Weekend Report and Random Tidbits

We held our first Power of Moms Advisory Board meeting last Saturday - wonderful people with great ideas offering so much encouragement, support and enthusiasm for all that April and I have been doing - couldn't have been better.  April and I did lots of brainstorming and re-prioritizing and now we're ready to move things forward in a more manageable - but very exciting - way.

Here's our great Advisory group - my mom (the greatest mom and cheerleader for other moms of all time - in my humble opinion), Whitney Johnson (of Rose Park Advisors and the blog, Dare to Dream), April, me, Kelly King Anderson (runs Start-Up Princess and social-media expert), Kathy Clayton (amazing mom, great writer, has helped mothers and families around the world), Allyson Reynolds (our Power of Moms Editor).  My dad and Jared were also there for the meeting and had great ideas but declined to hop in the pictures with all the moms.  Neylan McBaine (who runs the Mormon Women Project) was also there but had to leave a bit early.

So this week feels so nice and mellow in comparison to the last few weeks!  I'm "just" catching up on lots of laundry and piles of papers that have accumulated from too many crazy weeks in a row, following up great leads and ideas from the Touchpoint conference and the wonderful Power of Moms Advisory Board meeting we had in SLC last weekend, and working with the kids on their Reflections projects (art and literature contest) that are due this Friday.  Oh, and I guess I should mention that Jared and I are also putting in a lot of hours finalizing financing and an offer on a house in Ogden.

We're feeling right about the old house I blogged about before and had a chance to meet some great people in the neighborhood there (thanks to this blog and friends of friends).  Eliza found a very nice friend a block down the street who is just 20 days younger than her and all the kids got so excited about the house and neighborhood - especially they saw that we could walk downtown from the house to enjoy the fun fall festival that was going on on Saturday.

It's feeling good.  But it's also feeling scary to make this leap - and to deal with the big fat process of offers and financing and finding renters and packing that stands between here and Ogden.

I put up an add on Craig's List to rent this house last night and have already had several emails about it.  But they want the house NOW and we need a little time to close on this house plus I've got the New England Retreat at the end of the month.  The first week of November is feeling like the soonest we can really be out of here.  Weird weird weird to think this is really happening - or seeming to be happening at least.

Random questions of the day:

• Why does the only working cordless phone I can find around here smell like maple syrup no matter how much I clean it?  I've been on the phone all morning and it's making me nauseous.
• Why are there always about 10 pencils and 20 crayons scattered in random places on the floor of our house at any one time?
• Why am I so bad at getting up in the mornings?  I have will power for many things but getting up just kills me (even if I go to bed at a good time).  I somehow always talk myself into the idea that I can lay in bed a few extra minutes, even though that always means that the kids get to school a few minutes late.
• Why is it that Ashton CANNOT put his dirty underwear in the hamper?  He throws it on the floor in the vicinity of the hamper on occasion - but somehow actually getting it into the hamper is beyond his capacity.
• Why do girls and women have to be so hormonal?  My sweet little Liza gets set off so easily sometimes - as do I.  I'd sure like to be more even and be a better example to my little girl.
• Why does everything usually happen at the same time?  I'm always pretty busy but why is it that when I'm the most busy I've ever been with Power of Moms commitments and opportunities popping up all over (so grateful) that so many other things requiring a great deal of attention should also come to a head?  I'm prioritizing, praying, and plowing on through the best that I can!  And some days, I do a much better job of it than others.  I guess that's just life.