Photo Test

We recently signed up for a Flickr Pro account as a way to store/preserve our photos online. Flickr has a way to embed slide shows online in a blog so I am testing that service now. Hopefully, this will become a way for us to share all of our photos with you -- our cyber-stalkers.

Enjoy!

Introducing Oliver!

Ok, I guess I am going to be an every 6 month blogger. In my last post I mentioned that we were expecting. Well we are now no longer expecting, but have an 8 week old baby! His name is Oliver and he is beautiful. My pregnancy was great. I actually loved it believe it or not. Everything went really well until I was 2 days overdue. That night I got a sudden fever and went to bed early. Around 11:30 I got some sudden cramps that kept coming 3 minutes apart. It took me about 2 hours to realize that I was in labor and my contractions (which I hadn't had all day) started at 3 min. apart. I told Sean and we went to the hospital. I still had a low fever, but it was causing Oliver's heart to speed up. They put me on IV antibiotics and lots of fluids trying to get my fever down and slow down Oliver's heart rate. After 4 hours my fever had risen to 102 degrees and Oliver's heart rate had risen to 200. My doctor decided that he needed to come out immediately, so they prepped me for an emergency c-section. The surgery went well and Oliver was born at 7:35 am at 7 lbs 12 oz. He had an infection (don't know what though) and had to go to the NICU for 6 days. I couldn't see him until my fever was gone which wasn't until the afternoon of the next day. It was horrible not being able to see or hold my baby for a day and a half. It was worse going home without him. Well he is home and perfectly healthy now. I can't believe it's been 8 weeks already. He is getting huge and is absolutely adorable with tons of fabulous crazy hair. I can't believe how much I love him. This Thanksgiving I just wanted to share how thankful I am for my wonderful family.

Introducing Oliver

Ok, so it's been like 6 months since I last posted. I can't believe how quickly time can fly. I can't really summarize all that has happened in the last few months, so I won't even try. I'll just say that things have been good. Our cat's name is Jack and he is getting huge. He can be so sweet and snuggly one minute, but then go crazy the next and start running around the house like a maniac! He makes me laugh. Even Sean is starting to like him.

The most surprising thing that has happened was we found out that the Lord has prepared a birth mom for us. As most of you probably know we have been trying to adopt and have been praying for the Lord to prepare a birth mom for us. We finally found out who He has prepared, and it's not who we thought it would be. It turns out that He has prepared me! That's right, I'm going to have a baby. It is a miracle. We didn't think this was even possible, but here I am, 10 weeks along. I've even had an ultrasound and heard it's heartbeat. We are calling it Waldo (my family has a tradition of making up prenatal names for our babies). So far things are going really well, so we are just praying and keeping our fingers crossed that they continue to go well.

Crazy two weeks!

Wow! How does life get so crazy? And where does the time go? It has been a great couple of weeks, but way busy crazy. It's getting to the point where I can't even remember everything anymore. There were a couple of highlights. Sean and I went to a Raptors game on Labor day weekend with some friends. They brought their little boy Ben who is a joy. Well, part way through the game I got up to use the bathroom and get a drink. When I got back Ben yelled out (across about 6 rows) "Did you go to the bathroom Kari?" Wow, what a thing I just wanted to share with the whole ballpark. The game was fun with the Raptors pulling out the win.

Labor Day was fun. We went to Monte Cristo and had a picnic with the family. It was a blast, cold but fun. Later we went to our cousins house for a barbeque and some fun. Sean and I marinated some steaks with Santa Maria seasoning and they were so delicious.

Work has been crazy this week. We have a retreat happening next week and so we've all been running around like headless chickens trying to get everything ready. It's fun, but a little stressful.

The most exciting thing that has happened is. . . Sean let me get a cat! I love cats and have been wanting one ever since we bought the house (we weren't allowed pets in our apartments). Our accountant at work had a cat dumped near her house, and it wanted to be adopted. She couldn't keep it, so Sean and I took it in. He is 4 months old and is very sweet and playful. Sean isn't so sure about him yet. He keeps climbing up him and Sean doesn't like it. I keep telling Sean that he is still a kitten and will mellow out soon. We don't have a name for him yet. I just can't decide.

