One thing after another

I planned to post more often than I have, but just like my journal, I tend to procrastinate and several events, alas, are never recorded. But today, I am compelled to use the free time available to me now to sum up as much as possible. The English graduate in me likes to go into the details, but I have to squash that inclination so that I can get it all posted before I am distracted.

We've been enjoying our new home for several months now, making improvements such as ceiling fans in all the bedrooms upstairs, spraying insulation in the attic, a ceiling fan downstairs (which also takes care of the lighting problem. Why do home builders think it's ok to leave large rooms in the dark?) and a general house fan that reduces our need for air conditioning and ultimately uses less electricity. We have gone at least two weeks without using the air conditioner in the middle of July, so I think we made a good investment.

David after spraying insulation in the attic.

A lot of events have occurred apart from moving in and fixing up our house. Way back in March, we had family visit to see our new house. We enjoyed filling up the place and doing things like going to the beach, and later attending a hockey game. Somehow I missed getting any pictures of Irene's family, but I did manage to get some video, which I won't be posting since it has had issues in the past.

Out of all the teams Stockton Thunder would be playing against that weekend, it had to be Boise Steelheads.

After everyone left and the house was empty, Lucy decided to show some new tricks.

She had already been a master roller up to this point. But after watching her younger cousin crawl circles around her, she realized she was capable of more.

 

Thus the crawler was born. Naturally, other developments followed, such as eating solid foods.

 

 

Sitting up.

 

Picking things up with her fingers.

 

Scaling along furniture and such.

 

And climbing the stairs.

 

She even found a way to get on the couch by climbing the stairs and crawling over the armrest. Smart cookie!

 

In May, we received the news of Wise Granny Jo's passing. So we began the long trek from California to Utah to attend her funeral. Along the way, Lucy went to bizarre lengths to entertain herself. She has always had a fascination with tags, such as those you'd find sewn on clothes, toys, blankets, etc. We didn't realize how determined she could be until we caught her with her arm stuck in the hole of the headrest strapped to her carseat. She had found a tag behind her head!

 

In Utah, we stayed with David's grandparents. We attended Amy's and Lee's ward, and we also got to hang out with Mom, Ani, and Carson.

 

 

We had family home evening with David's extended family, and we visited his sister and her husband, who are currently expecting! Then, of course, there was the funeral, where almost the entire family had shown up, minus one brother on a mission. And we also got to see some extended family that I had not seen in a long time. It was good to recall memories of Grandma Jo, and I was glad I could be there. Later, we went to the burial site.

 

 

David and I decided to go visit some grave sites from his side of the family as well. 

 

 When we went back to the church, Grandma's teddy bear collection was divied up among her posterity. We each picked one that had the most sentimental value to us.

 

I picked one of her black bears for me and a tiny stuffed owl for Lucy.

 

When all was said and done, some of the siblings decided to hang out some more by going to temple square. And of course we had to get a picture in front of the temple in which David and I were sealed almost two years ago.

 

Ahh, the lovely temple.

 

We also visited other popular sites such as the exhibit focusing on the temple, the christus statue, and the church history museum, ultimately ending in the kiddie section.

 

 

David built Lucy a padded castle while in the kiddie section. 

 

Apparently, she doesn't understand that a toy fish does not need mouth-to-mouth when it is pulled from the water.

 

Sadly, our Utah trip had to come to an end. Soon we were back home, and Lucy was hitching to show us some more things up her sleeve.

 

She had now become a proficient climber of stairs, enough to handle climbing the big stairs while clutching a light-weight hose. 

 

Long before this point, Lucy had developed a sleep schedule, to which she was pretty consistent. This made me a happy momma, who no longer has to lose more sleep at night and who accomplishes more during the day.

 

This is where I usually find Lucy while her daddy is working outside.

 

Our next big adventure was getting a visit from Amy, Lee, Anine, and Carson, who all stayed at our house for a few days. I couldn't get enough pictures of Lucy and Carson together. It was too cute.

 

Then once again we were back to life as usual.

 

For July 4th, we spent the morning attending a ward breakfast which was followed by retiring some flags that were pretty worn.

 

 Later, we went to David's mom's where we lit some fireworks. I keep waiting for Lucy to make an emotional response to things that you'd think would startle her, excite her, or even scare her. For all of them, nothing. My girl remains merely interested, but it almost seems passive. Such was the case when she saw fireworks for the first time. But she at least had enough facial expression when we took the opportunity that weekend to snap a family photo.

 

Considering our other attempts, . . . we'll just say we were lucky to get the shot we did. 

 

For the most recent events, Lucy went swimming for the first time, and she started walking just before 11 months. It's getting better every day, but she still relies more on crawling. Not for long though.

  So now that I have everything updated . . . at least, I think it's all up to date . . . what am I missing? . . . oh yeah.

