Home at Last!

We found out this morning that one of the offers we submitted last week was accepted. It was the house that my family and I had liked the best. The home is in Ontario and It is 3 bedrooms 2 bathrooms 1749 sqft. It is a lot more home for the money and it is more of what we were looking for than the other home we were going to buy. It is very clean and nice and has brand new carpet and paint. I don't think it needs any work so we are very excited. We drove by it today and checked the time from there to our schools. It took 10 minutes to Josh's and 20 minutes to mine. Still very easy and not a bad drive. It is great timing because i will still have a month before my school starts so I can get us settled in. We are hoping that all the loan stuff will go more smoothly this time now that we know what to expect. Thanks for all your prayers so that we were able to find such a perfect first home.

Updates!

We are all moved in to our new apartment. We tried to unpack as little as possible so when we get a house it will be easier to move again. The Macklins spent the weekend here and helped us unpack and get settled. They were so much help and it was really nice to have them here. We all went looking at properties friday night and saturday morning to see 12 overall. We put in offers saturday night on most of them. We heard today that we just need to send a few more pieces of information and we have one!!! It was the one that my family and I liked the most. It didn't have the most ideal back yard for josh but its the biggest one we saw and also one of the cheapest. We are so excited and are hoping that this time things will go quickly and smoothly. Also I sent an email to the dental hygiene school verifying our new address and asurring the advisor I was still interested. Less than an hour later I got a phone call from her saying that she wanted to set up an interview for next friday!! I am so excited. I keep trying to go over the things I want to say in my head. I hope that I do well. I want it so much I'm sure I will be fine. So far things are going well here. We like our apartment and are looking forward to getting our house! Keep us in your prayers and we will do the same for all of you. We miss everyone already and can't wait for some visitors!

The Enclave at Town Square

When we found out we couldn't get the house we scrambled to find an apartment. We called the one that we had planned on living in before and could have still got it but with a 1 year contract and that was too long because we are still really hoping to get a house. I got on forrent.com and searched for our price range then did a lot of calling to see if they did month to month leasing. We found a really good deal on some nice apartments in Chino. The girls we talked to on the phone were so sweet and friendly and made us feel comfortable in moving in without even seeing the place. It is a little scary but we feel like it will be ok. We have 5 more offers in and are working on 4 more so hopefully we will get one of them here soon. We are leaving Cedar on Thursday the 23rd and driving half way to Chino with the Macklins. Then friday we will drive the rest of the way and unpack sort of. Josh and I are determined we will find a house so we refuse to unpack everything and decorate. Stubborn? Maeful for my family and all they are doing for us to get us moved. I'm a little scaredybe, but we are trying to stay positive. I'm so grateful for our families and all the help they have been throughout this process. I am really kind of scared to move away but we are excited for the new adventure. We hope that most of you will get a chance to come see us while we are there the next 4 years. Love ya all!

Bad News or Maybe a Blessing in Disguise

We found out today that the sellers decided not to drop the price on the house. They said that the appraiser was wrong and they found different comparable properties to justify their price. We just both felt that it wasn't worth that much money because it needed A LOT of work just to get it up to code and then the kitchen and bath needed to be updated and there wasn't a laundry room. We liked it and were hoping it would work out so we could be in something before school started. It just doesn't feel like a good deal and we are sick about losing all the time and money and effort we put into this deal but we feel that it was meant to be. We are looking for apartments that we can rent month to month until we get a house. We are already working on 3 more offers so hopefully we will find something else that is better very very soon. We also found out that the army isn't going to pay for anything until he has been in school 30 days. We are starting to really panic now because we are out of money and were really counting on the stipend and the bonus to get us through. I'm sure we will figure something out. We are full hoping that if we keep living like we know we should that we will be blessed and things will work out how they are supposed to. We have been very lucky in life so far and we know that Heavenly Father has a plan for us. "Faith in god includes faith in his timing." that quote has got us through a lot lately. Thanks Neil A. Maxwell. So everyone keep praying for us and thinking positive thoughts for us and hopefully we will get something ASAP!

Back Blogging.

Uncle Lin's Birthday!
At the end of May we went to my uncle Lin's 60th birthday. He is my mom's oldest brother. He dresses up as Santa every year and does christmas parties for different people. instead of getting paid by this pizza place in Park City they just gave him over 200 pizzas for free. So we had the party there and all my mom's brothers and their familes came and we had a mini family reunion. It was so nice to see everyone and to get to visit before we move. My little sister and my Cousin are the same age and they had so much fun together. They are just the best of friends even though they hardly ever see eachother.

