Funny Phonics

We were out with the kids on Saturday and Jaley wanted to see what "Ahh Dee Dahs" was all about.

We had a good chuckle. Do you know what store she was asking about? We also passed another store and she wanted to check it out.... "Leh vy's" (answer to the phonic's riddle at the end of the post)

What my family had to say on our website:

Brooke - Jan 31, 2008

I know. I know.

That is cute.

Max really loves to have some Haws tees cupcakes!

Corin - Jan 31, 2008

That is adorable! We need to write down these funny things our beginning (and advanced) readers sound out!!!

Corin - Feb 1, 2008

I was sent a beautiful book from my old ward. The YW and some of the sisters signed it.
Kerst saw it and asked me why they sent me a book called "Hell-ives" (rhymes with Elvis). The typing for the title was very close so he couldn't see the separation in the two words. The book is called "He Lives".

Shannon - Feb 1, 2008

this isn't really phonics, but cute ways Kaylee and Cade say things:

Cade

ki ki: binky

go go: yogart

mie:more

Kaylee:

pokisel: popcicle

trulalala: cinderella

trulalala: umbrella

nosan: snowman

Mom - Feb 1, 2008

When Dad was little, he said Encyclopedia Bananaca.

Julianne - Feb 2, 2008

Frances gets her syllables rearranged - I can only think of Spanish examples, but it is pretty cute.

Amelia read all the Windermere Readers from Mom and I asked her which she like she told me all about the one with the girl named He-ide-eye. It took me a minute to figure out she meant Heidi, that is a name you don't hear much these days.

Answer to Jaley's phonic puzzle: Adidas and Levi's

Kendall ER Visit in January

Just a couple of weeks arriving in CO, we introduced ourselves personally to the Emergency Room Staff. Kendall tripped and bit through his tongue when his mouth hit the coffee table at our temporary living residence. You can see his teeth marks on the table! He sure makes life exciting!

Click on the image to get the full story!

Kendall is pierced

Kendall tripped tonight and bit his tongue straight through; guess we should find a cool tongue ring. jk. Poor baby!

Of course this all had to happen while John is in CA on a business trip and we still don't have a pediatrician and I have no idea where our medical cards are. I guess I need to find a doctor in the next day or two to follow up with the ER visit (We were in the waiting room for 2 hours! They were super busy!). Kendall is on antibiotics and a mush food diet for the next 3-5 days.


Here is what my family had to say on our family website:

Mom Jan 29, 2008

Poor fellow. Those pesky teeth!


Cara - Jan 29, 2008

Things always happen when Dad leaves. Keeps us from getting bored I guess.


Corin - Jan 29, 2008

We just found his front teeth marks on the edge of the coffee table where he hit and pierced his tongue. He left a major mark! Better get a picture...

Deal findin' John

John has every other Friday off...today was the every other! It is fun having an ALL DAY date!!!

We looked at appliances today for the kitchen. Poor Kendall...he is going to hate dating if he thinks this is what dating is all about!

We have researched cook tops and discovered Induction cooking. Way cool technology! Electromagnetics are involved. The surface doesn't get hot. It senses metal (not aluminum) and will heat that up only. You can crack an egg or put ice straight on the glass top burner area while it is on and it won't cook or melt! Safe for little hands! You can put your hand on it with your ring and it won't burn you because it senses how much metal is there. After cooking, the surface will be warm for a short time...not long... These cook tops are nice too because they don't have nobs...only push buttons and you can lock the controls too (Kendall is into nobs)! I thought about what Julianne said about more counter space with the flat glass electric cook top. I am adjusting to the electric coils here in the apartment...

We found an open box deal. Someone purchased one, took it home and it didn't fit so brought it back. John discovered it was priced as a smaller cook top and marked down for a return/open box. Good deal! We couldn't pass it up!

What's up with us

No news on the house. Our realtor told us to expect 4-6 weeks to hear back from the bank after we have a signed contract with the seller. It will be 1 month on Jan 26. We are still waiting.

We are looking at paint colors...the kids are dreaming up plans for their rooms. Jaley will be getting a new bed; hers rocked back and forth. We are going to upgrade her bed to a Queen . . . for visitors. . . hint hint. Julia will be upgraded to a Queen too. More visitors . . . another reunion? hmmm....

Not much snow today. No school Friday or today due to MLK (who knows why on Friday). I noticed that our school district has a Fall Break. 1 full week of in October! Wild!

