We spent last night and today in our own house for the 1st time since we've been married. Took us 6 years, but we finally pulled it off!
I woke up at 6:15 this morning excited for Christmas. Elea had no idea that this morning was any different than any other morning when she crawled into bed with us at 7 am. She just made her usual "Curious George" & "chocit milk" requests. So when Jeff came back upstairs he started bringing up Merry Christmas, presents, Santa, etc. I still don't think she had any clue until she was downstairs looking at the toys Santa had brought her.
Growing up, my family always ate waffles with strawberries and whipped cream for Christmas morning breakfast. Jeff humored me this year, and I don't think he was super psyched about the idea until he was actually eating them, so now it's been instituted as OUR family Christmas morning breakfast tradition. YAY!
The other funny one was playing Christmas music while opening presents. When we were first married and at my family's house every other year, it "made him feel awkward." So last night when I was setting up the playlist, hoping that I would be able to pull off playing music this morning, he came in and said he thought it was a good idea. Now that we have Elea, it doesn't make him feel awkward anymore. :) Which makes me happy, because the first Christmas I spent with his family instead of my own when we were engaged, the lack of Christmas music during present opening is eventually what got to me and I ended up crying it out later that afternoon!
Jeff & I agreed not to get each other anything this year and for once, we finally stuck to it. :) Elea got Jeff a picture frame with family pictures in it for his office at work and she got me a "Rachel Ray, 365 different meals" cookbook. I am actually really excited about the cookbook, believe it or not. A girl can only cook tuna casserole so many times.
MERRY CHRISTMAS! I hope you all are having or had a great day!
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Thursday, December 9, 2010
KITCHEN BEFORE & AFTER PICTURES!
So it took me a month. And after failing miserably at painting/recoating the laminate countertops, we ended up finding an awesome counter top guy in town who was able to give us a great deal since he had some remnant pieces we liked. Oh and he threw in a free sink. And then when the old faucet was removed we saw that it was all corroded so we decided christmas, and anniversary, and birthdays, for us this year was the kitchen, including a new faucet.
I thought before doing this project that someday I would want to expand the kitchen, etc. After painting and sanding and sealing every inch of wood in the kitchen... I've changed my mind. It is plenty big. For at least the next 15 years. I used Caromal Colours, I really liked the whole process, and the outcome, but I can't say if it is easier or harder than the standard sand, paint, glaze, seal process because I had never done anything like this in my life! lol. Luckily, my mother in law helped me with the whole toning/wiping off process on the cabinets doors. I did the sides of the cabinets and the crown molding and my OCD-ness kicked in hardcore and I spent WAY more time than was necessary on them. Needless to say, I would still be painting if it wasn't for her.
So here are the before pictures:
AND AFTER:
So there you go... Now that I've finally posted these pictures I can start catching up on everything else that's happened in the past month & a half. But not today. :)
I thought before doing this project that someday I would want to expand the kitchen, etc. After painting and sanding and sealing every inch of wood in the kitchen... I've changed my mind. It is plenty big. For at least the next 15 years. I used Caromal Colours, I really liked the whole process, and the outcome, but I can't say if it is easier or harder than the standard sand, paint, glaze, seal process because I had never done anything like this in my life! lol. Luckily, my mother in law helped me with the whole toning/wiping off process on the cabinets doors. I did the sides of the cabinets and the crown molding and my OCD-ness kicked in hardcore and I spent WAY more time than was necessary on them. Needless to say, I would still be painting if it wasn't for her.
So here are the before pictures:
AND AFTER:
 |
| I'm not the only one that is excited the project is complete! |
Thursday, October 28, 2010
We've moved!
I can't believe it has almost been a month since my last post!
After replacing the carpet, we moved our stuff into the new house last weekend and started sleeping here 2 nights ago. I ATTEMPTED to refinish the hunter green laminate countertop. They look okay, but I am in the process of bidding out just getting them replaced at this point. So we'll see. Now I'm in the process of refinishing/painting the kitchen cabinets. . . They were a light oak circa 1998 complete with gold and porcelain handles. I will post pictures when we get the whole thing done. It's definitely making me feel like the kitchen is a lot bigger than I originally thought!
Jeff has been called as the Young Men's Secretary and sports coach in the ward. They read in our membership records and sustained him in the same meeting. Must be some kind of record. Football season is officially OVER and I would say that I have my husband back except he volunteered to help out with the little league 8th grade team and there is church YM flag football as well, but I can only complain about the 8th grade team since the other is technically a church calling. But it is really nice to have him home before 5 everyday, even if it's just for a few minutes. :)
Elea is as funny as ever. Angie saved my life last week and kept her in Page with her, Monday- Friday so that I was able to pack my house and get cleaning done in the new house since it hadn't been lived in for a year. I would never have been able to get it all done with Elea here- she definitely saved me. And of course Elea went to sleep for naps and bed time like a saint for Angie. And ate all sorts of food. Not so much for mom and dad now that she is back home... but that's just life I guess. I was very glad to get my little sunshine back though.
Elea is getting her adenoids out on the 3rd of Nov. I am nervous for her to go under anesthesia, but it is only a 15 minute procedure so that's good. I am excited for her to be able to breathe better after it's all finished. Hopefully her constant runny nose will be a thing of the past. . . we'll see.
Things are going good with the pregnancy. I will be 27 weeks tomorrow- it's crazy how fast time is going by, it hasn't felt like 27 weeks. Clayne already feels like a different little person from Elea, even in the womb. I may be completely off, but he seems like a pretty mellow little guy so far. Elea would kick at anything that put any sort of pressure on my belly until it was gone-- he's had to deal with her jabbing and jumping on him already-- without fighting back, so we'll see what he's like in a few months. I'm nervous about being a mom of 2, but knowing that my mom is coming to help me for awhile to get a hang of things makes me a lot less anxious!
Well, there is a quick update-- going to go check upstairs to see if elea is asleep or just being mischievously quiet.
After replacing the carpet, we moved our stuff into the new house last weekend and started sleeping here 2 nights ago. I ATTEMPTED to refinish the hunter green laminate countertop. They look okay, but I am in the process of bidding out just getting them replaced at this point. So we'll see. Now I'm in the process of refinishing/painting the kitchen cabinets. . . They were a light oak circa 1998 complete with gold and porcelain handles. I will post pictures when we get the whole thing done. It's definitely making me feel like the kitchen is a lot bigger than I originally thought!
Jeff has been called as the Young Men's Secretary and sports coach in the ward. They read in our membership records and sustained him in the same meeting. Must be some kind of record. Football season is officially OVER and I would say that I have my husband back except he volunteered to help out with the little league 8th grade team and there is church YM flag football as well, but I can only complain about the 8th grade team since the other is technically a church calling. But it is really nice to have him home before 5 everyday, even if it's just for a few minutes. :)
Elea is as funny as ever. Angie saved my life last week and kept her in Page with her, Monday- Friday so that I was able to pack my house and get cleaning done in the new house since it hadn't been lived in for a year. I would never have been able to get it all done with Elea here- she definitely saved me. And of course Elea went to sleep for naps and bed time like a saint for Angie. And ate all sorts of food. Not so much for mom and dad now that she is back home... but that's just life I guess. I was very glad to get my little sunshine back though.
