Sunday, January 10, 2010

2009 Re-cap...My Bishops Request!

Minutes before I was to get an interview...from my Bishop this afternoon. (The kind which evaluates my worthiness to enter the TEMPLE:) he asked me a question....
One that I hadn't really thought of before!
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He had spent the few minutes prior getting to know me a bit...the usual questions:
where are you from? How many children? etc.
He of course asked about the building process. Everyone who knows you've been through it...especially by yourselves like we did...asks you about it! Like some kind of brotherhood you're magically a part of...that nobody really wants to be a part of...because it meant you've suffered great stress and pain and will live with nightmares for the bulk of your future:) ha ha.
How could I forget?!? I answered.
You're still married?!? He asked in a hopeful and half-joking manner.
BARELY...I answered.
It is still so fresh in my mind:)
Like a horror movie (if I even watched them)...one where certain images keep creeping to the forefront of your mind everytime you close your eyes. Ha!
----
He responded with the same lines I've heard from hundreds of others.
Little glimpses of HIS STORY:
"22 years ago I built a house...and I still remember it clearly! I vowed to never ever ever do it again. It was the most challenging and awful thing I've ever done!"
***
I shared a little bit of MY STORY and assured him that I survived intact and that my husband (the guy waiting outside...next in the interview chair) still liked me...and I him.
---
Next came the question. The one I'm talking about.
"Did you make sure and Journal all about it?"
"ummmm. I am trying to forget.
No I didn't keep a journal about it...sorry."
"You should really record some of those things....because..."
I CUT HIM OFF MID-SENTENCE!
I BLOG..Oh my goodness. I did! I blogged all about it...too much probably:)
****
It got me thinking the entire day I tell you.
There were some pretty entertaining and memorable days twisted into the stress. I dove back into my JOURNAL...(or archives) to re-live some of them....
Like:
The night that Jaxson sat on a blow up mattress, in 20 layers of clothing, in the 20 degree weather, with his portable DVD player strapped to a space heater...watching various Thomas the Train episodes. I mean, sure...at the time I wanted to die. SOB. Throw myself off a bridge. It was after midnight..and my baby was there. No heater, no bed, no jammies...just a Burger King Happy Meal and a space heater:)
Like:
Halloween Day 2009 when I spent 8 hours staining our staircase instead of participating in holiday festivites with my 2 year old! We couldn't PAY anyone to do it...believe me, we tried!!! The house didn't have heat...it was end of October...so that meant FREEZING beyond belief...and staining and/or painting in those conditions just doesn't work. Nobody was willing to take the responsibility. NOBODY. So that left me...and Jarom. I was E.X.H.A.U.S.T.E.D and sick of not seeing my baby. I wiped on-wiped off...circle motion...with proper direction of the grain...blah blah blah....as fast as humanly possible! I sped home, showered and dressed my baby up as a Tiger. Went to 2 houses...took 1 picture...and passed out on the couch.
Hated it.
****
I have ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY different...highly stressful and I'm certain...highly entertaining stories....because that is precisely how many days it took! From the day we broke ground...til the day I put my dishes in the cupboard...it was 130 FULL days:)
...and by FULL...I mean: of emotion, of excitement, of tears, of screaming, of name calling, and of complete joy when something turned out how I dreamt it would!
----
I will leave you with a link to a post...MY all time favorite post of 2009.
I didn't realize until today...that HALF of 2009 was spent building our home!
...a place where I plan on living forever, ha ha!...and the place where I'll bring home new babies...and stay up late talking to my teenagers after dates! I plan on making many wonderful memories here....even if the only reason is simply because I refuse to look at a gap in the floor and remember the 25th straight day of HELL laying it...in the middle of the night with ONE spotlight (that took 7.00 dollar light bulbs to even keep going...and believe you me... when I say we replaced that bulb...I'm talking every other day!) for the rest of forever.

