House update

We finally went on our walk-through on wednesday. We ended up finding some pretty serious problems, so we withdrew our offer. There was a crack in the foundation over an inch-wide, and some other things that we really don't want to fix. So, now it is back to the hunt.

Whew! I am finally catching my breath!

We put an offer on a house! The reason I haven't been posting for the last few days is because I haven't had time to pause. Our realtor called us up a week ago, he had found a really good deal. We put an offer on it right away, and are looking at it tomorrow. I have been running around gathering all the documents for the loan, and trying to juggle that along with all the issues from Scott's car accident, Summer contracts for our apartment complex, and helping Danny learn to walk. Yesterday I mailed off the summer contracts, so I have a little breathing room for a week until we check people out on the 5th of May.

We were supposed to do an inspection of the home yesterday. The house is currently being rented out, and so we had arranged with the renters to see it at 4:30. The Realtor assigned to the home was brand new, he has had his license for a week. He had been waiting to get the keys from them for over an hour. We waited another half hour, and then set up another appointment with him for Wednesday. My realtor thinks that the renters are trying to sabotage the sale. Hopefully all goes well for Wednesday, the current owner of the house was pretty upset with the renters. He lives in Salt Lake, but he might make a personal appearance.

Scott is loving Bradshaw Chevrolet. He drives a new car home every day. He gets so excited over every one. Last night was an 07 Buick that was a really pretty pearl color. It had heated seats, and rain sensitive wipers (it rained last night, so we got to try that feature out . . . Pretty Cool!) He has to learn every feature and so we will pull out the owners manuals when he brings a new car home. It was fun learning how to rearrange the Chevy Avalanche.

Daniel has taken his first step. He will stand on his own, take one step, and then crawl the rest of the way. He is also holding our hands and wanting to walk around, this makes for slow moving when Mom is trying to get things done. He sure is fun though!

Monday - The day we recover from Sunday

I have noticed a funny little pattern in our lives. We don't like to clean after ourselves on the weekend. My little apartment that I try so hard to keep clean during the week explodes into a disaster Saturday morning and usually stays that way until after Scott leaves for work Monday morning. Usually this phenomenon occurs because we have lots of outings planned for Saturday, and Sunday is chock full of church and family activities that we are only home long enough to change our clothes and fall into bed.

This weekend was no exception, but it sure was a joy. Saturday morning we awoke early and headed down to St. George to do my Grandmother's temple work. It was a very powerful experience. The only downside was the stress over a time limit that ended up being unnecessary. It was one of those choice moments of my life when the veil was so thin you could almost see through it. I felt so much joy and rejoicing, and I knew that my darling Grandmother finally understood the reason behind all the choices I made. When we sealed her for eternity to her beloved, there wasn't a dry eye in the room. All I could think of was that, finally, they were together forever. I cannot wait for the day when I see them again, and see her radiating happiness and light. I will never forget the look on my Mom's face as she was finally granted all the blessings of the gospel as she was sealed to her parents. Tears were streaming down her face. She waited over thirty years for that moment, and it was so beautiful. I am so glad that I was able to be a part of that momentous occasion, and that my cousin, Jenny, and her husband could be there too. I wish we could have seen more of them, but they needed to head back to California after the temple work was done. It was a long weekend for them, but I am happy they were able to share such a wonderful experience with us.

Thursday Already????

My Goodness! I haven't hardly had time to breathe this week! My husband was in a minor car accident on Friday, and has been so sore. He cannot even lift Danny without pain. On top of dealing with all the insurance issues, getting a rental car, and chiropractic care, I had to rake the leaves so our grass doesn't die. Plus, this weekend we are doing my Grandmother's temple work, and my cousin and her family are staying with us. I am so excited to see them. The only problem is that I have to clear out my third room, it has kinda accumulated storage. So, I have been running around like a chicken with it's head cut off. It feels like I have been going in circles, picking up a bit here, putting something away there. My house is in a constant state of disaster, my only comfort is that it is a revolving state.

I am realizing how much I rely on my husband. I hate taking out the trash, and he has been so good to do it for me. Now, it is just piling up, because he cannot lift it. Yesterday I picked my sister up so she could help me with Danny. I had visions of a sparkling house by the time I was done. No such luck. I had an orthodontic appointment, needed to run my husband's glasses to the eye doctor to get them fixed, paid the insurance, ran an errand for my father, saw Dr. Taylor (I am cleared on my Vitamin C allergy and working on Sugar!) and managed to organize my office a little bit. Yesterday I got the Wii. I was able to set it up, and then ran to my appointment. Cheyanne was the first to play it. I didn't play it at all until after I picked Scott up from work, switched Cheyanne for Ryan (he stayed at our house for a couple of hours,) ate dinner, and made sure Danny was ready for bed.

The Wii is alot of fun! I loved it. I was only able to play for a little bit, as my day had worn me out. I hope I can get some headway on my house today. I am not letting myself play until that back room is done!

My little indulgence

After posting my blog about not starving myself, I made the largest impulse buy of my life. I ordered a Wii. I have been wanting one badly, and they are very hard to find. I discovered I could pre-order one from Gamestop.com and then they would ship it out when they received another shipment on April 12. I have been counting down the days, knowing that it would probably be another week after that before I get my game system.

