The final countdown

May 23, 2016 by

May has been a blur. Between house showings, endless cleaning, rain, rain and more rain, we’re so ready to be done with selling this house and school. I’ll get into the drama of selling our house later but here are a few of our happenings:

Mother’s Day

I had a memorable Mother’s Day with breakfast in bed, our traditional pie at church, Jamie’s delicious pulled pork burger and a walk at Prospect Park where children were forbidden to complain. And by “children,” I mean Hadley who, without fail, is always resistant to our walks but then is the one who loves it the very most. This time around, she went crazy documenting everything with my iPhone and vowed to paint the gorgeous scenery.

Final Piano Recital

The kids’ final piano recital with their longtime teacher Sister Mauger was bittersweet. For me, that is. For Jamie, it is a torturous experience to sit listening to other people’s kids for 1.5 hours.

They both did a great job, most impressively during their first duet ever. I didn’t record their actual performance (they did awesome) but here is a sampling of them practicing the week prior, complete with my finger and a fat cat. Can’t beat that!

Summer Olympic Games

I was on the committee to throw an awesome Summer Olympic-themed party…in overcast 50-degree weather. We still had a blast playing volleyball, tug-of-war, discus, rhythmic gymnastics, 50-meter dash, the limbo, croquet, bocce ball and the list goes on. It was a success–thanks to all the tremendous people in our ward!

School Talent Show

A few weeks ago, Bode announced he was trying out for the school talent show, something that surprised yet delighted me. He played his piano recital song, In the Hall of the Mountain King by Edvard Grieg and nailed it. I wish I could say the same about the rest of the kids, many of whom proved it to be an “Untalent Show” (yes, comedy acts, I’m talking about you) but it was a fun night of silliness. Really, my only stressful moment was when the kids went on stage for a final bow. Bode started behind everyone, and then moved his way to the front. And then to center stage. I held my breath because, for one dreadful moment, I feared he was going to do a few break dancing moves. And let us be clear: his moves are not ready to go public.  

I’ve never been so relieved to see a kid jump off the stage.

Bode’s friend Nicky and his family came to support him. We grabbed  Hadley’s friend Alex and went to Bliss frozen yogurt after to celebrate and play games. 

I entitle this picture: Hyped up on sugar and fame.

Field Day

I looooooove Field Day, primarily because it used to be one of my favorite days of the year as a kid. Though neither of mine are athletic superstars, it is so fun to see them compete and triumph in their own circles.

The good: All the fun events, the kids’ awesome long jump performances and lunching after at Beau Jo’s with Hadley’s friends.

Winning his heat

The bad:

Evil sixth graders. In an effort to relive the glory days, I participated in the Kids vs. Parents tug-of-war. I was one step away from victory when those little buggers let go of the rope, sending the grown-ups spiraling backward. I slammed my head–hard–on the ground and ended up with a lovely head injury.

The Evil Ones

And yes, getting hurt at your child’s field day is as pathetic as it sounds.

Farewell, Glory Years.

 

Filed Under: Bode, Hadley

A family that cooks together (don’t fill in the blank)

May 19, 2016 by

I do the majority of the cooking in our family while Jamie is the grill master and the kids are expert eaters. I periodically involve them in the creation process but during busy weeknights, it’s usually just easier to do it myself. But now that they’re 9 and 11, I’ve had the nagging feeling I need to give them a more advanced skill set than grilled cheese sandwiches.

Enter: Uncorked Kitchen, where a cooking class meets dinner party meets family bonding.

Denver has a smattering of cooking schools and classes for adults and kids but very rarely do they involve the whole family. Uncorked Kitchen aims to please with their new Family Day Out, a unique hands-on dining experience where parents and kids get to be a part of the creation process of their meal from prep to plate. And believe me, the plate part is very, very delicious.

 The kids: learned to make Shrimp Spring Rolls with Peanut Dipping Sauce, Phad Thai, Bacon and Sweet Potato Banh Mi and Coconut Ice Cream with Pineapple ‘Boats.’

Me: Set my paper towel on fire.

It’s probably best to leave it to the professionals.

