Exhausted.

Another big day. We have been loading a U-haul all day. Our buyer demanded proof that the trees along the property line were going to be trimmed, so I spent A LOT of energy and time getting that taken of. That was a circus not worth describing. Hours and $300. later we had a paid in full receipt that we could give to our buyer assuring her that the trees would be trimmed next week at no cost to her. Whatever... The final walk through was tonight. She actually brought her home inspector AGAIN (this is the third time people) to scrutinize every little thing we took care of from their list. Once we satisfied them that the house wouldn't burn or some other ridiculous thing they were actually nice to talk to. The buyer is a single mom and her child, a daughter. The daughter was so cute. I asked her which room was going to be hers and she said the blue room (Laci's). She seemed really excited and that made me feel good. Her mom said that she wants to sleep there tomorrow even though they won't have beds in yet. I'm glad that they truly like the house. It makes it easier to leave it to them, especially at the screamin' deal price they got on it. Gotta love this housing market.
So, I guess we're going to crash at Sunni's tomorrow (Nephi's sister) since we'll be lucky to close on Friday. On Friday we're planning for a final walk through, which by the way will be much friendlier and less critical than our buyers were. At the walk through we plan to subtly beg them to let us move in soon after we close instead of waiting a few days for the official funding (Funding takes longer these days). They seem like nice people. I think we've got a fighting chance. We'll be staying at the Fairfield Inn in Layton until we move in.
Okay, I'm going to fall asleep.

SOLD!

For over 3 months I dreamed of the day I would see a "SOLD" on my for sale sign. It's a good feeling.

Brigham had the last laugh

I planned for Brigham to go to school Monday through Wednesday this week. On Wednesday I was planning to go by the school and officially check him out. Well, he came home running home from school today so excited. He was waving around a book that his class made him today called "Brigham is so awesome because....". He dumped out his backpack that was full of school supplies and all kinds of things from his classroom. There was even a nice note from his teacher saying how much she'd enjoyed him. Wait a minute..... I asked Brigham "Did your teacher think today was your last day of school?" He sheepishly answered that he got mixed up and told them today was his last day. They had all kinds of celebration for him today from the sound of it. When I told him he still had one more day he started crying and I realized that yeah, that would be pretty lame to go back to school after they'd just had an entire day devoted to sending him off with a bang. I told him he could stay home on Wednesday. Pretty funny actually....

What a day....

Oh my goodness. This is quite a day. Jennifer, thanks for attempting to call me. Even if I were home I don't think I could've talked. I have been running around like a chicken with my head cut off.
Backing up.....A while back when I was at the SYTYCD show, I thought I lost my checkbook. I couldn't figure out how that happened, but my checkbook was definately missing. I had to put a stop payment of about 9 check numbers. Well, a week ago I found a checkbook in the back of a drawer and I thought, "Oh, hey! I didn't know I still had some checks in this book to use!" Brainless I know. So I wrote a check at the grocery store for 97.80 and guess what, a check to the title company for $2,000! I don't know how I figured it out, maybe this was one of those "inspired" moments but it suddenly just donned on me. As you can imagine, I went into complete panic. After freaking out and calling everyone involved I ended up wiring the 2,000 dollars to the title company and visiting the business office at the grocery store in person to apologize profusely and repaid them with a new check. I was lucky they didn't charge me a penalty fee. I did have to pay 25. to send the wire. Not bad for a big screw up really.
During all of this I had Brigham going to school, Laci going and coming to preschool, electricians taking care of the inspection report requirements, my loan officer needed an additional form downloaded, signed, scanned, and e-mailed back (which I've never tried to do before), my realtor calling........... And it's only 1:00pm!

BUT, I'm grateful everything is moving forward.... we are now scheduled to sign off on our current home next Wed afternoon and we'll close down there a day or two later. I'm exhausted!

Laci's quote of the day

Laci: "Mom, what are girls called in spanish?"
me: "Muchachas"
Laci: "Oh...what are boys called in spanish?"
me: "Muchachos"
Laci: "Oh....I see......Girls are muchachas and boys are nachos."

Our New Home

We just returned from a whirlwind trip to South Ogden. Since our home went under contract and they plan to close by the end of the month we HAD to hurry and get one under contract for ourselves. I have been "shopping" online for ages it feels like so I had a list narrowed down to a few. Most of them disappointed but after 3 visits to this home in one day we submitted an offer. After negotiations we came to a final agreement and it was done. It was crazy and exhausting. We love the home. I actually didn't love it on the first visit. I was luke warm I guess, but after looking at more homes, this home became more and more right. The style of it is so right up my alley. Contemporary with a lot of vintage charm. I think I was overwhelmed. so much to see in so little time. It's not perfect. There is a lot of tweaking for me to do. The landscape needs to have a little more modern feel, I want a modern tile backsplash in the kitchen, replace some of the lighting....modern house numbers...all in time.....
The backyard at first disappointed me but I have fallen in love with it. The kids had a blast running all through the terraced yard. There does seem to be just enough room in one area for our trampoline and that was a biggie with me. There's even a pond at the top for Koi fish. I'm pretty sure it will never see a Koi again. Too much work for me.
So if everything falls into place with both home sales then we'll be moving in about two weeks from now!!!! Knock on wood right?
I posted so many photos mostly for my mom who wants to see every nook and cranny so forgive me if you find it extremely overkill. I know it is.

the living room looking out towards the backyard. That's my realtor!

