We've Done Other Stuff in 2011 Besides Move...

...AKA, We Don't Have Any More Home Updates Yet, or We Are Late Updating Our Family News To The Blog.

January-February 2011

Nathan & I tried something new this New Year's Day...a friend from the ward (who has a pool) decided to hold a Polar Bear Dip and invited all comers. I don't know why we thought this would be a good idea, but I guess we were ready for a change in our normal New Year's Day routine (sleeping), so we decided to take the plunge...literally.

As expected, there was a lot of screaming, yelling, & flailing to get out of the water as soon as possible. But, we survived...and had a great time jumping into a freezing-cold pool with several other brave, daring souls (mostly guys--I was one of only 2 girls to jump!) Lunch was served afterward, and a good time was had by all. Maybe it wasn't the most HARD-CORE Polar Bear Dip known to man, but it left us quite invigorated! 


For the record: yes, the photo above looks bright & sunny. We live in AZ, not AK. It was about 11 am and about 45 degrees outside--a pretty chilly day, by our standards. The water, as you can imagine, was quite a bit colder than that. So, you cold-weather friends can feel free to mock our wussiness--but only after you do your own Polar Bear Dip! Agreed??

It was a big month for our youngest daughter, as well...Aurora turned 1 year old! She is shaping up to be a terrific toddler! First, she moved up to the front-facing car seat, to her great delight (and wouldn't you know it, just a couple of months later, the guys at the AAP are telling us that kids should sit in rear-facing seats until they're at least 2 years old. But look at that face, I tell you! Would you want to wipe the smile off that kid's face by turning her towards the back again? I didn't think so).

She had lots of fun at her birthday party (a family affair):

She LOVED her new shoes!

And she really enjoyed her cake, too.

Also in January, Nathan & I had a late anniversary date--we went to see the musical "Wicked." We had a great time, and I wrote more about it in some other blog post--look it up.

Aunt Kelli, who was visiting from Colorado, helped watch the girls while Nate & I went out, and I was so happy--finally, my girls in the care of someone who can actually DO HAIR! And Aunt Kelli didn't disappoint:

she even got Celeste's fine, wispy hair into 2 beautiful braids! The girls were happy to show off this look for as long as it lasted:

of course, they were still their goofy selves. Plus, it was fun to take the braids out & watch the explosion later:

Not too long after this, Lorelai got another haircut--a cute short 'do:

Mama was especially excited, because this is one of the first times she's given a haircut in a LONG time, and it actually turned out pretty cute!!


This winter has also seen some more unfortunate fashion choices on my girls' part--mostly makeup-related:

Here, Celeste is giving us a preview of her teenage "goth" phase. And I don't even know what to say about Lorelai's makeover...

That's my little tomboy!!

At least Aurora knows how to accesorize:

She carries the purse around with her everywhere...even in the car sometimes! She is getting very good at mimicking Mama. I wonder if we will have another "girly girl" in the house soon.

So, as you can see, our lives haven't completely been on hold from the move (just mostly on hold!). We've still had a little time to goof off and enjoy the company of our wonderful children. I hope this bare-bones outline of our last 2 1/2 months makes that a little more clear.

Time to send this post out with a bang (Lorelai's school science project, that is):

Moving On Up Part 1

Happy Ides of March, everybody! I am writing this post from our new crib/domicile/roost/house. We finalized our move on Feb. 26, 2011, and have been recovering ever since. Not coincidentally, I haven't blogged in over a month--moving to a new house tends to sap one's energy and time. However, we are finally starting to feel caught up on our lives...so it's time to start recapping the chaos (though probably not all in one night--it's late & I'm tired & lazy).

As you may remember, we closed on the house on Feb. 8th. We celebrated by taking Grandma & Grandpa Barrett out to lunch; after all, it was thanks to their help that we were able to obtain this house in the first place!! We gave Grandpa the honor of throwing out the big obnoxious "Auction.com" sign!

It was then that our real work began...moving over all our stuff, of which we have a lot. We had already moved over some "deep storage" items, such as our long-term food storage, etc. Now it was time to start moving over more and more of the "essentials," one minivan load at a time.