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Recipe for the Best Ever Coconut Ice Cream with Mango

 INGREDIENTS
  1. 2 cups milk
  2. 2 cups heavy cream
  3. 2 cups coconut milk (don’t use lite)
  4. 1 cup shredded coconut toasted
  5. 8 egg yolks
  6. 1 ½ cups sugar
  7. Pinch salt
  8. 1 mango sliced
INSTRUCTIONS
  1. Bring milk, heavy cream, coconut milk, and coconut flakes to simmer in heavy saucepan, allow the mixture to steep for 10 minutes.
  2. While the milk mixture is steeping whisk the egg yolks, sugar, and salt together in large bowl, until thickened and pale yellow.
  3. Temper hot liquid into egg mixture, by slowly adding the hot milk mixture into the egg mixture whisking constantly until all of the milk mixture has been added to the egg mixture. Return all back into saucepan over low heat, stirring all the while, until mixture starts to thicken, and coats the back of a spoon. Strain through a fine mesh strainer into bowl and chill immediately over ice bath.
  4. Process the chilled mixture in a standard ice cream machine, following the manufacture’s directions.

 

Filed Under: Foodie

The Not-so Fun Run

May 17, 2016 by

(Bode at the Fun Run)

We’re on the homestretch for school, which wraps next week. Which means we’ve been cramming in parties, recitals and so many events.

The kids participated in our school’s fun run where they run as many laps as they can, raising money. The sixth graders were paired with the kindergartners. Hadley saw our cute neighbor boy Dylan and decided to help him out.

“He started out really really fast…and then he kept going. In the end, he beat me by two laps.”

“Wait. Are you telling me, you got BEATEN BY A KINDERGARTNER?”

“He says he’s the fastest kid in the class.”

You know you’re out of shape when…

Filed Under: Hadley, Humor

Van Bibber’s Magic

May 13, 2016 by

One of the fantastic things I’ve loved about living in Skyline Estates is the network of trails that run from our backyard down to Stenger Soccer Complex along Van Bibber Creek all the way to Van Bibber Open Space. I’ve spent hundreds of hours walking, running, biking and roller-blading the 1.5-mile trail and dirt paths through this  wetlands habitat for waterfowl, amphibians and insects.

And young boys on a Friday night.

A few weeks ago, Bode’s besties Nicky and his brother Vinnie were hanging out at our house. Our plan was to bike to the 7-Eleven a few miles away but along the way, Bode suggested we stop in one of our favorite haunts in Van Bibber. The boys were game.

Now, something you should know about these boys: their parents run three of our town’s most successful pizza joints but they’re not really outdoorsy. Bode’s friendship with them involves hanging out around the neighborhood, playing video games, having killer lemonade stands and biking.

“This is the farthest I’ve ever been on my bike,” Vinnie observed when we were about a mile from his house. That kid was in for an adventure. When we arrived at our secret spot, we hopped off our bikes and Bode and Vinnie immediately jumped into the creek and it was so rewarding to see Vinnie come alive like I’ve never seen him before. “This is so much better than 7-Eleven! Let’s stay here!” And stay there we did.

It was the best boy’s night ever as we  climbed trees, jumped streams, played with sticks, found a decomposing animal and explored to our heart’s content.  And not to be forgotten: Snips and snails and puppy-dogs’ tails.

It’s what little boys are made of.

Filed Under: Bode, Colorado

Bike to School Day, Denver Style!

May 10, 2016 by

I grew up biking to my elementary school and junior high and it’s full of the wonderful memories you’d expect. Friends meeting at my house. Riding together. Using the crossing guard across Acadia Drive. Freedom, independence.

I wish my kids were raised the same way but they’re not. Our house is far enough away that it’s just not convenient to bike to school and there’s a pretty major road to cross without adequate sidewalks on the other side.

Plus, we have a nice bus that picks them up.

Plus, the only other time we biked to school when the kids were much younger, it was a bit of a disaster when Hadley forgot her backpack, we needed to go back home, start over and the whole three-mile ride took us about a half hour. And I won’t mention the ride home up up up the big hill leading to our house.