No skiing yet. I think once we are settled, we will look into doing that. John has every other Friday off . . . hmmm....

We are still getting ideas for the kitchen.

Jenna enjoys school. Julia says it is easy, and boring. Jaley and Kerst are doing fine; adjusting to a new math program, etc. They miss IL (Jenna doesn't miss it as much as the others; she has adjusted the best in my opinion). Jaley is off playing with a couple of friends from church today. I'm SO glad that she has made some friends from church. Not many her age though. More than in IL! She was the only one her age in our old ward.

Just hanging out. Julia plays the piano quite frequently. I love it. She still plays it even though she has a jammed (and VERY purple) left pointer finger from Basketball at HS. She is currently working on learning "Carol of the Bells"...it is beautiful. If you have George Winston's album DECEMBER, the song is on there. It is a favorite of mine. She will most likely nail it down in a month or so...she is very determined. She is also working on playing all of the hymns. Her piano talent has really improved. I still can't believe she has been playing for right around 3 years.

Kendall is goofy. He still doesn't talk much. Mainly signs...animals ones mostly. He loves books, balls and cars.

Other than that, we are great.

Decisions decisions decisions....kitchen first

OK. We are trying to decide what to do with the kitchen (once we get the house of course!)

We checked the house out again today...oh I love it! So much potential! We also had someone from the ward who is a contractor over to help us with ideas. He will most likely finish up the area in the basement that will be Julia's room as soon as we own the house. After seeing the house again, the basement layout is pretty good.

So....Kitchen. Right now it has oak cabinets, black double oven, black electric cook top (I could get used to cooking with electric) with nobs that are broken, white dishwasher and a cream fridge. The fridge is currently in the basement. The counters are a white tile. The floor is oak wood with need of repair due to water damage in two different spots.


I want to reface the cabinets. The drawers are in great shape. The layout is workable. I am looking into doing a cherry wood with a medium brown type stain with a dark brown antiquing. I want to do granite or sile stone counter tops. I want to keep in the brown tones.

Darker cabinets (but not too dark)...what kind tone of counter top? Lighter? Darker? I want to do a tile back splash at an angle from edge of the counter top up to bottom of cabinets.

The kitchen cabinets are tall. There are soffits on top of the cabinets. I was wanting to do crown moulding on the top of the cabinet...but what about the soffit? We could look into removing the soffit (sometimes there is plumbing, electrical, etc...; not sure about here. Our old house there was plumbing).

What about the oak floor. Do you think that will clash with a cherry wood/brown finish?

I was even thinking of putting tile in since it is more durable. Our kitchen table and chairs were really rough on the wood floor in our old house. The pads for the legs didn't always stay on.

Resale value on the house...wood floors have a better resale value. But the upkeep...

Decisions decisions decisions....

Update on house in CO

The house went into foreclosure today. In CO that means it is to be auctioned off at the Court House TODAY. There is a HUGE list of homes that were auctioned off today. In order to purchase a home in foreclosure in an auction you have to bid $100 higher than the bank and pay with CASH! The bid of the bank is the amount of the loan. Homes that don't have any bidders end up being bank owned property.

I was worried about the auction until John told me that the winner of the auction has to pay cash.

John found out today that the home we have a contract on was taken off the auction list. It sounds like the bank is moving forward, ever so slowly, with their loss on the loan with the seller. I think they would rather sell the home at a loss rather than hang onto a property and lose money...and lose more if they sell it for less or don't even sell it for quite some time.

No date for closing. Glad it didn't go to auction. John would love to buy a home at an auction and then use it as a rental or something like that. I'm not game for that yet. I'm recuperating from the move.

Things that describe me

One of the YW in our ward passed away this past Fall. I was immediately drawn to a piece of paper inside the program that was filled with words and phrases that described her. I didn't know her well, but after reading the memories and thoughts from her loved ones, I felt like I knew her.

I posted on our family website this idea of words and phrases that describe each one of us. Here is the list that some of my family came up for me:

Things that describe me:

Corin

(my list)

Baby Beans

Miss Merrie Bells

My best friend growing up was Bama

Crying when Bama left, waiting by the phone for her to call me

Didn't like eggs until mom introduced me to Gpa Steven's Crackers and eggs

Hair Spray in High School...went through tons

Finding "baby worms" at a park with Sean and Reed

Mud Ball

Salt Lake Temple goal

BYU goal

from my Mom

Myrna's thrift store

poem about towers of stuff in your room

Towne East information booth

Swim team

Summer rec

win Scripture chase at Seminary bowl.

