry of canning... and other mediocre news.

Today was my first day of school, again! This is my last year and I'm hoping that it goes rather quickly. I have a hefty credit load this semester and am already feeling overwhelmed. Thankfully I love what I'm studying, but without a doubt, modulating Baroque era songs into natural, harmonic, and melodic minor keys without a key signature is a bit challenging--especially for my first day back "reviewing" past material.

On another note, our entire house is spic and span. Like, all the way. We took a large load of clothes I'll never fit into and crap that nobody ever needs to DI on Saturday (where some large furniture may or may not have fallen out of the truck) and are feeling more peace and tranquillity because so. There are no more mystery drawers.

On Saturday, our 2 bushels of peaches ripened and we had no choice to but can them all that night. We started canning around 9:30PM and finished canning 26 1-liter Mason Jars of peaches around 3AM. We have beautiful jars of peaches taking up all that space we just cleaned! It appears as though the other 2 bushels of pears are now ready, so that's tonight's homework (on top of my 5+ hours of "real" hw). I know, I know. I'm so domestic. I was even barefoot and wore an apron. Regrettably, I could not convince Dustin to do the same. Here's to 50+ jars of canned fruit!

AND, we found out on Wednesday that we didn't get our house. After patiently waiting for 4 1/2 months for lots of really complicated reasons on the sellers end, their bank received a higher offer on Tuesday (its 4th offer) and took it and ran with it. We didn't even have an option of countering. Am I upset? Sure. I spent a good portion of my Wednesday morning sitting on the couch with tears and tissues, but the next day I figured everything would be okay. After 9 months of this real estate roller coaster ride, we've decided to take a little break from house hunting. So no, I don't want to hear about the new house in your neighborhood that just got listed.

And because I should never end a blog post on such a solemn note-
Dustin's dad painted a beautiful picture of Lillie and Jack. It was suppose to be a house warming gift (tear) but he gave it to us anyway. We all love it so much! Isn't it just wonderful?

2 1/2 Hours of Country Music and Mopping.

The best part about having a blog is writing whatever I want. Hello Universe! Sometimes (like now) I have absolutely no idea what I want to write about but somehow I'm still typing away like a crazy person. It's very refreshing. Jack is sleeping, Lillie is coloring on the floor, Dustin is busy away painting an entire house some shade of off-white and fixing some lady's water heater. With all of this quiet and all of my rambling thoughts, I turn to my good friend: Mr. Blog.

Last night Dustin and I spent about 2 1/2 hours cleaning our room. Obviously this isn't our dream house. Obviously this isn't even our "I-guess-it'll-work" house. This house has it's benefits (awesome ward, crazy cheap rent, full manifestation of "love grows in small homes" theory) and also it's downfalls. While we technically have a sink that is held up by exposed 2x4's and plywood, and a slanted floor of 2-5% grade, we get by quite fine, actually.

So anyway, back to the story, another con to this house would be that there are no closets. Like, none. Actually, we have one closet that is underneath the stairway that goes up to the attic unit. Our nephew, Easton, nicknamed it the "Harry Potter closet." That tiny slanted closet has a lot of random scraps of different wall paper plastered to the walls and many layers of linoleum peaking out and smells exactly like you would expect a 90-year-old house to smell like--and is where we lock our kids up when they're naughty.
JUST KIDDING.
The only things that are naughty enough to have to live in there are Dustin's extension cords, some space heaters, and my cleaning chemicals (ironic).

So ANYWAY, we spent 2 1/2 hours cleaning our room because we don't have any closets, and we use our bedroom as one giant one for the entire house. It's stressful to even walk in there, or wake up in there. My reasoning that making our bed with lots of throw pillows will somehow mask the floors, dressers, nightmare under the bed, and stack of pictures that are bound to fall over hasn't really been working out. But at least our bed is made every day. Ok, I'll be honest. While we do have loads of old checkbooks, immunization records, past pay stubs, and Dustin's montage of Ceder Badge memorabilia in piles everywhere, 95% of that mess was made by me. I "apparently" have a bit of a problem with trying on clothes and throwing them on the floor. I also have a problem with trying on shoes and then throwing them on the floor. I also apparently drink too much Diet Shasta these days, and (you guessed it), throw the empty cans on the floor.

