Peanut Update

On Monday this week I went to my routine appointment to check on the baby. The little doplar they use in the office to hear the heartbeat couldn't pick it up so I had to have an ultrasound to check the heartbeat (as usual.) For the first time the baby was asleep. The heartbeat was good and strong so I thought everything was okay, but the Tech said she wanted to check something out real quick. I didn't know what she was checking on until she was already done. I was a little nervous thinking that she saw something wrong already, but I didn't need to worry though because she was only checking to see what the sex of the baby was. Before I knew it she told me what she saw, so now I know what the sex of the baby is. I was so mad! She didn't even ask me before she told me. I didn't want to know. I wanted to be surprised. That didn't go like I hoped. Anyway, the full spectrum ultrasound is scheduled to be in two weeks and I'll get to know if everything else is going okay with the baby then. I won't need to debate on whether or not to find out the sex anymore though since I already know. I guess I could debate on whether or not to tell everyone else or let you all be surprised.

Family Camp

Last week we did something we haven't done for three years. We went on vacation as a family...a whole family. Everyone, including CJ, left for three days and went to Wyoming. The girls are involved in the local 4-H club and that week end they were having Family Camp at the 4-H camp ground 20 miles west of Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Because of the girl's great participation and the constant family involvement the leaders of the Utah County 4-H awarded our family with a scholarship to attend the camp. We had to provide our way to and from the camp, and what ever we wanted to do on the free day, but everything else was included in the scholarship for only $25. We were so excited.

The first day at camp we were in charge of a Family Bonding Workshop. There were 6 workshops lead by different families that everyone rotated in and out of for about 20 min. each session. I decided to do a family version of The Newly Wed game. I had 2 members from each family in that session come up to play the game. I was so nervous about this because I don't like being in front of people very much, especially people I don't know. I didn't realize though that the workshops were optional. Only about 8 of the 21 families even showed up. When our family came in to the workshop they were the only ones out of the 3 families that were supposed to be rotating with them so instead of playing the game I just let the girls draw on the boards we were using for the game.

We had more rotations the next day and since I wasn't in charge of anything I was able to go and enjoy them too.

Craft time. We each got to make a bug jar. The little girl in the front was attached to Elizabeth for most of camp.

Water balloon volleyball. This was cool because they used full size balloons instead of regular water balloons so you got really wet.

Megan had a blast. She was free to walk where ever she wanted and she walked a lot. She loved the freedom. The only thing she didn't like was falling down. She fell and skinned her knees a lot. It was hard keeping her entertained though when we were tired and needed to sit down for a while. Thank goodness for ping pong balls. She would entertain herself for quite a while with just one ping pong ball.

Thursday night we had the big camp fire sing a-long and talent show. No one knew about the talent show so everyone had to scramble to come up with a talent to share. We used the knowledge Rebecca had received at one of the 4-H after school clubs she was in (cheer leading) and had her lead her sisters in a family cheer. While they were practicing Megan was joining in and it was hilarious, when she was in front of everyone however she got really shy and just stood there. I am proud of my girls for performing in front of all those people on such short notice. The worst thing about the camp fire was that our bug spray had worn off half way through and we were being eaten alive by mosquito's. If you counted all the bites we got as a family we had over 200 bites in just a short amount of time. You don't quite realize how well bug spray works, until it wares off.

Friday was free day. Most of the families went to Teton National Park or even took the 2 1/2 hour drive up to Yellowstone. We opted to have an easy non-stressful day. We took our time getting ready and only went to Jackson Hole. We hit the antler arches first (because you can't leave Jackson Hole without a family picture in front of the arches) then we walked around town and went to some of the shops.

The first shop we went into had a lot of taxidermy animals in it. Rebecca didn't like it but the others thought it was cool.

Megan was afraid of the bear but put on a smile as soon as she saw the camera. Dakota was flexing her muscles showing that she was not afraid of any silly old bear.

Megan didn't know that the animals weren't alive. She kept trying to get the "kitty" to play with her. She didn't want to leave it.

