The Smith Family Blog

not really everyone knows that I am hanging out at Mikaela's for one more night. This time tomorrow I will be in our new home and the girls will be quietly sleeping in their OWN rooms. Now if you believe that I have lots of water front property for sell and maybe a couple of bridges. Kezri managed to spend the last couple of days with her best friend. So she is getting a real good good bye party going. They went to build a bear and tonight they are doing girly stuff. We pick her up early tomorrow morning and then head out. Kalaree also sneaked in an adventure too. She convinced David and I to allow her and her best friend to stay alone last night in the empty apartment. (Her friends mom was right across the street.) Tonight she is staying at her friends house and I am picking her up also in the morning. Everything went well on the walk through and they are returning most of our deposit, all but the non refundable pet part. WOO HOO!!! I guess living 7 years in one apartm

Well the time has come for me to tear down the computer. It is really killing me to have to do this but we all know what will happen if I don't. I don't know how long it will be till I am back on again. We are suppose to have internet back up and running again on the 2nd, however, I am not sure how long it will take before I have the computer back up and going. I probably won't be in a hurry to get it up that first day. I have Breaking Dawn to read. So to everyone. I will be back. Loves to all.

I am so dieing right now waiting for the fourth book. I want it so bad. I spent most of today going through every last inch of the Stephen Meyer website. It was great I read all the outtakes from the previous books and the how they came to be. It was wonderful getting the author perspective of the books. It was fueled the theories I have to book four. Now I have no clue like the rest of you but I am positive that a few things will happen in book four. The first will be that Bella will marry Edward and she will doing it willingly not just as she is now. Second, something will happen to make Rosalie to come around and like Bella. Third, Edward will willing change Bella but also something will happen and she won't lose her family too, somehow they will be allowed to know what is going on. I also believe that Bella won't get married unless Jacob is there so there will have to be a Jacob rescue party. Some how the Volturri will be involved (it really is the last of Bella's enem

paying tithing or the public apology to the universe that has made all things come out right. I was going to list our washer and dryer for $500 and then pray for $400. But then Kalaree broke it as you read in the previous post. So I decided to list it for $300 and just be honest with all buyers. Well I got 5 calls on it. 3 people came out to look at it and one was afraid that they wouldn't get here before it was sold so she offered $375 sight unseen. So really I got just $25 less than what I needed. That and the price of gas is coming down. So I don't know if I should be preaching to pay your tithing (which you should do anyways) or that if by some chance things aren't going right just publicly apologize to the universe. (You all know that I believe it is the tithing, right?) Oh I guess I should also update on the no spending thing. Well we didn't quite make it a week as I am sure you all guessed based on the lack of updates. On Day 5 we did our shopping as a date night

I am totally wondering what cosmic universe I made mad. I really wish I could just apologize and make all this stuff stop happening. Now I know that I haven't shared the latest woos yet so here they come: On Monday Kalaree put a bath mat in the washer to wash it and it threw the washer off balance and since no one was here to stop it in time it jumped the suspension for lack of better terminology. Well I had planned to post the washer and dryer on Craigslist the next day but no can't do that without fixing it right? So we open it up see that is what happened and we fixed it ourselves. WOO HOO to me right? NOPE!!! When the drum jumped the suspension a bolt put a hole right threw one of the hoses. Not to bad of a fix right? Really how hard is it to fix/replace the hose? Um yea the part is $50 and it won't be in for 7-10 business days. To late to get the part and fix it so I can sell it. So we are selling it as is and letting the new owner deal with it but you know how that go

Okay I caved, but not before David and I rewrote the rules. We ran out of cat and dog food so I had to run and get that. But you would be impressed. I went into Petco and only bought dog and cat food. No treats, no toys, no new feed dishes and no outfits. All I bought was the food. I did look around even. That really is huge for me. I was even impressed. Plus since I was right next to JoAnns I went in there too, to look around, and again did not buy a thing. So really I was tempted and able to walk away. I am rather excited about that. I can't image how much we have saved this week by just buying nothing. We have even decided to make Saturday our shopping day and then try this again next week. Hey we might be able to pull this off as long as on Saturday we don't spend a weeks worth of shopping in one day.

Mikaela tagged me for this one...so here goes! Two names you go by: 1. Hol 2. Mom Two things you are wearing right now: 1. Coral shirt 2. Capri (the official uniform of the mormon mommy) Two of your favorite things to do: 1. Craft including crochet 2. Eat (right there with you Mikaela) Two things you want very badly at the moment: 1. DIET PEPSI (my faithful readers already know this) 2. The fourth book of Twilight to come out Two pets that you have or have had: Currently: 1. Casey the cat (yes Mikaela she does really exist) 2. Tori the cat 3. Melvin the dog 4. Maggie the rat 5. Speedy the snail Two things you did last night: 1. Went to the hot tub 2. Baked cookies Two things you did today: 1. Baked bread 2. Entertained the neighborhood kids at my house Two things you ate today: 1. Leftover sheppards pie 2. Homemade molasses and oat bread Two people you last talked to: 1. Mikaela (when am I not talking to her?) 2. David Two things you're doing tomorrow: 1. Taking Kezri to her friend

Usually I report on the next day but since I am on the computer tonight I fiugred I would update now. Again it wasn't as bad as I thought but there was definitely temptations. First, I am missing my pop terribly, I just want something fizzy to drink. Cranberry juice is just not cutting it. Second, peer pressure is horrible. Mikaela tried to tempt me out to Costco for ice cream. She even offered to pay knowing I was doing this but you know how it is you get in the store you don't leave without buying something. However the plus side to all this is that I found the cream of mushroom soup that I couldn't find on Monday and therefore I saved us not only the money from all the extras I would of bought that we didn't need but also the money for the cream of mushroom soup that we already had. Bonus points to me on that. Tomorrow will be teh real challenge as I have to actually leave the house. It is so easy to not spend when you can stay at home. Wish me luck.

