Housekeeping

Every move has some sort of hitch.  Something that makes it a positively dreadful experience.  I'm convinced of this, otherwise we would all be hopping houses every year just for FUN!  The two weeks of homelessness I thought was ours.  Thanks again families for being so accommodating!  We knew the owners were renovating the kitchen, and that they were scrambling to get it done before they moved.  I figured the house wouldn't be spotless when we arrived, and braced myself for a bit of light cleaning.  I should have done more bracing! 

The house was a M-E-S-S.  Floors were dirty with pet hair, dust and sawdust!  Nothing was vacuumed or swept.  They had three cats and a dog.  Before we felt comfortable moving any furniture into the house, we felt it needed a top-to-bottom cleaning.  The floors were all hardwood or tile, so each had to be swept and then mopped.  We had to change the bucket water after each room, it was that dirty.  Cobwebs in the closets, dead bugs in the windowsills.  Josh tackled the bathrooms.  I got the kids working on their own bedrooms.  The owners did leave behind cleaning supplies, which was almost humorous.  Almost.  The final straw for me was the kitchen.  Both the freezer and the fridge were filthy, and had to be completely wiped out and de-gunked.  The oven.  Oh, the oven.  I've cleaned out some dirty ovens in my day, but this one took the cake (no pun intended).  As I was cleaning it out, Josh came over and took a look inside.  "Now that's just rude," he said.   It felt so good to have him validate how I'd been feeling all day. :(

Outside were piles of things that we weren't sure what to do with:  Bikes, a sailboat, a canoe, coolers, wood scraps and construction leftovers, paint, stain, finish and more paint.  We had to organize and move all of these items in order to get our stuff moved in.  It took a ton of time and thought, trying to figure out what they wanted us to do with all of it!  

Now, don't get me wrong.  We've had our fair share of getting in over our head with remodeling a house.  I'm really grateful to have a house to live in, and I'm happy where we are and all of the pluses that come with living here.  I'm grateful the owners allowed us to move in our stuff into their garage and deck early so we didn't have to pay to store it.  I just wished they would have either given us a heads-up, like, "Hey, we totally ran out of time.  Take $200 off the rent next month with our apologies.  Bring your rubber gloves, cause you're gonna need 'em!"  Either that or hired a service to come clean it before we got back.  It stung, I've gotta say.  It was so discouraging to have moved out of a house and worked so hard to leave it in SUCH clean and well-cared-for condition, only to move in and have to AGAIN clean up, but this time someone else's mess.   

The details of the house were left somewhat unfinished.  The entryway is still the original paint-splattered linoleum.  We apparently buried the tile saw with our lawnmover, so they delegated that job to Josh to complete the entryway.  Uhhhh, what!?  Nail holes in the moldings were patched, but not sanded or painted over.  The yard was completely overgrown and the weeds were up to our waists! 

At the end of that long day we were able to feel like things were clean enough to be able to move things in.  Josh got all of the beds moved in and put together, so that night everyone had a room and a bed.  It was heavenly!  Diddles slept ALL NIGHT  peacefully in her crib for the first time in weeks.

The next morning we had some ward helpers assist us in moving the big pieces of furniture into the house.  Two weeks later and everything is in and in some sort of place.  The yard is looking good, and we're able to enjoy it.  The chickens are an absolute joy, and they've supplied us with at least three delicious fresh eggs a day.  We're still working out organizing in this new space and floorplan, and where to hang the pictures and such, but it's coming along!

Thanks for letting me complain.  It's over and done with, right?  Trying to just forgive and forget.  Moving in and moving on is the name of the game.  The next post I'll introduce you to the chickens! 

Adventures in Homelessness

We had two weeks to kill before our house was ready.  Josh couldn't take two weeks off of work, so he worked remotely during the day for the first week we were in UT.  We arrived at my parents' on Friday evening.  Yaks on the way said, "I'm just so excited, there are so many things I'm thinking of that I get to do with Scout (Mom's geriatric dog)!"  Saturday Cath and her family and Tim and his girlfriend Kellie drove up for a yardwork party.  The work parties have become something of a tradition.  We work in the yard and finish up a bunch of projects and then we have a big BBQ before calling it a day.  Josh has gotten used to bringing a pair of work shoes whenever we visit.  Champ.  We got the garage cleaned out, some plants transplanted, some others pulled out, branches trimmed, and weeds pulled.  It's great to see the fleet of strong, able-bodied workers getting it done.  It makes me really proud to be a part of our family.  Sadly, I didn't think to snap a picture, but a good memory, nonetheless, and a farmer tan to boot!

