Moving Date / RIP Front Stoop

Last week, while Doug was in Vegas, my Dad, Liza, and Chris all went to Montana for a family reunion leaving Mom and Shelly at home and Johnny at Scout Camp.  My parents have been great about buying furniture for the house, but they hadn't actually moved any of their own stuff in yet. 

Starting last week on Tuesday, I went over each morning and just started putting things into boxes.  I didn't ask anyone, I didn't tell them I was doing it, I just did it.  My favorite was when I went into Shelly's room and completely emptied her whole dresser into a box in front of her eyes and then just walked out with it.  Eventually, Mom and Shelly started helping as well and we got a lot done.  "Operation Move Family" was mostly a success with about 5-6 VERY full van loads of stuff going to the new house.  This included most of the kitchen, the contents of the china cupboard, the board games and puzzles, Shelly's room, and most of mom's clothes. (Pictures of the closet, which is already full and the size of a small bedroom, will follow.)

Tuesday night this week, I was at Mom's and Dad's "old house" to drop off some car keys that accidentally made it into my purse during moving stuff.  The contractor that is going to be excavating the front yard for the new addition stopped by to drop off one of those CAT machines in the front yard.  We had to move some cars and the contractor exclaimed, "I must be here for the family reunion!"  We just laughed and told him that the house is always this way.

We were all sitting/standing on the front porch (well, what is left of the front porch) and just like that heard Dad announce, "We are moving into the new house by this Saturday!"

So now THEY HAVE AN OFFICIAL MOVING DATE - Saturday, August 7th.

Wednesday afternoon, I stopped by to get some stuff for Activity Day Girls and pulled up to this.  Good thing no one is living at our neighbor's house because that means we can park in their driveway!

They even removed the stoop to the front door!  This is a picture of me at maybe 6 years old standing on the front stoop (that actually is the same house behind me).  I can't believe it's gone.  A part of me (the completely irrational, nostalgic part) wants to take that concrete slab home. :(

 

This is a picture standing at the front door and looking down.  I think that's about a 10 foot drop!

We were all standing at the door watching the contractor dig the hole when Johnny exclaims, "It's just like a video game guys!" :)  We laughed at him and as he was walking away he said, "At least I don't have to mow the front lawn anymore!" Johnny's starting to become funny and a little less obnoxious in his old age.

  
Ross, Liza boyfriend, is in town now.  He helped Liza get her drivers license. (Third time's the charm, Liza! )  She's very proud of it...

He's also getting extra boyfriend points by helping to fix the Elantra (FREE car from mom and dad) so Liza can take it to college with her.  Last week, the check engine light on the turned on just as I was driving back from helping my mom get the inspection on it.  So he's doing some transmission/spark plugs stuff.  I'm pretty sure he has some background in airplane mechanics.

Stuck at Home

Last week, Doug was in Vegas for a conference for work and I was stuck at home.

They DO have slot machines at the airport!

He was staying in the Bellagio and I was stuck at home.

 The famous Bellagio Hotel in Vegas.

The view from Doug's hotel room.

Some pictures from the inside of his room... *sniffle*

 He got his picture taken with one of the top 5 famous hackers, Kevin Mitnik and I was stuck at home.

The guy NEVER takes pictures with people, but the way Doug was able to get a picture with him is a funny story.  Kevin Mitnik had just finished a presentation in which he gave tips on social engineering.  One being, "If you want something from someone, start with something really BIG and then ask for something smaller."  Doug approached him afterward and asked, "Will you be the father of my first-born son?!" in which he responded, "Uh, No." Then Doug asked, "Well, can I get a picture with you?"  He laughed and said, "Sure!"  No one else got pictures with him. :)

He was watching awesome presenters on social engineering, hacking ATM machines, and cyber warfare and I was... well you get the picture.  (Those are linked to some awesome articles that were written about the convention.)

