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.

Amount of readers and a home inspection

I've decided that I must have one of the least read blogs of all time. I have had a poll up for over 15 days now and only 3 people have voted on it. One of those was me so 2 people have read my blog in the 15 days. I know I should liven it up with pictures. I am trying to figure out the best way to do that. Every time I try to update my blog with a template or style that is not a BlogSpot default I get an error message. I will have to talk to some other people and see what it is that I am doing wrong.

Well, onto bigger and better things. Kacee and I are in the final stages of closing on our new house. We have th money to pay the 3% down payment and all the closing costs. Kacee is having nightmares about our finances. If we can't sell our current house before February the we will be making minimum payments on everything and just barely be getting by paycheck to paycheck. We will have to be rationing food as well as living off food storage and everything. Of course that is worst case scenario, so we are planning for that, but we are hoping and praying that our home will sell and we won't have to worry about the financial implications of having two full mortgages and the expenses on two houses at the same time.

We are going to the house tomorrow for our home inspection. We have my entire side of the family coming as well as anyone on Kacee's side that can make it and we will be doing our own home inspection. We went this way so we could skip the $400 expense and since the house is brand new we are quite confident that we aren't going to find anything serious. We have a list of the things to look at and for. We have people that know what they are doing when it comes to construction including framing, electical, heating/AC, and other stuff. We will spnd some time going over every square inch of the house making sure that everything is working right and that everything looks good. In the acceptance letter, the bank already told us that the place was pre-treated to keep away termites and other pests like that so there shouldn't be anything to worry about as far as that goes.

This will be the first time for anyone other than Kacee, Diann, Lynn, and myself to see the house in real life not just the videos I posted previously. Sorry again to anyone that I made sick with my video skills. I am excited to hear what my family thinks about it. I got confirmation earlier this week that Kacee and I are getting a killer deal on this house. Josh, our loan broker, called with a question and then let me know that the appraiser went by the house and did an appraisal (he has to have all the utilities turned on for a proper FHA appraisal so he will have to go back and do it again). However, in the appraisal he turned in he said that the value of the house would be $314,000. because of different things required by law because of the FHA loan and the house being owned by a bank he had to knock the price down, but the lowest he could force it was $250,000. We are getting it at $220,000 so we are excited to be getting such a great deal. The location is a little remote, but both of us really enjoy the environment that is available out there. We have firmly scheduled closing and we will be signing papers for the house on December 1st. From that moment on, the house will be ours. Then we will be able to start moving our things in and focus on getting rid of the townhouse that we are living in now. It still seems like a dream and I think it is going to stay dream like until we actually start moving our things into the house and making it ours and actually living there.

Holiday Season

The Holidays are upon us. It is crazy to turn on the radio and hear Christmas music, but then companies can make a lot of money off christmas while they get very little from Thanksgiving. I just love the entire feel of the holiday season. It is so nice to have that giving spirit shared by everyone that unfortunately seems to be absent much of the rest of the year. In anticipation for the season, I have created a Christmas Wish list. It is in the side panel to the right of this post. I know for certain that I won't get everything on this list, but I have been trying to add things as I think of them so that if nothing else it will give you an idea of the types of things I would enjoy. Kacee has her own short list that she gave me. I will include her things in the list as well preceeded by her name. She really wants to become a nail technician in th next year or two so she can have something she can do from home or at least closer to home than where she is now. So anything to go along with that would be nice.

Things are progressing very well for Kacee and me on our house. Everything is going forward and is on schedule for us to close by December 2nd. We have all the money figured out for closing costs and our down payment. We have quite a bit packed up in boxes and moved out of the house into Lynn's (Kacee's dad) new garage.This helps make our house more presentable for people looking to buy and gets us ready to move at the same time. We still have a lot more to go, but we have made a pretty good dent in a couple places. There is one thing that our new home does not have that we need, a Fridge. We would like a side by sidefridge preferable white to match the other appliances. We have been looking at KSL.com classifieds and other places. If you get any good leads, let us know. Because of the commute, Kacee is planning for us to spend as long as we can in the town house. We will obviously begin moving things into the house as soon as we close, but as far as moving everything so that we are living there it will probably not be until after Christmas that we move out the last big things that we have. We are tentatively planning to use the Saturday after Christmas (December 27th) to invite anyone that can come to help move all the big things and we will rent a big truck and get everything moved into the new house. We will keep everyone updated as things get closer.

Everyone have a great Holiday Season and don't forget the reasons for the season.

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween! In a couple days I guess. Kacee and I put an offer on the house in the last blog. $220,000 and it was accepted. Now we are just trying desperately to sell our home. If any of you know someone that wants to move to the Salt Lake area and would like a nice 1400 sq. ft. town house, please let them know about our house. Here is a link to see our house online http://utahrealestate.com/840705 we really need to sell this place before we can buy the new house.

