Friday September 30

So we finally dropped Qwest.

I cannot believe how bad their customer service was.

They told us several different stories of why they were taking so long....or that they had already come out.....or that they never showed up.......or that we DID have service already.....so dumb.

Oh well...we are DONE with them.

We found an awesome deal through Clear.

I think everyone who has Qwest should look into them.....totally awesome and worth your time looking into it.

Anyway....

I can't catch up with pictures now....too late and still too much to do....

But at least I have pictures for today.

*****

Elsie loves to go buffalo hunting.

But she has been very worn out and not feeling well lately.

So we thought it would be a great idea to get a wagon for the little ones.

They are loving it.

I think it will work out great for several purposes.

The handle even converts to attach to the back of the 4-wheeler to haul stuff.....niiiiice.

The little ones love it....and they big kids had a fun time pulling them down the lane and visiting our neighbors little pony.

I think it will be a good investment.

(Oh and that shiner....Elsie got that a couple days ago from Port dropping a sippy cup on her while she was laying on the floor....poor kiddo! It is looking worse today, but that is cause it is getting better.)
(And Ports face.....he is just dirty :)  )

*****

I will say it over and over again.....but I LOVE my clothesline.

I really didn't think I would love it as much as I do.

I am not sure what it is.....but whatever it is....it sure if more efficient.

Doing laundry, I would put a load in the dryer and start another in the washer.

The washer was always done considerably faster than the dryer.

So I had to wait.

Well, each time my washer was done....I went out to the line....and they were dry.

Perfect.

I love it.

And it actually comes in handy for me to love it so much, cause our dryer went out on us a couple days ago.

No big deal.

Of course we will get it fixed, because the line won't work so well in the winter time.....

But, I love my clothesline!

The little ones helped me all day with hanging the laundry.

They think it is pretty cool too.

And they are pretty good helpers.....

*****

The bathroom is so close to being done.....

so close!!!!!

I am not ready to reveal anything yet......but I thought I would throw the BEFORE out there......

Think we could turn this thing into something pretty dang awesome????

Well, we are!

Just wait and see :)

Thursday September 29

So.....still no phone or internet.

Kinda dumb and frustrating....

Oh well....we will figure it out I guess.

We are almost done with the bathroom.

Almost.

We had a nice afternoon.

Outside for dinner then homework with the kids.

It was a beautiful night.

Poor Port is complaining about his ears.

Makes me sad.

And Elsie woke up at 4:30 this morning and had a kinda rough day.

She was really tight and you couldn't really understand a lot of what she said.

But I think she is on the mend.....all she needs is sleep.

Again....no pictures from today.

But they are coming soon.

Wednesday September 28

So........there was some kind of mix up with Qwest......so no phone or internet yet.

I feel bad...I called and was transfered so many times that the girl i ended up with got an ear-full.

But we called earlier. like at 2. and was told we were on the sched.

Well 5 o'clock rolls around and nothing.

So I called to see whats up and they tell me we are on the sched for Oct. 3.

So dumb.

There is an obvious disconnect.....and I was so mad.

Mostly mad cause the customer service was so bad.

Anyway...we will deal with it tomorrow.

But I was so mad...until I went and did the laundry.

Thats when I hung some clothes to dry on my clothline.

And that made me happy.

So happy.

I love it here.

We love it here.

Brent and I both wish this bathroom was done....we are getting close.

It is looking good.

pictures to come as soon as Qwest can get on the ball!!!!!

The boys have been spending a lot of time at Lowes latley....and the little boy is loving it.

Well...it is getting late......and still lots to do.

Like I said.....we love it here!!!!

Tuesday September 27

We are still hard at work.

The bathroom is gonna look like a whole different place...which is good, cause it was BAD.

We put tile in on the floor and got the new tub in.

No claw foot tub yet.

There is no way it would be able to fit down the hall.

Oh well....the dream isn't dead.

It will happen sometime.

So it was a good day....except I think Elsie is getting sick.

I kept her home from school today.

And we will see how she does tonight and decide if she goes tomorrow or not.

We had dinner outside tonight.

It was late...so we watched the sun go down.

It is just perfect here.....and it feels like home.

Oh, and we have already had two fresh baked breads brought  to us and several visits from people in the ward.

And everyone says we are gonna love it here. 

We should be getting phone and Internet tomorrow......so no more phone blogging....and pictures to come!

Monday September 26

So it is official.....we own the place!!!

and the demo has begun!!!