Elea is getting her adenoids out on the 3rd of Nov. I am nervous for her to go under anesthesia, but it is only a 15 minute procedure so that's good. I am excited for her to be able to breathe better after it's all finished. Hopefully her constant runny nose will be a thing of the past. . . we'll see.
Things are going good with the pregnancy. I will be 27 weeks tomorrow- it's crazy how fast time is going by, it hasn't felt like 27 weeks. Clayne already feels like a different little person from Elea, even in the womb. I may be completely off, but he seems like a pretty mellow little guy so far. Elea would kick at anything that put any sort of pressure on my belly until it was gone-- he's had to deal with her jabbing and jumping on him already-- without fighting back, so we'll see what he's like in a few months. I'm nervous about being a mom of 2, but knowing that my mom is coming to help me for awhile to get a hang of things makes me a lot less anxious!
Well, there is a quick update-- going to go check upstairs to see if elea is asleep or just being mischievously quiet.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
We're moving! Again!
A few weeks ago, Jeff's dad told us about a house in their neighborhood that was for sale. My immediate reaction was to wonder why he was telling me about the house when I have that foreclosure on my credit report and so we can't qualify for a loan for at least 4 years.
But, we decided to check it out anyway, just for fun, and really liked it. So we talked with the seller's and they are willing to do a seller financing/ lease option type deal with us! Last week was pretty stressful because we ordered an appraisal and it came in $25,000 LESS than the price we had agreed upon. I figured it all out and it would still have saved us money to go with their asking price and at least have a portion of our monthly payment be going toward OUR mortgage, instead of renting for the next 4 years, paying our landlord's mortgage. But, no matter how much we loved the house, we couldn't justify starting out upside down in it.
So we talked with the seller's and we were firm on our price, and they were firm on theirs and it seemed like we were at a stalemate. I started looking at other properties around town with seller financing or lease options available and had made an appointment to see a few with a realtor. The next morning the seller's called us and had decided over the weekend it was worth it to them to meet us at our price!!! Yippee!!
We're pretty psyched. We still have a few of the little details to work out, but otherwise we're planning on being in the new place on the 1st of November! Nothing like moving twice in one pregnancy. But with any luck this will be the last place we move for a long, long, time.
Other than the insomnia that has come with this whole house deal, things have been pretty good around here... There are only 3 games left in the football season and I will have my husband back, and Elea is as entertaining as ever.
But, we decided to check it out anyway, just for fun, and really liked it. So we talked with the seller's and they are willing to do a seller financing/ lease option type deal with us! Last week was pretty stressful because we ordered an appraisal and it came in $25,000 LESS than the price we had agreed upon. I figured it all out and it would still have saved us money to go with their asking price and at least have a portion of our monthly payment be going toward OUR mortgage, instead of renting for the next 4 years, paying our landlord's mortgage. But, no matter how much we loved the house, we couldn't justify starting out upside down in it.
So we talked with the seller's and we were firm on our price, and they were firm on theirs and it seemed like we were at a stalemate. I started looking at other properties around town with seller financing or lease options available and had made an appointment to see a few with a realtor. The next morning the seller's called us and had decided over the weekend it was worth it to them to meet us at our price!!! Yippee!!
We're pretty psyched. We still have a few of the little details to work out, but otherwise we're planning on being in the new place on the 1st of November! Nothing like moving twice in one pregnancy. But with any luck this will be the last place we move for a long, long, time.
Other than the insomnia that has come with this whole house deal, things have been pretty good around here... There are only 3 games left in the football season and I will have my husband back, and Elea is as entertaining as ever.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Family Pictures of FOUR!
Since Elea was born we have not had a "professional" family picture taken so even though we couldn't schedule Staci D until the 2nd week of September, I thought it was worth it. I figured I'd just chance it and hopefully not LOOK the 20 weeks pregnant that I actually was going to be.
Well . . . here are the some of my favorites that she has posted on her blog & I'm really glad we finally did the family picture thing.
p.s. Need to throw a quick shout-out to Angie for suggesting Elea's low pigtails. :) I would have tried to curl her hair or something crazy and she wouldn't have looked like herself at all.
Well . . . here are the some of my favorites that she has posted on her blog & I'm really glad we finally did the family picture thing.
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Dancin' girl
It's a BOY!
Okay, okay, I know this is a little late coming . . . and I hope that the delay in posting about the ultrasound does not give the impression that it has ANYTHING to do with a lack of excitement about having A BOY! Really, it has a lot more to do with me having been too lazy to scan the images so that I can post them.
Jeff had to work on the day of the ultrasound so he was not able to come. I have been feeling like it is a boy since pretty early on in the pregnancy. Partly because it has been EASY-GOING so far with very little morning sickness & fatigue. Anyway, so as Bobbi, our ultrasound tech, was searching around for possible boy-parts, she stopped and it was pretty obvious, even to me. After getting a couple good looks she made the "official" call that it was a boy and I would be lying if I said that I didn't raise my arms up in a "V" for victory and proclaim that I had been right. It's hard to explain, but as I've struggled trying to get and stay pregnant, there have been many days, weeks, and months that I have lost faith and trust in my own body. Even though I know that millions of women go through it and many of my close friends have and are struggling with the same thing, there definitely is a sense of being betrayed by my own body. So, for me to FEEL something about my body and this pregnancy and have it BE RIGHT was a pretty great moment. Silly? Probably. She also took a quick look at his heart, etc. and said that from what she could see, everything looked good. We go in next week for the full-on-check-everything-out ultrasound, and hopefully Jeff will have someone to cover his class this time.
Before we knew whether it was a boy or a girl, Jeff has been pretty sure that he only wants 2 kids. If this one was a girl, I had said "yes" to just having 2, but if it was a boy, I told him that I couldn't agree to that because I want Elea to have a sister. My sister has been my lifeline on many a dark day before I was married and on many an I'm-about-to-lose-my-mind day since becoming a Mommy, so I don't know that I can send my little girl out into the world without a sister (even if I am the most fabulous, coolest, amazing wonder of a mom out there). So up until we found it was a boy, Jeff had his mind set that it was a girl.
