Our New House

 I've finally taken the time to sit and down load the pictures that we took of our new house. There are not many of them, but you can get a feel of what the house is like. We are scheduled to close Thursday (two days away), however we are currently waiting to hear if we'd be able to close from our underwriter, or if we'll have to postpone it for another week. We are all on edge and starting to live out of boxes. Don't worry I'm not that good at packing, there is still plenty left to pack. Happy Trails!

In these picture, we don't have a picture of the other bathroom, the two smaller rooms and the room into the front room. Like I said, just a little sampler of what we'll be moving into soon...very soon we hope.

Close up on the granite counter tops and new appliances

 

Kitchen

This is a large bed room that has a door leading out to the patio

The door leading outside from the great room

This is the master bathroom with granite counter tops, it's a lot bigger then the picture

Master bedroom with a large walk-in closet

This is the front patio

This is the great room looking at the master bathroom on the left ans the laundry room to the right.

Our very large garages with a very large paved driveway and a working water pump nest to the house. Between the garages we found that it attracts bugs, which Tyler is very excited for.

This is off the great room showing the door to the garages on the left and the door leading outside on the right.

A House!

This has happened so quickly I still can't believe it myself. Last entry I mentioned that snicky snook that gave away our house to another buyer, that happened on Friday. So our faithful realtor set up houses for us to look at on Saturday. Come early Saturday morning, before 8am, I get a text from our Tim telling me that three new houses went on the market that day and he had set up showings for us. When I did wake up and we got ready, pulling our sick kids, even Brian out of bed, we went to look at houses once again. By the time we met up with Tim, there was a few cancellations, no biggy. We looked at one that we thought would work out if we didn't see anything else. (Right now we needed to be out with our rent already up $300 from before) The next houses, not so much. Tim talked us out of the next house because there was a lot of work that needed to be done on it. On to the last house, one of the new ones that went on the market that day. We walked in and loved it from the start. It was beautiful! Textured walls, everything well done with granite counter tops, a huge one floor layout with a front porch and a large driveway. It was great! We all looked at each other and immediately started everything to put a bid in ASAP! Tim called the other realtor and told him that we were putting in a bid and if there were any bids currently on it, no. He also mentioned something like, my poor clients can't get a break. So many houses have fell through. He knew the words to say. SO we quickly got everything together, wrote a check for the earnest money and paid full price. We were not going to let this one go. He drove it over. Later that day we got a call telling us that there were other bids, but if we raise our price to a certain amount that it would be ours. Of course! So we got together and signed the counter offer and took it over, WE MADE IT! The owner was so nice to give us a second chance before anyone else. I told you our realtor knew what he was saying/doing. The next day we find out that there were multiple offers and everyone was mad that the owner didn't do a best bid and take the best offer. What a blessing, we have a house!!! We are closing April 5th, ready to move in on the 6th. When we find the cord to transfer pictures from the camera to the computer, we'll post pictures. Until then, two more weeks!!!

A House and NOT a House

So today I was super excited and then fell to the couch and wanted to scream my head off.
The last blog I mentioned that we had put two offers in on two different houses. One house I still haven't seen and the other house was a very nice house a street away from the other house. We went to see this house Tuesday of this week. On Thursday we get a call saying that our offer has potential, however with other offers coming in and more showing yet that evening, we had to do something quick. They wanted a little more, or closer to their asking price. SO we did. Today Brian calls and tells me that they accepted All the paper work for our offer got set up, even our closing date. I was so excited, WE HAVE A HOUSE!!! Our Realtor had everything ready and was on his way to drop off the contract when he gets a call, 10 min. way from the office telling him that someone else came in with a better offer so we are out of luck. What horrible luck! After all that we went through with the owner and he just gets something better and throws us out the window. Of course I went and started calling everyone to tell them that we had a house and now I have to let everyone know again that someone doesn't have any ethics. So we are left with the house that I still can't get into see, with one week remaining, if we don't hear anything we are withdrawing our offer. Either we find a better house or we hear something from the bank and I can see it!
To top it off, since I'm venting, my husband and two boys are sick.
On the upside, today is the last day to get my birthday "buy one first, then get your birthday one FREE" smoothie at Orange Julius, which I'm going to make that happen! Now tell me why on your birthday do they make you buy a smoothie, why not give you a free little one?
Who's up for a smoothie!?!

February in March, What a month!

It sure was a nice try to do one blog entry a month. I look at it this way, I made two entries in January and I'm just doing February's a few days late...it's good thinking and could work only if I can do one more in March...which I probably will. Pray for me!
A few things have happened in February that have been a bit exciting.
1. Valentine's day - Brian surprised me by coming home for lunch, which he never does, and brought me chocolates and a dozen beautiful red roses. It was wonderful! Tyler was jealous, he wanted a red rose too. He thought they were for him because they were red and red was his favorite color. So I gave in and gave him one rose to put in a vase. He then sat in front of it while eating, took it where ever he went and even talked to it. We then were able to go out to dinner and a movie for a very nice date night.
2. We put an offer on a house that is short sale. We keep hearing different things and to this day we still haven't heard anything from the bank.
3. My birthday - We actually celebrated it the weekend before. Dinner and a movie once again, we are getting spoiled, thanks to Gary and Emmalee who watch our kids for us. (We return the favor for them too, don't worry.) It was just a normal day, but oh the expressions of love and wishes from everyone I know. It made me feel loved and thought of through my not so special day. Thanks everyone!
4. This actually happened March 1st but... I went to see the doctor and was amazed to see a little body with arms and legs kicking and waving around in me and the heart beating. Yes, we are expecting. I just finished my 1st trimester without any problems or sickness, thankfully. The due date is September 19th. We are all excited, especially Tyler. Starting about 6 months ago Tyler has asked and pleaded with me to have two more boys and a girl. He really wants more siblings. He must know something right? He has been great about his whole thing. Caleb I'm afraid will be the one to wish the baby back from where he came from. We'll have to work on him.
5. Another offer- This happened tonight. Our realtor called and told us that there was a MUST see house, so we went to see it. It was gorgeous. Yes, there will probably be a little work, but upgraded well. We decided to put an offer in here, it is currently vacant and it isn't a short sale. It has a few more things that we like. Compared to the other house... I still haven't seen it since the guy never will let us in to see it.  Brian got to see it once, but with all the obstacles, I felt better with this one. We'll just have to see what happens next.
What a crazy month, but it has been a good one. We hope that March will bring even better news!!!

