September Sorrow

I got a call on September 4 from Katie, the selling agent for our home from Richmond American. They had decided not to build the Villages at Farmington Greens-the section where we were buying. Apparently, the developer had yanked them around so much as to finishing dates and was now asking for more money that they decided not to continue developing this area of the neighborhood. It was horrible, horrible news. We were offered other communities to build with a discount and they were still going to build the larger homes at Farmington Greens, but they only had one rambler which they could offer at $300k down from $319k. Not a big enough discount, I'm afraid. Ultimately, the other communities offered just weren't what we were looking for and we decided to do all we could to stay at Farmington Greens. We talked of putting a different house plan in the community, but it was a little tricky because any floor plan that is to be built there cannot have a basement due to the high water tables. The house we were going to build wasn't even on option now because it was designed with the garage on the back of the house (as were the rest of the houses on that street-there was to be a road in the back to get to the garages.) After the news, we took a drive about a week later to see what we could see in that same area; to find another house to build. We didn't find anything at all. We came home and I crawled onto Rick's lap with my frustration and sorrow spilling out in tears and in words, "I WANT THAT HOUSE!!" The house plan we picked, the Harvard, seemed so perfect for us. The neighborhood seemed so perfect. The commuting was perfect. Why??!! Why??!! Why??!! *sigh* Remember how we weren't 'jubileeing' about 'our house'. Well, I failed. I already had put my heart into it and now it was breaking because of it. I imagined living in that house and I shouldn't have. How can they do this you might ask? Good question. My question, too. Even though we were in contract with Richmond American, apparently the operative clause in this situation was that they were 'pre-selling' the lots. So, I guess this is how they can get out of it all. The lots they are putting the bigger houses on, they actually own and so that is where Katie was trying to put a new home for us. We had a speck of hope a little later when Katie told us they were seeing if they could get other house plans approved. They still had to involve the developer in the decisions as he is considered the HOA at this point. I felt hopeful with this news. So we waited. Finally, she told us that there was one plan that was initially a part of this community and then it was decided not to include it, so essentially it was 'approved' and it was the only one to fit on this particular lot in the col-de-sac. Yet, she had to get back to us on pricing. It was a split-level design and really...it was kind of pathetic. Rick, I found out, abhors split-levels and upon looking further at the floorplan...it was completely pathetic and not practical for our needs. We decided to ask for our earnest money back and despite my love for this community, I felt that it was the right decision. But upon asking for it, in rolled another option from Katie. Now, I have to admit, I felt a little 'played', (can anyone reeeaaallly trust a realtor??) but perhaps she was being the "sweet, promising-to-find-a-solution-Katie" that she was touting to be. Although we pretty much loved the layout, again, unfortunately, the home wouldn't work. The price was too high and we had to decline. There has been 'talk around the town' that the real estate market is heading for a downslide and how, actually, we are in a good position in the near future to possibly get a house at a lower price. I (we) can hope. Perhaps I should have known that things weren't going to work out with our plans for this house; I realized I hadn't seen a red robin bird. My father, who passed away in 1995, was very musical. He was a talented organist and used to play for rollerskating rinks way, way back in the day. And he seemed to have a song for everything in life. I remember him singing, "The little red robin goes bop, bop boppin' along...". At times in my life when I am worried about something, I sometimes physically see a red robin and it makes me feel like he is there watching over me, assuring me that everything is going to be okay. Or even just when life is going on as usual, I see a red robin and it feels like he is there with me. But, alas, I didn't see a little red-breasted bird this time around. We did have to laugh to ourselves, though, and called it a 'sign', if you will, of what our street appeared to be named, Mare Drive. Cali with her little creative mind made up some silly saying for Carice by saying to her, "Mare Hare Hare, Tilly!" (who knows why) But, we laughed and said we were going to live on "Mare Hare Hare Drive". Well... what can I say. For now we still strive for the American Dream...hoping one day we will catch that infernal dangling carrot. I suppose if I ever do catch that carrot, I'll need a working refrigerator to keep it well and fresh. No thanks to this %$#&(@ townhouse fridge! Blast! Also on September 4 is when the 'garage fridge' made its appearance yet again. We finally just had maintance bring it in as a permanant fixture of our home and let the other fridge be on its merry way. The garage fridge is smaller, but at least it keeps the milk and butter at the right temperature.