I was a little bitter that I didn't get to go to Vegas with Doug, (Can you tell?) but I'm happy that he's home now and I'm not stuck at home alone anymore

Garden (Year 2)

Our garden this year is not doing nearly as well as it did last year, but it's still growing stuff.  Mostly weeds, but there are a few vegetables here and there.  Having it at my parents' house (the old one) makes it challenging for us to give it the care it needs.  We're only there on (most) weekends, so sadly it gets pretty neglected.  Maybe one day we'll have a yard that's big enough for a full fledged garden, but for right now, my parents' yard works just fine.

This year we're growing...

 Peas...  This is, surprisingly, one of my favorite parts of the garden.  I've never even liked peas (like EVER).  In fact, I used to hide them under the ledge of the table growing up.  That's because they were frozen (or even worse, canned).  Now I that we have peas fresh out of the garden, I LOVE them!

Strawberries... My absolute favorite fruit, but they were small and sadly sort of disappointing.  We were away from our garden so often, the bugs ate more strawberries than we did. 

Corn...  Although the reason I took a picture of this corn is because we're pretty sure this corn ate another corn.  You can see the tassel from another corn sticking out the top.  Our other corn wasn't as cool as this one.

New to our garden this year were pumpkins.  We didn't expect them to take over things like they did.  My little brother kept on having to move the vines out of the yard because it kept on escaping the grow boxes.  It tried to strangle our corn as well.  This is how a pumpkin begins. (We'll before this, it was a seed, but I didn't take a picture of that.)

This was our HUGE pumpkin this year.  You can see Doug comparing one of our tomatoes (Oh, and we're still growing tomatoes and peppers in our garden as well.) to it.  All of the leaves/vines around Doug are from ONE pumpkin plant.  The actually base of the plant is about 5 feet to the left of where Doug is standing in the picture. 

It turned orange a little early (well WAY too early), so Doug picked it so the bugs wouldn't get to it.  I wanted him to wait to see if it would grow big enough for Cinderella to fit inside, but Doug never listens to me!

Here it is coming home with us.  I figured we didn't need a booster seat because it weighs 70 pounds.  Yep, 70 pounds!  I can barely lift the sucker.

Moving My Family

Doug and I have been helping my parents move into their new house.  They're still not quite there.  I think maybe in another 2 or 3 or 4 weeks, they'll be mostly moved.  Yesterday, we started moving Chris's desk into the computer area in the new house.  Chris is in the same room that I was when I last lived at home.  He has the same desk that I had too.  In between Chris and I, Kate lived in the same room with the same desk as well.

It's been 10 years since I moved into that room so the desk basically hadn't been moved since then because (1) it is so heavy and (2) the room is too small for any other furniture arrangement.  When we moved it yesterday, look what we found!

Taking a closer look, you'll see some truly interesting finds...

This one was hard for me.  Yes that is an actual check for $96.84 written to me 

from BYU back in 2003.  I don't remember losing a check this big, so hopefully 

I didn't just lose that money.  Do you think I can still cash it?

Yes, that is a bag of hair.  Probably not Chris's

A trumpet brush... not mine or Kate's, we were both woodwind players.

A band pass for Kate from 2003.

Someone's homework.

Gum, anyone want a piece?

Moving has truly been an adventure with my family!

MAKE YOUR OWN... Slip and Slide

I was just going through my camera and found these movies...  Sooo Liza got this idea over Memorial Day weekend and Chris (moneybags) was nice enough to finance it.  Slip and slides are too small for "big kids" so they decided to make their own.

What you need:
-100 ft of Construction Plastic (I think about $50 at Home Depot, but reusable)
-3-4 bottles Baby Oil or Suave Hair Conditioner (about $1 each)
-Access to a waterhose

We started in the backyard on flat ground, but decided after a little while to take it out front and use the neighbor's yard who doesn't live there anymore.  (Yay for us!)  It turned out great!  We ran out of baby oil after a while and the slide was getting kind of rough, so we went inside and got an old bottle of cheap conditioner to put on the plastic.  I think it actually worked a little better than the baby oil.