I emailed out our new phone number and addresses yesterday. If you did not get it let me know and I will send it to you again. Now for the challenge. We ran out of pop yesterday. I know, so what? Well I love my diet coke/pepsi and since I can't spend money I am stuck not buying any new ones till I can spend money again. So I have been enjoying lemonade and kool aid. Not desperate enough for water yet. For me yesterday wasn't as tempting. I didn't ave any real need to go and get something. Now to figure out what to make for dinner tonight, and I am making bread to cover all the bread we are making. Packed a ton of stuff yesterday, we (the girls and I) did their stuffed animals, their baby dolls, the linen closet and my clothes. So we are getting there. Hopefully not much longer. Loves to all.

It went okay. It is definitely harder than I thought. I had plenty of food but when I went to put the chicken in the crock pot I realized that I didn't have cream of mushroom soup. On any other day I would of jumped into the car and went to the store and bought it with about $40 worth of more food. But instead I grabbed a jar of BBQ sauce and changed the menu. WOO HOO to me for sticking with it. Then Kezri was doing the dishes and she was out of hand washing soap. I looked at her and told her to grab a couple dollars from my purse and see if Kalaree wanted to walk her to Safeway, ARGH!!!! No she can't do that. So instead she ran next door to see if they had any we could borrow. Not to self: Add dish soap to shopping list. It also looks like I will be baking bread, apparently sandwiches are the way to go this week and the girls are eating them like crazy. Since bread is not on the list homemade bread here I come. So basically day one successful, only had to borrow dish soap and

I read this somewhere a while ago and thought there was no way that I could ever do it. Well things seemed to fall right together this last Saturday and so I decided to give it a try. This other lady had decided that she was going to go a whole week without spending a single dime. You heard me right, not spending any money for a whole week. Well, I did grocery shopping on Saturday and our cars got filled up with gas so why not give it a try this week. David and I have decided and we then recruited the girls and so we are on a no spending week starting today. We did however add a small stipulation and that is that we can buy eggs and milk if it is needed this week (we always go through more than my fridge could hold in one week). So in a way we are not doing a true spendless week. But let me tell you it is going to kill me to get through this week. Already I am tempted to cheat. We finished painting Kezri's dresser and it is ready for the pulls, which I have not bought yet and I so

.. with all the moving details, but that is what is going on with us right now. We are busy packing and cleaning as we go. I feel like my house will never look clean again. Kalaree is busy working on the dresser and the bed. She is about half way done with the sanding. We have most of the clothes (exception is the few outfits we kept out to wear this next month) packed away, we have most of the shoes. We boxed up the toys and the books and movies. I have our new phone number and new cell phone numbers too. They become in effect on the 1st. I will send out an email to everyone. They changed my placement for next year, Battle Ground called to let me know. I am still at an elementary but I am not at the one the girls will be at. She said she would relook at it and see if it is possible but she isn't sure. Oh well we are at least in the same district. Pretty much just getting things done and that is all that is going on here.

Since the new house has a room for each of the girls we ran into a slight problem. Basically how do you make two beds into three and one dresser into three. So I jumped on Craigslist this morning and found two twin size mattresses for $10 each and then another person had 2 box springs for $5 for both. I also found two dressers, nice ones at that for $20 and $40. So I furnished two rooms for $85. We already have a twin bed frame. So I figured I will keep my eyes open for another twin bed frame and keep the bunk beds together so that we have a spare bed for visitors. YES, I expect everyone to come stay with us at least once, we are the cool people. Kalaree is going to refinish (paint) one of the dressers and the bed frame that we have now for her beehive project. How cool is that. Not only does she now have a dresser but she also now has her beehive project to do. WOO HOO!!!!! I am really quite proud of myself to get all this stuff for such a great price and now I don't have to worry

A very quick trip. The human body is not meant to sit still for 12 out 36 hours. My knees hurt as well as my back and my elbow. The trip was pretty uneventful. We got in about 10:46 checked into the hotel, David changed his clothes into his suit and we headed out to get lunch. David dropped the girls and I off at IKEA and then he headed out to his interview. The girls loved the kids room and Kezri has been begging for a "pod" chair. David got back from his interview and said it went great. The General Manager said he is definitely qualified and that they would let him know first part of next week. We headed back to the hotel so David could change and then we met with a property management gal to look at a house. It was very nice but it was on a very steep hill and was not fenced. It was older, Kami and Kezri got freaked out by the bugs and the snakes (yes snakes) that were all over the place. A huge yard that needed a lot of work to get it into shape and some other stuff that

Yep, again. David actually has an interview in Portland tomorrow. Then we plan to spend the 4th and the 5th looking at homes and hopefully by time we leave on Saturday we will know where we are going to live. I know everyone is at the camp trip and I hope you all have a great time. We are sad that we won't be able to make it this year but let's hope for next.