first post from our new house

Hello everyone, sorry I have been quiet. There have been a lot of things going on around here. Grace is in summer school so for the first part of summer I was working a bit later than usual and Forest was on a different schedule which caused him to work earlier so we were on very different schedules. Grace had two weeks off for the holidays and I had been working up to 50 hours a week! Forest is back on his normal schedule (thank goodness) and Grace starts school back up tomorrow so things should settle down just a bit...we hope.

We are almost moved out of our apartment, we just have two pieces of furniture left and we will be out for good. Things are shaping up here as well, we are slowly replacing things and trying to make things our own. I have a list a mile long of things I want to re-do or re-model but I have to take one thing at a time. Our master bathroom is currently in pieces due to a leak underneath our toilet. The warranty we have for the house paid for the least expensive part of the whole ordeal, but at least it paid for something. We have to have our entire floor replaced and our toilet is not usable until that happens. We want to replace almost the entire bathroom when we do the floor, so we may wait to do that for a little while. I had been feeling very overwhelmed with some of the issues we've found in the house but after spending several weeks here I am feeling much better. At first I kept thinking about the problems instead of the things that were going well. I am 25 years old and I just purchased my first home! I didn't stop to realize how incredibly lucky I am to say that at my age. So, taking one step at a time, we are fixing things and making things better.

I am so thankful to live across the street from the Wrights, without them I would have fallen into a heap of tears and depression 4 weeks ago. They have helped us in so many ways, I don't know if we will ever be able to repay them for their kindness. I may have to feed them for the next month to feel remotely even (and I'm sure they would appreciate that!)

I hope everyone is having a nice summer. Being married without children (especially in Texas), we don't always pay attention to what season it actually is. However, summer does mean more work for me, but my job requirements include swimming, trips to the mall and introducing the girls to the Star Wars Saga. I even have my own garage space. I live a charmed life, indeed.

last apartment bound

Well, we finally got the house today! There are a few issues that we couldn't see because furniture was in the way, but so far nothing major. Mostly just dirty walls that we are going to make sparkle with some magic erasers tomorrow. I am so thankful I have our neighbors Rebecca and John to help because tonight I would have gone nuts without them. We had to re vacuum the whole house because the woman we bought it from had her vacuum die on her earlier today. We had two vacuums going and got it done in no time. One huge bummer is that when Rebecca was vacuuming the master bathroom, she noticed that the front part of our tub was coming off. It smells like there might be some mold down there. It's just concrete underneath there so hopefully we can pull the front off and just replace it. It looks like the front board is what is the problem is. I'm completely freaking out though, as usual. It will all be ok, I just have to keep telling myself that. It will be, I know it.

We went over to Cassi and Bryce's apartment today for dinner, we thank them a million times for that. It got our minds off of the house for a bit and we didn't have to worry about making dinner tonight. It was such a huge help. It's so nice having another couple in our ward that are our age that we can spend time with, it's really fantastic. They are coming over to help us move tomorrow, so we can't thank them enough for helping us out.

It's already 11 and we have to get up early tomorrow. It's a big day, I've got to clean the walls, wait for the cable, electric and water to be turned on and get our washer and dryer installed. Forest has an interview at 11 (I know, perfect timing) and then everyone is coming over at 2 to help move. I am going to be dead tomorrow (I already feel kind of dead right now), I'm glad I have an easy job where I can hang out and relax. I hope Grace sits on my lap all day on Tuesday and laughs and smiles with me. That will make up for the crazy day I am going to have tomorrow!

8 days...

I can't help but feel this overwhelming thought of anxiousness. I am so nervous about moving. It's hard to believe we have owned this house for almost 6 weeks. It's oddly just been in the past few days that I have started to feel this way. A house is such a huge responsibility, one that I think we are more than ready to take on. I paid our first mortgage payment yesterday. By clicking that "submit" button (I love that I can pay my mortgage online!) it felt like I was moving into a completely different direction. What a great and satisfyingly decision it has been for us to purchase a home. Now comes the fun part, moving all of our stuff less than 1,000 feet to the southwest.

We have decided to move all of our big things on Monday the 16th. If anyone who reads this that is in the area can help at all that day (or send their husbands), we would appreciate it so much! We realize that it might interfere with work schedules, but otherwise we'd have to wait two weeks to move on a Saturday and we (or possibly just me) have no desire to wait any longer! As long as we can get those things that won't fit into our cars out of here, we will be happy campers and can possibly have more come on Saturday to help carry smaller less important things down with us. I noticed today that we have so many boxes, more than I thought we had. I am trying to make this as simple as possible for those kind brave souls who are going to come help us and so far, things are going pretty well. I've heard that most people who are moving a short distance tend to think they don't need to box things up, but anything that fits into a box has gone into a box. Our spare bedroom looks like we ripped off a delivery truck full of Dell Computers (Forest got the boxes from work). If anyone needs boxes in the near future, we'll have a ton!

the big move

I only wish I was talking about our big move, but I'm not. Today is the day that the Dendy family finally moved into their beautiful new house. I am so excited for them but today was a LONG day. I actually didn't do any kind of heavy lifting at all, except for maybe carrying Grace around for a bit, but I'm still tired for some reason. The house is still amazing, even though things are completely out of sorts and probably will be for a little while. I know Jennie is glad to finally be done with the apartment life, I know I am!

