Happy Spring! Can't begin to describe how nice it is to see green and have sunshine and warmth. This winter stunk. Last winter was our first winter in our house and I found it amazingly beautiful. I loved taking pictures and pretending to be snowed in on a few occassions when I didn't want to go to a meeting or practice.
This winter was just plain miseable. But guess what? Its over and we survived just fine.
I have some great pictures of Natalie all ready for her senior prom. You will have to wait til I learn how to post them. It will be soon.
Friday, May 15, 2009
Monday, March 9, 2009
Fun times at the Lowe Lodge.
This was one of the best (and most tiring) weekends of my life. First of all, since our basement flooded due to ice dams on Jan. 7th, our house has been turned upside down. Our entire storage room moved up to the living room as well as Mandy and Natalie moving up to the den.
It has been a long slow recovery process but we finally got walls painted and as of Friday, the carpet got put in!!!!!
I left work early on Friday to pick up David and Lucy from the airport and Michael and aubree had driven up from Rexburg Thursday night. You can see why i was so excited to get the basement in order. I needed a place to put all these people. Dean and I had made plans months ago to get the married kids back home for a weekend of skiing and fun and this was the weekend. Matt Gotfredson, AKA Matt the neighbor and most recently, Matt the Marine, was in town on leave and pitched in to help us get everything moved back to it's proper home in the basement. David, Michael, Matt, Damon and I had every room back in (semi-) order in about 2 hours.
We had a full day of skiing up at Mt. Spokane on Saturday. The weather was miserable because of fog, wind, snow and very cold but despite that, we all had fun snowboarding and skiing. We got home about 5pm and at a dinner of clam chowder. Everyone was really too tired to do much more than watch movies and go to bed.
We all went to church Sunday morning, then went home to have a pork roast spaghetti dinner to celebrate Dean's birhtday while we had everyone together. We had both sets of grandparents join us. Sadly, the weekend had to end when we put David and Lucy on a plane back to Colorado. I guess it wasn't totally sad because we got to keep Michael and Aubs an extra night.
It felt so good having all the kids together. I realize how very blessed I am to have such sweet, strong, loving kids. They have so much fun with each other.
So, that is my most wonderful weekend!!!!
It has been a long slow recovery process but we finally got walls painted and as of Friday, the carpet got put in!!!!!
I left work early on Friday to pick up David and Lucy from the airport and Michael and aubree had driven up from Rexburg Thursday night. You can see why i was so excited to get the basement in order. I needed a place to put all these people. Dean and I had made plans months ago to get the married kids back home for a weekend of skiing and fun and this was the weekend. Matt Gotfredson, AKA Matt the neighbor and most recently, Matt the Marine, was in town on leave and pitched in to help us get everything moved back to it's proper home in the basement. David, Michael, Matt, Damon and I had every room back in (semi-) order in about 2 hours.
We had a full day of skiing up at Mt. Spokane on Saturday. The weather was miserable because of fog, wind, snow and very cold but despite that, we all had fun snowboarding and skiing. We got home about 5pm and at a dinner of clam chowder. Everyone was really too tired to do much more than watch movies and go to bed.
We all went to church Sunday morning, then went home to have a pork roast spaghetti dinner to celebrate Dean's birhtday while we had everyone together. We had both sets of grandparents join us. Sadly, the weekend had to end when we put David and Lucy on a plane back to Colorado. I guess it wasn't totally sad because we got to keep Michael and Aubs an extra night.
It felt so good having all the kids together. I realize how very blessed I am to have such sweet, strong, loving kids. They have so much fun with each other.
So, that is my most wonderful weekend!!!!
Monday, January 12, 2009
HELLO, I'M HERE!
I have not been a blogger for so long. It was when I was with Betsie before her girls came that she set me up. I only blogged once after I left her. Then I simply forgot passwords. But I have been reading other family members blogs and I love them so much. It really is a great way to feel part of all the lives of sisters, brothers, niece and nephews lives and all the cute babies!
I will catch everyone up a bit.
Last time I wrote, we had just gotten David home from his mission. He wasted no time in pursuit of his long time sweetheart Lucy Giblette. Lucy didn't put up much resistance. We were pleased to attend their wedding September 6th and the recepton at our home. I had my wonderful sisters and nieces all here and they just jumped in and took charg of the food. It was a beautiful event and we are so happy to add another daughter to the family.
Michael and Aubree lived with us for about 10 months and just moved to Rexburg to attend BYUI. Our house just seems sad adn empyt without them. David and Lucy moved to Elizabeth, Colorado to be with her family until they also will move to Rexburg to attend BYUI in June.
Natalie is still attending EWU full time instead of attending East Valley High School. She is doing well and earning both high school and college credits (no cost!). She is applying to attend BYUI as well next fall. Natalie is still working at a day care everyday after school. They love her there and she is considering doing some nannying during the summer.
Mandy is on the verge of turning 17 in a month. She is a junior at East Valley and works at Subway. She is truly a sandwich artist. She likes her job for the most part. She likes the paycheck the best.
