The Second Half of March!

You'll be shocked to hear that the second half of March was also busy!  Real plot twist there, I know!  And it wasn't all fun, I'm afraid.  Like when I opened the curtains in Bentley's room and realized we had a real problem:

Nope, I'm not going to make this any bigger for you.  Just know: those are bugs.  And there are too many of them to ignore.

After some research, we learned that we have carpet beetles.  I think they were attracted to Scooter's feathers and the fact that our deck lights were plugged in through that window, so it was never shut super tight so it was easy for them to get in.  Anyway, since that picture we have pulled all the furniture away and cleaned so much and had the house treated by a professional.  I think they're all gone now.  But it was so gross and upsetting.  The only thing that could ever convince me to live in somewhere freezing like Siberia would be if you could convince me I would be done dealing with insects.  {Shudder, tremble}

Anyway, that was a thing I really didn't have time to deal with, but what can you do?

In happier news, our ward youth spent an evening doing yard work at the Sellers' house.  I don't really do yard work, so I always feel useless at stuff like this, but I LOVED seeing all the kids pitch in and get so much done.  They were awesome.  It warmed my heart.

The teenage boys are usually pretty excited for a chance on the rider mower!  This was less fun when Bentley realized he'd lost phone and we were wandering all around it searching for it!  Fortunately Craig's phone locator found it pretty quickly! 😅

Colton and Gideon had fun playing with Cole!

Right after this, our tenants moved out of our townhouse and we basically did everything wrong trying to find a new tenant.  I'm recording it here so hopefully I won't make the same mistakes again in the future.  As soon as we knew they were leaving, Craig listed it on Zillow.  This didn't work well because suddenly I was being inundated with requests to see it, but our tenants were still there, so I couldn't show it yet.  So I was just putting everyone off.  I finally agreed to let people see it as soon as they'd left, but that was also a mistake, because I hadn't had time to deep clean it yet.  I mean-- they'd left it in really good shape, but there's always a certain amount of grime that builds up (and honestly, they were so desperate for a home since theirs had burned down, that I'm not sure I'd really cleaned it properly when they moved in!).  So people came to see it, but it just felt kind of dingy, so no one wanted it, go figure.  It didn't help that there were a bunch of brand new townhouses listed for the same price, and while I think ours has some great perks that really increase its value (large bedrooms, a lovely green space behind it, pets being allowed), when it feels dirty it really can't compete with brand new!

I did finally find some time to go and begin really cleaning it.  So much time spent vacuuming, mopping, and wiping everything down with rags.  But it's amazing what a little elbow grease can do for a place and all that work really made a huge difference.  And then Craig put in even more work painting the upstairs bathroom, fixing some track doors that weren't closing properly, mulching around the front yard, and painting the deck.  All that made a huge difference, too!

But by the time we'd done a lot of that stuff, it was like we'd lost all momentum on the place.  Oh-- part of that also might have been because we left town for a week in the middle of it all, too!  Yes, we decided to actually go somewhere for spring break!  We decided this and spent money on it all before we knew that this would be an issue and that we'd have the worst timing in the world.  But what could we do?

So yes, everything was a mess.  I spent a ton of time while we were on vacation fielding inquiries only for all of those people to find a place before I could get back and show them ours.  (And in case you were wondering, our vacation will get its own post!)

The good news, even if it should be in an April post, is that we did finally find a new renter and I think they'll be really great.  So that was THE biggest relief.  I'm not someone who tends to be super anxious, but I actually had one day where I felt sick all day and I think it was actually because I was so stressed out about this.  It was a ride.  Not a particularly fun one.

But there was a TON of other fun stuff also going on at the same time.  We had a ward game night all planned.  I only got to stop by for a few minutes before I had to dash off to a different church building to watch a production of The Taming of the Shrew put on by the homeschoolers in our stake (which included four or five kids from our ward, and I like to support our YW in their extracurricular activities whenever I can).  I have to admit, I was kind of nervous about what I was getting myself into with this, but they did a really great job.  It was 80's themed and they made it all really funny.  Perfect!  But I was still sad to miss our ward game night, especially when I saw how the Gaskins had decked themselves out for it:

I don't think any amount of money would convince Craig to dress like that!  😂

And then, later that same night, Rachael and Ian and their four kids all arrived for a visit!  (And yes, I'd spent that day cleaning our house rather than the townhouse in preparation for their arrival!)

As always, I worked super hard convincing London that I was her favorite aunt.  Look at the fun we're having!

How cute is London?

