Life Update

Thought I would share an update into our lives. House is getting there....just a few items to make it more comfortable.
-Curtains in our Bedroom
-Shades in the kitchen so it isn't so bright
-New pieces for the sprinkler system so it isn't leaking
-Some plants in my pots for the patio

Other than that we are settling in and hopefully can sit and relax a little soon. We finally filled out our tax forms for the rebate. :) I will be really glad when it comes so we can refill our savings account.

Today instead of working on the house I joined my Uncle to weed and plant the his garden. He has a HUGE wonderful fenced in space for a garden but needed help. Perfect for me so I didn't have to rip up our yard. We worked all day until 6 tonight. I have some weird tan lines from my garden gloves and knee pads though. Marks of hard work! Tomorrow I am going to pick up some more plants to add to our spread.
We planted:
-Tomato's
-Green Bell Peppers
-Orange Bell Peppers
-Jalapenos
-2 kinds of Cucumbers
-Zucchini
-Acorn Squash
-Pumpkins
-Crookneck Squash ?(I think that's what it was)

Tomorrow I am picking up Yellow & Red Bell Peppers, some more Jalapenos, Butternut Squash, and a few more Tomato plants. Yum! I am so excited that we get to enjoy our shared garden produce and that I get to help this summer. I have been wanting a garden for several years but we never stay long enough for me to utilize the growing seasons. By the way peppers do NOT grow very well in Phoenix.

Yeah to moving close to home and growing roots again! :)

Lazy Workers, Yummy Food, and Squirrels

So I haven't been a very productive member of society lately, or for myself that is. My sister is visiting from Kansas so we have been being lazy bums. Our house is buzzing with activity though.

So far this week we have roofers all over the place. My genius husband went up the roof last night to check out their progress, he was not happy. You should NEVER cut corners with a customer that 1) Rewrites your contract to protect himself before you even start. 2) Or one that knows the correct process that you are not following, due to his job.

Needless to say Colin had a LONG list of issues and the owner of the company came over to check them out this morning. At least the owner knew he better come talk with Colin and get it resolved. I am glad I am not a contractor working for Colin....but am glad he is so good at his job for our sake.

Cheryl (my sister) made us delicious fried chicken, asparagus w/ red peppers, steamed artichokes, fresh bread, and brownies last night. Yum!

OH! I almost forgot our real excitement last night. Well, other than the roof and dinner. We caught a squirrel in the attic. They have been getting inside the attic so Colin set a trap he borrowed from our neighbor. Colin and my dad blocked off where we thought the squirrels were getting in and they also trimmed the tree that the squirrels were jumping off onto the roof. They are still getting on the house though by using the metal gutters of all things.

Anyways we were debating transporting the squirrel somewhere else or poisoning it so it doesn't come back. During that conversation the dogs were running around both sides of the cage. It scared the squirrel so bad it must have had a brain hemorrhage. The poor thing didn't make it very long. I am just glad I don't have to worry about it again until we catch another one. I don't seem to share my father's hatred of the creatures since I couldn't stomach actually killing it, even though it was damaging our house.

I am still lagging behind on new jewelry but I now have an AWESOME light fixture in my craft room which is slowly getting organized. Next week is definitely the week. :)

Wednesdays are not my Day.

Last Wednesday my clumsy self dropped a drawer on my foot. In my self defense the movers packed it backwards so I am only claiming half the fault. This Wednesday I went out the back patio door which has a wierd step, tripped myself and fell. In the process I ripped 1 of my 2 nice pairs of jeans and stubbed my toe. The poor toe that had just visited Urgent Care this Wednesday morning due to the whole drawer issue.

The poor toe that they want to take 1/2 the toenail off. I decided I am taking antibiotics first and if its not better than I will go back. I personally like having nails on my toes, and do not want to miss out on wearing cute shoes this summer.

THURSDAY has to be a good day. So far the moving company picked up all the boxes we unpacked. Yeah! You can now see the garage floor! And sometime before noon the cable people are coming so I can sit here and watch some TV. I think I will be sitting in a chair trying to do nothing so my foot heals. Maybe I can sit in the garage and strip the nice avocado green cabinet I am going to stain to match our dining room table. ?????Does that qualify as relaxing and staying off my feet? I think it must because sitting around doing nothing is not relaxing.

