September

Trips and Activities

Samantha's baptism! My parents couldn't come, but the Heads (inc. Anna and Jacob) came and stayed over the weekend. We had a really nice time with them and friends.

weekend visit from Nash. He installed a new bathroom fan for us. The old one sounded terrible!

dinner with the Boyles at our house

picnic with Rex and Melodie at Flaming Gorge since they were working in Rock Springs and that's about the halfway point. We had the perfect weather.

Birthdays and Holidays

took the fam out for Chinese on Labor Day (a new-ish 3-day weekend tradition)

Weather

VERY rainy (4 inches this month, which is like 6 months' worth of "moisture")

otherwise really pleasant

Sickness

mild cold

Repairs and Projects

got the sink remounted

new microwave

new dishwasher

new water heater

new HVAC

new garage door opener

timers for both bathroom fans downstairs

made collages and printed them for the beach bathroom downstairs

finished making the girls' skirts (from last year) for fall and winter

made PJ pants and some shorts for Lewis from cute dinosaur fabric

put together my cherry blossom Lego set that James gave me for Christmas and installed a cute shelf for it

made matching peasant dresses for the girls and a yoga skirt for me from fabric from Grandma Lee

As of last Friday, after living here for over 2 months, I feel happy that we moved. It helps a lot that all the appliances work as intended. I sometimes miss my old ward, but this house feels like home. I'm grateful that I get to walk the little kids to and from school every day. It gives me meaningful exercise and sunshine, plus cute conversations.

The tasks left for us seem doable over many weekends (especially the yard). It's no longer a construction zone, but a home.

August

Trips and Activities

Party at the Hills' to welcome their new exchange student and say hi to Alyssa (our old babysitter) and her baby

Dinner with the bishop's family

James's visit to SLC to see Grandpa Lee, who had just had surgery. He came back with some IKEA bookcases, a love seat, and a kitchen table.

School started! Joseph: 11th, Kenny: 9th, Katie: 7th, Lewis: 4th, Samantha: 3rd. Joseph and Kenny usually drive to school, and I walk with the elementary kids, so only Katie has to ride the bus.

Uintah County Fair! We went on family night and did the cheap rides.

Dinner with the Duncans (and older couple in our ward) at La Cabana for Taco Tuesday. It was really fun to get to know them better.

Katie's first orchestra concert for the year

Ward party, which was delicious, even though it was a little cold outside. We wanted to go to Dino "Soar" days, but it got rained out.

Dinner with the Boyles, Greg, and sister missionaries at our house. James made the meat, and Ana brought the sides.

Birthdays and Holidays

Samantha turned 8! I think she enjoyed all of her presents, strawberry ice cream, and strawberry shortcake.

Weather

SO hot. At least the paint dried quickly! Then, we had torrential rain on and off for a couple of days, which was weird.

Sickness

mild cold (hello, school germs)

Repairs and Projects

Got carpet installed! I spent that entire day catching up on paperwork, like registering the kids for school.

Moved all of our stuff in, finally. Setting up the rooms took a while, but Joseph and Kenny assembled all the beds, and Joseph put together all the IKEA furniture. We cut up the piece of plywood from our old bed and made 6 shelves to install in various closets. We also hung up hooks and decorations in every room, which was made much easier once we had a magnetic stud finder.

We finished painting! I did a couple of  the bathrooms on my own, and the girls' bathroom was the biggest pain since it had old bits of wallpaper and glue that were peeling off. I took off what I could, applied oil-based primer, textured with a stipple brush, primed with a water-based primer, and finally painted. It turned out super cute, and the other bathroom did too. It has both blue and yellow for a beach theme. 3 of the bathrooms needed both toilet paper holders and towel rings, so we installed those.

I learned how to use my new sewing machine that James got for me at a yard sale. I made 3 sets of curtains: for the kitchen, girls' bathroom, and my bathroom to hide the ugly area under the vanity.

As of the 29th, we are completely unpacked! Even the garage is organized. All the rooms were clean enough at one point for me to take before and after pictures too.