The front of the "court yard" . At least that's what I'm calling it...
This is the front "court yard". We'll be figuring out what to do with this.

this is the fireplace material

From across the street. To see it better, double click on the photo.
We are going to replace this driveway.
I LOVE the brick work

Sliding door from the master bedroom
The homeowner had a botany class and he had all these plants growing in buckets on his roof. I hope they don't leave those for us to dispose of. Oh well, if they do, I guess they're good buckets and good soil.

This view is taken from the sideyard looking towards the backyard.

kitchen

The little door you can see open behind Brigham is a laundry chute.
soapstone countertops and cork tile flooring

Take A Tour

Well, this shows down into the basement. For whatever reason the camera didn't flip the picture correctly. Watch, you'll know what I mean. Just cock your head to the side! ha ha

Looking from kitchen sink into living room
Living room
Fireplace with gas log

Tiered backyard

Top: Master b.r.
Middle: master bath
bottom: Office

Another view of the stairs obviously and pictures of the main bath.

Laci and Brigham each in their respective bedrooms.

Stairs heading down the basement and a view of part of the basement.

IT'S SOLD!

Can you believe it? We actaully sold our house? WooHoo! We have been going back and forth with a lowball offer we recieved 2 nights ago. We finally walked away from the negotiations and the buyer came back with an offer that we could live with. This housing market has definately put us through the wringer but now we're finally in the drivers seat for a change and get to be in the BUYERS position. Our buyer wants to close by Oct 31st. That's in two weeks! Whaat? We've got a lot to make happen quickly. We're going down to Utah tomorrow to find a house. I've been home searching online for 3 1/2 months so I've got my list narrowed down to a select few. We'll see what happens. Okay, got to go.....

Just added a "friend"

I just wanted to point out to everyone that I added "Krazy in the Kitchen" to my friends list. I have always been accessing this through Gina's blog. I love this site because it's geared towards fairly simple and hearty recipes. Try the Velvety vegetable cheese soup. Eat it with yummy bread. Yummm....Also the enchilada soup. Out of this world. Gina tells me the (Almost) Cafe Rio salad is incredible. Check it out. Gina's family have been primarily using the site but it's open to any of us. You can even post a recipe if you want. Jennifer, I especially thought of you with this blog.

This show is coming to Utah in January

This is called "Walking with the Dinosaurs" It is a live tour with life size animatronics from Japan. Anybody with a kid who loves dinosaurs or monsters even knows that this show would blow their mind.

It will be at the E center in West Valley for a few nights in January. Since I'd better be living in South Ogden by then I want to take Brigham to this show.

Laci's quote of the day

"Hola. Buenos Dias................You know....that's what they say in Japan."

So You Think You Can Dance tour

Okay, I'm finally writing about the show. It was last Tuesday. I drove down to Salt Lake by myself. Which by the way was fairly fun. I had navigation and had no problems. I had a ticket in the 5th row which I was pretty excited about. I even happened to sit by two girls who had also just driven down from Idaho. The show was AWESOME. I LOVE SYTYCD so this was like a dream come true for me. It was amazing to see the costumes, props, and performers in real life and up close. I was so close that I could see the fading bruises on their legs. I think the view would've been a little better a bit further away and up a little higher but it was so incredible to feel like you were right there with them. It was easy to forget you were in a huge building when you're just yards away. Anyhow, I went through You Tube to post a few things from the concert. I didn't film these. Most of them are from way further back but it still gives you a taste of the show experience.
**UPDATE OCT 12th** I just recieved the photos that were taken from our seats. I met two really nice girls who had also driven down from Idaho. We were both early in the parking lot, parked next to each other, discovered we were both from Idaho, compared seats, turned out we were in the same row, and that our seats were next to each other! WHAAAT?! Crazy. We had so much fun . There was one lone guy sitting in between us so he switched me places and then we were together! They just sent me a ton of pictures through their blog so I posted some. Thanks!! One of the funnest things about the show was meeting a lot of people who are nuts about the show also. It was like one big fan club.

Gev came out 3 times dressed like a girl. It was pretty funny. He must be pretty confident. This clip is low quality but up close you could see that he had on huge "diamond" earrings, high heels and bloomers. funny indeed...

Twitch and Katee

This is another favorite of most fans. The person who took this must've been on the front row. The stage takes up part of the picture. They make the stage too high I think for people on the floor.

Katee and Joshua. Choreographer Mia Michaels.

Gev was AWESOME! I've never seen anyone dance like that in real life. In a lot of ways, I think he stole the show. Everyone goes crazy for him. He's one of the guys from Utah.