Most of the shops were either art or clothing. The girls were not all that impressed. I looked down a side street to see if there were any shops the girls would be more interested in. I saw the Jackson Playhouse and was excited that the town had a play area for kids to enjoy. Alas, the Playhouse was not like the one at McDonald's where the kids can run around and get their energy out, it was a Theatre. I felt like an idiot (and still do.) The people were so nice. They let the girls go on stage and touch anything they wanted. The play of the month was "Grease". The girls had just gone to see "Singin' In The Rain" at the Theatre in Orem so it was fun for them to go on stage and pretend that they were the stars of the show.

After the shops we went to the park in the middle of town and just kicked back and relaxed for a while. The kids ran around and had fun. We waited for the Old West Shootout that happens every night at 6pm. The gun fire was 10 times louder than I expected and it scared Megan so she cried through the whole show.

As you can see, the day was busy enough without trying to squeeze as much as possible in to it. After the gun show we went to dinner (Wendy's was the only place we could find that wasn't $20 a plate) then went back to the cabin and played games together until bed time. It was a great day.

We left Saturday morning as soon as we could because we still had to put our time in at the build so we needed to get home asap. The girls traveled really well. After the 5 hour trip home we dropped the girls off and went straight to the build because we still needed to put in our 6 hours. It made for a long end to a long week, but we would do it all over again.

Building: Week 32

Well, there are no pictures this week because most of the work on our house is done and what was done on our house was mostly cleaning so there's no need for pictures since I'll take pictures on the day of the open house and they will pretty much look the same as it does now. Last night we were told that the open house was FINALLY scheduled for August 6th. We don't have a time yet but anyone who would like to come is welcome. It would be a chance for you to walk through all the homes that we just built and see our handy work up close and personal. There will be a short presentation, refreshments, and then all the houses will be open to the public. We have been to so many of these that I can't believe this open house is for our group and not another group's. I'm not sure when we will actually be moving. After the open house is over we will have our certificate of occupancy and would be able to move in that day if we want. I think though we will start moving some stuff in that week end but we will do the major moving (meaning the U-Haul truck) the next week end or even during the week (cause that's cheaper.) I may change my mind though. We'll see. It still doesn't seem real yet. We've been waiting for it for so long now (we started the process almost two years ago) that I almost don't believe we will ever get to move in. On another note, I have started packing. I am about 1/4 of the way done. It doesn't matter how many boxes I pack, there still seems to be about a thousand more that need to be done. I feel confident that we will be ready though and it should hopefully go very smoothly.

Building: Week 31

Well the stone is finally finished grout and all. I must admit that I was really questioning my choice for stone because it didn't look right. Seeing it done with the grout though made all the difference. I really like it now. It looks so good. The grout is a little more red than we would like but it's not bad. It looks good close up and from a distance. Anyway, we didn't do as well with our schedule we were given but it was an unrealistic schedule so we're not surprised. We are still hoping to have the open house the first week in August. The last major hurdle is landscaping. We are going to have a sod party on Aug. 1st. We are trying to get as many people as we can to come and help that day so that we can get the sod planted for all the houses in one day. That's going to be interesting. We're almost there!!

Early Morning Movies

Last week was the premier of the Harry Potter movie #6. I have always gone to the midnight showing of the Harry Potter movies since film #2 came out. Since the kids were too young and CJ is not a night person, I always went to these movies by myself. That was not the case this time. The girls are old enough now to stay up late and go to the movie with me. I was excited to finally be able to share this experience with someone. I did make them work for it though. I told them that they would only be able to go to the movie if they read the book first. That was no problem for Rebecca, she had already read the book 5 times. It was more of a challenge however for Elizabeth and Dakota. Dakota decided that she didn't want to go to the movie anyway because she didn't want to stay up that late, but Elizabeth rose to the challenge and started reading the book. She hasn't finished it yet but she read everyday for a while and for her that was a great accomplishment so I still let her go. I lost track of time and didn't realize how close the movie premier was and I almost didn't get tickets. There were 13 screens in the theatre we went to that were showing the movie at midnight and all 13 were sold out before I got there 2 days before the premier. I asked for the next available time and it was 3:30am. I bought the tickets for that time a little disappointed that it wasn't the midnight one but was still satisfied because it would still be fun for the girls to see the crazy people that go to these premiers. The crowd did not disappoint. Most of the people coming out from the first showing were dressed up and the girls thought it was fun to watch them. I had a hard time staying awake for the whole movie. I drifted off towards the end and probably missed about 3 minutes of the movie but I made it. The girls had no trouble making it through the movie (of course they had a nap before we left for the movie) and can't wait for the next movie to come out so that we can do it again.