Sew your prom dress from 2 patterns with Sister G.....m

Bus trip to see Emily in Omaha

ring in plastic bubble that would rattle in John's pocket

A Time to Love"I'm creating somebody wonderful"

Bleen

Beehive president with Emily as Advisor

S. Salveter and Mini Mission

Miss Merrybells

Army Reserves

push ups

Hurricane

pass out when donated blood

Mary D..n

Emily V.. W......

Pencil drawing portraits

Almost in a trance like state when drawing them...and they were SO GOOD.

Sew diapers for the dualies

Patriarch Orr gave you your Patriarchal Blessing.

Wonderful

Our first Temple Marriage...breaking us in!

ripping up the kitchen carpet

I won't go on a date until we shampoo this carpet. Maybe we shouldn't have done that! as bow would say tee hee....

Respected in your HS

Katherine P.....s

Kayleen A.....z

Mary M......s

Beth S.....r

winning smile

first to go on the "Contract"...Check book, laundry!

From Kelly:

Watching Julia in Utah while Corin had to do her army duties at the U

Having food poisoning in Texas when the whole ward had it (Corin and John didn't)

Corin leaving to BYU, really sad

Laying down with Shannon, Cara, Mom and Corin in a white metal day bed the night before Coring got married and talking/hanging out

The water colors she would paint

Sister Salveter-drew and painted a picture of her of when she was little drinking from water fountain

Senior class ring-Shannon got to wear it and I got the room

From Julianne:

Trips to Ohio - I loved going to spend time with the Meibos family in Ohio and watch Corin in her wonderful mother role.

outlet shopping

Corin bringing her whole family to our wedding - it meant so much to me - besides being married in the temple that was probably the most important thing to me was having our family with us.

Big sister - I admire and respect Corin so much, I have turned to her on many occasions for advice.

Sharing good talks. On our many visits to her home we have had some great talks. One especially stands out in my memory while driving somewhere in Ohio together she shared her gratitude for me and Brooke in her brothers' lives.

Wonder woman - I am truly AMAZED by all Corin does.

Our crazy last week in IL...moving

Looking back I can see miracles throughout this entire move...

It was a miracle that our home sold in 3 weeks. Our realtor was amazed. Of her 20 homes on the market, ours was the only one having any action. The realty office was pretty much dead. We had someone in the background wanting to buy our home sight unseen (although they saw it on the Internet). They wanted to know ASAP if the sale with the first buyers falls through.

Our relocation company (Cartus) was next to impossible to work with. The contract sat on someones desk for 1 week before they signed it (or floated to various desks because people were out of the office). They were actually not going to have the contract signed until Dec 26 because the attorney was busy. Our realtor called and said that was unacceptable. They had the contract signed in less than 1 hour. I hope we can leave feedback.

The packers came Dec 27 and 28. They did an extra long day on the 28th so they wouldn't have to come back on a Saturday. The moving truck driver decided to do the loading in 1 day rather than 2 days. We thought that would be great! We were scheduled for loading on Mon, Dec 31 and Wed Jan 2. We planned on loading on Dec 31. Purchased tickets for Jan 1 for the gang. Monday came. No truck. John called the driver. They decided to do the loading on Jan 2. We had to change our tickets. I couldn't leave the home without signing all of the paper work for the moving truck and then not clean it too! Argh. We lived in the house packed with boxes. No pots and pans. Frozen dinners got old. Frozen breakfasts did too. John headed to CO on Monday, Dec 31 hoping to miss the weather. He still hit some snow, but arrived safely. We spent New Years Eve with Keith and Debra (and David)...we pooped out early.

The moving truck came on Jan 2. The driver realized how much stuff we had and called for 2 extra guys. About noon one of the guys asked me if I was going to follow the driver (his name was John) to CO. I said no. I said that the van was scheduled to go on the moving truck. John's face was shocked. It wasn't in his paper work. So, a tow truck was ordered to come and pick up the van. About 2:00 p.m. the driver realized that he wouldn't have room in the truck for all of our stuff (53 foot truck; 18 wheeler). He told me that another truck would be by in the morning. I told him that wasn't going to work because we were closing on the house at 9:00 a.m. and had to be out. Another truck showed up at 6:00 to load up the garage and the back yard items. It was the size of a very large U-haul.

