There are no bears in Big Bear

The girls were terrified when I told them we were going somewhere called Big Bear for three days. Being the loving mother that I am, I didn't bother clarifying. Call it, a little pay back for them being complete butts this week. Yes, we moved. Yes, it's "the age." I get it. But SERIOUSLY!!!!! If I have to break up one more fight or hear Taylor cry over a splinter one more time, I may go mad. We have spent an awful lot of time together lately, and it's starting to show.

But Big Bear was wonderful. My friend, Tanya, was celebrating her 40th birthday and we were lucky enough to tag along. We stayed in a lovely house, right on the lake, with two other families. Seven kids under the age of 5 in one house (gasp). The kids loved it though. There was the occassional melt down, but all in all they had a great time. We rode in the kayak a bunch (LOVED it!), went on a wave runner, "fished," and just hung out. I had never been to Big Bear and I fell in love with it. It's just beautiful!

Wes opted to stay home and finish up the move. I came home to a spotless house, full refrigerator, and organized garage. I love this man.

Corinne, LOVED fishing. She sat there for a good 15 minutes, which is about 10 minutes longer than I expected.

Setting off on the kayak

Tanya and Alex

The birthday girl

Tay, Nick and me on the wave runner

Our view at sunset from the house

Taylor went out on the wave runner twice and wanted to go "FASTER!!!"

Moving On

The move is over! We've unpacked the major stuff and have almost finished decorating. The girls are in their bunk beds right now and I pray nobody falls off (or gets out) in the middle of the night. Like I said in my last post, I hate change. I've been shovelling spoons of Nutella into my mouth all day to calm my nerves. I've been grumpy the whole week just because of the huge upheaval that is moving. It feels good to purge the baby stuff and things we've accumulated that we no longer need, but it's also unnerving to be in a new place that we're not used to yet. I absolutely love our new house though. It's perfect for us! Totally new kitchen, beautiful backyard....We're so lucky! We said goodbye to all of our neighbors from the old neighborhood, but thankfully we're just one street over now so we'll see them often. They are the most wonderful people and have been so sweet to us, and especially to the girls.

On a different note, tonight I put Corinne down in her bed for the first time ever without rocking her in our rocking chair. I read books with the kids, said prayers, and that was that. For the last two and a half years Corinne couldn't fall asleep without playing with my ears or hearing me sing the lullaby from Mary Poppins, or listening to me tell her "Goodnight Moon." But now she doesn't need me. *sniffle* I know it's time though to let her be a big girl. It's just a little sad.

We have just about a month before I'm back at work and Ms. Tay is in kindergarten. We had a great time at Magic Mountain last week. Both of my girls went crazy for the roller coasters. I fully expected Corinne to break into tears, but the only crying occurred when the ride was over and she wanted to go again. They had a blast! It was the best time we've had so far this summer.

Lucky #12?

I despise moving. Change gives me anxiety. I've lived in 11 houses in 31 years, and we're moving into my 12th next week. The lady we've been renting from is... how should I say this? CRAZY! In a year and half she's done nothing to fix up the house. She decided to do "low maintenance landscaping" in the front yard, which ended up being a crap-load of rocks and cactus. That's right. Cactus. Did I mention I have two kids?

But the kicker was when I had a visitor early one Sunday morning when I was home alone. Zero, my dim-witted but always faithful dog, came to me upstairs barking and practically tugging on me to follow him to the backyard. So I followed him, in my underwear, only to find a man walking around in my backyard staring back at me through the sliding glass door. Zero forget to mention that I should throw on a robe before running downstairs.

Long story short, he was one of the 30 contractors who is giving our landlord an estimate on something or other. Only he has no uniform, no card, and no brain since he didn't bother to ring the door bell. Sort of wish Zero would have taken a bite out of him.

So we're moving...again. But luckily it's around the corner and even nicer (but smaller) than what we're in now. O well. Life goes on. I'm learning to roll with the punches and hopefully my kids will too. We're not above bribery. We just bought them a bunk bed to cushion the blow. I see urgent care in my future.

Side note- The article I published for KSL this week had 20,000 hits. The couple I wrote about was elated and actually asked me to help them write a book. (I declined because I'm not as smart as they think. lol But I pointed them in the write direction to someone who could.)

My Fourth of July cuties

Kid's Space Lemonade stand at our garage sale.

ksl.com - From the Panthers to the priesthood

ksl.com - From the Panthers to the priesthood

I promise, I'll actually blog something this week. But in the meantime, here's another article I wrote for the religion section of KSL.com. Thanks for reading!