Lin and his kids (Lin, EddieLynn and Cason (Casey's baby), Todda, Casey, Quinton)

Me, My Tessa, Josh, My mama

Tess and Maggie

Maggie is always muggin for the camera so she is on the left then my mom, Bruce, Thad ,and the Birthday boy.

Summit Canyon
Around the middle of June we went for a drive up Summit Canyon to have Hobo dinners with Chase, Kenna, Danica, and Derek. We all drove together in Josh's truck and just visited about old times and dreamed about the future. We had so much fun together and realized how sad it was going to be when we all start moving away and doing our own things. The area is so beautiful up there and we enjoyed being outdoors. It was actually pretty cold for being so late in the year andit SNOWED!! The boys went rabbin huntin afterwards and us girls just stayed home and chatted. We love our friends so much and are really going to miss them. :(

Danica and Kenna covered in Snow!

Donna, Me, and Kenner bean

Me and Joshy

just an example of my amazing photography skills.

Our delicious and gigantic hobo dinners. mmmm

Derek and Danica

Chase and Kenna

Me and Josh again

The girls

Road Runners Game
Chase and Kenna were able to get us some VIP seating right down by the dugout at the St. George Roadrunner's game. Danica and Derek came too and we all got to hang out again. Josh sang "I am Woman" By Helen Ready , a song none of us had ever even heard during a break right out on the pitcher's mound. Derek has an Iphone so he looked it up on youtube and josh was listening to it over and over so he wouldn't sound silly. He did a good job and we won 2 free apetizers at Outback steakhouse. He is so brave. We all had a good laugh. Then Derek got to do a golfing thing and won a cool coupon pack. After the game we all went to dinner at Made in Brazil, a new Brazilian steak house in St. George. It was a little expensive even with our 1 free meal but it was really yummy and a lot of fun. Josh talked the waiter into giving him free desert for his birthday even though it wasn't for a couple weeks still and the waiter talked Josh into singing "i am Woman again. We laughed so hard we almost peed in our pants. It was a great night and we had so much fun with our best friends! Thanks guys!

Derek golfing for a prize.

Road Runner mascot with Josh and Briggsy boy

The dugout

getting ready for the singing of our national anthem

Danica and Derek

Briggs and Me

Joshy and Briggs. He was sleepy.

The happy family. They got a road runners shirt for briggs and had the players sign it.

Briggs and his mama

Josh's 23rd Birthday!

Josh turned 23 while we were stayin in Cali. I had to work all day so we couldn't go to Disneyland like we planned. Instead we fiound this great deal at a comedy club called the Ice House. You and a guest get in free on your birthday so we decided to go to that. It was a lot of fun. There were 5 different comics and they were all really funny. One guy was the creator of the Chapell show and another guy was pretty popular and had performed for the troops and stuff. I can't remember their names but they were good! Marie Callenders was having a special on whole pies for $6.99 so I bought Josh a coconut cream pie and surprised him. It was nice to spend the day together but we missed our families. Happy belated Birthday Josh!! When we got back to Cedar we hurried and changed our clothes and went up to Panguitch lake to do some camping with Josh's family for a couple days. His Grandma Noza and Poppy were there with Che and his 3 kids. Shelcy and DJ were also there with Rick and Stephanie. We went fishing and had a campfire and had lots of fun. The kids went snipe hunting with Josh and made a lot of noise. They thought they were pretty funny with their fart machine in our window. Steph smacked me right in the face trying to figure out what was going on, I wasn't thrilled. Josh says i'm an onry old woman haha. It was fun to spend some quality time with the fam.

Me and my baby

Poppy and Grandma Noza

Shelcy hates pictures but I got her anyway.

Chelani and Chaz and che's belly

Chelly and DJ

Rick and Stephanie. Aren't they cute?

Joshy and his whale, i mean trout.

Standing outside the Ice House after the show.