After the ultrasound, I bought some blue "it's a boy" balloons and took them to his office at work. I was hoping to just take them to him in the gym, but his class was meeting with the counselors that day. His mom came with me and last minute we decided to hide behind a file cabinet so that we could watch his reaction in the big mirror without him knowing we were there. When he saw the balloons he starting laughing and said, "No way," and just kept laughing, shaking his head. He looked really excited and totally surprised. I was glad to be able to see his reaction without him knowing I was there, otherwise I would be wondering if his reaction was genuine, or put on for my benefit. We talked for just a few minutes before leaving and he just kept laughing. Later that night he exclaimed, "I'm going to have a son!" it was pretty fun to watch it sink in for him.
We're naming him Clayne Jeffrey, CJ for short. Here are the ultrasounds- 16 weeks 4 days. Some of them are a little thrashed because at least once a day Elea wants to "look at baby" and then carries the strip of ultrasound pictures around with her for awhile.
I'm hoping that his buddha/meditation pose means that he is going to be calm & serene . . . and/or very patient. The dark diamond shape on the top of his head is his soft spot, pretty cool huh?
Jeff had to work on the day of the ultrasound so he was not able to come. I have been feeling like it is a boy since pretty early on in the pregnancy. Partly because it has been EASY-GOING so far with very little morning sickness & fatigue. Anyway, so as Bobbi, our ultrasound tech, was searching around for possible boy-parts, she stopped and it was pretty obvious, even to me. After getting a couple good looks she made the "official" call that it was a boy and I would be lying if I said that I didn't raise my arms up in a "V" for victory and proclaim that I had been right. It's hard to explain, but as I've struggled trying to get and stay pregnant, there have been many days, weeks, and months that I have lost faith and trust in my own body. Even though I know that millions of women go through it and many of my close friends have and are struggling with the same thing, there definitely is a sense of being betrayed by my own body. So, for me to FEEL something about my body and this pregnancy and have it BE RIGHT was a pretty great moment. Silly? Probably. She also took a quick look at his heart, etc. and said that from what she could see, everything looked good. We go in next week for the full-on-check-everything-out ultrasound, and hopefully Jeff will have someone to cover his class this time.
Before we knew whether it was a boy or a girl, Jeff has been pretty sure that he only wants 2 kids. If this one was a girl, I had said "yes" to just having 2, but if it was a boy, I told him that I couldn't agree to that because I want Elea to have a sister. My sister has been my lifeline on many a dark day before I was married and on many an I'm-about-to-lose-my-mind day since becoming a Mommy, so I don't know that I can send my little girl out into the world without a sister (even if I am the most fabulous, coolest, amazing wonder of a mom out there). So up until we found it was a boy, Jeff had his mind set that it was a girl.
After the ultrasound, I bought some blue "it's a boy" balloons and took them to his office at work. I was hoping to just take them to him in the gym, but his class was meeting with the counselors that day. His mom came with me and last minute we decided to hide behind a file cabinet so that we could watch his reaction in the big mirror without him knowing we were there. When he saw the balloons he starting laughing and said, "No way," and just kept laughing, shaking his head. He looked really excited and totally surprised. I was glad to be able to see his reaction without him knowing I was there, otherwise I would be wondering if his reaction was genuine, or put on for my benefit. We talked for just a few minutes before leaving and he just kept laughing. Later that night he exclaimed, "I'm going to have a son!" it was pretty fun to watch it sink in for him.
We're naming him Clayne Jeffrey, CJ for short. Here are the ultrasounds- 16 weeks 4 days. Some of them are a little thrashed because at least once a day Elea wants to "look at baby" and then carries the strip of ultrasound pictures around with her for awhile.
 |
Monday, August 9, 2010
1st day of Jeff's career job!
Today was Jeff's first day at Snow Canyon Middle School as a P.E. & Weights teacher. Growing up, my mom always took our picture on the first day of school and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't tempted to snap one of Jeff on his way out the door this morning! I am so grateful that he (finally!) has a teaching job and our life can get some normalcy in it. He's also assistant coaching the Freshman football team and so far I'm LOVING the schedule compared to Cedar High's Varsity team. On the calendar so far there are only 7 games, and they are on Thursday afternoons. AND there are no Sunday night meetings. So it is pretty fabulous that Elea and I will have him to sit by at the games on Friday nights and Sunday evenings won't drag. YAY!
On a completely different note, I signed Elea up for her first ever dance class today. I think I am doing it more for my entertainment than for her to develop any talent at this point. ha.
I'm revisiting the idea of potty training. I am pretty clueless on how to do it & don't know if I am up for the messes. However, I don't know that I will EVER be ready for the messes so I should probably put some big girl panties on us both and just do it. Alternatively, I'm also considering just dropping her off at Angie's house for a few days so that Angie can potty train her and Lexi at the same time and call it good.
Since my last post, we made a trip up to Roosevelt and then down to Page, my parent's came to visit, and we went up north to Preston, ID for a family reunion. I will post about all of these adventures and more, with pictures, sometime this week.
On a completely different note, I signed Elea up for her first ever dance class today. I think I am doing it more for my entertainment than for her to develop any talent at this point. ha.
I'm revisiting the idea of potty training. I am pretty clueless on how to do it & don't know if I am up for the messes. However, I don't know that I will EVER be ready for the messes so I should probably put some big girl panties on us both and just do it. Alternatively, I'm also considering just dropping her off at Angie's house for a few days so that Angie can potty train her and Lexi at the same time and call it good.
Since my last post, we made a trip up to Roosevelt and then down to Page, my parent's came to visit, and we went up north to Preston, ID for a family reunion. I will post about all of these adventures and more, with pictures, sometime this week.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Baby O. #2!
He/she is due January 28th. I made the announcement on Facebook last week, but am a little late getting it recorded on here. As of today, I am 14 weeks along, so through the first trimester and breathing a little easier now. After miscarrying in February, we kept this pregnancy under wraps longer- just in case.
So far I have been very lucky. I was nauseous off & on and definitely had my days of wanting to do nothing but lay on the couch all day- but that's about it. Nothing too crazy.
I'm feeling like it's a boy. Jeff hasn't said one way or the other, but I thnk he's assuming it is a girl. Elea said to me out of nowhere the other day, "I want a sister." Regardless, the ultrasound is scheduled for August 17th to find out one way or the other.
I've had, I think, 4 ultrasounds, maybe more. Dr. Chalmers is fabulous and knows that I am/was worried, so he let me come in whenever I wanted for a quick ultrasound, just to make sure everything was still going as it should. There wasn't much to see with the first ultrasounds, but here are a couple of pictures from the last one-- he/she actually looks like a legit baby now!
So far I have been very lucky. I was nauseous off & on and definitely had my days of wanting to do nothing but lay on the couch all day- but that's about it. Nothing too crazy.
I'm feeling like it's a boy. Jeff hasn't said one way or the other, but I thnk he's assuming it is a girl. Elea said to me out of nowhere the other day, "I want a sister." Regardless, the ultrasound is scheduled for August 17th to find out one way or the other.
