New Moon

Yep, I did it, I read New Moon. I was going to wait until after the movie came out to read it; however, Jon read Twilight and New moon in 3 days because he is working graves , and I decided he can't be ahead of me, so I read it too. Jon likes to mock the books but I think he is obsessed with Alice and that is why he is taking the third book to read on graveyard shift tonight. It was pretty good. I really like Jacob and I think that Edward was an idiot for leaving her and then trying to kill himself. It makes me sad that he can just walk back into the picture like he didn't break her heart. What about Jacob? I will have to find out in a few weeks or months because I can't keep spending all my time reading these books, my office is a disaster, and I need to catch up on everything. And I guess it doesn't matter if Jon reads the last two before I do. Too bad that I need my sleep.

Maybe we were crazy

Let me say before I start with this story that I go through a lot of homes and I don't fall in love with them and don't ever want to buy them. I have never wanted a really big home in a really nice neighborhood because lets face it, I just don't think the three junk cars would fit so well in a neighborhood like that and I have a hard enought time keeping my average sized home clean. So, with that said, here is the story.

I went on Realtor tour a month ago to market my listing in Santaquin. After we (about 20 Realtors) went through my listing we went through the next Realtor's listing down the street. We pulled up to the house and I thought, oh this house... I've driven past this house a ton of times and never thought anything of it. We walked into the home and I fell in love with it. At first I thought that my parents should buy it and then I thought this house was perfect for us. It is a 5400 sq ft home on 1.24 acres. It has an office with built in desks and filing cabinets that is right off of the wrap around porch with its own entrance, perfect for me. It has a 3 car garage that can actually fit four cars, that is heated, perfect for Jon. It has a beautiful kitchen and great room that I can not let go of and a mud room with built in coat and shoe racks. The basement is set up for an apartment if wanted. And it is in the older part of Santaquin, this is good because no one will care if Jon's junk is hanging out in the backyard because everyone has an old truck or two or three sitting in the backyard. And the best part is the price was somewhat in our range. Even though I fell in love with the house I figured I would go home and forget about it. We love our home, we haven't lived here very long, we have great neighbors, we refinanced a month ago, we have plenty of space, a nice yard, a garden and all of the other things we have done to make this house our home, there is absolutley no reason to move. But, you guessed it, I could not forget about the home. I took my parents through it and they loved it but they did not want to move and at this point I wanted it. I took Jon through it and he fell it love with it. We decided to make an offer to the bank (it is a foreclosure) and if we got accepted and could sale our house then we would move, if not it wasn't a big deal. After several counter offers the bank would not come down enough to make it work for us. The bank lowered the price last week and we tried again but they still wouldn't budge. The listing agent told me that they had gotten another offer and that she would call me if it fell through. Today on the MLS I noticed that it is under contract. Instead of being relieved like I had hoped we are heart broken. I still have this tinge of hope that the other buyers will back out and the bank will give us a shot at it. I felt like that house was made for us. Of course we had many concerns like the commute for Jon and not being in a subdivision like we are now. But seeing as how we are so bummed I don't think the concerns would have mattered that much. Oh well, we are happy where we are and we weren't even thinking about moving. We are just grateful we have a home and I am sure we will continue to be happy here for many years to come (unless the bank gives us another chance at this house ;)

Pointer finger

No, Calvin is not flipping off the camera, he just got done pointing to something out the car window. This is the finger that Calvin points with. We haven't said anything to him because Jon thinks that it is so funny. But he points to everything like this. Should we tell him that pointing with this finger means something else or not worry about it because no one is going to think our sweet little Calvin is flipping them the bird?

Canon G9

Last May when I got my new camera, I was debating between the Canon S5 and the Canon G9. I ended up with the S5 because of price and zoom and a couple of other nice features. The camera has been great except for one thing. It is kind of bulky. It doesn't easily fit in my purse, which means I use it less than I would like to. Well, the G9 is quite a bit smaller and it has the same sensor as an SLR and so for the last couple of months I have been wishing that I would have spent a little more money and gone with the G9. As you are all aware, Circuit City is going out of business, I went to see if they had a G9 for sale and they had one left in a Salt Lake store. I went and got it for less than I paid for my other camera and I love it. It is much lighter and easier to carry around. And it has the ability to take beautiful pictures. I think I am going to take a photography class this summer so that I can take advantage of some of the features that I wouldn't be able to otherwise.

