23 February 2020

So for some blog-truth:  I have neglected to update my blog in real time and I am sitting at my desk on Monday, April 6th trying to remember what we did the last full week of February.  So when this post is boring, lacks details, and only has a few photos, you know why!

 Phil had a meeting with his tax guy on Monday morning and was pleasantly surprised that he didn't owe exorbitant taxes this year as he sold a rental property earlier in 2019.  We are grateful that between my tax return and his we still came out with a refund this year which will be useful when it comes to all the plans we have including buying new furniture, getting a truck, and building a shop.

Phil and I were at the Benson house on Wednesday.  We bought paint and supplies for doing the outside of the house and then when we got back from the hardware store, started work on trimming the trees.  They were in extreme need of trimming and he and I worked well past dark lopping off limbs and branches.  It was arduous, but necessary in getting the yard cleaned up.  I can't tell you it looked good when we were done because it was too dark to tell and we still need to haul off all the branches we cut.

 The kids were excited for the weekend as they had Rodeo Break to look forward to.  The younger two were going to visit their dad and Felicity was just grateful for some time off.  I've really enjoyed the break from sports this quarter as neither Felicity nor Helen chose to do third quarter sports.  Arlo is still doing piano, although its become increasingly challenging to make time for practice which is a fair combination of my fault and his fault.

I've had to get serious about making our reception invitations this week.  I of course, had the brilliant idea of making my own.  So while I have been playing with formatting on my computer, I wanted to have a photo of Phil and I to go with the invitations.  His sister-in-law, Brook, very graciously volunteered to take engagement photos for us to be included in our invitations.  We took Felicity with us and went to Kirby and Brook's for dinner and then into the dessert for our photo shoot.  I don't know if we are just old and thus awkward or if being loving in front of people is not our bag, or if doing it in front of family was the problem, but half of our photos came out making us look like very good friends!  I love him, I do, even if we look silly trying to get pictures together.  We did manage to get a few shots that we were able to pick from and I was happy with the results.  Here are some of my favorite reject shots because they were so silly:

On Friday, it was my turn to host Bunco at the ranch.  I had the girls over for dinner and games and we had a lot of fun.  I'm so grateful for all the wonderful friends I've made since moving out here.

 On Saturday we went over to the Benson house to start work on some cleaning and projects to get it ready to sell.  Phil's mom and step dad, his brother and his family, and various neighbors and family dropped in and out throughout the day to help us.  The boys spent most of the morning working outside while we worked inside.  I'm grateful for Felicity and Kirby and Brook's girls as they were a lot of help; I was able to get them started on a project and they worked self-directed pretty much all day.  We accomplished a lot, there is still a lot to do before we can list the house though.

16 February 2020

I had an eye appointment on Monday morning and wasn't surprised to find that my prescription had changed.  I ordered two new pairs of glasses, a new pair of sunglasses, and a six month supply of contacts.  It was an expensive morning!

I spent my evening on Tuesday getting the house ready for the estate sale company to come and pick up my excess stuff.  I had all of the purged items I had been collecting over the past two months as I went through the house deep cleaning packed into totes for them for easy removal.  We decided to sell my bedroom set which consisted of a queen bed, armoir, two night stands and a dresser with mirror.  I also planned to sell two of our living room couches, the end tables and coffee table and two bookcases and a set of curio cabinets.  I'm hoping we make some good money on our used items so that we can buy some new things.

Tuesday afternoon I met Phil at lunch time to go out for Valentine's day.  He was teaching at Pima College and had an hour or so for lunch and we went to BJs on Broadway and had a really nice time.  It was nice to celebrate without having to battle the masses.

On Wednesday I drove down to Benson and met the estate sale folks to pick up the remainder of Phil's stuff.  While they were there I went through his cupboards and pantry and threw out any expired or old food and packed some things up.  When they were done I met them back at the ranch where they picked up the things I had ready for them.  My living room is pretty bare for the time being!

The kids had a 1/2 day on Friday and Phil and I were off from work.  We let the kids stay home from school and he and I drove to Phoenix to look at a bedroom set he found on Craigslist.  It was not what we were looking for at all, but we didn't want to waste the trip so we looked at some other furniture stores, not having much luck.  We came back to Tucson and did some more shopping.  We ended up at Thomasville at the Foothills mall and found two sets that we really liked.  They were having a really good President's Day sale and so we got all the pricing information and decided to take the information home and sleep on it.

Friday evening we made dinner together, Phil brought me home flowers and candy, along with cards and candy for each of the children.  We had a really nice evening together, I'm so grateful for him.

We were all up early on Saturday morning and waited for Phil to come over so that we could go to Vail Pride Day together.  The girls both had band performances in the morning and then we spent time looking at the exhibits, climbing the rock tower, petting the animals, and visiting with neighbors and friends.  We went to the exhibition hall in the afternoon and enjoyed an Eegee and found everyone's contribution to school projects.  We had a really nice time.  In the evening, Phil and I went back to Thomasville and decided on one of the bedroom sets and ordered it.  It should be in the second week of April.

09 February 2020

We were busy this week.  We had finally reached a point in the clean up of the Benson house where we were ready to have an estate sale company come and pick up the excess furniture and household items.  Over the past several weeks we've been able to sort through everything in the house: separating items that would be coming to the ranch with Phil when we get married, putting aside items that we didn't need or want at the ranch to be sold, and boxing items still left in the house that belonged to Phil's former spouse.

