Back again

Okay, so I'm not all that good at keeping this blog thing up to date. It has been 4 months since I did any updates. Based on what I have been doing it looks like I will be updating this about once a quarter. Since I last wrote several things have happened. I was called as a Sunday School teacher with Kacee as a team teacher for the every other week that she can make it to church. Our ward was then split and I was also called as the Finance clerk. We had our first anniversary on August 8th which we will be celebrating next week by going to Seattle Washington. Hopefully I'll have some information and pictures to post. We did celebrate on the day of our anniversary, but our big plans are for next week.

One of the things we are most excited about is that we finaly finished all the work that our back yard needed. I have a bunch of before and after pictures below. The earliest pictures show just dirt, but we did start with nothing but weeds. The first pictures are after we tilled everything up and started removing weeds and preparing the ground for everything we were planning to do. Sorry about the quality for some of these pictures. I had to pull some of them off my phone instead of the camera.

Here is the side of the house behind the garage.
Before

After


Here is the Back Porch
Before

After

You can see a distinct line in the grass. this is because we werre able to get some grass for free and it was lain a month or so before the other stuff.

Here is the back yard
Before

After


And down the other side of the house.
Before

After


In the front yard we had this nasty pipe sticking out of the ground. It feeds to our sprikling system and has to be there, so we covered it up with our very own wishing well. It still has a couple of touches that need to be added but it looks pretty good.

Before

After


Since I last wrote we got two new kittens so now we have 4 cats. Here is a picture of each. The kittens are growing so fast that these pictures that are only a week or two old don't show them exactly as they really are. WE moved the litter box and everything for the cats downstairs in the unfinished basement. We installed a cat door so that they can all get downstairs without us leaving the door open.
Que

Zet

Elle

Why


We have only been able to get one picture with all four cats in it at the same time.


On my last post I included a picture of the view from the front of our house. The piicture was taken on a really bad stormy day. A few people told me that I neede to replace the picture. Well, I have included some panoramic type pictures that I took today (a nice sunny day) There are pictures from the front and back. I also took a trip up the hill to the east and took some pictures of Cedar Valley (Eagle Mountain is in Cedar Valley). Cedar Valley is the valley located west of Utah Lake and Lake Mountain which is right next to the lake. These pictures didn't turn out too good, but if anyone wants to see them I will post them in the future. Kacee and I love the beautiful peaceful nature of this area.

Front Yard


Back Yard



Well, I hope to give an update before another 4 months goes by, but we'll just play it as it goes.

A Long time

To all who read this, sorry it has been such a long time since I updated this site. Life got hectic and I was busy doing other things. I guess I should start by updating everyone on what has happened since the last time I posted. Last time I posted we had just gotten back from Florida. Shortly after that, we went to Las Vagas for my neice. She had a cheerleader competition that we went to see. Here is a picture of her in her outfit


After we got back from Vegas we had a lot of family activities and we decided to get a fence installed around our back yard. With the fence we ordered a new railing for our front porch. Here is a picture.

Unfortunately, because of HOA rules we haven't been able to get the fence installed yet.

Kacee went to California with her mom, sister, and neice for another cheerleading competition. While they were gone I finished the installation of the kitcen island that we ordered. Our kitchen was very big, but needed an island of some kind. Let me know what you think.


After all of this, we ended up getting a lot of Kacee's Grandad's furniture because we are the only ones with room to keep it. We received a bedroom set, couch and chair for the front room, and a table and chairs for a little nook in our master bedroom. Here are some pictures.





I haven't posted any pictures of our house so hopefully the ones posted above are helpful to give you an idea of what our house is like. I will try to remember to update this site more often. Here are a few more pictures to enjoy:

Our other guest room:


The cat's nook:


Our photo wall:


The Family room:


My desk and work area:


Our back yard:


The view from the front of our house on a stormy day:

Unexpected

It is crazy all the unexpected things that happen in our lives. Just after the new year, I was sitting here on a Saturday just minding my own business when I get a call from Kacee at work. Her Grandfather who lives in Ormond Beach, Florida passed away while he was visiting his son in Picayune, Mississippi the night after they watched the Alabama vs. Utah football game in New Orleans. She really wanted to go. Her mom was executor for the will and had to be there by Monday morning. With everyone looking the earliest flight we could find would get us there Monday night. Everyone was flying home from the holidays. After all, this was the first weekend after the new year.

Anyway, Kacee came home and we each packed a suitcase. We met her parents and we started driving. We got to Colorado Springs at about 4:00 am. We stopped there at a Motel 6 and got about 4 hours of sleep. Then we drove for the next 24 hours no stops except for meals. The four of of took turns driving and napping. We arrived at the Uncle's house in Mississippi at 7:30 am Monday morning. I never want to do that again. It was terrible. We spent that night and Tuesday night there. Wednesday we drove to Clanton, Alabama where grandpa would be buried. Everything was worked out with the funeral home and the funeral was set for Friday. We spent the night in Birmingham, Alabama at another relative's house. Thursday was spent getting the final touches setup for the funeral and visiting family that lived in the area. It was a little overwhelming for me to meet all these new people.

