Summer..So Far

I can't believe June has come and gone. It was a very busy month, but fun. I have to say that the weather was the best ever. Just one thunderstorm after another. Who knew we were in for such a treat! I really did love it, even though my basement flooded twice. Anyway, I've got a lot to cover, so if you're bored and have some time to kill...this is the blog for you. James's birthday was June 12th. I got him a bunch of desperately needed summer clothes. It was also OC Tanner Lagoon Day so that's where we hung out all day. It was sooo crowded. Ridiculously crowded but we had lots o' fun. We hooked up with our good friend Louri and her 2 girls. We closed the place down, as always. Then there was Father's Day. I had my dad over and cooked a huge mexican dinner. I forgot to take a picture of the spread, but it was awesome. James got some new golf gear. Then came the much anticipated annual Pineview trip. The best part is having Mindy and Jeremy and the boys here from South Carolina. The kids have so much fun. It never fails to rain on us, however. This year we had some huge wind storms as well. Tents were literally flying. We always end up coming back early because of the weather. Still, tons of fun though. Then there's the Demolition Derby! We get VIP treatment whenever we're in West Jordan thanks to the inlaws. We sit up in the box, eat all kinds of treats and watch the show. They had some good crashes this year. One of the drivers got really mad and got out of his car and started yelling at someone. When the crowd booed him, he flipped us all off. Great entertainment for little boys. The next big event is the 4th of July, of course. We always go out to the West Jordan Stampede. Again, VIP treatment! We get to go backstage and see all the bulls and cowboys. The kids have all mutton busted and hide ridden (some rodeo lingo for ya there) and then we get front row seats to boot. Good Things Utah has been covering the Stampede and Chase got on the show yesterday morning. Check it out. (Kid in the black hat assisting magician).

And in between all of that we do the usual summer stuff: swimming, Nickelcade, dollar movies, the zoo, and my fav.. library hopping! Hope ya'll are having as much fun as us this summer:)

Still My House

I wasn't planning to do much yard work this spring since we were moving. The last couple of months have been really weird because I'm usually thinking and planning but everything has been so up in the air, and I feel like I've just been waiting around and not accomplishing much. So I decided that while we're still here, we need to live and enjoy and just do what we do and quit waiting around to do it.

So I spent some time in the yard the last couple of days. It was sooo much work but it was good to be out digging in the dirt. The weather's been perfect too. Cloudy and not too hot. I've been so preoccupied with the inside of my house that things outside were looking pretty bad. I pulled a ton of weeds, dug up my brick path and straightened it all out. Then I planted some flowers... my favorite part.

We've had these weird rocks piled up in the back yard forever, so I decided to put them to use in one of the shady flower beds in the back that always gets neglected. I planted some ground cover and Impatients. It turned out kinda cute. I should have taken a before picture.

I even planted a tiny little vegetable garden with tomatoes... my favorite!! I usually do a much bigger garden with more stuff but since I started so late, I kept it simple.

Then there's the side yard that's so hard to keep up. It's got a ton of rocks and weeds and weird things that pop up. I tried my best to fix it up. Rearranged the rocks and planted some Marigolds. Not my favorite flower but one that rarely fails to spread and brighten things up. By the way, if anyone knows how to remove the ugly hard water build up on brick, I'd love to know! Here's before:

And...TADA! After:

I also copied my friend, Beth, and painted my front door black. I love how it turned out. I wish I'd done it years ago. Should have taken a before pic of this too. It's a huge improvement, I think.

So these little things have kind of made me feel more comfy and grounded. I've been in a state of detatchment, thinking "Why spend the money and take the time? It's not my house anymore." But it's still my house....at least for now.