Sneaky, sneaky

The other day I found Lily in my bathroom. She was sitting on the toilet looking in the mirror. She had my purple eyeshadow in one hand and my blush brush in the other and she had purple eyeshadow all over her cute little cheeks. She smiled so big when I caught her. She probably thought I would love what she was doing since she watches me put my blush on everyday. It was very cute to see her trying to be a big girl.

Did I really do this?

Last week was pretty laid back for once, so I have no idea what possessed me to do these next two things instead of doing something constructive like organizing the office or finishing my blog book or learning about my new camera. I ended up signing up for facebook and reading Twilight.

Facebook kind of freaks me out the way it tells you what everyone is doing and there are so many people on there it is just kind of weird to me. It is funny that people who aren't your friends want to be friends with you. Several people from past wards and high school who I never talked to then now suddenly want to be my friends. Is it just so that they can have more friends on facebook or what? If they didn't care about my life back then, why do they care now. People are funny. I haven't done a whole lot with it but It has been kind of fun to chat with people I haven't seen in years who are actually people I care about. Does anyone know if I ignore a friend request will it send them a message that says I ignored them? I don't know how much I will do with it because I don't need something else to take up more of my time.

And the other thing I did instead of cleaning or what not: Twilight was sitting on my desk staring at me (thanks to a friend who lent it to me) and it got me thinking, I haven't read a book in years. I think I am going to read that. I ended up reading all 500 pages in less than a week. That is a huge accomplishment seeing as how I have two homes under contract, two kids and two hundred other things to do and I don't really love reading. I have to admit I hated the first 200 pages. I almost set it aside and forgot about it. If it wasn't for the fact that I had seen the movie, I did really enjoy the movie, I would have lost all interest. All it talked about was how Bella would go to school and Edward wasn't there blah blah blah. However, I kept reading and I loved the last half of the book. I asked Jon if he would be my very own vampire (did I really just write that?) The day I finished the book I took Jon to see the movie. He enjoyed it and I think he is going to read the book also. Did anyone else notice that in the movie Bella is really twitchy? She is always twitching, it kind of bugged me. I don't know when I will get a chance to read the other books, maybe after I see the other movies.

Eye pod or iPod

I accidentally poked Calvin in the eye while trying to save him from falling into the toilet and he said, "ouch Mom, you poked my eye, I think I need an "eye" pod to fix it." I laughed so hard I almost dropped him back in the toilet.

New Money Pit

So, this is my new project. I picked it up from a guy in Salt Lake for $400 and actually drove it home. Then I promptly sold the axles. I figured it would be pretty cool since all the kids would fit in it and Chrissy can drive it around topless in the summer because I haven't got the air conditioner working yet.
The plan is to have the axles from the blue beast installed under it and have it driving by Easter Jeep Safari. The front axle is already in, but I had to hold off on the rear when the fuel tank sprung a leak. So, a new fuel tank, pump, level sensor, tank straps and $350 later, it's no longer leaking. On the bright side, I got rid of the 31 gallon tank and put in a 25 gallon tank, which netted two more inches of ground clearance.

It should be lots of fun when it's finished (if such a travesty could occur.) It will sit on 37"s with a four inch lift. I'm just going to cut the fenders until the tires clear. I have some 63" leaves and a shackle flip for the rear and some 56" springs for the front. That should give me gobs of wheel travel, which will hopefully be controlled with reservoir shocks and air bumps. It's got crossover high steer and welded differentials front and rear. I also have all the parts to build a transfer case doubler. If all goes well, we will be ready for King of the Hammers 2013.

FHE #4

This week Jon's uncle Mark came over to fix his car and stay for dinner and family home evening. We had fun visiting with him. We taught Calvin and Lily about temple marriage. We talked about our wedding day and how families can be forever. We talked about how our faces hurt because we were smiling so much on our wedding day. Calvin and Lily loved looking at our wedding pictures. It was a fun lesson for us and the kids.

Draper Temple

We went to the Draper temple open house a few weeks ago as a family. Besides the getting lost and sent in the wrong direction several times it was a very fun trip. Calvin absolutely loved going in the temple. He felt so special that he got to go inside and now he always says that one day he will get married in the Draper temple. I thought the brides room was gorgeous. And the paintings in the other rooms were amazing. I recommend that everyone (religious or not) get tickets and go see this beautiful building. You can get tickets by clicking here.