Ian went with Craig to the townhouse to get a little work done on it, while Rachael and I just enjoyed hanging out.  And then that evening we put her kids to bed, left Bentley in charge, and the grown ups went out for Indian food at Kanak and then saw a very late showing of Dune 2, which was awesome.  But getting up for church the next morning was brutal!  Still-- I sure enjoy getting some grown up time when we aren't constantly being interrupted.  And it was fun to have an excuse to see the movie since I really wanted to see it in theaters!

Church was good, even if we were tired.  It was fun sending my kids to primary with their cousins! 

I'm always very impressed with Rachael's commitment to getting everyone matching for church.  I think I would have a nervous breakdown if I'd tried such a feat...!

The next morning Rachael's kids hugged their cousins good-bye as they were leaving for school.

Bentley with Harrison, Nolan, and Clayton

We sure appreciated their willingness to drive all the way here to visit us!  

The next weekend, Colton and Camille got invited to hang out their friends' farm, which meant I got these cute pictures:

Lambs!!!

Man, this makes me wish we had a farm!

I think on the same day that they were at the farm, we were getting our house all cleaned up so I could host a game night for the youth in our ward while Craig took the deacons to the temple.  The deacons had invited anyone who wanted to join them along, so there are a few teachers and one priest mixed into this picture!

The rest of the youth were all at my house and they seemed to have a good time!  There was a lot of air hockey and at least one nerf war.  And I enjoyed hanging out with the two Megan H'ses in our ward (Megan Huff and Megan Hunsaker), so it was a win all around!

At some point, Kendra had her indoor drumline community showcase and we had so many people come to support her, it made me so happy!!!  Here you can see Grandma and Grandpa, and members of the Rawlins, Huff, Creasy, Anderson-Groves, Wiggins, and Hernandez family!  How great is that?

And then finally on Saturday our ward had an Easter egg hunt for the primary kids

we spent the entire time shopping and packing because tomorrow was Easter Sunday and right after we'd found our Easter baskets and gone to church, and taken a ward picture for reasons that aren't worth explaining here...  After all of that 

the Smith clan was piling into our van and driving to...  Orlando!!!  

It was spring break, baby!!!

The First Half of March

Okay, time to get caught up...!  There was no school on March 5th because of the primaries (no, I'm not even going there), so we tried to go kayaking with Adam.  It turned out to be kind of cold and gloomy, but everyone had fun anyway!  Bonus-- we finally used the two free kids' kayaks and paddles I'd gotten!  We also learned that Ryder is already too big for those little kayaks, and he ended up with a very wet butt after sitting in one!  He wasn't too happy about that-- like I said, it was pretty cold-- but cheered up quite a bit once he got to use one of the bigger kayaks.  Adam was also very generous with his paddle board, so that was fun to watch people try and occasionally wobble precariously on!  No one actually fell in, which was a good thing, even if it was a little disappointing to us spectators!  

Ryder definitely preferred the paddle board!

Colton takes a relaxing nap

Craig looks so forlorn here, but I promise he wasn't actually sad!

Seriously, how cute is this girl?

Camille with her friend Noelle on her birthday (and Noelle's big sister, Nina)

That night, for youth group, we had Southern Virginia University's a capella group, Accolade, come and perform for us!  They were so fun and everyone enjoyed hearing them!

Their beatboxer is named Colton (!) and his family lives in our ward now, so he did a little bit where he showed the kids the basics of beatboxing and then asked Topher, who also beatboxes, to come and jam with him and they were AWESOME together-- I was so impressed!

They started by just doing a much of their songs straight through-- I think it was a nice chance for them to practice, but dang, they were good!

And here they are with our ward-- what a great group!

Two days later, my parents came to visit us!  They'd been up in Ohio for Rachael's oldest son's baptism, and then we were their next stop.  What made this an extra special visit, was they just happened to be here for my choir concert.  I was already excited that they could actually come to one of my concerts (although they are great about livestreaming them from home!), and then my Mom asked if this was our "Together in Song" Concert (it was) and if that meant she could sing with the choir, too.  OF COURSE SHE COULD!!!  So she was one of over 70 community members who joined us for the second half of the concert.  And that was SO FUN FOR ME!  It meant we got to stand singing together for both the 3-hour Saturday morning practice together and the concert.  (We also spent a long time on Friday going over the music, which was really good practice for me, as well!  😂)  What a fun, happy thing to get to do with my Mom, all those years after she spent hours and hours driving me to and from voice lessons!

There's me when just my choir is first getting on the stage

Here's my choir plus the community singers-- what a huge group!!!  If you zoom in close enough to find me, you can also see my Mom standing to my left!

