I survived . . . . .

I survived traveling at Christmas!! I have heard horror stories of traveling during the holidays with all the other travelers and the weather. The Christmas before we got married Ross was trying to go home and due to weather in Denver ended up spending about 24 hours in the Denver airport not even sure he would be able to get a plane out. This trip we were fortunate to have a direct flight from Salt Lake to New Orleans, so as long as we could get out of Salt Lake we wouldn't have any problems getting to New Orleans. There was also forcasted snow for the day we were leaving. However, we got to the airport without any problems, there wasn't any snow, and the line for security wasn't bad at all. While we were standing in line for security there was a guy, I think he was a paid escort for kids, but he was dressed as an elf, complete with the tights and pointy shoes with bells. I wish I had the guts to get a picture of him, it was quite humorous and very hard to miss. When we got to our gate Ross and I got something to eat while waiting. When I was done this random old guy walked up and asked if he could throw my trash away for me, I thought that was very bizarre, and then he came back and started to talk to us. He was quite an interesting individual. I am sure most of his stories were not true but after finding out our flight was delayed an hour he kept us entertained and the extra hour wasn't so bad. When we finally got into New Orleans it was about midnight but we still were able to go to dinner with my mother-in-law. We went to Camilla Grill, its a very interesting restaurant, the counter winds around the restaurant and they cook everything in front of you, and they have some killer chocolate pecan pie.

I survived my first Southern Christmas. The next day was Christmas eve and not much was planned, it was so nice. With us being there for 10 days we didn't have to cram everything into a couple days, we could spread it out and be a little more relaxed. We got to sleep in and just kind of move slow. All we really did that day was in the afternoon, we stopped to do a little last minute shopping on the way to my brother-in-law and sister-in-laws house for dinner. We got time to hang out before we ate, it was really good food. After dinner we went to the grandparent's to open presents. This was the big family get together with the grandparents, the aunts and uncles and stuff. It was a fun get together, we all got to open presents for each other and then had sweets. They were so good and so rich. On Christmas Eve Ross and I slept over at his brother's house and Christmas morning my mother-in-law came over and made monkey bread for breakfast. A tasty way to start the morning. Later in the afternoon we went to the extended family Christmas dinner. That was rather interesting. It was buffet style and some of the foods I have never seen, let alone heard of, before. I went into it thinking "Ok, just give things a try, you never know what will taste good," and I did. I did have to ask my brother-in-law, who was behind me in line, what some of the things were. They had, I think they called it baked spaghetti, and all it was was boiled spaghetti noodles with layers of cheese on it and then baked. To me it looked like something an elder would make for a missionaries dinner and they had it at their big Christmas dinner. I was wondering if anyone really ate it, but Ross said they have it every year and it did go pretty fast. I did get a little to try it and it was really pretty good. I never would have guessed but I enjoyed it. Then we get to the corn dishes. First there was a bowl of cooked corn, simple and basic enough, but next to it was a couple of yellow casserole looking things. I didn't think there would be such a thing as a corn casserole, let alone two different types of corn casserole. But I had decided I would try new things and I got a little of both. Much to my surprise, again, it was really quite tasty. The meal as a whole was good and I liked all the foods I tried, I was actually too stuffed to make it to the deserts.

Unfortunately while we were there Ross' grandpa ended up in the hospital. He had been sick for a little while and it just got worse and I think he had pneumonia. Luckily he got the care he needed and was released 3 or 4 days later.

I survived a Hall family road trip. We, all 5 of us, took a road trip to Houston. I was pretty excited cause I have never been to Houston, other than the airport. It was about a 5 hour drive from Baton Rouge and my butt was numb by the time we got there. We did go over a couple bridges that from a distance look like they go straight into the air, pretty steep roads. We spent 3 nights in Houston and went from one end of the city to the other. We got to go to NASA and see mission control and see some old space shuttles, we went to the aquarium and got to pet some sting rays and star fish, we went to the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, we went to see Avatar and went shopping at the 4th largest mall in America. This mall was massive, so many stores, so many levels, so easy to get lost and confused (and we did). On the very bottom level of the mall was an ice skating rink. The 4 of us went ice skating, my mother-in-law decided to watch. I was the only one that had been ice skating before but the last time I had done it was on a date in college, so I was pretty wobbly on the skates at first. It was a lot of fun, I almost took out little kids a couple times. Its a small crowded rink, which made it hard to maneuver safely. But fun none the less. While there my mother-in-law gave us each money to spend, with the stipulation that we spend it that day in the mall and on ourselves. This was pretty hard, I had no idea what to get or what I wanted to spend it on, until I saw a shoe store. I think the highlight of the trip to Houston was the hotel room with the king size bed. We left the hotel in the morning and we were going all day so when we finally got back to the room that night I was so tired and stuffed from dinner that having such a large comfy bed was so nice. I did have to laugh because it was so much like traveling with my family, but I did enjoy it.

