HOUSE

Okay, here are some pictures of our new house. These are from before we spent days and days painting (thanks helpful friends):





Then we painted almost the whole house and here is what it looks like now:









There's also a basement, but no pictures. Our friend Ryan is living down there and I don't think he'd appreciate it .... and we have a trampoline!!


(photo from steph)

The bright green room is now dark gray, but not scary. Soon it will have bunk beds and a couple of delinquents in it.

no house pictures yet

Maybe tomorrow. In the meantime, I don't know why I love these little questionnaires... I also like reading them, even if I don't know the person.

QUESTIONS

1. When do you feel happiest? When I feel like I've achieved something. This house-painting business has been great for me. And I love the satisfaction I get out of unpacking a bunch of boxes and making it look like a normal house.

2. How do you take care of yourself? I don't. Let's be honest ... I found out this week that I have high cholesterol. I'd like to blame my father, but I know it's because I love red meat and taco amigo. Lucas and I have set a goal to eat natural things. We try to buy and eat only items with 5 or less ingredients. Healthy!

3. Are you internally or externally motivated? Internally. I feel like I'm a mostly independent person, I don't really like being told what to do ...

4. What do you do for fun? Read. Hike. Jump on the tramp. Bake, or cook.

5. What intimidates you? Confidence. I feel like I'm a pretty confident person, but I want to be more. Job interviews scare the H out of me.

6. What is something you are proud of? My temple marriage and relationship with Luke.

7. Finish the sentence: I never... eat onions.

8. Favorite vacation spot? Central America. Or Idaho.

9. Today is a (rate from 1 to 10) I'd say about a 4. I started work at 5 and will finish at midnight ... one of my best friends quit work at Provo today (it's a good thing for her, but 2J will miss her). I only got to spend a few minutes with Brok (and Gwen), and zero minutes with Lucas.

10. Finish the sentence: If you knew me really well you'd know... I'm in love with diet coke with lime. My favorite color is green. I love reading in the tub. I wish I lived on a farm. In Texas.

+

our new life

Well, we're officially all moved in and sleeping at the new house. I haven't finished unpacking, and I have no idea where the "computer crap" box is ... so no pictures yet. Soon.
The house is awesome, we've been painting day and night, it looks totally different than it did when we first looked at it. We totally love it. Brok has not hesitated to make it his home as well, he is completely comfortable and loves showing off his fancy new backyard to all his friends ...

I'm also loving my darling new car. The other day I was driving along, minding my own business, when a matching green Element came from the opposite direction, flashed her lights, and waved to me out the window. I about died. I feel as though I've joined some sort of elite Element society ...

The best news about the location of our house (besides the canyon, our awesome neighbors, parks, etc) is that we're right off 8th North in Orem ... on the opposite end of town, but on the SAME STREET as the new WinCo! Thanks to my dear friend Sarah ranting and raving about the produce quality, bulk selection, and general awesomeness ... we love it and shop there all the time. Great prices, great selection. I love it.

THE CHURCH IS TRUE

"The future is as bright as your faith."
Thomas S. Monson, "Be of Good Cheer," Ensign, May 2009, 92

I just love that President Monson.

We're so blessed right now and especially thankful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ in our lives.

Another really wonderful thing I love (from the Mormon Messages youtube channel) is Jeffrey R Holland's lovely testimony of the Book of Mormon. We have the best church leaders ...

Book of Mormon Testimony

And my favorite thing to be thankful for lately is Adam. Elder Nielson.
The picture is poor quality, but it looks like he's having fun... and we get to talk to him next week!


(he's on the right)

The Church is true.

I'm so happy ...

Rewind to 3 weeks ago.

11:00 pm. Lucas is driving to Walmart to do some late night errands. I'm asleep. My phone rings like a hundred times because Luke left his wallet home and some 17 year old chick (doing a u-turn) slammed into the car. My car. The insurance company decides to total the car and gives us 2 weeks worth of car rental. 2 weeks is a normal amount of time for people to find and purchase a new vehicle, right?

Maybe. But if you're right in the middle of trying to buy a house, it's not that simple. We had a house picked out and were negotioating with the sellers, who were really adamant about closing by the end of the month. Fine with us. This negotiation goes on for about a week ....

Meanwhile, rental car #1 (a big dodge truck) somehow got a flat tire at the ranch. So we got a cute little Jeep Patriot, which I really liked. I wrecked it 6 days after Luke's wreck. (totally my fault) And the lovely Enterprise rental gave us another car ...

We had to give the rental back last week, but luckily we had some good weather and we used the motorcycle as our second vehicle this week. Unfortunately, the recent snow storms made this impossible the last couple of days. So we've been borrowing a car from our wonderful friends, Brett and MJ, until we could close on the house and buy a new car.

WELL, we closed on Thursday, funded and recorded yesterday, and bought a new car last night. It's like Christmas.


(photo from performancewheel.com because ours is at the honda place getting new tires, not as cool as the tires in the picture)

I'm happy. We pick up the car after work today and we'll probably head to the Sandy dog park to celebrate. New car, new house and Brok's birthday, he's 3!