Well, I'm thinking Halloween right now because Kacee and I just finished carving our pumpkins. Here are some pictures, Enjoy!

New House

Hey everyone, sorry I haven't posted in a while. I need to work on doing this more regularly. Married life is great. Kacee and I are still adjusting. Lately, we have been looking at buying a house instead of the town home we are in. We are looking in Eagle Mountain, UT because the somes are a lot less expensive there. We gave an offer on a house and it was accepted. We asked that we be allowed to sell our place first and the bank said fine, but if we get an offer in that time we can drop your offer. So we are trying really hard right now to get our place sold.

Here is a picture of the house we are looking at. It has a great floor plan. As you can see it has garage space for 3 cars. It has 5 bedrooms upstairs. The basement is 100% unfinished. The main floor has a large Front room, a Family room, Kitchen, Dining room, Laundry, Mud room, 1/2 bath, and very large pantry/storage room. We are very excited about the possibility of getting this house. It has all the features we are looking for and has a price that is very affordable. The house was used as the model home for the area and has not been lived in so it is basically new. The yard is going to require some work and we want to put up a fence around the back. It is a small lot which we both love because neither one of us likes to do very much yard work.

We stopped by the house today and I took several short videos of our tour. If I make you sick sorry. There are 6 videos in all. You should be able to figure out where you are if you watch the videos in order. I start right as we walk in the front door.

Front Room, Kitchen, and Dining	Kitchen, Garage, Laundry, Pantry
Down Stairs Unfinished	Upstairs
Upstairs continued	Master Bed Room

More Honeymoon

Okay, time for more info about the Honeymoon pictures in the post below.

We left Salt Lake Saturday afternoon when Kacee got off work. We stopped in Reno for the first night. We went to the show Aphelion here is a small video of it that I found.

We had dinner that night at a diner there in Reno.

Sunday we had breakfast at a great pancake house before we left Reno and headed toward Lake Tahoe. On the way we stopped at Viginia City where we took a tour of an old mine. It was interesting, but not what we were thinking it would be. We stopped at several of the shops around town and had some ice cream from one of the shops. After leaving Viginia City we went to North Tahoe and took a dinner cruise on the lake. The boat was the Tahoe Gal. We took a 3 hour cruise that covered dinner and we watched the sunset and the moon rise while out on the lake.

Monday morning we drove to our room in Windsor California where we would be staying for the remainder of our honeymoon. On the way we stopped in Fairfield and drove by two of the appartments I stayed in on my mission and a few other places that I knew. After getting to Windsor we went to the grocery store and purchased some steaks, chicken, hamburgers, and other meal items so we could cook some meals on the grill on our room's balcony. We ate at Applebees that night before going to bed.

Tuesday morning we woke up and went to the Jelly Belly factory and took a tour. We stopped at the Budweiser factory and took a tour as well. It was very stinky, it smelled nothing like beer or anyhting else that I've smelt before. Around that area we saw several signs advertising olive oil tasting. We stopped in out of curiosity at the Sepay Olive Oil store. We tasted about 18 different flavors of olive oil and about 18 different flavors of vinegar. They were absolutley amazing, we purcahsed a bottle of each, a Raspberry Balsamic Vinegar and a Zesty Garlic Olive Oil. We then went to the Winchester Mystery House and took the guided tour of the house and the behind the scenes tour. It was amazing. That night we cooked the steaks and had dinner at out room.

Wednesday we went to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo California. We saw nearly all of the animal shows (killer whale, dolphin, walrus, sealions, and birds) and rode some of the rides. We also got our Caricatures drawn. That night we BBQ'd some of the hamburgers we purchased.

Thursday we went to downtown Windsor and went to the Powell's Sweet Shoppe. Later we went to the Charles Schultz Museum in Santa Rosa. After touring the museum we drove around the area to see some of the vineyards we went back to the room and BBQ'd the chicken we purchased.

Friday we went to San Francisco. We started out by going to the Exploratorium. They had interactive displays about all sorts of different topics. One of the areas was based on fear and othr human reactions. One of the displays was a toilet that had been installed brand new at the place and made into a drinking fountain. The sign next to the toilet drinking fountain explained how even with the toilet being clen, never used as a toilet and everything people still would hesitate before taking a drink. we got a picture of Kacee taking a drink. We left to go get something to eat and stopped in China Town and ate lunch. Then we visited several of the shops and had fun enjoying the chinese atmosphere.