January 2012

The last day of the month comes and to keep my goal of blogging alive, here it is.

We celebrated Brian's birthday this month. It was exciting for him, not so much for us though. In the wee hours of the morning, we made him breakfast, wished him a Happy Birthday, and he opened his cards and present. It was nice. Brian was then off to work for a half day. The other half he spent with friends on the mountain boarding. He loved his birthday!


One thing that I was able to do was make a cake for a friend's daughter this month.  It was her 8th birthday so it needed to be a special cake. I made her a Belle cake from Beauty and the Beast. I learned a lot from that adventure. I have also created my own cream cheese fondant recipe that was told to me from experts that it couldn't be done. It isn't as easy to work with as regular fondant, but it tastes a whole lot better!




Another exciting thing is that we are now pre-qualified to buy a home. We just have to find one now.

The rest of the month has been filled with taking Tyler to school, shopping, cleaning and cooking. Just about the average thing I do.

  

A New Year, A New Post

I've noticed that my last two posts were from different years so that means I have an average of one post a year.

So far this year I have done two things that I only did once last year, post a comment and wash my car. This year I would like to make my 2012 goals of those that I only do once or a few times. I already have two goals set! Here are some more goals that I want to do more of:

1. Wash my car once a quarter or more if needed.
2. Write a blog post once a month, summarizing that month, or more if needed.
3. Finish reading both (not just one) of the conference Ensigns before the next General Conference.
4. Share the gospel with someone.
5. My annual goal of reading a church book (other then the scriptures), and another book. 

I know that I can do these things since I half did them the year before, this year I will just be improving. Good luck to everyone else with their goals for 2012!

Our Drive to Utah

How truly blessed we are. We have had a few miracles happen to us during the trip...well at least I did, Brian's trip was uneventful. We started our trip with a prayer. A prayer of safety, alertness, good drivers on the road and the kids to be happy and make the trip well. What an important pray that was. Everything was said for a purpose and reason.

We started out just fine until we hit Wyoming. There were snow storms. Nothing too bad. We then came to the twin sisters (two bad spots for storms). The drifting across the road ended up freezing, so there were icy spots. I crossed one just fine, but then the second one I lost control of the car, it slid across the lane and into the median while turning 180 degrees. Miracle one, we didn't hit anything and we sailed/slid to a stop. (I was screaming my head off while the kids just sat there calm. A few people stopped, but  since nothing happened to the car, I was able to drive it back up to the road and waited for Brian to catch up to me. A highway patrolman came by and inspected my car...nothing but a tumble weed. I ended up losing a hub cap, but that's nothing compared to our safety. As I started to drive and hit speeds of 65-70mph the boys and I could feel the car shaking badly. The alignment was off, but nothing else, just the shaking. The patrolman did say that it got worse further ahead, so I was freaked out. Brian was so good. We followed behind him at slow speeds, 35-40mph. We safely made it to Evanston, a few miles from the Utah boarder. We heard that the weather was a lot better after the boarder, so I knew relief was going to come soon. We pulled into a gas station to fill up. I knew that sometime during the bad weather my windshield wiper fluid was frozen. Nothing but a noise was coming from it when I tried to clean my windshield. We ate dinner and got hot chocolate and quickly headed out to stay a head of the storm. As I pulled out of the station, I remembered how my windshield was dirty...well I told myself that right now it wasn't that bad and we will be hitting good weather soon. Also I was following Brian and he was already headed toward the Interstate, so I ignored the thought (prompting). As we started again a semi passed me and threw mud onto my windshield. I turned my wipers on and it smeared the mud. I started to pannick and wished that I would have listened to the prompting from the Lord. Too late. I prayed that my fluid would work even though I had been stupid not to listen. For a while now I had the heater on the windshield, hoping that it would defrost it, but not this time. I had to slow down. In the back I saw another semi truck coming. AHH now I was going to be in trouble. Woosh, he sprayed my car with melted ice. The wipers went on and it had cleared up my windshield...well, to where I could see again. That that was another blessing, despite my stupidity. I caught up to Brian. We had passed the boarder and yes, the weather was amazingly better with dry road (good, because my fluid was still frozen). We were able to speed up a little more. I also found out that when I attempted close to 70mph my car wouldn't shake. Another safety miracle. Heavenly Father knew that I needed to go slow, and knowing me, that doesn't describe me at all. So my car would shake/alignment out...until the dry roads where it was safe to go faster. As soon as I saw an exit for a gas station, I turned off to wash my windshield. Getting back on the road was thankfully event less until we arrived at Gary and Emmalee's home. Where we were excited to see one another. Needless to say, that night we repeatedly thanked Heavenly Father in many prayers for our safety and protection during the trip. We are here.

Thank you for your prayers offered that day while we were driving...the Lord sure was hearing them.