The Good, The Bad & The Ugly of the Last 3 weeks

Not necessarily in that order ;D

The Bad & Ugly

The night of my last post, the swamp cooler at our new house died, but I didn't fully comprehend it until the next morning as the temperature kept rising. Can I just say that 8 months of pregnancy and a 92 degree house are NOT compatible! I contacted the owner of the house and he said, he could fix it around 6 pm. I decided it was a good day to run every errand we could think of, so we went birthday shopping for Max at Toys R Us, bought odds and ends at Ikea and Home Depot, and made a grocery run to Walmart. We arrived back at our new house at 5:45, just after the owner, Steve, had come with a new pump and float for the swamp cooler. 

What you need understand is that it was raining cats and dogs, and Steve was already on the roof when we came home. The boys had been pointing out every streak of lightning as we drove home, and I was convinced that Steve wouldn't and shouldn't try to fix the cooler until after the storm. But apparently we have one of the nicest landlords on the planet, and he wouldn't hear of postponing the repair any longer.

He needed me to turn off the cooler motor inside the house and the water hose to the cooler in the back yard. I told him, that I was seriously worried about him working on the roof in this weather, but he insisted.

The kids were unloading groceries and I ran around flipping switches and turning knobs, and the rain kept POURING down. As we were putting groceries in the fridge, there was a flash of lightning and one of the biggest booms of thunder that I've ever heard. They were simultaneous! 

I went running into the front yard yelling, "Steve! Steve!!! Steve, are you okay?" I couldn't see him - I was panicked. I thought he'd been struck by the lightning and fallen into the back yard, but he finally appeared by crawling out of the AC box.  He said he thought that he'd be fine because there were all of these tall pine trees around the house and then he went back to work. More crashes of lightning struck near the house... VERY near the house! Zach or Gabe would come running to me with a report on whether Steve was okay. The pump on the cooler was completely burned out and the unit was flooded. Steve replaced the pump and the float with much higher quality ones and finally climbed down from the roof SOAKING wet! He then proceeded to fix the sprinkler-head that wasn't working in the front yard. Wow - talk about going the extra mile - I don't even know what else to say.

After Steve left, the kids and I went to a party in our old neighborhood. It was heavenly. Great people... good conversation... air-conditioning... it was a fabulous evening. When the kids and I arrived home after the party, I realized that the City Utility Truck had come by... 

but they didn't bring the two recycling cans I requested last week... 

the took the only garbage can we had. 

Yep, I definitely needed to go back to the city office.

Now, going without garbage cans during any week is difficult, but in the middle of a move, it's down right ugly. I headed to the utility offices first thing on Tuesday morning and met my new BFF,  Lindsay. She got our utility mix up straightened out and even took the time to call the garbage delivery guy so we could get our garbage cans quickly instead of waiting the standard 3 to 5 business days. 

On Wednesday the AC broke down again! At 89 degrees, the kids & I then headed to the old house to do more cleaning inside, and weed the  window wells and pour gravel in them to keep the weeds out. Much to my surprise, my friend Heather saw my boys and offered to let them play at her house during the day. This turned out to be a huge help because my next surprise was a parade of contractors through the house and I ended up spending much of the afternoon talking remodeling with them.  The good news was that the garbage cans arrived that evening. Thank you, Lindsay!

By Thursday afternoon the house was in the 90's, and I headed back to our old house to finish the rest of the projects that I mentioned before and met another contractor. Matt arrived home from his latest trip and that evening, he and Steve climbed onto the roof where Matt took "Swamp Coolers 101" and came down with the cooler repaired and enough knowledge to manage any future problems. This time the new float had become stuck, but it was a simple fix and we haven't had any problems since.

By the following week, we received the estimate for the remodeling and it came in at a whopping 25% more than we originally thought. 25% is a LOT when we're talking thousands of dollars, but as Matt and I went over the list, there just wasn't anything we felt good about cutting, so we gave the "go ahead" to the general contractor and work began last week.

To be totally honest, I think the ugliest part of this week was me acting like fire-breathing-dragon-Mommy.  I was "losing it" with the kids much too often as they wouldn't stay on task or kept putting things in random or wrong places after I asked them to move something. I filled an empty garbage can with boxes of new lightbulbs and asked a child to take the can to the back of the van, but they'd dump them in the trash can outside and broke the lightbulbs. I kept asking kids to haul things to the shed or van and they'd dump them in the stairwell and disappear. I'm sighting only two of these incidents but they were EPIDEMIC! By the end of the week I was worn out, infuriated with my kids and even more so with myself.

The Good

Though the week I just described was extremely difficult, I'm happy to report that the last two weeks have been a huge improvement. We've finally reached a point where all the rooms in the house are unpacked and functioning beautifully, with the exception of Matt's office.  Our old TV broke shortly before we moved, and we threw it in the trash. We only had one TV so the kids have been without the Wii or Netflix for a month. To motivate their help in settling into our new home, we said we'd buy a new TV once the house was unpacked. Last week, we fulfilled the promise and bought a monster 55" LCD LED flatscreen - it's Matt's new baby and the kids think they've gone to heaven.

Matt had a beautiful built-in desk at our old home, but when we moved, we repurposed my old craft desk and a folding table to create on office for him. I have to laugh a little when I describe the problems with this arrangement - the laminate on the ancient desk is peeling and sticky to the touch, so on one surface it's pulling the hair on his arms and on the folding table, the arm hair is building up static and shocking him as he works. (hee-hee) I've hunted for a new desk system for him, and with his 'okay' I picked it up from IKEA this week. One of our weekend projects is to get the desk built and his office in order. :D

We celebrated Max's 6th Birthday with a family party to Seven Peaks and then lunch at our house. It was so nice to stop the endless unpacking and have some family fun.

Surprise!

Max with his new clothes, golf clubs,
and pokemon game and organizer.

The Poke-ball Cake

The Party

Matt's brother Joe & his beautiful wife Naomi had their third baby, Logan. He looks adorable and it makes me wish we lived closer to the cute nieces and nephews that are joining our family. In fact, I have two other sisters-in-law who are pregnant right now and we'll have a bumper crop of babies on Matt's side of the family this year.

My new nephew, Logan

We've enjoyed a visit from my sister and her family, who spent last weekend in town. We've attended church and neighborhood parties for the 24th of July, been invited to new friends homes for dinner or dessert, and realized that our new bishop was not exaggerating when he said that the there are NUMEROUS opportunities to meet people and make friends in this area - people have been GREAT!

We started our calling in the nursery and we're already enjoying the kids. One little girl named, Liberty is smitten with Matt. She talks to him about every little thing she's doing - so cute! And Lauren just returned this morning from her second round of girl's camp and she loved being able to go with the old ward and now the new.

The construction on the house is going beautifully. We've walked through the place a couple of times - right after the "demolition" and then a week later.  It's becoming the house I always wanted it to be and I found myself almost envying the next family who will live there until I thought about how well things are going in our new place. :D

The boys and I started taking a morning walk to their school each day. (YES!!! We are within walking distance to the school! It's glorious!) As the boys play on the playground, I walk the school track and then we head home. All told, I've been able to get in three miles a day - a very slow 3 miles and my waddling pace - but I'm feeling good and feeling better about life in general. My doctor has scheduled my c-section at the hospital on August 15th, so we'll be arriving for the delivery at 5 am.  The light at the end of this moving tunnel is shining brighter each day, and I'm reaching a point where my focus is moving from an overwhelming "to do" list to the arrival of a sweet new baby. The whole family is getting really excited and Jared keeps saying, "Is there a baby in your tummy? ... It's getting SOOOO BIG!" :D