I'm not sure how many more blogs you will read that will have photos of Cali. She is 'anti-picture' lately; she runs away when the camera comes out. She is self-conscious of her smile. I hope she changes her mind. I don't care if she smiles just so...I just want pictures of her life! :) She had a great check-up with Dr. Price. Home therapy seems to have fallen off the daily schedule, but we still need to so some each day if we can. Her latest patching schedule is 30 minutes a day for each eye,(along with a few other activities) which makes sure each eye is strong independantly, but we want to make sure her eyes (brain) can take images and fuse them into one (if she is seeing double). It's been kind of hard to tell (hard to ask her considering her age) if she is seeing two images when her right eye deviates or if she is suppressing (turning that eye 'off'). But she has come extremely far with 'push-ups'. This is an eye activity where you take a pen light (we just use a Crayola marker) and watch the end of it as you bring it in close to your nose. She is able now to pull that right eye in like her left eye (go a little cross-eyed) as she really hasn't been able to do in the past. It is amazing to see such progress. And progress that she is able to maintain day after day. I thought it was such a break-through! Way to go, Cal :o) We have been looking at a few preschools for her to attend, but didn't find one that seemed to work out just right. So, she is home with me for the time being. Finally, a thought came to me...with one or two months of tuition we would pay to a preschool, I could take that and buy some organizing supplies and more toys like dress up clothes and start a playgroup. I'm not really worried about Cali academically, she knows how to read and can even do simple math. I think she would just enjoy having friends to play with on a regular schedule. I also thought, though, that I would include a little school at the end of the play time with perhaps sitting on a colorful parachute and having story time, and the next week work on a letter of the alphabet or a number just so she could get the feeling of school a little bit. I really do need one more psychodelic paint splotch on my palette of things to do, right??!! But...you do all you can for your kids. It's just a mother's lot ;)




We celebrated Carice's birthday on October 15 with cake and presents and family. She didn't dive in to the cake as some kids do, but maybe its because she had a scary/sorrowful moment just before; she touched the flame on the candle. Okay...Parenting 101...never have an open flame by a one year old!! Yeesh! She took just one curious second with the candle, but thankfully, it didn't burn her, so maybe she didn't actually touch it. I tried to knock her hand out of the way. Maybe I got there in time. We even have the whole scary incident on video, but it's hard to tell for sure!! Sorry, Sweet Love! *good grief, they are gonna come and take me away!* As gifts, she got a couple books that also play music (two things she loves), some nesting/stacking toys and a baby. She still loves babies :) And not to mention gifts from last month of clothes, clothes, clothes from Gramma Shelly and Grandpa Steve, Aunt Steph and Uncle Nate and Aunt Mary and girls, Taylor and Brooke, too! It's so nice when the essential are given! :) She found a love for Care Bears, too. They are actually Cali's bears, but ya gotta love hand-me-down stuff. And she weathered another cold. This one didn't last for too long, but it was a nasty congested one. The kind where she couldn't breathe and suck on ther bottle at the same time. (I hate to watch that!) And she and Cali harvested this month a small decorative, yet real pumpkin from our little pumpkin patch across the street from our house. We found out through a neighbor girl that it was there and that the tenant that used to live in that corner unit planted them. Well, sure enough, the pumpkin vines, big dark green leaves and little orange pumpkins were growing and flowing out of the flower garden. It was really neat, we didn't even know it was there. Oue cute orange pumpkins are a little bright spot in what started out as a rather dismal month, to say the least. I love the fall season...it is my favorite time of year.

Aaaaa!!! & Aahhh's of August

"I'm gonna go get some milk, I'll see you later." No, I wasn't getting into the black box and taking a trip to the grocery store. Our refrigerator stopped getting as cold as it should and I was heading to the garage! We got a 'loaner fridge' from management and I guess I should be grateful for that. It's crazy trying to live without a fridge at your fingertips! Actually, we've been dealing with this since last month, I think. The first time it happened, Gramma Shelly and Aunt Diana just happen to be south of the valley when I called in desperation for someone to bring me bags of ice as my food was setting on the counters and the maintenance men were gone from sight! (I didn't have a car that day). I ended up dumping out plastic toy bins and making make-shift coolers. I think we've had that loaner twice now and visits from a tech to try and fix our freaky fridge. It seems to be repaired now, but I don't want to give up that garage fridge until I know for sure! And weird enough, you kinda of get used to and get in the habit of going to the garage! Yeesh! It's been an up and down (and an 'in and out') month, I tell ya! Maybe our new house will have the perfect running fridge.

We have our own little corner of the world in Davis County. They have the streets in and have trenches dug for power and phone. Looks like there will be a church in walking distance. It was fun to go visit 'our dirt'. We took lots of photos for posterity. It will be fun to look back and see the first phases of development and how young the girls were when this all started in years to come.