I am excited to share pictures of the bathroom.

Still lots to do...but uncovering the window was a huge improvement!!!

Now we just need to figure out how to put more hours in the day!

Lots to do...but lovin every minute.

Sunday September 25

Well.....it was a good day.

We have a bit of a plumbing problem....but Brent is getting it worked out.

We went to our new church today.

It seems like a good ward and we are excited to meet more people.

I have pictures from today.....but I am blogging from Brents phone cause we dont have internet yet.

Pretty cool, right?

Saturday September 24

This is how we all feel.

Thanks a million to the Terry family and the Young family.

They are really the VERY best friends in the world!!!!!

More later.....



Friday September 23

So today did not go as planned.

Today was the day we got to sign and close on the new house.

We did that.

We went and signed.

We loaded up the uhaul and trailer.

Then we found out about a hiccup.

While we were signing documents, the title company lady had a question about the road maintenance document.

It was a document that was made 20 years ago that was an agreement between all those who live on Mary Lane that they would all share the cost of taking care of the private lane.

She wanted to make sure that the paper was correct and all we needed to do was write that we agreed to it, and sign and date it.

She was told that was all that was needed.

Well, come to find out, the bank wanted a whole new document drawn up, and each person to sign it before we could close on the house.

Well, that is just RIDICULOUS!!!!!!

And our bank guy that we have been working with agrees that it was ridiculous....as well as our Realtor.

So our bank guy said there was just some more papers that needed to be signed and it would all be okay.

Well, our realtor had to run the documents to me so I could sign them, and Brent, who was ready to unload the Uhaul, left to meet at the title company to sign his stuff.

All was done and ready to go.....EXCEPT that....now it was the end of the business day.

And since it is now the weekend, the money will not fund until Monday, so that means no keys to the new place until Monday.

Um.......we have to be out of here on Monday.

It is all a bummer.

But you know what.....we went out there later today and hung out and spent time out there.

And man, it is SO worth all the trouble.

We just want to be out there!!!!!!

We ate some pizza, did some buffalo hunting, and just hung out with friends.

It is so wonderful out there.

I also have to give a HUGE thanks to our wonderful friends who helped us out so much today!

Jenni, who took Porter and Elsie the WHOLE day so we could sign papers and pack stuff up.

Drew and Heather for their huge help with loading/unloading stuff up and cleaning out more stuff.
For Steve, for helping to load up and unload.....glad that Pat got her free time :)

And Brad for helping out when we started unloading.

We have the greatest friends in the world!!!

*****

So today did not go perfectly......but it will work out soon.

Soon.

Thursday September 22

Tomorrow is the big day!

Or at least we hope so.......

Things are moving along and everything seems to be in order.

We will see.

We are putting some new carpet down in the basement at the new place.

Upstairs is all hardwood, except the hallway, which we are replacing too.

Brent got an amazing deal on the carpet.

He has a way of doing that sort of thing.

We were getting the absolute cheapest carpet we could fine.....at $0.74 a square foot.

Well, they did not have in stock as much as we needed.

He somehow got the guy to give him the other carpet that was 15 feet wide for the price of the cheap stuff.

And this one is much better.

When they went to cut the carpet, there was only about 7 extra feet on it.

They guy said he was just gonna add it in with the rest, cause he couldn't sell just that size.

Then he had a 10% coupon off to use at Lowes.

So we got a KILLER deal on this carpet!!!

YAY!

We just took the old stuff out, and layed it on the good stuff to cut the shape out.

It was some very heavy stuff...but we did it.

It lays in there quite nicely.

We will need to rent a stretcher to stretch it out.....and then add some floor boards....nice paint on the wall.

I think it will look pretty nice.

And of course the boys had to do some wrestling.....

I think these pictures are hilarious!!!!

Love my boys!

*****

We got back to our soon to be old home.....

We had some dinner......then we decided to harvest some of our stuff from our garden before we move out.

The girls had fun pulling sunflower seeds out of our giant sunflowers.

 And I planted pumpkins this year cause I HATE spending so much money for pumpkins!

So I decided to take some for myself.

There is still plenty out there for the new home owners.

They all turned out so perfectly!

Wednesday September 21

It is getting closer and closer.

Sure wish the move was all done and over with.

I am exhausted.

But excited!

So this morning Brent and I moved a bunch more stuff down to the garage to get ready to load up in the trailer and uhaul.

After I picked up Elsie....I took her to Jenni.