One of My Favorite Things

Just had to blog about the sky today. I looooove it when a storm makes its way over the mountains and into the valley. I love the dark clouds mixed with the white clouds with patches of bright blue sky in between. I love the sound of the wind in the trees and the tinkle of wind chimes. It is seriously one of my greatest joys and I could totally handle it if it was like this every day. I love the rain too, but I think just watching it all brew up is the best part. Now if we could get a little thunder and lightening I would absolutely be in heaven. We just don't get enough of that around here. I took a few pictures of the sky. Of course, my camera is far from doing it justice. But here they are anyway. Gotta go sit on my porch now and it enjoy it while it lasts!

A Little Getaway

It turns out that we are not moving any time soon. Everything fell through with our house. I'm not exactly sure what happened but it all boiled down to our buyers not being able to get financing. We lost kinda big. Lost our earnest money, lost our great deal on a new house. It's crazy. Apparently stuff like this rarely happens. It's a worst case scenario. So we're starting all over again. Better luck this time!! Anyhoo, we decided to take a little trip to Las Vegas last weekend. It was a last minute thing. We packed the kids and a few things and just drove down. We didn't stress at all. Just chilled at the pool all day, went to a magic show and ate a lot of good food. It was really nice to get away for a while. I didn't take a ton of pics but here are a few. Make sure to check out the video. Chase does the ab wave.

Reality Check

I'm feeling really bad about my last post and all of my bad thoughts and feelings toward our buyers. James sent me the obituary of the person in their family who died. It was their mom and she died of breast cancer. She was a really sweet lady who dedicated her life to service and her family. It just made me think about the poor husband and how much he's going through. He just lost his wife and now he has to move out of the home they lived in together. I can't imgagine how hard that would be. Now he's in the hospital, recovering from a stroke. So, I am such a huuuuuge jerk! Because yeah, it sucks when you're all ready to move and then you find out you aren't going to quite yet. And it sucks to lose money and it sucks to lose out on a great house. But I have my family and we are all alive and well and I'm sooo thankful for that. Nothing else in the entire world means more to me. So, my situation is actually very good. Just wanted to share that.

Unbelievably Sucky Situation!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay so, this whole situation with our house just sank to a new level of crappiness! I just have to tell the story. So a, we put our house up for sale as many of you know. We were so excited when we got an offer after only 2 weeks. Then we found a great house, made an offer and didn't expect to hear back for months because it was a short sale. Well, luck was on our side and our offer was accepted in just over 2 weeks. We were all smiles:) Then the poo started hitting the fan a little at a time. It all started when our buyers had a death in the family. They asked us to extend our closing date 10 days. Of course, we willing to do that because of the circumstances. That all ended up working out because we were going to close on both houses the same day and then move right into our new house... great! Well, then our buyers had another set back and asked us to extend another week on closing. We were less enthused and beginning to get a little annoyed. But it turned out that we didn't really have a choice because they wouldn't have the money to close for another week. So we had to ask for an extension on the house we are buying as well. Luckily, they were okay with that. But it was really frustrating because that pushed our moving date out 2 weeks. So if you all are wondering why we're still here... that would by why. WELL..... you'll never guess. We got some more bad news today. The guy who is buying our house had a stroke last night!!!!!!!!! I know I should be feeling really sorry for this family because they are obviously cursed. But I'm just so annoyed and frustrated that it's hard to have sympathy because they're bad luck has really screwed up our situation. We're going to lose a lot of money and the house we really wanted. There's still a shred of a chance that things will still work out. The guy will recover from his stroke in time to close the deal. I'm really not counting on that though. So our house is back on the market. Stay tuned!!!

Tulip Festival

I finally went to the Tulip Festival! I've been wanting to go since it first started but have missed it every year. It was awesome. Sonja and I took the boys. I've actually never even been to the gardens at all at Thanksgiving Point so I had no idea how huge it was. I'm sure you all have been there so you already know how cool it is. Anyway, I took some great pictures and wanted to share a few. This will definately be a new tradition for us in the spring. Tay and Chase actually really liked it. Observing flowers isn't a very manly activity so I was a little worried that they'd be bored but there was plenty of climbing and rolling down hills to do so they were very entertained. Next year, I think we'll rent a golf cart and have a picnic:)