In this movie you will see, Johnny, Shelly, Liza, and Chris all go down the slip and slide one after another. (Ross, Liza's boyfriend, is holding the tarp for them.)

Unfortunately, Doug and I didn't have our suits, so we did not participate... next time.

Family Festivities

I had been looking for a job this summer to keep myself busy, but Doug and I decided that I should just forget about the job thing and help my family out this summer.

As usual my family is crazy busy and need all of the help that they can get.  They closed on their new house this week and have yet to really start moving anything over to the new house.  I guess there isn't too much of a rush because the old house is still ours.  I think the missionaries are moving into the old house at the start of August, so I guess they'll be out by midnight on July 31st.

Oh yes, my little brother, Chris, got his mission call from our church about a month ago!  He's going to the Mexico, Mexico City North Mission.  He reports to the MTC in September.  I can't believe how fast he has grown up.  He is going to make an EXCELLENT missionary.  I have never met such an obedient young man.  I don't know what my parents are going to do without him.

My sister, Kierstan, who lives in Utah with her husband and two step-daughters on and off got her paperwork through so that she could be sealed to her husband Court in the Washington DC Temple.

Kier and Court set a date of July 9, 2010 and we arranged it so that Chris could go through the temple the same day so he would be able to attend their sealing.  My grandparents flew in from Utah, my sister Heather drove up from Virginia Beach with her family, and we had a couple packed houses.  (Unfortunately my parents had not closed on their new house yet so we could not stay in it!)  It was a very special day and a fun week full of family time.

I don't make it a habit of putting small children in my dryer, but Heather yelled for me while she was ironing Friday morning in the laundry room and I took these pictures...  David, her youngest decided that a dryer would be a fun place to hang out.

My parents have this big blowup water park thingy that they set up whenever the grandkids come over.  The kids had a blast!  Uncle Johnny and Aunt Shelly had their hands full!

You may be wondering about the Graffiti on the back of the shed. Shelly and some of her friends put that on there as a title for a movie they were filming at the house WITHOUT asking mom or dad.  I guess things don't change... anything still goes at the H House.

 We had some built in babysitters at home, so all of the adults were able to go out to eat at some Mexican place.  We decided that we would get Chris used to eating rice and beans a little early!

Starting at left and going around: Heather, James, Mom, Chris, Liza, Doug, Dad, Court, Kier, Ross (Liza's BF), Grandpa, Grandma

I finally got to sleep in the next day, but woke up to my camera taking what I thought was a picture of me sleeping.  It turns out Darwin must have fell asleep while cleaning himself. HA! HA!  He got very nervous with all of the smaller visitors in the house and stayed in our room most of the time.

Last, but not least, Doug celebrated his 26th birthday.  Everyone was there and he thoroughly enjoyed his funfetti cake. I lit his birthday candles in binary because 26 candles would be too many.  He's so old!

Summers Off

You may have heard that three great reasons to become a teacher are...
1) June
2) July
3) August

The school year ended on Friday and work days for Loudoun County teachers ended on Tuesday, so with summer upon me, I was thinking about the whole "summer off" deal.

Right now, we are lucky with Doug's extremely long commute that he gets to work four 10 hour days instead of five 8 hour days.  That got me started thinking...  Using my mad math skills, I calculated that since there are 52 weeks in a year, then that means basically that Doug "has off" 52 days in a year, but he does more than make up for those days with the long hours that he works Monday through Thursday.

My scheduled work hours in my school Monday through Friday are 7:30-3:30.  So I am scheduled to work 8 hours a day x 5 days = 40 hours/week.  I don't actually work just those hours and even our laziest teachers (who have their infirm mothers stamp and seal their report cards for them) work more hours than that.  I usually get to school at 6:30am and leave around 4:30pm (on a good day).  Every weekend I spend additional time on top of that planning for the next week.  So in reality, I really work five 10+ hour days each week plus some hours on weekends.

Continuing to use my mad math skills, I counted up the number of days that I have off of school for the summer to get 45.  Teachers do get a spring break and a winter break so I went ahead and added 10 to that number to get a whopping 55 days off in a year.