She had her the whole day so that Heather and I could get a good cleaning on the new house.

It looks really good.

Man, it just feels good to know it is clean!

Downstairs isn't quite finished yet.

I think Brent and I will head out tomorrow and do more on it.

Still so much to do in such a small time frame.

A time frame we didn't get to choose.

Oh well, it will all be worth it!

Tuesday September 20

Today was another packed day.

We pulled a bunch of furniture out to the garage.

We will just sleep on the floor, on mattresses for the last few nights.

I also made some fruit leather out of my remaining pears!

And it was a success!!!!

I am so excited about it and can't wait to do it with my own fruit from my own fruit trees!!!!

*****

We are gearing up for the big clean up at the new place tomorrow.

I am excited to get everything ready and clean and bug free for us to move in!

Only a few more days!

*****

I have been loving Mary Mac so far.

The kids are having so much fun and loving their teachers and making great friends.

I am thankful that this transition to a different school has been so smooth!

This really was all meant to be.

I am excited for what awaits us out there, cause we are supposed to be out there for some reason!

Not sure if I am ready for Madi to be hogging the phone all day yet.....she is still a little too young!

But it is funny to hear her talk on the phone....not a lot for a 10 year old to sit and chat about.

Oh well, maybe it will help work on her phone skills.

Monday September 19

I think things are starting to really hit hard.

There is a lot to do, in such a short amount of time.

To close on Friday, move on Saturday and be ready for the other people to move into this house by Monday.

That means two houses that need deep cleaned.

Lots of furniture moved.....

And a lot of papers to be signed.

So I got permission from our realtor to go ahead before we close and deep clean the new place.

I figure, we have to do stuff for the new people to move in here.

But the bank won't do anything with the property we are buying.....so I figure we can 'hire' ourselves to go clean it up.

If there is anyone out there, just dying to help us out......we are planning on going out there Wednesday and just staying there all day.

Or until it is sparkling :)

I think this will help with the stress level.

I think tomorrow we are gonna work on just getting everything but mattresses packed up on the trailer....or as much as we can anyway.

That way, as soon as we close on Friday (hopefully) we will have a truck all ready to go.

That is the plan anyway :)

I think the kiddos sensed my stress level.

The played very nicely for a very long time while I got the kitchen cleaned up after dinner.

They are pretty good kiddos.

Sunday September 18

It was a sad day today.

Our last Sunday with this ward.

We have loved being here and have loved all the people we have met while going to church with them.

Some great friends and great people.

I looked around and thought about how many great people that I would probably never see again.

Kinda sad.

I am thankful for all the great examples that we have had while we have lived in this house for the last 6 1/2 years.

Good people.

But I am also excited for what lies ahead for our family.

I wonder what our new ward will be like?

Will there be many kids.....all old people.......I imagine it will be a good combination of all ages.

The boundaries consist of a lot of farm houses as well as neighborhoods.

So I guess we will see.

Our new church will start at 9:00, with Sacrament meeting being last.

Not sure how I feel about that....guess we will see.

*****

Elsie Rose was a good girl and went to class again today.

I wonder if she will go when we go to the new ward....hopefully we can find a good little friend for her to help her out.

I guess we will just have to see.

Since she did so good, the kiddos all got another ice cream sandwich.

Yay!

Saturday September 17

It has been a nice busy day.

And we like those.

Port thinks that trailer is his own personal trailer.

It keeps him busy out there for quite a while.

Brent put some wood protector on it, and it is looking so good!

It was quite the transformation!

Later on today we hung out with the Terry's.

They are doing some fun changes to their place too....painting walls and cabinets.

It is gonna look really good!

Then I started to work on getting my pears canned.

The ones that were ripe.

Only about half were ripe.

I think once the others ripen, I want to try and make my own pear fruit leather.

Kinda excited about that!

I love how awesome it feels to can and store that stuff away for your family!

I can't wait until I can do it with fruits that I don't have to pay for!!!!!

That is the plan for next year, if we can get everything to come back to life out there!!!!

Later on we went out to dinner with the Terry's.

Then we headed out to the Farmstead to show them how wonderful it is.....and will be :)

The kids had a blast.

So much to do and explore.

I can't say it enough....I just wish we could get out there so we can get started on all the things we want to do!!!

I need to go through the house and take before pictures of everything before we even move in, so I can remember what it was like before we got our hands on it!