I survived 5 trips to New Orleans. I love New Orleans so its quite ok that we made many trips down there, and its only a little over an hour away from Baton Rouge. The first trip was when we flew in and stopped for dinner. Then we went the day after Christmas. Ross' cousin and her husband were in town for Christmas and the husband had never been to New Orleans so they went with us. It was so cold. We just wandered and shopped and ate at the House of Blues, kind of relaxing. The third time we went was on New Years Eve. We went with the intention of finding a way into one of the really old, really cool above ground cemeteries. I don't know why, I just like cemeteries and these ones are really really cool. When we got into the French Quarter we saw an add for a cemetery tour and decided that would be easier to do than try to find our way in and out of a cemetery, and its by the same company that did the vampire tour we did and that rocked. But the tour was for the next day, so we got to make a 4th trip down to New Orleans, but it was well worth it. The cemetery tour was so cool, the not only showed us the cemetery just outside the French Quarter, but we got a history about it and of Marie Lavou and Vodoo, it was interesting and educational. Well worth another trip to New Orleans. The last trip was to go back to the airport when we came home.

I survived New Years Eve better than the neighbors house. For New Years Eve we went over to Ross' brother's house. Grant and Leah had gotten fireworks for us to shoot off at midnight, but also got some extras for us to shoot off earlier. The quote of the night was "is that supposed to be there?" As we were shooting off some of the fireworks (I stuck to the sparklers, too many bad experiences with fireworks) one of the fountains, one that shot other spinning fireworks in the air, misfired and one of the fireballs ended up in the next door neighbors bush. Grant's friend brought it to our attention as their bush was a big ball of fire. A couple of people ran over to pour their beers on the fire, which, shockingly enough, didn't do much to put the fire out. A couple people were trying to get it out and someone went to get some water. Luckily the neighbors weren't there and there really wasn't any damage to the house. A couple min later another fountain shot something in the air that didn't go high enough and ended up having another ball of fire land on the car in the driveway across the street, it fell off the car and spun out on the ground and garage door. Another narrowly missed catastrophe.

As much as I enjoyed the trip it was definitely good to get home and get back to the daily grind. On the trip to Houston 4 of the 5 of us got sick and since we were so busy the whole trip it was hard to get over the cold and it was nice to get home with a day to rest before going back to work. But I enjoyed the opportunity to get to know my in-laws better and to see some new places.

Slacker

I have been trying to update my blog and put in my Christmas vacation adventures but have been slacking big time. This weekend is going to be a lazy stay at home weekend cause Havoc was neutered and we need to keep him from making his incision worse for the next couple of days, so hopefully I can find some time to import some pictures and do my vacation blog. But this morning I took puppy in for his snipping and I picked him up about 2 today. He is doing pretty good now that we got more pain pills in him. Around 5 today he was shaking and whimpering in pain, not to mention the trauma that comes from wearing the lamp shade. I felt so bad and helpless cause he was hurting and I couldn't do anything for him until the pain pill kicked in. Once the pill hit he knocked out and slept in my arms for a little bit. Now he is bored and running around, knocking into everything with his lamp shade. He is learning that he can't chew in his rawhide because he can't get his feet up to his mouth to hold it. The hardest part is keeping him from jumping on and off the bed (his latest trick he learned) and tearing open his incision. Not that many of you care but that is what I am dealing with this weekend.

The incision picture doesn't do justice, its pretty gnarly.