I've had, I think, 4 ultrasounds, maybe more. Dr. Chalmers is fabulous and knows that I am/was worried, so he let me come in whenever I wanted for a quick ultrasound, just to make sure everything was still going as it should. There wasn't much to see with the first ultrasounds, but here are a couple of pictures from the last one-- he/she actually looks like a legit baby now!
12 weeks & 4 days
Monday, July 19, 2010
Elea's 2nd Birthday
We didn't go crazy this year for her birthday-- Just had family over for pizza & cookies and ice cream. Elea doesn't like cake so I made her a giant chocolate chip cookie instead. One of her favorite foods is pizza, so I figured I should take advantage of that before she gets old enough to request birthday meals that can't be bought in a drive-thru window.
It was really nice to be living in a place big enough to have 8 adults and 12 kids without having to walk all over one another. The kids got in a water fight in the backyard towards the end of the night, which was pretty fun to watch-- and even more fun to send the kids out to the cars sopping wet through the side gate! (sorry Jen & Shanna!)
Page & Lake Powell
Elea loved playing in the sand and the water. She loves being on the boat and fell asleep both times. Jeff took her on the tube again and of course, she loved it. :)
CHEESE!
Missing Elea
The 3 three nights during the week of our move we were in chaos so we left Elea with Jeff's mom. Angie had offered to take her to Page for the week, but when it came down to it, I couldn't stand to not see Elea for that many days. Even with being able to see her for a couple of hours every day, by the time Wednesday night rolled around I was determined to have the house put away enough so that she could sleep at our house on Thursday.
As often as I complain about her waking up at the crack of dawn, or whining, or other standard toddler antics, she really is my little happy fix. We missed her a lot those few days- although I think she was handling the separation JUST FINE. ha. I'm grateful she has so many people in her life who love her and are happy and willing to help take care of her.
As often as I complain about her waking up at the crack of dawn, or whining, or other standard toddler antics, she really is my little happy fix. We missed her a lot those few days- although I think she was handling the separation JUST FINE. ha. I'm grateful she has so many people in her life who love her and are happy and willing to help take care of her.
We're Finished!
Well, almost finished. Still need to find places for the random stuff & have some pictures etc. to hang on the walls, but that's about it.
It turned out to be quite the undertaking- more than we'd planned. Our landlords had told us that they would be completely out of the house and it would be ready for us to move into on the afternoon of the 2nd. So we planned on spending 4th of July weekend in St. George at my in-laws with Ang, Derek, & the girls. I was psyched because I thought that *finally* I could con Ang into helping me move in some of the little stuff & get the headache of moving the kitchen over with.
It was not meant to be. We checked out the place Friday afternoon and it still had stuff in it and was nowhere near being move-in ready clean. So I made an awkward call to the landlords and they said that they had just gotten exhausted so they planned on getting the remainder of the stuff out and it cleaned on Monday morning. We'd made a deal with them that Jeff could use Spencer's Heavens Best stuff and clean the carpets & deduct it from our rent so he went ahead and did that on Saturday with Derek's help. & power-sprayed out the garage so they could unload the truck & trailers worth of stuff.
So Monday morning around 10, I stopped by the house. Their stuff was gone, but I could tell it hadn't been cleaned. Awkward phone call #2. Found out it was as clean as they were planning on cleaning it. Sick. So they agreed to pay for a cleaning lady & luckily Tiff was an angel and came over Tuesday & Wednesday & cleaned for us. She did AWESOME. Jeff (& Jen & MarJean) ended up painting the entire house with the exception of the kitchen & bathrooms because that was faster than trying to clean the walls. I spent hours just cleaning doors & other random things. It was pretty insane. So then we (by we, I mean Jeff, Jace, & some of his friends) packed up the U-Haul on Wednesday & unloaded it. & then we've just been getting settled since then.
Oh ya, I forgot to mention that we we went BACK to Cedar on Thursday to finish the last minute cleaning of our old place before checking out. Luckily we passed that inspection easy and will get our full deposit back (except for 1 dollar for 2 burned out lights). The actual "move" was relatively painless- it was just getting this house ready to move into that was a giant pain. But, now that we're in, we're grateful that Jeff chose to paint because it feels like a totally different house. THANK GOODNESS. It was a fun lesson to learn that the word CLEAN is definitely relative.
It turned out to be quite the undertaking- more than we'd planned. Our landlords had told us that they would be completely out of the house and it would be ready for us to move into on the afternoon of the 2nd. So we planned on spending 4th of July weekend in St. George at my in-laws with Ang, Derek, & the girls. I was psyched because I thought that *finally* I could con Ang into helping me move in some of the little stuff & get the headache of moving the kitchen over with.
It was not meant to be. We checked out the place Friday afternoon and it still had stuff in it and was nowhere near being move-in ready clean. So I made an awkward call to the landlords and they said that they had just gotten exhausted so they planned on getting the remainder of the stuff out and it cleaned on Monday morning. We'd made a deal with them that Jeff could use Spencer's Heavens Best stuff and clean the carpets & deduct it from our rent so he went ahead and did that on Saturday with Derek's help. & power-sprayed out the garage so they could unload the truck & trailers worth of stuff.
So Monday morning around 10, I stopped by the house. Their stuff was gone, but I could tell it hadn't been cleaned. Awkward phone call #2. Found out it was as clean as they were planning on cleaning it. Sick. So they agreed to pay for a cleaning lady & luckily Tiff was an angel and came over Tuesday & Wednesday & cleaned for us. She did AWESOME. Jeff (& Jen & MarJean) ended up painting the entire house with the exception of the kitchen & bathrooms because that was faster than trying to clean the walls. I spent hours just cleaning doors & other random things. It was pretty insane. So then we (by we, I mean Jeff, Jace, & some of his friends) packed up the U-Haul on Wednesday & unloaded it. & then we've just been getting settled since then.
Oh ya, I forgot to mention that we we went BACK to Cedar on Thursday to finish the last minute cleaning of our old place before checking out. Luckily we passed that inspection easy and will get our full deposit back (except for 1 dollar for 2 burned out lights). The actual "move" was relatively painless- it was just getting this house ready to move into that was a giant pain. But, now that we're in, we're grateful that Jeff chose to paint because it feels like a totally different house. THANK GOODNESS. It was a fun lesson to learn that the word CLEAN is definitely relative.
Friday, July 9, 2010
We've moved!
I promise I'll update soon with all the gory details.
Here is the one picture I took during the 4 day process. We moved all of our stuff before remembering to change out the air filter. This was Jeff's solution.
Published with Blogger-droid v1.4.4
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Sand Hollow
Last minute some friends invited us to go boating down at Sand Hollow today. I was curious how Elea would be with the sand and water, etc. Luckily, she loved it & didn't complain about her hands being "gross" even once! I didn't get to see it, but she even rode on the tube with Jeff and loved it. She kept saying "wee" & waving to the kids on the boat.