Saturday we went to San Francisco and we saw Pier 39, Fisherman's Wharf, and took a cruise on the bay. We sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge and around Alcatraz island. We went in the Aquarium on the Bay which was a lot of fun seeing all the different aquatic life that is in the bay. We had lunch at the Boudin bread factory where we had Clam Chowder in Sour Dough bread bowls. We visited Ghiradelli square and walked along the beach. We got in the car and drove from the bay across the city of San Francisco to the Pacific ocean. by the time we got there it was pitch black. We probably wouldn't have seen anything except that where we stopped had a big building with a lot of lights on. we were able to see some waves breaking on the shore below us, but we weren't able to see anyhting else. On the way back to our room we stopped at Olive Garden and ate dinner.

Sunday we spent the morning in our room and cooked the remaining hamburgers for lunch. Then we went to San Francisco and toured Alcatraz island. It was an amazing experience. We had so much fun with the self guided Audio tour that they have. We would have enjoyed having a lot more time to walk around the island and see things. We got back to the room and got everything packed up ready to go home in the morning.

Monday we spent the day driving home. Wow what a long drive across a lot of nothing.

Honeymoon

Kacee and I just got back from our Honeymoon. We had a great time. We spent a day and night in Reno, a day and night around Lake Tahoe and 7 days and nights in Windsor California (just north of San Francisco). Here is a selection of some of the many places we went. I'll post more information when I have more time. Enjoy!

A New Month

Wow! it has been a whole month since I last updated this page. Life has been so hectic getting ready for the wedding that I haven't had a chance to update anything on this page. I hope you will all forgive me. During this month Kacee and I decided on our song and it happens to be in my playlist at the bottom of the page. The song is "Love of a Lifetime" please listen to it. I've moved it to the top of the playlist order so it should be easy to find. Only 3 days of the single life left. I can honestly say that I have felt every possible feeling there is to feel about getting married. Excitement, fear, panic, joy, you name it and I have probably felt it. Over the last month my house has become pretty empty as I've slowly moved all my stuff up to Kacee's house. I still feel like I am invading her space and I'm not sure how long it will take for me to feel that the place is mine as well as hers. 2 days ago the new book Breaking Dawn, book 4 in the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer, came out. I just finished reading all 750 pages tonight. It is a great final to the series. I'll try to make the time to update this blog more often, but it will only happen if life gets a little less hectic.

Evolution of Dance

I got a link to this a while ago in an email and really liked it. Please pause the music player at the bottom of the page before watching this video. You need to hear the music. I hope you enjoy the video. If it doesn't work, try this link: http://www.evolutionofdance.com

More Yellowstone

I had some people ask for more pictures. I wasn't able to take many because my camera was acting up, but I decided to add a slide show of all the pictures I have of Yellowstone. Let me know what you think.

Yellowstone

We had a great trip to Yellowstone. Here are some of the pictures I took. Feel free to click on any of the pictures to open it up in a separate window. Camille also has some of her pictures posted on her blog go there and see.

First, everyone hopes to see a bear while at Yellowstone. We saw 15 different bears. Some of them might have been the same because they were in the same area on different days, but we can't be sure. Here is the picture of a bear I like most.


We also saw several coyote. Here is one of them.


There were a lot of elk. Most of them were cows, but here are a couple bulls that we saw.


As we were entering the park we saw this moose. There was a baby close by behind some trees, but I couldn't get it in my picture.


There were buffalo (bison) all over the place. Here is one of them.


We also saw a wolf, bald eagle, mountain goats, pelicans, and various other animals. Isn't this chipmunk cute?


Of course Yellowstone is very popular for its geysers and other natural features. We were able to see a lot of great things like Old Faithful.


The geyser in this picture goes off once every 2.5 to 5 hours and we happened to be on the trail right next to it when it went off.


I just love the colors that are in most of the hot springs

What would a trip to Yellowstone be like without seeing bubbling mud.


Of course there are waterfalls too. This view was quite the hike to get to. The trail has over 300 stairs to get you down to the bottom. Then you have to come back up.

See those stairs in the air? That is the trail to get to the bottom of the waterfall.

If you look closely between the white shirt and orange shirt up the stairs you can see Camille with her black shirt in the background. CJ is in the white. I'm taking this picture from the spot you can see in the picture above.


In some places there was still quite a bit of snow as you can see in this picture.


I hope everyone enjoys these pictures. If you want to see more pictures, let me know. I'll post again when I get a chance.

Vacation

Tomorrow morning I am leaving for several days to go to Yellowstone with my family. When I get back I will post some pictures of what we did there. This last week was very busy at work making sure everything was taken care of so I could leave for vacation. With the money I got from selling my house I was able to pay off my car and all other debt will be taken care of. Kacee and I will start our lives together debt free as far as money goes. I think that is pretty good. Hopefully you noticed the music playlist added to my site. If there are any songs you would like to see added to the playlist let me know and I will see if I can add it. I also added an area where you can watch videos on YouTube. I haven't had much time to modify this item yet so don't expect much yet. I will get this customized with some videos that I enjoy. Look forward to more information on this later. I need to go to bed so I can get up bright and early tomorrow. Until next time.

