1 street: 2 climates

Photos taken this morning!!!

This is the neighbor's house across the street:

SPRING!

This is our house:

WINTER!

These are not even the most dramatic pictures I could have taken! Most of the winter, driveways across the street are clear and dry while we have a couple inches of ice! Don't get me wrong, we would never trade my house and we are buying another north facing lot (go figure) because we are willing to deal with ice and snow for the house and yard we want on a cul-de-sac. I just wish the climates weren't so drastically different! It is a little discouraging when I am really ready for spring! I want to see my tulips and other bulbs emerge.

Our newest challenge!

I won't keep you in suspense any longer. I know you have been obsessing about it. "What are those Bruderers up to this time?" Well, I mentioned a little while ago that we were considering building a house. Well it is official now, and my obsession. We put a down payment on a lot a couple of weeks ago which has thrown us into a timeline that is carrying us along like white water rapids! We talked to a lender and learned something interesting. Apparently, with the economy the way it is, we have to sell our current house before anyone will give us financing for the new one. In other words, our house will take 4 months to build, they can't get the building permit without financing, to finance, we have to sell. We would like to move before the beginning of the school year so the kids can start fresh in new classes. So.... we have to sell SOON!

If any of you know anyone who wants to buy a beautiful house in the best neighborhood and ward we've ever found, let us know. I will list a few things about the house below.

Now comes the "fun" part! In order to be competitive in a difficult selling market we need to do some renovations. We have refurbished the cabinets and bannisters, we are replacing hardware on the cabinets and putting in new countertops next week, we have someone coming to do some sheetrock patch work tomorrow(the hole made by the wasps in the ceiling must go, a story for another stellar post), and then we will paint. Anyone who would like to join us for a painting party, let me know! To facilitate all of this work, I have got to get some stuff packed and stored in order to have room to work and really showcase the house to buyers.

How do we know how to "showcase" and "stage" the house you ask? There is a great show on A&E that I watch faithfully every morning as I work out stress on my eliptical. It is called "Sell This House". It is perfect, and we have learned a lot. I also found another show yesterday on HGTV that show bigger home improvement projects that are fun to watch, called "Designed to Sell" Paul even watches some of the episodes with me. We just hope all of their tips will work.

I have also found a couple of really great blogs and websites. One of my favorites is Remodeling Guy. He shows such wonderfully inspiring photos and simple good advice for do it yourself projects. The Nesting Place has a blog carnival called 10 minutes to a room you love where people share their decorating ideas. I also like some of the ideas and the beautiful photos on The Inspired Room.

Now I will shamelessly brag about the house just in case you know anyone who is looking to buy!

• New tile and carpet on main floor and 2nd floor last fall
• Bathrooms upstairs have been tiled
• Reshingled roof last Fall
• Furnace replaced 3 or 4 years ago with larger one
• Attic fan for better circulation in Summer
• Garage door and opener replaced 3 years ago
• Newly refurbished cabinets
• Painted outside trim last fall
• New cement front walk*
• New kitchen countertop
• New shower doors in master bath*
• central air
• finished basement
• basement wired for surround sound and wet bar with mini fridge
• 4 bedrooms, 3 baths
• open floor plan with good flow
• great backyard with playset, garden, apple tree, fully fenced
• 1 block from elementary school
• no backyard neighbors
• incredible neighbors and ward, great place to raise children

* Projects we are working on now.

Hey, thanks for making it to the end of this epic post. If you know anyone who is looking for a house, contact us! Thank you for your support!

WFMW - Velcro in the laundry

My tip this week is simple. When we entered into the world of bibs, we began to discover that the Velcro closures would catch on everything. I began to put everything that would pull or catch onto that Velcro, into lingerie bags. You know those mesh zipper bags. Then I realized that if I just put the bibs in the bags it would save a lot of headache. I found a 3 pack at the dollar store and now I use them for my nylons and other delicates, but I use them more for those pesky Velcro bibs.

Those lingerie laundry bags work for me! WFMW has moved ro We Are THAT Family so, Click here for other fun ideas and helpful tips.

