More performances and other stuff

We finally got our tree and decorated for Christmas!

Thursday night was Mary's school dance concert and she did great. 

It was also Collin's Eagle Board of Review that night.  They really grilled him but he did great.  It's now official! 

His cousin, Tate, was having his Board of Review that night too.  

We took Collin to a late dinner at Texas Roadhouse (his choice) to celebrate.  Woo hoo!

Saturday was our ward party.  It is a tradition for the bishopric to perform something silly, so Jay put together a "human bagpipes" skit for them.  It was funny. 

Later that day we took the kids to see the next installment of "The Hobbit" movie trilogy, which was good.  I am the only one in our family who hasn't read the book.  Someone had trucked in some snow for kids to play in outside the theater so Jack enjoyed that for a few minutes.

Sunday was Mary's violin recital.  She played two songs and though she was super nervous she did great. 

In other news.... for some reason Jack was feeling left out as the only child in our family who didn't need glasses so he felt the need to get some just for show (with his own money).  He is a nut.

Concerts

December is off to a busy start!  It's that time of year!  Whew!

I don't know what's wrong with me.  My kids performed in several amazing concerts this week and I took exactly ZERO photos!  Ugh. 

Anyway, they were part of the EVMCO performances at the Mesa Arts Center.  They looked and sounded fantastic.  There were 2 performances on Thursday, and two on Saturday.  Collin performed in all 4 concerts, but Mary and Jack were only in 2 (one each on Thursday and Saturday).  They did a great job.

We had stake conference this weekend and got a new stake presidency.... Tim Lines, Greg Slater and Tom Curtis.  They will be great.  Our outgoing stake president, Lothaire Bluth, was called to be a mission president.  (Collin and I both sang in the stake choir.)

Monday night was Jack's Christmas concert at school.  He was one of a few who auditioned and was chosen to play the recorder and he did well.  He practiced a lot and took it very seriously. 

Tuesday night was our ward Relief Society Christmas dinner.  I sang in a trio (with MaryAnn Wells and Chelsea Jones) as part of the program after the dinner.  It was a nice evening as usual.

Thanksgiving Weekend

Thanksgiving weekend was busy and fun but I'm notorious for forgetting to take photos.... darn it.

My brother, Peter, and his wife and kids stayed at our house... our first house guests!  It was fun to have them. 

Our Thanksgiving feast was amazing, of course, with too many pies.... I didn't think that possible, but apparently I was wrong. 

Afterward we changed gears and had our Christmas program/talent show.... at my mom's request, since they will be in England (as missionaries) for Christmas.

Friday was the Nielson Family football game at the park followed by a BBQ at our house.  We also celebrated my brother, Christian's birthday. 

That night my parents were set apart as missionaries for their departure the next morning.  It was very emotional (well, I was very emotional... I'm such a baby, but I'm really going to miss them).  But I'm super excited for them!  They will be serving as missionaries in southern England for 12 months.

On Monday night we went to pick out a Christmas tree, as is our usual tradition (for FHE on the Monday after Thanksgiving), but there were none to be found!  Sold out?  Craziness!  Bummer.  I guess we have to wait for the next shipment, but maybe at least this means we will get a super fresh one. 

Violinists and Cellists

Earlier this month I took Mary to see her violin teacher perform with a local symphony as the winner for a youth competition.  It was a great concert, and we got to meet her teacher's teacher, who happens to be the concert master for the Phoenix Symphony....and I happen to be a big admirer of his.  (You can see him in the background over her shoulder, wearing black.)

And last night Jay and I took Collin (our cellist) to see Zuill Bailey in a solo concert at the Mesa Arts Center.   We saw him perform with the Phoenix Symphony last year and loved him, so we couldn't resist getting tickets to his performance of the entire Bach Cello Suites... in one sitting!  It was simply amazing!  He is a fantastic performer.... talented, charming and witty... and a fabulous story-teller.  Everyone was spell bound!

This pose is because he told the story of how his left land is MUCH larger than his right.

I'm not an artist, and crafts and stuff like that really are NOT my thing, but I have a 4th grader who LOVES art, so I try.  Since his teacher this year is not really into art I volunteered to help with art projects.  What was I thinking???  Fortunately I have a husband who knows about art and he helped me put together a water color project.  It was probably a bit too ambitious for me but it was fun.

 

Handy Jay and the Back-splash

I'm lucky to have such a handy husband.  Jay installed this lovely back-splash in the kitchen over the weekend.  I love it!