As far as cookies go: I've made Jubilee jumbles - which were basically a brown sugar cookie. I added coconut and pecans to some, I also added chocolate chips to some of them along with with coconut and pecans. They were so yummy. I think Sean may have a new favorite. This last Sunday I made butterscotch brownies. They are really like a blondie, with nuts. They are pretty good. Unfortunately for some reason my gums swelled up on Sat. and it hurts to eat anything right now. Both these cookies were winners!

Molasses Jumbles

I would say that this has been an uneventful week, and for the most part it was. One exciting thing that happened was that Sean and I had our adoption profile published online. Now birth moms (and anyone who wants to) can look at us and hopefully pick us to adopt their baby. If you want to check it out go to itsaboutlove.org and look us up (you can do a keyword search and look us up by our names).

The week ended with me getting really sick though. I woke up Friday morning at 4 running to the bathroom, then couldn't get back to sleep because of pain in my back and more trips to the bathroom. I then spent all day on my back. I stayed that way because every time I sat up I ended up throwing my guts up. Mom finally was able to come over at about 2:30 and bring me some Gatorade. That helped a lot. By that evening I was finally able to sit up and although I felt queezy, I was no longer vomiting. I felt off all weekend, but so much better. I still feel a little off, and my back and shoulders still hurt but I'm at least functioning.

Saturday was a blast because I was able to go to lunch with a bunch of high school friends, most of whom I haven't seen in years. It was so much fun. I can't wait to do it again soon.

Well, this weeks cookie was Molasses jumbles. They tasted a little like soft ginger snaps. I wasn't too fond of them, but I don't really like those kinds of cookies. I shared some with some friends who came over yesterday for dinner, and they loved them. Well, I need to go and get ready for work. Enjoy the rain and cooler temps, and I'll have more next week with more cookies!

Cookies and the Zoo!

Okay, we didn't eat cookies at the zoo but that would have been fun. Wow, what a busy couple of weeks. Jared and Erin came up with their kids for a visit. It was really fun to have them around. It's amazing how quickly kids grow up when you only see them once every 6 months. We have had fun playing, watching movies, etc. The other week we went to the zoo. It was so much fun. My favorite Sophie comment (she is 6 yrs. old and can say the funniest things) was when we were looking at the rhinos. She looked at them eating and said, "Wow, they must poo a lot" then when one of them turned she said, "Ooh gross! I can see it's boogers!" I thought I would pee my pants laughing. I love the zoo, especially with little kids.
We also went to Bear Lake. That was fun and CRAZY! We had 9 adults and 6 kids under the age of 8 who wanted to play Harry Potter all the time. We went to Minnetonka Cave and watching the kids reactions to everything was so much fun. They thought it was all so cool. The Lake was gorgeous! I'm glad to be back though but now I need to catch up on all the stuff at home, like getting back to making cookies!

The last ones I made were Oatmeal raisin. They were so yummy, and I don't even like raisins! They came out so soft and chewy. Sean scarfed them down and took some to work. He said they got lots of compliments. I think these were Sean's favorite cookies so far. I guess I will need to make these more often.

Cookies, cookies, and more cookies!!!

