Come on in folks . . . . .

One year ago, today . . . .moving day. I can hardly believe it. A year . . . . and what a year! So I will write my thoughts and tiptoe around the giant elephant in the room. You know the one big thing standing there representing the fact that we have ANOTHER house that is STILL on the market after having caught on fire and blah blah blah. I'm going to just leave that and talk about our NEW house and our NEW ward and our NEW life. This house has 6 bedrooms which accommodated the 6 of us very well on October 27, 2007. Ken and I, Lindsay, J, Mark and Spencer (oh don't let me forget Spade) all had plenty of room and privacy in this house. There is even a built-in dog kennel out back. Little did we know that Cody and Lindsay would get married in April and Mark and Spencer would move out in July. Now Ken, J and I each have TWO bedrooms! Just Kidding. We now will have an exercise room, craft room, guest room etc. We love the space when all the kids come home for Sunday dinners. We are just a little short on furniture but will remedy that . . . . uh . . . . whenever.

We have been truly blessed in so many ways. Our ward is great. It's been a wonderful place for me to heal and adjust. The sisters here and pure and kind. I feel very lucky because I also see my longtime friends from Sandy once or twice a month and they are the BEST. Of course my mainstay is being able to work with my sister Juli every day. We have our own separate bad days . . . I kid you not . . .it always works that way and we bear each other up. Anyway I am so glad tonight that I am not surrounded by boxes and faced with the drudgery of moving in. We are here and hope to be here to stay for a good long time. I went around and took a few AFTER photos of some of the little things we've done around the house and yard. Ken will beg to differ about the word little - - he has busted his tail in the yard and since funds are a bit low, most of it has been just plain old hard work. So grateful for him and all he has done.

Before: Master Bath.
After: RED bathroom - - - Ami I need some sheers like yours above that tub window.
Before: J's "cute" pink room - - no after photo of the nice brown and tan room we made it - - sorry J it was a tad messy when I was taking pics yesterday - - -She's been busy guys!!!!
Before: Nice bedroom - - a little colorless for Lindsay.
After (once removed) - -this was Lindsay's statement - she loved it so much, we painted her and Cody's room that same color. See the bed - - it's a guest bed - hint hint - we welcome Spokane visitors.
Before: That fireplace wall just begged for some color - - I am not a decorator AT ALL - just heard that fireplace wall begging.
After: Just had to have a brown wall of some sort - - -you all might remember I fell off that ledge where the big brown jar is, scraped my shin a good one. All better now.
Before: Giant cottonwood trees - the shade looks nice but you should've seen the roots growing every which way in the lawn - - messy, messy, messy.
After: Cottonwoods gone - purple smoke trees - - - grass greener - lots of weeds gone.
Before: Lots of big aspen trees and their little babies growing in the lawn.

After: Aspen forest gone, replaced by little maple tree!