In my defense, the other 1100 sq/ft of our home is immaculate. I was a housekeeper for 3 years, afterall.

So, Dustin (who is the sweetest) helped me organize all my crap. We even moved all the furniture and swept and mopped underneath everything. We even wiped down all the baseboards. I'm not even going to tell you how many garbage bags we filled with garbage and DI stuff. But really, it's embarrassing. And I keep telling myself that if we had closets and storage space (or even a garage) that this would never happen. And Dustin smiles and says, "I know, Erika." and I know he's lying, and he knows I'm lying. BECAUSE OF HOW MANY BAGS WE FILLED.

So I made an itinerary of rooms to thoroughly clean for each night this week. I think starting school in 6 days will be much less stressful knowing that even the rods to our blinds are sanitized. There won't be any more secrets come Friday night. And I can't lie, you can't even being to imagine how much my innermost dreams have come true when I hear Dustin singing every word to every country song on 105.5 The Hawk while we clean. He even said last night, "The people who don't like country music haven't even given it a chance. I used to be one of those people."

(SUPER LOUD SIGH)

And really, I do love this house.

We had a carnival.

 Lillie's party was lots of crazy fun! Since Lil is getting older, she got to invite some of her Primary friends from church. Lillie also has a slew of cousins, so between her three friends from church and cousins, there was a whopping 17 kids in attendance.

To keep with the Carnival theme we had face painting, balloon flowers&swords, and a few carnival games like gone fishing, duck pond, bean bag toss, and a three leg race. Each child received tickets for each game, depending how lucky/skilled they were, and afterwards all the kids were able to buy prizes and treats with their tickets. There were pixie sticks, cotton candy, gumballs, swirl lollipops, and circus peanuts.

So, I went to Wal Mart the night before to buy a cake. When I got to the bakery department, I stood in front of a bunch of sheet cakes for $24.99. I couldn't do it. I really wanted to just buy a cake. I just couldn't justify spending 25 bucks on a crappy tinkerbelle cake that would cost a slight fraction of the cost to make myself and didn't even go with the theme. Instead I bought $6 worth of ingredients and attempted to make clown cones. It was almost a failing attempt, but the whole process went quickly. I will never know how Baskin Robin's gets their smiles to stick to the ice cream. Oh well. They sort of looked like clowns (the kind you have nightmares about).

In the end, it was an exhausting, hot day. Lillie loved every waking minute and said, "Mom! I'm five now!" at least 27 times that day. She woke up to 5-shaped pancakes, got her fingernails polished, had her birthday party, and ended the evening eating at her restaurant of choice: Arctic Circle (where all she ate was fries).

The 11th Street Mess

Has anyone in the history of modern real-estate every had a transaction like this one?
Well, probably.

This is our 5th house we've put an offer on since February. Hurray for us! Some people hear that we've been looking for a house for 8 months and assume that we haven't found one because we're too picky or something. Not true, judgementals. We have found 5 houses. We have lost 4 of them to multiple offers that bid way above what we can afford. And even if it did take that long, who cares? It's not like it's a small decision.

The house we love the most sits on a beautiful tree-lined street with beautiful landscaped yards and tire swings. It's 11th Street. We put an offer on this home all the way back in April, a couple weeks before Dustin turned 30. What has been going on from then until now can be summed up into 2 words: stressful crap.

Headache after headache, and to make a long story short, we were suppose to close on this house on August 17th (Lillie's Birthday). However, on August 6th, the sellers went through what is called a variance, which basically means that after reviewing their finances, they found they are unable to pay the closing costs (which they already signed to do) and they were trying to get the closing costs waved. That process takes anywhere between 2-6 weeks. However, because of this, the house went back on the market until that went through. Here's what we found out out today.