taking pictures before the show

Joshy with his birthday beads

Swimming Instructor!!!
While we were staying in California house sitting for Janet and Cary I was able to work for them teaching swimming lessons at the highschool pool. They own a company called Foothill aquatics and they have year round swim teams and do private and group lessons and stuff like that. They do summer swim lessons through the city and one of the girls that was going to work for them was going to Hawaii for a family vacation and they needed an extra person. I was so excited because we were going to be there for 2 weeks and were going to be missing out on our jobs here so it was nice to have an income. I taught the beginners and a couple advanced beginnner classes. It was so funny because I have never had formal swim lessons so I didn't really know what I was doing but I learned fast and had a good time. The first few days were hard because the kids were all scared and crying and SCREAMING. I thought i was going to have to cry myself but then they finally came around and ended up just loving it. One little boy that had been so terrified he just screamed and cried the entire 30 minutes for the first 3 days told me on the second to last day that he loved swimming and he wished that he could spend all day with me at the pool. It was so rewarding to watch them improve and gain confidance and get excited about swimming and learning new things.
one day we did a safety lesson outside of the pool and I accidentally left this poor little boy in the pool. He was kind of slow and couldn't get himself out so another teacher got him out. I was so mad at myself and the mom complained so the next day I apoligized to her and he told me in his little funny speech impetiment voice " um teacher will you not leave me in the pool today? Cuz yesterday you did and I couldn't get out so you need to help me today okay? haha it was so cute. Well that same day a little girl told me she had to go pee after she already had her life jacket on and she was wearing a 1 piece. I thought she was just trying to get out of jumping in so I told her no and she just started peeing down her legs right there on the side of the pool. It was really sad and I felt soo bad but I just tried to pretend it didn't happen and made her jump in anyway and then just splashed pool water on it. haha gross I know but I was new and didn't know how else to handle it!! Then, to really top it off, this little boy got scared and said he was going to throw up but his teacher was like "you are just fine don't worry you aren't going to throw up" well guess what, he did. right next to me. I was so sicked out I almost threw up too. it was horrible. That was really a bad day but 1 bad day out of all of them was pretty good. I had a great time. Hopefully I can do it again when we move there.

Some of the kids said really funny things, these are just a few that I remember...
" Umm excuse me, is that life gaurd Michael Phelps?" (obviously it wasn't but it was still hilarious. I couldn't stop laughing)

" My grandma is taking me to Mixed Berry Farm for her birthday, I love the roller coasters!" (for those of you who aren't familiar with Southern California, there is a theme park called KNOTT'S Berry Farm he just got confused. Sooo funny)

A little girl brought a blow up fish to play with on Friday fun day and told me "Guess what I named it!? Sara, after you, and I pretend she is a swim teacher" It was so cute I just melted.

4th of July weekend at Quail Creek!

We went to the lake twice over the weekend and played on the Carpenter's boat. We had a blast! We wake surfed, knee boarded, and wake boarded. Josh and I both did 360's on the wake board and Josh and shelcy both surfed with out the rope. It was our first time out this year so we were excited that it came back so fast. Thanks Rick and Stephanie for the fun time!

Josh mid 360 on the knee board.

Josh wakeboarding.

me playing in the water with Alexis

Me surfing, i'm to chicken to let go of the roap.

Josh surfing with out the rope!

Our American Dream is A Nightmare!!!

Well I haven't updated our blog FOREVER. I always take the camera and plan to do some blogging but then never get around to it. So.. Here is the new news on the house...

We went to California and looked at it in person and had an inspection done. There was 1 page of stuff that needed to be fixed to make it "code" and they inspector said that was pretty good for a house this old. So we had a contractor do a bid on it and it was $40,000 to have everything done. So our agents told us that we would ask for a $5000 credit and they approved that. Then we went to stay for a couple weeks to house sit for Janet and Cary and get things taken care of with the house. While we were there we discovered that the Crazy Cat Lady is our backyard neighbor and she thinks its fun to feed all her cats in other people's yards. Not to mention that she was letting them live in our basement. So we put a board over the stairs and we went back and it was moved. So we screwed it down so she couldn't move it and she KICKED OUT THE SCREENS TO THE VENTS! We couldn't beleive it. I was so upset I just didn't know what else to do except cry. So we told our agent and she was able to have the owners get rid of them. I also called the police and gave them her name and address and told them what was going on so they said they would patrol it.
Next the sellers were getting anxious because our lender was taking too long and hadn't had the appraisal done yet so they told us to get a new lender and we did. Low and behold the new lender wasn't able to do the type of loan we needed because his office didn't do that anymore so we went back to our original lender. She got the appraisal back and it was for $121,000 when we offered $168,000 so it was back to the drawing board to pretty much start negotiations all over. The sellers were a little bugged by the low number which is completely ridiculous considering they bought it 4 months ago for only $87,000. So we are just waiting to hear back if they will take that price for it. We were supposed to close on the tenth and we signed papers June 5th so it is just taking way longer than we had hoped. We are keeping our fingers crossed and trying to stay positive that the deal will work out. We have put it in the lord's hands and are praying that whatever happens we will be ok. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers and hopefully between us all we will witness a miracle!