One Mo' 'Gain

We just got back to ND from another week in ID. It was a fun week, we celebrated my birthday and got lots done on the house, but I'm so TIRED of driving back and forth. We have one more trip scheduled, then we are staying put for a LONG time.

We had originally wanted to leave Sunday afternoon, after Tad finished work, but SLB has suddenly decided that Mondays must be worked, so we didn't get to leave until Monday morning. We arrived, finally, in Idaho Falls at about 9:00 pm. Hailey had worked hard to clean the house and make a birthday treat for me, so this is what we found when we arrived.

This is what it looked like on the inside--I loved it! So bright and happy and cheerful!

She is such a sweet girl. I love her and miss seeing her all the time.

I had a fun time on our Sister Birthday Lunch day on Thursday.

(I am NOT in  pain, I've just never taken a selfie before--my arms aren't long enough)

We did all the things we love to do--went to Porters, JoAnn, Michaels, Wood Connection and had lunch at Cafe Rio (my birthday--my pick). I do love my family and miss seeing them.

Tad got lots done on the house. He finished all the trim work on the bedroom and closet downstairs, and got all the sheetrock hung in the family room. We had the exterior of the house professionally painted, and it looks to nice! So crisp and fresh. We are glad we did that. We are slowly making progress towards being ready to sell the house. Now that the sheetrock is hung in the FR, we can tape and texture, then paint. After that, probably new carpet in parts of the house and more paint in the kitchen and upstairs bedroom will have us done with all the fix-its.

I've gotten lots of things done at the new house, too, not least of which was this

to hang on my craft room door. Tad helped me do a couple things yesterday, which made me feel much better about things. There are so many little "finishing" projects to do--never a lack, but I still don't feel "done" yet. I guess I need to give myself more credit. We are moved in and comfortable here.

We Are Here!

I've been in Williston for nearly 3 weeks now. We closed on the house Thursday, June 26 and got the keys. The moving truck arrived Monday, June 30 with all our household goods. If I had to put a percentage on being moved in and settled, I'd say we are at about 96%. All I have left to do is a little decorating--putting pix on walls, hanging sheers in the Living Room windows,  putting a few last things into the storage room. We like being here, for the most part. There are a few minor flaws with the house, but the maintenance crew will be here tomorrow to fix them. The biggest problems so far have been with water and electricity--or doing without them. I don't know if it because we are in a brand new subdivision in a brand new area, but in the 2 weeks we have actually "lived" in the house, 3 of those days have been without water, and 1 day without electricity for about 11-12 hours. It's kind of a little trippy, but I think things will iron themselves out.

I am loving the house, but I still get lost in it. This sounds funny, because I looked at the floor plan every day for 5 months, but when I come out of the craft room, I'm turned around and keep thinking the master bedroom is next to me on the left, when it is actually on the far end of the house, at my right. I'm sure I will eventually get it figured out, but I still have to laugh at myself. We still don't have internet access, but we have filled out the application. Hopefully it will be installed soon. Thank goodness for public access at the library, and being able to access at Tad's office. I know I'm WAAAYYY behind on updating the blog, but that is how it is.

Williston itself is an interesting little town. It is literally "the town that never sleeps". There is such a feeling of hustle and bustle here. Everything is "gotta go, gotta go, gotta go". It is growing faster than it can keep up with, and there is so much possibility for everything here. We like it and we are glad to be in the area. The little town of Epping is just that--little, but it, too, is growing as fast as it can.  One of these days I'm going to count the oil wells that are on the road  between here and there, but there are probably at least 10, and several more in process. Tad saw a t-shirt or a bumper sticker the other day that said, "If not for the Bakken, we'd all be walkin'." It's pretty true.

We are looking forward to spending next week in Idaho, celebrating Tad's birthday, seeing all my sibs, holding my new, little nephew Evan, lunching with my sisters, hugging my kids. It's going to be a fun time! I do love my family and miss seeing them often, so it makes weeks like next week more special.

Wow!

I'll say it again. Wow! The packing crew came today to pack our things for our move. Those guys are good, fast and efficient. It only took them 5 hours to pack everything we are taking to North Dakota. I am just blown away. It'll be interesting to see how long it takes to load everything onto the truck tomorrow. Wow!

