Country Mouse Married City Mouse

Once upon a time there was a small country mouse who married a city mouse. The city mouse had a great job in the city so that is where they moved. Sometimes the country mouse missed the country but she learned to like it because that is where her husband had a good job.

Putting up lights for our reception.

I once heard Matt's grandma say she told herself when she got married she would never complain about where they had to live for her husband's job. Then she said with a twinkle, "Luckily, I've never had to live anywhere I didn't like!" I had a feeling they could have lived many places and she would have a good attitude about it anyway.

I have to admit that I might not be as nice as Matt's grandma.

I've read a few too many books that gave me a few too many ideas about the kind of place I want to live. Like the beautiful Prince Edward Island or Concord, Massachusetts with the March family, Stars Hollow, Connecticut from Gilmore Girls, Hannibal, MO with Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer kind of places. Places like where I grew up (sort of)...

Places with:

huge yards

vegetable and flower gardens

seasons with fall foliage, snow at Christmas, fresh springs, and warm (not boiling)summers

a forest to walk in and build forts

a creek to swim in

lots of tall trees

small town charm (1 school, Country Fairs, seeing everyone you know at Wal-Mart)

and character

On my 20th birthday by one of the Pages Springs where I grew up. I found out later this is the day Matt bought my engagement ring.

Cornville had almost all of those things. I'm not saying Cornville was perfect (just the thought makes me laugh). It was not... trailer parks, every house had a junk pile and usually a few cars that didn't run. I longed to have neighbors to play with. I wanted somewhere I could walk to that wasn't the fish hatchery. Now I want some nature I can walk to that isn't the desert! I never wanted to live in the same town I grew up in or even too close to it. That always felt so limiting to me. Maybe because it was a small town. People who grow up in cities might not have that issue. I just wanted to live somewhere like it with a few improvements.

Our outdoor wedding reception in Sedona. I HAD to have an outdoor reception. It was beautiful except for the sprinklers!

Adjusting to life in the city has had it's bumps:

rude drivers... I've come to the conclusion that turning on your blinker to switch lanes is an invitation to cut you off

the towns all blend together into one big metropolitan mess

everything seems like it should be close but still takes forever to get there because of traffic

this particular city is SOOO HOT for about 8 months of the year, lacks the seasons I love, and has almost no charm unless you count ghetto

You live closer but get to know each other less

I have found there are some things I like:

there are plenty of grocery and clothes shopping within 2-20 minutes as opposed to 20-120 minutes

when we go out to eat with have TONS of restaurants to choose from

you can go see a play, museum, etc. although I must admit that Phoenix is lacking in many cultural events and good public transportation

I love walking around my neighborhood and passing 10 houses of people from church that I sometimes get to say hi to on my way

AZ doesn't have much humidity despite the heat. No stale crackers or constantly soggy towels.

Some things have made living in the city easier for me:

I LOVE our house. It has some of that country charm. It's not Southwestern (except our Satillo tile)

I love having a fairly good sized yard by city standards. Before we bought our house I would stop at the floral section at the grocery store just to look at pretty plants and flowers because I missed green so much!

I've learned my way around a few places so I don't freak out about traffic as much

I love that when I want something I can find it. I'm not a huge shopper but it's nice there is somewhere to look besides just Wal-Mart. It can be overwhelming when I feel like I should look everywhere to find the best deal.

I love living close enough to go to big family events. Both of our families are Arizona natives which most people think is unheard of. This was the big factor for why I was willing to stay here over beautiful cities like Austin or Seattle... too bad the only big AZ towns are Phoenix metro area, Tucson, or Flagstaff. I love Flagstaff but there's not too many computer engineering jobs up there.

Our little haven. No neighbors on 2 sides is a big plus for me!

I realize now that most of the places I want to live only exist in fiction or the 1800s. Yes, the climate still exists but not the same charm. I was soo lucky to grow up where I did.

Where most of my swimming was in my own personal backyard creek.

Where the same kids in my kindergarten class were in my senior class.

Where you could barely see the nearest neighbors much less share a wall or fence with them.

