Almost Home Sweet Home

Well, we have most of our 3 million and four boxes unpacked- this has been a long and stressful week, but it is almost done! Audra is adjusting well to the new house- she loves running around the house where the main floor makes a big circle around the kitchen, family room, and living room. She could do that all day! Our neighbors seem really nice, though we haven't met too many of them yet- it's not like when we were young and we would always bring brownies or something to the new neighbors. I guess I shouldn't say that- one neighbor brought us a beautiful plant and she and her husband have been really kind to us. They are older and have grandkids and have said Audra could come play with them whenever she wanted (she is still a little young for that, however). That was very nice of her, and they will be great- but we haven't even seen the neighbors on the other side of us- very strange.
Anyway, I will try and post some pictures later today, but for now I just wanted to give everybody a quick update that we are in the house and starting to enjoy it- even if we can't remember where we unpacked half of our things....

Ignorance is NOT bliss

I had to respond on my blog because I received the same totally ignorant e-mail twice, and it is so rediculous and ignorant, that I can not believe anybody is naive and stupid enough to forward such crap on! I don't care who you are voting for or what political affiliation you are, ignorance is ignorance, and it must be stopped!!!

The e-mail had a picture of Obama's plane (see below)

and then goes on to explain that Obama replaced the American Flag with his symbol and he is therefore anti-American and we should all be ashamed of him etc, etc, etc.

So, I looked up McCain's plane:

Do you see an American flag? Zoom in all you would like- you won't see it becuase it is hidden underneath the wing and is smaller than the "M" in "McCain." It may as well not be there, and if they are going to hide it and be "ashamed" of the flag by hiding it and making it non-existent, then they should be ridiculed MORE than Obama!!!

OK, but here is why I am really ticked off- are we as Americans really stupid enough to vote for our next presidend based on what a plane looks like, and not on issues and ideals we individually hold dear??? It is the lowest form of intelligence who basis their opinion on a piece of machinery!!!!! I can't believe people are so ignorant to pass along that crap!!! First of all, if Obama is anti-American because though his symbol looks like the American flag but it is not, then McCain is just as repulisive because he hides the American flag! Either way you look at it, it is not justification to vote or not vote for somebody!!!!

If you want to talk issues, I would love to talk issues, but PLEASE do not send me ignorant propoganda that has NOTHING to do with anything!!!!

Love it or hate it??

Here are some before and after shots of the painting. The brown ended up being much darker than we wanted, we wanted a nice warm tan color, but we like this color anyway. Once we get our furniture in we think it will help soften the brown a bit and just be nice and warm. Our painter told us that a lot of the new builders are going with this chocolate color, so I guess we are just being trendy...it is definitley a polarizing color, either people will really like it or think we are crazy for choosing such a color. I guess it is good that we like it!
Front room before...And after....

The red color is the same that we had in our old house and we really liked it and it matched our furniture and everything already so we just kept it.

Here is from the front door looking up: (a before picture)
Here is from the top of the stairs looking down: (after)
Here Audra is playing with Gizmo in the backyard at Grandma and Grandpa's- trying hard to be "gentle":
And, Gizmo quickly running away from her attacker:

Dryer anyone?

Before I get into the saga of the dryer, here are some cute pictures of Audra. Above is when we were back in the townhome and she successfully climbed on top of some boxes. She is angry once she got on top of the box because she couldn't figure out how to get back down.
Here she is attacking Gizmo- Mac and Ann's cat- while Gizmo is doing her best to run away from Audra. Audra isn't very nice to Gizmo- but she sure does love her!!!!

On to the dryer. This should not be complicated- to get a dryer. We bought a nice washer/dryer combo on Craigslist for $150- quite a good deal, I thought. We brought them to the house and Mac spent about 6 hours on the dryer only to conclude it was broken. After some thinking, he thought maybe the electrical outlet was busted. We went back to the house to discover that he was right- the electrical outlet going to the dryer was completely disconnected. I called the previous owner of the house who informed me that they used the electricity that would have gone to the dryer to power the remodel of the basement that was done years ago. Gee, that really would have been nice to know BEFORE we bought the dryer and Mac spent about 7 hours total trying to get it to work.

So, off to Sears Ben and I go. We spend a ton of money on a gas dryer- they are quite expensive, and while we could have bought one on Craigslist for 50 dollars, we wanted to make sure we had professional installers and a quality dryer as gas is nothing to mess around with. We schedule the delivery and install- again, costing us a pretty penny.