I probably don't need to say that it required many many minivan loads of stuff. I lost count, really. It was one of the many times when I was very grateful we finally have a big enough car to move some major items. In fact, I'd wager that more than 75% of our stuff was moved by minivan--that includes both our dressers, our entertainment center, and even our dining table & chairs!

I'm also grateful that we had a month to move...while it was still pretty tiring, it made the whole procedure a lot less stressful than a "weekend" move. We could set the pace ourselves. Best of all, it gave us time to "unpack" and organize our things as we went, so by the 26th (when we used a UHaul to move over our piano/beds/etc.), our new home was fully set up & comfortable! Hopefully, we can do more moves like that in our future! (just not soon, I hope)

We also managed to do a few decorative alterations before moving in:

This room was the largest bedroom outside the master bedroom; we thought it would be perfect for the girls to share. But first, it needed a little color:

...like pink! This was the first painting project Nathan & I had ever really done, and we got a lot of help from Grandpa Barrett. We made a few mistakes, but mostly minor ones...hopefully, nobody will look too closely!

Anyway, we were very pleased with the final result:

...and so were Lorelai & Celeste!

Another room I had a lot of fun putting together was the loft:

As you can see, it's a little odd-looking; most lofts are carpeted, while this one has a linoleum floor. Not to worry; we've decided to convert this into the playroom (for now, while the kids are young); they can tear up that floor and mark up those dull white walls all they want for years to come! Later, when we have a bigger budget, we'll make this a nice entertainment center for the whole family.

However, it was still lots of fun to decorate it and organize the girls' (many) toys. I think the end result gives kids of many ages lots of possibilities for fun!

Later on, I'll post some more pictures of other rooms in the house--including our living room, which we'll be painting next week when my parents come for a visit! However, there is one more major item we just had to deal with before moving in:

Namely, a ceiling fan which gives whole new meaning to the words "tacky" and "chintzy." This lovely number was in the front room, ready to greet guests as soon as they arrived! Doubtless, it was put there by the same owners who installed the similarly-themed metal door out front:

I wish I could sit down with the (doubtless well-intentioned) previous owners and gently explain that living in the Southwest does not require you to go overboard on loud, kooky, faux-Native-American decor. Sigh. I was willing to live with the door (such metal doors actually make homes safer, plus they can cost a pretty penny!), and I actually like the "Southwestern-y" tile around the fireplace, as shown...

...but that fan...that fan had to go! Luckily, Nathan and his parents were completely in agreement with me on this point:

In fact, Nate's father helped remove the offending accessories himself! The lightbulb covers were easily removed, as were the saguaro fan blades (shudder). However, the large sandstone ring covering the main fan motor wouldn't be removed, short of disassembling the whole fan. No, thank you, we said, and thus it became "hammer time"! CRASH...just like that, it broke into dozens of chintzy, tacky pieces all over the floor. We shed no tears as it took a trip to the Dumpster. As to the remainder of the fan kit, we gave it to a friend who actually liked the design (his wife, though...that was another story!)
Amazing what a few new light coverings (and a fan-blade kit) can do!

I think that's about it for tonight. We'll post more "home makeover" updates as they come! Hopefully I'll also get the blog caught up on a few other family-related topics, as well as some entertainment ramblings of my choice. Stay tuned!

The New Casa Barrett

This is not going to be a long, rambling blog post--well, not too long, anyway. I just wanted to commemorate a very big event...

...we have become homeowners for the first time!! We signed the closing papers on Tuesday, February 8, 2011. Yes, I realize we're a little behind the curve, but better late than never...especially when "late" gets you a house like this:

Beautiful, don't you think? Well, I think so!! 2,600 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, a roomy kitchen & pantry, and a large loft; it's got everything we need and then some. We had always expected our first home purchase to be a smaller "starter home"--which this most definitely is not. This is a house I could picture living in for many years, with plenty of room to raise our children & watch them grow up. It's a lovely home, and I'm so humbled & grateful we happened upon it.

We first set eyes on it back in November, when it was a bank-owned property about to go on auction. I liked the house almost immediately, and so did Nathan, but we eventually decided against using an auction to purchase our first home. Oh well, there will be others, we thought, and moved on to search elsewhere.

Just imagine our surprise when, a few weeks later, we got a call from Nate's mother & father, excitedly telling us, "We got the house!!" Apparently, they'd decided to go on and bid on that house anyway; they hadn't expected theirs to be the winning bid--or for Fannie Mae to accept the bid a short time later.