When the kids excitedly told me about Bike to School day, I was game and told them I’d make a big breakfast. But as the consummate party planner, it can never end there. “What if I invited our neighbors the Kings, Scultzs and Rays over and we then biked together?” And so Bike to School Day turned into a big ‘ol neighborhood pancake breakfast.

Because apparently I’ll take any excuse to throw a party. And a special shout-out to Angella for cooking up the equivalent of a hog.

As as biked, we collected friends along the way. The kids raced at top speeds and I found myself trying to keep up while keeping an eye on my friends’ boys who were going a bit slower.

And who couuld blame them. We had to course-correct the kids twice and the second time, they took the wrong bridge so we slugged through the grass at Stenger Soccer Complex.

We arrived early at school, high-fiving Principal Martin. As we locked everything up, it was so much fun to see all the kids arriving on bikes. That is one of the things I love about Vanderhoof Elementary School and our community. When you plan an event, people show up in droves. 

The weather was so gorgeous, I couldn’t resist going on a two-hour ride of my own along the Ralston Creek Trail to Tucker Lake.

My love runs deep for this place we’ve been blessed to call home.

During breakfast, one of my neighbors raved, “This is so much fun! We need to make this a tradition!”

[Insert elephant in the room who is ruining everything by moving.]

Here’s for our best ever first (and last) annual Bike to School Day.

Filed Under: Humor

Let the roller-coaster begin

May 9, 2016 by

Last week was a non-stop roller-coaster and my body literally felt like it was shutting down from exhaustion. But we’re coming up for air, mostly because we have no choice. A brief synopsis:

Put our house on the market last Wednesday.

Freaked out for two days over lack of response.

Cleaned and fixed up the house around the clock.

Hired a cleaning crew from Groupon to come deep clean the kitchen and bathrooms the day before our first showing.

Jamie called to confirm. They canceled but promised to come the next day.

No-show for the second day in a row at the very last minute.  Nightmare last-minute clean hack job.

Weather was the worst: snow and rain. People were in hibernation mode and I didn’t blame them.

Had five showings over the weekend, not great in this insane market.

Rehomed Fat Kitty multiple times. That’s a blog post for another day that involved hiding under beds and stairs, security alarms and cops.

Miraculously got one offer.

Cried when reading the letter this sweet family wrote to us.

House went under contract.

Spent hours pouring through and signing documents.

Work? What’s that? So far behind on emails and campaigns.

Jamie commissions one of his staff to fix a longstanding problem on Mile High Mamas. Crashes site; widgets still not functioning properly.

Weekend forecast finally looked nice so opted to do a garage sale (in my insanity).

Garage sale traffic on Friday (usually the busiest) was sub-par; Saturday got rained out. Made only $200; not worth the time and effort.

Saturday morning after setting up the garage sale, found out from realtor the buyer pulled out due to the family’s job situation changing.

The father called the realtor in tears; he wasn’t the only one.

Relisted the house with a driveway and garage full of C-R-A-P.

Spent afternoon and evening cleaning and hauling C-R-A-P to thrift store to get house ready to show again.

Busiest week of the year ahead of us with assessment testing, two field trips, field day, piano recital, parent-teacher conferences, make-up soccer games, volleyball, on the planning committee for our ward Summer Olympics party on Saturday and more.

First showing: today.

And tomorrow, we die (or at least really want to).

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Happy Mother’s Day!

May 8, 2016 by

I’m feeling extremely grateful for all the wonderful moms in my life. I was born to the most wonderful, dynamic mom who was always the life of the party and whose light and laughter drew people to her.

Then, I married a man whose mom was so selfless and sacrificing–who taught me to put people first.

I’m so blessed to be surrounded by so many wonderful women who are amazing moms, sisters and friends. Moms comes in many shapes and sizes and some aren’t even moms…but I’m humbled to call them friends.

And to my beloved children who call me Mom. I can’t think of a higher honor. 

“You will never be this loved again. So on those days when you are feeling stressed out, touched and depleted, just remember that you will never be this loved again. One day you will long for their affection. So choose a soft voice, choose gentle hands, choose love.” -A.K.

Happy Mother’s Day!

