Things Change

I sure have learned a lot about things in the last little while. I feel like last year this time I was at a very different place. I was pretty determined that I was going to build a new house. I believe that our renter was going to catch up on her rent. I believed that I really wanted to be an entreprenuer. I believed that I would probably only teach 1 school year, would probably hate it. 

Well..... that didn't really happen. 

Our Baltimore renter never paid us much of anything after June 2012 and it took us until Feb 2013 to evict her. She took all of the appliances with her and pretty much trashed the place. We spent a lot of money getting the house cleaned up and trying to find people we could really trust to market and manage our property. We STILL don't have anyone in the house, but we have found a really great realtor that really stepped up and made things happen for us since we couldn't being so far away. We are hoping to get good renters in very soon and finally be able to put good money towards our debt and not those awful (ever growing) mortgage payments. We lost about $15000 from this past year, just having the wrong people in our house and having the wrong people working for us. Jake and I lost a lot of faith in people through this whole experience. 

Of course, we had to pull out of the lot we had reserved to build a house. The mortgage rates were awesome and the cost of building was awesome. It was hard to walk away from that. In fact I spent several hours in bed and some tears mourning the loss of a fresh start. But with what was going on in Baltimore, there was just no way we could have pulled it off. It forced me to really look at our finances and our debts and develop a plan of how we can get ourselves out of debt as quickly as possible and save some good money to build a house in the next several years. It really sucks having to wait so long, but I know this is the right way to do things and this last year I have really tried to step away from "what does Stacey & Jake want now" and instead to really listen to the teaching of the church, and most importantly to humble myself and allow me to hear what plans God has for me and my family. It has been humbling...so so humbling. 

Along with that...... I don't want to be a business owner. I pretty much fell in love with my teaching job this year. Who knew I could love middle school kids! But I do, and I really want to focus on my teaching. The cupcake business was such a burden. It took away all my time with my family and kids. It stressed me out to extreme measures. I gained weight like crazy. There was not much I enjoyed about it. I don't regret doing it, because as I mentioned several times in this post, I learned a lot about myself, and my purpose. I just couldn't see this cupcake business fitting in with my goals for my family. I want to spend the evenings going for walks, and going to Zumba, and having date night with my husband, and putting my kids to bed. I just lost all of that with the cupcake business. We still do small orders and even a wedding here and there, but we hardly run the truck and are hoping we can sell the truck or the business as a whole. I feel embarrassed that I didn't even give it a real shot, but the peace I feel in my life doesn't even compare and so I know I made the right decision. 

It's been a really interesting year. I am glad I am past the bad renter, the stress of "needing" a new house, and wanted to make a business work. I am LOVING every fun day I've had of my summer with my kids and my family. I have soo many blog posts to catch up on and anticipate so many more just this summer! 

Off to get Zoey back to bed! She was going potty. (Our newest adventure.....potty training) Post about it soon!

Zoey's First Dance Class

Stacey went ahead and signed Zoey up for dance at Center Stage in Orem where many of the most famous dancers trained (eg. Chelsie Hightower, Julianne, and Derek Hough). Her first class was on June 5.  Of course she loved it.  She was the only one of the three students who had both ballet slippers and tap shoes.  Her teacher kept pointing to her as the example when doing steps and stretching.  She's gonna be as good as her mommy when.  Stacey also started dancing when she was 3 years old.

Fathers and Sons at Mutual Dell

Gigi and I went camping together at Mutual Dell in AF Canyon on May 31.  It was a lot of fun, and he loves camping.  We originally took Diva, and when we got there we were told there are no dogs allowed.  So, we turned around and took her back home.  Fortunately it's only about 15 minutes away.

When we got there we had a hard time finding our ward's camping spot, as the Ward was evidentally moved to a completely different part of the camp than where we were originally supposed to be.  We had to walk (more like hike) for 15 minutes to our spot.  Normally that would be ok, but I was carrying our tent, sleeping bag, and Gigi, so it was nice to finally find it.

After getting our tent set up we discovered that dinner was not provided (contrary to what I assumed/hoped for), so we had to ration the fruit snacks and Pringles Stacey packed for Logan to snack on. I love having a responsible wife. We went to bed hungry, but Gigi didn't complain. He did love the chocolate milk Brother Carson gave us earlier, though. I was secretely stoked when he offered it to us. It ended up getting really cold and my feet were freezing when Logan woke up at 3:30 in the morning. I put him in the sleeping bag with me and he fell right asleep, but I have a hard time getting to sleep if I can't roll over. So, it was almost 4:00 when I got back to sleep. When we got up, we joined the Ward for a long anticipated pancake breakfast and zipline play. I didn't think he'd go for it, but Logan loved it and was adorable going down the line with his helmet almost falling off. He went a second time. He's so brave and purely boy. When we were going back to the car to break down camp we came across a couple wheel barrows, so we used one to load up our stuff. It was a perfect solution to my problem of having too much stuff to carry at once. Logan loved the ride on it, too.

Memorial Day Weekend

We had a great busy weekend.  My friend Justin Barrett's daughter, Tori's birthday was on Friday.  They had it at Bouncin' Off the Walls in Sandy.  The kids loved the whole thing, and of course Zoey made new friends.  I was having too much fun I forgot to take pictures in the "bounce" room.  But, I took plenty of the eating and presents part.  Tori loved and gasped at all her gifts, even the clothes.  But, when the big gift came, Zoey and Logan couldn't stay off it.  It was a pink ride on jeep.  Although all the kids wanted a ride, our little ones were the only ones "taking turns." 

 I guess my phone creates GIFs when multiple pics are take.  Kinda cool (Mike's daughter, Mim on left)

The next day we went to the PG pool and the kids did great being feerless in the water.  They added a new little slide in the kiddy pool, which Gigi and Weewee loved, but the big, fast slide was their favorite.  I found out that a small zip-lock bag works great for a water-proof case for my phone.  I was able to film a lot of stuff without worrying about ruining my expensive device.

 It also generates panoramic pics when multiple pics are taken

Season 4 of Arrested Development was released on Netflix, so Stacey and I went to Mike and Kasia Johnson's to watch some episodes. 

Of course dad (Dampa) worked.  As ironic as it seems that a military guy would work on Memorial Day, he does do funerals for fallen soldiers.  So, I guess it makes sense. 

The weekend was great, and we are so blessed to have great friends and family members to share this awesome chapter of our lives with

Family Pictures Spring 2013

Bbq birdie eggs

Look at these gorgeous blue eggs! Jake found them in the old bbq on the side of the housr. Nature is amazing. Hope we get to hear chirping soon

ZOEY 3.5 years old

I can  go  on  and  on  about  this  girl.  Time  just  seems  to  be  going  by  so  fast  and  now  I have  this  cute little preschooler on  my  hands with  more  personality than  we  figure  it out what to do with. 
I didn't  want  time to let this time get away from me to reflect on who zoey is at this exact moment in her life.

Zoey loves playing mommy/ baby. She  always has her  toys  grouped  up  into families with mommy and  baby. 

She loves to play mommy /baby  but when she plays with people she never wants to be mommy.  She likes to be sister. 

Zoey likes rules  and order.  I love  this  about  her... Unless she  is  so  ocd about  it  that  it  leads  to  complete  melt downs. 

She  loves church and primary and her teacher Sister Goodrich.  She is learning so much in her class.  She always is so excited to tell us what  she  is  learning.  She  impressed Jake and I by telling us the whole resurrection story. 
"the angels moved the rock and Jesus came out.... Mary was  sad but Jesus went to  see  her... " 

More to finish later..