Wrestling lessons in the living room have become pretty common place; I think Arlo is losing.

We had Family Home Evening on Monday night.  We just did our regular lesson from Come Follow Me, when we were done we played Just Dance on the Wii.  Phil even played with us, it was entertaining, although I didn't get any pictures!

We were in Benson on Wednesday morning, the estate pick up took almost all morning.  They filled the truck they brought and didn't get it all picked up, so they are going to have to come back next week and pick up the rest.  That will work out alright as I am having them pick up some extra furniture at my house next week too.  It's nice that we can combine the furniture I have with some of the furniture he has and then both sell some furniture so that we can afford to buy some new things, it'll be a nice new start.

We put Felicity into the lottery for the high school draw not long ago and heard back this week.  The Vail school district does a lottery system to assign high school attendance; kids don't attend the high school closest to where they live.  We had Cienega and Mica Mountain as our number one and number two choices, with Cienega being much preferred as they have a bus that will come out to the ranch for pick up and drop off and the new high school won't.  I got an email this week letting us know that Felicity had been assigned to Cienega, so we were pretty happy about that.  We have dates for the freshman open house and orientation.  Its hard to believe this is actually happening; I'm not old enough to be the mom of a high school student, right!?

The kids had a 1/2 day on Friday and then Helen and Arlo went to visit their dad.  With the extra stuff now out of the Benson house we were able to start boxing the things that would be coming to ranch; things Phil wasn't going to need in the interim.  We have plans to build a shop at the ranch since we are decidedly short on storage space; however, we're not going to be able to build a shop until we sell the Benson house, so we bought another barn and are waiting for that to be delivered so that we can move some of Phil's things.  We still have a lot to do to get the house ready to sell, but we'll get there eventually!

On Sunday I was assigned to speak in our Sacrament meeting at church.  I don't mind speaking in church, so it wasn't too much of a stress.  I got up early on Sunday morning and prepared what I would say, having been given the topic "Raising Resilient Children: Helping our children recognize their gifts and reach their full potential". I think it went fairly well, and believe it or not, I didn't go over in time!  That's a first for me, I'm usually far too long winded!  On Sunday afternoon Phil drove me to the Stake President's house where I had an interview with him so that he could sign off on our sealing cancellation application.  I'm really grateful for how smoothly the process has gone so far.  My half has been submitted and I believe Phil's half has been completed as well, so we will have to wait for word from Salt Lake.  We don't know how long it will take some have said only a couple of weeks, my Stake President said to be prepared to wait up to a couple of months.  We picked the kids up in Tucson when we were done and spent the rest of the evening together. 

02 February 2020

Charlie loves Felicity

I continued work this week on going through my house and purging things I don't need and cleaning and organizing my things.  My office has by far taken the most amount of time, but I'm almost done.  I got some more over-the-door shoe organizers to store my yarn, I transferred all of my patterns to manila envelopes and then to banker's boxes to keep them organized.  Pretty much everything in my craft room got touched and re-organized.  I'll be happy when I'm done with the annual purge!

The kids combined their Christmas LEGO sets and put them together and set up miniature Harry Potter vignettes in the living room as well as a barn, a yacht, and a firestation.  I let them stay there for a few days as they played with them in the evenings after school.

I had a girls night with my friends on Wednesday.  We met at Cheddar's for dinner and had a great time.  I always walk away from time with the my friends feeling refreshed, they're the best.

We had the Sister Missionaries over for dinner on Thursday which was nice.  I am glad they don't mind coming down the road to visit with us.

 Wedding preparations are under way, although I'm not sure what I am doing.  I have had many people offer to help so I will be taking people up on offers for help for sure.  Phil had a follow up interview with his Bishop as he started his application for a sealing clearance, his portion of the application that will allow us to be married in the temple.  We are praying that the process will go smoothly.  It's hard to come up with definite plans for our wedding and reception as we don't know how long the application process will take, or even if it will be approved.  Phil will need to fill out and submit his portion and both his former spouse and mine will be asked to provide their perspective on our request which will be followed by further interviews with our Stake Presidents who together with our Bishops will provide their input before our application will be sent to Salt Lake to be reviewed by the President of the church.  We will just be prayerful and patient.

26 January 2020

The weather was beautiful this week.  On Monday the kids were home for the Martin Luther King Jr. day.  Phil happened to be off so I worked from and we got to spend time together as a family.  In the afternoon Arlo and Phil went outside to fly the kite that Phil had gotten him for his birthday.  Arlo loved it and managed to get it up pretty high!

I had hair and nail appointments on Tuesday after work which meant that I got home pretty late.  I was very fortunate to come home to dinner already being done which was such a nice surprise.  Between Christmas and now Phil and I were able to call and talk to all of our family and let them know about our engagement so we felt it was time to make an official announcement to the rest of our friends (you know, make it Facebook official).  I wanted to take a cute picture of the two of us to accompany our announcement, but our photographer selection included Felicity and selfie!  We spent quite awhile trying to get a decent picture of the two of us.  We managed one eventually and got so much love and support back from our friends and loved ones...it's great that everyone is so happy for us.  Here are some of the rejects:

We were business as usual for the rest of the week.  The highlights included finishing my 2019 tax return and working on the house in Benson.  It is coming along, however it is slow going.

We got to take Grandma out to lunch on Saturday afternoon.  She wanted pizza, so we took her for dine-in Pizza Hut, Phil was working so he wasn't able to join us.