 The next week we headed down to Salt Lake and stayed at Isaac and Megan's house while they were on vacation to California.  Thanks for letting us use your place, guys!  We BBQ'd up the canyon and visited This is the Place Monument.  Angie and her kids volunteer at the Rich Home every Tuesday for the summer and give little tours of the home and tell everyone about it.  We had a lot of fun letting them show us around and then enjoy the rest of the park with us! There was a great Native American dance presentation, and Diddles got to finally go on a REAL horsie-back ride.  HEAVEN!

We did some work on the yard at our Bountiful house, and had a little visit with our neighbor Dell, and talked to our renters about the possibility of selling the house to them.  We had a nice afternoon visit with cousin Sarah, and their best-dog-ever, Carl.  We hiked up to Timpanogos Cave, and we carried Diddles almost the whole way!  1 1/2 mile trail, climbing 1,000ft to 6730 ft above sea level!  (gasp, pant, heave)

Checking out the fossils

1 1/2 mile trail, climbing 1,000ft to 6730 ft above sea level!
(gasp, pant, heave)
We made it!  (Still smiling)

Inside the cave, one arm on Diddles at all times.

Josh taking a work call at the top.  No biggie.

We finished up the week with a visit to Cath's house in Highland, and a visit to our old friends the Brockbanks, who now live in UT!

Cousins! 

Holly introducing us to her backyard chickens

Saturday, a group went up Big Cottonwood canyon for a ride.

Abby invited the older kids to go to a wedding reception with her.  Yaks declared he wanted to look really handsome, so this is the outfit we came up with.  Not bad, I say!  Abby did Boo's hair for the occasion.  They had a great time at the chocolate bar!

Sunday after church, we went to Temple Square and took a tour of the Conference Center roof.  It was a beautiful day, and we enjoyed seeing the temple grounds.  Oh, the temple is so close, I can't believe it!  Get to the temple for me, friends!  It's so tough being far away from one!

 

  We stopped over at that City Creek Center.  Fortunately, everything was closed up for Sunday.  Every store looked really expensive and fragile!  They had fun copying the statues around the grounds.  

 

Sunday night we had a little family dinner with Josh's family.  Everyone who was in town was able to come, including his maternal grandparents.  Josh grabbed this great photo of them.  Aren't they sweet? 

 We enjoyed some good food and conversation, and Diddles was able to enjoy watching Papa fly his helicopter.  "Pop!  Hogger!"  (Papa's helicopter).  just look at those fascinated faces...

Ben made this little paper replica of Papa's helicopter, complete with remote control, joystick and a laser!

The next few days Josh took the kids on a backpacking trip up Red Pine Trail up Little Cottonwood Canyon.  They packed everything in and slept under the stars!  There was snow up at the top, so their trip was cut a little short, but props to Josh for taking on the excursion.  It allowed Diddles and I a chance to get some shopping done and then head up to spend some quiet time with my parents and Marie.  We did some more yardwork and I helped with some cleaning and other little projects that are easier to do with one child instead of three.  Thanks again to Josh for letting me have that time with my mom.  I have those sweet moments tucked away in my pocket to hold me through till next time.  :)

 

While the kids were backpacking, Diddles enjoyed being an only-child with me up in Logan.  With her speech delay, we've found that she prefers to be a little more independent.  It's not that she's not a social child, because she is, but imagine what it would be like to have to think so hard of the words to say for each situation and then get those to form in your mouth and then speak them.  Now couple that with the spontaneity that comes with playing with her siblings or other kids and having her toys snatched or "borrowed" or having to negotiate sharing or taking turns.  It's hard!  She is in her element when she can quietly play by herself or with older kids or adults who can let her talk on her own terms.  She had a great time picking strawberries, enjoying Grandma's Beanie Baby collection and having the baby pool and the dog all to herself! Oh!  And did you notice that she got a little haircut?  We took her to our favorite Cookie Cutters and had them give her a little A-line bob with some layers up the back.  It's worked wonders in taming the bird's nest in the back.

Tuesday evening we had a special sealing session at the Logan Temple.  Dad had 70 family names to be sealed.  Josh watched the kids so I could go with Mom, Dad, Tim and Kellie.  Our sealer was wonderful, and there was a great spirit there. 