The weather was perfect & I'm so glad we went!
Friday, June 18, 2010
Elea-isms
Elea walks up to you and says "pingers" (Fingers) and grabs your hand, pulling you to wherever or whatever she wants help with. Since she figured that little trick out, her tantrums have nearly disappeared (thank goodness!) it was a rough couple of months with the tantruming.
She still does sign language while using words with a lot of things (milk, dog, more, eat, etc.). It's kind of fun to watch her randomly bust out a sign that I didn't even realize that she had learned- i.e. "juice" yesterday, for the first time.
"Stuck" is one of her favorite words. She gets stuck trying to climb the baby gate we put in her door during nap-time. Or stuck in her booster seat. Or stuck in her stroller. Or stuck trying to put pants on. Or stuck trying to take shirt off. Or stuck trying to pull a barrette out of her hair. Or stuck trying to pull things out of the bathroom drawers.
Another favorite phrase is "_____, watch this," and then she proceeds to do something she thinks is cool- normally describing the action while doing it. For example, "Mom, watch this, jump!" while jumping up and down. A couple weeks ago we were at a friends house and she was jumping on the trampoline, so she kept telling the dog across the yard, "DOG! WATCH THIS!" Or yesterday, we were on Skype with my parents and she said, 'Papa, watch this!" but I don't remember what she did. It's usually pretty cute & endearing . . . until she says it before dumping all the leftover food (which is usually a lot) left on her plate onto the floor.
Her favorite show is "agins" (Backyardigans). Which is fine with me because they aren't annoying. We tried the Little Einsteins thing for a couple of weeks, but then I had an intense desire to break my eardrums after hearing "I CAN NOT BELIEVE IT!" for the hundredth time. Backyardigans is pretty fabulous.
Any sort of jewelry or hair accessory is "pretties" or "cute."
We're still in the process of taking away the binkie(s). We cut the tips off of all of her binkies, and she still uses the 0 month size so they aren't that big to begin with. When she first saw them, she called them "yucky binkiy" and made a major stink face when she tried to use them. It's cured her of whining for her binky ALL DAY LONG, but she still wants it at bed-time, even though it falls out the second she falls asleep. But, she doesn't wake up crying for it in the night. So baby steps I guess. Maybe we'll take them away completely when she turns 2 next month-- kind of a cruel birthday present though, huh?
I had a delusional moment or two a few weeks ago and thought it would be a good idea to start the potty training. But then one morning I had her sitting on the toilet, she climbed down, peed on the floor, and then climbed back onto the toilet. So, we're post-poning that for a few months, at least until we are settled in the new place.
She's been waking up between 5:45- 7 am every morning. So she just comes and climbs in bed with me and says "Mom! Shows!" so I turn on sesame street and lay there with my eyes closed, hoping to fall back asleep. Until she pats my head or face and says "Mom! Drink!" which usually takes a couple times before I stagger out of bed and make her chocolate instant breakfast which is her main source of vitamins since she still has a major aversion to the texture fruits & vegetables & every brand of multi-vitamin I have tried so far! Mother of the Year Award right here, thank you very much.
Elea is a pretty polite little kid so far. Sometimes she needs to be reminded to say please & thank-you but a lot of the time she remembers all on her own. If we remind her she usually says "thank you, ________, thank you!"
Elea is learning (as much as a 23 month old can) the difference between right/wrong, nice/mean, etc. While watching disney/animated movies, she has started pointing at the "misbehaving" characters and telling them off. Yesterday it was Toy Story-- I don't remember what part, but she was pointing at the TV yelling "Stop it Buzz! Stop it!"
She thinks it's hilarious if we copy what she says. She's at the age where she says our names over and over and over and over and over and over without any reason. So one day in the car out of sheer desparation whenever she would say "Mom," Jeff would immediately copy her, before she could even get the second "m sound" out. Once she realized what he was doing she thought it was hilarious and started changing the speed, pitch, volume, etc. It's turned into a game that gets us all laughing, especially when she does her various fake laughs and we copy those. I realized last night that one of these days she is going to start mimickinig US, when we are trying to be stern or serious and we will have a major parenting back-fire on our hands.
There was a while there that she was throwing tantrums/whining often. When she would starts whining I remind her to "Use your words," and she usually responds with "words." . . .Obviously that was not quite what I had in mind, but it works to distract her from the whining! Law of unintended consequences or whatever.
We haven't had any chairs around our kitchen table except for her's and the 2 pinned against the wall because Elea loves to climb. Everything. And she figured out how to drag the chairs around the kitchen, so we had more than the top of the kitchen table to worry about. The baby lock I had installed on the oven melted, imagine that, so about once or twice a day I find her standing on the open oven door, dismantling the stove top burners. The other day I looked into the living room and she had opened the dresser we use as an entertainment center and had opened 2 rows of drawers and used them as a ladder in an effort to get into the drawer on the top row. Luckily, it's a sturdy dresser and she still weighs less than 25 lbs. Scared me to death. We have child safety locks installed on every permanent drawer, cabinet, and the dishwasher- she loves to empty the contents of whatever she is able to get into, onto the floor, so that will be the first thing we install when we move in a couple of weeks. No messing around.
She likes to randomly count to 10 and sing her abc's (or atleast 3/4s of them). I don't honestly know how she picked them up- it wasn't Jeff or me trying to teach her them, that is for sure.
She still does sign language while using words with a lot of things (milk, dog, more, eat, etc.). It's kind of fun to watch her randomly bust out a sign that I didn't even realize that she had learned- i.e. "juice" yesterday, for the first time.
"Stuck" is one of her favorite words. She gets stuck trying to climb the baby gate we put in her door during nap-time. Or stuck in her booster seat. Or stuck in her stroller. Or stuck trying to put pants on. Or stuck trying to take shirt off. Or stuck trying to pull a barrette out of her hair. Or stuck trying to pull things out of the bathroom drawers.
Another favorite phrase is "_____, watch this," and then she proceeds to do something she thinks is cool- normally describing the action while doing it. For example, "Mom, watch this, jump!" while jumping up and down. A couple weeks ago we were at a friends house and she was jumping on the trampoline, so she kept telling the dog across the yard, "DOG! WATCH THIS!" Or yesterday, we were on Skype with my parents and she said, 'Papa, watch this!" but I don't remember what she did. It's usually pretty cute & endearing . . . until she says it before dumping all the leftover food (which is usually a lot) left on her plate onto the floor.
Her favorite show is "agins" (Backyardigans). Which is fine with me because they aren't annoying. We tried the Little Einsteins thing for a couple of weeks, but then I had an intense desire to break my eardrums after hearing "I CAN NOT BELIEVE IT!" for the hundredth time. Backyardigans is pretty fabulous.
Any sort of jewelry or hair accessory is "pretties" or "cute."