I think we all want to give our children the great things from our childhood. But Matt had great memories of his city childhood as well. Playing hide and seek with the neighborhood kids at night until the streetlights came on, going on walks around the golf course, swimming at his grandparent's pool, buying candy from the local store, his penny saver paper route. I guess the moral of this story is that you have to

Grow where you're planted.

So are you a country mouse, a city mouse, or a little of both? What would be your "dream" location?

A Tale of Two Apartments

** Idea for this post was completely stolen/inspired from my blog stock-ee (meaning the person I blog stalk) Janae. I have to include the quote too because I love it...

"The rent here may be low, but I believe we have it on very hard terms."-Marianne Dashwood, Sense & Sensibility (the movie, not the book)

May-August of 2005

Tucson

"It was the best of times..."

Our first little home was a nice apartment in not-so-nice Tucson. Sorry all you Tucson fans but I have to call it like I saw it. We had a dishwasher, and a washer/dryer in the apartment, 2 bedrooms, HUGE walk-in closet, a community pool, racquetball court, and exercise room.

Tucson apt. (all borrowed furniture/TV)

This was living.

We actually got it really cheap thanks to my friend Macey. The couple who lived in the apartment had an internship in Vegas for the summer. So they gave us cheap rent and we let them keep all their stuff in the extra bedroom. Plus we used all their furniture, TV, and nice digital piano. Sweet! Less moving of heavy objects all around. After 3 months of marriage Matt's IBM Tucson internship was up and we needed to find an apartment in the Valley before school started.

Mesa

August 2005-May 2007

"it was the worst of times."
Our Mesa apartment had an awesome L.D.S. (Latter Day Saint- it's the abbreviation for our religion) landlord who let us have the place for $400 because he wanted good tenants.

-2 bedroom

-1 bathroom

-Good sized kitchen with tile and tons of cupboard space

-Carport with storage room and washer/dryer hook-ups
-NO Dishwasher- first and hopefully the last time that happens. Matt and I would take turns NOT doing the dishes for a week and then do all of them when we ran out!
-Smack dab in a rundown old Mesa neighborhood.

Oh how we hated that carpet!

We never parked in the carport because it was a pain to drive around. One day Matt caught some guys smoking pot back there.

Then the day after we got home from Hawaii I unpacked and put all our luggage away in the storage closet. These would be the two sets of nice luggage from Matt's mission and my high school graduation present. They were stolen the next day along with a bunch of my teaching stuff! Someone is out there with tons of nice luggage and some very cute bulletin board borders!

Lesson learned... procrastinate unpacking so all your luggage doesn't get stolen when they break into your storage closet.

I was hurt and now I was downright scared to go back there to move our laundry. I tried to get Matt to write a sign in English and Spanish that said they should be ashamed of themselves for stealing our stuff. He said that was silly.

Why would the sign need to be in Spanish you say? Because 90% of our neighbors were probably illegal immigrants from Mexico. Complete with their Mariachi music blaring all night. One of our neighbors had so many people living in the apartment there was never any parking on the street because of all their cars.

The other 10% of our neighbors were the only other people willing to live there. Poor newlywed Mormons. We called it the Mormon/Mexican neighborhood.

Then there was the other neighbor who told us everything about her sad, crime-ridden life. Not that we needed her to tell us. Because we heard her prayers. She would sit outside and very loudly tell God (using many four letter words) what exactly she wanted to happen to the people who had ruined her life including her children. Nice, real nice. I now know the true meaning of blasphemy.

Matt starting our first little, I mean really little, garden.

Despite all this I realize our apartment was a blessing. We had a lot of good memories there as a newlywed couple. Graduating college and starting our first real jobs.

We were also able to save money more quickly for a house. We were so excited to buy our first house 1.5 years after Matt finished college and 1 year after I finished at the ages of 25 and 22 respectively. Too bad we couldn't hold out a little longer until after the house market plunged; but that's another story. We miss the young couples that lived on the street and the cheap rent but that's about all we miss. I now know why location is the biggest rule of real estate.

Anyone have any good stories about the worst (or best) places you've lived?

