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!!!!