Good news: The bank accepted the variance this morning!
Bad news: Someone else put an offer on the house last week.

So, we are once again in a bidding war against another potential buyer. If we can outbid them, then we will sign the papers and get on our way of completing the inspection and finalizing our loan. If not, we pretty much wasted the last 4 months waiting for this gem. We have no idea what their offer was, we just know it was significantly higher than our original one. (?!?!?!?!? GAH!)

But let me tell you, this house is beautiful. And I really, really, really hope we get it.
Here's to another day of fasting and prayer and Mt. Dew!

My inventions.

I have difficulty following through. Let's just put that out there.

BUT

I have some pretty great ideas. One time when I was 18, my best friend Michael and I decided to start a business selling screen print T-shirts that say funny Mormon things. We even bought a .com website, and had sample T-shirts made to promote our ingenious products that for sure every consumer would want, Mormon or not. We were going to make at least $200,000 each. It was called MyBishopRocks.com. And surely enough, Summer was over that's where it ended. I went off to Rexburg, he went off to NYU, and the website expired. So for all of these awesome ideas...and because I know I will never follow through with them, I will post the rest because I still want someone to.

1. Opposite-Microwave. I can't think of a better name. It's essentially a feature on a microwave (or another unit itself) that makes food colder. Dustin thinks it's scientifically impossible, but there's got to be some science-nerd with that insane, stereotypical electrocuted-hair look and nasely voice that can figure this one out. I mean, really? Am I the only one who overheats things? Or who doesn't want to wait 25 minutes to eat cheesy potato soup?

2. Toast Grabber. Again, poor name choice. Maybe it's just every toaster I've ever had, but I feel like I'm risking extreme electrocution when I jab metal knives in there to try to stab my toast to pull it out.

3. A cleaning product for extreme grease build-up. Oh really? I should try dish detergent? Steal wool? Comit? Straight acid? Nope. None of them have worked for the nastiness that is on the outside and top of our refrigerator that is located directly next to our range. And for your FYI (that's a quote), that grease was not from us. We don't fry things.

4. Feux-orange leather backpacks. I don't want to spend $400 on a backpack, I just want to look like I did.

(Okay, okay. If someone really does invent that opposite-microwave, I will need at least 2% commission.)

Five

Tears stream down my face when I think about how fast time is flying! Lillie is 5 years old today. The only word I can use to describe that little girl is: sweet. She is sweet and compassionate in every way and is just plain gentle and loving. I sincerly am in awe the Heavenly Father gave her to us.
At 5 years old, Lillie knows her entire alphabet, and knows 12 sounds of the letters. She can count to 100, and can write all of our names in our family without asking. She loves coloring and doing crafts, playing with chalk, reading books, and riding her Hello Kitty bike. Lillie loves having her fingernails painted red, wearing dresses, high heals, and dousing herself with lotion each day. Her favorite scripture story is Jonah and the Whale, and she loves singing primary songs. Lillie has passed off 12 articles of faith this year, and is determined to learn the 13th. She is compassionate, and always brings me a drink of water and snacks when she can tell I'm having a hard time. She sleeps like me, knows all the words to the latest country songs on the radio, and dances when nobody's looking (but I always silently crack her door open so I can watch). She's an excellent big sister to Jack, and is very forgiving--which is essential when being a big sister to Jack. She is shy, has a soft, little voice, and says the sweetest prayers by her bed each night. I love her. She has taught me significantly more than I will ever be able to teach her.

Here are some snapshots of her life, so far.
(The only thing lacking is the background music of "Butterfly Kisses at Night."...Pipe down! I know it's cheesy!)

August 17th, 2007 at 1:35AM

6 lbs. 14 oz. 21 1/2 inches

Lillie's 1st Birthday

Lillie walked on her knees from ages 10-17 months.

2nd Birthday.

3rd Birthday

4th Birthday!

Happy 5th Birthday, sweetheart.