Friday September 16

We stopped by the Farmstead today after we picked the girls up from school.

We did a little bit of apple picking.

There is one tree that had some pretty decent apples.

I can't wait to see what happens out there when we get water to everything!!!!!

And we got to meet yet another neighbor.

Her name is Carol, and I am so excited about her.

She is so spunky and so nice.

She told the kids to call her what her grand kids call her....which is bubbles.

And she is SO excited about us being out there!

But of course the place has been a eye sore for the past 4 years, so we are very welcome new comers!!!

She will be a lot of fun to live by.

She said we were welcome to have anything out of her garden.

She LOVES to make her garden pretty, but doesn't like to do anything with the produce she gets.

You know, like canning and stuff.

I am sure she will come in very useful when it comes to making my garden beautiful.

IT is just all so exciting!

Things just keep getting better and better.

Except for the fact that we are still not out there!

And as of now, they are still unsure if we will be able to close on the 23rd, let alone any earlier, like we wanted to!

Kind of a bummer.

But I am sure everything is gonna work out fast.

I am praying that it does!

*****

Brent's phone did a surprisingly good job taking pictures today.

That's good, cause I didn't have my camera with me....

And if you can't tell by the shirts, it is a Bronco game night.

After the Farmstead, we headed to Subway.

It is their anniversary today, so they were giving away a free foot long with any foot long sandwich.

What a perfect game night dinner!

Then it was time for the game.

Port and Elsie plopped themselves in front of the TV.

Just adorable!

Cassi and I made some PB cookies for the game too.

We tried to make them blue and orange....blue turned a little green, but it was the thought that counts, right???

Anyway, GO BRONCOS!!!!!

Thursday September 15

It is not only a great trailer......

But it is a great stage, of sorts.

The kiddos got ready for school this morning and begged to go jump rope on it.

And bike.

Works pretty good I think :)

I cracked up when I saw Cassi's face in this one.

Porter looks like he is wondering how the heck she is doing that....or WHY she would be doing that.

Silly kid.

*****

Now I am off to the open house for Madi and Cassi's school.

Cassi actually moved to a new class today.

They were approved to hire another 2nd grade teacher and Cassi got moved.

I hope everything goes smoothly with it.

So far so good.

Her class is only 16 kids...so that should be good.

I am so happy that they have been so happy moving to the new school.

That was a big concern we had when we decided this.

I am proud of them for making it the best they can.

Wednesday September 14

So this is our newest toy to prepare us for life at the Farmstead.

Not very good looking, right?

But man, the price was right!

All it needed was a little love.

And that's what we love to do....turn trash to treasure!

It did take a little more than just love....it took a bit of elbow grease too.

But man....it was worth it!

It looks as good as those new ones we saw.....for WAY lower in price.

Can't beat that!

Looks good, right?

It will come in handy when it comes to moving stuff to the new place.

But it will also come in handy when we start cutting stuff down and needing to haul stuff.

Elsie thinks it is to haul hay for her horse.

I guess we will have to see about that.

*****

And I don't want to post a picture without any of my kiddos in it.....

Port has a lot to give :)



I showed up late to pick up the girls at school.

Can't believe I did that!

In my head I needed to leave home at 3:45....when I actually need to be THERE at 3:45.

Woops....so I was about 20 minutes late.

Bad mom.

They accepted my apology.

Tuesday September 13

So...a little bathroom talk now.

Elsie hates to poop in the potty.

She doesn't have problems going, she just doesn't like to.

So she will put it off for several days before she will go.

I always know which day it will be cause she will walk kinda bent over and cry a lot and not sleep well.

And after she goes, the first thing she says is "Daddy will be so happy!!!!"

And the next thing she says "I can stand up!!!"

I always tell her that her tummy hurt because she had all that yucky stuff in there that needed to get out.

It is getting easier and easier to get her to go, but still....little turkey....just poop when you need to!!!!!

And my little sister Melodie had her little one today.

A week late.

Poor Mel.

Seth weighed in at 9 lbs. 1 oz.

He is a cute little kiddo, love those cheeks.



It is funny, when I saw the picture of him I thought "Well, ya, of course that is what he looks like!"

A perfect mixture of the two of them.....but it was hard to think of what he would look like before she had him....just my weird thinking.

Anyway, congrats Mel and Nathan.

He is just adorable!

Hope I get to meet him sooner than later!

Monday September 12

I am loving the little bit of one on one time I get to have with my little boy in the mornings.