Family Room

I showed you my living room on my last post and now I will show you my family room. I think this is one of my favorite rooms in the house. I love the color on the walls and the way the white of the fireplace and crown molding sets it off. This is the color we were going for with the living room, however I like the color for the living room as well. The walls in this room weren't as disgusting as the walls upstairs, thank heavens, but the carpet was nasty. In the pictures you can even see where all the furniture was in the room, its the clean part of the carpet. I just wish the pictures did justice of the grossness of the carpet, especially on the stairs. The stairs were so gnarly that if they weren't stapled down I am sure the carpet would have been able to walk away on its own. However, on the bright spot, knowing the carpet was going to be replaced made painting a whole lot easier, especially since a big cup of paint was spilled in the middle of the hall. Hopefully this week we will have the kitchen finished, or as finished as it will be for a while, eventually it will need some new cabinets. The ones in there are very outdated, not very functional and they waste about 6 inches all around the top and one day we will re tile it. But for now, paint and some spackle will suffice.

We haven't gotten our TV or all of our furniture set up yet but the painting is done, except for the laundry room. The white wall just past the doorway you can see will eventually be brown but at this point we are a little burned out on major painting jobs so hopefully we will get it done after taking a bit of a break.

Bupata Buhhhhh

I am more than excited, my house is getting to be near completion. The big capstone happened on Tuesday the 1st when we got our new carpet installed. Honestly, it was one of the happiest days of my life. The carpet that was in before was pretty nasty, I couldn't bring myself to walk on it barefoot. There were stains all over the living room, upstairs hall, stairs, family room and downstairs hall and not knowing what caused stains of that magnitude was beyond gross for me. I did recognize one stain in the hall upstairs, it was a black little kids hand print (no, the kid was not black, the stain was black). We ordered the carpet 3 weeks ago and to finally have it in is such a relief.

To save money we decided to rip up the old carpet ourselves. The guy at Home Depot said he ripped up the carpet in his living room and it took him about 20 min and we knew our removal was much larger so would take more time, we were thinking around an hour to an hour and a half. As with most things in our house the project ended up taking up much more time, six and a half hours longer than we thought. No one told us the pain in the rear that removing the tack strips would be. The carpet and padding removal itself did take about 30 min all, and the rest was us hunched over prying the tack strips and staples out of the floor. The worst was the ones on the stairs, my hands got very banged up and I don't think they will ever be the same again. The first night we worked from 5:30 to about midnight and had to get up again at 4:45 the next morning to make sure it was done by 8, when the carpet people were supposed to get there. I have learned a very valuable lesson: sometimes its better to pay people to do certain projects and not save the money.

The carpet people were supposed to be there between 8 and 10 am on Tuesday and they showed up at 9:58, talk about cutting it close. Then the real hell began. Because they were doing the major rooms in the house I really couldn't do much without getting in their way so most of the day puppy and I hung out in my room with nothing but the TV. We did make it outside to potty and run around a few times. Then to top things off they had to crank the heat up to near 90 degrees to soften the carpet and make it stretchable. One of the times I took the puppy outside I noticed they had opened the garage, without asking anything, and took it upon themselves to rearrange my garage. I can understand that it would make it easier to get the carpet in but they moved my brand new couches off the old carpet and onto my nasty garage floor and tipped one couch on its side on top of a pile of old tack strips. Then they moved my puppy's pee pads and (he doesn't have the best of aim yet and occasionally misses the pad and hit the ground) was stepping in some pee. I was pissed, I tried to tell the one guy he was stepping in pee and tracking it into my house, he gave me a blank stare and proceeded to walk into my house, onto my new carpet. I had moved one of the couches back onto the carpet and they pushed it off again. I don't think it came out very nice when I explained to them that they were brand new couches and the garage floor was disgusting and black and that's why it was on the carpet. Then I noticed the couch laying on the tack strips. I don't think I was very nice at this point but they moved everything back and left them alone.

By the time Ross got home they had finished with the upstairs and we quickly moved our furniture in and set up our living room. Its so nice to be able to use that space and to have a nice place when people stop by. We still have a few touch ups to do and need to finish the crown molding but I am very happy with how it looks. We just have the kitchen to finish up and we will be done for a little while. The more we do the more it feels like home and the more I like it.

I didn't notice the placing of the vacuum when this picture was taken, there is a big hole in the wall behind the vacuum. Too bad you can't see the bloody boogers in the pictures, it makes it harder to appreciate the end product :)

When we pulled the carpet up in the living room there was some nasty stains on the wood. It makes me glad we went with the padding that doesn't let anything through it either direction.

