Merry Christmas to us...a little early...

We got an EXCELLENT deal on this Sony camera. I've been wanting this camera for so long, and finally we decided that it has been through sufficient upgrades since its original release about 5 years ago. We gave up two nights in a hideaway suite on the Oregon coast in two weeks for pictures of our lovely tent. At least this way I'll have a sore back and pictures, so I guess that's better than just a sore back from the hotel bed any day. Pictures of anything and everyone I can get to hold still coming soon!

A Little Less Bright...

I hope that this blog background doesn't do damage to your eyes as I realized the last one may have done. I have been playing around making my own backgrounds and using my new obsession of blue and red color schemes to decorate my world. Hope you enjoy this new background!

A Little Like Home...

We are officially moved into our new house!! While we still have some unpacking to do, it's beginning to feel like our home. Normally when we move there are not many options as to where stuff should go, but this house is quite the opposite, there is enough room that I am having a hard time deciding where stuff should go. I felt like I had every inch of wall space covered I could in our old home, and this house's walls seem quite bare. We hope you are all doing well, and we can't wait for you to come visit!

I've been tagged...

Just in case you were wondering...

Joys:
1.) Brooks and Dunn said it best " proud of the house we built, stronger than sticks, stones or steel" it hasn't always come wrapped up nice with pretty pink bows, but we've accomplished a lot in 2 1/2 years.
2.) everything "crafty"
3.) going to the beach with the family

Fears:
1.) I almost always hold the hand rail when on stairs, because I often dream that I fall down the stairs and knock out my teeth... I might have issues
2.) "I hope you have 10 children just like you" which followed "what goes around comes around" ... THANKS MOMMY!!
3.) The snakes that live around our office... our office in Fountain Hills is super nice, but the suites are all individual buildings surrounded by desert landscape and SNAKES. Although not far, we do have to go to another building to use the restroom and that is where the snakes love to hang out too (like their own little breakroom)... who do you call when you are afraid to come out of the bathroom because of a snake?

Goals:
1.) getting the new house unpacked in less than 1 week!!
2.) using my Saturdays to better prepare for the new week (cutting veggies and packing lunches)
3.) save a little play money for some time away before we start trying to have a baby again!!

Obsessions:
1.) if it can be organized by an excel spreadsheet, it is at my house and at work
2.) I'm paranoid about running out of laundry soap, so we usually have a years supply or more...
3.) staples in the carpet... I try to be extra careful around the office when throwing away staples, some, however, are not and when I am barefoot my feet are drawn to them like magnets... some may say that keeping my shoes on at work would resolve this issue, but I like to be barefoot when no clients are in the office.

Random Facts:
1.) I would give just about anything to have a "Harry Potter Wand"!
2.) In high school I was a nationally ranked bowler & # 2 in the state of Idaho (I only bowl via Wii these days)
3.) I got a 34 out of 36 on my ACTs

Tag you're it... Shalene, April & Noelle P.S. It's snowing in Idaho a ton right now...

Moving day is June 12th

We just received word that our new house will have its certificate of occupancy by the end of next week, which means moving day will be here 2 weeks sooner than we were planning.

Our New Pad

For those of you who have been following our house hunt, we are happy to announce that we will not be living in a "van down by the river" or under any freeways, but that we will be living in a real home.
Our new house is actually the brown one on the left side of this picture.








The front of our house is slightly different (I will take a picture of it soon), but the floor plan and kitchen are almost identical.
There are still 7 homes in the development that are being finished and once they are all complete we will have the option to purchase our home. Moving day is June 25th!

Priceless

Some of you may be wondering what has come of the aforementioned house we were trying to buy... So here is a brief overview of what we found as we went to inspect the home before finalizing an offer... As you can see from the listing picture it is a cute little house with what we thought to have quite a bit of "curb appeal"... Once inside it was immediately obvious why this reasonably priced home was still without an owner; the first clue should have been that the home had no light fixtures installed... Without lights the home appeared to be a real gem... lol... With a little light from our cell phones we tried to see if there was anything worth coming back to see in the daylight; and then we saw it... the home had been completely redone by some local artists... The kitchen window had been turned into quite the "glass sculpture" and many of the walls had been painted with each artists personal touch. I suppose everything that had been damaged in the break-in could have been repaired, but I just could not get over the creepy feeling that I got when I knew random strangers had been in the house doing whatever they wanted. So there you have it, and so our search continues for our new home.