In a nutshell, Grandma & Grandpa Barrett aren't "gifting" us the house--although it still feels that way to me!! They're fixing it up a little (not that it needed much; it's a fairly clean, problem-free home for a foreclosure), then re-selling it to us with a slight mark-up for their troubles. So, while we could have gotten another perfectly nice home on our own, we likely wouldn't have gotten this house (our favorite of all the houses we looked at) without the help of Nathan's parents. We are very blessed & thankful for their assistance--they have been great at helping us through the whole buying process, and have been a wonderful resource for us to use throughout the last several months. We're fortunate to have them so close by!

I know a new home will present lots of challenges--it will strain our delicate budget; it will require lots more cleaning; it will demand a lot from us (time to improve my "handyman" skill set). Plus there's always the chance there are hidden defects deep within this home, waiting to be discovered (doesn't every home have at least a few?). But all those things feel like challenges we're ready and willing to face. Owning a home has been a long time coming, but this feels like the right time to move forward! I'm a little overwhelmed, but also excited to see what our future holds. We'll start finding out on February 26th, our moving day (wow, just over two weeks away!!).

They Said It Could Never Happen Here...

 (thanks to Nathan's friend Maggie Alvarez for this lovely photo from nearby Sells, AZ)

It's been cold in Tucson the last few days. I mean REALLY cold. Here's how my Thursday & Friday went down:

I woke up early Thursday morning, and I could tell by the heater going full blast that it was extra cold outside. I know, I'll make some nice warm yummy oatmeal for everyone was my first thought. So I put a pot underneath the faucet & turned it on. About a cup of water came out, then...nothing. I jiggled the faucet, turned on both hot & cold water, the works. Nada. I started roaming through the house, trying every faucet I came across...nothing. Our pipes had frozen.

Slight panic set in...this kind of thing is not supposed to happen in southern AZ, even in February. So, I called my in-laws, who live in nearby Green Valley, to ask their advice. As luck would have it, they were over at our new house, making sure the pipes hadn't frozen there (they hadn't. How weird is that--the much larger, empty house with no heat still had water, but our cozy little home froze up while our heat was going full blast all night?). They told us to aim a hair dryer at the water main to thaw the ice, and they'd be right over.

Great. Except I don't own a hair dryer. Wait! I thought. Our portable space heater should do the trick. Except Nathan had already moved the space heater over to the new house, where it was sitting uselessly in the garage. Oops. Time to wake up Nate & send him running while I tried to wake up the girls, comb their hair (with a dry hairbrush, thus resulting in crazy frizzy hair), order them to use the potty but not to flush the potty, thus undoing months of training, and get Lorelai ready for her ride to school.

While all this was happening, Nathan and his father arrived with the space heater and an extension cord (we don't own one of those either. Ugh...and we think we're ready to be homeowners???). This is one of those big, scary-looking 70s-era space heaters, with the heat coils exposed to air. The sucker works, though. We clumsily strung it across the front of our house, to the water main on the west side of our home. It had some token foam wrapped around it, but only a thin layer; otherwise it looked pitiful and exposed, sticking directly out the side of our house for a few feet before descending underground.

(For those of you not in the know, having aboveground water pipes is very common in Arizona homes. Normally, it's no big deal--after all, we're located in a desert in the southern United States. It's not like these pipes will be exposed to sub-freezing temperatures, like 15 degrees or anything, right? Oh, wait a minute...)

We cranked up the heat and sat there, watching, for several minutes. At one point, Nate thought he saw the foam insulation start to melt. Now, that would have been a lovely complication! At last, just before 8:00 in the morning, SUCCESS! Our indoor faucets started to sputter, then run smoothly. Yay--Nate could shower and go to work! I threw on my grubbies, left Celeste & Aurora at a friend's house, and ran over to check on the new house.

Grandma & Grandpa Barrett spent all morning at the new house, waiting for our new refrigerator & stove to arrive, as well as doing several minor repairs. They, like me, spent the whole day in coats & hats, since the house had no heat yet (it barely topped 50 degrees the whole day, inside the house!). After checking out the new appliances, I sensed an opportunity to get some moving done myself. I picked up the girls from my friend's house and brought them over to the new house for Grandma to watch, while I loaded up all our food storage into the van and moved it into the storage closet of our new home.