I can't believe this week finally got here. It didn't seem like we would ever be here at moving day. It's exciting to think that in 2 days I will be "there". 2 days! Yay!

Ahhhh, Summer!

There is probably a lovely quote on my Pinterest board extolling the virtues of summer, but I'm not going to go find one. I'm just going to say that I'm glad it is finally summer, and now we can start enjoying lovely summer weather.

I'm only 5 days away from being in my new home, and I'm more than a little excited. I'm so excited, but I'm so tired, and there is still so much to do to be ready to leave Wednesday morning. None of it is hard or time consuming, but sometimes the little things can add up to bigger things. I've been pacing myself to get certain things done on certain days, but once in a while a wrench gets thrown into the works and puts me a little off schedule. I am adaptable and I will get it all done. I will have to. Monday is the drop dead date--the movers will be here at 8:30 am to start packing, so I HAVE to be done. I will have time to rest next Friday--we will be in the house, but the movers won't have arrived with the truck yet to unload, so I won't have much to do but rest. This is sounding a little like complaining, but I'm really not. I'm feeling pretty happy and upbeat, but also a little whelmed. I'll be fine. It will be GREAT to be with my sweetie.

Busy Times

So much to tell, where do I begin? At the beginning...

Tad has been home for the last 2 weeks, and I've loved having him here. He took last week off as vacation for Hailey's graduation. We spent a fun, relaxing week with the kids and grandbabies. It is so fun to watch them be their little selves. I got the biggest kick out of little Elizabeth, as she would play or run around the house, pausing for a minute to say, "Hey, Nona,..." and then proceed to tell me what was on her mind or ask a question. Evie was also non-stop, just busy, busy, busy. We played their little games and cleaned up their mischief making.

 Evie got a Curious George Zoo game for her birthday, and it comes with masks so the kids can be the animals in the zoo. Elizabeth is our little lion cub

 Evie likes to wear the piggy mask

 Elizabeth

 Evie

 More Sour Cream, please!

Elizabeth--Pretty with her makeup, just like her mommy!

We did get our family pictures taken. I'd forgotten, temporarily, that we live in Idaho, and the wind ALWAYS blows here, so we were out at the park, trying to look pretty, with our hair blowing all in our eyes. The pix actually turned out better than I feared they would. Thank goodness for hairspray.

 Me with my sweetie!

 Evie, Jessica, Elizabeth, Todd, Hailey, Annette, Tad, Cassie, Scott

 Elizabeth and Evie

 The two cutest grand-girls in the world

Hailey's graduation was Wednesday, June 4. She is very glad to be done with school. I think that she and all her friends needed to be done, because patience was wearing thin and nerves were getting a little frayed. They have all started to scatter to the winds, with college, summer internships and missions.

Hillcrest High School Class of 2014

And lots more good news! Tamara and Benjamin had their baby boy May 30. His name is Evan. We are thrilled at the newest addition to our family. I get to be an auntie again!

Jennifer is still about 10 weeks out on the birth of her baby, but we now know that she's having a little girl, and Mavis is absolutely thrilled with the idea of a little sister.

We also (FINALLY) have a closing date on our house. We will be signing our lives and paychecks away on June 26. Yay! It is such a relief to have a date circled on the calendar. 

So many good things happening, and so many blessings we have received.

Breathe In, Breathe Out

I spoke with our loan officer this morning. The appraiser still hasn't filed his appraisal with the VA. That information has necessitated a call to the moving company to bump our moving day back about a week (at least). That makes me just a little grumpy, but there are so many blessings to offset that tiny bit of news. Our grandbabies will be here in 2 days, with their parents in tow. I  plan to spend all next week vegging, playing in the back yard with the girls and not worrying about moving or packing or traveling or anything. It's going to be a fun week, with Hailey's graduation as the centerpiece of the week. We are going to eat good food (cleaning out the freezer in the process), laugh, play and enjoy each others' company. We have also scheduled a family pix. It'll probably  be our last opportunity for a very long time.

