Our Iowa Backyard

When we set about landscaping our yard back in the spring on 2000, we wanted to create our own little garden of Eden--lush plants, privacy, and beauty.And I suppose that would mean peaceful animals as well.

We knew that deer occasionally visited--there were tracks and other "sign" left behind, as well as the eaten-off bushes, plants and the missing buds of trees. But we've never seen the deer out in the middle of the day.  The mulberries must be tasty, for this doe keeps coming back.  These pictures were at 3 pm.  And she is unafraid.  

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Sturgis Falls, and other details...

And what do muffins have to do with Sturgis Falls' celebration?

Just time proximity--in trying to use up all the bottled jars downstairs, I've become quite creative.

I've found out that my hummingbird muffin recipe works very nicely with

a jar of Grandma Bailey's apple pie filling. 

The muffins are moist, with chunks of apple--almost like a dessert! 

 The laptop doesn't have anything to do with Sturgis Falls either, but it is a new aquisition to ease the travel time until we are set up in our new home, and with the computer, now I can still do genealogy and email in the meantime!  Finding out which one to buy was confusing.  Too many choices and too much information! It is taking some getting used to, but I'm happy with it.  (It has a very sensitive mousepad!)

Along with the laptop, it was time to get a new printer.  I diligently looked in Consumer Reports for the one that would cost the least in ink usage.  Our last printer cost $65, but the ink cartridges cost $35 each, and we went through 2-3 a year.  (and we never used color ink).  So we ended up with a really BIG printer--gasp!
However, it is also a copier, and we've already used that feature.  The $35 ink cartridge is supposed to do 2200 pages.  I'm sure that is an optimistic number--after all how many cars actually get the listed gas mileage?  Do printers live up to their listed output?  Still, this will be vastly better, and very convenient!  And, it barely fits in the alotted space.  Oh, and it's wireless.  Nice!

And now we get to Sturgis Falls!  Alice and Elley have been clogging since March 1st, (with me!), and their group was selected to perform in the Talent Show, on the stage of the band shell at Overman park.  The talents were so varied--guitar-playing, mini-skirted blonde girls; hip hop dancing guys; a harpist, pianists, and other vocalists.  How would the judges make their decision?  But our clogging group had great music and a good routine.

Well, the harpist won, and the cloggers came in second (and won $100!).  The hip hoppers (who were really good) came in third.  We were so surprised!  2nd was actually the best outcome, as the winner goes to the State Fair to compete--in August--and we wouldn't be here to participate.

And Sturgis Falls is just so much fun.   The smells of the funnel cakes.  Eating a smoked turkey leg (actually, sharing it amongst us because it is so big!).  Watching people.  Sitting in lawn chairs, or on blankets. And this year, we had cool, comfortable weather.  Yeah!

And the move continues...

Today, the missionaries moved out.

They moved in with a woman in the ward whose husband passed away a few months ago,

and who is really happy to have someone else in the home,

especially at night.

We're sorry to see them go, but in a couple of weeks, there won't be a spot for them here.

As you can see, the garage is full of things to give away.

As we continue to sort out and make decisions, we've found that we have a lot more

stuff than we really need.  So we're condensing and discarding.

One thing we had to make sure we had a record of was the bedroom door with

all the family pencil marks for height,

starting at the bottom with Jane, and continuing up through Alastair, Marta, Emma, Brenna, Connor, and our children.  Even Lily has her height marked on that door.

And now it has all been transferred to some computer sheets that are attached.

And for Catherine's benefit, here are some pics of the finished dining room.

With flash...

 ...and without.

Our update:

The contract has been signed; things are finally moving forward--though the formal announcement STILL has not been made.  So really, we still should not be telling anyone--but that's hard to do when we're hoping the truck will be here to pack us in 2 weeks.  This is getting more and more real!

I have a hard time going back to sleep if I wake up in the night

because of the adrenaline surge that comes as I begin to think of all that still needs to happen.

We've decided on a different school for the girls--they won't need uniforms after all.

They also will probably have an hour commute on a nice bus (a dedicated tour-type school bus).

Poor girls--they'll have laptops (Mac books), so they could do homework,

read, sleep, text, etc., while on their commute. 

We found out the other school had lost a lot of high school students, so all that are left (about 7-8 students per grade) are Koreans who ignore the English-only rule and stay together in a group.

That would not be very fun for the girls--especially Elizabeth as a senior!  

Kevin has been looking for a place for us, but so far it's the typical "good location/bad house" or bad location/good house".  There is a nice house with a tiny yard, but it would be a long commute for Kevin, and to do any shopping, I'd have to use the driver (which I am loathe to do, though I know it will be necessary at least some of the time).

Or there is an apartment, close to work and within walking 

distance to all kinds of shopping, but it's a dump.

Literally.

So we're still looking.

I went to the temple this past Friday with some women from the ward, and suddenly realized that I might not see the inside of the Nauvoo Temple for 3 years.  I will REALLY miss it!   I have so enjoyed sessions there, as well as being able to help clean when our ward has the assignment.