Hope your Wednesdays are going better than mine. So far Thursday is great!

Hello, Time Frame, and Some Random Thoughts

I thought I should check in and say hi now that I finally have Internet again. Sorry for the lapse and the lack of photos of my chair project. I promise that in the next two weeks I will work on that. At the moment my camera, camera charger, and phone charger are all MIA.

Missing chargers is not very useful to get anything accomplished but good because I have been working/unpacking from about 7:30 am to at least 10 pm every night and haven't had time to sit in my car and charge my phone or talk. I need to clarify that my days need to revolve around getting our lives functional again. I need to be selfish for Colin and I regarding this. Moving is a lot of work and I appreciate everyone that has taken that into consideration and been patient.


I appreciate EVERYONE that has been understanding of this regarding orders for Jewelry. THANK YOU!!!!

Here is a rough time frame:

-Saturday May 22nd I will have my jewelry all unpacked and up and running
-Monday May 24th I will respond to those of you that have been waiting on custom orders or requested pieces.
-Wednesday May 26th I should have some new pieces online.

I would love to have this sooner but here are a few of the things I have going on.

-Making a pile and list of damaged items. It is VERY large this move.
-Dealing with the moving company regarding those items.
-Cable, trash, Internet, water, dog licenses, getting the moving company to pick up the boxes....etc. They told us that cant happen for two weeks...they did not get a good review.
-Colin and I are dealing with getting a new roof in a short time frame per our lender. I am not going into the details but between Colin rewriting the contract, scheduling and picking products I am overwhelmed.
-We have squirrels that have gotten in the attic, they are jumping off the neighbors tree onto our roof and are knocking inside the walls.
-We have a crazy neighbor (who the tree belongs to) that calls everyone in for dogs barking when they are not barking. Several people have warned us, and she lives next door. :(
-Dealing with getting the lawn mowed as it keeps raining and we have out of town engagements.

Those are what I can think of at the moment and instead of working I am sitting here on the computer. Have a great weekend!

Photoless Post :(

I am posting without photos again. :( Photos make the whole post, but I thought I should share anyways.

I got all the staples out, sanded, and painted just one of the chairs. As soon as I get myself down to Ace Hardware and get some staples I will start upholstering it. Later this week I may tackle the other chair...the blisters and cuts I caused to my poor hand can't take ripping staples out of another one quite yet. I promise I will share photos as soon as my camera appears.

Other news is that the sellers on the house are currently getting bids for the roof according to their realtor so we are waiting. At least he is communicating about what is going on so we aren't waiting with zero news. It makes me breath a little easier.

Colin is busy at work back in Spokane and I can't wait for him to be back here, two weeks is much too long. It will also be nice to not be living out of a suitcase in the near future. I am really missing my dresser as well....

:( House Update

I thought I should share a quick update on our lives. Yesterday the home inspection wasn't as smooth as we had hoped. The house had some minor issues like any older house would and two fairly large issues. It needs a new roof as the current one is at the end of its life and the furnace is in the same boat. :( This morning we requested they have a new roof installed and a few electrical items fixed. Nothing compared to the inspectors list which had 28 items. Hopefully the sellers realize we were being reasonable not asking for more. My Uncle thinks they will see that seeing the report. Hopefully the heater has some life in it so we don't have to use up the government rebate right away instead of putting it back in our savings. At least a broken heater doesn't let water leak into the house if it goes bad, it can be fixed easier.

The positive out of the inspection is that nothing else was really bad, and those issues are just maintenance items that are worn out. Another good thing is that it has all new windows which flip inside for easy cleaning. I am trying to look at the upside until we get a response from the sellers. It's nerve racking for both of us. I hope everything goes ok since I have no clue what we will do if it doesn't. I really don't want to think about that....

Another upside, I acquired 2 old side chairs from my mom's friend Peggy. They bought a house down the street from my parents and it was full of junk. She gave the chairs to me for $5 each so tomorrow I am painting them black and reupholstering them. Hopefully they turn out as nice as I am picturing them in my head. My camera is charging so I will share tomorrow and Tuesday. I am excited to have something to focus on for the moment.

Hope you had a good weekend with no stress! Now I am just looking forward to Colin coming back as I dropped him off at the airport and wont see him for 2 weeks. :( That is one of my least favorite things about moving between states. Enjoy your week!

