A Homeowner For Two Weeks

It has been two weeks now since we closed on our house. We have had a busy few weeks, it is a lot of work to move into a new house and especially a house that is dirty and needs a new paint job on all of the inside. When we showed up to move in a day later then we had planned on this is what we saw. Yikes! It was an odd day trying to not be mean to the guy moving out but still letting him now that he needed to get out, Now.

He took everything out onto the driveway and garage and sorted through his belongings because he could not fit everything on his truck. The day that we moved in he was outside until 11:00 p.m finishing packing everything in his truck. I felt a little bit bad because for me when I leave a house it is always a bit strange and I like to have that last walk through to give me closure, say goodbye and move on. It must have been really weird for him to leave with a strange family now living in "his" house. But enough was enough and he had two extra days then we had planned on so we had to give him a little push to get out.

Because he could not fit everything on his truck this is the lovely garbage pile he left us with. It took a week and a few calls to our realtor until it was finally taken away. I am sure that is a good way to make a first impression with your neighbors!

The day after we moved in Ben went to work painting the house. We decided to start with the kids rooms and then work our way down. I think the rooms turned out really fun! Ben is doing a great job at painting. He is almost done with our bedroom and then we will have four bedrooms, a hallway, and two bathrooms done. Basically the whole upstairs and then it is on the the main level. Here is a picture of Madeline's room.

This is the boys room. Both of the kid rooms have the same dark brown as the background and then the colored stripes and polka dots. Jacob likes his stripes but tells us they are not quite as cool as Star Wars stuff.

Last Saturday Ben was painting the play room and I asked him to come to Madeline's room for a minute, while we were in her room she crawled out without us knowing and crawled down the hall to the play room where there just happened to be a gallon of opened paint. What a fun discovery! She put her hand in and then spilled the whole can. Ben was really mad. We took a puddy knife and scraped up as much paint as we could and then I took a wet towel and tried to soak up as much paint as I could while Ben ran to the neighbors to borrow a shop vac. We poured water on the paint and then vacuumed the area. I was really surprised how well the paint came out. Here is a picture, the spot is in the door way and is even less noticeable now that the carpet is dry.

While we were working on the carpet I stuck Madeline in our tub because she was covered in paint and she would be contained. Here is what I found when I went to take care of her after we had cleaned up the paint. I think she knows she did something bad.

We just keep working each day getting a little bit more done. Ben starts his job next Monday and our all day long work days will be over. We have met some friends and are enjoying Colorado!

Housing Frustration

I am mostly writing this post because I have absolutely nothing to do, here is the story. We were set to close on our new house in the Denver area yesterday(Tuesday) at 11:00. Last Sunday evening we got a call from our realtor saying that the seller of the house was planning on moving out on Tuesday which is the same day we were to close and move in OUR house. We sorted things out and decided he could move out on Tuesday and we would start moving in first thing Wednesday morning which is today. We still closed yesterday at the scheduled time and the seller said he would be out by 10:00 p.m that evening. This morning Ben went over to the house because our POD was being delivered, when he arrived he saw the seller's moving truck still there with boxes and stuff all over the driveway. The seller came out to talk to Ben and said he wasn't going to be able to fit all of his stuff on his truck maybe we would like some of it, um no, it is all junk. Anyway, Ben saw in the house and noticed that there is still a lot of stuff everywhere, not boxes ready to be loaded but loose stuff. Frustrating!! So we called our realtor(who we really like) and he called the sellers realtor and the seller has two hours to get all of his stuff out, he ordered a POD to put the rest of the stuff in and then all of the junk he decides he doesn't want will be put on the curb and a garbage company will come pick it up tomorrow. Do you think he will be out in two hours, I doubt it. Even if he is the stuff will just be on the driveway and yard while he sorts it and loads a POD. Maybe next time he moves he will learn to be a little bit more prepared, but probably not. So we are all sitting here at the house of our friends parents wasting away time. Hopefully we can get to work soon. Oh speaking of work, if he is rushing to get all of his stuff out of the house do you think he will take time to clean it, hmmmm, I think I will be cleaning a house today. Lets hope our afternoon is better then our morning!

This and That

Get ready for a lot of pictures! We have been doing a ton of fun things this month and it has been really fun to have Ben at home without any school or work! A few days ago Ben and I went to Park City for the day without kids (thank you mom) we went to the Olympic village and watched freestyle skiers practice their jumps and land in a pool of water. I was impressed with their skill and how high the jumps were, it was a lot of fun to watch!

Yesterday we went to Payson Lake and had a picnic and then walked around the lake. Madeline enjoyed some crackers and turkey at our picnic, the bees were everywhere.

