I Got Lost :)

Yup, I think I got lost... Not really, but thanx to you, Christa, I realized today that I haven't posted in a month. The last 2 months have been so busy since closing on the house! I'll try to post some pictures soon of what we've been up to. I'm on here every day, but usually just for about 5 minutes and then on to the next thing.

Good news! We saw the bottom of our pool today for the very first time - after 2 full months of torture, lots of money - and so much frustration we almost just tore it down! I'll share more about that later and try to show some pictures... Long story short for now - flocculant works - now there is about 3 inches of organic material (dead algae) in the bottom of the pool that we will be vacuuming out tomorrow evening.

Mercy was here for the first week of July which was awesome since we hadn't seen her since Christmas. I'm so mad at myself thought - I kinda forgot to take pictures. Didn't get to spend as much time together as I hoped - it went by too quickly and I had to work.

Forth of July we planned a BBQ at our house with some friends of ours. All went well considering that it started pouring rain about 30 minutes before the BBQ was to start and never let up! But we still had fun - just inside instead of outside. And we'll have to have another one later in the summer to use up the rest of the burgers.

Our homegroup is on break for the summer, but we joined another group for the summer which has actually been a blessing and a good time of growth for us. Now we're starting to gear up for starting again in the fall. We're doing a little recruiting, as some of our members have moved away, and working on material for the fall. We've also been trying to do follow up with the members that have already been involved.

So, we've been busy. (oh, yeah - forgot to mention all the weddings and graduations lately!) I'll try to get some pictures up soon. I'm always sad when I don't post for a while. If nothing else this blog gives me something to look back on later and see what's been going on - but I guess I just lost a month somewhere! :)

Planted some Flowers.

I'm not sure why its taking me so long to get around to posting things these days, but we do seem to be so buisy with "all things house." We've spent a great deal of time trying to get the yard to look halfway decent. The woman who lived here before us didn't seem to do much with the yard and it was in serious need of MUCH tlc. We've given it a little, but much more is needed. I think that in the fall we may have to have someone come look at the lawn... We aren't those peaple that have to have a perfect yard, but we have vertually no grass and tons of ants so I think that we will need a little bit of help. I did plant a few lovely little sunshiny flowers the other day along our front walk. Sadly they got eaten off (I think by chipmonks) a couple days later, but they seem to finally be growing back and starting to bloom again.

Morgan and Amy bought us a beautiful rose as a house warming gift that just bloomed beautifully. It is curently in a pot on the deck with my other house plants (most of which I seem to have sun-burned to death). I can't decide whether to plant it or leave it in the pot.
We did have this lovely trampoline in the back yard, but we didn't want it... They are so much fun, but truth be told I'm a bit afraid of them. So we gave it to Fred and Bridget who really wanted it. How did we transport it you ask? Well, let me tell you - it was scarry! Kris borrowed a flat bed truck from work and He and Fred flipped the trampoline on it and away Kris drove. Now, mind you, the truck was only 9 feet wide and the trampoline was 14 ft. (I pretty sure you really can only legally transport something 10ft wide on the roads.) Fred and I followed gasping in fear and calling Kris constantly on the cell... "You're too far to the left!" "Cars are diving for the ditch!" "Don't hit the mail boxes!" Whew!!! So glad that's done with!
And then there is the pool... so far we had to buy a new pump for $225. Then we had to replace the skimmer for $40. Had to take apart one section to bend it back into place. Have dumped litterally hundreds of dollars in chemicals in that were supposed to clear up the water. Bought a net and pulled huge piles of dead leaves off the bottom of the pool and in the prosses found an umbrella from the previous owner's patio set in the pool which we can't get out... On and on and on - we've worked for weeks every single day trying to get the pool usable - all because the previous owner never closed the pool last year!!! Finally, We have given up - I called "The pool Guy" yesterday and he is supposed to stop over on Monday and give us an estimate :( We just have no idea what to do with a pool whose water is so merky that we can't even see 2 inches into it! We are so frustrated!!!
So, yah, I guess that's why I haven't been able to post for a while...

Bedroom...

Well, its been taking me forever to get around to all the post that I want to post - I have much more pictures to come, but since I can't seem to get to that through all the unpacking and yard work - I decided to just do one thing at a time. Of course that really is the only way that things can be done... :) So anyway, here are some before and after pictures of our bedroom... We decided the week before moving that we wouldn't really be able to sleep in the room if we didn't do some work on it - so we worked...

And worked...
And worked...

And showed off for the camera...
And finally the room was painted - after many hours and sore muscles. And I must say, I think its one of the best painting jobs we have ever done! Some of you may not like the color, but we love it!!! Nice and bright and cheerful! The funny thing was (awesome actually) that we were both thinking of the same color before we went to the store - so we are both really happy with the outcome!

Now we just have to get some furniture, bedding and curtains and we will be all set! :) (oh, yah, and change the outlets and covers...) Its all coming together quite nicely. I guess the key is to remember that everything will never truly be "finished."

