The House
Tomorrow we are closing on our refinance! When we bought this house, we acquired 2 lousy loans. We knew they were lousy at the time, but I'm not sure we realized just HOW lousy. ... Anyway, the interest rates are low right now, and one of our 2 lousy loans will go variable in November, so we thought that now would be a good time to try to refinance.
The trick, of course, was to get our house to appraise for something manageable. Because our 2 loans were lousy, we've essentially paid off nothing in 5 years. Which is ... depressing. And since we've paid off nothing, and the housing market has dropped since we bought the house, it was nowhere close to a sure bet that the house would appraise for what we needed it to appraise for. ... So we painted a little. Made things look a little nicer. And then prayed and hoped for the best.
And our house appraised $2,000 higher than we needed! Hurray! We passed the other tests, the credit scores and background checks and drug histories and Algebra tests. ... Tomorrow we sign our lives away AGAIN, but at least we'll be paying off the house. Which is something we haven't done before.
Rob's Calling
Last weekend Rob was released from the Bishopric. This has been coming for a while, and Rob and I knew it. Rob has been pretty unavailable to the Bishop, since he's been working Tuesday nights since August 2009 (Tuesday is Bishopric meeting night), and is going to be working them through December 2010.
A month or two back, Rob came home from a Sunday afternoon Bishopric meeting and said, "Today we discussed the fact that it's time to release Brother E. as Ward Mission Leader." Okay. "Tim kind of half-jokingly mentioned my name." And then it hit me. It was sure knowledge. I said, "Rob, that's your new calling." Rob said, "Yeah, I was thinking that, too." "So, did you tell the Bishop that? Did you tell him that's your new calling?" Rob said something to me about how it's not really his decision, but that he had hinted to the Bishop that he would be willing, if that call was issued.
A week or two later Bishop Tim called me for something unrelated. We're good friends, and so when he finished talking about the unrelated subject, I said, "Tim, the calling you discussed a few weeks ago, you know that's Rob's new calling." "What calling are you talking about?" he said. As if he didn't know. I told him that Rob and I both knew that Rob was supposed to be the new Ward Mission Leader, and that I thought Tim knew, too. Tim said, "Tamra, it's going to be a busy calling. Busier than the Bishopric." And I shrugged and said, "When the Lord says "go and do," you do it."
Rob's excited about the new calling, and I'm excited that he gets to sit with us at church again! The kids are also way excited about that. Miciah shouted, "FINALLY!" I guess 2 years is a long time.
Also, Rob will be able to grow his beard again. ... Actually, I haven't okayed that with Tim yet. But if he doesn't okay at least SOME beard time, he's going to have a fight on his hands.
Family Campout
The last of our Friday Family Nights in April was a family campout in the backyard. It was a perfect night for camping, but Rob said, "It's supposed to storm." I thought, "Whatever. It's gorgeous!"
Here's our backyard set up:
Notice the log on the fire. It's bigger than our fire pit!
Elijah brought it over to the fire pit all by himself, rolling it end-over-end. So we had to burn it. It burned for 6 hours.
Here's the kids, calmly getting ready for bed:
And, of course, it stormed in the middle of the night. Starting about midnight it got gusty, but not awful. Then, around 3 am it started getting REALLY gusty. And at 6 am it started pouring down rain! We ran with the kids, and all the bedding, into the house. The kids finished the morning in sleeping bags on the living room floor. And I took a nap later that day to make up for not sleeping much from 3 - 6:30 am.
Miciah
marathon
Miciah ran the Kids' Flying Pig Marathon last weekend, for the 2nd year in a row. They run 25 miles in the months coming up to the race, and then do the last mile at the marathon. It was a little weird this time, because the day of the Flying Pig was when Miciah broke her arm. Hard to believe it was a year ago. Miciah will still not jump off the swings (can you blame her?), but Elijah will! We'll tell Elijah to be careful (whatever. Like we were careful as kids), and that Miciah broke her arm that way, and he'll come back at us with, "Yeah, but I didn't break my arm." Good point.
bike
Miciah has officially learned to ride a 2-wheeler bike! She wouldn't try for a long time because she was scared. She is definitely like me: not a daredevil. It may surprise you to hear that, since I was a tomboy, but I am not, and have never been an adrenaline junkie. Danger is for idiots, i.e. boys.
