Primary

I just found out that I am being released from the Primary Presidency. Now for the record, I am the only one that is sad about being released (the other's did the dance of joy). I just wanted to publically say that Primary is a wonderful place to be in the church and that you learn as much from the kids as they do from you. I will miss their sweet spirits. I mean who really wants to go to boring Relief Society when you can go to Primary and eat candy, sing fun songs about snowmen, and play games.

Walk down Sesame Street

On Friday my sister-in-law and her kids went with us to Discovery Gateway (Children's museum). If you have never gone, I highly recommend it. Right now they have the Sesame Street exhibit on the body. They have fun stuff about hands, feet, exercise, food, clothes, and different body systems. They have a heart you can pump, lungs you can inflate, and if you look in one of the pictures, that is me being sneezed on by a large nose. Yuck!!! Maren's favorite part was dancing with Grover, Logan loved serving food at Mr. Hooper's store and Ashton enjoyed rolling around in a wheel chair and playing with the pretend sinks.

How Firm a Foundation

Well we got our foundation poured this week. We also had our first mistake. The foundation guys were supposed to make a window 3X2 and instead made it 2X3. Of course it was the one in the bathroom, so I had a long skinny window over where my bathtub would go. So we opted to fill in part of the window (with concrete) so now it is a 2X1 window, which hopefully will be better. For the most part everything is going well. We are now getting in the underground plumbing which I never thought about before, but I am glad that we have. They also put on these "ties" that help secure the foundation in case of a hurricane. Should I be worried about that???

Short Demolition Video

Here is just a part of the demolition video that we took on March 17th.

Getting our Footing

Wow! Everything is happening fast. Yesterday we had three cement trucks lining our street. (I'm sure our neighbors loved that). And they poured our footings. I was amazed at how quickly they did it and with so much skill. Since we started this project I have come to have a deep respect for other people's professions. It is amazing how many different people with different skills it takes to make a house.

This morning we took Maren to InstaCare since she twisted her foot on the slide last night. Since she won't put any weight on her foot/leg we thought she might have broken it, but it just seems to be sprained. So my job today is carrying her around like a momma koala bear to wherever she wants to go. She can crawl but her preferred mode of transportation is called "mom". I'm sure she'll be running around before long. Hope everybody has a wonderful Easter!!

Homeless

We now have a large hole where our house used to be and where our new house will go. This week they have torn our house down completely and hauled it off to the dump. Next they will pour the foundation and footings later today and Monday. I can't believe how fast everything is happening!It is hard being homeless but we appreciate the hospitality of my parents letting us stay with them and for all the help with the children.

Easter Egg Hunt

Today Ashton's preschool class had an Easter Egg hunt. It was really fun. They had a good idea of putting a number on each of the eggs and wrote that same number on their hand. That way even though they found more eggs they only got to take the ones with their number on them. That way everybody got to have the same number of eggs. The Easter Bunny came too which was fun. It was nice to do something unrelated to our house for a change.

D - Day

D-Day is demolition day!! I can't believe we did this. It was very surreal watching our house come down. I kept Logan and Ashton home from school today so they could watch. It isn't everyday that your house is torn down. The big back hoe crunched our house like a huge dinosaur. I will post a video of the demolition as soon as I can figure out how.

We do have some favorite quotes for demolition day:

Logan: Hey look that's our stove. (We took out the stove two weeks ago).

Neighbor: Ashton what happened to your bedroom?

Ashton: It's at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

Logan: This is so cool just like the other house that we destroyed.

Chelsea: No Logan, this is the only house we have ever destroyed. Most people don't do this.

Chelsea: Eeehh, Ahhhh. Ouch. (Grunts of pain every time the back hoe tore up the house).

We chose St. Patrick's day as our demolition day because it is a green day and for us green meant "go". So today we "go" forward with our new house project.

Beginning of the End

Today we said a tearful good-bye to our house. As of tomorrow they are tearing down our house so that we can build a new one on the same site. It was sad to go through our house that has no furniture, lights, toys, beds, or anything that would make it ours, left in it. Even the front door is missing (we saved that for our new house). We feel that this is the right decision for us but it is still hard to say good-bye after 10 1/2 years of living here. It was hard to see Logan cry for the only house that he has ever had. Ashton and Maren don't really realize what is going on and tend to think that it is strange that we are living at Grandma and Grandpa's house next door. But overall we are in good spirits as tomorrow and demolition day approach.

My mom and dad threw us a surprise party to celebrate our new house. Instead of a "Bob the Builder" party it was a "Chelsea the Contractor" party, since I am doing the contractor work on our new house. It was a very fun party and a big surprise.

Ready or Not

We got the back hoe today and it is sitting on our front lawn. Our contractor friend (Rick) set up our temporary power and took out our front door. We went through the house and made sure that there is nothing in there that we want. So I guess the only thing we can do is wait until Monday, because ready or not here it comes.