San Francisco

It was amazing, beautiful, thought provoking, and altogether wonderful! I cannot express how much I enjoyed this play! The vocals were impressive, so powerful. The story line was expertly written and it's depth surprising. The special effects were fun and amazing.










We rode the trolley to Fisherman's wharf. It was fun to see how the trollies went up and down those hills!









Here we are we are standing on the wharf with the bridge in the background. We ate some incredible clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl and some even better fried shrimp for lunch. Yummm!

We went to the aquarium and enjoyed walking through the underwater tubes to see all the marine life that can be found in the bay and further our in the deeper ocean. Then we were able to go to the touch tanks and touch small sharks, sea urchins, sting rays, starfish, and sea cucumbers.






Paul trying to be mates with the pirates!




After a fun filled day at Fisherman's Wharf, we went to a Chinese restaurant on Polk Street called Tai Chi's. It was a hole in the wall! I'm not kidding, there were literally holes in the walls! As we entered, we saw that they were sorting green beans on one of the tables out front. Paul pointed out that at least we knew they used fresh, good produce. Then came the food! We started with Spring Rolls and they were amazing! Then for a main dish we had beef with asparagus in black bean sauce. If you don't know how I feel about black beans, then you don't know me very well! The beef was so tender, the asparagus fresh and yummy, and the sauce to die for! I also loved that they gave the option of brown rice as well as white. It was enough to share, relatively inexpensive, and probably the best Chinese food I have had! We will be going back!!


We came home from San Francisco feeling ready to tackle our next challenge (more on that later) and very grateful for where we live. Once again, we have been proven Suburbians. Neither of us enjoy the fast city life. We enjoy our yard, friendly neighbors, clean streets, and driving our own cars. Let's just say we do NOT enjoy public transportation in a large city. I could go into detail but I won't. I want to savor the memories of a wonderful vacation with the man by which I am still smitten after more than 12 years.


I am a big believer in the need to get away as a couple for two reasons. The first and foremost being to keep your friendship alive and make sure that you still know the person you are married to. You know, behind the parent, job, calling, etc. The second reason being that I need to miss my kids every once in a while! Whenever I come home from being away from our kids, I find more patience, perspective and joy in the people they are becoming. Sometimes it is easy to get bogged down in the day to day problem solving and rush to keep my head above water. It is easy to miss my kids growing up before my eyes.

So, go plan a get away time. It can be as simple as a cheap motel down the street and a Redbox video. Just reconnect every once in a while! I do recommend getting away from the house with it's endless list of chores whispering in your ear while you sleep, and the "just gotta get this dones".

WFMW - preparing to leave the kids

I am posting my Works for Me Wednesday tip today because Paul and I are leaving on vacation tomorrow. It is so true that when leaving the kids, it requires 48 hours of preparation for every 24 hours you will be gone.
What works for me today is the way I get things together to leave the kids home. The best thing I have done is to write up the kids' schedules, meals, routines, allergies and other various and sundry instructions on the computer. That way, I can go into the document and just tweak it each time we leave.
Now, I don't have to write down our bedtime routine every time. Nor do I have to rewrite the warnings. For example, the last time we left, Paul's nephew babysat for us and found it hilarious that they would try everything on my list, including the slumber party in the family room on a school night!
I also have menu ideas and a virtual shopping list as I list options for meal preparation. I leave a list of things they can make that are in the house rather than dictate specific meals. That way, the wonderful people who agree to care for our 4 monkeys can choose meals as simple or complicated as they feel comfortable with and food that they like.
Finally, I print up a separate emergency sheet that has phone numbers, a signed note from me giving the holder permission to seek medical care for the children in case we cannot be reached, and insurance cards photocopied on the back, just in case!
This may be a simple thing that everyone else has already figured out but it works for me. I would love to hear any other ideas that work for you to simplify leaving your kids.
Be sure to check out what works for others here!

BTW, I have to say how excited I am! We did not celebrate our anniversary in Dec. or Valentine's Day, so we are going to San Francisco to see Wicked! We haven't seen it and I am positively giddy! Time to do laundry, tweak my list, grocery shop, pick up the lizard, shovel the snow......

We have a Jonas brother look alike!

Meagan, one of the girls in Emma's primary class was watching the Grammy's with her family. The Jonas brothers were performing and she said, "He looks like Emma's daddy!" He is pretty handsome!