We were doing some fantastic music-- did you know that the traditional "Here Comes the Bride" song is by Wagner???  We were singing it in German, so that was exciting.  And a couple Italian numbers you're probably familiar with-- Va pensiero and the Bell Chorus from Pagliacci.  (What a delightful happy song for such a sad opera!)  We did the opening prelude from Sweeney Todd (and I've been listening to the new Josh Groban recording ever since-- so great!), and a mash up of "You'll Never Walk Alone" from Carousel with "Climb Ev'ry Mountain" from The Sound of Music.  And then, as if that wasn't all amazing enough, we ended with "One Day More" from Les Miserables.  It was an incredible concert and I was so happy to have my Mom there with me, and Craig and most of the kids (poor Kendra had a competition) and Dad and Tom and Donna all smiling at my in the audience.  Truly a delightful way to spend another gloomy, rainy (and cold!) spring day!

The following day, Sunday, we had all our usual church meetings, and then the youth had a fireside that night.  The great thing was, with my parents here, I could leave Colton and Camille home and not keep them up super late like we tend to do all the time now.  The bad news was that I was in charge of leading the discussion for the fireside, something I was excited to do, but had not realized it would be the same weekend as my concert and my parents' visit when I volunteered for that date.  That was a LOT for me for one weekend.  I ended up talking about dopamine, drawing a lot from this YouTube video.  I was pretty nervous about the whole thing, and when I would notice the occasional kid not paying attention it made me feel like I was doing a terrible job, but Craig assured me after the fact that it had gone great.  He's much more used to dealing with other people's teenagers than I am, so I'll take his word for it.  I was glad to have it all over with!

I wanted to get to show off our beautiful temple to my parents while they were here, so we went on a gorgeous warm morning-- and they loved it, too, which made me so happy!  We were able to spend some time wandering around admiring the artwork and stained glass windows and just how beautiful the interior is.  It was a really lovely way to spend a morning.  (And lunch at Chuy's afterwards was pretty great, too!)

The same day we went to the temple was also...  Colton's birthday!!!

He wanted to help decorate his cake

And did a great job!  (I did the writing-- he got to do the velociraptor)

Speaking of dinosaurs, he was thrilled with this amazing lego set from two of his aunts!

Colton had requested that we eat at Mission BBQ for his birthday, so even though I was still pretty full from Chuy's, I made the sacrifice and ate a bunch of ribs.  In honor of my son's birth, obviously!  And then that evening, once the little kids were in bed, I brought Mom and Dad to Kendra's indoor drumline practice so they could see what that was all about.  I had no concept of this until watching it, so it was fun to see their eyes be opened to just how cool it is!  It's especially fun because the group has almost tripled in numbers since last year (33 students, as opposed to 12 last year!)-- and while they worked really hard last year and did a great job, it's just more impressive when you've got a larger group all making noise together!

My parents left the next morning, heading to Leah's house next.  I took Colton with me to drop them off at the airport and then we went straight to his check up.  And once I'd taken him to school, I think I took a long nap!

The following day, Friday, was a Young Women's temple trip.  We were missing a few girls, and somehow everyone ended up in different cars, which didn't really vibe with my vision of this being a great bonding experience, but what can you do?  I try.

Madeline, Liberty, Teagan, Kendra, Marianne, Lilyann, Ember, Lydia, and Julie.  (We're missing Ella and Violet, who left as soon as we were finished, and the Bowes girls, who didn't come...)

Here you can see the girls better!

This is terrible on every level, but I wanted one with the participating Smiths and the angel Moroni!

The next day we celebrated Colton's birthday with Tom and Donna by getting lunch at Tip Top Diner, opening presents, and then having Krispy Kreme doughnuts.  Colton knows how to celebrate!

More legos!

Nice photobombing by Camille there...

A lot of green doughnuts since the following day was St. Patrick's Day!

Sunday was a much more restful day, with Kendra and I sitting out on the deck watching the sunset and chatting for a good long while.  I have to remember that occasionally I just put my feet up and spent time with my kids...

... because things were about to get even crazier!

March Just About Did Us In. But in a Good Way?

Craig and I both agreed that this past March won the award for us getting the absolute least amount of sleep, definitely since we had newborns to take care of, and possibly ever!  What a thing to brag about!  It was a whirlwind of so much fun stuff like visitors, and extra youth activities, and Easter, and getting ready for our spring break travels (and trying to get the condo fixed up and rented out to new tenants-- that part is less fun)...  

