Anyone who has worked online for 5-minutes can probably relate.

Forgive me for posting a youtube video after a week offline but this is THE funniest thing I have seen in a very long time.

Check the blanket hung as a background, the pen holders full of crayons and the fact that he’s dressed as a cravat-wearing hippie.

Ha!

P.S. Is he died?

It’s ours.

It’s finally ours.

It took me until the age of 37, but I finally own a home.

We got our keys about 10-minutes ago and the hustle and bustle called “Moving” is swirling thick around me as I hurriedly type before the computer is taken apart.

I don’t know if anyone has ever loved a house as much as I love this one, but I love it so much it almost hurts.

When our insurance denied coverage for my high-risk pregnancy with Aaron and we had to pay for everything out of pocket (as an example of how pricey a high-risk pregnancy that goes well can be, I had to have 1-2 ultrasounds a week to the tune of $500 a piece) the biggest thing that was so crushing about it was losing the beautiful tree-filled lot that we were going to build our first house on.  You have no idea how beautiful it was to me. I loved it. I loved the neighborhood, I loved the barn, and oh, how I loved all the trees. (Mature trees on a lot or on the property of new construction is about as rare a thing in Utah as a progressive liberal. Most of the trees in the valleys of Utah were planted by people.)

My little pat of butter was worth every penny we had to pay, but it hurt a lot to lose it.

It hurt even more to move back into the 1,100 sq-ft. house that my mom and dad owned.  It’s adorable and I love it but man…I have lived 10-years of my life sharing one tiny bathroom with a 6’4-inch husband and three boys. We have been so cramped here. If we didn’t have a half-an-acre to spread out on in the summer, I don’t know what we’d do. I am SO grateful to have had it but that whole situation was so difficult and overwhelming…it seemed like I would never have a home of my own.

We just made the best of it and we worked and saved and paid off our medical debt and finally after 3-years, we were in a position to buy a house.

We called Brady Pierce; the best real estate agent in Cache Valley. (That title is not in jest. Brady is amazing, honest and holy cow did he fight hard for us on this house.) and we started the hunt for our home. We came very close to buying a house this summer. It was a house I liked very much. And at the last moment, it fell through. I was discouraged and upset at the time but really…that house was not meant to be mine. I liked it but it had so many things I found myself thinking or saying “I like this, BUT…”.

And then it happened.

We found the most perfect-for-Loralee house located in a neighborhood I always thought was adorable and charming and would think, “Oh, the people who live there are so lucky!” when I would drive by it.

I hoped that I would find a house that I really liked but this is overwhelmingly PERFECT…I love every square inch of it. (I’ll show more photos after we move in, but here are some so you can get an idea. I absolutely adore my kitchen.)

It even has mature trees in the back yard.

As far as I am concerned, I’m never leaving this house.

The next time I move I want to be carried out feet first.

I feel so lucky and so unbelievably blessed.

It’s more than I deserve.

We are going to be so very happy here.

(Ya might recognize a certain redhead. ;) )

Ever want to feel nervous?

Go and tell a world-renowned conductor like Dr. Craig Jessop (former director of The Mormon Tabernacle Choir) that you would really, really, really like to put on a flash mob with The American Festival Chorus because ya know…FLASH MOBS ARE AWESOME!!! YAY!!!!

(I know.)

(I’ve worked with him for 4-years and I still can’t quite believe I had the guts (insanity) to ask.)

Luckily, he is the best sport in the world and he agreed.

WE DID THIS IN TEN DAYS, people.

Well, the idea was pitched three weeks prior to Black Friday.

Then Dr. Jessop picked up the phone and called an INCREDIBLE arranger, Kurt Bestor, to specially arrange a royalty-free song for us. Then we had The Britian War Requiem to produce. THEN I started working on the behind the scene and gathering an INCREDIBLE team together. By a week out we knew we had a location, a film crew, a choir and that was IT, other than what I kept seeing in my head. (Which is a fat lot of good if you don’t have someone help you execute that vision.)

Thank goodness for our choreographer (Stephanie R. White). She came in with only 6 days to call dancers on a holiday weekend and put it all together. THEN we had to work with everyone, logistic the mall and the needed crew and equipment for the sound, figure out the placement, figure out the recording the music, figure out the…the…EVERYTHING. ALL IN THE WEEK BEFORE THANKSGIVING. And pray very hard it would all turn out.

I love it.

And I did NOT do it alone. Everyone knew someone that could, and wanted to help that was KEY in this production. It would not have happened otherwise, period.

It was more work than I care to explain, but let’s say this…if you ever think “Hey! It would be super fun to put together and be in charge of running a flashmob!” Do yourself a favor. Get on a train. Then throw yourself off the train. Then get run over by a tractor. Then have your mutilated body kicked by the irate driver of aforementioned tractor. But if you STILL want to put on a flash mob and know a lot of insanely talented people that will get up at 6am and drive in the bitter cold to practice bouncing up and down in a mall? GO RIGHT AHEAD, DUDE! Because you will need to be that committed.

And?

I had the time of my life.

Please consider sharing this with your family and friends. 

We learned something ANNOYING. Views from video embedded on Facebook do NOT count as view on Facebook. And views are ESSENTIAL in a project like this. So, a big, huge favor…can you use this link if you are sharing on Facebook, consider not having a thumbnail available ? Or if it is easier, just send them here to this post? (It’s a long story but it basically those are the only certifiable fixes on the Google help forum where everyone was having a moo-cow about this issue like I was.)

(AND YES… I am blatantly pimping and begging for shares here but I feel zealously responsible to make sure it is flung far and wide. I’m sure you and the tractor driver appreciate my commitment, at least. :) )

I would be remiss not to end this with some thanks to those whose time, energy, generosity and good will was donated to this production.

Dr. Craig Jessop (Who has an AWESOME Hitchcock-like cameo…see if you can spot him), The American Festival Chorus, Kurt Bestor, WhySound, Klepticenter Productions, Stephanie R. White for her amazing choreography, Irishfre Dance Company, Music Theatre West dancers, The Westminster Bell Choir, The other 5 talented singers who stood in a recording booth and recorded track after track with me an hour after getting the music and last but NOT least, A huge, huge, huge, huge shout out to Preston Parker of MultiMediaWise Productionswho was as passionate about this project and donated all filming and editing. (Which is a bigger thing than you can imagine.)

It was such fun.

Love to you all and happy holidays!

P.S. DID I MENTION I WOULD LOVE YOU FOREVER IF YOU SPREAD THIS AROUND TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW?

P.P.S. Because I so would.

P.P.P.S Or, you know…at least feel very friendly towards you for the afternoon. :D

P.P.P.P.S. One more thing. They may jump of the screen, glare at and possibly bitchslap you, but PLEASE at least attempt to ignore the FIVE FEET OF ROOTS ON MY HAIR. I didn’t have time to eat, sleep or breathe…let alone make friends with Miss Clairol.

;)

I’m helping head up the social media efforts for AFG…if you would like to keep tabs on us (because we have many great things in store) please find us on Facebook and follow us on The Twitter!) And ya might be talking to someone you know from those account, so the more the merrier!