He has such a great little personality.

He is a funny kid, and he cracks me up all the time!

This morning he worked out with me while I did Asylum.

I love to talk with him...he put such emphasis in his words and his facial expressions are just the best!

Love my boy.

He insisted on wearing his Bronco sweatshirt on the 90 degree day.

When I took him to pick up Elsie at school and then again to pick up the big girls, I felt like everyone was looking at me like I was an unfit mom making my kid sweat it out in a sweatshirt.

Okay, maybe I am a bit insecure.....

Oh well.

Sunday September 11

Guess who went to class today????

Elsie bug did!

Yay!

It took a bribe of two ice cream sandwiches....but she did it!!!!

She went with Alex to class.

She started to cry, so I sat with her and calmed her down.

I got her to sit on the chair with Alex.

Then I told her that Alex needed her to stay with her, cause her Mom and Dad has been gone for the last few days and she was missing them, so Elsie needed to help make her feel better.

I told her that I would give her 5 minutes and then I had to go and check on Porter.

I also told her that it wasn't much different than school was, and that she would be back with me soon.

Whatever I said....it worked.

Yes, it might have been the promise of two ice cream sandwiches....but I don't care.

I am just happy she did it!

I watched the two of them outside the room and Alex was so sweet with her, helping to keep her happy.

Maybe they weren't as reverent as they should be all of the time....but she wasn't crying, so I don't care :)

So after dinner, we made good on that promise.

She actually only ate one....but whenever she asks for the other one, it's hers!!!

Never Forget

I meant to post these this morning.

This is a day that many of us will never forget.

So many lives lost.....

We have a favorite cartoonist, that happens to also be a fire fighter.

And I wanted to share these....

Saturday September 10

Heather called me earlier today and asked if we wanted to go with them to pick some corn from some people that she knows.

We were excited to join them, and excited to have fresh corn and get some frozen to eat in the winter months :)

It was a beautiful night and the kids had a lot of fun.

Port got a big chunk of something in his eye that dad had to dig out.

He was showing Elsie his war wounds.

We also went and got some pears at an awesome price that Heather had a connection to get as well.

Thanks Heather!!!

Those will be bottled gold soon!

Yummy!!!

And while we were out that direction we decided to stop by our place.

It was so pretty out there that time of night.

The kids ran around....we hung checked things out some more...

And we met one of our future neighbors.

An 82 year old guy who told us the whole history of what the land used to be.

He had an amazing memory of peoples name and acre numbers of those people...

It was very interesting talking with him.

There is a lot to do out there.....but it will be so much fun to get started!!!

Friday September 9

Last Friday Cassi told me that her teacher picks a couple kids a week to come and get a prize out of the prize box.

She said her name wasn't picked, but that the prize box had the most fabulous prize in there.

It was a dictionary.

She told me that if she was lucky enough for the dictionary to still be there when her name was picked, then she would take it for her own.

Well, little Cass got her wish today.

Her name was in fact picked.

And that book, well, it was still unpicked :)

She was so excited!

She cracks me up.

She did actually lay outside and read it for a while.

She makes me smile.

Yesterday she came home from school with a VERY loose tooth.

So loose, i thought for sure it would just fall out.

She begged me not to touch it cause if you lose it at school, according to her, then you get to have a little treasure box to put your tooth in.

I told her she better pull it out, or she would end up swallowing it when she sleeps.

Well, first thing she did this morning was show me that the tooth was still in tact....barely, but it was there.

She said that it fell out right away at school, and she got her little treasure box.

Again, she makes me smile :)

*****

My sister found a website that includes fun crafts for kids.

I saw this one and had to try it out.

I actually had all the ingredients, and it mixed up nice and quick.

I did it a few hours before the girls got out of school, so it would be all ready to go when they got home.

But I shouldn't have done that.

It kinda dried up....so I added some water and mixed it up, and it worked.

It was goopy, but it worked.

Next time I will just make it when they want to use it, cause it didn't take very long.

One small problem though.....food coloring.

It stains.

The girls weren't too bad, cause they were careful.

But Port, he was covered.

I hosed him off to get most of it off.

But that was a bad idea too.

I went inside to see what the big girls were doing, and that is when Porter turned the hose on Elsie.

Elsie flipped out.

Port got in big trouble.

He kept saying he as sorry....I am sure part of him thought he was helping, but he also knew he was causing some trouble.

Little stinker.

I guess I should know better and not leave the hose fully charged!