Transformation of Our Lives

From Far Away....thought I would stop in and say hello. The last week has been pretty busy driving down to Colorado and searching for houses.

We started out the week Sunday by planting trees and doing yard work for my parents. Maybe we needed to get warmed up for our own house. Monday and Tuesday we looked at 27 houses. My poor Uncle hurt his ankle Sunday night and was sporting a boot making him hobble while showing us houses. Poor guy has not had a good week and we are praying for his household.

We found a house though! Even better they accepted our offer in less than a day and didn't even counter offer. I am so grateful we had my Uncle to help us. It's nice when you have someone that you trust completely with the entire process. I know neither of us would have felt that way with another realtor. He cut out all the houses he knew were in less desirable neighborhoods and explained every question Colin had regarding the contract etc. In addition to that great news we are scheduled to close May 4th and have the inspection set for Saturday before Colin heads back to WA. Even better they are paying ALL our closing costs! I will take some photos Saturday to share, one of my favorite parts is it backs up to a green belt and has no backyard neighbors.

Now I just have to sit and wait. Cross your fingers that the inspection goes smoothly. I am amazed and happy how smooth everything has already gone. Have a wonderful weekend as it is almost here!

Escape from Packing

We are almost there! Well in a packing sort of mind state.

I have a few piles to load into the car and we will be out of here when Colin gets home. The fish tank is in a tub, I really hope he manages to live through the move. I have saved a piece of fabric from most of my rooms to help pick paint colors in the near future. Somehow I narrowed it down to 3 plants, I don't think we could fit more than that having an extra dog. Other than lots of clothes and the few special items we can't replace, we are ready.

This will be the first move that Colin will be driving in the same car as me! :) Usually we have a convoy with walkie talkies and all. I am glad he is coming back to finish up but I feel bad that I wont be here to help. No biggie as now we will have each taken care of it alone. I am looking forward to finding a house and hoping things go smoothly. Wish us luck!

I just want to say thank you to our neighbors for staying at our house and watching out for us every time we travel. I definitely will miss them and the friends we have made up here.

Bored Bored Bored

Since I am bored out of my mind waiting until Saturday I thought I would say hello again.

My amazing list of things to do pretty much means pack Colin's dress clothes for work. I am thinking he may need some new shoes. :( He is not fun to take clothes shopping. Other than that my big plans today consist of meeting with the moving company to sign paperwork and let them get an estimate of what packing supplies they will need.

Super exciting! Not! Other than that I am keeping the house clean since our landlady is getting a lot of interest in the house and has been bringing people in. The dogs are not very fond of strange people walking around our house, I think I will put them in the car next time.

What an exciting day....at least I have a date with my girlfriends tonight. Only 3 more days here so I can progress to being bored in CO until we find a house. I am envious that Colin is at work right now, but I know he doesn't have much to do either.

Sitting with nothing to do is not a strong point for me. A lesson is patience is never bad for anyone I suppose. :) Hope you are having a wonderful week!

Good Morning

Just wanted to say good morning. We had a great long weekend, my best friend from home came and stayed with us for Easter weekend. Yeah! Several of the activities Spokane has to offer were utilized during that time. We rode the carousel, the gondolas that swing over the river, and a few other things we haven't done since we moved here. A great way to end living in the northwest.

After the weekend I rode back up to Seattle with her for a girls day. Even better! Then I took a bus back to Spokane last night, it was an interesting experience. I am definitely ready to head back to CO and stay. Especially since I have very little to do until we leave.

I really want to share what I bought in Seattle but hate to unwrap it right before we move. I am looking forward to sharing once we actually get moved. Colin may not let me hang out with Crystal for another 3 years though because I came home with so much from shopping. :) We did find shoes for my sisters wedding though, so we were somewhat productive.

Enough about shopping....unfortunately when you have nothing to do it sounds like a good idea. I will be spending the next week clearing out junk and cleaning the house before we head to CO.

I also on another note want to put a prayer out for my Aunt Doris who has had cancer several times and it is back again, this time in her bones. I love her and hope that she kicks it again. I am really glad that we are moving close since I know she may need help and her daughter is due to have her baby right now. She is having surgery today and I am praying she is ok.