However, while I was still loading my many, many cans of wheat/oats/rice/pasta/etc into the back of the van (wearing gloves & a hat, cheeks red from the crazy cold wind), I got a phone call from Lorelai's charter school. They were closing for the day, effective 11:30 am! All of their pipes had frozen as well, and it was a health hazard to keep the kids there any longer. Ugh...I would have to hurry! I threw together a lunch for my kids, finished loading the food storage in the car, drove to the new house, unloaded my kids' lunch only (by now it was 11:20 am), then sped over to Lorelai's school to pick her up. Then I dropped off our carpool partner at her house, then headed back to the new house. By this time, Aurora had cried herself to sleep and Celeste was bouncing off the walls. Grandma put both kids into my arms and took off for lunch with their friends--they'd been working all morning and needed a break.

Thank goodness for portable DVD players. After a (cold) lunch, I turned on How To Train Your Dragon, and the kids sat on the couch and watched it, still in their coats & hats, and with a blanket thrown over them for good measure. I spent the next hour and a half hauling boxes in from the frigid garage into the storage closet, and arranging them more or less to my satisfaction. By the time the movie was over, I was done! Hooray. Now I was just cold and tired, not cold, tired and busy. Then I hauled the kids back home just in time to start dinner. That night, Nate & I made sure to leave a few faucets dripping--it was supposed to be almost as cold as the night before.

Just before bedtime, the school called. NO SCHOOL TOMORROW! That's right, folks, Arizona actually had a snow day--but I'm not going to show you any pictures of it. Well, except for this one...

...of me rocking my winter cap/sweater/jacket look, along with a steaming cup of hot cocoa! This is pretty much how I looked for two days--not a normal look for the Old Pueblo, I can tell you! This may sound strange, but the last few days have made me very nostalgic. I grew up a "cold-weather kid" in Colorado, and I miss having four seasons, and a styling winter wardrobe! I miss doing 360s on the ice in your parents' minivan while driving home from your friend's house in the middle of the night (sorry, Mom & Dad!!). I miss looking out the window in the morning to a new fresh covering of fallen snow. Before moving to Arizona seven-plus years ago, I loved the change of the seasons. And while I've grown to love AZ, I still really miss the invigorating cold days like the ones we've just experienced. But I digress...

I won't bother showing more pictures of the Big Pima County Freeze of 2011, and you know why? They won't convey how cold it really was. All you'd see are blue, clear skies, and lots of sunshine--just what you see on any given day in most pictures of Arizona. And yet...the high for Thursday was only 38 degrees, and the low was a frigid 15! Both temperatures are new records...it hasn't been that cold in Tucson for over a century!

I can hear all my friends up north (or "back East") poo-poohing our wussiness. Go ahead, snicker all you want. It's true, we're all a little thin-blooded from living in the hot desert. However, it's also true that Arizona infrastructure is not designed to handle weather like this (see: the exposed water mains on houses mentioned above). There are no gutters on streets, not much insulation in homes...I could go on. So, when Arizonans panic like this, keep in mind that it's not just the cold weather that frightens us...it's our own unpreparedness for emergencies of this nature. By contrast, how would everyone else in the country handle it if they had 100 straight days over 100 degrees? Yeah, that's what I thought.

Which brings me to Friday. Luckily (on a personal level), my Friday was less crazy than my Thursday. I did drive all over creation shopping and taking kids to playdates, but that was all part of my plan. Plus, I got a warm shower! That's more than can be said for the approximately 19,000 homes & businesses in Pima County that have been stuck without heat for the last few days. The gas lines can't handle all the extra heat being used! The water companies are no better off, taxed to their limit dealing with all the broken pipes in the area. Worst yet, two people have reportedly died from exposure to the cold. In Arizona?? It's just not supposed to happen here.

It's been a rough 2011 so far in Tucson. On January 8, (as you've probably heard) Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, along with almost 2 dozen others, was shot in a Safeway parking lot by a gun-toting terrorist nutcase. Six people died. Regardless of political affiliation, it was a horrific, shocking day, that left the whole city shaken. Then, on January 31, a Pima County Sheriff's Department helicopter crashed into a mountain in northwest Tucson, killing the pilot & injuring 3 others.