When I was growing up some of my favorite Christmas cookies came from one of my mom's old cook books, the "Betty Crocker Cooky Book" from 1963. By the time I was a teenager, the book had fallen apart and my mom saved our favorite recipes in a binder. In 2003 the book was reprinted and Mom gave each of us kids a copy. I saved mine until we got married when I needed it to make my own Christmas cookies. A couple of years ago I realized that I have this book full of one of my favorite foods - cookies- and I have only made a couple of them. I finally decided I would go through the whole book and make each recipe, and all the variations of them. I'd toyed with the idea for a couple of years now, and have now decided to put this into action. I also wanted a record of this so a la "Julie and Julia" I have decided to write about this in our blog. I have done several recipes so far so I have some catching up to do and will hopefully keep on top of this from here on out. We'll see how well I do.
Week one:Ok, I skipped the first recipe in the book as it called for coffee, and given Sean's and my religious beliefs, this obviously was a bit of a problem. Perhaps one day I'll make it and give them to my non-LDS, coffee drinking friends. The next recipe was Orange drop cookies. They were actually really good. They had a nice cakey texture with a yummy orange frosting that wasn't to overpowering. Sean loved them. I probably wouldn't make them all the time, but they would make a fun change.Weeks two and three: Chocolate drop cookies
These have been Sean's favorite so far. They also had a cake-like texture, chocolate frosting (is it possible to have too much chocolate? I don't think so!) and were really yummy. There were so many variations that it took me two weeks to do this one. The first week I did just plain ones and some with chopped pecans. They were so good. The next week I put coconut in some and chopped maraschino cherries in some. I loved the cherry ones. I was surprised they were so good. I'd do them again in a heartbeat.Week four: Brown Sugar drops
These were OK. They would be really good with chocolate chips, but that wasn't one of the variations. I did some plain, some with pecans, and some with coconuts. They were all good, but not as good as chocolate chips would have been. I didn't get pictures of this one, but I'm sure I will make them again sometime.
A couple of weeks later: Pineapple cookies
I took a couple of weeks break because we went on vacation to San Diego! It was a blast. the next week we had a family reunion, so I finally got back to making cookies the other day. These cookies were surprisingly good. They tasted very old-fashioned. I did half a recipe of just pineapple and half with pineapple and coconut. I can't decide which I like more, they are both so good. I took them when we hung out with friends the other day and they ate them before I knew it. They were obviously a hit. I have to make these again some time.I can't wait to see what this week brings for us and for my next cookie!

Have you missed me? or My excuses for never writing.

Oh, how quickly the time flies. The Mrs. was asking me some questions about the blog and I realized that neither of us had posted anything since November. Shame on us. Unfortunately, we are mostly boring people who don't lead very exciting lives. Highlights of the past few months include:

• Moving into the new homestead -- We really do love our house. As with anything, it is a constant work in progress. We have a complete upstairs, a mostly incomplete downstairs, and a backyard that until a couple of weeks ago, was mostly weeds. The biggest issue we have faced is a broken sewer pipe on the outside of the house. Cost estimates to repair it have ranged from $2,000 to $12,000. Obviously the quality of work is much different between those extremes. We are working to save money towards this as well as researching other possible options. The other issue we have faced is no air conditioning. As the summer heat has invaded we have certainly enjoyed the cool air on our front porch. (we are even contemplating finding a projector so that we can watch movies on the porch.

• We are both working at our jobs and in the church. I was just added as a member of the Boy Scout Committee in our ward. in a lot of ways, working with the scouts has reminded me of some wonderful childhood memories. The Mrs. spent a week at Girls Camp this summer, and really enjoys working with the Young Women.

• The Mrs. keeps me well fed, and is even contemplating using the blog to write about her cookie experiment, cooking through one of her cookie cookbooks a la the movie Julie & Julia. 

• I have started some new medicine that has me feeling better than I have in eons. Even my coworkers who haven't known me very long have commented on how much better I seem to be!

All in all, I think both of us are healthy, happy, and excited for some adventures that we have planned over the next several months. Hopefully, we won't wait that long to keep the three of you reading this updated.

SL

Nearing the finish line!

We are almost there. We finally have all of our flooring in. Our wood floors look fabulous. We are so pleased with them.
I want to thank Laurel Poll for all her help with the tile. I loved learning how to do it and they look so great. It really was a lot of fun, but a ton of work. However, I think they turned out great. I did the tiled hearth all by myself. It was so cool.



We also finally got our linoleum in and it looks fabulous too. After that all we were waiting for was our carpet and for our contractor to finish all his things. Well, we now have carpet and it looks great. It is so soft and thick, we just had to take our shoes off yesterday and tromp all over the house. We love it! We are so excited that it is really looking like a livable house now. We just sat on the floor and stared at last night and didn't want to do anything else. It felt like Christmas to get our carpet in.