In this picture you can see that we haven't finished the crown molding totally and we do have some touch ups, that you can't see, to make. When they laid the carpet it scraped some of the paint off. So in the process of working on the house Ross has learned to cut corners for (not the cheating kind of cutting corners) the base boards and crown molding and I must say it looks really good, again, hard to see in the pictures. I think he missed his calling in life, the corners he did look very professional. I also learned how to patch holes in the wall. There was a big hole to the right of the electric outlet on this wall and I am pretty proud of my patch job.

It is so nice to have this room almost finished. Its much nicer when people stop by to have a presentable room and to have a place for them to sit. For us its such a big change that sometimes when I walk down the hall I have to stop and just stare. We got the family room almost done as well, so I will hopefully post those photos soon.

Puppy Woes or He is Part Demon

I am beginning to think my puppy has multiple personalities. There is the mellow sweet puppy who likes to cuddle and follows me around and just likes to be with us, then there is the other one. The other one is a spaz who can not be calmed down and wants to bite anything within his reach. With the demon puppy he has learned how much fun it can be for him to run away from me, whenever I get near him to grab him he takes off and for a little thing he is fast. His favorite game when he is being the demon and I take him potty he avoids the potty area and while sniffing around he keeps an eye on me so when I get near him to put him back in the potty area he takes off and runs circles around me, literally. I took him out at 10:30 last night and for 5 min he ran circles around me in the garage. He was running so fast that he was sliding all over the place and into the stairs. When he gets in the demon mode there is no working with him and he has ADHD and goes from one thing to the next at the drop of a hat. The little guy has a lot of energy. But on the flip side when he is the sweet one he likes to spend time with us and play with us in a civil manner and he doesn't try to eat me. He is much easier to work with in the potty training area when he is the sweet one too, which I really like. I am not as frustrated as I was before with his potty training because he now goes in the potty area when he goes out, most of the time. I think that's because its cold and he, like me, is a sissy with the cold. I am just hoping the demon side is the puppy in him, he is still really young, and that he will grow out of it and I have high hopes on him being potty trained soon. He knows to go outside but doesn't notify us when he has to go, he will just go. Regardless he is fun and has a ton of personality. He is fun to take on walks, regardless of how much energy he has he sticks right with us, we don't need a leash, he walks right next to us and doesn't like to get to far ahead or behind. I just wish he would get the whole peeing outside aspect and stop eating my hair.

I think we bought Murphy's house.

I was told this would happen, but really didn't want to believe it. I thought/hoped things would be rainbows and stickers with the purchase of our first house but Murphy says differently and what can go wrong does go wrong. I am not here to complain, but to vent some frustrations and to try to see things a little differently.

The house in and of itself is really not that bad, however after having 7 different families living in it its going to need work and we didn't realize how much work was needed until after closing. We closed on Monday and were so excited we went right over to the house to see our new home. When we got there and saw all the work that was needed and saw some new problem areas with the house and it was just very overwhelming, but we thought it was manageable because of the help that was offered. We had framers and contractors from our old ward offer help and they had the expertise to repair and correct some of the things we needed fixed. It became apparent when they wouldn't answer or return our calls that we were on our own and that's when it became overwhelming. At first we just kind of went in circles and nothing got done, there was so much to be done it was hard to pick a place to start, we both wanted to sit and cry. After sitting down and prioritizing and making a list of what order things need to be done we were able to get started and be productive. Then Murphy's law came back to bite us in the butt. I had planned for 3 days to shampoo the carpets, my sister was going to help, and they had problems getting the water turned on. Then we had no heat, and inside the house the thermostat said 45 degrees and it was snowing outside. We tried to get the heat going and could smell gas so we had to exit the house for an hour for someone to show up and see whats going on. Come to find out our furnace is not properly vented and installed too close to the water heater. This scare ended up putting us further behind. I also went carpet shopping on Friday, good grief, its so complicated and a 4 step process. I found the carpet I like and I have the measurements but they want to drag it out. Then Saturday was Halloween and we had a party all afternoon so we didn't get much done, but who wants to spend a holiday like that working on a house. It was a very rocky start to home ownership and we were ready to let the house burn down. Its definitely not what we were expecting. I actually think its been more complicated since we closed than the whole 3 month process since we put the offer on the house, and that was pretty complicated.

