Happy 30th

to my handsome hubby. Love you!

Busy week...

but I managed to fit in a little downtime. Today I went to a baptism of a new lady in our ward. It was a wonderful service for a great person! This afternoon I spent a lot of time reading (oh yes, school is definitely in). I also had some time this weekend to plant a few things. Our yard is looking better day by day. Today the kids relaxed, played, and yelled at neighbors houses to try to get friends to come out to play. Well, really that was mostly C. Maybe we should collect telephone numbers or learn to use doorbells! It didn't work for the friends they intended, but they did meet two new friends, ages 6 (a first grader in the neighborhood -WOO HOO) and 4. The kids had a great time. We also discovered this week that we have two LDS neighbors. It is super fun for us to have members so close. There are a few clusters like that around, but mostly we are very spread out. Both are couples without kids, so maybe we can even sick our kids on them and escape (wow I just thought of that super idea). We also had a bday party for the hubby and friend Adam yesterday. J is officially 30 in an hour, so go ahead and call to harass him. In lieu of a cake for him I got him 30 hot wings to celebrate. Luckily we had friends to eat some or he would be very sick right now. We did have cake for Adam, so no one went off the deep end to get sugar. The party was a success, and both boys hopefully feel loved. Thanks to all who came!

Back to school

for me anyway. Sorry no photos of me with my backpack (and laptop, and lunch bag, and purse -man I carry a lot everyday). H starts back after Labor day, so we get to ease back into the busy life a little. Things are going well so far. My brain is adjusting back to the life of constant reading, writing, and thinking. I have spent at last month or so just letting it turn to jello. It was rather nice to do that, but now I pay the price. The kids are doing ok, although they tell me they miss me which can be hard. J is feeling a little domesticated since he is tending to them so much more. It is an adjustment for all of us. Here is to a happy, healthy, and productive school year!

OUR NEW HOUSE

For those of you who have been waiting it is finally here...a post of our new house! I wanted to wait until the rooms were clean, but realized with school starting up that may not happen for months. So with that in mind please ignore our mess! Here are the stats: 3 bed with an office; 2 1/2 bath (well technically the master is a 3/4 since it doesn't have a bathtub, but you get the idea); 2100 sq ft or so; full unfinished walk out basement; oversized garage; 400 sq ft covered deck. There are also some cool green features: bamboo flooring, concrete counters, on demand water heater, hvac with heat pump. Now for the tour.

Front of house

Entry way

Family Room

Dining

Kitchen

Master bedroom/master closet: What I love most about this room is the space. I have my office there, a love seat, and a spacious closet and bathroom!

Master bathroom

C's bedroom

H's bedroom

Kids bath

Office: No photo available at this time...J was shirtless in his office, so he vetoed a photo. I know you are all bummed out - sorry!

Covered deck (the favorite family feature of the house)/View off the deck (which is somewhat covered by the houses, but it is still there!

Garage (notice we can fit our two monster vehicles in!)

Basement

Backyard/Back view of house

That's the tour. Hope you enjoyed it. Super house J built for us. Can't wait until all the little details are complete!

Slightly unrelated: Here is the pile of boxes we have already unpacked in the basement. I can tell you it is bigger than it looks.

This is a plant growing in our backyard - we kind of like it, but I am not sure if it is one that will destroy everything else. Anyone know what it is?

**Sorry about formatting issues, can't seem to get all the words where I want them today! Ughh blogger stinks sometimes.

Swim lesson photos and a little swim practice

Here are the swim lesson photos. The sessions are over now, but the kids had a great time. Hopefully we can get them back in soon. H really made a lot of progress, C still swims like she is riding a bike (vertical instead of horizontal). To practice their new skills we took a little trip to the local lake/beach area. We had never been before and it was a short drive and a great place to cool off!

Raspberry pickin'

This happened a while back, but I never posted about it. In mid July the kids and I went to pick raspberries to make some more jam. We all got dirty from the picking...but C definately won the prize. I have deemed this pink shirt her play shirt now! The worst part of the trip was seeing this groundhog on the road to the field. I really won't miss the roadkill here when we leave. I have already killed a chimpmunk and a groundhog without even trying. YUCK!

You snooze...

you loose. It's happened to me. You see I was planning on going to see my brother and family in Chicago, but plans fell through with all the frenzy around the house last month. Now they are moving. What? No fair, 10 hour drive just became a 20 hour drive. Too bad for us. Hate it when we overbook our lives and miss out on all the fun! Hope everything goes smoothly for you. For your sake, I hope Hormel will be packing and moving you. I know first hand that is no fun at all!

Stud or dud

Yoda has been hanging out with Bella the past couple of days. We were excited for him to have a chance to be a stud, but so far he has been confused about which end is up. He's tried many ways, but after two days of trying he still hasn't been successful - partly from being so tired and partly from just being a dingbat. Tomorrow he has another date with Bella, but the right timing is running out for this heat, so he only has the next couple of days to prove if he can be a stud or a if he is just a dud. Just to be fair...Bella's owner said this happened the last time Bella was bred with an inexperienced dog (it took two heats to get it right), so if it doesn't work out this time he can try again in 6 months with her next heat. Good luck Yoda!

We've moved

It's official. We actually moved into the new house. It isn't quite done, but our stuff is here...and we have way too much stuff. No more packing for a couple of years! YIPEE! I will post house pictures sometime soon. Oh, and I will send an email out about our new address.