A Decision that Took Two Years

It only took me about 2 years to finally get up the nerve, but I finally got my hair cut short... well, short to me, after having it quite long for a lot of years.   But it was time... it needed "thickening up."  I think I like it.

October in Review

October was busy and fun.  I made pickles for the first time ever.  My parents brought home bushels of cucumbers from the ranch and I didn't know what else to do with them.  They turned out great!  I gave most of them away but our family enjoyed lots of them.

Collin was on a school trip the whole week of Fall Break.  He want to Northern California and had a great time.  They kept very busy and saw lots of stuff.  When I read through the itinerary I was really wishing I had been a chaperone! 

So, Mary and Jack and I try to keep from getting bored while Collin was gone.  We went on bike rides and played games, and they had friends over.  It was pretty low key. 

I celebrated my birthday.  Yippee.  Another year older.  You don't need to know how old.

My mom turned 70 so we planned a great surprised party and had it at our house.  She was COMPLETELY surprised.  It was great!

My sister, Heidi, came into town (from Georgia) for mom's birthday so we had to have a girls' lunch too, or course.

For Halloween, Jack dressed a ninja, and Mary dressed as a "Pompeii Seer" (from an episode of "Dr. Who".... she is s huge fan). 

Mary (left), Jack (right), and Mary's friend Madison (center)

Collin was going to dress as the "10th Doctor" but then decided he didn't want to go trick-or-treating (it's hard at that age.... too old?).  When some friends came by trick-or-treating he threw on half of his costume and went out to a few houses with them.  Then they came back here to watch a movie. 

September in Review

I guess September was all about Scouting.

The highlight of September was that Collin finished his Eagle project!  Hooray!  He worked hard and did a great job. 

and Jack received his Bear rank award in Cub Scouts.  He still has until February before he moves to the Webelos den so he is ahead of schedule.  He works hard and is dedicated to Cub Scouts.

August in Review

August is back to school time.  Collin started 9th grade, and Mary is in 7th grade, so they are now at the same school again (it's 7th-12th grades). 

Jack started 4th grade at the same school but a new campus. 

Enjoying having a "real" pool in our backyard!  (Extended family volleyball game for FHE.)

We've been busy getting settled into our new home and doing a few projects, including Jay refinishing the table and chairs we got for $50 on Craigslist! 

"Before"

It turned out great.... I love it!

"After" (4 more chairs not pictured)

July in Review

We spent the first part of July moving into our new home and unpacking.  We sent our children to the cabin with family to enjoy the 4th of July festivities, and Jay and stayed home to do the dirty work. 

  

 Mary had a great time at "Time to Blossom" with her good friend, Macy.

 

Collin learned a new love of mowing the lawn at our new house after Grandpa gave us his old riding lawn mower.

 

My parents received a mission call to England, London South Mission!

Mary got braces.

 

I jumped into the swimming pool to save a drowning child.... with my brand new iPhone 5 in my pocket.  Fortunately, the nice people at the Apple Store gave me a new one!  Yay!

Mary turned 12 and had a bunch of friends over for a swimming party to celebrate.

  

 

And we finished off the month with our annual trip to our family's ranch in New Mexico for a week of fun with family.... riding horses and quads, talking, eating, swinging on the porch swings, dancing, singing, laughing, doing talent shows, singing around the camp fire, and watching fireworks.  Whew!

June in Review

After our amazing trip to Europe in May, we settled back into real life and finished out the school year.  Much of June was spent packing for our move, but in between we managed to keep busy with other activities.

Mary had her first violin recital.  Her teacher is our amazing neighbor who is extremely talented (she is just a high school senior).  Mary has only been taking lessons for a couple of months but she is doing well.

 Mary went to Girls' Camp for her first time.  Camp LoMia!

 

Collin attended EFY in Flagstaff at NAU and had a great time!  He loved every minute of it... learned a lot, made some new friends, and come home on a spiritual high.  He also went to camp with the Teacher's Quorum and did lots of hiking and rock climbing.  He said the food was really good too.  (Of course that would be the most memorable part for a teenage boy.) 

All 3 of my kids participated in musical theater camps (Jack for the first time) and did a great job.  Collin and his cousin stole the show performing the song "Tear Jerk."  It has hilarious! 

 They love being in it with their cousins!

 My parents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary and we put on a nice dinner and program.  I wish I had some video or other photos but I'm really bad about that kind of thing.

 The rest of the month looked about like this.

The Saga of Our New Home

This is kind of long, but if you want to know the whole story, here it is.

Sixteen years ago this month, Jay and I were newly weds building a house for our family.   Sixteen years ago in October we moved into that house that seemed so huge at the time (for just the two of us).   Along came three children and our family grew as our house seemed to shrink.  