Dean and I are always trying to find new products to boost our bussiness. This fall we started installing a new product to Homescapes. It is permanent holiday lighting. You have it installed on your home and leave it up year round to use for any holiday. It is LED lights so it uses very little energy, matches your homes exterior so during the day or when it it off, you don't even know it is there. We had some great success with sales befor Christmas on homes. Now we are consentrating on hitting the commercial market. We have already installed it on Krispy Kreme donut shop and the downtown Cricket wireless store of Matt's. We are doing a second Cricket store this week and are going to hit all the little Espresso stands. Yes, we still sell vacuums and home theater systems.
Now for the latest drama.... Well, as everyone knows, the winter is on overdrive. One snow storm after another. We are constantly just digging out. That is until Thursday when we got lots of warm wind blowing, melting everthing. For two days it was in the upper 40s and even though our house sits up on the hill, the snow and ice on the roof started melting straight into the basement. Not sure if it was ice dams except that as soon as we shoveled all the snow off the roof, it stopped flooding the basment. Thursday, Mandy got home from school and went downstairs to find most of the carpet wet. I ran home to check it out and was immediately calling insurance and flood restoration companies. Apparently, we were just one of thousands in the same boat (so to speak). Finally got someone out at 7:30 pm to start sucking water out. We hauled everything up from the storage room and things that couldn't be put up off the floor. We had good friends come help. The contractors found the food storage cans very usefull to prop couches, beds, dressers and book cases on. We only really lost one 40 pound bag of wheat. We took it out and spread it by the driveway for the wildlife. This morning there were turkey foot prints everywhere by the wheat. Our loss, their gain (or grain). At this point, we have eight huge fans and 3 dehumidifiers running constantly to try and dry out the drywall and concrete. They had to cut and pull out all the carpet and pad. We haven't had an insurance adjuster make it out yet. (they are a bit busy). We are just praying that we are covered. If it came from the ground, we will be denied. If it came from up above, we are covered. Thats, it.
I promise that I wil do better from now on doing the blog and even figure out how to post pictures. I love seeing all the pictures from Betsie, Juli, Arah, and Toni. I love you all so much and miss those of you who are so far away. Happy New Year!!!!
I will catch everyone up a bit.
Last time I wrote, we had just gotten David home from his mission. He wasted no time in pursuit of his long time sweetheart Lucy Giblette. Lucy didn't put up much resistance. We were pleased to attend their wedding September 6th and the recepton at our home. I had my wonderful sisters and nieces all here and they just jumped in and took charg of the food. It was a beautiful event and we are so happy to add another daughter to the family.
Michael and Aubree lived with us for about 10 months and just moved to Rexburg to attend BYUI. Our house just seems sad adn empyt without them. David and Lucy moved to Elizabeth, Colorado to be with her family until they also will move to Rexburg to attend BYUI in June.
Natalie is still attending EWU full time instead of attending East Valley High School. She is doing well and earning both high school and college credits (no cost!). She is applying to attend BYUI as well next fall. Natalie is still working at a day care everyday after school. They love her there and she is considering doing some nannying during the summer.
Mandy is on the verge of turning 17 in a month. She is a junior at East Valley and works at Subway. She is truly a sandwich artist. She likes her job for the most part. She likes the paycheck the best.
Dean and I are always trying to find new products to boost our bussiness. This fall we started installing a new product to Homescapes. It is permanent holiday lighting. You have it installed on your home and leave it up year round to use for any holiday. It is LED lights so it uses very little energy, matches your homes exterior so during the day or when it it off, you don't even know it is there. We had some great success with sales befor Christmas on homes. Now we are consentrating on hitting the commercial market. We have already installed it on Krispy Kreme donut shop and the downtown Cricket wireless store of Matt's. We are doing a second Cricket store this week and are going to hit all the little Espresso stands. Yes, we still sell vacuums and home theater systems.
Now for the latest drama.... Well, as everyone knows, the winter is on overdrive. One snow storm after another. We are constantly just digging out. That is until Thursday when we got lots of warm wind blowing, melting everthing. For two days it was in the upper 40s and even though our house sits up on the hill, the snow and ice on the roof started melting straight into the basement. Not sure if it was ice dams except that as soon as we shoveled all the snow off the roof, it stopped flooding the basment. Thursday, Mandy got home from school and went downstairs to find most of the carpet wet. I ran home to check it out and was immediately calling insurance and flood restoration companies. Apparently, we were just one of thousands in the same boat (so to speak). Finally got someone out at 7:30 pm to start sucking water out. We hauled everything up from the storage room and things that couldn't be put up off the floor. We had good friends come help. The contractors found the food storage cans very usefull to prop couches, beds, dressers and book cases on. We only really lost one 40 pound bag of wheat. We took it out and spread it by the driveway for the wildlife. This morning there were turkey foot prints everywhere by the wheat. Our loss, their gain (or grain). At this point, we have eight huge fans and 3 dehumidifiers running constantly to try and dry out the drywall and concrete. They had to cut and pull out all the carpet and pad. We haven't had an insurance adjuster make it out yet. (they are a bit busy). We are just praying that we are covered. If it came from the ground, we will be denied. If it came from up above, we are covered. Thats, it.
I promise that I wil do better from now on doing the blog and even figure out how to post pictures. I love seeing all the pictures from Betsie, Juli, Arah, and Toni. I love you all so much and miss those of you who are so far away. Happy New Year!!!!
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