 

 

Yes, it's true. We have a puppy. Her name is Reba and she's about 3 months old. It hasn't been a piece of cake, but we're surviving. To help with the adjustment, we are currently taking dog training classes that have so far proven to be the smartest thing we've done. Now she's on her way to becoming a well-behaved dog, and I hope it's not a long trip. We'll see I guess, but on the plus side, she is teaching me a lot of patience. I say that with as little sarcasm as the sentence will allow, because it is a much desired attribute that I have striven for, and nothing has been more effective in helping me obtain it than this puppy. And in retrospect, she was the mildest puppy we saw when we met her for the first time. Out of all the dogs, she was the only one who didn't bark at us; she just whined. And we felt good about her, so I keep reminding myself of that. In the classes, she has a head start on the other dogs, which seem to cause their owners more problems, and they are older than her. So even though it isn't easy, it could be worse. 

So as I said before, we're surviving and we're going on with our lives. Just goes to show how much can happen in less than a year. 

Welcome to our home!

So I know David and I have been living in our new home since February and I'm just now getting pictures posted, but better late than never. I will proceed to take you through it, starting with the front.

I had to take quite a few shots to encompass the entire thing. So hopefully these will give you the whole picture.

And this is closer to our red front door.

Now I will proceed to take you through the rooms as though I was literally giving you a tour, which means I won't show a room downstairs and then randomly post another room upstairs, because that would be physically impossible in reality.

First, here is our entry way. There are a couple steps up to the main floor.

Yes, we do have a fish tank to the side. David already had some, which were being kept at his parents until we found a home. Now we have both contributed to decorating it, giving it a theme, and adding more fish as time has gone by.

Turning to the right is our front room or living room.

The piano came from David's parents. They had two pianos in their home, so they aren't missing it. I had it tuned and now it doesn't sound half bad. It's been nice to finally own one.

Moving forward, we have our dining room.

Here is another view that isn't quite so bright.

And we're moving, we're moving, past the dining room, on to the kitchen.

As you can see, we have a lovely overhang that allows us to look down into the family room.

 

Moving forward, turning around, this is another view of the kitchen. I wasn't fond of the black and white checkerboard in the beginning, but I think it might be growing on me. The cupboard space is really nice. But I could still use a little more countertop. One day we'll make some changes, but it is quite manageable in the meantime, much better than the other options we had for homes. I could hardly stand those kitchens.

Now we are on our way out of the kitchen. As you can see, it leads us back to the entryway.

So if we turn left, you will see stairs leading down to our family room.

We spend most of our time down here. So far it has stayed fairly cool on warmer days.

The following are more views of the family room.

Next to the tv is a door that leads to the laundry room. The door beyond that is the garage. We don't need to go in there. Nothing to see.

Step in the laundry room, turn left. Here is a half bathroom.

Back in the family room is another door next to the stairs. This is a closet that lies beneath the other stairway leading to the second floor. I've begun to find a use for it. I'm sure Harry Potter wouldn't have minded this broom cupboard. Quite roomy!

Back upstairs, we will now proceed to the second floor.

One thing you'll find throughout the whole top floor is that there are a lot of mirrors. But at the top of the stairs to the left are our spare rooms.

This room is the sparest of all. We sort of dubbed it our arts and crafts room, but I don't expect it to be used that often before it is occupied by our kids. For now, it's more of a guest room.

This has been transformed into David's office, which is currently getting a ceiling fan installed.

It is also his exercise room. The machine will hopefully be moved to a more convenient location.

On to the other rooms.

To the left is the upstairs bathroom.

I'm not fond of the shower doors. Not gonna lie. One day I hope we replace them.

Turning around. To the right of the stairs is Lucy's room.

Her room was one of those things that made me most excited about moving. Obviously, one of the reasons had to do with sleeping arrangements. Lucy is now accustomed to sleeping alone. The other is that her room, unlike the one in our apartment, is solely dedicated to holding her stuff and not our other boxes, spare furniture, or junk. Because now we have storage room for all of that.

(The rocking horse came from an enthusiastic great grandma, by the way.)

In our apartment, I couldn't even hang her clothes up. I had to keep them in boxes. Now it's easier for me to see which clothes fit her yet.

Her crib stuff came from David's mom as a gift.

Now, on to the last room, between the bathroom and Lucy's, is the master bedroom.

We still have our air mattress. David wants to construct our bed with his own hands and it is at the top of his list of wood-building projects, which is good because I think our mattress will one day say it's had enough!

The closet isn't very big, but it was one of those things that I decided I could live with. After this long, I think I can.

Now to the backyard. As you can see, we have a huge oak tree, which causes some concern should we ever have a natural disaster. Unfortunately, before we take it out, they have to send a notice to the whole area to see if anyone would protest. Not to mention, even if we could proceed in taking it out, the law requires that we put another one in. I'm not too happy with that law.

We have planted fruit trees along the back, such as orange, plum, peach, cherry, and a cocktail tree that has peach, apricot, and a third fruit which I believe is nectarine.

On the sides of the house, we have these elephant-size gates. The previous owner had deadbolts on them, but they didn't give us a key for them. David spent several days trying to cut them because they were that durable. He was so impressed by them, we bought the same ones. Only difference is we now have a key for them.

So now you've officially toured our new house. Once again, sorry I took so long to post pictures.