If my calculations are correct, it looks like teachers put in JUST as much time as an employee that works a 40 hour week in the private sector.

TA DA!  Now I can feel a little better about my summer off, right?

A parent just sent me this picture and I love it! :) The kids all came to 

give me a hug after the water station during field day in an attempt to get me wet.

Home Sweet Home

This is the current state of my parents' home... the home I grew up in.

Yeah, pretty embarrassing.  The worst part is that the whole half-siding thing has been going on since before I was married... 5 YEARS ago.

This is the house that my family of 11 which includes 2 parents has occupied for the last 30+ years.  It is where I took my first steps and said my first words.  It is the place where I shared a 9 x 9 bedroom with 3 other girls for several years.  It's home.

Now the house has not ALWAYS looked this way.  This is actually the third revision of the outer appearance.  It's gone from yellow to brown (wood) to tan.  The inside of the house had changed even more times than the outside.  The whole house has probably never been finished in my lifetime.  If you walk around the house, you will notice that there are various levels of unfinished-ness.  These pictures below of the kitchen and bathroom have been this way for years.  We're just used to it now.

 

The latest reason why the house is in its current state is my dad's new ideas for additional construction.  Basically what he wants to do is rip off the front right side of the house and extend it about 10 feet or so.  He has some really great updates in mind, but he's decided that he wants to do it himself.  Recently he called a contractor to get an estimate of the foundation.  It was around 7:00pm and I was at the dining room table talking to my dad about it when we had the following conversation.

Jenny says, "Hey Dad, this new house remodel is really expensive. Why don't you just buy a new house?"  Dad says, "Eh, I've thought about it before."

30 minutes or so later... We're both downstairs on the computers. Dad is probably reading conservative news articles. I'm searching realtor.com for houses in the area. (Just for kicks and giggles.)

After searching for about 10 minutes. I say, "Hey Dad, what kind of street name would be good enough for our family?" I say a few and then I find a funny looking one and say, "Ohh, what about this one... 'C' Dr. That sounds just like a street our crazy family could live on!" 

Then Dad says, "Hey, that's where the Bishop lives. It's right next to the church. How much does it cost?" I tell him.  I then tell him a few other specs like land, bedrooms, and bathrooms.

Literally, about 5-10 minutes after I mention the house he tells me, "Print it out and have your mother buy it." Mom walks downstairs and I hand her the paper. "Dad says that you should buy this." Around 9:00pm, mom calls the Realtor and asks if the house is still available.

I leave that night not really thinking that they're actually going to buy a house.

They drive by it Sunday. Walk through it Monday. I get a call around 7:00pm Monday night (less than 48 hours later). Mom says, "We just signed the papers."

Seriously no joke, that's how it went down.  My parents after 30 years of living in the same home are buying a house.  For those of you that are worried about losing the old house, don't worry... my dad has decided to keep both houses.  This house is in foreclosure so it's quite the steal and it's in great condition.  My family has never done anything the normal way, so I guess I didn't expect them to start now.

So that's the story of my parents' new house.  

Here are some pictures.  This new house is slightly bigger than the older house with a whopping 6 bedrooms and 3 1/2 baths.  It sits on 0.71 acres and backs up to the church.  Dad says that we can, "Walk to church like Mormons in Utah!"

 

I've actually started to get a little sentimental when thinking about the "old house."  Instead of being embarrassed as I drive up the street, I think of all of the fun memories I have had in that house.  I think of how much character it has.  I know that we're not getting rid of the old house, but it makes me sad to think that my family will not be living in it anymore.  Maybe one day in the future they'll move back in it.  My dad says he wants the space so he can work on finishing the old house.

You're probably wondering what in the heck my parents are going to do with 2 houses.  Well, as it turns out, the missionaries from our church are actually staying in the house that is being foreclosed on, so he's looking into having them stay in the old house.

For right now it's all a little hard to believe, but well... that's my family.