Waiting for the movie. We were let into the theatre 5 minutes before the movie started because it took them so long to clean up after the first crowd. That was frustrating, but the movie was good. It will never be as good as the book because the book just has so much more detail in it, but they did do a pretty good job. All in all it was a fun night with my girls.

Happy Birthdays!!

Last week we celebrated Rebecca's 11th birthday and Elizabeth's 12th birthday. I feel really bad that I didn't blog on their birthdays but they forgave me. Rebecca was soooo excited for her birthday. She counted down the days, hours, and minutes constantly, lest we forget that her special day was coming up. Her birthday was on a Saturday so we couldn't spend the morning with her. She also had a primary activity that morning that she was excited about so I asked Nancy if she could take the kids to the activity for me. She not only took them to the activity for me but then she took all 4 of them back to her house until I came home from the build. That was so special for them and they really loved the time with their friends. While they were there they made cupcakes to share with Rebecca for her birthday. Rebecca wouldn't let them sing happy birthday to her until noon because that's when she officially turned 11. I thought that was pretty funny. Elizabeth was a different story. She was happy that she was finally turning 12...until it happened. Everyone in church (her day was on Sunday) that passed her seemed to know it was her birthday whether they knew her or not and they all wished her a happy birthday. By the time she got home she no longer wanted anyone to remind her that it was her birthday and she went to her room. She wouldn't even join us for her cake ceremony. Her dad finally convinced her to come out of her room and let us at least say happy birthday to her before she blew out her candles and went back to her room. Thankfully she ended up staying upstairs with us and even had a small piece of the cake. I think she's over whatever pre-teen hormonal thing that was causing all the trouble now but if we wait a day or two it'll probably happen all over again. She'll probably kill me for telling you this (and I don't blame her) but it was so unexpected that I thought I would share. Anyway, it was her first official day in Young Women's. I was invited to join her during opening exercises. I am so happy for her. I am so happy for them both. They are wonderful girls and I feel so blessed to be their mother.

Building: Week 30

Wow!! 30 weeks of building. That number seemed so far away when we began this endeavor. Our house is nearly complete. We are waiting for the others to catch up now. They are not that far behind at this point and that is exciting. In our meeting last week our supervisor gave us a calendar with a schedule of things that still need to be done to all the houses. All of the tasks ended on July 30. We asked him if he believes that we will be done on the 30th. He said that if we stick to his schedule we will indeed be done on the 30th of this month. He told us that this week is our test week. If we prove to him that we will work hard enough this week and keep to his schedule he will give the RHDC office their two week notice and we will have our open house in the first week of August. He said he will try and talk them into having it on July 31, but that is a Friday and their office is closed on Fridays. They absolutely will not have it on a Friday, so the next available dates would be when ever the office can the following week. Tuesdays and Thursdays seem to be their days of choice so we'll see what happens. This means that we are finally counting down the weeks for real now and not just guessing when the open house, and subsequently move-in day, will be. And it will not be a day too soon. With the temperatures soaring and this apartment lacking air conditioning we are sooooo ready to get out of this place. It has been a very long process but it is almost over. We knew it would be difficult not only physically but especially mentally (and trust me...it was) but we also knew it would be worth it in the end. Well, now that we are seeing the house in it's nearly finished splendor we are very excited and we are so glad that we did this program. We know that we could not have done it without the Lord's help. We are thankful for the answers to our prayers and all the prayers on our behalf. There is still work to be done and trying to get it all done in three weeks will be difficult but it can be done. Here is a short list of the things that still need to be done:

Outer stone on two houses

Grout stone on all houses

Electrical in 1 house (sub-contractor)

Carpet in 3 houses (sub-contractor)

Finish hardware in 2 houses

Plant grass or sod for all houses

Build back steps or patios for all houses

Clean garages and basements
Final Clean up of all houses

There are many little things that I won't name to be done too, so you can see that it is still a lot of work to be completed in 3 weeks but everyone is pushing hard now. Keep praying for us please, we need the Lord's help to accomplish these tasks.

Here are the latest pics of our house:

No, that's not dirt on the floor, we have carpet now. It looks nice. It made some of the rooms look bigger.