Forest and I decided to go see Prince Caspian tonight and took McKay and Alexa with us. It was very excellent. I haven't read the book in many many years (and I want to, but my copies of the Chronicles of Narnia are packed away!) but I am pretty sure the movie was almost spot on. There are a few changes, but minor ones. After the slaughtering of my 2nd favorite fiction novels (Harry Potter) it is a refreshing change to see them keep these fantastic books in tact. I think C.S. Lewis would be proud. After we got home, I found out Grace had been dead asleep for a while. She had a very big day too. I think all of this confuses her, she was very crabby part of the day but giddy in other parts.

I am going to get some sleep, we've got another big day ahead of us tomorrow as well!

binding my time...

It feels like the last two weeks have CRAWLED by. We closed on our house on April 30th so we are officially home owners. The only problem is that we still have 4 1/2 weeks until we can move in. I have been going crazy with spending, buying all sorts of things. As pointed out in my previous post, my couches are nested in my living room, but now they are covered with all sorts of new things. I bought a new mattress, which is also sitting in my living room in a box. It's a memory foam mattress so it's pretty tightly wrapped up and "small" but is still taking up room. Our spare bedroom looks like a storage unit and it's actually very organized, for once. We have our washer and dryer ordered and they are being delivered and installed on June 16th. I'm ready to go, so I'll sit here and wait until June 15th...

I have my schedule figured out for this entire year (through May 2009!). It's going to be a busy one too. Grace is going to school full time next year so I had to figure out how to pack in these extra 6 hours a week. I am going to be working insane hours in the summer (in one 15-day span I am working 118 hours!) and then 31 hours a week during the school year. Forest's schedule is changing for 6 weeks in June and July so he'll be back to working Mondays. He's not all that happy about it because he'll be forced to sit in traffic everyday and with these wicked insane gas prices we don't want him wasting any of that precious gas! Thankfully it's only for 6 weeks (or so they say, we'll see). Once school starts in August, I'll come over to the Dendy's at 6:45 am, help Grace get ready and then take the girls to school. I'll pick them up afterwards and work until 8. It's almost the schedule I have now, but slightly earlier. Not a problem though, I need an excuse to get out of bed in the morning or I never will.

For some reason I'm losing weight. I'm not complaining, it's good news for me, but I'd love to know what I'm doing that is causing this. I bought a book about PCOS and a meal plan that I should be eating. I have been reading through the book and am going to jump into this when we move. I'm going to stop eating certain things now and hopefully by the middle of June I'll be prepared to take this step. I am overall pretty healthy for being the size I am, but it's time to deal with this before problems start appearing. It's going to be a really tough road, but I think with the support of Forest and my friends I'll make it through the other end. I had noticed my pants were starting to look huge on me so I weighed myself the other night. I've lost 25 pounds since I looked at the scale which was probably 2 months ago. I was carrying Grace around yesterday and I had my pants nearly fall off! I have jeans that usually feel very tight when you first put them on but then stretch out in a few minutes to the right fit. I put them on today and they were too big. Then they stretched out a bit as well. I had to wear a belt to even keep them on. I am sad because I love these jeans (I have three pairs that are identical) but feel great that I'm actually losing weight! Hopefully I'll be buying new jeans soon!

a little of this a little of that

The past few days have been good. We can pretty much start breathing normally until we sign our lives away next week. Our appraisal came in at just what we needed it to and everything is good to go, so far. We are going to close on Tuesday. I am excited to get this over with but even more excited to move in! Too bad that won't be for a little while.

Speaking of houses, Jennie and Dal's house is done and they are going to close on Monday! It's such a fantastic house, I hope Gracie enjoys it and it can be a safe place for her. Both Jennie and I are so done with this apartment nonsense, we want to move in as soon as possible!

Grace's MDCP (Medically Dependent Children's Program, the program that pays for me to care for her) contract was renewed and was approved to receive 1993 hours of respite care this year over last year's 1560. That works out to about 36 hours a week. When Grace goes to school next year full time, I can only work about 30 hours a week so during the summer and vacations I am going to be glued to the Dendy family. At least I'll have a nice second home to go to! I got a raise a few weeks ago so I am overall going to be making more money this summer. Also, at the end of May I get my yearly bonus which we found out is going to be at least $400 more than they had thought. That is a very happy surprise for us!

Last night we bought a couch and a love seat from Christi Taylor, who is a newer sister in our ward. They are very nice couches, I think we will enjoy them very much. I was planning on buying brand-new couches but these are so much nicer than anything we were looking at and at the fraction of the price. She kept them in immaculate condition considering she has 4 young girls! Right now they are in our front room, looking kind of out of place! The love seat is nestled into the sofa. It's only for a few more weeks and then we can actually enjoy them!

What else is going on? I guess that covers it. We are really thankful for everything that we have been given so far this last year. It has been such an eye-opening fantastic year. About 11 months ago Jennie asked me to be Grace's caregiver and I had no idea that by doing this for her Forest and I would be able to buy our own house in less than a year! We're so blessed.

it ours!

My reaction to this should have been posted yesterday, but we were so busy that it completely slipped my mind. On April 29th we will officially be home owners! Our loan was finally totally approved yesterday. After I got off the phone with Karmen, I was basically squeaking to Grace and I said "Gracie, we got it, we got it!" and she got so super excited it just made me laugh. She makes the sad times better and the happy times EVEN better. I can't believe that we are so lucky. It's amazing. I just wanted to let you all know that. I've got to get up early tomorrow, so I'm off to bed! Night!