So now all that's left is for our contractor to come in and work on his huge list of finishing touches. It should only take him a few days and then we have to get it inspected. Once it passes inspection we can move in! I know we've been saying that we should be done in 2 weeks for about two months now, but now it looks like it really will happen that way! I can't wait to cross that finish line. Wish us luck!

As Time Stands Still

Our wood floors have created a type of standstill for us. We are grateful to Wasatch Ultimate Flooring for giving us a spectacular deal on some quality flooring. The wood is about 90% in. we are still waiting for carpet and linoleum to be installed. Kari and I are waiting for some friends to teach us how to install our own tile. If all goes well, we might be only 2 weeks away from moving in. (of course as I write this, some dastardly thing is probably plotting against us and will reveal its ugly head shortly.)

I also need to share my love and admiration to Kari, who took the painting challenge and ran with it. I admit that painting is not something I remotely enjoy, and so with minimal help from me and a lot of help from her Mom, the two of then painted the house. It looks super fantastic!

We have also installed phone and internet capabilities. Satellite television should be coming soon as well. Things are getting so close, I can hardly contain my excitement.



P.S. On an unrelated note, I am so excited for my cousin Christopher's wife Emily, who set the course record at the Saint George Marathon Wheelchair Division race this weekend. Both Chris and Emily are amazing examples to Kari and I. We only wish they lived closer so we could get together more often than the maybe once a year we are able now. Congrats Emily!!!!!

We are still alive

Wow, I know it's been forever since we've posted. Since Sean is really busy right now, I've decided to write a few things. The house is really coming along. All of our soffits (I think that's how to spell it) and rain gutters are all done. We also have a new driveway! Yeah! I've been very busy painting the entire house. Mom has been a lot of help and we've also had some great help from friends and family too. I was there every morning for about an hour and almost every evening for 3-4 hours for 3 weeks. Needless to say, I'm exhausted, but the house looks so good. We did the great room in a really pretty green color, then painted the rest of the house in a nice tan color. It was interesting transitioning the colors around the rounded corners, but I think we made it work well. It's finally looking like a real house! I'm glad we don't have floors in yet because I could be as messy as I wanted to and not worry about spilling paint everywhere. Now my next project is to clean up all the rollers, and other painting mess so we can get our wood floors installed on Saturday. We still have some painting left like the trim that hasn't been installed yet, and some touch-up work to do. We actually got our appliances on friday. It's so nice to have a fridge and stove. Our kitchen is looking like an actuall kitchen now. They couldn't install the dishwasher becasue the old one which hasnt' been hooked up, somehow got hooked up, and Sears won't unhook and remove it. That is someone else's job. Oh well, it's at the house at least. It's been a long haul, but we are finally seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. We might actually move in one day! Here are a few pics. Hope you enjoy!

Where does the time go?

It has been a busy month or so since my last post. Work is progressing nicely on the new homestead. just this past week, our drywall is installed. unfortunately, no pics yet. The Mrs. and I are currently focusing on choosing paint colors and carpet styles.

We will be painting in just over a week, so anyone who wants to spend some time making stains on clothes and floors, feel free to contact us. Pizza and soda may or may not be provided.

We were able to get a fantastic deal on some new furniture as well over the pioneer day holiday. (I am usually not a fan of RW Sillies, but it was a fantastic deal.

Big Props to our new neighbor Jared, who has sacrificed some quality time with his SuperWife Jessica, to help get our sprinkler system in order. We might actually see some green grass again in our front yard before the summer is out!

I promise, drywall photos will come; (as soon as I take them.)

The "Before's"

I understand now how easy it is to go a while without posting. I have tried to do this two or three time before today, but each time struggled with the photo portion of the post. I finally realized that I could post the photos first, and then add the text.

So we have received a building permit. And since the point of this blog is to show the transition of our home, here are some "before" pictures. The changes that have taken place so far are somewhat remarkable. so will will have some process pics next time.