We finally got our appliances. Now our kitchen is functional.

Even the kitchen sink was finally installed. No more big hole in the counter top.

There were things I forgot to take a picture of. The drywall people finally came and patched the major drywall issues we had. They are going to sand the putty today so we'll see how much dust they get into the carpet. But it does mean that the final paint touch-up can be done now. The other thing that we finished on Saturday was the outer stone. It looks a little better now that it is all done, but I am still reserving judgement until the grout is done as well. Then we will see how I feel about it. The one thing I do like is that it is the only house in the whole neighborhood with "round" stone. Our house truly is unique. I can't say that it will be that way forever though. USDA bought out 14 more lots in our neighborhood (including all the lots around us) so someone else may see our stone and pick it. Anyway, things are looking up.

Building: Week 27, 28, and 29

I am waaaay sorry for taking so long to get back to posting. I wish I could be as good as my friend Sarah. She blogs everyday! I love it. I will have to work on that, but not right now. It may get even more spars because I am finally starting to pack the house. I can't put it off any longer or we won't be ready and I don't want to be one of the people that is used as a moving horror story by those who help us. Anyway, there has been a lot of finish work going on lately. It's all on the inside of course. I'm not sure when we will finish the landscaping. Here is the run down:

Week 27:

I was a little disoriented when I drove up to the work site the back way and couldn't find my house for a minute. There was a house just getting it's stucco where my house stood. Since my house already had stucco I thought it was a new house that was built supper fast and mine must be next to it. The house next to it wasn't mine either. WHERE WAS MY HOUSE!! After the confusion I realized that the house getting the stucco was indeed my house. I remembered that I told the supervisor that the stucco on the side of the house under one of the windows got messed up and the stucco guys just painted over it and it looked bad. What I didn't realize is that to fix the problem under the window they had to take all the stucco off the entire side of the house and redo it. The problem is fixed now and my house looks like it did.

The bathroom counter tops were installed.

The finish plumbing was delivered...aka the toilets, kitchen sink, faucets, etc.

Week: 28

The finish plumbing was installed. Now the bathroom looks functional. The water won't be turned on inside the house until we move in though. Then we can truly use the toilet.

The stone on the outside has been started. I thought ALL the stones were round. That's the way the sample shows it. However, you can see in the pictures that some of the stones are not round. This means the rock is not looking like I thought it would. Nor would it be as easy to put up. It should be done soon. We'll see how it turns out.

The outer doors were painted to match the garage door. There wasn't enough paint left to paint the trim around the doors too because they needed it for the other houses. Hopefully soon they will order more and our doors will be complete.

We were so excited to show the house to our friends the Roberts. They've been wanting to see the house for a while and we wanted them to see it. They came down with us and we had a picnic lunch at the park by the house after they toured our home. After the picnic we went through all the other houses in the build that we could. It was so much fun.

Week: 29

The bathroom mirrors were installed. The only thing left to be done in the bathrooms is the lights. We have them here, the electricians just need to come back to install them. We're not sure why they weren't installed the first time around. The other houses that have electricity have theirs installed.

The counter tops in the kitchen were installed. The only thing that is left in the kitchen is the appliances. They were actually supposed to be installed two weeks ago. All the other homes have their appliances. Even the house that was just finished framing a few weeks ago has their appliances. What frustrates me is that the supervisor came up to CJ and asked him what happened to our appliances. Even if he was joking, it wasn't funny. The supervisor was on vacation for a week and then went to supervise another build while their supervisor went on vacation for a week. We basically had no supervisor for two weeks. While he was gone so many things went undone and now he wonders why things are so far behind. He acts like its not a big deal, but now our August 1st move in is looking like August 31st. I really hope we can catch up.

We did get our carpet installed last week. I don't have any pictures yet. I'm not happy that our carpet was installed before the damage to the drywall was fixed and the paint touch ups were done. Now it's going to be a pain to try and protect the carpet while those things are done. What can you do. As close as our house is to being done there are still so many little things that need to be done that it seems like we'll never truly be finished. I see the light at the end of the tunnel, but the tunnel keeps getting longer and longer.

Random Items

So I have been busy posting today. I have to get it all done in one day because I don't seem to have the time at the computer that I used to have. It seems harder to get to the computer to even check my email let alone post. I just want to make sure you look through all the posts because there are a bunch of new ones and it will be about another week before I am able to post again.