There are a million "mini projects" and repairs that we did as well, but I don't know if I could remember them if I tried.

Next up: replacing the dishwasher and microwave, getting the sink remounted. These things will really help me like my kitchen better! (It's not horrible. The current dishwasher is ancient and doesn't wash well. The microwave over the stove doesn't work so we have a small one that's terrible and takes up counter space. We just haven't gotten to these things yet because we've been busy!)

July

Last month wins the prize for the busiest month of my life. August is looking pretty busy too.

Trips and Activities

Rexburg, Sydney's wedding at the Meridian temple. I've never seen a couple look so happy. We also attended the reception that night.

playing in Ashley Creek at Remember the Maine

a day trip (minus Kenny and me) to see Big Joe off to the MTC for his mission

dinner with the Christensens, Alex

seeing the new Spiderman movie

Birthdays and Holidays

4th of July: concert and breakfast in Firth, parade, cookout and fireworks with the Lees

24th of July: Scout breakfast, parade

Weather

excessively hot, above 90 almost every day

Sickness

NONE!

Repairs

replaced 7 doorknobs, fixed a door hinge, patched a million holes large and small in OUR NEW HOUSE!

Projects

Finally, after 330 days on the market, 53 showings, and 17 house tours, we sold our home and bought a new one. It didn't turn out exactly as I thought. We didn't sell for as much as we originally listed, and the new one is a fixer upper, but it's in Maeser, which means we changed wards but nothing else! We are only 2.5 miles away from the other place!

Moving was a huge pain. I couldn't bring myself to pack till we had the keys because of what we went through last time. It took almost a week to pack, move, and then clean everything in the old house. I did a really thorough job because I knew it would be appreciated. We didn't get the same courtesy at the new house, so we've been scrubbing every surface, ripping out all the carpet, pulling up a million staples, treating dog pee stains on the subfloor with enzyme cleaner and then shellac primer, filling and sanding a million holes both large and small, painting, and now finally getting new carpet installed!

After 17 days of living here, I can't wait to walk on the floors without shoes on! And to move all of our stuff from the garage into the house! We finished painting just in time. James cut trim for our room and the basement and installed it. We finished up at 11 P.M. last night, but everything that's getting carpeted has been painted. By the time I finished painting everything next week, we will have used 18 gallons of paint (a little bit left for touchups on some colors) and 3 different kinds of primer. To say we're tired would be an understatement, but it's also SO GOOD to be out of limbo! My goal is to finish all the big, important stuff by the time people visit for Samantha's baptism in September. 35 days, a million little projects to go!

June

June takes the cake as one of the busiest months of my life!

Trips and Activities

night drives with Joseph to get his hours in during James's last week of work (technically extra days)

Head reunion in Albion, followed by a few days in Rexburg. It was weird without either Head grandparent there, but it was good to hang out with all the extended family. And we honored their memory quite a bit.

Girls' Camp at Aspencrest. I had a wonderful time, even though I didn't sleep quite enough. I feel like I could do it again. We had excellent food, lots of devotionals, and tons of activities that kept us both having fun and feeling the Spirit.

NH trip! I spent the first half with Mara, Myles, Skyla, and kids at my grandparents' house. We went to the Joseph Smith birthplace, Yankee Candle, and Chesterfield Gorge. Duane's funeral was beautiful and touching. I then stayed with my parents at David and Berna's house. We visited Mom's old schools, Danny, Margaret, and Wally. I ended up seeing all but 2 of my Schillemat cousins in the past 2 years.

While I was gone, James got the kids to FSY in Provo and to tennis, among other things.

James picked me up at the SLC airport, and we got African food for lunch, then went to the new Museum of Utah, chilled, got Blue Iguana for dinner, and walked around City Creek and Temple Square. I slept 11 hours! We took it easy the next morning with hotel breakfast, then chilled until lunch at Siegfried's. We drove to Idaho Falls, got a quick dinner after browsing the mall, then arrived in Rexburg for our last trip of the summer. Whew! In a 31-day period, I will have been home for only 2 days of it.