We're still in the process of taking away the binkie(s). We cut the tips off of all of her binkies, and she still uses the 0 month size so they aren't that big to begin with. When she first saw them, she called them "yucky binkiy" and made a major stink face when she tried to use them. It's cured her of whining for her binky ALL DAY LONG, but she still wants it at bed-time, even though it falls out the second she falls asleep. But, she doesn't wake up crying for it in the night. So baby steps I guess. Maybe we'll take them away completely when she turns 2 next month-- kind of a cruel birthday present though, huh?
I had a delusional moment or two a few weeks ago and thought it would be a good idea to start the potty training. But then one morning I had her sitting on the toilet, she climbed down, peed on the floor, and then climbed back onto the toilet. So, we're post-poning that for a few months, at least until we are settled in the new place.
She's been waking up between 5:45- 7 am every morning. So she just comes and climbs in bed with me and says "Mom! Shows!" so I turn on sesame street and lay there with my eyes closed, hoping to fall back asleep. Until she pats my head or face and says "Mom! Drink!" which usually takes a couple times before I stagger out of bed and make her chocolate instant breakfast which is her main source of vitamins since she still has a major aversion to the texture fruits & vegetables & every brand of multi-vitamin I have tried so far! Mother of the Year Award right here, thank you very much.
Elea is a pretty polite little kid so far. Sometimes she needs to be reminded to say please & thank-you but a lot of the time she remembers all on her own. If we remind her she usually says "thank you, ________, thank you!"
Elea is learning (as much as a 23 month old can) the difference between right/wrong, nice/mean, etc. While watching disney/animated movies, she has started pointing at the "misbehaving" characters and telling them off. Yesterday it was Toy Story-- I don't remember what part, but she was pointing at the TV yelling "Stop it Buzz! Stop it!"
She thinks it's hilarious if we copy what she says. She's at the age where she says our names over and over and over and over and over and over without any reason. So one day in the car out of sheer desparation whenever she would say "Mom," Jeff would immediately copy her, before she could even get the second "m sound" out. Once she realized what he was doing she thought it was hilarious and started changing the speed, pitch, volume, etc. It's turned into a game that gets us all laughing, especially when she does her various fake laughs and we copy those. I realized last night that one of these days she is going to start mimickinig US, when we are trying to be stern or serious and we will have a major parenting back-fire on our hands.
There was a while there that she was throwing tantrums/whining often. When she would starts whining I remind her to "Use your words," and she usually responds with "words." . . .Obviously that was not quite what I had in mind, but it works to distract her from the whining! Law of unintended consequences or whatever.
We haven't had any chairs around our kitchen table except for her's and the 2 pinned against the wall because Elea loves to climb. Everything. And she figured out how to drag the chairs around the kitchen, so we had more than the top of the kitchen table to worry about. The baby lock I had installed on the oven melted, imagine that, so about once or twice a day I find her standing on the open oven door, dismantling the stove top burners. The other day I looked into the living room and she had opened the dresser we use as an entertainment center and had opened 2 rows of drawers and used them as a ladder in an effort to get into the drawer on the top row. Luckily, it's a sturdy dresser and she still weighs less than 25 lbs. Scared me to death. We have child safety locks installed on every permanent drawer, cabinet, and the dishwasher- she loves to empty the contents of whatever she is able to get into, onto the floor, so that will be the first thing we install when we move in a couple of weeks. No messing around.
She likes to randomly count to 10 and sing her abc's (or atleast 3/4s of them). I don't honestly know how she picked them up- it wasn't Jeff or me trying to teach her them, that is for sure.
R.S.Quarterly Activity
I'm remembering why I slowed down and then stopped blogging in the first place . . . I have a difficult time finding things "important" enough to blog about!
I'm the "Relief Society Meetings Coordinator" (aka Enrichment Leader) in our ward. (Atleast until my replacement is called). This week we had our quarterly activity. I had promised Jeff that I wouldn't let me life be over-run by the activity like it did in March so I took a lot simpler, less intense approach. (Sorry Kristin if you ended up with the stress instead!) It turned out well, we did a dinner & service auction. Ladies in the ward donated service "items" such as babysitting for 2 hours, food items, teaching art lesson, etc. I put a questionnaire together that awarded various points for different things (attending the temple, paying tithing, taking dinners, calling just to check on someone, making bed, taking vitamin, etc.) and the points were used as money for the bidding.
We didn't go as intense with the advertising this time and with it being summer a lot of girls are out of town so our turnout was somewhere around 30-35. I think. We had enough food for 60 so there was a TON of leftovers. (And I had forgotten a lady in the ward was bringing some of the rice with her, so I made too much rice at the church! Whoops!)
Anyway, I think it turned out well and the ladies were talking with eachother which is my main goal of every activity. :) So ya, my run in R.S. is pretty much over, at least in this ward. I definitely feel more effective working in R.S. than in Primary. . . but who knows where they'll put us in our next ward.
I'm the "Relief Society Meetings Coordinator" (aka Enrichment Leader) in our ward. (Atleast until my replacement is called). This week we had our quarterly activity. I had promised Jeff that I wouldn't let me life be over-run by the activity like it did in March so I took a lot simpler, less intense approach. (Sorry Kristin if you ended up with the stress instead!) It turned out well, we did a dinner & service auction. Ladies in the ward donated service "items" such as babysitting for 2 hours, food items, teaching art lesson, etc. I put a questionnaire together that awarded various points for different things (attending the temple, paying tithing, taking dinners, calling just to check on someone, making bed, taking vitamin, etc.) and the points were used as money for the bidding.
We didn't go as intense with the advertising this time and with it being summer a lot of girls are out of town so our turnout was somewhere around 30-35. I think. We had enough food for 60 so there was a TON of leftovers. (And I had forgotten a lady in the ward was bringing some of the rice with her, so I made too much rice at the church! Whoops!)
Anyway, I think it turned out well and the ladies were talking with eachother which is my main goal of every activity. :) So ya, my run in R.S. is pretty much over, at least in this ward. I definitely feel more effective working in R.S. than in Primary. . . but who knows where they'll put us in our next ward.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Packing & Cleaning, Cleaning & Packing.
Elea doing the moving box slide/dance.
I didn't get a picture of her jumping, but she was having a great time jumping on the big pile of boxes.
Yes, I understand that we aren't moving for about a month. BUT, I realized very quickly that I was unable to relax in our house knowing that there were things up and out that would eventually need to be taken down and put in a box and then moved. So, our walls are bare now, and the cupboards are left with the just the bare necessities. (Don't think this is all sorts of amazing though, pretty much every decoration in our house fit in 2 boxes.) Luckily, the people next door to us just moved in last week, so we have been able to use their boxes. You'd think by now Jeff & I would be smart enough to keep our boxes from one move to the next, but we aren't, this time however, it all worked out. :)
Monday, June 7, 2010
Our tortured artist
"cuhdors" are the source of much joy & many tantrums around our house. If Elea sees one of us writing on anything with anything she thinks that she will die immediately if said writing instrument is not handed over immediately.