It was cold that day. 2 degrees in the morning. It warmed up to 20! (That doesn't include wind chill!) They took the doors off of our home. I turned off the heat. It got down to 39 IN the house. I took pictures of the temperature gauges. It snowed on Tuesday. I was trying to keep the snow off the driveway and sidewalk. We still had snow all over. If they had come on Monday (39 degrees), there wouldn't have been the snow!!!I finally had the place clean by 8:30 p.m. What a long day. The kids hung out in the house too. They were glad to be done too.

Thursday was closing day. It was nice that we did not need to show up; Cartus, the relocation company, "owned" the house. They "bought the house from us"; we got the equity out of the house from them the day before closing. All issues now belonged to Cartus....yah right. We slept in until 8:45. 8:15 the buyers had their final walk through. 9:30 John calls. We are heading out to get breakfast; the kids are starving. The buyers want the Christmas lights off the roof. Remember...there is 3 inches of snow on the roof...icey too!!!! They are of a different religion and didn't want the lights. Argh. I understand not wanting the lights due to their religious beliefs, but I don't think they took safety into consideration for their request. We would have taken the lights down before the closing on our home if it was safe…we put the lights up because we didn’t think we would sell so quickly!!! We put breakfast on hold. On the way to the house to remove the lights John calls again. I need to sign a fax for the closing to be completed. I've got to be 2 places at once! Argh again!!!

I head over to the house and get my favorite next-door neighbor Ms. Marie to help me. I borrow her ladder since ours is on the way to CO. She holds the ladder. I yank the main level lights off of the gutters. She climbs the ladder too to help in some areas. Some break off and we use wire cutters to trim the frayed ends. I borrow her broom. I "break in" with our garage code and go to the top floor and removed the window screens. I sweep the snow below me and lean out and hang on for dear life and yank again. The lights are frozen to the gutter. Somehow they manage to come off; a couple break so I had to use wire cutters again. The moving truck for the new owners is in front of the house. They watch Marie and me.

Kids are starving. Need to sign the fax. John calls again. The fax at the hotel isn't working. This is what I knew: Closing today (Jan 3) at 9:00 a.m. at Caldwell Banker and I know the name of the realtor that is working with the buyers. I was heading back to the hotel (25 minutes away from the house) and thought I would try to find a Caldwell Banker office. That is super easy! Do you know how many Caldwell Banker realty offices there are!!!?!!! Tons!!! I decide to stop when I saw a sign. I told the kids to hang on. I go into the office and ask if they know @#(%^& #&(&(%*#@& (name of the realtor that is working with the buyers). No. They told me that there are hundreds of Caldwell Banker Realtors and many different offices in our city alone. I told them that I need to sign some papers so that the buyers could take possession of the house. The receptionist at the desk told me that a closing was going on down the hall. I decide to take a peek. It was the closing on our home!!! What are the chances?!?! Talk about miracles.

I find out where John needs to send the fax. The fax is sent. I sign it. They are able to close. If they weren't able to get the final paper work signed (by me), their moving truck that was sitting in front of the house watching me and Marie remove the lights would be sent back to the main hub, unloaded and put into storage for a day. The next day the truck would need to be loaded up again and then delivered. The buyers didn't want to pay for that. No comment.

The kids FINALLY get to eat breakfast at 11:30. We then head to see and say goodbye to Bama and Papa.So....I'm glad it is all over. I am amazed at how the Lord's hand was VERY evident in our lives the past couple of months.


What my family had to say on our family website:

Mike- Jan 4, 2008

WOW, you guys are amazing!!!!! Count your many blessings name them one by one...


Cara - Jan 5, 2008

That is quite the day. Seems that packing and moving is enough in my book, but having to go through all this is crazy. You were sure watched over.

Mom - Jan 5, 2008

OH MY! Thank you Miss Marie! We put your names in the temple again...on Thurs. Keep us posted on the house in Colorado.


Brooke - Jan 5, 2008

I would have a lot of no comments!
Glad you made it through it all without any injuries!

Shannon - Jan 5, 2008

INSANE! After reading that....I don't think we'll be moving....maybe forever!...unless Kelly comes and packs us up! tee hee hee

From IL to CO

We had a wonderful yet tearful goodbye with Bama and Papa and Aunt Cynthia yesterday. The kids were also able to see their friends one last time at their church youth activity.

We headed to the airport and had a very uneventful flight out. It has been a crazy week. I'm glad it is over.