Finally an update!

Well, I know all of you have been waiting by the edge of your seats to know what we've been up to, so here is a quick recap. First of all, I want you all to know I am typing this using our NEW high-speed Internet, not having to pray that my old dial-up will kick me out at any time and not let me publish. YAY for us! If I had taken any pictures recently, I would post them, but for now, just words.

A week after signing on the house, we FINALLY got our keys! Lets just say I am glad it is officially ours and we are now living here because my patience was definitely tried these past few months! I started cleaning right away and a BIG thanks once again to Stephanie, my sister in law for helping with everything! There were nights we cleaned until very late at night, but all of our hard work paid off! Cauley was a little impatient about moving things in so it ended up being him, me, and Steph moving everything mostly ourselves. Brad and Mike did help a lot too, but we had most of the heaviest, biggest stuff (besides the piano) moved before they were available to help out. I decided after having to carry our king sized bed, and all our bedroom furniture upstairs that I didn't like my stairs so much anymore. (But now that I've stepped on the scale and seen the weight loss along with the slightly thinner thighs and buns, I love them once again!) Anyways, we had to move in super fast because it was such a busy week for Cauley before he headed off to Georgia.

I have to stop and brag about my hard working husband right now. (I know I shouldn't brag, but I just gotta.) He is so awesome, and I am so thankful for him and the way he was raised- to be a hard worker. We got the keys to the house late Thursday evening, but had no power (electricity) to clean with until Friday. He worked hard fixing things and cleaning things after track practice on Friday and again Saturday morning before heading off to the State Tack Meet- which his team (Higley Boys') came in 2nd place in (way to go, Coach!) and also one of his pole vaulters won state as well as other people. Higley just did really well, and they beat Queen Creek for the first time ever! (Go Knights!) Anyways, Sunday was a much needed day of rest before his Monday of finals and moving, Tuesday of finals and finish moving, and then Wednesday was graduation. Thursday he still had school (for teachers it was their last day) and also his Track Banquet, and then Friday was Dallin's Kindergarten graduation followed by the very very last of the moving in. Saturday he got up early and worked hard doing and fixing things for me before he left late in the morning to head to the airport with Brad and Steph to fly to Georgia to help Ryan and Jenn pack, clean, and move back to AZ. He got home very early this morning and spent much of the day helping them unload. I love this man so much! What a great example for our kids!

Anyways, since he was gone, I worked hard getting our house in order. The walls are still white with nail holes and no decorations, but everything but 3 boxes (computer stuff, Cauley's scoll stuff, and one I'm avoiding of just junk) have been gone through and put away. I must say that this house seems very empty! I am used to walking into Tyli's room to see wall-to-wall (and floor to ceiling) storage but now it only contains her bed, dresser, and the changing table. Even her closet is bare! Good thing she has a zillion shoes (she's a shoe-aholic with friends who feed her addiction by passing down all of their small fitting shoes!). The boys' room is much the same as we decided last minute to put all of the toys in the extra room downstairs as a play room, emptying their room too. My bedroom is so big that Cauley and I laughed the first night we slept in it because in our old house, we'd have to pretty much scoot in sideways between the wall and our bed. Our new room is so spacious that we both ended up sleeping toward the middle of the bed because we felt like we were going to fall out. My living room seems empty, but contains all of our furniture. I need some suggestions about decorating everything, so PLEASE come by with an opinion! Maybe for our anniversary we can buy a can of paint to cover our very white walls! (this house feels so big that it may take at least 15 more anniversaries to do away with our white walls!) Anyways, we have a whole week to work on anything that needs done before heading up to Idaho. Cauley starts summer weights on Monday so he'll be gone a few hours in the morning and then a few hours each afternoon Mon-Thurs. for the rest of the summer.

