What We's been up to...

Since my last post we have been homeless... in a sense. I'll back up a bit... The boys and I flew out to Utah to visit Andrew while he was closing up shop (literally, he is moving everything out of the shop) We figured we were only going to be here for a week and then all drive back to PA. WRONG! We got an offer on our house. Fabulous! So we stayed in Utah so we could be there to sign at the closing. Well the city we live in had a certificate of non-compliance on our house, so we couldn't sell it until we satisfied it. They said our back deck wasn't in compliance with city ordinance. So we started fixing up stupid things like put stain on the bottom of the deck, dig the footers from 16 inches deep to 31 inches deep (which actually isn't very smart because it made the ground unsettled again so the deck is going to move with the frost and heat) and a ton of other random stuff that honestly didn't make any sense and cost us way more money than we wanted to put into it. Oh, and did I mention that we already had the city inspect it a year and a half ago? The guy that came didn't fill out the paper properly so it "didn't count" or something like that. We were so annoyed. I think the guy that did all the inspections was just on a power trip because he had us do the most insignificant things. Its fine I'm over it now. We passed.

We had a date set up to close on the house once we got the city out of our hair. We got a call the morning of from the realtor informing us that the bank they were going to borrow from ran out of money. GREAT! The buyers really wanted to get the house but needed a special program for down payment assistance which is no longer offered. We thought it was over but they came back to us and told us that they talked to some family members and borrowed enough for a down payment. Now we are patiently waiting for their papers to go through a new lender. We think we'll close on Tuesday but I'm not crossing my fingers. I will be happy if it happens though :)

In the mean time, we are still in Utah we were staying in a hotel which was very expensive. We knew we had to put an end to that and checked out our options. My husband being the major deal maker that he is found us a cheap yet nice motor home on KSL so that is what we are staying in for the time being. It gets crazy but the boys love all the dirt and rocks they get to throw. We have the motor home parked at the shop so we can be with Andrew all day!

What Andrew has been up to in short... very short.... He has this thing for fixing up wrecked semi's you know the big diesel semi trucks. Well anyhow a year ago he bought them to work on over the winter while the construction industry is slow. His plan was to rebuild them and sell them. So he has a guy that wants to buy two of them but only has time to build one before we need to be back in PA. So he is rushing to get that finished before we head back. He will have to make one more trip out after this next one to get the rest of the shop stuff and then he can get it all set up in the shop back in PA.

Aus and Cam have been having fun seeing family and playing with friends. Camden got his first stitched too. When we were at the hotel he was on the bed and rolled off next to the night stand and landed on the bottom corner of the night stand (it was a funky design the bottom of it stuck out more than the top and had a very sharp corner) that slit his head open and he was bleeding like crazy. We took him to the hospital where he had to get 6 stitches in his head. He cried when they were numbing him up but slept through all the "sewing" He just laid on Daddy's chest and slept it was cute.
Since I don't have my camera with me I have very few photos of the last month (along with very little of everything. I flew out here for one week! For the love!!! Good thing I can get creative lol) I do however, have some of Cam's stitches and a few others.



Camden's cute face before...

and this is while we were waiting in the ER
.
sleeping with daddy

And the finished product. It didn't leave too bad of a scar. I even took out the stitches myself. Wasn't hard at all. He is doing fine now and has even managed to have a few close call repeat trips. Boys will be boys!

...Roughin' it...

We have finally made it to PA... Actually we have been here nearly two weeks now. We took our time driving out. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the trip back. The kids did really really well. It has been quite an adjustment going from a 3000 sq ft home to an 800 sq ft trailer and form the city to the middle of nowhere.

So far we have found snake skins under our trailer and all kinds of spiders. I even found a BIG pile of bear poop!!!!!!!! I almost passed out, the boys however have found great interest in bear poop and spiders and all the other bugs you get to live with when your backyard is part of the woods! Of course there are tons of tractor rides with daddy and they both follow him around everywhere with tools in hand so they can fix whatever it is he is fixing.

We have had TONS of good old fashioned home cooked meals made from scratch. We have picked beans and corn. Andrew's dad canned some beans and applesauce for us and I froze some corn so we are building up our food storage pretty quickly! I've learned a lot about gardening and have been helping in their HUGE garden. It has been pretty fun and a great learning experience so far.

Luckily our stay in this trailer is only temporary. We found a really nice new house. It's just a bit smaller than our house back in Utah but at least we will fit in it with all of our belongings. Also, it has a nice big wrap around covered porch. Property out here is so stinkin' cheap! Its a house on 4 acres with a shop, barn, shed and its all fenced in. It's only 100 thousand!! I couldn't believe it! Back home it would be more like one million dollars!

Oh yeah, there is one little catch... its an Amish house. which means it has no bathrooms or electricity and only running water to the kitchen sink!!!! Luckily it will all be really easy to install because they didn't finish the basement or upstairs so all the walls are easily accessible. We will slowly finish the basement and top floor. We are really lucky to have found such a great house for so cheap it will only take a week or so for Andrew to put in the electric and plumbing and then we can move in.