However, the moments when she is patient enough to sit at the table and "cuhdor" she is as happy and content. Especially when she gets to use a pen.
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Just a sad day.
Jeff's working this morning so I was flying solo with Elea getting to church this morning. Somehow we were ready by 8:30 so when she started banging on the garage door, wanting to leave, I figured we might as well walk to church and kill some time.
Anyway, she didn't last too long and we roamed the halls quite a bit but she did well in nursery. In R.S. I was just thinking about how much we've been blessed with in the past year. And then I got really sad. I'm sad to be leaving my friends, friends that I didn't have a year ago but who have been there for me through the past while. It's silly, but until this house (& Jeff & I have moved 9 times in 5 years), I was never able to call a neighbor friend and ask to borrow an egg or a cup of sugar. Seriously, the first time I was able to do that, it felt like christmas.
I've been staying busy this past week, thinking only about the new, exciting parts about Jeff starting his career and us moving. I guess being forced to sit still for an hour was good for me- better to deal with this stuff now then wait until we are in the new house and I can't send Elea across the street while I run an errand.
. . . And Elea is currently throwing tantrum #5 of the day, so off I go.
Anyway, she didn't last too long and we roamed the halls quite a bit but she did well in nursery. In R.S. I was just thinking about how much we've been blessed with in the past year. And then I got really sad. I'm sad to be leaving my friends, friends that I didn't have a year ago but who have been there for me through the past while. It's silly, but until this house (& Jeff & I have moved 9 times in 5 years), I was never able to call a neighbor friend and ask to borrow an egg or a cup of sugar. Seriously, the first time I was able to do that, it felt like christmas.
I've been staying busy this past week, thinking only about the new, exciting parts about Jeff starting his career and us moving. I guess being forced to sit still for an hour was good for me- better to deal with this stuff now then wait until we are in the new house and I can't send Elea across the street while I run an errand.
. . . And Elea is currently throwing tantrum #5 of the day, so off I go.
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Where to begin. . .
So after taking a 7 month hiatus- I'm optimistically recommiting to blogging. At least more often. Some updates:
Jeff got hired to teach P.E. at SCMS in St. George! YAY! It seriously is an answer to a year or more worth of prayers. It was pretty awesome how it all happened. Let me rewind a little bit:
In January, Jeff was told that a teacher at Cedar Middle School was retiring, so a P.E. position was going to be opening up, finally. So we waited. And waited. And then waited some more. And then found out that they filled the position within the district and did some juggling so there wasn't going to be an opening after all.
Then, a couple of months ago, Angie & Derek applied for Derek to be a City Magistrate in Page, AZ. While they were looking into Page, Derek noticed a teaching position open at the High School. It was a "Reconnecting Youth" position- which required a teaching license, but it didn't have to be a specific one. So Jeff applied and got an interview. Then a few days after that interview, he got called back for a 2nd interview, scheduled for the next week. The interviews were serious intense, hours long. By the end of the 2nd interview, he was told that he had the job. We were super excited. Then the next week he went back to shadow the current R.Y. teachers for a couple of days. On the 2nd day, he found out that the teaching position was only for 1 year. WHAT?! We knew that it wasn't a normal teachinig job, and that it was grant funded, but Jeff had gotten the impression that it was good to go for awhile. So finding out that it was only for a year and that the health benefits were going to cost $500 a month, it started seeming less and less appealing.
At first I was feeling like it didn't matter that it was only for a year, that at least 1 year was better than 0 years of teaching experience. (And let's be honest, I was really really excited to be potentially living 3 blocks from my sister!) Jeff wasn't feeling good about the job because the administration hadn't been totally honest with him, and he had heard bad things about them from the coaching staff of the football & baseall teams. By the time Jeff got home that night, we had both come to the same conclusion: the job in Page was worth the move when we thought that it was A) a start to a teaching career & B) had good health benefits. But now that we knew it WASN'T a start to a career in a district & the health benefits weren't all that great- we were better off staying in Cedar so that Jeff could go back to school to get his Special Ed endorsement while working @YHA w/a promotion that had a health benefits option. Once we'd decided that, I felt at peace. I had been feeling restless, for lack of a better word, since the whole Page interview process had began.
So he got the promotion, and that was the plan. Then, on the 22nd, a couple in our ward, the Kroffs, randomly invited us over for dinner after church. We had never hung out with them one on one before. So that night while we were talking, they asked about Jeff's job situation and Steve mentioned that he had seen a P.E. teaching job on the Washington County School District website. A few days went by and Wednesday afternoon I asked Jeff if he had checked the website, he hadn't, but got up right then and checked it out. We found the job description and the bottom of the website and then saw that the deadline was 4 pm the next day! Luckily, Jeff had everything ready to go, it was just a matter of filling out the application and printing it out. I turned the application in the next day in St. George a few hours before the deadline. The next morning Jeff got the call for an interview, scheduled for June 1 at 9 a.m.
Jeff went to his interview, it was only 20 minutes, and walked away feeling good about it. He got a call from the principal a few hours later saying that he had a really good interview, etc. but that she wasn't allowed to tell him if he got the job or not. She said something about him waiting for a call from Human Resources, so we were thinking that meant he got the job, but didn't want to just assume it without hearing FOR SURE. So after the longest couple hours of Jeff's life, he got the call from Human Resources telling him that he got the job. We then proceeded to make the requisite family phone calls,sharing the good news, while roaming aimlessly through Costco doing the happy dance.
But the goodness doesn't end there.
The next day I woke up at 5:45 a.m. and couldn't fall back asleep. I just kept thinking about needing to get back down to St. George to find a house to rent. Jeff had been scheduled to work that afternoon but someone had asked him to switch shifts, so he had the day off. He agreed to go down that day to look for a place, probably realizing I would be worthless around the house that day if we didn't because I'd be so distracted! Shanna watched Elea for us while we looked and looked. All the houses we liked when we looked online the night before were already taken, one that was really nice only wanted to rent the top floor, and the ones that were left were crappy. Then we just started driving around areas we liked, but neither of those felt right either- one didn't have a backyard and the other's yard was way too small. So we were heading back to return a key to the property management company and I decided to check craigslist one last time. I saw a listing that had just popped up in the last couple hours, called, and then we headed straight there.
