A Little Life Update

Getting ready to move after being in one place for 20-years has been an all-consuming task for me.  So all-consuming that I teeter between never wanting to own a house again, so as to at least prevent all the house stress  and wanting to buy a house ASAP, so that I can guaranteed to be in one place for a while.   Our reality will probably end up somewhere in between those two scenarios.  In the meantime, we still need to figure out where the next place for us is.   Right now, we've got 4 reasonably good options and we need to wait for some things to happen at Glen's work before we can confidently start moving forward with any of those potential plans.  For now, all I can do is get the house ready to sell and our family ready to move...somewhere and hope and pray that the somewhere will be the right place for us.  

 Just so my kids don't forget that we have had some normal life in amongst all the household distractions these past few weeks, here's a peek of what else we've been doing.  

We had one of our favorite missionaries come back to visit...

 Elder Judkins served here 4ish years ago and it was great to see him again!   We took him to see "Amazing Grace" at the National Bible Museum.  It was a powerful performance and we were grateful for the opportunity to include him in this family outing.  

Adam used Rocky to up his seminary devotional game.   He had the balloons for an activity, made this picture into a poster....

and made this picture into a little hand-out for everyone.   But, alas, he still didn't win the devotional contest. 

Ellie and Emma had a temple trip to Philadelphia.  Adam was taking the ACT and had to miss it.  Glen and I stayed home and plugged away at house stuff.  It was probably one of the few temple trips our kids have been on when at least one of us wasn't there. 

Ellie had two of her cousins stay over one night during spring break. 

They enjoyed the time together and even Adam got in on the fun when he took Lauren on a run, since sleeping over meant that she missed her track practice. 

Easter was low-key, but good.  We didn't dye eggs, we didn't hide any candy, we didn't get any new clothes.  Emma did make these cute bunny pancakes though...

And we did have a family gathering with a delicious dinner at Pete and Mika's place...

And on the other side of the country, Cami's been taking off with her baking business...

And pretty soon....we will have all five kids (and their mom) together in one place.  It's only a quick trip and we're sad that Glen can't come too, but a little time away sounds just about perfect right now.  

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December 2017 --Baptism, Zombie Problems, and a Chocolate Fast

We started off December with my nephew, Davin's baptism.   He was a cutie pie and it was fun to spend the time with their family.  We also enjoyed running into one of Cami's friends (Elder Duffy), serving a mission in my brother's ward.  

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Don't ask what got into me, but I randomly decided that I was going to make the coolest white elephant gift ever for the high priest group party.   I did some research, made my plans, spent too much money, and put way more effort than I should have to create a Zombie Apocalypse Survival Kit.    

I put in all these fun things (along with a bunch of snacks on the bottom layer)....

I made this Zombie Identification Guide with pictures of men from our ward.    I was totally prepared for it to be the hit gift of the night.  Everyone would laugh and everyone would fight for it. 

That afternoon Glen found out that his job was ending in February.  His super sensitive HR director pulled him out of his work Christmas party to let him know.   

We didn't really feel much like partying at that point, but I had this super cool gift and some fun festive clothes to wear, so we went anyway.  

And it was all a HUGE flop.  The gift was the first one picked of the night and no one paid it one iota of attention.  It never got stolen and the people who got it couldn't have cared less and didn't even laugh at all the funny details I'd added, then they left early.   Combined with finding out about Glen's job, it all felt like a colossal waste of our time and money.  Next year, I'm definitely just going to the thrift store to buy something stupid, because clever/funny seems too elusive for me.

(And apparently I'm still a bit bitter about it six months later)!

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Right at the end of December, I ended my year-long chocolate fast.  It was amazing and I ate waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay  too much of it and made myself sick. 

And here are some more random pictures from December.

Our ugly sweaters....

Our Sunday best....

An epic Scrabble game with my brother Nate.

A new dam shirt my sister got for me...

Cami's best friend Katy got home from her mission....

It's crazy to me how much Ellie looks like her cousin, Bridgette!   

More random pictures....

The Baptism

The main reason for our weekend in Philadelphia (besides seeing the temple open house) was to be a part of my nephew's baptism.    

It was so fun to have so much family in town for the occasion!

Including 10/14 of the Crain cousins.   

I also very much loved the Baby Ben snuggles I got to enjoy. 

Glen couldn't get the time off of work, so he just joined us for the day.   

I loved being able to spend time with my parents.... 

and token British brother, Matt. 

I also enjoyed the opportunity to photobomb my brother, Pete, who was reluctant to have his picture taken.  

Ever since our trip to Europe, in which we each packed all of our belongings into a backpack only, I've been kind of obsessed with packing light.   I loved the freedom of not having a ton of stuff to tote around on our adventures.    I may have taken it a bit too far this time though, as I totally forgot to pack dental floss, mouthwash, toothpaste, hairbrush,  pajamas, and I was short one outfit.  In other words, I slept in my clothes (that I had to double up on wearing anyway), never brushed my hair, and had to brush my teeth with Emma's organic toothpaste.    I did end up going to a store for some dental hygiene stuff, especially since Adam also forgot his toothbrush, which with him having braces was too disgusting an omission  for me to ignore. 

5/8 Silly

May 1:

What's the best part about living in the DC area?  

Having lots of family that live close by!   

And family that regularly has business trips that bring them here, even when they live far away! 

I am grateful that my kids (at least one of them) have cousins to be best friends with.

And I'm grateful for siblings who not only put up with my silliness,

but who are also a bit silly too.   I love my family!   

The Birthdays

April 15:   

April is a big month for birthdays on my side of the family.    We've got Andrew (on the 5th), Tim and Tom (on the 15th), Lauren and McKenzie (on the 17th), Mika (on the 24th), Me (on the 25th), and Spencer (on the 30th).   So that means that there are four family members celebrating birthdays just this weekend and we got to celebrate with three of those four!   

The twins had a day off of school today, so Ellie went and spent the night at their house to help celebrate their birthday.  She excitedly bought presents with her own money and came home giddy and full of energy.  It was cute to see how much fun the girls genuinely have together.  

I took Ellie straight from the cousins' house to an evening of cake decorating at a friend's house.  She could barely contain her excitement when she got home and got to deliver her special creation directly to the birthday boy of the day....Uncle Tim!    

We also went out and tried a new ice cream shop tonight.   The ice cream was creamy and delicious. 

  

 Cake, ice cream, birthday goodies....I can't figure out why, but my quest for healthful eating is not going so well this month. 

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Awesome to Lame

February 20: 

We had another youth family history night at our house on Saturday.    Together the youth found about 100 names to take to the temple and the whole experience lit a fire in Ellie.  Now that she knows how to do it, she's gone and found another 25 or so more names for a total of 31 in two days' time.   

Ellie has a family history buddy (another 10-year-old), who also found several names to take to the temple. 

Emma and Elena together found over 50 names. 

February 21:

On Sunday we had an extra six kids sitting in our row at church and although I didn't get anywhere near as much out of the talks as I normally do, it was absolutely delightful to look down the row and see the row of cuties!   We had the kids' cousins, McKenzie, Bridgette, Lauren, and Davin with us, and two other friends whose baby brother just had surgery.   

February 22:

When all else fails....post pictures of your food.   In this case it's chicken breasts "breaded" with a cashew, coconut, chia seed concoction.   It actually was pretty tasty with some spinach and a little dressing.     

This week is looking to be C-R-A-Z-Y to the extreme with a lot on my plate (and I'm not talking about food anymore), so don't be surprised if my blogposts this week are a little on the lame side....you know to match my lame sense of fashion and my lame personality.      

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