Well this had turned into a book. I haven't taken many pictures but I do have one of the bear poop. ;) I tried to show how big it is by putting my hand next to it so you can compare, but the angle still makes it look smaller than it is. EW!!

My Tractor Boys!!

The boys love to ride this tractor. Its so funny to watch because Aus puts it in fast mode and they cruise around the back yard like crazy. Somehow Camden manages to hold on the entire time. You'd be surprised to see how fast this little toy goes!

Aussie Sauce

So yesterday we went to Arby's to get some dinner. We went through the drive through because we were on our way down to drop the kids off at Kira and Tommy's for the night. I placed our order and pulled through to pay when the guy asked me if I wanted horsey or arby's sauce. I was about to say no thanks when Aussie yelled from the back seat "Hey! I want AUSSIE SAUCE please!!!"

It was pretty funny. The guy could hear him and just laughed at him. He is always saying crazy stuff like that.

So since we took the kids down there I got to sleep in (well for the most part) until 10:10 this morning!!! It has been years since I have been able to sleep in that late. The only problem was that we were up til 1am so I really only got the same amount of sleep, maybe a little more, than usual. Either way it was really nice and I am one happy camper today!

A new first for me

I guess there is a first for everything right? Well I had my first car accident yesterday! I have never been in a car accident before and to make it worse it was MY FAULT!!! We were in the interstate in rush hour traffic. It was stop and go and at this particular point in time everyone hit the gas and went faster than they had before and then all of a sudden slammed on the breaks. I didn't have time to stop before I hit the car in front of me, which hit the car in front of him. Since I was the one in the back I got cited for it. BUT the guy behind me was seriously an inch away from hitting me! DANG IT!! lol...
Anyhow, there wasn't much damage done to anyones car. My car had the least amount of damage. You could hardly tell it was even in an accident. The other guys had minor bumper damage. So it really wasn't a big deal at all.
Andrew came down and met me there and told the guys we would just pay to fix their bumpers rather than let it go through our insurance and pay the deductable and then a higher premium on top of that. They were cool with doing it that way.
Luckily it was just me in the car. I had someone watching the kids. I think that is what I was thankful for the most.
I think I did pretty good going 27 years without having an accident. Lets just hope my luck continues and I dont have any for at least another 27 years!

Halloween 2007

I was going through Andrews computer and found these pics from last year. Sorry they're late but hey- better late than never right? Aren't they such cute little boys? I think Aussie's outfit turned out really cute!

Rumor Has It...

In answer to everyone's question. YES we are moving. We are actually really excited about it too! We have been planning on this since November but just have kept it quiet because we didn't know the exact time frame. Having a company takes a lot of things out of your control so we were just waiting til the company said we could move :)
We are moving back to Pennsylvania about an hour and a half north of Pittsburgh. Andrew is from there and we have some property that we can build on. So the plan for now is to go back and rent for the time being and start another company that has less to do with constructin seeing as the economy has taken a sky dive.
We knew that we were supposed to be back there, the Lord has made that very clear. It was just hard to see how it was all going to happen so soon, but we did everything moving forward with going back there and things are REALLY starting to fall into place. We have an offer on our house and we never even listed it!! We wanted to fix/replace a few things to make it perfect to sell but the buyer didn't want us to do that. Which is actually a blessing. We have a few options for a place to live back there for a VERY good price.
I am actually enjoying the "de-junking" process of moving. I hate clutter so things we dont use we are getting rid of. We're having a huge yard sale. Furniture and all will be there! We currently have 3 living/family rooms in our house and the new one will only have one so we have to get rid of at least 2 rooms of furniture, which is fine by me! I am looking forward to having a smaller house to clean and being out in the open away from a ton of people. The city wont be too far from us and we will have 2 large cities within 2 hours either direction. It will be a change but we are all looking forward to it.
Most of all I am excited to live in the mission field again and have all the opportunities to be a part of mission work! Its just a branch right now so it will be like a small ward family. Everyone in the church is really close and they know everyone, nobody gets lost in the cracks. We will also have the chance to feed the missionaries more than once every two years!! Seriously I'm STOKED!!

A few pics from DC

Aus and I in front of the Washingtom Monument.
This is "Cam-diggity-doo-dah" and his cute dimples!!! Poor kid has so many nick names... But he is still super cute.
Aus and I by something. I cant remember the name of it. But it was really cool. I'm glad we got to go

And one more cause I'm on a roll....

Aussie has always been so diligent about standing in time out (for the most part) I just had to snap this pic because I laugh everytime he is in time out with his nose in the corner. He pushes it way into the corner and stands on his tippy toes. What a funny little boy. When he is done with time out he will always come up to me and give me a hug and say "sorry mommy. Aussie was naughty" and then give me a kiss. How can you stay mad at that?

More pics from kira's wedding

More sister pics

Andrew was being a good husband and painting my toenails for the reception. Its his designated job. I always get the paint all over my skin . I like this one of Aussie cause he looks so GQ. He is a cute kid!