Hailey's class had an awards assembly last night, giving out the scholarships and awards. Hailey is graduating with honors, so she will get to wear the gold braid on her graduation gown. I'm so proud of her and her hard work. She is SOOOO ready for this whole thing to be finished.

The moving company rep came yesterday for our walk-through. It's so revealing to see your home through another's eyes. I thought I was doing well with the decluttering--then again, maybe not. There is still so much to do, maybe the additional week will be a blessing.

I've been trying to get loose ends tied up and knotted. There are so many little things that go along with moving. Got our Temple Recommends renewed--our stake leaders will be nearly 2 hours away in ND, but only 5 minutes away here. Stocked up on new unnies. Ordered a new Washer/Dryer set (half the price of anything we've seen up in ND). Scheduled final "girlie" checks. Took the sewing machine in to be cleaned and serviced. Still so much to do, but I'm getting a handle on it.

We are finally enjoying spring/summer weather. I'm reveling in having the windows open and the breezes wafting through. I even took one blanket off the bed!

Let It Go

Tad was home this last week, and we spent lots of time cleaning. We spent one whole day cleaning out the garage, another whole day cleaning out the shed and two other days doing yard work. We also spent that cleaning time making piles of things to be donated. Now it must be understood that we are NOT packrats. I am really a pretty organized person, and things have NOT piled up. We'd never qualify for an episode of "Hoarders". We have lived in this house for 8.5 years, though, (the longest we have ever lived ANYWHERE) and things have accumulated a little, since this is where we raised our 3 kids. We ended up making 4 trips to the Youth  Ranch donation drop-off, just in this week. That doesn't include the fact that I make a big trip to the drop-off about once a month. Most of it was stuff we've used well and outgrown the need for. It was all good and usable. The beauty thing is, it's now OUT of our lives, OUT of our heads and OUT of our house. We don't and won't miss it, especially since the kids are all (going to be) out of the house. I love the mental freedom of a good de-cluttering. I know that there are tons of blogs showing how to organize things in one's home, but I've always thought it was better to have less to organize in the first place. I don't have before and after photos, since this is not that type of blog, but suffice it to say that a little more breathing room is a wonderful thing. It will also be much easier for the movers to pack our household goods.

Crunch Time

Things progress towards our moving day, but we don't even know when that will be. I need to call our moving coordinator this week and let her know what our tentative plans are for closing on the house and when we want to move. This is the first time in my live I've ever NOT packed the boxes and loaded the truck for a move, and it is weird! Usually by this time we are living out of nearly full boxes and the walls are bare, but this time I'm not supposed to pack anything. The only thing I CAN do is declutter the house and every room so the movers don't pack something I don't want to take. There is a little bit of overlap between what we are taking for ourselves, what we are leaving until we sell the house and what Hailey will need to survive until then and after. Ack! I'm afraid that when all the dust settles there will be too many things in the wrong places.

Tad has only 1 more rotation home before Hailey's graduation and our moving week. She has 2 weeks of school left before graduation and boy, is she trunky! Tad will be here for 1 week, go back to work for 1 week then come back for her graduation. We will enjoy spending that week with all of our family and playing with the grandbabies. Then the week after that we will be doing major decluttering and taking lots of stuff to Goodwill and  waiting for the moving crew. Makes me tired just thinking about all of it.

The new house is progressing towards completion. We have the skirting on, the propane tank has been delivered, the front and back steps are in progress and the deck has been built. The sidewalks on the front and side of the house are poured and that's just what we can see on the outside. We've been told the inside trim work is also in progress. I'm so excited to see it in person!

Progress!

Our new home adventure took a gigantic step forward on Monday, when it was finally moved onto our lot. Yay! Tad drove out to see it Wednesday afternoon, and this is what he found...