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Bears Today, Webelos Tomorrow

May 4, 2016 by

Bode continues to love Cub Scouts and why wouldn’t he? The boy has the best leader ever (ME!) and it’s been fun to see him thrive. This is the first time I’ve taught him in a formal setting and I’ve enjoyed every minute of it–he’s fun and silly when appropriate but also a tremendous leader and sets the tone when it’s time to buckle down and work. He made me super proud to be his mom.

We’ve had a great group of boys who were not without their challenges but overall it’s been a great time. And it will be even greater to be released when we move. 🙂 A few of our recent adventures:

Hiking Ralston Creek

Majestic View Nature Center

Last week at our Pack meeting,  Bode was presented with his Bear award. A parent needs to go up there in order to be “pinned.” I’ve done it the last two years when he earned his Wolf and Bobcat so I suggested Jamie take a turn.

“No way, that’s a mother thing.”

“It is not. It’s your turn to go up there. How about we rock-paper-scissors over it?”

Now, something you should know about this challenge is I win almost every time, likely due to my stealth psychotic psychic skills.

Jamie lost.

And yes, we are the worst parents ever.

Congratulations on earning your Bear, Bode!

Filed Under: Bode, Humor

Learning manners from a neanderthal

May 3, 2016 by

We generally eat out about once a week–sometimes less when we’re at home and definitely more when we’re traveling. Since our house has been on the market, we’ve been eating at restaurants a lot more for the sole purpose that I don’t want to mess up our immaculate kitchen.

During one of our dinner outings, we were starving and our order was taking forever. When it finally arrived, we were ready to eat…except Hadley had not yet received her chicken pot pie.

Bode started to dive in when I reprimanded him [while also grabbing a wonton from my salad].

“Bode, what’s the polite thing to do? We wait to eat until everyone has been served.”

“Mom, but YOU took a bite.”

“I never said I was polite.”

Filed Under: Bode, Humor

House (and Sanity) for Sale

April 28, 2016 by

Our house is officially on the market!

We spent last weekend fixing up some final projects, most of which fell on Jamie because my DIY skills are nil. I did attempt to paint the front gate of our fence, a 20-minute job that took me two hours because cutting around the hinges is pretty much my worst nightmare. Hadley has recently taken up acrylic painting and loves spending hours on the minute details; maybe I should have passed it off to her!

My busyness will come Friday when it comes to deep cleaning the house to prep for the showings this weekend.

Last week when I was picking the kids up from the bus stop, I noticed a For Sale sign on the next street over. I walked up to investigate and our exact same model of house with our exact colors was up for sale. What are the odds?!

I freaked out, raced back to Jamie and reported my findings. We certainly did not want to compete with our exact same house that is comparable in every way except they added an extra (fifth) bedroom upstairs and an extra bathroom in the basement. The good news is they were asking $10,000 more than our very top dollar price and we heard they accepted an offer for $5,000 above that.

This prompted Jamie to up our price a bit higher, causing me to have major panic attacks. You see, with this crazy Denver market, if a house sits too long (more than a couple of weeks), you’ve missed your window and people start wondering what is wrong with the place. I’d rather have a bunch of people bidding it up than over-pricing and hearing nothing.

He keeps telling me to be patient, which is like telling Gandi to start World War III.

Here are a few of my other joys.

  • I haven’t slept more than a few hours all week (see above stresses).
  • The $#&* MLS published a disconnected number to our listing. Thankfully, Jamie caught it fairly early on but it took them 16 hours to correct it.
  • The cleaning crew that was supposed to arrive today canceled. The only reason we found out is when Jamie called them to confirm they casually mentioned their cleaning gal had called in sick. Welcome to the world of purchasing a Groupon. He raised a fuss about it and they rescheduled for Friday afternoon when we were planning to start showings. And wouldn’t you know it, the one call we received wanted to come at that exact time and they haven’t called back. I’ve since been cleaning like a madwoman bracing myself for the likelihood they won’t show tomorrow.
  • The weather is insanely bad and is supposed to snow for four days. Good thing we bought a bunch of flowers that are waiting to be planted.

Takeaway? I guess that means our house is officially on the market.

Filed Under: Colorado
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