The next day we hit the road, but first we did some last-minute thinning of the peach tree, and the kids helped to pick up the cast-offs.  Those types of projects are huge helps for mom and dad!  It made the kids feel good to do some service.  W e picked some strawberries for the road and were off! 

 We made it home in one day this time to save some $$ on a hotel.  It makes for a long day.  We took a different route this time, going through Walla Walla.  It was SO nice not to have to deal with carsick kids through windy McCall or Hell's Canyon.  It may have taken us a little longer, but we all got back into town feeling pretty good!  We pulled into our new driveway around 7 or 8pm, spread out some air mattresses and sleeping bags and went to bed on the floor of our empty house. 

Farewell, White House!

Hi friends!  I've been MIA for over a month.  Good grief, what a whirlwind!  Early May we finally found a place to live.  Our lease on the "White House" as we call it, was up on May 31st, so it felt like every day for the entire month of May, we were packing, organizing, tossing, cleaning and readying for the move.  I must say, it was a whole lot easier this time not being 9 months pregnant (our first house), or having a brand-new baby (the last move).  

Even living in our house for two+ years, you accumulate a lot of stuff, and things can get pretty dirty.  This vent in our main living area was FULL of all sorts of goodies:  a petrified orange, a plastic head of lettuce, a crayon, lego guy, crumbs and I think $.94 in change!  Not bad for a day's work.  We really wanted to leave the home pristine for the new owners, so we spent a lot of time wiping walls, baseboards, windows, mopping, scrubbing and vacuuming so they could just move right in.  We even mowed and did a thorough weeding of the flower beds! We vacated our house a day early so we could have a whole day for the carpets to get cleaned.  I would have felt comfortable moving into our house when we left it, if I do so say myself.  :)

That's our garage.  Look how clean and spacious!  I'll miss you, garage.

When the wonderful moving crew came on Wednesday, we were ready with beds broken down, everything boxed, moved downstairs or to the garage, so it was just a matter of loading up the boxes in the truck and then hauling the heavy pieces down the stairs.  Oh, those stairs.  Two flights no matter where you enter or exit.  What champions.  We are officially a 2-U-Haul family, filling 1 1/2 vans with stuff.  How did we get so much stuff!?

We had an odd hitch with our plans, in that the owners of our rental weren't moving out until June 14th, and we had to be out of our house by May 31st.  That left us a window of about 2 weeks of homelessness.  We planned to move all of our stuff into their garage and back deck and under the house, then take off for Utah and crash with our families until our house was ready. 

Moving out took all day, despite our preparations, to load up, haul and then unload the vans.  Hooray for  Marie' for taking the kids after their last day of school, and keeping them until we were done. After we picked the kids up, we checked into a hotel and tried to relax after an exhausting day.  The kids brought home all sorts of goodies and end-of-the-year treasures to show us.  We tried to put on interested-looking faces and ooh's and ahhh's while looking through their papers.  They really did have great teachers.  We stopped by on our way out-of-town to say thank you and deliver a gift.  I failed to bring my camera or think to snap a picture.  Ah, well.

Boo's teacher saved samples of the children's work and fun units and organized them into a binder for each child at the end of the year! It was so fun to look through all of their projects.

I had a horrible night's sleep on the hotel hide-a-bed with Diddles, who had a hard time the entire trip without her crib.  Poor kid doesn't know what to do without her wooden bars surrounding her! 

We stopped by our house for a few hours to let in the carpet cleaners, do a final walk-through with the owner, and collect our deposit.  I was happy to get a last picture with the kids on the front porch to remember the house we lived in.  When we moved in no one was even in school yet!  Diddles was two months old, and Yaks was in Sunbeams!   Now we've got two in school, an almost-three-year-old, and Boo's in Sr. Primary.

 It's been a great house for us.  I'll really miss the awesome kitchen.  It was such a joy to cook in, and had a place for every thing.  There were so many closets and cupboards and room to spread out.  I loved the windows that helped to cheer us up in the dreary winters, and the open floor plan that let us all be together yet apart, if you know what I mean.  I won't miss the flights of stairs, or the roaring dishwasher, or the temperamental clothes washer, or the light-colored carpets upstairs.  See?  There's good and bad about any place you live.

 Now, enough reminiscing.  It's time to hit the road.  So long, White House!