Mommy's 'Day off'

Miceala took advantage of the good weather we've been having and had a coop yard sale with some other women in the ward. They decided to have the yard sale at a friend's house who was closer to a busier street than the one we live on. In addition to selling some stuff we no longer needed, Mic went ahead and printed off several copies of our MLS listing for the house and even made out a poster. More on that later.

While Mic was at the yard sale, I watched the kids at home. Admittedly, I complained because I had some stuff to do and because Saturday is really the only day I get off (forget Sundays with my calling), but I also realized that I had left Mic with the girls several times for business trips. At first, I just had Eliza as Hannah wanted to see what the yard sale was all about. Eliza is so fun to be with and easy to take care of; she can entertain herself for hours. It was a joy to be alone with her for a little bit.

When Hannah came home, I sent the two girls off to play with each other (we've been trying to get Hannah to play more with Eliza lately) while I painted the frame to our utility room door (we had to buy a new door with louvers because of the furnace (code reasons)). Afterward, I took the girls to the local tot lot and was pleasantly surprised at the absence of any teenagers (there's usually a bunch of them there swearing and such). Hannah complained to me that it was boring (no swings) but Eliza sure enjoyed the small slide there. I tried to make it interesting for Hannah by playing games with her, which included going down the slide (not a comfortable experience. Oh, I miss the old metal slides). Finally, we went home for lunch and naps.

Naptime was another adventure. Eliza hasn't had much interest in naps lately. She'll go down fine, but then it becomes a whole new level of playtime for her. From 1-4 pm, she sang to herself and played with what she had available to her in the play pen. Poor Hannah tried to sleep but gave up after about an hour. Shortly after getting up, Hannah and I went outside so I could 'till' the garden with Hannah. That didn't last long for Hannah; she ended up playing: first by herself, then with her neighbor friends. Unfortunately, her playtime was short lived because she disobeyed me and rode her tricycle down the block. In our neighborhood, we're very careful about letting our kids out of the yard because it is Salt Lake's ghetto. I was pretty upset because she had been disobedient several times throughout the day (she does have quite a strong will). Overall, it was a good day. I got to spend some time with my girls and got some good things done.

Back to the yard sell. We actually had a little more success with the home advertising than selling out stuff. Mic had one person express interest and said he would drop by on Monday. In addition, I showed a couple around last night who said they had learned about our house through the yard sale. They seemed genuinely interested; which is more than we've ever gotten before. But I'm also realistic, knowing that nothing's a done deal until the closing papers are signed.

Moving on Up...

To all my fans (Jamie and Jen), here is my latest edition:

Since taking that trip...

I transferred into the Inactive Ready Reserve (IRR) of the navy. That means I no longer have to do the weekend drills or the two weeks a year. It simply means that my name is on a list that if they ever really needed me for a deployment, they could call me up. Because I have an eight year commitment, I'll be in the IRR until August 2010 after which I will have no more obligations with the navy :-)

I thought my life would be a little less busy after I went IRR... I was wrong. I was called to be YM President and my life hasn't known very much rest. Although, I enjoy this job much more than being in the navy.

I also took Hannah with me camping down at the San Rafael Swell. My dad and brother, Ryan came along. It was really nice.

On to more recent news: We're getting ready to put our house on the market next month. We have a few things that need to be fixed, but they shouldn't be too major. We're looking all over the place (SLC, south SL valley, and north Utah County), although we have one house we're particularly interested in not too far from where we're at. It's a home built in 1895 by George Q Cannon's son. This individual (can't remember his name) was the first architect in SLC. The home is gorgeous. Most of the first floor has been remodeled; most of it's historic architecture has been preserved. It sits on almost an acre lot and fronts the Jordan River. I'm sure at the time, it was probably considered a mansion. We would love to have it, but are trying to balance our girls needs with our wants. We just hope we can sell our current home in this economy.