Birthdays and Holidays

none

Weather

beautiful and not too hot, whether I was camping, in NH, or ID. It didn't feel like summer, and that's okay!

Sickness

none, thank goodness!

Repairs

none, haven't been home

Projects

Does travel count?

2 showings

1 house looked at

May

Trips and Activities

Katie's final choir and orchestra concert

Six, a musical that James and I watched at the high school. It was pretty entertaining!

visit from Anna and Rex. We enjoyed a Lion King theme night and fossil hunting.

Priesthood Commemoration campout (minus the camping). The girls and I watched a princess movie while the guys were gone for the evening.

end of school! I think everyone was glad to have summer start.

James did the via ferrata in Ashley Gorge with some friends. The pictures make it look beautiful, but scary.

Birthdays and Holidays

Mother's Day, my family spoiled me with my favorite things.

Joseph's 16th birthday! We had steak for dinner, mini Reese's cheesecakes, homemade Twix ice cream, and Cameron over since it's his birthday too. We're working hard on getting all of Joseph's driving hours in so he can get his license soon.

Weather

mostly nice with some much-needed rain

Sickness

none, and I got my progesterone dosing figured out, which is a huge win.

Repairs

got all the cars working again

Projects

7 showings

didn't look at any houses

The housing market is absolute crap right now. There has been no evidence of a "spring surge" at all in Vernal. We still feel like selling is the right thing to do. It's already been 9 months, so what's 1 more? We're beyond tired of this process.

April

Trips and Activities

Joseph and I took a trip to NC while the rest of the family went to ID. We enjoyed Conference, time with family (a different house almost every night), and a trip to Busch Gardens for some epic food and rollercoasters.

Joseph completed his 6 hours of driving with the instructor for driver's ed. We need to get the rest of his hours in ASAP. He's doing really well despite the lack of practice. (Not moving really threw things off with getting the whole process started.)

Birthdays and Holidays

Kenny turned 14 while in Rexburg! I made sure to print him some Brandon Sanderson-themed things before we left for our trips.

The family went to a surprise bday party for Devin's 40th. (I was sick.)

Weather

We finally got enough snow for a snowman!

Sickness

I got a really bad cold after my trip. It took me almost 2 weeks to recover my energy.

Repairs

took the van in for some stuff we'd been putting off

got a new faucet for the kids' bathtub

replaced the fill valve on the kids' toilet

Projects

cleaned out the kids' closets and took a bunch of stuff to our storage unit (7.5 hours of work!)

had 5 showings, looked at 2 houses. no bites yet, and both houses were crummy.

More houses hit the market every day, and right now, there are at least 4 good options that we can afford and would work for what we're looking for. I'm hopeful that something will come through soon.

March

Trips and Activities

Orchestra concert for Katie

Visit from Mara! We went to see Frozen at the high school (James, Katie, Samantha, Mara, me) and loved it.

I babysat Amaya for a day.

James went to an event for Sam in Idaho, then to UCET. He was gone for 5 days, and we survived.

Nash came to visit, and he was here for the YW fundraiser dinner. It was a ton of work to make 150 rolls, gather things for Katie's table and set up, plus spend 4 1/2 hours in the kitchen. It was a success, though. We made plenty of money for camp, and the dinner I ate at 9 P.M. tasted amazing.

baby shower for Alyssa, our old babysitter

birthday party for Amaya

ward cleanup

Birthdays and Holidays

I turned 38! James took the day off to take me to lunch and relax. I've been enjoying my new purse and favorite snacks.

Weather

perfect, and warm enough to start watering the grass, which is crazy

Sickness

lingering colds which seem like they'll never leave

Repairs

G6 power steering, which was $$$

Projects

I printed some cute little animals for Mara's kids, a couple things for people in the ward, and medals for YW camp in the summer.

We had 4 showings during the month. Our buyer cancelled her contract. It's fine. She hadn't sold the land yet and I guess she decided not to. We didn't look at any houses this month. I don't want to push this into the next school year, so one way or another, there is an end point.