You can re-live my most favorite...and hilarious day of 2009 with me HERE!
Re-reading it made me and Jarom laugh for a good 5 mintues.
I'm sure you'll do the same.
----
...for the sake of balance...
I will also re-tell the absolute bottom of house building! A story that wasn't funny at all...but more a depressing and sad reflection of reality:)
I remember it well. I was almost done. There was a faint light at the end of the money sucking pit of a tunnel. I think it was Mid-October??? I had only been to Home Depot for blue painters tape (you use that stuff for SOO many things...not just painting...who knew?) 6 times that day...instead of the usual 10. I was missing Jaxson...who was starting to call my friend Marcie "MOM MARCIE" just cause he's a little turd and knew it would throw me over the edge into bawling hysteria.
My To-do list was winding down. Instead of the usal 300 things...it was a maximum of about 20...most of which I couldn't do RIGHT THEN.
That's when it happened. I had the first 15 minutes to myself in MONTHS...and I drove my butt to Burger King (OH...MY...DISGUSTING) and ordered a Whopper Junior with No tomato. I sat in the parking lot...alone...and ate it. GASP IN HORROR NOW. I then, of course, called my brother Ryan's fiance Kelsey (my good friend:) and confessed! I told her that I had just OFFICALLY hit ROCK BOTTOM. I told her that I knew what it felt like...I was certain that I was experiencing it right that moment...and I laughed til I cried. (for the record...she gasped and laughed too...and agreed with me...that was pretty close to "bottom" in her book as well)
I had never eaten BEEF...in the form of any kind of hamburger or cheeseburger...from a fast food restaurant before. So...it was ground breaking and completley and utterly NOT ME.
The sad part.
It was freakin good.
...and before the house projcet was over...I hit that same Burger King again...for another....
---
THE GOOD NEWS IS...I WAS A GUNIEA PIG for all of you!
FACT IS: You can completly cease to do any/all physical activity except talk on the phone and swipe a credit card...for 7.5 months AND eat out: at Bajio for 128 days and at Burger King for 2 days...and ONLY GAIN 21 pounds!
Not bad, eh? I know...you're thinking "THAT'S IT?"
"Why have I not tried this sooner?"
Well...now you know.
---
You should try it.
I thought it would be much much worse:)
****
p.s.
You can thank me later...

7 comments:

Maria said...

I am so sorry about your painting/staining experience! TOO DANG BAD ... my husband is a painter and owns his own business ... they've been pretty low on work ... he would have done it! :( Anyway, I'm sure it looks beautiful now though. Plus you have the memories...

aust, jess, janson said...

You are soo {HILARIOUS!!!!} I can't stop peeking at your blog! We moved into our home in February so I SO VERY MUCH understand!! lol building over the winter was not my best idea! ha but you summed up the memories well!!

Brittany said...

I knew one day you'd be able to laugh about the house building experience and look....it's only been like 2 months and there's already great, laughable stories! P.S. Burger King hamburger?? YUCK!!

The Wells Family said...

i love your stories. the wetseal one is definately a good one. :) thanks for the recap. it brought memories back to me about my own experiences. we lived on 5 buck pizza's. i remember many mornings meeting the hubs at a gas station by the freeway and giving him clean clothes to change into at school after working all night. and it took us 18 months to build it....you are jealous, aren't you. :)

sue said...

Hi Kristin! You're house is beautiful and I'm sure was worth all the BK burgers! I don't have your phone # or email, but I was hoping that you would give me your bundt cake recipe that we had on New Years. . . it was awesome and I wanted to make it for my mom's birthday this weekend. Let me know :) susan.g.gunn@gmail.com

Ally said...

You rule. Simply put. Thank you for not being ashamed of your lists, energy, fast food moments of weakness, reality, etc.

When I got to the "thong" part of the story I thought I would die laughing. Love that you are refreshing and real. THANK YOU.:) Oh, and you will make THE BEST preschool teacher ever! How fun! Can't wait to read about how it goes!

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