Sittin' Pretty

Charlotte is sitting up on her own so well. Here's one of her Easter dresses. I love polk-a-dots!

I love overhead shots... but they are tricky to get when she won't look. She had some fun with this rose. I had to save a few petals from becoming dinner!

Grosgrain Giveaway

I've been reading this blog ever since I saw the link for this famous Marie Therese dress. Seriously click on the link and see how amazing this seamstress is! She usually doesn't even use a pattern! I love looking to see what new pretty thing she's made and I love the photography as well.

I'm entering to win these really cute bows. Let's face it; my almost bald daughter really needs bows! If I don't win (and odds are against be because SOOO many people check her site 558 followers) I might try to make them. So far my bow creations aren't the best. Once in awhile I might post another link so I can be entered in a giveaway. Born 2 Impress GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

Cloth Diapers... the verdict is in

sort of.

If you're curious about trying cloth I highly recommend doing a trial for yourself! I learned so much and it really helped me decide what I liked and didn't like about each type. Cloth diapers have come a long way since we were babies!

Pros of Cloth Diapers:
-The laundry was suprisingly easy! A few things that made it easier... using a dry diaper pail. Washing more often... they only recommend 12-18 diapers per load so I wouldn't buy too many more than that. It's easier for me to do 1 load every 2-3 days rather than wait a week and do 2 loads that may stain and smell bad. And you don't have to buy as many this way.

For the entire 21 days I never used any kind of stain remover, rinsed out very few diapers and they came completely clean- absolutely no stains! If they are on solids I recommend a liner (it looks like larger more durable toilet paper) that you put on top of the diaper so when they go you just turn it over and flush it. Much less gross. Some people also get a sprayer so that you don't have to dunk.
-I love when I run out I just stick them in the wash and I have a whole new set of clean diapers that I've already paid for without going to the store and forking out another $40 for the jumbo pack each time.
-It feels so good to put soft cotton or fleece diapers on Charlotte instead of rough paper and plastic.
-They seem to fit more nicely

Neither here nor there
-They leak about the same as disposables in my experience. Maybe a little less.
-The kind I like are just as easy to put on and take off as disposables

Cons
- For me personally I wouldn't use the traditional fold diapers with pants over them. They are harder to get on and don't wick away the moisture. If you want to save the most money they are definitely the way to go since they only cost about $2 each. Many cloth diaper people use these during the day then buy a few nice ones to use at night that work better.
-They are a bit bulkier. The pre-fold kind with the separate pants make Charlotte look like a bubble bum they are so bulky. The all-in-ones are just slightly bigger than the disposables. That being said they weren't so bulky she couldn't wear the same size clothes it was just more of a stretch.
-You do end up changing them a little more often. For Charlotte it was about every 3 hours during the day and then she could go all night in a bum genius with 2 inserts. Not all that much more often especially with the nice ones.

Conclusion
-If all diapers were just wet diapers I would switch hands down. Cheaper, nicer, super easy to wash.
-Since they are not all wet diapers I am still slightly hesitant to make the switch. Charlotte is still mostly nursing so soiled diapers really weren't that bad at all... but I've heard it gets a lot worse once she is strictly on table food.
-I wouldn't use them on trips. If it's just a couple of hours around town no problem. But all day or on a vacation I would still use disposables so I don't have to worry about rinsing or carrying them around. It would be more like 80-90% of the time using cloth.
-I would not expect anyone other than Matt and me to change cloth diapers. So all you prospective babysitters out there don't worry! I'm not asking you to rinse poopy diapers!
-Here's the kicker. When it came time to send them back I was sad to return them.

So here's what Matt and I decided.
We're going to buy 6 of the bum genius or happy heiny one-size diapers to start. So as Charlotte grows the diaper expands by using the next higher snaps. They are pretty pricey (about $16 each). They are very nice quality so they hold up well (usually for more than 1 kid) according to reviews. I really liked this kind because they were so easy to put on, they wicked away the moisture almost as well as a disposable so she could wear it all night, and you don't have to buy different sizes. Once Charlotte is almost totally on solids I can see how it's going and buy more cloth and switch completely (except trips) or just use them occassionally if it's too gross. So there you are. Probably more than you ever wanted to know about cloth diapers. Now all the curious people out there know what I decided.