I loved the location right away, then we walked through the house, and it was PERFECT for us. PERFECT. The family that owns it is in the process of moving to Texas, had just found out that week, and needed to be there in a month. They were only planning on leaving the ad up that afternoon and were planning on deciding that night. So as we were checking out the house, there were boxes everywhere, toys, etc. and it didn't even matter. Jeff and I didn't even talk about it by ourselves before we asked them for a rental application, we both just knew. It was pretty funny actually because they didn't even have an application, I just wrote out our info on a half sheet of printer paper. We sat and chatted with them about the house, our history, etc. for almost a half hour. When we left, I immediately called my friend Amanda whose husband works with the owner of the house and BEGGED her to call them and tell them we are good people. (And they did). I was more nervous about whether we were going to get the house than I was about Jeff getting the job. I felt confident about Jeff getting the job because I trusted in his qualifications, etc. But I had no idea what the owner's of the house were going to use to make their decision. But luckily, they called that evening and told us they'd rent it to us!
We went to sign the lease yesterday and are so excited to move down to St. George and into the house. They are leaving the playhouse in the back for Elea. We're allowed to paint it if we want to, they don't really care WHAT we do to the house cosmetically because they never plan on living in it again. We won't have bi-yearly inspections or anything like that. And, if anything goes wrong, we'll just call someone to come fix it, and send them the bill. Fabulous!
So anyway, this week has been pretty much perfect. (knock on wood and all that). So many prayers have been answered in such a short time for us, it's pretty amazing. Now we're about to go through our storage unit-- like I said, knock on wood.
Jeff got hired to teach P.E. at SCMS in St. George! YAY! It seriously is an answer to a year or more worth of prayers. It was pretty awesome how it all happened. Let me rewind a little bit:
In January, Jeff was told that a teacher at Cedar Middle School was retiring, so a P.E. position was going to be opening up, finally. So we waited. And waited. And then waited some more. And then found out that they filled the position within the district and did some juggling so there wasn't going to be an opening after all.
Then, a couple of months ago, Angie & Derek applied for Derek to be a City Magistrate in Page, AZ. While they were looking into Page, Derek noticed a teaching position open at the High School. It was a "Reconnecting Youth" position- which required a teaching license, but it didn't have to be a specific one. So Jeff applied and got an interview. Then a few days after that interview, he got called back for a 2nd interview, scheduled for the next week. The interviews were serious intense, hours long. By the end of the 2nd interview, he was told that he had the job. We were super excited. Then the next week he went back to shadow the current R.Y. teachers for a couple of days. On the 2nd day, he found out that the teaching position was only for 1 year. WHAT?! We knew that it wasn't a normal teachinig job, and that it was grant funded, but Jeff had gotten the impression that it was good to go for awhile. So finding out that it was only for a year and that the health benefits were going to cost $500 a month, it started seeming less and less appealing.
At first I was feeling like it didn't matter that it was only for a year, that at least 1 year was better than 0 years of teaching experience. (And let's be honest, I was really really excited to be potentially living 3 blocks from my sister!) Jeff wasn't feeling good about the job because the administration hadn't been totally honest with him, and he had heard bad things about them from the coaching staff of the football & baseall teams. By the time Jeff got home that night, we had both come to the same conclusion: the job in Page was worth the move when we thought that it was A) a start to a teaching career & B) had good health benefits. But now that we knew it WASN'T a start to a career in a district & the health benefits weren't all that great- we were better off staying in Cedar so that Jeff could go back to school to get his Special Ed endorsement while working @YHA w/a promotion that had a health benefits option. Once we'd decided that, I felt at peace. I had been feeling restless, for lack of a better word, since the whole Page interview process had began.
So he got the promotion, and that was the plan. Then, on the 22nd, a couple in our ward, the Kroffs, randomly invited us over for dinner after church. We had never hung out with them one on one before. So that night while we were talking, they asked about Jeff's job situation and Steve mentioned that he had seen a P.E. teaching job on the Washington County School District website. A few days went by and Wednesday afternoon I asked Jeff if he had checked the website, he hadn't, but got up right then and checked it out. We found the job description and the bottom of the website and then saw that the deadline was 4 pm the next day! Luckily, Jeff had everything ready to go, it was just a matter of filling out the application and printing it out. I turned the application in the next day in St. George a few hours before the deadline. The next morning Jeff got the call for an interview, scheduled for June 1 at 9 a.m.
Jeff went to his interview, it was only 20 minutes, and walked away feeling good about it. He got a call from the principal a few hours later saying that he had a really good interview, etc. but that she wasn't allowed to tell him if he got the job or not. She said something about him waiting for a call from Human Resources, so we were thinking that meant he got the job, but didn't want to just assume it without hearing FOR SURE. So after the longest couple hours of Jeff's life, he got the call from Human Resources telling him that he got the job. We then proceeded to make the requisite family phone calls,sharing the good news, while roaming aimlessly through Costco doing the happy dance.
But the goodness doesn't end there.
The next day I woke up at 5:45 a.m. and couldn't fall back asleep. I just kept thinking about needing to get back down to St. George to find a house to rent. Jeff had been scheduled to work that afternoon but someone had asked him to switch shifts, so he had the day off. He agreed to go down that day to look for a place, probably realizing I would be worthless around the house that day if we didn't because I'd be so distracted! Shanna watched Elea for us while we looked and looked. All the houses we liked when we looked online the night before were already taken, one that was really nice only wanted to rent the top floor, and the ones that were left were crappy. Then we just started driving around areas we liked, but neither of those felt right either- one didn't have a backyard and the other's yard was way too small. So we were heading back to return a key to the property management company and I decided to check craigslist one last time. I saw a listing that had just popped up in the last couple hours, called, and then we headed straight there.
I loved the location right away, then we walked through the house, and it was PERFECT for us. PERFECT. The family that owns it is in the process of moving to Texas, had just found out that week, and needed to be there in a month. They were only planning on leaving the ad up that afternoon and were planning on deciding that night. So as we were checking out the house, there were boxes everywhere, toys, etc. and it didn't even matter. Jeff and I didn't even talk about it by ourselves before we asked them for a rental application, we both just knew. It was pretty funny actually because they didn't even have an application, I just wrote out our info on a half sheet of printer paper. We sat and chatted with them about the house, our history, etc. for almost a half hour. When we left, I immediately called my friend Amanda whose husband works with the owner of the house and BEGGED her to call them and tell them we are good people. (And they did). I was more nervous about whether we were going to get the house than I was about Jeff getting the job. I felt confident about Jeff getting the job because I trusted in his qualifications, etc. But I had no idea what the owner's of the house were going to use to make their decision. But luckily, they called that evening and told us they'd rent it to us!
We went to sign the lease yesterday and are so excited to move down to St. George and into the house. They are leaving the playhouse in the back for Elea. We're allowed to paint it if we want to, they don't really care WHAT we do to the house cosmetically because they never plan on living in it again. We won't have bi-yearly inspections or anything like that. And, if anything goes wrong, we'll just call someone to come fix it, and send them the bill. Fabulous!
So anyway, this week has been pretty much perfect. (knock on wood and all that). So many prayers have been answered in such a short time for us, it's pretty amazing. Now we're about to go through our storage unit-- like I said, knock on wood.
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