Shortly after learning to ride without training wheels, she rode her bike into the dust. It was a beat-up, er, well-loved hand-me-down bike (thank you SO MUCH, Chiara!) that was really too small for her this year anyway. So we bought her a new bike.
bedroom
Also, we rearranged Miciah's room last night. I've been frustrated with her room because it's always a mess, and that's partly my fault. Her room has been 1/2 her room and 1/2 my room (it's a woodworking room turned craft room turned bedroom). I decided it was time to change that. So we moved her bed, gave her more wall space and another bookshelf. Gave her the shoe bin so she could organize her shoes (she has lots of hand-me-down shoes) (and now we have no shoe bin upstairs. But it's worth it). Put up permanent hooks so she can hang up her jackets and hats. And then cleaned.
And cleaned.
And cleaned.
About a million times she said, "Oh! THAT'S where that was!" Socks. Toys. Papers. Books. It was pathetic.
But it looks great now and I'm so happy with it!
Elijah
reading
Elijah is reading. I'm still not sure when you can say a kid is officially Reading, but he's doing really good, so I'm going to call it official.
wii
He also is very proud of himself because he beat New Super Mario Brothers wii. He did the last level all by himself because Miciah and Tank wouldn't help him. They get scared and bubble (which means they're just along for the ride, and don't help). He's been telling everyone he can all about it.
He also frequently gets grounded from the wii because he throws fits when I ask him to turn it off, etc. Surprisingly, he doesn't complain about not playing while he's grounded.
Jesus stories
A funny story about Elijah. He was at Pen's house with Tank. The 3 of them were dancing in the dust specks that you can see in the sun, when suddenly Elijah said, "Wait, guys! The dust is good. It's faith. It's Jesus."
He's been really into Jesus lately, which is great, but can get a little weird. He'll say funny things about what Jesus is or where he is or whatever. ... But sometimes he's so in touch with the goodness that is Jesus Christ, and it's inspiring to me. He went to a Primary activity focused on Jesus Christ and prophets and when he came home I said, "Did you like the activity, Elijah?" He said, in an awe-filled voice, "I LOVED it. We learned about Jesus Christ."
His latest question about Jesus Christ is, "How can he be alive if he died? And how is he alive if he's in Heaven?" Good, good questions. Most people, after all, are dead when they die, and if they're in Heaven, that means they're dead, too. I'm glad he's asking the questions.
Tank
Tank is ... grumpy lately. And hasn't been eating much of anything. I don't know what that's about, but whatever.
bike
He graduated to a new bike at the same time Miciah did. He only had a little trike (also a hand-me-down. Thank you, generous people who love us!), and he was too big for it, but we were pretending not to notice. But when we went to the store to get Miciah her new bike, he saw a bike just his size and Rob let him ride it in the store. Which means you have to buy it. Is there a parent who lets their kid ride the bike at the store and then walks out of said store without said bike? Tank kept saying, "Look! I can ride it!" "It fits me!" and "Look at me ride my bike!"
It was late when we got home, so the next morning he got up and said, "Put on my shoes, Mom. I'm ready to ride my bike!" He loves it.
Oh. If you're wondering how it worked to take 3 kids to the store and give 2 kids a bike, ... At the store Elijah said, "What do I get?" I told him that he didn't need a bike, and that's true. He has a great little bike that fits him perfectly. He was okay with not getting a bike. He proposed getting a $25 Hot Wheels set instead. I said no. Then I saw a bubble wand for the perfect price of $1. I said, "What about this bubble wand?!" And Elijah was thrilled. Love the boy. He really doesn't keep tally. If it had been 6-year-old Miciah walking out without a bike, we would have had a MAJOR fit on our hands.
Rob is Home!
Rob came home last night to find 3 hyper-excited children. They jumped all over him and talked non-stop. You'd think he was gone for weeks. But it's cute how much they love their daddy.
He came home with gifts for all of them. None were Baltimore-centered because, ... it's Baltimore, blah. At first he pulled out his Immunology conference book and said, "This is for Teancom!" and Tank lowered his head and groaned. It was hilarious! Actually Tank got a bath toy. It's a battery-operated motor boat. It's pretty cool. AND it got Tank to take a bath. That's something he hasn't been keen on doing lately.
Elijah got a boomerang. After playing with it outside, and even though he didn't get it to come back to him, he ran inside and said, "Mom! It's awesome!"
Miciah and I got these itty-bitty shirts:
Seriously, don't those look like doll shirts? They're called Popcorn shirts. ...
They're fun shirts.
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