This week things have already turned up and its just started. Its amazing what a little bit of paint can do to a room, even if the colors don't turn out like you want. Ross also has a friend that is willing to help us with the wood floors in the living room and hall, which will make a HUGE difference, and hopefully by this weekend we should have new carpet on the steps, in the family room and the hall. We will have the kitchen and bathrooms cleaned and sanitized today and we also met some of our neighbors and they seem very nice, it seems that we are in a neighborhood with older people, but hey, as long as they are nice people I think I can handle that. We figure if we can get our bedroom painted and the bathroom and kitchen cleaned we can at least move in and do things a little bit at a time, except for the carpet in the main living areas, they are just too disgusting and not salvageable. I think when things get finished it will be a good house and it will not look at all like the old house. Its kind of exciting now that we can see progress and possibly an end in sight. I know we will continue to find things that need to be fixed but we have stopped looking for things and hopefully we won't find them for quite a while. I still don't have pictures to put up yet, I want to wait until we finish these rooms before putting the before and after, and they are such a huge difference. I am however looking forward to working on the yard next spring and being able to plant a garden, that's so much easier for me than home repairs. One of the easiest parts of this is the fact that Ross and I both have the same ideas on what we want to do with each room and its fun to work with him and to have his support when things get to be too much.

Also, I kind of feel like we live in one of the houses in Whoville after the grinch visited. The previous owners took all the toilette paper, almost all the light bulbs and there are literally hundreds of nails in the walls.

Big Weekend!!

Its been a big but exciting weekend for us. Knowing we are getting a house and hoping we were getting close I have been checking ksl.com everyday for a Maltese poodle puppy, I have wanted a puppy for a while and decided that's the kind I wanted. On Thursday I came across an ad for some little while Maltese poodles. I immediately sent the link to Ross and asked him to call on them after work, I didn't want to wait longer. These kinds of puppies sell really fast and this was such a good price. The lady said she would hold the puppies until we could get up there on Saturday, she wouldn't let anyone else look at them so we could have them all to pick from. I woke up really early on Saturday morning, it felt like Christmas, I was so excited but had to wait for 8:30 to come around so we could go. It took about 2 1/2 hours to get there and it went by pretty fast. The lady that had the puppies was kind of crazy and then when we got into Downy Idaho our concerns grew. It was one of those small deserted looking towns like you see in the horror movies. We wondered if she actually had puppies or used it as a ruse to lure people there to kill them. It was creepy down to the leaves blowing in the wind across the deserted roads. When we found the address it was at a dead end with random signs across the fence telling us to keep out, Maltese sold here, no trespassing, puppies for sale. We weren't sure if we should stay away or come get a puppy. We decided to take our chances and get a puppy. It was well worth it. When the lady finally answered the door and we went in and saw them, well, it was love at first sight, there is no way I was going anywhere without one of those puppies. After picking out the puppies, I got to choose mine first and then Bre decided to get his brother, which makes for some interesting times. Then it was time to start home. Man, that was the longest drive ever. Traffic wasn't so good once we got into Ogden and I think it took 2 hours to get just from Ogden to Orem and it didn't help that the puppies were getting ancy. We finally got them to Bre's, where our puppy is staying until we move in to our house. They got to run and eat and boy were they full of energy and they play/fight like true boys and brothers.

Friday when we had decided we would go to Idaho I was afraid getting the puppy would jinx the house, I was afraid we would get a call on the way home from Idaho with the puppy and they would tell us something happened and we can't get the house. I was going to get the puppy anyways, I couldn't not do things cause of a silly fear. Well, on the way home from Idaho I got a call from our mortgage guy and had a slight panic attack. He was calling to let us know that closing would be Monday and make sure that was ok with us. What a relief. Here are a couple pictures of the puppy. We named him Havoc and he really lives up to his name, he is kind of a holy terror, especially with his brother and my sister's chihuahua. But I think we will keep him.

We signed the papers on our house on Monday, so its official, we are home owners. It hasn't been all that great so far, rather overwhelming actually. Luckily the old home owners got all the garbage and crap out and the rooms aren't that bad, just need a good vacuum and carpet cleaning. But the kitchens and bathrooms are pretty disgusting. It will just take a little bit of time, some hard work and our stuff to make it ours. I think right now it just doesn't feel like home cause its still someone elses house with their bloody boogers on the walls. We are hoping to get the new floors in this week but with Halloween it makes it kind of hard. We haven't taken any pictures yet so there aren't any to post just yet but will follow up with some pictures when we get some.