TAKE THE SURVEY ON THE RIGHT SIDEBAR AND TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK>>>>>>

...Hopping down the bunny trail

We had a marvelous Easter weekend! On Saturday we had an Easter egg hunt with all the Diehl relatives in the state. Charlotte couldn't really hunt eggs and eat candy alone so I kindly assisted her with both of those activities. It was fun to see the cousins play together. Charlotte was so thoroughly amused by them. I have never heard her laugh that hard. Jesse and Mindy- I'll take Cai any day to keep Charlotte entertained! On the way back we got to stop and see Matt's parents as well. I love going home and getting to visit our families! That's what makes holidays so much fun!

Cai was so sweet with Charlotte and she loved him!

Click to zoom in to see Kori and Jesse's faces! Who looks the most excited?

Sweet Maya. She's at such a cute age where her walking is still a little wobbly! Her dad calls it the drunken sailor walk! She's almost exactly a year older than Charlotte so this is what Charlotte will be like next year! Hard for me to believe she'll ever be mobile.

I took this pictures for Alyn and Marti. Dad posing with his latest project. He's so proud of his water wheel. He's been talking about making one for years. Our adopted Grandma and Grandpa Beebe had the best water wheel. (That's the irrigation ditch that runs through my parent's property not the creek.)

Here comes Charlotte Cottontail...

Yummy my bottom lip!

Love this face!

Happy Easter!
Easter is one of my favorite holidays because...
It's springtime
Perfect weather
Everything is blooming
Pretty Spring pastel colors
Easter M&M's are so cute and yummy
Easter egg decorating and hunting
and most importantly
I love that Easter gives us a chance to focus on what Christ did for us.

Photo 1

I couldn't decide which one I liked better?

Photo 2

Photo Edits

Matt's cousin Lorraine was nice enough to edit Charlotte's picture for me (the top 2 she did). This inspired me to try one more edit myself (the last one). What do you think?

Photo 3

Photo 4

Photo 5

As Lorraine says good photograghers are really just good photo editors! Now that I've overwhelmed you with too many photo edits!

Cloth Diapers... the good, the bad and the poopy*

We're all on the mend now and we've escaped from the house a few times so I'm starting to feel normal again! Sorry for the complaining post before!
Week 1 of the Cloth Diaper Experiment
**If you could care less about cloth vs. disposable diapers (pretty much everybody) feel free to skip this post. I've tried to keep it as "clean" as possible considering the topic.
Every February was science project time at our K-8 grade school growing up... It was mom's least favorite time of year. Imagine having 3 or 4 kids needing a science project at the same time every year! I usually placed pretty well taking 2nd and 3rd place in the school different years . Not as good as some of my siblings...Jesse won 1st place almost every year starting in 3rd grade. With a fish biologist (or farmer as he calls himself) dad and a school teacher mom (plus there are 6 of us) we had a monopoly on the science fair. I guess part of me still likes to do science experiments. Mine is just a little late this year...

Question:
After a 21 day trial period will I decide that I want to switch to cloth diapers?
Hypothesis:
I really have no idea how this will end up. (I know. Bad hypothesis)
Background on my Research:
-Hardly anyone is lukewarm on the cloth diaper topic.
-Until two weeks ago I had never changed a cloth diaper.
-I didn't even think about using cloth before I had Charlotte. I mean disposables are the greatest invention of the last century right? Better than the printing press or microwaves or TV.
-Since becoming a mom I've noticed there are a lot of moms who use cloth diapers. So maybe this is a grown-up case of "I want one too!"

It might just be the breastfeeding mom's group I go to. (In the U.S. 90% of people use disposables. I'm just surprised it's not more!) Many of the moms at this group fall very squarely into the attachment parenting-all natur-al birthing-carry baby in a sling until 35 pounds-nurse until at least age 2 category. I love going to the group and I agree with a lot of things they talk about but I realize that you have to parent the way that works for you. So I listen to the topics each week and use what I think will work for me and nod politely during the rest.