And I am just so exhausted.  I have so much to tell you about.  And I'm honestly really excited to get it all written down before I can forget too much!  But I still need to find that tenant (and probably do some painting-- or rather make Craig do some painting) and I haven't gone to my job in several weeks, so this might not be the week that I manage to catch up on the old blog.  (Or, as I think of it in my head-- Ye Olde Blogge.)

But I will get to it eventually.  I promise.  I haven't quit blogging.  I will tell you all about our various and sundry activities very soon.  Stay tuned.

Another February in the Books

I'm always so relieved when February is over.  We did it!  We survived even though we had an extra day thrown at us!  Good job, team!  And even though it won't be green around here for another month or so, it's warmed up enough to trick the odd cherry blossom tree into blooming early.  There are a few daffodils with more getting ready, and the hyacinth I planted by the garage is opening up.  Today I could open my bedroom windows while I fold laundry (and there's no pollen yet).  It's enough for me.

Meanwhile, here are some other things we've been up to...

In Young Womens, we had a "progressive painting party," meaning we put up paper all over the walls and let the girls paint on them, and then every five minutes they'd rotate to the next paper and add to what was already there.  They had a lot of fun and made some pretty goofy artwork.

For Christmas Kendra gave me this picture of Taylor Swift's house in Rhode Island, Holiday House.  She wrote the song "The Last of the Great American Dynasty" about it and it's a great song with one of my favorite lines, "She had a marvelous time ruining everything."  Is it weird that I sort of want that on my tombstone?  Except not really.  I hope I'm not actually that person.  (I might be that person.)  It took me forever, but I finally found the perfect frame for it and hung it in our powder room on the main floor.  And I LOVE it there!  (These pictures are not doing the colors justice.  The wall is the same minty green color as our kitchen, but the lighting is making it look sickly.  Trust me, the real version looks way better!)

Normally I hate stuff that the school makes me go to, but a couple weeks ago they announced that the 3rd graders would be folk dancing for us.  A gym full of dancing 9-year-olds?  YES, PLEASE!  We even got to get up and learn some of their dances!  This is my kind of activity.  It was great.  Wonderful job, music teachers!

Lining up to do the Virginia reel

Do-si-do-ing with Mara like a couple champs!

They had a stake Relief Society activity a couple Saturdays ago.  It's exactly the sort of thing I would rather stay in bed and skip, but I had to be up taking Kendra to indoor drumline anyway, and I feel a deep need to be supportive of Christine (who I worked with a couple callings ago but who is STILL the stake RS president!!!).  So off I went!  I ended up carpooling with friends, so that made the ride to Waynesboro much more enjoyable.  Then they had yummy food and I opted to take the yoga class, which was fantastic.  My version of doing yoga is usually just a 20-minute video on YouTube, so doing a full hour session was really great.  Although I wished I hadn't put myself at the front of everyone-- I much prefer hiding my extremely tight and inflexible hamstrings!

This photo stretched things weird so our instructor looks like she's got 10-foot long arms!  😂
I'm front and center on my purple mat that I bought back in Manassas when Jen de Reus would do yoga classes at the church, before Vangie took over and turned it into a workout class!  Wow, that was a long time ago!  (It also explains why my mat is suddenly falling apart.  It's lasted a long time, actually!)

After yoga, I sat studying up on my Shakespeare until Craig could come and pick me up, and then we drove to Staunton to see the Blackfriars Playhouse's presentation of Julius Caesar, which was excellent.  I also have tickets for Kendra and I to see their production of Pride and Prejudice in May and now I'm even more excited for that!  But-- I don't understand how these actors can put on three different plays (they're also doing A Midsummer Night's Dream) all at the same time!  How do they keep all their lines straight???

When we left the theater it was snowing (!!!) and all I had was a sweater!  Fortunately we were just grabbing a quick (cheap) meal at the fanciest Cook-Out I've ever seen and then heading to Coldstone in Charlottesville, where it was just cold and rainy.  And then we returned home to our youngest kids who were being babysat by Tom and Donna.  Kendra was at her first drumline competition and Bentley had been working all day.  

And then this last Saturday we finally got to eat at the Melting Pot to celebrate Kendra and Camille's birthdays!  It was delicious, of course, and we had the best time!  Thank you for such a fun evening, Tom and Donna!

Craig and I were looking at our planners last night trying to make sure we knew everything that was going on and my goodness, but March is going to be busy!  A lot of fun, for sure, but insane.  So if you don't hear from me for a few weeks, consider yourself warned!