Yesterday the two most incompetent delivery people in the world came. Well, only after they called me totally and completely lost- they had no idea where Highlands Ranch was. HELLO! For you Seattleites, it's like having no idea where Belleview is- anybody with a brain knows where these major suburbs are, or at least the general area. Talking on the phone with them, they start getting mad and being rude to me because I can't understand where on earth they are and how to get them back to where they need to be. (For you Coloradans, they started out at Wadsworth and C-470 and ended up in Golden- no joke- when where they needed to be was Santa Fe and C-470- obviosly, these guys should not be doing delivery).

Finally, they show up. My friend Fawn was with me and we ended up leaving to go pick out tile while Mac stayed with the supposed installers. They come in and tell Mac that we don't have any of the right parts (even though we bought them from Sears when we bought the dryer) and that we needed to go to Home Depot and buy all sorts of different parts. Then they told Mac we needed to hire a plumber to install our GAS dryer- how on earth does that make any sense???? Apparently Mac was so livid with their incompetence that he almost sent them back with the dryer. But, Mac dutifully went to Home Depot, and the guy at Home Depot was like, "I don't know what these Sears guys were telling you, but you have all the right parts and all you need to do is this and this." So, Mac went back to the house where he attached the dryer parts that came with the dryer and they fit perfectly, thus convincing all of us that Sears sent us people who did not have a clue what they were doing. Mac didn't do all of the plugging and sealing because we want professionals to do the install- gas is dangerous, we want somebody who knows what they are doing to get this all together. Plus, again, we paid good money to have it professionally installed!!! So, we called Sears and very angrily told them our story and tomorrow they are sending out 2 more guys. Mac told them they had better send people who knew what they were doing! What a nightmare!

On the plus side, the painting is almost done and we have carpet cleaners (my wonderful cousin Clint) coming in Thursday night to clean the carpets. We bought a king size mattress, which Ben is super excited about- he has been wanting one since we went on our cruise and were spoiled with one a couple of years ago.

We hired a tile guy and bought the tile, but he hasn't called me back to tell me when he could get started. I am glad we are doing all of this before we move in- this is all such a pain!!!! But, Friday is our big day and we are really excited!

Homeless

After 4 hours of moving and cleaning yesterday and 2 hours at closing, Ben and I are offically homeless. It was very interesting seeing our house totally empty- strangely surreal, but not necessarily sad. I thought I would be very sad- this was our home, Audra's first home, and she won't even remember it. But without all of our stuff inside, it was just 4 walls. I told Ben it wasn't the house that held all the memories, it was what was inside the house and concluded that the things you acquire are what are most important. He told me I was half right.

We are now at Ben's parents, and they have been wonderful. Obviously it is not the most ideal living situation, but we are very grateful to them and their generosity in helping us out as we prepare to move into the new house. As we emptied out the old house and packed up the last of our memories there, really I just got a sense of excitement- I can not wait to be in our new house! The house Audra will grow up in (I really truly NEVER want to move again- as all of you know, it is a pain!!!) and we will hopefully retire in. I look forward to the future, and think back to the past with fondness. We have been so blessed!

Oh, and Audra loves staying with Grandma and Grandpa Marriott- she runs after their cat Gizmo and thinks it is the funniest and most wonderful thing in the world! Very cute!

Kitchen Explosions and Other Disasters

Ok, so I counted and I have 18 boxes of kitchen stuff. Now, this does not include the 10 + boxes I already packed before we even put the house on the market and are in storage at Ben's parents house, and I will still need to pack about 4 more boxes before the move on Monday. That will make roughly 32 boxes of kitchen stuff! Does that seem insane to anybody else? I realized the kitchen boxes were getting out of control, but there was nothing I could do to stop it. I saw the egg separater that I have NEVER used, and thought, "do I really need to pack this?" And then I panicked and thought to myself, "of course I do! What if someday I become the type of chef that is in desparate need of an egg separater on a regular basis? What a waste it would be to throw such a wonderful instrument away!" And so, alas, I am left with at least 32 boxes of kitchen "essentials" to pack, haul, move, unpack, place in a drawer at my new house, and waste away never to be used- just the same as it is not used here.
So here is the question: What useless piece of equipment do you have in your kitchen that you cannot part with, but you really probably should?

Strongest Man at Church

Tonight was our annual Bishop's BBQ for church. It was a lot of fun, except for the tantruming screaming baby we had to deal with for the entire time...but outside of that, it was a great time. They combined it to celebrate the Mormon Pioneers who crossed the plains as well, so there were some fun pioneer games. Ben and Curt compteted in a "stick pull." Ben lost miserably both times, but he claims Curt had better leverage and he has made it his goal to be able to beat Curt in the stick pull! I guess Ben had better start working out! Here are some pictures:

Here Audra and Cache get into the action. I am not sure who won...