One week the topic was cloth diapering. A lady who sells them came and showed all the kinds, how to use them, the money they save you, and how you can single-handidly save the planet by using them. I was intrigued but not sold. I've been ruminating on it but I wasn't willing to make the investment (code for forking out a big chunk of money) unless I knew I liked it and could handle it.

Materials (aka how I got myself into this):
-My friend Jennifer told me http://www.jilliansdrawers.com/ lets you try 7 different kinds of NEW cloth diapers for 21 days. This way I could see which kind I like, or if I like them at all, for $10 plus shipping. What have I got to lose? I like a challenge, and trying new things. Now I can see what all the fuss is about and if I want to join in on the fuss. I'm curious enough to see how it works and you can't knock it until you try it. So here it goes 21 days to experiment with cloth diapers.

Pre-experiment Opinions
That's Good
No, That's Bad
(stolen from the title of a childhood book of my sister's)

Cost
If Charlotte potty-trains at roughly 2.5 I could save $500-$1000 using cloth. Even if I get the fancy-smancy pants cloth diapers.The diaper website estimates you will spend $2,457 on disposables for one kid. But I usually buy generic. In bulk. With a coupon. So I wanted to see if I will actually save money. I figure when Charlotte is done with diapers I will have used in the neighborhood of 5,000 diapers spending about $1,500 including wipes. Whoa! This diaper website estimates 7,500 diapers. Maybe I don't change her enough or thinking potty training is around 2.5 is delusional?
That's Good
-No amount of money might make getting that close and personal with bowel movements worth it. Matt is more than willing to pay any amount of money to keep Charlotte's messes manageable.
That's Bad
-They look so much easier to use than you think. The fancy ones literally Velcro or snap on even easier than a disposable. They now have inserts that you can flush and sprayers that attach to your toilet and when they're just nursing you don't have to do either. The fancy fleece keeps the moisture away from their skin so they don't get diaper rash like they used to.
That's Good
-The pre-fold type look a whole lot like the nightmare your mother talks about. No safety pins, cuter covers, but basically the same thing. They do still feel the wetness sooner which does mean more diaper changes but I've also heard earlier potty training...
That's Bad

They are so soft and cute and have names like
Fuzzi Bunz
Happy Heiny
Bum Genius.

Cute little diaper model

Now don't you want your little fuzzy buns to be a bum genius and have a happy heiny? Someone needs to give their marketing department a big pat on the back for the cute names. I know not a very big reason but still. They come in colors like blossom and have flower covers, are made of everything from fleece to organic cotton.
That's Good
Will the cuteness make cleaning them any less disgusting?
That's Bad

I love the idea of never buying diapers again and laundry is not a chore I mind too much.
That's Good
Laundry might become a big chore if I have to wash diapers all the time.
That's Bad

Some sources say cloth diapers are more environmentally friendly even taking into account electricity and water (estimated at $608 for the length a kid is in diapers). Apparently you're technically supposed to flush diaper contents in the toilet. It's technically not legal to put human waste in a garbage can to pollute our water and food sources and fill up our landfills with billions of disposable diapers every year that take forever to disintegrate. I have to say that I personally have never emptied a disposable diaper before throwing it away.

Other sources disagree...If you read disposable diaper information it says that water contamination really happens most often in 3rd world countries where the landfills aren't set up as well as ours. It's all about who's writing it so who knows?

That's Good

Matt says he could care less about the environmental factor. Let's just say Matt doesn't "GO GREEN". We pay our taxes we deserve our landfill space right? Everyone else is throwing away dirty diapers why not us? I'll admit that while I cringe when I think of piles of stinking diapers in landfills this is not the biggest factor for me.

That's Bad

I could use them on more than one kid saving even more money, they come in 1 size expandable that last from 8-35 pounds so you really can just buy once and use until they potty train. That's Good

So join me on this journey as I see if the GOOD or the BAD conquer.

*I credit my sister's sister-in-law Randi's blog for the phrase