Future Laundry

Future Downstairs Family Room

Looking Up The Stairs

Future Storage Area Next to the Stairs

Master Closet Area

Hallway Next to/Above Stairs

Master Bathroom Area

Home Teacher Room/Library

Fireplace in the Home Teacher Room

Finally, after all this time...

We have finally achieved Building Permit status. Thanks to some important people who know some important people, we were finally able to push through all of the "red tape" that was holding us back. (OK, you are each allowed to make one joke at my expense for forcing that same "red tape" on people. It is so much more fun to be the one holding the hoop rather than the one who has to jump through it.) All jokes aside, we are uber excited to see work starting to progress. We will have full "before" pictures in the next few days. Keep checking in!

On another note, I mowed the lawn for the first time on Monday night. I really didn't think this would be such a big deal, but having not pushed a lawn mower for at least ten years, and not bieng the most physical/athletic/fit person on the planet, that small hill turns into a big hill in a hurry. Lucky for me, I have the entire summer to turn that big nuisance into the small annoyance it would be for anyone else.

Quick Update or Building Permit Blues

Yes we now own the house. I am told that my initial is now correct and I am once again R. The next step in the progression is to get the building permit and get to work. Easier said than done.

I applied for the permit last week and was promptly told that my drawings did not show enough of the planned electrical work. So I had to get in touch with our electrician to draw up some more detailed electrical plans. We had a miscommunication and did not get the new updates to the architect until Monday. Today I called the architect to see how we were progressing and found out that he has been sick, and they do not expect him back this week. So Brian, GET WELL SOON!!! and hopefully we can get our permit next week. Once we have a building permit, work should begin fairly quickly.

Who is this guy anyway?

We have had issues with names over the past week. Somehow the mortgage company got the idea that my middle initial was A instead of R. I first noticed the error on our appraisal. I promptly called and had it changed, and thought that would be the end of the problem. On signing day, all of the documents had an A. While we signed, we changed all of the initials to R and initialed each change. We were worried that we would have to sign again, but were assured that the problem had been fixed.

Today, I had planned to apply for our building permit. To do so I have to provide a current ownership plat from the county recorder's office. To my chagrin, our deed was recorded as Sean A. UGGGGHHHH!!! I called the title company and had to spend time waiting for them to prepare a document to record to finally fix this stupid mistake. Unfortunately for me, I don't dare try to get a building permit until my name is correct. I cannot image how hard it would be to explain to the city why my name does not match the recorded name on the plat. I guess the permit will have to wait until next week.

Some Photos

My Dad came to visit today, and we were able to take some interior photos of the house. We also got the key today, although the locks will be changed sooner rather than later. Enjoy the pics!

99.9999995%

The Mrs. and I had a scare on Tuesday. We were supposed to close on our new home. I had arranged to leave work early, and Kari was going to meet up with me to sign the papers. Before I left work, i took a call from the mortgage company saying we were good to go. Before I was able to get home, we had heard that the deal might not happen due to a paperwork snafu -- the people who create the paperwork for us to sign could not get the math to work out for whatever reason. Fortunately for us, it was worked out Wednesday afternoon, and we were able to sign the papers thanks to our most dedicated real estate agent Ethan. There is a minor caveat, as my middle initial was incorrect on most of the papers. We have been assured that this is not a major problem, and therefore are happy to announce that we are almost homeowners!!!!! the paperwork needs to be recorded and some checks need to clear, but we are essentially there.

Our house is located on the same physical block where we currently live. We will not be able to move in for awhile while the renovations are being completed, but here is your first look at our new home!



We will have indoor pictures, as well as before and after pics of the entire process. Stay tuned!!!

SL

Closing Soon !?!?!?!?!

We have found out that we should be able to close on our new house within the next couple of days. A local architecture firm is drawing up some plans for us to submit for our building permit. We have a contractor chosen, who should be able to begin work as soon as we close. Our lender is finishing our loan; it has been approved, but our loan processor is clarifying some info for the file. All in all we should be signing the paperwork on Monday or Tuesday. It has been a long road but we are almost there.