Paul's thoughts on life

Paul was saying this morning, that it seems you walk through life oblivious to how clueless you really are and then you die.

Such optimism! Though I have to admit, quite profound when I think about it. It certainly made me smile.

Another Jordan story

I was reminded of a funny story that happened a couple of years ago. Paul and I were out of town, taking Emma with us, and my sister-in-law, Marilyn was babysitting the boys. I was talking to her on the phone when I heard some yelling in the background. Marilyn excused herself for a minute and when she returned she reported that Jordan had flushed a pair of Christian's underwear down the toilet! Marilyn was understandably flustered and wasn't sure what to do. I surprised myself by calmly asking if the toilet had clogged and when she told me it hadn't I shrugged and said, "Oh well, there's nothing we can do about it now." It was at that point that I realized #1 I was becoming a seasoned mother of boys, and #2 I deal with situations in a much calmer manner over the phone than in person!

It does my heart good...

Monday was one of those afternoons. The kids were out of school early, the weather was a little warmer, and mischief was high at our house. Jenna had been into and out of many things all day and decided that she didn't want to nap. As I was explaining to Emma and her friend why "we shouldn't hit someone over the head with a maraca" Jordan came racing down the stairs yelling that the toilet was clogged. I verified that it was not overflowing yet and so finished my conversation with the girls ("I only apologize to my sister..."), contained Jenna in her highchair with a snack because like any other toddler, she loves the bathroom, and went to investigate the source of the clog. A clogged toilet, reported by a six year old always makes me nervous about what I might find. This wasn't as bad as it has been in the past. It was clogged with half of the last roll of toilet paper in the house. When the story finally came out, our son had been trying to see how much of the water he could splash out of the toilet by throwing big wads into the bowl. When he attempted to flush, the toilet just couldn't handle the volume and filled within an inch of the rim. After I fished it out and got things running again I continued with my usual afternoon of begging, pleading, cajoling, and bribing the kids to finish homework, set the table, etc, etc.

We began Family Home Evening a little later than I hoped, as usual, but pressed forward nonetheless. Jordan was so excited to read his scripture and did it very well. He is becoming such a good reader. As I explained that we were all going to be secret service agents for the next two weeks, performing acts of service for our family, excitement rose and bubbled over. The kids were so excited they refused to get ready for bed until they had done some things for other members of the family. It is so fun to see them transform from bickering, teasing, annoying, siblings to loving, serving, kind friends. It does my heart good, especially after a hectic day, to see our family lovingly and willingly helping one another. As I looked at each of my sleeping children (some days that's when I love them best), I felt so grateful for all the things I get to experience as a parent. I was especially thankful that those good moments always overshadow the difficult ones.

WFMW - Magazine organization

I have tried a new way to organize magazines that I want to keep. I have some magazines that tend to be useful seasonally. I organize them in magazine boxes by month rather than by year. That way, each month I can pull out a stack of magazines that have articles, craft ideas, etc. appropriate for the month. For example, when I pull out the Family Fun magazines for Oct. I have a whole bunch of ideas for Halloween rather than just the ones from the current issue. Or, when I pull out the Friend magazines for December, there are plenty of magazines with Christmas stories and activities for all the kids to read at the same time. I try to photocopy any activities that require cutting, coloring etc. in order to keep the magazines reusable.

This method works for me. To see other ideas that work, check out rocksinmydryer!

Unlikely friends

There is a strange phenomenon happening at my house that has me thinking somewhat deep thoughts (about puddle deep). Conner and Zippy have become the best of friends. During the day Zippy can usually be found on a leaf with Conner's front paw? claw? (whatever) protectively on him or sitting directly on him. At night, Zippy will sit watchfully on Conner's back while he sleeps. Realize of course that the gender of our pets are entirely a mystery and subject to the whims of the children naming them. I will let you ruminate over whether that has a bearing on this strange relationship. However, I would have thought that Zippy and Donna, the two frogs would be better suited friends and companions but Donna tends to be by herself most of the time.

I find the same thing often happens with people. The most unlikely people with seemingly opposite personalities can become fast friends.