Snow!

Jared spent last week hunting elk.  Well, and moving stuff, and putting up shelves in the garage so we could store things on the walls instead of the floor of the garage, thus leaving room for a CAR in the garage.  But other than that, he's been taking it easy (or not).  He finished the shelves Saturday, just in time for two days of rain, followed by snow last night.  As usual, his timing is impeccable!

I've been unpacking slowly, while also keeping this new house semi-clean, organizing things, doing laundry and cooking, and meeting our new neighbors.  I'm just down the road a bit from my mom's Aunt Nadine, and I stopped by today to visit with her.  She had some wonderful stories about her mom (my great-grandmother) and brother (my grandpa), and also about my own mom.  She remembers that whenever Kaye (my grandmother) would find a new recipe she wanted to try out, she'd cut out the recipe, give it to my mother, and also give her enough money to buy the ingredients.  My mom would go to the store, buy the food, and return home.  Then she would make the recipe for her mother.  I know that my mom likes to cook, and that her mother taught her to love cooking.  Having this story about my mom when she was younger is a sweet reminder about the power that parents have in the lives of their children.  Anyway, I had a nice visit with Nadine after I dropped kids off to school. Now I'm avoiding the laundry that needs to be folded :)

Today I have:
* made a list of errands I need to take care of tomorrow.  Mostly they involve getting supplies for Morgen's class Halloween party (which I am in charge of coordinating).
* cleaned my bathroom and the guest bathroom.
* moved a bunch of empty boxes to the basement.
* eaten a lovely bowl of homemade chicken soup, left over from the other night's dinner.
* talked with my neighbor Bob about getting old and staying active (he was outside doing laps up and down our street).
* eaten some oreo cookies dunked in milk.
* researched some cleaning supply recipes on the internet- I absolutely LOVE having all that information at my fingertips!
* found my stash of birthday cards and mailed (late) a card to one of my nephews who is 4 years old today.
* checked my email, done some laundry, read scriptures, cleaned the kitchen,  showered, and backed my SUV into my garage without any help at all.
* found that one of the kids put something red into my counter-top fountain. Grrrr.

And, here's the Gratitude List:
* The snow on my driveway melted without any shoveling help from me.  Hooray for beautiful snow, and above-freezing temperatures!
* The hat and fingerless gloves I made last fall are still just as toasty warm as I remembered them being.
* My washer and dryer are working quite well.
* My dishwasher, while not as cleverly designed space-wise as the one in our rental house, is extremely good at cleaning dirty dishes.
* Jared and I went for a walk last night (getting to be a regular nightly thing with us), in the snow, and it was gorgeous and quiet and peaceful and fun!
* My church has free podcasts of General Conference.  It's a wonderful way to listen to the counsel given by my religious leaders again, and keeps me distracted while I'm cleaning house.
* iTunes and iPods- well, really, the whole Apple technology thing.  That company has the best ideas!
* I know where my postage stamps are now.
* Another box has been emptied!
* Friends and family who love and support me and mine.
* Watching Annie (the puppy) experience snow for the first time.
* God is good.  I am so blessed.

Moving In

So we're moved in, but not unpacked yet.  I do have internet access again :) but am pretty busy finding things.  Church on Sunday was interesting.  M got dressed fine, as did I.  H was missing his belt (I found it in my room), Jared's dress shoes went missing (found those in a duffel bag).  We couldn't find W's shirt or trousers, and we ended up being 20 minutes late to the meeting (they were both in the pile of clothes in his room).  Church was bittersweet- we'll still see most people, as we just moved across the valley to a different town, but it is hard to leave friends.

Gratitude List:
* New House!!! 
* I know where all my yarn is, and most of my scrapbooking stuff as well.
* We've met some of our neighbors, and they're very nice. So far we've gotten cookies and pumpkin bread.  I could get used to this!
* I have internet again.
* My bathroom is mostly unpacked.
* The kids all have curtains and beds, and they're working on unpacking their belongings.
* We have a gas hook-up for our dryer now, which means I can dry my wet clothes.
* I have a stack of empty boxes in my living room (this means I am actually making some progress moving our stuff into this house).
* The kitchen is unpacked- hooray!
* Lots of family help when we moved.  I have a wonderful family!
* A new nephew- Jared's brother and his wife just had their 3rd boy :)
* my faith in God.
* I am truly blessed.

WE GOT IT!!!

We are signing papers on Friday, and moving next week!  *sigh*  Our new Home Sweet Home :)

**if you want my new address, send me an email.

House Pics

Here's the front of the house we are trying to purchase:

Here's the family room:

Here's the kitchen:

And here's the dining room:

We're still waiting to hear back from the appraiser, and inspector, so we haven't signed any loan papers yet.  But this house is beginning to feel like our new home :)

In other news, both of our vehicles are currently in the shop, waiting for repairs.  Murphy found out we were buying a house, and is trying to move into our spare bedroom!  Thank goodness for our emergency fund, and for rental cars (even when they stink of smoke). 

Gratitude List:
* Cool fall weather- my favorite!
* Our almost-new house (although packing is NOT on my list of things I enjoy).
* Car repair shops.
* Emergency funds.
* A sense of humor.
* This weekend is my church's 180th Semi-annual General Conference and I'm enjoying the spiritual messages I've heard so far.
* Jared's parents are in town, and we get to host them today and tomorrow.
* God has blessed us so much.

House!

Just a quick update- we're under contract for a house!  Now we just need to wait for the loan papers to be approved...

Oh the cute!

These are our puppies:

Morgen loves them very much.  They love running very much.  The two are not always compatible...

Here's another pic- one of my favorites:

Don't you want to take her home, and love her and pet her and call her George? 

I do. 

(Except I call her "Wings" instead of "George."  Oh, and she's already at my house.)

And, just because last night we had to turn on our furnace (gasp!), and it is therefore Officially Autumn, I made cookies today:

Gratitude List:
* Fall weather!!!
* Leaves are changing colors
* School is in session
* Puppies are growing, and are even more cute than last month.
* Cool weather, so I can bake without melting myself in the residual heat from the oven.
* homemade chocolate chip cookies
* fresh (from the grocery store) salsa
* a new knitting project that I am excited about! (and afraid I'll jinx it if I share, so I'll wait a bit)
* we are looking for a house to buy, and put in offers on 2 properties yesterday.  (crossing my fingers and praying for one of them to be accepted)
* My house is (mostly) clean and tidy.
* I have freshly washed laundry to smell.  (and to fold, but the smelling part is better)
* homemade chocolate chip cookies (because they're so awesome they need to be mentioned more than once)
* good music.
* good books.
* family and friends who love and support me and my family.
* We are blessed.
* God is good.
oh, and homemade chocolate chip cookies.   With cold milk

Randomness

I introduced my kids to the Blackadder a few days ago.  This has led to much singing of the theme song, with one minor change, around my house: "Black bla-a-a-der, Black bla-a-a-der, mumble mumble mumble la da da-a-a!"

While talking about King Solomon requesting wisdom from God, we asked the primary kids what *they* would ask for, if they could have anything at all.  Some of the answers were expected- more wishes, to be rich, to have a self-cleaning house (I really liked that last wish myself).  One of the kids blurted out, "I want a pretty pony!" which made me laugh so hard I couldn't write it on the chalkboard!

I used the yarn of doom and started knitting socks today.  I left everything in a neat pile by the couch, and took a nap.  While I was napping, Jared took the kids to the park, leaving me alone in the house, asleep.  Somebody (we don't know who) apparently snuck into the house and made a spider-web with the sock yarn.  If we had cats, there would be no mystery.  But we have dogs, and they are unable to open doors as of yet.  The yarn was wound all around the piano legs, kitchen chairs, and table, which forced me to frog *another* pair of socks.  This creeped Jared out a bit, but it made me laugh.  He thinks it was a person.  I know that it's the yarn.  Cursed yarn!

Gratitude List:
* Funny random things to make me laugh.
* I had to speak in church today, and I survived!
* My family.
* Yarn.  Even if it *is* cursed yarn
* A violin duet played by 2 14-year-olds that was beautiful enough to bring tears to my eyes.
* God.
* home-made chocolate chip cookies.

Looking

We are now looking, officially and with money in our hands, for a house.  We spent most of today driving around with our realtor, and discussing the pros and cons of each house/property we viewed.  I completely fell in love with an older (1930's era) home on 2 acres, but the floor plan was absolutely not workable for our family.  *sniffs sadly*  It would be the perfect home for a grandma, though.  The upstairs bedroom has closets built under the attic eaves, and they are perfect playing places for kids!  Anyway, after spending about 5 hours walking through multiple houses and properties, we think we've narrowed it down to 3 very different houses.  2 are move-in ready, with about 1/4 acre lots.  1 is a huge fixer-upper with 2 acres of property.  And we really want the larger property, but we'll have to see. 

Oh, and the dishwasher needs another vacation.  It's given up removing anything from our dishes.  *sigh* So it's back to hand-washing dishes again. 

Gratitude List:
* all puppies are healthy and reasonably well-behaved.
* all kids are also healthy and reasonably well-behaved. ;)
* There is a nice, cool breeze blowing through my house, and I'm pretty sure I'm done with the A/C until next summer.
* Gorgeous mountain views outside my windows.
* We are financially able to look at purchasing a house.
* My house is reasonably clean.
* My kitchen sinks are shiny clean.
* I'm caught up on laundry again (this is a direct result of having kids in school all day).
* I had a delicious dinner last night, cooked by my oldest son, with a little supervision from me.
* God is good, and I am blessed to have a life that I enjoy.

Out of hiding

Summer hasn't been the best time for blogging this year.  We have been away from home, and altogether too busy when at home.  And, not that the hustling will disappear, but it will be structured differently once school begins.  I have a 7th grader.  This year will be full of new experiences: our first time with multiple teachers (one per class), and different lunch schedules, and this year he'll be leaving almost an hour before his siblings, and be back an hour earlier as well.  Oh, and he'll be wearing his snazzy new glasses.  Yes, my oldest child needs glasses.  *sigh* And he's up to my height now.

Morgen has yet to find out who her 5th grade teacher is.  I don't have her user name or password (and the ones she remembers aren't working), and this is incredibly frustrating to her.  All of her friends know their teachers.  Plus she got sunburned at the lake on Friday, and is grumpy about that as well.

Hyrum's teacher sent us a nice letter, along with information to fill out for their VIP week.  He's all set, and excited to be seeing his friends again. 

I am a bit nervous.  I've been teaching the 9-10 year olds at church, with Jared.  We team teach, and take turns attending the adult class.  Last week, I was asked to accept a different calling.  I am now the 'person in charge' of the 12-13 year old girls.  This is intimidating and a bit scary for me.  I know this is what I'm supposed to be doing; I felt God's spirit approving this.  But the last time I was in this program was when I was one of the 12-year-old girls!  I very vaguely remember that age, and I am overwhelmed.  Thank goodness that my Heavenly Father has promised me the support and strength I am going to need!

Okay, family stuff:  we had our last Family Reunion of the year.  This one is for my maternal grandfather's parents and all their descendants.  We had a wonderful visit, and I saw some cousins I haven't seen in awhile.  My great-uncle Calvin shared some of the mischief that he and Glen got into as children, and told some funny stories about the family.  I am so glad to have that connection to my ancestors. 

Saturday, Jared and I spent a few hours driving around and looking at houses.  We looked at the houses that are currently available, and came up with two different game plans.  We found some lovely houses at the bottom of our budget, and they are all between 1/4 and 1/3 of an acre.  We also found a few houses that come with 2-10 acres of land.  Those are right at the top of our budget, or slightly over it, which would make it harder for us to meet our other financial goals.  So right now we're debating what would be the best decision for our family.  But *squealing for joy* we are finally looking for a house to BUY!!!  Hooray!

**this is in no way a solicitation for anything; just a way to let y'all know that you are welcome to participate in any way you feel is appropriate.  Myles' birthday is Sept 29th.  He would be 4 years old.  We're planning to take some new clothing to the LDS Church's Humanitarian Aid Center in Salt Lake City, Utah as a way to honor and remember our angel boy.**

Gratitude List:
* School begins on Thursday.  I am beyond thrilled to have a reliable and safe school environment for my kids.
* My new calling in the Young Women's organization. 
* The overwhelming love I have felt today from my Lord, Jesus Christ and my Heavenly Father.
* A husband who loves and supports me.  He is truly a gift in my life.
* I know I will see my son Myles again in heaven.
* I have 3 beautiful children to raise.
* My family isn't perfect, but I have no doubts that they love me and support me.
* Cooler temps here, and not as much need for the A/C.  This is balanced by the fact that we will soon need the heater on.
* Lots of lovely food to eat.
* Paper!  I love that we have so much paper to draw on, take notes on, make awesome paper airplanes with, wad up and throw at our siblings in church... Okay, maybe not that last one.
* Books.  I love books.
* All the music that is free, or that I can purchase.  Sometimes I feel spoiled by how much is available. 

Thankful

Just a quick post, because we've had a lot of rain (for our area) today, and I am grateful for the water.  I miss those sudden rainstorms that we had all the time in Iowa.  I love the smell of the air right after a rainstorm. 

Puppies are all vaccinated, and *sniff sniff* ready to head out to their new homes this weekend.  They're also in the garage right now, as it is a bit chilly outside, and I could see them shivering when I went out earlier.  With all the rain today, it was actually too cold to have the A/C on!  But the storm is over, for now, and the sun is shining, and life is pretty good.

Gratitude List:
* Rain!  We can always use rain here :)
* Puppies who are cute and cuddly, and who are also learning how to climb stairs and dig holes and get into the neighbors' yards ... (this age is where I am reminded why we don't keep all the puppies ourselves)
* A reliable car.
* Allergy shots.  I've been taking them for almost 2 years now, and I am much less prone to allergy attacks.  Now if I could only do something about those mosquitoes...
* Good music on my ipod.
* lots of kids to play with mine.
* Good friends and neighbors.
* Audiobooks.  They make car trips almost fun!
* A loving and supportive extended family.
* I have 3 healthy, relatively happy, children.
* I am still taller than Walker (barely)!
* God is good.