This morning I opened up my email to discover that my system has already shipped out! It was shipped on Friday! I will be getting it on Wednesday! It will be here a full day before any of the other stores can put it on their shelves. I am so excited. I promised Scott that I wouldn't play it until I have finished doing my chores. (He didn't make me, I volunteered.) This promise helps me get things done. . . and my dear husband allows me to make all the promises I need to to feel productive. I find that I am much more motivated when I tell him what I am going to do, it helps to feel accountable about something. I know that I can get totally absorbed into a project, book, or game, so having a list of things I need to do BEFORE I do those things makes sure I get something done.

Vanity Fair

So. . . I watched Vanity Fair today. I was curious how they would fit that very large book into 2 hours. I must say that for such a large book, they managed to stay pretty close in the movie. Of course the character development was nowhere near as powerful, and in the movie you don't get the feeling of how truly dishonorable Becky becomes. You also don't get enough of the Captain to fall in love with him as you do in the book. Yet, they did manage to portray Amelia pretty well.

I disliked Becky, but I despised Amelia when I read the book. Amelia should have been all that was good, but she was weak. She wasted away instead of moving on with life. In my class discussions, it was easy for people to compare her to Jane Bennett from Pride and Prejudice because they were both quiet, peaceful people. I have recently reread that classic work, and I was impressed all over again by Jane's quiet strength. Although bitterly disappointed by Bingley's rejection, she still lived. She tried her hardest to be happy, she served everyone around her, and was cheerful and pleasant to be around. To compare her with Amelia is a great injustice to Jane. I am certain that if Jane had been in Amelia's place, the Captain wouldn't have had to wait 12 years. In fact, I am pretty certain that Jane wouldn't have been attracted to Charles in the first place.

In the beginning of Vanity Fair, William Thackery claims that it is a "book without heroes," and for the most part he is right. Becky is too selfish, Amelia too weak, Charles too vain, and the Captain too self-sacrificing. Despite this, I do think he ended the book with two heroes, though they had minor roles. The first is Lady Pitt Crawley. She is all that is strong and virtuous in a woman. It was her impact on Rawdon was what helped him change his life. He turned his life around and became a good father to his son, which makes him my second hero. He sacrificed everything to be a good dad.

Allergy Update

I am officially cleared from my egg allergy. I have noticed some very interesting side effects, I feel better. I realized that I would get a "heavy?" feeling after I had eaten a good meal containing chicken. I no longer feel it. Funny how the absence of something makes you aware of how you felt before. I ate an egg salad sandwich and didn't burp eggs for the rest of the day. I noticed feeling good after Scott and I went and had some wonderful alfredo pasta with chicken. I feel. . . lighter some how.

Dr. Taylor has a list of 15 things that he does in order, to make sure you can function properly. After those things, you can skip around to whatever allergies you know you have or just keep going down the list. I wasn't allergic to calcium (good thing,) or Vitamin B. I was allergic to Vitamin C though. The only person in my family so far who is not allergic to vitamin c was Chamrie. She skipped C and went straight to sugar. Dr. Taylor told the rest of us to plan for sugar allergies next time. Apparently 9 out of 10 people are allergic to sugar.

So, for 25 hours I couldn't have any kind of fruit, vegetable, or vitamin enriched thing. Neither could Daniel, cause he was allergic to it too. Chicken (which I eat now joyfully) was my main staple.

Egg Rocks!

One of my favorite memories of my Aunt Julie is about a tradition she started when I was a little girl. She came over one day before Easter (she may have been babysitting us, I don't remember) and she had all of us, including my cousins, go out into the backyard. She told us that Easter was coming, and that she had a special project for us.

Every Easter, the Easter Bunny hides eggs all around for children to find. When the sun sets on Easter Day, any eggs that were not found become rocks. What we were to do was find those rocks - they needed to look as close to an egg as possible. Round and smooth. When each of us found a rock that passed inspection, she told us we were to put it under our pillow on the night before Easter. This was to make the egg warm, and then the Easter Bunny would be able to find it, and he would leave a reward in exchange for the egg rock. So we all did, and what a pleasant surprise to wake up Easter morning to find that our Egg Rocks had been exchanged for Jelly Beans!

One year, my cousin Jenny, our friend Betsy, and I went a step further. We painted the egg rocks for eachother. I still have that egg rock sitting on my shelf. For some reason, the Easter Bunny decided I could keep it (don't worry, he still left candy.)

Once the Easter Bunny left chocolate under our pillows. I know he meant well, chocolate is a favorite at our home, but when we woke up it had melted all over our pillows. It was quite a mess. Needless to say, he never left chocolate in place of an egg rock again.

Please Let Me Know!

My Darling Husband has asked if we could protect my blog a little more. He reminded me that both he and I have had very interesting people in our lives that we probably don't want knowing intimate details. So, for any of our friends and others interested in continuing to read my blog, please send me your email or let me know some other way so that I can invite you when I protect my blog. I will be doing this in one week.

This came up because I was writing a blog about how Scott got the job at the better dealership (which was lost cause I only got one sentence done, and I was tired.) He asked why I didn't write the name of the dealership down, and I responded that I really didn't want someone coming along and finding him through work (all our friends are more than welcome to know, and when my blog is protected I will not hesitate to give details. He suggested that I go private so that I can be free with my friends instead of worrying about strange people gathering details of my life.

As a side note: I am not worried about the world in general. . .just those few who make life miserable for the rest of us.

So if you have been reading my blog and have been anonymous up till now, and would like to continue to read it. . . I suggest you let me know.