:)

WooHoo!!! and Yippee!!!

We've Moved!!!

There is still plenty of unpacking to be done, but we are so excited. Actually, a couple days and we will probably be done with the unpacking anyway... I have pictures to post (ie: painting our bedroom and the move) but that will have to wait a couple days. We should hopefully have the internet back tomorrow... (ssshh - don't tell... we are at Kris' work at the moment to check our e-mail...) So anyway - much more to follow, but I just wanted to let everyone know that we have moved! And a HUGE thank you to every one that helped!!! I can't belive how fast it went - 30 min to load everything into the truck and about the same to unload! I know that we don't have much stuff, but we have a bit! You guys (and girls) we're amaizing!

Movers:
Kris and Jessamyn
Morgan and Amy Garner
Fred Engelheardt
Bill Carlson
Bill Novak
Ki-tae and Soyoung (and baby) Mok

Thanx so much you guys!

It has finally happened!

It's finally happened - we are home owners once again. Our closing finally happened today at 1pm and went very smoothly. We're so excited to have a home again! Our mortgage is higher than we hoped, but we are still thanking God for all his blessings - they have been so many over the last couple years! We are already making lists of the many things that we would like to do - I'm sure it will take the entire next 30 years of paying it off to do all of them! You can check out the rest of the pictures on our regular website (www.shutupmilo.com) - take a good look at the pool - I think it will need some help before any of us get in it!!! The next couple week look to be a little overwhelming with all the cleaning and moving etc. but we're really excited and so looking forward to no longer being in this apartment. Now we get to start over one more time... with our own home. We are looking forward to all the year that we will spend here and the memories that will be made! WooHoo!!!

Moving pictures to follow...

Still waiting...

Maybe the 1st, I mean the 4th, I mean 8th - No make that the 10th.... Yah, maybe we'll close on the house on Thursday - the 10th. That's the latest and greatest date so far - I'm not getting my hopes up any more. Maybe I'll belive it when its done :)

Argh...

So frustating.... The closing on our house was supposed to be Tuesday (May 1st.) - but that didn't happen and no one could tell us why. Next the closing was supposed to be this coming Friday (May 4th) - well, we just found out that isn't happening either.... Why? Because the woman selling us the house has already moved - she pre-signed all the paperwork and left the state ....without moving the furnature out of the house!!! Not only that - just found out today that her 18 yr old son is still living in the house. (Yes, we did say in the contract that we wanted to close on the 1st!) Now they are saying that we can close on Tueday the 8th. Hmmm - just wondering if that will happen? And, what, do I ask for the day off from work only to have them change their minds again? Last year when we sold our house everything went so smothly.... this hasn't been smooth at all! It seems like every one involved has dropped the ball and Kris and I are both getting very frustrated and disheartened.... Please, Lord - we need some help!

Its been so long!

Wow, I can't believe its been 4 weeks since I've posted. I've thought of it often and while I can't exactly say what's kept me so buisy, I feel that I've hardly had a chance to breath! Where does the time go. We've been busy with "house" things - hopefully we will have pictures for you before next week. The closing was supposed to be tomorrow, but sadly we still have no idea when we are closing! Its very frustrating. We've been really annoyed with our mortgage broker who has dropped the ball about 20 times. And the last thing is that the woman we are buying the house from has already pre-signed all the paper work and moved to another state. That's all fine, great and wonderful - but she hasn't cleaned out the house - there is still furnature in it! We're truly frustrated, but praying that God will work everything out in his due time. We started packing a few weeks ago so there are lots of boxes all over the house!

April has been an odd month as far as weather goes! We had a lovely 3 days of 70 and 80 degree weather followed by a lot of cold and rain - can you say flooding!!?? I posted a couple pictures of our local park for you to see the wet...

Happily there are signs of spring starting to shine through... The leaves are starting to come out and I saw someone mowing their lawn the other day!

The Good... and the Bad...

Well, the good news is the we had the inspection on the house yesterday and it went very well. There is nothing major wrong with the house at all. Small things that we can fix or improve here or there, but nothing big. Of course there will always be things that we want to do to improve and to make it look the way that we want it, but we have the next 30 years to do that while we pay on it!!

The bad - actually not bad, but dissapointing - thing is that we weren't able to get any more pictures. :( For one thing we were with the inspector the entire time listening to everything that he had to say. But, we also weren't expecting that the woman who owns the house now would actually be there for the inspection! (Along with her 2 kids and her father!) The owner is definately allowed to be there but most chose not to be as its kindof awkward. She stayed off to the side out of the way, but we still felt that it would be a little intrusive to run around taking pictures. Oh, well. I'm sorry, but you will all have to wait till after the closing.... as will we. :(

Oops...

Please bare with me - my blog is under construction.... Hopefully the grand reopening will be soon. :) Thanx to Morgan - I have now discovered how many more options I have! I will probably change the colors several times over the next few days till I find what I want.