Of course, since bad things come in threes, Mother Nature decided to get into the act--and send Tucson its lowest temperature in about, oh, a CENTURY or so. And thus, the Great Freeze of 2011 completes the Trifecta of Terror. While perhaps not as tragic as the first two events, the freeze has affected far more people and is going to be talked about for years to come. And people are still without heat and/or water as I'm writing this! Wow.

So, while I myself don't mind the cold once in a while, one freeze is enough for me. Dear Mother Nature: thanks for the fun change of pace. Now can we go back to having normal weather for a while??

Elementary, My Dear Cumberbatch!!

Last night, Nate & I just finished watching Disc 1 of the BBC's new show Sherlock. I'm in love. Unfortunately, it seems that Sherlock will be a tease of a lover, since there are only three(!) episodes total in Season 1 -- and I've already seen two of them. Not only that, but Season 2 probably won't start until at least fall of 2011, due to scheduling conflicts with the writers/actors/etc. Sigh...at least the episodes are 90 minutes each!

And to top it all off, I've been told that the final episode of Season 1 is a cliffhanger, which makes me afraid to watch it and be left unsatisfied. But I will probably still watch it as soon as I can. Because I'm totally in love with this show.

I'm not a superfan of Arthur Conan Doyle, but I have read a little Sherlock Holmes, and I know the basic outlines of his more famous mysteries, as well as the character's many quirks & attributes. So it was a pleasant surprise to see so many of those things updated almost effortlessly into a 21st-century setting. It feels remarkably faithful to the original source material, while remarkably contemporary at the same time.

Here's a few things I really like:

1. The casting. The chemistry between the two leads is very strong and it makes for an energetic, funny, and exciting dynamic--just as the partnership between Holmes and Watson should be. Of course, since this is the 21st century, "bromance" jokes abound; Holmes & Watson are often mistaken for a gay couple. Watson spends lots of time denying this while Holmes is coyly silent about the whole thing. It's pretty funny stuff.

2. Benedict Cumberbatch (Holmes). I've never seen him in anything else, but he takes an intimidating role and really makes it his own. He plays Holmes as very Aspergian--sure he's brilliant, but he's emotionally stunted, socially backward, and disliked by many. But he's so charismatic (plus kind of a cutie) that you (the viewer) love him anyway. Plus, he has the most incredibly awesomely silly British name in the history of British names. I could say it all day! Benedict Cumberbatch! Benedict Cumberbatch! Benedict Cumberbatch!

3. Martin Freeman (Watson). He plays the good doctor (yes, he's still a doctor) as a world-weary, action-hungry Afghan war vet, with just the right mix of passion and humor. Freeman plays the nebbish, hangdog type very well. Don't believe me? Go watch the UK version of The Office. Or The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Or wait until next year & watch The Hobbit, when he will take his rightful place onscreen as Bilbo freakin' Baggins!

4. Production values. Often the BBC shows look a bit low-rent (the perils of not working with Hollywood money). Not so here. Nice camerawork, cinematography, direction, etc. At times, the visual style of the show strongly resembles those of American procedurals (particularly the CSI shows, with their penchant for extreme zoom shots of evidence/speed-ramping, etc). But it never sinks to the level of a procedural clone--the good writing and acting see to that. It's better because it's British! :)

5. The writing. The mysteries both pay homage to some of Conan Doyle's original mysteries (A Study in Scarlet, The Adventures of the Speckled Band, etc.), as well as update them convincingly (using GPS-enhanced smartphones to track a killer, for instance). I have to confess that the payoff is sometimes not quite as good as the setup (sometimes the killer's identity is a little too easy to deduce, or a final confrontation a little silly), but the journey makes it worth the trip. Besides, being able to see the solution at the same time as Holmes makes the audience feel smarter!

6. Moriarity!! Can't wait to see him in the final episode (yes, I know he's coming--he has to. He's the Joker to Holmes' Batman).

7. The dialogue:
"I'm not a psychopath, Anderson, I'm a high-functioning sociopath. Do your research."
Hee hee!


So, what more could you ask for in a show? (Besides more episodes, that is?) Go watch Sherlock now!

BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH! BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH!