A Whole Year

I realized today, that we have been in this home for a whole year now.

We moved in on February 9, 2015. It's crazy how time flies.

We have really loved this home. It has been so wonderful to have our own house and yard. We've made quite a few repairs, and had some exciting adventures.

When we first moved into the house, it was in pretty good shape. The yard hadn't been worked on in a while, but we saw a lot of potential. The roof leaked around the chimney, and there were a couple of frightening paint jobs. The water ran at a boiling temperature for five minutes, and then went cold, and chunks of dry wall had been removed and then amateurishly placed back in without being completed.

I was so excited to start working on things.

Fast forward a year.

We fixed the water problem almost immediately. It turned out that the plastic tube that went into the brand new water heater was only about a foot and a half long. The water went cold so quickly because it was only sucking hot water off the top. The plumber inserted a longer tube...and it was fixed!

Our yard after we first finished raking it.

We did a lot of yard work, and planted a pretty successful garden. We grew peas, onions, lettuce, and cherry tomatoes. I planted corn too, but I planted it too late, so it never reached its full potential. We had a really good pie cherry and apple crop. We've cleaned out the two sheds, and filled one with fire wood from trees that we've had to remove and limbs we've had to cut off.

Kevin helped me pick the cherries

We've repainted two rooms, a bathroom and a bedroom. We've filled in most holes with plaster, and cleaned the carpets. We paid someone to fix the leak on the roof, and it seems to be holding pretty well.

Newly painted bathroom

Newly painted bedroom

Kevin has grown three or four inches, and Arkhon has matured into a wonderful dog. They are best friends, and love to play together.

This was taken before we purchased a lawn mower. The grass was beautiful!

Dakota died in our home, and we buried her ashes in the backyard.

Our beautiful old girl

We lost two fish, and decided not to have anymore of those for a while. Our snake has also grown a great deal.

We've hosted some birthday parties and have had three of Grig's siblings live with us. We've had some pretty amazing fun moments with his sister and some pretty scary moments as her health plummeted and she had to fly back to Virginia. We were sad to see her leave, and hope that she has a successful surgery soon.

Argent and Grig's mother making a snowman with Kevin

We've really enjoyed having Kevin's uncles here, and we have learned a lot from both of them. Kevin especially loves playing with them and is always excited to see them. In the morning, if they sleep in late, he goes downstairs and wakes them up by saying, "It's morning time!"

Uncle Allopex

Uncle Havelock

We've had a great snowfall this year, and found out that our front yard has a pretty good sled run. We've made snowmen and a wigwam using branches found in our yard. I'm hoping it snows some more so it will look like an igloo.

We've now had every holiday in this home, and it's been so fun to decorate for those! We had a great turnout for trick-or-treaters, and I really love our neighborhood. We've made friends with most of our neighbors, and simply adore them. (Many of them either have children or dogs, and if Kevin isn't friends with their kids, Arkhon is friends with their dogs.)

You can't really tell from this picture, but these two love each other!

I love this place. In the past year, it has evolved from a house into a home. It is a place where I feel comfortable and safe. We want it to be a home, a temple, and a haven for anyone who enters.

I think we're making pretty good progress toward that goal, and I'm excited to see what the next year brings!

The End of a Year

I saw my cousin's blog post today, which reminded me that 2015 is nearly over.

Am I the only one who thinks that's crazy?

It has been one hectic year, and it's hard to believe it's almost over. A few really neat things have happened this year, and a few really scary things. Mostly though, it's been a fantastic year with a lot of blessings.

Here is my year in review:

January: We were closing on buying our home. Most of my thoughts and energy were aimed toward that, and getting our taxes in. Once we'd finalized everything on the house, January was pretty much over.

February: We moved into our new house. It's hard to believe that this was over 10 months ago. In some ways, it feels like we've always lived here, and in other ways, it feels like we just moved in. Most of February was spent packing/unpacking and cleaning.

I still love my kitchen!

March: Honestly, I didn't remember what happened in March until I just went and looked at my pictures. It turns out that this was the month that Grig's sister came to live with us. We had our one good snowstorm of last winter, and Kevin built his first snowman. We were still adjusting to our new surroundings, and enjoying our backyard. We got a fish, and killed it.

April: We got another fish. We spent time at Baby Animal Days, and cleaned up a lot of our property. We were hoping that this fish would last longer, but unfortunately, it too died a few months later. No more fish for us for a while.

 May: Nothing too exciting happened in May. Just a lot of enjoying having a backyard and spending time with (relatively) old and new friends. Dakota was still doing pretty well at this point, and she loved laying in our long grass. (We hadn't purchased a lawn mower yet.)

June: We had our first family camping trip! We also nearly got a kitten, but decided at the last minute not too. Only a few days after we made that decision, we found out that Grig was going to lose his job by the end of October. That made us really glad that we'd listened to answers that we'd received when we prayed about bringing the kitten home with us.

The dogs loved camping. It makes me so happy to think about Dakota on that trip. She wasn't moving the best, but she was so happy! We nearly didn't bring her, because we didn't know how well she'd feel, but I am so glad that we brought her. She loved every minute of it. I hadn't seen her so joyful in a long time!

 July: July was a busy month that started with a family reunion. We had a great time with my Mom's side of the family and enjoyed hiking in the woods and playing in the lake. Arkhon also turned 1. He is officially an adult! We also took Kevin to the zoo where they had animatronic dinosaurs. He love that!

 August: We had a family reunion with my dad's side of the family, and afterward I went to live in Idaho for the rest of August and half of September while I helped to work on apartments. It's always difficult to spend time away from my husband, but with his impending joblessness, we were grateful for the extra income.

September: After arriving home after being gone for several weeks, we had one exciting event after the other. Grig's two brothers moved in to live in our basement, so we had three of Grig's siblings in the house. A couple weeks after I got back, Grig's sister's health suddenly went downhill and she ended up in the hospital. They were able to stabilize her, but found that she had a brain tumor. She then flew home to recover and prepare for surgery with her parents.

The day she got back to Viginia, Dakota took a turn for the worse. Only a couple of days later, my fifteen-year-old dog passed away. She's missed, but I know she's much happier now.

 October: Things quieted down as October started, but we were also looking unemployment in the face, and it was fairly stressful. Grig was frantically applying for jobs, but we had felt a great deal of peace, and knew that things were going to be okay. We just didn't know when. Grig's final day of work was October 31st, and as we celebrated Halloween, we still didn't have any offers, though Grig was able to volunteer to work one extra week in a different department. He quickly asked to do so.

 November: As Grig worked the first week in November, he received a call asking him to come in for an interview. Before the week was over, he had a job offer, and he started the new job the following Monday. Our prayers had been answered! We were very grateful on Thanksgiving. We had a lot to be thankful for.

 December: The new job is going well, and we were able to have a fantastic Christmas. It truly has been a wonderful year, and we're excited to see what next year will bring! We've lost one member of our little family, but hopefully the Lord will see fit to increase our numbers in the coming year.

Happy New Year, everyone! May you set attainable goals that will bring you happiness and joy!

Some of My Favorite Things About Our New House

I was just thinking that I should write down some of the things that I like the most about our new house.

I love how much room there is. The bedrooms all feel really big, and having a yard is the most wonderful thing ever! I love the trees on the property.

Interestingly enough, I also love having things to fix up.

The house is in decent shape, but I'm really enjoying having things to do. It's nice to be able to improve and organize our new home without worrying about damaging it or losing our deposit. There is still a lot to do, and that is exciting for me. It keeps me up and away from the computer. A lot of my goals before involved doing things on the computer, and that was boring for Kevin and not so good for me. I still have goals on the computer, but I also having things to do elsewhere that help me move around more and spend more time with my son.

Today, I dug up all of the thistles in the yard using a trowel and my hands. My fingers hurt afterward, but Kevin crashed as soon as we came inside. He is taking his second nap in two days.

This outside things really is fantastic. Kevin stopped taking naps a couple of months ago, but I guess now we're properly wearing him out during the day. We're also wearing out the dogs. Arkhon is conked out right now too. The weather is telling me that it's 55 right now, but it feels like 75 to me.

Today, we also discovered sidewalk chalk. We've had a box full since we've gotten married, but I didn't want to get in trouble for coloring the apartment sidewalk, so it's just sat in our closet. Now we have our own cement, and Kevin and I drew pictures of Superman and traced Kevin's outline. He love that and I had a good time too!

The dogs look smaller in this house. Arkhon especially looks like a much smaller dog. In the other house, I couldn't believe how big our puppy was getting. However, in this house, he looks like a small, medium-sized dog.

I love all of my cupboards and drawers. There are so many places to put things, that I am having trouble knowing what should go where. I'm figuring it out, but it's an exciting challenge.

I love having extra counter space in my kitchen as well. It makes me pretty happy. I now have places to cook and mix things on, and Tuesday we had a family gathering here. We were able to put the food buffet-style on the counter and people could dish up from there. That was fantastic! Our fridge is also much bigger.

However, probably my very favorite things is not having any cockroaches! That is the most amazing thing of all. The house just feels so much cleaner because of that.

As far as least favorite things go, that would have been the fact we didn't have hot water for a few days, but now that we have hot water again, I don't have very much to complain about. Maybe the fact that there is so little grass in the backyard is kind of sad, but that is something we are planning to fix this spring.

It looks much better with the leaves raked up.

So many exciting things to work on! I am so happy right now! Yay for life!

Mormon Monday: Patience, Faith, and Our New House

We are officially moved into our new home. All of our boxes are not unpacked and I still can't find Kevin's bedsheets, but most of the essentials have been found.

Kevin loves the new house!

On Friday the 6th of February, we closed the sale, but it turned out that we couldn't record until Monday, because the seller's papers hadn't been over-nighted on time. So, we were able to sign. However, we couldn't do anything until we found out what the sellers would allow us to do. Often they won't allow you to move in just in case something goes wrong. We had been planning to start cleaning the new house that night, but we didn't hear back about what we could do until later Friday evening.  So, Friday evening we tried to finish packing everything. It was kind of stressful not knowing, but things seemed to be working out, so I had faith. It wouldn't have mattered that much except that my parents were planning on picking up a few things from Idaho and helping us move over the weekend. Not being able to even put anything in the garage until Monday would have really messed up our plans.

However, we finally received permission to clean the house and move a few things into the garage, but we couldn't move anything into the house until the home was 'officially' ours on Monday. We informed my parents.

Saturday morning we had a miracle. We had decided that we were going to have to get an extra day with the uhaul, which the website had informed me would be an extra $40. We decided we would have to be okay with that, since we couldn't empty the truck until Monday. However, when my parents went to pick up the truck, they gave them the extra day for free! That was a huge blessing.

So, Saturday we went to the new house and cleaned until my parents came later in the afternoon with the moving van. We unloaded my parents' old piano, new washer, dryer, and dishwasher that we had purchased, and a few boxes of mine that they had brought from storage. Once the truck was empty, we took it over to our apartment and basically loaded everything up. There were a few things left when we were done, but the van was pretty much full. We had a lot of family help us out. My two younger brothers came, along with my younger sister and her boyfriend. Grig's brother came to assist as well. My grandma and grandpa also helped us out a lot, and cooked some meals for us. Everyone took turns taking care of Kevin.

Our garage full of boxes!

After we fished loading up and bought a lock for the uhaul door, we went to my grandparents' home and had dinner with them. They surprised me with a little birthday party. It wasn't my birthday yet, but my parents weren't going to be there for the actual day, so they had a cake and a present waiting for me. It was a nice surprise.

Honestly, I'd kind of forgotten about my birthday with everything else that was going on.

Happy birthday to me!

Once the party was over and my parents had left to travel back to Idaho, Grig and I were very tired. However, we mustered up some energy and went and shampooed the new carpets so they would be dry when we unloaded on Monday. Then we bug-bombed the uhaul and came back to my grandparents' home. They had kindly offered to let us stay with them over the weekend while all of our belongings were in the uhaul.

We had a nice relaxing Sabbath. Honestly, I think everyone should have a day off between moving. It makes the following day much less stressful. We went to church in our new ward and met a lot of awesome people. We even had a few volunteer to help us move the next day.

Monday, my grandma, my aunt, and I went and worked on cleaning out the old apartment. They were very kind to come and help me with it. They also loaned us their truck to put the last of our stuff in. I worked on the apartment all day, but by 2:30, we still hadn't gotten the go-ahead to move in. I was getting worried. We'd asked for help around 4:30, but if we didn't receive the official word that the home was ours, we wouldn't be able to unpack that day either.

Finallly, at 3:30, as we'd almost finished everything in the apartment, we received the word.

The house was ours! I finished up a couple more things and then drove over to meet Grig there as he got off work. We got the utilities put in our names, and at 4:30, everyone else showed up to help. We had quite a few people from our new ward, my grandparents, and my uncle's family. It went really quickly, and we were sure glad for the extra help when we had to move the piano, entertainment center, and washer and dryer downstairs. Soon, the trucks were unloaded, and we thanked everyone.

Our good friends came with our dogs (whom they had been tending) and dinner. We had a couple of problems with the new gas oven that came with the house, and trying to remove the dishwasher, but we finally quit for the night. We were going to try and finish up the other apartment, but by the time we finished eating with our neighbors, we had to get to bed. Grig had work the next morning at 4. So, we thanked our neighbors and traveled back to our new home. We set up the bed and slept in our new house for the first time!

Tuesday, I woke up at 4 with Grig and started unpacking. Then, at 8:30 a.m., Kevin and I returned the uhaul before it was due. My aunt picked us up from there in my grandparents' truck, and then we dropped her off at her house, and I went and finished cleaning out the apartment. My grandma came after a while and took Kevin, which made it a lot easier to finish cleaning. Basically, all I had left was the fridge and the kitchen floor. I finished quickly, and then I turned in our keys and said goodbye to our manager. She's been great!

Then, I went to my grandparents' home, and they loaded up the ladder and some lunch. We all drove back to our new house and they helped me clean out the rain gutters and install the dishwasher. It took a long time, and we didn't quite finish with the dishwasher by the time they had to leave. However, we got the old one taken out (which we had thought was a gas-dishwasher, but actually wasn't) and had almost finished installing the new one. We were just missing a part, which we got the next day.

The yard looks much better!

Wednesday, we finished the dishwasher and raked a bit. Kevin and Arkhon really enjoyed the backyard. Grig took me out for dinner that night to a place with really good Indian food.

Thursday, I cleaned out the old caulking on the tub rim and re-caulked the tub. We called and scheduled our internet to get set up, and that night we went shopping for a few things that we needed.

The dogs enjoy the leaf piles.

Friday, we had internet again! It was hard to be without it for a week. I hadn't realized how much of my budgeting depends on internet. In the afternoon, my grandparents came and helped us install the washer and dryer. It was sure nice to have appliances that worked! Grig also did a lot of pruning out side. We've had incredible weather this week! It's been in the high 60s. They joined us for lunch and that night we relaxed a little bit and enjoyed our new house. We also watched a movie. Grig has wanted to show me the 1962 version of Manchurian Candidate for a long time, so we finally watched it that night. It was very interesting and well-done.

Saturday we finished up a few more errands and unpacked a few more things. We had some friends come over for a little while too. Grig and I remembered vaguely that it was Valentine's Day, but we're having a dual Valentine's Day/Anniversary celebration soon.

Yesterday we had a pretty relaxing day. We went to our new ward again, and had a great time.

Sometimes it has been a week that has tried my faith and patience, but things had worked out well. I'm so grateful for our new house. We're making some good improvements, and it already looks a ton better! We love it here, and we've seen so many miracles as we've been directed to move here.

Also, we bought a new movie camera! Expect more videos soon!

Our stinkers

Family Friday: New House

So, things are moving pretty smoothly toward us buying this home. We found out it has a few things that need to be fixed, but the majority of the house is in good shape, if in need of some TLC (Tender Loving Care, for those of you who are not hip :)).

I'm pretty excited to get moving. It will be nice to be permanently (until further notice) settled in our own place. We have seen a lot of miracles and received a lot of help and we are pretty grateful. Here's a few pictures of what is nearly our new home.

Obviously I'm not going to post a picture of the front on here, but at least you can get an idea of what some of the inside looks like.

Here is the front room. The entry is split level.

This play place comes with the property.

This will be Kevin's bedroom. He loves it!

I'm so excited for this kitchen!

I really like this house. I does need some maintenance done, but we had the inspection done yesterday and they found three fairly major things that need fixing while the rest of it is just minor repairs.

We're still praying that everything goes well. We're at the point in the process where we've finished the inspection, and we've paid our earnest money. We are now poor, but moving forward.

Here's to a new family home.

Thanks again for your prayers!

Happy New Year!

I haven't written any goals yet. That's tomorrow's goal, I think.

He loves his dog. Happy New Year!

I am pretty ashamed of myself though. I only blogged 6 times in December. I can try to make excuses for that, but honestly, I could have done better.

*Raises a glass of Martinelli's* Here's to a better blogging year (and videos)!

I am going to have some exciting goals this year. The most immediate one, is to buy a home.

Yes, we have found our home. Following the inspection next week, and barring any serious problems, we will be settling in this home February 13ish. That's almost my birthday, and it may be the only present I'm getting!

Happy birthday to me!

A couple of other things I've learned about buying a home. Earnest money has to be submitted usually within four days of accepting the offer or counteroffer. Once that happens, things move fairly quickly, though if you are getting a loan, you have to wait for approval.

It is an awesome home, and we are very excited about it.

Also, inspections and appraisals are not the same thing. Inspections are paid for by the buyer, while appraisals can be negotiated to be paid by the seller. If the appraisal finds something wrong, it has to be fixed before the  loan will accept the home. However, if the inspection finds something wrong, it is up to you how you deal with it. Hopefully neither will find anything seriously wrong.

Soon, this boy will be sleeping in his new bedroom. (And yes, they are both asleep in this picture).

Our puppy is growing up. Arkhon is almost six months old now, and as tall as Dakota. She's twice as heavy as him still, especially with her fur grown in, but his stilt-like legs move him faster than light.

We had some pretty awesome snowstorms around Christmas, and the dogs loved it. Kevin hasn't been enjoying the cold as much, but hopefully it will snow enough here so that we can go sledding sometime.

Ah, my snow dogs.

I'd like that.

I've also finally figured out where the first book in my series is going to end! This was the book I worked on for Nanowrimo, but the problem was that the plot is super-long. So, I was trying to figure out where to end the first book so that it would have a conclusion, but still be exciting. I think I figured it out, and it's really not very far away from where I'm writing. That means my first draft is about done! Whoohoo. I'm motivated to start writing again. Sometimes not knowing when you're ending is as bad as not knowing where you're going. I knew where my book was heading, but I just didn't know where it was ending.

 A lot of exciting things are happening, and hopefully by the end of next month we'll be in our new home.

Here's the goal of writing every day, Monday through Friday, again. I'm going to do it!

Hooray for a new year with new opportunities. When I tell you my new goals, I will also make an accounting of my goals from last year.