Packing

Most of my day today was spent packing.  I don't feel like I've gotten much done, but I've packed about 15 boxes, plus more of those rubbermaid containers that we have.  I'm hoping to be able to move quickly and easily (or at least as quickly and easily as possible).  I've never really had to pack and move breakable things before.  I'm afraid things are going to get broken.

Happy Thanksgiving!

This year we spent Thanksgiving with my family in California.  We had a really good time.  This is the first year since 2006 that I've spent Thanksgiving with my family.  In 2007 I was in the MTC (although technically we had a pre-Thanksgiving a week before I went into the MTC), 2008 I was in Argentina, and 2009 and 2010 I spent Thanksgiving with Connor's family.  So I was definitely due to spend Thanksgiving with my family this year.

We drove out to California on Tuesday.  That was a long drive.  Connor drove the entire way.  I used to love driving, but now I love sleeping on trips.

On Wednesday the stars aligned and I was able to see my friend Melody who I haven't seen in probably 10+ years.  It was a short visit, but it was great to finally meet her husband and cute son.  Hopefully it won't take us 10 years to see each other again.  Later Wednesday night Crystal, Kari and I saw Breaking Dawn.  I had already seen it but it was just so good that I had to go again!  Just kidding.  It kinda sucked.  But Crystal and Kari hadn't seen it so we went and laughed at the incredibly cheesy parts.

Me and Melody

Thursday was the big feast.  We had a TON of food and my stomach wouldn't let me eat all that I wanted.  It was all delicious.  The most memorable part was when I noticed ants in our pies.  I was helping set the table and I walked by the pies and noticed something strange.  I looked closer and saw an ant.  I thought if it was just one, or a few, I wouldn't need to say anything.  But, alas, there were many, and they were all over the pies.  I yelled something along the lines of "Oh no!  There's ants in the pies!"  And everyone came to the rescue.  I don't think the ants had been there very long and we were able to salvage the pies.  They were just on the surface of the pies, and you can't have Thanksgiving without pies, right?  So we ate them anyway.  And they were delicious.

Friday we celebrated Alex's 5th birthday.  It's not until next week, but we celebrated early.  We gave him a Thundercats Sword.  I had no idea what that was, but he was very excited when he opened it.  He said "yes!"  And then Cameron cried because he wanted to play with it too.  He's so cute.  We saw The Muppets, which was a fun movie.  Then we had lunch at Fuddruckers.  Later we had pizza for dinner and watched the first 2 Lord of the Rings' movies.  We were too tired to stay up for the third.

Saturday we drove home, and I started to feel sick.  Joe had gotten sick while we were there and his kids were sick, and I guess my mom was sick before we got there so somehow or another it was passed along to me.  The drive home sucked.  The last 2 hours I just wanted to get into bed and go to sleep.  Connor drove the whole way, again.  Thank goodness he likes to drive.

We got home and Connor told me that he would bring everything up so I came upstairs to our apartment, opened the door, stepped inside, and it was freezing cold.  That's right.  No heat.  Again.  I'm so tired of all of these issues with the heat.  Connor tried to restart the boiler, but when he did the pump that works for our section of the building was making a really awful noise.  So it probably needs to be replaced.  And of course, it's the weekend, so nothing can happen until Monday.

All day today, Sunday, I've just been in the bedroom.  It generally stays warmer in here and I've got my electric blanket and a space heater.  I'm ready to move.

Anyway, it was a really great Thanksgiving.  Strange without Ryan.  His birthday is coming up on December 3rd.  Every year for my dad's birthday we go out to Burger King, as that was his favorite restaurant.  I think for Ryan we're going to go to Outback for his birthday.  Plus we have to make brownies.  Two of his favorite things.

November 14, 2007

This is what I was doing 4 years ago today.  I can't believe it's been 4 years!

 We started out with breakfast at IHOP.  Then we drove down to Provo and took some pictures.

This day was kind of surreal.  I had never really wanted to go on a mission (before deciding to go) so this wasn't a day that I had ever really dreamed of or anticipated.

Apparently they've changed how they do MTC drop-off's now, but at the time your family would go in with you, watch a video, and the MTC President would speak to you and then tell you to say your goodbyes.  I remember him saying that saying goodbye was like ripping off a band-aid.  The quicker you do it, the better.  And then he said we had 5 minutes.  Once he said that I started to cry.  A lot.  And then I started to laugh at myself for crying so much, so it sounded even worse.  I hugged everyone and left.

I must have still looked really distraught because one of the people who was there making sure the missionaries went the right way pointed out to me where the kleenex was located.  Then I had to go wait in lines to get my MTC card, take a picture, find out who my companion would be, verify my immunization records and get some supplies.  The whole time I was trying to keep myself from bursting into tears. Some Elders in front of me asked me some questions and I answered as quickly as possible.  I knew if I said too much I'd start crying again.  The whole time I was thinking, "Oh crap! What am I doing?"

Luckily it all worked out.  I absolutely loved my mission and cried way more when I left Argentina, than we I left my family at the MTC.  (No offense.)

Our House

As of yesterday we are officially under contract.  Yay!  Wednesday we are having our inspection.  Since the house is vacant the power/gas/electricity have been turned off, and the house has been winterized.  We have to pay to have everything turned back on for the inspection, and then off and re-winterized again.  Boo.  Then, we will have to get it all turned back on again.  And pay each time.  Ugh.  Our official closing date is December 12th, but if we can get everything done more quickly we are hoping we can close before Thanksgiving. 

We went today to see the house again.  We need to get a few things fixed (the carpet needs to be pulled -- it's kinda bumpy in some places because they did a bad job putting it down), and we need to paint.  The colors downstairs are red and peach, which don't go together and don't go with our stuff.  So we'll have to paint the entire downstairs.  The upstairs isn't too bad, but it needs some patching up too. 

Here are some photos of the house for your viewing pleasure:

Front View of the house

Front Door/Porch

Family Room
See what I mean about the colors?

Kitchen.
There's no hardware on the cabinets/drawers.
The previous owners must have taken them with them when they left.

Entrance

Master Beedroon

I'm very excited for this tub.

Master Bath/Vanity
One day we could put 2 sinks in, which would be nice.

One of the bedrooms.

There's a Jack and Jill Bathroom between the other 2 bedrooms upstairs.
And there's DeAnna (our realtor).