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Here is a picture of what my family did for me on Mother's Day.

It's hard to see but the walls, and I mean all the walls in the house, were covered with paper hearts of all sizes. There were some that were cut into a heart shape but most of them were origami hearts that they worked really hard in making. There were so many hearts that is must have taken them days to make them all and hang them up everywhere. It was so sweet and a wonderful surprise. I still have most of them on the walls. I don't want to take them down. I know I will have to eventually but not right now.

I think the reason they were able to pull off such a large "heart attack" of the house for me was that I was gone on Mother's Day weekend. I left Friday afternoon and didn't get back until Sunday just before midnight. I went to Denver for the weekend to be with my Grandmother as she went through the Temple for the first time. I was so grateful that I was able to be there for her at her baptism last year and now for her special day this year. After my Grandmother had gone through the Temple for herself the family and friends that were able to attend went to a sealing room with her and we had a lot of family sealed together for time and all eternity. My Grandmother was sealed to my Grandfather, then two of her children (my mother and my aunt) were sealed to their parents, and then my Grandmother was sealed to her parents. I was asked to be proxy for her mother (my great-grandmother). It was so exciting. Then after her family was done. My dad had sealings to be done for his family. His parents were sealed together and then he was sealed to them. I was also asked to be proxy for his mother. I felt so blessed that day. There was also another sealing of family members that were related to my Grandmother. You can imagine the spirit that filled our hearts that day.

My Grandmother in front of the Denver Temple with her two daughters, Sharlene in the green, and my mother in the red. (You can't see it very well because the picture is so small, but that is my family in the background making faces at the camera.)

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Megan has become a ham for the camera. Any time I have the camera or the cell phone out (she knows there's a camera on the phone) she poses herself and says "cheese". Then she runs to the camera so that I can show her the picture of herself on that tiny little screen. She laughs as she slaps her knee and points at the picture. It is so funny. While we were at the house she saw the camera in my hand taking pictures of the cabinets so she grabbed my hand and pulled me into the front room. She stood next to the wall, fussed with her hair, and said "cheese". I was laughing so hard I almost didn't get the picture.

She is such a character. Another thing she did the other day that had me rolling was at breakfast. She was in her chair and I gave her cereal with her spoon so that she could practice using the spoon. She got a bite in her mouth without spilling anything and I praised her and told her what a great job she did. She put the spoon down, leaned forward, and patted herself on the back. I just about died of laughter. Where did she learn to pat herself on the back? I always praise her with words, I have never patted her on the back before. It's just like the time she started howling like a dog at the fire truck's siren as it drove by. Such random acts that make me wonder.

Building: Week 26

What a great week this was. We just feel like real progress is finally being done. The only drawback was the exterior stone. It was finally delivered and everyone was eager to get it done. After a full day of stone work there was little progress made. No one realized how hard stone work really is. Those who thought they would have their stone done in one or two days now realize that it may take weeks to get it done. That will slow us down schedule wise but the second wind I was hoping for has taken hold and everyone is showing up at the build more often so that all the remaining work gets done asap. Yeah!!

The first thing done was the installation of the linoleum. This is in the dining room.

Here it is in the kitchen.

This is the master bathroom.

After linoleum we hung the doors back on and added all the hardware to the doors.

Here is our exterior stone. This stone doesn't look at all like the sample I picked from. I sure hope it looks all right because it's not what I was picturing in my head.

Next came the cabinets. The one standing by itself is part of the island. The space between the cabinets there is for the dishwasher.

Here is the other half of the kitchen. The round cabinet in the corner is the lazy susan. I've never had one of those before.

Here is the master bathroom cabinet. It will be wonderful to have two bathrooms.

Since so much progress has been made we took the girls out to see the house. They were so excited to finally see the house again. They wanted to play on the back porch.

Rebecca and Dakota in their room.

Elizabeth and Megan in their room.

Happy family on the front porch.

Before we left Megan decided she wanted to help. She took the dirt from the big pile and put it on the sprinkler system trying to cover it up. She was having fun and didn't want to stop but we had to go.

All in all we are happy with the progress that is finally being made. The seventh house that took forever to frame is almost at the same point as all the other houses now. It won't be long.