Cali was enjoying her swimming lessons, but infortunately we had to stop going to the Draper Pool. At the end of about the 3rd lesson, I was gathering up little sis and all our stuff and heading over to the edge of the pool only to not find Cali. I was scared beyond belief, yet finally found her among the sea of children. She was still in the shallow end but about two-thirds in from the edge. I finally got her out but couldn't believe what just had happened. I was livid. What kind of negligence is that??!!! Needless to say, I left a crazy mad mom message on the machine of the pool manager and also left a message for someone from the County. I received some understanding from the twenty-something' manager when I talked to him phone to phone at first, but it still didn't seem to me a very productive call. And when I finally talked to the 'right' person at the county office, apparently this isn't the first time a child has wondered back into the water. I cannot believe that the instructors of the swimming classes could be so careless. A young child of Cali's age should be made sure that she is in the custody of her parent(s) before any idiotic instructor swims away. Needless to say, we didn't take her back. Rick took her swimming a couple of times at our townhome community pool which she enjoyed, but it was sad she couldn't continue something she really ended up liking. She did have a super bright spot at the end of the month, however. Her optomitrist,Dr. Price, had a 'graduation party' for all the vision therapy patients. Cali and one other were the only ones who came, but it was such a thoughtful and well deserved moment of appreciation for all the diligence and hard work these children have done. She was showered with gifts: a yellow balloon, candy, a certificate, and the cutest stuffed khaki-colored bear holding a book bag and wearing a black graduation cap. There were light refreshments and even a gift cert for the moms (that's me!) for an HOUR MASSAGE! Yea!! You also may have noticed a little something different about Cali's appearance. SHE HAS SHORT HAIR! It was time and she was ready to say goodbye to Snarlville. I don't think she even had an moment of mourning. I on the other hand was the one who did the cutting and feared I botched her most important cut. But I guess it turned out okay and she is beautiful any way you slice her :) We will be donating her ponytail to Locks of Love. As I mentioned before she has been learning American Sign Language from the children's program Signing Time. Well, the host, Rachel Coleman did a show at the Hogle Zoo. Cali, Carice and their cousins enjoyed the show together. It was such fun to see Rachel in person! Like a regular concert :) And I know you won't know the tune, but Cali made up a little ditty of her own. No title that I know of. It goes like this: "Swinging on a swing and you never really know, there's summing (something) we ca-an do, and bless that we can have a day all around." (Ask me and I'll sing it for you someday...it's a catchy song!)
"Happy Birthday, dear Carice...." We made it! And she made it! One year old already. Being one also meant a new car seat for her. She gets to travel forward like a normal human, yea! :) She started walking just a little bit independantly 5 days after her birthday and then pretty much took off 4 days after that. :) We took her to McDonald's for a teeny tiny vanilla cone. We meant to have a little birthday party for her with family, but we didn't get invites done. So, we are planning on that for next month. She's only one, she won't know :) She loves playing outside and also in her true food fashion, we found she likes pickles. At her check up she was only 22lbs! How did I get such a skinny baby!? (hee hee) But she's healthy and actually weathered a mild bout of Roto-Virus well. Just say 'no' to diarrhea! Aaaaa! We thought maybe she had a milk allergy as we have been getting her used to whole milk from formula, but apparently she had a bug. Fortunately her vaccine kicked in somewhat making it a mild case. She loves books and loves lids/caps, especailly the cap on the Anywhere Sanitizing mini spray bottle! The little goose! She is a sweetie, though. We love our girls!


Rick celebrated a birthday also this month! Brooke, our niece, was visiting with us from California for a couple of days and so we ended up having a birthday dinner of sorts at Red Robin/slash/eat out with her, too! Rick is busier than at any other job he has had. He has about 5 different assignments he is working on. He really is happy about the job change. And as a sneak peak... he is getting ready to close up shop on most of his freelance work. (Can you see me dancing and hollering with glee as I write this? hee hee) He and Juna will still do their Cafe Press online store,detour designables, but bidding adiu to clients. *phew* I on the other hand, have hit the wall with sole.sak. I felt my pattern maker was making some 'excecutive decisions' without my consent and expecting payment for it and so I talked to her about it. In the course of our exchanges and her explanation of things, she ultimately opted out of being able help me further on the development of my product. I kind of put up the question nicely as to whether we can have a better working relationship, nevertheless, I was left with one useable prototype and another that isn't. Aaaa!! It's been a long road already and now I have to find someone else to help me. Yeeeaahhh..........

Finally, I leave you and this crazy month on a delicious note. Down the mountain and around the corner from our house we would stop and enjoy a little freezy treat, Hawaiin Shaved Ice. It was a fun family outing. I'm not sure how much money we spent overall and well, I admit we cifed $20 from Tilly's birthday cash (don't dispair we left a mini post-it note with an I.O.U-hee hee hee) for the last of the frozen sugary goodness that we ate :) Aaahh...we will remember the snowcone days of the dwindling summer.