About 8 years ago we felt like we had out-grown our house and decided it was time to find something larger.  We started looking and planned to put our house up for sale.  We live in a great area so we really wanted to find something in our same neighborhood.  People are often looking to move into our area so as soon as a few people heard we were thinking of selling we had an offer without ever putting our house up for sale.  

So, we signed a contract to sell our house (for the market value at that time), started packing, hired a real estate agent, and started looking in earnest for our new home.  Really looking.  A lot.  Like every day.  At lots of houses.  Our buyers were living with family so they were able to be flexible on our closing, so we weren't super worried.  But then something strange happened.  Houses began selling within an hour of being listed and for much more than the asking price.  There were bidding wars on houses that weren't even that great, and lotteries for new homes.  Home prices skyrocketed and suddenly we were selling our house for about HALF of the current market value.  (Remember this craziness in 2005?)  We discovered that couldn't have afford something similar to the house we were selling, let alone buy something larger, even if we could manage to get in an offer before someone else. 

Since there was no contingency in our contract we really started panicking.  And praying.  Really hard.  We were stuck, and kind of desperate.  We found ourselves willing to make offers on houses we didn't even really like, in locations we didn't want, which really scared me.  Suddenly our "little" house looked really desirable again and we just wanted to stay put!  There ended up being some complications with the closing so we kindly returned the earnest deposit, and it ended up being best for everyone involved. 

So, over the next 8 years we stayed in our home and made the best use of the space we have as our children grew and their stuff and friends got bigger.  We like to entertain and continued to do so even with limited space.  I really do love this house, and we love our neighborhood and the whole area.  

But I never really stopped looking at houses and dreaming.  Our "ideal" was still to find a larger house in our same neighborhood, or very close by.  We always felt that if we were patient then the right house for the right price would come along at the right time.  And it did.

At the end of April, the week before we were to leave the country for 2 weeks, I was out jogging around the neighborhood one morning.  As I ran by a house in our "ideal" part of the neighborhood which I had run/walked/biked/driven by at least a hundred times before I saw something different.... a for sale sign!  I had never really given this particular house a second glance, but now it certainly caught my eye now!  I didn't want to get my hopes up and assumed we probably wouldn't be able to afford it, and figured I probably wouldn't like it anyway (from the outside it wasn't "my style"), but I figured what-the-heck.  (I work hard to not get my hopes up.)

So, I called the number on the sign and went to see it about an hour later.  Investors had bought it as a short sale and had just started fixing it up in preparation to list it (they had just put up a sign that day but weren't ready to list it yet).  I could see it was a nice house but kept telling myself it wasn't my style.  But I couldn't stop thinking about it.  I told Jay about it and he rolled his eyes.  Then I suggested he go see it with me, which he did the next day.  The next day we went to see it again.... and I liked it more.  The next day I took my stylish sister with me, asking her to point out all the things that were wrong with the house and to tell me why I shouldn't want it.  Instead she told me all the wonderful things about it and I finally admitted how much I really liked it.  She asked me to list the things that were most important to me in a house.  That's when I realized it had everything I was looking for, and more.  It was true love.  

The next day I took my parents to see it, wanting my dad to give his approval... or not.  He has been in the home building business for 40 years so he knows what he is looking at and is very particular.  I was braced for his criticism of the house so I was shocked when he only said things like, "This is a really nice house.  They are doing a really nice job fixing it up."  My construction-management BIL who knows a thing or two about construction came along too and gave his approval.  I was sold.  Now I just had to convince Jay.... or so I thought.  It turns out Jay liked it too.  

By the next day the sellers had accepted our verbal offer.  The timing was terrible because we were leaving for Europe in a few days, and we knew we would have to sell our house really fast!  But I was surprisingly calm about the whole thing.  I knew that if it was meant to be that things would fall into place.  And they did.

The next day I sent out an email to some family and friends saying, "We made an offer on a house and need to sell ours fast.  Let me know if you know of anyone who might be interested."  Within an hour I had people calling me.  Someone came to look it that night.  Another person came the next morning... and came back that afternoon saying she wanted it.  The next day we signed contracts on both houses and the next day we left for Europe.  It was crazy, but everything fell into place. 

I have mixed emotions about the whole thing since this is the only home our family has known.  I'm excited about the new home we are moving to, but feeling a little sad about all the memories we are leaving behind.  Thankfully we are selling our beloved home to someone wonderful, so we know it will be in good hands.  

It's a wonderful little house and it's been good to us!  Now, on to the next chapter....