Yeah, I know the resolution isn't great, but still, it's very nice to see this in place. It's all felt like a dream until now, because I've only ever seen the house on the sales lot. I look at this and it makes me happy--and sad. Happy about the house, sad because of all the yard work that is ahead of us, and I HATE yardwork. *Sigh* We are still on track for a mid-June closing date. :)

In other news, lest anyone think that I've ceased to be the Crafty Genius, in the last month or so I've made 5 baby crib sheets for my 2 dear sisters who are expecting babies this summer, remade my June wreath from last summer (pix to follow, since I'm still learning how to use my new camera), sewed Evie's birthday present, which was a pink monkey polar fleece bathrobe and slippers (which she had to show me the last time I skyped with her--she's tickled with them), painted a cute birdhouse to put in my new craft room (again,  pix to follow later) and I'm sure there are other crafty things I've been working on. I've also done a fair bit of decluttering in preparation for moving. I still have a few things that need to be done before I can have the craft room packed up to move, and other projects that are long-term enough to be able to work on after I move. One thing I do know--the next month and a half are going to be crazy hectic.

Waiting, and not very patiently, either!

I'm waiting for lots of things...
Spring (check!)
Summer Clothes (check!)
Sunshine
Green Grass
Blossoms and buds on trees
Warm days
Fabric at JoAnn
Closing on our...
...New Home
Baby Nephew
Hailey's Graduation
Having the Grand-girls come to visit
Moving
Setting up housekeeping
Baby Nephew/Niece
Braces off (this is almost too far off to contemplate, but my mouth hurts today and I'm over all the hardware in it.)

Lots of exciting things in the offing, so I am having to practice patience.

Yay for Sunshine!

Sunshine! Ahhhh, beautiful sunshine!

This hasn't been the worst winter in history, by any stretch, and we haven't had the horrible weather that the east coast and the Midwest have had, but we've had our days and weeks of cold and drear, and I'm ready for spring. Of course, in Idaho, spring can mean anything from sunshine to 2 feet of snow. I want to look out the window and see green and crocus--even weeds would look good right now. There is hope, though. The aspen in the front yard is bulging with buds and the woolly boogers will be here soon!

I'm making Evie's birthday present today. She will be 3 years old next week. When I asked her who said she could turn three, she proudly informed me that "I Did!". I asked her if she was the boss. She said her mommy was the boss, then asked me, "Nona, are you the boss?" I answered that I was the Big Boss, and everybody has to listen to me. If I said she could turn 3, then it was OK. She is such a smart and funny kiddo, and her little sister is right behind her, just as smart and funny. Elizabeth is learning to tell jokes. When her mommy asked her how old she was, she answered, "5!, 6!, 8!, 12!, 18! I funny!"

(and the birthday present? Well, it's a secret! Shhhh. When Evie gets it and opens the package, then I can do the reveal.)

I got my North Dakota license plates in the mail yesterday, and I wired money for the construction loan on Monday, so I guess it's official, I'm moving to North Dakota!  Even with all the negative comments I've gotten from people (and I haven't gotten a single positive comment, ever), I'm still excited to go and start a new life there with my sweetheart.

Still, still here, but not for long!

That sounds worse than the reality. The reality is that I will be moving within the next 3 months or so. My sweetie has been working in North Dakota for the last three years, rotating home for a week every two weeks. We had chosen to have me stay in Idaho until all our children were out of the house, because they still need a mom. Scott married last summer, and Hailey is set to graduate from high school this June, so there was and is nothing holding me to this house and this geographically-separated lifestyle.

We spent a week in North Dakota in January, looking for housing, and miracle of miracles, found something. Housing is hard to come by up there, and there was nothing in the way of real estate in our price range, and renting is prohibitively expensive. Our final option was a land/home package in a tiny rural community about 15 miles away from where Tad works. I've been spoiled by living in town for the last 8 1/2 years, so it will be a little bit of a culture shock to live outside of town again, but it will be worth it to have our own home on our own little piece of land. We will be getting a brand new home to be able to put together the way we want it, and best of all, my sweetheart will be home every night and there will be no more weeks spent apart. After these three years of travel rotations, that is sounding pretty sweet!

It's good to be back with the blog, after this year of being away. It's been  a year of mixed blessings and adventures. I probably won't be able to get completely caught up, but I can move forward, so the future of this blog will deal with my new, upcoming adventures, rockin' the Bakken.

Also I want to acknowledge my parents today on their 51st wedding anniversary. They are an inspiration to me and I love them very much.