Jacob and David had fun hiking around the lake, they liked to take every side trail they could find.

Last week we went to Bridal Veil falls. We hiked up the water fall a bit and then came back down and played in the pool of water at the bottom, this was a fun activity we all enjoyed getting wet.




Last weekend we went to Idaho to visit Ben's family, we had a great time but I didn't take many pictures. This is David in Logan's football pads, to bad Michigan didn't do well at their game last week, maybe they need David's help.

At the beginning of the month we spent a few days at Bear Lake and had a blast! Jacob and David loved playing in the lake and floating on these little boats.

Thanks to my aunts and uncles we were able to have a boat ride and enjoy wave runners. David and Ben rode the wave runners together and David loved going "so fast"

Madeline liked the water and sand, she was always filthy!

I thought this was a cute picture of David and my grandpa.


Also not pictured because my camera ran out of batteries is my brothers wedding. I was really disappointed that the camera didn't work, it was a nice wedding and he married a great girl! On Monday we are off to Denver! I am excited to move to the next phase of our life and move into our first house.

Simple Pleasures

Little kids are great at enjoying the simple pleasures in life, this evening Madeline had a great time eating an Oreo cookie. This mess was created from only one cookie, I wish I could be as satisfied after eating only one cookie!

House Hunting Trip

This week Ben and I went on a trip to find a house in the Denver area. This is no easy task as there are a ton of little cities and suburbs around Denver. Luckily we had some help in locating a good place to live and I am excited about our new community. My mom was so kind and watched Jacob and David so we could go with just Madeline. On Tuesday and Wednesday we looked at about 30 houses. We both liked the same house and made on offer on Wednesday but learned that there was another offer put in for the same house on the same day. I was nervous that we would not get the house. While we were driving back to Utah we got a call from our Realtor (Jason) and he told us that the owner had chosen to go with the other offer without a counter offer to us. I was really disappointed even though I knew this was probably going to happen. He said he would call us the next day (today) to give us an update on some other offers. This morning we got a call from Jason and he told us that we had a second chance on the house because the other people did not respond to their counter offer in the allotted time. So, we were contacted and what ended up happening is that we got the house for $2,000.00 more then we had originally offered. I am really excited! We signed the contracts today and the seller has also signed so it is a done deal unless something else comes up (I hope not). I am really excited about our new house! It is four bedrooms and was built in 1985. It needs a bit of updating on the inside mostly just paint and light fixtures.

A few happenings in my life

1. Last week was the 24th of July celebration in Utah. I love being in Utah on the 24th and getting a holiday. When Ben and I first got married and I moved to Idaho it was strange to have to work on the 24th of July. I have loved the last three years being in Utah for the state holiday with a parade and family BBQ. My parents town has a 5K race that I have participated in the last three years. The good news is that each year my time gets better. This year I improved my time from last year by four minutes and ran the 5K in 26 minutes 39 seconds. I was pretty excited about that. Ben was upset that the T-shirt said fun run instead of 5K, according to Ben it was not a "fun" run. For the picture he would not hold up his T-shirt because he wanted everyone to see his racing number not a shirt that said fun run. That evening we had a BBQ with my aunt and uncle and then went to a firework show that was spectacular for a small town. I was glad I could be in Utah for on last 24th of July celebration.




2. Ben is done with the Bar!!!!!!
i just got off the phone with Ben and he is driving home from his second day of the Bar exam so now he is completely 100% done. We are going out to dinner tonight to celebrate and then off on a little vacation tommorow. I am so excited for Ben that he is finished.

3. A bit ago my mom and I hosted a baby shower for our neighbor and I thought the decorations turned out so cute. My sister-in-law Laurel helped me make these diaper cakes that we decorated with ribbon and flowers and a baby topper. The clothesline was also really cute, when we opened presents we hung the outfits on the clothesline for everyone to see. I had heard of this idea before but had never actually seen it done so I thought I would post this picture for all of you who might need some inspiration decorating for a baby shower.

I'm Done!!!

I have been taking an independent Study course through BYU for the last year called Residential Landscape Design. I have a secondary education degree and to keep my teaching certificate current I have to take six credits every five years. So, I thought independent study would be a good way to get the credits while being at home with my children. Of course I procrastinated a bit and didn't work on the class throughout the year as I should have so this summer I have had to cram a lot of work in. The class is due this Friday, I was planning on taking the final tomorrow but after studying a bit I felt ready and I just wanted to get it done so I went and took it and now I am 100% finished! Yeah! An added bonus is that I got an A on my project and an A- in the course plus my parents are implementing some of my design in their backyard and it looks really good. I will post pictures soon, I am just really happy to finally be done!