Homeless

Well, I am now homeless. Camille and I signed all the papers yesterday so the house is now hers. I am homeless and living in my sister's house until the wedding in August. It is weird because all the utilities are still in my name and probably will be until I move out in August. With the money made by selling my home I will be paying off all debt. The rest is going to go in savings.

Personality

I got on Camille's blog and took a personality test. Here are my results:

Advanced Global Personality Test Results Extraversion 14% Stability 74% Orderliness 62% Accommodation 62% Interdependence 23% Intellectual 66% Mystical 43% Artistic 63% Religious 70% Hedonism 23% Materialism 56% Narcissism 70% Adventurousness 16% Work ethic 36% Humanitarian 43% Conflict seeking 16% Need to dominate 16% Romantic 16% Avoidant 70% Anti-authority 36% Wealth 36% Dependency 70% Change averse 83% Cautiousness 70% Individuality 16% Sexuality 63% Peter pan complex 56% Family drive 56% Physical Fitness 0% Histrionic 43% Paranoia 36% Vanity 70% Honor 70% Thriftiness 30%

Take Free Advanced Global Personality Test
personality test by similarminds.com

For those of you that are interested, Camille has posted some pictures of us working on the house on her blog. Take a look here or click on the link in the menu to the right.

New Fence

Yesterday the appraiser came back and said everything had passed except the fence in front of the ditch in the back of the yard (he called it a canal). So, Mom and Camille bought some cheap fencing material and we put up a fence across the back yard. The carpet was installed in the bedroom and hallway yesterday. The only flooring left to do is under the washer and dryer and in the front closet.

I was nailing the numbers back on the front of the house last night and I smashed my middle finger on my left hand. When looking at it from the side wih the nail my finger just looks a little swollen. From the front side it is purple from the tip to the first knuckle. It was keeping me up last night so I packed it in ice and was finally able to sleep. Here is a picture of my finger taken with my phone.

Obviously with having to build a fence last night I was unable to find any new pictures to post. The one of my finger will have to do. I'll hopefully have a little more time tonight to look for some.

Construction complete

Work on the house is finally done. We spent 12 hours Saturday painting and finishing up the work that needed to be done. The only thing left is to wait for the carpet, nothing we can do here but wait. We got everything done in just over 2 weeks. It is amazing what can be accomplished with a help, a lot of work, and a pressing deadline.

Now that the work is done on the house I can hopefully start looking at a few other things like getting some pictures to post here. I am trying to find more pictures to post if anyone has some they would like added please email them to me or let me know where I can find an electronic version. I still want to do a lot more with this site but it takes time to get it all up and going. I updated my profile today, please take a look.

Photos

Kacee sent me a bunch of photos that are uploaded and should be displaying soon.

Last night was crazy working on the house again. We finished the mudding, and texturing for the 2nd bedroom, all the facia and soffit and siding have been repaired/replaced where needed. The main thing left to do now is priming and painting the entire outside of the house as well as the bedroom inside. Camille was told by her mortgage broker that the work has to be done by Monday - 1 week earlier than we thought - or the appraisers and all the paper work won't be finished in time for her to close at the low interest rate they have locked in for her. On a positive note it looks like it is going to be possible to accomplish all the required work, the only thing that won't be done is the carpet in the bedroom and hall.

Preparations

In anticipation for getting married I am selling my house. Kacee and I will be living in her home near 2300 South and Redwood in Salt Lake. Camille will be buying my house. The appraiser gave us a list of things that have to be fixed on the house before they will approve the loan. We are working on getting these things done as quickly as possible. When I get home tonight I will try to get some pictures of the work that we are doing.

Engagement and wedding

Most of you will know that I recently asked Kacee to marry me. Until our wedding on August 8th I will use this page to provide updates on what is happening. Kacee and I will be getting sealled in the Salt Lake Temple at 7:40 am. We are having our reception at Thanksgiving Point in the Grape Arbor that evening between 6:00 pm and 8:30 pm.

Tha night we will be spending the night at the Castle Creek Inn. Because of our work schedules we will be waiting a week before going on our honey moon. We will be spending a couple days in Reno at a resort and the rest of the week at a resort in Windsor California. We will visit San Fransisco and other surrounding areas. The resorts belong to WorldMark a vacation club that Kacee and I decided to join.

Getting Started

I decided to start a blog. I don't know how this page is going to turn out, but we will see. Stay tuned for updates and other stuff.