On Friday the funeral went very well. Afterward we drove to grandad's house in Florida so that everything could be put in order. We were able to go to the beach and collect some shells. We ate Rock Shrimp at Dixie Crossroads and drove down to Cocoa Beach to visit Ron Jon's surf shop. On the way we were able to look out and see the launch platforms for the Space Shuttle. It was all very interesting. On Sunday Kacee and I got on a plane in Orlando and flew home with a layover in New York's JFK airport. We got home and to bed at about 2:00 am. We were able to get some pictures, but they are on Kacee's parent's camera because of course we forgot ours.

But wait, the unexpected doesn't stop there. As most of you probably know by now, my sister is getting married on Jan 30th. Well, Friday the 23rd they went to get their endowments. This was the first time Kacee and I have been able to make it back to the temple since our wedding and when we get to the temple I find out my recommend has a problem. Apparently when Kacee and I were married, the temple assumed I had been issued a new temple recommend so they cancelled my old one. I was never given a new recommend! I didn't need it at the time. My old one was good until Oct 2009. They let me in because of the date on the recommend, but they took my recommend because it had been cancelled. Well, with just moving into a new house, the funeral, and other things (our ward meets in the next town instaed of the building across the street), Kacee and I haven't had a chance to get our church records moved, so I now have 1 week to get our records moved, get an interview with the new bishop, and get an interview with the new stake presidency so I can have a recommend to go to my sisters wedding. If you are one of my friends on facebook you know that I woke up this morning having nightmares about what is going to happen at the temple with the new recommend. It has me worried, but I think everything is going to work out. Keep your fingers and toes crossed.

As an update on our house, we are completely moved in. No more boxes excet for the seasonal decorations that are in storage in the basement. Everything has been completely cleaned and we are ready for people to visit. We had a small gathering last night with some of Kacee's family and a few friends. It was a lot of fun.

Moved In!!!

Yeah!! we are all moved in. Still in boxes that are slowly getting un-packed, but we are in. Jena, to answer your question, we are in the Overland Trails III-A subdivision. I tried emailing you this information last time you asked, but apparently my email didn't make it. Anyone that would like the actual address, email or call me and I will give it to you.

We rented a giant U-haul truck on Friday and spent the evening packing everything we owned into it. We couldn't quite get everything but we sure came close. then we spent the night at Kacee's parents house. We were very worried about the predicted storm on Saturday, but for us the weather was perfect, though it was a bit cold. The big storm on Saturday hit North and South of us, but the valley that Eagle Mountain is in barely received a skiff of snow and all we had to deal with was wind and cold.

We have been in the house for two nights now and it almost doesn't seem real. We are in a new house that we plan to be in for the rest of our lives. It is crazy that everything worked out as well as it did.

My last post was all about how terrible things were for us trying to close. However on Wednesday we finally had everything work out very well for us. We got the keys for our new house and were able to change the locks, we got an offer on the townhouse we are moving out of and the buyer wants to close before Christmas. Also, at work, Kacee was notified that the job opening she applied for in another department was hers. We had a lot of good in one day to help balance out the bad the week before. Once we get the main living areas organized and unpacked we will probably have a get together or open house so anyone who wants to can come visit at our new house. More on that if and when it happens.

Frustrating Aggravation

Last week was totally frustrating. Originally we were supposed to close on our house December 1st. We were resceduled to Wednesday the 3rd jut because the underwriting company needed moe time. On the 3rd we were told "You will not be closing today. It should be tomorrow." This was because the underwriting company had their computers go down for a couple hours on the 2nd and couldn't get all the work done as they had thought. Then on Thursday the fourth they started asking questions about information that they had had for over a month. We had to sign and fax several papers back and forth and the under writers again cancelled on us and said, "Tomorrow you will be able to close." So Friday comes along and they start asking more questions again we are faxing documents back and forth all over the place and we are told, that we can close this today and get the keys to move into the house. The underwriting company decides that all the documentation that we work on today is unnecesary and rejects it outright. They do however get the documents to the title company and we are able to sign the papers. However, at the signing we learn that the bank we are purchasing the house from has reserved the right to review the documents for 48 business hours after signing before they turn over the keys. So since we weren't ablt to sign until 5:30 on Friday night the bank will get the papers first thing Monday morning and can review them until end of day on Tuesday and doesn't have to turn over the keys until Wednesday. It is so frustrating and aggravating because we had plans to move the smaller things we already had packed up over the weekend and then on the 13th to rent a uhaul and actually move everything else.

We are hoping that this week works out a lot better than last and that we actually do get the keys and can finally count the house as ours and get moved. Oh, and one more thing. As we started signing the papers to "close" on our house we found out hat the house is in an HOA. We specifically asked about that when we put an offer on the house and we have been told the entire time that there was no HOA. So we have been trying to figure out everything about the HOA over the weekend and have had no success because everything is closed. Today I finally got informaton that is actually helpful, but I have a 61 page legal document to read through to find out what CC&Rs we have to follow. It is a pain. Hopefully the next time I post I will have some good news and maybe pictures of us moved into our new home.

I don't know what to title this

Well, I got a few comments from people saying that they read my blog but don't always comment. I guess my last post did sound like I was whining about my unpopularity. I made some changes to my blog layout and I am still working on changing it because I'm not totally satisfied with how it looks. While I was changing the layout, several things got erased. One of those things was my poll. To those that missed the poll, the question was "How often do you check email." There were 5 votes before the poll was erased. 1 was "10 or more times per day" 2 were "5-9 times per day" and 2 "1-5 times per day" Our closing date on the house got changed to Wednesday December 3rd. I'll post again when I have something better to report.