So much fun having Jenn, Ryan, Mike, Brent, and Tye living back here. My kids have been so excited to see them and play with their cousins. We are happy everyone but a coyote and Ryan's bumper on his new car made it back safe and sound! (I'm sure Cauley will write about that soon- check his blog- it's the first one on my sidebar under family.) Anyways, I have tons to write about and so many stories to tell. Hopefully I get out the camera and take pictures so I can post them too! Check back soon!

So glad yesterday is over!

Yesterday, Thursday, was a very hectic day for me. I won't even be able to begin to tell you the amount of stress I felt from around 9:15 a.m. on. It was supposed to be a very fun, relaxing day, but instead I ran around the valley with a HUGE grin on my face. I was really taking it easy in the morning, taking my sweet time getting myself and the kids ready for our outing. I hadn't even begun cleaning anything, but sat on the couch and watched a half hour of tv before taking Dallin to school, slowly ate my breakfast, took a warm, leisurely shower, and then started packing the swimming bag. That's when our Realtor called and asked if we could be in Scottsdale at 2:00 to sign on our new house. I ran like crazy, trying to set up a babysitter, get everyone dressed, get Cauley's schedule in order so he could miss a class and one of his last track practices, an on and on- you get my idea; the stress started to rise. Then I called my realtor back to ask a question and he informed me there was an office in Gilbert that we could sign at instead of going to Scottsdale (saving over 45 minutes at least of driving in one direction!) and that this appointment would be after Cauley's track practice. I took it, then began re-calling everyone I had just set stuff up with, cancelling Cauley needing to find a sub for 5th hour and track, my babysitter who couldn't help out after 3, calling and finalizing plans for swimming, and of course, getting us ready to be gone for the rest of the day. I left the house 15 minutes later, car packed and ready to go, kids excited to go swimming, and an even higher stress level.
I met Stephanie at the Basha High School Pool (I highly recommend if you have little kiddos!) and we let the kids swim for an hour or so. It was a ton of fun, plus it wore them out! We left the pool, ran to get them some pizza, drove to Steph's house to change and throw some pizza in my face, then drove to my new house for my final inspection. (Not that you care, but my new house is still in wonderful condition- just needs some dusting and a vacuum cleaner!) By the way, I need to say THANK YOU!!! to Stephanie for keeping my kids all afternoon, making my running around a lot easier! After the inspection, I ran to the bank to get our down payment, then to pick up Cauley at his track practice, and since we had time, we stopped off to see our wonderful Uncle Kent before heading to the title company. Our signing was, in my opinion, really fun. It seemed to go by really fast, and I laughed about all the stupid (I know- that word is banned from our house, but really, for lack of a better word!...) documents we had to sign. I think we signed over 13 papers that basically just told us nothing more than the fact that we belong to an HOA. Seriously. The lady who was in charge laughed when, at the end, I asked if we belonged to an HOA or if we didn't need to worry about that. Other than being fun, our signing was very low-key. Because we have waited for so long, I almost expected a fanfare or something. But guess what... IT'S DONE!!! WE SIGNED!!! Now if only we had the keys so I can take over my new vacuum...
Well, after we signed, I dropped Cauley back off at his school so he could get his car. He then went to the cell phone store to finally get his Christmas present I gave him- a new cell phone and blue tooth, and then he went to Costco for me. I headed back to Steph's to pick up the kids, then we went to KFC for the free dinner from Oprah. Bad news, our KFC that is less than 1 mile from our house wasn't honoring the coupons yet- I had to fill out a rain check and will receive them within 7 business days. Instead we went over to our new house and walked around the outside, just for fun. The boys are getting so excited (thanks to me talking up the big move!) Tyli had fallen asleep in the car and didn't want to be bothered. Finally, at 7:00 we got home, hungry because we had been denied the only idea I had for dinner. After eating a bowl of cereal, the boys were off to bed, with me so happy yet tired to get them there! Today, not so busy, just starting to pack, cleaning up what didn't get done yesterday, and keeping the kids cool. (This heat is really getting to me already! I don't like it when it doesn't cool down so much at nights!) Now I'm just itching to go vacuum the floors at my new house!