Being able to vacuum those rooms when no one else is around is pretty special.

A Fantastic Saturday!

Clogging is taking us places!  Like an audition for the Bill Riley Talent Show associated with the Sturgis Falls celebration.   Fortunately for the audience, the cut-off age was 21--and the moms in our group were happy with that.  We love clogging too, but we're not quite ready for prime time. 

 The audition was at Lincoln school, and the kids were great.  Lots of energy.  And they look like they've been at this a lot longer than 3 months.  (We started on March 1st).

Can't wait to hear if they got in or not!

Then we were off to Nauvoo.  

After taking in one of the shows done by the young performing 

missionaries (and they were very good!),

we performed baptisms.  

It is so nice being in the temple with a good group of youth.

And I had about 25 names to do.  A & E each had 8 females and Jacob Fagersten did the male names.  

 Then it was a picnic supper of hoagies, cookies, chips, etc.  

The weather was superb--dry, 70 degrees.

We finished eating just in time for "Sunset at the Mississippi", 

which is on the stage where "City of Joseph" used to be performed. 

I could seriously see myself as one of those older missionaries! 

I'd be happy to put on some goofy costume for the melodramatic skit,

or dance to a hoe down,

or sing some silly song about mustaches.  And I'm sure I could tell 

all about the bakery or the gun shop or one of the other locations.

Some of the skits were so hilarious--my jaw hurt from laughing.

And it was SO good to laugh.  

I've been taking life too seriously the past couple of weeks.

And to top off the night,

the BYU Folk Dancers performed.

 It was unfortunate that we still had to drive home afterwards, 

because A & E were right in their element.

They got out their clogging shoes and jammed with some of the dancers.

They talked to the band members (who were all really nice).

Elley is really beginning to look forward to college next year!

Now she just has to decide if she wants to be in the band 

or one of the dancers!  

Both girls now have high aspirations.  And that's good.

The day finally had to come to an end,

and we got home about 1:30 a.m. 

It was REALLY nice that we had afternoon church!

We are going to miss Nauvoo...

And it's ALMOST official!

    Yesterday was the last day of school--and still no announcement.  If A & E had agreed to this adventure just so they could have the pleasure of a bit of fame at school, well, that certainly didn't happen.  However, the last two days, other students came up to A & E and asked if we were moving to China.  What?!?  Where did that come from?
    Kevin talked with his boss and remarked about those comments--and that the information didn't come from us!--and his boss said whether people know or not won't affect anything.  The papers still are not signed (but hopefully will be before Kevin leaves for China--otherwise he won't be able to arrange housing), and although it would be nice to have a big announcement and all, it is now alright to tell people that ... 

yes, we might be moving to China!

    There has been at least one nice side-effect of this delay, and that is that we have a few more days before the house will go on the market, so the pace of getting ready isn't quite so frantic.  It is one thing to have the house looking good.  It is another thing to have all the contents inventoried and sorted as to what goes with us, what goes to storage, what goes to Goodwill Industries and what goes in the garbage.  It's rather a cathartic experience, when taken at a decent pace.  I'm afraid my decisions would not be the wisest if made under a time pressure.  And if all goes well, the house will be ready to show AND to pack up.  I really don't want to have to do the one and then go back and do the other.

The A & E Spring Recital

The recital went on as planned on Friday evening, 

even though the girls 

weren't able to announce the REAL reason for it.

They had wanted it to be a farewell party. 

Elley painted a picture of the two of them

to display. (It looks a little different in real life)

 We held it at the church's cultural hall because 

we thought there might 

be too many for our home, and there were.

The only problem was--summer humidity moved in last week, 

and EVERY piano in the building was out of tune.  

The show went on although the piano accompaniment 

sounded a bit like it should have been in a honky-tonk saloon.

Alice's piano teacher had graciously

offered to accompany them.  She has really been a great teacher.

There were ward members and school friends.

It was brief (about a half-hour), enjoyable, and then people stayed 

another 45 minutes having 

refreshments--root beer floats--and chatting.

It was a success!

And "Spring Cleaning" Continues...

All I can say is, good thing we kept a bunch of boxes from past moves!

 We've decluttered,

 reduced and organized,

and removed family pictures.

And now, the hallway is done,  

 as is the living room, the master bathroom,

 and the downstairs TV room.  Four rooms down, 11 to go.

We had a home inspection done, and the guy was pretty picky.  But that's good.

Kevin has been going down the list and fixing every concern or note that he had.

Including replacing some grout.  Unfortunately, the grout has discolored over the years,

so he also had to discolor it!

We did a radon test this week, and have been trying to have everything done that we can do, up to this point.

We've taken the minivan loaded to the landfill twice.

We've taken two full loads to Goodwill.

We took the old typewriter and two bikes to a vintage shop.

And the garage is still half full of stuff to store or give away.

We need to do real spring cleaning more often !!